initial commit of ebook 18780HEADmain

9 files changed, 25516 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6833f05
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitattributes
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+* text=auto
+*.txt text
+*.md text
diff --git a/18780-8.txt b/18780-8.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..181b5d7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/18780-8.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,8433 @@
+The Project Gutenberg eBook, Shakespeare and the Modern Stage, by Sir
+Sidney Lee
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: Shakespeare and the Modern Stage
+       with Other Essays
+
+
+Author: Sir Sidney Lee
+
+
+
+Release Date: July 7, 2006  [eBook #18780]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SHAKESPEARE AND THE MODERN STAGE***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Thierry Alberto, Linda Cantoni, and the Project
+Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net/)
+
+
+
+SHAKESPEARE AND THE MODERN STAGE
+
+With Other Essays
+
+by
+
+SIDNEY LEE
+
+Author of "A Life of William Shakespeare"
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+London
+Archibald Constable and Company Limited
+1907
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+The eleven papers which are collected here were written between 1899
+and 1905. With the exception of one, entitled "Aspects of
+Shakespeare's Philosophy," which is now printed for the first time,
+they were published in periodicals in the course of those six years.
+The articles treat of varied aspects of Shakespearean drama, its
+influences and traditions, but I think that all may be credited with
+sufficient unity of intention to warrant their combination in a single
+volume. Their main endeavour is to survey Shakespearean drama in
+relation to modern life, and to illustrate its living force in current
+affairs. Even in the papers which embody researches in sixteenth- or
+seventeenth-century dramatic history, I have sought to keep in view
+the bearings of the past on the present. A large portion of the book
+discusses, as its title indicates, methods of representing Shakespeare
+on the modern stage. The attempt is there made to define, in the light
+of experience, the conditions which are best calculated to conserve or
+increase Shakespeare's genuine vitality in the theatre of our own day.
+
+In revising the work for the press, I have deemed it advisable to
+submit the papers to a somewhat rigorous verbal revision. Errors have
+been corrected, chronological ambiguities due to lapse of time have
+been removed, passages have been excised in order to avoid repetition,
+and reference to ephemeral events which deserve no permanent chronicle
+have been omitted. But, substantially, the articles retain the shape
+in which they were originally penned. The point of view has undergone
+no modification. In the essays dealing with the theatres of our own
+time, I have purposely refrained from expanding or altering argument
+or illustration by citing Shakespearean performances or other
+theatrical enterprises which have come to birth since the papers were
+first written. In the last year or two there have been several
+Shakespearean revivals of notable interest, and some new histrionic
+triumphs have been won. Within the same period, too, at least half a
+dozen new plays of serious literary aim have gained the approval of
+contemporary critics. These features of current dramatic history are
+welcome to playgoers of literary tastes; but I have attempted no
+survey of them, because signs are lacking that any essential change
+has been wrought by them in the general theatrical situation. My aim
+is to deal with dominant principles which underlie the past and
+present situation, rather than with particular episodes or
+personalities, the real value of which the future has yet to
+determine.
+
+My best thanks are due to my friend Sir James Knowles, the proprietor
+and editor of _The Nineteenth Century and After_, for permission to
+reproduce the four articles, entitled respectively, "Shakespeare and
+the Modern Stage," "Shakespeare in Oral Tradition," "Shakespeare in
+France," and "The Commemoration of Shakespeare in London." To Messrs
+Smith, Elder, & Co., I am indebted for permission to print here the
+articles on "Mr Benson and Shakespearean Drama," and "Shakespeare and
+Patriotism," both of which originally appeared in _The Cornhill
+Magazine_. The paper on "Pepys and Shakespeare" was first printed in
+the _Fortnightly Review_; that on "Shakespeare and the Elizabethan
+Playgoer" in "An English Miscellany, presented to Dr Furnivall in
+honour of his seventy-fifth birthday" (1901); that on "The Municipal
+Theatre" in the _New Liberal Review_; and that on "A Peril of
+Shakespearean Research" in _The Author_. The proprietors of these
+publications have courteously given me permission to include the
+articles in this volume. The essay on "Aspects of Shakespeare's
+Philosophy" was prepared for the purposes of a popular lecture, and
+has not been in type before.
+
+In a note at the foot of the opening page of each essay, I mention the
+date when it was originally published. An analytical list of contents
+and an index will, I hope, increase any utility which may attach to
+the volume.
+
+SIDNEY LEE.
+
+_1st October 1906._
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+                                                                 PAGE
+
+PREFACE                                                           vii
+
+
+I
+
+SHAKESPEARE AND THE MODERN STAGE
+
+      I. The Perils of the Spectacular Method of Production         1
+
+     II. The Need for Simplifying Scenic Appliances                 4
+
+    III. Consequences of Simplification. The Attitude of the
+         Shakespearean Student                                      7
+
+     IV. The Pecuniary Experiences of Charles Kean and Sir
+         Henry Irving                                               9
+
+      V. The Experiment of Samuel Phelps                           11
+
+     VI. The Rightful Supremacy of the Actor                       12
+
+    VII. The Example of the French and German Stage                16
+
+   VIII. Shakespeare's Reliance on the "Imaginary Forces"
+         of the Audience                                           18
+
+     IX. The Patriotic Argument for the Production of
+         Shakespeare's Plays constantly and in their
+         variety on the English Stage                              23
+
+
+II
+
+SHAKESPEARE AND THE ELIZABETHAN PLAYGOER
+
+      I. An Imaginary Discovery of Shakespeare's Journal           25
+
+     II. Shakespeare in the rôle of the Ghost on the First
+         Production of _Hamlet_ in 1602                            27
+
+    III. Shakespeare's Popularity in the Elizabethan Theatre       29
+
+     IV. At Court in 1594                                          31
+
+      V. The Theatre an Innovation in Elizabethan England          36
+
+     VI. Elizabethan Methods of Production                         38
+
+    VII. The Contrast between the Elizabethan and the
+         Modern Methods                                            43
+
+   VIII. The Fitness of the Audience an Essential Element
+         in the Success of Shakespeare on the Stage                46
+
+
+III
+
+SHAKESPEARE IN ORAL TRADITION
+
+      I. The Reception of the News of Shakespeare's Death          49
+
+     II. The Evolution in England of Formal Biography              51
+
+    III. Oral Tradition concerning Shakespeare in Theatrical
+         Circles                                                   57
+
+     IV. The Testimonies of Seventeenth-century Actors             61
+
+      V. Sir William D'Avenant's Devotion to Shakespeare's
+         Memory                                                    69
+
+     VI. Early Oral Tradition at Stratford-on-Avon                 73
+
+    VII. Shakespeare's Fame among Seventeenth-century
+         Scholars and Statesmen                                    78
+
+   VIII. Nicholas Rowe's Place among Shakespeare's
+         Biographers. The Present State of Knowledge
+         respecting Shakespeare's Life                             79
+
+
+IV
+
+PEPYS AND SHAKESPEARE
+
+      I. Pepys the Microcosm of the Average Playgoer               82
+
+     II. The London Theatres of Pepys's _Diary_                    85
+
+    III. Pepys's Enthusiasm for the Later Elizabethan Drama        90
+
+     IV. Pepys's Criticism of Shakespeare. His Admiration
+         of Betterton in Shakespearean rôles                       93
+
+      V. The Garbled Versions of Shakespeare on the Stage
+         of the Restoration                                       102
+
+     VI. The Saving Grace of the Restoration Theatre.
+         Betterton's Masterly Interpretation of Shakespeare       109
+
+
+V
+
+MR BENSON AND SHAKESPEAREAN DRAMA
+
+      I. A Return to the Ancient Ways                             111
+
+     II. The Advantages of a Constant Change of
+         Programme. The Opportunities offered Actors by
+         Shakespeare's Minor Characters. John of Gaunt            113
+
+    III. The Benefit of Performing the Play of _Hamlet_
+         without Abbreviation                                     116
+
+     IV. Mr Benson as a Trainer of Actors. The Succession
+         to Phelps                                                119
+
+
+VI
+
+THE MUNICIPAL THEATRE
+
+      I. The True Aim of the Municipal Theatre                    122
+
+     II. Private Theatrical Enterprise and Literary Drama.
+         The Advantages and Disadvantages of the Actor-Manager
+         System. The Control of the Capitalist                    123
+
+    III. Possibilities of the Artistic Improvement of
+         Theatrical Organisation in England                       127
+
+     IV. Indications of a Demand for a Municipal Theatre          129
+
+      V. The Teaching of Foreign Experience. The
+         Example of Vienna                                        134
+
+     VI. The Conditions of Success in England                     138
+
+
+VII
+
+ASPECTS OF SHAKESPEARE'S PHILOSOPHY
+
+      I. The Conflicting Attitudes of Bacon and Shakespeare
+         to Formal Philosophy                                     142
+
+     II. Shakespeare's "Natural" Philosophy. Concealment
+         of his Personality in his Plays                          148
+
+    III. His Lofty Conception of Public Virtue. Frequency
+         of his Denunciation of Royal "Ceremony"                  152
+
+     IV. The Duty of Obedience to Authority                       161
+
+      V. The Moral Atmosphere of Shakespearean Drama              164
+
+     VI. Shakespeare's Insistence on the Freedom of the
+         Will                                                     166
+
+    VII. His Humour and Optimism                                  169
+
+
+VIII
+
+SHAKESPEARE AND PATRIOTISM
+
+      I. The Natural Instinct of Patriotism. Dangers of
+         Excess and Defect                                        170
+
+     II. An Attempt to Co-ordinate Shakespeare's Detached
+         Illustrations of the Working of Patriotic
+         Sentiment. His Ridicule of Bellicose Ecstasy.
+         Coriolanus illustrates the Danger of Disavowing
+         Patriotism                                               172
+
+    III. Criticism of One's Fellow-countrymen Consistent
+         with Patriotism. Shakespeare on the Political
+         History of England. The Country's Dependence
+         on the Command of the Sea. The Respect Due
+         to a Nation's Traditions and Experience                  179
+
+     IV. Shakespeare's Exposure of Social Foibles and Errors      184
+
+      V. Relevance of Shakespeare's Doctrine of Patriotism
+         to Current Affairs                                       187
+
+
+IX
+
+A PERIL OF SHAKESPEAREAN RESEARCH
+
+      I. An Alleged Meeting of Peele, Ben Jonson,
+         Alleyn, and Shakespeare at "The Globe" in
+         1600                                                     188
+
+     II. The Fabrication by George Steevens in 1763 of a
+         Letter signed "G. Peel"                                  190
+
+    III. Popular Acceptance of the Forgery. Its
+         Unchallenged Circulation through the Eighteenth,
+         Nineteenth, and Twentieth Centuries                      194
+
+
+X
+
+SHAKESPEARE IN FRANCE
+
+      I. Amicable Literary Relations between France and
+         England from the Fourteenth to the Present Century       198
+
+     II. M. Jusserand on Shakespeare in France. French
+         Knowledge of English Literature in Shakespeare's
+         day. Shakespeare in Eighteenth-century France.
+         Eulogies of Victor Hugo and Dumas _père_                 201
+
+    III. French Misapprehensions of Shakespeare's Tragic
+         Conceptions. Causes of the Misunderstanding              206
+
+     IV. Charles Nodier's Sympathetic Tribute. The Rarity
+         of his _Pensées de Shakespeare_, 1801                    211
+
+
+XI
+
+THE COMMEMORATION OF SHAKESPEARE IN LONDON
+
+      I. Early Proposals for a National Memorial of
+         Shakespeare in London                                    214
+
+     II. The Cenotaph in Westminster Abbey                        215
+
+    III. The Failure of the Nineteenth-century Schemes            217
+
+     IV. The National Memorial at Stratford-on-Avon               219
+
+      V. Shakespeare's Association with London                    226
+
+     VI. The Value of a London Memorial as a Symbol of his
+         Universal Influence                                      228
+
+    VII. The Real Significance of Milton's Warning against
+         a Monumental Commemoration of Shakespeare                230
+
+   VIII. The Undesirability of making the Memorial serve
+         Utilitarian Purposes                                     235
+
+     IX. The Present State of the Plastic Art. The
+         Imperative Need of securing a Supreme Work of
+         Sculpture                                                236
+
+
+INDEX                                                             245
+
+
+
+
+SHAKESPEARE AND THE MODERN STAGE
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+SHAKESPEARE AND THE MODERN STAGE[1]
+
+[Footnote 1: This paper was first printed in _The Nineteenth Century_,
+January 1900.]
+
+
+I
+
+Without "the living comment and interpretation of the theatre,"
+Shakespeare's work is, for the rank and file of mankind, "a deep well
+without a wheel or a windlass." It is true that the whole of the
+spiritual treasures which Shakespeare's dramas hoard will never be
+disclosed to the mere playgoer, but "a large, a very large, proportion
+of that indefinite all" may be revealed to him on the stage, and, if
+he be no patient reader, will be revealed to him nowhere else.
+
+There are earnest students of Shakespeare who scorn the theatre and
+arrogate to themselves in the library, often with some justification,
+a greater capacity for apprehending and appreciating Shakespeare than
+is at the command of the ordinary playgoer or actor. But let Sir
+Oracle of the study, however full and deep be his knowledge, "use all
+gently." Let him bear in mind that his vision also has its
+limitations, and that student, actor, and spectator of Shakespeare's
+plays are all alike exploring a measureless region of philosophy and
+poetry, "round which no comprehension has yet drawn the line of
+circumspection, so as to say to itself 'I have seen the whole.'" Actor
+and student may look at Shakespeare's text from different points of
+view: but there is always as reasonable a chance that the efficient
+actor may disclose the full significance of some speech or scene which
+escapes the efficient student, as that the student may supply the
+actor's lack of insight.
+
+It is, indeed, comparatively easy for a student of literature to
+support the proposition that Shakespeare can be, and ought to be,
+represented on the stage. But it is difficult to define the ways and
+means of securing practical observance of the precept. For some years
+there has been a widening divergence of view respecting methods of
+Shakespearean production. Those who defend in theory the adaptability
+of Shakespeare to the stage are at variance with the leading managers,
+who alone possess the power of conferring on the Shakespearean drama
+theatrical interpretation. In the most influential circles of the
+theatrical profession it has become a commonplace to assert that
+Shakespearean drama cannot be successfully produced, cannot be
+rendered tolerable to any substantial section of the playgoing public,
+without a plethora of scenic spectacle and gorgeous costume, much of
+which the student regards as superfluous and inappropriate. An
+accepted tradition of the modern stage ordains that every revival of a
+Shakespearean play at a leading theatre shall base some part of its
+claim to public favour on its spectacular magnificence.
+
+The dramatic interest of Shakespearean drama is, in fact, deemed by
+the manager to be inadequate to satisfy the necessary commercial
+purposes of the theatre. The average purveyor of public entertainment
+reckons Shakespeare's plays among tasteless and colourless
+commodities, which only become marketable when they are reinforced by
+the independent arts of music and painting. Shakespeare's words must
+be spoken to musical accompaniments specially prepared for the
+occasion. Pictorial tableaux, even though they suggest topics without
+relevance to the development of the plot, have at times to be
+interpolated in order to keep the attention of the audience
+sufficiently alive.
+
+One deduction to be drawn from this position of affairs is
+irrefutable. Spectacular embellishments are so costly that, according
+to the system now in vogue, the performance of a play of Shakespeare
+involves heavy financial risks. It is equally plain that, unless the
+views of theatrical managers undergo revolution, these risks are
+likely to become greater rather than smaller. The natural result is
+that in London, the city which sets the example to most
+English-speaking communities, Shakespearean revivals are comparatively
+rare; they take place at uncertain intervals, and only those plays are
+viewed with favour by the London manager which lend themselves in his
+opinion to more or less ostentatious spectacle, and to the
+interpolation of music and dancing.
+
+It is ungrateful to criticise adversely any work the production of
+which entails the expenditure of much thought and money. More
+especially is it distasteful when the immediate outcome is, as in the
+case of many Shakespearean revivals at the great West-end theatres of
+London, the giving of pleasure to large sections of the community.
+That is in itself a worthy object. But it is open to doubt whether,
+from the sensible literary point of view, the managerial activity be
+well conceived or to the public advantage. It is hard to ignore a
+fundamental flaw in the manager's central position. The pleasure which
+recent Shakespearean revivals offer the spectator reaches him mainly
+through the eye. That is the manager's avowed intention. Yet no one
+would seriously deny that the Shakespearean drama appeals, both
+primarily and ultimately, to the head and to the heart. Whoever seeks,
+therefore, by the production of Shakespearean drama chiefly to please
+the spectator's eye shows scant respect both for the dramatist and for
+the spectator. However unwittingly, he tends to misrepresent the one,
+and to mislead the other, in a particular of first-rate importance.
+Indeed, excess in scenic display does worse than restrict
+opportunities of witnessing Shakespeare's plays on the stage in London
+and other large cities of England and America. It is to be feared that
+such excess either weakens or distorts the just and proper influence
+of Shakespeare's work. If these imputations can be sustained, then it
+follows that the increased and increasing expense which is involved in
+the production of Shakespeare's plays ought on grounds of public
+policy to be diminished.
+
+
+II
+
+Every stage representation of a play requires sufficient scenery and
+costume to produce in the audience that illusion of environment which
+the text invites. Without so much scenery or costume the words fail to
+get home to the audience. In comedies dealing with concrete conditions
+of modern society, the stage presentation necessarily relies to a very
+large extent for its success on the realism of the scenic appliances.
+In plays which, dealing with the universal and less familiar
+conditions of life, appeal to the highest faculties of thought and
+imagination, the pursuit of realism in the scenery tends to destroy
+the full significance of the illusion which it ought to enforce. In
+the case of plays straightforwardly treating of contemporary affairs,
+the environment which it is sought to reproduce is familiar and easy
+of imitation. In the case of drama, which involves larger spheres of
+fancy and feeling, the environment is unfamiliar and admits of no
+realistic imitation. The wall-paper and furniture of Mrs So-and-so's
+drawing-room in Belgravia or Derbyshire can be transferred bodily to
+the stage. Prospero's deserted island does not admit of the like
+translation.
+
+Effective suggestion of the scene of _The Tempest_ is all that can be
+reasonably attempted or desired. Plays which are wrought of purest
+imaginative texture call solely for a scenic setting which should
+convey effective suggestion. The machinery to be employed for the
+purpose of effective suggestion should be simple and unobtrusive. If
+it be complex and obtrusive, it defeats "the purpose of playing" by
+exaggerating for the spectator the inevitable interval between the
+visionary and indeterminate limits of the scene which the poet
+imagines, and the cramped and narrow bounds, which the stage renders
+practicable. That perilous interval can only be effectually bridged
+by scenic art, which is applied with an apt judgment and a light hand.
+Anything that aims at doing more than satisfy the condition essential
+to the effective suggestion of the scenic environment of Shakespearean
+drama is, from the literary and logical points of view, "wasteful and
+ridiculous excess."[2]
+
+[Footnote 2: A minor practical objection, from the dramatic point of
+view, to realistic scenery is the long pause its setting on the stage
+often renders inevitable between the scenes. Intervals of the kind,
+which always tends to blunt the dramatic point of the play, especially
+in the case of tragic masterpieces, should obviously be as brief as
+possible.]
+
+But it is not only a simplification of scenic appliances that is
+needed. Other external incidents of production require revision.
+Spectacular methods of production entail the employment of armies of
+silent supernumeraries to whom are allotted functions wholly
+ornamental and mostly impertinent. Here, too, reduction is desirable
+in the interest of the true significance of drama. No valid reason can
+be adduced why persons should appear on the stage who are not
+precisely indicated by the text of the play or by the authentic stage
+directions. When Cæsar is buried, it is essential to produce in the
+audience the illusion that a crowd of Roman citizens is taking part in
+the ceremony. But quality comes here before quantity. The fewer the
+number of supernumeraries by whom the needful illusion is effected,
+the greater the merit of the performance, the more convincing the
+testimony borne to the skill of the stage-manager. Again, no
+processions of psalm-singing priests and monks contribute to the
+essential illusion in the historical plays. Nor does the text of _The
+Merchant of Venice_ demand any assembly of Venetian townsfolk,
+however picturesquely attired, sporting or chaffering with one another
+on the Rialto, when Shylock enters to ponder Antonio's request for a
+loan. An interpolated tableau is indefensible, and "though it make the
+unskilful laugh, cannot but make the judicious grieve." In _Antony and
+Cleopatra_ the pageant of Cleopatra's voyage up the river Cydnus to
+meet her lover Antony should have no existence outside the gorgeous
+description given of it by Enobarbus.
+
+
+III
+
+What would be the practical effects of a stern resolve on the part of
+theatrical managers to simplify the scenic appliances and to reduce
+the supernumerary staff when they are producing Shakespearean drama?
+The replies will be in various keys. One result of simplification is
+obvious. There would be so much more money in the manager's pocket
+after he had paid the expenses of production. If his outlay were
+smaller, the sum that he expended in the production of one play of
+Shakespeare on the current over-elaborate scale would cover the
+production of two or three pieces mounted with simplicity and with a
+strict adherence to the requirements of the text. In such an event,
+the manager would be satisfied with a shorter run for each play.
+
+On the other hand, supporters of the existing system allege that no
+public, which is worth the counting, would interest itself in
+Shakespeare's plays, if they were robbed of scenic upholstery and
+spectacular display. This estimate rests on insecure foundations. That
+section of the London public which is genuinely interested in
+Shakespearean drama for its own sake, is prone to distrust the modern
+theatrical manager, and as things are, for the most part avoids the
+theatre altogether. The student stays at home to read Shakespeare at
+his fireside.
+
+It may be admitted that the public to which Shakespeare in his purity
+makes appeal is not very large. It is clearly not large enough to
+command continuous runs of plays for months, or even weeks. But
+therein lies no cause for depression. Long runs of a single play of
+Shakespeare bring more evil than good in their train. They develop in
+even the most efficient acting a soulless mechanism. The literary
+beauty of the text is obliterated by repetition from the actors'
+minds. Unostentatious mounting of the Shakespearean plays, however
+efficient be the acting with which it is associated, may always fail
+to "please the million"; it may be "caviare to the general."
+Nevertheless, the sagacious manager, who, by virtue of comparatively
+inexpensive settings and in alliance with a well-chosen company of
+efficient actors and actresses, is able at short intervals to produce
+a succession of Shakespeare's plays, may reasonably expect to attract
+a small but steady and sufficient support from the intelligent section
+of London playgoers, and from the home-reading students of
+Shakespeare, who are not at present playgoers at all.
+
+
+IV
+
+The practical manager, who naturally seeks pecuniary profit from his
+ventures, insists that these suggestions are counsels of perfection
+and these anticipations wild and fantastic dreams. His last word is
+that by spectacular method Shakespeare can alone be made to "pay" in
+the theatre. But are we here on perfectly secure ground? Has the
+commercial success attending the spectacular production of Shakespeare
+been invariably so conspicuous as to put summarily out of court, on
+the purely commercial ground, the method of simplicity? The pecuniary
+results are public knowledge in the case of the two most strenuous and
+prolonged endeavours to give Shakespeare the splendours of spectacle
+which have yet been completed on the London stage. What is the message
+of these two efforts in mere pecuniary terms?
+
+Charles Kean may be regarded as the founder of the modern spectacular
+system, though it had some precedents, and has been developed since
+his day. Charles Kean, between 1851 and 1859, persistently endeavoured
+by prodigal and brilliant display to make the production of
+Shakespeare an enterprise of profit at the Princess's Theatre, London.
+The scheme proved pecuniarily disastrous.
+
+Subsequently Kean's mantle was assumed by the late Sir Henry Irving,
+the greatest of recent actors and stage-managers, who in many regards
+conferred incalculable benefits on the theatre-going public and on the
+theatrical profession. Throughout the last quarter of the last
+century, Irving gave the spectacular and scenic system in the
+production of Shakespeare every advantage that it could derive from
+munificent expenditure and the co-operation of highly endowed artists.
+He could justly claim a finer artistic sentiment and a higher
+histrionic capacity than Charles Kean possessed. Yet Irving announced,
+not long before his death, that he lost on his Shakespearean
+productions a hundred thousand pounds. Sir Henry added:
+
+     The enormous cost of a Shakespearean production on the
+     liberal and elaborate scale which the public is now
+     accustomed to expect makes it almost impossible for any
+     manager--I don't care who it is--to pursue a continuous
+     policy of Shakespeare for many years with any hope of profit
+     in the long run.
+
+In face of this authoritative pronouncement, it must be conceded that
+the spectacular system has been given, within recent memory, every
+chance of succeeding, and, as far as recorded testimony is available,
+has been, from the commercial point of view, a failure.
+
+Meanwhile, during and since the period when Sir Henry Irving filled
+the supreme place among producers of Shakespeare on the stage, the
+simple method of Shakespearean production has been given no serious
+chance. The anticipation of its pecuniary failure has not been put in
+satisfactory conditions to any practical test. The last time that it
+was put to a sound practical test it did not fail. While Irving was a
+boy, Phelps at Sadler's Wells Theatre gave, in well-considered
+conditions, the simple method a trial. Phelps's playhouse was situated
+in the unfashionable neighbourhood of Islington. But the prophets of
+evil, who were no greater strangers to Phelps's generation than they
+are to our own, were themselves confuted by his experience.
+
+
+V
+
+On the 27th of May 1844 Phelps, a most intelligent actor and a serious
+student of Shakespeare, opened the long-disused Sadler's Wells Theatre
+in partnership with Mrs Warner, a capable actress, whose rendering of
+Imogen went near perfection. Their design was inspired by "the hope,"
+they wrote in an unassuming address, "of eventually rendering Sadler's
+Wells what a theatre ought to be--a place for justly representing the
+works of our great dramatic poets." This hope they went far to
+realise. The first play that they produced was _Macbeth_.
+
+Phelps continued to control Sadler's Wells Theatre for more than
+eighteen years. During that period he produced, together with many
+other English plays of classical repute, no fewer than thirty-one of
+the thirty-seven great dramas which came from Shakespeare's pen. In
+his first season, besides _Macbeth_ he set forth _Hamlet_, _King
+John_, _Henry VIII._, _The Merchant of Venice_, _Othello_, and
+_Richard III._ To these he added in the course of his second season,
+_Julius Cæsar_, _King Lear_, and _The Winter's Tale_. _Henry IV._,
+part I., _Measure for Measure_, _Romeo and Juliet_, and _The Tempest_
+followed in his third season; _As You Like It_, _Cymbeline_, _The
+Merry Wives of Windsor_, and _Twelfth Night_, in his fourth. Each
+succeeding season saw further additions to the Shakespearean
+repertory, until only six Shakespearean dramas were left
+unrepresented, viz.--_Richard II._, the three parts of _Henry VI._,
+_Troilus and Cressida_, and _Titus Andronicus_. Of these, one alone,
+_Richard II._, is really actable.
+
+The leading principles, to which Phelps strictly adhered throughout
+his career of management, call for most careful consideration. He
+gathered round him a company of actors and actresses, whom he
+zealously trained to interpret Shakespeare's language. He accustomed
+his colleagues to act harmoniously together, and to sacrifice to the
+welfare of the whole enterprise individual pretensions to prominence.
+No long continuous run of any one piece was permitted by the rules of
+the playhouse. The programme was constantly changed. The scenic
+appliances were simple, adequate, and inexpensive. The supernumerary
+staff was restricted to the smallest practicable number. The general
+expenses were consequently kept within narrow limits. For every
+thousand pounds that Charles Kean laid out at the Princess's Theatre
+on scenery and other expenses of production, Phelps in his most ornate
+revivals spent less than a fourth of that sum. For the pounds spent by
+managers on more recent revivals, Phelps would have spent only as many
+shillings. In the result, Phelps reaped from the profits of his
+a handsome unencumbered income. During the same period Charles
+Kean grew more and more deeply involved in oppressive debt, and at a
+later date Sir Henry Irving made over to the public a hundred thousand
+pounds above his receipts.
+
+
+VI
+
+Why, then, should not Phelps's encouraging experiment be made
+again?[3]
+
+[Footnote 3: It is just to notice, among endeavours of the late years
+of the past century, to which I confine my remarks here, the efforts
+to produce Shakespearean drama worthily which were made by Charles
+Alexander Calvert at the Prince's Theatre, Manchester, between 1864
+and 1874. Calvert, who was a warm admirer of Phelps, attempted to
+blend Phelps's method with Charles Kean's, and bestowed great scenic
+elaboration on the production of at least eight plays of Shakespeare.
+Financially the speculation saw every vicissitude, and Calvert's
+experience may be quoted in support of the view that a return to
+Phelps's method is financially safer than a return to Charles Kean's.
+More recently the Elizabethan Stage Society endeavoured to produce,
+with a simplicity which erred on the side of severity, many plays of
+Shakespeare and other literary dramas. No scenery was employed, and
+the performers were dressed in Elizabethan costume. The Society's work
+was done privately, and did not invite any genuine test of publicity.
+The representation by the Society on November 11, 1899, in the Lecture
+Theatre at Burlington House, of _Richard II._, in which Mr Granville
+Barker played the King with great charm and judgment, showed the
+fascination that a competent rendering of Shakespeare's text exerts,
+even in the total absence of scenery, over a large audience of
+suitable temper.]
+
+Before anyone may commit himself to an affirmative reply, it is
+needful for him to realise fully the precise demands which a system
+like that of Phelps makes, when rightly interpreted, on the character,
+ability, and energy of the actors and actresses. If scenery in
+Shakespearean productions be relegated to its proper place in the
+background of the stage, it is necessary that the acting, from top to
+bottom of the cast, shall be more efficient and better harmonised than
+that which is commonly associated with spectacular representations.
+The simple method of producing Shakespeare focusses the interest of
+the audience on the actor and actress; it gives them a dignity and
+importance which are unknown to the complex method. Under the latter
+system, the attention of the spectator is largely absorbed by the
+triumphs of the scene-painter and machinist, of the costumier and the
+musicians. The actor and actress often elude notice altogether.
+
+Macready, whose theatrical career was anterior to the modern
+spectacular period of Shakespearean representation, has left on record
+a deliberate opinion of Charles Kean's elaborate methods at the
+Princess's Theatre in their relation to drama and the histrionic art.
+Macready's verdict has an universal application. "The production of
+the Shakespearean plays at the Princess's Theatre," the great actor
+wrote to Lady Pollock on the 1st of May 1859, rendered the spoken text
+"more like a running commentary on the spectacles exhibited than the
+scenic arrangements an illustration of the text." No criticism could
+define more convincingly the humiliation to which the author's words
+are exposed by spectacle, or, what is more pertinent to the immediate
+argument, the evil which is worked by spectacle on the actor.
+
+Acting can be, and commonly tends to be, the most mechanical of
+physical exercises. The actor is often a mere automaton who repeats
+night after night the same unimpressive trick of voice, eye, and
+gesture. His defects of understanding may be comparatively unobtrusive
+in a spectacular display, where he is liable to escape censure by
+escaping observation, or at best to be regarded as a showman.
+Furthermore, the long runs which scenic excess brings in its train
+accentuate the mechanical actor's imperfections and diminish his
+opportunities of remedying them. On the other hand, acting can rise in
+opposite conditions into the noblest of the arts. The great actor
+relies for genuine success on no mere gesticulatory mechanism.
+Imaginative insight, passion, the gift of oratory, grace and dignity
+of movement and bearing, perfect command of the voice in the whole
+gamut of its inflections are the constituent qualities of true
+histrionic capacity.
+
+In no drama are these qualities more necessary, or are ampler
+opportunities offered for their use, than in the plays of Shakespeare.
+Not only in the leading rôles of his masterpieces, but in the
+subordinate parts throughout the range of his work, the highest
+abilities of the actor or actress can find some scope for employment.
+It is therefore indispensable that the standard of Shakespearean
+acting should always be maintained at the highest level, if
+Shakespearean drama is to be fitly rendered in the theatre. The worst
+of the evils, which are inherent in scenic excess, with its
+accompaniment of long runs, is its tendency to sanction the
+maintenance of the level of acting at something below the highest.
+Phelps was keenly alive to this peril, and his best energies were
+devoted to training his actors and actresses for all the rôles in the
+cast, great and small. Actors and actresses of the first rank on
+occasion filled minor parts, in order to heighten the efficiency of
+the presentation. Actors and actresses who have the dignity of their
+profession at heart might be expected to welcome the revival of a
+system which alone guarantees their talent and the work of the
+dramatist due recognition, even if it leave histrionic incompetence no
+hope of escape from the scorn that befits it. It is on the aspiration
+and sentiment of the acting profession that must largely depend the
+final answer to the question whether Phelps's experiment can be made
+again with likelihood of success.
+
+
+VII
+
+Foreign experience tells in favour of the contention that, if
+Shakespeare's plays are to be honoured on the modern stage as they
+deserve, they must be freed of the existing incubus of scenic
+machinery. French acting has always won and deserved admiration. There
+is no doubt that one cause of its permanently high repute is the
+absolute divorce in the French theatre of drama from spectacle.
+
+Molière stands to French literature in much the same relation as
+Shakespeare stands to English literature. Molière's plays are
+constantly acted in French theatres with a scenic austerity which is
+unknown to the humblest of our theatres. A French audience would
+regard it as sacrilege to convert a comedy of Molière into a
+spectacle. The French people are commonly credited with a love of
+ornament and display to which the English people are assumed to be
+strangers, but their treatment of Molière is convincing proof that
+their artistic sense is ultimately truer than our own.
+
+The mode of producing Shakespeare on the stage in Germany supplies an
+argument to the same effect. In Berlin and Vienna, and in all the
+chief towns of German-speaking Europe, Shakespeare's plays are
+produced constantly and in all their variety, for the most part, in
+conditions which are directly antithetical to those prevailing in the
+West-end theatres of London. Twenty-eight of Shakespeare's
+thirty-seven plays figure in the répertoires of the leading companies
+of German-speaking actors.
+
+The currently accepted method of presentation can be judged from the
+following personal experience. A few years ago I was in the
+Burg-Theater in Vienna on a Sunday night--the night on which the great
+working population of Vienna chiefly take their recreation, as in this
+country it is chiefly taken by the great working population on
+Saturday night. The Burg-Theater in Vienna is one of the largest
+theatres in the world. It is of similar dimensions to Drury Lane
+Theatre or Covent Garden Opera-house. On the occasion of my visit the
+play produced was Shakespeare's _Antony and Cleopatra_. The house was
+crowded in every part. The scenic arrangements were simple and
+unobtrusive, but were well calculated to suggest the Oriental
+atmosphere of the plot. There was no music before the performance, or
+during the intervals between the acts, or as an accompaniment to great
+speeches in the progress of the play. There was no making love, nor
+any dying to slow music, although the stage directions were followed
+scrupulously; the song "Come, thou Monarch of the Vine," was sung to
+music in the drinking scene on board Pompey's galley, and there were
+the appointed flourishes of trumpets and drums. The acting was
+competent, though not of the highest calibre, but a satisfactory level
+was evenly maintained throughout the cast. There were no conspicuous
+deflections from the adequate standard. The character of whom I have
+the most distinct recollection was Enobarbus, the level-headed and
+straight-hitting critic of the action--a comparatively subordinate
+part, which was filled by one of the most distinguished actors of the
+Viennese stage. He fitted his part with telling accuracy.
+
+The whole piece was listened to with breathless interest. It was acted
+practically without curtailment, and, although the performance lasted
+nearly five hours, no sign of impatience manifested itself at any
+point. This was no exceptional experience at the Burg-Theater. Plays
+of Shakespeare are acted there repeatedly--on an average twice a
+week--and, I am credibly informed, with identical results to those of
+which I was an eye-witness.
+
+
+VIII
+
+It cannot be flattering to our self-esteem that the Austrian people
+should show a greater and a wiser appreciation of the theatrical
+capacities of Shakespeare's masterpieces than we who are Shakespeare's
+countrymen and the most direct and rightful heirs of his glorious
+achievements. How is the disturbing fact to be accounted for? Is it
+possible that it is attributable to some decay in us of the
+imagination--to a growing slowness on our part to appreciate works of
+imagination? When one reflects on the simple mechanical contrivances
+which satisfied the theatrical audiences, not only of Shakespeare's
+own day, but of the eighteenth century, during which Shakespeare was
+repeatedly performed; when one compares the simplicity of scenic
+mechanism in the past with its complexity in our own time, one can
+hardly resist the conclusion that the imagination of the theatre-going
+public is no longer what it was of old. The play alone was then "the
+thing." Now "the thing," it seems, is something outside the
+play--namely, the painted scene or the costume, the music or the
+dance.
+
+Garrick played Macbeth in an ordinary Court suit of his own era. The
+habiliments proper to Celtic monarchs of the eleventh century were
+left to be supplied by the imagination of the spectators or not at
+all. No realistic "effects" helped the play forward in Garrick's time,
+yet the attention of his audience, the critics tell us, was never
+known to stray when he produced a great play by Shakespeare. In
+Shakespeare's day boys or men took the part of women, and how
+characters like Lady Macbeth and Desdemona were adequately rendered by
+youths beggars belief. But renderings in such conditions proved
+popular and satisfactory. Such a fact seems convincing testimony, not
+to the ability of Elizabethan or Jacobean boys--the nature of boys is
+a pretty permanent factor in human society--but to the superior
+imaginative faculty of adult Elizabethan or Jacobean playgoers, in
+whom, as in Garrick's time, the needful dramatic illusion was far more
+easily evoked than it is nowadays.
+
+This is no exhilarating conclusion. But less exhilarating is the
+endeavour that is sometimes made by advocates of the system of
+spectacle to prove that Shakespeare himself would have appreciated the
+modern developments of the scenic art--nay, more, that he himself has
+justified them. This line of argument serves to confirm the suggested
+defect of imagination in the present generation. The well-known chorus
+before the first act of _Henry V._ is the evidence which is relied
+upon to show that Shakespeare wished his plays to be, in journalistic
+dialect, "magnificently staged," and that he deplored the inability of
+his uncouth age to realise that wish. The lines are familiar; but it
+is necessary to quote them at length, in fairness to those who judge
+them to be a defence of the spectacular principle in the presentation
+of Shakespearean drama. They run:--
+
+    O for a muse of fire, that would ascend
+    The brightest heaven of invention,
+    A kingdom for a stage, princes to act,
+    And monarchs to behold the swelling scene!
+    Then should the warlike Harry, like himself,
+    Assume the port of Mars; and at his heels,
+    Leash'd in like hounds, should famine, sword and fire
+    Crouch for employment. But pardon, gentles all,
+    The flat unraised spirits that have dar'd
+    On this unworthy scaffold to bring forth
+    So great an object: can this cockpit hold
+    The vasty fields of France? or may we cram
+    Within this wooden O the very casques
+    That did affright the air at Agincourt?
+    O, pardon! since a crooked figure may
+    Attest in little place a million;
+    And let us, ciphers to this great accompt,
+    On your imaginary forces work.
+    Suppose within the girdle of these walls
+    Are now confined two mighty monarchies,
+    Whose high upreared and abutting fronts,
+    The perilous narrow ocean parts asunder;
+    Piece out our imperfections with your thoughts;
+    Into a thousand parts divide one man,
+    And make imaginary puissance:
+    Think, when we talk of horses, that you see them
+    Printing their proud hoofs i' the receiving earth.
+    For 'tis your thoughts that now must deck our kings,
+    Carry them here and there, jumping o'er times,
+    Turning the accomplishment of many years
+    Into an hour glass.
+
+There is, in my opinion, no strict relevance in these lines to the
+enquiry whether Shakespeare's work should be treated on the stage as
+drama or spectacle. Nay, I go further, and assert that, as far as the
+speech touches the question at issue at all, it tells against the
+pretensions of spectacle.
+
+Shortly stated, Shakespeare's splendid prelude to his play of _Henry
+V._, is a spirited appeal to his audience not to waste regrets on
+defects of stage machinery, but to bring to the observation of his
+piece their highest powers of imagination, whereby alone can full
+justice be done to a majestic theme. The central topic of the choric
+speech is the essential limitations of all scenic appliances. The
+dramatist reminds us that the literal presentation of life itself, in
+all its movement and action, lies outside the range of the stage,
+especially the movement and action of life in its most glorious
+manifestations. Obvious conditions of space do not allow "two mighty
+monarchies" literally to be confined within the walls of a theatre.
+Obvious conditions of time cannot turn "the accomplishments of many
+years into an hour glass." Shakespeare is airing no private grievance.
+He is not complaining that his plays were in his own day inadequately
+upholstered in the theatre, or that the "scaffold" on which they were
+produced was "unworthy" of them. The words have no concern with the
+contention that modern upholstery and spectacular machinery render
+Shakespeare's play a justice which was denied them in his lifetime. As
+reasonably one might affirm that the modern theatre has now conquered
+the ordinary conditions of time and space; that a modern playhouse
+can, if the manager so will it, actually hold within its walls the
+"vasty fields of France," or confine "two mighty monarchies."
+
+A wider and quite impersonal trend of thought is offered for
+consideration by Shakespeare's majestic eloquence. The dramatist bids
+us bear in mind that his lines do no more than suggest the things he
+would have the audience see and understand; the actors aid the
+suggestion according to their ability. But the crucial point of the
+utterance is the warning that the illusion of the drama can only be
+rendered complete in the theatre by the working of the "imaginary
+forces" of the spectators. It is needful for them to "make imaginary
+puissance," if the play is to triumph. It is their "thoughts" that
+"must deck" the kings of the stage, if the dramatist's meaning is to
+get home. The poet modestly underestimated the supreme force of his
+own imaginative genius when giving these admonitions to his hearers.
+But they are warnings of universal application, and can never be
+safely ignored.
+
+Such an exordium as the chorus before _Henry V._ would indeed be
+pertinent to every stage performance of great drama in any age or
+country. It matters not whether the spectacular machinery be of royal
+magnificence or of poverty-stricken squalor. Let us make the
+extravagant assumption that all the artistic genius in the world and
+all the treasure in the Bank of England were placed at the command of
+a theatrical manager in order to enable him to produce a great play on
+his stage supremely well from his own scenic point of view. Even then
+it would be neither superfluous nor impertinent for the manager to
+adjure the audience to piece out the "imperfections" of the scenery
+with their "thoughts" or imagination. The spectator's "imaginary
+puissance" is, practically in every circumstance, the key-stone of the
+dramatic illusion.
+
+The only conditions in which Shakespeare's adjuration would be
+superfluous or impertinent would accompany the presentment in the
+theatre of some circumscribed incident of life which is capable of so
+literal a rendering as to leave no room for any make-believe or
+illusion at all. The unintellectual playgoer, to whom Shakespeare will
+never really prove attractive in any guise, has little or no
+imagination to exercise, and he only tolerates a performance in the
+theatre when little or no demand is made on the exercise of the
+imaginative faculty. "The groundlings," said Shakespeare for all time,
+"are capable of [appreciating] nothing but inexplicable dumb shows and
+noise." They would be hugely delighted nowadays with a scene in which
+two real motor cars, with genuine chauffeurs and passengers, raced
+uproariously across the stage. That is realism in its nakedness. That
+is realism reduced to its first principles. Realistic "effects,"
+however speciously beautiful they may be, invariably tend to realism
+of that primal type, which satisfies the predilections of the
+groundling, and reduces drama to the level of the cinematograph.
+
+
+IX
+
+The deliberate pursuit of scenic realism is antagonistic to the
+ultimate law of dramatic art. In the case of great plays, the dramatic
+representation is most successful from the genuinely artistic point of
+view--which is the only point of view worthy of discussion--when the
+just dramatic illusion is produced by simple and unpretending scenic
+appliances, in which the inevitable "imperfections" are frankly left
+to be supplied by the "thoughts" or imagination of the spectators.
+
+Lovers of Shakespeare should lose no opportunity of urging the cause
+of simplicity in the production of the plays of Shakespeare. Practical
+common-sense, practical considerations of a pecuniary kind, teach us
+that it is only by the adoption of simple methods of production that
+we can hope to have Shakespeare represented in our theatres constantly
+and in all his variety. Until Shakespeare is represented thus, the
+spiritual and intellectual enlightenment, which his achievement offers
+English-speaking people, will remain wholly inaccessible to the
+majority who do not read him, and will be only in part at the command
+of the few who do. Nay, more: until Shakespeare is represented on the
+stage constantly and in his variety, English-speaking men and women
+are liable to the imputation, not merely of failing in the homage due
+to the greatest of their countrymen, but of falling short of their
+neighbours in Germany and Austria in the capacity of appreciating
+supremely great imaginative literature.
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+SHAKESPEARE AND THE ELIZABETHAN PLAYGOER[4]
+
+[Footnote 4: This paper, which was first printed in "An English
+Miscellany, presented to Dr Furnivall in honour of his seventy-fifth
+birthday" (Oxford: At the Clarendon Press, 1901), was written as a
+lecture for delivery on Tuesday afternoon, March 20, 1900, at Queen's
+College (for women) in Harley Street, London, in aid of the Fund for
+securing a picture commemorating Queen Victoria's visit to the College
+in 1898.]
+
+
+I
+
+In a freak of fancy, Robert Louis Stevenson sent to a congenial spirit
+the imaginary intelligence that a well-known firm of London publishers
+had, after their wont, "declined with thanks" six undiscovered
+tragedies, one romantic comedy, a fragment of a journal extending over
+six years, and an unfinished autobiography reaching up to the first
+performance of _King John_ by "that venerable but still respected
+writer, William Shakespeare." Stevenson was writing in a frivolous
+mood; but such words stir the imagination. The ordinary person, if he
+had to choose among the enumerated items of Shakespeare's
+newly-discovered manuscripts, would cheerfully go without the six new
+tragedies and the one romantic comedy if he had at his disposal, by
+way of consolation, the journal extending over six years and the
+autobiography reaching up to the first performance of _King John_. We
+should deem ourselves fortunate if we had the journal alone. It would
+hardly matter which six years of Shakespeare's life the journal
+covered. As a boy, as a young actor, as an industrious reviser of
+other men's plays, as the humorous creator of Falstaff, Benedick, and
+Mercutio, as the profound "natural" philosopher of the great
+tragedies, he could never have been quite an ordinary diarist. Great
+men have been known to keep diaries in which the level of interest
+does not rise above a visit to the barber or the dentist. The common
+routine of life interested Shakespeare, but something beyond it must
+have found place in his journal. Reference to his glorious achievement
+must have gained entry there.
+
+Some notice, we may be sure, figured in Shakespeare's diary of the
+first performances of his great plays on the stage. However eminent a
+man is through native genius or from place of power, he can never,
+whatever his casual professions to the contrary, be indifferent to the
+reception accorded by his fellow-men to the work of his hand and head.
+I picture Shakespeare as the soul of modesty and gentleness in the
+social relations of life, avoiding unbecoming self-advertisement, and
+rating at its just value empty flattery, the mere adulation of the
+lips. Gushing laudation is as little to the taste of wise men as
+treacle. They cannot escape condiments of the kind, but the smaller
+and less frequent the doses the more they are content. Shakespeare no
+doubt had the great man's self-confidence which renders him to a large
+extent independent of the opinion of his fellows. At the same time,
+the knowledge that he had succeeded in stirring the reader or hearer
+of his plays, the knowledge that his words had gripped their hearts
+and intellects, cannot have been ungrateful to him. To desire
+recognition for his work is for the artist an inevitable and a
+laudable ambition. A working dramatist by the circumstance of his
+calling appeals as soon as the play is written to the playgoer for a
+sympathetic appreciation. Nature impelled Shakespeare to note on the
+pages of his journal his impression of the sentiment with which the
+fruits of his pen were welcomed in the playhouse.
+
+But Shakespeare's journal does not exist, and we can only speculate as
+to its contents.
+
+
+II
+
+We would give much to know how Shakespeare recorded in his diary the
+first performance of _Hamlet_, the most fascinating of all his works.
+He himself, we are credibly told, played the Ghost. We would give much
+for a record of the feelings which lay on the first production of the
+play beneath the breast of the silent apparition in the first scene
+which twice crossed the stage and affrighted Marcellus, Horatio, and
+the guards on the platform before the castle of Elsinore. No piece of
+literature that ever came from human pen or brain is more closely
+packed with fruit of the imaginative study of human life than is
+Shakespeare's tragedy of _Hamlet_; and while the author acted the part
+of the Ghost in the play's initial representation in the theatre, he
+was watching the revelation of his pregnant message for the first time
+to the external world. When the author in his weird rôle of Hamlet's
+murdered father opened his lips for the first time, we might almost
+imagine that in the words "pity me not, but lend thy serious hearing
+to what I shall unfold," he was reflecting the author's personal
+interest in the proceedings of that memorable afternoon.[5] We can
+imagine Shakespeare, as he saw the audience responding to his grave
+appeal, giving with a growing confidence, the subsequent words, which
+he repeated while he moved to the centre of the platform-stage, and
+turned to face the whole house:--
+
+                           I find thee apt;
+    And duller shouldst thou be than the fat weed
+    That rots itself in ease on Lethe wharf,
+    Wouldst thou not stir in this.
+
+[Footnote 5: Performances of plays in Shakespeare's time always took
+place in the afternoon.]
+
+As the Ghost vanished and the air rang mysteriously with his piercing
+words "Remember me," we would like to imagine the whole intelligence
+of Elizabethan England responding to that cry as it sprang on its
+first utterance in the theatre from the great dramatist's own lips.
+Since that memorable day, at any rate, the whole intelligence of the
+world has responded to that cry with all Hamlet's ecstasy, and with
+but a single modification of the phraseology:--
+
+                              Remember thee!
+    Ay, thou _great soul_, while memory holds a seat
+    In this distracted globe.
+
+
+III
+
+There is a certain justification, in fact, for the fancy that the
+_plaudites_ were loud and long, when Shakespeare created the rôle of
+the "poor ghost" in the first production of his play of _Hamlet_ in
+1602. There is no doubt at all that Shakespeare conspicuously caught
+the ear of the Elizabethan playgoer at a very early date in his
+career, and that he held it firmly for life. "These plays," wrote two
+of his professional associates of the reception of the whole series in
+the playhouse in his lifetime--"These plays have had their trial
+already, and stood out all appeals." Matthew Arnold, apparently quite
+unconsciously, echoed the precise phrase when seeking to express
+poetically the universality of Shakespeare's reputation in our own
+day.
+
+    Others abide our judgment, thou art free,
+
+is the first line of Arnold's well-known sonnet, which attests the
+rank allotted to Shakespeare in the literary hierarchy by the
+professional critic, nearly two and a half centuries after the
+dramatist's death. There was no narrower qualification in the
+apostrophe of Shakespeare by Ben Jonson, a very critical
+contemporary:--
+
+                            Soul of _the age_,
+    The applause, delight, and wonder of _our stage_.
+
+This play of _Hamlet_, this play of his "which most kindled English
+hearts," received a specially enthusiastic welcome from Elizabethan
+playgoers. It was acted within its first year of production repeatedly
+("divers times"), not merely in London "and elsewhere," but also--an
+unusual distinction--at the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. It
+was reprinted four times within eight years of its birth.
+
+Thus the charge sometimes brought against the Elizabethan playgoer of
+failing to recognise Shakespeare's sovereign genius should be reckoned
+among popular errors. It was not merely the recognition of the
+critical and highly educated that Shakespeare received in person. It
+was by the voice of the half-educated populace, whose heart and
+intellect were for once in the right, that he was acclaimed the
+greatest interpreter of human nature that literature had known, and,
+as subsequent experience has proved, was likely to know. There is
+evidence that throughout his lifetime and for a generation afterwards
+his plays drew crowds to pit, boxes, and gallery alike. It is true
+that he was one of a number of popular dramatists, many of whom had
+rare gifts, and all of whom glowed with a spark of the genuine
+literary fire. But Shakespeare was the sun in the firmament: when his
+light shone, the fires of all contemporaries paled in the contemporary
+playgoer's eye. There is forcible and humorous portrayal of human
+frailty and eccentricity in plays of Shakespeare's contemporary, Ben
+Jonson. Ben Jonson was a classical scholar, which Shakespeare was not.
+Jonson was as well versed in Roman history as a college tutor. But
+when Shakespeare and Ben Jonson both tried their hands at dramatising
+episodes in Roman history, the Elizabethan public of all degrees of
+intelligence welcomed Shakespeare's efforts with an enthusiasm which
+they rigidly withheld from Ben Jonson's. This is how an ordinary
+playgoer contrasted the reception of Jonson's Roman play of
+_Catiline's Conspiracy_ with that of Shakespeare's Roman play of
+_Julius Cæsar_:--
+
+    So have I seen when Cæsar would appear,
+    And on the stage at half-sword parley were
+    Brutus and Cassius--oh! how the audience
+    Were ravished, with what wonder they went thence;
+    When some new day they would not brook a line
+    Of tedious though well-laboured Catiline.
+
+Shakespeare was the popular favourite. It is rare that the artist who
+is a hero with the multitude is also a hero with the cultivated few.
+But Shakespeare's universality of appeal was such as to include among
+his worshippers from the first the trained and the untrained playgoer
+of his time.
+
+
+IV
+
+Very early in his career did Shakespeare attract the notice of the
+cultivated section of Elizabeth's Court, and hardly sufficient notice
+has been taken by students of the poet's biography of the earliest
+recognition accorded him by the great queen, herself an inveterate
+lover of the drama, and an embodiment of the taste of the people in
+literature. The story is worth retelling. In the middle of December
+1594, Queen Elizabeth removed from Whitehall to Greenwich to spend
+Christmas at that palace of Greenwich in which she was born sixty-one
+years earlier. And she made the celebration of Christmas of 1594 more
+memorable than any other in the annals of her reign or in the literary
+history of the country by summoning Shakespeare to Court. It was less
+than eight years since the poet had first set foot in the metropolis.
+His career was little more than opened. But by 1594 Shakespeare had
+given his countrymen unmistakable indications of the stuff of which he
+was made. His progress had been more sure than rapid. A young man of
+two-and-twenty, burdened with a wife and three children, he had left
+his home in the little country town of Stratford-on-Avon in 1586 to
+seek his fortune in London. Without friends, without money, he had,
+like any other stage-struck youth, set his heart on becoming an actor
+in the metropolis. Fortune favoured him. He sought and won the humble
+office of call-boy in a London playhouse; but no sooner had his foot
+touched the lowest rung of the theatrical ladder than his genius
+taught him that the topmost rung was within his reach. He tried his
+hand on the revision of an old play, and the manager was not slow to
+recognise an unmatched gift for dramatic writing.
+
+It was not probably till 1591, when Shakespeare was twenty-seven, that
+his earliest original play, _Love's Labour's Lost_, was performed. It
+showed the hand of a beginner; it abounded in trivial witticisms. But
+above all, there shone out clearly and unmistakably the dramatic and
+poetic fire, the humorous outlook on life, the insight into human
+feeling, which were to inspire Titanic achievements in the future.
+
+Soon after, Shakespeare scaled the tragic heights of _Romeo and
+Juliet_, and he was hailed as the prophet of a new world of art.
+Fashionable London society then, as now, befriended the theatre.
+Cultivated noblemen offered their patronage to promising writers for
+the stage, and Shakespeare soon gained the ear of the young Earl of
+Southampton, one of the most accomplished and handsome of the queen's
+noble courtiers, who was said to spend nearly all his time in going
+to the playhouse every day. It was at Southampton's suggestion, that,
+in the week preceding the Christmas of 1594, the Lord Chamberlain sent
+word to The Theatre in Shoreditch, where Shakespeare was at work as
+playwright and actor, that the poet was expected at Court on two days
+following Christmas, in order to give his sovereign on the two
+evenings a taste of his quality. He was to act before her in his own
+plays.
+
+It cannot have been Shakespeare's promise as an actor that led to the
+royal summons. His histrionic fame had not progressed at the same rate
+as his literary repute. He was never to win the laurels of a great
+actor. His most conspicuous triumph on the stage was achieved in
+middle life as the Ghost in his own _Hamlet_, and he ordinarily
+confined his efforts to old men of secondary rank. Ample compensation
+was provided by his companions for his personal deficiencies as an
+actor on his first visit to Court; he was to come supported by actors
+of the highest eminence in their generation. Directions were given
+that the greatest of the tragic actors of the day, Richard Burbage,
+and the greatest of the comic actors, William Kemp, were to bear the
+young actor-dramatist company. With neither of these was Shakespeare's
+histrionic position then or at any time comparable. For years they
+were leaders of the acting profession.
+
+Shakespeare's relations with Burbage and Kemp were close, both
+privately and professionally. Almost all Shakespeare's great tragic
+characters were created on the stage by Burbage, who had lately roused
+London to enthusiasm by his stirring presentation of Shakespeare's
+_Richard III._ for the first time. As long as Kemp lived, he conferred
+a like service on many of Shakespeare's comic characters; and he had
+recently proved his worth as a Shakespearean comedian by his original
+rendering of the part of Peter, the Nurse's graceless attendant, in
+_Romeo and Juliet_. Thus stoutly backed, Shakespeare appeared for the
+first time in the royal presence-chamber of Greenwich Palace on the
+evening of St Stephen's Day (the Boxing Day of subsequent generations)
+in 1594.
+
+Extant documentary evidence attests that Shakespeare and his two
+associates performed one "comedy or interlude" on that night of Boxing
+Day in 1594, and gave another "comedy or interlude" on the next night
+but one; that the Lord Chamberlain paid the three men for their
+services the sum of £13, 6s. 8d., and that the queen added to the
+honorarium, as a personal proof of her satisfaction, the further sum
+of £6, 13s. 4d. These were substantial sums in those days, when the
+purchasing power of money was eight times as much as it is to-day, and
+the three actors' reward would now be equivalent to £160.
+
+Unhappily the record does not go beyond the payment of the money. What
+words of commendation or encouragement Shakespeare received from his
+royal auditor are not handed down, nor do we know for certain what
+plays were performed on the great occasion. All the scenes came from
+Shakespeare's repertory, and it is reasonable to infer that they were
+drawn from _Love's Labour's Lost_, which was always popular in later
+years at Elizabeth's Court, and from _The Comedy of Errors_, where the
+farcical confusions and horse-play were after the queen's own heart
+and robust taste. But nothing can be stated with absolute certainty
+except that on December 29 Shakespeare travelled up the river from
+Greenwich to London with a heavier purse and a lighter heart than on
+his setting out. That the visit had in all ways been crowned with
+success there is ample indirect evidence. He and his work had
+fascinated his sovereign, and many a time during her remaining nine
+years of life was she to seek delight again in the renderings of plays
+by himself and his fellow-actors at her palaces on the banks of the
+Thames. When Shakespeare was penning his new play of _A Midsummer
+Night's Dream_ next year, he could not forbear to make a passing
+obeisance of gallantry (in that vein for which the old spinster queen
+was always thirsting) to "a fair vestal throned by the West," who
+passed her life "in maiden meditation, fancy free."
+
+Although literature and art can flourish without royal favour and
+royal patronage, still it is rare that royal patronage has any other
+effect than that of raising those who are its objects in the
+estimation of contemporaries. The interest that Shakespeare's work
+excited at Court was continuous throughout his life. When James I.
+ascended the throne, no author was more frequently honoured by
+"command" performances of his plays in the presence of the sovereign.
+And then, as now, the playgoer's appreciation was quickened by his
+knowledge that the play they were witnessing had been produced before
+the Court at Whitehall a few days earlier. Shakespeare's publishers
+were not above advertising facts like these, as may be seen by a
+survey of the title-pages of editions published in his lifetime. "The
+pleasant conceited comedy called _Love's Labour's Lost_" was
+advertised with the appended words, "as it was presented before her
+highness this last Christmas." "A most pleasant and excellent
+conceited comedy of _Sir John Falstaff and the Merry Wives of
+Windsor_" was stated to have been "divers times acted both before her
+majesty and elsewhere." The great play of _Lear_ was advertised, "as
+it was played before the king's majesty at Whitehall on St Stephen's
+night in the Christmas holidays."
+
+
+V
+
+Although Shakespeare's illimitable command of expression, his
+universality of knowledge and insight, cannot easily be overlooked by
+any man or woman of ordinary human faculty, still, from some points of
+view, there is ground for surprise that the Elizabethan playgoer's
+enthusiasm for Shakespeare's work was so marked and unequivocal as we
+know that it was.
+
+Let us consider for a moment the physical conditions of the theatre,
+the methods of stage representation, in Shakespeare's day. Theatres
+were in their infancy. The theatre was a new institution in social
+life for Shakespeare's public, and the whole system of the theatrical
+world came into being after Shakespeare came into the world. In
+estimating Shakespeare's genius one ought to bear in mind that he was
+a pioneer--almost the creator or first designer--of English drama, as
+well as the practised workman in unmatched perfection. There were
+before his day some efforts made at dramatic representation. The
+Middle Ages had their miracle plays and moralities and interludes. But
+of poetic, literary, romantic drama, England knew nothing until
+Shakespeare was of age. Marlowe, who in his early years inaugurated
+English tragedy, was Shakespeare's senior by only two months. It was
+not till 1576, when Shakespeare was twelve, that London for the first
+time possessed a theatre--a building definitely built for the purpose
+of presenting plays. Before that year, inn-yards or platforms, which
+were improvised in market-places or fields, served for the performance
+of interludes or moralities.
+
+Nor was it precisely in London proper that this primal theatre, which
+is known in history simply as The Theatre, was set up. London in
+Shakespeare's day was a small town, barely a mile square, with a
+population little exceeding 60,000 persons. Within the circuit of the
+city-walls vacant spaces were sparse, and public opinion deprecated
+the erection of buildings upon them. Moreover, the puritan clergy and
+their pious flocks, who constituted an active section of the citizens,
+were inclined to resist the conversion of any existing building into
+such a Satanic trap for unwary souls as they believed a playhouse of
+necessity to be.
+
+It was, accordingly, in the fields near London, not in London itself,
+that the first theatre was set up. Adjoining the city lay pleasant
+meadows, which were bright in spring-time with daisies and violets.
+Green lanes conducted the wayfarer to the rural retreat of Islington,
+and citizens went for change of air to the rustic seclusion of
+Mary-le-bone. A site for the first-born of London playhouses was
+chosen in the spacious fields of Finsbury and Shoreditch, which the
+Great Eastern Railway now occupies. The innovation of a theatre, even
+though it were placed outside the walls of the city, excited serious
+misgiving among the godly minority. But, after much controversy, the
+battle was finally won by the supporters of the play, and The Theatre
+was launched on a prosperous career. Two or three other theatres
+quickly sprang up in neighbouring parts of London's environment. When
+Shakespeare was reaching the zenith of his career, the centre of
+theatrical life was transferred from Shoreditch to the Southwark bank
+of the river Thames, at the south side of London Bridge, which lay
+outside the city's boundaries, but was easy of access to residents
+within them. It was at the Globe Theatre on Bankside, which was
+reached by bridge or by boat from the city-side of the river, that
+Shakespearean drama won its most glorious triumphs.
+
+
+VI
+
+Despite the gloomy warnings of the preachers, the new London theatres
+had for the average Elizabethan all the fascination that a new toy has
+for a child. The average Elizabethan repudiated the jeremiads of the
+ultra-pious, and instantaneously became an enthusiastic playgoer.
+During the last year of the sixteenth century, an intelligent visitor
+to London, Thomas Platter, a native of Basle, whose journal has
+recently been discovered,[6] described with ingenuous sympathy the
+delight which the populace displayed in the new playhouses.
+
+[Footnote 6: Professor Binz of Basle printed in September 1899 some
+extracts from Thomas Platter's unpublished diary of travels under the
+title: _Londoner Theater und Schauspiele im Jahre 1599_. Platter spent
+a month in London--September 18 to October 20, 1599. Platter's
+manuscript is in the Library of Basle University.]
+
+Some attractions which the theatres offered had little concern with
+the drama. Their advantages included the privileges of eating and
+drinking while the play was in progress. After the play there was
+invariably a dance on the stage, often a brisk and boisterous Irish
+jig.
+
+Other features of the entertainment seem to have been less
+exhilarating. The mass of the spectators filled the pit, where there
+was standing room only; there were no seats. The admission rarely cost
+more than a penny; but there was no roof. The rain beat at pleasure on
+the heads of the "penny" auditors; while pickpockets commonly plied
+their trade among them without much hindrance when the piece absorbed
+the attention of the "house." Seats or benches were only to be found
+in the two galleries, the larger portions of which were separated into
+"rooms" or boxes; prices there ranged from twopence to half-a-crown.
+If the playgoer had plenty of money at his command he could, according
+to the German visitor, hire not only a seat but a cushion to elevate
+his stature; "so that," says our author, "he might not only see the
+play, but"--what is also often more important for rich people--"be
+seen" by the audience to be occupying a specially distinguished place.
+Fashionable playgoers of the male sex might, if they opened their
+purses wide enough, occupy stools on the wide platform-stage. Such a
+practice proved embarrassing, not only to the performers, but to those
+who had to content themselves with the penny pit. Standing in front
+and by the sides of the projecting stage, they could often only catch
+glimpses of the actors through chinks in serried ranks of stools.
+
+The histrionic and scenic conditions, in which Shakespeare's plays
+were originally produced, present a further series of disadvantages
+which, from our modern point of view, render the more amazing the
+unqualified enthusiasm of the Elizabethan playgoer.
+
+There was no scenery, although there were crude endeavours to create
+scenic illusion by means of "properties" like rocks, tombs, caves,
+trees, tables, chairs, and pasteboard dishes of food. There was at the
+outset no music, save flourishes on trumpets at the opening of the
+play and between the acts. The scenes within each act were played
+continuously without pause. The bare boards of the platform-stage,
+which no proscenium nor curtain darkened, projected so far into the
+auditorium, that the actors spoke in the very centre of the house.
+Trap-doors were in use for the entrance of "ghosts" and other
+mysterious personages. At the back of the stage was a raised platform
+or balcony, from which often hung loose curtains; through them the
+actors passed to the forepart of the stage. The balcony was pressed
+into the service when the text of the play indicated that the speakers
+were not actually standing on the same level. From the raised platform
+Juliet addressed Romeo in the balcony scene, and the citizens of
+Angers in _King John_ held colloquy with the English besiegers. This
+was, indeed, almost the furthest limit of the Elizabethan
+stage-manager's notion of scenic realism. The boards, which were bare
+save for the occasional presence of rough properties, were held to
+present adequate semblance, as the play demanded, of a king's
+throne-room, a chapel, a forest, a ship at sea, a mountainous pass, a
+market-place, a battle-field, or a churchyard.
+
+The costumes had no pretensions to fit the period or place of the
+action. They were the ordinary dresses of various classes of the day,
+but were often of rich material, and in the height of the current
+fashion. False hair and beards, crowns and sceptres, mitres and
+croziers, armour, helmets, shields, vizors, and weapons of war, hoods,
+bands, and cassocks, were mainly relied on to indicate among the
+characters differences of rank or profession.
+
+The foreign observer, Thomas Platter of Basle, was impressed by the
+splendour of the actors' costumes. He accounted for it in a manner
+that negatives any suggestion of dramatic propriety:--
+
+     "The players wear the most costly and beautiful dresses, for
+     it is the custom in England, that when noblemen or knights
+     die, they leave their finest clothes to their servants, who,
+     since it would not be fitting for them to wear such splendid
+     garments, sell them soon afterwards to the players for a
+     small sum."
+
+The most striking defect in the practice of the Elizabethan playhouse,
+according to accepted notions, lies in the allotment of the female
+rôles. It was thought unseemly for women to act at all. Female parts
+were played by boys or men--a substitution lacking, from the modern
+point of view, in grace and seemliness. But the standard of propriety
+in such matters varies from age to age. Shakespeare alludes quite
+complacently to the appearance of boys and men in women's parts. He
+makes Rosalind say, laughingly and saucily, to the men of the
+audience in the epilogue to _As You Like It_: "If I were a woman I
+would kiss as many of you as had beards that pleased me." "_If I were_
+a woman," she says. The jest lies in the fact that the speaker was not
+a woman but a boy. Similarly, Cleopatra on her downfall in _Antony and
+Cleopatra_, (V. ii. 220), laments
+
+                          the quick comedians
+    Extemporally will stage us ... and I shall see
+    Some squeaking Cleopatra _boy_ my greatness.
+
+The experiment of entrusting a boy with the part of Ophelia was lately
+tried in London not unsuccessfully; but it is difficult to realise how
+a boy or young man could adequately interpret most of Shakespeare's
+female characters. It seems almost sacrilegious to conceive the part
+of Cleopatra, the most highly sensitised in its minutest details of
+all dramatic portrayals of female character,--it seems almost
+sacrilegious to submit Cleopatra's sublimity of passion to
+interpretation by an unfledged representative of the other sex. Yet
+such solecisms were imperative under the theatrical system of the late
+sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. Men taking women's parts
+seem to have worn masks, but that can hardly have improved matters.
+Flute, when he complains that it would hardly befit him to play a
+woman's part because he had a beard coming, is bidden by his
+resourceful manager, Quince, play Thisbe in a "mask." At times actors
+who had long lost the roses of youth masqueraded in women's rôles.
+Thereby the ungainliness, which marked the distribution of the cast in
+Elizabethan and Jacobean playhouses, was often forced into stronger
+light.
+
+It was not till the seventeenth century was well advanced that women
+were permitted to act in public theatres. Then the gracelessness of
+the masculine method was acknowledged and deplored. It was the
+character of Desdemona which was first undertaken by a woman, and the
+absurdity of the old practice was noticed in the prologue written for
+this revival of _Othello_, which was made memorable by the innovation.
+Some lines in the prologue describe the earlier system thus:--
+
+    For to speak truth, men act, that are between
+    Forty or fifty, wenches of fifteen,
+    With bone so large and nerve so uncompliant,
+    When you call Desdemona, enter Giant.
+
+Profound commiseration seems due to the Elizabethan playgoer, who was
+liable to have his faith in the tenderness and gentleness of Desdemona
+rudely shaken by the irruption on the stage of a brawny,
+broad-shouldered athlete, masquerading in her sweet name. Boys or men
+of all shapes and sizes squeaking or bawling out the tender and
+pathetic lines of Shakespeare's heroines, and no joys of scenery to
+distract the playgoer from the uncouth inconsistency! At first sight
+it would seem that the Elizabethan playgoer's lot was anything but
+happy.
+
+
+VII
+
+The Elizabethan's hard fate strangely contrasts with the situation of
+the playgoer of the nineteenth or twentieth century. To the latter
+Shakespeare is presented in a dazzling plenitude of colour. Music
+punctuates not merely intervals between scenes and acts, but critical
+pauses in the speeches of the actors. Pictorial tableaux enthral the
+most callous onlooker. Very striking is the contrast offered by the
+methods of representation accepted with enthusiasm by the Elizabethan
+playgoer and those deemed essential by the fashionable modern manager.
+There seems a relish of barbarism in the ancient system when it is
+compared with the one now in vogue.
+
+I fear the final conclusion to be drawn from the contrast is, contrary
+to expectation, more creditable to our ancestors than to ourselves.
+The needful dramatic illusion was obviously evoked in the playgoer of
+the past with an ease that is unknown to the present patrons of the
+stage. The absence of scenery, the substitution of boys and men for
+women, could only have passed muster with the Elizabethan spectator
+because he was able to realise the dramatic potency of the poet's work
+without any, or any but the slightest, adventitious aid outside the
+words of the play.
+
+The Elizabethan playgoer needs no pity. It is ourselves who are
+deserving objects of compassion, because we lack those qualities, the
+possession of which enabled the Elizabethan to acknowledge in
+Shakespeare's work, despite its manner of production, "the delight and
+wonder of his stage." The imaginative faculty was far from universal
+among the Elizabethan playgoers. The playgoing mob always includes
+groundlings who delight exclusively in dumb shows and noise. Many of
+Shakespeare's contemporaries complained that there were playgoers who
+approved nothing "but puppetry and loved ridiculous antics," and that
+there were men who, going to the playhouse only "to laugh and feed
+fool-fat," "checked at all goodness there."[7] No public of any age or
+country is altogether free from such infirmities. But the reception
+accorded to Shakespeare's plays in the theatre of his day, in
+contemporary theatrical conditions, is proof-positive of a signal
+imaginative faculty in an exceptionally large proportion of the
+playgoers.
+
+[Footnote 7: Chapman's _Revenge of Bussy D'Ambois_, Act I., Sc. i.]
+
+To the Elizabethan actor a warm tribute is due. Shakespeare has
+declared with emphasis that no amount of scenery can secure genuine
+success on the stage for a great work of the imagination. He is no
+less emphatic in the value he sets on competent acting. In _Hamlet_,
+as every reader will remember, the dramatist points out the perennial
+defects of the actor, and shows how they may and must be corrected. He
+did all he could for the Elizabethan playgoer in the way of insisting
+that the art of acting must be studied seriously, and that the
+dramatist's words must reach the ears of the audience, clearly and
+intelligibly enunciated.
+
+"Speak the speech, I pray you," he tells the actor, "as I pronounce it
+to you, trippingly on the tongue; but if you mouth it, as many of your
+players do, I had as lief the town-crier spoke my lines. Nor do not
+saw the air too much with your hand, thus; but use all gently: for in
+the very torrent, tempest, and--as I may say--whirlwind of passion,
+you must acquire and beget a temperance, that may give it smoothness.
+
+"Be not too tame neither, but let your own discretion be your tutor:
+suit the action to the word, the word to the action; with this special
+observance, that you o'erstep not the modesty of nature. O! there be
+players that I have seen play, and heard others praise, and that
+highly, not to speak it profanely, that, neither having the accent of
+Christians nor the gait of Christian, pagan, nor man, have so strutted
+and bellowed that I have thought some of nature's journeymen had made
+men and not made them well, they imitated humanity so abominably."
+
+The player amiably responds: "I hope we have reformed that
+indifferently with us." Shakespeare in the person of Hamlet retorts in
+a tone of some impatience: "O! reform it altogether. And let those
+that play your clowns speak no more than is set down for them." The
+applause which welcomed Shakespeare's masterpieces on their first
+representation is adequate evidence that the leading Elizabethan
+actors in the main obeyed these instructions.
+
+
+VIII
+
+Nevertheless the final success of a great imaginative play on the
+stage does not depend entirely on the competence of the actor.
+Encircling and determining all conditions is the fitness of the
+audience. A great imaginative play well acted will not achieve genuine
+success unless the audience has at command sufficient imaginative
+power to induce in them an active sympathy with the efforts, not only
+of the actor, but of the dramatist.
+
+It is not merely in the first chorus to _Henry V._ that Shakespeare
+has declared his conviction that the creation of the needful dramatic
+illusion is finally due to exercise of the imagination on the part of
+the audience.[8] Theseus, in _A Midsummer Night's Dream_, in the
+capacity of a spectator of a play which is rendered by indifferent
+actors, makes a somewhat depreciatory reflection on the character of
+acting, whatever its degree or capacity. But the value of Theseus's
+deliverance lies in its clear definition of the part which the
+audience has to play, if it do its duty by great drama.
+
+[Footnote 8: See pp. 20-1, _supra_.]
+
+"The best in this kind," says Theseus of actors, "are but shadows, and
+the worst are no worse, _if imagination amend them_." To which
+Hippolyta, less tolerant than Theseus of the incapacity of the players
+to whom she is listening, tartly retorts: "It must be your imagination
+(_i.e._, the spectator's), then, and not theirs (_i.e._, the
+actors')."
+
+These sentences mean that at its very best acting is but a shadow or
+simulation of life, and that acting at its very worst is likewise a
+shadow or simulation. But the imagination of the audience is supreme
+controller of the theatre, and can, if it be of adequate intensity,
+even cause inferior acting to yield effects hardly distinguishable
+from those of the best.
+
+It would be unwise to press Theseus's words to extreme limits. All
+that it behoves us to deduce from them is the unimpeachable principle
+that the success of the romantic drama on the stage depends not merely
+on the actor's gift of imagination, but to an even larger extent on
+the possession by the audience of a similar faculty. Good acting is
+needful. Scenery in moderation will aid the dramatic illusion,
+although excess of scenery or scenic machinery may destroy it
+altogether. Dramatic illusion must ultimately spring from the active
+and unrestricted exercise of the imaginative faculty by author,
+actor, and audience in joint-partnership.
+
+What is the moral to be deduced from any examination of the
+Elizabethan playgoer's attitude to Shakespeare's plays? It is
+something of this kind. We must emulate our ancestors' command of the
+imagination. We must seek to enlarge our imaginative sympathy with
+Shakespeare's poetry. The imaginative faculty will not come to us at
+our call; it will not come to us by the mechanism of study; it may not
+come to us at all. It is easier to point out the things that will
+hinder than the things that will hasten its approach. Absorption in
+the material needs of life, the concentration of energy on the
+increase of worldly goods, leave little room for the entrance into the
+brain of the imaginative faculty, or for its free play when it is
+there. The best way of seeking it is by reading the greatest of great
+imaginative literature, by freely yielding the mind to its influence,
+and by exercising the mind under its sway. And the greatest
+imaginative literature that was ever penned was penned by Shakespeare.
+No counsel is wiser than that of those two personal friends of his,
+who were the first editors of his work, and penned words to this
+effect: "Read him therefore, and again and again, and then if you do
+not like him, surely you are in some manifest danger" of losing a
+saving grace of life.
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+SHAKESPEARE IN ORAL TRADITION[9]
+
+[Footnote 9: This paper was first printed in _The Nineteenth Century
+and After_, February 1902.]
+
+
+I
+
+Biographers did not lie in wait for men of eminence on their
+death-beds in Shakespeare's epoch. To the advantage of literature, and
+to the less than might be anticipated disadvantage of history (for
+your death-bed biographer, writing under kinsfolk's tear-laden eyes,
+must needs be smoother-tongued than truthful), the place of the modern
+memoir-writer was filled in Shakespeare's day by friendly poets, who
+were usually alert to pay fit homage in elegiac verse to a dead hero's
+achievements. In that regard, Shakespeare's poetic friends showed at
+his death exceptional energy. During his lifetime men of letters had
+bestowed on his "reigning wit," on his kingly supremacy of genius,
+most generous stores of eulogy. Within two years of the end a
+sonneteer had justly deplored that something of Shakespeare's own
+power, to which he deprecated pretension, was needful to those who
+should praise him aright. But when Shakespeare lay dead in the spring
+of 1616, when, as one of his admirers technically phrased it, he had
+withdrawn from the stage of the world to the "tiring-house" or
+dressing-room of the grave, the flood of panegyrical lamentation was
+not checked by the sense of literary inferiority which in all
+sincerity oppressed the spirits of surviving companions.
+
+One of the earliest of the elegies was a sonnet by William Basse, who
+gave picturesque expression to the conviction that Shakespeare would
+enjoy for all time an unique reverence on the part of his countrymen.
+In the opening lines of his poem Basse apostrophised Chaucer, Spenser,
+and the dramatist Francis Beaumont, three poets who had already
+received the recognition of burial in Westminster Abbey--Beaumont, the
+youngest of them, only five weeks before Shakespeare died. To this
+honoured trio Basse made appeal to "lie a thought more nigh" one
+another, so as to make room for the newly-dead Shakespeare within
+their "sacred sepulchre." Then, in the second half of his sonnet, the
+poet, developing a new thought, argued that Shakespeare, in right of
+his pre-eminence, merited a burial-place apart from all his fellows.
+With a glance at Shakespeare's distant grave in the chancel of
+Stratford-on-Avon Church, the writer exclaimed:--
+
+    Under this carved marble of thine own
+    Sleep, brave tragedian, Shakespeare, sleep _alone_.
+
+The fine sentiment found many a splendid echo. It resounded in Ben
+Jonson's lines of 1623:--
+
+    My Shakespeare, rise! I will not lodge thee by
+    Chaucer, or Spenser, or bid Beaumont lie
+    A little further to make thee a room.
+    Thou art a monument without a tomb,
+    And art alive still, while thy book doth live
+    And we have wits to read and praise to give.
+
+Milton wrote a few years later, in 1630, how Shakespeare, "sepulchred"
+in "the monument" of his writings,
+
+                   in such pomp doth lie,
+    That kings for such a tomb would wish to die.
+
+Never was a glorious immortality foretold for any man with more solemn
+confidence than it was foretold for Shakespeare at his death by his
+circle of adorers. When Time, one elegist said, should dissolve his
+"Stratford monument," the laurel about Shakespeare's brow would wear
+its greenest hue. Shakespeare's critical friend, Ben Jonson, was but
+one of a numerous band who imagined the "sweet swan of Avon," "the
+star of poets," shining for ever as a constellation in the firmament.
+Such was the invariable temper in which literary men gave vent to
+their grief on learning the death of the "beloved author," "the famous
+scenicke poet," "the admirable dramaticke poet," "that famous writer
+and actor," "worthy master William Shakespeare" of Stratford-on-Avon.
+
+
+II
+
+Unqualified and sincere was the eulogy awarded to Shakespeare, alike
+in his lifetime and immediately after his death. But the spirit and
+custom of the age confided to future generations the duty of first
+offering him the more formal honour of prosaic and critical biography.
+The biographic memoir, which consists of precise and duly
+authenticated dates and records of domestic and professional
+experiences and achievements, was in England a comparatively late
+growth. It had no existence when Shakespeare died. It began to blossom
+in the eighteenth century, and did not flourish luxuriantly till a far
+more recent period. Meagre seeds of the modern art of biography were,
+indeed, sown within a few years of Shakespeare's death; but outside
+the unique little field of Izaak Walton's tillage, the first
+sproutings were plants so different from the fully developed tree,
+that they can with difficulty be identified with the genus. Apart from
+Izaak Walton's exceptional efforts, the biographical spirit first
+betrayed itself in England in slender, occasional pamphlets of
+rhapsodical froth, after the model of the funeral sermon. There
+quickly followed more substantial volumes of collective biography,
+which mainly supplied arbitrarily compiled, if extended, catalogues of
+names. To each name were attached brief annotations, which
+occasionally offered a fact or a date, but commonly consisted of a few
+sentences of grotesque, uncritical eulogy.
+
+Fuller's _Worthies of England_, which was begun about 1643 and was
+published posthumously in 1662, was the first English compendium of
+biography of this aboriginal pattern. Shakespeare naturally found
+place in Fuller's merry pages, for the author loved in his eccentric
+fashion his country's literature, and he had sought the society of
+those who had come to close quarters with literary heroes of the past
+generation. Of that generation his own life just touched the fringe,
+he being eight years old when Shakespeare died. Fuller described the
+dramatist as a native of Stratford-on-Avon, who "was in some sort a
+compound of three eminent poets"--Martial, "in the warlike sound of
+his name"; Ovid, for the naturalness and wit of his poetry; and
+Plautus, alike for the extent of his comic power and his lack of
+scholarly training. He was, Fuller continued, an eminent instance of
+the rule that a poet is born not made. "Though his genius," he warns
+us, "generally was jocular and inclining him to festivity, yet he
+could, when so disposed, be solemn and serious." His comedies, Fuller
+adds, would rouse laughter even in the weeping philosopher Heraclitus,
+while his tragedies would bring tears even to the eyes of the laughing
+philosopher Democritus.
+
+Of positive statements respecting Shakespeare's career Fuller is
+economical. He commits himself to nothing more than may be gleaned
+from the following sentences:--
+
+     Many were the wit-combats betwixt him and Ben Jonson; which
+     two I behold like a Spanish great galleon and an English
+     man-of-war: master Jonson (like the former) was built far
+     higher in learning; solid, but slow, in his performances.
+     Shakespeare, with the English man-of-war, lesser in bulk,
+     but lighter in sailing, could turn with all tides, tack
+     about, and take advantage of all winds, by the quickness of
+     his wit and invention. He died _Anno Domini_ 1616, and was
+     buried at Stratford-upon-Avon, the town of his nativity.
