Page:As You Like It (1919) Yale.djvu/145

As You Like It his time onwards the tendency has been to make Shakespearean productions gorgeous pageants, necessitating compression of several scenes into one and other questionable alterations of the text.

The most noteworthy of comparatively recent productions were: the Rosalind of Mrs. Kendall to her husband's Orlando and the Jaques of Hermann Vezin at the Opéra Comique, London, 1875; ten years later she played Rosalind with John Hare as Touchstone. For this performance Alfred Cellier wrote new incidental music. Mrs. Langtry first appeared as Rosalind in 1882, with Kyrle Bellew as Orlando. At Stratford-on-Avon, in August, 1885, the beautiful American actress, Mary Anderson, opened the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre with a performance of her Rosalind. She was noted for her earnest candor and demure reserve in the part.

The American manager, Augustin Daly, gave several productions of As You Like It in New York, as well as at Stratford-on-Avon and London. By the playgoers of the last generation, Daly's productions of Shakespeare were looked upon with respect little short of idolatry. As a matter of fact, he took many liberties with the text and had a fondness for inappropriate musical accompaniment to the longer speeches. He was, on the other hand, aided by a company of excellent artists, such as Miss Ada Rehan and John Drew. In his acting version of As You Like It, he omitted Sir Oliver Martext and the Second Lord, and rearranged the incidents of the fifth act. On the credit side, he omitted the cuckoo song, restored the speeches of the First Lord in II. i., and the Masque of Hymen, which latter was not generally played, except by Mrs. Langtry, in nineteenth century versions. Miss Ada Rehan first played Rosalind under Daly's management, at New York, on December 17, 1889, and in London, in April, 1894. Miss Rehan acted Rosalind as a young girl enjoying a