Lady Macbeth in America: From the Stage to the White House (Palgrave Studies in Theatre and Performance History)

251 Pages·2010·1.87 MB·English

by  Gay Smith

Palgrave Studies in Theatre and Performance History is a series devoted
to the best of theatre/performance scholarship currently available, accessible, and
free of jargon. It strives to include a wide range of topics, from the more tra-
ditional to those performance forms that in recent years have helped broaden the
understanding of what theatre as a category might include (from variety forms
as diverse as the circus and burlesque to street buskers, stage magic, and musical
theatre, among many others). Although historical, critical, or analytical studies
are of special interest, more theoretical projects, if not the dominant thrust of a
study, but utilized as important underpinning or as a historiographical or analyti-
cal method of exploration, are also of interest. Textual studies of drama or other
types of less traditional performance texts are also germane to the series if placed
in their cultural, historical, social, or political and economic context. There is no
geographical focus for this series and works of excellence of a diverse and interna-
tional nature, including comparative studies, are sought.
The editor of the series is Don B. Wilmeth (EMERITUS, Brown University),
Ph.D., University of Illinois, who brings to the series over a dozen years as editor of a
book series on American theatre and drama, in addition to his own extensive experience
as an editor of books and journals. He is the author of several a ward-winning books
and has received numerous career achievement awards, including one for sustained
excellence in editing from the Association for Theatre in Higher Education.
Also in the series:
Undressed for Success by Brenda Foley
Theatre, Performance, and the Historical Avant-garde by Günter Berghaus
Theatre, Politics, and Markets in Fin-de-Siècle Paris by Sally Charnow
Ghosts of Theatre and Cinema in the Brain by Mark Pizzato
Moscow Theatres for Young People by Manon van de Water
Absence and Memory in Colonial American Theatre by Odai Johnson
Vaudeville Wars: How the Keith-Albee and Orpheum Circuits Controlled the Big-Time
and Its Performers by Arthur Frank Wertheim
Performance and Femininity in Eighteenth-Century German Women’s Writing by
Wendy Arons
Operatic China: Staging Chinese Identity across the Pacific by Daphne P. Lei
Transatlantic Stage Stars in Vaudeville and Variety: Celebrity Turns by Leigh Woods
Interrogating America through Theatre and Performance edited by William W. Demastes
and Iris Smith Fischer
Plays in American Periodicals, 1890–1918 by Susan Harris Smith
Representation and Identity from Versailles to the Present: The Performing
Subject by Alan Sikes
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Directors and the New Musical Drama: British and American Musical Theatre in the
1980s and 90s by Miranda Lundskaer-Nielsen
Beyond the Golden Door: Jewish-American Drama and Jewish-American Experience
by Julius Novick
American Puppet Modernism: Essays on the Material World in Performance by
John Bell
On the Uses of the Fantastic in Modern Theatre: Cocteau, Oedipus, and the Monster by
Irene Eynat-Confino
Staging Stigma: A Critical Examination of the American Freak Show by Michael
M. Chemers, foreword by Jim Ferris
Performing Magic on the Western Stage: From the Eighteenth-Century to the Present
edited by Francesca Coppa, Larry Hass, and James Peck, foreword by Eugene
Burger
Memory in Play: From Aeschylus to Sam Shepard by Attilio Favorini
Danjūrō’s Girls: Women on the Kabuki Stage by Loren Edelson
Mendel’s Theatre: Heredity, Eugenics, and Early Twentieth-Century American Drama
by Tamsen Wolff
Theatre and Religion on Krishna’s Stage: Performing in Vrindavan by David
V. Mason
Rogue Performances: Staging the Underclasses in Early American Theatre Culture by
Peter P. Reed
Broadway and Corporate Capitalism: The Rise of the Professional-Managerial Class,
1900–1920 by Michael Schwartz
Lady Macbeth in America: From the Stage to the White House by Gay Smith
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Lady Macbeth in America
From the Stage to the White House
Gay Smith
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LADY MACBETH IN AMERICA
Copyright © Gay Smith, 2010.
All rights reserved.
First published in 2010 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN®
in the United States—a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC,
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world,
this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited,
registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills,
Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS.
Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies
and has companies and representatives throughout the world.
Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United
States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries.
ISBN: 978–0–230–62288–3
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Smith, Gay, 1943–