+
+Fuller's successors did their work better in some regards, because
+they laboured in narrower fields. Many of them showed a welcome
+appreciation of a main source of their country's permanent reputation
+by confining their energies to the production of biographical
+catalogues, not of all manners of heroes, but solely of those who had
+distinguished themselves in poetry and the drama.[10] In 1675 a
+biographical catalogue of poets was issued for the first time in
+England, and the example once set was quickly followed. No less than
+three more efforts of the like kind came to fruition before the end of
+the century.
+
+[Footnote 10: Such a compilation had been contemplated in 1614, two
+years before the dramatist died, by one of Shakespeare's own
+associates, Thomas Heywood. Twenty-one years later, in 1635, Heywood
+spoke of "committing to the public view" his summary _Lives of the
+Poets_, but nothing more was heard of that project.]
+
+In all four biographical manuals Shakespeare was accorded more or less
+imposing space. Although Fuller's eccentric compliments were usually
+repeated, they were mingled with far more extended and discriminating
+tributes. Two of the compilers designated Shakespeare "the glory of
+the English stage"; a third wrote, "I esteem his plays beyond any that
+have ever been published in our language"; while the fourth quoted
+with approval Dryden's fine phrase: "Shakespeare was the Man who of
+all Modern and perhaps Ancient Poets had the largest and most
+comprehensive Soul." But the avowed principles of these tantalising
+volumes justify no expectation of finding in them solid information.
+The biographical cataloguers of the seventeenth century did little
+more than proclaim Shakespeare and the other great poets of the
+country to be fit subjects for formal biography as soon as the type
+should be matured. That was the message of greatest virtue which these
+halting chroniclers delivered.
+
+In Shakespeare's case their message was not long neglected. In 1709
+Nicholas Rowe, afterwards George the First's poet laureate, published
+the first professed biography of the poet. The eminence of the
+subject justified such alacrity, and it had no precise parallel. More
+or less definite lives of a few of Shakespeare's great literary
+contemporaries followed his biography at long intervals. But the whole
+field has never been occupied by the professed biographer. In some
+cases the delay has meant loss of opportunity for ever. Very many
+distinguished Elizabethan and Jacobean authors have shared the fate of
+John Webster, next to Shakespeare the most eminent tragic dramatist of
+the era, of whom no biography was ever attempted, and no positive
+biographic fact survives.
+
+But this is an imperfect statement of the advantages which
+Shakespeare's career enjoyed above that of his fellows from the
+commemorative point of view. Although formal biography did not lay
+hand on his name for nearly a century after his death, the authentic
+tradition of his life and work began steadily to crystallise in the
+minds and mouths of men almost as soon as he drew his last breath.
+Fuller's characteristically shadowy hint of "wit-combats betwixt
+Shakespeare and Ben Jonson" and of the contrasted characters of the
+two combatants, suggests pretty convincingly that Shakespeare's name
+presented to the seventeenth-century imagination and tongue a better
+defined personality and experience than the embryonic biographer knew
+how to disclose. The commemorative instinct never seeks satisfaction
+in biographic effort exclusively, even when the art of biography has
+ripened into satisfying fulness. A great man's reputation and the
+moving incidents of his career never live solely in the printed book
+or the literary word. In a great man's lifetime, and for many years
+after, his fame and his fortunes live most effectually on living lips.
+The talk of surviving kinsmen, fellow-craftsmen, admiring
+acquaintances, and sympathetic friends is the treasure-house which
+best preserves the personality of the dead hero for those who come
+soon after him. When biography is unpractised, no other treasure-house
+is available.
+
+The report of such converse moves quickly from mouth to mouth. In its
+progress the narration naturally grows fainter, and, when no
+biographer lies in wait for it, ultimately perishes altogether. But
+oral tradition respecting a great man whose work has fascinated the
+imagination of his countrymen comes into circulation early, persists
+long, even in the absence of biography, and safeguards substantial
+elements of truth through many generations. Although no biographer put
+in an appearance, it is seldom that some fragment of oral tradition
+respecting a departed hero is not committed to paper by one or other
+amateur gossip who comes within earshot of it early in its career. The
+casual unsifted record of floating anecdote is not always above
+suspicion. As a rule it is embodied in familiar correspondence, or in
+diaries, or in commonplace books, where clear and definite language is
+rarely met with; but, however disappointingly imperfect and trivial,
+however disjointed, however deficient in literary form the registered
+jottings of oral tradition may be, it is in them, if they exist at all
+with any title to credit, that future ages best realise the fact that
+the great man was in plain truth a living entity, and no mere shadow
+of a name.
+
+
+III
+
+When Shakespeare died, on the 23rd of April, 1616, many men and women
+were alive who had come into personal association with him, and there
+were many more who had heard of him from those who had spoken with
+him. Apart from his numerous kinsfolk and neighbours at
+Stratford-on-Avon, there was in London a large society of
+fellow-authors and fellow-actors with whom he lived in close
+communion. Very little correspondence or other intimate memorials,
+whether of Shakespeare's professional friends or of his kinsfolk or
+country neighbours, survive. Nevertheless some scraps of the talk
+about Shakespeare that circulated among his acquaintances or was
+handed on by them to the next generation has been tracked to written
+paper of the seventeenth century and to printed books. A portion of
+these scattered memorabilia of the earliest known oral traditions
+respecting Shakespeare has come to light very recently; other portions
+have been long accessible. As a connected whole they have never been
+narrowly scrutinised, and I believe it may serve a useful purpose to
+consider with some minuteness how the mass of them came into being,
+and what is the sum of information they conserve.
+
+The more closely Shakespeare's career is studied the plainer it
+becomes that his experiences and fortunes were identical with those of
+all who followed in his day his profession of dramatist, and that his
+conscious aims and ambitions and practices were those of every
+contemporary man of letters. The difference between the results of his
+endeavours and those of his fellows was due to the magical and
+involuntary working of genius, which, since the birth of poetry, has
+exercised "as large a charter as the wind, to blow on whom it
+pleases." Speculation or debate as to why genius bestowed its fullest
+inspiration on Shakespeare is no less futile than speculation or
+debate as to why he was born into the world with a head on his
+shoulders instead of a block of stone. It is enough for wise men to
+know the obvious fact that genius endowed Shakespeare with its richest
+gifts, and a very small acquaintance with the literary history of the
+world and with the manner in which genius habitually plays its part
+there, will show the folly of cherishing astonishment that
+Shakespeare, rather than one more nobly born or more academically
+trained, should have been chosen for the glorious dignity. Nowhere is
+this lesson more convincingly taught than by a systematic survey of
+the oral tradition. Shakespeare figures there as a supremely favoured
+heir of genius, whose humility of birth and education merely serves to
+intensify the respect due to his achievement.
+
+In London, where Shakespeare's work was mainly done and his fortune
+and reputation achieved, he lived with none in more intimate social
+relations than with the leading members of his own prosperous company
+of actors, which, under the patronage of the king, produced his
+greatest plays. Like himself, most of his colleagues were men of
+substance, sharers with him in the two most fashionable theatres of
+the metropolis, occupiers of residences in both town and country,
+owners of houses and lands, and bearers of coat-armour of that
+questionable validity which commonly attaches to the heraldry of the
+_nouveaux riches_. Two of these affluent associates predeceased
+Shakespeare; and one of them, Augustine Phillips, attested his
+friendship in a small legacy. Three of Shakespeare's fellow-actors
+were affectionately remembered by him in his will, and a fourth, one
+of the youngest members of the company, proved his regard for
+Shakespeare's memory by taking, a generation after the dramatist's
+death, Charles Hart, Shakespeare's grand-nephew, into his employ as a
+"boy" or apprentice. Grand-nephew Charles went forth on a prosperous
+career, in which at its height he was seriously likened to his
+grand-uncle's most distinguished actor-ally, Richard Burbage. Above
+all is it to be borne in mind that to the disinterested admiration for
+his genius of two fellow-members of Shakespeare's company we owe the
+preservation and publication of the greater part of his literary work.
+The personal fascination of "so worthy a friend and fellow as was our
+Shakespeare" bred in all his fellow-workers an affectionate pride in
+their intimacy.
+
+Such men were the parents of the greater part of the surviving oral
+tradition of Shakespeare, and no better parentage could be wished for.
+To the first accessible traditions of proved oral currency after
+Shakespeare's death, the two fellow-actors who called the great First
+Folio into existence pledged their credit in writing only seven years
+after his death. They printed in the preliminary pages of that volume
+these three statements of common fame, viz., that to Shakespeare and
+his plays in his lifetime was invariably extended the fullest favour
+of the court and its leading officers; that death deprived him of the
+opportunity he had long contemplated of preparing his literary work
+for the press; and that he wrote with so rapidly flowing a pen that
+his manuscript was never defaced by alteration or erasure.
+Shakespeare's extraordinary rapidity of composition was an especially
+frequent topic of contemporary debate. Ben Jonson, the most intimate
+personal friend of Shakespeare outside the circle of working actors,
+wrote how "the players" would "often mention" to him the poet's
+fluency, and how he was in the habit of arguing that Shakespeare's
+work would have been the better had he devoted more time to its
+correction. The players, Ben Jonson adds, were wont to grumble that
+such a remark was "malevolent," and he delighted in seeking to
+vindicate it to them on what seemed to him to be just critical
+grounds.
+
+The copious deliverances of Jonson in the tavern-parliaments of the
+London wits, which were in almost continuous session during the first
+four decades of the seventeenth century, set flowing much other oral
+tradition of Shakespeare, whom Jonson said he loved and whose memory
+he honoured "on this side idolatry as much as any." One of Jonson's
+remarks which seems to have lived longest on the lips of
+contemporaries was that Shakespeare "was indeed honest and [like his
+own Othello] of an open and free nature,[11] had an excellent
+phantasy, brave notions and gentle expressions, wherein he flowed with
+that facility that sometimes it was necessary he should be stopped."
+
+[Footnote 11: Iago says of Othello, in _Othello_ I., iii. 405: "The
+Moor is _of a free and open nature_."]
+
+To the same category of oral tradition belongs the further piece which
+Fuller enshrined in his slender biography with regard to Shakespeare's
+alert skirmishes with Ben Jonson in dialectical battle. Jonson's
+dialectical skill was for a long period undisputed, and for gossip to
+credit Shakespeare with victory in such conflict was to pay his
+memory even more enviable honour than Jonson paid it in his own
+_obiter dicta_.
+
+There is yet an additional scrap of oral tradition which, reduced to
+writing about the time that Fuller was at work, confirms Shakespeare's
+reputation for quickness of wit in everyday life, especially in
+intercourse with the critical giant Jonson. Dr Donne, the Jacobean
+poet and dean of St Paul's, told, apparently on Jonson's authority,
+the story that Shakespeare, having consented to act as godfather to
+one of Jonson's sons, solemnly promised to give the child a dozen good
+"_Latin_ spoons" for the father to "translate." _Latin_ was a play
+upon the word "latten," which was the name of a metal resembling
+brass. The simple quip was a good-humoured hit at Jonson's pride in
+his classical learning. Dr Donne related the anecdote to Sir Nicholas
+L'Estrange, a country gentleman of literary tastes, who had no
+interest in Shakespeare except from the literary point of view. He
+entered it in his commonplace book within thirty years of
+Shakespeare's death.
+
+
+IV
+
+Of the twenty-five actors who are enumerated in a preliminary page of
+the great First Folio, as filling in Shakespeare's lifetime chief
+rôles in his plays, few survived him long. All of them came in
+personal contact with him; several of them constantly appeared with
+him on the stage from early days.
+
+The two who were longest lived, John Lowin and Joseph Taylor, came at
+length to bear a great weight of years. They were both Shakespeare's
+juniors, Lowin by twelve years, and Taylor by twenty; but both
+established their reputation before middle age. Lowin at twenty-seven
+took part with Shakespeare in the first representation of Ben Jonson's
+_Sejanus_ in 1603. He was an early, if not the first, interpreter of
+the character of Falstaff. Taylor as understudy to the great actor
+Burbage, a very close ally of Shakespeare, seems to have achieved some
+success in the part of Hamlet, and to have been applauded in the rôle
+of Iago, while the dramatist yet lived. When the dramatist died, Lowin
+was forty, and Taylor over thirty.
+
+Subsequently, as their senior colleagues one by one passed from the
+world, these two actors assumed first rank in their company, and
+before the ruin in which the Civil War involved all theatrical
+enterprise, they were acknowledged to stand at the head of their
+profession.[12] Taylor lived through the Commonwealth, and Lowin far
+into the reign of Charles the Second, ultimately reaching his
+ninety-third year. Their last days were passed in indigence, and Lowin
+when an octogenarian was reduced to keeping the inn of the "Three
+Pigeons," at Brentford.
+
+[Footnote 12: Like almost all their colleagues, they had much literary
+taste. When public events compulsorily retired them from the stage,
+they, with the aid of the dramatist Shirley and eight other actors,
+two of whom were members with them of Shakespeare's old company, did
+an important service to English literature. In 1647 they collected for
+first publication in folio Beaumont and Fletcher's plays; only one,
+_The Wild Goose Chase_, was omitted, and that piece Taylor and Lowin
+brought out by their unaided efforts five years later.]
+
+Both these men kept alive from personal knowledge some oral
+Shakespearean tradition during the fifty years and more that followed
+his death. Little of their gossip is extant. But some of it was put
+on record, before the end of the century, by John Downes, the old
+prompter and librarian of a chief London theatre. According to
+Downes's testimony, Taylor repeated instructions which he had received
+from Shakespeare's own lips for the playing of the part of Hamlet,
+while Lowin narrated how Shakespeare taught him the theatrical
+interpretation of the character of Henry the Eighth, in that play of
+the name which came from the joint pens of Shakespeare and Fletcher.
+
+Both Taylor's and Lowin's reminiscences were passed on to Thomas
+Betterton, the greatest actor of the Restoration, and the most
+influential figure in the theatrical life of his day. Through him they
+were permanently incorporated in the verbal stage-lore of the country.
+No doubt is possible of the validity of this piece of oral tradition,
+which reveals Shakespeare in the act of personally supervising the
+production of his own plays, and springs from the mouths of those who
+personally benefited by the dramatist's activity.
+
+Taylor and Lowin were probably the last actors to speak of Shakespeare
+from personal knowledge. But hardly less deserving of attention are
+scraps of gossip about Shakespeare which survive in writing on the
+authority of some of Taylor's and Lowin's actor-contemporaries. These
+men were never themselves in personal relations with Shakespeare, but
+knew many formerly in direct relation with him. Probably the
+seventeenth century actor with the most richly stored memory of the
+oral Shakespearean tradition was William Beeston, to whose house in
+Hog Lane, Shoreditch, the curious often resorted in Charles the
+Second's time to listen to his reminiscences of Shakespeare and of
+the poets of Shakespeare's epoch.
+
+Beeston died after a busy theatrical life, at eighty or upwards, in
+1682. He belonged to a family of distinguished actors or
+actor-managers. His father, brothers, and son were all, like himself,
+prominent in the profession, and some of them were almost as
+long-lived as himself. His own career combined with that of his father
+covered more than a century, and both sedulously and with pride
+cultivated intimacy with contemporary dramatic authors.
+
+It was probably William Beeston's grandfather, also William Beeston,
+to whom the satirical Elizabethan, Thomas Nash, dedicated in 1593,
+with good-humoured irony, one of his insolent libels on Gabriel
+Harvey, a scholar who had defamed the memory of a dead friend. Nash
+laughed at his patron's struggles with syntax in his efforts to write
+poetry, and at his indulgence in drink, which betrayed itself in his
+red nose. But, in spite of Nash's characteristic frankness, he greeted
+the first William Beeston as a boon companion who was generous in his
+entertainment of threadbare scholars. Christopher Beeston, this man's
+son, the father of the Shakespearean gossip, had in abundance the
+hereditary taste for letters. He was at one time Shakespeare's
+associate on the stage. Both took part together in the first
+representation of Ben Jonson's _Every Man in His Humour_, in 1598. His
+name was again linked with Shakespeare's in the will of their
+fellow-actor, Augustine Phillips, who left each of them a legacy as a
+token of friendship at his death in 1605. Christopher Beeston left
+Shakespeare's company of actors for another theatre early in his
+career, and his closest friend among the actor-authors of his day in
+later life was not Shakespeare himself but Thomas Heywood, the popular
+dramatist and pamphleteer, who lived on to 1650. This was a friendship
+which kept Beeston's respect for Shakespeare at a fitting pitch.
+Heywood, who wrote the affectionate lines:
+
+    Mellifluous Shakespeare, whose inchanting Quill
+    Commanded Mirth or Passion, was but _Will_,
+
+enjoys the distinction of having published in Shakespeare's lifetime
+the only expression of resentment that is known to have come from the
+dramatist's proverbially "gentle lips." Shakespeare (Heywood wrote)
+"was much offended" with an unprincipled publisher who "presumed to
+make so bold with his name" as to put it to a book of which he was not
+the author. And Beeston had direct concern with the volume called _An
+Apology for Actors_, to which Heywood appended his report of these
+words of Shakespeare. To the book the actor, Beeston, contributed
+preliminary verses addressed to the author, his "good friend and
+fellow, Thomas Heywood." There Beeston briefly vindicated the
+recreation which the playhouse offered the public. Much else in
+Christopher Beeston's professional career is known, but it is
+sufficient to mention here that he died in 1637, while he was filling
+the post that he had long held, of manager to the King and Queen's
+Company of Players at the Cockpit Theatre in Drury Lane. It was the
+chief playhouse of the time, and his wife was lessee of it.
+
+Christopher's son, William Beeston the second, was his father's
+coadjutor at Drury Lane, and succeeded him in his high managerial
+office there. The son encountered difficulties with the Government
+through an alleged insult to the King in one of the pieces that he
+produced, and he had to retire from the Cockpit to a smaller theatre
+in Salisbury Court. Until his death he retained the respect of the
+play-going and the literature-loving public, and his son George, whom
+he brought up to the stage, carried on the family repute to a later
+generation.
+
+William Beeston had no liking for dissolute society, and the open vice
+of Charles the Second's Court pained him. He lived in old age much in
+seclusion, but by a congenial circle he was always warmly welcomed for
+the freshness and enthusiasm of his talk about the poets who
+flourished in his youth. "Divers times (in my hearing)," one of his
+auditors, Francis Kirkman, an ardent collector, reader, and publisher
+of old plays, wrote to him in 1652--"Divers times (in my hearing), to
+the admiration of the whole company you have most judiciously
+discoursed of Poesie." In the judgment of Kirkman, his friend, the old
+actor, was "the happiest interpreter and judg of our English
+stage-Playes this Nation ever produced; which the Poets and Actors
+these times cannot (without ingratitude) deny; for I have heard the
+chief, and most ingenious of them, acknowledg their Fames and Profits
+essentially sprung from your instructions, judgment, and fancy." Few
+who heard Beeston talk failed, Kirkman continues, to subscribe "to his
+opinion that no Nation could glory in such Playes" as those that came
+from the pens of the great Elizabethans, Shakespeare, Fletcher, and
+Ben Jonson. "Glorious John Dryden" shared in the general enthusiasm
+for the veteran Beeston, and bestowed on him the title of "the
+chronicle of the stage"; while John Aubrey, the honest antiquary and
+gossip, who had in his disorderly brain the makings of a Boswell,
+sought Beeston's personal acquaintance about 1660, in order to "take
+from him the lives of the old English Poets."
+
+It is Aubrey who has recorded most of such sparse fragments of
+Beeston's talk as survive--how Edmund "Spenser was a little man, wore
+short hair, little bands, and short cuffs," and how Sir John Suckling
+came to invent the game of cribbage. Naturally, of Shakespeare Beeston
+has much to relate. In the shrewd old gossip's language, he "did act
+exceedingly well," far better than Jonson; "he understood Latin pretty
+well, for he had been in his younger years a schoolmaster in the
+country;" "he was a handsome, well-shaped man, very good company, and
+of a very ready and pleasant smooth wit;" he and Ben Jonson gathered
+"humours of men daily wherever they came." The ample testimony to the
+excellent influence which Beeston exercised over "the poets and actors
+of these times" leaves little doubt that Sir William D'Avenant,
+Beeston's successor as manager at Drury Lane, and Thomas Shadwell, the
+fashionable writer of comedies, largely echoed their old mentor's
+words when, in conversation with Aubrey, they credited Shakespeare
+with "a most prodigious wit," and declared that they "did admire his
+natural parts beyond all other dramatical writers."[13]
+
+[Footnote 13: Aubrey's _Lives_, being reports of his miscellaneous
+gossip, were first fully printed from his manuscripts in the Bodleian
+Library by the Clarendon Press in 1898. They were most carefully
+edited by the Rev. Andrew Clark.]
+
+John Lacy, another actor of Beeston's generation, who made an immense
+reputation on the stage and was also a successful writer of farces,
+was one of Beeston's closest friends, and, having been personally
+acquainted with Ben Jonson, could lend to many of Beeston's stories
+useful corroborative testimony. With Lacy, too, the gossip Aubrey
+conversed of Shakespeare's career.
+
+At the same time, the popularity of Shakespeare's grand-nephew,
+Charles Hart, who was called the Burbage of his day, whetted among
+actors the appetite for Shakespearean tradition, especially of the
+theatrical kind. Hart had no direct acquaintance with his great
+kinsman, who died fully ten years before he was born, while his
+father, who was sixteen at Shakespeare's death, died in his son's
+boyhood. But Hart's grandmother, the poet's sister, lived till he was
+twenty-one, and Richard Robinson, the fellow-member of Shakespeare's
+company who first taught Hart to act, survived his pupil's
+adolescence. That Hart did what he could to satisfy the curiosity of
+his companions there is a precise oral tradition to confirm. According
+to the story, first put on record in the eighteenth century by the
+painstaking antiquary, William Oldys, it was through Hart that some
+actors made, near the date of the Restoration, the exciting discovery
+that Gilbert, one of Shakespeare's brothers, who was the dramatist's
+junior by only two years, was still living at a patriarchal age. Oldys
+describes the concern with which Hart's professional acquaintances
+questioned the old man about his brother, and their disappointment
+when his failing memory only enabled him to recall William's
+performance of the part of Adam in his comedy of _As You Like It_.
+
+It should be added that Oldys obtained his information of the episode,
+which deserves more attention than it has received, from an actor of
+a comparatively recent generation, John Bowman, who died over eighty
+in 1739, after spending "more than half an age on the London
+theatres."
+
+
+V
+
+Valuable as these actors' testimonies are, it is in another rank of
+the profession that we find the most important link in the chain of
+witnesses alike to the persistence and authenticity of the oral
+tradition of Shakespeare which was current in the middle of the
+seventeenth century. Sir William D'Avenant, the chief playwright and
+promoter of theatrical enterprise of his day, enjoyed among persons of
+influence and quality infinite credit and confidence. As a boy he and
+his brothers had come into personal relations with the dramatist under
+their father's roof, and the experience remained the proudest boast of
+their lives. D'Avenant was little more than ten when Shakespeare died,
+and his direct intercourse with him was consequently slender; but
+D'Avenant was a child of the Muses, and his slight acquaintance with
+the living Shakespeare spurred him to treasure all that he could learn
+of his hero from any who had enjoyed fuller opportunities of intimacy.
+
+To learn the manner in which the child D'Avenant and his brothers came
+to know Shakespeare is to approach the dramatist through oral tradition
+at very close quarters. D'Avenant's father, a melancholy person who
+was never known to laugh, long kept at Oxford the Crown Inn in Carfax.
+Gossip which was current in Oxford throughout the seventeenth century,
+and was put on record before the end of it by more than one scholar of
+the university, establishes the fact that Shakespeare on his annual
+journeys between London and Stratford-on-Avon was in the habit of
+staying at the elder D'Avenant's Oxford hostelry. The report ran that
+"he was exceedingly respected" in the house, and was freely admitted
+to the inn-keeper's domestic circle. The inn-keeper's wife was
+credited with a mercurial disposition which contrasted strangely with
+her husband's sardonic temperament; it was often said in Oxford that
+Shakespeare not merely found his chief attraction at the Crown Inn in
+the wife's witty conversation, but formed a closer intimacy with her
+than moralists would approve. Oral tradition speaks in clearer tones
+of his delight in the children of the family--four boys and three
+girls. We have at command statements on that subject from the lips of
+two of the sons. The eldest son, Robert, who was afterwards a parson
+in Wiltshire, and was on familiar terms with many men of culture,
+often recalled with pride for their benefit that "Mr William
+Shakespeare" had given him as a child "a hundred kisses" in his
+father's tavern-parlour.
+
+The third son, William, was more expansive in his reminiscences. It
+was generally understood at Oxford in the early years of the
+seventeenth century that he was the poet's godson, as his Christian
+name would allow, but some gossips had it that the poet's paternity
+was of a less spiritual character. According to a genuine anecdote of
+contemporary origin, when the boy, William D'Avenant, in Shakespeare's
+lifetime, informed a doctor of the university that he was on his way
+to ask a blessing of his godfather who had just arrived in the town,
+the child was warned by his interlocutor against taking the name of
+God in vain. It is proof of the estimation in which D'Avenant held
+Shakespeare that when he came to man's estate he was "content enough
+to have" the insinuation "thought to be true." He would talk freely
+with his friends over a glass of wine of Shakespeare's visits to his
+father's house, and would say "that it seemed to him that he wrote
+with Shakespeare's very spirit." Of his reverence for Shakespeare he
+gave less questionable proof in a youthful elegy in which he
+represented the flowers and trees on the banks of the Avon mourning
+for Shakespeare's death and the river weeping itself away. He was
+credited, too, with having adopted the new spelling of his name
+D'_Aven_ant (for Davenant), so as to read into it a reference to the
+river Avon.
+
+In maturer age D'Avenant sought out the old actors Taylor and Lowin,
+and mastered their information respecting Shakespeare, their early
+colleague on the stage. With a curious perversity he mainly devoted
+his undoubted genius in his later years to rewriting in accordance
+with the debased taste of Charles the Second's reign the chief works
+of his idol; but until D'Avenant's death in 1668 the unique character
+of Shakespeare's greatness had no stouter champion than he, and in the
+circle of men of wit and fashion, of which he was the centre, none
+kept the cult alive with greater enthusiasm. His early friend Sir John
+Suckling, the Cavalier poet, who was only seven years old when
+Shakespeare died, he infected so thoroughly with his own affectionate
+admiration that Suckling wrote of the dramatist in familiar letters as
+"my friend Mr William Shakespeare," and had his portrait painted by
+Vandyck with an open volume of Shakespeare's works in his hand. Even
+more important is Dryden's testimony that he was himself "first
+taught" by D'Avenant "to admire" Shakespeare.
+
+One of the most precise and valuable pieces of oral tradition which
+directly owed currency to D'Avenant was the detailed story of the
+generous gift of £1000, which Shakespeare's patron, the Earl of
+Southampton, made the poet, "to enable him to go through with a
+purchase which he heard he had a mind to." Rowe, Shakespeare's first
+biographer, recorded this particular on the specific authority of
+D'Avenant, who, he pointed out, "was probably very well acquainted
+with the dramatist's affairs." At the same time it was often repeated
+that D'Avenant was owner of a complimentary letter which James the
+First had written to Shakespeare with his own hand. A literary
+politician, John Sheffield, Earl of Mulgrave and Duke of
+Buckinghamshire, who survived D'Avenant nearly half a century, said
+that he had examined the epistle while it was in D'Avenant's keeping.
+The publisher Lintot first printed the Duke's statement in the preface
+to a new edition of Shakespeare's Poems in 1709.
+
+D'Avenant's devotion did much for Shakespeare's memory; but it
+stimulated others to do even more for the after-generations who wished
+to know the whole truth about Shakespeare's life. The great actor of
+the Restoration, Thomas Betterton, was D'Avenant's close associate in
+his last years. D'Avenant coached him in the parts both of Hamlet and
+of Henry the Eighth, in the light of the instruction which he had
+derived through the medium of Taylor and Lowin from Shakespeare's own
+lips. But more to the immediate purpose is it to note that D'Avenant's
+ardour as a seeker after knowledge of Shakespeare fired Betterton
+into making a pilgrimage to Stratford-on-Avon to glean oral traditions
+of the dramatist's life there. Many other of Shakespeare's admirers
+had previously made Stratford Church, where stood his tomb, a place of
+pilgrimage, and Aubrey had acknowledged in hap-hazard fashion the
+value of Stratford gossip. But it was Betterton's visit that laid the
+train for the systematic union of the oral traditions of London and
+Stratford respectively.
+
+It was not until the London and Warwickshire streams of tradition
+mingled in equal strength that a regular biography of Shakespeare was
+possible. Betterton was the efficient cause of this conjunction. All
+that Stratford-on-Avon revealed to him he put at the disposal of
+Nicholas Rowe, who was the first to attempt a formal memoir. Of
+Betterton's assistance Rowe made generous acknowledgment in these
+terms:--
+
+     I must own a particular Obligation to him [_i.e._,
+     Betterton] for the most considerable part of the Passages
+     relating to his [_i.e._, Shakespeare's] Life, which I have
+     here transmitted to the Publick; his veneration for the
+     Memory of Shakespear having engag'd him to make a Journey
+     into Warwickshire, on purpose to gather up what Remains he
+     could of a Name for which he had so great a Value.
+
+
+VI
+
+The contemporary epitaph on Shakespeare's tomb in Stratford-on-Avon
+Church, which acclaimed Shakespeare a writer of supreme genius, gave
+the inhabitants of the little town no opportunity of ignoring at any
+period the fact that the greatest poet of his era had been their
+fellow-townsman. Stratford was indeed openly identified with
+Shakespeare's career from the earliest possible day, and Sir William
+Dugdale, the first topographer of Warwickshire, writing about 1650,
+noted that the place was memorable for having given "birth and
+sepulture to our late famous poet Will Shakespeare." But the obscure
+little town produced in the years that followed Shakespeare's death
+none who left behind records of their experience, and such fragments
+of oral tradition of Shakespeare at Stratford as are extant survive
+accidentally, with one notable exception, in the manuscript notes of
+visitors, who, like Betterton, were drawn thither by a veneration
+acquired elsewhere.
+
+The one notable exception is John Ward, a seventeenth-century vicar of
+Stratford, who settled there in 1662, at the age of thirty-three,
+forty-six years after Shakespeare's death. Ward remained at Stratford
+till his death in 1681. He is the only resident of the century who
+wrote down any of the local story. Ward was a man of good sentiment.
+He judged that it became a vicar of Stratford to know his Shakespeare
+well, and one of his private reminders for his own conduct
+runs--"Remember to peruse Shakespeare's plays, and bee much versed in
+them, that I may not bee ignorant in that matter."
+
+Ward was a voluminous diarist and a faithful chronicler as far as he
+cared to go. Shakespeare's last surviving daughter, Judith Quiney, was
+dying when he arrived in Stratford; but sons of Shakespeare's sister,
+Mistress Joan Hart, were still living in the poet's birthplace in
+Henley Street. Ward seems, too, to have known Lady Barnard,
+Shakespeare's only grandchild and last surviving descendant, who,
+although she only occasionally visited Stratford after her second
+marriage in 1649 and her removal to her husband's residence at
+Abington, near the town of Northampton, retained much property in her
+native place till her death in 1670. Ward reported from local
+conversation six important details, viz., that Shakespeare retired to
+Stratford in his elder days; that he wrote at the most active period
+of his life two plays a year; that he made so large an income from his
+dramas that "he spent at the rate of £1000 a year"; that he
+entertained his literary friends Drayton and Jonson at "a merry
+meeting" shortly before his death, and that he died of its effects.
+
+Oxford, which was only thirty-six miles distant, supplied the majority
+of Stratford tourists, who, before Betterton, gathered oral tradition
+there. Aubrey, the Oxford gossip, roughly noted six local items other
+than those which are embodied in Ward's diary, or are to be gleaned
+from Beeston's reminiscences, viz., that Shakespeare had as a lad
+helped his father in his trade of butcher; that one of the poet's
+companions in boyhood, who died young, had almost as extraordinary a
+"natural wit"; that Shakespeare betrayed very early signs of poetic
+genius; that he paid annual visits to his native place when his career
+was at its height; that he loved at tavern meetings in the town to
+chaff John Combe, the richest of his fellow-townsmen, who was accused
+of usurious practices; and finally, that he died possessed of a
+substantial fortune.
+
+Until the end of the century, visitors were shown round the church by
+an aged parish clerk, some of whose gossip about Shakespeare was
+recorded by one of them in 1693. The old man came thus to supply two
+further items of information: how Shakespeare ran away in youth, and
+how he sought service at a playhouse, "and by this meanes had an
+opportunity to be what he afterwards proved." A different visitor to
+Stratford next year recorded in an extant letter to a friend yet more
+scraps of oral tradition. These were to the effect that "the great
+Shakespear" dreaded the removal of his bones to the charnel-house
+attached to the church; that he caused his grave to be dug seventeen
+feet deep; and that he wrote the rude warning against disturbing his
+bones, which was inscribed on his gravestone, in order to meet the
+capacity of the "very ignorant sort of people" whose business it was
+to look after burials.
+
+Betterton gained more precise particulars--the date of baptism and the
+like--from an examination of the parochial records; but the most
+valuable piece of oral tradition with which the great actor's research
+must be credited was the account of Shakespeare's deer-stealing
+escapade at Charlecote. Another tourist from Oxford privately and
+independently put that anecdote into writing at the same date, but
+Rowe, who first gave it to the world in his biography, relied
+exclusively on Betterton's authority. At a little later period
+inquiries made at Stratford by a second actor, Bowman, yielded a
+trifle more. Bowman came to know a very reputable resident at
+Bridgtown, a hamlet adjoining Stratford, Sir William Bishop, whose
+family was of old standing there. Sir William was born ten years after
+Shakespeare died, and lived close to Stratford till 1700. He told
+Bowman that a part of Falstaff's character was drawn from a
+fellow-townsman at Stratford against whom Shakespeare cherished a
+grudge owing to his obduracy in some business transaction. Bowman
+repeated the story to Oldys, who put it on record.
+
+Although one could wish the early oral tradition of Stratford to have
+been more thoroughly reported, such as is extant in writing is
+sufficient to prove that Shakespeare's literary eminence was well
+known in his native place during the century that followed his death.
+In many villages in the neighbourhood of Stratford--at Bidford, at
+Wilmcote, at Greet, at Dursley--there long persisted like oral
+tradition of Shakespeare's occasional visits, but these were not
+written down before the middle of the eighteenth century; and although
+they are of service as proof of the local dissemination of his fame,
+they are somewhat less definite than the traditions that suffered
+earlier record, and need not be particularised here. One light piece
+of gossip, which was associated with a country parish at some distance
+from Stratford, can alone be traced back to remote date, and was
+quickly committed to writing. A trustworthy Oxford don, Josias Howe,
+fellow and tutor of Trinity, was born early in the seventeenth century
+at Grendon in Buckinghamshire, where his father was long rector, and
+he maintained close relations with his birthplace during his life of
+more than ninety years. Grendon was on the road between Oxford and
+London. Howe stated that Shakespeare often visited the place in his
+journey from Stratford, and that he found the original of his
+character of Dogberry in the person of a parish constable who lived on
+there till 1642. Howe was on familiar terms with the man, and he
+confided his reminiscence to his friend Aubrey, who duly recorded it,
+although in a somewhat confused shape.
+
+
+VII
+
+It is with early oral tradition of Shakespeare's personal experience
+that I am dealing here. It is not my purpose to notice early literary
+criticism, of which there is abundant supply. It was obviously the
+free circulation of the fame of Shakespeare's work which stimulated
+the activity of interest in his private fortunes and led to the
+chronicling of the oral tradition regarding them. It could easily be
+shown that, outside the circle of professional poets, dramatists,
+actors, and fellow-townsmen, Shakespeare's name was, from his first
+coming into public notice, constantly on the lips of scholars,
+statesmen, and men of fashion who had any glimmer of literary taste.
+The Muse of History indeed drops plain hints of the views expressed at
+the social meetings of the great in the seventeenth century when
+Shakespeare was under discussion. Before 1643, "all persons of quality
+that had wit and learning" engaged in a set debate at Eton in the
+rooms of "the ever-memorable" John Hales, Fellow of the College, on
+the question of Shakespeare's merits compared with those of classical
+poets. The judges who presided over "this ingenious assembly"
+unanimously and without qualification decided in favour of
+Shakespeare's superiority.
+
+A very eminent representative of the culture and political
+intelligence of the next generation was in full sympathy with the
+verdict of the Eton College tribunal. Lord Clarendon held Shakespeare
+to be one of the "most illustrious of our nation." Among the many
+heroes of his admiration, Shakespeare was of the elect few who were
+"most agreeable to his lordship's general humour." Lord Clarendon was
+at the pains of securing a portrait of Shakespeare to hang in his
+house in St James's. Similarly, the proudest and probably the richest
+nobleman in political circles at the end of the seventeenth century,
+the Duke of Somerset, was often heard to speak of his "pleasure in
+that Greatness of Thought, those natural Images, those Passions finely
+touch'd, and that beautiful Expression which is everywhere to be met
+with in Shakespear."
+
+
+VIII
+
+It was to this Duke of Somerset that Rowe appropriately dedicated the
+first full and formal biography of the poet. That work was designed as
+a preface to the first critical edition of Shakespeare's plays, which
+Rowe published in 1709. "Though the works of Mr Shakespear may seem to
+many not to want a comment," Rowe wrote modestly enough, "yet I fancy
+some little account of the man himself may not be thought improper to
+go along with them." Rowe did his work quite as well as the
+rudimentary state of the biographic art of his day allowed. He was
+under the complacent impression that his supply of information
+satisfied all reasonable curiosity. He had placed himself in the hands
+of Betterton, an investigator at first hand. But the fact remains that
+Rowe made no sustained nor scholarly effort to collect exhaustively
+even the oral tradition; still less did he consult with thoroughness
+official records or references to Shakespeare's literary achievements
+in the books of his contemporaries. Such labour as that was to be
+undertaken later, when the practice of biography had assimilated more
+scientific method. Rowe preferred the straw of vague rhapsody to the
+brick of solid fact.
+
+Nevertheless Rowe's memoir laid the foundations on which his
+successors built. It set ringing the bell which called together that
+mass of information drawn from every source--manuscript archives,
+printed books, oral tradition--which now far exceeds what is
+accessible in the case of any poet contemporary with Shakespeare. Some
+links in the chain of Shakespeare's career are still missing, and we
+must wait for the future to disclose them. But, though the clues at
+present are in some places faint, the trail never altogether eludes
+the patient investigator. The ascertained facts are already numerous
+enough to define beyond risk of intelligent doubt the direction that
+Shakespeare's career followed. Its general outline is, as we have
+seen, fully established by one source of knowledge alone--one out of
+many--by the oral tradition which survives from the seventeenth
+century.
+
+It may be justifiable to cherish regret for the loss of Shakespeare's
+autograph papers and of his familiar correspondence. But the absence
+of such documentary material can excite scepticism of the received
+tradition only in those who are ignorant of the fate that invariably
+befell the original manuscripts and correspondence of Elizabethan and
+Jacobean poets and dramatists. Save for a few fragments of small
+literary moment, no play of the era in its writer's autograph escaped
+early destruction by fire or dustbin. No machinery then ensured, no
+custom then encouraged, the due preservation of the autographs of men
+distinguished for poetic genius. Provision was made in the public
+record offices or in private muniment-rooms for the protection of the
+official papers and correspondence of men in public life, and of
+manuscript memorials affecting the property and domestic history of
+great county families. But even in the case of men of the sixteenth or
+seventeenth century in official life who, as often happened, devoted
+their leisure to literature, the autographs of their literary
+compositions have for the most part perished, and there usually only
+remain in the official depositories remnants of their writings about
+matters of official routine.
+
+Not all those depositories, it is to be admitted, have yet been fully
+explored, and in some of them a more thorough search than has yet been
+undertaken may be expected to throw new light on Shakespeare's
+biography. Meanwhile, instead of mourning helplessly over the lack of
+material for a knowledge of Shakespeare's life, it becomes us to
+estimate aright what we have at our command, to study it closely in
+the light of the literary history of the epoch, and, while neglecting
+no opportunity of bettering our information, to recognise frankly the
+activity of the destroying agencies which have been at work from the
+outset. Then we shall wonder, not why we know so little, but why we
+know so much.
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+PEPYS AND SHAKESPEARE[14]
+
+[Footnote 14: A paper read at the sixth meeting of the Samuel Pepys
+Club, on Thursday, November 30, 1905, and printed in the _Fortnightly
+Review_ for January, 1906.]
+
+
+I
+
+In his capacity of playgoer, as indeed in almost every other capacity,
+Pepys presents himself to readers of his naïve diary as the
+incarnation, or the microcosm, of the average man. No other writer has
+pictured with the same lifelike precision and simplicity the average
+playgoer's sensations of pleasure or pain. Of the play and its
+performers Pepys records exactly what he thinks or feels. He usually
+takes a more lively interest in the acting and in the scenic and
+musical accessories than in the drama's literary quality. Subtlety is
+at any rate absent from his criticism. He is either bored or amused.
+The piece is either the best or the worst that he ever witnessed. His
+epithets are of the bluntest and are without modulation. Wiser than
+more professional dramatic critics, he avoids labouring at reasons for
+his emphatic judgments.
+
+Always true to his rôle of the average man, Pepys suffers his mind to
+be swayed by barely relevant accidents. His thought is rarely free
+from official or domestic business, and the heaviness or lightness of
+his personal cares commonly colours his playhouse impressions. His
+praises and his censures of a piece often reflect, too, the physical
+comforts or discomforts which attach to his seat in the theatre. He is
+peculiarly sensitive to petty annoyances--to the agony of sitting in a
+draught, or to the irritation caused by frivolous talk in his near
+neighbourhood while a serious play is in progress. On one occasion,
+when he sought to practise a praiseworthy economy by taking a back
+seat in the shilling gallery, his evening's enjoyment was well-nigh
+spoiled by finding the gaze of four clerks in his office steadily
+directed upon him from more expensive seats down below. On another
+occasion, when in the pit with his wife and her waiting-woman, he was
+overcome by a sense of shame as he realised how shabbily his
+companions were dressed, in comparison with the smartly-attired ladies
+round about them.
+
+Everyone knows how susceptible Pepys was in all situations of life to
+female charms. It was inevitable that his wits should often wander
+from the dramatic theme and its scenic presentation to the features of
+some woman on the stage or in the auditory. An actress's pretty face
+or graceful figure many times diverted his attention from her
+professional incompetence. It is doubtful if there were any affront
+which Pepys would not pardon in a pretty woman. Once when he was in
+the pit, this curious experience befell him. "I sitting behind in a
+dark place," he writes, "a lady spit backward upon me by mistake, not
+seeing me; but after seeing her to be a very pretty lady, I was not
+troubled at it at all." The volatile diarist studied much besides the
+drama when he spent his afternoon or evening at the play.
+
+Never was there a more indefatigable playgoer than Pepys. Yet his
+enthusiasm for the theatre was, to his mind, a failing which required
+most careful watching. He feared that the passion might do injury to
+his purse, might distract him from serious business, might lead him
+into temptation of the flesh. He had a little of the Puritan's dread
+of the playhouse. He was constantly taking vows to curb his love of
+plays, which "mightily troubled his mind." He was frequently resolving
+to abstain from the theatre for four or five months at a stretch, and
+then to go only in the company of his wife. During these periods of
+abstinence he was in the habit of reading over his vows every Sunday.
+But, in spite of all his well-meaning efforts, his resolution was
+constantly breaking down. On one occasion he perjured himself so
+thoroughly as to witness two plays in one day, once in the afternoon
+and again in the evening. On this riotous outbreak he makes the
+characteristic comment: "Sad to think of the spending so much money,
+and of venturing the breach of my vow." But he goes on to thank God
+that he had the grace to feel sorry for the misdeed, at the same time
+as he lamented that "his nature was so content to follow the pleasure
+still." Pepys compounded with his conscience for such breaches of his
+oath by all manner of casuistry. He excused himself for going,
+contrary to his vow, to the new theatre in Drury Lane, because it was
+not built when his vow was framed. Finally, he stipulated with himself
+that he would only go to the theatre once a fortnight; but if he went
+oftener he would give £10 to the poor. "This," he added, "I hope in
+God will bind me." The last reference that he makes to his vows is
+when, in contravention of them, he went with his wife to the Duke of
+York's House, and found the place full, and himself unable to obtain
+seats. He makes a final record of "the saving of his vow, to his great
+content."
+
+
+II
+
+All self-imposed restrictions notwithstanding, Pepys contrived to
+visit the theatre no less than three hundred and fifty-one times
+during the nine years and five months that he kept his diary. It has
+to be borne in mind that, for more than twelve months of that period,
+the London playhouses were for the most part closed, owing to the
+Great Plague and the Fire. Had Pepys gone at regular intervals, when
+the theatres were open, he would have been a playgoer at least once a
+week. But, owing to his vows, his visits fell at most irregular
+intervals. Sometimes he went three or four times a week, or even twice
+in one day. Then there would follow eight or nine weeks of abstinence.
+If a piece especially took his fancy, he would see it six or seven
+times in fairly quick succession. Long runs were unknown to the
+theatre of Pepys's day, but a successful piece was frequently revived.
+Occasionally, Pepys would put himself to the trouble of attending a
+first night. But this was an indulgence that he practised sparingly.
+He resented the manager's habit of doubling the price of the seats,
+and he was irritated by the frequent want of adequate rehearsal.
+
+Pepys's theatrical experience began with the reopening of theatres
+after the severe penalty of suppression, which the Civil Wars and the
+Commonwealth imposed on them for nearly eighteen years. His playgoing
+diary thus became an invaluable record of a new birth of theatrical
+life in London. When, in the summer of 1660, General Monk occupied
+London for the restored King, Charles II., three of the old theatres
+were still standing empty. These were soon put into repair, and
+applied anew to theatrical uses, although only two of them seem to
+have been open at any one time. The three houses were the Red Bull,
+dating from Elizabeth's reign, in St John's Street, Clerkenwell, where
+Pepys saw Marlowe's _Faustus_; Salisbury Court, Whitefriars, off Fleet
+Street; and the Old Cockpit in Drury Lane, both of which were of more
+recent origin. To all these theatres Pepys paid early visits. But the
+Cockpit in Drury Lane, was the scene of some of his most stirring
+experiences. There he saw his first play, Beaumont and Fletcher's
+_Loyal Subject_; and there, too, he saw his first play by Shakespeare,
+_Othello_.
+
+But these three theatres were in decay, and new and sumptuous
+buildings soon took their places. One of the new playhouses was in
+Portugal Row, Lincoln's Inn Fields; the other, on the site of the
+present Drury Lane Theatre, was the first of the many playhouses that
+sprang up there. It is to these two theatres--Lincoln's Inn Fields and
+Drury Lane--that Pepys in his diary most often refers. He calls each
+of them by many different names, and the unwary reader might infer
+that London was very richly supplied with playhouses in Pepys's day.
+But public theatres in active work at this period of our history were
+not permitted by the authorities to exceed two. "The Opera" and "the
+Duke's House" are merely Pepys's alternative designations of the
+Lincoln's Inn Field's Theatre; while "the Theatre," "Theatre Royal,"
+and "the King's House," are the varying titles which he bestows on the
+Drury Lane Theatre.[15]
+
+[Footnote 15: At the restoration of King Charles II., no more than two
+companies of actors received licenses to perform in public. One of
+these companies was directed by Sir William D'Avenant, Shakespeare's
+reputed godson, and was under the patronage of the King's brother, the
+Duke of York. The other was directed by Tom Killigrew, one of Charles
+II.'s boon companions, and was under the patronage of the King
+himself. In due time the Duke's, or D'Avenant's, company occupied the
+theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields, and the King's, or Killigrew's,
+company occupied the new building in Drury Lane.]
+
+Besides these two public theatres there was, in the final constitution
+of the theatrical world in Pepys's London, a third, which stood on a
+different footing. A theatre was attached to the King's Court at
+Whitehall, and there performances were given at the King's command by
+actors from the two public houses.[16] The private Whitehall theatre
+was open to the public on payment, and Pepys was frequently there.
+
+[Footnote 16: Charles II. formed this private theatre out of a
+detached building in St James's Park, known as the "Cockpit," and to
+be carefully distinguished from the Cockpit of Drury Lane. Part of the
+edifice was occupied by courtiers by favour of the King. General Monk
+had lodgings there. At a much later date, cabinet councils were often
+held there.]
+
+At one period of his life Pepys held that his vows did not apply to
+the Court theatre, which was mainly distinguished from the other
+houses by the circumstances that the performances were given at night.
+At Lincoln's Inn Fields or Drury Lane it was only permitted to perform
+in the afternoon. Half-past three was the usual hour for opening the
+proceedings. At Whitehall the play began about eight, and often lasted
+till near midnight.
+
+The general organisation of Pepys's auditorium was much as it is
+to-day. It had improved in many particulars since Shakespeare died.
+The pit was the most popular part of the house; it covered the floor
+of the building, and was provided with seats; the price of admission
+was 2s. 6d. The company there seems to have been extremely mixed; men
+and women of fashion often rubbed elbows with City shopkeepers, their
+wives, and apprentices. The first gallery was wholly occupied by
+boxes, in which seats could be hired separately at 4s. apiece. Above
+the boxes was the middle gallery, the central part of which was filled
+with benches, where the seats cost 1s. 6d. each, while boxes lined the
+sides. The highest tier was the 1s. gallery, where footmen soon held
+sway. As Pepys's fortune improved, he spent more on his place in the
+theatre. From the 1s. gallery he descended to the 1s. 6d., and thence
+came down to the pit, occasionally ascending to the boxes on the first
+tier.
+
+In the methods of representation, Pepys's period of playgoing was
+coeval with many most important innovations, which seriously affected
+the presentation of Shakespeare on the stage. The chief was the
+desirable substitution of women for boys in the female rôles. During
+the first few months of Pepys's theatrical experience, boys were still
+taking the women's parts. That the practice survived in the first days
+of Charles II.'s reign we know from the well-worn anecdote that when
+the King sent behind the scenes to inquire why the play of _Hamlet_,
+which he had come to see, was so late in commencing, he was answered
+that the Queen was not yet shaved. But in the opening month of 1661,
+within five months of Pepys's first visit to a theatre, the reign of
+the boys ended. On January 3rd of that year, Pepys writes that he
+"first saw women come upon the stage." Next night he makes entry of a
+boy's performance of a woman's part, and that is the final record of
+boys masquerading as women in the English theatre. I believe the
+practice now survives nowhere except in Japan. This mode of
+representation has always been a great puzzle to students of
+Elizabethan drama.[17] Before, however, Pepys saw Shakespeare's work
+on the stage, the usurpation of the boys was over.
+
+[Footnote 17: For a fuller description of this theatrical practice,
+see pages 41-3 _supra_.]
+
+It was after the Restoration, too, that scenery, rich costume, and
+scenic machinery became, to Pepys's delight, regular features of the
+theatre. When the diarist saw _Hamlet_ "done with scenes" for the
+first time, he was most favourably impressed. Musical accompaniment
+was known to pre-Restoration days; but the orchestra was now for the
+first time placed on the floor of the house in front of the stage,
+instead of in a side gallery, or on the stage itself. The musical
+accompaniment of plays developed very rapidly, and the methods of
+opera were soon applied to many of Shakespeare's pieces, notably to
+_The Tempest_ and _Macbeth_.
+
+Yet at the side of these innovations, one very important feature of
+the old playhouses, which gravely concerned both actors and auditors,
+survived throughout Pepys's lifetime. The stage still projected far
+into the pit in front of the curtain. The actors and actresses spoke
+in the centre of the house, so that, as Colley Cibber put it, "the
+most distant ear had scarce the least doubt or difficulty in hearing
+what fell from the weakest utterance ... nor was the minutest motion
+of a feature, properly changing with the passion or humour it suited,
+ever lost, as they frequently must be, in the obscurity of too great a
+distance." The platform-stage, with which Shakespeare was familiar,
+suffered no curtailment in the English theatres till the eighteenth
+century, when the fore-edge of the boards was for the first time made
+to run level with the proscenium.
+
+
+III
+
+One of the obvious results of the long suppression of the theatres
+during the Civil Wars and Commonwealth was the temporary extinction of
+play-writing in England. On the sudden reopening of the playhouses at
+the Restoration, the managers had mainly to rely for sustenance on the
+drama of a long-past age. Of the one hundred and forty-five separate
+plays which Pepys witnessed, fully half belonged to the great period
+of dramatic activity in England, which covered the reigns of
+Elizabeth, James I., and Charles I. John Evelyn's well-known remark in
+his _Diary_ (November 26, 1661): "I saw _Hamlet, Prince of Denmark_,
+played; but now the old plays begin to disgust this refined age,"
+requires much qualification before it can be made to apply to Pepys's
+records of playgoing. It was in "the old plays" that he and all
+average playgoers mainly delighted.
+
+Not that the new demand failed quickly to create a supply of
+new plays for the stage. Dryden and D'Avenant, the chief dramatists
+of Pepys's day, were rapid writers. To a large extent they carried
+on, with exaggeration of its defects and diminution of its merits,
+the old Elizabethan tradition of heroic romance, tragedy, and
+farce. The more matter-of-fact and lower-principled comedy of
+manners, which is commonly reckoned the chief characteristic
+of the new era in theatrical history, was only just beginning
+when Pepys was reaching the end of his diary. The virtual leaders
+of the new movement--Wycherley, Vanbrugh, Farquhar, and Congreve--were
+not at work till long after Pepys ceased to write. He records only the
+first runnings of that sparkling stream. He witnessed some impudent
+comedies of Dryden, Etherege, and Sedley. But it is important to note
+that he formed a low opinion of all of them. Their intellectual glitter
+did not appeal to him. Their cynical licentiousness seemed to him to be
+merely "silly." One might have anticipated from him a different
+verdict on the frank obscenity of Restoration drama. But there are the
+facts. Neither did Mr Pepys, nor (he is careful to remind us) did Mrs
+Pepys, take "any manner of pleasure in" the bold indelicacy of Dryden,
+Etherege, or Sedley.
+
+When we ask what sort of pieces Pepys appreciated, we seem to be faced
+by further perplexities. His highest enthusiasm was evoked by certain
+plays of Ben Jonson, of Beaumont and Fletcher, and of Massinger. Near
+the zenith of his scale of dramatic excellence he set the comedies of
+Ben Jonson, which are remarkable for their portrayal of eccentricity
+of character. These pieces, which incline to farce, give great
+opportunity to what is commonly called character-acting, and
+character-acting always appeals most directly to average humanity.
+Pepys called Jonson's _Alchemist_ "a most incomparable play," and he
+found in _Every Man in his Humour_ "the greatest propriety of speech
+that ever I read in my life." Similarly, both the heroic tragedies and
+the comedies of Beaumont and Fletcher, of which he saw no less than
+nineteen, roused in him, as a rule, an ecstatic admiration. But of all
+dramatic entertainments which the theatre offered him, Pepys was most
+"taken" by the romantic comedy from the pen of Massinger, which is
+called _The Bondman_. "There is nothing more taking in the world with
+me than that play," he writes.
+
+Massinger's _Bondman_ is a well-written piece, in which an heroic
+interest is fused with a genuine spirit of low comedy. Yet Pepys's
+unqualified commendation of it presents a problem. Massinger's play,
+like the cognate work of Fletcher, offers much episode which is hardly
+less indecent than those early specimens of Restoration comedy of
+which Pepys disapproved. A leading character is a frowsy wife who
+faces all manner of humiliation, in order to enjoy, behind her elderly
+husband's back, the embraces of a good-looking youth.
+
+Pepys is scarcely less tolerant of Fletcher's more flagrant
+infringements of propriety. In the whole of the Elizabethan drama
+there was no piece which presented so liberal a mass of indelicacy as
+Fletcher's _Custom of the Country_. Dryden, who was innocent of
+prudery, declared that there was "more indecency" in that drama "than
+in all our plays together." This was one of the pieces which Pepys
+twice saw performed after carefully reading it in his study, and he
+expressed admiration for the rendering of the widow's part by his
+pretty friend, Mistress Knipp. One has to admit that Pepys condemned
+the play from a literary point of view as "a very poor one, methinks,"
+as "fully the worst play that I saw or believe shall see." But the
+pleasure which Mistress Knipp's share in the performance gave him
+suggests, in the absence of any explicit disclaimer, that the
+improprieties of both plot and characters escaped his notice, or, at
+any rate, excited in him no disgust. Massinger's _Bondman_, Pepys's
+ideal of merit in drama, has little of the excessive grossness of the
+_Custom of the Country_. But to some extent it is tarred with the same
+brush.
+
+Pepys's easy principles never lend themselves to very strict
+definition. Yet he may be credited with a certain measure of
+discernment in pardoning the indelicacy of Fletcher and Massinger,
+while he condemns that of Dryden, Etherege, or Sedley. Indelicacy in
+the older dramatists does not ignore worthier interests. Other topics
+attracted the earlier writers besides conjugal infidelity and the
+frailty of virgins, which were the sole themes of Restoration comedy.
+Massinger's heroes are not always gay seducers. His husbands are not
+always fools. Pepys might quite consistently scorn the ribaldry of
+Etherege and condone the obscenity of Fletcher. It was a question of
+degree. Pepys was clear in his own mind that a line must be drawn
+somewhere, though it would probably have taxed his logical power to
+make the delimitation precise.
+
+
+IV
+
+There is, apparently, a crowning difficulty of far greater moment when
+finally estimating Pepys's taste in dramatic literature. Despite his
+admiration for the ancient drama, he acknowledged a very tempered
+regard for the greatest of all the old dramatists--Shakespeare. He
+lived and died in complacent unconsciousness of Shakespeare's supreme
+excellence. Such innocence is attested by his conduct outside, as well
+as inside, the theatre. He prided himself on his taste as a reader and
+a book collector, and bought for his library many plays in quarto
+which he diligently perused. Numerous separately issued pieces by
+Shakespeare lay at his disposal in the bookshops. But he only records
+the purchase of one--the first part of _Henry IV._, though he mentions
+that he read in addition _Othello_ and _Hamlet_. When his bookseller
+first offered him the great First Folio edition of Shakespeare's
+works, he rejected it for Fuller's _Worthies_ and the newly-published
+Butler's _Hudibras_, in which, by the way, he failed to discover the
+wit. Ultimately he bought the newly-issued second impression of the
+Third Folio Shakespeare, along with copies of Spelman's _Glossary_ and
+Scapula's _Lexicon_. To these soporific works of reference he
+apparently regarded the dramatist's volume as a fitting pendant. He
+seemed subsequently to have exchanged the Third Folio for a Fourth, by
+which volume alone is Shakespeare represented in the extant library
+that Pepys bequeathed to Magdalene College, Cambridge.
+
+As a regular playgoer at a time when the stage mainly depended on the
+drama of Elizabethan days, Pepys was bound to witness numerous
+performances of Shakespeare's plays. On the occasion of forty-one of
+his three hundred and fifty-one visits to the theatre, Pepys listened
+to plays by Shakespeare, or to pieces based upon them. Once in every
+eight performances Shakespeare was presented to his view. Fourteen
+was the number of different plays by Shakespeare which Pepys saw
+during these forty-one visits. Very few caused him genuine pleasure.
+At least three he condemns, without any qualification, as "tedious,"
+or "silly." In the case of others, while he ignored the literary
+merit, he enjoyed the scenery and music with which, in accordance with
+current fashion, the dramatic poetry was overlaid. In only two cases,
+in the case of two tragedies--_Othello_ and _Hamlet_--does he show at
+any time a true appreciation of the dramatic quality, and in the case
+of _Othello_ he came in course of years to abandon his good opinion.
+
+Pepys's moderate praise and immoderate blame of Shakespeare are only
+superficially puzzling. The ultimate solution is not difficult.
+Despite his love of music and his zeal as a collector, Pepys was the
+most matter-of-fact of men; he was essentially a man of business. Not
+that he had any distaste for timely recreation; he was, indeed,
+readily susceptible to every manner of commonplace pleasures--to all
+the delights of both mind and sense which appeal to the practical and
+hard-headed type of Englishman. Things of the imagination, on the
+other hand, stood with him on a different footing. They were out of
+his range or sphere. Poetry and romance, unless liberally compounded
+with prosaic ingredients, bored him on the stage and elsewhere.
+
+In the plays of Beaumont and Fletcher, of Massinger and Ben Jonson,
+poetry and romance were for the most part kept in the background. Such
+elements lay there behind a substantial barrier of conventional stage
+machinery and elocutionary scaffolding. In Shakespeare, poetry and
+romance usually eluded the mechanical restrictions of the theatre.
+The gold had a tendency to separate itself from the alloy, and Pepys
+only found poetry and romance endurable when they were pretty thickly
+veiled behind the commonplaces of rhetoric or broad fun or the
+realistic ingenuity of the stage carpenter and upholsterer.
+
+There is, consequently, no cause for surprise that Pepys should write
+thus of Shakespeare's ethereal comedy of _A Midsummer Night's Dream_:
+"Then to the King's Theatre, where we saw _A Midsummer Night's Dream_,
+which I had never seen before, nor shall ever again, for it is the
+most insipid, ridiculous play that ever I saw in my life. I saw, I
+confess, some good dancing and some handsome women, which was all my
+pleasure." This is Pepys's ordinary attitude of mind to undiluted
+poetry on the stage.
+
+Pepys only saw _A Midsummer Night's Dream_ once. _Twelfth Night_, of
+which he wrote in very similar strains, he saw thrice. On the first
+occasion his impatience of this romantic play was due to external
+causes. He went to the theatre "against his own mind and resolution."
+He was over-persuaded to go in by a friend, with whom he was casually
+walking past the house in Lincoln's Inn Fields. Moreover, he had just
+sworn to his wife that he would never go to a play without her: all
+which considerations "made the piece seem a burden" to him. He
+witnessed _Twelfth Night_ twice again in a less perturbed spirit, and
+then he called it a "silly" play, or "one of the weakest plays that
+ever I saw on the stage."
+
+Again, of _Romeo and Juliet_, Pepys wrote: "It is a play of itself the
+worst I ever heard in my life." This verdict, it is right to add, was
+attributable, in part at least, to Pepys's irritation at the badness
+of the acting, and at the actors' ignorance of their words. It was a
+first night.
+
+The literary critic knows well enough that the merit of these three
+pieces--_A Midsummer Night's Dream_, _Twelfth Night_, and _Romeo and
+Juliet_--mainly lies in their varied wealth of poetic imagery and
+passion. One thing alone could render the words, in which poetic
+genius finds voice, tolerable in the playhouse to a spectator of
+Pepys's prosaic temperament. The one thing needful is inspired acting,
+and in the case of these three plays, when Pepys saw them performed,
+inspired acting was wanting.
+
+It is at first sight disconcerting to find Pepys no less impatient of
+_The Merry Wives of Windsor_. He expresses a mild interest in the
+humours of "the country gentleman and the French doctor." But he
+condemns the play as a whole. It is in his favour that his bitterest
+reproaches are aimed at the actors and actresses. One can hardly
+conceive that Falstaff, fitly interpreted, would have failed to
+satisfy Pepys's taste in humour, commonplace though it was. He is not
+quite explicit on the point; but there are signs that the histrionic
+interpretation of Shakespeare's colossal humorist, rather than the
+dramatist's portrayal of the character, caused the diarist's
+disappointment.
+
+Just before Pepys saw the first part of _Henry IV._, wherein Falstaff
+figures to supreme advantage, he had bought and read the play in
+quarto. "But my expectation being too great" (he avers), "it did not
+please me as otherwise I believe it would." Here it seems clear that
+his hopes of the actor were unfulfilled. However, he saw _Henry IV._
+again a few months later, and had the grace to describe it as "a good
+play." On a third occasion he wrote that, "contrary to expectation,"
+he was pleased by the delivery of Falstaff's ironical speech about
+honour. For whatever reason, Pepys's affection for Shakespeare's fat
+knight, as he figured on the stage of his day, never touched the note
+of exaltation.
+
+Of Shakespeare's great tragedies Pepys saw three--_Othello_, _Hamlet_,
+and _Macbeth_. But in considering his several impressions of these
+pieces, we have to make an important proviso. Only the first two of
+them did he witness in the authentic version. _Macbeth_ underwent in
+his day a most liberal transformation, which carried it far from its
+primordial purity. The impressions he finally formed of _Othello_ and
+_Hamlet_ are not consistent one with the other, but are eminently
+characteristic of the variable moods of the average playgoer.
+
+_Othello_ he saw twice, and he tells us more of the acting than of the
+play itself. On his first visit he notes that the lady next him
+shrieked on seeing Desdemona smothered: a proof of the strength of the
+histrionic illusion. Up to the year 1666 Pepys adhered to the
+praiseworthy opinion that _Othello_ was a "mighty good" play. But in
+that year his judgment took a turn for the worse, and that for a
+reason which finally convicts him of incapacity to pass just sentence
+on the poetic or literary drama. On August 20, 1666, he writes: "Read
+_Othello, Moor of Venice_, which I have ever heretofore esteemed a
+mighty good play; but having so lately read the _Adventures of Five
+Hours_, it seems a mean thing."
+
+Most lovers of Shakespeare will agree that the great dramatist rarely
+showed his mature powers to more magnificent advantage than in his
+treatment of plot and character in _Othello_. What, then, is this
+_Adventures of Five Hours_, compared with which _Othello_ became in
+Pepys's eyes "a mean thing"? It is a trivial comedy of intrigue,
+adapted from the Spanish by one Sir Samuel Tuke. A choleric guardian
+arranges for his ward, who also happens to be his sister, to marry
+against her will a man whom she has never seen. Without her guardian's
+knowledge she, before the design goes further, escapes with a lover of
+her own choosing. In her place she leaves a close friend, who is wooed
+in mistake for herself by the suitor destined for her own hand. This
+is the main dramatic point; the thread is very slender, and is drawn
+out to its utmost limits through five acts of blank verse. The
+language and metre are scrupulously correct. But one cannot credit the
+play with any touch of poetry or imagination. It presents a trite
+theme tamely and prosaically. Congenital inability of the most
+inveterate toughness to appreciate dramatic poetry could alone account
+for a mention of the _Adventures of Five Hours_ in the same breath
+with _Othello_.
+
+Pepys did not again fall so low as this. The only other tragedy of
+Shakespeare which he saw in its authentic purity moved him,
+contradictorily, to transports of unqualified delight. One is glad to
+recall that _Hamlet_, one of the greatest of Shakespeare's plays,
+received from Pepys ungrudging commendation. Pepys's favourable
+opinion of _Hamlet_ is to be assigned to two causes. One is the
+literary and psychological attractions of the piece; the other, and
+perhaps the more important, is the manner in which the play was
+interpreted on the stage of Pepys's time.
+
+Pepys is not the only owner of a prosaic mind who has found
+satisfaction in Shakespeare's portrait of the Prince of Denmark. Over
+minds of almost every calibre, that hero of the stage has always
+exerted a pathetic fascination, which natural antipathy to poetry
+seems unable to extinguish. Pepys's testimony to his respect for the
+piece is abundant. The whole of one Sunday afternoon (November 13,
+1664), he spent at home with his wife, "getting a speech out of
+_Hamlet_, 'To be or not to be,' without book." He proved, indeed, his
+singular admiration for those familiar lines in a manner which I
+believe to be unique. He set them to music, and the notes are extant
+in a book of manuscript music in his library at Magdalene College,
+Cambridge. The piece is a finely-elaborated recitative fully equal to
+the requirements of grand opera. The composer gives intelligent and
+dignified expression to every word of the soliloquy. Very impressive
+is the modulation of the musical accompaniment to the lines--
+
+                                To die, to sleep!
+    To sleep, perchance to dream! ay, there's the rub.
+
+It is possible that the cadences of this musical rendering of Hamlet's
+speech preserve some echo of the intonation of the great actor,
+Betterton, whose performance evoked in Pepys lasting adoration.[18]
+
+[Footnote 18: Sir Frederick Bridge, by permission of the Master and
+Fellows of Magdalene College, Cambridge, caused this setting of "To be
+or not to be" (which bears no composer's signature) to be transcribed
+from the manuscript, and he arranged the piece to be sung at the
+meeting of the Pepys Club on November 30, 1905. Sir Frederick Bridge
+believes Pepys to be the composer.]
+
+It goes without saying that, for the full enjoyment of a performance
+of _Hamlet_ by both cultured and uncultured spectators, acting of
+supreme quality is needful. Luckily for Pepys, Hamlet in his day was
+rendered by an actor who, according to ample extant testimony,
+interpreted the part to perfection. Pepys records four performances of
+_Hamlet_, with Betterton in the title-rôle on each occasion. With
+every performance Pepys's enthusiasm rose. The first time he writes
+(August 24, 1661): "Saw the play done with scenes very well at the
+Opera, but above all Betterton did the Prince's part beyond
+imagination." On the third occasion (May 28, 1663) the rendering gave
+him "fresh reason never to think enough of Betterton." On the last
+occasion (August 31, 1668) he was "mightily pleased," but above all
+with Betterton, "the best part, I believe, that ever man acted."
+
+_Hamlet_ was one of the most popular plays of Pepys's day, mainly
+owing to Betterton's extraordinary faculty. The history of the
+impersonation presents numerous points of the deepest interest. The
+actor was originally coached in the part by D'Avenant. The latter is
+said to have derived hints for the rendering from an old actor, Joseph
+Taylor, who had played the rôle in Shakespeare's own day, and had been
+instructed in it by the dramatist himself. This tradition gives
+additional value to Pepys's musical setting in recitative of the "To
+be or not to be" soliloquy. If we accept the reasonable theory that
+that piece of music preserves something of the cadences of Betterton's
+enunciation, it is no extravagance to suggest that a note here or
+there enshrines the modulation of the voice of Shakespeare himself.
+For there is the likelihood that the dramatist was Betterton's
+instructor at no more than two removes. Only the lips of D'Avenant,
+Shakespeare's godson, and of Taylor, Shakespeare's acting colleague,
+intervened between the dramatist and the Hamlet of Pepys's diary.
+Those alone, who have heard the musical setting of "To be or not to
+be" adequately rendered, are in a position to reject this hypothesis
+altogether.
+
+Among seventeenth century critics there was unanimous agreement--a
+rare thing among dramatic critics of any period--as to the merits of
+Betterton's performance. In regard to his supreme excellence, men of
+the different mental calibre of Sir Richard Steele, Colley Cibber, and
+Nicholas Rowe, knew no difference of opinion. According to Cibber,
+Betterton invariably preserved the happy "medium between mouthing and
+meaning too little"; he held the attention of the audience by "a
+tempered spirit," not by mere vehemence of voice. His solemn,
+trembling voice made the Ghost equally terrible to the spectator and
+to himself. Another critic relates that when Betterton's Hamlet saw
+the Ghost in his mother's chamber, the actor turned as pale as his
+neckcloth; every joint of his body seemed to be affected with a tremor
+inexpressible, and the audience shared his astonishment and horror.
+Nicholas Rowe declared that "Betterton performed the part as if it had
+been written on purpose for him, as if the author had conceived it as
+he played it." It is difficult to imagine any loftier commendation of
+a Shakespearean player.
+
+
+V
+
+There is little reason to doubt that the plays of Shakespeare which I
+have enumerated were all seen by Pepys in authentic shapes. Betterton
+acted Lear, we are positively informed, "exactly as Shakespeare wrote
+it"; and at the dates when Pepys saw _Hamlet_, _Twelfth Night_, and
+the rest, there is no evidence that the old texts had been tampered
+with. The rage for adapting Shakespeare to current theatrical
+requirements reached its full tide after the period of Pepys's diary.
+Pepys witnessed only the first-fruits of that fantastic movement. It
+acquired its greatest luxuriance later. The pioneer of the great
+scheme of adaptation was Sir William D'Avenant, and he was aided in
+Pepys's playgoing days by no less a personage than Dryden. It was
+during the succeeding decade that the scandal, fanned by the energies
+of lesser men, was at its unseemly height.
+
+No disrespect seems to have been intended to Shakespeare's memory by
+those who devoted themselves to these acts of vandalism. However
+difficult it may be to realise the fact, true admiration for
+Shakespeare's genius seems to have flourished in the breasts of all
+the adapters, great and small. D'Avenant, whose earliest poetic
+production was a pathetic elegy on the mighty dramatist, never ceased
+to write or speak of him with the most affectionate respect. Dryden,
+who was first taught by D'Avenant "to admire" Shakespeare's work,
+attests in his critical writings a reverence for its unique
+excellence, which must satisfy the most enthusiastic worshipper. The
+same temper characterises references to Shakespeare on the part of
+dramatists of the Restoration, who brought to the adaptation of
+Shakespeare abilities of an order far inferior to those of Dryden or
+of D'Avenant. Nahum Tate, one of the least respected names in English
+literature, was one of the freest adapters of Shakespearean drama to
+the depraved taste of the day. Yet even he assigned to the master
+playwright unrivalled insight into the darkest mysteries of human
+nature, and an absolute mastery of the faculty of accurate
+characterisation. For once, Tate's literary judgment must go
+unquestioned.
+
+It was no feeling of disrespect or of dislike for Shakespeare's
+work--it was the change that was taking place in the methods of
+theatrical representation, which mainly incited the Shakespearean
+adapters of the Restoration to their benighted labours. Shakespeare
+had been acted without scenery or musical accompaniment. As soon as
+scenic machinery and music had become ordinary accessories of the
+stage, it seemed to theatrical managers almost a point of honour to
+fit Shakespearean drama to the new conditions. To abandon him
+altogether was sacrilege. Yet the mutation of public taste offered, as
+the only alternative to his abandonment, the obligation of bestowing
+on his work every mechanical advantage, every tawdry ornament in the
+latest mode.
+
+Pepys fully approved the innovations, and two of the earliest of
+Shakespearean adaptations won his unqualified eulogy. These were
+D'Avenant's reconstructions of _The Tempest_ and _Macbeth._ D'Avenant
+had convinced himself that both plays readily lent themselves to
+spectacle; they would repay the embellishments of ballets, new songs,
+new music, coloured lights, and flying machines. Reinforced by these
+charms of novelty, the old pieces might enjoy an everlasting youth. No
+spectator more ardently applauded such bastard sentiment than the
+playgoing Pepys.
+
+Of the two pieces, the text of _Macbeth_ was abbreviated, but
+otherwise the alterations in the blank-verse speeches were
+comparatively slight. Additional songs were provided for the Witches,
+together with much capering in the air. Music was specially written by
+Matthew Locke. The liberal introduction of song and dance rendered the
+piece, in Pepys's strange phrase, "a most excellent play for variety."
+He saw D'Avenant's version of it no less than eight times, with
+ever-increasing enjoyment. He generously praised the clever
+combination of "a deep tragedy with a divertissement." He detected no
+incongruity in the amalgamation. "Though I have seen it often," he
+wrote later, "yet is it one of the best plays for a stage, and for
+variety of dancing and music, that ever I saw."
+
+_The Tempest_, the other adapted play, which is prominent in Pepys's
+diary, underwent more drastic revision. Here D'Avenant had the
+co-operation of Dryden; and no intelligent reader can hesitate to
+affirm that the ingenuity of these worthies ruined this splendid
+manifestation of poetic fancy and insight. It is only fair to Dryden
+to add that he disclaimed any satisfaction in his share in the
+outrage. The first edition of the barbarous revision was first
+published in 1670, after D'Avenant's death, and Dryden wrote a
+preface, in which he prudently remarked: "I do not set a value on
+anything I have written in this play but [_i.e._, except] out of
+gratitude to the memory of Sir William Davenant, who did me the honour
+to join me with him in the alteration of it."
+
+The numerous additions, for which the distinguished coadjutors are
+responsible, reek with mawkish sentimentality, inane vapidity, or
+vulgar buffoonery. Most of the leading characters are duplicated or
+triplicated. Miranda has a sister, Dorinda, who is repellently
+coquettish. This new creation finds a lover in another new character,
+a brainless youth, Hippolito, who has never before seen a woman.
+Caliban becomes the most sordid of clowns, and is allotted a sister,
+Milcha, who apes his coarse buffoonery. Ariel, too, is given a female
+associate, Sycorax, together with many attendants. The sailors are
+increased in number, and a phalanx of dancing devils join in their
+antics.
+
+But the chief feature of the revived _Tempest_ was the music,
+the elaborate scenery, and the scenic mechanism.[19] There was
+an orchestra of twenty-four violins in front of the stage, with
+harpsichords and "theorbos" to accompany the voices; new songs
+were dispersed about the piece with unsparing hand. The curious
+new "Echo" song in Act III.--a duet between Ferdinand and Ariel--was
+deemed by Pepys to be so "mighty pretty" that he requested the
+composer--Bannister--to "prick him down the notes." Many times did the
+audience shout with joy as Ariel, with a _corps de ballet_ in
+attendance, winged his flight to the roof of the stage.
+
+[Footnote 19: The Dryden-D'Avenant perversion of _The Tempest_ which
+Pepys witnessed underwent a further deterioration in 1673, when Thomas
+Shadwell, poet laureate, to the immense delight of the playgoing
+public, rendered the piece's metamorphosis into an opera more
+complete. In 1674 the Dryden-D'Avenant edition was reissued, with
+Shadwell's textual and scenic amplification, although no indication
+was given on the title-page or elsewhere of his share in the venture.
+Contemporary histories of the stage make frequent reference to
+Shadwell's "Opera" of _The Tempest_; but no copy was known to be
+extant until Sir Ernest Clarke proved, in _The Athenæum_ for August
+25, 1906, that the second and later editions of the Dryden-D'Avenant
+version embodied Shadwell's operatic embellishments, and are copies of
+what was known in theatrical circles of the day as Shadwell's "Opera."
+Shadwell's stage-directions are more elaborate than those of Dryden
+and D'Avenant, and there are other minor innovations; but there is
+little difference in the general design of the two versions. Shadwell
+merely bettered Dryden's and D'Avenant's instructions.]
+
+The scenic devices which distinguished the Restoration production of
+_The Tempest_ have, indeed, hardly been excelled for ingenuity in our
+own day. The arrangements for the sinking of the ship in the first
+scene would do no discredit to the spectacular magnificence of the
+London stage of our own day. The scene represented "a thick cloudy
+sky, a very rocky coast, and a tempestuous sea in perpetual
+agitation." "This tempest," according to the stage-directions, "has
+many dreadful objects in it; several spirits in horrid shapes flying
+down among the sailors, then rising and crossing in the air; and when
+the ship is sinking, the whole house is darkened and a shower of fire
+falls upon the vessel. This is accompanied by lightning and several
+claps of thunder till the end of the storm." The stage-manager's notes
+proceed:--"In the midst of the shower of fire, the scene changes. The
+cloudy sky, rocks, and sea vanish, and when the lights return,
+discover that beautiful part of the island, which was the habitation
+of Prospero: 'tis composed of three walks of cypress trees; each
+side-walk leads to a cave, in one of which Prospero keeps his
+daughter, in the other Hippolito (the interpolated character of the
+man who has never seen a woman). The middle walk is of great depth,
+and leads to an open part of the island." Every scene of the play was
+framed with equal elaborateness.
+
+Pepys's comment on _The Tempest_, when he first witnessed its
+production in such magnificent conditions, runs thus:--"The play has
+no great wit but yet good above ordinary plays." Pepys subsequently,
+however, saw the piece no less than five times, and the effect of the
+music, dancing, and scenery, steadily grew upon him. On his second
+visit he wrote:--"Saw _The Tempest_ again, which is very pleasant, and
+full of so good variety, that I cannot be more pleased almost in a
+comedy. Only the seamen's part a little too tedious." Finally, Pepys
+praised the richly-embellished _Tempest_ without any sort of reserve,
+and took "pleasure to learn the tune of the seamen's dance."
+
+Other adaptations of Shakespeare, which followed somewhat less
+spectacular methods of barbarism, roused in Pepys smaller enthusiasm.
+_The Rivals_, a version by D'Avenant of _The Two Noble Kinsmen_ (the
+joint production of Fletcher and Shakespeare), was judged by Pepys to
+be "no excellent piece," though he appreciated the new songs, which
+included the familiar "My lodging is on the cold ground," with music
+by Matthew Locke. Pepys formed a higher opinion of D'Avenant's
+liberally-altered version of _Measure for Measure_, which the adapter
+called _The Law against Lovers_, and into which he introduced, with
+grotesque effect, the characters of Beatrice and Benedick from _Much
+Ado about Nothing_. But it is more to Pepys's credit that he bestowed
+a very qualified approval on an execrable adaptation by the actor Lacy
+of _The Taming of the Shrew_. Here the hero, Petruchio, is
+overshadowed by a new character, Sawney, his Scottish servant, who
+speaks an unintelligible _patois_. "It hath some very good pieces in
+it," writes Pepys, "but generally is but a mean play, and the best
+part, Sawny, done by Lacy, hath not half its life by reason of the
+words, I suppose, not being understood, at least by me."
+
+
+VI
+
+It might be profitable to compare Pepys's experiences as a spectator
+of Shakespeare's plays on the stage with the opportunities open to
+playgoers at the present moment. Modern managers have been producing
+Shakespearean drama of late with great liberality, and usually in much
+splendour. Neither the points of resemblance between the modern and
+the Pepysian methods, nor the points of difference, are flattering to
+the esteem of ourselves as a literature-loving people. It is true that
+we no longer garble our acting versions of Shakespeare. We are content
+with abbreviations of the text, some of which are essential, but many
+of which injure the dramatic perspective, and with inversion of scenes
+which may or may not be justifiable. But, to my mind, it is in our
+large dependence on scenery that we are following too closely that
+tradition of the Restoration which won the wholehearted approval of
+Pepys. The musico-scenic method of producing Shakespeare can always
+count on the applause of the average multitude of playgoers, of which
+Pepys is the ever-living spokesman. It is Shakespeare with scenic
+machinery, Shakespeare with new songs, Shakespeare with incidental
+music, Shakespeare with interpolated ballets, that reaches the heart
+of the British public. If the average British playgoer were gifted
+with Pepys's frankness, I have little doubt that he would echo the
+diarist's condemnation of Shakespeare in his poetic purity, of
+Shakespeare as the mere interpreter of human nature, of Shakespeare
+without flying machines, of Shakespeare without song and dance; he
+would characterise undiluted Shakespearean drama as "a mean thing," or
+the most tedious entertainment that ever he was at in his life.
+
+But the situation in Pepys's day had, despite all the perils that
+menaced it, a saving grace. Great acting, inspired acting, is an
+essential condition to any general appreciation in the theatre of
+Shakespeare's dramatic genius. However seductive may be the
+musico-scenic ornamentation, Shakespeare will never justly affect the
+mind of the average playgoer unless great or inspired actors are at
+hand to interpret him. Luckily for Pepys, he was the contemporary of
+at least one inspired Shakespearean actor. The exaltation of spirit to
+which he confesses, when he witnessed Betterton in the rôle of Hamlet,
+is proof that the prosaic multitude for whom he speaks will always
+respond to Shakespeare's magic touch when genius wields the actor's
+wand. One could wish nothing better for the playgoing public of to-day
+than that the spirit of Betterton, Shakespeare's guardian angel in the
+theatre of the Restoration, might renew its earthly career in our own
+time in the person of some contemporary actor.
+
+
+
+
+V
+
+MR BENSON AND SHAKESPEAREAN DRAMA[20]
+
+[Footnote 20: This paper was first printed in the _Cornhill Magazine_,
+May 1900.]
+
+
+I
+
+Dramatic criticism in the daily press of London often resembles that
+method of conversation of which Bacon wrote that it seeks "rather
+commendation of wit, in being able to hold argument, than of judgment,
+in discerning what is true." For four-and-twenty years Mr F.R. Benson
+has directed an acting company which has achieved a reputation in
+English provincial cities, in Ireland, and in Scotland, by its
+exclusive devotion to Shakespearean and classical drama. Mr Benson's
+visits to London have been rare. There he has too often made sport for
+the journalistic censors who aim at "commendation of wit."
