Costume: fanciful, historical, and theatrical . ding bells as the curtain fell. It is easy for me to let my pictures in thischapter give me my cues for dilating on speciallysplendid productions which it has been my privilegeto enjoy, for Mr. Anderson has been responsible forthe majority of these, and his pencil has illuminatedthe various centuries with experience, infinite care,and a skill of which I have promised him faithfullynot to speak. An exception, however, was Coriolanus at theLyceum, a play lending itself pre-eminently todignified interpretation, and it is needless to say thatSir Henr
Costume: fanciful, historical, and theatrical . ding bells as the curtain fell. It is easy for me to let my pictures in thischapter give me my cues for dilating on speciallysplendid productions which it has been my privilegeto enjoy, for Mr. Anderson has been responsible forthe majority of these, and his pencil has illuminatedthe various centuries with experience, infinite care,and a skill of which I have promised him faithfullynot to speak. An exception, however, was Coriolanus at theLyceum, a play lending itself pre-eminently todignified interpretation, and it is needless to say thatSir Henry Irving saw that it got this. Perhapsthe great actor never looked more imposing thanin the military robes of dull red and leopard skins,with a cuirass of richly-wrought gold, though, tobe sure, he always wore his ecclesiastical garb withthe grand air, and as Wolsey, Richelieu, andBecket he embodied the venerable magnificence ofestablished holiness. Miss Ellen Terry, as Volumnia, also personifieddignity, whether in a loose garb of purple silk,. BEERBOHM TREE AS MALVOLIO. 250 COSTUME CHAP. with a mantle of yellow and brown falling from adiadem-shaped head-dress set with turquoise, orwhen, after her successful pleading with her son,she threw aside her garb of woeful black, and wasradiant in a draped tunic embroidered in pink andgold, with gold ornaments round her arms andturquoise chains upon her neck. The picture of Rome under Nero, Mr. Treepersonally invested with a purposeful effeminacy,and his tunics and garlands of flowers accentuatedthe poet in the man. Mrs. Tree showed Agrippinaat her best beneath the influence of many-colouredveils, violet and red being the dominant notes ; andtwo gracious pictures rise before my eyes as I WTite,of Miss Constance Collier as Poppasa in white,with a thick wreath of scarlet poppies around herdusky head, and of Miss Dorothea Baird in peachcolour, with lilacs entwined in her fair hair. Amongst other notable figures which dwell inmy memory is M
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectcostume, bookyear1906
