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University of Warwick institutional repository: http://go.warwick.ac.uk/wrap A Thesis Submitted for the Degree of PhD at the University of Warwick http://go.warwick.ac.uk/wrap/4267 This thesis is made available online and is protected by original copyright. Please scroll down to view the document itself. Please refer to the repository record for this item for information to help you to cite it. Our policy information is available from the repository home page. A STAGE UNDER PETTICOAT GOVERNMENT: ITALIAN INTERNATIONAL ACTRESSES IN THE AGE OF QUEEN VICTORIA Giovanna Buonanno Thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of PhD University Warwick ý, of Centre for British and Cultural Studies , -Co'mparative December 1995 CONTENTS 1. Introduct i on 00000000 0109000#99a0000aa0a000000001 2. The Actress in the Age of Queen Victoria: Image and Reality (i) Victorian Women and the Case of Actresses. 99s8 (ii) Is Acting a Profession for Women? ........... 22 (ii) Womanly Women on the Victorian Stage ........ 34 (iv) The New Woman and the Fin de Si6cle ......... 39 3. Panthers of the Stage: International Actresses on the Victorian Stage Enter the Star (ii) 57 The Gilded Stage ............................ (iii)International Actresses from Rachel to 71 Sada Yacco .................................. 4. Adelaide Ristori's English Career An Italian 'Player Queen': Adelaide Ristori on the English Stage in 1856 ................ 88 (ii) Ristori and the Grande Attore Theatre. 99*9*109 (iii)Ristori's 'Queens' on the English Stage: 120 - Donna Macbetto ......................... - Hary Stuartj Queen Elizabeth, Marie Antoinette ....................... 131 (iv) Ristori's Legacy to the English Theatre the English Memorial 140 and Ristori ........... 5. Eleonora Duse's English Career (i) Le Deluge that Never Was: Eleonora Duse on the English Stage in the 1890s .......... 149 (ii) Duse's Early (iii)The International Stage .................... 167 (iv) Duse's Fin de SiL%cle Roles 170 on the English Stage ....................... - The Soiled Dove: 172 Marguerite Gautier ....................... - New Woman or 'Bambola'? Eleonora in 183 Duse the Doll's House ................. - Magda and Paula Tanqueray: the Revoltee and the 'Woman with a Past .............................. 194 (v) de 208 The Fin Siecle and Beyond ............... 6. 219 Conclusion ........................................ 7. Appendix Ristori's London Tours 1856-1883 ........... 224 (ii) Duse's London Tours 1893-1923 .............. 227 Bibliography ...................................... 230 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Figure 1 Adelaide Ristori as Lady Macbeth- Genoa, Civico Museo Biblioteca dell'Attore, fondo Ristori Figure 2 Adelaide Ristori as Queen Elizabeth- Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News, 24 January 1880 Figure 3 Adelaide Ristori as Mary Stuart- M. A. s f. R. Figure 4 Adelaide Ristori and her familj- M. A., f. R. Figure 5 Adelaide Ristori as Marie Antoinette M. A. s f. R. Figure 6 Eleonora Duse as Camille Sketch, 31 May 1893 Figure 7 Eleonora Duse as Marguerite Gautier- Venezia, Fondazione Cinil fondo Duse Figure 8 Eleonora Duse as Nora Sketch, 2 May 1894 Figure 9 Eleonora Duse as Paula Tanqueray- Illustrated London News, 19 May 1900 Figure 10 Eleonora Duse as Magd&- Venezia, Fondazione Cini, fondo Duse Figure 11 Eleonora Duse Portrait by John Singer Sargent, 1893 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS In writing and researching for this thesis I have received help and advice from numerous people. My warmest thanks go to: My supervisor, Professor Susan Bassnett The librarians and curators of the many libraries and archives in England and Italy which I have visited All my friends at Warwick University In the years 1991-1995 Adele D'Arcangeloq Athena Economides, Sabine Guillemot, Marina Lops, Richard King for having read and commented on earlier drafts of this work My husband Christopher Rundle for invaluable support and even more invaluable proof-reading of this work Dedico questo lavoro alla memoria di mio padre Antonio Buonanno. DECLARATION Chapter 4 of this thesis includes selected material f rom my thesis Adelaide Ristori's Shakespeare, submitted in partial fulfilment of the degree of MA in Comparative Literary Theory at the University of Warwick in 1992. Summary The aim of this thesis has been to document the English careers of the two nineteenth-century Italian International actresses Adelaide Ristori and Eleonora Duse. The English careers of Duse and Ristori are discussed in the light of both the nineteenth-century debate which developed in England on the role and nature of the actress, and the reception of foreign stars on the English stage and the ensuing discussion on the way foreign theatre stars conformed to, or contravened, prevailing images of English womanhood. Chapter 2 looks into the role and status of the actress f rom the mid-nineteenth-century to the f in de sibcle by deploying critical tools offered by