2-888-371 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Scene from the "Legend of Florence", at Sadler's Wells Theatre, [London], 1850. 'According to the legend, a sentence of divorce should have been pronounced by papal authority. But this was deemed, by those who had a voice in the theatre, to be a dangerous expedient with a British public willingly subject to the indissolubility of the marriage tie; and, accordingly, in order to get rid of the offensive husband, it was necessary to kill him - an absurd expedient, and little less than a murder...We would offer, in all kindness, a word ot advice to Mr. Waller, in the part of Rondilelli. Let him not brood so much on the sound of his own fine voice. His ear gets pleased with the deep monotones, until his speeches, if of any length, become sermons. He should throw greater variety into his declamation'. From "Illustrated London News", 1850.