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our artistic sympathies and our moral judgment that the greatest dramatic effects are produced. 'It is in the
restless and anatomising casuistry with which men seek the justification of Beatrice, yet feel that she has done
what needs justification; it is in the superstitious horror with which they contemplate alike her wrongs and
their revenge, that the dramatic character of what she did and suffered consists.'
In fact no one has more clearly understood than Shelley the mission of the dramatist and the meaning of the
drama.
And yet I hardly think that the production of The Cenci, its absolute presentation on the stage, can be said to
have added anything to its beauty, its pathos, or even its realism. Not that the principal actors were at all
unworthy of the work of art they interpreted; Mr. Hermann Vezin's Cenci was a noble and magnificent
performance; Miss Alma Murray stands now in the very first rank of our English actresses as a mistress of
power and pathos; and Mr. Leonard Outram's Orsino was most subtle and artistic; but that The Cenci needs
for the production of its perfect effect no interpretation at all. It is, as we read it, a complete work of
art capable, indeed, of being acted, but not dependent on theatric presentation; and the impression produced
by its exhibition on the stage seemed to me to be merely one of pleasure at the gratification of an intellectual
curiosity of seeing how far Melpomene could survive the wagon of Thespis.
In producing the play, however, the members of the Shelley Society were merely carrying out the poet's own
wishes, and they are to be congratulated on the success of their experiment a success due not to any
gorgeous scenery or splendid pageant, but to the excellence of the actors who aided them.
HELENA IN TROAS
(Dramatic Review, May 22, 1880.)
One might have thought that to have produced As You Like It in an English forest would have satisfied the
most ambitious spirit; but Mr. Godwin has not contented himself with his sylvan triumphs. From Shakespeare
he has passed to Sophocles, and has given us the most perfect exhibition of a Greek dramatic performance that
has as yet been seen in this country. For, beautiful as were the productions of the Agamemnon at Oxford and
the Eumenides at Cambridge, their effects were marred in no small or unimportant degree by the want of a
proper orchestra for the chorus with its dance and song, a want that was fully supplied in Mr. Godwin's
presentation by the use of the arena of a circus.
In the centre of this circle, which was paved with the semblance of tesselated marble, stood the altar of
Dionysios, and beyond it rose the long, shallow stage, faced with casts from the temple of Bassæ; and bearing
the huge portal of the house of Paris and the gleaming battlements of Troy. Over the portal hung a great
curtain, painted with crimson lions, which, when drawn aside, disclosed two massive gates of bronze; in front
HELENA IN TROAS 34
Reviews
of the house was placed a golden image of Aphrodite, and across the ramparts on either hand could be seen a
stretch of blue waters and faint purple hills. The scene was lovely, not merely in the harmony of its colour but
in the exquisite delicacy of its architectural proportions. No nation has ever felt the pure beauty of mere
construction so strongly as the Greeks, and in this respect Mr. Godwin has fully caught the Greek feeling.
The play opened by the entrance of the chorus, white vestured and gold filleted, under the leadership of Miss
Kinnaird, whose fine gestures and rhythmic movements were quite admirable. In answer to their appeal the
stage curtains slowly divided, and from the house of Paris came forth Helen herself, in a robe woven with all
the wonders of war, and broidered with the pageant of battle. With her were her two handmaidens one in
white and yellow and one in green; Hecuba followed in sombre grey of mourning, and Priam in kingly garb of
gold and purple, and Paris in Phrygian cap and light archer's dress; and when at sunset the lover of Helen was [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]