The Stage History Of Shakespeares King Richard The Third

Author : Alice I. Perry Wood
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781330547281
Total Pages : 204 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (472 download)

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Download or read book The Stage History of Shakespeare's King Richard the Third (Classic Reprint) written by Alice I. Perry Wood and published by . This book was released on 2015-07-01 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Excerpt from The Stage History of Shakespeare's King Richard the Third In the following pages it is my purpose to trace the fortune upon the stage of one of the most popular of Shakespeare's plays, "The Tragedy of King Richard the Third." In such a history, the consideration of the play as literature must be entirely subordinated to the exhibition of its capacity for stage effectiveness, and its success, deserved or not, with the public. For this reason, discussions of text, date and authorship, are deemed out of the province of this enquiry. While the materials for such a study, especially in the earlier history of the, play, are scant, it has been my aim to give such records of performances as are extant, with the conditions of staging, the use of scenery, properties, and costume, the methods of actors, especially of those who have taken the principal part, and the attitude of the audience in successive periods and under varying conditions. Since there is little direct information concerning the play during the Elizabethan period, I have attempted to supply this lack in some measure, by an examination of the typical plays of the time, with a view to discovering the stage conditions which affected the original presentation. Having established the prevailing methods of staging by careful reference to the directions in contemporary plays, and by noting the favorite devices, and the management of situations similar to those occurring in this play, I have thought it possible, by a comparative method, to reconstruct the presentation of "Richard the Third" in Shakespeare's time. The work naturally falls into well-marked divisions. First, the history of the play from its earliest performance to the closing of the theatres. The next period extends from the opening of the theatres to 1700, a time of general rather than particular importance to our subject. With the beginning of the eighteenth century, the Gibber version of "Richard the Third," the best known of all the adaptations of Shakespeare, appeared, and this constitutes the main feature of the history of the play during the century. Garrick initiates a new era-4 in the history of acting in the mid-eighteenth century and I have therefore made his age the beginning of a fourth period. This extends through the career of Sir Henry Irving. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.