WINDOWS OF THE SOUL

While stance and gesture were primary tools in portraying character, there was also facial make-up and expression. The positioning and movement of the eyes were especially important...one of Edmund Kean's strong points was his unusually short eyelids, which meant motions and expressions of his eyes were easily seen.

Actors brought attention to their eyes by making up with dark shadow (even the poorest could apply soot with a knitting needle) and by pointing phrases through the silent use of eye and brow motion. Here are some pictures of extremely effective non-verbal communication through the eyes. (Some of the pictures are viewed better in larger form by clicking on the image.)


















Edmund Kean himself, as Richard III.



Charles Fechter "showing the whites of his eyes", as it was called, as Hamlet, with his gravedigger friend similarly using his optics.



An early example -- Sarah Siddons as Lady Macbeth. A pause to take a stance and direct one's eyes off character or off stage created a frozen moment of emotion.




Madame Celeste freezes another moment. Note the typical positioning of the face away from the body to increase mood.



From the sublime to the ridiculous...unknown actors silently emote.


Edwin Booth in one of his more famous roles as Cardinal Richilieu. Notice the eyebrows' effect in exaggerating the eyes, reminiscent of Kean.



Another Hamlet, this time Beerbohm Tree. You can see that actors who can show white completely around the eye were better equipped for expressing strong emotion.


A carte de visite (sold in theatres and stationery stores) of light comedian E. A. Sothern in a sober mood.


Maude Adams, showing demure charm by the feminine stereotype of "looking through the eyelashes".

A DIFFERENT TAKE ON SHAKESPEARE

Victorians had Shakespeare as a cultural constant -- Tocqueville mentioned finding it in remote frontier homes, even when the only other book was a Bible. Actors out of work could raise money by booking a hall and giving readings in Shakespeare, no matter how small the village. In western mining towns, touring companies played Shakespeare to full houses.

But Victorians did not treat Shakespeare with the hushed reverence we feel necessary today. Widespread cultural knowledge of the Bard made possible farces, burlesques, burlettas and pantomimes poking fun at him. The photo is from a farce Romeo and Juliet, with a drag Juliet. The actor Dewolf Hopper is most famous now for popularizing Casey at the Bat through his comic recitations.

COSTUMING THE ACTORS

The images we usually see from Victorian period drama are of important actors (Macready, Booth, Forrest) or of cast members from the bigger theatre companies. Just as today, the costuming in community theatre is not remotely like that of a Broadway play, the small stock or touring company did not costume itself like the important "legitimate" ones.

Up until mid-century, Shakespeare would be performed in contemporary formal dress. Engravings of Fanny Kemble as Juliet (c. 1830) show her in her bedroom with Nurse, in a low-necked formal dinner gown with elbow-length gloves. Shortly thereafter, actor-managers like Charles Macready, who were ready to invest money and time in "archaeological" productions, started presenting Shakespeare with scenes and costumes scrupulously researched and replicated. But smaller companies, with no assured audience or budget, followed tradition by requiring actors to supply their own costumes. Indeed, attaining employment could depend on the quality of an actor's wardrobe, with a place going to quality clothing, not better talent. Generally an actor would have three outfits: one formal or evening dress, one informal or perhaps peasant, and one "period" -- which could date anywhere from 1200 to 1800. The period outfit would be used for any and all historical plays, which meant that the court in a production of Richard III would have lords and ladies kitted out in court dress from the time of Richard II to George III. Little notice was taken of this -- the point was splendour, not accuracy. As an early actor said, "There were two kinds of drama: white waistcoat and drawing room, and spangles and parade."

The photograph I have above is an unnamed American actor circa 1860. He has knee breeches and pumps (c. 1800), a cocked hat (c. 1750), a stock with a very wide knot (c. ??, perhaps stylish only on stage), and an overcoat with 17th-century sleeve puffs that I've only seen on actors. Made of red velvet with ermine trim, it was a standard for Shakespeare's Richard III. However, there is no crown, and the outfit underneath is plain to say, the least. This looks like a typical outfit put together from various second-hand purchases the actor made to look "long ago" for some historical play.

A THEATRE MANAGER PLANS HIS NEXT PRODUCTION....

CAPTION: Shakespeare spells ruin, but legs mean dividends!

CORDELIA

Her voice was ever soft,
Gentle and low, an excellent thing in a woman.
King Lear V.iii. 271-72.