feminist theatre criticism. It is an attempt to define the role of the nineteenth-century actress as a professional woman and draw attention to the voyeuristic nature of nineteenth-century theatre where actresses were put on display: on the one hand they were admired and visually possessed by their audiences, but on the other, they were doomed, as women who made a public show of their bodies, to be social outcasts. Chapter 3 attempts a chronology of foreign actresses on the English stage and fOCUBeB on their reception which provides a basis for comparison between English and foreign nineteenth-century actresses. Chapter 4 and 5 respectively, reconstruct Ristori's and Duse's English careers. Issues tackled in the previous chapters resurface here to provide a critical angle in trying to evaluate their reception in Victorian England. The conclusion endeavours to pull together the different lines of this study and points to possible lines of research to be pursed in the future in the field of women in theatre. NOTE The following abbreviations will be used: Burcardog a. R. Rome, Biblioteca Teatrale del Burcardo, autografi RiBtori. Museo Biblioteca M. A. 9 f. R. Genoa, Civico dell'Attore, fondo Ristori. f. London, Theatre Museum, Duse file. T. M. 9 D. Ristori file. T. M. 9 R. f. London, Theatre Museum, Unless otherwise statedg all translations are mine. 1. INTRODUCTION I During the nineteenth century the English theatre world witnessed a steady increase in the number of women who went on the stage. Not only were womenincreasingly drawn to the traditional profession of actresses, but they were also interested in a career in management and direction and, as the century wore on, a growing number of women turned to playwriting. The two previous centuries had also seen a great surge of women in theatrical professions, as recent studies have shown, but the attraction of the stage on women in the nineteenth century was such as to encourage a great number of new recruits among women who were not the offspring of theatrical families. 1 The growth of women working in the theatre in the nineteenth century gave vent to opposing reactions. In her book Enter the Actress Rosamund Gilder posits 1856 as a turning point in the history of women in theatre and hails the beginning of a new era. She argues that with the death of the English actress and theatre manager Madame Vestris in 1856: The tale of the pioneer women in the theatre comes to an end. In acting and playwriting, in management and direction, women had won an undisputed place upon the stages of the world. The day of innovation was over. The day of achievement was, and still is, at hand. 2 On the other handl the fact that women had won an undisputed place in the theatre world was begrudged by conservative nineteenth-century men. Writing at the turn of i. See Elizabeth Howel The First English Actresses: Womenand Drama 1660-1700 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990). 2. Rosamund Gilder, Enter the Actress: The First Womenin the Theatre (London: Harrop, 1931) 9 p. 291. Gilder's book focuses on the life of major theatrical women from Theodora to Lucy VestriB. Its many insights into the position of actresses in a male-dominated theatrical world make her book a valid contribution and still a useful starting point for the study of women in theatre. 2 the century on the Victorian theatre, A. B. Walkley expresses bewilderment at the overwhelming presence of women on the stage and when looking at the position of the 'player woman' in the theatre, he notices that she stands "in a much more comfortable position than the player man". He then argues that: On the stage all the advantages fall to what our forefathers called the spindle'side The stage is under petticoat government. 3 Walkley and Gilder express contentious views on women and theatre, Gilder pointing constructively to the active and increasingly important role of women in the theatre, Walkley offering an image redolent of nineteenth-century views of ruling Britannia and resentful that women were usurping the role traditionally assigned to men in the theatre. Both comments, nonetheless, point out that Victorian England fostered a unique age of female protagonism on the stage and marked a watershed from the time when, as Gilder puts it, "the theatre was an Eveless paradise" and even from when 11women's contribution toward the scenic investiture of the stage was confined to their own charming presence. "4 The nineteenth-century theatre saw also the rise and development of the international touring circuit, with England as a favourite destination among female touring stars who became major box office attractions and international theatrical icons. I shall take 1856, the year when Gilder's book of pioneering theatrical women ends as my starting point as it coincides with the first tour in England of Adelaide Ristori. I intend to explore the days of achievement that Gilder describes following Madame Vestris' death throughout 3. A. B. Walkleyl Frames of Mind (London: Richards, 1899), P-60 4.