he Examiner of Plays, writes in
one of his essays on the drama: "We have seen 'The Rivals' performed
in a sort of chance-medley costume--a century intervening between the
respective attires of Sir Anthony and Captain Absolute;" and he adds,
"we have seen the same comedy dressed with scrupulous attention to the
date of the wigs and hoops; but we doubt whether in any essential
respect that excellent play was a gainer by the increased care and
expenditure of the manager." Sir Walter Scott had previously written:
"We have seen 'Jane Shore' acted with Richard in the old English
cloak, Lord Hastings in a full court dress, with his white rod like a
Lord Chamberlain of the last reign, and Jane Shore and Alicia in stays
and hoops. We have seen Miss Young act Zara, incased in whalebone, to
an Osman dressed properly enough as a Turk, while Nerestan, a
Christian knight, in the time of the Crusades, strutted in the white
uniform of the old French guards!"

Even as late as 1842 a writer in a critical journal, reviewing a
performance of "She Stoops to Conquer" at the Haymarket Theatre,
reminds the representatives of Young Marlow and Hastings that the
costumes they wear being "of the year 1842 accord but ill with those
of 1772, assumed by the other characters." "The effect of the scene is
marred by it," writes the critic. And ten years before Leigh Hunt had
admitted into the columns of his _Tatler_ many letters dwelling upon
the defects of stage costume in regard to incongruousness and general
lack of accuracy. One correspondent complains of a performance of "The
Merry Wives of Windsor" at Covent Garden, in which Bartley had played
Falstaff "in a dress belonging to the age of the first Charles;" Caius
had appeared as "a doctor of the reign of William and Mary, with a
flowing periwig, cocked hat, large cuffs, and ruffles;" while John
Rugby's costume was that "of a countryman servant of the present day."
Another remonstrant describes Kean as dressing Othello "more in the
garb of an Albanian Greek than a Moor; Richard goes through the battle
without armour, while Richmond is armed _cap-a-pie_; and Young plays
Macbeth in a green and gilded velvet jacket, and carries a shield
until he begins to fight, and then throws it away." A third
correspondent draws attention to "The School for Scandal" and Mr.
Farren's performance of Sir Peter Teazle in a costume appropriate to
the date of the comedy, the other players wearing dresses of the
newest v