18 March 1838, John Forster on W. C. Macready as Coriolanus at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden, London, from The Examiner, reprinted in Dramatic Essays by John Forster, George Henry Lewes, ed. William Archer and Robert W. Lowe (1896), pp. 54-65.

Abstract Macready’s first Coriolanus is reviewed on pp. 5cr-61. By the time he came to present the play under his own management, in 1838, historically based pictorialism had begun to exert the influence on Shakespeare production that was to dominate the rest of the century and beyond. The opening paragraph of Forster’s review helps to explain the growing appeal of this kind of staging.He presentation of this play at Covent Garden Theatre on Monday night last may be esteemed the worthiest tribute to the genius and fame of Shakespeare that has been yet attempted on the English stage. We have had nothing to compare with it, even in Mr. Macready’s management. Magnificent as the revivals of Hamlet, Othello, Lear, and Macbeth have been, this of Coriolanus surpasses them all, in the opportunity it has afforded of presenting together upon the stage those striking characteristics,