"Even Sir Oliver," it is added, "appeared in a
fashionable modern drab greatcoat." In a note Leigh Hunt records his
opinion that Mr. Farren was right, and that it was "the business of
all the other performers to dress up to his costume, not for him to
_wrong_ himself into theirs," and adds, "there is one way of settling
the matter which puts an end to all questions except that of immediate
convenience and economy; and this is to do as the French do, who
rigidly adhere to the costume of the period in which the scene is
supposed to take place. Something of immediate sympathy is lost,
perhaps, by this system, for we can hardly admire a young beauty so
much in the dress of our grandmothers as in such as we see our own
charmers in; but this defect is compensated by a sense of truth and
propriety, by the very quaintness and novelty of the ancient aspect,
and even by the information it conveys to us."
The condition of the Parisian stage in regard to its improved and
splendid scenery, decorations, and accessories owed much to the
special intervention and patronage of Louis XIV.
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