staging antiquities.

I have been reading "Shakespeare's Victorian Stage" this week, and today I was focusing on a chapter titled "The prince of theatrical antiquaries," which is an allusion to the Shakespearean actor-manager Charles Kean. This man was quite famous in his time, and even now you can find many images of Kean in his Shakespearean costumes. Kean was also largely invested in making Shakespeare on stage as historically authentic as he could. Now, before I read too much of the chapter, I thought I would find that Kean tried to recreate the Elizabethan stage as close to how it was when Shakespeare plays were produced on it, but I of course was wrong in that assumption. Instead I found that Kean wanted to make Shakespeare's plays as accurate to the historical time that they were set in as he could. This involved a lot of money, and a lot of artistic freedom with Shakespeare's works. I find that Kean's goal particularly fascinating because while he was trying to be as authentic to history as he could, he was not showing Shakespeare, also a historical figure, in a very historically accurate light.

Before I get into Kean's productions of Shakespeare, I wanted to just add a little background information on Kean as a person. He was the son of a famous actor, Edmund Kean, and Kean junior just couldn't match up to his father's acting presence or ability. His father even denounced his son since he was such a poor actor. But, that didn't stop Charles Kean. In fact, as the book mentions, mid-Victorians "admired nothing so much as a man who had the courage and resolve to overcome the obstacles which beset him," and being an actor was very much an obstacle for young Charles Kean, so that's what made him famous and what made him stand out, that he kept trying even though he wasn't very good.

After growing up a bit and marrying an actress by the name of Ellen Tree, the both of them went into the business of being theater owners and stage managers. The purchase of the Princess's Theatre is what aided Kean in fulfilling his desires to create plays in an entirely historically accurate way, and after the Theaters Regulation Act of 1843, the Keans could perform Shakespeare without having to gain access and permission before hand. And Charles Kean's pursuit of historical accuracy began right away with the purchase of medieval furniture of high quantities, so much so that the Princess's Theatre was named "Mr Charles Kean's furniture warehouse on Oxford street (27)."

Kean went all out as far as new stage technologies and elaborate settings and scenery, and he was very much questioned for his actions by many critics, but by the time the Princess's Theatre had been open and running for a while, the costs and intricacies of his stage were no longer scrutinized, but were mentioned and praised for being so very accurate. In fact, because of Kean's attention to detail on the stage, many other actor-managers were expected to have their plays at the same level of accuracy as did the Kean's stage.

miss terry.

As promised in my last post that was on the"new woman"of the Victorian era , I will be going over some things I found out this week about Ellen Terry, one of the famed Shakespearean actresses of the Victorian stage.

Ellen Terry, circa 1880.

Ellen Terry's first experience acting out Shakespeare on stage was when she was nine years old, playing that part of Mamillius from The Winter's Tale (victorianweb). Perhaps it was at that time, or even earlier, that Terry fell in love with the Bard, and she consistently, throughout her acting career, played many of Shakespeare's leading ladies. She began a life-long engagement with all things Shakespeare, and wrote about his works in letters and even presented many lectures on Shakespeare. In one of her letters to Henry Irving, an actor-manager of the Lyceum Theatre in London, Terry states that

Shakespeare was the only man she had ever really loved. 'When I was about siteen or seventeen, and very unhappy, I foreswore the society of men...Yet I was lonley all the same. I wanted a sweetheart! I read everything I could get hold of about my beloved one. I lived with him in his plays.' (Marshall, 155)

But this "romance" with Shakespeare was not particular to Terry. Many women of the Victorian era used "images of domestic or sentimental attraction[...]in relation to Shakespeare (Marshall, 155)." This, in some ways, makes me think of the trouble that Jane Austin (and Stephenie Meyer, I suppose...) caused in setting too high of standards for men, so much that women wouldn't even look at a man if he was not a "Mr. Darcy," and, well, the Victorian men must've felt some sort of anguish that they couldn't be like the Bard in wooing women. But because of Terry's infatuation with Shakespeare, she was able to become a most sincere and engaging Shakespearean actress: it was as if it was her duty and obligation to show audiences how powerful Shakespeare wrote his female characters, and Terry did a bang-up job at that. Many reviewers responded quite favorably to Terry's role as Imogen in the 1896 production of Cymbeline:

Miss Terry plays the part with a radiance and a charm all her own, with a pathos and a grace of which she, among modern actresses, seems to possess the unique secret...It is long since we have seen such girlish abandon, such womanly tenderness [...]. Time seemed suddenly to be effaced, the years to roll back, and before us stood Miss Terry as young, as fragrant, and as bewitching as ever she was in the seventies. (Marshall, 156)

the new woman, and the new shakespearean actress.

