Page:As You Like It (1919) Yale.djvu/144

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As You Like It

actor playing Jaques, or, again, a famous actress stressing the character of Rosalind. Space does not permit of reference to all the numerous performances of this century; only the more important will be mentioned.

Following Kemble, the next actor of note to essay Jaques was Macready, at Drury Lane, January 11, 1820, the Rosalind by a 'young lady.' Macready again revived it at Covent Garden in October, 1842, with Mrs. Stirling as Celia. Colman described this as 'the most superb production of As You Like It the world has ever seen or ever will see.' By far the most famous Rosalind of the nineteenth century was Helen Faucit (Lady Martin). She first performed the comedy on March 18, 1839, at Covent Garden, and made her last appearance in it at Drury Lane, April 23, 1875, although she played it once more at the Theatre Royal, Manchester, on October 2, 1879. Macready called her Rosalind 'perfect.' Sir Henry Irving said of it: 'a more brilliant and exquisite conception of Rosalind never entered the imagination of man.'

One alteration in the text was frequently adopted in the nineteenth century. The speeches of the First Lord in Act II., Scene i., Kemble gave to Jaques, a custom in which he was followed by many others. This change, which, curiously enough, Johnson had anticipated in his version, Love in a Forest, is not a judicious one.

Charlotte Cushman played Rosalind for the first time in London in 1845, appearing in New York, at the Astor Place Theatre, in this rôle, January 8, 1850. Among other famous actors and actresses of the period were: Charles Kean as Jaques, 1851, W. Wallack, 1854, Barry Sullivan, 1855, and Samuel Phelps, at Sadler's Wells, in 1857. Phelps introduced the custom of producing Shakespeare with gorgeous scenery and with costumes supposed to be appropriate to the historical settings of the plays. From