+
+Even the best-intentioned of Mr Benson's critics in London have fallen
+into the habit of concentrating attention on unquestionable defects in
+Mr Benson's practice, to the neglect of the vital principles which are
+the justification of his policy. Mr Benson's principles have been
+largely ignored by the newspapers; but they are not wisely
+disregarded. They are matters of urgent public interest. They point
+the right road to the salvation of Shakespearean drama on the modern
+stage. They cannot be too often pressed on public notice.
+
+These, in my view, are the five points of the charter which Mr Benson
+is and has long been championing with a persistency which claims
+national recognition.
+
+Firstly, it is to the benefit of the nation that Shakespeare's plays
+should be acted constantly and in their variety.
+
+Secondly, a theatrical manager who undertakes to produce Shakespearean
+drama should change his programme at frequent intervals, and should
+permit no long continuous run of any single play.
+
+Thirdly, all the parts, whatever their significance, should be
+entrusted to exponents who have been trained in the delivery of blank
+verse, and have gained some knowledge and experience of the range of
+Shakespearean drama.
+
+Fourthly, no play should be adapted by the manager so as to give
+greater prominence than the text invites to any single rôle.
+
+Fifthly, the scenic embellishment should be simple and inexpensive,
+and should be subordinated to the dramatic interest.
+
+There is no novelty in these principles. The majority of them were
+accepted unhesitatingly in the past by Betterton, Garrick, Edmund
+Kean, the Kembles, and notably by Phelps. They are recognised
+principles to-day in the leading theatres of France and Germany. But
+by some vagary of fate or public taste they have been reckoned in
+London, for a generation at any rate, to be out of date.
+
+In the interest of the manager, the actor, and the student, a return
+to the discarded methods has become, in the opinion of an influential
+section of the educated public, imperative. Mr Benson is the only
+manager of recent date to inscribe boldly and continuously on his
+banner the old watchwords: "Shakespeare and the National Drama,"
+"Short Runs," "No Stars," "All-round Competence," and "Unostentatious
+Setting." What better title could be offered to the support and
+encouragement of the intelligent playgoer?
+
+
+II
+
+A constant change of programme, such as the old methods of the stage
+require, causes the present generation of London playgoers, to whom it
+is unfamiliar, a good deal of perplexity. Londoners have grown
+accustomed to estimate the merits of a play by the number of
+performances which are given of it in uninterrupted succession. They
+have forgotten how mechanical an exercise of the lungs and limbs
+acting easily becomes; how frequent repetition of poetic speeches,
+even in the most competent mouths, robs the lines of their poetic
+temper.
+
+Numbness of intellect, rigidity of tone, artificiality of expression,
+are fatal alike to the enunciation of Shakespearean language and to
+the interpretation of Shakespearean character. The system of short
+runs, of the nightly alterations of the play, such as Mr Benson has
+revived, is the only sure preservative against maladies so fatal.
+
+Hardly less important is Mr Benson's new-old principle of "casting" a
+play of Shakespeare. Not only in the leading rôles of Shakespeare's
+masterpieces, but in subordinate parts throughout the range of his
+work, the highest abilities of the actor can find some scope for
+employment. A competent knowledge of the poet's complete work is
+needed to bring this saving truth home to those who are engaged in
+presenting Shakespearean drama on the stage. An actor hardly realises
+the real force of the doctrine until he has had experience of the
+potentialities of a series of the smaller characters by making
+practical endeavours to interpret them. Adequate opportunities of the
+kind are only accessible to members of a permanent company, whose
+energies are absorbed in the production of the Shakespearean drama
+constantly and in its variety, and whose programme is untrammelled by
+the poisonous system of "long runs." Shakespearean actors should drink
+deep of the Pierian spring. They should be graduates in Shakespeare's
+university; and, unlike graduates of other universities, they should
+master not merely formal knowledge, but a flexible power of using it.
+
+Mr Benson's company is, I believe, the only one at present in
+existence in England which confines almost all its efforts to the
+acting of Shakespeare. In the course of its twenty-four years'
+existence its members have interpreted in the theatre no less than
+thirty of Shakespeare's plays.[21] The natural result is that Mr
+Benson and his colleagues have learned in practice the varied calls
+that Shakespearean drama makes upon actors' capacities.
+
+[Footnote 21: Mr Benson, writing to me on 13th January 1906, gives the
+following list of plays by Shakespeare which he has produced:--_Antony
+and Cleopatra_, _As You Like It_, _The Comedy of Errors_,
+_Coriolanus_, _Hamlet_, _Henry IV. (Parts 1 and 2)_, _Henry V._,
+_Henry VI. (Parts 1, 2, and 3)_, _Henry VIII._, _Julius Cæsar_, _King
+John_, _King Lear_, _Macbeth_, _The Merchant of Venice_, _The Merry
+Wives of Windsor_, _A Midsummer Night's Dream_, _Much Ado About
+Nothing_, _Othello_, _Pericles_, _Richard II._, _Richard III._, _Romeo
+and Juliet_, _The Taming of the Shrew_, _The Tempest_, _Timon of
+Athens_, _Twelfth Night_, and _A Winter's Tale_. Phelps's record only
+exceeded Mr Benson's by one. He produced thirty-one of Shakespeare's
+plays in all, but he omitted _Richard II._, and the three parts of
+_Henry VI._, which Mr Benson has acted, while he included _Love's
+Labour's Lost_, _The Two Gentlemen of Verona_, _All's Well that Ends
+Well_, _Cymbeline_, and _Measure for Measure_, which Mr Benson, so
+far, has eschewed. Mr Phelps and Mr Benson are at one in avoiding
+_Titus Andronicus_ and _Troilus and Cressida_.]
+
+Members of Mr Benson's company have made excellent use of their
+opportunities. An actor, like the late Frank Rodney, who could on one
+night competently portray Bolingbroke in _Richard II._ and on the
+following night the clown Feste in _Twelfth Night_ with equal effect,
+clearly realised something of the virtue of Shakespearean versatility.
+Mr Benson's leading comedian, Mr Weir, whose power of presenting
+Shakespeare's humorists shows, besides native gifts, the advantages
+that come of experienced study of the dramatist, not only interprets,
+in the genuine spirit, great rôles like Falstaff and Touchstone, but
+gives the truest possible significance to the comparatively
+unimportant rôles of the First Gardener in _Richard II._ and Grumio in
+_The Taming of the Shrew_.
+
+Nothing could be more grateful to a student of Shakespeare than the
+manner in which the small part of John of Gaunt was played by Mr
+Warburton in Mr Benson's production of _Richard II._ The part includes
+the glorious panegyric of England which comes from the lips of the
+dying man, and must challenge the best efforts of every actor of
+ambition and self-respect. But in the mouth of an actor who lacks
+knowledge of the true temper of Shakespearean drama, this speech is
+certain to be mistaken for a detached declamation of patriotism--an
+error which ruins its dramatic significance. As Mr Warburton delivered
+it, one listened to the despairing cry of a feeble old man roused for
+a moment from the lethargy of sickness by despair at the thought that
+the great country he loved was in peril of decay through the selfish
+and frivolous temper of its ruler. Instead of a Chauvinist manifesto
+defiantly declaimed under the limelight, there was offered us the
+quiet pathos of a dying patriot's lament over his beloved country's
+misfortunes--an oracular warning from a death-stricken tongue,
+foreshadowing with rare solemnity and dramatic irony the violent doom
+of the reckless worker of the mischief. Any other conception of the
+passage, any conscious endeavour to win a round of applause by
+elocutionary display, would disable the actor from doing justice to
+the great and sadly stirring utterance. The right note could only be
+sounded by one who was acclimatised to Shakespearean drama, and had
+recognised the wealth of significance to be discovered and to be
+disclosed (with due artistic restraint) in Shakespeare's minor
+characters.
+
+
+III
+
+The benefits to be derived from the control of a trained school of
+Shakespearean actors were displayed very conspicuously when Mr Benson
+undertook six years ago the heroic task of performing the play of
+_Hamlet_, as Shakespeare wrote it, without any abbreviation. _Hamlet_
+is the longest of Shakespeare's plays; it reaches a total of over 3900
+lines. It is thus some 900 lines longer than _Antony and Cleopatra_,
+which of all Shakespeare's plays most nearly approaches its length.
+Consequently it is a tradition of the stage to cut the play of
+_Hamlet_ by the omission of more than a third. Hamlet's part is
+usually retained almost in its entirety, but the speeches of every
+other character are seriously curtailed. Mr Benson ventured on the
+bold innovation of giving the play in full.[22]
+
+[Footnote 22: The performance occupied nearly six hours. One half was
+given in the afternoon, and the other half in the evening of the same
+day, with an interval of an hour and a half between the two sections.
+Should the performance be repeated, I would recommend, in the
+interests of busy men and women, that the whole play be rendered at a
+single sitting, which might be timed to open at a somewhat earlier
+hour in the evening than is now customary, and might, if need be,
+close a little later. There should be no difficulty in restricting the
+hours occupied by the performance to four and a half.]
+
+Only he who has witnessed the whole play on the stage can fully
+appreciate its dramatic capabilities. It is obvious that, in whatever
+shape the play of _Hamlet_ is produced in the theatre, its success
+must always be primarily due to the overpowering fascination exerted
+on the audience by the character of the hero. In every conceivable
+circumstance the young prince must be the centre of attraction.
+Nevertheless, no graver injury can be done the play as an acting drama
+than by treating it as a one-part piece. The accepted method of
+shortening the tragedy by reducing every part, except that of Hamlet,
+is to distort Shakespeare's whole scheme, to dislocate or obscure the
+whole action. The predominance of Hamlet is exaggerated at the expense
+of the dramatist's artistic purpose.
+
+To realise completely the motives of Hamlet's conduct, and the process
+of his fortunes, not a single utterance from the lips of the King,
+Polonius, or Laertes can be spared. In ordinary acting versions these
+three parts sink into insignificance. It is only in the full text that
+they assume their just and illuminating rank as Hamlet's foils.
+
+The King rises into a character almost of the first class. He is a
+villain of unfathomable infamy, but his cowardly fear of the discovery
+of his crimes, his desperate pursuit of the consolations of religion,
+the quick ingenuity with which he plots escape from the inevitable
+retribution that dogs his misdeeds, excite--in the full text of the
+play--an interest hardly less intense than those wistful musings of
+the storm-tossed soul which stay his nephew's avenging hand.
+
+Similarly, Hamlet's incisive wit and honesty are brought into the
+highest possible relief by the restoration to the feebly guileful
+Polonius of the speeches of which he has long been deprived. Among the
+reinstated scenes is that in which the meddlesome dotard teaches his
+servant Reynaldo modes of espionage that shall detect the moral lapses
+of his son Laertes in Paris. The recovered episode is not only
+admirable comedy, but it gives new vividness to Polonius's maudlin
+egotism which is responsible for many windings of the tragic plot.
+
+The story is simplified at all points by such amplifications of the
+contracted version which holds the stage. The events are evolved with
+unsuspected naturalness. The hero's character gains by the expansion
+of its setting. One downright error which infects the standard
+abridgement is wholly avoided. Ophelia is dethroned. It is recognised
+that she is not entitled to share with Hamlet the triumphal honours of
+the action. Weak, insipid, destitute of all force of character, she
+deserves an insignificant place in Shakespeare's gallery of heroines.
+Hamlet's mother merits as much or more attention. At any rate, there
+is no justification for reducing the Queen's part in order to increase
+Ophelia's prominence. Such distortions are impossible in the
+production of the piece in its entirety. Throughout _Hamlet_, in the
+full authorised text, the artistic balance hangs true. Mr Benson
+recognised that dominant fact, and contrived to illustrate it on the
+stage. No higher commendation could be allowed a theatrical manager or
+actor.
+
+
+IV
+
+Much else could be said of Mr Benson's principles, and of his
+praiseworthy energy in seeking to familiarise the playgoer with
+Shakespearean drama in all its fulness and variety, but only one other
+specific feature of his method needs mention here. Perhaps the most
+convincing proof that he has given of the value of his principles to
+the country's dramatic art is his success in the training of actors
+and actresses. Of late it is his company that has supplied the great
+London actor-managers with their ablest recruits. Nearly all the best
+performers of secondary rôles and a few of the best performers of
+primary rôles in the leading London theatres are Mr Benson's pupils.
+Their admission to the great London companies is raising the standard
+of acting in the metropolis. The marked efficiency of these newcomers
+is due to a system which is inconsistent with any of the accepted
+principles of current theatrical enterprise in London. Mr Benson's
+disciples mainly owe their efficiency to long association with a
+permanent company controlled by a manager who seeks, single-mindedly,
+what he holds to be the interests of dramatic art. The many-headed
+public learns its lessons very slowly, and sometimes neglects them
+altogether. It has been reluctant to recognise the true significance
+of Mr Benson's work. But the intelligent onlooker knows that he is
+marching along the right road, in intelligent conformity with the best
+teaching of the past.
+
+Thirty years ago a meeting took place at the Mansion House to discuss
+the feasibility of founding a State theatre in London, a project which
+was not realised. The most memorable incident which was associated
+with the Mansion House meeting was a speech of the theatrical manager
+Phelps, who argued, amid the enthusiastic plaudits of his hearers,
+that it was in the highest interests of the nation that the
+Shakespearean drama should continuously occupy the stage. "I
+maintain," Phelps said, "from the experience of eighteen years, that
+the perpetual iteration of Shakespeare's words, if nothing more, going
+on daily for so many months of the year, must and would produce a
+great effect upon the public mind." No man or woman of sense will
+to-day gainsay the wisdom of this utterance; but it is needful for the
+public to make greater exertion than they have made of late if "the
+perpetual iteration of Shakespeare's words" in the theatre is to be
+permanently secured.
+
+Mr Benson's efforts constitute the best organised endeavour to realise
+Phelps's ambition since Phelps withdrew from management. Mr Benson's
+scheme is imperfect in some of its details; in other particulars it
+may need revision. But he and his associates have planted their feet
+firmly on sure ground in their endeavours to interpret Shakespearean
+drama constantly and in its variety, after a wise and well-considered
+system and with a disinterested zeal. When every allowance has been
+made for the Benson Company's shortcomings, its achievement cannot be
+denied "a relish of salvation." Mr Benson deserves well of those who
+have faith in the power of Shakespeare's words to widen the horizon of
+men's intellects and emotions. The seed he has sown should not be
+suffered to decay.
+
+
+
+
+VI
+
+THE MUNICIPAL THEATRE[23]
+
+[Footnote 23: This paper was first printed in the _New Liberal
+Review_, May 1902.]
+
+
+I
+
+Many actors, dramatic critics, and men in public life advocate the
+municipal manner of theatrical enterprise. Their aim, as I understand
+it, is to procure the erection, and the due working, of a playhouse
+that shall serve in permanence the best interests of the literary or
+artistic drama. The municipal theatre is not worth fighting for,
+unless there is a reasonable probability that its establishment will
+benefit dramatic art, promote the knowledge of dramatic literature,
+and draw from the literary drama and confer on the public the largest
+beneficial influence which the literary drama is capable of
+distributing.
+
+None of Shakespeare's countrymen or countrywomen can deny with a good
+grace the importance of the drama as a branch of art. None will
+seriously dispute that our dramatic literature, at any rate in its
+loftiest manifestation, has contributed as much as our armies or our
+navies or our mechanical inventions to our reputation through the
+world.
+
+There is substantial agreement among enlightened leaders of public
+opinion in all civilised countries that great drama, when fitly
+represented in the theatre, offers the rank and file of a nation
+recreation which brings with it moral, intellectual, and spiritual
+advantage.
+
+
+II
+
+The first question to consider is whether in England the existing
+theatrical agencies promote for the general good the genuine interests
+of dramatic art. Do existing theatrical agencies secure for the nation
+all the beneficial influence that is derivable from the truly
+competent form of drama? If they do this sufficiently, it is otiose
+and impertinent to entertain the notion of creating any new theatrical
+agency.
+
+Theatrical agencies of the existing type have never ignored the
+literary drama altogether. Among actor-managers of the past
+generation, Sir Henry Irving devoted his high ability to the
+interpretation of many species of literary drama--from that by
+Shakespeare to that by Tennyson. At leading theatres in London there
+have been produced in the last few years poetic dramas written in
+blank verse on themes drawn from such supreme examples of the world's
+literature as Homer's _Odyssey_ and Dante's _Inferno_. Signs have not
+been wanting of public anxiety to acknowledge with generosity these
+and other serious endeavours in poetic drama, whatever their precise
+degree of excellence. But such premisses warrant no very large
+conclusion. Two or three swallows do not make a summer. The literary
+drama is only welcomed to the London stage at uncertain intervals;
+most of its life is passed in the wilderness.
+
+The recognition that is given in England to literary or poetic drama,
+alike of the past and present, is chiefly notable for its
+irregularity. The circumstance may be accounted for in various ways.
+It is best explained by the fact that England is the only country in
+Europe in which theatrical enterprise is wholly and exclusively
+organised on a capitalist basis. No theatre in England is worked
+to-day on any but the capitalist principle. Artistic aspiration may be
+well alive in the theatrical profession, but the custom and
+circumstance of capital, the calls of the counting-house, hamper the
+theatrical artist's freedom of action. The methods imposed are
+dictated too exclusively by the mercantile spirit.
+
+Many illustrations could be given of the unceasing conflict which
+capitalist methods wage with artistic methods. One is sufficient. The
+commercially capitalised theatre is bound hand and foot to the system
+of long runs. In no theatres of the first class outside London and New
+York is the system known, and even here and in New York it is of
+comparatively recent origin. But Londoners have grown so accustomed to
+the system that they overlook the havoc which it works on the theatre
+as a home of art. Both actor and playgoer suffer signal injury from
+its effects. It limits the range of drama which is available at our
+great theatres to the rank and file of mankind. Especially serious is
+the danger to which the unchangeable programme exposes histrionic
+capacity and histrionic intelligence. The actor is not encouraged to
+widen his knowledge of the drama. His faculties are blunted by the
+narrow monotony of his experience. Yet the capitalised conditions of
+theatrical enterprise, which are in vogue in London and New York,
+seem to render long runs imperative. The system of long runs is
+peculiar to English-speaking countries, where alone theatrical
+enterprise is altogether under the sway of capital. It is specifically
+prohibited in the national or municipal theatre of every great foreign
+city, where the interests of dramatic art enjoy foremost
+consideration.
+
+The artistic aspiration of the actor-manager may be set on the
+opposite side of the account. Although the actor-manager belongs to
+the ranks of the capitalists (whether he be one himself or be
+dependent on one), yet when he exercises supreme control of his
+playhouse, and is moved by artistic feeling, he may check many of the
+evils that spring from capitalist domination. He can partially
+neutralise the hampering effect on dramatic art of the merely
+commercial application of capital to theatrical enterprise.
+
+The actor-manager system is liable to impede the progress of dramatic
+art through defects of its own, but its most characteristic defects
+are not tarred with the capitalist brush. The actor-manager is prone
+to over-estimate the range of his histrionic power. He tends to claim
+of right the first place in the cast of every piece which he produces.
+He will consequently at times fill a rôle for which his powers unsuit
+him. If he be wise enough to avoid that error, he may imperil the
+interests of dramatic art in another fashion; he may neglect pieces,
+despite their artistic value, in which he knows the foremost part to
+be outside his scope. The actor-manager has sometimes undertaken a
+secondary rôle. But then it often happens, not necessarily by his
+deliberate endeavour, but by the mere force and popularity of his name
+among the frequenters of his playhouse, that there is focussed on his
+secondary part an attention that it does not intrinsically merit, with
+the result that the artistic perspective of the play is injured. A
+primary law of dramatic art deprecates the constant preponderance of
+one actor in a company. The highest attainable level of excellence in
+all the members is the true artistic aim.
+
+The dangers inherent in the "star" principle of the actor-manager
+system may be frankly admitted, but at the same time one should
+recognise the system's possible advantages. An actor-manager does not
+usually arrive at his position until his career is well advanced and
+he has proved his histrionic capacity. Versatility commonly
+distinguishes him, and he is able to fill a long series of leading
+rôles without violating artistic propriety. At any rate, the
+actor-manager who resolutely cherishes respect for art can do much to
+temper the corrupting influences of commercial capitalism in the
+theatrical world.
+
+It is probably the less needful to scrutinise closely the theoretic
+merits or demerits of the actor-manager system, because the dominant
+principle of current theatrical enterprise in London and America
+renders most precarious the future existence of that system. The
+actor-manager seems, at any rate, threatened in London by a new and
+irresistible tide of capitalist energy. Six or seven leading theatres
+in London have recently been brought under the control of an American
+capitalist who does not pretend to any but mercantile inspiration. The
+American capitalist's first and last aim is naturally to secure the
+highest possible remuneration for his invested capital. He is
+catholic-minded, and has no objection to artistic drama, provided he
+can draw substantial profit from it. Material interests alone have any
+real meaning for him. If he serve the interests of art by producing an
+artistic play, he serves art by accident and unconsciously: his object
+is to benefit his exchequer. His philosophy is unmitigated
+utilitarianism. "The greatest pleasure for the greatest number" is his
+motto. The pleasure that carries farthest and brings round him the
+largest paying audiences is his ideal stock-in-trade. Obviously
+pleasure either of the frivolous or of the spectacular kind attracts
+the greatest number of customers to his emporium. It is consequently
+pleasure of this spectacular or frivolous kind which he habitually
+endeavours to provide. It is Quixotic to anticipate much diminution in
+the supply and demand of either frivolity or spectacle, both of which
+may furnish quite innocuous pleasure. But each is the antithesis of
+dramatic art; and whatever view one holds of the methods of the
+American capitalist, it is irrational to look to him for the
+intelligent promotion of dramatic art.
+
+
+III
+
+From the artistic point of view the modern system of theatrical
+enterprise thus seems capable of improvement. If it be incapable of
+general improvement, it is at least capable of having a better example
+set it than current modes can be reckoned on to offer. The latter are
+not likely to be displaced. All that can be attempted is to create a
+new model at their side. What is sought by the advocates of a
+municipal theatre is an institution which shall maintain in
+permanence a high artistic ideal of drama, and shall give the public
+the opportunity of permanently honouring that ideal. Existing theatres
+whose programmes ignore art would be unaffected by such a new
+neighbour. But existing enterprises, which, as far as present
+conditions permit, reflect artistic aspiration, would derive from such
+an institution new and steady encouragement.
+
+The interests of dramatic art can only be served whole-heartedly in a
+theatre organised on two principles which have hitherto been
+unrecognised in England. In the first place, the management should
+acknowledge some sort of public obligation to make the interests of
+dramatic art its first motive of action. In the second place, the
+management should be relieved of the need of seeking unrestricted
+commercial profits for the capital that is invested in the venture.
+Both principles have been adopted with successful results in
+Continental cities; but their successful practice implies the
+acceptance by the State, or by a permanent local authority, of a
+certain amount of responsibility in both the artistic and the
+financial directions.
+
+It is foolish to blind oneself to commercial considerations
+altogether. When the municipal theatre is freed of the unimaginative
+control of private capital seeking unlimited profit, it is still wise
+to require a moderate return on the expended outlay. The municipal
+theatre can only live healthily in the presence of a public desire or
+demand for it, and that public desire or demand can only be measured
+by the playhouse receipts. A municipal theatre would not be
+satisfactorily conducted if money were merely lost in it, or spent on
+it without any thought of the likelihood of the expenditure proving
+remunerative. Profits need never be refused; but all above a fixed
+minimum rate of interest on the invested capital should be applied to
+the promotion of those purposes which the municipal theatre primarily
+exists to serve--to cheapen, for example, prices of admission, or to
+improve the general mechanism behind and before the scenes. No surplus
+profits should reach the pocket of any individual manager or
+financier.
+
+
+IV
+
+There is in England a demand and desire on the part of a substantial
+section of the public for this new form of theatrical enterprise,
+although its precise dimensions may not be absolutely determinate. The
+question is thereby adapted for practical discussion. The demand and
+desire have as yet received inadequate recognition, because they have
+not been satisfactorily organised or concentrated. The trend of an
+appreciable section of public opinion in the direction of a limited
+municipalisation of the theatre is visible in many places. Firstly,
+one must take into account the number of small societies which have
+been formed of late by enthusiasts for the exclusive promotion of one
+or other specific branch of the literary drama--the Elizabethan drama,
+the Norwegian drama, the German drama. Conspicuous success has been
+denied these societies because their leaders tend to assert narrow
+sectional views of the bases of dramatic art, or they lack the
+preliminary training and the influence which are essential to the
+efficient conduct of any public enterprise. Many of their experiences
+offer useful object-lessons as to the defects inherent in all narrow
+sectional effort, however enthusiastically inspired. But at the same
+time they testify to a desire to introduce into the current theatrical
+system more literary and artistic principles than are at present
+habitual to it. They point to the presence of a zeal--often, it may
+be, misdirected--for change or reform.
+
+The experiment of Mr Benson points more effectively in the same
+direction. A public-spirited champion of Shakespeare and the classical
+drama, he has maintained his hold in the chief cities of Ireland,
+Scotland, and the English provinces for a generation. Although for
+reasons that are not hard to seek, he has failed to establish his
+position in London, Mr Benson's methods of work have enabled him to
+render conspicuous service to the London stage in a manner which is
+likely to facilitate reform. For many years he has supplied the
+leading London theatres with a succession of trained actors and
+actresses. Graduates in Mr Benson's school can hardly fail to
+co-operate willingly in any reform of theatrical enterprise, which is
+calculated to develop the artistic capacities of the stage.
+
+Other circumstances are no less promising. The justice of the cry for
+the due safeguarding of the country's dramatic art by means of
+publicly-organised effort has been repeatedly acknowledged of late by
+men of experience alike in dramatic and public affairs. In 1898 a
+petition was presented to the London County Council requesting that
+body to found and endow a permanent opera-house "in order to promote
+the musical interest and refinement of the public and the advancement
+of the art of music." The petition bore the signatures of two hundred
+leaders of public opinion, including the chief members of the dramatic
+profession. In this important document, particulars were given of the
+manner in which the State or the municipality aided theatres in
+France, Germany, Austria, and other countries of Europe. It was shown,
+that in France twelve typically efficient theatres received from
+public bodies an annual subsidy amounting in the aggregate to
+£130,000. The wording of the petition and the arguments employed by
+the petitioners were applicable to drama as well as to opera. In fact,
+the case was put in a way which was more favourable to the pretensions
+of drama than to those of opera. One argument which always tells
+against the establishment of a publicly-subsidised opera-house in
+London does not affect the establishment of a publicly-subsidised
+theatre. Opera is an exotic in England; drama is a native product, and
+has exerted in the past a wider influence and has attracted a wider
+sympathy than Italian or German music.
+
+The London County Council, after careful inquiry, gave the scheme of
+1898 benevolent encouragement. Hope was held out that a site for
+either a theatre or an opera-house might be reserved "in connection
+with one of the contemplated central improvements of London." Nothing
+in the recent history of the London County Council gives ground for
+doubting that it will be prepared to give practical effect to a
+thoroughly matured scheme.
+
+Within the Council the principle of the municipal theatre has found
+powerful advocacy. Mr John Burns, who is not merely the spokesman of
+the working classes, but is a representative of earnest-minded
+students of literature, has supported the principle with generous
+enthusiasm. The intelligent artisans of London applaud his attitude.
+The London Trades Council passed resolutions in the autumn of 1901
+recommending the erection of a theatre by the London County Council,
+"so that a higher standard of dramatic art might be encouraged and
+made more accessible to the wage-earning classes, as is the case in
+the State and municipal theatres in the principal cities on the
+Continent." The gist of the argument could hardly be put more
+pintally. [Transcriber's Note: so in original.]
+
+Of those who have written recently in favour of the scheme of a
+municipal theatre many speak with the authority of exceptional
+experience. The actor Mr John Coleman, one of the last survivors of
+Phelps's company at Sadler's Wells Theatre, argued with cogency,
+shortly before his death in 1903, that the national credit owed it to
+itself to renew Phelps's experiment of the middle of last century;
+public intervention was imperative, seeing that no other means were
+forthcoming. The late Sir Henry Irving in his closing years announced
+his conviction that a municipal theatre could alone keep the classical
+and the poetic drama fully alive in the theatres. The dramatic critic
+Mr William Archer, has brought his expert knowledge of dramatic
+organisation at home and abroad to the aid of the agitation. Various
+proposals--unhappily of too vague and unauthoritative a kind to
+guarantee a satisfactory reception--have been made from time to time
+to raise a fund to build a national theatre, and to run it for five
+years on a public subsidy of £10,000 a year.
+
+The advocates of the municipalising principle have worked for the most
+part in isolation. Such independence tends to dissipate rather than
+to conserve energy. A consolidating impulse has been sorely needed.
+But the variety of the points of views from which the subject has been
+independently approached renders the less disputable the genuine width
+of public interest in the question.
+
+The argument that it is contrary to public policy, or that it is
+opposed to the duty of the State or municipality, to provide for the
+people's enlightened amusement, is not formidable. The State and the
+municipality have long treated such work as part of their daily
+functions, whatever the arguments that have been urged against it. The
+State, in partnership with local authorities, educates the people,
+whether they like it or no. The municipalities of London and other
+great towns provide the people, outside the theatre, with almost every
+opportunity of enlightenment and enlightened amusement. In London
+there are 150 free libraries, which are mainly occupied in providing
+the ratepayers with the opportunities of reading fiction--recreation
+which is not always very enlightened. The County Council of London
+furnishes bands of music to play in the parks, at an expenditure of
+some £6000 a year. Most of our great cities supply, in addition,
+municipal picture galleries, in which the citizens take pride, and to
+which in their corporate capacity they contribute large sums of money.
+The municipal theatre is the natural complement of the municipal
+library, the municipal musical entertainment, and the municipal art
+gallery.
+
+
+V
+
+Of the practicability of a municipal theatre ample evidence is at
+hand. Foreign experience convincingly justifies the municipal mode of
+theatrical enterprise. Every great town in France, Germany, Austria,
+and Switzerland has its municipal theatre. In Paris there are three,
+in addition to four theatres which are subsidised by the State. It is
+estimated that there are seventy municipal theatres in the
+German-speaking countries of Europe, apart from twenty-seven State
+theatres. At the same time, it should be noted that in the French and
+German capitals there are, at the side of the State and municipal
+playhouses, numerous theatres which are run on ordinary commercial
+lines. The prosperity of these houses is in no way checked by the
+contiguity of theatrical enterprise of State or municipality.
+
+All municipal theatres on the continent of Europe pursue the same
+aims. They strive to supply the citizens with true artistic drama
+continuously, and to reduce the cost of admission to the playhouse to
+the lowest possible terms. But the working details of the foreign
+municipal theatres differ widely in individual cases, and a
+municipality which contemplates a first theatrical experiment is
+offered a large choice of method. In some places the municipality acts
+with regal munificence, and directly assumes the largest possible
+responsibilities. It provides the site, erects the theatre, and allots
+a substantial subsidy to its maintenance. The manager is a municipal
+officer, and the municipal theatre fills in the social life of the
+town as imposing a place as the town-hall, cathedral, or university.
+
+Elsewhere the municipality sets narrower limits to its sphere of
+operations. It merely provides the site and the building, and then
+lets the playhouse out at a moderate rental to directors of proved
+efficiency and public spirit, on assured conditions that they honestly
+serve the true interests of art, uphold a high standard of production,
+avoid the frivolity and spectacle of the market, and fix the price of
+seats on a very low scale. Here no public funds are seriously
+involved. The municipality pays no subsidy. The rent of the theatre
+supplies the municipality with normal interest on the capital that is
+invested in site and building. It is public credit of a moral rather
+than of a material kind which is pledged to the cause of dramatic art.
+
+In a third class of municipal theatre the public body confines its
+material aid to the gratuitous provision of a site. Upon that site
+private enterprise is invited to erect a theatre under adequate
+guarantee that it shall exclusively respect the purposes of art, and
+spare to the utmost the pockets of the playgoer. To render dramatic
+art accessible to the rank and file of mankind, with the smallest
+possible pressure on the individual citizen's private resources, is of
+the essence of every form of municipal theatrical enterprise.
+
+The net result of the municipal theatre, especially in German-speaking
+countries, is that the literary drama, both of the past and present,
+maintains a grip on the playgoing public which is outside English
+experience. There is in Germany a very flourishing modern German drama
+of literary merit. Sudermann and Hauptmann hold the ears of men of
+letters throughout Europe. Dramas by these authors are constantly
+presented in municipal theatres. At the same time, plays by the
+classical dramatists of all European countries are performed as
+constantly, and are no less popular. Almost every play of Shakespeare
+is in the repertory of the chief acting companies on the German
+municipal stage. At the side of Shakespeare stand Schiller and Goethe
+and Lessing, the classical dramatists of Germany; Molière, the
+classical dramatist of France; and Calderon, the classical dramatist
+of Spain. Public interest is liberally distributed over the whole
+range of artistic dramatic effort. Indeed, during recent years
+Shakespeare's plays have been performed in Germany more often than
+plays of the modern German school. Schiller, the classical national
+dramatist of Germany, lives more conspicuously on the modern German
+stage than any one modern German contemporary writer, eminent and
+popular as more than one contemporary German dramatist deservedly is.
+Thus signally has the national or municipal system of theatrical
+enterprise in Germany served the cause of classical drama. All the
+beneficial influence and gratification, which are inherent in artistic
+and literary drama, are, under the national or municipal system,
+enjoyed in permanence and security by the German people.
+
+Vienna probably offers London the most instructive example of the
+national or municipal theatre. The three leading Viennese
+playhouses--the Burg-Theater, the Stadt-Theater, and the
+Volks-Theater--illustrate the three modes in which public credit may
+be pledged to theatrical enterprise. The palatial Burg-Theater is
+wholly an institution of the State. The site of the Stadt-Theater, and
+to a large extent the building, were provided by the municipality,
+which thereupon leased them out to a private syndicate, under a
+manager of the syndicate's choosing. The municipality assumes no more
+direct responsibility for the due devotion of the Stadt-Theater to
+dramatic art than is implied in its retention of reversionary rights
+of ownership. The third theatre, the Volks-Theater, illustrates the
+minimum share that a municipality may take in promoting theatrical
+enterprise, while guaranteeing the welfare of artistic drama.
+
+The success of the Volks-Theater is due to the co-operation of a
+public body with a voluntary society of private citizens who regard
+the maintenance of the literary drama as a civic duty. The site of the
+Volks-Theater, which was formerly public property and estimated to be
+worth £80,000, is in the best part of the city of Vienna. It was a
+free gift from the government to a limited liability company, formed
+of some four hundred shareholders of moderate means, who formally
+pledged themselves to erect on the land a theatre with the sole object
+of serving the purposes of dramatic art. The interest payable to
+shareholders is strictly limited by the conditions of association. An
+officially sanctioned constitution renders it obligatory on them and
+on their officers to produce in the playhouse classical and modern
+drama of a literary character, though not necessarily of the severest
+type. Merely frivolous or spectacular pieces are prohibited, and at
+least twice a week purely classical plays must be presented. No piece
+may be played more than two nights in immediate succession. The
+actors, whose engagements are permanent, are substantially paid, and
+an admirably devised system of pensions is enforced without making
+deductions from salaries. The price of seats is fixed at a low rate,
+the highest price being 4s., the cheapest and most numerous seats
+costing 10d. each. Both financially and artistically the result has
+been all that one could wish. There is no public subsidy, but the
+Emperor pays £500 a year for a box. The house holds 1800 persons,
+yielding gross receipts of £200 for a nightly expenditure of £125.
+There are no advertising expenses, no posters. The newspapers give
+notice of the daily programme as an attractive item of news.
+
+
+VI
+
+There is some disinclination among Englishmen deliberately to adopt
+foreign methods, to follow foreign examples, in any walk of life. But
+no person of common sense will reject a method merely because it is
+foreign, if it can be proved to be of utility. It is spurious
+patriotism to reject wise counsel because it is no native product. On
+the other hand, it is seriously to asperse the culture and
+intelligence of the British nation to assume that no appreciable
+section of it cherishes that taste for the literary drama which keeps
+the national or municipal theatre alive in France and Germany. At any
+rate, judgment should be held in suspense until the British playgoers'
+mettle has been more thoroughly tested than hitherto.
+
+No less humiliating is the argument that the art of acting in this
+country is at too low an ebb to justify the assumption by a public
+body of responsibility for theatrical enterprise. One or two critics
+assert that to involve public credit in a theatre, until there exist
+an efficient school of acting, is to put the cart before the horse.
+This objection seems insubstantial. Competent actors are not
+altogether absent from the English stage, and the municipal system of
+theatrical enterprise is calculated to increase their number rapidly.
+
+Abroad, the subsidised theatres, with their just schemes of salary,
+their permanent engagements, their well-devised pension systems,
+attract the best class of the profession. A competent company of
+actors, which enjoys a permanent home and is governed by high
+standards of art, forms the best possible school of acting, not merely
+by force of example, but by the private tuition which it could readily
+provide. In Vienna the companies at the subsidised theatres are
+recruited from the pupils of a State-endowed conservatoire of actors.
+It is improbable that the British Government will found a like
+institution. But it would be easy to attach a college of acting to the
+municipal theatre, and to make the college pay its way.
+
+Much depends on the choice of manager of the enterprise. The manager
+of a municipal theatre must combine with business aptitude a genuine
+devotion to dramatic art and dramatic literature. Without a fit
+manager, who can collect and control a competent company of actors,
+the scheme of the municipal theatre is doomed to failure. Managers of
+the requisite temper, knowledge, and ability are not lacking in France
+or Germany. There is no reason to anticipate that, when the call is
+sounded, the right response will not be given here.
+
+Cannot an experiment be made in London on the lines of the Vienna
+Volks-Theater? In the first place, it is needful to bring together a
+body of citizens who, under leadership which commands public
+confidence, will undertake to build and control for a certain term of
+years a theatre of suitable design in the interests of dramatic art,
+on conditions similar to those that have worked with success in
+Berlin, Paris, and notably Vienna. Then the London County Council,
+after the professions it has made, might be reasonably expected to
+undertake so much responsibility for the proper conduct of the new
+playhouse as would be implied by its provision of a site. If the
+experiment failed, no one would be much the worse; if it succeeded, as
+it ought to succeed, the nation would gain in repute for intelligence,
+culture, and enlightened patriotism; it would rid itself of the
+reproach that it pays smaller and less intelligent regard to
+Shakespeare and the literary drama than France, Germany, Austria, or
+Italy.
+
+Phelps's single-handed effort brought the people of London for
+eighteen years face to face with the great English drama at his
+playhouse at Sadler's Wells. "I made that enterprise pay," he said,
+after he retired; "not making a fortune certainly, but bringing up a
+large family and paying my way." Private troubles and illness
+compelled him suddenly to abandon the enterprise at the end of
+eighteen years, when there happened to be none at hand to take his
+place of leader. All that was wanting to make his enterprise
+permanent, he declared, was some public control, some public
+acknowledgment of responsibility which, without impeding the efficient
+manager's freedom of action, would cause his post to be filled
+properly in case of an accidental vacancy. Phelps thought that if he
+could do so much during eighteen years by his personal, isolated, and
+independent endeavour, much more could be done in permanence under
+some public method of safeguard and guarantee. Phelps's services to
+the literary drama can hardly be over-estimated. His mature judgment
+is not to be lightly gainsaid. It is just to his memory to put his
+faith to a practical test.
+
+
+
+
+VII
+
+ASPECTS OF SHAKESPEARE'S PHILOSOPHY[24]
+
+[Footnote 24: This paper, which was originally prepared in 1899 for
+the purposes of a popular lecture, is here printed for the first
+time.]
+
+
+I
+
+A French critic once remarked that a whole system of philosophy could
+be deduced from Shakespeare's pages, though from all the works of the
+philosophers one could not draw a page of Shakespeare. The second
+statement--the denial of the presence of a page of Shakespeare in the
+works of all the philosophers--is more accurate than the assertion
+that a system of philosophy could be deduced from the plays of
+Shakespeare. It is hopeless to deduce any precise system of philosophy
+from Shakespeare's plays. Literally, philosophy means nothing more
+recondite than love of wisdom. Technically, it means scientifically
+restrained speculation about the causes of human thought and conduct;
+it embraces the sciences of logic, of ethics, of politics, of
+psychology, of metaphysics. Shakespeare's training and temper unfitted
+him to make any professed contribution to any of these topics.
+
+Ignorant persons argue on hazy grounds that the great avowed
+philosopher of Shakespeare's day, Francis Bacon, wrote Shakespeare's
+plays. There is no need to confute the theory, which confutes itself.
+But, if a confutation were needed, it lies on the surface in the
+conflicting attitudes which Shakespeare and Bacon assume towards
+philosophy. There is no mistaking Bacon's attitude. The supreme aim of
+his writings was to establish the practical value, the majestic
+importance, of philosophy in its strict sense of speculative science.
+He sought to widen its scope, and to multiply the ranks of its
+students.
+
+Bacon's method is formally philosophic in texture. He carefully
+scrutinises, illustrates, seeks to justify each statement before
+proceeding to a conclusion. Every essay, every treatise of Bacon,
+conveys the impression not merely of weighty, pregnant eloquence, but
+of the argumentative and philosophic temper. Bacon's process of
+thinking is conscious: it is visible behind the words. The argument
+progresses with a cumulative force. It draws sustenance from the
+recorded opinions of others. The points usually owe consistency and
+firmness to quotations from old authors--Greek and Latin authors,
+especially Plato and Plutarch, Lucretius and Seneca. To Bacon, as to
+all professed students of the subject, philosophy first revealed
+itself in the pages of the Greek writers, Plato and Aristotle, the
+founders for modern Europe of the speculative sciences of human
+thought and conduct. Greatly as Bacon modified the Greek system of
+philosophy, he began his philosophic career under the influence of
+Aristotle, and, despite his destructive criticism of his master, he
+never wholly divested himself of the methods of exposition to which
+the Greek philosopher's teaching introduced him.
+
+In their attitudes to philosophy, Shakespeare and Bacon are as the
+poles asunder. Shakespeare practically ignores the existence of
+philosophy as a formal science. He betrays no knowledge of its Greek
+origin and developments.
+
+There are two short, slight, conventional mentions of Aristotle's name
+in Shakespeare's works. One is a very slight allusion to Aristotle's
+"checks" or "moral discipline" in _The Taming of the Shrew_. That
+passage is probably from a coadjutor's pen. In any case, it is merely
+a playful questioning of the title of "sweet philosophy" to monopolize
+a young man's education.[25]
+
+[Footnote 25: Tranio, the attendant on the young Pisan, Lucentio, who
+has come to Padua to study at the university, counsels his master to
+widen the field of his studies:--
+
+    Only, good master, while we do admire
+    This virtue and this moral discipline,
+    Let's be no Stoics, nor no stocks, I pray,
+    Or so devote to _Aristotle's checks_,
+    As Ovid be an outcast quite adjured.
+
+    (_The Taming of the Shrew_, I., ii., 29-33.)]
+
+The other mention of Aristotle is in _Troilus and Cressida_, and
+raises points of greater interest. Hector scornfully likens his
+brothers Troilus and Paris, when they urge persistence in the strife
+with Greece, to "young men whom Aristotle thought unfit to hear
+_moral_ philosophy" (II., ii., 166). The words present the meaning,
+but not the language, of a sentence in Aristotle's "Nicomachean
+Ethics" (i. 8). Aristotle there declares passionate youth to be
+unfitted to study _political_ philosophy; he makes no mention of
+_moral_ philosophy. The change of epithet does, however, no injustice
+to Aristotle's argument. His context makes it plain, that by
+_political_ philosophy he means the ethics of civil society, which
+are hardly distinguishable from what is commonly called "morals." The
+maxim, in the slightly irregular shape which Shakespeare adopted,
+enjoyed proverbial currency before the dramatist was born. Erasmus
+introduced it in this form into his far-famed _Colloquies_. In France
+and Italy the warning against instructing youth in _moral_ philosophy
+was popularly accepted as an Aristotelian injunction. Sceptics about
+the obvious Shakespearean tradition have made much of the circumstance
+that Bacon, who cited the aphorism from Aristotle in his _Advancement
+of Learning_, substituted, like Shakespeare in _Troilus and Cressida_,
+the epithet "moral" for "political." The proverbial currency of the
+emendation deprives the coincidence of point.
+
+The repetition of a proverbial phrase, indirectly drawn from
+Aristotle, combined with the absence of other references to the Greek
+philosopher, renders improbable Shakespeare's personal acquaintance
+with his work. In any case, the bare mention of the name of Aristotle
+implies nothing in this connection. It was a popular synonym for
+ancient learning. It was as often on the lips of Elizabethans as
+Bacon's name is on the lips of men and women of to-day, and it would
+be rash to infer that those who carelessly and casually mentioned
+Bacon's name to-day knew his writings or philosophic theories at first
+hand.
+
+No evidence is forthcoming that Shakespeare knew in any solid sense
+aught of philosophy of the formal scientific kind. On scientific
+philosophy, and on natural science, Shakespeare probably looked with
+suspicion. He expressed no high opinion of astronomers, who pursue
+the most imposing of all branches of scientific speculation.
+
+    Small have continual plodders ever won,
+    Save base authority from others' books.
+    These earthly godfathers of heaven's light,
+    That give a name to every fixed star,
+    Have no more profit of their shining nights
+    Than those that walk, and wot not what they are.
+
+    (_Love's Labour's Lost_, I., i., 86-91.)
+
+This is a characteristically poetic attitude; it is the antithesis of
+the scientific attitude. Formal logic excited Shakespeare's disdain
+even more conspicuously. In the mouths of his professional fools he
+places many reductions to absurdity of what he calls the "simple
+syllogism." He invests the term "chop-logic" with the significance of
+foolery _in excelsis_.[26] Again, metaphysics, in any formal sense,
+were clearly not of Shakespeare's world. On one occasion he wrote of
+the topic round which most metaphysical speculation revolves:--
+
+                     We are such stuff
+    As dreams are made on, and our little life
+    Is rounded by a sleep.
+
+    (_Tempest_, IV., i., 156-8.)
+
+[Footnote 26: The speeches of the clown in _Twelfth Night_ are
+particularly worthy of study for the satiric adroitness with which
+they expose the quibbling futility of syllogistic logic. _Cf._ Act I.,
+Scene v., ll. 43-57.
+
+_Olivia._ Go to, you're a dry fool; I'll no more of you: besides you
+grow dishonest.
+
+_Clown._ Two faults, Madonna, that drink and good counsel will amend:
+for give the dry fool drink, then is the fool not dry: bid the
+dishonest man mend himself; if he mend, he is no longer dishonest; if
+he cannot, let the botcher mend him. Anything that's mended is but
+patched: virtue that transgresses is but patched with sin; and sin
+that amends is but patched with virtue. If that _this simple
+syllogism_ will serve, so; if it will not, what remedy?]
+
+Such a theory of human life is first-rate poetry; it is an
+illuminating figure of poetic speech. But the simplicity with which
+the theme is presented, to the exclusion of many material issues, puts
+the statement out of the plane of metaphysical disquisition, which
+involves subtle conflict of argument and measured resolution of doubt,
+rather than imaginative certainty or unconditional assertion. Nor is
+Hamlet's famous soliloquy on the merits and demerits of suicide
+conceived in the spirit of the metaphysician. It is a dramatic
+description of a familiar phase of emotional depression; it explains
+nothing; it propounds no theory. It reflects a state of feeling; it
+breathes that torturing spirit of despondency which kills all hope of
+mitigating either the known ills of life or the imagined terrors of
+death.
+
+The faint, shadowy glimpses which Shakespeare had of scientific
+philosophy gave him small respect for it. Like the typical hard-headed
+Englishman, he doubted its practical efficacy. Shakespeare viewed all
+formal philosophy much as Dr Johnson's Rasselas, whose faith in it
+dwindled, when he perceived that the professional philosopher, who
+preached superiority to all human frailties and weaknesses, succumbed
+to them at the first provocation.
+
+    There are more things in heaven and earth
+    Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.[27]
+
+    For there was never yet philosopher
+    That could endure the toothache patiently.[28]
+
+[Footnote 27: _Hamlet_, I., v., 166-7.]
+
+[Footnote 28: _Much Ado About Nothing_, V., i., 35-6.]
+
+Such phrases sum up Shakespeare's habitual bearing to formal
+philosophy. The consideration of causes, first principles, abstract
+truths, never, in the dramatist's opinion, cured a human ill. The
+futility of formal philosophy stands, from this point of view, in no
+further need of demonstration.
+
+
+II
+
+But it is permissible to use the words philosopher and philosophy,
+without scientific precision or significance, in the popular
+inaccurate senses of shrewd observer and observation of life. By
+philosophy we may understand common-sense wisdom about one's
+fellow-men, their aspirations, their failures and successes. As soon
+as we employ the word in that significance, we must allow that few men
+were better philosophers than Shakespeare.
+
+Shakespeare is what Touchstone calls the shepherd in _As You Like
+It_--"a natural philosopher"--an observer by light of nature, an acute
+expositor of phases of human life and feeling. Character, thought,
+passion, emotion, form the raw material of which ethical or
+metaphysical systems are made. The poet's contempt for formal ethical
+or metaphysical theory co-existed with a searching knowledge of the
+ultimate foundations of all systematised philosophic structures. The
+range of fact or knowledge within which the formal theorist speculates
+in the fields of ethics, logic, metaphysics, or psychology, is,
+indeed, very circumscribed when it is compared with the region of
+observation and experience over which Shakespeare exerted complete
+mastery.
+
+Almost every aspect of life Shakespeare portrays with singular
+evenness of insight. He saw life whole. The web of life always
+presented itself to him as a mingled yarn, good and ill together. He
+did not stay to reconcile its contradictions. He adduces a wealth of
+evidence touching ethical experience. It may be that the patient
+scrutiny of formal philosophers can alone reveal the full significance
+of his harvest. But the dramatist's exposition of the workings of
+virtue or vice has no recondite intention. Shakespeare was no patient
+scholar, who deliberately sought to extend the limits of human
+knowledge. With unrivalled ease and celerity he digested, in the
+recesses of his consciousness, the fruit of personal observation and
+reading. His only conscious aim was to depict human conduct and human
+thought. He interpreted them unconsciously by virtue of an involuntary
+intuition.
+
+Shakespeare's intuition pierces life at the lowest as well as at the
+highest level of experience. It is coloured by delicate imaginative
+genius as well as by robust and practical worldliness. Not his
+writings only, but the facts of his private life--his mode of managing
+his private property, for example--attest his alert knowledge of the
+material and practical affairs of human existence. Idealism and
+realism in perfect development were interwoven with the texture of his
+mind.
+
+Shakespeare was qualified by mental endowment for success in any
+career. He was by election a dramatist, and, necessarily, one of
+unmatched versatility. His intuitive faculty enabled him, after
+regarding life from any point of view that he willed, to depict
+through the mouths of his characters the chosen phase of experience in
+convincing, harmonious accord with his characters' individual
+circumstances and fortunes. No obvious trace of his own personal
+circumstance or experience was suffered to emerge in the utterances of
+his characters, who lived for the moment in his brain. It is a
+commonplace to credit Shakespeare with supreme dramatic instinct. It
+is difficult fully to realise the significance of that attribute. It
+means that he could contract or expand at will and momentarily, his
+own personality, so that it coincided exactly, now with a
+self-indulgent humorist like Falstaff, now with an introspective
+student like Hamlet, now with a cynical criminal like Iago, now with a
+high-spirited girl like Rosalind, now with an ambitious woman like
+Lady Macbeth, and then with a hundred more characters hardly less
+distinctive than these. It means that he could contrive the
+coincidence so absolutely as to leave no loophole for the
+introduction, into the several dramatic utterances, of any sentiment
+that should not be on the face of it adapted by right of nature to the
+speakers' idiosyncracies. That was Shakespeare's power. It is a power
+of which the effects are far easier to recognise than the causes or
+secret of operation.
+
+In the present connection it is happily only necessary to dwell on
+Shakespeare's dramatic instinct in order to guard against the peril of
+dogmatising from his works about his private opinions. So various and
+conflicting are Shakespeare's dramatic pronouncements on phases of
+experience that it is difficult and dangerous to affirm which
+pronouncements, if any, present most closely his personal sentiment.
+He fitted the lips of his _dramatis personæ_ with speeches and
+sentiments so peculiarly adapted to them as to show no one quite
+undisputed sign of their creator's personality.
+
+Yet there are occasions, when, without detracting from the omnipotence
+of Shakespeare's dramatic instinct, one may tentatively infer that
+Shakespeare gave voice through his created personages to sentiments
+which were his own. The Shakespearean drama must incorporate somewhere
+within its vast limits the personal thoughts and passions of its
+creator, even although they are for the most part absorbed past
+recognition in the mighty mass, and no critical chemistry can with
+confidence disentangle them. At any rate, there are in the plays many
+utterances--ethical utterances, or observations conceived in the
+spirit of "a natural philosopher"--which are repeated to much the same
+effect at different periods of the poet's career. These reiterated
+opinions frequently touch the conditions of well-being or calamity in
+civilised society; they often deal with man in civic or social
+relation with his neighbour; they define the capabilities of his will.
+It is unlikely that observations of this nature would be repeated if
+the sentiments they embody were out of harmony with the author's
+private conviction. Often we shall not strain a point or do our
+critical sense much violence if we assume that these recurring
+thoughts are Shakespeare's own. I purpose to call attention to a few
+of those which bear on large questions of government and citizenship
+and human volition. Involuntarily, they form the framework of a
+political and moral philosophy which for clear-eyed sanity is without
+rival.
+
+
+III
+
+Shakespeare's political philosophy is instinct with the loftiest moral
+sense. Directly or indirectly, he defines many times the essential
+virtues and the inevitable temptations which attach to persons
+exercising legalised authority over their fellow-men. The topic always
+seems to stir in Shakespeare his most serious tone of thought and
+word. No one, in fact, has conceived a higher standard of public
+virtue and public duty than Shakespeare. His intuition rendered him
+tolerant of human imperfection. He is always in kindly sympathy with
+failure, with suffering, with the oppressed. Consequently he brings at
+the outset into clearer relief than professed political philosophers,
+the saving quality of mercy in rulers of men. Twice Shakespeare pleads
+in almost identical terms, through the mouths of created characters,
+for generosity on the part of governors of states towards those who
+sin against law. In both cases he places his argument, with
+significant delicacy, on the lips of women. At a comparatively early
+period in his career as dramatist, in _The Merchant of Venice_, Portia
+first gave voice to the political virtue of compassion. At a much
+later period Shakespeare set the same plea in the mouth of Isabella in
+_Measure for Measure_. The passages are too familiar to justify
+quotation. Very brief extracts will bring out clearly the identity of
+sentiment which finds definition in the two passages.
+
+These are Portia's views of mercy on the throne (_Merchant of Venice_,
+IV., i., 189 _seq._):--
+
+    'Tis mightiest in the mightiest; it becomes
+    The throned monarch better than his crown;
+
+           *       *       *       *       *
+
+              Mercy is above this sceptred sway;
+    It is enthroned in the hearts of kings,
+    It is an attribute to God himself;
+    And earthly power doth then show likest God's
+    When mercy seasons justice.
+
+                          Consider this,
+    That in the course of justice none of us
+    Should see salvation.[29]
+
+[Footnote 29: In a paper on "Latin as an Intellectual Force," read
+before the International Congress of Arts and Sciences at St Louis in
+September 1904, Professor E.A. Sonnenschein sought to show that
+Portia's speech on mercy is based on Seneca's tract, _De Clementia_.
+The most striking parallel passages are the following:--
+
+                              It becomes
+    The throned monarch better than his crown.
+
+    (_M. of V._, IV., i. 189-90.)
+
+Nullum clementia ex omnibus magis quam regem aut principem decet.
+(Seneca, _De Clementia_, I., iii., 3):--
+
+    'Tis mightiest in the mightiest.
+
+Eo scilicet formosius id esse magnificentiusque fatebimur quo in
+maiore praestabitur potestate (I., xix., 1):--
+
+    But mercy is above this sceptred sway;
+    It is enthroned in the hearts of kings,
+    It is an attribute to God himself.
+
+    (_M. of V._, IV., i., 193-5.)
+
+Quod si di placabiles et aequi delicta potentium non statim fulminibus
+persequuntur, quanto aequius est hominem hominibus praepositum miti
+animo exercere imperium? (I., vii., 2):--
+
+    And earthly power doth then show likest God's
+    When mercy seasons justice.
+
+    (_M. of V._, IV., i., 196-7.)
+
+Quid autem? Non proximum eis (dîs) locum tenet is qui se ex deorum
+natura gerit beneficus et largus et in melius potens? (I., xix., 9):--
+
+                            Consider this,
+    That in the course of justice none of us
+    Should see salvation.
+
+    (_M. of V._, IV., i., 198-200.)
+
+Cogitato ... quanta solitudo et vastitas futura sit si nihil
+relinquitur nisi quod iudex severus absolverit (I., vi., 1).
+
+This remarkable series of parallelisms does not affect the argument in
+the text that Shakespeare, who reiterated Portia's pleas and
+phraseology in Isabella's speeches, had a personal faith in the
+declared sentiment. Whether the parallelism is to be explained as
+conscious borrowing or accidental coincidence is an open question.]
+
+Here are Isabella's words in _Measure for Measure_ (II., ii., 59
+_seq._):--
+
+    No ceremony that to great ones 'longs,
+    Not the king's crown, nor the deputed sword,
+    The marshal's truncheon, nor the judge's robe,
+    Become them with one half so good a grace
+    As mercy does.
+
+                    How would you be
+    If He, which is the top of judgment, should
+    But judge you as you are?
+
+                              O, it is excellent
+    To have a giant's strength; but it is tyrannous
+    To use it like a giant.
+
+Mercy is the predominating or crowning virtue that Shakespeare demands
+in rulers. But the Shakespearean code is innocent of any taint of
+sentimentality, and mercifulness is far from being the sovereign's
+sole qualification or primal test of fitness. More especially are
+kings and judges bound by their responsibilities and their duties to
+eschew self-glorification or self-indulgence. It is the _virtues_ of
+the holders of office, not their office itself, which alone in the end
+entitles them to consideration. Adventitious circumstances give no man
+claim to respect. A man is alone worthy of regard by reason of his
+personal character. Honour comes from his own acts, neither from his
+"foregoers," _i.e._, ancestors, nor from his rank in society. "Good
+alone is good without a name." This is not the view of the world,
+which values lying trophies, rank, or wealth. The world is thereby the
+sufferer.[30]
+
+[Footnote 30:
+
+    From lowest place, when virtuous things proceed,
+    The place is dignified by the doer's deed:
+    Where great additions swell's, and virtue none,
+    It is a dropsied honour: good alone
+    Is good without a name; vileness is so:
+    The property by what it is should go,
+    Not by the title; ... that is honour's scorn,
+    Which challenges itself as honour's born,
+    And is not like the sire: honours thrive
+    When rather from our acts we them derive
+    Than our foregoers: the mere word's a slave,
+    Debauch'd on every tomb; on every grave
+    A lying trophy; and as oft is dumb
+    Where dust and damn'd oblivion is the tomb
+    Of honour'd bones indeed.
+
+    (_All's Well_, II., iii., 130 _seq._)]
+
+The world honours a judge; but if the judge be indebted to his office
+and not to his character for the respect that is paid him, he may
+deserve no more honour than the criminal in the dock, whom he
+sentences to punishment. "A man may see how this world goes with no
+eyes," says King Lear to the blind Gloucester. "Look with thine ears;
+see how yond justice rails upon yond simple thief. Hark, in thine ear;
+change places, and, handy-dandy, which is the justice, which is the
+thief? Thou hast seen a farmer's dog bark at a beggar? And the
+creature run from the cur? There thou mightst behold the great image
+of authority; a dog's obeyed in office." "The great image of
+authority" is often a brazen idol.
+
+Hereditary rulers form no inconsiderable section of Shakespeare's
+_dramatis personæ_. In _Macbeth_ (IV., iii., 92-4) he specifically
+defined "the king-becoming graces":--
+
+    As justice, verity, temperance, stableness,
+    Bounty, perseverance, mercy, lowliness,
+    Devotion, patience, courage, fortitude.
+
+But the dramatist's main energies are devoted to exposure of the
+hollowness of this counsel of perfection. Temptations to vice beset
+rulers of men to a degree that is unknown to their subjects. To
+avarice rulers are especially prone. Stanchless avarice constantly
+converts kings of ordinary clay into monsters. How often they forge
+
+    Quarrels unjust against the good and loyal,
+    Destroying them for wealth.
+
+    (_Macbeth_, IV., iii., 83-4.)
+
+Intemperance in all things--in business and pleasure--is a standing
+menace of monarchs.
+
+             Boundless intemperance
+    In Nature is a tyranny: it hath been
+    Th' untimely emptying of the happy throne
+    And fail of many kings.
+
+    (_Macbeth_, IV., iii., 66-9.)
+
+A leader of men, if he be capable of salvation, must "delight no less
+in truth than life." Yet "truth," for the most part, is banished from
+the conventional environment of royalty.
+
+Repeatedly does Shakespeare bring into dazzling relief the irony which
+governs the being of kings. Want of logic and defiance of ethical
+principle underlie their pride in magnificent ceremonial and
+pageantry. The ironic contrast between the pretensions of a king and
+the actual limits of human destiny is a text which Shakespeare
+repeatedly clothes in golden language.
+
+It is to be admitted that nearly all the kings in Shakespeare's
+gallery frankly acknowledge the make-believe and unreality which dogs
+regal pomp and ceremony. In self-communion they acknowledge the
+ruler's difficulty in finding truth in their traditional scope of
+life. In a great outburst on the night before Agincourt, Henry V.--the
+only king whom Shakespeare seems thoroughly to admire--openly
+describes the inevitable confusion between fact and fiction which
+infects the conditions of royalty. Anxiety and unhappiness are so
+entwined with ceremonial display as to deprive the king of the reliefs
+and recreations which freely lie at the disposal of ordinary men.
+
+                   What infinite heart's-ease
+    Must kings neglect that private men enjoy!
+    And what have kings that privates have not too,
+    Save ceremony, save general ceremony?
+    And what art thou, thou idol ceremony?
+    What kind of god art thou, that suffer'st more
+    Of mortal griefs than do thy worshippers?
+    What are thy rents? what are thy comings-in?
+    O ceremony, show me but thy worth!
+    What is thy soul of adoration?
+    Art thou aught else but place, degree, and form,
+    Creating awe and fear in other men?
+    Wherein thou art less happy being fear'd
+    Than they in fearing.
+    What drink'st thou oft, instead of homage sweet,
+    But poison'd flattery? O, be sick, great greatness,
+    And bid thy ceremony give thee cure!
+    Think'st thou the fiery fever will go out
+    With titles blown from adulation?
+    Will it give place to flexure and low bending?
+    Canst thou, when thou command'st the beggar's knee,
+    Command the health of it? No, thou proud dream
+    That play'st so subtly with a king's repose:
+    I am a king that find thee; and I know
+    'Tis not the balm, the sceptre, and the ball,
+    The sword, the mace, the crown imperial,
+    The intertissued robe of gold and pearl,
+    The farced title running 'fore the king,
+    The throne he sits on, nor the tide of pomp
+    That beats upon the high shore of this world,--
+    No, not all these, thrice gorgeous ceremony,
+    Not all these, laid in bed majestical,
+    Can sleep so soundly as the wretched slave
+    Who, with a body fill'd and vacant mind
+    Gets him to rest, cramm'd with distressful bread.
+
+    (_Henry V._, IV., i., 253-287.)
+
+Barely distinguishable is the sentiment which finds expression in the
+pathetic speech of Henry V.'s father when he vainly seeks that sleep
+which thousands of his poorest subjects enjoy. The sleepless king
+points to the irony of reclining on the kingly couch beneath canopies
+of costly state when sleep refuses to weigh his eyelids down or steep
+his senses in forgetfulness. The king is credited with control of
+every comfort; but he is denied by nature comforts which she places
+freely at command of the humblest. So again does Richard II.
+soliloquize on the vain pride which imbues the king, while death all
+the time grins at his pomp and keeps his own court within the hollow
+crown that rounds the prince's mortal temples. Yet again, to identical
+effect is Henry VI.'s sorrowful question:--
+
+    Gives not the hawthorn-bush a sweeter shade,
+    To shepherds looking on their silly sheep,
+    Than doth a rich-embroidered canopy
+    To kings that fear their subjects' treachery?
+
+    (III. _Henry VI._, II., v., 42-5.)
+
+To this text Shakespeare constantly recurs, and he bestows on it all
+his fertile resources of illustration. The reiterated exposition by
+Shakespeare of the hollowness of kingly ceremony is a notable feature
+of his political sentiment The dramatist's independent analysis of the
+quiddity of kingship is, indeed, alike in manner and matter, a
+startling contribution to sixteenth century speculation. In manner it
+is worthy of Shakespeare's genius at its highest. In matter it is for
+its day revolutionary rationalism. It defies a popular doctrine, held
+almost universally by Shakespeare's contemporary fellow-countrymen,
+that royalty is divine and under God's special protection, that the
+gorgeous ceremony of the throne reflects a heavenly attribute, and
+that the king is the pampered favourite of heaven.
+
+Bacon defined a king with slender qualifications, as "a mortal god on
+earth unto whom the living God has lent his own name." Shakespeare was
+well acquainted with this accepted doctrine. He often gives dramatic
+definition of it. He declines to admit its soundness. Wherever he
+quotes it, he adds an ironical comment, which was calculated to
+perturb the orthodox royalist. Having argued that the day-labourer or
+the shepherd is far happier than a king, he logically refuses to admit
+that the monarch is protected by God from any of the ills of
+mortality. Richard II. may assert that "the hand of God alone, and no
+hand of blood or bone" can rob him of the sacred handle of his
+sceptre. But the catastrophe of the play demonstrates that that theft
+is entirely within human scope. The king is barbarously murdered. In
+_Hamlet_ the graceless usurping uncle declares that "such divinity
+doth hedge a king," that treason cannot endanger his life. But the
+speaker is run through the body very soon after the brag escapes his
+lips.
+
+Shakespeare is no comfortable theorist, no respecter of orthodox
+doctrine, no smooth-tongued approver of fashionable dogma. His acute
+intellect cuts away all the cobwebs, all the illusions, all the
+delusions, of formulæ. His untutored insight goes down to the root of
+things; his king is not Philosopher Bacon's "mortal god on earth"; his
+king is "but a man as I am," doomed to drag out a large part of his
+existence in the galling chains of "tradition, form and ceremonious
+duty," of unreality and self-deception.
+
+Shakespeare's intuitive power of seeing things as they are, affects
+his attitude to all social conventions. Not merely royal rulers of men
+are in a false position, ethically and logically. "Beware of
+appearances," is Shakespeare's repeated warning to men and women of
+all ranks in the political or social hierarchy. "Put not your trust in
+ornament, be it of gold or of silver." In the spheres of law and
+religion, the dramatist warns against pretence, against shows of
+virtue, honesty, or courage which have no solid backing.
+
+    The world is still deceiv'd with ornament.
+    In law what plea so tainted and corrupt
+    But, being season'd with a gracious voice,
+    Obscures the show of evil? In religion
+    What damned error, but some sober brow
+    Will bless it and approve it with a text,
+    Hiding the grossness with fair ornament?
+    There is no vice so simple but assumes
+    Some mark of virtue on his outward parts:
+    How many cowards, whose hearts are all as false
+    As stairs of sand, wear yet upon their chins
+    The beards of Hercules and frowning Mars,
+    Who, inward searched, have livers white as milk.
+
+    (_Merchant of Venice_, III., ii., 74-86.)
+
+Shakespeare was no cynic. He was not unduly distrustful of his
+fellow-men. He was not always suspecting them of something
+indistinguishable from fraud. When he wrote, "The world is still
+deceived with ornament" which "obscures the show of evil," he was
+expressing downright hatred--not suspicion--of sham, of quackery, of
+cant. His is the message of all commanding intellects which see
+through the hearts of men. Shakespeare's message is Carlyle's message
+or Ruskin's message anticipated by nearly three centuries, and more
+potently and wisely phrased.
+
+
+IV
+
+At the same time as Shakespeare insists on the highest and truest
+standard of public duty, he, with characteristically practical
+insight, acknowledges no less emphatically the necessity or duty of
+obedience to duly regulated governments. There may appear
+inconsistency in first conveying the impression that governments, or
+their officers, are usually unworthy of trust, and then in bidding
+mankind obey them implicitly. But, although logical connection between
+the two propositions be wanting, they are each convincing in their
+place. Both are the outcome of a robust common-sense. Order is
+essential to a nation's well-being. There must be discipline in
+civilised communities. Officers in authority must be obeyed. These are
+the axiomatic bases of every social contract, and no question of the
+personal fitness of officers of state impugns their stability.
+
+Twice does Shakespeare define in the same terms what he understands by
+the principle of all-compelling order, which is inherent in
+government. Twice does he elaborate the argument that precise orderly
+division of offices, each enjoying full and unquestioned authority, is
+essential to the maintenance of a state's equilibrium.
+
+The topic was first treated in the speeches of Henry V.'s
+councillors:--
+
+_Exeter._  For government, though high and low and lower,
+           Put into parts, doth keep in one consent,
+           Congreeing in a full and natural close,
+           Like music.
+
+_Cant._                Therefore doth heaven divide
+           The state of man in divers functions,
+           Setting endeavour in continual motion;
+           To which is fixèd, as an aim or butt,
+           Obedience: for so work the honey-bees,
+           Creatures that by a rule in nature teach
+           The act of order to a peopled kingdom.
+
+(_Henry V._, I., ii., 180-9.)
+
+There follows a very suggestive comparison between the commonwealth of
+bees and the economy of human society. The well-worn comparison has
+been fashioned anew by a writer of genius of our own day, M.
+Mæterlinck.
+
+In _Troilus and Cressida_ (I., iii., 85 _seq._) Shakespeare returns to
+the discussion, and defines with greater precision "the specialty of
+rule." There he approaches nearer than anywhere else in his writings
+the sphere of strict philosophic exposition. He argues that:--
+
+    The heavens themselves, the planets, and this centre,
+    Observe degree, priority, and place,
+    Insisture, course, proportion, season, form,
+    Office, and custom in all line of order.
+
+Human society is bound to follow this celestial example. At all
+hazards, one must protect "the unity and married calm of states."
+Degree, order, discipline, are the only sure safeguards against brute
+force and chaos which civilised institutions exist to hold in check:--
+
+                       How could communities,
+    Degrees in schools and brotherhoods in cities,
+    Peaceful commerce from dividable shores,
+    The primogeniture and due of birth,
+    Prerogative of age, crowns, sceptres, laurels,
+    But by degree stand in authentic place?
+    Take but degree away, untune that string,
+    And, hark, what discord follows! each thing meets
+    In mere oppugnancy: the bounded waters
+    Should lift their bosoms higher than the shores,
+    And make a sop of all this solid globe:
+    Strength should be lord of imbecility,
+    And the rude son should strike his father dead:
+    Force should be right; or rather, right and wrong,
+    Between whose endless jar justice resides,
+    Should lose their names, and so should justice too.
+    Then every thing includes itself in power,
+    Power into will, will into appetite;
+    And appetite, an universal wolf,
+    So doubly seconded with will and power,
+    Must make perforce an universal prey,
+    And last eat up himself.
+
+Deprived of degree, rank, order, society dissolves itself in "chaos."
+
+Near the end of his career, Shakespeare impressively re-stated his
+faith in the imperative need of the due recognition of social rank and
+grade in civilised communities. In _Cymbeline_ (IV., ii., 246-9) "a
+queen's son" meets his death in fight with an inferior, and the
+conqueror is inclined to spurn the lifeless corpse. But a wise veteran
+solemnly uplifts his voice to forbid the insult. Appeal is made to the
+sacred principle of social order, which must be respected even in
+death:--
+
+                 Though mean and mighty, rotting
+    Together, make one dust; yet reverence,--
+    That angel of the world,--doth make distinction
+    Of place 'twixt high and low.
+
+"Reverence, that angel of the world," is the ultimate bond of civil
+society, and can never be defied with impunity, it is the saving
+sanction of social order.
+
+
+V
+
+I have quoted some of Shakespeare's avowedly ethical utterances which
+bear on conditions of civil society--on morals in their social aspect.
+There is no obscurity about their drift. Apart from direct ethical
+declaration, it may be that ethical lessons touching political virtue
+as well as other specific aspects of morality are deducible from a
+study of Shakespeare's plots and characters. Very generous food for
+reflection seems to be offered the political philosopher by the plots
+and characters of _Julius Cæsar_ and _Coriolanus_. The personality of
+Hamlet is instinct with ethical suggestion. The story and personages
+of _Measure for Measure_ present the most persistent of moral
+problems. But discussion of the ethical import of Shakespeare's
+several dramatic portraits or stories is of doubtful utility. There is
+a genuine danger of reading into Shakespeare's plots and characters
+more direct ethical significance than is really there. Dramatic art
+never consciously nor systematically serves obvious purposes of
+morality, save to its own detriment.
+
+Nevertheless there is not likely to be much disagreement with the
+general assertion that Shakespeare's plots and characters
+involuntarily develop under his hand in conformity with the
+straightforward requirements of moral law. He upholds the broad canons
+of moral truth with consistency, even with severity. There is no
+mistaking in his works on which side lies the right. He never renders
+vice amiable. His want of delicacy, his challenges of modesty, need
+no palliation. It was characteristic of his age to speak more plainly
+of many topics about which polite lips are nowadays silent. But
+Shakespeare's coarsenesses do no injury to the healthy-minded. They do
+not encourage evil propensities. Wickedness is always wickedness in
+Shakespeare, and never deludes the spectator by masquerading as
+something else. His plays never present problems as to whether vice is
+not after all in certain conditions the sister of virtue. Shakespeare
+never shows vice in the twilight, nor leaves the spectator or reader
+in doubt as to what its features precisely are. Vice injures him who
+practises it in the Shakespearean world, and ultimately proves his
+ruin. One cannot play with vice with impunity.
+
+    The gods are just, and of our pleasant vices
+    Make instruments to plague us.
+
+It is not because Shakespeare is a conscious moralist, that the wheel
+comes full circle in his dramatic world. It is because his sense of
+art is involuntarily coloured by a profound conviction of the ultimate
+justice which governs the operations of human nature and society.
+
+Shakespeare argues, in effect, that a man reaps as he sows. It may be
+contended that Nature does not always work in strict accord with this
+Shakespearean canon, and that Shakespeare thereby shows himself more
+of a deliberate moralist than Nature herself. But the dramatist
+idealises or generalises human experience; he does not reproduce it
+literally. There is nothing in the Shakespearean canon that runs
+directly counter to the idealised or generalised experience of the
+outer world. The wicked and the foolish, the intemperate and the
+over-passionate, reach in Shakespeare's world that disastrous goal,
+which nature at large keeps in reserve for them and only by rare
+accident suffers them to evade. The father who brings up his children
+badly and yet expects every dutiful consideration from them is only in
+rare conditions spared the rude awakening which overwhelms King Lear.
+The jealous husband who wrongly suspects his wife of infidelity
+commonly suffers the fate either of Othello or of Leontes.
+
+
+VI
+
+Shakespeare regards it as the noblest ambition in man to master his
+own destiny. There are numerous passages in which the dramatist
+figures as an absolute and uncompromising champion of the freedom of
+the will. "'Tis in ourselves that we are thus or thus," says one of
+his characters, Iago; "Our bodies are our gardens, to the which our
+wills are gardeners." Edmond says much the same in _King Lear_ when he
+condemns as "the excellent foppery of the world" the ascription to
+external influences of all our faults and misfortunes, whereas they
+proceed from our wilful, deliberate choice of the worser way.
+Repeatedly does Shakespeare assert that we are useful or useless
+members of society according as we will it ourselves.
+
+    Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie
+    Which we ascribe to heaven; the fated sky
+    Gives us free scope,
+
+says Helena in _All's Well_ (I., i., 231-3).
+
+    Men at some time are masters of their fates,
+
+says Cassius in _Julius Cæsar_ (I., ii., 139-41);
+
+    The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,
+    But in ourselves that we are underlings.
+
+Hereditary predispositions, the accidents of environment, are not
+insuperable; they can be neutralised by force of will, by character.
+Character is omnipotent.
+
+The self-sufficing, imperturbable will is the ideal possession, beside
+which all else in the world is valueless. But the quest of it is
+difficult, and success in the pursuit is rare. Mastery of the will is
+the result of a rare conjunction--a perfect commingling of blood and
+judgment. Without such harmonious union man is "a pipe"--a musical
+instrument--"for Fortune's finger to sound what stop she pleases." Man
+can only work out his own salvation when he can control his passions
+and can take with equal thanks Fortune's buffets or rewards.
+
+The best of men is--
+
+                                Spare in diet
+    Free from gross passion or of mirth or anger,
+    Constant in spirit, not swerving with the blood.
+
+    (_Henry V._, II., ii., 131-3.)
+
+His is
+
+                                   the nature
+    Whom passion could not shake--whose solid virtue
+    The shot of accident nor dart of chance
+    Could neither graze nor pierce.
+
+    (_Othello_, IV., i., 176-9.)
+
+Stability of temperament is the finest fruit of the free exercise of
+the will; it is the noblest of masculine excellences.
+
+                            Give me that man
+    That is not passion's slave, and I will wear him
+    In my heart's core--ay, in my heart of hearts.
+
+    (_Hamlet_, III., ii., 76-8.)
+
+In spite of his many beautiful portrayals of the charms and tenderness
+and innocence of womanhood, Shakespeare had less hope in the ultimate
+capacity of women to control their destiny than in the ultimate
+capacity of men. The greatest of his female creations, Lady Macbeth
+and Cleopatra, stand in a category of their own. They do not lack high
+power of will, even if they are unable so to commingle blood and
+judgment as to master fate.
+
+Elsewhere, the dramatist seems to betray private suspicion of the
+normal woman's volitional capacity by applying to her heart and mind
+the specific epithet "waxen." The feminine temperament takes the
+impress of its environment as easily as wax takes the impress of a
+seal. In two passages where this simile is employed,[31] the deduction
+from it is pressed to the furthest limit, and free-will is denied
+women altogether. Feminine susceptibility is pronounced to be
+incurable; wavering, impressionable emotion is a main constituent of
+woman's being; women are not responsible for the sins they commit nor
+the wrongs they endure.
+
+[Footnote 31:
+
+    For men have marble, _women waxen minds_,
+    And therefore are they formed as marble will;
+    The weak oppressed, the impression of strange kinds
+    Is form'd in them by force, by fraud, or skill.
+    Then call them not the authors of their ill,
+    No more than wax shall be accounted evil,
+    Wherein is stamp'd the semblance of a devil.
+
+    (_Lucrece_, 1240-6.)
+
+    How easy it is for the proper-false
+    In _women's waxen hearts_, to set their forms!
+    Alas! our frailty is the cause, not we;
+    For, such as we are made of, such we be.
+
+    (_Twelfth Night_, II., ii., 31.)]
+
+This is reactionary doctrine, and one of the few points in
+Shakespeare's "natural" philosophy which invites dissent. But he makes
+generous amends by ascribing to women a plentiful supply of humour. No
+writer has proclaimed more effectively his faith in woman's brilliance
+of wit nor in her quickness of apprehension.
+
+
+VII
+
+Despite the solemnity which attaches to Shakespeare's philosophic
+reflections, he is at heart an optimist and a humorist. He combines
+with his serious thought a thorough joy in life, an irremovable
+preference for the bright over the dismal side of things. The creator
+of Falstaff and Mercutio, of Beatrice and the Princess in _Love's
+Labour's Lost_, could hardly fail to set store by that gaiety of
+spirit which is the antidote to unreasoning discontent, and keeps
+society in good savour.
+
+    Dost thou think, because thou art virtuous,
+    There shall be no more cakes and ale?
+
+is the voice of Shakespeare as well as of Sir Toby Belch. The
+dramatist was at one with Rosalind, his offspring, when she told
+Jaques:--
+
+    I had rather have a fool to make me merry,
+    Than experience to make me sad.
+
+The same sanguine optimistic temper constantly strikes a more
+impressive note.
+
+    There is some soul of goodness in things evil,
+    Would men observingly distil it out,
+
+is a comprehensive maxim, which sounds as if it came straight from
+Shakespeare's lips. This battle-cry of invincible optimism is uttered
+in the play by Shakespeare's favourite hero, Henry V. It is hard to
+quarrel with the inference that these words convey the ultimate
+verdict of the dramatist on human affairs.
+
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+SHAKESPEARE AND PATRIOTISM[32]
+
+[Footnote 32: This paper was first printed in the _Cornhill Magazine_,
+May 1901.]
+
+    His noble negligences teach
+    What others' toils despair to reach.
+
+
+I
+
+Patriotism is a natural instinct closely allied to the domestic
+affections. Its normal activity is as essential as theirs to the
+health of society. But, in a greater degree than other instincts, the
+patriotic impulse works with perilous irregularity unless it be
+controlled by the moral sense and the intellect.
+
+Every student of history and politics is aware how readily the
+patriotic instinct, if uncontrolled by morality and reason, comes into
+conflict with both. Freed of moral restraint it is prone to engender a
+peculiarly noxious brand of spurious sentiment--the patriotism of
+false pretence. Bombastic masquerade of the genuine impulse is not
+uncommon among place-hunters in Parliament and popularity-hunters in
+constituencies, and the honest instinct is thereby brought into
+disrepute. Dr Johnson was thinking solely of the frauds and moral
+degradation which have been sheltered by self-seekers under the name
+of patriotism when he none too pleasantly remarked: "Patriotism is the
+last refuge of a scoundrel."
+
+The Doctor's epigram hardly deserves its fame. It embodies a
+very meagre fraction of the truth. While it ignores the beneficent
+effects of the patriotic instinct, it does not exhaust its evil
+propensities. It is not only the moral obliquity of place-hunters or
+popularity-hunters that can fix on patriotism the stigma of offence.
+Its healthy development depends on intellectual as well as on moral
+guidance. When the patriotic instinct, however honestly it be
+cherished, is freed of intellectual restraint, it works even more
+mischief than when it is deliberately counterfeited. Among the
+empty-headed it very easily degenerates into an over-assertive, a
+swollen selfishness, which ignores or defies the just rights and
+feelings of those who do not chance to be their fellow-countrymen. No
+one needs to be reminded how much wrong-doing and cruelty have been
+encouraged by perfectly honest patriots who lack "intellectual
+armour." Dr Johnson knew that the blockhead seeks the shelter of
+patriotism with almost worse result to the body politic than the
+scoundrel.
+
+On the other hand, morality and reason alike resent the defect of
+patriotism as stoutly as its immoral or unintellectual extravagance. A
+total lack of the instinct implies an abnormal development of moral
+sentiment or intellect which must be left to the tender mercies of the
+mental pathologist. The man who is the friend of every country but his
+own can only be accounted for scientifically as the victim of an
+aberration of mind or heart. Ostentatious disclaimers of the patriotic
+sentiment deserve as little sympathy as the false pretenders to an
+exaggerated share of it. A great statesman is responsible for an
+apophthegm on that aspect of the topic which always deserves to be
+quoted in the same breath as Dr Johnson's familiar half-truth. When
+Sir Francis Burdett, the Radical leader in the early days of the last
+century, avowed scorn for the normal instinct of patriotism, Lord John
+Russell, the leader of the Liberal party in the House of Commons,
+sagely retorted: "The honourable member talks of the _cant_ of
+patriotism; but there is something worse than the _cant_ of
+patriotism, and that is the _recant_ of patriotism."[33] Mr Gladstone
+declared Lord John's repartee to be the best that he ever heard.
