‘A truer peep at Old Venice’ : The Merchant of Venice on the Victorian Stage

Abstract

In the early summer of 1822 a young English actor ‘went to Ransom’s Bank’ in London where he was ‘introduced to Douglas Kinnaird, who in the kindest manner gave me letters to his brother Lord Kinnaird at Naples, and to Lord Byron, then at Pisa’.1 The actor was William Charles Macready, later known as ‘The Eminent Tragedian’, who during the ensuing three decades transformed the practices of the London stage virtually single-handed. Macready’s purposefulness is apparent from his account of his continental tour. In Verona ‘Shakespeare was ever present to me’ (p. 186) as he visited Juliet’s balcony and ‘the sepulchre of her whom Shakespeare has taught us to picture as one of the fairest and the best, the gentlest and truest, of her sex’ (p. 187). Then on to Vicenza (the Teatro Olimpico), Padua and Venice, where he spent ‘one short week’ (p. 192). Macready being Macready, it was an intensive seven days of sight seeing which gave him ‘a sort of spiritual intoxication’ (p. 192): ‘In Byron’s words, I was“dazzled and drunk with beauty,” and moving as in a dream made up of memories and associations. The creations of Shakespeare rose up before me on the Rialto; and the Hall of Council, indeed, haunted me at every step.’ (pp. 192–193) Venice had of course long been a favoured destination for English travellers notably the privileged few who undertook the grand tour, but as improved transport brought the city within the reach of more modest visitors it was often the association with Shakespeare’s plays that provided the attraction and points of reference, as indeed was the case with other Italian cities in which Shakespeare had set his plays.KeywordsSixteenth CenturyGrand CanalGrand TourKind MannerScott PublishingThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.