Portia (Merchant of Venice) seems to have been the Victorians' favorite Shakespearean heroine, but Cordelia was popular too. The quotation above was cited frequently to praise or correct women and girls. The Cordelia character showed aspects of a Patient Griselda, accepting mutely horrific punishment yet still loving the punisher, and domestic angel, coming to Lear's aid when he is naked and homeless, providing him shelter, food, clothing and medical aid.

Her role as a truth-teller is undercut in the Tate version, as her parallel character, The Fool, was omitted completely, and not restored in any important American production till 1875.* What remains is a lovely, loving maiden, who is rewarded for her virtue by a handsome and brave young prince and the throne of the country, a typical fairy tale princess. She wields no power, but feminine influence. Given Victorian faith in this bulwark of the home, it is no wonder the text with Cordelia's death was so little played.**

It's surprising, then, that I could find so few illustrations of Victorian Cordelias. The images I have here is a pre-Shakespearean one (Cordelia on steroids -- I imagine the printer just prettied up some spare cut of a soldier to save time), one Blake painting from the beginning of the 19C and a Rackham print from the end, similar in tone, despite the hundred years between them. Lear was much more popular, especially in cartes de visites and prints. Cordelia, etymologically the "heart" of the story, is important primarily to illuminate Lear's character.



*Upon Cordelia's death in Shakespeare's text, Lear says "And my poor fool is hanged," tying the two together even more dramatically. The two never appear on stage at the same time, and some scholars theorize one boy actor originally played both roles.

**Click here for a contemporary diary entry concerning British actor Macready's restoration of the original text in London in 1838.

ANOTHER CIGAR LABEL

I don't know why I like cigar label art so much -- the straightforwardness of the depictions? The bright colors? The etched lines of lithography? These really are a cultural art form...and I was very pleased to find one showing the play we plan for September.

LEAR IN ART

Artists have the benefit of telling a tale without the physical limitations of the stage. Storms and lighting are under their control, and facial and bodily expression have boundaries only in the artists' talent. Here are some of the works showing the history of King Lear.

1) "Cordelia's Portion" Ford Madox Brown. This Pre-Raphaelite painting is typical of the movement with its detail in costume and large depiction of emotion.

2) Photograph of "Lear and His Daughters" by Julia Margaret Cameron. Cameron's father posed as Lear.

3)"King Lear" by John Rogers Herbert.

4)Lear frieze at Folger Shakespeare Library. This isn't Victorian but draws on tradition and I'm a Washington native, so wanted to include it.

5) "Lear and The Fool in the Storm" by William Dyce.

6) "King Lear" by George Romney. Romney's work shows his absorption with Shakespeare, most famously in the painting "King Lear In the Tempest Tearing Off His Robes".

7) "King Lear" by Benjamin West.

8) Lear and Cordelia, unknown artist.

9) Cordelia with Lear and physician, Marcus Stone.

10) Cordelia and Lear in prison, William Blake. This scene is not in Shakespeare, so it may have been inspired by Tate's version, which does have a prison scene with Cordelia and Lear, the king asleep with his head in Cordelia's lap.

11)"Lear Mourning Over Body of Cordelia", James Barry.

VICTORIAN LEARS

King Lear was not a favorite play among Victorians, even in the "happy ending" version by Nahum Tate. However, the role was played by all the prominent nineteenth-century tragedians. The king showed in one play a range of characters favored by Victorian audiences: royal authority, a mind shattered by madness, and the protective father. Although contemporary artists liked to show Lear with Cordelia, or Lear with the three sisters together, the favored pose for photography (popular in postcard or cabinet print form, for middle-class collection) was King Lear mad on the heath (a location never mentioned by Shakespeare, but fixed in the public mind by Tate's version).* Above are photographs, respectively, of Edmund Kean, Charles Macready, Edwin Forrest, Sir Henry Irving, Robert Mantell, and Henry Baynton as the King.
He was also played by Charles Kean (son of Edmund)and Edwin Booth, who brought back the full Shakespeare text to the stage. Edmund Kean, at the beginning of the century, seems to be the last dominant tragedian to have played Lear without the fully flowing white hair and beard which became iconic to the role.





*The weeds and straws in his hair were a trope of madness dating from before Shakespeare and hardening into stereotype in the Romantic and Victorian periods, especially in the "Crazy Jane" character.