The scenery and costumes were excellent, as indeed they always are at the
Lyceum when the piece is produced under Mr. Irving's direction. The
first scene was really very beautiful, and quite as good as the famous
cherry orchard of the Theatre Francais. A critic who posed as an
authority on field sports assured me that no one ever went out hunting
when roses were in full bloom. Personally, that is exactly the season I
would select for the chase, but then I know more about flowers than I do
about foxes, and like them much better. If the critic was right, either
the roses must wither or Squire Thornhill must change his coat. A more
serious objection may be brought against the division of the last act
into three scenes. There, I think, there was a distinct dramatic loss.
The room to which Olivia returns should have been exactly the same room
she had left. As a picture of the eighteenth century, however, the whole
production was admirable, and the details, both of acting and of mise-en-
scene, wonderfully perfect. I wish Olivia would take off her pretty
mittens when her fortune is being told. Cheiromancy is a science which
deals almost entirely with the lines on the palm of the hand, and mittens
would seriously interfere with its mysticism. Still, when all is said,
how easily does this lovely play, this artistic presentation, survive
criticisms founded on cheiromancy and cub-hunting! The Lyceum under Mr.
Irving's management has become a centre of art. We are all of us in his
debt. I trust that we may see some more plays by living dramatists
produced at his theatre, for Olivia has been exquisitely mounted and
exquisitely played.
AS YOU LIKE IT AT COOMBE HOUSE
(Dramatic Review, June 6, 1885.)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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