+
+[Footnote 33: The pun on "cant" and "recant" was not original, though
+Lord John's application of it was. Its inventor seems to have been
+Lady Townshend, the brilliant mother of Charles Townshend, the elder
+Pitt's Chancellor of the Exchequer. When she was asked if George
+Whitefield, the evangelical preacher, had yet recanted, she replied:
+"No, he has only been canting."]
+
+It may be profitable to consider how patriotism, which is singularly
+liable to distortion and perversion, presented itself to the mind of
+Shakespeare, the clearest-headed student of human thought and
+sentiment.
+
+
+II
+
+In Shakespeare's universal survey of human nature it was impossible
+that he should leave patriotism and the patriotic instinct out of
+account. It was inevitable that prevalent phases of both should
+frequently occupy his attention. In his rôle of dramatist he
+naturally dealt with the topic incidentally or disconnectedly rather
+than in the way of definite exposition; but in the result, his
+treatment will probably be found to be more exhaustive than that of
+any other English writer. The Shakespearean drama is peculiarly
+fertile in illustration of the virtuous or beneficent working of the
+patriotic instinct; but it does not neglect the malevolent or morbid
+symptoms incident either to its exorbitant or to its defective growth;
+nor is it wanting in suggestions as to how its healthy development may
+be best ensured. Part of Shakespeare's message on the subject is so
+well known that readers may need an apology for reference to it; but
+Shakespeare's declarations have not, as far as I know, been
+co-ordinated.[34]
+
+[Footnote 34: In passing cursorily over the whole field I must ask
+pardon for dwelling occasionally on ground that is in detached detail
+sufficiently well trodden, as well as for neglecting some points which
+require more thorough exploration than is practicable within my
+present limits.]
+
+Broadly speaking, the Shakespearean drama enforces the principle that
+an active instinct of patriotism promotes righteous conduct. This
+principle lies at the root of Shakespeare's treatment of history and
+political action, both English and Roman. Normal manifestations of the
+instinct in Shakespeare's world shed a gracious light on life. But it
+is seen to work in many ways. The patriotic instinct gives birth to
+various moods. It operates with some appearance of inconsistency. Now
+it acts as a spiritual sedative, now as a spiritual stimulant.
+
+Of all Shakespeare's characters, it is Bolingbroke in _Richard II._
+who betrays most effectively the tranquillising influence of
+patriotism. In him the patriotic instinct inclines to identity with
+the simple spirit of domesticity. It is a magnified love for his own
+hearthstone--a glorified home-sickness. The very soil of England,
+England's ground, excites in Bolingbroke an overmastering sentiment of
+devotion. His main happiness in life resides in the thought that
+England is his mother and his nurse. The patriotic instinct thus
+exerts on a character which is naturally cold and unsympathetic a
+softening, soothing, and purifying sway. Despite his forbidding
+self-absorption and personal ambition he touches hearts, and rarely
+fails to draw tears when he sighs forth the bald lines:--
+
+    Where'er I wander, boast of this I can,
+    Though banished, yet a true-born Englishman.
+
+In such a shape the patriotic instinct may tend in natures weaker than
+Bolingbroke's to mawkishness or sentimentality. But it is incapable of
+active offence. It makes for the peace and goodwill not merely of
+nations among themselves, but of the constituent elements of each
+nation within itself. It unifies human aspiration and breeds social
+harmony.
+
+Very different is the phase of the patriotic instinct which is
+portrayed in the more joyous, more frank, and more impulsive
+characters of Faulconbridge the Bastard in the play of _King John_,
+and of the King in _Henry V._ It is in them an inexhaustible stimulus
+to action. It is never quiescent, but its operations are regulated by
+morality and reason, and it finally induces a serene exaltation of
+temper. It was a pardonable foible of Elizabethan writers distinctly
+to identify with the English character this healthily energetic sort
+of patriotism--the sort of patriotism to which an atmosphere of
+knavery or folly proves fatal.
+
+Faulconbridge is an admirable embodiment of the patriotic sentiment in
+its most attractive guise. He is a manly soldier, blunt in speech,
+contemning subterfuge, chafing against the dictates of political
+expediency, and believing that quarrels between nations which cannot
+be accommodated without loss of self-respect on the one side or the
+other, had better be fought out in resolute and honourable war. He is
+the sworn foe of the bully or the braggart. Cruelty is hateful to him.
+The patriotic instinct nurtures in him a warm and generous humanity.
+His faith in the future of his nation depends on the confident hope
+that she will be true to herself, to her traditions, to her
+responsibilities, to the great virtues; that she will be at once
+courageous and magnanimous:--
+
+    Come the three corners of the world in arms,
+    And we shall shock them. Nought shall make us rue,
+    If England to itself do rest but true.
+
+Faulconbridge's patriotism is a vivacious spur to good endeavour in
+every relation of life.
+
+Henry V. is drawn by Shakespeare at fuller length than Faulconbridge.
+His character is cast in a larger mould. But his patriotism is of the
+same spirited, wholesome type. Though Henry is a born soldier, he
+discourages insolent aggression or reckless displays of prowess in
+fight. With greater emphasis than his archbishops and bishops he
+insists that his country's sword should not be unsheathed except at
+the bidding of right and conscience. At the same time, he is terrible
+in resolution when the time comes for striking blows. War, when it is
+once invoked, must be pursued with all possible force and fury:--
+
+    In peace there's nothing so becomes a man
+    As modest stillness and humility.
+    But when the blast of war blows in his ears,
+    Then imitate the action of the tiger.[35]
+
+[Footnote 35: On this point the Shakespearean oracle always speaks
+with a decisive and practical note:--
+
+                                   Beware
+    Of entrance to a quarrel, but being in
+    Bear't that the opposed may beware of thee.
+
+    (_Hamlet_, I., iii., 65-7.)]
+
+But although Henry's patriotic instinct can drive him into battle, it
+keeps him faithful there to the paths of humanity. Always alive to the
+horrors of war, he sternly forbids looting or even the use of
+insulting language to the enemy. It is only when a defeated enemy
+declines to acknowledge the obvious ruin of his fortunes that a sane
+and practical patriotism defends resort on the part of the conqueror
+to the grimmest measure of severity. The healthy instinct stiffens the
+grip on the justly won fruits of victory. As soon as Henry V. sees
+that the French wilfully deny the plain fact of their overthrow, he is
+moved, quite consistently, to exclaim:--
+
+    What is it then to me if impious war,
+    Arrayed in flames like to the prince of fiends,
+    Do with his smirched complexion all fell feats,
+    Enlinked to waste and desolation?
+
+The context makes it clear that there is no confusion here between the
+patriotic instinct and mere bellicose ecstasy.
+
+The confusion of patriotism with militant aggressiveness is as
+familiar to the Shakespearean drama as to the external world; but it
+is always exhibited by Shakespeare in its proper colours. The
+Shakespearean "mob," unwashed in mind and body, habitually yields to
+it, and justifies itself by a speciousness of argument, against which
+a clean vision rebels. The so-called patriotism which seeks expression
+in war for its own sake is alone intelligible to Shakespeare's
+pavement orators. "Let me have war, say I," exclaims the professedly
+patriotic spokesman of the ill-conditioned proletariat in
+_Coriolanus_; "it exceeds peace as far as day does night; it's
+spritely, waking, audible, and full of vent. Peace is a very apoplexy,
+lethargy; mulled, deaf, sleepy, insensible.... Ay, and it makes men
+hate one another." For this distressing result of peace, the reason is
+given that in times of peace men have less need of one another than in
+seasons of war, and the crude argument closes with the cry: "The wars
+for my money." There is irony in this suggestion of the mercantile
+value of war on the lips of a spokesman of paupers. It is solely the
+impulsive mindless patriot who strains after mere military glory.
+
+    Glory is like a circle in the water,
+    Which never ceaseth to enlarge itself,
+    Till by broad spreading it disperse to nought.
+
+    (I. _Henry VI._, I., ii., 133-5.)
+
+No wise man vaunts in the name of patriotism his own nation's
+superiority over another. The typical patriot, Henry V., once makes
+the common boast that one Englishman is equal to three Frenchmen, but
+he apologises for the brag as soon as it is out of his mouth. (He
+fears the air of France has demoralised him.)
+
+Elsewhere Shakespeare utters a vivacious warning against the patriot's
+exclusive claim for his country of natural advantages, which all the
+world shares substantially alike.
+
+    Hath Britain all the sun that shines? Day, night,
+    Are they not but in Britain? I' the world's volume
+    Our Britain seems as of it, but not in 't;
+    In a great pool, a swan's nest: prithee, think
+    There's livers out of Britain.[36]
+
+[Footnote 36: _Cymbeline_, III., iv., 139-43.]
+
+It is not the wild hunger for war, but the stable interests of peace
+that are finally subserved in the Shakespearean world by true and
+well-regulated patriotism. _Henry V._, the play of Shakespeare which
+shows the genuine patriotic instinct in its most energetic guise, ends
+with a powerful appeal to France and England, traditional foes, to
+cherish "neighbourhood and Christianlike accord," so that never again
+should "war advance his bleeding sword 'twixt England and fair
+France."
+
+However whole-heartedly Shakespeare rebukes the excesses and illogical
+pretensions to which the lack of moral or intellectual discipline
+exposes patriotism, he reserves his austerest censure for the
+disavowal of the patriotic instinct altogether. One of the greatest of
+his plays is practically a diagnosis of the perils which follow in the
+train of a wilful abnegation of the normal instinct. In _Coriolanus_
+Shakespeare depicts the career of a man who thinks that he can, by
+virtue of inordinate self-confidence and belief in his personal
+superiority over the rest of his countrymen, safely abjure and defy
+the common patriotic instinct, which, after all, keeps the State in
+being. "I'll never," says Coriolanus,
+
+    "Be such a gosling to obey instinct, but stand
+    As if a man were author of himself,
+    And knew no other kin."[37]
+
+[Footnote 37: _Coriolanus_, V., iii., 34-7.]
+
+Coriolanus deliberately suppresses the patriotic instinct, and, with
+greater consistency than others who have at times followed his
+example, joins the fighting ranks of his country's enemies by way of
+illustrating his sincerity. His action proves to be in conflict with
+the elementary condition of social equilibrium. The subversion of the
+natural instinct is brought to the logical issues of sin and death.
+Domestic ties are rudely severed. The crime of treason is risked with
+an insolence that is fatal to the transgressor. With relentless logic
+does the Shakespearean drama condemn defiance of the natural instinct
+of patriotism.
+
+
+III
+
+It does not, however, follow that the patriotic instinct of the
+Shakespearean gospel encourages blind adoration of state or country.
+Intelligent citizens of the Shakespearean world are never prohibited
+from honestly criticising the acts or aspirations of their fellows,
+and from seeking to change them when they honestly think they can be
+changed for the better. It is not the business of a discerning patriot
+to sing pæans in his nation's honour. His final aim is to help his
+country to realise the highest ideals of social and political conduct
+which are known to him, and to ensure for her the best possible
+"reputation through the world." Criticism conceived in a patriotic
+spirit should be constant and unflagging. The true patriot speaks out
+as boldly when he thinks the nation errs as when, in his opinion, she
+adds new laurels to her crown. The Shakespearean patriot applies a
+rigorous judgment to all conditions of his environment--both social
+and political.
+
+Throughout the English history plays Shakespeare bears convincing
+testimony to the right, and even to the duty, of the patriot to
+exercise in all seriousness his best powers of criticism on the
+political conduct of his fellow-citizens and of those who rule over
+him.
+
+Shakespeare's studies of English history are animated by a patriotism
+which boldly seeks and faces the truth. His dramatic presentations of
+English history have been often described as fragments of a national
+epic, as detached books of an English _Iliad_. But they embody no epic
+or heroic glorification of the nation. Taking the great series which
+begins chronologically with _King John_ and ends with _Richard III._
+(_Henry VIII._ stands apart), we find that Shakespeare makes the
+central features of the national history the persons of the kings.
+Only in the case of _Henry V._ does he clothe an English king with any
+genuine heroism. Shakespeare's kings are as a rule but men as we are.
+The violet smells to them as it does to us; all their senses have but
+human conditions; and though their affections be higher mounted than
+ours, yet when they stoop they stoop with like wing. Excepting _Henry
+V._, the history plays are tragedies. They "tell sad stories of the
+death of kings." But they do not merely illustrate the crushing
+burdens of kingship or point the moral of the hollowness of kingly
+pageantry; they explain why kingly glory is in its essence brittle
+rather than brilliant. And since Shakespeare's rulers reflect rather
+than inspire the character of the nation, we are brought to a study of
+the causes of the brittleness of national glory.
+
+The glory of a nation, as of a king, is only stable, we learn, when
+the nation, as the king, lives soberly, virtuously, and wisely, and
+is courageous, magnanimous, and zealous after knowledge. Cowardice,
+meanness, ignorance, and cruelty ruin nations as surely as they ruin
+kings. This is the lesson specifically taught in the most eloquent of
+all the direct avowals of patriotism which are to be found in
+Shakespeare's plays--in the dying speech of John of Gaunt.
+
+That speech is no ebullition of the undisciplined patriotic instinct.
+It is a solemn announcement of the truth that the greatness and glory,
+with which nature and history have endowed a nation, may be dissipated
+when, on the one hand, the rulers prove selfish, frivolous, and
+unequal to the responsibilities which a great past places on their
+shoulders, and when, on the other hand, the nation acquiesces in the
+depravity of its governors. In his opening lines the speaker lays
+emphasis on the possibilities of greatness with which the natural
+physical conditions of the country and its political and military
+traditions have invested his countrymen. Thereby he brings into lurid
+relief the sin and the shame of paltering with, of putting to ignoble
+uses, the national character and influence. The dying patriot
+apostrophises England in the familiar phrases, as:--
+
+    This royal throne of kings, this sceptred isle....
+    This fortress, built by nature for herself,
+    Against infection and the hand of war;
+    This happy breed of men, this little world;
+    This precious stone set in the silver sea,
+    Which serves it in the office of a wall,
+    Or as a moat defensive to a house,
+    Against the envy of less happier lands:
+    This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England,
+    This land of such dear souls, this dear, dear land,
+    Dear for her reputation through the world.
+
+    (_Richard II._, II., i., 40-58.)
+
+The last line identifies with the patriotic instinct the aspiration of
+a people to deserve well of foreign opinion. Subsequently the speaker
+turns from his survey of the ideal which he would have his country
+seek. He exposes with ruthless frankness the ugly realities of her
+present degradation.
+
+    England, bound in with the triumphant sea,
+    Whose rocky shore beats back the envious siege
+    Of wat'ry Neptune, is now bound in with shame,
+    With inky blots, and rotten parchment bonds,--
+    That England, that was wont to conquer others,
+    Hath made a shameful conquest of itself.
+
+    (_Richard II._, II., i., 61-6.)
+
+At the moment the speaker's warning is scorned, but ultimately it
+takes effect. At the end of the play of _Richard II._, England casts
+off the ruler and his allies, who by their self-indulgence and moral
+weakness play false with the traditions of the country.
+
+In _Henry V._, the only one of Shakespeare's historical plays in which
+an English king quits the stage in the full enjoyment of prosperity,
+his good fortune is more than once explained as the reward of his
+endeavour to abide by the highest ideals of his race, and of his
+resolve to exhibit in his own conduct its noblest mettle. His
+strongest appeals to his fellow-countrymen are:--
+
+    Dishonour not your mothers; now attest
+    That those whom you call'd fathers did beget you;
+
+           *       *       *       *       *
+
+                                       Let us swear
+    That you are worth your breeding.
+
+The kernel of sound patriotism is respect for a nation's traditional
+repute, for the attested worth of the race. That is the large lesson
+which Shakespeare taught continuously throughout his career as a
+dramatist. The teaching is not solely enshrined in the poetic
+eloquence either of plays of his early years like _Richard II._ or of
+plays of his middle life like _Henry V._ It is the last as well as the
+first word in Shakespeare's collective declaration on the true
+character of patriotism. _Cymbeline_ belongs to the close of his
+working life, and there we meet once more the assurance that a due
+regard to the past and an active resolve to keep alive ancestral
+virtue are the surest signs of health in the patriotic instinct.
+
+The accents of John of Gaunt were repeated by Shakespeare with little
+modulation at that time of his life when his reflective power was at
+its ripest. The Queen of Britain, Cymbeline's wife, is the personage
+in whose mouth Shakespeare sets, not perhaps quite appropriately, the
+latest message in regard to patriotism that he is known to have
+delivered. Emissaries from the Emperor Augustus have come from Rome to
+demand from the King of Britain payment of the tribute that Julius
+Cæsar had long since imposed on the island, by virtue of a _force
+majeure_, which is temporarily extinguished. The pusillanimous King
+Cymbeline is indisposed to put himself to the pains of contesting the
+claim, but the resolute queen awakens in him a sense of patriotism and
+of patriotic obligation by recalling the more nobly inspired attitude
+of his ancestors, and by convincing him of the baseness of ignoring
+the physical features which had been bestowed by nature on his domains
+as a guarantee of their independence.
+
+                   Remember, sir my liege,
+    The kings your ancestors, together with
+    The natural bravery of your isle, which stands
+    As Neptune's park, ribbed and paled in
+    With rocks unscaleable and roaring waters,
+    With sands, that will not bear your enemies' boats,
+    But suck them up to the topmast.
+
+    (_Cymbeline_, III., i., 16-22.)
+
+The appeal prevails, and the tribute is refused. Although the
+evolution of the plot which is based on an historical chronicle
+compels the renewed acquiescence of the British king in the Roman tax
+at the close of the play, the Queen of Britain's spirited insistence
+on the maritime strength of her country loses little of its
+significance.
+
+
+IV
+
+Frank criticism of the social life of the nation is as characteristic
+of Shakespearean drama as outspoken exposition of its political
+failings. There is hardly any of Shakespeare's plays which does not
+offer shrewd comment on the foibles and errors of contemporary English
+society.
+
+To society, Shakespeare's attitude is that of a humorist who invites
+to reformation half-jestingly. His bantering tone, when he turns to
+social censure, strikingly contrasts with the tragic earnestness that
+colours his criticism of political vice or weakness. Some of the
+national failings on the social side which Shakespeare rebukes may
+seem trivial at a first glance. But it is the voice of prudent
+patriotism which prompts each count in the indictment. The keenness of
+Shakespeare's insight is attested by the circumstance that every
+charge has a modern application. None is yet quite out of date.
+
+Shakespeare rarely missed an opportunity of betraying contempt for the
+extravagances of his countrymen and countrywomen in regard to dress.
+Portia says of her English suitor Faulconbridge, the young baron of
+England: "How oddly he is suited! I think he bought his doublet in
+Italy, his round hose in France, his bonnet in Germany, and his
+behaviour everywhere." Another failing in Englishmen, which Portia
+detects in her English suitor, is a total ignorance of any language
+but his own. She, an Italian lady, remarks: "You know I say nothing to
+him, for he understands not me nor I him. He hath neither Latin,
+French, nor Italian. He is a proper man's picture, but, alas! who can
+converse with a dumb show." This moving plaint draws attention to a
+defect which is not yet supplied. There are few Englishmen nowadays
+who, on being challenged to court Portia in Italian, would not cut a
+sorry figure in dumb show--sorrier figures than Frenchmen or Germans.
+No true patriot ought to ignore the fact or to direct attention to it
+with complacency.
+
+Again, Shakespeare was never unmindful of the drunken habits of
+his compatriots. When Iago sings a verse of the song beginning,
+"And let me the cannikin clink," and ending, "Why then let a
+soldier drink," Cassio commends the excellence of the ditty.
+Thereupon Iago explains: "I learned it in England, where indeed
+they are most potent in potting; Your Dane, your German, and
+your swag-bellied Hollander--drink, ho!--are nothing to your
+English." Cassio asks: "Is your Englishman so expert in his drinking?"
+Iago retorts: "Why, he drinks you, with facility, your Dane dead
+drunk," and gains, the speaker explains, easy mastery over the German
+and the Hollander.
+
+A further stroke of Shakespeare's social criticism hits the
+thoughtless pursuit of novelty, which infected the nation and found
+vent in Shakespeare's day in the patronage of undignified shows and
+sports. When Trinculo, perplexed by the outward aspect of the hideous
+Caliban, mistakes him for a fish, he remarks: "Were I in England now,
+as once I was, and had but this fish painted, not a holiday fool there
+but would give a piece of silver: there would this monster make a man;
+any strange beast there makes a man: when they will not give a doit to
+relieve a lame beggar, they will lay out ten to see a dead Indian."
+
+Shakespeare seems slyly to confess a personal conviction of defective
+balance in the popular judgment when he makes the first grave-digger
+remark that Hamlet was sent into England because he was mad.
+
+"He shall recover his wits there," the old clown suggests, "or if he
+do not, 'tis no great matter there."
+
+"Why?" asks Hamlet.
+
+"'Twill not be seen in him there; there the men are as mad as he."
+
+So, too, in the emphatically patriotic play of _Henry V._, Shakespeare
+implies that he sees some purpose in the Frenchman's jibes at the
+foggy, raw, and dull climate of England, which engenders in its
+inhabitants, the Frenchman argues, a frosty temperament, an ungenial
+coldness of blood. Nor does the dramatist imply dissent from the
+French marshal's suggestion that Englishmen's great meals of beef
+impair the efficiency of their intellectual armour. The point of the
+reproof is not blunted by the subsequent admission of a French critic
+in the same scene to the effect that, however robustious and rough in
+manner Englishmen may be, they have the unmatchable courage of the
+English breed of mastiffs. To credit men with the highest virtues of
+which dogs are capable is a grudging compliment.
+
+
+V
+
+To sum up. The Shakespearean drama enjoins those who love their
+country wisely to neglect no advantage that nature offers in the way
+of resisting unjust demands upon it; to remember that her prosperity
+depends on her command of the sea,--of "the silver sea, which serves
+it in the office of a wall, or as a moat defensive to a house, against
+the envy of less happier lands"; to hold firm in the memory "the dear
+souls" who have made "her reputation through the world"; to subject at
+need her faults and frailties to criticism and rebuke; and finally to
+treat with disdain those in places of power, who make of no account
+their responsibilities to the past as well as to the present and the
+future. The political, social, and physical conditions of his country
+have altered since Shakespeare lived. England has ceased to be an
+island-power. The people rule instead of the king. Social
+responsibilities are more widely acknowledged. But the dramatist's
+doctrine of patriotism has lost little of its pristine vitality, and
+is relevant to current affairs.
+
+
+
+
+IX
+
+A PERIL OF SHAKESPEAREAN RESEARCH[38]
+
+[Footnote 38: This paper was first printed in _The Author_, October
+1903.]
+
+
+I
+
+For some years past scarcely a month passes without my receipt of a
+communication from a confiding stranger, to the effect that he has
+discovered some piece of information concerning Shakespeare which has
+hitherto eluded research. Very often has a correspondent put himself
+to the trouble of forwarding a photograph of the title-page of a late
+sixteenth or early seventeenth century book, on which has been
+scrawled in old-fashioned script the familiar name of William
+Shakespeare. At intervals, which seem to recur with mathematical
+regularity, I receive intelligence that a portrait of the poet, of
+which nothing is hitherto known, has come to light in some recondite
+corner of England or America, and it is usually added that a
+contemporary inscription settles all doubt of authenticity.
+
+I wish to speak with respect and gratitude of these confidences. I
+welcome them, and have no wish to repress them. But truth does not
+permit me to affirm that such as have yet reached me have done more
+than enlarge my conception of the scope of human credulity. I look
+forward to the day when the postman shall, through the generosity of
+some appreciative reader of my biography of Shakespeare, deliver at my
+door an autograph of the dramatist of which nothing has been heard
+before, or a genuine portrait of contemporary date, the existence of
+which has never been suspected. But up to the moment of writing,
+despite the good intentions of my correspondents, no experience of the
+kind has befallen me.
+
+There is something pathetic in the frequency with which
+correspondents, obviously of unblemished character and most generous
+instinct, send me almost tearful expressions of regret that I should
+have hitherto ignored one particular document, which throws (in their
+eyes) a curious gleam on the dramatist's private life. At least six
+times a year am I reminded how it is recorded in more than one obscure
+eighteenth-century periodical that the dramatist, George Peele, wrote
+to his friend Marle or Marlowe, in an extant letter, of a merry
+meeting which was held at a place called the "Globe." Whether the
+rendezvous were tavern or playhouse is left undetermined. The
+assembled company, I am assured, included not merely Edward Alleyn the
+actor, and Ben Jonson, but Shakespeare himself. Together these
+celebrated men are said to have discussed a passage in the new play of
+_Hamlet_. The reported talk is at the best tame prattle. Yet, if
+Shakespeare be anywhere revealed in unconstrained intercourse with
+professional associates, no biographer deserves pardon for overlooking
+the revelation, however disappointing be its purport.
+
+Unfortunately for this neglected intelligence, the letter in question
+is an eighteenth century fabrication. It is a forgery of no intrinsic
+brilliance or wit. It bears on its dull face marks of guilt which
+could only escape the notice of the uninformed. It is not likely to
+mislead the critical. Nevertheless it has deceived many an uncritical
+reader, and has constantly found its way into print without meeting
+serious confutation. It may therefore be worth while setting its true
+origin and subsequent history on record. No endeavour is likely in all
+the circumstances of the case to prevent an occasional resurrection of
+the meagre spectre; but at present it appears to walk in various
+quarters quite unimpeded, and an endeavour to lay it may not be
+without its uses.
+
+
+II
+
+Through the first half of 1763 there was published in London a monthly
+magazine called the _Theatrical Review, or Annals of the Drama_, an
+anonymous miscellany of dramatic biography and criticism. It was a
+colourless contribution to the journalism of the day, and lacked
+powers of endurance. It ceased at the end of six months. The six
+instalments were re-issued as "Volume I." at the end of June 1763; but
+that volume had no successor.[39]
+
+[Footnote 39: Other independent publications of similar character
+appeared under the identical title of _The Theatrical Review_ both in
+1758 and 1772. The latter collected the ephemeral dramatic criticisms
+of John Potter, a well-known writer for the stage.]
+
+All that is worth noting of the _Theatrical Review_ of 1763 now is
+that among its contributors was an extremely interesting personality.
+He was a young man of good education and independent means, who had
+chambers in the Temple, and was enthusiastically applying himself to a
+study of Shakespeare and Elizabethan dramatic literature. His name,
+George Steevens, acquired in later years world-wide fame as that of
+the most learned of Shakespearean commentators. Of the real value of
+Steevens's scholarship no question is admissible, and his reputation
+justly grew with his years. Yet Steevens's temper was singularly
+perverse and mischievous. His confidence in his own powers led him to
+contemn the powers of other people. He enjoyed nothing so much as
+mystifying those who were engaged in the same pursuits as himself, and
+his favourite method of mystification was to announce anonymously the
+discovery of documents which owed all their existence to his own
+ingenuity. This, he admitted, was his notion of "fun." Whenever the
+whim seized him, he would in gravest manner reveal to the Press, or
+even contrive to bring to the notice of a learned society, some
+alleged relic in manuscript or in stone which he had deliberately
+manufactured. His sole aim was to recreate himself with laughter at
+the perplexity that such unholy pranks aroused. It is one of these
+Puck-like tricks on Steevens's part that has spread confusion among
+those of my correspondents, who allege that Peele has handed down to
+us a personal reminiscence of the great dramatist.
+
+The _Theatrical Review_, in its second number, offered an anonymous
+biography of the great actor and theatrical manager of Shakespeare's
+day, Edward Alleyn. This biography was clearly one of Steevens's
+earliest efforts. It is for the most part an innocent compilation. But
+it contains one passage in its author's characteristic vein of
+mischief. Midway in the essay the reader is solemnly assured that a
+brand-new contemporary reference to Alleyn's eminent associate
+Shakespeare was at his disposal. The new story "carries with it"
+(asserts the writer) "all the air of probability and truth, and has
+never been in print before." "A gentleman of honour and veracity," run
+the next sentences, which were designed to put the unwary student off
+his guard, "in the commission of the peace for Middlesex, has shown us
+a letter dated in the year 1600, which he assures us has been in the
+possession of his family, by the mother's side, for a long series of
+years, and which bears all the marks of antiquity." The superscription
+was interpreted to run: "For Master Henrie Marle, livynge at the sygne
+of the rose by the palace."
+
+There follows at length the paper of which the family of the
+honourable and veracious gentleman "in the commission of the peace for
+Middlesex" had become possessed "by the mother's side." The words were
+these:--
+
+     "FRIENDE MARLE,
+
+     "I must desyre that my syster hyr watche, and the cookerie
+     booke you promysed, may be sent by the man. I never longed
+     for thy company more than last night; we were all very
+     merrye at the Globe, when Ned Alleyn did not scruple to
+     affyrme pleasantely to thy friend Will, that he had stolen
+     his speech about the qualityes of an actor's excellencye, in
+     _Hamlet_ hys tragedye, from conversations manyfold which had
+     passed between them, and opinyons given by Allen touchinge
+     the subject. Shakespeare did not take this talke in good
+     sorte; but Jonson put an end to the stryfe with wittielie
+     saying: 'This affaire needeth no contentione; you stole it
+     from Ned, no doubt; do not marvel; have you not seen him act
+     tymes out of number?'
+
+     "Believe me most syncerelie,
+
+     "Harrie,
+
+     "Thyne,
+
+     "G. PEEL."
+
+The text of this strangely-spelt, strangely-worded epistle, with its
+puny efforts at a jest, was succeeded by a suggestion that "G. Peel,"
+the alleged signatory, could be none other than George Peele, the
+dramatist, who achieved reputation in Shakespeare's early days, and
+was an industrious collector of anecdotes.
+
+Thus the impish Steevens baited his hook. The sport which followed
+must have exceeded his expectations. Any one familiar with the bare
+outline of Elizabethan literary history should have perceived that a
+trap had been set. The letter was assigned to the year 1600.
+Shakespeare's play of _Hamlet_, to the performance of which it
+unconcernedly refers, was not produced before 1602; at that date
+George Peele had lain full four years in his grave. Peele could never
+have passed the portals of the theatre called the "Globe"; for it was
+not built until 1599. No historic tavern of the name is known. The
+surname of the person, to whom the letter was pretended to have been
+addressed, is suspicious. "Marle" was one way of spelling "Marlowe" at
+a period when forms of surnames varied with the caprice of the writer.
+The great dramatist, _Christopher_ Marle, or Marloe, or Marlowe, had
+died in 1593. "Henrie Marle" is counterfeit coinage of no doubtful
+stamp.
+
+The language and the style of the letter are undeserving of serious
+examination. They are of a far later period than the Elizabethan age.
+They cannot be dated earlier than 1763. Safely might the heaviest odds
+be laid that in no year of the reign of Queen Elizabeth "did friende
+Marle promyse G. Peel his syster that he would send hyr watche and the
+cookerie book by the man," or that "Ned Alleyn made pleasante
+affirmation to G. Peel of friend Will's theft of the speech in
+_Hamlet_ concerning an actor's excellencye."
+
+From top to toe the imposture is obvious. But the general reader of
+the eighteenth century was confiding, unsuspicious, greedy of novel
+information. The description of the source of the document seemed to
+him precise enough to silence doubt.
+
+
+III
+
+The _Theatrical Review_ of 1763 succeeded in launching the fraud on a
+quite triumphal progress. Again and again, as the century advanced,
+was G. Peel's declaration to "friende Marle" paraded, without hint of
+its falsity, before snappers-up of Shakespearean trifles. Seven years
+after its first publication, the epistle found admission in a slightly
+altered setting to so reputable a periodical as the _Annual Register_.
+Burke was still directing that useful publication, and whatever
+information the _Register_ shielded, was reckoned to be of veracity.
+"G. Peel" and "friende Marle" were there, in the year 1770, suffered
+to exchange their confidences in the most honourable environment.
+
+Another seven years passed, and in 1777 there appeared an ambitious
+work of reference, entitled _Biographia Literaria, or a Biographical
+History of Literature_, which gave its author, John Berkenhout, a
+free-thinking physician, his chief claim to remembrance. Steevens was
+a friend of Berkenhout, and helped him in the preparation of the book.
+Into his account of Shakespeare, the credulous physician introduced
+quite honestly the fourteen-year-old forgery. The reputed date of
+1600, which the supposititious justice of the peace had given it in
+the _Theatrical Review_, was now suppressed. Berkenhout confined his
+comment to the halting reminiscence: "Whence I copied this letter I do
+not recollect; but I remember that at the time of transcribing it, I
+had no doubt of its authenticity."
+
+Thrice had the trick been worked effectively in conspicuous places
+before Steevens died in 1800. But the evil that he did lived after
+him, and within a year of his death the imposture renewed its youth. A
+correspondent, who concealed his identity under the signature of
+"Grenovicus" (_i.e._, of Greenwich), sent Peel's letter in 1801 to the
+_Gentleman's Magazine_, a massive repertory of useful knowledge. There
+it was duly reprinted in the number for June. "Grenovicus" had the
+assurance to claim the letter as his own discovery. "To my knowledge,"
+he wrote, "it has never yet appeared in print." He refrained from
+indicating how he had gained access to it, but congratulated himself
+and the readers of the _Gentleman's Magazine_ on the valiant feast
+that he provided for them. His action was apparently taken by the
+readers of the _Gentleman's Magazine_ at his own valuation.
+
+Meanwhile the discerning critic was not altogether passive. Isaac
+D'Israeli denounced the fraud in his _Curiosities of Literature_; but
+he and others did their protesting gently. The fraud looked to the
+expert too shamefaced to merit a vigorous onslaught. He imagined the
+spurious epistle must die of its own inanity. In this he miscalculated
+the credulity of the general reader. "Grenovicus" of the _Gentleman's
+Magazine_ had numerous disciples.
+
+Many a time during the past century has that worthy's exploit been
+repeated. Even so acute a scholar as Alexander Dyce thought it worth
+while to reprint the letter in 1829 in the first edition of his
+collected works of George Peele (Vol. I., page 111), although he
+declined to pledge himself to its authenticity. The latest historian
+of Dulwich College[40] has admitted it to his text with too mildly
+worded a caveat. Often, too, has "G. Peel" emerged more recently from
+a long-forgotten book or periodical to darken the page of a modern
+popular magazine. I have met him unabashed during the present century
+in two literary periodicals of repute--in the _Academy_ (of London),
+in the issue of 18th January 1902, and in the _Poet Lore_ (of Boston)
+in the following April number. Future disinterments may safely be
+prophesied. In the jungle of the _Annual Register_ or the _Gentleman's
+Magazine_ the forgery lurks unchallenged, and there will always be
+inexperienced explorers, who from time to time will run the unhallowed
+thing to earth there, and bring it forth as a new and unsuspected
+truth.
+
+[Footnote 40: William Young's _History of Dulwich College_, 1889, II.,
+41-2.]
+
+Perhaps forgery is too big a word to apply to Steevens's concoction.
+Others worked at later periods on lines of mystification similar to
+his; but, unlike his disciples, he did not seek from his misdirected
+ingenuity pecuniary gain or even notoriety. He never set his name to
+this invention of "Peel" and "Marle," and their insipid chatter about
+_Hamlet_ at the "Globe." Steevens's sole aim was to delude the unwary.
+It is difficult to detect humour in the endeavour. But the perversity
+of the human intellect has no limits. This ungainly example of it is
+only worth attention because it has sailed under its false colours
+without very serious molestation for one hundred and forty-three
+years.
+
+
+
+
+X
+
+SHAKESPEARE IN FRANCE[41]
+
+[Footnote 41: This paper was first printed in _The Nineteenth
+Century_, June 1899.]
+
+
+I
+
+Nothing but good can come of a comparative study of English and French
+literature. The political intercourse of the two countries has
+involved them in an endless series of broils. But between the
+literatures of the two countries friendly relations have subsisted for
+over five centuries. In the literary sphere the interchange of
+neighbourly civilities has known no interruption. The same literary
+forms have not appealed to the tastes of the two nations; but
+differences of æsthetic temperament have not prevented the literature
+of the one from levying substantial loans on the literature of the
+other, and that with a freedom and a frequency which were calculated
+to breed discontent between any but the most cordial of allies. While
+the literary geniuses of the two nations have pursued independent
+ideals, they have viewed as welcome courtesies the willingness and
+readiness of the one to borrow sustenance of the other on the road. It
+is unlikely that any full or formal balance-sheet of such lendings and
+borrowings will ever be forthcoming, for it is felt instinctively by
+literary accountants and their clients on both shores of the English
+Channel that the debts on the one side keep a steady pace with the
+debts on the other, and there is no balance to be collected.
+
+No recondite research is needed to establish this general view
+of the situation. It is well known how the poetic career of Chaucer,
+the earliest of great English poets, was begun under French masters.
+The greatest poem of mediæval France, the _Roman de la Rose_,
+was turned into English by his youthful pen, and the chief French
+poet of the day, Eustace Deschamps, held out to him the hand of
+fellowship in the enthusiastic _balade_, in which he apostrophised
+"le grand translateur, noble Geoffroi Chaucer." Following Chaucer's
+example, the great poets of Elizabeth's reign and of James the
+First's reign most liberally and most literally assimilated the
+verse of their French contemporaries, Ronsard, Du Bellay, and
+Desportes.[42] Early in the seventeenth century, Frenchmen returned
+the compliment by naturalising in French translations the prose
+romances of Sir Philip Sidney and Robert Greene, the philosophical
+essays of Bacon, and the ethical and theological writings of Bishop
+Joseph Hall. From the accession of Charles the Second until that
+of George the Third, the English drama framed itself on French
+models, and Pope, who long filled the throne of a literary dictator
+in England, acknowledged discipleship to Boileau. A little later the
+literary philosophers of France--Rousseau and the Encyclopédistes--drew
+their nutrition from the writings of Hobbes and Locke. French
+novel-readers of the eighteenth century found their chief joy in the
+tearful emotions excited by the sentimentalities of Richardson and
+Sterne. French novel-writers one hundred and thirty years ago had
+small chance of recognition if they disdained to traffic in the
+lachrymose wares which the English novelists had brought into fashion.
+
+[Footnote 42: In the Introduction to a collection of Elizabethan
+Sonnets, published in Messrs Constable's re-issue of Arber's _English
+Garner_ (1904), the present writer has shown that numerous sonnets,
+which Elizabethan writers issued as original poems, were literal
+translations from the French of Ronsard, Du Bellay, and Desportes.
+Numerous loans of like character were levied silently on Italian
+authors.]
+
+At the present moment the cultured Englishman finds his most palatable
+fiction in the publications of Paris. Within recent memory the English
+playgoer viewed with impatience any theatrical programme which lacked
+a Parisian flavour. The late Sir Henry Irving, who, during the past
+generation, sought to sustain the best traditions of the English
+drama, produced in his last years two original plays, _Robespierre_
+and _Dante_, by the _doyen_ of living French dramatists, M. Sardou.
+Complementary tendencies are visible across the Channel. The French
+stage often offers as cordial a reception to plays of English
+manufacture as is offered in London to the plays derived from France.
+No histrionic event attracts higher interest in Paris than the
+assumption by a great actor or actress of a Shakespearean rôle for the
+first time; and French dramatic critics have been known to generate
+such heat in debates over the right conception of a Shakespearean
+character that their differences have required adjustment at the
+sword's point.
+
+Of greater interest is it to note that in all the cultivated centres
+of France a new and unparalleled energy is devoted to-day to the study
+of English literature of both the present and the past. The research
+recently expended on the topic by French scholars has not been
+excelled in Germany, and has rarely been equalled in England. Critical
+biographies of James Thomson (of _The Seasons_), of Burns, of Young,
+and of Wordsworth have come of late from the pens of French professors
+of English literature, and their volumes breathe a minute accuracy and
+a fulness of sympathetic knowledge which are certainly not habitual to
+English professors of English literature. This scholarly movement in
+France shows signs of rapid extension. Each summer vacation sees an
+increase in the number of French visitors to the British Museum
+reading-room, who are making recondite researches into English
+literary history. The new zeal of Frenchmen for English studies claims
+the most cordial acknowledgment of English scholars, and it is
+appropriate that the most coveted lectureship on English literature in
+an English University--the Clark lectureship at Trinity College,
+Cambridge--should have been bestowed last year on the learned
+professor of English at the Sorbonne, M. Beljame, author of _Le Public
+et les Hommes de Lettres en Angleterre au XVIIIe Siècle_. M.
+Beljame's unexpected death (on September 17, 1906), shortly after his
+work at Cambridge was completed, is a loss alike to English and French
+letters.
+
+
+II
+
+In view of the growth of the French interest in English literary
+history, it was to be expected that serious efforts should be made in
+France to determine the character and dimensions of the influence
+exerted on French literature by the greatest of all English men of
+letters--by Shakespeare. That work has been undertaken by M.
+Jusserand. In 1898 he gave to the world the results of his
+investigation in his native language. Subsequently, with a welcome
+consideration for the linguistic incapacities of Shakespeare's
+countrymen, he repeated his conclusions in their tongue.[43] The
+English translation is embellished with many pictorial illustrations
+of historic interest and value.
+
+[Footnote 43: _Shakespeare in France under the Ancien Régime_, by J.J.
+Jusserand. London: T. Fisher Unwin. 1899.]
+
+Among French writers on English literature, M. Jusserand is the most
+voluminous and the most widely informed. His career differs in an
+important particular from that of his countrymen who pursue the same
+field of study. He is not by profession a teacher or writer: he is a
+diplomatist, and now holds the high office of French ambassador to the
+United States of America. M. Jusserand has treated in his books of
+almost all periods of English literary history, and he has been long
+engaged on an exhaustive _Literary History of the English People_, of
+which the two volumes already published bring the narrative as far as
+the close of the Civil Wars.
+
+M. Jusserand enjoys the rare, although among modern Frenchmen by no
+means unexampled, faculty of writing with almost equal ease and
+felicity in both French and English. His walk in life gives him a
+singularly catholic outlook. His learning is profound, but he is not
+overburdened by it, and he preserves his native gaiety of style even
+when solving crabbed problems of bibliography. He is at times
+discursive, but he is never tedious; and he shows no trace of that
+philological pedantry and narrowness or obliquity of critical vision
+which the detailed study of literary history has been known to breed
+in English and German investigators. While M. Jusserand betrays all
+the critical independence of his compatriot M. Taine, his habit of
+careful and laborious research illustrates with peculiar vividness the
+progress which English scholarship has made in France since M. Taine
+completed his sparkling survey of English literature in 1864.
+
+M. Jusserand handles the theme of _Shakespeare in France under the
+Ancien Régime_ with all the lightness of touch and wealth of minute
+detail to which he has accustomed his readers. Nowhere have so many
+facts been brought together in order to illustrate the literary
+intercourse of Frenchmen and Englishmen between the sixteenth and the
+nineteenth centuries. It is true that his opening chapters have little
+concern with Shakespeare, but their intrinsic interest and novelty
+atone for their irrelevance. They shed a flood of welcome light on
+that interchange of literary information and ideas which is a constant
+feature in the literary history of the two countries.
+
+Many will read here for the first time of the great poet Ronsard's
+visits to this country; of the distinguished company of English actors
+which delighted the court of Henry IV. of France; and of Ben Jonson's
+discreditable drunken exploits in the French capital when he went
+thither as tutor to Sir Walter Ralegh's son. To these episodes might
+well be added the pleasant personal intercourse of Francis Bacon's
+brother, Anthony, with the great French essayist Montaigne, when the
+Englishman was sojourning at Bordeaux in 1583. Montaigne's Essays
+achieved hardly less fame in Elizabethan England than in France. Both
+Shakespeare and Bacon gave proof of indebtedness to them.
+
+By some freak of fortune Shakespeare's fame was slow in crossing the
+English Channel. The French dramatists of the sixteenth and
+seventeenth centuries lived and died in the paradoxical faith that the
+British drama reached its apogee in the achievement of the Scottish
+Latinist, George Buchanan, who was reckoned in France "prince of the
+poets of our day." In Buchanan's classical tragedies Montaigne played
+a part, while he was a student at Bordeaux. His tragedy of _Jephtha_
+achieved exceptional fame in sixteenth century France; three Frenchmen
+of literary repute rendered it independently into their own language,
+and each rendering went through several editions. Another delusion
+which French men of letters cherished, not only during Shakespeare's
+lifetime, but through three or four generations after his death, was
+that Sir Thomas More, Sir Philip Sidney, and the father of Lord
+Chancellor Bacon were the greatest authors which England had begotten
+or was likely to beget. French enthusiasm for the suggestive irony of
+More's Latin romance of _Utopia_ outran that of his fellow-countrymen.
+A French translation anticipated the earliest rendering of the work in
+the author's native tongue. No less than two independent French
+versions of Sir Philip Sidney's voluminous fiction of _Arcadia_ were
+circulating in France one hundred and twenty years before the like
+honour was paid to any work of Shakespeare.
+
+Shakespeare's work first arrived in France towards the close of the
+seventeenth century. Frenchmen were staggered by its originality. They
+perceived the dramatist's colossal breaches of classical law. They
+were shocked by his freedom of speech. When Louis the Fourteenth's
+librarian placed on the shelves of the Royal Library in Paris a copy
+of the Second Folio of his works which had been published in London in
+1632, he noted in his catalogue that Shakespeare "has a rather fine
+imagination; he thinks naturally; but these fine qualities are
+obscured by the filth he introduces into his comedies." An increasing
+mass of pedestrian literature was imported into France from England
+through the middle and late years of the seventeenth century. Yet
+Shakespeare had to wait for a fair hearing there till the eighteenth
+century.
+
+Then it was very gradually that Shakespeare's pre-eminence was
+realised by French critics. It is to Voltaire that Frenchmen owe a
+full knowledge of Shakespeare. Voltaire's method of teaching
+Shakespeare to his countrymen was characteristically cynical. He
+studied him closely when he visited England as a young man. At that
+period of his career he not merely praised him with discerning
+caution, but he paid him the flattery of imitation. Voltaire's tragedy
+of _Brutus_ betrays an intimate acquaintance with Shakespeare's
+_Julius Cæsar_. His _Eryphile_ was the product of many perusals of
+_Hamlet_. His _Zaïre_ is a pale reflection of _Othello_. But when
+Voltaire's countrymen showed a tendency to better Voltaire's
+instruction, and one Frenchman conferred on Shakespeare the title of
+"the god of the theatre," Voltaire resented the situation that he had
+himself created. He was at the height of his own fame, and he felt
+that his reputation as the first of French writers for the stage was
+in jeopardy.
+
+The last years of Voltaire's life were therefore consecrated to an
+endeavour to dethrone the idol which his own hands had set up.
+Voltaire traded on the patriotic prejudices of his hearers, but his
+efforts to depreciate Shakespeare were very partially successful. Few
+writers of power were ready to second the soured critic, and after
+Voltaire's death the Shakespeare cult in France, of which he was the
+unwilling inaugurator, spread far and wide.
+
+In the nineteenth century Shakespeare was admitted without demur into
+the French "pantheon of literary gods." Classicists and romanticists
+vied in doing him honour. The classical painter Ingres introduced his
+portrait into his famous picture of "Homer's Cortège" (now in the
+Louvre). The romanticist Victor Hugo recognised only three men as
+memorable in the history of humanity, and Shakespeare was one of the
+three; Moses and Homer were the other two. Alfred de Musset became a
+dramatist under Shakespeare's spell. To George Sand everything in
+literature seemed tame by the side of Shakespeare's poetry. The prince
+of romancers, the elder Dumas, set the English dramatist next to God
+in the cosmic system; "after God," wrote Dumas, "Shakespeare has
+created most."
+
+
+III
+
+It would be easy to multiply eulogies of Shakespeare from French lips
+in the vein of Victor Hugo and Dumas--eulogies besides which the
+enthusiasm of many English critics appears cold and constrained. So
+unfaltering a note of admiration sounds gratefully in the ears of
+Shakespeare's countrymen. Yet on closer investigation there seems a
+rift within the lute. When one turns to the French versions of
+Shakespeare, for which the chief of Shakespeare's French encomiasts
+have made themselves responsible, an Englishman is inclined to
+moderate his exultation in the French panegyrics.
+
+No one did more as an admiring critic and translator of Shakespeare
+than Jean François Ducis, who prepared six of Shakespeare's greatest
+plays for the French stage at the end of the eighteenth century. Not
+only did Ducis introduce Shakespeare's masterpieces to thousands of
+his countrymen who might otherwise never have heard of them, but his
+renderings of Shakespeare were turned into Italian and many languages
+of Eastern Europe. They spread the knowledge of Shakespeare's
+achievement to the extreme boundaries of the European Continent.
+Apparently Ducis did his work under favourable auspices. He
+corresponded regularly with Garrick, and he was never happier than
+when studying Shakespeare's text with a portrait of Shakespeare at his
+side. Yet, in spite of Ducis's unquestioned reverence and his
+honourable intentions, all his translations of Shakespeare are gross
+perversions of their originals. It is not merely that he is verbally
+unfaithful. He revises the development of the plots; he gives the
+_dramatis personæ_ new names.
+
+Ducis's _Othello_ was accounted his greatest triumph. The play shows
+Shakespeare's mastery of the art of tragedy at its highest stage of
+development, and rewards the closest study. But the French translator
+ignored the great tragic conception which gives the drama its pith and
+moment. He converted the piece into a romance. Towards the end of his
+rendering Iago's villanies are discovered by Othello; Othello and
+Desdemona are reconciled; and the Moor, exulting in his newly
+recovered happiness, pardons Iago. The curtain falls on a dazzling
+scene of domestic bliss.
+
+Ducis frankly acknowledged that he was guilty of a somewhat strained
+interpretation of Shakespeare's tragic scheme, but he defended himself
+on the ground that French refinement and French sensitiveness could
+not endure the agonising violence of the true catastrophe. It is,
+indeed, the fact that the patrons of the Comédie Française strictly
+warned the adapter against revolting their feelings by reproducing the
+"barbarities" that characterised the close of Shakespeare's tragic
+masterpiece.
+
+If so fastidious a flinching from tragic episode breathe the true
+French sentiment, what, we are moved to ask, is the significance of
+the unqualified regard which Ducis and his countrymen profess for
+Shakespearean drama? There seems a strange paradox in the situation.
+The history of France proves that Frenchmen can face without quailing
+the direst tragedies which can be wrought in earnest off the stage.
+There is a startling inconsistency in the outcry of Ducis's French
+clients against the terror of Desdemona's murder. For the protests
+which Ducis reports on the part of the Parisians bear the date 1792.
+In that year the tragedy of the French Revolution--a tragedy of real
+life, grimmer than any that Shakespeare imagined--was being enacted in
+literal truth by the Parisian playgoers themselves. It would seem that
+Ducis and his countrymen deemed the purpose of art to be alone
+fulfilled when the artistic fabric was divorced from the ugly facts of
+life.
+
+A like problem is presented by Dumas's efforts in more pacific
+conditions to adapt Shakespeare for the Parisian stage. With his
+friend Paul Meurice Dumas prepared the version of _Hamlet_ which long
+enjoyed a standard repute at the Comédie Française. Dumas's ecstatic
+adoration for Shakespeare's genius did not deter him, any more than
+Ducis was deterred by his more subdued veneration, from working havoc
+on the English text. Shakespeare's blank verse was necessarily turned
+into Alexandrines. That was comparatively immaterial. Of greater
+moment is it to note that the _dénouement_ of the tragedy was
+completely revolutionised by Dumas. The tragic climax is undermined.
+Hamlet's life is spared by Dumas. The hero's dying exclamation, "The
+rest is silence," disappears from Dumas's version. At the close of the
+play the French translator makes the ghost rejoin his son and
+good-naturedly promise him indefinite prolongation of his earthly
+career. According to the gospel of Dumas, the tragedy of Hamlet ends,
+as soon as his and his father's wrongs have been avenged, in this
+fashion:--
+
+_Hamlet._      Et moi, vais-je rester, triste orphelin sur terre,
+               À respirer cet air imprégné de misère?...
+               Est-ce que Dieu sur moi fera peser son bras,
+               Père? Et quel châtiment m'attend donc?
+
+_Le Fantôme._                                         Tu vivras.
+
+Such defiant transgressions of the true Shakespearean canon as those
+of which Ducis and Dumas stand convicted may well rouse the suspicion
+that the critical incense they burn at Shakespeare's shrine is
+offered with the tongue in the cheek. But that suspicion is not
+justified. Ducis and Dumas worship Shakespeare with a whole heart.
+Their misapprehensions of his tragic conceptions are due,
+involuntarily, to native temperament. In point of fact, Ducis and
+Dumas see Shakespeare through a distorting medium. The two Frenchmen
+were fully conscious of Shakespeare's towering greatness. They
+perceived intuitively that Shakespeare's tragedies transcended all
+other dramatic achievement. But their æsthetic sense, which, as far as
+the drama was concerned, was steeped in the classical spirit, set many
+of the essential features of Shakespeare's genius outside the focus of
+their vision.
+
+To a Frenchman a tragedy of classical rank connotes "correctness," an
+absence of tumult, some observance of the classical law of unity of
+time, place, and action. The perpetration of crime in face of the
+audience outraged all classical conventions. Ducis and Dumas
+recognised involuntarily that certain characteristics of the
+Shakespearean drama could not live in the classical atmosphere of
+their own theatre. Excision, expansion, reduction was inevitable
+before Shakespeare could breathe the air of the French stage. The
+grotesque perversions of Ducis and Dumas were thus not the fruit of
+mere waywardness, or carelessness, or dishonesty; they admit of
+philosophical explanation.
+
+By Englishmen they may be viewed with equanimity, if not with
+satisfaction. They offer strong proof of the irrepressible strength or
+catholicity of the appeal that Shakespeare's genius makes to the mind
+and heart of humanity. His spirit survived the French efforts at
+mutilation. The Gallicised or classicised contortions of his mighty
+work did not destroy its saving virtue. There is ground for
+congratulation that Ducis's and Dumas's perversions of Shakespeare
+excited among Frenchmen almost as devoted an homage as the dramatist's
+work in its native purity and perfection claims of men whose souls are
+free of the fetters of classical tradition.
+
+
+IV
+
+If any still doubt the sincerity of the worship which is offered
+Shakespeare in France, I would direct the sceptic's attention to a
+pathetically simple tribute which was paid to the dramatist by a
+French student in the first year of the last century, when England and
+France were in the grip of the Napoleonic War. It was then that a
+young Frenchman proved beyond cavil by an ingenuous confession that
+the English poet, in spite of the racial differences of æsthetic
+sentiment, could touch a French heart more deeply than any French or
+classical author. In 1801 there was published at Besançon, "de
+l'imprimerie de Métoyer," a very thin volume in small octavo, under
+fifty pages in length, entitled, _Pensées de Shakespeare, Extraites de
+ses Ouvrages_. No compiler's name is mentioned, but there is no doubt
+that the book was from the pen of a precocious native of Besançon,
+Charles Nodier, who was in later life to gain distinction as a
+bibliographer and writer of romance.
+
+This forgotten volume, of which no more than twenty-five copies were
+printed, and only two or three of these seem to survive, has escaped
+the notice of M. Jusserand. No copy of it is in the British Museum,
+or in La Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, with which the author, Nodier, was
+long honourably associated as librarian. I purchased it a few years
+ago by accident in a small collection of imperfectly catalogued
+Shakespeareana. Lurking in the rear of a very ragged regiment on the
+shelves of the auctioneer stood Charles Nodier's _Pensées de
+Shakespeare_. None competed with me for the prize. A very slight
+effort delivered into my hands the little chaplet of French laurel.
+
+The major part of the volume consists of 190 numbered sentences--each
+a French rendering of an apophthegm or reflection drawn from
+Shakespeare's plays. The translator is not faithful to his English
+text, but his style is clear and often rises to eloquence. The book
+does not, however, owe its interest to Nodier's version of
+Shakespearean maxims. Nor can one grow enthusiastic over the
+dedication "A elle"--an unidentified fair-one to whom the youthful
+writer proffers his homage with respectful propriety. The salt of the
+little volume lies in the "Observations Préliminaires," which cover
+less than five widely-printed pages. These observations breathe a
+genuine affection for Shakespeare's personality and a sense of
+gratitude for his achievement in terms which no English admirer has
+excelled for tenderness and simplicity.
+
+"Shakespeare," writes this French worshipper, "is a friend whom Heaven
+has given to the unhappy of every age and every country." The writer
+warns us that he offers no eulogy of Shakespeare; that is to be found
+in the poet's works, which the Frenchman for his own part prefers to
+read and read again rather than waste time in praising them. "The
+features of Alexander ought only to be preserved by Apelles." Nodier
+merely collects some of Shakespeare's thoughts on great moral truths
+which he thinks to be useful to the conduct of life. But such
+extracts, he admonishes his reader, supply no true knowledge of
+Shakespeare. "From Shakespeare's works one can draw forth a
+philosophy, but from no systems of philosophy could one construct one
+page of Shakespeare." Nodier concludes his "Observations" thus:--
+
+     "I advise those who do not know Shakespeare to study him in
+     himself. I advise those who know him already to read him
+     again.... I know him, but I must needs declare my admiration
+     for him. I have reviewed my powers, and am content to cast a
+     flower on his grave since I am not able to raise a monument
+     to his memory."
+
+Language like this admits no questioning of its sincerity. Nodier's
+modest tribute handsomely atones for his countrymen's misapprehensions
+of Shakespeare's tragic conceptions. None has phrased more delicately
+or more simply the sense of personal devotion, which is roused by
+close study of his work.
+
+
+
+
+XI
+
+THE COMMEMORATION OF SHAKESPEARE IN LONDON[44]
+
+[Footnote 44: This paper was first printed in _The Nineteenth Century
+and After_, April 1905.]
+
+
+I
+
+The public memory is short. At the instant the suggestion that
+Shakespeare should receive the tribute of a great national monument in
+London is attracting general attention. In the ears of the vast
+majority of those who are taking part in the discussion the proposal
+appears to strike a new note. Few seem aware that a national memorial
+of Shakespeare has been urged on Londoners many times before. Thrice,
+at least, during the past eighty-five years has it exercised the
+public mind.
+
+At the extreme end of the year 1820, the well-known actor Charles
+Mathews set on foot a movement for the erection of "a national
+monument to the immortal memory of Shakespeare." He pledged himself to
+enlist the support of the new King, George the Fourth, of members of
+the royal family, of "every man of rank and talent, every poet,
+artist, and sculptor." Mathews's endeavour achieved only a specious
+success. George the Fourth, readily gave his "high sanction" to a
+London memorial. Sir Walter Scott, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Tom Moore,
+and Washington Irving were among the men of letters; Sir Thomas
+Lawrence, [Sir] Francis Chantrey, and John Nash, the architect, were
+among the artists, who approved the general conception. For three or
+four years ink was spilt and breath was spent in the advocacy of the
+scheme. But nothing came of all the letters and speeches.
+
+In 1847 the topic was again broached. A committee, which was hardly
+less influential than that of 1821, revived the proposal. Again no
+result followed.
+
+Seventeen years passed away, and then, in 1864, the arrival of the
+tercentenary of Shakespeare's birth seemed to many men of eminence in
+public life, in letters or in art, an appropriate moment at which to
+carry the design into effect. A third failure has to be recorded.
+
+The notion, indeed, was no child of the nineteenth century which
+fathered it so ineffectually. It was familiar to the eighteenth. One
+eighteenth century effort was fortunate enough to yield a little
+permanent fruit. To an eighteenth-century endeavour to offer
+Shakespeare a national memorial in London was due the cenotaph in
+Westminster Abbey.
+
+
+II
+
+The suggestion of commemorating Shakespeare by means of a monument in
+London has thus something more than a "smack of age" about it,
+something more than a "relish of the saltness of time"; there are
+points of view from which it might appear to be already "blasted with
+antiquity." On only one of the previous occasions that the question
+was raised was the stage of discussion passed, and that was in the
+eighteenth century when the monument was placed in the Poets' Corner
+of Westminster Abbey. The issue was not felicitous. The memorial in
+the Abbey failed to satisfy the commemorative aspirations of the
+nation; it left it open to succeeding generations to reconsider the
+question, if it did not impose on them the obligation. Most of the
+poets, actors, scholars, and patrons of polite learning, who in 1741
+subscribed their guineas to the fund for placing a monument in
+Westminster Abbey, resented the sculpturesque caricature to which
+their subscriptions were applied. Pope, an original leader of the
+movement, declined to write an inscription for this national memorial,
+but scribbled some ironical verses beginning:--
+
+    Thus Britons love me and preserve my fame.
+
+A later critic imagined Shakespeare's wraith pausing in horror by the
+familiar monument in the Abbey, and lightly misquoting Shelley's
+familiar lines:--
+
+    I silently laugh at my own cenotaph, ...
+    And long to unbuild it again.
+
+One of the most regrettable effects of the Abbey memorial, with its
+mawkish and irrelevant sentimentality, has been to set a bad pattern
+for statues of Shakespeare. Posterity came to invest the design with
+some measure of sanctity.
+
+The nineteenth century efforts were mere abortions. In 1821, in spite
+of George the Fourth's benevolent patronage, which included an
+unfulfilled promise to pay the sum of 100 guineas, the total amount
+which was collected after six years' agitation was so small that it
+was returned to the subscribers. The accounts are extant in the
+Library of Shakespeare's Birthplace at Stratford-on-Avon. In 1847 the
+subscriptions were more abundant, but all was then absorbed in the
+purchase of Shakespeare's Birthplace at Stratford; no money was
+available for a London memorial. In 1864 the expenses of organising
+the tercentenary celebration in London by way of banquets, concerts,
+and theatrical performances, seem to have left no surplus for the
+purpose which the movement set out to fulfil.
+
+
+III
+
+The causes of the sweeping failure of the proposal when it came before
+the public during the nineteenth century are worthy of study. There
+was no lack of enthusiasm among the promoters. Nor were their high
+hopes wrecked solely by public apathy. The public interest was never
+altogether dormant. More efficient causes of ruin were, firstly, the
+active hostility of some prominent writers and actors who declaimed
+against all outward and visible commemoration of Shakespeare; and
+secondly, divisions in the ranks of supporters in regard to the
+precise form that the memorial ought to take. The censorious refusal
+of one section of the literary public to countenance any memorial at
+all, and the inability of another section, while promoting the
+endeavour, to concentrate its energies on a single acceptable form of
+commemoration had, as might be expected, a paralysing effect.
+
+"England," it was somewhat casuistically argued in 1864, "has never
+been ungrateful to her poet; but the very depth and fervour of the
+reverence in which he is held have hitherto made it difficult for his
+scholars to agree upon any common proceeding in his name." Neither in
+1864 nor at earlier and later epochs have Shakespearean scholars
+always formed among themselves a very happy family. That amiable
+sentiment which would treat the realisation of the commemorative aim
+as a patriotic obligation--as an obligation which no good citizen
+could honourably repudiate--has often produced discord rather than
+harmony among the Shakespearean scholars who cherish it. One school of
+these has argued in the past for a work of sculpture, and has been
+opposed by a cry for a college for actors, or a Shakespearean theatre.
+"We do not like the idea of a monument at all," wrote _The Times_ on
+the 20th of January 1864. "Shakespeare," wrote _Punch_ on the 6th of
+February following, "needs no statue." In old days it was frequently
+insisted that, even if the erection of a London monument were
+desirable, active effort ought to be postponed until an adequate
+memorial had been placed in Stratford-on-Avon where the poet's memory
+had been hitherto inadequately honoured. At the same time a band of
+students was always prepared to urge the chilling plea that the
+payment of any outward honour to Shakespeare was laboursome futility,
+was "wasteful and ridiculous excess." Milton's query: "What needs my
+Shakespeare for his honoured bones?" has always been quoted to satiety
+by a vociferous section of the critics whenever the commemoration of
+Shakespeare has come under discussion.
+
+
+IV
+
+Once again the question of a national memorial of Shakespeare in
+London has been revived in conditions not wholly unlike those that
+have gone before. Mr Richard Badger, a veteran enthusiast for
+Shakespeare, who was educated in the poet's native place, has offered
+the people of London the sum of £3500 as the nucleus of a great
+Shakespeare Memorial Fund. The Lord Mayor of London has presided over
+a public meeting at the Mansion House, which has empowered an
+influential committee to proceed with the work. The London County
+Council has promised to provide a site. With regard to the form that
+the memorial ought to take, a variety of irresponsible suggestions has
+been made. It has now been authoritatively determined to erect a
+sculptured monument on the banks of the Thames.[45]
+
+[Footnote 45: The proceedings of the committee which was formed in the
+spring of 1905 have been dilatory. Mr Badger informs me that he paid
+the organisers, nearly two years ago, the sum of £500 for preliminary
+expenses, and deposited bonds to the value of £3000 with Lord Avebury,
+the treasurer of the committee. The delay is assigned to the
+circumstance that the London County Council, which is supporting the
+proposal, is desirous of associating it with the great Council Hall
+which it is preparing to erect on the south side of the Thames, and
+that it has not yet been found practicable to invite designs for that
+work. (Oct. 1, 1906.)]
+
+The propriety of visibly and outwardly commemorating Shakespeare in
+the capital city of the Empire has consequently become once more an
+urgent public question. The public is invited anew to form an opinion
+on the various points at issue. No expression of opinion should carry
+weight which omits to take into account past experience as well as
+present conditions and possibilities. If regard for the public
+interest justify a national memorial in London, it is most desirable
+to define the principles whereby its precise form should be
+determined.
+
+In one important particular the consideration of the subject to-day is
+simpler than when it was debated on former occasions. Differences
+existed, then as now, in regard to the propriety of erecting a
+national memorial of Shakespeare in London; but almost all who
+interested themselves in the matter in the nineteenth century agreed
+that the public interest justified, if it did not require, the
+preservation from decay or demolition of the buildings at
+Stratford-on-Avon with which Shakespeare's life was associated. So
+long as those buildings were in private hands, every proposal to
+commemorate Shakespeare in London had to meet a formidable objection
+which was raised on their behalf. If the nation undertook to
+commemorate Shakespeare at all, it should make its first aim (it was
+argued) the conversion into public property of the surviving memorials
+of Shakespeare's career at Stratford. The scheme of the London
+memorial could not be thoroughly discussed on its merits while the
+claims of Stratford remained unsatisfied. It was deemed premature,
+whether or no it were justifiable, to entertain any scheme of
+commemoration which left the Stratford buildings out of account.
+
+A natural sentiment connected Shakespeare more closely with
+Stratford-on-Avon than with any other place. Whatever part London
+played in his career, the public mind was dominated by the fact that
+he was born at Stratford, died, and was buried there. If he left
+Stratford in youth in order to work out his destiny in London, he
+returned to it in middle life in order to end his days there "in ease,
+retirement, and the conversation of his friends."
+
+In spite of this widespread feeling, it proved no easy task, nor one
+capable of rapid fulfilment, to consecrate in permanence to public
+uses the extant memorials of Shakespeare at Stratford-on-Avon.
+Stratford was a place of pilgrimage for admirers of Shakespeare from
+early days in the seventeenth century--soon, in fact, after
+Shakespeare's death in 1616. But local veneration did not prevent the
+demolition in 1759, by a private owner, of New Place, Shakespeare's
+last residence. That act of vandalism was long in provoking any
+effective resentment. Garrick, by means of his Jubilee Festival of
+1769, effectively, if somewhat theatrically, called the attention of
+the English public to the claims of the town to the affectionate
+regard of lovers of the great dramatist. Nevertheless, it was left to
+the nineteenth century to dedicate in perpetuity to the public service
+the places which were the scenes of Shakespeare's private life in his
+native town.
+
+Charles Mathews's effort of 1821 took its rise in an endeavour to
+purchase in behalf of the nation the vacant site of Shakespeare's
+demolished residence of New Place, with the great garden attached to
+it. But that scheme was overweighted by the incorporation with it of
+the plan for a London monument, and both collapsed ignominiously. In
+1835 a strong committee was formed at Stratford to commemorate the
+poet's connection with the town. It was called "the Monumental
+Committee," and had for its object, firstly, the repair of
+Shakespeare's tomb in the Parish Church; and secondly, the
+preservation and restoration of all the Shakespearean buildings in
+the town. Subscriptions were limited to £1, and all the members of the
+royal family, including the Princess Victoria, who two years later
+came to the throne, figured, with other leading personages in the
+nation's life, in the list of subscribers. But the subscriptions only
+produced a sum sufficient to carry out the first purpose of the
+Monumental Committee--the repair of the tomb.
+
+In 1847 the sale by public auction was announced of the house in which
+Shakespeare was born. It had long been a show-place in private hands.
+A general feeling declared itself in favour of the purchase of the
+house for the nation. Public sentiment was in accord with the
+ungrammatical grandiloquence of the auctioneer, the famous Robins,
+whose advertisement of the sale included the sentence: "It is trusted
+the feeling of the country will be so evinced that the structure may
+be secured, hallowed, and cherished as a national monument almost as
+imperishable as the poet's fame." A subscription list was headed by
+Prince Albert with £250. A distinguished committee was formed under
+the presidency of Lord Morpeth (afterwards the seventh Earl of
+Carlisle), then Chief Commissioner of Woods and Forests, who offered
+to make his department perpetual conservators of the property. (That
+proposal was not accepted.) Dickens, Macaulay, Lord Lytton, and the
+historian Grote were all active in promoting the movement, and it
+proved successful. The property was duly secured by a private trust in
+behalf of the nation. The most important house identified with
+Shakespeare's career in Stratford was thus effectively protected from
+the risks that are always inherent in private ownership. The step was
+not taken with undue haste; two hundred and thirty-one years had
+elapsed since Shakespeare's death.
+
+Fourteen years later, in very similar circumstances, the still vacant
+site of Shakespeare's demolished residence, New Place, with the great
+garden behind it, and the adjoining house, was acquired by the public.
+A new Shakespeare Fund, to which the Prince Consort subscribed £100,
+and Miss Burdett-Coutts (afterwards Baroness Burdett-Coutts) £600, was
+formed not only to satisfy this purpose, but to provide the means of
+equipping a library and museum which were contemplated at the
+Birthplace, as well as a second museum which was to be provided on the
+New Place property. It was appropriate to make these buildings
+depositories of authentic relics and books which should illustrate the
+poet's life and work. This national Shakespeare Fund was actively
+promoted, chiefly by the late Mr Halliwell-Phillipps, for more than
+ten years; a large sum of money was collected, and the aims with which
+the Fund was set on foot were to a large extent fulfilled. It only
+remained to organise on a permanent legal basis the completed
+Stratford Memorial of Shakespeare. By an Act of Parliament passed in
+1891 the two properties of New Place and the Birthplace were
+definitely formed into a single public trust "for and in behalf of the
+nation." The trustees were able in 1892, out of their surplus income,
+which is derived from the fees of visitors, to add to their estates
+Anne Hathaway's Cottage at Shottery, a third building of high interest
+to students of Shakespeare's history.
+
+The formation of the Birthplace Trust has every title to be regarded
+as an outward and visible tribute to Shakespeare's memory on the part
+of the British nation at large.[46] The purchase for the public of
+the Birthplace, the New Place property, and Anne Hathaway's Cottage
+was not primarily due to local effort. Justly enough, a very small
+portion of the necessary funds came from Stratford itself. The British
+nation may therefore take credit for having set up at least one
+fitting monument to Shakespeare by consecrating to public uses the
+property identified with his career in Stratford. Larger funds than
+the trustees at present possess are required to enable them to carry
+on the work which their predecessors began, and to compete with any
+chance of success for books and relics of Shakespearean interest--such
+as they are empowered by Act of Parliament to acquire--when these
+memorials chance to come into the market. But a number of small annual
+subscriptions from men of letters has lately facilitated the
+performance of this part of the trustees' work, and that source of
+income may, it is hoped, increase.
+
+[Footnote 46: Nor is this all that has been accomplished at Stratford
+in the nineteenth century in the way of the national commemoration of
+Shakespeare. While the surviving property of Shakespearean interest
+was in course of acquisition for the nation, an early ambition to
+erect in Stratford a theatre in Shakespeare's memory was realised--in
+part by subscriptions from the general public, but mainly by the
+munificence of members of the Flower family, three generations of
+which have resided at Stratford. The Memorial Theatre was opened in
+1879, and the Picture Gallery and Library which were attached to it
+were completed two years later. The Memorial Buildings at Stratford
+stand on a different footing from the properties of the Birthplace
+Trust. The Memorial institution has an independent government, and is
+to a larger extent under local control. But the extended series of
+performances of Shakespearean drama, which takes place each year in
+April at the Memorial Theatre, has something of the character of an
+annual commemoration of Shakespeare by the nation at large.]
+
+At any rate, the ancient objection to the erection of a national
+monument in London, which was based on the absence of any memorial in
+Stratford, is no longer of avail. In 1821, in 1847, and in 1864, when
+the acquisition of the Stratford property was unattempted or
+uncompleted, it was perfectly just to argue that Stratford was
+entitled to have precedence of London when the question of
+commemorating Shakespeare was debated. It is no just argument in 1906,
+now that the claims of Stratford are practically satisfied.
+
+Byron, when writing of the memorial to Petrarch at Arquà, expressed
+with admirable feeling the sentiment that would confine outward
+memorials of a poet in his native town to the places where he was
+born, lived, died, and was buried. With very little verbal change
+Byron's stanza on the visible memorials of Petrarch's association with
+Arquà is applicable to those of Shakespeare's connexion with
+Stratford:--
+
+    They keep his dust in Stratford, where he died;
+    The midland village where his later days
+    Went down the vale of years; and 'tis their pride--
+    An honest pride--and let it be their praise,
+    To offer to the passing stranger's gaze
+    His birthplace and his sepulchre; both plain
+    And venerably simple, such as raise
+    A feeling more accordant with his strain
+    Than if a pyramid form'd his monumental fane.[47]
+
+[Footnote 47: Cf. _Childe Harold_, Canto IV., St. xxxi.]
+
+Venerable simplicity is hardly the characteristic note of
+Shakespeare's "strain" any more than it is of Petrarch's "strain." But
+there can be no just quarrel with the general contention that at
+Stratford, where Shakespeare gave ample proof of his characteristic
+modesty, a pyramidal fane would be out of harmony with the
+environment. There his birthplace, his garden, and tomb are the
+fittest memorials of his great career.
+
+
+V
+
+It may justly be asked: Is there any principle which justifies another
+sort of memorial elsewhere? On grounds of history and sentiment, but
+in conditions which demand most careful definition, the right answer
+will, I think, be in the affirmative. For one thing, Shakespeare's
+life was not confined to Stratford. His professional career was spent
+in London, and those, who strictly insist that memorials to great men
+should be erected only in places with which they were personally
+associated, can hardly deny that London shares with Stratford a title
+to a memorial from a biographical or historical point of view. Of
+Shakespeare's life of fifty-two years, twenty-four years were in all
+probability spent in London. During those years the work that makes
+him memorable was done. It was in London that the fame which is
+universally acknowledged was won.
+
+Some valuable details regarding Shakespeare's life in London are
+accessible. The districts where he resided and where he passed his
+days are known. There is evidence that during the early part of his
+London career he lived in the parish of St Helen's, Bishopsgate, and
+during the later part near the Bankside, Southwark. With the south
+side of the Thames he was long connected, together with his youngest
+brother, Edmund, who was also an actor, and who was buried in the
+church of St Saviour's, Southwark.
+
+In his early London days Shakespeare's professional work, alike as
+actor and dramatist, brought him daily from St Helen's, Bishopsgate,
+to The Theatre in Shoreditch. Shoreditch was then the chief
+theatrical quarter in London. Later, the centre of London theatrical
+life shifted to Southwark, where the far-famed Globe Theatre was
+erected, in 1599, mainly out of the materials of the dismantled
+Shoreditch Theatre. Ultimately Shakespeare's company of actors
+performed in a theatre at Blackfriars, which was created out of a
+private residence on a part of the site on which _The Times_ office
+stands now. At a few hundred yards' distance from the Blackfriars
+Theatre, in the direction of Cannon Street, Shakespeare, too, shortly
+before his death, purchased a house.
+
+Thus Shakespeare's life in London is well identified with four
+districts--with Bishopsgate, with Shoreditch, with Southwark, and with
+Blackfriars. Unhappily for students of Shakespeare's life, London has
+been more than once remodelled since the dramatist sojourned in the
+city. The buildings and lodgings, with which he was associated in
+Shoreditch, Southwark, Bishopsgate, or Blackfriars, have long since
+disappeared.
+
+It is not practicable to follow in London the same historical scheme
+of commemoration which has been adopted at Stratford-on-Avon. It is
+impossible to recall to existence the edifices in which Shakespeare
+pursued his London career. Archæology could do little in this
+direction that was satisfactory. There would be an awkward incongruity
+in introducing into the serried ranks of Shoreditch warehouses and
+Southwark wharves an archæological restoration of Elizabethan
+playhouse or private residence. Pictorial representations of the Globe
+Theatre survive, and it might be possible to construct something that
+should materialise the extant drawings. But the _genius loci_ has
+fled from Southwark and from Shoreditch. It might be practicable to
+set up a new model of an Elizabethan theatre elsewhere in London, but
+such a memorial would have about it an air of unreality,
+artificiality, and affectation which would not be in accord with the
+scholarly spirit of an historic or biographic commemoration. The
+device might prove of archæological interest, but the commemorative
+purpose, from a biographical or historical point of view, would be ill
+served. Wherever a copy of an Elizabethan playhouse were brought to
+birth in twentieth-century London, the historic sense in the onlooker
+would be for the most part irresponsive; it would hardly be quickened.
+
+
+VI
+
+Apart from the practical difficulties of realising materially
+Shakespeare's local associations with London, it is doubtful if the
+mere commemoration in London of Shakespeare's personal connection with
+the great city ought to be the precise aim of those who urge the
+propriety of erecting a national monument in the metropolis.
+Shakespeare's personal relations with London can in all the
+circumstances of the case be treated as a justification in only the
+second degree. The primary justification involves a somewhat different
+train of thought. A national memorial of Shakespeare in London must be
+reckoned of small account if it merely aim at keeping alive in public
+memory episodes of Shakespeare's London career. The true aim of a
+national London memorial must be symbolical of a larger fact. It must
+typify Shakespeare's place, not in the past, but in the present life
+of the nation and of the world. It ought to constitute a perpetual
+reminder of the position that he fills in the present economy, and is
+likely to fill in the future economy of human thought, for those whose
+growing absorption in the narrowing business of life tends to make
+them forget it.
+
+The day is long since past when vague eulogy of Shakespeare is
+permissible. Shakespeare's literary supremacy is as fully recognised
+by those who justly appreciate literature as any law of nature. To the
+man and woman of culture in all civilised countries he symbolises the
+potency of the human intellect. But those who are content to read and
+admire him in the cloister at times overlook the full significance of
+his achievement in the outer world. Critics of all nationalities are
+in substantial agreement with the romance-writer Dumas, who pointed
+out that Shakespeare is more than the greatest of dramatists; he is
+the greatest of thinking men.
+
+The exalted foreign estimate illustrates the fact that Shakespeare
+contributes to the prestige of his nation a good deal beyond repute
+for literary power. He is not merely a literary ornament of our
+British household. It is largely on his account that foreign nations
+honour his country as an intellectual and spiritual force. Shakespeare
+and Newton together give England an intellectual sovereignty which
+adds more to her "reputation through the world" than any exploit in
+battle or statesmanship. If, again, Shakespeare's pre-eminence has
+added dignity to the name of Englishman abroad, it has also quickened
+the sense of unity among the intelligent sections of the
+English-speaking peoples. Admiration, affection for his work has come
+to be one of the strongest links in the chain which binds the
+English-speaking peoples together. He quickens the fraternal sense
+among all who speak his language.
+
+London is no nominal capital of the kingdom and the Empire. It is the
+headquarters of British influence. Within its boundaries are assembled
+the official insignia of British prestige. It is the mother-city of
+the English-speaking world. To ask of the citizens of London some
+outward sign that Shakespeare is a living source of British prestige,
+an unifying factor in the consolidation of the British Empire, and a
+powerful element in the maintenance of fraternal relations with the
+United States, seems therefore no unreasonable demand. Neither
+cloistered study of his plays, nor the occasional representation of
+them in the theatres, brings home to either the English-speaking or
+the English-reading world the full extent of the debt that England
+owes to Shakespeare. A monumental memorial, which should symbolise
+Shakespeare's influence in the universe, could only find an
+appropriate and effective home in the capital city of the British
+Empire. It is this conviction, and no narrower point of view, which
+gives endeavour to commemorate Shakespeare in London its title to
+consideration.
+
+
+VII
+
+The admitted fact that Shakespeare's fame is established beyond risk
+of decay does not place him outside the range of conventional methods
+of commemoration. The greater a man's recognised service to his
+fellows, the more active grows in normally constituted minds that
+natural commemorative instinct, which seeks outward and tangible
+expression. A strange fallacy underlies the objection that has been
+taken to any commemoration of Shakespeare on the alleged ground that
+Milton warned the English people of all time against erecting a
+monument to Shakespeare.
+
+In 1630 Milton asked the question that is familiar to thousands of
+tongues:
+
+    What needs my Shakespeare for his honoured bones?
+
+By way of answer he deprecated any such "weak witness of his name" as
+"pilèd stones" or "star-y-pointing pyramid." The poet-laureate of
+England echoed Milton's sentiment in 1905. He roundly asserted that
+"perishable stuff" is the fit crown of monumental pedestals. "Gods for
+themselves," he concluded, "have monument enough." There are ample
+signs that the sentiment to which Milton and the laureate give voice
+has a good deal of public support.
+
+None the less the poet-laureate's conclusion is clearly refuted by
+experience and cannot terminate the argument. At any rate, in the
+classical and Renaissance eras monumental sculpture was in habitual
+request among those who would honour both immortal gods and mortal
+heroes--especially mortal heroes who had distinguished themselves in
+literature or art.
+
+A little reflection will show, likewise, that Milton's fervid couplets
+have small bearing on the question at issue in its present conditions.
+Milton's poem is an elegy on Shakespeare. It was penned when the
+dramatist had lain in his grave less that fourteen years, and when the
+writer was in his twenty-second year. The exuberant enthusiasm of
+youth was couched in poetic imagery which has from time immemorial
+been employed in panegyrics of great poets. The beautiful figure which
+presents a great man's work as his only lasting monument is as old as
+poetry itself. The conceit courses through the classical poetry of
+Greece from the time of Pindar, and through that of Italy from the
+time of Ennius. No great Renaissance writer of modern Italy, of
+sixteenth-century France, or of Elizabethan England, tired of arguing
+that the poet's deathless memorial is that carved by his own pen.
+Shakespeare himself clothed the conceit in glowing harmonies in his
+sonnets. Ben Jonson, in his elegy on the dramatist, adapted the
+time-honoured figure when he hailed his dead friend's achievement as
+"a monument without a tomb."
+
+"The truest poetry is the most feigning," and, when one recalls the
+true significance and influence of great sculptured monuments through
+the history of the civilised world, Milton's poetic argument can only
+be accepted in what Sir Thomas Browne called "a soft and flexible
+sense"; it cannot "be called unto the rigid test of reason." To treat
+Milton's eulogy as the final word in the discussion of the subject
+whether or no Shakespeare should have a national monument, is to come
+into conflict with Sir Walter Scott, Tennyson, Ruskin, Dickens, and
+all the greatest men of letters of the nineteenth century, who
+answered the question in the affirmative. It is to discredit crowds of
+admirers of great writers in classical and modern ages, who have
+commemorated the labours of poets and dramatists in outward and
+visible monuments.
+
+The genius of the great Greek dramatists was not underrated by their
+countrymen. Their literary efforts were adjudged to be true memorials
+of their fame, and no doubt of their immortality was entertained. None
+the less, the city of Athens, on the proposition of the Attic orator,
+Lycurgus, erected in honour of Æschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides
+statues which ranked with the most beautiful adornments of the Greek
+capital. Calderon and Goethe, Camoens and Schiller, Sir Walter Scott
+and Burns enjoy reputations which are smaller, it is true, than
+Shakespeare's, but are, at the same time, like his, of both national
+and universal significance. In memory of them all, monuments have been
+erected as tokens of their fellow-countrymen's veneration and
+gratitude for the influence which their poetry wields.
