Within a week you shall see me play Electra after nature, as I
have just played Roxana." Marmontel writes: "From that time all the
actors were obliged to abandon their fringed gloves, their voluminous
wigs, their feathered hats, and all the fantastic paraphernalia that
had so long shocked the sight of all men of taste. Lekain himself
followed the example of Mdlle. Clairon, and, from that moment, their
talents thus perfected, excited mutual emulation and were worthy
rivals of each other."
Upon the English stage reform in this matter was certainly a matter of
slow growth. A German gentleman, Christian Augustus Gottlieb Goede by
name, who published, in 1821, a long account of a visit he had
recently made to England, expresses in strong terms his opinions on
certain peculiarities of its theatre. "You will never behold," he
writes, "foreign actors dressed in such an absurd style as upon the
London stage. The English, of all other nations the most superstitious
worshippers of fashion, are, nevertheless, accustomed to manifest a
strange indulgence for the incivilities which this goddess encounters
from their performers.
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