ABSTRACT
During the eighteen years Isabella Glyn starred as the Duchess of Malfi, the reviewers, with a few exceptions, praised her performance while often expressing some distaste for the play itself. Of interest is the playfulness Miss Glyn, on occasion in her career an accomplished comedienne, brought to the earlier scenes of the play, thus contrasting with the tragic despair manifested in the fourth act. It is a coquetry not immediately seen in Home's pedestrian text; for this audiences should have been thankful. We may note also the new 'effect1 in 1855 in which the Duchess appeared as her ghost in a moonlit echo scene, and the elaborate set noted for the scene of the Duchess's capture: the open country at midnight, 'with the moonlight reflected in the rippling waters of the lake'.