+
+The fame of these men's writings never stood in any "need" of
+monumental corroboration. The sculptured memorial testified to the
+sense of gratitude which their writings generated in the hearts and
+minds of their readers.
+
+Again, the great musicians and the great painters live in their work
+in a singularly vivid sense. Music and painting are more direct in
+popular appeal than great poetry. Yet none can ridicule the sentiment
+which is embodied in the statue of Beethoven at Bonn, or in that of
+Paolo Veronese at Verona. To accept literally the youthful judgment of
+Milton and his imitators is to condemn sentiments and practices which
+are in universal vogue among civilised peoples. It is to deny to the
+Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey a rational title to existence.
+
+To commemorate a great man by a statue in a public place in the
+central sphere of his influence is, indeed, a custom inseparable from
+civilised life. The theoretic moralist's reminder that monuments of
+human greatness sooner or later come to dust is a doctrine too
+discouraging of all human effort to exert much practical effect.
+Monuments are, in the eyes of the intelligent, tributes for services
+rendered to posterity by great men. But incidentally they have an
+educational value. They help to fix the attention of the thoughtless
+on facts which may, in the absence of outward symbols, escape notice.
+They may act as incentives to thought. They may convert the
+thoughtless into the thoughtful. Wide as are the ranks of
+Shakespeare's readers, they are not, in England at any rate, incapable
+of extension; and, whatever is likely to call the attention of those
+who are as yet outside the pale of knowledge of Shakespeare to what
+lies within it, deserves respectful consideration.
+
+It is never inconsistent with a nation's dignity for it to give
+conspicuous expression of gratitude to its benefactors, among whom
+great writers take first rank. Monuments of fitting character give
+that conspicuous expression. Bacon, the most enlightened of English
+thinkers, argued, within a few years of Shakespeare's death, that no
+self-respecting people could safely omit to erect statues of those who
+had contributed to the genuine advance of their knowledge or prestige.
+The visitors to Bacon's imaginary island of New Atlantis saw statues
+erected at the public expense in memory of all who had won great
+distinction in the arts or sciences. The richness of the memorial
+varied according to the value of the achievement. "These statues," the
+observer noted, "are some of brass, some of marble and touchstone,
+some of cedar and other special woods, gilt and adorned, some of iron,
+some of silver, some of gold." No other external recognition of great
+intellectual service was deemed, in Bacon's Utopia, of equal
+appropriateness. Bacon's mature judgment deserves greater regard than
+the splendid imagery of Milton's budding muse.
+
+
+VIII
+
+In order to satisfy the commemorative instinct in a people, it is
+necessary, as Bacon pointed out, strictly to adapt the means to the
+end. The essential object of a national monument to a great man is to
+pay tribute to his greatness, to express his fellow-men's sense of his
+service. No blunder could be graver than to confuse the issue by
+seeking to make the commemoration serve any secondary or collateral
+purpose. It may be very useful to erect hospitals or schools. It may
+help in the dissemination of knowledge and appreciation of
+Shakespearean drama for the public to endow a theatre, which should be
+devoted to the performance of Shakespeare's plays. The public interest
+calls loudly for a playhouse that shall be under public control.
+Promoters of such a commendable endeavour might find their labours
+facilitated by associating their project with Shakespeare's name--with
+the proposed commemoration of Shakespeare. But the true aim of the
+commemoration will be frustrated if it be linked with any purpose of
+utility, however commendable, with anything beyond a symbolisation of
+Shakespeare's mighty genius and influence. To attempt aught else is
+"wrenching the true cause the false way." A worthy memorial to
+Shakespeare will not satisfy the just working of the commemorative
+instinct, unless it take the sculpturesque and monumental shape which
+the great tradition of antiquity has sanctioned. A monument to
+Shakespeare should be a monument and nothing besides.
+
+Bacon's doctrine that the greater the achievement that is commemorated
+the richer must be the outward symbol, implies that a memorial to
+Shakespeare must be a work of art of the loftiest merit conceivable.
+Unless those who promote the movement concentrate their energies on an
+object of beauty, unless they free the movement of all suspicion that
+the satisfaction of the commemorative instinct is to be a secondary
+and not the primary aim, unless they resolve that the Shakespeare
+memorial in London is to be a monument pure and simple, and one as
+perfect as art can make it, then the effort is undeserving of national
+support.
+
+
+IX
+
+This conclusion suggests the inevitable objection that sculpture in
+England is not in a condition favourable to the execution of a great
+piece of monumental art. Past experience in London does not make one
+very sanguine that it is possible to realise in statuary a worthy
+conception of a Shakespearean memorial. The various stages through
+which recent efforts to promote sculptured memorials in London have
+passed suggest the mock turtle's definition in _Alice in Wonderland_
+of the four branches of arithmetic--Ambition, Distraction,
+Uglification, and Derision. Save the old statue of James the Second,
+at Whitehall, and the new statue of Oliver Cromwell, which stands at
+a disadvantage on its present site beneath Westminster Hall, there is
+scarcely a sculptured portrait in the public places of London which is
+not
+
+    A fixèd figure for the time of scorn
+    To point his slow unmoving finger at.
+
+London does not lack statues of men of letters. There are statues of
+Burns and John Stuart Mill on the Thames Embankment, of Byron in
+Hamilton Place, and of Carlyle on Chelsea Embankment. But all convey
+an impression of insignificance, and thereby fail to satisfy the
+nation's commemorative instinct.
+
+The taste of the British nation needs rigorous control when it seeks
+to pay tribute to benefactors by means of sculptured monuments. During
+the last forty years a vast addition has been made throughout Great
+Britain--with most depressing effect--to the number of sculptured
+memorials in the open air. The people has certainly shown far too
+enthusiastic and too inconsiderate a liberality in commemorating by
+means of sculptured monuments the virtues of Prince Albert and the
+noble character and career of the late Queen Victoria. The deduction
+to be drawn from the numberless statues of Queen Victoria and her
+consort is not exhilarating. British taste never showed itself to
+worse effect. The general impression produced by the most ambitious of
+all these memorials, the Albert Memorial in Kensington Gardens, is
+especially deplorable. The gilt figure of the Prince seems to defy
+every principle that fine art should respect. The endeavour to produce
+imposing effect by dint of hugeness is, in all but inspired hands,
+certain to issue in ugliness.
+
+It would, however, be a mistake to take too gloomy a view of the
+situation. The prospect may easily be painted in too dismal colours.
+It is a commonplace with foreign historians of art to assert that
+English sculpture ceased to flourish when the building of the old
+Gothic cathedrals came to an end. But Stevens's monument of the Duke
+of Wellington in St Paul's Cathedral, despite the imperfect execution
+of the sculptor's design, shows that the monumental art of England has
+proved itself, at a recent date, capable of realising a great
+commemorative conception. There are signs, too, that at least three
+living sculptors might in favourable conditions prove worthy
+competitors of Stevens. At least one literary memorial in the British
+Isles, the Scott monument in Edinburgh, which cost no more than
+£16,000, satisfies a nation's commemorative aspiration. There the
+natural environment and an architectural setting of impressive design
+reinforce the effect of sculpture. The whole typifies with fitting
+dignity the admiring affection which gathers about Scott's name. This
+successful realisation of a commemorative aim--not wholly dissimilar
+from that which should inspire a Shakespeare memorial--must check
+forebodings of despair.
+
+There are obviously greater difficulties in erecting a monument to
+Shakespeare in London than in erecting a monument to Scott in
+Edinburgh. There is no site in London that will compare with the
+gardens of Princes Street in Edinburgh. It is essential that a
+Shakespeare memorial should occupy the best site that London can
+offer. Ideally the best site for any great monument is the summit of a
+gently rising eminence, with a roadway directly approaching it and
+circling round it. In 1864, when the question of a fit site for a
+Shakespeare memorial in London was warmly debated, a too ambitious
+scheme recommended the formation of an avenue on the model of the
+Champs-Elysées from the top of Portland Place across Primrose Hill;
+and at the end of the avenue, on the summit of Primrose Hill, at an
+elevation of 207 feet above the river Thames, the Shakespeare monument
+was to stand. This was and is an impracticable proposal. The site
+which in 1864 received the largest measure of approbation was a spot
+in the Green Park, near Piccadilly. A third suggestion of the same
+date was the bank of the river Thames, which was then called
+Thames-way, but was on the point of conversion into the Thames
+Embankment. Recent reconstruction of Central London--of the district
+north of the Strand--by the London County Council now widens the field
+of choice. There is much to be said for a site within the centre of
+London life. But an elevated monumental structure on the banks of the
+Thames seems to meet at the moment with the widest approval. In any
+case, no site that is mean or cramped would be permissible if the
+essential needs of the situation are to be met.
+
+A monument that should be sufficiently imposing would need an
+architectural framework. But the figure of the poet must occupy the
+foremost place in the design. Herein lies another embarrassment. It is
+difficult to determine which of the extant portraits the sculptor
+ought to follow. The bust in Stratford Church, the print in the First
+Folio, and possibly the Chandos painting in the National Portrait
+Gallery, are honest efforts to present a faithful likeness. But they
+are crudely executed, and are posthumous sketches largely depending on
+the artist's memory. The sculptor would be compelled to work in the
+spirit of the historian, who recreates a past event from the
+indication given him by an illiterate or fragmentary chronicle or
+inscription. He would be bound to endow with artistic life those
+features in which the authentic portraits agree, but the highest
+effort of the imagination would be needed to create an impression of
+artistic truth.
+
+The success of a Shakespeare memorial will ultimately depend on the
+pecuniary support that the public accord it. But in the initial stage
+of the movement all rests on the discovery of a sculptor capable of
+realising the significance of a national commemoration of the greatest
+of the nation's, or indeed of the worlds, heroes. It would be well to
+settle satisfactorily the question of such an artist's existence
+before anything else. The first step that any organising committee of
+a Shakespeare memorial should therefore take, in my view, would be to
+invite sculptors of every country to propose a design. The monument
+should be the best that artistic genius could contrive--the artistic
+genius of the world. There may be better sculptors abroad than at
+home. The universality of the appeal which Shakespeare's achievement
+makes, justifies a competition among artists of every race or
+nationality.
+
+The crucial decision as to whether the capacity to execute the
+monument is available, should be entrusted to a committee of taste, to
+a committee of liberal-minded connoisseurs who command general
+confidence. If this jury decide by their verdict that the present
+conditions of art permit the production of a great memorial of
+Shakespeare on just principles, then a strenuous appeal for funds may
+be inaugurated with likelihood of success. It is hopeless to reverse
+these methods of procedure. If funds are first invited before rational
+doubts as to the possibility of a proper application of them are
+dispelled, it is improbable that the response will be satisfactory or
+that the issue of the movement of 1905 will differ from that of 1821
+or 1864.
+
+In 1864 Victor Hugo expressed the opinion that the expenses of a
+Shakespeare memorial in London ought to be defrayed by the British
+Government. There is small likelihood of assistance from that source.
+Individual effort can alone be relied upon; and it is doubtful if it
+be desirable to seek official aid. A great national memorial of
+Shakespeare in London, if it come into being at all on the lines which
+would alone justify its existence, ought to embody individual
+enthusiasm, ought to express with fitting dignity the personal sense
+of indebtedness and admiration which fills the hearts of his
+fellow-men.
+
+
+
+
+INDEX
+
+
+Acting, importance of, in Shakespearean drama, 13;
+  evil effects of long runs, 14;
+  Shakespeare on, 45, 47
+
+Actor-manager, his merits and defects, 125, 126
+
+Actors, training of, 139;
+  English, in France, 203.
+  (See also Benson, Mr F.R., and Boys.)
+
+Æschylus, statue of, 233
+
+Albert, Prince (Consort), and Shakespeare's birthplace, 222;
+  statues of, 237
+
+Alleyn, Edward, 191, 194
+
+_Annual Register_ of 1770, 194
+
+Aristotle, Shakespeare's mention of, 144, 145;
+  Bacon's study of, 145
+
+Arnold, Matthew, on Shakespeare, 29
+
+Astronomy, Shakespeare on, 146
+
+Athens, statuary at, 233
+
+Aubrey, John, his gossip about Shakespeare, 67, 68
+
+Austria, subsidised theatres in, 131, 134
+
+
+Bacon, Anthony, in France, 203
+
+Bacon, Francis, philosophical method of, 143;
+  on memorial monuments in _New Atlantis_, 234, 235
+
+Bacon, Sir Nicholas, his fame in France, 204
+
+Badger, Mr Richard, proposal for a Shakespeare monument, 219
+
+Bannister, John, his music for _The Tempest_, 107
+
+Barker, Mr Granville, as Richard II., 13 _n._
+
+Basse, William, his tribute to Shakespeare, 50
+
+Beeston, Christopher, Elizabethan actor, 64
+
+Beeston, William the first, patron of Nash, 64
+
+Beeston, William the second, his theatrical career, 65, 66;
+  his gossip about Shakespeare, 65;
+  his conversation, 66;
+  Aubrey's account of, 67
+
+Beethoven, statue of, 233
+
+Beljame, Alexandre, on English literature, 201;
+  death of, 201
+
+Benson, Mr F.R., his company of actors, 111;
+  his principles, 112 _seq._;
+  list of Shakespeare plays produced by, 114 _n._;
+  his production of _Hamlet_ unabridged, 116-118;
+  his training of actors, 119;
+  his services to Shakespeare, 121;
+  his pupils on the London stage, 130
+
+Berkenhout, John, 195
+
+Betterton, Thomas, at Stratford-on-Avon, 73;
+  contributes to Rowe's biography, 73, 76;
+  his rendering of Hamlet, 101, 102
+
+Biography, art of, in England, 51
+
+Bishop, Sir William, 76
+
+Bishopsgate (London), Shakespeare at, 226, 227
+
+Blackfriars, Shakespeare's house at, 227
+
+Boileau, and English literature, 199
+
+Bolingbroke, in _Richard II._, patriotism of, 173
+
+Bowman, John, actor, 69;
+  at Stratford-on-Avon, 76
+
+Boys in women's parts in Elizabethan theatres, 19, 41;
+  abandonment of the practice, 43;
+  superseded by women, 88, 89
+
+Buchanan, George, his plays, 204
+
+Burbage, Richard, Shakespeare's friend and fellow-actor, 33
+
+Burns, Mr John, 131
+
+Burns, Robert, French study of, 201;
+  monument to, 233, 237
+
+Byron, Lord, on Petrarch at Arquà, 225;
+  statue of, 237
+
+
+Calderon, 136;
+  monument to, 233
+
+Calvert, Charles A., his Shakespearean productions at Manchester,
+12 _n._
+
+Camoens, monument to, 233
+
+Capital and the literary drama, 124, 126, 127, 128
+
+Carlyle, Thomas, statue of, 237
+
+_Cataline's Conspiracy_, by Ben Jonson, 30, 31
+
+Ceremony, Shakespeare on, 157, 158
+
+Chantrey, Sir Francis, and commemoration of Shakespeare, 216
+
+Charlecote, Shakespeare's escapade at, 76
+
+Chaucer, Geoffrey, French influence on, 199
+
+Clarendon, Lord, on Shakespeare, 78
+
+Cockpit theatre, Drury Lane, 65, 86
+
+Cockpit theatre, Whitehall, 87 and _n._
+
+Coleman, John, on the subsidised theatre, 132
+
+Coleridge S.T., and commemoration of Shakespeare, 216
+
+Congreve, William, 91
+
+Coriolanus and the patriotic instinct, 178, 179
+
+Cromwell, Oliver, statue of, 237
+
+
+Davenant, Robert, Sir William's brother, 70
+
+D'Avenant, Sir William: theatrical manager, 67;
+  his youth at Oxford, 69;
+  relations in boyhood with Shakespeare, 70;
+  elegy on Shakespeare, 71;
+  champion of Shakespeare's fame, 71;
+  his story of Shakespeare and Southampton, 72;
+  his influence on Betterton, 72;
+  manager of the Duke's Company, 87 _n._;
+  as dramatist, 91;
+  his adaptations of Shakespeare, 103-105, 106 _n._, 108
+
+Deschamps, Eustace, on Chaucer, 199
+
+Desportes, Philippe, and Elizabethan poetry, 199
+
+D'Israeli, Isaac, on Steevens's forgery, 195
+
+Downs, John, prompter and stage annalist, 63
+
+Dramatic societies in England, 129
+
+Dress, Shakespeare on extravagant, 185
+
+Drunkenness, Shakespeare on, 185
+
+Dryden, John, on William Beeston, 66;
+  as dramatist, 91;
+  his share in the adaptation of _The Tempest_, 105
+
+Du Bellay, Joachim, and Elizabethan poetry, 199
+
+Ducis, Jean François, his translation of Shakespeare, 207, 208
+
+Dugdale, Sir William, 74
+
+Dumas _père_, on Shakespeare, 206;
+ his translation of _Hamlet_, 209-211
+
+Dyce, Alexander, on Steevens's forgery, 196
+
+
+Elizabeth, Queen, summons Shakespeare to Greenwich, 31
+
+Elizabethan Stage Society, 13 _n._
+
+England, Shakespeare on history of, 180
+
+Ennius on poetic fame, 232
+
+Etherege, Sir George, 91
+
+Eton College, debate about Shakespeare at, 78
+
+Euripides, statue of, 233
+
+Evelyn, John, on _Hamlet_, 90
+
+
+Farquhar, George, 91
+
+Faulconbridge (in _King John_), patriotism of, 174
+
+Fletcher, John, his _Custom of the Country_, 92, 93;
+  its obscenity, 93
+
+Folio, the First [of Shakespeare's plays], actors' co-operation in, 59;
+  list of actors in, 61;
+  rejected by Pepys, 94
+
+Folio, the Second [of Shakespeare's plays], in France, 205
+
+Folio, the Third [of Shakespeare's plays], purchased by Pepys, 94
+
+Folio, the Fourth [of Shakespeare's plays], in Pepysian library, 94
+
+France, subsidised theatres in, 131, 134;
+  Shakespeare in, 198 _seq._;
+  English actors in, 203
+
+Freedom of the will, Shakespeare on, 166
+
+Fuller, Thomas, his _Worthies of England_, 52;
+  notice of Shakespeare, 52
+
+
+Garrick, David, his stage costume, 18
+
+_Gentleman's Magazine_ of 1801, 195
+
+George IV. and commemoration of Shakespeare, 215
+
+German drama, 129, 135, 136
+
+Germany, subsidised theatres in, 131, 134
+
+Goethe, 136;
+  monument to, 233
+
+Greene, Robert, French translation of romance by, 199
+
+Grendon, tradition of Shakespeare at, 77
+
+"Grenovicus" contributes to _Gentleman's Magazine_, 195
+
+
+Hales, John, of Eton, 78
+
+Hall, Bishop Joseph, French translation of works by, 199
+
+Hart, Charles, Shakespeare's grand-nephew, actor, 59, 68
+
+Hauptmann, Gerhart, 135
+
+Henry V., on kingly ceremony, 157;
+  patriotism of, 175, 182
+
+Heywood, Thomas, projected _Lives of the Poets_, 54 _n._;
+  affection for Shakespeare, 65;
+  his _Apology for Actors_, 65
+
+History plays of Shakespeare, character of, 180
+
+Hobbes, Thomas, in France, 200
+
+Howe, Josias, on a Shakespeare tradition, 77
+
+Hugo, Victor, on Shakespeare, 206;
+  on Shakespeare memorial, 241
+
+
+Imagination in the audience, 22, 47, 48
+
+Ingres, Jean, his painting of Shakespeare, 206
+
+Irving, Sir Henry, experience of Shakespearean spectacle, 10;
+  and the literary drama, 123;
+  and the municipal theatre, 132;
+  and French drama, 200
+
+Irving, Washington, and commemoration of Shakespeare, 216
+
+
+James I., his alleged letter to Shakespeare, 72
+
+James II., statue of, 236
+
+John of Gaunt in _Richard II._, dying speech of, 115-116, 181
+
+Johnson, Dr, on false patriots, 171
+
+Jonson, Ben, testimony to Shakespeare's popularity, 29;
+  his classical tragedies compared with Shakespeare's, 30;
+  his elegy on Shakespeare, 50, 232;
+  his dialectical powers contrasted with Shakespeare's, 53;
+  on the players' praise of Shakespeare, 60;
+  his son, Shakespeare's godson, 61;
+  Beeston's talk of, 67;
+  popularity of his plays at Restoration, 91, 92
+
+Jusserand, Jules, on English literature, 202;
+  his _Shakespeare in France_, 203
+
+
+Kean, Charles, experience of Shakespearean spectacle, 9;
+  Macready's criticism of, 14
+
+Kemp, William, Elizabethan comedian, 33
+
+Killigrew, Tom, manager of the King's Company, 87 _n._
+
+Kingship, Shakespeare on, 155-160, 180-182
+
+Kirkman, Francis, his account of William Beeston the second, 66
+
+
+Lacy, John, actor, 67;
+  acquaintance with Ben Jonson, 68;
+  adaptation of _The Taming of the Shrew_, 108
+
+Lawrence, Sir Thomas, and commemoration of Shakespeare, 216
+
+Lessing, 136
+
+Lincoln's Inn Fields (Portugal Row), Theatre at, 86, 87 and _n._
+
+Literary drama, on the modern stage, 123;
+  antagonism of capital to, 126-128
+
+_Lives of the Poets_ of the seventeenth century, 54
+
+Locke, John, in France, 200
+
+Locke, Matthew, Shakespearean music of, 105, 108
+
+Logic, Shakespeare on, 146
+
+London, Shakespeare's association with, 226 _seq._;
+  statues in, 236, 237;
+  proposed sites for Shakespeare monument in, 239
+
+London County Council, and the theatre, 130, 131;
+  and subsidised enlightenment, 133;
+  and Shakespeare monument, 219
+
+London Trades Council and the theatre, 132
+
+Lowin, John, original actor in Shakespeare's plays, 61;
+  coached by Shakespeare in part of _Hamlet_, 63, 71, 72
+
+Lycurgus, Attic orator, 233
+
+
+Macready, W.C., his criticism of spectacle, 14
+
+Marlowe, Christopher, Shakespeare's senior by two months, 37, 193
+
+Massinger, Philip, his _Bondman_, 92, 93
+
+Mathews, Charles, on a monument of Shakespeare, 214
+
+Mercy, Shakespeare on, 152, 153
+
+Metaphysics, Shakespeare on, 146-148
+
+Mill, John Stuart, statue of, 237
+
+Milton, his elegy on Shakespeare, 51, 231
+
+Molière, accepted methods of producing his plays, 16, 18, 136
+
+Montaigne, Michel de, and Anthony Bacon, 203;
+  his essays in English, 204
+
+Moore, Thomas, and commemoration of Shakespeare, 216
+
+More, Sir Thomas, his _Utopia_ in France, 204
+
+Municipal theatre, its justification, 122;
+  in Europe, 134
+
+Musset, Alfred de, on Shakespeare, 206
+
+
+Nash, John, and commemoration of Shakespeare, 216
+
+Nash, Thomas, 64
+
+Nodier, Charles, his _Pensées de Shakespeare_, 211-213
+
+Norwegian drama, 129
+
+
+Obedience, the duty of, 161
+
+Oldys, William, antiquary, 68, 69
+
+Opera in England, 131
+
+Oxford, the Crown Inn at, 69;
+  Shakespeare at, 70;
+  visitors from, to Stratford, 75-77
+
+
+Patriotism, Shakespeare on, 170 _seq._
+
+Peele, George, alleged letter of, 189 _seq._
+
+Pepys, Samuel, his play-going experience, 81-86;
+  on Elizabethan and Jacobean drama, 91-93;
+  on Shakespeare, 94 _seq._;
+  his attitude to poetic drama, 95, 96;
+  his musical setting of "To be or not to be," 100
+
+Petrarch, his tomb at Arquà, 225
+
+Phelps, Samuel, at Sadler's Wells, 11;
+  list of plays produced by, 11, 114 _n._;
+  his mode of producing Shakespeare, 12;
+  on a State theatre in London, 120;
+  on public control of theatres, 140, 141
+
+Philosophy, Shakespeare's attitude to, 143 _seq._
+
+Pindar on poetic fame, 232
+
+Platter, Thomas, journal of his London visit (1599), 38
+
+Playhouses in London, Blackfriars, 227;
+  Drury Lane, 86, 87 and _n._;
+  "The Globe," 38, 227;
+  "The Red Bull," 86;
+  Sadler's Wells, 11;
+  Salisbury Court, Whitefriars, 66, 86;
+  "The Theatre" at Shoreditch, 37, 227
+
+Pope, Alexander, and French literature, 199;
+  on the Shakespeare cenotaph, 216
+
+
+Richardson, Samuel, in France, 200
+
+Robinson, Richard, actor, 68
+
+Ronsard, Pierre de, and Elizabethan poetry, 199;
+  in England, 203
+
+Rousseau, J.J., and English literature, 200
+
+Rowe, Nicholas, Shakespeare's first formal biographer, 54;
+  his acknowledgment to Betterton, 73;
+  his biography of Shakespeare, 79, 80
+
+Royal ceremony, irony of, 158
+
+Russell, Lord John, on patriotism, 172
+
+
+Sadler's Wells Theatre, 11
+
+Sand, George, on Shakespeare, 206
+
+Sardou, Victorien, work of, 200
+
+Scenery, its purpose, 5;
+  uselessness of realism, 23
+
+Schiller, on the German stage, 136;
+  monument to, 233
+
+Scott, Sir Walter, and commemoration of Shakespeare, 216, 232;
+  Edinburgh monument of, 238
+
+Sedley, Sir Charles, 91
+
+Seneca on mercy, 153 _n._
+
+Shadwell, Thomas, 67,
+  adaptation of _The Tempest_, 106 _n._
+
+Shakespeare, Edmund, actor, 227
+
+Shakespeare, Gilbert, actor, 68
+
+Shakespeare, William, his creation of the Ghost in _Hamlet_, 27;
+  contemporary popularity of, 29;
+  at Court, 31;
+  early London career, 32;
+  advice to the actor, 45;
+  his modest estimate of the actor's powers, 47;
+  elegies on death of, 49;
+  Fuller's notice of, 52;
+  early biographies of, 54;
+  oral tradition of, in seventeenth century, 55;
+  similarity of experience with that of contemporary dramatists and
+    actors, 57;
+  Elizabethan players' commendation of, 60;
+  resentment with a publisher, 65;
+  William Beeston's reminiscences of, 67;
+  Stratford gossip about, 74-76;
+  present state of biographical knowledge, 81;
+  his attitude to philosophy, 143 _seq._;
+  his intuition, 149-150;
+  concealment of his personality, 150;
+  his private sentiments, 151;
+  on mercy, 152-153;
+  on rulers of states, 154;
+  on divine right of kings, 159;
+  on obedience, 161;
+  on social order, 162-163;
+  on freedom of the will, 166;
+  on women's will, 168;
+  his humour and optimism, 169;
+  on patriotism, 170 _seq._;
+  on English history, 180;
+  on social foibles, 184-186;
+  commemoration of, in London, 214 _seq._;
+  portraits of, 239
+
+Shakespearean drama, attitude of students and actors to, 1;
+  costliness of modern production, 2;
+  the simple method and the public, 8;
+  Charles Kean's spectacular method, 9;
+  Irving's method, 10;
+  plays produced by Phelps, 11;
+  reliance on the actor, 13;
+  in Vienna, 17;
+  advantage of its performance constantly and in variety, 23;
+  importance of minor rôles of, 115;
+  its ethical significance, 164, 165;
+  in France, 198 _seq._;
+  and British prestige, 229
+
+----, (separate plays):--
+  _Antony and Cleopatra_ in Vienna, 17
+  _Coriolanus_, political significance of, 164;
+    and patriotism, 178
+  _Cymbeline_ (III. i., 16-22), on patriotism, 183
+  _Hamlet_, Shakespeare's performance of the Ghost, 27;
+    early popularity of the play, 29;
+    Pepys's criticism of, 95, 99-101;
+    the stage abridgment contrasted with the full text, 117-119
+  _Henry IV._ (Part I.), Pepys's criticism of, 97, 98
+  _Henry V._, meaning of first chorus, 19, 46;
+    quoted, 157, 158, 162
+  _Julius Cæsar_, preferred by contemporary playgoers to Jonson's
+    _Cataline_, 31;
+    political significance of, 164
+  _Lear, King_, performed at Elizabeth's Court, 36;
+    quarto of, 36
+  _Love's Labour's Lost_, performed at Court, 34;
+    title-page of the quarto, 35
+  _Macbeth_, Pepys's criticism of, 104-105;
+    quoted, 156
+  _Measure for Measure_, ethics of, 164
+  _Merry Wives of Windsor, The_, title-page of the quarto, 36;
+    Pepys's criticism of, 97
+  _Midsummer Night's Dream, A_, Pepys's criticism of, 96
+  _Othello_, Pepys's criticism of, 95, 98, 99
+  _Richard II._, purport of John of Gaunt's dying speech, 115-116,
+      181
+  _Romeo and Juliet_, Pepys's criticism of, 96
+  _Tempest, The_, Pepys's criticism of, 105-108;
+    spectacular production of, at Restoration, 107
+  _Troilus and Cressida_ (II. ii., 166), on Aristotle, 144, 145;
+    (I. iii., 101-124), on social equilibrium, 163
+  _Twelfth Night_, Pepys's criticism of, 96
+
+Sheffield, John, Earl of Mulgrave and Duke of Buckinghamshire, 72
+
+Shoreditch, the theatre in, 227
+
+Sidney, Sir Philip, French translations of _Arcadia_, 199, 204
+
+Somerset, the "proud" Duke of, on Shakespeare, 79
+
+Sophocles, statue of, 233
+
+Southampton, Earl of, and Shakespeare, 72
+
+Southwark, the Globe Theatre at, 227
+
+Spenser, Edmund, Beeston's gossip about, 67
+
+Steevens, George, character of, 191;
+    a forged letter by, 192, 193
+
+Sterne, Laurence, in France, 200
+
+Stevenson, R.L., his imaginary discovery of lost works by Shakespeare,
+25
+
+Stratford-on-Avon, Shakespeare's tomb at, 50;
+  Betterton at, 73;
+  visitors from Oxford to, 75, 76, 77;
+  Shakespeare tradition at, 75, 76;
+  Shakespeare memorials at, 218;
+  destruction of New Place, 221;
+  the monumental committee of, 221;
+  sale of Shakespeare's birthplace, 222;
+  purchase of New Place site, 223;
+  the Birthplace Trust, 223, 224
+
+Suckling, Sir John, his love for Shakespeare, 71
+
+Sudermann, Hermann, 135
+
+
+Tate, Nahum, his adaptations of Shakespeare, 103, 104
+
+Theatres in Elizabethan London, 36;
+  seating arrangements, 39;
+  prices of admission, 39;
+  the scenery, 40;
+  the costumes, 41;
+  contrast between their methods of production and those of later
+    date, 44
+
+Theatres, at Restoration, 86;
+  characteristics of, 87-90.
+  (See also Playhouses.)
+
+_Theatrical Review_ of 1763, 190
+
+Theatrical spectacle in Shakespearean drama, effect of excess, 3;
+  its want of logic, 4;
+  its costliness, 7;
+  at the Restoration, 89, 109;
+  at the present day, 110
+
+Thomson, James, French study of, 201
+
+Tuke, Sir Samuel, his _Adventures of Five Hours_, 98-99
+
+Taylor, Joseph, original actor in Shakespeare's plays, 61;
+  coached by Shakespeare in part of Henry VIII., 63, 71, 72
+
+
+Vanbrugh, Sir John, 91
+
+Veronese, Paolo, statue of, 233
+
+Victoria, Queen, and Stratford-on-Avon, 222;
+  statues of, 237
+
+Vienna, production of _Antony and Cleopatra_ at the Burg-Theater,
+    17;
+  types of subsidised theatres at, 136, 138;
+  conservatoire of actors at, 139
+
+Voltaire on Shakespeare, 205, 206
+
+
+War, popular view of, 177
+
+Ward, John, vicar of Stratford-on-Avon, 74;
+  his _Diary_, 74
+
+Warner, Mrs, at Sadler's Wells, 11
+
+Wellington, Duke of, monument to, 238
+
+Westminster Abbey, Shakespeare's exclusion from, 50;
+  his cenotaph in, 215-216
+
+Will, freedom of, 166
+
+Women, Shakespeare's views on, 168
+
+Wordsworth, William, French study of, 201
+
+Wycherley, William, 91
+
+
+Young, Edward, French study of, 201
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SHAKESPEARE AND THE MODERN STAGE***
+
+
+******* This file should be named 18780-8.txt or 18780-8.zip *******
+
+
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/8/7/8/18780
+
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+http://www.gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/pglaf.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at http://www.gutenberg.org/about/contact
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations.
+To donate, please visit:
+http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     http://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
+
diff --git a/18780-8.zip b/18780-8.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..388d628
--- /dev/null
+++ b/18780-8.zip
diff --git a/18780-h.zip b/18780-h.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..962d895
--- /dev/null
+++ b/18780-h.zip
diff --git a/18780-h/18780-h.htm b/18780-h/18780-h.htm
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..25d20af
--- /dev/null
+++ b/18780-h/18780-h.htm
@@ -0,0 +1,8634 @@
+<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
+    "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
+<html>
+<head>
+<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1" />
+<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Shakespeare and the Modern Stage, by Sir Sidney Lee</title>
+    <style type="text/css">
+/*<![CDATA[  XML blockout */
+<!--
+    p {  margin-top: .75em;
+         text-align: justify;
+         margin-bottom: .75em;
+         }
+    h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6 {
+         text-align: center; /* all headings centered */
+         clear: both;
+         }
+    hr { width: 33%;
+	 margin-top: 2em;
+	 margin-bottom: 2em;
+         margin-left: auto;
+         margin-right: auto;
+         clear: both;
+       }
+
+    table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;}
+
+    body{margin-left: 10%;
+         margin-right: 10%;
+        }
+
+    .pagenum  { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */
+            /*  visibility: hidden;  */
+                position: absolute;
+                left: 92%;
+                font-size: smaller;
+                text-align: right;
+              } /* page numbers */
+
+    .blockquot{margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;}
+
+    .center   {text-align: center;}
+    .smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
+    .u        {text-decoration: underline;}
+
+    .footnotes        {border: none;}
+    .footnote         {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;}
+    .footnote .label  {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;}
+    .fnanchor         {font-weight: bold; font-size: .8em; text-decoration: none;}
+
+    .poem             {margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%; text-align: left;}
+    .poem br          {display: none;}
+    .poem .stanza     {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;}
+    .poem span.i0     {display: block; margin-left: 0em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}
+    .poem span.i4     {display: block; margin-left: 4em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}
+    .poem span.i6     {display: block; margin-left: 6em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}
+    .poem span.i8     {display: block; margin-left: 8em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}
+    .poem span.i10     {display: block; margin-left: 10em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}
+    .poem span.i11     {display: block; margin-left: 11em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}
+    .poem span.i13     {display: block; margin-left: 13em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}
+    hr.full { width: 100%; }
+    pre      {font-size: 80%;}
+    // -->
+    /* XML end  ]]>*/
+    </style>
+</head>
+<body>
+<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, Shakespeare and the Modern Stage, by Sir
+Sidney Lee</h1>
+<pre>
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at <a href = "http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre>
+<p>Title: Shakespeare and the Modern Stage</p>
+<p>       with Other Essays</p>
+<p>Author: Sir Sidney Lee</p>
+<p>Release Date: July 7, 2006  [eBook #18780]</p>
+<p>Language: English</p>
+<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p>
+<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SHAKESPEARE AND THE MODERN STAGE***</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3>E-text prepared by Thierry Alberto, Linda Cantoni,<br />
+    and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br />
+    (http://www.pgdp.net/)</h3>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="full" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h1>SHAKESPEARE AND THE MODERN STAGE</h1>
+
+<h3>WITH OTHER ESSAYS</h3>
+
+
+<h2>BY SIDNEY LEE</h2>
+
+<h3>AUTHOR OF &quot;A LIFE OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE&quot;</h3>
+
+<hr style="width: 25%;" />
+
+<p style="text-align: center">
+LONDON<br />
+ARCHIBALD CONSTABLE AND COMPANY LIMITED<br />
+1907<br />
+</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[Pg vii]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="PREFACE" id="PREFACE"></a>PREFACE</h2>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The</span> eleven papers which are collected here were written between 1899
+and 1905. With the exception of one, entitled &quot;Aspects of
+Shakespeare's Philosophy,&quot; which is now printed for the first time,
+they were published in periodicals in the course of those six years.
+The articles treat of varied aspects of Shakespearean drama, its
+influences and traditions, but I think that all may be credited with
+sufficient unity of intention to warrant their combination in a single
+volume. Their main endeavour is to survey Shakespearean drama in
+relation to modern life, and to illustrate its living force in current
+affairs. Even in the papers which embody researches in sixteenth- or
+seventeenth-century dramatic history, I have sought to keep in view
+the bearings of the past on the present. A large portion of the book
+discusses, as its title indicates, methods of representing Shakespeare
+on the modern stage. The attempt is there made to define, in the light
+of experience, the conditions which are best calculated to conserve or
+increase Shakespeare's genuine vitality in the theatre of our own day.</p>
+
+<p>In revising the work for the press, I have deemed it advisable to
+submit the papers to a somewhat rigorous verbal revision. Errors have
+been corrected,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii">[Pg viii]</a></span> chronological ambiguities due to lapse of time have
+been removed, passages have been excised in order to avoid repetition,
+and reference to ephemeral events which deserve no permanent chronicle
+have been omitted. But, substantially, the articles retain the shape
+in which they were originally penned. The point of view has undergone
+no modification. In the essays dealing with the theatres of our own
+time, I have purposely refrained from expanding or altering argument
+or illustration by citing Shakespearean performances or other
+theatrical enterprises which have come to birth since the papers were
+first written. In the last year or two there have been several
+Shakespearean revivals of notable interest, and some new histrionic
+triumphs have been won. Within the same period, too, at least half a
+dozen new plays of serious literary aim have gained the approval of
+contemporary critics. These features of current dramatic history are
+welcome to playgoers of literary tastes; but I have attempted no
+survey of them, because signs are lacking that any essential change
+has been wrought by them in the general theatrical situation. My aim
+is to deal with dominant principles which underlie the past and
+present situation, rather than with particular episodes or
+personalities, the real value of which the future has yet to
+determine.</p>
+
+<p>My best thanks are due to my friend Sir James Knowles, the proprietor
+and editor of <i>The Nineteenth Century and After</i>, for permission to
+reproduce the four articles, entitled respectively, &quot;Shakespeare and
+the Modern Stage,&quot; &quot;Shakespeare in Oral Tradition,&quot; &quot;Shakespeare in
+France,&quot; and &quot;The Commemoration of Shakespeare in London.&quot; To Messrs
+Smith, Elder,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_ix" id="Page_ix">[Pg ix]</a></span> &amp; Co., I am indebted for permission to print here the
+articles on &quot;Mr Benson and Shakespearean Drama,&quot; and &quot;Shakespeare and
+Patriotism,&quot; both of which originally appeared in <i>The Cornhill
+Magazine</i>. The paper on &quot;Pepys and Shakespeare&quot; was first printed in
+the <i>Fortnightly Review</i>; that on &quot;Shakespeare and the Elizabethan
+Playgoer&quot; in &quot;An English Miscellany, presented to Dr Furnivall in
+honour of his seventy-fifth birthday&quot; (1901); that on &quot;The Municipal
+Theatre&quot; in the <i>New Liberal Review</i>; and that on &quot;A Peril of
+Shakespearean Research&quot; in <i>The Author</i>. The proprietors of these
+publications have courteously given me permission to include the
+articles in this volume. The essay on &quot;Aspects of Shakespeare's
+Philosophy&quot; was prepared for the purposes of a popular lecture, and
+has not been in type before.</p>
+
+<p>In a note at the foot of the opening page of each essay, I mention the
+date when it was originally published. An analytical list of contents
+and an index will, I hope, increase any utility which may attach to
+the volume.</p>
+
+<p style="text-align: right">SIDNEY LEE.</p>
+
+<p><i>1st October 1906.</i></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xi" id="Page_xi">[Pg xi]</a></span></p>
+<h2>CONTENTS</h2>
+
+<table style="width: 100%" border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr>
+<td>&#160;</td>
+<td style="text-align: right">PAGE</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span class="smcap"><a href="#PREFACE">Preface</a></span></td>
+<td style="text-align: right">vii</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<h3><a href="#I">I</a></h3>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Shakespeare and the Modern Stage</span></h3>
+
+
+<table style="width: 100%" border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#I.1">I.</a></td><td style="text-align: left">The Perils of the Spectacular Method of Production</td><td style="text-align: right"><a href='#Page_1'>1</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#I.2">II.</a></td><td style="text-align: left">The Need for Simplifying Scenic Appliances</td><td style="text-align: right"><a href='#Page_4'>4</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#I.3">III.</a></td><td style="text-align: left">Consequences of Simplification. The Attitude of the Shakespearean Student</td><td style="text-align: right"><a href='#Page_7'>7</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#I.4">IV.</a></td><td style="text-align: left">The Pecuniary Experiences of Charles Kean and Sir Henry Irving</td><td style="text-align: right"><a href='#Page_9'>9</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#I.5">V.</a></td><td style="text-align: left">The Experiment of Samuel Phelps</td><td style="text-align: right"><a href='#Page_11'>11</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#I.6">VI.</a></td><td style="text-align: left">The Rightful Supremacy of the Actor</td><td style="text-align: right"><a href='#Page_12'>12</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#I.7">VII.</a></td><td style="text-align: left">The Example of the French and German Stage</td><td style="text-align: right"><a href='#Page_16'>16</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#I.8">VIII.</a></td><td style="text-align: left">Shakespeare's Reliance on the &quot;Imaginary Forces&quot; of the Audience</td><td style="text-align: right"><a href='#Page_18'>18</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#I.9">IX.</a></td><td style="text-align: left">The Patriotic Argument for the Production of Shakespeare's Plays constantly and in their variety on the English Stage</td><td style="text-align: right"><a href='#Page_23'>23</a></td></tr>
+</table>
+
+
+<h3><a href="#II">II</a></h3>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Shakespeare and the Elizabethan Playgoer</span></h3>
+
+
+<table style="width: 100%" border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#II.1">I.</a></td><td style="text-align: left">An Imaginary Discovery of Shakespeare's Journal</td><td style="text-align: right"><a href='#Page_25'>25</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#II.2">II.</a></td><td style="text-align: left">Shakespeare in the r&#244;le of the Ghost on the First Production of <i>Hamlet</i> in 1602</td><td style="text-align: right"><a href='#Page_27'>27</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#II.3">III.</a></td><td style="text-align: left">Shakespeare's Popularity in the Elizabethan Theatre</td><td style="text-align: right"><a href='#Page_29'>29</a><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xii" id="Page_xii">[Pg xii]</a></span>
+</td></tr>
+<tr><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#II.4">IV.</a></td><td style="text-align: left">At Court in 1594</td><td style="text-align: right"><a href='#Page_31'>31</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#II.5">V.</a></td><td style="text-align: left">The Theatre an Innovation in Elizabethan England</td><td style="text-align: right"><a href='#Page_36'>36</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#II.6">VI.</a></td><td style="text-align: left">Elizabethan Methods of Production</td><td style="text-align: right"><a href='#Page_38'>38</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#II.7">VII.</a></td><td style="text-align: left">The Contrast between the Elizabethan and the Modern Methods</td><td style="text-align: right"><a href='#Page_43'>43</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#II.8">VIII.</a></td><td style="text-align: left">The Fitness of the Audience an Essential Element in the Success of Shakespeare on the Stage</td><td style="text-align: right"><a href='#Page_46'>46</a></td></tr>
+</table>
+
+
+<h3><a href="#III">III</a></h3>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Shakespeare in Oral Tradition</span></h3>
+
+
+<table style="width: 100%" border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#III.1">I.</a></td><td style="text-align: left">The Reception of the News of Shakespeare's Death</td><td style="text-align: right"><a href='#Page_49'>49</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#III.2">II.</a></td><td style="text-align: left">The Evolution in England of Formal Biography</td><td style="text-align: right"><a href='#Page_51'>51</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#III.3">III.</a></td><td style="text-align: left">Oral Tradition concerning Shakespeare in Theatrical Circles</td><td style="text-align: right"><a href='#Page_57'>57</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#III.4">IV.</a></td><td style="text-align: left">The Testimonies of Seventeenth-century Actors</td><td style="text-align: right"><a href='#Page_61'>61</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#III.5">V.</a></td><td style="text-align: left">Sir William D'Avenant's Devotion to Shakespeare's Memory</td><td style="text-align: right"><a href='#Page_69'>69</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#III.6">VI.</a></td><td style="text-align: left">Early Oral Tradition at Stratford-on-Avon</td><td style="text-align: right"><a href='#Page_73'>73</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#III.7">VII.</a></td><td style="text-align: left">Shakespeare's Fame among Seventeenth-century Scholars and Statesmen</td><td style="text-align: right"><a href='#Page_78'>78</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#III.8">VIII.</a><br />&#160;</td><td style="text-align: left">Nicholas Rowe's Place among Shakespeare's Biographers.<br />The Present State of Knowledge respecting Shakespeare's Life</td><td style="text-align: right">&#160;<br /><a href='#Page_79'>79</a></td></tr>
+</table>
+
+
+<h3><a href="#IV">IV</a></h3>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Pepys and Shakespeare</span></h3>
+
+
+<table style="width: 100%" border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#IV.1">I.</a></td><td style="text-align: left">Pepys the Microcosm of the Average Playgoer</td><td style="text-align: right"><a href='#Page_82'>82</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#IV.2">II.</a></td><td style="text-align: left">The London Theatres of Pepys's <i>Diary</i></td><td style="text-align: right"><a href='#Page_85'>85</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#IV.3">III.</a></td><td style="text-align: left">Pepys's Enthusiasm for the Later Elizabethan Drama</td><td style="text-align: right"><a href='#Page_90'>90</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#IV.4">IV.</a></td><td style="text-align: left">Pepys's Criticism of Shakespeare. His Admiration of Betterton in Shakespearean r&#244;les</td><td style="text-align: right"><a href='#Page_93'>93</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#IV.5">V.</a></td><td style="text-align: left">The Garbled Versions of Shakespeare on the Stage of the Restoration</td><td style="text-align: right"><a href='#Page_102'>102</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#IV.6">VI.</a></td><td style="text-align: left">The Saving Grace of the Restoration Theatre. Betterton's Masterly Interpretation of Shakespeare</td><td style="text-align: right"><a href='#Page_109'>109</a><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xiii" id="Page_xiii">[Pg xiii]</a></span>
+</td></tr>
+</table>
+
+
+<h3><a href="#V">V</a></h3>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Mr Benson and Shakespearean Drama</span></h3>
+
+
+<table style="width: 100%" border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#V.1">I.</a></td><td style="text-align: left">A Return to the Ancient Ways</td><td style="text-align: right"><a href='#Page_111'>111</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#V.2">II.</a><br />&#160;</td><td style="text-align: left">The Advantages of a Constant Change of Programme. The Opportunities offered Actors by<br />Shakespeare's Minor Characters. John of Gaunt</td><td style="text-align: right">&#160;<br /><a href='#Page_113'>113</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#V.3">III.</a></td><td style="text-align: left">The Benefit of Performing the Play of <i>Hamlet</i> without Abbreviation</td><td style="text-align: right"><a href='#Page_116'>116</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#V.4">IV.</a></td><td style="text-align: left">Mr Benson as a Trainer of Actors. The Succession to Phelps</td><td style="text-align: right"><a href='#Page_119'>119</a></td></tr>
+</table>
+
+
+<h3><a href="#VI">VI</a></h3>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">The Municipal Theatre</span></h3>
+
+
+<table style="width: 100%" border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#VI.1">I.</a></td><td style="text-align: left">The True Aim of the Municipal Theatre</td><td style="text-align: right"><a href='#Page_122'>122</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#VI.2">II.</a><br />&#160;</td><td style="text-align: left">Private Theatrical Enterprise and Literary Drama. The Advantages and Disadvantages of the<br />Actor-Manager System. The Control of the Capitalist</td><td style="text-align: right">&#160;<br /><a href='#Page_123'>123</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#VI.3">III.</a></td><td style="text-align: left">Possibilities of the Artistic Improvement of Theatrical Organisation in England</td><td style="text-align: right"><a href='#Page_127'>127</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#VI.4">IV.</a></td><td style="text-align: left">Indications of a Demand for a Municipal Theatre</td><td style="text-align: right"><a href='#Page_129'>129</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#VI.5">V.</a></td><td style="text-align: left">The Teaching of Foreign Experience. The Example of Vienna</td><td style="text-align: right"><a href='#Page_134'>134</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#VI.6">VI.</a></td><td style="text-align: left">The Conditions of Success in England</td><td style="text-align: right"><a href='#Page_138'>138</a></td></tr>
+</table>
+
+
+<h3><a href="#VII">VII</a></h3>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Aspects of Shakespeare's Philosophy</span></h3>
+
+
+<table style="width: 100%" border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#VII.1">I.</a></td><td style="text-align: left">The Conflicting Attitudes of Bacon and Shakespeare to Formal Philosophy</td><td style="text-align: right"><a href='#Page_142'>142</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#VII.2">II.</a></td><td style="text-align: left">Shakespeare's &quot;Natural&quot; Philosophy. Concealment of his Personality in his Plays</td><td style="text-align: right"><a href='#Page_148'>148</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#VII.3">III.</a></td><td style="text-align: left">His Lofty Conception of Public Virtue. Frequency of his Denunciation of Royal &quot;Ceremony&quot;</td><td style="text-align: right"><a href='#Page_152'>152</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#VII.4">IV.</a></td><td style="text-align: left">The Duty of Obedience to Authority</td><td style="text-align: right"><a href='#Page_161'>161</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#VII.5">V.</a></td><td style="text-align: left">The Moral Atmosphere of Shakespearean Drama</td><td style="text-align: right"><a href='#Page_164'>164</a><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xiv" id="Page_xiv">[Pg xiv]</a></span></td></tr>
+<tr><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#VII.6">VI.</a></td><td style="text-align: left">Shakespeare's Insistence on the Freedom of the Will</td><td style="text-align: right"><a href='#Page_166'>166</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#VII.7">VII.</a></td><td style="text-align: left">His Humour and Optimism</td><td style="text-align: right"><a href='#Page_169'>169</a></td></tr>
+</table>
+
+
+<h3><a href="#VIII">VIII</a></h3>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Shakespeare and Patriotism</span></h3>
+
+
+<table style="width: 100%" border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#VIII.1">I.</a></td><td style="text-align: left">The Natural Instinct of Patriotism. Dangers of Excess and Defect</td><td style="text-align: right"><a href='#Page_170'>170</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#VIII.2">II.</a><br />&#160;</td><td style="text-align: left">An Attempt to Co-ordinate Shakespeare's Detached Illustrations of the Working of<br />
+Patriotic Sentiment. His Ridicule of Bellicose Ecstasy. Coriolanus illustrates the Danger of Disavowing Patriotism</td><td style="text-align: right">&#160;<br /><a href='#Page_172'>172</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#VIII.3">III.</a><br />&#160;<br />&#160;</td><td style="text-align: left">Criticism of One's Fellow-countrymen Consistent with Patriotism. Shakespeare on the<br />
+Political History of England. The Country's Dependence on the Command of the Sea.<br />
+The Respect Due to a Nation's Traditions and Experience</td><td style="text-align: right">&#160;<br />&#160;<br /><a href='#Page_179'>179</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#VIII.4">IV.</a></td><td style="text-align: left">Shakespeare's Exposure of Social Foibles and Errors</td><td style="text-align: right"><a href='#Page_184'>184</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#VIII.5">V.</a></td><td style="text-align: left">Relevance of Shakespeare's Doctrine of Patriotism to Current Affairs</td><td style="text-align: right"><a href='#Page_187'>187</a></td></tr>
+</table>
+
+
+<h3><a href="#IX">IX</a></h3>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">A Peril of Shakespearean Research</span></h3>
+
+
+<table style="width: 100%" border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#IX.1">I.</a></td><td style="text-align: left">An Alleged Meeting of Peele, Ben Jonson, Alleyn, and Shakespeare at &quot;The Globe&quot; in 1600</td><td style="text-align: right"><a href='#Page_188'>188</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#IX.2">II.</a></td><td style="text-align: left">The Fabrication by George Steevens in 1763 of a Letter signed &quot;G. Peel&quot;</td><td style="text-align: right"><a href='#Page_190'>190</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#IX.3">III.</a><br />&#160;</td><td style="text-align: left">Popular Acceptance of the Forgery. Its Unchallenged Circulation through the Eighteenth,<br />
+Nineteenth, and Twentieth Centuries</td><td style="text-align: right">&#160;<br /><a href='#Page_194'>194</a></td></tr>
+</table>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xv" id="Page_xv">[Pg xv]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<h3><a href="#X">X</a></h3>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Shakespeare in France</span></h3>
+
+
+<table style="width: 100%" border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#X.1">I.</a></td><td style="text-align: left">Amicable Literary Relations between France and England from the Fourteenth to the Present Century</td><td style="text-align: right"><a href='#Page_198'>198</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#X.2">II.</a><br />&#160;</td><td style="text-align: left">M. Jusserand on Shakespeare in France. French Knowledge of English Literature in Shakespeare's day.<br />
+Shakespeare in Eighteenth-century France. Eulogies of Victor Hugo and Dumas <i>p&#232;re</i></td><td style="text-align: right">&#160;<br /><a href='#Page_201'>201</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#X.3">III.</a></td><td style="text-align: left">French Misapprehensions of Shakespeare's Tragic Conceptions. Causes of the Misunderstanding</td><td style="text-align: right"><a href='#Page_206'>206</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#X.4">IV.</a></td><td style="text-align: left">Charles Nodier's Sympathetic Tribute. The Rarity of his <i>Pens&#233;es de Shakespeare</i>, 1801</td><td style="text-align: right"><a href='#Page_211'>211</a></td></tr>
+</table>
+
+
+<h3><a href="#XI">XI</a></h3>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">The Commemoration of Shakespeare in London</span></h3>
+
+
+<table style="width: 100%" border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#XI.1">I.</a></td><td style="text-align: left">Early Proposals for a National Memorial of Shakespeare in London</td><td style="text-align: right"><a href='#Page_214'>214</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#XI.2">II.</a></td><td style="text-align: left">The Cenotaph in Westminster Abbey</td><td style="text-align: right"><a href='#Page_215'>215</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#XI.3">III.</a></td><td style="text-align: left">The Failure of the Nineteenth-century Schemes</td><td style="text-align: right"><a href='#Page_217'>217</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#XI.4">IV.</a></td><td style="text-align: left">The National Memorial at Stratford-on-Avon</td><td style="text-align: right"><a href='#Page_219'>219</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#XI.5">V.</a></td><td style="text-align: left">Shakespeare's Association with London</td><td style="text-align: right"><a href='#Page_226'>226</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#XI.6">VI.</a></td><td style="text-align: left">The Value of a London Memorial as a Symbol of his Universal Influence</td><td style="text-align: right"><a href='#Page_228'>228</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#XI.7">VII.</a></td><td style="text-align: left">The Real Significance of Milton's Warning against a Monumental Commemoration of Shakespeare</td><td style="text-align: right"><a href='#Page_230'>230</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#XI.8">VIII.</a></td><td style="text-align: left">The Undesirability of making the Memorial serve Utilitarian Purposes</td><td style="text-align: right"><a href='#Page_235'>235</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#XI.9">IX.</a></td><td style="text-align: left">The Present State of the Plastic Art. The Imperative Need of securing a Supreme Work of Sculpture</td><td style="text-align: right"><a href='#Page_236'>236</a></td></tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>&#160;</p>
+
+<table style="width: 100%" border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td style="text-align: left"><span class="smcap"><a href="#INDEX">Index</a></span></td><td style="text-align: right"><a href='#Page_245'>245</a></td></tr>
+</table>
+
+
+<p style="text-align: center"><a href="#FOOTNOTES">Footnotes</a></p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p>
+<h1>SHAKESPEARE AND THE MODERN STAGE</h1>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="I" id="I"></a>I</h2>
+
+<h2>SHAKESPEARE AND THE MODERN STAGE<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></h2>
+
+
+<h3><a name="I.1">I</a></h3>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Without</span> &quot;the living comment and interpretation of the theatre,&quot;
+Shakespeare's work is, for the rank and file of mankind, &quot;a deep well
+without a wheel or a windlass.&quot; It is true that the whole of the
+spiritual treasures which Shakespeare's dramas hoard will never be
+disclosed to the mere playgoer, but &quot;a large, a very large, proportion
+of that indefinite all&quot; may be revealed to him on the stage, and, if
+he be no patient reader, will be revealed to him nowhere else.</p>
+
+<p>There are earnest students of Shakespeare who scorn the theatre and
+arrogate to themselves in the library, often with some justification,
+a greater capacity for apprehending and appreciating Shakespeare than
+is at the command of the ordinary playgoer or actor. But let Sir
+Oracle of the study, however full and deep be his knowledge, &quot;use all
+gently.&quot; Let him bear in mind that his vision also has its
+limitations, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span> that student, actor, and spectator of Shakespeare's
+plays are all alike exploring a measureless region of philosophy and
+poetry, &quot;round which no comprehension has yet drawn the line of
+circumspection, so as to say to itself 'I have seen the whole.'&quot; Actor
+and student may look at Shakespeare's text from different points of
+view: but there is always as reasonable a chance that the efficient
+actor may disclose the full significance of some speech or scene which
+escapes the efficient student, as that the student may supply the
+actor's lack of insight.</p>
+
+<p>It is, indeed, comparatively easy for a student of literature to
+support the proposition that Shakespeare can be, and ought to be,
+represented on the stage. But it is difficult to define the ways and
+means of securing practical observance of the precept. For some years
+there has been a widening divergence of view respecting methods of
+Shakespearean production. Those who defend in theory the adaptability
+of Shakespeare to the stage are at variance with the leading managers,
+who alone possess the power of conferring on the Shakespearean drama
+theatrical interpretation. In the most influential circles of the
+theatrical profession it has become a commonplace to assert that
+Shakespearean drama cannot be successfully produced, cannot be
+rendered tolerable to any substantial section of the playgoing public,
+without a plethora of scenic spectacle and gorgeous costume, much of
+which the student regards as superfluous and inappropriate. An
+accepted tradition of the modern stage ordains that every revival of a
+Shakespearean play at a leading theatre shall base some part of its
+claim to public favour on its spectacular magnificence.</p>
+
+<p>The dramatic interest of Shakespearean drama is,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span> in fact, deemed by
+the manager to be inadequate to satisfy the necessary commercial
+purposes of the theatre. The average purveyor of public entertainment
+reckons Shakespeare's plays among tasteless and colourless
+commodities, which only become marketable when they are reinforced by
+the independent arts of music and painting. Shakespeare's words must
+be spoken to musical accompaniments specially prepared for the
+occasion. Pictorial tableaux, even though they suggest topics without
+relevance to the development of the plot, have at times to be
+interpolated in order to keep the attention of the audience
+sufficiently alive.</p>
+
+<p>One deduction to be drawn from this position of affairs is
+irrefutable. Spectacular embellishments are so costly that, according
+to the system now in vogue, the performance of a play of Shakespeare
+involves heavy financial risks. It is equally plain that, unless the
+views of theatrical managers undergo revolution, these risks are
+likely to become greater rather than smaller. The natural result is
+that in London, the city which sets the example to most
+English-speaking communities, Shakespearean revivals are comparatively
+rare; they take place at uncertain intervals, and only those plays are
+viewed with favour by the London manager which lend themselves in his
+opinion to more or less ostentatious spectacle, and to the
+interpolation of music and dancing.</p>
+
+<p>It is ungrateful to criticise adversely any work the production of
+which entails the expenditure of much thought and money. More
+especially is it distasteful when the immediate outcome is, as in the
+case of many Shakespearean revivals at the great West-end theatres of
+London, the giving of pleasure to large<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span> sections of the community.
+That is in itself a worthy object. But it is open to doubt whether,
+from the sensible literary point of view, the managerial activity be
+well conceived or to the public advantage. It is hard to ignore a
+fundamental flaw in the manager's central position. The pleasure which
+recent Shakespearean revivals offer the spectator reaches him mainly
+through the eye. That is the manager's avowed intention. Yet no one
+would seriously deny that the Shakespearean drama appeals, both
+primarily and ultimately, to the head and to the heart. Whoever seeks,
+therefore, by the production of Shakespearean drama chiefly to please
+the spectator's eye shows scant respect both for the dramatist and for
+the spectator. However unwittingly, he tends to misrepresent the one,
+and to mislead the other, in a particular of first-rate importance.
+Indeed, excess in scenic display does worse than restrict
+opportunities of witnessing Shakespeare's plays on the stage in London
+and other large cities of England and America. It is to be feared that
+such excess either weakens or distorts the just and proper influence
+of Shakespeare's work. If these imputations can be sustained, then it
+follows that the increased and increasing expense which is involved in
+the production of Shakespeare's plays ought on grounds of public
+policy to be diminished.</p>
+
+
+<h3><a name="I.2">II</a></h3>
+
+<p>Every stage representation of a play requires sufficient scenery and
+costume to produce in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span> audience that illusion of environment which
+the text invites. Without so much scenery or costume the words fail to
+get home to the audience. In comedies dealing with concrete conditions
+of modern society, the stage presentation necessarily relies to a very
+large extent for its success on the realism of the scenic appliances.
+In plays which, dealing with the universal and less familiar
+conditions of life, appeal to the highest faculties of thought and
+imagination, the pursuit of realism in the scenery tends to destroy
+the full significance of the illusion which it ought to enforce. In
+the case of plays straightforwardly treating of contemporary affairs,
+the environment which it is sought to reproduce is familiar and easy
+of imitation. In the case of drama, which involves larger spheres of
+fancy and feeling, the environment is unfamiliar and admits of no
+realistic imitation. The wall-paper and furniture of Mrs So-and-so's
+drawing-room in Belgravia or Derbyshire can be transferred bodily to
+the stage. Prospero's deserted island does not admit of the like
+translation.</p>
+
+<p>Effective suggestion of the scene of <i>The Tempest</i> is all that can be
+reasonably attempted or desired. Plays which are wrought of purest
+imaginative texture call solely for a scenic setting which should
+convey effective suggestion. The machinery to be employed for the
+purpose of effective suggestion should be simple and unobtrusive. If
+it be complex and obtrusive, it defeats &quot;the purpose of playing&quot; by
+exaggerating for the spectator the inevitable interval between the
+visionary and indeterminate limits of the scene which the poet
+imagines, and the cramped and narrow bounds, which the stage renders
+practicable. That perilous interval can only<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span> be effectually bridged
+by scenic art, which is applied with an apt judgment and a light hand.
+Anything that aims at doing more than satisfy the condition essential
+to the effective suggestion of the scenic environment of Shakespearean
+drama is, from the literary and logical points of view, &quot;wasteful and
+ridiculous excess.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a></p>
+
+<p>But it is not only a simplification of scenic appliances that is
+needed. Other external incidents of production require revision.
+Spectacular methods of production entail the employment of armies of
+silent supernumeraries to whom are allotted functions wholly
+ornamental and mostly impertinent. Here, too, reduction is desirable
+in the interest of the true significance of drama. No valid reason can
+be adduced why persons should appear on the stage who are not
+precisely indicated by the text of the play or by the authentic stage
+directions. When C&#230;sar is buried, it is essential to produce in the
+audience the illusion that a crowd of Roman citizens is taking part in
+the ceremony. But quality comes here before quantity. The fewer the
+number of supernumeraries by whom the needful illusion is effected,
+the greater the merit of the performance, the more convincing the
+testimony borne to the skill of the stage-manager. Again, no
+processions of psalm-singing priests and monks contribute to the
+essential illusion in the historical plays. Nor does the text of <i>The
+Merchant of Venice</i> demand any<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span> assembly of Venetian townsfolk,
+however picturesquely attired, sporting or chaffering with one another
+on the Rialto, when Shylock enters to ponder Antonio's request for a
+loan. An interpolated tableau is indefensible, and &quot;though it make the
+unskilful laugh, cannot but make the judicious grieve.&quot; In <i>Antony and
+Cleopatra</i> the pageant of Cleopatra's voyage up the river Cydnus to
+meet her lover Antony should have no existence outside the gorgeous
+description given of it by Enobarbus.</p>
+
+
+<h3><a name="I.3">III</a></h3>
+
+<p>What would be the practical effects of a stern resolve on the part of
+theatrical managers to simplify the scenic appliances and to reduce
+the supernumerary staff when they are producing Shakespearean drama?
+The replies will be in various keys. One result of simplification is
+obvious. There would be so much more money in the manager's pocket
+after he had paid the expenses of production. If his outlay were
+smaller, the sum that he expended in the production of one play of
+Shakespeare on the current over-elaborate scale would cover the
+production of two or three pieces mounted with simplicity and with a
+strict adherence to the requirements of the text. In such an event,
+the manager would be satisfied with a shorter run for each play.</p>
+
+<p>On the other hand, supporters of the existing system allege that no
+public, which is worth the counting, would interest itself in
+Shakespeare's plays,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span> if they were robbed of scenic upholstery and
+spectacular display. This estimate rests on insecure foundations. That
+section of the London public which is genuinely interested in
+Shakespearean drama for its own sake, is prone to distrust the modern
+theatrical manager, and as things are, for the most part avoids the
+theatre altogether. The student stays at home to read Shakespeare at
+his fireside.</p>
+
+<p>It may be admitted that the public to which Shakespeare in his purity
+makes appeal is not very large. It is clearly not large enough to
+command continuous runs of plays for months, or even weeks. But
+therein lies no cause for depression. Long runs of a single play of
+Shakespeare bring more evil than good in their train. They develop in
+even the most efficient acting a soulless mechanism. The literary
+beauty of the text is obliterated by repetition from the actors'
+minds. Unostentatious mounting of the Shakespearean plays, however
+efficient be the acting with which it is associated, may always fail
+to &quot;please the million&quot;; it may be &quot;caviare to the general.&quot;
+Nevertheless, the sagacious manager, who, by virtue of comparatively
+inexpensive settings and in alliance with a well-chosen company of
+efficient actors and actresses, is able at short intervals to produce
+a succession of Shakespeare's plays, may reasonably expect to attract
+a small but steady and sufficient support from the intelligent section
+of London playgoers, and from the home-reading students of
+Shakespeare, who are not at present playgoers at all.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<h3><a name="I.4">IV</a></h3>
+
+<p>The practical manager, who naturally seeks pecuniary profit from his
+ventures, insists that these suggestions are counsels of perfection
+and these anticipations wild and fantastic dreams. His last word is
+that by spectacular method Shakespeare can alone be made to &quot;pay&quot; in
+the theatre. But are we here on perfectly secure ground? Has the
+commercial success attending the spectacular production of Shakespeare
+been invariably so conspicuous as to put summarily out of court, on
+the purely commercial ground, the method of simplicity? The pecuniary
+results are public knowledge in the case of the two most strenuous and
+prolonged endeavours to give Shakespeare the splendours of spectacle
+which have yet been completed on the London stage. What is the message
+of these two efforts in mere pecuniary terms?</p>
+
+<p>Charles Kean may be regarded as the founder of the modern spectacular
+system, though it had some precedents, and has been developed since
+his day. Charles Kean, between 1851 and 1859, persistently endeavoured
+by prodigal and brilliant display to make the production of
+Shakespeare an enterprise of profit at the Princess's Theatre, London.
+The scheme proved pecuniarily disastrous.</p>
+
+<p>Subsequently Kean's mantle was assumed by the late Sir Henry Irving,
+the greatest of recent actors and stage-managers, who in many regards
+conferred incalculable benefits on the theatre-going public and on the
+theatrical profession. Throughout the last quarter of the last
+century, Irving gave the spectacular and scenic system in the
+production of Shakespeare every<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> advantage that it could derive from
+munificent expenditure and the co-operation of highly endowed artists.
+He could justly claim a finer artistic sentiment and a higher
+histrionic capacity than Charles Kean possessed. Yet Irving announced,
+not long before his death, that he lost on his Shakespearean
+productions a hundred thousand pounds. Sir Henry added:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>The enormous cost of a Shakespearean production on the
+liberal and elaborate scale which the public is now
+accustomed to expect makes it almost impossible for any
+manager&#8212;I don't care who it is&#8212;to pursue a continuous
+policy of Shakespeare for many years with any hope of profit
+in the long run.</p></div>
+
+<p>In face of this authoritative pronouncement, it must be conceded that
+the spectacular system has been given, within recent memory, every
+chance of succeeding, and, as far as recorded testimony is available,
+has been, from the commercial point of view, a failure.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile, during and since the period when Sir Henry Irving filled
+the supreme place among producers of Shakespeare on the stage, the
+simple method of Shakespearean production has been given no serious
+chance. The anticipation of its pecuniary failure has not been put in
+satisfactory conditions to any practical test. The last time that it
+was put to a sound practical test it did not fail. While Irving was a
+boy, Phelps at Sadler's Wells Theatre gave, in well-considered
+conditions, the simple method a trial. Phelps's playhouse was situated
+in the unfashionable neighbourhood of Islington. But the prophets of
+evil, who were no greater strangers to Phelps's generation than they
+are to our own, were themselves confuted by his experience.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<h3><a name="I.5">V</a></h3>
+
+<p>On the 27th of May 1844 Phelps, a most intelligent actor and a serious
+student of Shakespeare, opened the long-disused Sadler's Wells Theatre
+in partnership with Mrs Warner, a capable actress, whose rendering of
+Imogen went near perfection. Their design was inspired by &quot;the hope,&quot;
+they wrote in an unassuming address, &quot;of eventually rendering Sadler's
+Wells what a theatre ought to be&#8212;a place for justly representing the
+works of our great dramatic poets.&quot; This hope they went far to
+realise. The first play that they produced was <i>Macbeth</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Phelps continued to control Sadler's Wells Theatre for more than
+eighteen years. During that period he produced, together with many
+other English plays of classical repute, no fewer than thirty-one of
+the thirty-seven great dramas which came from Shakespeare's pen. In
+his first season, besides <i>Macbeth</i> he set forth <i>Hamlet</i>, <i>King
+John</i>, <i>Henry VIII.</i>, <i>The Merchant of Venice</i>, <i>Othello</i>, and
+<i>Richard III.</i> To these he added in the course of his second season,
+<i>Julius C&#230;sar</i>, <i>King Lear</i>, and <i>The Winter's Tale</i>. <i>Henry IV.</i>,
+part I., <i>Measure for Measure</i>, <i>Romeo and Juliet</i>, and <i>The Tempest</i>
+followed in his third season; <i>As You Like It</i>, <i>Cymbeline</i>, <i>The
+Merry Wives of Windsor</i>, and <i>Twelfth Night</i>, in his fourth. Each
+succeeding season saw further additions to the Shakespearean
+repertory, until only six Shakespearean dramas were left
+unrepresented, viz.&#8212;<i>Richard II.</i>, the three parts of <i>Henry VI.</i>,
+<i>Troilus and Cressida</i>, and <i>Titus Andronicus</i>. Of these, one alone,
+<i>Richard II.</i>, is really actable.</p>
+
+<p>The leading principles, to which Phelps strictly adhered throughout
+his career of management, call<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> for most careful consideration. He
+gathered round him a company of actors and actresses, whom he
+zealously trained to interpret Shakespeare's language. He accustomed
+his colleagues to act harmoniously together, and to sacrifice to the
+welfare of the whole enterprise individual pretensions to prominence.
+No long continuous run of any one piece was permitted by the rules of
+the playhouse. The programme was constantly changed. The scenic
+appliances were simple, adequate, and inexpensive. The supernumerary
+staff was restricted to the smallest practicable number. The general
+expenses were consequently kept within narrow limits. For every
+thousand pounds that Charles Kean laid out at the Princess's Theatre
+on scenery and other expenses of production, Phelps in his most ornate
+revivals spent less than a fourth of that sum. For the pounds spent by
+managers on more recent revivals, Phelps would have spent only as many
+shillings. In the result, Phelps reaped from the profits of his
+efforts a handsome unencumbered income. During the same period Charles
+Kean grew more and more deeply involved in oppressive debt, and at a
+later date Sir Henry Irving made over to the public a hundred thousand
+pounds above his receipts.</p>
+
+
+<h3><a name="I.6">VI</a></h3>
+
+<p>Why, then, should not Phelps's encouraging experiment be made
+again?<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a></p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span></p>
+<p>Before anyone may commit himself to an affirmative reply, it is
+needful for him to realise fully the precise demands which a system
+like that of Phelps makes, when rightly interpreted, on the character,
+ability, and energy of the actors and actresses. If scenery in
+Shakespearean productions be relegated to its proper place in the
+background of the stage, it is necessary that the acting, from top to
+bottom of the cast, shall be more efficient and better harmonised than
+that which is commonly associated with spectacular representations.
+The simple method of producing Shakespeare focusses the interest of
+the audience on the actor and actress; it gives them a dignity and
+importance which are unknown to the complex method. Under the latter
+system, the attention of the spectator is largely absorbed by the
+triumphs of the scene-painter and machinist, of the costumier and the
+musicians. The actor and actress often elude notice altogether.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Macready, whose theatrical career was anterior to the modern
+spectacular period of Shakespearean representation, has left on record
+a deliberate opinion of Charles Kean's elaborate methods at the
+Princess's Theatre in their relation to drama and the histrionic art.
+Macready's verdict has an universal application. &quot;The production of
+the Shakespearean plays at the Princess's Theatre,&quot; the great actor
+wrote to Lady Pollock on the 1st of May 1859, rendered the spoken text
+&quot;more like a running commentary on the spectacles exhibited than the
+scenic arrangements an illustration of the text.&quot; No criticism could
+define more convincingly the humiliation to which the author's words
+are exposed by spectacle, or, what is more pertinent to the immediate
+argument, the evil which is worked by spectacle on the actor.</p>
+
+<p>Acting can be, and commonly tends to be, the most mechanical of
+physical exercises. The actor is often a mere automaton who repeats
+night after night the same unimpressive trick of voice, eye, and
+gesture. His defects of understanding may be comparatively unobtrusive
+in a spectacular display, where he is liable to escape censure by
+escaping observation, or at best to be regarded as a showman.
+Furthermore, the long runs which scenic excess brings in its train
+accentuate the mechanical actor's imperfections and diminish his
+opportunities of remedying them. On the other hand, acting can rise in
+opposite conditions into the noblest of the arts. The great actor
+relies for genuine success on no mere gesticulatory mechanism.
+Imaginative insight, passion, the gift of oratory, grace and dignity
+of movement and bearing, perfect command of the voice in the whole
+gamut of its<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> inflections are the constituent qualities of true
+histrionic capacity.</p>
+
+<p>In no drama are these qualities more necessary, or are ampler
+opportunities offered for their use, than in the plays of Shakespeare.
+Not only in the leading r&#244;les of his masterpieces, but in the
+subordinate parts throughout the range of his work, the highest
+abilities of the actor or actress can find some scope for employment.
+It is therefore indispensable that the standard of Shakespearean
+acting should always be maintained at the highest level, if
+Shakespearean drama is to be fitly rendered in the theatre. The worst
+of the evils, which are inherent in scenic excess, with its
+accompaniment of long runs, is its tendency to sanction the
+maintenance of the level of acting at something below the highest.
+Phelps was keenly alive to this peril, and his best energies were
+devoted to training his actors and actresses for all the r&#244;les in the
+cast, great and small. Actors and actresses of the first rank on
+occasion filled minor parts, in order to heighten the efficiency of
+the presentation. Actors and actresses who have the dignity of their
+profession at heart might be expected to welcome the revival of a
+system which alone guarantees their talent and the work of the
+dramatist due recognition, even if it leave histrionic incompetence no
+hope of escape from the scorn that befits it. It is on the aspiration
+and sentiment of the acting profession that must largely depend the
+final answer to the question whether Phelps's experiment can be made
+again with likelihood of success.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<h3><a name="I.7">VII</a></h3>
+
+<p>Foreign experience tells in favour of the contention that, if
+Shakespeare's plays are to be honoured on the modern stage as they
+deserve, they must be freed of the existing incubus of scenic
+machinery. French acting has always won and deserved admiration. There
+is no doubt that one cause of its permanently high repute is the
+absolute divorce in the French theatre of drama from spectacle.</p>
+
+<p>Moli&#232;re stands to French literature in much the same relation as
+Shakespeare stands to English literature. Moli&#232;re's plays are
+constantly acted in French theatres with a scenic austerity which is
+unknown to the humblest of our theatres. A French audience would
+regard it as sacrilege to convert a comedy of Moli&#232;re into a
+spectacle. The French people are commonly credited with a love of
+ornament and display to which the English people are assumed to be
+strangers, but their treatment of Moli&#232;re is convincing proof that
+their artistic sense is ultimately truer than our own.</p>
+
+<p>The mode of producing Shakespeare on the stage in Germany supplies an
+argument to the same effect. In Berlin and Vienna, and in all the
+chief towns of German-speaking Europe, Shakespeare's plays are
+produced constantly and in all their variety, for the most part, in
+conditions which are directly antithetical to those prevailing in the
+West-end theatres of London. Twenty-eight of Shakespeare's
+thirty-seven plays figure in the r&#233;pertoires of the leading companies
+of German-speaking actors.</p>
+
+<p>The currently accepted method of presentation can<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> be judged from the
+following personal experience. A few years ago I was in the
+Burg-Theater in Vienna on a Sunday night&#8212;the night on which the great
+working population of Vienna chiefly take their recreation, as in this
+country it is chiefly taken by the great working population on
+Saturday night. The Burg-Theater in Vienna is one of the largest
+theatres in the world. It is of similar dimensions to Drury Lane
+Theatre or Covent Garden Opera-house. On the occasion of my visit the
+play produced was Shakespeare's <i>Antony and Cleopatra</i>. The house was
+crowded in every part. The scenic arrangements were simple and
+unobtrusive, but were well calculated to suggest the Oriental
+atmosphere of the plot. There was no music before the performance, or
+during the intervals between the acts, or as an accompaniment to great
+speeches in the progress of the play. There was no making love, nor
+any dying to slow music, although the stage directions were followed
+scrupulously; the song &quot;Come, thou Monarch of the Vine,&quot; was sung to
+music in the drinking scene on board Pompey's galley, and there were
+the appointed flourishes of trumpets and drums. The acting was
+competent, though not of the highest calibre, but a satisfactory level
+was evenly maintained throughout the cast. There were no conspicuous
+deflections from the adequate standard. The character of whom I have
+the most distinct recollection was Enobarbus, the level-headed and
+straight-hitting critic of the action&#8212;a comparatively subordinate
+part, which was filled by one of the most distinguished actors of the
+Viennese stage. He fitted his part with telling accuracy.</p>
+
+<p>The whole piece was listened to with breathless interest. It was acted
+practically without curtail<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span>ment, and, although the performance lasted
+nearly five hours, no sign of impatience manifested itself at any
+point. This was no exceptional experience at the Burg-Theater. Plays
+of Shakespeare are acted there repeatedly&#8212;on an average twice a
+week&#8212;and, I am credibly informed, with identical results to those of
+which I was an eye-witness.</p>
+
+
+<h3><a name="I.8">VIII</a></h3>
+
+<p>It cannot be flattering to our self-esteem that the Austrian people
+should show a greater and a wiser appreciation of the theatrical
+capacities of Shakespeare's masterpieces than we who are Shakespeare's
+countrymen and the most direct and rightful heirs of his glorious
+achievements. How is the disturbing fact to be accounted for? Is it
+possible that it is attributable to some decay in us of the
+imagination&#8212;to a growing slowness on our part to appreciate works of
+imagination? When one reflects on the simple mechanical contrivances
+which satisfied the theatrical audiences, not only of Shakespeare's
+own day, but of the eighteenth century, during which Shakespeare was
+repeatedly performed; when one compares the simplicity of scenic
+mechanism in the past with its complexity in our own time, one can
+hardly resist the conclusion that the imagination of the theatre-going
+public is no longer what it was of old. The play alone was then &quot;the
+thing.&quot; Now &quot;the thing,&quot; it seems, is something outside the
+play&#8212;namely, the painted scene or the costume, the music or the
+dance.</p>
+
+<p>Garrick played Macbeth in an ordinary Court suit<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> of his own era. The
+habiliments proper to Celtic monarchs of the eleventh century were
+left to be supplied by the imagination of the spectators or not at
+all. No realistic &quot;effects&quot; helped the play forward in Garrick's time,
+yet the attention of his audience, the critics tell us, was never
+known to stray when he produced a great play by Shakespeare. In
+Shakespeare's day boys or men took the part of women, and how
+characters like Lady Macbeth and Desdemona were adequately rendered by
+youths beggars belief. But renderings in such conditions proved
+popular and satisfactory. Such a fact seems convincing testimony, not
+to the ability of Elizabethan or Jacobean boys&#8212;the nature of boys is
+a pretty permanent factor in human society&#8212;but to the superior
+imaginative faculty of adult Elizabethan or Jacobean playgoers, in
+whom, as in Garrick's time, the needful dramatic illusion was far more
+easily evoked than it is nowadays.</p>
+
+<p>This is no exhilarating conclusion. But less exhilarating is the
+endeavour that is sometimes made by advocates of the system of
+spectacle to prove that Shakespeare himself would have appreciated the
+modern developments of the scenic art&#8212;nay, more, that he himself has
+justified them. This line of argument serves to confirm the suggested
+defect of imagination in the present generation. The well-known chorus
+before the first act of <i>Henry V.</i> is the evidence which is relied
+upon to show that Shakespeare wished his plays to be, in journalistic
+dialect, &quot;magnificently staged,&quot; and that he deplored the inability of
+his uncouth age to realise that wish. The lines are familiar; but it
+is necessary to quote them at length, in fairness to those who judge
+them to be a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> defence of the spectacular principle in the presentation
+of Shakespearean drama. They run:&#8212;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">O for a muse of fire, that would ascend<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The brightest heaven of invention,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">A kingdom for a stage, princes to act,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And monarchs to behold the swelling scene!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Then should the warlike Harry, like himself,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Assume the port of Mars; and at his heels,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Leash'd in like hounds, should famine, sword and fire<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Crouch for employment. But pardon, gentles all,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The flat unraised spirits that have dar'd<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">On this unworthy scaffold to bring forth<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">So great an object: can this cockpit hold<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The vasty fields of France? or may we cram<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Within this wooden O the very casques<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That did affright the air at Agincourt?<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">O, pardon! since a crooked figure may<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Attest in little place a million;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And let us, ciphers to this great accompt,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">On your imaginary forces work.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Suppose within the girdle of these walls<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Are now confined two mighty monarchies,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Whose high upreared and abutting fronts,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The perilous narrow ocean parts asunder;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Piece out our imperfections with your thoughts;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Into a thousand parts divide one man,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And make imaginary puissance:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Think, when we talk of horses, that you see them<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Printing their proud hoofs i' the receiving earth.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">For 'tis your thoughts that now must deck our kings,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Carry them here and there, jumping o'er times,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Turning the accomplishment of many years<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Into an hour glass.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>There is, in my opinion, no strict relevance in these lines to the
+enquiry whether Shakespeare's work should be treated on the stage as
+drama or spectacle. Nay, I go further, and assert that, as far as the
+speech touches the question at issue at all, it tells against the
+pretensions of spectacle.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Shortly stated, Shakespeare's splendid prelude to his play of <i>Henry
+V.</i>, is a spirited appeal to his audience not to waste regrets on
+defects of stage machinery, but to bring to the observation of his
+piece their highest powers of imagination, whereby alone can full
+justice be done to a majestic theme. The central topic of the choric
+speech is the essential limitations of all scenic appliances. The
+dramatist reminds us that the literal presentation of life itself, in
+all its movement and action, lies outside the range of the stage,
+especially the movement and action of life in its most glorious
+manifestations. Obvious conditions of space do not allow &quot;two mighty
+monarchies&quot; literally to be confined within the walls of a theatre.
