Better to take pleasure in a rose than to put its root under amicroscope.Archaeological accuracy is merely a condition ofillusionist stage effect;it is not its quality.And Lord Lytton'sproposal that the dresses should merely be beautiful without beingaccurate is founded on a misapprehension of the nature of costume,and of its value on the stage.This value is twofold,picturesqueand dramatic;the former depends on the colour of the dress,thelatter on its design and character.But so interwoven are the twothat,whenever in our own day historical accuracy has beendisregarded,and the various dresses in a play taken from differentages,the result has been that the stage has been turned into thatchaos of costume,that caricature of the centuries,the Fancy DressBall,to the entire ruin of all dramatic and picturesque effect.
For the dresses of one age do not artistically harmonise with thedresses of another:and,as far as dramatic value goes,to confusethe costumes is to confuse the play.Costume is a growth,anevolution,and a most important,perhaps the most important,signof the manners,customs and mode of life of each century.ThePuritan dislike of colour,adornment and grace in apparel was partof the great revolt of the middle classes against Beauty in theseventeenth century.A historian who disregarded it would give usa most inaccurate picture of the time,and a dramatist who did notavail himself of it would miss a most vital element in producing anillusionist effect.The effeminacy of dress that characterised thereign of Richard the Second was a constant theme of contemporaryauthors.Shakespeare,writing two hundred years after,makes theking's fondness for gay apparel and foreign fashions a point in theplay,from John of Gaunt's reproaches down to Richard's own speechin the third act on his deposition from the throne.And thatShakespeare examined Richard's tomb in Westminster Abbey seems tome certain from York's speech:-
See,see,King Richard doth himself appear
As doth the blushing discontented sun
From out the fiery portal of the east,
When he perceives the envious clouds are bentTo dim his glory.
For we can still discern on the King's robe his favourite badge -the sun issuing from a cloud.In fact,in every age the socialconditions are so exemplified in costume,that to produce asixteenth-century play in fourteenth-century attire,or VICE VERSA,would make the performance seem unreal because untrue.And,valuable as beauty of effect on the stage is,the highest beauty isnot merely comparable with absolute accuracy of detail,but reallydependent on it.To invent,an entirely new costume is almostimpossible except in burlesque or extravaganza,and as forcombining the dress of different centuries into one,the experimentwould be dangerous,and Shakespeare's opinion of the artistic valueof such a medley may be gathered from his incessant satire of theElizabethan dandies for imagining that they were well dressedbecause they got their doublets in Italy,their hats in Germany,and their hose in France.And it should be noted that the mostlovely scenes that have been produced on our stage have been thosethat have been characterised by perfect accuracy,such as Mr.andMrs.Bancroft's eighteenth-century revivals at the Haymarket,Mr.
Irying's superb production of MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING,and Mr,Barrett's CLAUDIAN.Besides,and this is perhaps the most completeanswer to Lord Lytton's theory,it must be remembered that neitherin costume nor in dialogue is beauty the dramatist's primary aim atall.The true dramatist aims first at what is characteristic,andno more desires that all his personages should be beautifullyattired than he desires that they should all have beautiful naturesor speak beautiful English.The true dramatist,in fact,shows uslife under the conditions of art,not art in the form of life.TheGreek dress was the loveliest dress the world has ever seen,andthe English dress of the last century one of the most monstrous;yet we cannot costume a play by Sheridan as we would costume a playby Sophokles.For,as Polonius says in his excellent lecture,alecture to which I am glad to have the opportunity of expressing myobligations,one of the first qualities of apparel is itsexpressiveness.And the affected style of dress in the lastcentury was the natural characteristic of a society of affectedmanners and affected conversation -a characteristic which therealistic dramatist will highly value down to the smallest detailof accuracy,and the materials for which he can get only fromarchaeology.
But it is not enough that a dress should be accurate;it must bealso appropriate to the stature and appearance of the actor,and tohis supposed condition,as well as to his necessary action in theplay.In Mr.Hare's production OF AS YOU LIKE IT at the St.
James's Theatre,for instance,the whole point of Orlando'scomplaint that he is brought up like a peasant,and not like agentleman,was spoiled by the gorgeousness of his dress,and thesplendid apparel worn by the banished Duke and his friends wasquite out of place.Mr.Lewis Wingfield's explanation that thesumptuary laws of the period necessitated their doing so,is,I amafraid,hardly sufficient.Outlaws,lurking in a forest and livingby the chase,are not very likely to care much about ordinances ofdress.They were probably attired like Robin Hood's men,to whom,indeed,they are compared in the course of the play.And thattheir dress was not that of wealthy noblemen may be seen byOrlando's words when he breaks in upon them.He mistakes them forrobbers,and is amazed to find that they answer him in courteousand gentle terms.Lady Archibald Campbell's production,under Mr.
E.W.Godwin's direction,of the same play in Coombe Wood was,asregards mounting,far more artistic.At least it seemed so to me.
