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

84
maintain itself on its intellectual merits alone"j
But if the chairs and tables in London were
very natural, the actors were rather stiff,
and the thing, on the whole, is better done at
the Boston Museum*...
Ten years later, when Bancroft revived The Rivals at the
Haymarket in a text revised by Pinero, reviewers complained
of the anaemic and lifeless quality of the actings
If. as there seems reason to fear, theatrical
art of the highest character is moribund, and
the vigorous, hearty, aggressive life of past
ages can only be shown through the opaque
lenses of today, the style of revival adopted
at the Haymarket is the best thing to be hoped.
(The Athenaeum. 10 May 1884)
Bancroft had lost the ability to stage and act all but the
most genteelly pallid simlacra of "old comedy 1**
The same difficulties were encountered by Mr and Mrs
Kendal at the St. James's. Their production of William and
Susan, in 1880, used a revision of W.G.wills of Douglas
Jerrold's Black-Ey*d Susan - first performed in 1L29. The
first two acts were completely re-written, eliminating the
villains Doggrass, Hacket and Raker and the comic Gnatbrain.
Captain Grosstree is now principal villain; he attempts to
woo Susan, is challenged by William and has the unfortunate
tar court-martialled for striking an officer. William is on
the point of being strung from the yard-arm, when it is reveal ed
that his discharge had been delayed by a villainous postman
(he, too, had designs on Susan). William was no longer in the
King's service when he struck Crosstree, and is saved from
hanging. The man w^o would tackle such stuff only two years
after H.M.S.Pinafoye (Opera Comique* 25 May,l8?8) needed to be
brave, but Wills was no coward in such matters, uilliam is expected
to speak the figurative language of stage sailors -
"All my cable is run out. I am brought to," he proclaims when
death is moments away, and as Susan prays for his release, he
proudly assertst
I die in defense of the virtue of a wife
- her tears will fall like spring rain on
the grass that covers my grave?.