+Obvious conditions of time cannot turn &quot;the accomplishments of many
+years into an hour glass.&quot; Shakespeare is airing no private grievance.
+He is not complaining that his plays were in his own day inadequately
+upholstered in the theatre, or that the &quot;scaffold&quot; on which they were
+produced was &quot;unworthy&quot; of them. The words have no concern with the
+contention that modern upholstery and spectacular machinery render
+Shakespeare's play a justice which was denied them in his lifetime. As
+reasonably one might affirm that the modern theatre has now conquered
+the ordinary conditions of time and space; that a modern playhouse
+can, if the manager so will it, actually hold within its walls the
+&quot;vasty fields of France,&quot; or confine &quot;two mighty monarchies.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>A wider and quite impersonal trend of thought is offered for
+consideration by Shakespeare's majestic eloquence. The dramatist bids
+us bear in mind that his lines do no more than suggest the things he
+would<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> have the audience see and understand; the actors aid the
+suggestion according to their ability. But the crucial point of the
+utterance is the warning that the illusion of the drama can only be
+rendered complete in the theatre by the working of the &quot;imaginary
+forces&quot; of the spectators. It is needful for them to &quot;make imaginary
+puissance,&quot; if the play is to triumph. It is their &quot;thoughts&quot; that
+&quot;must deck&quot; the kings of the stage, if the dramatist's meaning is to
+get home. The poet modestly underestimated the supreme force of his
+own imaginative genius when giving these admonitions to his hearers.
+But they are warnings of universal application, and can never be
+safely ignored.</p>
+
+<p>Such an exordium as the chorus before <i>Henry V.</i> would indeed be
+pertinent to every stage performance of great drama in any age or
+country. It matters not whether the spectacular machinery be of royal
+magnificence or of poverty-stricken squalor. Let us make the
+extravagant assumption that all the artistic genius in the world and
+all the treasure in the Bank of England were placed at the command of
+a theatrical manager in order to enable him to produce a great play on
+his stage supremely well from his own scenic point of view. Even then
+it would be neither superfluous nor impertinent for the manager to
+adjure the audience to piece out the &quot;imperfections&quot; of the scenery
+with their &quot;thoughts&quot; or imagination. The spectator's &quot;imaginary
+puissance&quot; is, practically in every circumstance, the key-stone of the
+dramatic illusion.</p>
+
+<p>The only conditions in which Shakespeare's adjuration would be
+superfluous or impertinent would accompany the presentment in the
+theatre of some<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> circumscribed incident of life which is capable of so
+literal a rendering as to leave no room for any make-believe or
+illusion at all. The unintellectual playgoer, to whom Shakespeare will
+never really prove attractive in any guise, has little or no
+imagination to exercise, and he only tolerates a performance in the
+theatre when little or no demand is made on the exercise of the
+imaginative faculty. &quot;The groundlings,&quot; said Shakespeare for all time,
+&quot;are capable of [appreciating] nothing but inexplicable dumb shows and
+noise.&quot; They would be hugely delighted nowadays with a scene in which
+two real motor cars, with genuine chauffeurs and passengers, raced
+uproariously across the stage. That is realism in its nakedness. That
+is realism reduced to its first principles. Realistic &quot;effects,&quot;
+however speciously beautiful they may be, invariably tend to realism
+of that primal type, which satisfies the predilections of the
+groundling, and reduces drama to the level of the cinematograph.</p>
+
+
+<h3><a name="I.9">IX</a></h3>
+
+<p>The deliberate pursuit of scenic realism is antagonistic to the
+ultimate law of dramatic art. In the case of great plays, the dramatic
+representation is most successful from the genuinely artistic point of
+view&#8212;which is the only point of view worthy of discussion&#8212;when the
+just dramatic illusion is produced by simple and unpretending scenic
+appliances, in which the inevitable &quot;imperfections&quot; are frankly left
+to be supplied by the &quot;thoughts&quot; or imagination of the spectators.</p>
+
+<p>Lovers of Shakespeare should lose no opportunity<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> of urging the cause
+of simplicity in the production of the plays of Shakespeare. Practical
+common-sense, practical considerations of a pecuniary kind, teach us
+that it is only by the adoption of simple methods of production that
+we can hope to have Shakespeare represented in our theatres constantly
+and in all his variety. Until Shakespeare is represented thus, the
+spiritual and intellectual enlightenment, which his achievement offers
+English-speaking people, will remain wholly inaccessible to the
+majority who do not read him, and will be only in part at the command
+of the few who do. Nay, more: until Shakespeare is represented on the
+stage constantly and in his variety, English-speaking men and women
+are liable to the imputation, not merely of failing in the homage due
+to the greatest of their countrymen, but of falling short of their
+neighbours in Germany and Austria in the capacity of appreciating
+supremely great imaginative literature.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="II" id="II"></a>II</h2>
+
+<h2>SHAKESPEARE AND THE ELIZABETHAN PLAYGOER<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a></h2>
+
+
+<h3><a name="II.1">I</a></h3>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">In</span> a freak of fancy, Robert Louis Stevenson sent to a congenial spirit
+the imaginary intelligence that a well-known firm of London publishers
+had, after their wont, &quot;declined with thanks&quot; six undiscovered
+tragedies, one romantic comedy, a fragment of a journal extending over
+six years, and an unfinished autobiography reaching up to the first
+performance of <i>King John</i> by &quot;that venerable but still respected
+writer, William Shakespeare.&quot; Stevenson was writing in a frivolous
+mood; but such words stir the imagination. The ordinary person, if he
+had to choose among the enumerated items of Shakespeare's
+newly-discovered manuscripts, would cheerfully go without the six new
+tragedies and the one romantic comedy if he had at his disposal, by
+way of consolation, the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> journal extending over six years and the
+autobiography reaching up to the first performance of <i>King John</i>. We
+should deem ourselves fortunate if we had the journal alone. It would
+hardly matter which six years of Shakespeare's life the journal
+covered. As a boy, as a young actor, as an industrious reviser of
+other men's plays, as the humorous creator of Falstaff, Benedick, and
+Mercutio, as the profound &quot;natural&quot; philosopher of the great
+tragedies, he could never have been quite an ordinary diarist. Great
+men have been known to keep diaries in which the level of interest
+does not rise above a visit to the barber or the dentist. The common
+routine of life interested Shakespeare, but something beyond it must
+have found place in his journal. Reference to his glorious achievement
+must have gained entry there.</p>
+
+<p>Some notice, we may be sure, figured in Shakespeare's diary of the
+first performances of his great plays on the stage. However eminent a
+man is through native genius or from place of power, he can never,
+whatever his casual professions to the contrary, be indifferent to the
+reception accorded by his fellow-men to the work of his hand and head.
+I picture Shakespeare as the soul of modesty and gentleness in the
+social relations of life, avoiding unbecoming self-advertisement, and
+rating at its just value empty flattery, the mere adulation of the
+lips. Gushing laudation is as little to the taste of wise men as
+treacle. They cannot escape condiments of the kind, but the smaller
+and less frequent the doses the more they are content. Shakespeare no
+doubt had the great man's self-confidence which renders him to a large
+extent independent of the opinion of his fellows. At the same time,
+the knowledge that he had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> succeeded in stirring the reader or hearer
+of his plays, the knowledge that his words had gripped their hearts
+and intellects, cannot have been ungrateful to him. To desire
+recognition for his work is for the artist an inevitable and a
+laudable ambition. A working dramatist by the circumstance of his
+calling appeals as soon as the play is written to the playgoer for a
+sympathetic appreciation. Nature impelled Shakespeare to note on the
+pages of his journal his impression of the sentiment with which the
+fruits of his pen were welcomed in the playhouse.</p>
+
+<p>But Shakespeare's journal does not exist, and we can only speculate as
+to its contents.</p>
+
+
+<h3><a name="II.2">II</a></h3>
+
+<p>We would give much to know how Shakespeare recorded in his diary the
+first performance of <i>Hamlet</i>, the most fascinating of all his works.
+He himself, we are credibly told, played the Ghost. We would give much
+for a record of the feelings which lay on the first production of the
+play beneath the breast of the silent apparition in the first scene
+which twice crossed the stage and affrighted Marcellus, Horatio, and
+the guards on the platform before the castle of Elsinore. No piece of
+literature that ever came from human pen or brain is more closely
+packed with fruit of the imaginative study of human life than is
+Shakespeare's tragedy of <i>Hamlet</i>; and while the author acted the part
+of the Ghost in the play's initial representation in the theatre, he
+was watching the revelation of his pregnant message for the first time
+to the external world. When the author<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> in his weird r&#244;le of Hamlet's
+murdered father opened his lips for the first time, we might almost
+imagine that in the words &quot;pity me not, but lend thy serious hearing
+to what I shall unfold,&quot; he was reflecting the author's personal
+interest in the proceedings of that memorable afternoon.<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> We can
+imagine Shakespeare, as he saw the audience responding to his grave
+appeal, giving with a growing confidence, the subsequent words, which
+he repeated while he moved to the centre of the platform-stage, and
+turned to face the whole house:&#8212;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i8">I find thee apt;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And duller shouldst thou be than the fat weed<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That rots itself in ease on Lethe wharf,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Wouldst thou not stir in this.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>As the Ghost vanished and the air rang mysteriously with his piercing
+words &quot;Remember me,&quot; we would like to imagine the whole intelligence
+of Elizabethan England responding to that cry as it sprang on its
+first utterance in the theatre from the great dramatist's own lips.
+Since that memorable day, at any rate, the whole intelligence of the
+world has responded to that cry with all Hamlet's ecstasy, and with
+but a single modification of the phraseology:&#8212;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i8">Remember thee!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Ay, thou <i>great soul</i>, while memory holds a seat<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">In this distracted globe.<br /></span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span></div></div>
+
+
+<h3><a name="II.3">III</a></h3>
+
+<p>There is a certain justification, in fact, for the fancy that the
+<i>plaudites</i> were loud and long, when Shakespeare created the r&#244;le of
+the &quot;poor ghost&quot; in the first production of his play of <i>Hamlet</i> in
+1602. There is no doubt at all that Shakespeare conspicuously caught
+the ear of the Elizabethan playgoer at a very early date in his
+career, and that he held it firmly for life. &quot;These plays,&quot; wrote two
+of his professional associates of the reception of the whole series in
+the playhouse in his lifetime&#8212;&quot;These plays have had their trial
+already, and stood out all appeals.&quot; Matthew Arnold, apparently quite
+unconsciously, echoed the precise phrase when seeking to express
+poetically the universality of Shakespeare's reputation in our own
+day.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Others abide our judgment, thou art free,<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>is the first line of Arnold's well-known sonnet, which attests the
+rank allotted to Shakespeare in the literary hierarchy by the
+professional critic, nearly two and a half centuries after the
+dramatist's death. There was no narrower qualification in the
+apostrophe of Shakespeare by Ben Jonson, a very critical
+contemporary:&#8212;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i8">Soul of <i>the age</i>,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The applause, delight, and wonder of <i>our stage</i>.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>This play of <i>Hamlet</i>, this play of his &quot;which most kindled English
+hearts,&quot; received a specially enthusiastic welcome from Elizabethan
+playgoers. It was acted within its first year of production repeatedly
+(&quot;divers times&quot;), not merely in London &quot;and else<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span>where,&quot; but also&#8212;an
+unusual distinction&#8212;at the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. It
+was reprinted four times within eight years of its birth.</p>
+
+<p>Thus the charge sometimes brought against the Elizabethan playgoer of
+failing to recognise Shakespeare's sovereign genius should be reckoned
+among popular errors. It was not merely the recognition of the
+critical and highly educated that Shakespeare received in person. It
+was by the voice of the half-educated populace, whose heart and
+intellect were for once in the right, that he was acclaimed the
+greatest interpreter of human nature that literature had known, and,
+as subsequent experience has proved, was likely to know. There is
+evidence that throughout his lifetime and for a generation afterwards
+his plays drew crowds to pit, boxes, and gallery alike. It is true
+that he was one of a number of popular dramatists, many of whom had
+rare gifts, and all of whom glowed with a spark of the genuine
+literary fire. But Shakespeare was the sun in the firmament: when his
+light shone, the fires of all contemporaries paled in the contemporary
+playgoer's eye. There is forcible and humorous portrayal of human
+frailty and eccentricity in plays of Shakespeare's contemporary, Ben
+Jonson. Ben Jonson was a classical scholar, which Shakespeare was not.
+Jonson was as well versed in Roman history as a college tutor. But
+when Shakespeare and Ben Jonson both tried their hands at dramatising
+episodes in Roman history, the Elizabethan public of all degrees of
+intelligence welcomed Shakespeare's efforts with an enthusiasm which
+they rigidly withheld from Ben Jonson's. This is how an ordinary
+playgoer contrasted the reception of Jonson's Roman play of
+<i>Catiline's</i><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> <i>Conspiracy</i> with that of Shakespeare's Roman play of
+<i>Julius C&#230;sar</i>:&#8212;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">So have I seen when C&#230;sar would appear,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And on the stage at half-sword parley were<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Brutus and Cassius&#8212;oh! how the audience<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Were ravished, with what wonder they went thence;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">When some new day they would not brook a line<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Of tedious though well-laboured Catiline.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Shakespeare was the popular favourite. It is rare that the artist who
+is a hero with the multitude is also a hero with the cultivated few.
+But Shakespeare's universality of appeal was such as to include among
+his worshippers from the first the trained and the untrained playgoer
+of his time.</p>
+
+
+<h3><a name="II.4">IV</a></h3>
+
+<p>Very early in his career did Shakespeare attract the notice of the
+cultivated section of Elizabeth's Court, and hardly sufficient notice
+has been taken by students of the poet's biography of the earliest
+recognition accorded him by the great queen, herself an inveterate
+lover of the drama, and an embodiment of the taste of the people in
+literature. The story is worth retelling. In the middle of December
+1594, Queen Elizabeth removed from Whitehall to Greenwich to spend
+Christmas at that palace of Greenwich in which she was born sixty-one
+years earlier. And she made the celebration of Christmas of 1594 more
+memorable than any other in the annals of her reign or in the literary
+history of the country by summoning Shakespeare to Court. It was less
+than eight years since the poet had first set foot in the metropolis.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span>
+His career was little more than opened. But by 1594 Shakespeare had
+given his countrymen unmistakable indications of the stuff of which he
+was made. His progress had been more sure than rapid. A young man of
+two-and-twenty, burdened with a wife and three children, he had left
+his home in the little country town of Stratford-on-Avon in 1586 to
+seek his fortune in London. Without friends, without money, he had,
+like any other stage-struck youth, set his heart on becoming an actor
+in the metropolis. Fortune favoured him. He sought and won the humble
+office of call-boy in a London playhouse; but no sooner had his foot
+touched the lowest rung of the theatrical ladder than his genius
+taught him that the topmost rung was within his reach. He tried his
+hand on the revision of an old play, and the manager was not slow to
+recognise an unmatched gift for dramatic writing.</p>
+
+<p>It was not probably till 1591, when Shakespeare was twenty-seven, that
+his earliest original play, <i>Love's Labour's Lost</i>, was performed. It
+showed the hand of a beginner; it abounded in trivial witticisms. But
+above all, there shone out clearly and unmistakably the dramatic and
+poetic fire, the humorous outlook on life, the insight into human
+feeling, which were to inspire Titanic achievements in the future.</p>
+
+<p>Soon after, Shakespeare scaled the tragic heights of <i>Romeo and
+Juliet</i>, and he was hailed as the prophet of a new world of art.
+Fashionable London society then, as now, befriended the theatre.
+Cultivated noblemen offered their patronage to promising writers for
+the stage, and Shakespeare soon gained the ear of the young Earl of
+Southampton, one of the most accomplished and handsome of the queen's
+noble courtiers,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> who was said to spend nearly all his time in going
+to the playhouse every day. It was at Southampton's suggestion, that,
+in the week preceding the Christmas of 1594, the Lord Chamberlain sent
+word to The Theatre in Shoreditch, where Shakespeare was at work as
+playwright and actor, that the poet was expected at Court on two days
+following Christmas, in order to give his sovereign on the two
+evenings a taste of his quality. He was to act before her in his own
+plays.</p>
+
+<p>It cannot have been Shakespeare's promise as an actor that led to the
+royal summons. His histrionic fame had not progressed at the same rate
+as his literary repute. He was never to win the laurels of a great
+actor. His most conspicuous triumph on the stage was achieved in
+middle life as the Ghost in his own <i>Hamlet</i>, and he ordinarily
+confined his efforts to old men of secondary rank. Ample compensation
+was provided by his companions for his personal deficiencies as an
+actor on his first visit to Court; he was to come supported by actors
+of the highest eminence in their generation. Directions were given
+that the greatest of the tragic actors of the day, Richard Burbage,
+and the greatest of the comic actors, William Kemp, were to bear the
+young actor-dramatist company. With neither of these was Shakespeare's
+histrionic position then or at any time comparable. For years they
+were leaders of the acting profession.</p>
+
+<p>Shakespeare's relations with Burbage and Kemp were close, both
+privately and professionally. Almost all Shakespeare's great tragic
+characters were created on the stage by Burbage, who had lately roused
+London to enthusiasm by his stirring presentation<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> of Shakespeare's
+<i>Richard III.</i> for the first time. As long as Kemp lived, he conferred
+a like service on many of Shakespeare's comic characters; and he had
+recently proved his worth as a Shakespearean comedian by his original
+rendering of the part of Peter, the Nurse's graceless attendant, in
+<i>Romeo and Juliet</i>. Thus stoutly backed, Shakespeare appeared for the
+first time in the royal presence-chamber of Greenwich Palace on the
+evening of St Stephen's Day (the Boxing Day of subsequent generations)
+in 1594.</p>
+
+<p>Extant documentary evidence attests that Shakespeare and his two
+associates performed one &quot;comedy or interlude&quot; on that night of Boxing
+Day in 1594, and gave another &quot;comedy or interlude&quot; on the next night
+but one; that the Lord Chamberlain paid the three men for their
+services the sum of &#163;13, 6s. 8d., and that the queen added to the
+honorarium, as a personal proof of her satisfaction, the further sum
+of &#163;6, 13s. 4d. These were substantial sums in those days, when the
+purchasing power of money was eight times as much as it is to-day, and
+the three actors' reward would now be equivalent to &#163;160.</p>
+
+<p>Unhappily the record does not go beyond the payment of the money. What
+words of commendation or encouragement Shakespeare received from his
+royal auditor are not handed down, nor do we know for certain what
+plays were performed on the great occasion. All the scenes came from
+Shakespeare's repertory, and it is reasonable to infer that they were
+drawn from <i>Love's Labour's Lost</i>, which was always popular in later
+years at Elizabeth's Court, and from <i>The Comedy of Errors</i>, where the
+farcical confusions and horse-play were after the queen's own heart
+and robust taste. But nothing can be stated with absolute<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> certainty
+except that on December 29 Shakespeare travelled up the river from
+Greenwich to London with a heavier purse and a lighter heart than on
+his setting out. That the visit had in all ways been crowned with
+success there is ample indirect evidence. He and his work had
+fascinated his sovereign, and many a time during her remaining nine
+years of life was she to seek delight again in the renderings of plays
+by himself and his fellow-actors at her palaces on the banks of the
+Thames. When Shakespeare was penning his new play of <i>A Midsummer
+Night's Dream</i> next year, he could not forbear to make a passing
+obeisance of gallantry (in that vein for which the old spinster queen
+was always thirsting) to &quot;a fair vestal throned by the West,&quot; who
+passed her life &quot;in maiden meditation, fancy free.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Although literature and art can flourish without royal favour and
+royal patronage, still it is rare that royal patronage has any other
+effect than that of raising those who are its objects in the
+estimation of contemporaries. The interest that Shakespeare's work
+excited at Court was continuous throughout his life. When James I.
+ascended the throne, no author was more frequently honoured by
+&quot;command&quot; performances of his plays in the presence of the sovereign.
+And then, as now, the playgoer's appreciation was quickened by his
+knowledge that the play they were witnessing had been produced before
+the Court at Whitehall a few days earlier. Shakespeare's publishers
+were not above advertising facts like these, as may be seen by a
+survey of the title-pages of editions published in his lifetime. &quot;The
+pleasant conceited comedy called <i>Love's Labour's Lost</i>&quot; was
+advertised with the appended<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> words, &quot;as it was presented before her
+highness this last Christmas.&quot; &quot;A most pleasant and excellent
+conceited comedy of <i>Sir John Falstaff and the Merry Wives of
+Windsor</i>&quot; was stated to have been &quot;divers times acted both before her
+majesty and elsewhere.&quot; The great play of <i>Lear</i> was advertised, &quot;as
+it was played before the king's majesty at Whitehall on St Stephen's
+night in the Christmas holidays.&quot;</p>
+
+
+<h3><a name="II.5">V</a></h3>
+
+<p>Although Shakespeare's illimitable command of expression, his
+universality of knowledge and insight, cannot easily be overlooked by
+any man or woman of ordinary human faculty, still, from some points of
+view, there is ground for surprise that the Elizabethan playgoer's
+enthusiasm for Shakespeare's work was so marked and unequivocal as we
+know that it was.</p>
+
+<p>Let us consider for a moment the physical conditions of the theatre,
+the methods of stage representation, in Shakespeare's day. Theatres
+were in their infancy. The theatre was a new institution in social
+life for Shakespeare's public, and the whole system of the theatrical
+world came into being after Shakespeare came into the world. In
+estimating Shakespeare's genius one ought to bear in mind that he was
+a pioneer&#8212;almost the creator or first designer&#8212;of English drama, as
+well as the practised workman in unmatched perfection. There were
+before his day some efforts made at dramatic representation. The
+Middle Ages had their miracle plays and moralities and interludes. But
+of poetic,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> literary, romantic drama, England knew nothing until
+Shakespeare was of age. Marlowe, who in his early years inaugurated
+English tragedy, was Shakespeare's senior by only two months. It was
+not till 1576, when Shakespeare was twelve, that London for the first
+time possessed a theatre&#8212;a building definitely built for the purpose
+of presenting plays. Before that year, inn-yards or platforms, which
+were improvised in market-places or fields, served for the performance
+of interludes or moralities.</p>
+
+<p>Nor was it precisely in London proper that this primal theatre, which
+is known in history simply as The Theatre, was set up. London in
+Shakespeare's day was a small town, barely a mile square, with a
+population little exceeding 60,000 persons. Within the circuit of the
+city-walls vacant spaces were sparse, and public opinion deprecated
+the erection of buildings upon them. Moreover, the puritan clergy and
+their pious flocks, who constituted an active section of the citizens,
+were inclined to resist the conversion of any existing building into
+such a Satanic trap for unwary souls as they believed a playhouse of
+necessity to be.</p>
+
+<p>It was, accordingly, in the fields near London, not in London itself,
+that the first theatre was set up. Adjoining the city lay pleasant
+meadows, which were bright in spring-time with daisies and violets.
+Green lanes conducted the wayfarer to the rural retreat of Islington,
+and citizens went for change of air to the rustic seclusion of
+Mary-le-bone. A site for the first-born of London playhouses was
+chosen in the spacious fields of Finsbury and Shoreditch, which the
+Great Eastern Railway now occupies. The innovation of a theatre, even
+though it<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> were placed outside the walls of the city, excited serious
+misgiving among the godly minority. But, after much controversy, the
+battle was finally won by the supporters of the play, and The Theatre
+was launched on a prosperous career. Two or three other theatres
+quickly sprang up in neighbouring parts of London's environment. When
+Shakespeare was reaching the zenith of his career, the centre of
+theatrical life was transferred from Shoreditch to the Southwark bank
+of the river Thames, at the south side of London Bridge, which lay
+outside the city's boundaries, but was easy of access to residents
+within them. It was at the Globe Theatre on Bankside, which was
+reached by bridge or by boat from the city-side of the river, that
+Shakespearean drama won its most glorious triumphs.</p>
+
+
+<h3><a name="II.6">VI</a></h3>
+
+<p>Despite the gloomy warnings of the preachers, the new London theatres
+had for the average Elizabethan all the fascination that a new toy has
+for a child. The average Elizabethan repudiated the jeremiads of the
+ultra-pious, and instantaneously became an enthusiastic playgoer.
+During the last year of the sixteenth century, an intelligent visitor
+to London, Thomas Platter, a native of Basle, whose journal has
+recently been discovered,<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> described with ingenuous sympathy the
+delight which the populace displayed in the new playhouses.</p>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span></p>
+<p>Some attractions which the theatres offered had little concern with
+the drama. Their advantages included the privileges of eating and
+drinking while the play was in progress. After the play there was
+invariably a dance on the stage, often a brisk and boisterous Irish
+jig.</p>
+
+<p>Other features of the entertainment seem to have been less
+exhilarating. The mass of the spectators filled the pit, where there
+was standing room only; there were no seats. The admission rarely cost
+more than a penny; but there was no roof. The rain beat at pleasure on
+the heads of the &quot;penny&quot; auditors; while pickpockets commonly plied
+their trade among them without much hindrance when the piece absorbed
+the attention of the &quot;house.&quot; Seats or benches were only to be found
+in the two galleries, the larger portions of which were separated into
+&quot;rooms&quot; or boxes; prices there ranged from twopence to half-a-crown.
+If the playgoer had plenty of money at his command he could, according
+to the German visitor, hire not only a seat but a cushion to elevate
+his stature; &quot;so that,&quot; says our author, &quot;he might not only see the
+play, but&quot;&#8212;what is also often more important for rich people&#8212;&quot;be
+seen&quot; by the audience to be occupying a specially distinguished place.
+Fashionable playgoers of the male sex might, if they opened their
+purses wide enough, occupy stools on the wide platform-stage. Such a
+practice proved embarrassing, not only to the performers, but to those
+who had to content themselves with the penny pit. Standing in front
+and by the sides of the projecting stage, they could often only catch
+glimpses of the actors through chinks in serried ranks of stools.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The histrionic and scenic conditions, in which Shakespeare's plays
+were originally produced, present a further series of disadvantages
+which, from our modern point of view, render the more amazing the
+unqualified enthusiasm of the Elizabethan playgoer.</p>
+
+<p>There was no scenery, although there were crude endeavours to create
+scenic illusion by means of &quot;properties&quot; like rocks, tombs, caves,
+trees, tables, chairs, and pasteboard dishes of food. There was at the
+outset no music, save flourishes on trumpets at the opening of the
+play and between the acts. The scenes within each act were played
+continuously without pause. The bare boards of the platform-stage,
+which no proscenium nor curtain darkened, projected so far into the
+auditorium, that the actors spoke in the very centre of the house.
+Trap-doors were in use for the entrance of &quot;ghosts&quot; and other
+mysterious personages. At the back of the stage was a raised platform
+or balcony, from which often hung loose curtains; through them the
+actors passed to the forepart of the stage. The balcony was pressed
+into the service when the text of the play indicated that the speakers
+were not actually standing on the same level. From the raised platform
+Juliet addressed Romeo in the balcony scene, and the citizens of
+Angers in <i>King John</i> held colloquy with the English besiegers. This
+was, indeed, almost the furthest limit of the Elizabethan
+stage-manager's notion of scenic realism. The boards, which were bare
+save for the occasional presence of rough properties, were held to
+present adequate semblance, as the play demanded, of a king's
+throne-room, a chapel, a forest, a ship at sea, a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> mountainous pass, a
+market-place, a battle-field, or a churchyard.</p>
+
+<p>The costumes had no pretensions to fit the period or place of the
+action. They were the ordinary dresses of various classes of the day,
+but were often of rich material, and in the height of the current
+fashion. False hair and beards, crowns and sceptres, mitres and
+croziers, armour, helmets, shields, vizors, and weapons of war, hoods,
+bands, and cassocks, were mainly relied on to indicate among the
+characters differences of rank or profession.</p>
+
+<p>The foreign observer, Thomas Platter of Basle, was impressed by the
+splendour of the actors' costumes. He accounted for it in a manner
+that negatives any suggestion of dramatic propriety:&#8212;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&quot;The players wear the most costly and beautiful dresses, for
+it is the custom in England, that when noblemen or knights
+die, they leave their finest clothes to their servants, who,
+since it would not be fitting for them to wear such splendid
+garments, sell them soon afterwards to the players for a
+small sum.&quot;</p></div>
+
+<p>The most striking defect in the practice of the Elizabethan playhouse,
+according to accepted notions, lies in the allotment of the female
+r&#244;les. It was thought unseemly for women to act at all. Female parts
+were played by boys or men&#8212;a substitution lacking, from the modern
+point of view, in grace and seemliness. But the standard of propriety
+in such matters varies from age to age. Shakespeare alludes quite
+complacently to the appearance of boys and men in women's parts. He
+makes Rosalind say, laughingly and saucily, to the men of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> the
+audience in the epilogue to <i>As You Like It</i>: &quot;If I were a woman I
+would kiss as many of you as had beards that pleased me.&quot; &quot;<i>If I were</i>
+a woman,&quot; she says. The jest lies in the fact that the speaker was not
+a woman but a boy. Similarly, Cleopatra on her downfall in <i>Antony and
+Cleopatra</i>, (V. ii. 220), laments</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i8">the quick comedians<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Extemporally will stage us ... and I shall see<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Some squeaking Cleopatra <i>boy</i> my greatness.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>The experiment of entrusting a boy with the part of Ophelia was lately
+tried in London not unsuccessfully; but it is difficult to realise how
+a boy or young man could adequately interpret most of Shakespeare's
+female characters. It seems almost sacrilegious to conceive the part
+of Cleopatra, the most highly sensitised in its minutest details of
+all dramatic portrayals of female character,&#8212;it seems almost
+sacrilegious to submit Cleopatra's sublimity of passion to
+interpretation by an unfledged representative of the other sex. Yet
+such solecisms were imperative under the theatrical system of the late
+sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. Men taking women's parts
+seem to have worn masks, but that can hardly have improved matters.
+Flute, when he complains that it would hardly befit him to play a
+woman's part because he had a beard coming, is bidden by his
+resourceful manager, Quince, play Thisbe in a &quot;mask.&quot; At times actors
+who had long lost the roses of youth masqueraded in women's r&#244;les.
+Thereby the ungainliness, which marked the distribution of the cast in
+Elizabethan and Jacobean playhouses, was often forced into stronger
+light.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>It was not till the seventeenth century was well advanced that women
+were permitted to act in public theatres. Then the gracelessness of
+the masculine method was acknowledged and deplored. It was the
+character of Desdemona which was first undertaken by a woman, and the
+absurdity of the old practice was noticed in the prologue written for
+this revival of <i>Othello</i>, which was made memorable by the innovation.
+Some lines in the prologue describe the earlier system thus:&#8212;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">For to speak truth, men act, that are between<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Forty or fifty, wenches of fifteen,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">With bone so large and nerve so uncompliant,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">When you call Desdemona, enter Giant.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Profound commiseration seems due to the Elizabethan playgoer, who was
+liable to have his faith in the tenderness and gentleness of Desdemona
+rudely shaken by the irruption on the stage of a brawny,
+broad-shouldered athlete, masquerading in her sweet name. Boys or men
+of all shapes and sizes squeaking or bawling out the tender and
+pathetic lines of Shakespeare's heroines, and no joys of scenery to
+distract the playgoer from the uncouth inconsistency! At first sight
+it would seem that the Elizabethan playgoer's lot was anything but
+happy.</p>
+
+
+<h3><a name="II.7">VII</a></h3>
+
+<p>The Elizabethan's hard fate strangely contrasts with the situation of
+the playgoer of the nineteenth or twentieth century. To the latter
+Shakespeare is presented in a dazzling plenitude of colour. Music<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span>
+punctuates not merely intervals between scenes and acts, but critical
+pauses in the speeches of the actors. Pictorial tableaux enthral the
+most callous onlooker. Very striking is the contrast offered by the
+methods of representation accepted with enthusiasm by the Elizabethan
+playgoer and those deemed essential by the fashionable modern manager.
+There seems a relish of barbarism in the ancient system when it is
+compared with the one now in vogue.</p>
+
+<p>I fear the final conclusion to be drawn from the contrast is, contrary
+to expectation, more creditable to our ancestors than to ourselves.
+The needful dramatic illusion was obviously evoked in the playgoer of
+the past with an ease that is unknown to the present patrons of the
+stage. The absence of scenery, the substitution of boys and men for
+women, could only have passed muster with the Elizabethan spectator
+because he was able to realise the dramatic potency of the poet's work
+without any, or any but the slightest, adventitious aid outside the
+words of the play.</p>
+
+<p>The Elizabethan playgoer needs no pity. It is ourselves who are
+deserving objects of compassion, because we lack those qualities, the
+possession of which enabled the Elizabethan to acknowledge in
+Shakespeare's work, despite its manner of production, &quot;the delight and
+wonder of his stage.&quot; The imaginative faculty was far from universal
+among the Elizabethan playgoers. The playgoing mob always includes
+groundlings who delight exclusively in dumb shows and noise. Many of
+Shakespeare's contemporaries complained that there were playgoers who
+approved nothing &quot;but puppetry and loved ridiculous antics,&quot; and that
+there were men who, going to the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> playhouse only &quot;to laugh and feed
+fool-fat,&quot; &quot;checked at all goodness there.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> No public of any age or
+country is altogether free from such infirmities. But the reception
+accorded to Shakespeare's plays in the theatre of his day, in
+contemporary theatrical conditions, is proof-positive of a signal
+imaginative faculty in an exceptionally large proportion of the
+playgoers.</p>
+
+<p>To the Elizabethan actor a warm tribute is due. Shakespeare has
+declared with emphasis that no amount of scenery can secure genuine
+success on the stage for a great work of the imagination. He is no
+less emphatic in the value he sets on competent acting. In <i>Hamlet</i>,
+as every reader will remember, the dramatist points out the perennial
+defects of the actor, and shows how they may and must be corrected. He
+did all he could for the Elizabethan playgoer in the way of insisting
+that the art of acting must be studied seriously, and that the
+dramatist's words must reach the ears of the audience, clearly and
+intelligibly enunciated.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Speak the speech, I pray you,&quot; he tells the actor, &quot;as I pronounce it
+to you, trippingly on the tongue; but if you mouth it, as many of your
+players do, I had as lief the town-crier spoke my lines. Nor do not
+saw the air too much with your hand, thus; but use all gently: for in
+the very torrent, tempest, and&#8212;as I may say&#8212;whirlwind of passion,
+you must acquire and beget a temperance, that may give it smoothness.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Be not too tame neither, but let your own discretion be your tutor:
+suit the action to the word, the word to the action; with this special
+observance, that you o'erstep not the modesty of nature. O!<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span> there be
+players that I have seen play, and heard others praise, and that
+highly, not to speak it profanely, that, neither having the accent of
+Christians nor the gait of Christian, pagan, nor man, have so strutted
+and bellowed that I have thought some of nature's journeymen had made
+men and not made them well, they imitated humanity so abominably.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The player amiably responds: &quot;I hope we have reformed that
+indifferently with us.&quot; Shakespeare in the person of Hamlet retorts in
+a tone of some impatience: &quot;O! reform it altogether. And let those
+that play your clowns speak no more than is set down for them.&quot; The
+applause which welcomed Shakespeare's masterpieces on their first
+representation is adequate evidence that the leading Elizabethan
+actors in the main obeyed these instructions.</p>
+
+
+<h3><a name="II.8">VIII</a></h3>
+
+<p>Nevertheless the final success of a great imaginative play on the
+stage does not depend entirely on the competence of the actor.
+Encircling and determining all conditions is the fitness of the
+audience. A great imaginative play well acted will not achieve genuine
+success unless the audience has at command sufficient imaginative
+power to induce in them an active sympathy with the efforts, not only
+of the actor, but of the dramatist.</p>
+
+<p>It is not merely in the first chorus to <i>Henry V.</i> that Shakespeare
+has declared his conviction that the creation of the needful dramatic
+illusion is finally due to exercise of the imagination on the part of
+the audience.<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> Theseus, in <i>A Midsummer Night's</i><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> <i>Dream</i>, in the
+capacity of a spectator of a play which is rendered by indifferent
+actors, makes a somewhat depreciatory reflection on the character of
+acting, whatever its degree or capacity. But the value of Theseus's
+deliverance lies in its clear definition of the part which the
+audience has to play, if it do its duty by great drama.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The best in this kind,&quot; says Theseus of actors, &quot;are but shadows, and
+the worst are no worse, <i>if imagination amend them</i>.&quot; To which
+Hippolyta, less tolerant than Theseus of the incapacity of the players
+to whom she is listening, tartly retorts: &quot;It must be your imagination
+(<i>i.e.</i>, the spectator's), then, and not theirs (<i>i.e.</i>, the
+actors').&quot;</p>
+
+<p>These sentences mean that at its very best acting is but a shadow or
+simulation of life, and that acting at its very worst is likewise a
+shadow or simulation. But the imagination of the audience is supreme
+controller of the theatre, and can, if it be of adequate intensity,
+even cause inferior acting to yield effects hardly distinguishable
+from those of the best.</p>
+
+<p>It would be unwise to press Theseus's words to extreme limits. All
+that it behoves us to deduce from them is the unimpeachable principle
+that the success of the romantic drama on the stage depends not merely
+on the actor's gift of imagination, but to an even larger extent on
+the possession by the audience of a similar faculty. Good acting is
+needful. Scenery in moderation will aid the dramatic illusion,
+although excess of scenery or scenic machinery may destroy it
+altogether. Dramatic illusion must ultimately spring from the active
+and unrestricted exer<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span>cise of the imaginative faculty by author,
+actor, and audience in joint-partnership.</p>
+
+<p>What is the moral to be deduced from any examination of the
+Elizabethan playgoer's attitude to Shakespeare's plays? It is
+something of this kind. We must emulate our ancestors' command of the
+imagination. We must seek to enlarge our imaginative sympathy with
+Shakespeare's poetry. The imaginative faculty will not come to us at
+our call; it will not come to us by the mechanism of study; it may not
+come to us at all. It is easier to point out the things that will
+hinder than the things that will hasten its approach. Absorption in
+the material needs of life, the concentration of energy on the
+increase of worldly goods, leave little room for the entrance into the
+brain of the imaginative faculty, or for its free play when it is
+there. The best way of seeking it is by reading the greatest of great
+imaginative literature, by freely yielding the mind to its influence,
+and by exercising the mind under its sway. And the greatest
+imaginative literature that was ever penned was penned by Shakespeare.
+No counsel is wiser than that of those two personal friends of his,
+who were the first editors of his work, and penned words to this
+effect: &quot;Read him therefore, and again and again, and then if you do
+not like him, surely you are in some manifest danger&quot; of losing a
+saving grace of life.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="III" id="III"></a>III</h2>
+
+<h2>SHAKESPEARE IN ORAL TRADITION<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a></h2>
+
+
+<h3><a name="III.1">I</a></h3>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Biographers</span> did not lie in wait for men of eminence on their
+death-beds in Shakespeare's epoch. To the advantage of literature, and
+to the less than might be anticipated disadvantage of history (for
+your death-bed biographer, writing under kinsfolk's tear-laden eyes,
+must needs be smoother-tongued than truthful), the place of the modern
+memoir-writer was filled in Shakespeare's day by friendly poets, who
+were usually alert to pay fit homage in elegiac verse to a dead hero's
+achievements. In that regard, Shakespeare's poetic friends showed at
+his death exceptional energy. During his lifetime men of letters had
+bestowed on his &quot;reigning wit,&quot; on his kingly supremacy of genius,
+most generous stores of eulogy. Within two years of the end a
+sonneteer had justly deplored that something of Shakespeare's own
+power, to which he deprecated pretension, was needful to those who
+should praise him aright. But when Shakespeare lay dead in the spring
+of 1616, when, as one of his admirers technically phrased it,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> he had
+withdrawn from the stage of the world to the &quot;tiring-house&quot; or
+dressing-room of the grave, the flood of panegyrical lamentation was
+not checked by the sense of literary inferiority which in all
+sincerity oppressed the spirits of surviving companions.</p>
+
+<p>One of the earliest of the elegies was a sonnet by William Basse, who
+gave picturesque expression to the conviction that Shakespeare would
+enjoy for all time an unique reverence on the part of his countrymen.
+In the opening lines of his poem Basse apostrophised Chaucer, Spenser,
+and the dramatist Francis Beaumont, three poets who had already
+received the recognition of burial in Westminster Abbey&#8212;Beaumont, the
+youngest of them, only five weeks before Shakespeare died. To this
+honoured trio Basse made appeal to &quot;lie a thought more nigh&quot; one
+another, so as to make room for the newly-dead Shakespeare within
+their &quot;sacred sepulchre.&quot; Then, in the second half of his sonnet, the
+poet, developing a new thought, argued that Shakespeare, in right of
+his pre-eminence, merited a burial-place apart from all his fellows.
+With a glance at Shakespeare's distant grave in the chancel of
+Stratford-on-Avon Church, the writer exclaimed:&#8212;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Under this carved marble of thine own<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Sleep, brave tragedian, Shakespeare, sleep <i>alone</i>.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>The fine sentiment found many a splendid echo. It resounded in Ben
+Jonson's lines of 1623:&#8212;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">My Shakespeare, rise! I will not lodge thee by<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Chaucer, or Spenser, or bid Beaumont lie<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">A little further to make thee a room.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Thou art a monument without a tomb,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And art alive still, while thy book doth live<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And we have wits to read and praise to give.<br /></span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span></div></div>
+
+<p>Milton wrote a few years later, in 1630, how Shakespeare, &quot;sepulchred&quot;
+in &quot;the monument&quot; of his writings,</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i6">in such pomp doth lie,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That kings for such a tomb would wish to die.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Never was a glorious immortality foretold for any man with more solemn
+confidence than it was foretold for Shakespeare at his death by his
+circle of adorers. When Time, one elegist said, should dissolve his
+&quot;Stratford monument,&quot; the laurel about Shakespeare's brow would wear
+its greenest hue. Shakespeare's critical friend, Ben Jonson, was but
+one of a numerous band who imagined the &quot;sweet swan of Avon,&quot; &quot;the
+star of poets,&quot; shining for ever as a constellation in the firmament.
+Such was the invariable temper in which literary men gave vent to
+their grief on learning the death of the &quot;beloved author,&quot; &quot;the famous
+scenicke poet,&quot; &quot;the admirable dramaticke poet,&quot; &quot;that famous writer
+and actor,&quot; &quot;worthy master William Shakespeare&quot; of Stratford-on-Avon.</p>
+
+
+<h3><a name="III.2">II</a></h3>
+
+<p>Unqualified and sincere was the eulogy awarded to Shakespeare, alike
+in his lifetime and immediately after his death. But the spirit and
+custom of the age confided to future generations the duty of first
+offering him the more formal honour of prosaic and critical biography.
+The biographic memoir, which consists of precise and duly
+authenticated dates and records of domestic and professional<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span>
+experiences and achievements, was in England a comparatively late
+growth. It had no existence when Shakespeare died. It began to blossom
+in the eighteenth century, and did not flourish luxuriantly till a far
+more recent period. Meagre seeds of the modern art of biography were,
+indeed, sown within a few years of Shakespeare's death; but outside
+the unique little field of Izaak Walton's tillage, the first
+sproutings were plants so different from the fully developed tree,
+that they can with difficulty be identified with the genus. Apart from
+Izaak Walton's exceptional efforts, the biographical spirit first
+betrayed itself in England in slender, occasional pamphlets of
+rhapsodical froth, after the model of the funeral sermon. There
+quickly followed more substantial volumes of collective biography,
+which mainly supplied arbitrarily compiled, if extended, catalogues of
+names. To each name were attached brief annotations, which
+occasionally offered a fact or a date, but commonly consisted of a few
+sentences of grotesque, uncritical eulogy.</p>
+
+<p>Fuller's <i>Worthies of England</i>, which was begun about 1643 and was
+published posthumously in 1662, was the first English compendium of
+biography of this aboriginal pattern. Shakespeare naturally found
+place in Fuller's merry pages, for the author loved in his eccentric
+fashion his country's literature, and he had sought the society of
+those who had come to close quarters with literary heroes of the past
+generation. Of that generation his own life just touched the fringe,
+he being eight years old when Shakespeare died. Fuller described the
+dramatist as a native of Stratford-on-Avon, who &quot;was in some sort a
+compound of three eminent poets&quot;&#8212;Martial, &quot;in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> warlike sound of
+his name&quot;; Ovid, for the naturalness and wit of his poetry; and
+Plautus, alike for the extent of his comic power and his lack of
+scholarly training. He was, Fuller continued, an eminent instance of
+the rule that a poet is born not made. &quot;Though his genius,&quot; he warns
+us, &quot;generally was jocular and inclining him to festivity, yet he
+could, when so disposed, be solemn and serious.&quot; His comedies, Fuller
+adds, would rouse laughter even in the weeping philosopher Heraclitus,
+while his tragedies would bring tears even to the eyes of the laughing
+philosopher Democritus.</p>
+
+<p>Of positive statements respecting Shakespeare's career Fuller is
+economical. He commits himself to nothing more than may be gleaned
+from the following sentences:&#8212;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>Many were the wit-combats betwixt him and Ben Jonson; which
+two I behold like a Spanish great galleon and an English
+man-of-war: master Jonson (like the former) was built far
+higher in learning; solid, but slow, in his performances.
+Shakespeare, with the English man-of-war, lesser in bulk,
+but lighter in sailing, could turn with all tides, tack
+about, and take advantage of all winds, by the quickness of
+his wit and invention. He died <i>Anno Domini</i> 1616, and was
+buried at Stratford-upon-Avon, the town of his nativity.</p></div>
+
+<p>Fuller's successors did their work better in some regards, because
+they laboured in narrower fields. Many of them showed a welcome
+appreciation of a main source of their country's permanent reputation
+by confining their energies to the production of biographical
+catalogues, not of all manners of heroes, but solely of those who had
+distinguished themselves<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> in poetry and the drama.<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> In 1675 a
+biographical catalogue of poets was issued for the first time in
+England, and the example once set was quickly followed. No less than
+three more efforts of the like kind came to fruition before the end of
+the century.</p>
+
+<p>In all four biographical manuals Shakespeare was accorded more or less
+imposing space. Although Fuller's eccentric compliments were usually
+repeated, they were mingled with far more extended and discriminating
+tributes. Two of the compilers designated Shakespeare &quot;the glory of
+the English stage&quot;; a third wrote, &quot;I esteem his plays beyond any that
+have ever been published in our language&quot;; while the fourth quoted
+with approval Dryden's fine phrase: &quot;Shakespeare was the Man who of
+all Modern and perhaps Ancient Poets had the largest and most
+comprehensive Soul.&quot; But the avowed principles of these tantalising
+volumes justify no expectation of finding in them solid information.
+The biographical cataloguers of the seventeenth century did little
+more than proclaim Shakespeare and the other great poets of the
+country to be fit subjects for formal biography as soon as the type
+should be matured. That was the message of greatest virtue which these
+halting chroniclers delivered.</p>
+
+<p>In Shakespeare's case their message was not long neglected. In 1709
+Nicholas Rowe, afterwards George the First's poet laureate, published
+the first<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> professed biography of the poet. The eminence of the
+subject justified such alacrity, and it had no precise parallel. More
+or less definite lives of a few of Shakespeare's great literary
+contemporaries followed his biography at long intervals. But the whole
+field has never been occupied by the professed biographer. In some
+cases the delay has meant loss of opportunity for ever. Very many
+distinguished Elizabethan and Jacobean authors have shared the fate of
+John Webster, next to Shakespeare the most eminent tragic dramatist of
+the era, of whom no biography was ever attempted, and no positive
+biographic fact survives.</p>
+
+<p>But this is an imperfect statement of the advantages which
+Shakespeare's career enjoyed above that of his fellows from the
+commemorative point of view. Although formal biography did not lay
+hand on his name for nearly a century after his death, the authentic
+tradition of his life and work began steadily to crystallise in the
+minds and mouths of men almost as soon as he drew his last breath.
+Fuller's characteristically shadowy hint of &quot;wit-combats betwixt
+Shakespeare and Ben Jonson&quot; and of the contrasted characters of the
+two combatants, suggests pretty convincingly that Shakespeare's name
+presented to the seventeenth-century imagination and tongue a better
+defined personality and experience than the embryonic biographer knew
+how to disclose. The commemorative instinct never seeks satisfaction
+in biographic effort exclusively, even when the art of biography has
+ripened into satisfying fulness. A great man's reputation and the
+moving incidents of his career never live solely in the printed book
+or the literary word. In a great man's lifetime, and for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> many years
+after, his fame and his fortunes live most effectually on living lips.
+The talk of surviving kinsmen, fellow-craftsmen, admiring
+acquaintances, and sympathetic friends is the treasure-house which
+best preserves the personality of the dead hero for those who come
+soon after him. When biography is unpractised, no other treasure-house
+is available.</p>
+
+<p>The report of such converse moves quickly from mouth to mouth. In its
+progress the narration naturally grows fainter, and, when no
+biographer lies in wait for it, ultimately perishes altogether. But
+oral tradition respecting a great man whose work has fascinated the
+imagination of his countrymen comes into circulation early, persists
+long, even in the absence of biography, and safeguards substantial
+elements of truth through many generations. Although no biographer put
+in an appearance, it is seldom that some fragment of oral tradition
+respecting a departed hero is not committed to paper by one or other
+amateur gossip who comes within earshot of it early in its career. The
+casual unsifted record of floating anecdote is not always above
+suspicion. As a rule it is embodied in familiar correspondence, or in
+diaries, or in commonplace books, where clear and definite language is
+rarely met with; but, however disappointingly imperfect and trivial,
+however disjointed, however deficient in literary form the registered
+jottings of oral tradition may be, it is in them, if they exist at all
+with any title to credit, that future ages best realise the fact that
+the great man was in plain truth a living entity, and no mere shadow
+of a name.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<h3><a name="III.3">III</a></h3>
+
+<p>When Shakespeare died, on the 23rd of April, 1616, many men and women
+were alive who had come into personal association with him, and there
+were many more who had heard of him from those who had spoken with
+him. Apart from his numerous kinsfolk and neighbours at
+Stratford-on-Avon, there was in London a large society of
+fellow-authors and fellow-actors with whom he lived in close
+communion. Very little correspondence or other intimate memorials,
+whether of Shakespeare's professional friends or of his kinsfolk or
+country neighbours, survive. Nevertheless some scraps of the talk
+about Shakespeare that circulated among his acquaintances or was
+handed on by them to the next generation has been tracked to written
+paper of the seventeenth century and to printed books. A portion of
+these scattered memorabilia of the earliest known oral traditions
+respecting Shakespeare has come to light very recently; other portions
+have been long accessible. As a connected whole they have never been
+narrowly scrutinised, and I believe it may serve a useful purpose to
+consider with some minuteness how the mass of them came into being,
+and what is the sum of information they conserve.</p>
+
+<p>The more closely Shakespeare's career is studied the plainer it
+becomes that his experiences and fortunes were identical with those of
+all who followed in his day his profession of dramatist, and that his
+conscious aims and ambitions and practices were those of every
+contemporary man of letters. The difference between the results of his
+endeavours and those of his fellows was due to the magical and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span>
+involuntary working of genius, which, since the birth of poetry, has
+exercised &quot;as large a charter as the wind, to blow on whom it
+pleases.&quot; Speculation or debate as to why genius bestowed its fullest
+inspiration on Shakespeare is no less futile than speculation or
+debate as to why he was born into the world with a head on his
+shoulders instead of a block of stone. It is enough for wise men to
+know the obvious fact that genius endowed Shakespeare with its richest
+gifts, and a very small acquaintance with the literary history of the
+world and with the manner in which genius habitually plays its part
+there, will show the folly of cherishing astonishment that
+Shakespeare, rather than one more nobly born or more academically
+trained, should have been chosen for the glorious dignity. Nowhere is
+this lesson more convincingly taught than by a systematic survey of
+the oral tradition. Shakespeare figures there as a supremely favoured
+heir of genius, whose humility of birth and education merely serves to
+intensify the respect due to his achievement.</p>
+
+<p>In London, where Shakespeare's work was mainly done and his fortune
+and reputation achieved, he lived with none in more intimate social
+relations than with the leading members of his own prosperous company
+of actors, which, under the patronage of the king, produced his
+greatest plays. Like himself, most of his colleagues were men of
+substance, sharers with him in the two most fashionable theatres of
+the metropolis, occupiers of residences in both town and country,
+owners of houses and lands, and bearers of coat-armour of that
+questionable validity which commonly attaches to the heraldry of the
+<i>nouveaux riches</i>. Two of these affluent associates predeceased<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span>
+Shakespeare; and one of them, Augustine Phillips, attested his
+friendship in a small legacy. Three of Shakespeare's fellow-actors
+were affectionately remembered by him in his will, and a fourth, one
+of the youngest members of the company, proved his regard for
+Shakespeare's memory by taking, a generation after the dramatist's
+death, Charles Hart, Shakespeare's grand-nephew, into his employ as a
+&quot;boy&quot; or apprentice. Grand-nephew Charles went forth on a prosperous
+career, in which at its height he was seriously likened to his
+grand-uncle's most distinguished actor-ally, Richard Burbage. Above
+all is it to be borne in mind that to the disinterested admiration for
+his genius of two fellow-members of Shakespeare's company we owe the
+preservation and publication of the greater part of his literary work.
+The personal fascination of &quot;so worthy a friend and fellow as was our
+Shakespeare&quot; bred in all his fellow-workers an affectionate pride in
+their intimacy.</p>
+
+<p>Such men were the parents of the greater part of the surviving oral
+tradition of Shakespeare, and no better parentage could be wished for.
+To the first accessible traditions of proved oral currency after
+Shakespeare's death, the two fellow-actors who called the great First
+Folio into existence pledged their credit in writing only seven years
+after his death. They printed in the preliminary pages of that volume
+these three statements of common fame, viz., that to Shakespeare and
+his plays in his lifetime was invariably extended the fullest favour
+of the court and its leading officers; that death deprived him of the
+opportunity he had long contemplated of preparing his literary work
+for the press; and that he wrote with so rapidly flowing a pen that
+his manuscript<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span> was never defaced by alteration or erasure.
+Shakespeare's extraordinary rapidity of composition was an especially
+frequent topic of contemporary debate. Ben Jonson, the most intimate
+personal friend of Shakespeare outside the circle of working actors,
+wrote how &quot;the players&quot; would &quot;often mention&quot; to him the poet's
+fluency, and how he was in the habit of arguing that Shakespeare's
+work would have been the better had he devoted more time to its
+correction. The players, Ben Jonson adds, were wont to grumble that
+such a remark was &quot;malevolent,&quot; and he delighted in seeking to
+vindicate it to them on what seemed to him to be just critical
+grounds.</p>
+
+<p>The copious deliverances of Jonson in the tavern-parliaments of the
+London wits, which were in almost continuous session during the first
+four decades of the seventeenth century, set flowing much other oral
+tradition of Shakespeare, whom Jonson said he loved and whose memory
+he honoured &quot;on this side idolatry as much as any.&quot; One of Jonson's
+remarks which seems to have lived longest on the lips of
+contemporaries was that Shakespeare &quot;was indeed honest and [like his
+own Othello] of an open and free nature,<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> had an excellent
+phantasy, brave notions and gentle expressions, wherein he flowed with
+that facility that sometimes it was necessary he should be stopped.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>To the same category of oral tradition belongs the further piece which
+Fuller enshrined in his slender biography with regard to Shakespeare's
+alert skirmishes with Ben Jonson in dialectical battle. Jonson's
+dialectical skill was for a long period undisputed, and for gossip to
+credit Shakespeare with victory in such<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span> conflict was to pay his
+memory even more enviable honour than Jonson paid it in his own
+<i>obiter dicta</i>.</p>
+
+<p>There is yet an additional scrap of oral tradition which, reduced to
+writing about the time that Fuller was at work, confirms Shakespeare's
+reputation for quickness of wit in everyday life, especially in
+intercourse with the critical giant Jonson. Dr Donne, the Jacobean
+poet and dean of St Paul's, told, apparently on Jonson's authority,
+the story that Shakespeare, having consented to act as godfather to
+one of Jonson's sons, solemnly promised to give the child a dozen good
+&quot;<i>Latin</i> spoons&quot; for the father to &quot;translate.&quot; <i>Latin</i> was a play
+upon the word &quot;latten,&quot; which was the name of a metal resembling
+brass. The simple quip was a good-humoured hit at Jonson's pride in
+his classical learning. Dr Donne related the anecdote to Sir Nicholas
+L'Estrange, a country gentleman of literary tastes, who had no
+interest in Shakespeare except from the literary point of view. He
+entered it in his commonplace book within thirty years of
+Shakespeare's death.</p>
+
+
+<h3><a name="III.4">IV</a></h3>
+
+<p>Of the twenty-five actors who are enumerated in a preliminary page of
+the great First Folio, as filling in Shakespeare's lifetime chief
+r&#244;les in his plays, few survived him long. All of them came in
+personal contact with him; several of them constantly appeared with
+him on the stage from early days.</p>
+
+<p>The two who were longest lived, John Lowin and Joseph Taylor, came at
+length to bear a great weight of years. They were both Shakespeare's
+juniors, Lowin<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> by twelve years, and Taylor by twenty; but both
+established their reputation before middle age. Lowin at twenty-seven
+took part with Shakespeare in the first representation of Ben Jonson's
+<i>Sejanus</i> in 1603. He was an early, if not the first, interpreter of
+the character of Falstaff. Taylor as understudy to the great actor
+Burbage, a very close ally of Shakespeare, seems to have achieved some
+success in the part of Hamlet, and to have been applauded in the r&#244;le
+of Iago, while the dramatist yet lived. When the dramatist died, Lowin
+was forty, and Taylor over thirty.</p>
+
+<p>Subsequently, as their senior colleagues one by one passed from the
+world, these two actors assumed first rank in their company, and
+before the ruin in which the Civil War involved all theatrical
+enterprise, they were acknowledged to stand at the head of their
+profession.<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a> Taylor lived through the Commonwealth, and Lowin far
+into the reign of Charles the Second, ultimately reaching his
+ninety-third year. Their last days were passed in indigence, and Lowin
+when an octogenarian was reduced to keeping the inn of the &quot;Three
+Pigeons,&quot; at Brentford.</p>
+
+<p>Both these men kept alive from personal knowledge some oral
+Shakespearean tradition during the fifty years and more that followed
+his death. Little<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> of their gossip is extant. But some of it was put
+on record, before the end of the century, by John Downes, the old
+prompter and librarian of a chief London theatre. According to
+Downes's testimony, Taylor repeated instructions which he had received
+from Shakespeare's own lips for the playing of the part of Hamlet,
+while Lowin narrated how Shakespeare taught him the theatrical
+interpretation of the character of Henry the Eighth, in that play of
+the name which came from the joint pens of Shakespeare and Fletcher.</p>
+
+<p>Both Taylor's and Lowin's reminiscences were passed on to Thomas
+Betterton, the greatest actor of the Restoration, and the most
+influential figure in the theatrical life of his day. Through him they
+were permanently incorporated in the verbal stage-lore of the country.
+No doubt is possible of the validity of this piece of oral tradition,
+which reveals Shakespeare in the act of personally supervising the
+production of his own plays, and springs from the mouths of those who
+personally benefited by the dramatist's activity.</p>
+
+<p>Taylor and Lowin were probably the last actors to speak of Shakespeare
+from personal knowledge. But hardly less deserving of attention are
+scraps of gossip about Shakespeare which survive in writing on the
+authority of some of Taylor's and Lowin's actor-contemporaries. These
+men were never themselves in personal relations with Shakespeare, but
+knew many formerly in direct relation with him. Probably the
+seventeenth century actor with the most richly stored memory of the
+oral Shakespearean tradition was William Beeston, to whose house in
+Hog Lane, Shoreditch, the curious often resorted in Charles the
+Second's time to listen to his remini<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span>scences of Shakespeare and of
+the poets of Shakespeare's epoch.</p>
+
+<p>Beeston died after a busy theatrical life, at eighty or upwards, in
+1682. He belonged to a family of distinguished actors or
+actor-managers. His father, brothers, and son were all, like himself,
+prominent in the profession, and some of them were almost as
+long-lived as himself. His own career combined with that of his father
+covered more than a century, and both sedulously and with pride
+cultivated intimacy with contemporary dramatic authors.</p>
+
+<p>It was probably William Beeston's grandfather, also William Beeston,
+to whom the satirical Elizabethan, Thomas Nash, dedicated in 1593,
+with good-humoured irony, one of his insolent libels on Gabriel
+Harvey, a scholar who had defamed the memory of a dead friend. Nash
+laughed at his patron's struggles with syntax in his efforts to write
+poetry, and at his indulgence in drink, which betrayed itself in his
+red nose. But, in spite of Nash's characteristic frankness, he greeted
+the first William Beeston as a boon companion who was generous in his
+entertainment of threadbare scholars. Christopher Beeston, this man's
+son, the father of the Shakespearean gossip, had in abundance the
+hereditary taste for letters. He was at one time Shakespeare's
+associate on the stage. Both took part together in the first
+representation of Ben Jonson's <i>Every Man in His Humour</i>, in 1598. His
+name was again linked with Shakespeare's in the will of their
+fellow-actor, Augustine Phillips, who left each of them a legacy as a
+token of friendship at his death in 1605. Christopher Beeston left
+Shakespeare's company of actors for another theatre early in his
+career, and his closest friend among the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> actor-authors of his day in
+later life was not Shakespeare himself but Thomas Heywood, the popular
+dramatist and pamphleteer, who lived on to 1650. This was a friendship
+which kept Beeston's respect for Shakespeare at a fitting pitch.
+Heywood, who wrote the affectionate lines:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Mellifluous Shakespeare, whose inchanting Quill<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Commanded Mirth or Passion, was but <i>Will</i>,<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>enjoys the distinction of having published in Shakespeare's lifetime
+the only expression of resentment that is known to have come from the
+dramatist's proverbially &quot;gentle lips.&quot; Shakespeare (Heywood wrote)
+&quot;was much offended&quot; with an unprincipled publisher who &quot;presumed to
+make so bold with his name&quot; as to put it to a book of which he was not
+the author. And Beeston had direct concern with the volume called <i>An
+Apology for Actors</i>, to which Heywood appended his report of these
+words of Shakespeare. To the book the actor, Beeston, contributed
+preliminary verses addressed to the author, his &quot;good friend and
+fellow, Thomas Heywood.&quot; There Beeston briefly vindicated the
+recreation which the playhouse offered the public. Much else in
+Christopher Beeston's professional career is known, but it is
+sufficient to mention here that he died in 1637, while he was filling
+the post that he had long held, of manager to the King and Queen's
+Company of Players at the Cockpit Theatre in Drury Lane. It was the
+chief playhouse of the time, and his wife was lessee of it.</p>
+
+<p>Christopher's son, William Beeston the second, was his father's
+coadjutor at Drury Lane, and succeeded him in his high managerial
+office there. The son<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> encountered difficulties with the Government
+through an alleged insult to the King in one of the pieces that he
+produced, and he had to retire from the Cockpit to a smaller theatre
+in Salisbury Court. Until his death he retained the respect of the
+play-going and the literature-loving public, and his son George, whom
+he brought up to the stage, carried on the family repute to a later
+generation.</p>
+
+<p>William Beeston had no liking for dissolute society, and the open vice
+of Charles the Second's Court pained him. He lived in old age much in
+seclusion, but by a congenial circle he was always warmly welcomed for
+the freshness and enthusiasm of his talk about the poets who
+flourished in his youth. &quot;Divers times (in my hearing),&quot; one of his
+auditors, Francis Kirkman, an ardent collector, reader, and publisher
+of old plays, wrote to him in 1652&#8212;&quot;Divers times (in my hearing), to
+the admiration of the whole company you have most judiciously
+discoursed of Poesie.&quot; In the judgment of Kirkman, his friend, the old
+actor, was &quot;the happiest interpreter and judg of our English
+stage-Playes this Nation ever produced; which the Poets and Actors
+these times cannot (without ingratitude) deny; for I have heard the
+chief, and most ingenious of them, acknowledg their Fames and Profits
+essentially sprung from your instructions, judgment, and fancy.&quot; Few
+who heard Beeston talk failed, Kirkman continues, to subscribe &quot;to his
+opinion that no Nation could glory in such Playes&quot; as those that came
+from the pens of the great Elizabethans, Shakespeare, Fletcher, and
+Ben Jonson. &quot;Glorious John Dryden&quot; shared in the general enthusiasm
+for the veteran Beeston, and bestowed on him the title of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> &quot;the
+chronicle of the stage&quot;; while John Aubrey, the honest antiquary and
+gossip, who had in his disorderly brain the makings of a Boswell,
+sought Beeston's personal acquaintance about 1660, in order to &quot;take
+from him the lives of the old English Poets.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>It is Aubrey who has recorded most of such sparse fragments of
+Beeston's talk as survive&#8212;how Edmund &quot;Spenser was a little man, wore
+short hair, little bands, and short cuffs,&quot; and how Sir John Suckling
+came to invent the game of cribbage. Naturally, of Shakespeare Beeston
+has much to relate. In the shrewd old gossip's language, he &quot;did act
+exceedingly well,&quot; far better than Jonson; &quot;he understood Latin pretty
+well, for he had been in his younger years a schoolmaster in the
+country;&quot; &quot;he was a handsome, well-shaped man, very good company, and
+of a very ready and pleasant smooth wit;&quot; he and Ben Jonson gathered
+&quot;humours of men daily wherever they came.&quot; The ample testimony to the
+excellent influence which Beeston exercised over &quot;the poets and actors
+of these times&quot; leaves little doubt that Sir William D'Avenant,
+Beeston's successor as manager at Drury Lane, and Thomas Shadwell, the
+fashionable writer of comedies, largely echoed their old mentor's
+words when, in conversation with Aubrey, they credited Shakespeare
+with &quot;a most prodigious wit,&quot; and declared that they &quot;did admire his
+natural parts beyond all other dramatical writers.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a></p>
+
+<p>John Lacy, another actor of Beeston's generation, who made an immense
+reputation on the stage and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> was also a successful writer of farces,
+was one of Beeston's closest friends, and, having been personally
+acquainted with Ben Jonson, could lend to many of Beeston's stories
+useful corroborative testimony. With Lacy, too, the gossip Aubrey
+conversed of Shakespeare's career.</p>
+
+<p>At the same time, the popularity of Shakespeare's grand-nephew,
+Charles Hart, who was called the Burbage of his day, whetted among
+actors the appetite for Shakespearean tradition, especially of the
+theatrical kind. Hart had no direct acquaintance with his great
+kinsman, who died fully ten years before he was born, while his
+father, who was sixteen at Shakespeare's death, died in his son's
+boyhood. But Hart's grandmother, the poet's sister, lived till he was
+twenty-one, and Richard Robinson, the fellow-member of Shakespeare's
+company who first taught Hart to act, survived his pupil's
+adolescence. That Hart did what he could to satisfy the curiosity of
+his companions there is a precise oral tradition to confirm. According
+to the story, first put on record in the eighteenth century by the
+painstaking antiquary, William Oldys, it was through Hart that some
+actors made, near the date of the Restoration, the exciting discovery
+that Gilbert, one of Shakespeare's brothers, who was the dramatist's
+junior by only two years, was still living at a patriarchal age. Oldys
+describes the concern with which Hart's professional acquaintances
+questioned the old man about his brother, and their disappointment
+when his failing memory only enabled him to recall William's
+performance of the part of Adam in his comedy of <i>As You Like It</i>.</p>
+
+<p>It should be added that Oldys obtained his information of the episode,
+which deserves more<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> attention than it has received, from an actor of
+a comparatively recent generation, John Bowman, who died over eighty
+in 1739, after spending &quot;more than half an age on the London
+theatres.&quot;</p>
+
+
+<h3><a name="III.5">V</a></h3>
+
+<p>Valuable as these actors' testimonies are, it is in another rank of
+the profession that we find the most important link in the chain of
+witnesses alike to the persistence and authenticity of the oral
+tradition of Shakespeare which was current in the middle of the
+seventeenth century. Sir William D'Avenant, the chief playwright and
+promoter of theatrical enterprise of his day, enjoyed among persons of
+influence and quality infinite credit and confidence. As a boy he and
+his brothers had come into personal relations with the dramatist under
+their father's roof, and the experience remained the proudest boast of
+their lives. D'Avenant was little more than ten when Shakespeare died,
+and his direct intercourse with him was consequently slender; but
+D'Avenant was a child of the Muses, and his slight acquaintance with
+the living Shakespeare spurred him to treasure all that he could learn
+of his hero from any who had enjoyed fuller opportunities of intimacy.</p>
+
+<p>To learn the manner in which the child D'Avenant and his brothers came
+to know Shakespeare is to approach the dramatist through oral
+tradition at very close quarters. D'Avenant's father, a melancholy
+person who was never known to laugh, long kept at Oxford the Crown Inn
+in Carfax. Gossip which was current in Oxford throughout the
+seventeenth century, and was put on record before the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> end of it by
+more than one scholar of the university, establishes the fact that
+Shakespeare on his annual journeys between London and
+Stratford-on-Avon was in the habit of staying at the elder D'Avenant's
+Oxford hostelry. The report ran that &quot;he was exceedingly respected&quot; in
+the house, and was freely admitted to the inn-keeper's domestic
+circle. The inn-keeper's wife was credited with a mercurial
+disposition which contrasted strangely with her husband's sardonic
+temperament; it was often said in Oxford that Shakespeare not merely
+found his chief attraction at the Crown Inn in the wife's witty
+conversation, but formed a closer intimacy with her than moralists
+would approve. Oral tradition speaks in clearer tones of his delight
+in the children of the family&#8212;four boys and three girls. We have at
+command statements on that subject from the lips of two of the sons.
+The eldest son, Robert, who was afterwards a parson in Wiltshire, and
+was on familiar terms with many men of culture, often recalled with
+pride for their benefit that &quot;Mr William Shakespeare&quot; had given him as
+a child &quot;a hundred kisses&quot; in his father's tavern-parlour.</p>
+
+<p>The third son, William, was more expansive in his reminiscences. It
+was generally understood at Oxford in the early years of the
+seventeenth century that he was the poet's godson, as his Christian
+name would allow, but some gossips had it that the poet's paternity
+was of a less spiritual character. According to a genuine anecdote of
+contemporary origin, when the boy, William D'Avenant, in Shakespeare's
+lifetime, informed a doctor of the university that he was on his way
+to ask a blessing of his godfather who had just arrived in the town,
+the child was warned by his interlocutor against taking<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> the name of
+God in vain. It is proof of the estimation in which D'Avenant held
+Shakespeare that when he came to man's estate he was &quot;content enough
+to have&quot; the insinuation &quot;thought to be true.&quot; He would talk freely
+with his friends over a glass of wine of Shakespeare's visits to his
+father's house, and would say &quot;that it seemed to him that he wrote
+with Shakespeare's very spirit.&quot; Of his reverence for Shakespeare he
+gave less questionable proof in a youthful elegy in which he
+represented the flowers and trees on the banks of the Avon mourning
+for Shakespeare's death and the river weeping itself away. He was
+credited, too, with having adopted the new spelling of his name
+D'<i>Aven</i>ant (for Davenant), so as to read into it a reference to the
+river Avon.</p>
+
+<p>In maturer age D'Avenant sought out the old actors Taylor and Lowin,
+and mastered their information respecting Shakespeare, their early
+colleague on the stage. With a curious perversity he mainly devoted
+his undoubted genius in his later years to rewriting in accordance
+with the debased taste of Charles the Second's reign the chief works
+of his idol; but until D'Avenant's death in 1668 the unique character
+of Shakespeare's greatness had no stouter champion than he, and in the
+circle of men of wit and fashion, of which he was the centre, none
+kept the cult alive with greater enthusiasm. His early friend Sir John
+Suckling, the Cavalier poet, who was only seven years old when
+Shakespeare died, he infected so thoroughly with his own affectionate
+admiration that Suckling wrote of the dramatist in familiar letters as
+&quot;my friend Mr William Shakespeare,&quot; and had his portrait painted by
+Vandyck with an open volume of Shakespeare's works in his hand. Even
+more<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span> important is Dryden's testimony that he was himself &quot;first
+taught&quot; by D'Avenant &quot;to admire&quot; Shakespeare.</p>
+
+<p>One of the most precise and valuable pieces of oral tradition which
+directly owed currency to D'Avenant was the detailed story of the
+generous gift of &#163;1000, which Shakespeare's patron, the Earl of
+Southampton, made the poet, &quot;to enable him to go through with a
+purchase which he heard he had a mind to.&quot; Rowe, Shakespeare's first
+biographer, recorded this particular on the specific authority of
+D'Avenant, who, he pointed out, &quot;was probably very well acquainted
+with the dramatist's affairs.&quot; At the same time it was often repeated
+that D'Avenant was owner of a complimentary letter which James the
+First had written to Shakespeare with his own hand. A literary
+politician, John Sheffield, Earl of Mulgrave and Duke of
+Buckinghamshire, who survived D'Avenant nearly half a century, said
+that he had examined the epistle while it was in D'Avenant's keeping.
+The publisher Lintot first printed the Duke's statement in the preface
+to a new edition of Shakespeare's Poems in 1709.</p>
+
+<p>D'Avenant's devotion did much for Shakespeare's memory; but it
+stimulated others to do even more for the after-generations who wished
+to know the whole truth about Shakespeare's life. The great actor of
+the Restoration, Thomas Betterton, was D'Avenant's close associate in
+his last years. D'Avenant coached him in the parts both of Hamlet and
+of Henry the Eighth, in the light of the instruction which he had
+derived through the medium of Taylor and Lowin from Shakespeare's own
+lips. But more to the immediate purpose is it to note that D'Avenant's
+ardour as a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span> seeker after knowledge of Shakespeare fired Betterton
+into making a pilgrimage to Stratford-on-Avon to glean oral traditions
+of the dramatist's life there. Many other of Shakespeare's admirers
+had previously made Stratford Church, where stood his tomb, a place of
+pilgrimage, and Aubrey had acknowledged in hap-hazard fashion the
+value of Stratford gossip. But it was Betterton's visit that laid the
+train for the systematic union of the oral traditions of London and
+Stratford respectively.</p>
+
+<p>It was not until the London and Warwickshire streams of tradition
+mingled in equal strength that a regular biography of Shakespeare was
+possible. Betterton was the efficient cause of this conjunction. All
+that Stratford-on-Avon revealed to him he put at the disposal of
+Nicholas Rowe, who was the first to attempt a formal memoir. Of
+Betterton's assistance Rowe made generous acknowledgment in these
+terms:&#8212;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>I must own a particular Obligation to him [<i>i.e.</i>,
+Betterton] for the most considerable part of the Passages
+relating to his [<i>i.e.</i>, Shakespeare's] Life, which I have
+here transmitted to the Publick; his veneration for the
+Memory of Shakespear having engag'd him to make a Journey
+into Warwickshire, on purpose to gather up what Remains he
+could of a Name for which he had so great a Value.</p></div>
+
+
+<h3><a name="III.6">VI</a></h3>
+
+<p>The contemporary epitaph on Shakespeare's tomb in Stratford-on-Avon
+Church, which acclaimed Shakespeare a writer of supreme genius, gave
+the inhabitants of the little town no opportunity of ignoring at any<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span>
+period the fact that the greatest poet of his era had been their
+fellow-townsman. Stratford was indeed openly identified with
+Shakespeare's career from the earliest possible day, and Sir William
+Dugdale, the first topographer of Warwickshire, writing about 1650,
+noted that the place was memorable for having given &quot;birth and
+sepulture to our late famous poet Will Shakespeare.&quot; But the obscure
+little town produced in the years that followed Shakespeare's death
+none who left behind records of their experience, and such fragments
+of oral tradition of Shakespeare at Stratford as are extant survive
+accidentally, with one notable exception, in the manuscript notes of
+visitors, who, like Betterton, were drawn thither by a veneration
+acquired elsewhere.</p>
+
+<p>The one notable exception is John Ward, a seventeenth-century vicar of
+Stratford, who settled there in 1662, at the age of thirty-three,
+forty-six years after Shakespeare's death. Ward remained at Stratford
+till his death in 1681. He is the only resident of the century who
+wrote down any of the local story. Ward was a man of good sentiment.
+He judged that it became a vicar of Stratford to know his Shakespeare
+well, and one of his private reminders for his own conduct
+runs&#8212;&quot;Remember to peruse Shakespeare's plays, and bee much versed in
+them, that I may not bee ignorant in that matter.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Ward was a voluminous diarist and a faithful chronicler as far as he
+cared to go. Shakespeare's last surviving daughter, Judith Quiney, was
+dying when he arrived in Stratford; but sons of Shakespeare's sister,
+Mistress Joan Hart, were still living in the poet's birthplace in
+Henley Street. Ward seems, too, to have known Lady Barnard,
+Shake<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span>speare's only grandchild and last surviving descendant, who,
+although she only occasionally visited Stratford after her second
+marriage in 1649 and her removal to her husband's residence at
+Abington, near the town of Northampton, retained much property in her
+native place till her death in 1670. Ward reported from local
+conversation six important details, viz., that Shakespeare retired to
+Stratford in his elder days; that he wrote at the most active period
+of his life two plays a year; that he made so large an income from his
+dramas that &quot;he spent at the rate of &#163;1000 a year&quot;; that he
+entertained his literary friends Drayton and Jonson at &quot;a merry
+meeting&quot; shortly before his death, and that he died of its effects.</p>
+
+<p>Oxford, which was only thirty-six miles distant, supplied the majority
+of Stratford tourists, who, before Betterton, gathered oral tradition
+there. Aubrey, the Oxford gossip, roughly noted six local items other
+than those which are embodied in Ward's diary, or are to be gleaned
+from Beeston's reminiscences, viz., that Shakespeare had as a lad
+helped his father in his trade of butcher; that one of the poet's
+companions in boyhood, who died young, had almost as extraordinary a
+&quot;natural wit&quot;; that Shakespeare betrayed very early signs of poetic
+genius; that he paid annual visits to his native place when his career
+was at its height; that he loved at tavern meetings in the town to
+chaff John Combe, the richest of his fellow-townsmen, who was accused
+of usurious practices; and finally, that he died possessed of a
+substantial fortune.</p>
+
+<p>Until the end of the century, visitors were shown round the church by
+an aged parish clerk, some of whose gossip about Shakespeare was
+recorded by one<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> of them in 1693. The old man came thus to supply two
+further items of information: how Shakespeare ran away in youth, and
+how he sought service at a playhouse, &quot;and by this meanes had an
+opportunity to be what he afterwards proved.&quot; A different visitor to
+Stratford next year recorded in an extant letter to a friend yet more
+scraps of oral tradition. These were to the effect that &quot;the great
+Shakespear&quot; dreaded the removal of his bones to the charnel-house
+attached to the church; that he caused his grave to be dug seventeen
+feet deep; and that he wrote the rude warning against disturbing his
+bones, which was inscribed on his gravestone, in order to meet the
+capacity of the &quot;very ignorant sort of people&quot; whose business it was
+to look after burials.</p>
+
+<p>Betterton gained more precise particulars&#8212;the date of baptism and the
+like&#8212;from an examination of the parochial records; but the most
+valuable piece of oral tradition with which the great actor's research
+must be credited was the account of Shakespeare's deer-stealing
+escapade at Charlecote. Another tourist from Oxford privately and
+independently put that anecdote into writing at the same date, but
+Rowe, who first gave it to the world in his biography, relied
+exclusively on Betterton's authority. At a little later period
+inquiries made at Stratford by a second actor, Bowman, yielded a
+trifle more. Bowman came to know a very reputable resident at
+Bridgtown, a hamlet adjoining Stratford, Sir William Bishop, whose
+family was of old standing there. Sir William was born ten years after
+Shakespeare died, and lived close to Stratford till 1700. He told
+Bowman that a part of Falstaff's character was drawn from a
+fellow-townsman at Stratford against whom Shakespeare<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span> cherished a
+grudge owing to his obduracy in some business transaction. Bowman
+repeated the story to Oldys, who put it on record.</p>
+
+<p>Although one could wish the early oral tradition of Stratford to have
+been more thoroughly reported, such as is extant in writing is
+sufficient to prove that Shakespeare's literary eminence was well
+known in his native place during the century that followed his death.
+In many villages in the neighbourhood of Stratford&#8212;at Bidford, at
+Wilmcote, at Greet, at Dursley&#8212;there long persisted like oral
+tradition of Shakespeare's occasional visits, but these were not
+written down before the middle of the eighteenth century; and although
+they are of service as proof of the local dissemination of his fame,
+they are somewhat less definite than the traditions that suffered
+earlier record, and need not be particularised here. One light piece
+of gossip, which was associated with a country parish at some distance
+from Stratford, can alone be traced back to remote date, and was
+quickly committed to writing. A trustworthy Oxford don, Josias Howe,
+fellow and tutor of Trinity, was born early in the seventeenth century
+at Grendon in Buckinghamshire, where his father was long rector, and
+he maintained close relations with his birthplace during his life of
+more than ninety years. Grendon was on the road between Oxford and
+London. Howe stated that Shakespeare often visited the place in his
+journey from Stratford, and that he found the original of his
+character of Dogberry in the person of a parish constable who lived on
+there till 1642. Howe was on familiar terms with the man, and he
+confided his reminiscence to his friend Aubrey, who duly recorded it,
+although in a somewhat confused shape.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<h3><a name="III.7">VII</a></h3>
+
+<p>It is with early oral tradition of Shakespeare's personal experience
+that I am dealing here. It is not my purpose to notice early literary
+criticism, of which there is abundant supply. It was obviously the
+free circulation of the fame of Shakespeare's work which stimulated
+the activity of interest in his private fortunes and led to the
+chronicling of the oral tradition regarding them. It could easily be
+shown that, outside the circle of professional poets, dramatists,
+actors, and fellow-townsmen, Shakespeare's name was, from his first
+coming into public notice, constantly on the lips of scholars,
+statesmen, and men of fashion who had any glimmer of literary taste.
