Page:Richard III (1927) Yale.djvu/198

184 later revivals in 1831, 1836–7, Macready returned to the Cibber text.

On February 20, 1845, Samuel Phelps (1804–1878) produced Richard III at Sadler's Wells, where it ran for about four weeks. Great attention was paid by Phelps to scenery and historical detail. The text used was Shakespeare's with, however, certain cuts. Once more, nevertheless, upon the revival of the tragedy in the season of 1862–3, Phelps returned to the Cibber version.

Perhaps the most elaborate production of Richard III yet given was that by Charles Kean (1811–1868) at the Princess Theatre on February 20, 1850. The playbill lists one hundred and twenty-one performers and a formidable array of "authorities" on historical details. All this parade of scholarship did not prevent Charles Kean from using the Cibber version, for which decision he argues at length upon the playbill. Barry Sullivan (1821–1891), in a modified Cibber version, was perhaps the most conspicuous of the lesser actors of the period from Charles Kean to Sir Henry Irving.

Henry Irving (1838–1905) restored Shakespeare's text at the Lyceum on January 29, 1877, with later revivals December 19, 1896, and Feoruary 27, 1897. Irving made only the cuts necessary to render the tragedy one of a length suitable for the modern stage, ending with Richard's fall and his second utterance of "a horse a horse, my kingdom for a horse!" Tennyson particularly admired Irving's "Plantagenet look." His interpretation was primarily intellectual.

But two English successors of Irving remain to mention, Sir Herbert Tree (1853–1917) and Sir Francis Robert Benson (1858–). Tree's production was noted for its gorgeous pageantry and the emphasis upon the melodramatic note in Richard; Benson's for its general adequacy. Both followed the text of