Banquo's Ghost.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume IX, Issue 2905, 22 May 1888, Page 2

Banquo's Ghost.

Up to Garrick's time the explicit stage direction "The Ghost of Banquo rises and sits in Macbeth's place," had been religonsly obeyed, and the effect plainly rendered before the eyes of the audience. Since, however, that opinion . has been divided, as the actor, misled by the commentators, appears to think he has the option of playing the scene. • either in the original manner,, at;. " according to the Jeuets of modern; ■ philosophy. This is a huge mistake. -' Shakespeare does not lend himself to modern methods of illustration, as we can very plainly see by the ill done in lavishing excessive scenic detail upon . a drama, essentially ono of the vaguest,;.,; . background, Phelps ?fc Sadler ! s«|lls .. (-1844), and Charles Kean at Ihe Princess (1853), wise in their gener- • atior, stuck loyally to tho Shaksperian mandate, In Kean's revival, the method pursued in the mounting of the"-'.-banquet scene was generally considered: / to augment the effect-, The rudelygarbed roysterers feasting at a table were set oil' at the front and sides by a series of arcb-supporting columns,' attached to which were the torches, whose unearthly flickering gave the scene its necessary weirdness. . The . ghost of Banquo mads its first appearance through an aperture in a table in ' the background, situated beneath a balcony of minstrels; subsequently one of the more prominant pillars became . transparent and revealed the shaivin its interior. Wrote a conteW porary "The effect of the apparition is perfectly novel, as far as as our experience of stago matters extends, and has evidently been inspired by a poetical feeling. There' is something more than melodramatic mechanism in the invention and contrivance of Ufch an incident. Tho dazzling illuminaWn of the head avoids much that is unpleasant in the usual representation of the gashes on the brow, and preserves the sublimity of terror proper to a supernatural appearance. It is altogether in taste."—The Gentleman's Magazine. "