This week I've been reading a book called "Shakespeare and Victorian Women" by Gail Marshall, and in particular, I have been focusing on a chapter on Shakespearean actresses in the 1890s. But before I get too far into what I've found out, I want to set a foundation and explain, briefly, the "new woman" of the 1800s.
Beginning in the very last bit of the 19th century, female education was growing rapidly, and many more female students were getting into secondary education. At the same time this was happening, new technologies were emerging, and although men were still more highly favored for hiring, women, because of their education levels and skills, were also getting jobs and leaving their position as the angel of the home (CSI).
These new womanly ideals had a major affect on the stage, and in particular the Victorian Shakespeare stage. Because Shakespeare in general dealt with gender issues in his plays, it acted as a perfect conduit to express the new ideals of the late 19th century woman. One stage director by the name of William Poel tried to re-create the Elizabethan stage with a twist of adding all-women casts. These travesi performances became a well-established tradition in performing Shakespeare on the Victorian stage (Marshall, 154).
The actress Sarah Bernhardt performed in several traversi productions, in which her most famous role was that of Hamlet in 1899. This was actually a very popular role for actresses to play, and one critic mentioned of Berhardt that "she is not the first Dame to assume the role of the Dane (171)." It has been reported that there were fifty or more sited cases of females taking on the role of Hamlet long before Bernhardt did (171). But while these other actresses were wearing the black cloak of Hamlet, Bernhardt was playing seductive roles such as Lady Macbeth and Cleopatra, aiding in her reputation of "serpentine sensuality" (171), which makes it all the more interesting that her new role as a man did not evoke any mention of her gender in reviews of her Hamlet.

Sarah Bernhardt as Hamlet, circa 1899.

I think that the lack of mention of Bernhardt wearing a man's clothes and acting out a man's role on stage coincided with what people were seeing on the streets at the end of the 19th century: because of the invention of the bicycle, women started wearing knickers so that they could ride this new contraption, so seeing a lovely woman in men's clothes was nothing new to the end of the century.
Indeed, Shakespeare is proving to have played a role in the whole feminist movement of the late 19th century, and in my next post I'll mention the more feminine side of Shakespeare's Victorian stage through the actress Ellen Terry.


Sources.
Marshall, Gail. Shakespeare and Victorian Women. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2009. Print.
http://www.library.csi.cuny.edu/dept/history/lavender/386/newwoman.html

the altered tempest.

"Ariel and Caliban" William Bell Scott. 1865.
Victorian Web.

Even though I haven't found much on Victorian ritualism and magic in Shakespeare's plays, it's on my brain all the time. But I have been finding some very interesting things on Shakespeare's Victorian stage in general. In this post, I'll focus more on what I've found out about Victorian appropriations of The Tempest, specifically on the character of Caliban.

One thing I found out about Victorian productions of The Tempest was that the character of Caliban was changed to not be seen as so diabolical a figure as audiences saw him out to be, but instead he was made into a more human and tragic figure, who was softer and sadder than what many claim the original Caliban was. There are even some claims of Caliban's change in character being influenced by Darwin's Origin of Species, aiding even further anti-slavery movements. Before the more humanistic Caliban hit the stage, many productions, mostly directed by Frank Benson, portrayed Caliban as a monkey-like creature, hanging from the trees that were on set. Benson even researched and observed primates to make sure that Caliban had the movements and the mannerisms of an animal (Keiser). Also, the character of Caliban was seen as the "star" of the play, and the role was oftentimes filled by the most famous actors of the time. Every actor wanted the opportunity to portray the tragic character and to really let their talents really shine through (Keiser).

"Miranda and Caliban" James Ward.
The Illustrated Shakespeare.

I've also been looking at paintings of Caliban that were produced in the 19th century, and it's interesting that even though the character in the play was altered to become more human and emotional, the pictorial representations of Caliban were still very animalistic. Perhaps the artists knew that the easiest way for viewers to distinguish who Caliban is in the painting would be to hold true to the centuries of portraying Caliban as a monster and an animal.













Keiser, Melissa. "Pre-twentieth Century Productions of The Tempest". Web. http://www2.cedarcrest.edu/academic/eng/lfletcher/tempest/papers/MKeiser.htm

awaiting a guide to victorian shakespeare.

I finished reading Macbeth yesterday, and while reading I tried to underline all the references to magic and spirits as I could so I could go back to the text later when I find some more solid research to refer back to. And along those lines of research, I'm actually having a much harder time that I had anticipated finding reference to magic, spiritualism, and ritualism in Victorian productions of Macbeth and The Tempest. I may not be looking in the right area, but I haven't given up yet. Also, I used this site that is linked from the HBLL website, but I found it very confusing. I don't know if anyone else has used the Chadwyck collections resource to find anything Shakespeare, but I had a really hard time navigating the site.
Anyway, as I mentioned previously, I wanted to read Macbeth, and I have, and I also wanted to reread The Tempest, which I will start today. After I have a basic understanding of these two texts, I will delve more deeply into the magic of these plays and how it was received among Victorian readers and audiences.
Also, if anyone knows of any resource that could point me in the right direction, I would be very grateful to you!
Oh, and something that is sort of on topic, but not entirely, is that I've been watching the PBS version of Macbeth with Patrick Stewart, and the emphasis on the magic is hardly there. Anyway, I thought that was interesting...

the scottish play.