+The Muse of History indeed drops plain hints of the views expressed at
+the social meetings of the great in the seventeenth century when
+Shakespeare was under discussion. Before 1643, &quot;all persons of quality
+that had wit and learning&quot; engaged in a set debate at Eton in the
+rooms of &quot;the ever-memorable&quot; John Hales, Fellow of the College, on
+the question of Shakespeare's merits compared with those of classical
+poets. The judges who presided over &quot;this ingenious assembly&quot;
+unanimously and without qualification decided in favour of
+Shakespeare's superiority.</p>
+
+<p>A very eminent representative of the culture and political
+intelligence of the next generation was in full sympathy with the
+verdict of the Eton College tribunal. Lord Clarendon held Shakespeare
+to be one of the &quot;most illustrious of our nation.&quot; Among the many
+heroes of his admiration, Shakespeare was of the elect few who were
+&quot;most agreeable to his lordship's general humour.&quot; Lord Clarendon was
+at the pains<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> of securing a portrait of Shakespeare to hang in his
+house in St James's. Similarly, the proudest and probably the richest
+nobleman in political circles at the end of the seventeenth century,
+the Duke of Somerset, was often heard to speak of his &quot;pleasure in
+that Greatness of Thought, those natural Images, those Passions finely
+touch'd, and that beautiful Expression which is everywhere to be met
+with in Shakespear.&quot;</p>
+
+
+<h3><a name="III.8">VIII</a></h3>
+
+<p>It was to this Duke of Somerset that Rowe appropriately dedicated the
+first full and formal biography of the poet. That work was designed as
+a preface to the first critical edition of Shakespeare's plays, which
+Rowe published in 1709. &quot;Though the works of Mr Shakespear may seem to
+many not to want a comment,&quot; Rowe wrote modestly enough, &quot;yet I fancy
+some little account of the man himself may not be thought improper to
+go along with them.&quot; Rowe did his work quite as well as the
+rudimentary state of the biographic art of his day allowed. He was
+under the complacent impression that his supply of information
+satisfied all reasonable curiosity. He had placed himself in the hands
+of Betterton, an investigator at first hand. But the fact remains that
+Rowe made no sustained nor scholarly effort to collect exhaustively
+even the oral tradition; still less did he consult with thoroughness
+official records or references to Shakespeare's literary achievements
+in the books of his contemporaries. Such labour as that was to be
+undertaken later, when the practice of biography had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span> assimilated more
+scientific method. Rowe preferred the straw of vague rhapsody to the
+brick of solid fact.</p>
+
+<p>Nevertheless Rowe's memoir laid the foundations on which his
+successors built. It set ringing the bell which called together that
+mass of information drawn from every source&#8212;manuscript archives,
+printed books, oral tradition&#8212;which now far exceeds what is
+accessible in the case of any poet contemporary with Shakespeare. Some
+links in the chain of Shakespeare's career are still missing, and we
+must wait for the future to disclose them. But, though the clues at
+present are in some places faint, the trail never altogether eludes
+the patient investigator. The ascertained facts are already numerous
+enough to define beyond risk of intelligent doubt the direction that
+Shakespeare's career followed. Its general outline is, as we have
+seen, fully established by one source of knowledge alone&#8212;one out of
+many&#8212;by the oral tradition which survives from the seventeenth
+century.</p>
+
+<p>It may be justifiable to cherish regret for the loss of Shakespeare's
+autograph papers and of his familiar correspondence. But the absence
+of such documentary material can excite scepticism of the received
+tradition only in those who are ignorant of the fate that invariably
+befell the original manuscripts and correspondence of Elizabethan and
+Jacobean poets and dramatists. Save for a few fragments of small
+literary moment, no play of the era in its writer's autograph escaped
+early destruction by fire or dustbin. No machinery then ensured, no
+custom then encouraged, the due preservation of the autographs of men
+distinguished for poetic genius. Provision was made in the public
+record offices or in private muniment-rooms for the protection of the
+official<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> papers and correspondence of men in public life, and of
+manuscript memorials affecting the property and domestic history of
+great county families. But even in the case of men of the sixteenth or
+seventeenth century in official life who, as often happened, devoted
+their leisure to literature, the autographs of their literary
+compositions have for the most part perished, and there usually only
+remain in the official depositories remnants of their writings about
+matters of official routine.</p>
+
+<p>Not all those depositories, it is to be admitted, have yet been fully
+explored, and in some of them a more thorough search than has yet been
+undertaken may be expected to throw new light on Shakespeare's
+biography. Meanwhile, instead of mourning helplessly over the lack of
+material for a knowledge of Shakespeare's life, it becomes us to
+estimate aright what we have at our command, to study it closely in
+the light of the literary history of the epoch, and, while neglecting
+no opportunity of bettering our information, to recognise frankly the
+activity of the destroying agencies which have been at work from the
+outset. Then we shall wonder, not why we know so little, but why we
+know so much.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="IV" id="IV"></a>IV</h2>
+
+<h2>PEPYS AND SHAKESPEARE<a name="FNanchor_14_14" id="FNanchor_14_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a></h2>
+
+
+<h3><a name="IV.1">I</a></h3>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">In</span> his capacity of playgoer, as indeed in almost every other capacity,
+Pepys presents himself to readers of his na&#239;ve diary as the
+incarnation, or the microcosm, of the average man. No other writer has
+pictured with the same lifelike precision and simplicity the average
+playgoer's sensations of pleasure or pain. Of the play and its
+performers Pepys records exactly what he thinks or feels. He usually
+takes a more lively interest in the acting and in the scenic and
+musical accessories than in the drama's literary quality. Subtlety is
+at any rate absent from his criticism. He is either bored or amused.
+The piece is either the best or the worst that he ever witnessed. His
+epithets are of the bluntest and are without modulation. Wiser than
+more professional dramatic critics, he avoids labouring at reasons for
+his emphatic judgments.</p>
+
+<p>Always true to his r&#244;le of the average man, Pepys suffers his mind to
+be swayed by barely relevant<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span> accidents. His thought is rarely free
+from official or domestic business, and the heaviness or lightness of
+his personal cares commonly colours his playhouse impressions. His
+praises and his censures of a piece often reflect, too, the physical
+comforts or discomforts which attach to his seat in the theatre. He is
+peculiarly sensitive to petty annoyances&#8212;to the agony of sitting in a
+draught, or to the irritation caused by frivolous talk in his near
+neighbourhood while a serious play is in progress. On one occasion,
+when he sought to practise a praiseworthy economy by taking a back
+seat in the shilling gallery, his evening's enjoyment was well-nigh
+spoiled by finding the gaze of four clerks in his office steadily
+directed upon him from more expensive seats down below. On another
+occasion, when in the pit with his wife and her waiting-woman, he was
+overcome by a sense of shame as he realised how shabbily his
+companions were dressed, in comparison with the smartly-attired ladies
+round about them.</p>
+
+<p>Everyone knows how susceptible Pepys was in all situations of life to
+female charms. It was inevitable that his wits should often wander
+from the dramatic theme and its scenic presentation to the features of
+some woman on the stage or in the auditory. An actress's pretty face
+or graceful figure many times diverted his attention from her
+professional incompetence. It is doubtful if there were any affront
+which Pepys would not pardon in a pretty woman. Once when he was in
+the pit, this curious experience befell him. &quot;I sitting behind in a
+dark place,&quot; he writes, &quot;a lady spit backward upon me by mistake, not
+seeing me; but after seeing her to be a very pretty lady, I was not
+troubled at it at all.&quot; The volatile<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span> diarist studied much besides the
+drama when he spent his afternoon or evening at the play.</p>
+
+<p>Never was there a more indefatigable playgoer than Pepys. Yet his
+enthusiasm for the theatre was, to his mind, a failing which required
+most careful watching. He feared that the passion might do injury to
+his purse, might distract him from serious business, might lead him
+into temptation of the flesh. He had a little of the Puritan's dread
+of the playhouse. He was constantly taking vows to curb his love of
+plays, which &quot;mightily troubled his mind.&quot; He was frequently resolving
+to abstain from the theatre for four or five months at a stretch, and
+then to go only in the company of his wife. During these periods of
+abstinence he was in the habit of reading over his vows every Sunday.
+But, in spite of all his well-meaning efforts, his resolution was
+constantly breaking down. On one occasion he perjured himself so
+thoroughly as to witness two plays in one day, once in the afternoon
+and again in the evening. On this riotous outbreak he makes the
+characteristic comment: &quot;Sad to think of the spending so much money,
+and of venturing the breach of my vow.&quot; But he goes on to thank God
+that he had the grace to feel sorry for the misdeed, at the same time
+as he lamented that &quot;his nature was so content to follow the pleasure
+still.&quot; Pepys compounded with his conscience for such breaches of his
+oath by all manner of casuistry. He excused himself for going,
+contrary to his vow, to the new theatre in Drury Lane, because it was
+not built when his vow was framed. Finally, he stipulated with himself
+that he would only go to the theatre once a fortnight; but if he went
+oftener he would give &#163;10 to the poor. &quot;This,&quot; he added, &quot;I hope<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span> in
+God will bind me.&quot; The last reference that he makes to his vows is
+when, in contravention of them, he went with his wife to the Duke of
+York's House, and found the place full, and himself unable to obtain
+seats. He makes a final record of &quot;the saving of his vow, to his great
+content.&quot;</p>
+
+
+<h3><a name="IV.2">II</a></h3>
+
+<p>All self-imposed restrictions notwithstanding, Pepys contrived to
+visit the theatre no less than three hundred and fifty-one times
+during the nine years and five months that he kept his diary. It has
+to be borne in mind that, for more than twelve months of that period,
+the London playhouses were for the most part closed, owing to the
+Great Plague and the Fire. Had Pepys gone at regular intervals, when
+the theatres were open, he would have been a playgoer at least once a
+week. But, owing to his vows, his visits fell at most irregular
+intervals. Sometimes he went three or four times a week, or even twice
+in one day. Then there would follow eight or nine weeks of abstinence.
+If a piece especially took his fancy, he would see it six or seven
+times in fairly quick succession. Long runs were unknown to the
+theatre of Pepys's day, but a successful piece was frequently revived.
+Occasionally, Pepys would put himself to the trouble of attending a
+first night. But this was an indulgence that he practised sparingly.
+He resented the manager's habit of doubling the price of the seats,
+and he was irritated by the frequent want of adequate rehearsal.</p>
+
+<p>Pepys's theatrical experience began with the re<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span>opening of theatres
+after the severe penalty of suppression, which the Civil Wars and the
+Commonwealth imposed on them for nearly eighteen years. His playgoing
+diary thus became an invaluable record of a new birth of theatrical
+life in London. When, in the summer of 1660, General Monk occupied
+London for the restored King, Charles II., three of the old theatres
+were still standing empty. These were soon put into repair, and
+applied anew to theatrical uses, although only two of them seem to
+have been open at any one time. The three houses were the Red Bull,
+dating from Elizabeth's reign, in St John's Street, Clerkenwell, where
+Pepys saw Marlowe's <i>Faustus</i>; Salisbury Court, Whitefriars, off Fleet
+Street; and the Old Cockpit in Drury Lane, both of which were of more
+recent origin. To all these theatres Pepys paid early visits. But the
+Cockpit in Drury Lane, was the scene of some of his most stirring
+experiences. There he saw his first play, Beaumont and Fletcher's
+<i>Loyal Subject</i>; and there, too, he saw his first play by Shakespeare,
+<i>Othello</i>.</p>
+
+<p>But these three theatres were in decay, and new and sumptuous
+buildings soon took their places. One of the new playhouses was in
+Portugal Row, Lincoln's Inn Fields; the other, on the site of the
+present Drury Lane Theatre, was the first of the many playhouses that
+sprang up there. It is to these two theatres&#8212;Lincoln's Inn Fields and
+Drury Lane&#8212;that Pepys in his diary most often refers. He calls each
+of them by many different names, and the unwary reader might infer
+that London was very richly supplied with playhouses in Pepys's day.
+But public theatres in active work at this period of our<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> history were
+not permitted by the authorities to exceed two. &quot;The Opera&quot; and &quot;the
+Duke's House&quot; are merely Pepys's alternative designations of the
+Lincoln's Inn Field's Theatre; while &quot;the Theatre,&quot; &quot;Theatre Royal,&quot;
+and &quot;the King's House,&quot; are the varying titles which he bestows on the
+Drury Lane Theatre.<a name="FNanchor_15_15" id="FNanchor_15_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a></p>
+
+<p>Besides these two public theatres there was, in the final constitution
+of the theatrical world in Pepys's London, a third, which stood on a
+different footing. A theatre was attached to the King's Court at
+Whitehall, and there performances were given at the King's command by
+actors from the two public houses.<a name="FNanchor_16_16" id="FNanchor_16_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a> The private Whitehall theatre
+was open to the public on payment, and Pepys was frequently there.</p>
+
+<p>At one period of his life Pepys held that his vows did not apply to
+the Court theatre, which was mainly distinguished from the other
+houses by the circumstances that the performances were given at night.
+At Lincoln's Inn Fields or Drury Lane it was only permitted to perform
+in the afternoon. Half-past<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span> three was the usual hour for opening the
+proceedings. At Whitehall the play began about eight, and often lasted
+till near midnight.</p>
+
+<p>The general organisation of Pepys's auditorium was much as it is
+to-day. It had improved in many particulars since Shakespeare died.
+The pit was the most popular part of the house; it covered the floor
+of the building, and was provided with seats; the price of admission
+was 2s. 6d. The company there seems to have been extremely mixed; men
+and women of fashion often rubbed elbows with City shopkeepers, their
+wives, and apprentices. The first gallery was wholly occupied by
+boxes, in which seats could be hired separately at 4s. apiece. Above
+the boxes was the middle gallery, the central part of which was filled
+with benches, where the seats cost 1s. 6d. each, while boxes lined the
+sides. The highest tier was the 1s. gallery, where footmen soon held
+sway. As Pepys's fortune improved, he spent more on his place in the
+theatre. From the 1s. gallery he descended to the 1s. 6d., and thence
+came down to the pit, occasionally ascending to the boxes on the first
+tier.</p>
+
+<p>In the methods of representation, Pepys's period of playgoing was
+coeval with many most important innovations, which seriously affected
+the presentation of Shakespeare on the stage. The chief was the
+desirable substitution of women for boys in the female r&#244;les. During
+the first few months of Pepys's theatrical experience, boys were still
+taking the women's parts. That the practice survived in the first days
+of Charles II.'s reign we know from the well-worn anecdote that when
+the King sent behind the scenes to inquire why the play of <i>Hamlet</i>,
+which he had come to see, was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> so late in commencing, he was answered
+that the Queen was not yet shaved. But in the opening month of 1661,
+within five months of Pepys's first visit to a theatre, the reign of
+the boys ended. On January 3rd of that year, Pepys writes that he
+&quot;first saw women come upon the stage.&quot; Next night he makes entry of a
+boy's performance of a woman's part, and that is the final record of
+boys masquerading as women in the English theatre. I believe the
+practice now survives nowhere except in Japan. This mode of
+representation has always been a great puzzle to students of
+Elizabethan drama.<a name="FNanchor_17_17" id="FNanchor_17_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_17_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a> Before, however, Pepys saw Shakespeare's work
+on the stage, the usurpation of the boys was over.</p>
+
+<p>It was after the Restoration, too, that scenery, rich costume, and
+scenic machinery became, to Pepys's delight, regular features of the
+theatre. When the diarist saw <i>Hamlet</i> &quot;done with scenes&quot; for the
+first time, he was most favourably impressed. Musical accompaniment
+was known to pre-Restoration days; but the orchestra was now for the
+first time placed on the floor of the house in front of the stage,
+instead of in a side gallery, or on the stage itself. The musical
+accompaniment of plays developed very rapidly, and the methods of
+opera were soon applied to many of Shakespeare's pieces, notably to
+<i>The Tempest</i> and <i>Macbeth</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Yet at the side of these innovations, one very important feature of
+the old playhouses, which gravely concerned both actors and auditors,
+survived throughout Pepys's lifetime. The stage still projected far<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span>
+into the pit in front of the curtain. The actors and actresses spoke
+in the centre of the house, so that, as Colley Cibber put it, &quot;the
+most distant ear had scarce the least doubt or difficulty in hearing
+what fell from the weakest utterance ... nor was the minutest motion
+of a feature, properly changing with the passion or humour it suited,
+ever lost, as they frequently must be, in the obscurity of too great a
+distance.&quot; The platform-stage, with which Shakespeare was familiar,
+suffered no curtailment in the English theatres till the eighteenth
+century, when the fore-edge of the boards was for the first time made
+to run level with the proscenium.</p>
+
+
+<h3><a name="IV.3">III</a></h3>
+
+<p>One of the obvious results of the long suppression of the theatres
+during the Civil Wars and Commonwealth was the temporary extinction of
+play-writing in England. On the sudden reopening of the playhouses at
+the Restoration, the managers had mainly to rely for sustenance on the
+drama of a long-past age. Of the one hundred and forty-five separate
+plays which Pepys witnessed, fully half belonged to the great period
+of dramatic activity in England, which covered the reigns of
+Elizabeth, James I., and Charles I. John Evelyn's well-known remark in
+his <i>Diary</i> (November 26, 1661): &quot;I saw <i>Hamlet, Prince of Denmark</i>,
+played; but now the old plays begin to disgust this refined age,&quot;
+requires much qualification before it can be made to apply to Pepys's
+records of playgoing. It was in &quot;the old plays&quot; that he and all
+average playgoers mainly delighted.</p>
+
+<p>Not that the new demand failed quickly to create<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span> a supply of new
+plays for the stage. Dryden and D'Avenant, the chief dramatists of
+Pepys's day, were rapid writers. To a large extent they carried on,
+with exaggeration of its defects and diminution of its merits, the old
+Elizabethan tradition of heroic romance, tragedy, and farce. The more
+matter-of-fact and lower-principled comedy of manners, which is
+commonly reckoned the chief characteristic of the new era in
+theatrical history, was only just beginning when Pepys was reaching
+the end of his diary. The virtual leaders of the new
+movement&#8212;Wycherley, Vanbrugh, Farquhar, and Congreve&#8212;were not at
+work till long after Pepys ceased to write. He records only the first
+runnings of that sparkling stream. He witnessed some impudent comedies
+of Dryden, Etherege, and Sedley. But it is important to note that he
+formed a low opinion of all of them. Their intellectual glitter did
+not appeal to him. Their cynical licentiousness seemed to him to be
+merely &quot;silly.&quot; One might have anticipated from him a different
+verdict on the frank obscenity of Restoration drama. But there are the
+facts. Neither did Mr Pepys, nor (he is careful to remind us) did Mrs
+Pepys, take &quot;any manner of pleasure in&quot; the bold indelicacy of Dryden,
+Etherege, or Sedley.</p>
+
+<p>When we ask what sort of pieces Pepys appreciated, we seem to be faced
+by further perplexities. His highest enthusiasm was evoked by certain
+plays of Ben Jonson, of Beaumont and Fletcher, and of Massinger. Near
+the zenith of his scale of dramatic excellence he set the comedies of
+Ben Jonson, which are remarkable for their portrayal of eccentricity
+of character. These pieces, which incline to farce, give great
+opportunity to what is commonly called<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> character-acting, and
+character-acting always appeals most directly to average humanity.
+Pepys called Jonson's <i>Alchemist</i> &quot;a most incomparable play,&quot; and he
+found in <i>Every Man in his Humour</i> &quot;the greatest propriety of speech
+that ever I read in my life.&quot; Similarly, both the heroic tragedies and
+the comedies of Beaumont and Fletcher, of which he saw no less than
+nineteen, roused in him, as a rule, an ecstatic admiration. But of all
+dramatic entertainments which the theatre offered him, Pepys was most
+&quot;taken&quot; by the romantic comedy from the pen of Massinger, which is
+called <i>The Bondman</i>. &quot;There is nothing more taking in the world with
+me than that play,&quot; he writes.</p>
+
+<p>Massinger's <i>Bondman</i> is a well-written piece, in which an heroic
+interest is fused with a genuine spirit of low comedy. Yet Pepys's
+unqualified commendation of it presents a problem. Massinger's play,
+like the cognate work of Fletcher, offers much episode which is hardly
+less indecent than those early specimens of Restoration comedy of
+which Pepys disapproved. A leading character is a frowsy wife who
+faces all manner of humiliation, in order to enjoy, behind her elderly
+husband's back, the embraces of a good-looking youth.</p>
+
+<p>Pepys is scarcely less tolerant of Fletcher's more flagrant
+infringements of propriety. In the whole of the Elizabethan drama
+there was no piece which presented so liberal a mass of indelicacy as
+Fletcher's <i>Custom of the Country</i>. Dryden, who was innocent of
+prudery, declared that there was &quot;more indecency&quot; in that drama &quot;than
+in all our plays together.&quot; This was one of the pieces which Pepys
+twice saw performed after carefully reading it in his study, and he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span>
+expressed admiration for the rendering of the widow's part by his
+pretty friend, Mistress Knipp. One has to admit that Pepys condemned
+the play from a literary point of view as &quot;a very poor one, methinks,&quot;
+as &quot;fully the worst play that I saw or believe shall see.&quot; But the
+pleasure which Mistress Knipp's share in the performance gave him
+suggests, in the absence of any explicit disclaimer, that the
+improprieties of both plot and characters escaped his notice, or, at
+any rate, excited in him no disgust. Massinger's <i>Bondman</i>, Pepys's
+ideal of merit in drama, has little of the excessive grossness of the
+<i>Custom of the Country</i>. But to some extent it is tarred with the same
+brush.</p>
+
+<p>Pepys's easy principles never lend themselves to very strict
+definition. Yet he may be credited with a certain measure of
+discernment in pardoning the indelicacy of Fletcher and Massinger,
+while he condemns that of Dryden, Etherege, or Sedley. Indelicacy in
+the older dramatists does not ignore worthier interests. Other topics
+attracted the earlier writers besides conjugal infidelity and the
+frailty of virgins, which were the sole themes of Restoration comedy.
+Massinger's heroes are not always gay seducers. His husbands are not
+always fools. Pepys might quite consistently scorn the ribaldry of
+Etherege and condone the obscenity of Fletcher. It was a question of
+degree. Pepys was clear in his own mind that a line must be drawn
+somewhere, though it would probably have taxed his logical power to
+make the delimitation precise.</p>
+
+
+<h3><a name="IV.4">IV</a></h3>
+
+<p>There is, apparently, a crowning difficulty of far greater moment when
+finally estimating Pepys's taste<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span> in dramatic literature. Despite his
+admiration for the ancient drama, he acknowledged a very tempered
+regard for the greatest of all the old dramatists&#8212;Shakespeare. He
+lived and died in complacent unconsciousness of Shakespeare's supreme
+excellence. Such innocence is attested by his conduct outside, as well
+as inside, the theatre. He prided himself on his taste as a reader and
+a book collector, and bought for his library many plays in quarto
+which he diligently perused. Numerous separately issued pieces by
+Shakespeare lay at his disposal in the bookshops. But he only records
+the purchase of one&#8212;the first part of <i>Henry IV.</i>, though he mentions
+that he read in addition <i>Othello</i> and <i>Hamlet</i>. When his bookseller
+first offered him the great First Folio edition of Shakespeare's
+works, he rejected it for Fuller's <i>Worthies</i> and the newly-published
+Butler's <i>Hudibras</i>, in which, by the way, he failed to discover the
+wit. Ultimately he bought the newly-issued second impression of the
+Third Folio Shakespeare, along with copies of Spelman's <i>Glossary</i> and
+Scapula's <i>Lexicon</i>. To these soporific works of reference he
+apparently regarded the dramatist's volume as a fitting pendant. He
+seemed subsequently to have exchanged the Third Folio for a Fourth, by
+which volume alone is Shakespeare represented in the extant library
+that Pepys bequeathed to Magdalene College, Cambridge.</p>
+
+<p>As a regular playgoer at a time when the stage mainly depended on the
+drama of Elizabethan days, Pepys was bound to witness numerous
+performances of Shakespeare's plays. On the occasion of forty-one of
+his three hundred and fifty-one visits to the theatre, Pepys listened
+to plays by Shakespeare, or to pieces based upon them. Once in every
+eight performances<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> Shakespeare was presented to his view. Fourteen
+was the number of different plays by Shakespeare which Pepys saw
+during these forty-one visits. Very few caused him genuine pleasure.
+At least three he condemns, without any qualification, as &quot;tedious,&quot;
+or &quot;silly.&quot; In the case of others, while he ignored the literary
+merit, he enjoyed the scenery and music with which, in accordance with
+current fashion, the dramatic poetry was overlaid. In only two cases,
+in the case of two tragedies&#8212;<i>Othello</i> and <i>Hamlet</i>&#8212;does he show at
+any time a true appreciation of the dramatic quality, and in the case
+of <i>Othello</i> he came in course of years to abandon his good opinion.</p>
+
+<p>Pepys's moderate praise and immoderate blame of Shakespeare are only
+superficially puzzling. The ultimate solution is not difficult.
+Despite his love of music and his zeal as a collector, Pepys was the
+most matter-of-fact of men; he was essentially a man of business. Not
+that he had any distaste for timely recreation; he was, indeed,
+readily susceptible to every manner of commonplace pleasures&#8212;to all
+the delights of both mind and sense which appeal to the practical and
+hard-headed type of Englishman. Things of the imagination, on the
+other hand, stood with him on a different footing. They were out of
+his range or sphere. Poetry and romance, unless liberally compounded
+with prosaic ingredients, bored him on the stage and elsewhere.</p>
+
+<p>In the plays of Beaumont and Fletcher, of Massinger and Ben Jonson,
+poetry and romance were for the most part kept in the background. Such
+elements lay there behind a substantial barrier of conventional stage
+machinery and elocutionary scaffolding. In Shakespeare, poetry and
+romance usually eluded<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> the mechanical restrictions of the theatre.
+The gold had a tendency to separate itself from the alloy, and Pepys
+only found poetry and romance endurable when they were pretty thickly
+veiled behind the commonplaces of rhetoric or broad fun or the
+realistic ingenuity of the stage carpenter and upholsterer.</p>
+
+<p>There is, consequently, no cause for surprise that Pepys should write
+thus of Shakespeare's ethereal comedy of <i>A Midsummer Night's Dream</i>:
+&quot;Then to the King's Theatre, where we saw <i>A Midsummer Night's Dream</i>,
+which I had never seen before, nor shall ever again, for it is the
+most insipid, ridiculous play that ever I saw in my life. I saw, I
+confess, some good dancing and some handsome women, which was all my
+pleasure.&quot; This is Pepys's ordinary attitude of mind to undiluted
+poetry on the stage.</p>
+
+<p>Pepys only saw <i>A Midsummer Night's Dream</i> once. <i>Twelfth Night</i>, of
+which he wrote in very similar strains, he saw thrice. On the first
+occasion his impatience of this romantic play was due to external
+causes. He went to the theatre &quot;against his own mind and resolution.&quot;
+He was over-persuaded to go in by a friend, with whom he was casually
+walking past the house in Lincoln's Inn Fields. Moreover, he had just
+sworn to his wife that he would never go to a play without her: all
+which considerations &quot;made the piece seem a burden&quot; to him. He
+witnessed <i>Twelfth Night</i> twice again in a less perturbed spirit, and
+then he called it a &quot;silly&quot; play, or &quot;one of the weakest plays that
+ever I saw on the stage.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Again, of <i>Romeo and Juliet</i>, Pepys wrote: &quot;It is a play of itself the
+worst I ever heard in my life.&quot; This verdict, it is right to add, was
+attributable, in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span> part at least, to Pepys's irritation at the badness
+of the acting, and at the actors' ignorance of their words. It was a
+first night.</p>
+
+<p>The literary critic knows well enough that the merit of these three
+pieces&#8212;<i>A Midsummer Night's Dream</i>, <i>Twelfth Night</i>, and <i>Romeo and
+Juliet</i>&#8212;mainly lies in their varied wealth of poetic imagery and
+passion. One thing alone could render the words, in which poetic
+genius finds voice, tolerable in the playhouse to a spectator of
+Pepys's prosaic temperament. The one thing needful is inspired acting,
+and in the case of these three plays, when Pepys saw them performed,
+inspired acting was wanting.</p>
+
+<p>It is at first sight disconcerting to find Pepys no less impatient of
+<i>The Merry Wives of Windsor</i>. He expresses a mild interest in the
+humours of &quot;the country gentleman and the French doctor.&quot; But he
+condemns the play as a whole. It is in his favour that his bitterest
+reproaches are aimed at the actors and actresses. One can hardly
+conceive that Falstaff, fitly interpreted, would have failed to
+satisfy Pepys's taste in humour, commonplace though it was. He is not
+quite explicit on the point; but there are signs that the histrionic
+interpretation of Shakespeare's colossal humorist, rather than the
+dramatist's portrayal of the character, caused the diarist's
+disappointment.</p>
+
+<p>Just before Pepys saw the first part of <i>Henry IV.</i>, wherein Falstaff
+figures to supreme advantage, he had bought and read the play in
+quarto. &quot;But my expectation being too great&quot; (he avers), &quot;it did not
+please me as otherwise I believe it would.&quot; Here it seems clear that
+his hopes of the actor were unfulfilled. However, he saw <i>Henry IV.</i>
+again a few<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> months later, and had the grace to describe it as &quot;a good
+play.&quot; On a third occasion he wrote that, &quot;contrary to expectation,&quot;
+he was pleased by the delivery of Falstaff's ironical speech about
+honour. For whatever reason, Pepys's affection for Shakespeare's fat
+knight, as he figured on the stage of his day, never touched the note
+of exaltation.</p>
+
+<p>Of Shakespeare's great tragedies Pepys saw three&#8212;<i>Othello</i>, <i>Hamlet</i>,
+and <i>Macbeth</i>. But in considering his several impressions of these
+pieces, we have to make an important proviso. Only the first two of
+them did he witness in the authentic version. <i>Macbeth</i> underwent in
+his day a most liberal transformation, which carried it far from its
+primordial purity. The impressions he finally formed of <i>Othello</i> and
+<i>Hamlet</i> are not consistent one with the other, but are eminently
+characteristic of the variable moods of the average playgoer.</p>
+
+<p><i>Othello</i> he saw twice, and he tells us more of the acting than of the
+play itself. On his first visit he notes that the lady next him
+shrieked on seeing Desdemona smothered: a proof of the strength of the
+histrionic illusion. Up to the year 1666 Pepys adhered to the
+praiseworthy opinion that <i>Othello</i> was a &quot;mighty good&quot; play. But in
+that year his judgment took a turn for the worse, and that for a
+reason which finally convicts him of incapacity to pass just sentence
+on the poetic or literary drama. On August 20, 1666, he writes: &quot;Read
+<i>Othello, Moor of Venice</i>, which I have ever heretofore esteemed a
+mighty good play; but having so lately read the <i>Adventures of Five
+Hours</i>, it seems a mean thing.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Most lovers of Shakespeare will agree that the great dramatist rarely
+showed his mature powers to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span> more magnificent advantage than in his
+treatment of plot and character in <i>Othello</i>. What, then, is this
+<i>Adventures of Five Hours</i>, compared with which <i>Othello</i> became in
+Pepys's eyes &quot;a mean thing&quot;? It is a trivial comedy of intrigue,
+adapted from the Spanish by one Sir Samuel Tuke. A choleric guardian
+arranges for his ward, who also happens to be his sister, to marry
+against her will a man whom she has never seen. Without her guardian's
+knowledge she, before the design goes further, escapes with a lover of
+her own choosing. In her place she leaves a close friend, who is wooed
+in mistake for herself by the suitor destined for her own hand. This
+is the main dramatic point; the thread is very slender, and is drawn
+out to its utmost limits through five acts of blank verse. The
+language and metre are scrupulously correct. But one cannot credit the
+play with any touch of poetry or imagination. It presents a trite
+theme tamely and prosaically. Congenital inability of the most
+inveterate toughness to appreciate dramatic poetry could alone account
+for a mention of the <i>Adventures of Five Hours</i> in the same breath
+with <i>Othello</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Pepys did not again fall so low as this. The only other tragedy of
+Shakespeare which he saw in its authentic purity moved him,
+contradictorily, to transports of unqualified delight. One is glad to
+recall that <i>Hamlet</i>, one of the greatest of Shakespeare's plays,
+received from Pepys ungrudging commendation. Pepys's favourable
+opinion of <i>Hamlet</i> is to be assigned to two causes. One is the
+literary and psychological attractions of the piece; the other, and
+perhaps the more important, is the manner in which the play was
+interpreted on the stage of Pepys's time.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Pepys is not the only owner of a prosaic mind who has found
+satisfaction in Shakespeare's portrait of the Prince of Denmark. Over
+minds of almost every calibre, that hero of the stage has always
+exerted a pathetic fascination, which natural antipathy to poetry
+seems unable to extinguish. Pepys's testimony to his respect for the
+piece is abundant. The whole of one Sunday afternoon (November 13,
+1664), he spent at home with his wife, &quot;getting a speech out of
+<i>Hamlet</i>, 'To be or not to be,' without book.&quot; He proved, indeed, his
+singular admiration for those familiar lines in a manner which I
+believe to be unique. He set them to music, and the notes are extant
+in a book of manuscript music in his library at Magdalene College,
+Cambridge. The piece is a finely-elaborated recitative fully equal to
+the requirements of grand opera. The composer gives intelligent and
+dignified expression to every word of the soliloquy. Very impressive
+is the modulation of the musical accompaniment to the lines&#8212;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i11">To die, to sleep!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To sleep, perchance to dream! ay, there's the rub.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>It is possible that the cadences of this musical rendering of Hamlet's
+speech preserve some echo of the intonation of the great actor,
+Betterton, whose performance evoked in Pepys lasting adoration.<a name="FNanchor_18_18" id="FNanchor_18_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_18_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a></p>
+
+<p>It goes without saying that, for the full enjoyment of a performance
+of <i>Hamlet</i> by both cultured and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> uncultured spectators, acting of
+supreme quality is needful. Luckily for Pepys, Hamlet in his day was
+rendered by an actor who, according to ample extant testimony,
+interpreted the part to perfection. Pepys records four performances of
+<i>Hamlet</i>, with Betterton in the title-r&#244;le on each occasion. With
+every performance Pepys's enthusiasm rose. The first time he writes
+(August 24, 1661): &quot;Saw the play done with scenes very well at the
+Opera, but above all Betterton did the Prince's part beyond
+imagination.&quot; On the third occasion (May 28, 1663) the rendering gave
+him &quot;fresh reason never to think enough of Betterton.&quot; On the last
+occasion (August 31, 1668) he was &quot;mightily pleased,&quot; but above all
+with Betterton, &quot;the best part, I believe, that ever man acted.&quot;</p>
+
+<p><i>Hamlet</i> was one of the most popular plays of Pepys's day, mainly
+owing to Betterton's extraordinary faculty. The history of the
+impersonation presents numerous points of the deepest interest. The
+actor was originally coached in the part by D'Avenant. The latter is
+said to have derived hints for the rendering from an old actor, Joseph
+Taylor, who had played the r&#244;le in Shakespeare's own day, and had been
+instructed in it by the dramatist himself. This tradition gives
+additional value to Pepys's musical setting in recitative of the &quot;To
+be or not to be&quot; soliloquy. If we accept the reasonable theory that
+that piece of music preserves something of the cadences of Betterton's
+enunciation, it is no extravagance to suggest that a note here or
+there enshrines the modulation of the voice of Shakespeare himself.
+For there is the likelihood that the dramatist was Betterton's
+instructor at no more than two removes. Only the lips of D'Avenant,
+Shakespeare's godson, and of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> Taylor, Shakespeare's acting colleague,
+intervened between the dramatist and the Hamlet of Pepys's diary.
+Those alone, who have heard the musical setting of &quot;To be or not to
+be&quot; adequately rendered, are in a position to reject this hypothesis
+altogether.</p>
+
+<p>Among seventeenth century critics there was unanimous agreement&#8212;a
+rare thing among dramatic critics of any period&#8212;as to the merits of
+Betterton's performance. In regard to his supreme excellence, men of
+the different mental calibre of Sir Richard Steele, Colley Cibber, and
+Nicholas Rowe, knew no difference of opinion. According to Cibber,
+Betterton invariably preserved the happy &quot;medium between mouthing and
+meaning too little&quot;; he held the attention of the audience by &quot;a
+tempered spirit,&quot; not by mere vehemence of voice. His solemn,
+trembling voice made the Ghost equally terrible to the spectator and
+to himself. Another critic relates that when Betterton's Hamlet saw
+the Ghost in his mother's chamber, the actor turned as pale as his
+neckcloth; every joint of his body seemed to be affected with a tremor
+inexpressible, and the audience shared his astonishment and horror.
+Nicholas Rowe declared that &quot;Betterton performed the part as if it had
+been written on purpose for him, as if the author had conceived it as
+he played it.&quot; It is difficult to imagine any loftier commendation of
+a Shakespearean player.</p>
+
+
+<h3><a name="IV.5">V</a></h3>
+
+<p>There is little reason to doubt that the plays of Shakespeare which I
+have enumerated were all seen by Pepys in authentic shapes. Betterton
+acted Lear,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span> we are positively informed, &quot;exactly as Shakespeare wrote
+it&quot;; and at the dates when Pepys saw <i>Hamlet</i>, <i>Twelfth Night</i>, and
+the rest, there is no evidence that the old texts had been tampered
+with. The rage for adapting Shakespeare to current theatrical
+requirements reached its full tide after the period of Pepys's diary.
+Pepys witnessed only the first-fruits of that fantastic movement. It
+acquired its greatest luxuriance later. The pioneer of the great
+scheme of adaptation was Sir William D'Avenant, and he was aided in
+Pepys's playgoing days by no less a personage than Dryden. It was
+during the succeeding decade that the scandal, fanned by the energies
+of lesser men, was at its unseemly height.</p>
+
+<p>No disrespect seems to have been intended to Shakespeare's memory by
+those who devoted themselves to these acts of vandalism. However
+difficult it may be to realise the fact, true admiration for
+Shakespeare's genius seems to have flourished in the breasts of all
+the adapters, great and small. D'Avenant, whose earliest poetic
+production was a pathetic elegy on the mighty dramatist, never ceased
+to write or speak of him with the most affectionate respect. Dryden,
+who was first taught by D'Avenant &quot;to admire&quot; Shakespeare's work,
+attests in his critical writings a reverence for its unique
+excellence, which must satisfy the most enthusiastic worshipper. The
+same temper characterises references to Shakespeare on the part of
+dramatists of the Restoration, who brought to the adaptation of
+Shakespeare abilities of an order far inferior to those of Dryden or
+of D'Avenant. Nahum Tate, one of the least respected names in English
+literature, was one of the freest adapters of Shake<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span>spearean drama to
+the depraved taste of the day. Yet even he assigned to the master
+playwright unrivalled insight into the darkest mysteries of human
+nature, and an absolute mastery of the faculty of accurate
+characterisation. For once, Tate's literary judgment must go
+unquestioned.</p>
+
+<p>It was no feeling of disrespect or of dislike for Shakespeare's
+work&#8212;it was the change that was taking place in the methods of
+theatrical representation, which mainly incited the Shakespearean
+adapters of the Restoration to their benighted labours. Shakespeare
+had been acted without scenery or musical accompaniment. As soon as
+scenic machinery and music had become ordinary accessories of the
+stage, it seemed to theatrical managers almost a point of honour to
+fit Shakespearean drama to the new conditions. To abandon him
+altogether was sacrilege. Yet the mutation of public taste offered, as
+the only alternative to his abandonment, the obligation of bestowing
+on his work every mechanical advantage, every tawdry ornament in the
+latest mode.</p>
+
+<p>Pepys fully approved the innovations, and two of the earliest of
+Shakespearean adaptations won his unqualified eulogy. These were
+D'Avenant's reconstructions of <i>The Tempest</i> and <i>Macbeth.</i> D'Avenant
+had convinced himself that both plays readily lent themselves to
+spectacle; they would repay the embellishments of ballets, new songs,
+new music, coloured lights, and flying machines. Reinforced by these
+charms of novelty, the old pieces might enjoy an everlasting youth. No
+spectator more ardently applauded such bastard sentiment than the
+playgoing Pepys.</p>
+
+<p>Of the two pieces, the text of <i>Macbeth</i> was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span> abbreviated, but
+otherwise the alterations in the blank-verse speeches were
+comparatively slight. Additional songs were provided for the Witches,
+together with much capering in the air. Music was specially written by
+Matthew Locke. The liberal introduction of song and dance rendered the
+piece, in Pepys's strange phrase, &quot;a most excellent play for variety.&quot;
+He saw D'Avenant's version of it no less than eight times, with
+ever-increasing enjoyment. He generously praised the clever
+combination of &quot;a deep tragedy with a divertissement.&quot; He detected no
+incongruity in the amalgamation. &quot;Though I have seen it often,&quot; he
+wrote later, &quot;yet is it one of the best plays for a stage, and for
+variety of dancing and music, that ever I saw.&quot;</p>
+
+<p><i>The Tempest</i>, the other adapted play, which is prominent in Pepys's
+diary, underwent more drastic revision. Here D'Avenant had the
+co-operation of Dryden; and no intelligent reader can hesitate to
+affirm that the ingenuity of these worthies ruined this splendid
+manifestation of poetic fancy and insight. It is only fair to Dryden
+to add that he disclaimed any satisfaction in his share in the
+outrage. The first edition of the barbarous revision was first
+published in 1670, after D'Avenant's death, and Dryden wrote a
+preface, in which he prudently remarked: &quot;I do not set a value on
+anything I have written in this play but [<i>i.e.</i>, except] out of
+gratitude to the memory of Sir William Davenant, who did me the honour
+to join me with him in the alteration of it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The numerous additions, for which the distinguished coadjutors are
+responsible, reek with mawkish sentimentality, inane vapidity, or
+vulgar buffoonery. Most<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span> of the leading characters are duplicated or
+triplicated. Miranda has a sister, Dorinda, who is repellently
+coquettish. This new creation finds a lover in another new character,
+a brainless youth, Hippolito, who has never before seen a woman.
+Caliban becomes the most sordid of clowns, and is allotted a sister,
+Milcha, who apes his coarse buffoonery. Ariel, too, is given a female
+associate, Sycorax, together with many attendants. The sailors are
+increased in number, and a phalanx of dancing devils join in their
+antics.</p>
+
+<p>But the chief feature of the revived <i>Tempest</i> was the music, the
+elaborate scenery, and the scenic mechanism.<a name="FNanchor_19_19" id="FNanchor_19_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_19_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a> There was an
+orchestra of twenty-four violins in front of the stage, with
+harpsichords and &quot;theorbos&quot; to accompany the voices; new songs were
+dispersed about the piece with unsparing hand. The curious new &quot;Echo&quot;
+song in Act III.&#8212;a duet between Ferdinand and Ariel&#8212;was deemed by
+Pepys to be so<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> &quot;mighty pretty&quot; that he requested the
+composer&#8212;Bannister&#8212;to &quot;prick him down the notes.&quot; Many times did the
+audience shout with joy as Ariel, with a <i>corps de ballet</i> in
+attendance, winged his flight to the roof of the stage.</p>
+
+<p>The scenic devices which distinguished the Restoration production of
+<i>The Tempest</i> have, indeed, hardly been excelled for ingenuity in our
+own day. The arrangements for the sinking of the ship in the first
+scene would do no discredit to the spectacular magnificence of the
+London stage of our own day. The scene represented &quot;a thick cloudy
+sky, a very rocky coast, and a tempestuous sea in perpetual
+agitation.&quot; &quot;This tempest,&quot; according to the stage-directions, &quot;has
+many dreadful objects in it; several spirits in horrid shapes flying
+down among the sailors, then rising and crossing in the air; and when
+the ship is sinking, the whole house is darkened and a shower of fire
+falls upon the vessel. This is accompanied by lightning and several
+claps of thunder till the end of the storm.&quot; The stage-manager's notes
+proceed:&#8212;&quot;In the midst of the shower of fire, the scene changes. The
+cloudy sky, rocks, and sea vanish, and when the lights return,
+discover that beautiful part of the island, which was the habitation
+of Prospero: 'tis composed of three walks of cypress trees; each
+side-walk leads to a cave, in one of which Prospero keeps his
+daughter, in the other Hippolito (the interpolated character of the
+man who has never seen a woman). The middle walk is of great depth,
+and leads to an open part of the island.&quot; Every scene of the play was
+framed with equal elaborateness.</p>
+
+<p>Pepys's comment on <i>The Tempest</i>, when he first witnessed its
+production in such magnificent con<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span>ditions, runs thus:&#8212;&quot;The play has
+no great wit but yet good above ordinary plays.&quot; Pepys subsequently,
+however, saw the piece no less than five times, and the effect of the
+music, dancing, and scenery, steadily grew upon him. On his second
+visit he wrote:&#8212;&quot;Saw <i>The Tempest</i> again, which is very pleasant, and
+full of so good variety, that I cannot be more pleased almost in a
+comedy. Only the seamen's part a little too tedious.&quot; Finally, Pepys
+praised the richly-embellished <i>Tempest</i> without any sort of reserve,
+and took &quot;pleasure to learn the tune of the seamen's dance.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Other adaptations of Shakespeare, which followed somewhat less
+spectacular methods of barbarism, roused in Pepys smaller enthusiasm.
+<i>The Rivals</i>, a version by D'Avenant of <i>The Two Noble Kinsmen</i> (the
+joint production of Fletcher and Shakespeare), was judged by Pepys to
+be &quot;no excellent piece,&quot; though he appreciated the new songs, which
+included the familiar &quot;My lodging is on the cold ground,&quot; with music
+by Matthew Locke. Pepys formed a higher opinion of D'Avenant's
+liberally-altered version of <i>Measure for Measure</i>, which the adapter
+called <i>The Law against Lovers</i>, and into which he introduced, with
+grotesque effect, the characters of Beatrice and Benedick from <i>Much
+Ado about Nothing</i>. But it is more to Pepys's credit that he bestowed
+a very qualified approval on an execrable adaptation by the actor Lacy
+of <i>The Taming of the Shrew</i>. Here the hero, Petruchio, is
+overshadowed by a new character, Sawney, his Scottish servant, who
+speaks an unintelligible <i>patois</i>. &quot;It hath some very good pieces in
+it,&quot; writes Pepys, &quot;but generally is but a mean play, and the best
+part, Sawny, done by Lacy, hath not half its<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span> life by reason of the
+words, I suppose, not being understood, at least by me.&quot;</p>
+
+
+<h3><a name="IV.6">VI</a></h3>
+
+<p>It might be profitable to compare Pepys's experiences as a spectator
+of Shakespeare's plays on the stage with the opportunities open to
+playgoers at the present moment. Modern managers have been producing
+Shakespearean drama of late with great liberality, and usually in much
+splendour. Neither the points of resemblance between the modern and
+the Pepysian methods, nor the points of difference, are flattering to
+the esteem of ourselves as a literature-loving people. It is true that
+we no longer garble our acting versions of Shakespeare. We are content
+with abbreviations of the text, some of which are essential, but many
+of which injure the dramatic perspective, and with inversion of scenes
+which may or may not be justifiable. But, to my mind, it is in our
+large dependence on scenery that we are following too closely that
+tradition of the Restoration which won the wholehearted approval of
+Pepys. The musico-scenic method of producing Shakespeare can always
+count on the applause of the average multitude of playgoers, of which
+Pepys is the ever-living spokesman. It is Shakespeare with scenic
+machinery, Shakespeare with new songs, Shakespeare with incidental
+music, Shakespeare with interpolated ballets, that reaches the heart
+of the British public. If the average British playgoer were gifted
+with Pepys's frankness, I have little doubt that he would echo the
+diarist's condemnation of Shake<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span>speare in his poetic purity, of
+Shakespeare as the mere interpreter of human nature, of Shakespeare
+without flying machines, of Shakespeare without song and dance; he
+would characterise undiluted Shakespearean drama as &quot;a mean thing,&quot; or
+the most tedious entertainment that ever he was at in his life.</p>
+
+<p>But the situation in Pepys's day had, despite all the perils that
+menaced it, a saving grace. Great acting, inspired acting, is an
+essential condition to any general appreciation in the theatre of
+Shakespeare's dramatic genius. However seductive may be the
+musico-scenic ornamentation, Shakespeare will never justly affect the
+mind of the average playgoer unless great or inspired actors are at
+hand to interpret him. Luckily for Pepys, he was the contemporary of
+at least one inspired Shakespearean actor. The exaltation of spirit to
+which he confesses, when he witnessed Betterton in the r&#244;le of Hamlet,
+is proof that the prosaic multitude for whom he speaks will always
+respond to Shakespeare's magic touch when genius wields the actor's
+wand. One could wish nothing better for the playgoing public of to-day
+than that the spirit of Betterton, Shakespeare's guardian angel in the
+theatre of the Restoration, might renew its earthly career in our own
+time in the person of some contemporary actor.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="V" id="V"></a>V</h2>
+
+<h2>MR BENSON AND SHAKESPEAREAN DRAMA<a name="FNanchor_20_20" id="FNanchor_20_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_20_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a></h2>
+
+
+<h3><a name="V.1">I</a></h3>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dramatic</span> criticism in the daily press of London often resembles that
+method of conversation of which Bacon wrote that it seeks &quot;rather
+commendation of wit, in being able to hold argument, than of judgment,
+in discerning what is true.&quot; For four-and-twenty years Mr F.R. Benson
+has directed an acting company which has achieved a reputation in
+English provincial cities, in Ireland, and in Scotland, by its
+exclusive devotion to Shakespearean and classical drama. Mr Benson's
+visits to London have been rare. There he has too often made sport for
+the journalistic censors who aim at &quot;commendation of wit.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Even the best-intentioned of Mr Benson's critics in London have fallen
+into the habit of concentrating attention on unquestionable defects in
+Mr Benson's practice, to the neglect of the vital principles which are
+the justification of his policy. Mr Benson's principles have been
+largely ignored by the newspapers; but they are not wisely
+disregarded. They are matters of urgent public interest. They point<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span>
+the right road to the salvation of Shakespearean drama on the modern
+stage. They cannot be too often pressed on public notice.</p>
+
+<p>These, in my view, are the five points of the charter which Mr Benson
+is and has long been championing with a persistency which claims
+national recognition.</p>
+
+<p>Firstly, it is to the benefit of the nation that Shakespeare's plays
+should be acted constantly and in their variety.</p>
+
+<p>Secondly, a theatrical manager who undertakes to produce Shakespearean
+drama should change his programme at frequent intervals, and should
+permit no long continuous run of any single play.</p>
+
+<p>Thirdly, all the parts, whatever their significance, should be
+entrusted to exponents who have been trained in the delivery of blank
+verse, and have gained some knowledge and experience of the range of
+Shakespearean drama.</p>
+
+<p>Fourthly, no play should be adapted by the manager so as to give
+greater prominence than the text invites to any single r&#244;le.</p>
+
+<p>Fifthly, the scenic embellishment should be simple and inexpensive,
+and should be subordinated to the dramatic interest.</p>
+
+<p>There is no novelty in these principles. The majority of them were
+accepted unhesitatingly in the past by Betterton, Garrick, Edmund
+Kean, the Kembles, and notably by Phelps. They are recognised
+principles to-day in the leading theatres of France and Germany. But
+by some vagary of fate or public taste they have been reckoned in
+London, for a generation at any rate, to be out of date.</p>
+
+<p>In the interest of the manager, the actor, and the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span> student, a return
+to the discarded methods has become, in the opinion of an influential
+section of the educated public, imperative. Mr Benson is the only
+manager of recent date to inscribe boldly and continuously on his
+banner the old watchwords: &quot;Shakespeare and the National Drama,&quot;
+&quot;Short Runs,&quot; &quot;No Stars,&quot; &quot;All-round Competence,&quot; and &quot;Unostentatious
+Setting.&quot; What better title could be offered to the support and
+encouragement of the intelligent playgoer?</p>
+
+
+<h3><a name="V.2">II</a></h3>
+
+<p>A constant change of programme, such as the old methods of the stage
+require, causes the present generation of London playgoers, to whom it
+is unfamiliar, a good deal of perplexity. Londoners have grown
+accustomed to estimate the merits of a play by the number of
+performances which are given of it in uninterrupted succession. They
+have forgotten how mechanical an exercise of the lungs and limbs
+acting easily becomes; how frequent repetition of poetic speeches,
+even in the most competent mouths, robs the lines of their poetic
+temper.</p>
+
+<p>Numbness of intellect, rigidity of tone, artificiality of expression,
+are fatal alike to the enunciation of Shakespearean language and to
+the interpretation of Shakespearean character. The system of short
+runs, of the nightly alterations of the play, such as Mr Benson has
+revived, is the only sure preservative against maladies so fatal.</p>
+
+<p>Hardly less important is Mr Benson's new-old principle of &quot;casting&quot; a
+play of Shakespeare. Not only in the leading r&#244;les of Shakespeare's
+masterpieces,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> but in subordinate parts throughout the range of his
+work, the highest abilities of the actor can find some scope for
+employment. A competent knowledge of the poet's complete work is
+needed to bring this saving truth home to those who are engaged in
+presenting Shakespearean drama on the stage. An actor hardly realises
+the real force of the doctrine until he has had experience of the
+potentialities of a series of the smaller characters by making
+practical endeavours to interpret them. Adequate opportunities of the
+kind are only accessible to members of a permanent company, whose
+energies are absorbed in the production of the Shakespearean drama
+constantly and in its variety, and whose programme is untrammelled by
+the poisonous system of &quot;long runs.&quot; Shakespearean actors should drink
+deep of the Pierian spring. They should be graduates in Shakespeare's
+university; and, unlike graduates of other universities, they should
+master not merely formal knowledge, but a flexible power of using it.</p>
+
+<p>Mr Benson's company is, I believe, the only one at present in
+existence in England which confines almost all its efforts to the
+acting of Shakespeare. In the course of its twenty-four years'
+existence its members have interpreted in the theatre no less than
+thirty of Shakespeare's plays.<a name="FNanchor_21_21" id="FNanchor_21_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_21_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a> The natural result is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span> that Mr
+Benson and his colleagues have learned in practice the varied calls
+that Shakespearean drama makes upon actors' capacities.</p>
+
+<p>Members of Mr Benson's company have made excellent use of their
+opportunities. An actor, like the late Frank Rodney, who could on one
+night competently portray Bolingbroke in <i>Richard II.</i> and on the
+following night the clown Feste in <i>Twelfth Night</i> with equal effect,
+clearly realised something of the virtue of Shakespearean versatility.
+Mr Benson's leading comedian, Mr Weir, whose power of presenting
+Shakespeare's humorists shows, besides native gifts, the advantages
+that come of experienced study of the dramatist, not only interprets,
+in the genuine spirit, great r&#244;les like Falstaff and Touchstone, but
+gives the truest possible significance to the comparatively
+unimportant r&#244;les of the First Gardener in <i>Richard II.</i> and Grumio in
+<i>The Taming of the Shrew</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Nothing could be more grateful to a student of Shakespeare than the
+manner in which the small part of John of Gaunt was played by Mr
+Warburton in Mr Benson's production of <i>Richard II.</i> The part includes
+the glorious panegyric of England which comes from the lips of the
+dying man, and must challenge the best efforts of every actor of
+ambition and self-respect. But in the mouth of an actor who lacks
+knowledge of the true temper of Shakespearean drama, this speech is
+certain to be mistaken<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span> for a detached declamation of patriotism&#8212;an
+error which ruins its dramatic significance. As Mr Warburton delivered
+it, one listened to the despairing cry of a feeble old man roused for
+a moment from the lethargy of sickness by despair at the thought that
+the great country he loved was in peril of decay through the selfish
+and frivolous temper of its ruler. Instead of a Chauvinist manifesto
+defiantly declaimed under the limelight, there was offered us the
+quiet pathos of a dying patriot's lament over his beloved country's
+misfortunes&#8212;an oracular warning from a death-stricken tongue,
+foreshadowing with rare solemnity and dramatic irony the violent doom
+of the reckless worker of the mischief. Any other conception of the
+passage, any conscious endeavour to win a round of applause by
+elocutionary display, would disable the actor from doing justice to
+the great and sadly stirring utterance. The right note could only be
+sounded by one who was acclimatised to Shakespearean drama, and had
+recognised the wealth of significance to be discovered and to be
+disclosed (with due artistic restraint) in Shakespeare's minor
+characters.</p>
+
+
+<h3><a name="V.3">III</a></h3>
+
+<p>The benefits to be derived from the control of a trained school of
+Shakespearean actors were displayed very conspicuously when Mr Benson
+undertook six years ago the heroic task of performing the play of
+<i>Hamlet</i>, as Shakespeare wrote it, without any abbreviation. <i>Hamlet</i>
+is the longest of Shakespeare's plays; it reaches a total of over 3900
+lines. It is thus some 900 lines longer than <i>Antony and Cleopatra</i>,
+which of all Shakespeare's plays most<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span> nearly approaches its length.
+Consequently it is a tradition of the stage to cut the play of
+<i>Hamlet</i> by the omission of more than a third. Hamlet's part is
+usually retained almost in its entirety, but the speeches of every
+other character are seriously curtailed. Mr Benson ventured on the
+bold innovation of giving the play in full.<a name="FNanchor_22_22" id="FNanchor_22_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_22_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a></p>
+
+<p>Only he who has witnessed the whole play on the stage can fully
+appreciate its dramatic capabilities. It is obvious that, in whatever
+shape the play of <i>Hamlet</i> is produced in the theatre, its success
+must always be primarily due to the overpowering fascination exerted
+on the audience by the character of the hero. In every conceivable
+circumstance the young prince must be the centre of attraction.
+Nevertheless, no graver injury can be done the play as an acting drama
+than by treating it as a one-part piece. The accepted method of
+shortening the tragedy by reducing every part, except that of Hamlet,
+is to distort Shakespeare's whole scheme, to dislocate or obscure the
+whole action. The predominance of Hamlet is exaggerated at the expense
+of the dramatist's artistic purpose.</p>
+
+<p>To realise completely the motives of Hamlet's conduct, and the process
+of his fortunes, not a single<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span> utterance from the lips of the King,
+Polonius, or Laertes can be spared. In ordinary acting versions these
+three parts sink into insignificance. It is only in the full text that
+they assume their just and illuminating rank as Hamlet's foils.</p>
+
+<p>The King rises into a character almost of the first class. He is a
+villain of unfathomable infamy, but his cowardly fear of the discovery
+of his crimes, his desperate pursuit of the consolations of religion,
+the quick ingenuity with which he plots escape from the inevitable
+retribution that dogs his misdeeds, excite&#8212;in the full text of the
+play&#8212;an interest hardly less intense than those wistful musings of
+the storm-tossed soul which stay his nephew's avenging hand.</p>
+
+<p>Similarly, Hamlet's incisive wit and honesty are brought into the
+highest possible relief by the restoration to the feebly guileful
+Polonius of the speeches of which he has long been deprived. Among the
+reinstated scenes is that in which the meddlesome dotard teaches his
+servant Reynaldo modes of espionage that shall detect the moral lapses
+of his son Laertes in Paris. The recovered episode is not only
+admirable comedy, but it gives new vividness to Polonius's maudlin
+egotism which is responsible for many windings of the tragic plot.</p>
+
+<p>The story is simplified at all points by such amplifications of the
+contracted version which holds the stage. The events are evolved with
+unsuspected naturalness. The hero's character gains by the expansion
+of its setting. One downright error which infects the standard
+abridgement is wholly avoided. Ophelia is dethroned. It is recognised
+that she is not entitled to share with Hamlet the triumphal honours of
+the action. Weak, insipid, destitute<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span> of all force of character, she
+deserves an insignificant place in Shakespeare's gallery of heroines.
+Hamlet's mother merits as much or more attention. At any rate, there
+is no justification for reducing the Queen's part in order to increase
+Ophelia's prominence. Such distortions are impossible in the
+production of the piece in its entirety. Throughout <i>Hamlet</i>, in the
+full authorised text, the artistic balance hangs true. Mr Benson
+recognised that dominant fact, and contrived to illustrate it on the
+stage. No higher commendation could be allowed a theatrical manager or
+actor.</p>
+
+
+<h3><a name="V.4">IV</a></h3>
+
+<p>Much else could be said of Mr Benson's principles, and of his
+praiseworthy energy in seeking to familiarise the playgoer with
+Shakespearean drama in all its fulness and variety, but only one other
+specific feature of his method needs mention here. Perhaps the most
+convincing proof that he has given of the value of his principles to
+the country's dramatic art is his success in the training of actors
+and actresses. Of late it is his company that has supplied the great
+London actor-managers with their ablest recruits. Nearly all the best
+performers of secondary r&#244;les and a few of the best performers of
+primary r&#244;les in the leading London theatres are Mr Benson's pupils.
+Their admission to the great London companies is raising the standard
+of acting in the metropolis. The marked efficiency of these newcomers
+is due to a system which is inconsistent with any of the accepted
+principles of current theatrical enterprise in London. Mr Benson's
+disciples mainly owe their efficiency to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span> long association with a
+permanent company controlled by a manager who seeks, single-mindedly,
+what he holds to be the interests of dramatic art. The many-headed
+public learns its lessons very slowly, and sometimes neglects them
+altogether. It has been reluctant to recognise the true significance
+of Mr Benson's work. But the intelligent onlooker knows that he is
+marching along the right road, in intelligent conformity with the best
+teaching of the past.</p>
+
+<p>Thirty years ago a meeting took place at the Mansion House to discuss
+the feasibility of founding a State theatre in London, a project which
+was not realised. The most memorable incident which was associated
+with the Mansion House meeting was a speech of the theatrical manager
+Phelps, who argued, amid the enthusiastic plaudits of his hearers,
+that it was in the highest interests of the nation that the
+Shakespearean drama should continuously occupy the stage. &quot;I
+maintain,&quot; Phelps said, &quot;from the experience of eighteen years, that
+the perpetual iteration of Shakespeare's words, if nothing more, going
+on daily for so many months of the year, must and would produce a
+great effect upon the public mind.&quot; No man or woman of sense will
+to-day gainsay the wisdom of this utterance; but it is needful for the
+public to make greater exertion than they have made of late if &quot;the
+perpetual iteration of Shakespeare's words&quot; in the theatre is to be
+permanently secured.</p>
+
+<p>Mr Benson's efforts constitute the best organised endeavour to realise
+Phelps's ambition since Phelps withdrew from management. Mr Benson's
+scheme is imperfect in some of its details; in other particulars it
+may need revision. But he and his associates have planted their feet
+firmly on sure ground in their endea<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span>vours to interpret Shakespearean
+drama constantly and in its variety, after a wise and well-considered
+system and with a disinterested zeal. When every allowance has been
+made for the Benson Company's shortcomings, its achievement cannot be
+denied &quot;a relish of salvation.&quot; Mr Benson deserves well of those who
+have faith in the power of Shakespeare's words to widen the horizon of
+men's intellects and emotions. The seed he has sown should not be
+suffered to decay.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="VI" id="VI"></a>VI</h2>
+
+<h2>THE MUNICIPAL THEATRE<a name="FNanchor_23_23" id="FNanchor_23_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_23_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a></h2>
+
+
+<h3><a name="VI.1">I</a></h3>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Many</span> actors, dramatic critics, and men in public life advocate the
+municipal manner of theatrical enterprise. Their aim, as I understand
+it, is to procure the erection, and the due working, of a playhouse
+that shall serve in permanence the best interests of the literary or
+artistic drama. The municipal theatre is not worth fighting for,
+unless there is a reasonable probability that its establishment will
+benefit dramatic art, promote the knowledge of dramatic literature,
+and draw from the literary drama and confer on the public the largest
+beneficial influence which the literary drama is capable of
+distributing.</p>
+
+<p>None of Shakespeare's countrymen or countrywomen can deny with a good
+grace the importance of the drama as a branch of art. None will
+seriously dispute that our dramatic literature, at any rate in its
+loftiest manifestation, has contributed as much as our armies or our
+navies or our mechanical inventions to our reputation through the
+world.</p>
+
+<p>There is substantial agreement among en<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span>lightened leaders of public
+opinion in all civilised countries that great drama, when fitly
+represented in the theatre, offers the rank and file of a nation
+recreation which brings with it moral, intellectual, and spiritual
+advantage.</p>
+
+
+<h3><a name="VI.2">II</a></h3>
+
+<p>The first question to consider is whether in England the existing
+theatrical agencies promote for the general good the genuine interests
+of dramatic art. Do existing theatrical agencies secure for the nation
+all the beneficial influence that is derivable from the truly
+competent form of drama? If they do this sufficiently, it is otiose
+and impertinent to entertain the notion of creating any new theatrical
+agency.</p>
+
+<p>Theatrical agencies of the existing type have never ignored the
+literary drama altogether. Among actor-managers of the past
+generation, Sir Henry Irving devoted his high ability to the
+interpretation of many species of literary drama&#8212;from that by
+Shakespeare to that by Tennyson. At leading theatres in London there
+have been produced in the last few years poetic dramas written in
+blank verse on themes drawn from such supreme examples of the world's
+literature as Homer's <i>Odyssey</i> and Dante's <i>Inferno</i>. Signs have not
+been wanting of public anxiety to acknowledge with generosity these
+and other serious endeavours in poetic drama, whatever their precise
+degree of excellence. But such premisses warrant no very large
+conclusion. Two or three swallows do not make a summer. The literary
+drama is only welcomed to the London stage at uncertain intervals;
+most of its life is passed in the wilderness.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The recognition that is given in England to literary or poetic drama,
+alike of the past and present, is chiefly notable for its
+irregularity. The circumstance may be accounted for in various ways.
+It is best explained by the fact that England is the only country in
+Europe in which theatrical enterprise is wholly and exclusively
+organised on a capitalist basis. No theatre in England is worked
+to-day on any but the capitalist principle. Artistic aspiration may be
+well alive in the theatrical profession, but the custom and
+circumstance of capital, the calls of the counting-house, hamper the
+theatrical artist's freedom of action. The methods imposed are
+dictated too exclusively by the mercantile spirit.</p>
+
+<p>Many illustrations could be given of the unceasing conflict which
+capitalist methods wage with artistic methods. One is sufficient. The
+commercially capitalised theatre is bound hand and foot to the system
+of long runs. In no theatres of the first class outside London and New
+York is the system known, and even here and in New York it is of
+comparatively recent origin. But Londoners have grown so accustomed to
+the system that they overlook the havoc which it works on the theatre
+as a home of art. Both actor and playgoer suffer signal injury from
+its effects. It limits the range of drama which is available at our
+great theatres to the rank and file of mankind. Especially serious is
+the danger to which the unchangeable programme exposes histrionic
+capacity and histrionic intelligence. The actor is not encouraged to
+widen his knowledge of the drama. His faculties are blunted by the
+narrow monotony of his experience. Yet the capitalised conditions of
+theatrical enterprise, which are in vogue in London and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span> New York,
+seem to render long runs imperative. The system of long runs is
+peculiar to English-speaking countries, where alone theatrical
+enterprise is altogether under the sway of capital. It is specifically
+prohibited in the national or municipal theatre of every great foreign
+city, where the interests of dramatic art enjoy foremost
+consideration.</p>
+
+<p>The artistic aspiration of the actor-manager may be set on the
+opposite side of the account. Although the actor-manager belongs to
+the ranks of the capitalists (whether he be one himself or be
+dependent on one), yet when he exercises supreme control of his
+playhouse, and is moved by artistic feeling, he may check many of the
+evils that spring from capitalist domination. He can partially
+neutralise the hampering effect on dramatic art of the merely
+commercial application of capital to theatrical enterprise.</p>
+
+<p>The actor-manager system is liable to impede the progress of dramatic
+art through defects of its own, but its most characteristic defects
+are not tarred with the capitalist brush. The actor-manager is prone
+to over-estimate the range of his histrionic power. He tends to claim
+of right the first place in the cast of every piece which he produces.
+He will consequently at times fill a r&#244;le for which his powers unsuit
+him. If he be wise enough to avoid that error, he may imperil the
+interests of dramatic art in another fashion; he may neglect pieces,
+despite their artistic value, in which he knows the foremost part to
+be outside his scope. The actor-manager has sometimes undertaken a
+secondary r&#244;le. But then it often happens, not necessarily by his
+deliberate endeavour, but by the mere force and popularity of his name
+among the frequenters of his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span> playhouse, that there is focussed on his
+secondary part an attention that it does not intrinsically merit, with
+the result that the artistic perspective of the play is injured. A
+primary law of dramatic art deprecates the constant preponderance of
+one actor in a company. The highest attainable level of excellence in
+all the members is the true artistic aim.</p>
+
+<p>The dangers inherent in the &quot;star&quot; principle of the actor-manager
+system may be frankly admitted, but at the same time one should
+recognise the system's possible advantages. An actor-manager does not
+usually arrive at his position until his career is well advanced and
+he has proved his histrionic capacity. Versatility commonly
+distinguishes him, and he is able to fill a long series of leading
+r&#244;les without violating artistic propriety. At any rate, the
+actor-manager who resolutely cherishes respect for art can do much to
+temper the corrupting influences of commercial capitalism in the
+theatrical world.</p>
+
+<p>It is probably the less needful to scrutinise closely the theoretic
+merits or demerits of the actor-manager system, because the dominant
+principle of current theatrical enterprise in London and America
+renders most precarious the future existence of that system. The
+actor-manager seems, at any rate, threatened in London by a new and
+irresistible tide of capitalist energy. Six or seven leading theatres
+in London have recently been brought under the control of an American
+capitalist who does not pretend to any but mercantile inspiration. The
+American capitalist's first and last aim is naturally to secure the
+highest possible remuneration for his invested capital. He is
+catholic-minded, and has<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span> no objection to artistic drama, provided he
+can draw substantial profit from it. Material interests alone have any
+real meaning for him. If he serve the interests of art by producing an
+artistic play, he serves art by accident and unconsciously: his object
+is to benefit his exchequer. His philosophy is unmitigated
+utilitarianism. &quot;The greatest pleasure for the greatest number&quot; is his
+motto. The pleasure that carries farthest and brings round him the
+largest paying audiences is his ideal stock-in-trade. Obviously
+pleasure either of the frivolous or of the spectacular kind attracts
+the greatest number of customers to his emporium. It is consequently
+pleasure of this spectacular or frivolous kind which he habitually
+endeavours to provide. It is Quixotic to anticipate much diminution in
+the supply and demand of either frivolity or spectacle, both of which
+may furnish quite innocuous pleasure. But each is the antithesis of
+dramatic art; and whatever view one holds of the methods of the
+American capitalist, it is irrational to look to him for the
+intelligent promotion of dramatic art.</p>
+
+
+<h3><a name="VI.3">III</a></h3>
+
+<p>From the artistic point of view the modern system of theatrical
+enterprise thus seems capable of improvement. If it be incapable of
+general improvement, it is at least capable of having a better example
+set it than current modes can be reckoned on to offer. The latter are
+not likely to be displaced. All that can be attempted is to create a
+new model at their side. What is sought by the advocates of a
+municipal theatre is an institution which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span> shall maintain in
+permanence a high artistic ideal of drama, and shall give the public
+the opportunity of permanently honouring that ideal. Existing theatres
+whose programmes ignore art would be unaffected by such a new
+neighbour. But existing enterprises, which, as far as present
+conditions permit, reflect artistic aspiration, would derive from such
+an institution new and steady encouragement.</p>
+
+<p>The interests of dramatic art can only be served whole-heartedly in a
+theatre organised on two principles which have hitherto been
+unrecognised in England. In the first place, the management should
+acknowledge some sort of public obligation to make the interests of
+dramatic art its first motive of action. In the second place, the
+management should be relieved of the need of seeking unrestricted
+commercial profits for the capital that is invested in the venture.
+Both principles have been adopted with successful results in
+Continental cities; but their successful practice implies the
+acceptance by the State, or by a permanent local authority, of a
+certain amount of responsibility in both the artistic and the
+financial directions.</p>
+
+<p>It is foolish to blind oneself to commercial considerations
+altogether. When the municipal theatre is freed of the unimaginative
+control of private capital seeking unlimited profit, it is still wise
+to require a moderate return on the expended outlay. The municipal
+theatre can only live healthily in the presence of a public desire or
+demand for it, and that public desire or demand can only be measured
+by the playhouse receipts. A municipal theatre would not be
+satisfactorily conducted if money were merely lost in it, or spent on
+it without any thought of the likeli<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span>hood of the expenditure proving
+remunerative. Profits need never be refused; but all above a fixed
+minimum rate of interest on the invested capital should be applied to
+the promotion of those purposes which the municipal theatre primarily
+exists to serve&#8212;to cheapen, for example, prices of admission, or to
+improve the general mechanism behind and before the scenes. No surplus
+profits should reach the pocket of any individual manager or
+financier.</p>
+
+
+<h3><a name="VI.4">IV</a></h3>
+
+<p>There is in England a demand and desire on the part of a substantial
+section of the public for this new form of theatrical enterprise,
+although its precise dimensions may not be absolutely determinate. The
+question is thereby adapted for practical discussion. The demand and
+desire have as yet received inadequate recognition, because they have
+not been satisfactorily organised or concentrated. The trend of an
+appreciable section of public opinion in the direction of a limited
+municipalisation of the theatre is visible in many places. Firstly,
+one must take into account the number of small societies which have
+been formed of late by enthusiasts for the exclusive promotion of one
+or other specific branch of the literary drama&#8212;the Elizabethan drama,
+the Norwegian drama, the German drama. Conspicuous success has been
+denied these societies because their leaders tend to assert narrow
+sectional views of the bases of dramatic art, or they lack the
+preliminary training and the influence which are essential to the
+efficient conduct of any public enterprise. Many<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span> of their experiences
+offer useful object-lessons as to the defects inherent in all narrow
+sectional effort, however enthusiastically inspired. But at the same
+time they testify to a desire to introduce into the current theatrical
+system more literary and artistic principles than are at present
+habitual to it. They point to the presence of a zeal&#8212;often, it may
+be, misdirected&#8212;for change or reform.</p>
+
+<p>The experiment of Mr Benson points more effectively in the same
+direction. A public-spirited champion of Shakespeare and the classical
+drama, he has maintained his hold in the chief cities of Ireland,
+Scotland, and the English provinces for a generation. Although for
+reasons that are not hard to seek, he has failed to establish his
+position in London, Mr Benson's methods of work have enabled him to
+render conspicuous service to the London stage in a manner which is
+likely to facilitate reform. For many years he has supplied the
+leading London theatres with a succession of trained actors and
+actresses. Graduates in Mr Benson's school can hardly fail to
+co-operate willingly in any reform of theatrical enterprise, which is
+calculated to develop the artistic capacities of the stage.</p>
+
+<p>Other circumstances are no less promising. The justice of the cry for
+the due safeguarding of the country's dramatic art by means of
+publicly-organised effort has been repeatedly acknowledged of late by
+men of experience alike in dramatic and public affairs. In 1898 a
+petition was presented to the London County Council requesting that
+body to found and endow a permanent opera-house &quot;in order to promote
+the musical interest and refinement of the public and the advancement
+of the art of music.&quot;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span> The petition bore the signatures of two hundred
+leaders of public opinion, including the chief members of the dramatic
+profession. In this important document, particulars were given of the
+manner in which the State or the municipality aided theatres in
+France, Germany, Austria, and other countries of Europe. It was shown,
+that in France twelve typically efficient theatres received from
+public bodies an annual subsidy amounting in the aggregate to
+&#163;130,000. The wording of the petition and the arguments employed by
+the petitioners were applicable to drama as well as to opera. In fact,
+the case was put in a way which was more favourable to the pretensions
+of drama than to those of opera. One argument which always tells
+against the establishment of a publicly-subsidised opera-house in
+London does not affect the establishment of a publicly-subsidised
+theatre. Opera is an exotic in England; drama is a native product, and
+has exerted in the past a wider influence and has attracted a wider
+sympathy than Italian or German music.</p>
+
+<p>The London County Council, after careful inquiry, gave the scheme of
+1898 benevolent encouragement. Hope was held out that a site for
+either a theatre or an opera-house might be reserved &quot;in connection
+with one of the contemplated central improvements of London.&quot; Nothing
+in the recent history of the London County Council gives ground for
+doubting that it will be prepared to give practical effect to a
+thoroughly matured scheme.</p>
+
+<p>Within the Council the principle of the municipal theatre has found
+powerful advocacy. Mr John Burns, who is not merely the spokesman of
+the working classes, but is a representative of earnest-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span>minded
+students of literature, has supported the principle with generous
+enthusiasm. The intelligent artisans of London applaud his attitude.
+The London Trades Council passed resolutions in the autumn of 1901
+recommending the erection of a theatre by the London County Council,
+&quot;so that a higher standard of dramatic art might be encouraged and
+made more accessible to the wage-earning classes, as is the case in
+the State and municipal theatres in the principal cities on the
+Continent.&quot; The gist of the argument could hardly be put more
+<span lang="el" title="Transcriber's Note: so in original.">pintally</span>.</p>
+
+<p>Of those who have written recently in favour of the scheme of a
+municipal theatre many speak with the authority of exceptional
+experience. The actor Mr John Coleman, one of the last survivors of
+Phelps's company at Sadler's Wells Theatre, argued with cogency,
+shortly before his death in 1903, that the national credit owed it to
+itself to renew Phelps's experiment of the middle of last century;
+public intervention was imperative, seeing that no other means were
+forthcoming. The late Sir Henry Irving in his closing years announced
+his conviction that a municipal theatre could alone keep the classical
+and the poetic drama fully alive in the theatres. The dramatic critic
+Mr William Archer, has brought his expert knowledge of dramatic
+organisation at home and abroad to the aid of the agitation. Various
+proposals&#8212;unhappily of too vague and unauthoritative a kind to
+guarantee a satisfactory reception&#8212;have been made from time to time
+to raise a fund to build a national theatre, and to run it for five
+years on a public subsidy of &#163;10,000 a year.</p>
+
+<p>The advocates of the municipalising principle have worked for the most
+part in isolation. Such<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span> independence tends to dissipate rather than
+to conserve energy. A consolidating impulse has been sorely needed.
+But the variety of the points of views from which the subject has been
+independently approached renders the less disputable the genuine width
+of public interest in the question.</p>
+
+<p>The argument that it is contrary to public policy, or that it is
+opposed to the duty of the State or municipality, to provide for the
+people's enlightened amusement, is not formidable. The State and the
+municipality have long treated such work as part of their daily
+functions, whatever the arguments that have been urged against it. The
+State, in partnership with local authorities, educates the people,
+whether they like it or no. The municipalities of London and other
+great towns provide the people, outside the theatre, with almost every
+opportunity of enlightenment and enlightened amusement. In London
+there are 150 free libraries, which are mainly occupied in providing
+the ratepayers with the opportunities of reading fiction&#8212;recreation
+which is not always very enlightened. The County Council of London
+furnishes bands of music to play in the parks, at an expenditure of
+some &#163;6000 a year. Most of our great cities supply, in addition,
+municipal picture galleries, in which the citizens take pride, and to
+which in their corporate capacity they contribute large sums of money.
+The municipal theatre is the natural complement of the municipal
+library, the municipal musical entertainment, and the municipal art
+gallery.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<h3><a name="VI.5">V</a></h3>
+
+<p>Of the practicability of a municipal theatre ample evidence is at
+hand. Foreign experience convincingly justifies the municipal mode of
+theatrical enterprise. Every great town in France, Germany, Austria,
+and Switzerland has its municipal theatre. In Paris there are three,
+in addition to four theatres which are subsidised by the State. It is
+estimated that there are seventy municipal theatres in the
+German-speaking countries of Europe, apart from twenty-seven State
+theatres. At the same time, it should be noted that in the French and
+German capitals there are, at the side of the State and municipal
+playhouses, numerous theatres which are run on ordinary commercial
+lines. The prosperity of these houses is in no way checked by the
+contiguity of theatrical enterprise of State or municipality.</p>
+
+<p>All municipal theatres on the continent of Europe pursue the same
+aims. They strive to supply the citizens with true artistic drama
+continuously, and to reduce the cost of admission to the playhouse to
+the lowest possible terms. But the working details of the foreign
+municipal theatres differ widely in individual cases, and a
+municipality which contemplates a first theatrical experiment is
+offered a large choice of method. In some places the municipality acts
+with regal munificence, and directly assumes the largest possible
+responsibilities. It provides the site, erects the theatre, and allots
+a substantial subsidy to its maintenance. The manager is a municipal
+officer, and the municipal theatre fills in the social life of the
+town as imposing a place as the town-hall, cathedral, or university.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Elsewhere the municipality sets narrower limits to its sphere of
+operations. It merely provides the site and the building, and then
+lets the playhouse out at a moderate rental to directors of proved
+efficiency and public spirit, on assured conditions that they honestly
+serve the true interests of art, uphold a high standard of production,
+avoid the frivolity and spectacle of the market, and fix the price of
+seats on a very low scale. Here no public funds are seriously
+involved. The municipality pays no subsidy. The rent of the theatre
+supplies the municipality with normal interest on the capital that is
+invested in site and building. It is public credit of a moral rather
+than of a material kind which is pledged to the cause of dramatic art.</p>
+
+<p>In a third class of municipal theatre the public body confines its
+material aid to the gratuitous provision of a site. Upon that site
+private enterprise is invited to erect a theatre under adequate
+guarantee that it shall exclusively respect the purposes of art, and
+spare to the utmost the pockets of the playgoer. To render dramatic
+art accessible to the rank and file of mankind, with the smallest
+possible pressure on the individual citizen's private resources, is of
+the essence of every form of municipal theatrical enterprise.</p>
+
+<p>The net result of the municipal theatre, especially in German-speaking
+countries, is that the literary drama, both of the past and present,
+maintains a grip on the playgoing public which is outside English
+experience. There is in Germany a very flourishing modern German drama
+of literary merit. Sudermann and Hauptmann hold the ears of men of
+letters throughout Europe. Dramas by these authors<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span> are constantly
+presented in municipal theatres. At the same time, plays by the
+classical dramatists of all European countries are performed as
+constantly, and are no less popular. Almost every play of Shakespeare
+is in the repertory of the chief acting companies on the German
+municipal stage. At the side of Shakespeare stand Schiller and Goethe
+and Lessing, the classical dramatists of Germany; Moli&#232;re, the
+classical dramatist of France; and Calderon, the classical dramatist
+of Spain. Public interest is liberally distributed over the whole
+range of artistic dramatic effort. Indeed, during recent years
+Shakespeare's plays have been performed in Germany more often than
+plays of the modern German school. Schiller, the classical national
+dramatist of Germany, lives more conspicuously on the modern German
+stage than any one modern German contemporary writer, eminent and
+popular as more than one contemporary German dramatist deservedly is.
+Thus signally has the national or municipal system of theatrical
+enterprise in Germany served the cause of classical drama. All the
+beneficial influence and gratification, which are inherent in artistic
+and literary drama, are, under the national or municipal system,
+enjoyed in permanence and security by the German people.</p>
+
+<p>Vienna probably offers London the most instructive example of the
+national or municipal theatre. The three leading Viennese
+playhouses&#8212;the Burg-Theater, the Stadt-Theater, and the
+Volks-Theater&#8212;illustrate the three modes in which public credit may
+be pledged to theatrical enterprise. The palatial Burg-Theater is
+wholly an institution of the State. The site of the Stadt-Theater, and
+to a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span> large extent the building, were provided by the municipality,
+which thereupon leased them out to a private syndicate, under a
+manager of the syndicate's choosing. The municipality assumes no more
+direct responsibility for the due devotion of the Stadt-Theater to
+dramatic art than is implied in its retention of reversionary rights
+of ownership. The third theatre, the Volks-Theater, illustrates the
+minimum share that a municipality may take in promoting theatrical
+enterprise, while guaranteeing the welfare of artistic drama.</p>
+
+<p>The success of the Volks-Theater is due to the co-operation of a
+public body with a voluntary society of private citizens who regard
+the maintenance of the literary drama as a civic duty. The site of the
+Volks-Theater, which was formerly public property and estimated to be
+worth &#163;80,000, is in the best part of the city of Vienna. It was a
+free gift from the government to a limited liability company, formed
+of some four hundred shareholders of moderate means, who formally
+pledged themselves to erect on the land a theatre with the sole object
+of serving the purposes of dramatic art. The interest payable to
+shareholders is strictly limited by the conditions of association. An
+officially sanctioned constitution renders it obligatory on them and
+on their officers to produce in the playhouse classical and modern
+drama of a literary character, though not necessarily of the severest
+type. Merely frivolous or spectacular pieces are prohibited, and at
+least twice a week purely classical plays must be presented. No piece
+may be played more than two nights in immediate succession. The
+actors, whose engagements are permanent, are substantially paid, and
+an<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span> admirably devised system of pensions is enforced without making
+deductions from salaries. The price of seats is fixed at a low rate,
+the highest price being 4s., the cheapest and most numerous seats
+costing 10d. each. Both financially and artistically the result has
+been all that one could wish. There is no public subsidy, but the
+Emperor pays &#163;500 a year for a box. The house holds 1800 persons,
+yielding gross receipts of &#163;200 for a nightly expenditure of &#163;125.
