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Shakespeare and Circuses
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 October 2010
Extract
Of all the merits that may be claimed for the plays of Shakespeare, surely one of the greatest, though least extolled, is indestructibility. From drolls and burlettas to ballets and grand opera, from the archaeological extravaganzas of Charles Kean and the Duke of Saxe-Meiningen to Copeau's chaste representations on the tréteau nu, from an unceremonious Hamlet fencing in his undershirt (“rehearsal clothes,” or so we were told) to a Harry the Fifth barely visible through clouds of spent gunpowder—no matter how badly mutilated, “improved,” ludicrously performed, or grotesquely mounted, the plays of Shakespeare persistently demonstrate their ability to survive, despite the best efforts of their legion interpreters. And among these interpreters must be included the riders and actors of the circus, whose productions were perhaps no more bizarre than those of their brethren on the legitimate stage.
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- Research Article
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- Copyright © American Society for Theatre Research 1966
References
NOTES
1 Bill given in Frost, Thomas, Circus Life and Circus Celebrities (London, 1876), pp. 25–26Google Scholar; Raymond, George, The Life and Enterprises of Robert William Elliston, Comedian (London, 1857), pp. 190–191.Google Scholar
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3 “Ecuyer de style shakespearien (1850),” in Thétard, Henry, La Mervilleuse Histoire du Cirque (Paris, 1947), II, 11Google Scholar; and cf. note on II, 249.
4 The Public Life of W. F. Wallett, the Queen's Jester: An Autobiography (London, 1870), p. 37.
5 Ibid., pp. 153–154.
6 Ibid., p. 74.
7 Ibid., p. 153. A print of Wallett in his costume is reproduced in Thétard, II, 246.
8 See the description of Wallett in Vol. III of the Portrait Gallery of the Illustrated News of the World.
9 Thétard, II, 247–250.
10 Roux, Hughes Le, Acrobats and Mountebanks, trans. Morton, A. P. (London, 1890), pp. 278–280.Google Scholar
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12 Ibid., II, 355–356.
13 London's Lost Theatres of the Nineteenth Century (London, 1925), p. 60.
14 “The grey mare is the better horse; said of a woman who governs her husband” —Francis Grose, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue.
15 Quoted in Raymond, pp. 341–342.
16 James Holloway, billed as “from the Theatre Royal, Edinburgh,” was one of three brothers, all of whom were tragedians. At the close of his engagement at Astley's, during which he performed Richard III upwards of 200 nights, his fellow performers presented him with a gold medal as a testimonial of their esteem—see Wild, Samuel, The Original, Complete and only Authentic Story of “Old Wild's”… a Nursery of Strolling Players (London, 1888), p. 86.Google Scholar
17 Advertisements in the Illustrated London News for 2 August 1856, 15 and 22 November 1856, 6 December 1856, 27 June 1857, 20 March 1858, 2 April 1859, 21 January 1860.
18 Cole, John William, The Life and Theatrical Times of Charles Kean, F. S. A., 2nd ed. (London, 1860), II, 140.Google Scholar
19 Ibid., II, 101–102. The Anthenaeum (25 February 1854), reviewing this production, termed Cibber's version “literary spoliation” and the work of a “usurping playwright” who had mutilated the works of “the Poet of all Time.”
20 The Spectator, 9 August 1856.
21 The Theatrical Journal, 13 August 1856.
22 The Illustrated London News, 6 September 1856.
23 The Times, 6 August 1856.
24 The Theatrical Journal, 8 October 1856.
25 From an unidentified, cut engraving in the Victoria and Albert Museum (personal communication from Mr. G. W. Nash, Theatre Section, Dept. of Prints and Drawings). Note, however, the remarkable resemblance of the disposition and attitudes of the characters on stage to those in the preceding illustration. The engraving here given is of a composite nature. Scenes in the circle were never, to my knowledge, given simultaneously with action on stage.
26 The Theatrical Journal (10 December 1856), which by now was having second thoughts about the appropriateness of mounting Shakespeare on horseback, hints that Holloway was “at times too energetic in his delivery.”
27 The Leader, 6 December 1856; The Illustrated London News, 6 December 1856.
28 Advertisement in the Illustrated London News, 13 December 1856.
29 The Illustrated London News, 7 February 1857.
30 The Athenaeum, 7 February 1857.
31 The Illustrated London News, 21 March 1857; The Athenaeum, 21 March 1857.
32 Odell, George C., Annals of the New York Stage, III (1928), 215.Google Scholar
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34 Ibid., IV (1928), 473–474; Ireland, Joseph N., Records of the New York Stage from 1750 to 1860 (New York, 1866), II, 357.Google Scholar
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36 K. Y. Z., Almanach des spectacles, année 1 (1818), 137. Cuvelier had previously incorporated a Lady Macbeth-type sleepwalking scene in his melodrama La Main de fer, ou l'Epouse criminelle, first performed at the Gaîté on 14 March 1810.
37 The reconstruction here offered is based on the printed text of the play, published Paris: Chez Fages, 1817; in Bibliothèque dramatique, 2nd ser., vol. 81.
38 The description and bill of this production are given by Schumacher, Erich, Shakespeares Macbeth auf der deutschen Bühne, vol. 22 of Die Schaubühne (1938), pp. 179–180.Google Scholar
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40 Le More de Venise, ou Othello (Paris: Chez Fages, 1818); in Bibliothèque dramatique, 2nd ser., vol. 100. According to Maurice Albert, it was the Cirque Olym-pique's production of Cuvelier's Othello which gave Parisians their first idea of what the true (!) Shakespeare was like. I find it difficult to imagine what he means by this statement. See Les Théâtres des boulevards (1789–1848) (Paris, 1902), p. 270.
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43 First performed 26 July 1852. Text published by Duncombe: London, n.d.
44 Cole, II, 206.
45 See preface to kean's acting version sold in the theatre.
46 The order of the procession and the dialogue for this episode are included in Kean's separate acting version. The Times (16 March 1857) gives a good description of it.
47 Letter of Teddy Righton (who appeared as a supernumerary in this crowd scene) to Clement Scott; quoted in Scott, , The Drama of Yesterday and Today (London, 1889), 1, 289–290.Google Scholar
48 The Leadet, 2 April 1859.
49 The Duke of Saxe-Meiningen, who was to1 follow in Kean's footsteps some years later with his own elaborate archaeological reconstructions, never permitted living horses in his productions. See Grube, Max, The Story of the Meininger, trans. Roller, Ann Marie (Coral Gables, 1963), p. 81.Google Scholar (Plates V-A and V-B in this edition depict the use of stuffed horses in Meininger battle scenes.)
50 In 1851, the Drury Lane stage was taken up to accommodate a ring. See illustration in the Illustrated London News, 9 August 1851.
51 Sims, George Robert, My Life; Sixty Years' Recollection of Bohemian London (London, 1917), p. 284.Google Scholar The manager of Drury Lane at this time was F. B. Chatterton.
52 Unidentified review in the Harvard Theatre Collection.
53 Lennox, William Pitt, Plays, Players and Playhouses (London, 1881), I, 178–181.Google Scholar