has since been omitted, and the scene relieved of its crowning absurdity. The darkening of the foreground, however, remains arbitrary and be- wildering. If the Ghost w-ere presented in the full light, we could easily accept the convention of its invisibility to all save ^Macbeth. But to plunge the stage in sudden darkness, and ask us to imagine that the guests are unconscious of the change, is to overstrain our power of make-believe. It is piling an inacceptable convention on the top of an acceptable one. We know that in spite of the darkness, the Ghost is as palpable to the revellers as he is to us; in this respect we have to hold our common-sense in abeyance just a.s though the stage were one blaze of light; and then we are called upon to perform the additional and far more difficult feat of supposing the guests unconscious of a sudden eclipse, so complete that they must have some difficulty, as the saying goes, in ' finding the way to their mouths." In dealing with the supernatural, any licence is permissible which heightens the effect and helps out our powers of make-believe. But the stage arrangement of this scene tends all in the opposite direction.
There is no sense of awe or terror. Macbeth's trans- ports affect us not a jot; we are too much troubled as to the why and wherefore of the strange pheno- mena which accompany them. The second appear- ance of the Ghost is, if possible, still less impressive. He threads his way in among the crowd of vassals, and having confronted Macbeth on the steps of the throne, glides out again in the same manner, posi- tively crouching down in order to escape notice. Now a spectre that dares not hold its head up is certainly not a credit to its class. The Pit of Acheron, with its outlook on a bleak, precipitous mountain-side, is a well-designed scene, and !Mr. Irving's appearance, as he stands on a rocky promontory to question the powers of darkness, is jsicturesque in the highest degree. Never, probably, has the difficult procession of kings been better managed. Their silvery shapes glide swiftly along amid wreaths of floating vapour — the first successful application, within my experience, of this AVagnerian device. The opening scene of the fifth act, a sunlit English country lane, came as a relief to the first- night audience after so long a sojourn in Caledonia stern and wild. ' Good old England ! ' ejaculated a pittite, and the remark was greeted with applause. For the sleep-walking scene a grey hall is provided, with moonlight streaming; through a gothic window. Lady Macbeth makes her entrance along a cloistered corridor at the back, and down a short flight of steps, holding in her liand an arched bracket, from which the traditional lamp hangs by a chain. Miss Terry's majestic figure, swathed in white and grey, seems to melt into the grey tones of the background. A more delicate and weird nocturne could not have been devised. The scenery of the sixth and last act (according to Mr. Irving's arrangement) is not of the most remarkable. A spirited study of a Highland hillside with a burn in spate appears for a few moments and disappears before we have had time to study it ; and a scene amid the battlements of Dunsinane is very effectively designed. Mr. Irving relegates the concluding combat to a stretch of open moorland, with no sign of the fortress any- where visible. This is a mistake, it seems to me. Macbeth should stand at bay on the very threshold of his lair.
Much might be said of the costumes (designed by Mr. Cattermole), but I have neither the space nor the erudition to say it. So far as I am able to judge, they are entirely right; and as my archae- ological knowledge, or rather ignorance, is probably a pretty fair sample of the knowledge, or ignorance, of the general public, I may perhaps be accepted as a competent witness. The stage archa?ologist is not bound to be absolutely accurate, especially in dealing with a play which possesses little or no solid historic basis. His duty is to produce artistically effective costumes, which shall not glaringly
