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

Mary Anderson failed to take her opportunity, and by the time
Lawrence Barrett opened in Guido Ferranti Wilde was at work on
A Good Woman, the first draft of Lady Winderaere's Pan. Although
he still had hopes of seeing his "poetic tragedy" performed in
London, and approached Irving with a view to its production at
the Lyceum, his theatrical impu; les were turning towards work
of a different order. 11
"Shake peare on Scenery" represents Shakerpeare as a man
of the theatre possessing the same anxiety to supervise the
artistic presentation of his work that /ilde had shown in his
letter to Mary Anderson. The Elizabethan was "constantly
protesting against the two special limitations of the sixteenth
century stage, the lack os suitable scenery, and the fashion of
men playing women's parts" (DR 14 rfcrch 1885). Wilde assumes
that all theatrical art aspires towards illusion, and that any
mention by Shakespeare of the prenentational conventions of his
stage c.;nr>t ; tufceo evidence of a yearning for more accurately
deceptive representation. As one might expect, the speeches of
the Chorus in Henry V are taken to be expressions of dissatisfaction
with an unrealistic convention, not the noetic exploitation
of it. The "scene-setting speeches" are "inartistic
devices" which "interrupt the progress.of the play", and for
which Shakespeare "always aiaply apoloyiccs". 'Vildo observes
that "the quality of drama ic action" auc that "it is always
dangero is to pause for picturesqueness". It is to contemporary
production that V/ilde devotes most of his one-page article,
claiming, that scene-painting can expedite natters uy accomplishing
this p;:rt of the poat's wo ?*< for hi;n, reducing: the rubber of
descriptive p-'cca^os - lie does riot consider tho possibility that
< escriptiv'. verue can tail an audience things about tho
character of the poraon who uotera them. Scenic art, he ar.'juc,:;
is an art in itself, and he concludes with an appeal for the
recognition of scenc-riainters a.3 artists, ilt regrets the new
fashion f^r bvilt up scenic units, v/hieh nee a to be lit from
both bac^c anr* fror.t, giving t'-i3 lighting an overall flatness,
and he lar-nts th>, patina; of the a;o:>d troTipo cVooil painting:
Properties !:ill por^octive.' A painted door is
more li're a re.-1 do:^r than a rea.l door is itself,
for the properties of lijht and shade can be "iven
to it...