3-016-914 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Shakspeare Commemoration: scene from Shakspeare's play of "King Henry IV.", Part I, as played at Drury Lane - Battle of Shrewsbury, in the last act, 1864. 'In our review of the performance at Drury Lane of this wonderful historical drama, we noticed not only the admirable manner in which the play is acted throughout, but the skill and effect with which, in the last act, the Battle of Shrewsbury was managed. The general melée was prepared for by stage arrangements which gave the greatest effect to it, both in regard to the suddenness of its appearance and the completeness of its accessories...[we] give the reader some notions of this remarkable scene by an Engraving...Such a representation cannot, it is true, give any great prominence to the principal actors; but it can display the confusion and the grandeur of the battle-field, which here scarcely shows as a stage-scene at all, but, in consequence of the excellent arrangements to which we have alluded, looks like the reality itself. Stage illusion has never been carried to a higher point, nor have the resources of our national stage ever been devoted to a worthier object. It is highly creditable to the management and to the public by whose patronage it has been supported'. From "Illustrated London News", 1864.