Pictorial Shakespeare, 1880-1890 - eTheses Repository - University ...

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greeted with a chorus of catcalls and hisses, even if they
escaped an ovation of orange peel", but Mrs Langtry and a few
others we, e c aisciontious and effective:
Her performance was unequal - first, because she
was nervous; next, because she has not learned
the art or concealing the _ rtfulness with which
she has been trained and drilled; and finally
because she was wretchedly su-rnortec).
(The Illustrated London Hows, 30 September
———————————————— 1882)
Sala considered her dress as Ganymede, "a straight-cut doublet,,
with cl?uet-coloured hose, and a cloak belted behind her",
simple and effective. In The Academy Frederick Wedmore pointed
out that in recent years there had been no debutante of equal
promise, "and few representatives of Rosalind v.ith less to
unlearn" (30 September 1882), The critic f .OKI V nity Pair
observed a fault in Mrs Langtry»s technique which raay have
been connected with her popularity as a subject for painters:
It is rll very well to fall into a prnccful pose
tlurin the delivery of a certain pr.srr^e, but the
Cii'iiculty Irs Langtry has not yet mastered is
that of passing from one pose or attitude to
another without giving the sense of a "gap" between
the two gestures.
(30 September 1882)
Punch in 1885 ^a.vc one of the least sympathetic accounts of
Lillie Lfaag try's failings: her voice crotmed at the end of
each sentence, her gestures were "feeble and narrow", she
did not move decisively, she was self-conscious and lacked
energy and her attraction lay "in a Greining iinor- nee of all
method, rlan and purpose" (31 J< nuary ir.85). '/illiam Archer,
in an article entitled "The Fa hion Play" : u r