Lady Macbeth in America : from the stage to the White House /
Gay Smith.
p. cm.—(Palgrave studies in theatre and performance history)
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978–0–230–62288–3 (alk. paper)
1. Shakespeare, William, 1564–1616.—Characters—Lady
Macbeth. 2. Shakespeare, William, 1564–1616. Macbeth.
3. Shakespeare, William,1564–1616.—Stage history. 4. Acting.
5. Presidents’ spouses—United States—History. 6. Politics and
literature—United States—History. I. Title.
PR2823.S545 2010
822.3(cid:1)3—dc22 2009022732
A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library.
Design by Newgen Imaging Systems (P) Ltd., Chennai, India.
First edition: February 2010
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Printed in the United States of America.
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Contents
List of Illustrations vii
Acknowledgments ix
Previous Publications by the Author x
Introduction 1
1. Lady Macbeth in the White House 7
2. From Shakespeare’s Stage to America’s 19
3. “Politicianess” 43
4. Playing for Revolutionaries 63
5. Yankee 93
6. “Hellcat” 115
7. “Innocent Flower” and “Serpent Within” 137
8. Vampira 159
Conclusion 181
Notes 187
Bibliography 215
Index 227
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Illustrations
1 The Witch of Endor, in Joseph Glanvil, Saducismus
Triumphatus: or, Full and Plain Evidence Concerning Witches
and Apparitions. London: Collins, 1681. By permission of
Special Collections & Archives, Wesleyan University Library. 30
2 Lady Macbeth, engraved by François Gravelot from an ink and
wash drawing by Francis Hayman for The Works of Shakespear.
6 vols. Ed. Thomas Hanmer. Oxford: University Press,
1744. 5:478. Courtesy of Special Collections & Archives,
Wesleyan University Library. 31
3 Lady Macbeth, engraved by John Raphael Smith, from the
painting by Henry Fuseli exhibited in London and engraved
in 1784. Courtesy of Davison Art Center, Wesleyan University. 40
4 Charlotte Melmoth, as Roxana in Rival Queens, engraved by
W. Walker from artwork by D. Dodd, 1770s. Engraving in
author’s possession. 66
5 Charlotte Cushman as Lady Macbeth. Engraving in author’s
possession. 110
6 Sarah Bernhardt as Lady Macbeth, photo by Paul Nadar.
Courtesy Laurence Senelick Collection. 139
7 Ellen Terry as Lady Macbeth, by John Singer Sargent for
Terry’s Jubilee program. Courtesy of Don Wilmeth who
owns the program. 149
8 Judith Anderson as Lady Macbeth, photo by Vandamm,
1940s program for Broadway run and touring production.
Program in author’s possession. 163
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Acknowledgments
Recognizing the libraries and museums and their staffs for their assis-
tance, I especially appreciate the following: American Philosophical
Society Library, Philadelphia; Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript
Library, and the Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University; Bibliothèque
Historique de la Ville de Paris; Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris; Boston Public
Library; Derry Public Library, Ireland; Edinburgh Central Library; Ellen
Terry Museum, Smallhythe Place, Kent; Free Library, Philadelphia; Houghton
Library, Harvard University; Huntington Library, San Marino; Linen Library,
Belfast; Maîson Jean Vilar, Avignon; Massachusetts Historical Society;
National Library, Dublin; New York Historical Society Library; New York
Public Library; Rare Book and Manuscript Library, University of Pennsylvania;
Special Collections, University of California Library, Santa Barbara; University
of Edinburgh; Victoria and Albert Museum; Library of Congress; Trinity
College Library, Dublin; Wesleyan University Libraries, Special Collections
and Archives, Davison Art Center and Humanities Center.
Likewise I gratefully acknowledge the acumen and support of my editor,
Don Wilmeth, the assistance of the editorial staff at Palgrave Macmillan;
and the many and various contributions of colleagues and friends: Patricia
Beaman, Mary Bosakowski, Lorna Brown, Virginia Crosby, Judy Dunbar,
John Elmore, Jim and Anne Gould, Jeff Hatcher, Paul Horton, Gertrude
Reif Hughes, Noah Isenberg, James Manifold, Sean McCann, Skip Mercier,
Elizabeth Milroy, Betsy Morgan, Alain and Rosemary Munkittrick, Jean-
Claude and Micheline Patau, Jason Poston, Melanie Rehak, David Schorr,
Mark and Greta Slobin, Richard Slotkin, William Stowe, Andy Szegedy-
Maszak, Suzy Taraba, Tula Telfair, Karin Trainer, Thomas Wickman, Allynn
Wilkinson; the late Phil Bosakowski, August Coppola, Ellen D’Oench; my
students at Wesleyan University, Remy Auberjonois and Michael Twist for
their Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, and honors’ thesis students Daniel Poliner,
Jake Robinson, and Jessica Smith; British actor Timothy Dalton and director
Terence Knapp for their production of Macbeth at the University of Hawaii
featuring two alternating Lady Macbeths that sparked this investigation into
the role of Shakespeare’s Lady Macbeth in America.
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