NOTE:--Bagnlgge (locally pronounced Bagnidge) Wells, formerly a popular
mineral spring in Islington, London, situated not far from the better
remembered Sadler's-Wells. The gardens of Bagnlgge-Wells were at one
time much resorted to; but, as a matter of fact, Bagnigge-Wells, unlike
Sadler's-Wells, has never possessed a playhouse. Sadler's-Wells Theatre,
however, always familiarly known as the "Wells," still exists. It was
rebuilt in 1876-77.
The costumes and scenic decoration of this little play-should follow, to
the closest detail, the mode of the early Sixties, the period, in dress,
of crinoline and the peg-top trouser; in furniture, of horsehair and
mahogany, and the abominable "walnut -and -rep." No attempt should
be made to modify such fashions in illustration, to render them less
strange, even less grotesque, to the modern eye. On the contrary, there
should be an endeavor to reproduce, perhaps to accentuate, any feature
which may now seem particularly quaint and bizarre. Thus, lovely youth
should be shown decked uncompromisingly as it was at the time indicated,
at the risk (which the author believes to be a slight one) of pointing
the chastening moral that, while beauty fades assuredly in its own time,
it may appear to succeeding generations not to have been beauty at all.