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The contributions to this book constitute a concerted account of the place of Shakespeare in the Victorian theatre and the cultural life of the country in the nineteenth century. They explore the changing styles of acting and staging used for Shakespeare's plays by Macready, Charles Kean, the Irvings, Ellen Terry and Beerbohm Tree, and examine Shakespeare's influence on Victorian dramatists (Sheridan Knowles, Albery and W.S. Gilbert) and the relationship between the stage and the allied arts of painting (David Scott, the Pre-Raphaelites and Alma-Tadema) and music (Sullivan). During Queen Victoria's reign Shakespeare's plays attracted new audiences from the court at Windsor to such rapidly expanding conurbations as Leicester and Sheffield. In France, Germany, Italy and the New World, Shakespeare effectively became an ambassador of Britain's growing power and influence. The book develops a fascinating and well-illustrated account of these changes.
This book explores the revivals of Shakespeare's history plays during the Victorian period, as staged by the famous actor-manager Charles Kean. Between 1852 and 1859, Kean produced celebrated productions of Henry V, Henry VIII, King John, Macbeth and Richard II, renowned for their unprecendented attention to antiquarian detail in sets, costumes, and properties (many of which are shown in the book's illustrations). These productions provided audiences with an unparalleled opportunity to participate in the Victorian obsession with history, especially of the medieval period. Using valuable primary sources, including promptbooks, scenic designs, costume sketches and contemporary reviews, Richard Schoch places mid-Victorian attitudes towards the theatre in the context of major intellectual and political movements of the age. The book will be of interest to scholars and students of theatre history, Shakespeare studies and Victorian culture.
The first full-length study of Shakespeare's influence on Victorian women writers, actresses and readers.
Based on extensive archival research, Shakespeare in the Victorian Periodicals offers an entirely new perspective on popular Shakespeare reception by focusing on articles published in Victorian periodicals. Shakespeare had already reached the apex of British culture in the previous century, becoming the national poet of the middle and upper classes, but during the Victorian era he was embraced by more marginal groups. If Shakespeare was sometimes employed as an instrument of enculturation, imposed on these groups, he was also used by them to resist this cultural hegemony.
Author of the enduringly popular Alice books, mathematician, Anglican cleric, and pioneer photographer, Lewis Carroll maintained a lifelong enthusiasm for the theatre. Lewis Carroll and the Victorian Stage is the first book to focus on Carroll's irresistible fascination with all things theatrical, from childhood charades and marionettes to active involvement in the dramatisation of Alice, influential contributions to the debate on child actors, and the friendship of leading players, especially Ellen Terry. As well as being a key to his complex and enigmatic personality, Carroll's interest in the theatre provides a vivid account of a remarkable era on the stage that encompassed Charles Kean's Shakespeare revivals, the comic genius of Frederick Robson, the heyday of pantomime, Gilbert and Sullivan, opera bouffe, the Terry sisters, Henry Irving, and favourite playwrights Tom Taylor, H. A. Jones, and J. M. Barrie. With attention to the complex motives that compelled Carroll to attend stage performances, Foulkes examines the incomparable record of over forty years as a playgoer that Carroll left for posterity.
The English humour magazine Punch, or the London Charivari, which first appeared in 1841, quickly became something of a national institution with a large and multi-layered readership. Though comic in tone, Punch was deeply serious about upholding high literary and artistic standards, about dealing with serious subject-matter, and about attempting to nurture its readers' appreciation of the national drama and of Shakespeare's plays in particular. The author's detailed examination of Punch's constant advocacy of Shakespeare reveals telling new evidence concerning the ubiquitous presence of Shakespeare within Victorian culture. New research in the Punch archives and elsewhere also reveals the identities of many of the Punch authors and artists. The author shows how those who worked for Punch often subsumed their collective identities within the single persona of Mr. Punch, a fictional creation who repeatedly presents himself in both texts and graphics as a close friend and admirer of Shakespeare, a man able to remind Victorian readers constantly of the supreme literary and moral values represented by Shakespeare's works.
Explores the political and social uses of Shakespeare through the nineteenth and into the twentieth century.
Adrian Poole examines the Victorian's obsession with Shakespeare, his impact upon the era's consciousness, and the expression of this in their drama, novels and poetry. The book features detailed discussion of the interpretations and applications of Shakespeare by major figures such as Dickens and Hardy, Tennyson and Browning, as well as those less well-known.
A comprehensive survey of the theatre practice and dramatic literature of the Victorian period.