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contradict the knowledge, or even the prejudices, of a playgoer of average education. To dress Mac- beth (as Garrick did) in the uniform of a Hano- , verian officer, or even (as Macready did) in a cos- tume that would have suited Rob Koy, would now be to excite ridicule. The Scandinavian or Anglo-Saxon costume chosen by Charles Kean at the Princesses, and since adopted (more or less consistently) by Sal- vini, Edwin Booth, and other actors, is rightly retained at the Lyceum. If we cannot prove that the Scottish tlianes of the eleventh century actually wore that dress, still less can we prove that they did not. It is a pictur- esque and martial garb, eminently in harmony with the whole spirit of drama. I have no doubt that each costume faithfully repre- sents a style of dress worn by some one or other about the period stated. There is no lack of docu- ments, and it is as easy to be accurate as to be inac- curate, to copy as to in- vent. But the main merit of Mr. Cattermole's de- signs is that they please the eye without in any way offending, or distract- ing the mind. We are pretty sure, indeed, that Vcfhatever the cut of their garments, Macbeth and his fellows were not on the wliole so well dressed, and still less so well washed, as they are at the Ly- ceum ; but it would be carrying realism to an absurd extreme to insist on an exhibition of the sordid side of medifeval life. Lady Macbeth's cos-

- / tumes, designed by Mrs.

Comyns Carr, are of By- zantine gorgeousness. They suggest the Queen of Sheba rather than the Queen of Scotland in 1056. But we readily forgive them, for they are beautiful exceedingly.

William Archer.