I've been reading Macbeth since yesterday, and I'm afraid I just haven't finished it yet, but something in the Bevington got me thinking:

Macbeth is a difficult play to present on stage, at least according to stage tradition: ever since the early twentieth century, actors have referred to [Macbeth] superstitiously as "he Scottish play" as a way of avoiding bad luck that otherwise can hover menacingly over the action company (714).

Now, although this quote says that the plague of the play only began since the first bit of the twentieth century, I did some internet research and found that from the very first production of Macbeth there were incidents: the lead actor dying off before the production of the play, an actor killed when stabbed with a real dagger instead of a prop, real witches who were offended about how they were portrayed cursed the play, etc. So, knowing that the Victorians were also very superstitious and were very interested in incantations and seances from earlier periods of history,there has to be something about all the magic and mayhem in Macbeth that they felt akin to. So I plan to dig a little deeper to find out exactly what the Victorians did with the magic within Macbeth, and also if they had their own scary superstitions they adhered to when performing "the Scottish play."

shakespearean magic.

John William Waterhouse, The Magic Circle. 1886.
Not Shakespearean, but definitely magic in theme and Victorian. 

I think I've realized a focus for the next little bit. I'm really interested in the magic and rituals that are described in Shakespeare's plays, so my plan for now is to read Macbeth and review The Tempest then see how it all fits into Victorian revivalism of ritualism.
I know this is an ity bity post, but it's a start for the weekend!

hermione as an ideal victorian woman.

I read up on a few Victorian appropriations of The Winter's Tale and I came across an essay explaining an 1851 production done in New York. There were several changes from Shakespeare's original text, but one of note is that the character of Hermione was changed to fit into the ideal woman of the Victorian era. Instead of the Hermione who was the tragic queen Shakespeare intended her to be, the actress Amelia Warner interpreted Hermione's character to be "chaste, subdued and natural," and not at all like the strong-spoken queen who valiantly defended herself, her honor, and her daughter. The essay further states that this 1851 Hermione demonstrated all the appropriate traits of an upper middle class woman: " she was 'playful, graceful, dignified, and majestic."
As for the trial scene, a review from the New York Albion dated 27 September, 1851 stated that

 [Mrs. Warner's] pathos is of the genuine stamp...the trial scene cannot be surpassed. Its exhibition of physical weakness and moral power, of injured innocence and gentlest submission to the hard decrees of fate was as near perfection as it well could be (Bartholomeusz, 101-2).

Not from the 1851 NY production of TWT ,
but a Hermione nonetheless from an
1887 production.

After reading both the trial scene in TWT and the essay "The Winter's Tale in New York," I searched for what exactly the ideals of womanhood were during the Victorian era. Obviously, Queen Victoria was the ultimate icon of what a woman should be, so for middle-class women, that oftentimes meant pretending to be richer than they actually were, in order to fulfill that standard of the ideal woman. But even beyond that, the Victorian woman was expected to be pious, pure, submissive, and the "master" of domesticity. These ideals were the same both in Britain and in America. I came across a quaint little poem written to further the cause of the perfect woman:

Her eye of light is the diamond bright,
Her innocence the pearl.
And these are ever the bridal gems
Worn by the American girl. 

I couldn't find the source of this poem, but it was very popular in the Victorian era, and continued to be until the feminist movement of the 20s.
So, to sum it all up, Amelia Warner's interpretation of Hermione fit quite nicely into the Victorian ideals of what a woman should be. I'm sure because of Mrs. Warner's role that this 1851 production of TWT had such favorable reviews, which I'm guessing were written by men, and they liked that this Hermione was submissive and  pure in her personality.

And, just for fun, here is a quiz from the BBC to see how familiar you are with the ideal Victorian woman.


Sources Cited. 

Bartholomeusz, Dennis. The Winter's Tale in Performance in England and America, 1611-1976. Cambridge [Cambridgeshire: Cambridge UP, 1982. Print.

https://wikis.nyu.edu/ek6/modernamerica/index.php/Reform/TheRoaring20s

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/trail/victorian_britain/women_home/ideals_womanhood_01.shtml

victorians taking on shakespeare.

I still have to get back to the questions I raised in my previous post on The Winter's Tale, but that will have to wait for later tonight.

Actress Ellen Terry as Lady Macbeth.
John Singer Sargent. 1888.

As for now, I just wanted to get in to typing what I have decided to focus on for the remaining of the semester, that being VICTORIAN SHAKESPEARE. Dr. Burton jogged my memory last class that I had previously mentioned taking a deeper look in how Shakespeare was received and studied in the Victorian era. Thanks Dr Burton.
So Wednesday, I went to the library, and just started wandering from the very first row of Shakespeare books, and spent a good hour reading titles, until finally I reached the 19th century critiques on Shakespeare. I think I pulled all the books available on Victorian Shakespeare, plus a few Shakespeare in the arts books that centered around the Victorian and Pre-Raphaelite period.
I came home with two very full bags of books from the HBLL, and I can't wait to crack those babies open to start making connections and discoveries between two of my most favorite eras, as far as art and literature go.
Oh, I will also be referencing the Victorian Web, and I just came across a blog on the Pre-Raphaelite sisterhood that might have some fun things to explore.
Hazzah!