Antony and Cleopatra, Drury Lane Theatre, 1873: James Anderson as Antony, Ellen Wallis as Cleopatra; directed by Frederick Chatt

Clearly the acting here is fairly extravagant. Wallis was playing Cleopatra at the age of seventeen, chosen perhaps more for her prettiness rather than for her expertise, if we believe the Era reviewer who felt that she appeared "a mere girl, under the influence of her first passion"(28/9/1873), while the Atheneum recorded that "her voice was exhausted before the end of the second act, and the pathos of the later scenes seemed as much a result of sore throat as of inspiration." (27/9/1873).