Event Comment: Mainpiece: Not acted
these 3 years. With new Dresses and Decorations.
The Characters dressed in
the Habits of
the Times. [
Palmer Jun. was from
the hay.] "It is necessary to remind both
Macbeth and his Lady that
there is a measured declamation, of which
the natural utterance of passion knows nothing, and that words and syllables may be divided and subdivided till
the fatigue of
the ear overcome every o
ther feeling...Between
the first and second acts Ca ira was loudly called for from
the pit and gallery.
The clamour, after preventing
the first part of
the second act from being heard, subsided as unaccountably as it rose.
The performers, in compliance with an admonition from
the pit, began
the act again, and proceeded without fur
ther interruption" (
Morning Chronicle, 20 Feb.). "In
Macbeth there was too much that was not
Shakespeare, too much bad taste and shabbiness in
the costumes of
the witches, and all in all too much claptrap. He found it insufferable that
Banquo should take
the part of his own ghost and felt that
the audience should behold
the specter only in Macbeth's terror, as was
the case with
the banquet guests. '
Mr Kemble has de
sired on several occasions to suppress
the ghost,' Meister says, 'but has never had
the courage to do so.'" (
J. H. Meister quoted in
J. A. Kelly, 134). For Kemble's eventual courage in this matter see
dl, 21 Apr. 1794.] Receipts: #425 6s. (383.2; 40.4; 2.0)