Hop Yet declared it was 'all the same good as China theatre'; and
every one agreed to that criticism without a dissenting voice.
To be sure, there was an utter absence of stage-management, and all
the 'traditions' were remarkable for their absence; but I fancy that
the spirits of Siddons and Kemble, Macready and Garrick, looked down
with kind approval upon these earnest young actors as they recited
the matchless old words, moving to and fro in the quaint setting of
trees and moonlight, with an orchestra of cooing doves and murmuring
zephyrs.
The forest scenes were intended to be the features of the evening,
and in these the young people fairly surpassed themselves. Any one
who had seen Neilson in her doublet and hose of silver-grey, Modjeska
in her shades of blue, and Ada Cavendish in her lovely suit of green,
might have thought Bell's patched-up dress a sorry mixture; yet these
three brilliant stars in the theatrical firmament might have envied
this little Rosalind the dewy youth and freshness that so triumphed
over all deficiencies of costume.
Margery's camping-dress of grey, shortened to the knee, served for
its basis. Round the skirt and belt and sleeves were broad bands of
laurel-leaf trimming. She wore a pair of Margery's long grey
stockings and Laura's dainty bronze Newport ties. A soft grey chudda
shawl of Aunt Truth's was folded into a mantle to swing from the
shoulder, its fringes being caught up out of sight, and a laurel-leaf
trimming added.
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