MONTHLY REVIEW OF LITERATURE. 87 



part, says his biographer, ' in a modern court dress of rich black velvet, with 

 u star on the breast, the garter and pendent riband of an order, mourning 

 hword and buckles, with deep ruffles; the hair in powder, which, in the scenes 

 of feigned distraction, flowed dishevelled in front, and over his shoulders.' 

 His classical taste, however, soon led him, as he increased in popularity and 

 power, to do away with the most glaring absurdities ; and on the opening of 

 the new Theatre Royal Drury Lane, on the 21st of April 1794, Macbeth was 

 revived ' with great magnificence of decoration, and with some novelties, both 

 in the conduct and machinery of the fable. The scenes were all new, and 

 extremely beautiful. Of the novelties in the management of the play, the 

 following were the most striking. The ghost of Banquo did not enter in the 

 scene of the festival; but Macbeth " bent his eye on vacancy." The high- 

 crowned hats and lace aprons of the witches were properly discarded ; they 

 werej represented as preternatural beings, adopting no human garb, and dis- 

 tinguished only by the fellness of their purposes and the fatality of their de- 

 lusions. Hecate's companion-spirit descended on the cloud, and rose again 

 with her. In the cauldron-scene new groups were introduced to personify 

 the " black spirits and white, blue spirits and gray ; " and here one would 

 have imagined that the muse of Fuseli had been the director of the scene. 

 The evil spirits had serpents writhing round them which had a striking 

 effect/ * 



" The French Revolution, which occurred at this period, was also mainly 

 productive of a revolution in dramatic costume on both sides of the chan- 

 ne-1. ' The rage for liberty,' says a modern writer, introduced an admira- 

 tion of the ancient republics ; the ladies dressed their heads in imitation of 

 antique busts, and endeavoured to copy the light and scanty draperies of 

 ancient statues ; and while the ladies were thus attired a la Grecque, the gen- 

 tlemen kept them in countenance by cropping their hair a la RomaineS The 

 toga and paludamentum found their way from the French stage to ours ; 

 and Julius Caesar, Coriolanus, and Cato were represented with some regard 

 to Roman habits and manners, although the authorities consulted by Mr. 

 Kemble were those of the time of the Emperors instead of the Republic. The 

 English historical and romantic plays were also dressed with at least more 

 consistency. Mr. Kemble invented a conventional costume, formed of the old 

 English dresses of the reigns of Elizabeth, James the First, and the two 

 Charles's ; and although King John, Richard the Third, &c. were any thing 

 but correctly attired, their habits had an antique as well as picturesque 

 appearance, and the whole dramatis personce were similarly arrayed, instead 

 of all illusion being destroyed by the introduction of modern uniforms or 

 plain clothes. f The rage for melodrama and spectacle, which gradually 

 obtained from this period, was productive at any rate of a still greater spirit 

 of enquiry into ancient manners and habits. Print-shops and private port, 

 folios were ransacked for the getting up of every new Easter piece ; and the 

 magic wand of a Farley transported us at his will into the regions of fairy 

 land, or the baronial halls of the feudal ages. But, alas ! while the crusader 

 donned his glittering hawberk of mail, to astonish the galleries on an Easter 

 Monday, the bastard Falconbridge, and the barons of King John, were dressed 

 all the year round in the robes and armour of at best the seventeenth century. 

 On Mr. Kean's appearance, and consequent success, the most popular plays 

 underwent considerable alterations and improvements in point of scenery and 

 dresses at Drury Lane. Several gentlemen of acknowledged taste and 

 information supplied the new Roscius with designs for his own wardrobe, 

 and the proprietors of the theatre were not behindhand in their endeavours to 

 assist the illusion of the scene. The stage-dress of Richard, which had been 



* ' Biographia Dramatica,' vol. i. p. xlviii. Introduct. 



t The late Mr. Mathews made his first appearance in public at Richmond, as 

 Richmond in ' Richard the Thirl,' wearing a light-horseman's helmet and jacket. 