+There are no advertising expenses, no posters. The newspapers give
+notice of the daily programme as an attractive item of news.</p>
+
+
+<h3><a name="VI.6">VI</a></h3>
+
+<p>There is some disinclination among Englishmen deliberately to adopt
+foreign methods, to follow foreign examples, in any walk of life. But
+no person of common sense will reject a method merely because it is
+foreign, if it can be proved to be of utility. It is spurious
+patriotism to reject wise counsel because it is no native product. On
+the other hand, it is seriously to asperse the culture and
+intelligence of the British nation to assume that no appreciable
+section of it cherishes that taste for the literary drama which keeps
+the national or municipal theatre alive in France and Germany. At any
+rate, judgment should be held in suspense until the British playgoers'
+mettle has been more thoroughly tested than hitherto.</p>
+
+<p>No less humiliating is the argument that the art of acting in this
+country is at too low an ebb to justify the assumption by a public
+body of responsibility<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span> for theatrical enterprise. One or two critics
+assert that to involve public credit in a theatre, until there exist
+an efficient school of acting, is to put the cart before the horse.
+This objection seems insubstantial. Competent actors are not
+altogether absent from the English stage, and the municipal system of
+theatrical enterprise is calculated to increase their number rapidly.</p>
+
+<p>Abroad, the subsidised theatres, with their just schemes of salary,
+their permanent engagements, their well-devised pension systems,
+attract the best class of the profession. A competent company of
+actors, which enjoys a permanent home and is governed by high
+standards of art, forms the best possible school of acting, not merely
+by force of example, but by the private tuition which it could readily
+provide. In Vienna the companies at the subsidised theatres are
+recruited from the pupils of a State-endowed conservatoire of actors.
+It is improbable that the British Government will found a like
+institution. But it would be easy to attach a college of acting to the
+municipal theatre, and to make the college pay its way.</p>
+
+<p>Much depends on the choice of manager of the enterprise. The manager
+of a municipal theatre must combine with business aptitude a genuine
+devotion to dramatic art and dramatic literature. Without a fit
+manager, who can collect and control a competent company of actors,
+the scheme of the municipal theatre is doomed to failure. Managers of
+the requisite temper, knowledge, and ability are not lacking in France
+or Germany. There is no reason to anticipate that, when the call is
+sounded, the right response will not be given here.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Cannot an experiment be made in London on the lines of the Vienna
+Volks-Theater? In the first place, it is needful to bring together a
+body of citizens who, under leadership which commands public
+confidence, will undertake to build and control for a certain term of
+years a theatre of suitable design in the interests of dramatic art,
+on conditions similar to those that have worked with success in
+Berlin, Paris, and notably Vienna. Then the London County Council,
+after the professions it has made, might be reasonably expected to
+undertake so much responsibility for the proper conduct of the new
+playhouse as would be implied by its provision of a site. If the
+experiment failed, no one would be much the worse; if it succeeded, as
+it ought to succeed, the nation would gain in repute for intelligence,
+culture, and enlightened patriotism; it would rid itself of the
+reproach that it pays smaller and less intelligent regard to
+Shakespeare and the literary drama than France, Germany, Austria, or
+Italy.</p>
+
+<p>Phelps's single-handed effort brought the people of London for
+eighteen years face to face with the great English drama at his
+playhouse at Sadler's Wells. &quot;I made that enterprise pay,&quot; he said,
+after he retired; &quot;not making a fortune certainly, but bringing up a
+large family and paying my way.&quot; Private troubles and illness
+compelled him suddenly to abandon the enterprise at the end of
+eighteen years, when there happened to be none at hand to take his
+place of leader. All that was wanting to make his enterprise
+permanent, he declared, was some public control, some public
+acknowledgment of responsibility which, without impeding the efficient
+manager's freedom of action, would cause his post to be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span> filled
+properly in case of an accidental vacancy. Phelps thought that if he
+could do so much during eighteen years by his personal, isolated, and
+independent endeavour, much more could be done in permanence under
+some public method of safeguard and guarantee. Phelps's services to
+the literary drama can hardly be over-estimated. His mature judgment
+is not to be lightly gainsaid. It is just to his memory to put his
+faith to a practical test.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="VII" id="VII"></a>VII</h2>
+
+<h2>ASPECTS OF SHAKESPEARE'S PHILOSOPHY<a name="FNanchor_24_24" id="FNanchor_24_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_24_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a></h2>
+
+
+<h3><a name="VII.1">I</a></h3>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">A French</span> critic once remarked that a whole system of philosophy could
+be deduced from Shakespeare's pages, though from all the works of the
+philosophers one could not draw a page of Shakespeare. The second
+statement&#8212;the denial of the presence of a page of Shakespeare in the
+works of all the philosophers&#8212;is more accurate than the assertion
+that a system of philosophy could be deduced from the plays of
+Shakespeare. It is hopeless to deduce any precise system of philosophy
+from Shakespeare's plays. Literally, philosophy means nothing more
+recondite than love of wisdom. Technically, it means scientifically
+restrained speculation about the causes of human thought and conduct;
+it embraces the sciences of logic, of ethics, of politics, of
+psychology, of metaphysics. Shakespeare's training and temper unfitted
+him to make any professed contribution to any of these topics.</p>
+
+<p>Ignorant persons argue on hazy grounds that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span> the great avowed
+philosopher of Shakespeare's day, Francis Bacon, wrote Shakespeare's
+plays. There is no need to confute the theory, which confutes itself.
+But, if a confutation were needed, it lies on the surface in the
+conflicting attitudes which Shakespeare and Bacon assume towards
+philosophy. There is no mistaking Bacon's attitude. The supreme aim of
+his writings was to establish the practical value, the majestic
+importance, of philosophy in its strict sense of speculative science.
+He sought to widen its scope, and to multiply the ranks of its
+students.</p>
+
+<p>Bacon's method is formally philosophic in texture. He carefully
+scrutinises, illustrates, seeks to justify each statement before
+proceeding to a conclusion. Every essay, every treatise of Bacon,
+conveys the impression not merely of weighty, pregnant eloquence, but
+of the argumentative and philosophic temper. Bacon's process of
+thinking is conscious: it is visible behind the words. The argument
+progresses with a cumulative force. It draws sustenance from the
+recorded opinions of others. The points usually owe consistency and
+firmness to quotations from old authors&#8212;Greek and Latin authors,
+especially Plato and Plutarch, Lucretius and Seneca. To Bacon, as to
+all professed students of the subject, philosophy first revealed
+itself in the pages of the Greek writers, Plato and Aristotle, the
+founders for modern Europe of the speculative sciences of human
+thought and conduct. Greatly as Bacon modified the Greek system of
+philosophy, he began his philosophic career under the influence of
+Aristotle, and, despite his destructive criticism of his master, he
+never wholly divested himself of the methods of exposition to which
+the Greek philosopher's teaching introduced him.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>In their attitudes to philosophy, Shakespeare and Bacon are as the
+poles asunder. Shakespeare practically ignores the existence of
+philosophy as a formal science. He betrays no knowledge of its Greek
+origin and developments.</p>
+
+<p>There are two short, slight, conventional mentions of Aristotle's name
+in Shakespeare's works. One is a very slight allusion to Aristotle's
+&quot;checks&quot; or &quot;moral discipline&quot; in <i>The Taming of the Shrew</i>. That
+passage is probably from a coadjutor's pen. In any case, it is merely
+a playful questioning of the title of &quot;sweet philosophy&quot; to monopolize
+a young man's education.<a name="FNanchor_25_25" id="FNanchor_25_25"></a><a href="#Footnote_25_25" class="fnanchor">[25]</a></p>
+
+<p>The other mention of Aristotle is in <i>Troilus and Cressida</i>, and
+raises points of greater interest. Hector scornfully likens his
+brothers Troilus and Paris, when they urge persistence in the strife
+with Greece, to &quot;young men whom Aristotle thought unfit to hear
+<i>moral</i> philosophy&quot; (II., ii., 166). The words present the meaning,
+but not the language, of a sentence in Aristotle's &quot;Nicomachean
+Ethics&quot; (i. 8). Aristotle there declares passionate youth to be
+unfitted to study <i>political</i> philosophy; he makes no mention of
+<i>moral</i> philosophy. The change of epithet does, however, no injustice
+to Aristotle's argument. His context makes it plain, that by
+<i>political</i><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span> philosophy he means the ethics of civil society, which
+are hardly distinguishable from what is commonly called &quot;morals.&quot; The
+maxim, in the slightly irregular shape which Shakespeare adopted,
+enjoyed proverbial currency before the dramatist was born. Erasmus
+introduced it in this form into his far-famed <i>Colloquies</i>. In France
+and Italy the warning against instructing youth in <i>moral</i> philosophy
+was popularly accepted as an Aristotelian injunction. Sceptics about
+the obvious Shakespearean tradition have made much of the circumstance
+that Bacon, who cited the aphorism from Aristotle in his <i>Advancement
+of Learning</i>, substituted, like Shakespeare in <i>Troilus and Cressida</i>,
+the epithet &quot;moral&quot; for &quot;political.&quot; The proverbial currency of the
+emendation deprives the coincidence of point.</p>
+
+<p>The repetition of a proverbial phrase, indirectly drawn from
+Aristotle, combined with the absence of other references to the Greek
+philosopher, renders improbable Shakespeare's personal acquaintance
+with his work. In any case, the bare mention of the name of Aristotle
+implies nothing in this connection. It was a popular synonym for
+ancient learning. It was as often on the lips of Elizabethans as
+Bacon's name is on the lips of men and women of to-day, and it would
+be rash to infer that those who carelessly and casually mentioned
+Bacon's name to-day knew his writings or philosophic theories at first
+hand.</p>
+
+<p>No evidence is forthcoming that Shakespeare knew in any solid sense
+aught of philosophy of the formal scientific kind. On scientific
+philosophy, and on natural science, Shakespeare probably looked with
+suspicion. He expressed no high opinion of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span> astronomers, who pursue
+the most imposing of all branches of scientific speculation.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Small have continual plodders ever won,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Save base authority from others' books.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">These earthly godfathers of heaven's light,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That give a name to every fixed star,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Have no more profit of their shining nights<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Than those that walk, and wot not what they are.<br /></span>
+<span class="i8">(<i>Love's Labour's Lost</i>, I., i., 86-91.)<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>This is a characteristically poetic attitude; it is the antithesis of
+the scientific attitude. Formal logic excited Shakespeare's disdain
+even more conspicuously. In the mouths of his professional fools he
+places many reductions to absurdity of what he calls the &quot;simple
+syllogism.&quot; He invests the term &quot;chop-logic&quot; with the significance of
+foolery <i>in excelsis</i>.<a name="FNanchor_26_26" id="FNanchor_26_26"></a><a href="#Footnote_26_26" class="fnanchor">[26]</a> Again, metaphysics, in any formal sense,
+were clearly not of Shakespeare's world. On one occasion he wrote of
+the topic round which most metaphysical speculation revolves:&#8212;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i8">We are such stuff<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">As dreams are made on, and our little life<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Is rounded by a sleep.<br /></span>
+<span class="i8">(<i>Tempest</i>, IV., i., 156-8.)<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span></p>
+<p>Such a theory of human life is first-rate poetry; it is an
+illuminating figure of poetic speech. But the simplicity with which
+the theme is presented, to the exclusion of many material issues, puts
+the statement out of the plane of metaphysical disquisition, which
+involves subtle conflict of argument and measured resolution of doubt,
+rather than imaginative certainty or unconditional assertion. Nor is
+Hamlet's famous soliloquy on the merits and demerits of suicide
+conceived in the spirit of the metaphysician. It is a dramatic
+description of a familiar phase of emotional depression; it explains
+nothing; it propounds no theory. It reflects a state of feeling; it
+breathes that torturing spirit of despondency which kills all hope of
+mitigating either the known ills of life or the imagined terrors of
+death.</p>
+
+<p>The faint, shadowy glimpses which Shakespeare had of scientific
+philosophy gave him small respect for it. Like the typical hard-headed
+Englishman, he doubted its practical efficacy. Shakespeare viewed all
+formal philosophy much as Dr Johnson's Rasselas, whose faith in it
+dwindled, when he perceived that the professional philosopher, who
+preached superiority to all human frailties and weaknesses, succumbed
+to them at the first provocation.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">There are more things in heaven and earth<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.<a name="FNanchor_27_27" id="FNanchor_27_27"></a><a href="#Footnote_27_27" class="fnanchor">[27]</a><br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">For there was never yet philosopher<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That could endure the toothache patiently.<a name="FNanchor_28_28" id="FNanchor_28_28"></a><a href="#Footnote_28_28" class="fnanchor">[28]</a><br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Such phrases sum up Shakespeare's habitual bearing to formal
+philosophy. The consideration of causes,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span> first principles, abstract
+truths, never, in the dramatist's opinion, cured a human ill. The
+futility of formal philosophy stands, from this point of view, in no
+further need of demonstration.</p>
+
+
+<h3><a name="VII.2">II</a></h3>
+
+<p>But it is permissible to use the words philosopher and philosophy,
+without scientific precision or significance, in the popular
+inaccurate senses of shrewd observer and observation of life. By
+philosophy we may understand common-sense wisdom about one's
+fellow-men, their aspirations, their failures and successes. As soon
+as we employ the word in that significance, we must allow that few men
+were better philosophers than Shakespeare.</p>
+
+<p>Shakespeare is what Touchstone calls the shepherd in <i>As You Like
+It</i>&#8212;&quot;a natural philosopher&quot;&#8212;an observer by light of nature, an acute
+expositor of phases of human life and feeling. Character, thought,
+passion, emotion, form the raw material of which ethical or
+metaphysical systems are made. The poet's contempt for formal ethical
+or metaphysical theory co-existed with a searching knowledge of the
+ultimate foundations of all systematised philosophic structures. The
+range of fact or knowledge within which the formal theorist speculates
+in the fields of ethics, logic, metaphysics, or psychology, is,
+indeed, very circumscribed when it is compared with the region of
+observation and experience over which Shakespeare exerted complete
+mastery.</p>
+
+<p>Almost every aspect of life Shakespeare portrays<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span> with singular
+evenness of insight. He saw life whole. The web of life always
+presented itself to him as a mingled yarn, good and ill together. He
+did not stay to reconcile its contradictions. He adduces a wealth of
+evidence touching ethical experience. It may be that the patient
+scrutiny of formal philosophers can alone reveal the full significance
+of his harvest. But the dramatist's exposition of the workings of
+virtue or vice has no recondite intention. Shakespeare was no patient
+scholar, who deliberately sought to extend the limits of human
+knowledge. With unrivalled ease and celerity he digested, in the
+recesses of his consciousness, the fruit of personal observation and
+reading. His only conscious aim was to depict human conduct and human
+thought. He interpreted them unconsciously by virtue of an involuntary
+intuition.</p>
+
+<p>Shakespeare's intuition pierces life at the lowest as well as at the
+highest level of experience. It is coloured by delicate imaginative
+genius as well as by robust and practical worldliness. Not his
+writings only, but the facts of his private life&#8212;his mode of managing
+his private property, for example&#8212;attest his alert knowledge of the
+material and practical affairs of human existence. Idealism and
+realism in perfect development were interwoven with the texture of his
+mind.</p>
+
+<p>Shakespeare was qualified by mental endowment for success in any
+career. He was by election a dramatist, and, necessarily, one of
+unmatched versatility. His intuitive faculty enabled him, after
+regarding life from any point of view that he willed, to depict
+through the mouths of his characters the chosen phase of experience in
+convincing, harmonious<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span> accord with his characters' individual
+circumstances and fortunes. No obvious trace of his own personal
+circumstance or experience was suffered to emerge in the utterances of
+his characters, who lived for the moment in his brain. It is a
+commonplace to credit Shakespeare with supreme dramatic instinct. It
+is difficult fully to realise the significance of that attribute. It
+means that he could contract or expand at will and momentarily, his
+own personality, so that it coincided exactly, now with a
+self-indulgent humorist like Falstaff, now with an introspective
+student like Hamlet, now with a cynical criminal like Iago, now with a
+high-spirited girl like Rosalind, now with an ambitious woman like
+Lady Macbeth, and then with a hundred more characters hardly less
+distinctive than these. It means that he could contrive the
+coincidence so absolutely as to leave no loophole for the
+introduction, into the several dramatic utterances, of any sentiment
+that should not be on the face of it adapted by right of nature to the
+speakers' idiosyncracies. That was Shakespeare's power. It is a power
+of which the effects are far easier to recognise than the causes or
+secret of operation.</p>
+
+<p>In the present connection it is happily only necessary to dwell on
+Shakespeare's dramatic instinct in order to guard against the peril of
+dogmatising from his works about his private opinions. So various and
+conflicting are Shakespeare's dramatic pronouncements on phases of
+experience that it is difficult and dangerous to affirm which
+pronouncements, if any, present most closely his personal sentiment.
+He fitted the lips of his <i>dramatis person&#230;</i> with speeches and
+sentiments so peculiarly adapted to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span> them as to show no one quite
+undisputed sign of their creator's personality.</p>
+
+<p>Yet there are occasions, when, without detracting from the omnipotence
+of Shakespeare's dramatic instinct, one may tentatively infer that
+Shakespeare gave voice through his created personages to sentiments
+which were his own. The Shakespearean drama must incorporate somewhere
+within its vast limits the personal thoughts and passions of its
+creator, even although they are for the most part absorbed past
+recognition in the mighty mass, and no critical chemistry can with
+confidence disentangle them. At any rate, there are in the plays many
+utterances&#8212;ethical utterances, or observations conceived in the
+spirit of &quot;a natural philosopher&quot;&#8212;which are repeated to much the same
+effect at different periods of the poet's career. These reiterated
+opinions frequently touch the conditions of well-being or calamity in
+civilised society; they often deal with man in civic or social
+relation with his neighbour; they define the capabilities of his will.
+It is unlikely that observations of this nature would be repeated if
+the sentiments they embody were out of harmony with the author's
+private conviction. Often we shall not strain a point or do our
+critical sense much violence if we assume that these recurring
+thoughts are Shakespeare's own. I purpose to call attention to a few
+of those which bear on large questions of government and citizenship
+and human volition. Involuntarily, they form the framework of a
+political and moral philosophy which for clear-eyed sanity is without
+rival.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<h3><a name="VII.3">III</a></h3>
+
+<p>Shakespeare's political philosophy is instinct with the loftiest moral
+sense. Directly or indirectly, he defines many times the essential
+virtues and the inevitable temptations which attach to persons
+exercising legalised authority over their fellow-men. The topic always
+seems to stir in Shakespeare his most serious tone of thought and
+word. No one, in fact, has conceived a higher standard of public
+virtue and public duty than Shakespeare. His intuition rendered him
+tolerant of human imperfection. He is always in kindly sympathy with
+failure, with suffering, with the oppressed. Consequently he brings at
+the outset into clearer relief than professed political philosophers,
+the saving quality of mercy in rulers of men. Twice Shakespeare pleads
+in almost identical terms, through the mouths of created characters,
+for generosity on the part of governors of states towards those who
+sin against law. In both cases he places his argument, with
+significant delicacy, on the lips of women. At a comparatively early
+period in his career as dramatist, in <i>The Merchant of Venice</i>, Portia
+first gave voice to the political virtue of compassion. At a much
+later period Shakespeare set the same plea in the mouth of Isabella in
+<i>Measure for Measure</i>. The passages are too familiar to justify
+quotation. Very brief extracts will bring out clearly the identity of
+sentiment which finds definition in the two passages.</p>
+
+<p>These are Portia's views of mercy on the throne (<i>Merchant of Venice</i>,
+IV., i., 189 <i>seq.</i>):&#8212;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">'Tis mightiest in the mightiest; it becomes<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The throned monarch better than his crown;<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span>
+<span class="i6">* * * * *<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i4">Mercy is above this sceptred sway;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">It is enthroned in the hearts of kings,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">It is an attribute to God himself;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And earthly power doth then show likest God's<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">When mercy seasons justice.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i8">Consider this,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That in the course of justice none of us<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Should see salvation.<a name="FNanchor_29_29" id="FNanchor_29_29"></a><a href="#Footnote_29_29" class="fnanchor">[29]</a><br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Here are Isabella's words in <i>Measure for Measure</i> (II., ii., 59
+<i>seq.</i>):&#8212;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">No ceremony that to great ones 'longs,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Not the king's crown, nor the deputed sword,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The marshal's truncheon, nor the judge's robe,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Become them with one half so good a grace<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">As mercy does.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i6">How would you be<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">If He, which is the top of judgment, should<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But judge you as you are?<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i10">O, it is excellent<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To have a giant's strength; but it is tyrannous<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To use it like a giant.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Mercy is the predominating or crowning virtue that Shakespeare demands
+in rulers. But the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span> Shakespearean code is innocent of any taint of
+sentimentality, and mercifulness is far from being the sovereign's
+sole qualification or primal test of fitness. More especially are
+kings and judges bound by their responsibilities and their duties to
+eschew self-glorification or self-indulgence. It is the <i>virtues</i> of
+the holders of office, not their office itself, which alone in the end
+entitles them to consideration. Adventitious circumstances give no man
+claim to respect. A man is alone worthy of regard by reason of his
+personal character. Honour comes from his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span> own acts, neither from his
+&quot;foregoers,&quot; <i>i.e.</i>, ancestors, nor from his rank in society. &quot;Good
+alone is good without a name.&quot; This is not the view of the world,
+which values lying trophies, rank, or wealth. The world is thereby the
+sufferer.<a name="FNanchor_30_30" id="FNanchor_30_30"></a><a href="#Footnote_30_30" class="fnanchor">[30]</a></p>
+
+<p>The world honours a judge; but if the judge be indebted to his office
+and not to his character for the respect that is paid him, he may
+deserve no more honour than the criminal in the dock, whom he
+sentences to punishment. &quot;A man may see how this world goes with no
+eyes,&quot; says King Lear to the blind Gloucester. &quot;Look with thine ears;
+see how yond justice rails upon yond simple thief. Hark, in thine ear;
+change places, and, handy-dandy, which is the justice, which is the
+thief? Thou hast seen a farmer's dog bark at a beggar? And the
+creature run from the cur? There thou mightst behold the great image
+of authority; a dog's obeyed in office.&quot; &quot;The great image of
+authority&quot; is often a brazen idol.</p>
+
+<p>Hereditary rulers form no inconsiderable section of Shakespeare's
+<i>dramatis person&#230;</i>. In <i>Macbeth</i> (IV.,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span> iii., 92-4) he specifically
+defined &quot;the king-becoming graces&quot;:&#8212;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">As justice, verity, temperance, stableness,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Bounty, perseverance, mercy, lowliness,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Devotion, patience, courage, fortitude.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>But the dramatist's main energies are devoted to exposure of the
+hollowness of this counsel of perfection. Temptations to vice beset
+rulers of men to a degree that is unknown to their subjects. To
+avarice rulers are especially prone. Stanchless avarice constantly
+converts kings of ordinary clay into monsters. How often they forge</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Quarrels unjust against the good and loyal,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Destroying them for wealth.<br /></span>
+<span class="i8">(<i>Macbeth</i>, IV., iii., 83-4.)<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Intemperance in all things&#8212;in business and pleasure&#8212;is a standing
+menace of monarchs.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i4">Boundless intemperance<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">In Nature is a tyranny: it hath been<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Th' untimely emptying of the happy throne<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And fail of many kings.<br /></span>
+<span class="i8">(<i>Macbeth</i>, IV., iii., 66-9.)<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>A leader of men, if he be capable of salvation, must &quot;delight no less
+in truth than life.&quot; Yet &quot;truth,&quot; for the most part, is banished from
+the conventional environment of royalty.</p>
+
+<p>Repeatedly does Shakespeare bring into dazzling relief the irony which
+governs the being of kings. Want of logic and defiance of ethical
+principle underlie their pride in magnificent ceremonial and
+pageantry. The ironic contrast between the pretensions of a king and
+the actual limits of human destiny is a text which Shakespeare
+repeatedly clothes in golden language.</p>
+
+<p>It is to be admitted that nearly all the kings in Shakespeare's
+gallery frankly acknowledge the make-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span>believe and unreality which dogs
+regal pomp and ceremony. In self-communion they acknowledge the
+ruler's difficulty in finding truth in their traditional scope of
+life. In a great outburst on the night before Agincourt, Henry V.&#8212;the
+only king whom Shakespeare seems thoroughly to admire&#8212;openly
+describes the inevitable confusion between fact and fiction which
+infects the conditions of royalty. Anxiety and unhappiness are so
+entwined with ceremonial display as to deprive the king of the reliefs
+and recreations which freely lie at the disposal of ordinary men.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i6">What infinite heart's-ease<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Must kings neglect that private men enjoy!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And what have kings that privates have not too,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Save ceremony, save general ceremony?<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And what art thou, thou idol ceremony?<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">What kind of god art thou, that suffer'st more<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Of mortal griefs than do thy worshippers?<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">What are thy rents? what are thy comings-in?<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">O ceremony, show me but thy worth!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">What is thy soul of adoration?<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Art thou aught else but place, degree, and form,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Creating awe and fear in other men?<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Wherein thou art less happy being fear'd<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Than they in fearing.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">What drink'st thou oft, instead of homage sweet,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But poison'd flattery? O, be sick, great greatness,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And bid thy ceremony give thee cure!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Think'st thou the fiery fever will go out<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">With titles blown from adulation?<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Will it give place to flexure and low bending?<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Canst thou, when thou command'st the beggar's knee,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Command the health of it? No, thou proud dream<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That play'st so subtly with a king's repose:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">I am a king that find thee; and I know<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">'Tis not the balm, the sceptre, and the ball,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The sword, the mace, the crown imperial,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The intertissued robe of gold and pearl,<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span>
+<span class="i0">The farced title running 'fore the king,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The throne he sits on, nor the tide of pomp<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That beats upon the high shore of this world,&#8212;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">No, not all these, thrice gorgeous ceremony,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Not all these, laid in bed majestical,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Can sleep so soundly as the wretched slave<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Who, with a body fill'd and vacant mind<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Gets him to rest, cramm'd with distressful bread.<br /></span>
+<span class="i8">(<i>Henry V.</i>, IV., i., 253-287.)<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Barely distinguishable is the sentiment which finds expression in the
+pathetic speech of Henry V.'s father when he vainly seeks that sleep
+which thousands of his poorest subjects enjoy. The sleepless king
+points to the irony of reclining on the kingly couch beneath canopies
+of costly state when sleep refuses to weigh his eyelids down or steep
+his senses in forgetfulness. The king is credited with control of
+every comfort; but he is denied by nature comforts which she places
+freely at command of the humblest. So again does Richard II.
+soliloquize on the vain pride which imbues the king, while death all
+the time grins at his pomp and keeps his own court within the hollow
+crown that rounds the prince's mortal temples. Yet again, to identical
+effect is Henry VI.'s sorrowful question:&#8212;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Gives not the hawthorn-bush a sweeter shade,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To shepherds looking on their silly sheep,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Than doth a rich-embroidered canopy<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To kings that fear their subjects' treachery?<br /></span>
+<span class="i8">(III. <i>Henry VI.</i>, II., v., 42-5.)<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>To this text Shakespeare constantly recurs, and he bestows on it all
+his fertile resources of illustration. The reiterated exposition by
+Shakespeare of the hollowness of kingly ceremony is a notable feature
+of his political sentiment The dramatist's independent analysis of the
+quiddity of kingship is, indeed, alike in manner and matter, a
+startling contribution<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span> to sixteenth century speculation. In manner it
+is worthy of Shakespeare's genius at its highest. In matter it is for
+its day revolutionary rationalism. It defies a popular doctrine, held
+almost universally by Shakespeare's contemporary fellow-countrymen,
+that royalty is divine and under God's special protection, that the
+gorgeous ceremony of the throne reflects a heavenly attribute, and
+that the king is the pampered favourite of heaven.</p>
+
+<p>Bacon defined a king with slender qualifications, as &quot;a mortal god on
+earth unto whom the living God has lent his own name.&quot; Shakespeare was
+well acquainted with this accepted doctrine. He often gives dramatic
+definition of it. He declines to admit its soundness. Wherever he
+quotes it, he adds an ironical comment, which was calculated to
+perturb the orthodox royalist. Having argued that the day-labourer or
+the shepherd is far happier than a king, he logically refuses to admit
+that the monarch is protected by God from any of the ills of
+mortality. Richard II. may assert that &quot;the hand of God alone, and no
+hand of blood or bone&quot; can rob him of the sacred handle of his
+sceptre. But the catastrophe of the play demonstrates that that theft
+is entirely within human scope. The king is barbarously murdered. In
+<i>Hamlet</i> the graceless usurping uncle declares that &quot;such divinity
+doth hedge a king,&quot; that treason cannot endanger his life. But the
+speaker is run through the body very soon after the brag escapes his
+lips.</p>
+
+<p>Shakespeare is no comfortable theorist, no respecter of orthodox
+doctrine, no smooth-tongued approver of fashionable dogma. His acute
+intellect cuts away all the cobwebs, all the illusions, all the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span>
+delusions, of formul&#230;. His untutored insight goes down to the root of
+things; his king is not Philosopher Bacon's &quot;mortal god on earth&quot;; his
+king is &quot;but a man as I am,&quot; doomed to drag out a large part of his
+existence in the galling chains of &quot;tradition, form and ceremonious
+duty,&quot; of unreality and self-deception.</p>
+
+<p>Shakespeare's intuitive power of seeing things as they are, affects
+his attitude to all social conventions. Not merely royal rulers of men
+are in a false position, ethically and logically. &quot;Beware of
+appearances,&quot; is Shakespeare's repeated warning to men and women of
+all ranks in the political or social hierarchy. &quot;Put not your trust in
+ornament, be it of gold or of silver.&quot; In the spheres of law and
+religion, the dramatist warns against pretence, against shows of
+virtue, honesty, or courage which have no solid backing.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">The world is still deceiv'd with ornament.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">In law what plea so tainted and corrupt<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But, being season'd with a gracious voice,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Obscures the show of evil? In religion<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">What damned error, but some sober brow<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Will bless it and approve it with a text,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Hiding the grossness with fair ornament?<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">There is no vice so simple but assumes<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Some mark of virtue on his outward parts:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">How many cowards, whose hearts are all as false<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">As stairs of sand, wear yet upon their chins<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The beards of Hercules and frowning Mars,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Who, inward searched, have livers white as milk.<br /></span>
+<span class="i8">(<i>Merchant of Venice</i>, III., ii., 74-86.)<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Shakespeare was no cynic. He was not unduly distrustful of his
+fellow-men. He was not always suspecting them of something
+indistinguishable from fraud. When he wrote, &quot;The world is still
+deceived<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span> with ornament&quot; which &quot;obscures the show of evil,&quot; he was
+expressing downright hatred&#8212;not suspicion&#8212;of sham, of quackery, of
+cant. His is the message of all commanding intellects which see
+through the hearts of men. Shakespeare's message is Carlyle's message
+or Ruskin's message anticipated by nearly three centuries, and more
+potently and wisely phrased.</p>
+
+
+<h3><a name="VII.4">IV</a></h3>
+
+<p>At the same time as Shakespeare insists on the highest and truest
+standard of public duty, he, with characteristically practical
+insight, acknowledges no less emphatically the necessity or duty of
+obedience to duly regulated governments. There may appear
+inconsistency in first conveying the impression that governments, or
+their officers, are usually unworthy of trust, and then in bidding
+mankind obey them implicitly. But, although logical connection between
+the two propositions be wanting, they are each convincing in their
+place. Both are the outcome of a robust common-sense. Order is
+essential to a nation's well-being. There must be discipline in
+civilised communities. Officers in authority must be obeyed. These are
+the axiomatic bases of every social contract, and no question of the
+personal fitness of officers of state impugns their stability.</p>
+
+<p>Twice does Shakespeare define in the same terms what he understands by
+the principle of all-compelling order, which is inherent in
+government. Twice does he elaborate the argument that precise orderly
+division of offices, each enjoying full and unquestioned authority, is
+essential to the maintenance of a state's equilibrium.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The topic was first treated in the speeches of Henry V.'s
+councillors:&#8212;</p>
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+  <tbody>
+  <tr>
+    <td><i>Exeter.</i><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+</td>
+    <td>For government, though high and low and lower,<br />
+Put into parts, doth keep in one consent,<br />
+Congreeing in a full and natural close,<br />
+Like music.</td>
+    </tr>
+    <tr>
+      <td>
+<i>Cant.</i><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+</td>
+      <td>Therefore doth heaven divide<br />
+The state of man in divers functions,<br />
+Setting endeavour in continual motion;<br />
+To which is fix&#232;d, as an aim or butt,<br />
+Obedience: for so work the honey-bees,<br />
+Creatures that by a rule in nature teach<br />
+The act of order to a peopled kingdom.<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 8em;">(<i>Henry V.</i>, I., ii., 180-9.)</span>
+</td>
+</tr>
+</tbody>
+</table>
+
+
+<p>There follows a very suggestive comparison between the commonwealth of
+bees and the economy of human society. The well-worn comparison has
+been fashioned anew by a writer of genius of our own day, M.
+M&#230;terlinck.</p>
+
+<p>In <i>Troilus and Cressida</i> (I., iii., 85 <i>seq.</i>) Shakespeare returns to
+the discussion, and defines with greater precision &quot;the specialty of
+rule.&quot; There he approaches nearer than anywhere else in his writings
+the sphere of strict philosophic exposition. He argues that:&#8212;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">The heavens themselves, the planets, and this centre,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Observe degree, priority, and place,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Insisture, course, proportion, season, form,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Office, and custom in all line of order.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Human society is bound to follow this celestial example. At all
+hazards, one must protect &quot;the unity and married calm of states.&quot;
+Degree, order, discipline, are the only sure safeguards against brute
+force and chaos which civilised institutions exist to hold in check:&#8212;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i8">How could communities,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Degrees in schools and brotherhoods in cities,<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span>
+<span class="i0">Peaceful commerce from dividable shores,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The primogeniture and due of birth,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Prerogative of age, crowns, sceptres, laurels,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But by degree stand in authentic place?<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Take but degree away, untune that string,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And, hark, what discord follows! each thing meets<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">In mere oppugnancy: the bounded waters<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Should lift their bosoms higher than the shores,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And make a sop of all this solid globe:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Strength should be lord of imbecility,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And the rude son should strike his father dead:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Force should be right; or rather, right and wrong,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Between whose endless jar justice resides,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Should lose their names, and so should justice too.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Then every thing includes itself in power,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Power into will, will into appetite;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And appetite, an universal wolf,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">So doubly seconded with will and power,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Must make perforce an universal prey,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And last eat up himself.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Deprived of degree, rank, order, society dissolves itself in &quot;chaos.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Near the end of his career, Shakespeare impressively re-stated his
+faith in the imperative need of the due recognition of social rank and
+grade in civilised communities. In <i>Cymbeline</i> (IV., ii., 246-9) &quot;a
+queen's son&quot; meets his death in fight with an inferior, and the
+conqueror is inclined to spurn the lifeless corpse. But a wise veteran
+solemnly uplifts his voice to forbid the insult. Appeal is made to the
+sacred principle of social order, which must be respected even in
+death:&#8212;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i6">Though mean and mighty, rotting<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Together, make one dust; yet reverence,&#8212;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That angel of the world,&#8212;doth make distinction<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Of place 'twixt high and low.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>&quot;Reverence, that angel of the world,&quot; is the ultimate bond of civil
+society, and can never be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span> defied with impunity, it is the saving
+sanction of social order.</p>
+
+
+<h3><a name="VII.5">V</a></h3>
+
+<p>I have quoted some of Shakespeare's avowedly ethical utterances which
+bear on conditions of civil society&#8212;on morals in their social aspect.
+There is no obscurity about their drift. Apart from direct ethical
+declaration, it may be that ethical lessons touching political virtue
+as well as other specific aspects of morality are deducible from a
+study of Shakespeare's plots and characters. Very generous food for
+reflection seems to be offered the political philosopher by the plots
+and characters of <i>Julius C&#230;sar</i> and <i>Coriolanus</i>. The personality of
+Hamlet is instinct with ethical suggestion. The story and personages
+of <i>Measure for Measure</i> present the most persistent of moral
+problems. But discussion of the ethical import of Shakespeare's
+several dramatic portraits or stories is of doubtful utility. There is
+a genuine danger of reading into Shakespeare's plots and characters
+more direct ethical significance than is really there. Dramatic art
+never consciously nor systematically serves obvious purposes of
+morality, save to its own detriment.</p>
+
+<p>Nevertheless there is not likely to be much disagreement with the
+general assertion that Shakespeare's plots and characters
+involuntarily develop under his hand in conformity with the
+straightforward requirements of moral law. He upholds the broad canons
+of moral truth with consistency, even with severity. There is no
+mistaking in his works on which side lies the right. He never renders
+vice amiable. His want of delicacy, his challenges of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span> modesty, need
+no palliation. It was characteristic of his age to speak more plainly
+of many topics about which polite lips are nowadays silent. But
+Shakespeare's coarsenesses do no injury to the healthy-minded. They do
+not encourage evil propensities. Wickedness is always wickedness in
+Shakespeare, and never deludes the spectator by masquerading as
+something else. His plays never present problems as to whether vice is
+not after all in certain conditions the sister of virtue. Shakespeare
+never shows vice in the twilight, nor leaves the spectator or reader
+in doubt as to what its features precisely are. Vice injures him who
+practises it in the Shakespearean world, and ultimately proves his
+ruin. One cannot play with vice with impunity.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">The gods are just, and of our pleasant vices<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Make instruments to plague us.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>It is not because Shakespeare is a conscious moralist, that the wheel
+comes full circle in his dramatic world. It is because his sense of
+art is involuntarily coloured by a profound conviction of the ultimate
+justice which governs the operations of human nature and society.</p>
+
+<p>Shakespeare argues, in effect, that a man reaps as he sows. It may be
+contended that Nature does not always work in strict accord with this
+Shakespearean canon, and that Shakespeare thereby shows himself more
+of a deliberate moralist than Nature herself. But the dramatist
+idealises or generalises human experience; he does not reproduce it
+literally. There is nothing in the Shakespearean canon that runs
+directly counter to the idealised or generalised experience of the
+outer world. The wicked and the foolish, the intemperate and the
+over-passionate, reach in Shakespeare's world<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span> that disastrous goal,
+which nature at large keeps in reserve for them and only by rare
+accident suffers them to evade. The father who brings up his children
+badly and yet expects every dutiful consideration from them is only in
+rare conditions spared the rude awakening which overwhelms King Lear.
+The jealous husband who wrongly suspects his wife of infidelity
+commonly suffers the fate either of Othello or of Leontes.</p>
+
+
+<h3><a name="VII.6">VI</a></h3>
+
+<p>Shakespeare regards it as the noblest ambition in man to master his
+own destiny. There are numerous passages in which the dramatist
+figures as an absolute and uncompromising champion of the freedom of
+the will. &quot;'Tis in ourselves that we are thus or thus,&quot; says one of
+his characters, Iago; &quot;Our bodies are our gardens, to the which our
+wills are gardeners.&quot; Edmond says much the same in <i>King Lear</i> when he
+condemns as &quot;the excellent foppery of the world&quot; the ascription to
+external influences of all our faults and misfortunes, whereas they
+proceed from our wilful, deliberate choice of the worser way.
+Repeatedly does Shakespeare assert that we are useful or useless
+members of society according as we will it ourselves.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Which we ascribe to heaven; the fated sky<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Gives us free scope,<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>says Helena in <i>All's Well</i> (I., i., 231-3).</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Men at some time are masters of their fates,<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>says Cassius in <i>Julius C&#230;sar</i> (I., ii., 139-41);</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But in ourselves that we are underlings.<br /></span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span></div></div>
+
+<p>Hereditary predispositions, the accidents of environment, are not
+insuperable; they can be neutralised by force of will, by character.
+Character is omnipotent.</p>
+
+<p>The self-sufficing, imperturbable will is the ideal possession, beside
+which all else in the world is valueless. But the quest of it is
+difficult, and success in the pursuit is rare. Mastery of the will is
+the result of a rare conjunction&#8212;a perfect commingling of blood and
+judgment. Without such harmonious union man is &quot;a pipe&quot;&#8212;a musical
+instrument&#8212;&quot;for Fortune's finger to sound what stop she pleases.&quot; Man
+can only work out his own salvation when he can control his passions
+and can take with equal thanks Fortune's buffets or rewards.</p>
+
+<p>The best of men is&#8212;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i10">Spare in diet<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Free from gross passion or of mirth or anger,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Constant in spirit, not swerving with the blood.<br /></span>
+<span class="i8">(<i>Henry V.</i>, II., ii., 131-3.)<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>His is</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i13">the nature<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Whom passion could not shake&#8212;whose solid virtue<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The shot of accident nor dart of chance<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Could neither graze nor pierce.<br /></span>
+<span class="i8">(<i>Othello</i>, IV., i., 176-9.)<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Stability of temperament is the finest fruit of the free exercise of
+the will; it is the noblest of masculine excellences.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i8">Give me that man<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That is not passion's slave, and I will wear him<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">In my heart's core&#8212;ay, in my heart of hearts.<br /></span>
+<span class="i8">(<i>Hamlet</i>, III., ii., 76-8.)<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>In spite of his many beautiful portrayals of the charms and tenderness
+and innocence of womanhood, Shakespeare had less hope in the ultimate
+capacity of women to control their destiny than in the ultimate
+capacity of men. The greatest of his female creations,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span> Lady Macbeth
+and Cleopatra, stand in a category of their own. They do not lack high
+power of will, even if they are unable so to commingle blood and
+judgment as to master fate.</p>
+
+<p>Elsewhere, the dramatist seems to betray private suspicion of the
+normal woman's volitional capacity by applying to her heart and mind
+the specific epithet &quot;waxen.&quot; The feminine temperament takes the
+impress of its environment as easily as wax takes the impress of a
+seal. In two passages where this simile is employed,<a name="FNanchor_31_31" id="FNanchor_31_31"></a><a href="#Footnote_31_31" class="fnanchor">[31]</a> the deduction
+from it is pressed to the furthest limit, and free-will is denied
+women altogether. Feminine susceptibility is pronounced to be
+incurable; wavering, impressionable emotion is a main constituent of
+woman's being; women are not responsible for the sins they commit nor
+the wrongs they endure.</p>
+
+<p>This is reactionary doctrine, and one of the few points in
+Shakespeare's &quot;natural&quot; philosophy which invites dissent. But he makes
+generous amends by ascribing to women a plentiful supply of humour. No
+writer has proclaimed more effectively his faith in woman's brilliance
+of wit nor in her quickness of apprehension.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<h3><a name="VII.7">VII</a></h3>
+
+<p>Despite the solemnity which attaches to Shakespeare's philosophic
+reflections, he is at heart an optimist and a humorist. He combines
+with his serious thought a thorough joy in life, an irremovable
+preference for the bright over the dismal side of things. The creator
+of Falstaff and Mercutio, of Beatrice and the Princess in <i>Love's
+Labour's Lost</i>, could hardly fail to set store by that gaiety of
+spirit which is the antidote to unreasoning discontent, and keeps
+society in good savour.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Dost thou think, because thou art virtuous,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">There shall be no more cakes and ale?<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>is the voice of Shakespeare as well as of Sir Toby Belch. The
+dramatist was at one with Rosalind, his offspring, when she told
+Jaques:&#8212;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">I had rather have a fool to make me merry,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Than experience to make me sad.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>The same sanguine optimistic temper constantly strikes a more
+impressive note.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">There is some soul of goodness in things evil,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Would men observingly distil it out,<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>is a comprehensive maxim, which sounds as if it came straight from
+Shakespeare's lips. This battle-cry of invincible optimism is uttered
+in the play by Shakespeare's favourite hero, Henry V. It is hard to
+quarrel with the inference that these words convey the ultimate
+verdict of the dramatist on human affairs.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="VIII" id="VIII"></a>VIII</h2>
+
+<h2>SHAKESPEARE AND PATRIOTISM<a name="FNanchor_32_32" id="FNanchor_32_32"></a><a href="#Footnote_32_32" class="fnanchor">[32]</a></h2>
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tbody>
+<tr>
+<td>
+His noble negligences teach<br />
+What others' toils despair to reach.
+</td>
+</tr>
+</tbody>
+</table>
+
+<h3><a name="VIII.1">I</a></h3>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Patriotism</span> is a natural instinct closely allied to the domestic
+affections. Its normal activity is as essential as theirs to the
+health of society. But, in a greater degree than other instincts, the
+patriotic impulse works with perilous irregularity unless it be
+controlled by the moral sense and the intellect.</p>
+
+<p>Every student of history and politics is aware how readily the
+patriotic instinct, if uncontrolled by morality and reason, comes into
+conflict with both. Freed of moral restraint it is prone to engender a
+peculiarly noxious brand of spurious sentiment&#8212;the patriotism of
+false pretence. Bombastic masquerade of the genuine impulse is not
+uncommon among place-hunters in Parliament and popularity-hunters in
+constituencies, and the honest instinct is thereby brought into
+disrepute. Dr Johnson was thinking solely of the frauds and moral<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span>
+degradation which have been sheltered by self-seekers under the name
+of patriotism when he none too pleasantly remarked: &quot;Patriotism is the
+last refuge of a scoundrel.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Doctor's epigram hardly deserves its fame. It embodies a very
+meagre fraction of the truth. While it ignores the beneficent effects
+of the patriotic instinct, it does not exhaust its evil propensities.
+It is not only the moral obliquity of place-hunters or
+popularity-hunters that can fix on patriotism the stigma of offence.
+Its healthy development depends on intellectual as well as on moral
+guidance. When the patriotic instinct, however honestly it be
+cherished, is freed of intellectual restraint, it works even more
+mischief than when it is deliberately counterfeited. Among the
+empty-headed it very easily degenerates into an over-assertive, a
+swollen selfishness, which ignores or defies the just rights and
+feelings of those who do not chance to be their fellow-countrymen. No
+one needs to be reminded how much wrong-doing and cruelty have been
+encouraged by perfectly honest patriots who lack &quot;intellectual
+armour.&quot; Dr Johnson knew that the blockhead seeks the shelter of
+patriotism with almost worse result to the body politic than the
+scoundrel.</p>
+
+<p>On the other hand, morality and reason alike resent the defect of
+patriotism as stoutly as its immoral or unintellectual extravagance. A
+total lack of the instinct implies an abnormal development of moral
+sentiment or intellect which must be left to the tender mercies of the
+mental pathologist. The man who is the friend of every country but his
+own can only be accounted for scientifically as the victim<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span> of an
+aberration of mind or heart. Ostentatious disclaimers of the patriotic
+sentiment deserve as little sympathy as the false pretenders to an
+exaggerated share of it. A great statesman is responsible for an
+apophthegm on that aspect of the topic which always deserves to be
+quoted in the same breath as Dr Johnson's familiar half-truth. When
+Sir Francis Burdett, the Radical leader in the early days of the last
+century, avowed scorn for the normal instinct of patriotism, Lord John
+Russell, the leader of the Liberal party in the House of Commons,
+sagely retorted: &quot;The honourable member talks of the <i>cant</i> of
+patriotism; but there is something worse than the <i>cant</i> of
+patriotism, and that is the <i>recant</i> of patriotism.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_33_33" id="FNanchor_33_33"></a><a href="#Footnote_33_33" class="fnanchor">[33]</a> Mr Gladstone
+declared Lord John's repartee to be the best that he ever heard.</p>
+
+<p>It may be profitable to consider how patriotism, which is singularly
+liable to distortion and perversion, presented itself to the mind of
+Shakespeare, the clearest-headed student of human thought and
+sentiment.</p>
+
+
+<h3><a name="VIII.2">II</a></h3>
+
+<p>In Shakespeare's universal survey of human nature it was impossible
+that he should leave patriotism and the patriotic instinct out of
+account. It was inevitable that prevalent phases of both should
+frequently occupy his attention. In his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span> r&#244;le of dramatist he
+naturally dealt with the topic incidentally or disconnectedly rather
+than in the way of definite exposition; but in the result, his
+treatment will probably be found to be more exhaustive than that of
+any other English writer. The Shakespearean drama is peculiarly
+fertile in illustration of the virtuous or beneficent working of the
+patriotic instinct; but it does not neglect the malevolent or morbid
+symptoms incident either to its exorbitant or to its defective growth;
+nor is it wanting in suggestions as to how its healthy development may
+be best ensured. Part of Shakespeare's message on the subject is so
+well known that readers may need an apology for reference to it; but
+Shakespeare's declarations have not, as far as I know, been
+co-ordinated.<a name="FNanchor_34_34" id="FNanchor_34_34"></a><a href="#Footnote_34_34" class="fnanchor">[34]</a></p>
+
+<p>Broadly speaking, the Shakespearean drama enforces the principle that
+an active instinct of patriotism promotes righteous conduct. This
+principle lies at the root of Shakespeare's treatment of history and
+political action, both English and Roman. Normal manifestations of the
+instinct in Shakespeare's world shed a gracious light on life. But it
+is seen to work in many ways. The patriotic instinct gives birth to
+various moods. It operates with some appearance of inconsistency. Now
+it acts as a spiritual sedative, now as a spiritual stimulant.</p>
+
+<p>Of all Shakespeare's characters, it is Bolingbroke in <i>Richard II.</i>
+who betrays most effectively the tranquillising influence of
+patriotism. In him the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span> patriotic instinct inclines to identity with
+the simple spirit of domesticity. It is a magnified love for his own
+hearthstone&#8212;a glorified home-sickness. The very soil of England,
+England's ground, excites in Bolingbroke an overmastering sentiment of
+devotion. His main happiness in life resides in the thought that
+England is his mother and his nurse. The patriotic instinct thus
+exerts on a character which is naturally cold and unsympathetic a
+softening, soothing, and purifying sway. Despite his forbidding
+self-absorption and personal ambition he touches hearts, and rarely
+fails to draw tears when he sighs forth the bald lines:&#8212;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Where'er I wander, boast of this I can,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Though banished, yet a true-born Englishman.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>In such a shape the patriotic instinct may tend in natures weaker than
+Bolingbroke's to mawkishness or sentimentality. But it is incapable of
+active offence. It makes for the peace and goodwill not merely of
+nations among themselves, but of the constituent elements of each
+nation within itself. It unifies human aspiration and breeds social
+harmony.</p>
+
+<p>Very different is the phase of the patriotic instinct which is
+portrayed in the more joyous, more frank, and more impulsive
+characters of Faulconbridge the Bastard in the play of <i>King John</i>,
+and of the King in <i>Henry V.</i> It is in them an inexhaustible stimulus
+to action. It is never quiescent, but its operations are regulated by
+morality and reason, and it finally induces a serene exaltation of
+temper. It was a pardonable foible of Elizabethan writers distinctly
+to identify with the English character this healthily energetic sort
+of patriotism&#8212;the sort of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span> patriotism to which an atmosphere of
+knavery or folly proves fatal.</p>
+
+<p>Faulconbridge is an admirable embodiment of the patriotic sentiment in
+its most attractive guise. He is a manly soldier, blunt in speech,
+contemning subterfuge, chafing against the dictates of political
+expediency, and believing that quarrels between nations which cannot
+be accommodated without loss of self-respect on the one side or the
+other, had better be fought out in resolute and honourable war. He is
+the sworn foe of the bully or the braggart. Cruelty is hateful to him.
+The patriotic instinct nurtures in him a warm and generous humanity.
+His faith in the future of his nation depends on the confident hope
+that she will be true to herself, to her traditions, to her
+responsibilities, to the great virtues; that she will be at once
+courageous and magnanimous:&#8212;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Come the three corners of the world in arms,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And we shall shock them. Nought shall make us rue,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">If England to itself do rest but true.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Faulconbridge's patriotism is a vivacious spur to good endeavour in
+every relation of life.</p>
+
+<p>Henry V. is drawn by Shakespeare at fuller length than Faulconbridge.
+His character is cast in a larger mould. But his patriotism is of the
+same spirited, wholesome type. Though Henry is a born soldier, he
+discourages insolent aggression or reckless displays of prowess in
+fight. With greater emphasis than his archbishops and bishops he
+insists that his country's sword should not be unsheathed except at
+the bidding of right and conscience. At the same time, he is terrible
+in resolution when the time comes for striking blows. War, when it is
+once<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span> invoked, must be pursued with all possible force and fury:&#8212;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">In peace there's nothing so becomes a man<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">As modest stillness and humility.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But when the blast of war blows in his ears,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Then imitate the action of the tiger.<a name="FNanchor_35_35" id="FNanchor_35_35"></a><a href="#Footnote_35_35" class="fnanchor">[35]</a><br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>But although Henry's patriotic instinct can drive him into battle, it
+keeps him faithful there to the paths of humanity. Always alive to the
+horrors of war, he sternly forbids looting or even the use of
+insulting language to the enemy. It is only when a defeated enemy
+declines to acknowledge the obvious ruin of his fortunes that a sane
+and practical patriotism defends resort on the part of the conqueror
+to the grimmest measure of severity. The healthy instinct stiffens the
+grip on the justly won fruits of victory. As soon as Henry V. sees
+that the French wilfully deny the plain fact of their overthrow, he is
+moved, quite consistently, to exclaim:&#8212;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">What is it then to me if impious war,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Arrayed in flames like to the prince of fiends,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Do with his smirched complexion all fell feats,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Enlinked to waste and desolation?<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>The context makes it clear that there is no confusion here between the
+patriotic instinct and mere bellicose ecstasy.</p>
+
+<p>The confusion of patriotism with militant aggressiveness is as
+familiar to the Shakespearean drama as to the external world; but it
+is always exhibited by Shakespeare in its proper colours. The
+Shakespearean<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span> &quot;mob,&quot; unwashed in mind and body, habitually yields to
+it, and justifies itself by a speciousness of argument, against which
+a clean vision rebels. The so-called patriotism which seeks expression
+in war for its own sake is alone intelligible to Shakespeare's
+pavement orators. &quot;Let me have war, say I,&quot; exclaims the professedly
+patriotic spokesman of the ill-conditioned proletariat in
+<i>Coriolanus</i>; &quot;it exceeds peace as far as day does night; it's
+spritely, waking, audible, and full of vent. Peace is a very apoplexy,
+lethargy; mulled, deaf, sleepy, insensible.... Ay, and it makes men
+hate one another.&quot; For this distressing result of peace, the reason is
+given that in times of peace men have less need of one another than in
+seasons of war, and the crude argument closes with the cry: &quot;The wars
+for my money.&quot; There is irony in this suggestion of the mercantile
+value of war on the lips of a spokesman of paupers. It is solely the
+impulsive mindless patriot who strains after mere military glory.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Glory is like a circle in the water,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Which never ceaseth to enlarge itself,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Till by broad spreading it disperse to nought.<br /></span>
+<span class="i8">(I. <i>Henry VI.</i>, I., ii., 133-5.)<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>No wise man vaunts in the name of patriotism his own nation's
+superiority over another. The typical patriot, Henry V., once makes
+the common boast that one Englishman is equal to three Frenchmen, but
+he apologises for the brag as soon as it is out of his mouth. (He
+fears the air of France has demoralised him.)</p>
+
+<p>Elsewhere Shakespeare utters a vivacious warning against the patriot's
+exclusive claim for his country of natural advantages, which all the
+world shares substantially alike.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Hath Britain all the sun that shines? Day, night,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Are they not but in Britain? I' the world's volume<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Our Britain seems as of it, but not in 't;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">In a great pool, a swan's nest: prithee, think<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">There's livers out of Britain.<a name="FNanchor_36_36" id="FNanchor_36_36"></a><a href="#Footnote_36_36" class="fnanchor">[36]</a><br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>It is not the wild hunger for war, but the stable interests of peace
+that are finally subserved in the Shakespearean world by true and
+well-regulated patriotism. <i>Henry V.</i>, the play of Shakespeare which
+shows the genuine patriotic instinct in its most energetic guise, ends
+with a powerful appeal to France and England, traditional foes, to
+cherish &quot;neighbourhood and Christianlike accord,&quot; so that never again
+should &quot;war advance his bleeding sword 'twixt England and fair
+France.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>However whole-heartedly Shakespeare rebukes the excesses and illogical
+pretensions to which the lack of moral or intellectual discipline
+exposes patriotism, he reserves his austerest censure for the
+disavowal of the patriotic instinct altogether. One of the greatest of
+his plays is practically a diagnosis of the perils which follow in the
+train of a wilful abnegation of the normal instinct. In <i>Coriolanus</i>
+Shakespeare depicts the career of a man who thinks that he can, by
+virtue of inordinate self-confidence and belief in his personal
+superiority over the rest of his countrymen, safely abjure and defy
+the common patriotic instinct, which, after all, keeps the State in
+being. &quot;I'll never,&quot; says Coriolanus,</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">&quot;Be such a gosling to obey instinct, but stand<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">As if a man were author of himself,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And knew no other kin.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_37_37" id="FNanchor_37_37"></a><a href="#Footnote_37_37" class="fnanchor">[37]</a><br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Coriolanus deliberately suppresses the patriotic in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span>stinct, and, with
+greater consistency than others who have at times followed his
+example, joins the fighting ranks of his country's enemies by way of
+illustrating his sincerity. His action proves to be in conflict with
+the elementary condition of social equilibrium. The subversion of the
+natural instinct is brought to the logical issues of sin and death.
+Domestic ties are rudely severed. The crime of treason is risked with
+an insolence that is fatal to the transgressor. With relentless logic
+does the Shakespearean drama condemn defiance of the natural instinct
+of patriotism.</p>
+
+
+<h3><a name="VIII.3">III</a></h3>
+
+<p>It does not, however, follow that the patriotic instinct of the
+Shakespearean gospel encourages blind adoration of state or country.
+Intelligent citizens of the Shakespearean world are never prohibited
+from honestly criticising the acts or aspirations of their fellows,
+and from seeking to change them when they honestly think they can be
+changed for the better. It is not the business of a discerning patriot
+to sing p&#230;ans in his nation's honour. His final aim is to help his
+country to realise the highest ideals of social and political conduct
+which are known to him, and to ensure for her the best possible
+&quot;reputation through the world.&quot; Criticism conceived in a patriotic
+spirit should be constant and unflagging. The true patriot speaks out
+as boldly when he thinks the nation errs as when, in his opinion, she
+adds new laurels to her crown. The Shakespearean patriot applies a
+rigorous judgment to all conditions of his environment&#8212;both social
+and political.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Throughout the English history plays Shakespeare bears convincing
+testimony to the right, and even to the duty, of the patriot to
+exercise in all seriousness his best powers of criticism on the
+political conduct of his fellow-citizens and of those who rule over
+him.</p>
+
+<p>Shakespeare's studies of English history are animated by a patriotism
+which boldly seeks and faces the truth. His dramatic presentations of
+English history have been often described as fragments of a national
+epic, as detached books of an English <i>Iliad</i>. But they embody no epic
+or heroic glorification of the nation. Taking the great series which
+begins chronologically with <i>King John</i> and ends with <i>Richard III.</i>
+(<i>Henry VIII.</i> stands apart), we find that Shakespeare makes the
+central features of the national history the persons of the kings.
+Only in the case of <i>Henry V.</i> does he clothe an English king with any
+genuine heroism. Shakespeare's kings are as a rule but men as we are.
+The violet smells to them as it does to us; all their senses have but
+human conditions; and though their affections be higher mounted than
+ours, yet when they stoop they stoop with like wing. Excepting <i>Henry
+V.</i>, the history plays are tragedies. They &quot;tell sad stories of the
+death of kings.&quot; But they do not merely illustrate the crushing
+burdens of kingship or point the moral of the hollowness of kingly
+pageantry; they explain why kingly glory is in its essence brittle
+rather than brilliant. And since Shakespeare's rulers reflect rather
+than inspire the character of the nation, we are brought to a study of
+the causes of the brittleness of national glory.</p>
+
+<p>The glory of a nation, as of a king, is only stable, we learn, when
+the nation, as the king, lives soberly,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span> virtuously, and wisely, and
+is courageous, magnanimous, and zealous after knowledge. Cowardice,
+meanness, ignorance, and cruelty ruin nations as surely as they ruin
+kings. This is the lesson specifically taught in the most eloquent of
+all the direct avowals of patriotism which are to be found in
+Shakespeare's plays&#8212;in the dying speech of John of Gaunt.</p>
+
+<p>That speech is no ebullition of the undisciplined patriotic instinct.
+It is a solemn announcement of the truth that the greatness and glory,
+with which nature and history have endowed a nation, may be dissipated
+when, on the one hand, the rulers prove selfish, frivolous, and
+unequal to the responsibilities which a great past places on their
+shoulders, and when, on the other hand, the nation acquiesces in the
+depravity of its governors. In his opening lines the speaker lays
+emphasis on the possibilities of greatness with which the natural
+physical conditions of the country and its political and military
+traditions have invested his countrymen. Thereby he brings into lurid
+relief the sin and the shame of paltering with, of putting to ignoble
+uses, the national character and influence. The dying patriot
+apostrophises England in the familiar phrases, as:&#8212;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">This royal throne of kings, this sceptred isle....<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">This fortress, built by nature for herself,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Against infection and the hand of war;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">This happy breed of men, this little world;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">This precious stone set in the silver sea,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Which serves it in the office of a wall,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Or as a moat defensive to a house,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Against the envy of less happier lands:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">This land of such dear souls, this dear, dear land,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Dear for her reputation through the world.<br /></span>
+<span class="i8">(<i>Richard II.</i>, II., i., 40-58.)<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The last line identifies with the patriotic instinct the aspiration of
+a people to deserve well of foreign opinion. Subsequently the speaker
+turns from his survey of the ideal which he would have his country
+seek. He exposes with ruthless frankness the ugly realities of her
+present degradation.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">England, bound in with the triumphant sea,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Whose rocky shore beats back the envious siege<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Of wat'ry Neptune, is now bound in with shame,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">With inky blots, and rotten parchment bonds,&#8212;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That England, that was wont to conquer others,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Hath made a shameful conquest of itself.<br /></span>
+<span class="i8">(<i>Richard II.</i>, II., i., 61-6.)<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>At the moment the speaker's warning is scorned, but ultimately it
+takes effect. At the end of the play of <i>Richard II.</i>, England casts
+off the ruler and his allies, who by their self-indulgence and moral
+weakness play false with the traditions of the country.</p>
+
+<p>In <i>Henry V.</i>, the only one of Shakespeare's historical plays in which
+an English king quits the stage in the full enjoyment of prosperity,
+his good fortune is more than once explained as the reward of his
+endeavour to abide by the highest ideals of his race, and of his
+resolve to exhibit in his own conduct its noblest mettle. His
+strongest appeals to his fellow-countrymen are:&#8212;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Dishonour not your mothers; now attest<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That those whom you call'd fathers did beget you;<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i6">* * * * *<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i13">Let us swear<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That you are worth your breeding.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>The kernel of sound patriotism is respect for a nation's traditional
+repute, for the attested worth of the race. That is the large lesson
+which Shakespeare taught continuously throughout his career as a
+dramatist. The teaching is not solely enshrined in the poetic
+eloquence either of plays of his early years<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span> like <i>Richard II.</i> or of
+plays of his middle life like <i>Henry V.</i> It is the last as well as the
+first word in Shakespeare's collective declaration on the true
+character of patriotism. <i>Cymbeline</i> belongs to the close of his
+working life, and there we meet once more the assurance that a due
+regard to the past and an active resolve to keep alive ancestral
+virtue are the surest signs of health in the patriotic instinct.</p>
+
+<p>The accents of John of Gaunt were repeated by Shakespeare with little
+modulation at that time of his life when his reflective power was at
+its ripest. The Queen of Britain, Cymbeline's wife, is the personage
+in whose mouth Shakespeare sets, not perhaps quite appropriately, the
+latest message in regard to patriotism that he is known to have
+delivered. Emissaries from the Emperor Augustus have come from Rome to
+demand from the King of Britain payment of the tribute that Julius
+C&#230;sar had long since imposed on the island, by virtue of a <i>force
+majeure</i>, which is temporarily extinguished. The pusillanimous King
+Cymbeline is indisposed to put himself to the pains of contesting the
+claim, but the resolute queen awakens in him a sense of patriotism and
+of patriotic obligation by recalling the more nobly inspired attitude
+of his ancestors, and by convincing him of the baseness of ignoring
+the physical features which had been bestowed by nature on his domains
+as a guarantee of their independence.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i6">Remember, sir my liege,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The kings your ancestors, together with<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The natural bravery of your isle, which stands<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">As Neptune's park, ribbed and paled in<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">With rocks unscaleable and roaring waters,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">With sands, that will not bear your enemies' boats,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But suck them up to the topmast.<br /></span>
+<span class="i8">(<i>Cymbeline</i>, III., i., 16-22.)<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The appeal prevails, and the tribute is refused. Although the
+evolution of the plot which is based on an historical chronicle
+compels the renewed acquiescence of the British king in the Roman tax
+at the close of the play, the Queen of Britain's spirited insistence
+on the maritime strength of her country loses little of its
+significance.</p>
+
+
+<h3><a name="VIII.4">IV</a></h3>
+
+<p>Frank criticism of the social life of the nation is as characteristic
+of Shakespearean drama as outspoken exposition of its political
+failings. There is hardly any of Shakespeare's plays which does not
+offer shrewd comment on the foibles and errors of contemporary English
+society.</p>
+
+<p>To society, Shakespeare's attitude is that of a humorist who invites
+to reformation half-jestingly. His bantering tone, when he turns to
+social censure, strikingly contrasts with the tragic earnestness that
+colours his criticism of political vice or weakness. Some of the
+national failings on the social side which Shakespeare rebukes may
+seem trivial at a first glance. But it is the voice of prudent
+patriotism which prompts each count in the indictment. The keenness of
+Shakespeare's insight is attested by the circumstance that every
+charge has a modern application. None is yet quite out of date.</p>
+
+<p>Shakespeare rarely missed an opportunity of betraying contempt for the
+extravagances of his countrymen and countrywomen in regard to dress.
+Portia says of her English suitor Faulconbridge, the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span> young baron of
+England: &quot;How oddly he is suited! I think he bought his doublet in
+Italy, his round hose in France, his bonnet in Germany, and his
+behaviour everywhere.&quot; Another failing in Englishmen, which Portia
+detects in her English suitor, is a total ignorance of any language
+but his own. She, an Italian lady, remarks: &quot;You know I say nothing to
+him, for he understands not me nor I him. He hath neither Latin,
+French, nor Italian. He is a proper man's picture, but, alas! who can
+converse with a dumb show.&quot; This moving plaint draws attention to a
+defect which is not yet supplied. There are few Englishmen nowadays
+who, on being challenged to court Portia in Italian, would not cut a
+sorry figure in dumb show&#8212;sorrier figures than Frenchmen or Germans.
+No true patriot ought to ignore the fact or to direct attention to it
+with complacency.</p>
+
+<p>Again, Shakespeare was never unmindful of the drunken habits of his
+compatriots. When Iago sings a verse of the song beginning, &quot;And let
+me the cannikin clink,&quot; and ending, &quot;Why then let a soldier drink,&quot;
+Cassio commends the excellence of the ditty. Thereupon Iago explains:
+&quot;I learned it in England, where indeed they are most potent in
+potting; Your Dane, your German, and your swag-bellied
+Hollander&#8212;drink, ho!&#8212;are nothing to your English.&quot; Cassio asks: &quot;Is
+your Englishman so expert in his drinking?&quot; Iago retorts: &quot;Why, he
+drinks you, with facility, your Dane dead drunk,&quot; and gains, the
+speaker explains, easy mastery over the German and the Hollander.</p>
+
+<p>A further stroke of Shakespeare's social criticism hits the
+thoughtless pursuit of novelty, which infected the nation and found
+vent in Shakespeare's day in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span> patronage of undignified shows and
+sports. When Trinculo, perplexed by the outward aspect of the hideous
+Caliban, mistakes him for a fish, he remarks: &quot;Were I in England now,
+as once I was, and had but this fish painted, not a holiday fool there
+but would give a piece of silver: there would this monster make a man;
+any strange beast there makes a man: when they will not give a doit to
+relieve a lame beggar, they will lay out ten to see a dead Indian.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Shakespeare seems slyly to confess a personal conviction of defective
+balance in the popular judgment when he makes the first grave-digger
+remark that Hamlet was sent into England because he was mad.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He shall recover his wits there,&quot; the old clown suggests, &quot;or if he
+do not, 'tis no great matter there.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why?&quot; asks Hamlet.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Twill not be seen in him there; there the men are as mad as he.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>So, too, in the emphatically patriotic play of <i>Henry V.</i>, Shakespeare
+implies that he sees some purpose in the Frenchman's jibes at the
+foggy, raw, and dull climate of England, which engenders in its
+inhabitants, the Frenchman argues, a frosty temperament, an ungenial
+coldness of blood. Nor does the dramatist imply dissent from the
+French marshal's suggestion that Englishmen's great meals of beef
+impair the efficiency of their intellectual armour. The point of the
+reproof is not blunted by the subsequent admission of a French critic
+in the same scene to the effect that, however robustious and rough in
+manner Englishmen may be, they have the unmatchable courage of the
+English breed of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span> mastiffs. To credit men with the highest virtues of
+which dogs are capable is a grudging compliment.</p>
+
+
+<h3><a name="VIII.5">V</a></h3>
+
+<p>To sum up. The Shakespearean drama enjoins those who love their
+country wisely to neglect no advantage that nature offers in the way
+of resisting unjust demands upon it; to remember that her prosperity
+depends on her command of the sea,&#8212;of &quot;the silver sea, which serves
+it in the office of a wall, or as a moat defensive to a house, against
+the envy of less happier lands&quot;; to hold firm in the memory &quot;the dear
+souls&quot; who have made &quot;her reputation through the world&quot;; to subject at
+need her faults and frailties to criticism and rebuke; and finally to
+treat with disdain those in places of power, who make of no account
+their responsibilities to the past as well as to the present and the
+future. The political, social, and physical conditions of his country
+have altered since Shakespeare lived. England has ceased to be an
+island-power. The people rule instead of the king. Social
+responsibilities are more widely acknowledged. But the dramatist's
+doctrine of patriotism has lost little of its pristine vitality, and
+is relevant to current affairs.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="IX" id="IX"></a>IX</h2>
+
+<h2>A PERIL OF SHAKESPEAREAN RESEARCH<a name="FNanchor_38_38" id="FNanchor_38_38"></a><a href="#Footnote_38_38" class="fnanchor">[38]</a></h2>
+
+
+<h3><a name="IX.1">I</a></h3>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">For</span> some years past scarcely a month passes without my receipt of a
+communication from a confiding stranger, to the effect that he has
+discovered some piece of information concerning Shakespeare which has
+hitherto eluded research. Very often has a correspondent put himself
+to the trouble of forwarding a photograph of the title-page of a late
+sixteenth or early seventeenth century book, on which has been
+scrawled in old-fashioned script the familiar name of William
+Shakespeare. At intervals, which seem to recur with mathematical
+regularity, I receive intelligence that a portrait of the poet, of
+which nothing is hitherto known, has come to light in some recondite
+corner of England or America, and it is usually added that a
+contemporary inscription settles all doubt of authenticity.</p>
+
+<p>I wish to speak with respect and gratitude of these confidences. I
+welcome them, and have no wish to repress them. But truth does not
+permit me to affirm that such as have yet reached me have done more
+than enlarge my conception of the scope<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span> of human credulity. I look
+forward to the day when the postman shall, through the generosity of
+some appreciative reader of my biography of Shakespeare, deliver at my
+door an autograph of the dramatist of which nothing has been heard
+before, or a genuine portrait of contemporary date, the existence of
+which has never been suspected. But up to the moment of writing,
+despite the good intentions of my correspondents, no experience of the
+kind has befallen me.</p>
+
+<p>There is something pathetic in the frequency with which
+correspondents, obviously of unblemished character and most generous
+instinct, send me almost tearful expressions of regret that I should
+have hitherto ignored one particular document, which throws (in their
+eyes) a curious gleam on the dramatist's private life. At least six
+times a year am I reminded how it is recorded in more than one obscure
+eighteenth-century periodical that the dramatist, George Peele, wrote
+to his friend Marle or Marlowe, in an extant letter, of a merry
+meeting which was held at a place called the &quot;Globe.&quot; Whether the
+rendezvous were tavern or playhouse is left undetermined. The
+assembled company, I am assured, included not merely Edward Alleyn the
+actor, and Ben Jonson, but Shakespeare himself. Together these
+celebrated men are said to have discussed a passage in the new play of
+<i>Hamlet</i>. The reported talk is at the best tame prattle. Yet, if
+Shakespeare be anywhere revealed in unconstrained intercourse with
+professional associates, no biographer deserves pardon for overlooking
+the revelation, however disappointing be its purport.</p>
+
+<p>Unfortunately for this neglected intelligence, the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span> letter in question
+is an eighteenth century fabrication. It is a forgery of no intrinsic
+brilliance or wit. It bears on its dull face marks of guilt which
+could only escape the notice of the uninformed. It is not likely to
+mislead the critical. Nevertheless it has deceived many an uncritical
+reader, and has constantly found its way into print without meeting
+serious confutation. It may therefore be worth while setting its true
+origin and subsequent history on record. No endeavour is likely in all
+the circumstances of the case to prevent an occasional resurrection of
+the meagre spectre; but at present it appears to walk in various
+quarters quite unimpeded, and an endeavour to lay it may not be
+without its uses.</p>
+
+
+<h3><a name="IX.2">II</a></h3>
+
+<p>Through the first half of 1763 there was published in London a monthly
+magazine called the <i>Theatrical Review, or Annals of the Drama</i>, an
+anonymous miscellany of dramatic biography and criticism. It was a
+colourless contribution to the journalism of the day, and lacked
+powers of endurance. It ceased at the end of six months. The six
+instalments were re-issued as &quot;Volume I.&quot; at the end of June 1763; but
+that volume had no successor.<a name="FNanchor_39_39" id="FNanchor_39_39"></a><a href="#Footnote_39_39" class="fnanchor">[39]</a></p>
+
+<p>All that is worth noting of the <i>Theatrical Review</i> of 1763 now is
+that among its contributors was an extremely interesting personality.
+He was a young<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span> man of good education and independent means, who had
+chambers in the Temple, and was enthusiastically applying himself to a
+study of Shakespeare and Elizabethan dramatic literature. His name,
+George Steevens, acquired in later years world-wide fame as that of
+the most learned of Shakespearean commentators. Of the real value of
+Steevens's scholarship no question is admissible, and his reputation
+justly grew with his years. Yet Steevens's temper was singularly
+perverse and mischievous. His confidence in his own powers led him to
+contemn the powers of other people. He enjoyed nothing so much as
+mystifying those who were engaged in the same pursuits as himself, and
+his favourite method of mystification was to announce anonymously the
+discovery of documents which owed all their existence to his own
+ingenuity. This, he admitted, was his notion of &quot;fun.&quot; Whenever the
+whim seized him, he would in gravest manner reveal to the Press, or
+even contrive to bring to the notice of a learned society, some
+alleged relic in manuscript or in stone which he had deliberately
+manufactured. His sole aim was to recreate himself with laughter at
+the perplexity that such unholy pranks aroused. It is one of these
+Puck-like tricks on Steevens's part that has spread confusion among
+those of my correspondents, who allege that Peele has handed down to
+us a personal reminiscence of the great dramatist.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>Theatrical Review</i>, in its second number, offered an anonymous
+biography of the great actor and theatrical manager of Shakespeare's
+day, Edward Alleyn. This biography was clearly one of Steevens's
+earliest efforts. It is for the most part an innocent compilation. But
+it contains one passage in its<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span> author's characteristic vein of
+mischief. Midway in the essay the reader is solemnly assured that a
+brand-new contemporary reference to Alleyn's eminent associate
+Shakespeare was at his disposal. The new story &quot;carries with it&quot;
+(asserts the writer) &quot;all the air of probability and truth, and has
+never been in print before.&quot; &quot;A gentleman of honour and veracity,&quot; run
+the next sentences, which were designed to put the unwary student off
+his guard, &quot;in the commission of the peace for Middlesex, has shown us
+a letter dated in the year 1600, which he assures us has been in the
+possession of his family, by the mother's side, for a long series of
+years, and which bears all the marks of antiquity.&quot; The superscription
+was interpreted to run: &quot;For Master Henrie Marle, livynge at the sygne
+of the rose by the palace.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>There follows at length the paper of which the family of the
+honourable and veracious gentleman &quot;in the commission of the peace for
+Middlesex&quot; had become possessed &quot;by the mother's side.&quot; The words were
+these:&#8212;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>&quot;<span class="smcap">Friende Marle</span>,</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I must desyre that my syster hyr watche, and the cookerie
+booke you promysed, may be sent by the man. I never longed
+for thy company more than last night; we were all very
+merrye at the Globe, when Ned Alleyn did not scruple to
+affyrme pleasantely to thy friend Will, that he had stolen
+his speech about the qualityes of an actor's excellencye, in
+<i>Hamlet</i> hys tragedye, from conversations manyfold which had
+passed between them, and opinyons given by Allen touchinge
+the subject. Shakespeare did not take this talke in good
+sorte; but Jonson put an end to the stryfe with wittielie
+saying: 'This affaire<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span> needeth no contentione; you stole it
+from Ned, no doubt; do not marvel; have you not seen him act
+tymes out of number?'</p>
+
+<p><span style="margin-left: 4em;">&quot;Believe me most syncerelie,</span></p>
+
+<p><span style="margin-left: 6em;">&quot;Harrie,</span></p>
+
+<p><span style="margin-left: 8em;">&quot;Thyne,</span></p>
+
+<p><span style="margin-left: 10em;">&quot;<span class="smcap">G. Peel</span>.&quot;</span></p></div>
+
+<p>The text of this strangely-spelt, strangely-worded epistle, with its
+puny efforts at a jest, was succeeded by a suggestion that &quot;G. Peel,&quot;
+the alleged signatory, could be none other than George Peele, the
+dramatist, who achieved reputation in Shakespeare's early days, and
+was an industrious collector of anecdotes.</p>
+
+<p>Thus the impish Steevens baited his hook. The sport which followed
+must have exceeded his expectations. Any one familiar with the bare
+outline of Elizabethan literary history should have perceived that a
+trap had been set. The letter was assigned to the year 1600.
+Shakespeare's play of <i>Hamlet</i>, to the performance of which it
+unconcernedly refers, was not produced before 1602; at that date
+George Peele had lain full four years in his grave. Peele could never
+have passed the portals of the theatre called the &quot;Globe&quot;; for it was
+not built until 1599. No historic tavern of the name is known. The
+surname of the person, to whom the letter was pretended to have been
+addressed, is suspicious. &quot;Marle&quot; was one way of spelling &quot;Marlowe&quot; at
+a period when forms of surnames varied with the caprice of the writer.
+The great dramatist, <i>Christopher</i> Marle, or Marloe, or Marlowe, had
+died in 1593. &quot;Henrie Marle&quot; is counterfeit coinage of no doubtful
+stamp.</p>
+
+<p>The language and the style of the letter are un<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span>deserving of serious
+examination. They are of a far later period than the Elizabethan age.
+They cannot be dated earlier than 1763. Safely might the heaviest odds
+be laid that in no year of the reign of Queen Elizabeth &quot;did friende
+Marle promyse G. Peel his syster that he would send hyr watche and the
+cookerie book by the man,&quot; or that &quot;Ned Alleyn made pleasante
+affirmation to G. Peel of friend Will's theft of the speech in
+<i>Hamlet</i> concerning an actor's excellencye.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>From top to toe the imposture is obvious. But the general reader of
+the eighteenth century was confiding, unsuspicious, greedy of novel
+information. The description of the source of the document seemed to
+him precise enough to silence doubt.</p>
+
+
+<h3><a name="IX.3">III</a></h3>
+
+<p>The <i>Theatrical Review</i> of 1763 succeeded in launching the fraud on a
+quite triumphal progress. Again and again, as the century advanced,
+was G. Peel's declaration to &quot;friende Marle&quot; paraded, without hint of
+its falsity, before snappers-up of Shakespearean trifles. Seven years
+after its first publication, the epistle found admission in a slightly
+altered setting to so reputable a periodical as the <i>Annual Register</i>.
+Burke was still directing that useful publication, and whatever
+information the <i>Register</i> shielded, was reckoned to be of veracity.
+&quot;G. Peel&quot; and &quot;friende Marle&quot; were there, in the year 1770, suffered
+to exchange their confidences in the most honourable environment.</p>
+
+<p>Another seven years passed, and in 1777 there appeared an ambitious
+work of reference, entitled<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span> <i>Biographia Literaria, or a Biographical
+History of Literature</i>, which gave its author, John Berkenhout, a
+free-thinking physician, his chief claim to remembrance. Steevens was
+a friend of Berkenhout, and helped him in the preparation of the book.
+Into his account of Shakespeare, the credulous physician introduced
+quite honestly the fourteen-year-old forgery. The reputed date of
+1600, which the supposititious justice of the peace had given it in
+the <i>Theatrical Review</i>, was now suppressed. Berkenhout confined his
+comment to the halting reminiscence: &quot;Whence I copied this letter I do
+not recollect; but I remember that at the time of transcribing it, I
+had no doubt of its authenticity.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Thrice had the trick been worked effectively in conspicuous places
+before Steevens died in 1800. But the evil that he did lived after
+him, and within a year of his death the imposture renewed its youth. A
+correspondent, who concealed his identity under the signature of
+&quot;Grenovicus&quot; (<i>i.e.</i>, of Greenwich), sent Peel's letter in 1801 to the
+<i>Gentleman's Magazine</i>, a massive repertory of useful knowledge. There
+it was duly reprinted in the number for June. &quot;Grenovicus&quot; had the
+assurance to claim the letter as his own discovery. &quot;To my knowledge,&quot;
+he wrote, &quot;it has never yet appeared in print.&quot; He refrained from
+indicating how he had gained access to it, but congratulated himself
+and the readers of the <i>Gentleman's Magazine</i> on the valiant feast
+that he provided for them. His action was apparently taken by the
+readers of the <i>Gentleman's Magazine</i> at his own valuation.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile the discerning critic was not altogether passive. Isaac
+D'Israeli denounced the fraud in his <i>Curiosities of Literature</i>; but
+he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span> and others did their protesting gently. The fraud looked to the
+expert too shamefaced to merit a vigorous onslaught. He imagined the
+spurious epistle must die of its own inanity. In this he miscalculated
+the credulity of the general reader. &quot;Grenovicus&quot; of the <i>Gentleman's
+Magazine</i> had numerous disciples.</p>
+
+<p>Many a time during the past century has that worthy's exploit been
+repeated. Even so acute a scholar as Alexander Dyce thought it worth
+while to reprint the letter in 1829 in the first edition of his
+collected works of George Peele (Vol. I., page 111), although he
+declined to pledge himself to its authenticity. The latest historian
+of Dulwich College<a name="FNanchor_40_40" id="FNanchor_40_40"></a><a href="#Footnote_40_40" class="fnanchor">[40]</a> has admitted it to his text with too mildly
+worded a caveat. Often, too, has &quot;G. Peel&quot; emerged more recently from
+a long-forgotten book or periodical to darken the page of a modern
+popular magazine. I have met him unabashed during the present century
+in two literary periodicals of repute&#8212;in the <i>Academy</i> (of London),
+in the issue of 18th January 1902, and in the <i>Poet Lore</i> (of Boston)
+in the following April number. Future disinterments may safely be
+prophesied. In the jungle of the <i>Annual Register</i> or the <i>Gentleman's
+Magazine</i> the forgery lurks unchallenged, and there will always be
+inexperienced explorers, who from time to time will run the unhallowed
+thing to earth there, and bring it forth as a new and unsuspected
+truth.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps forgery is too big a word to apply to Steevens's concoction.
+Others worked at later periods on lines of mystification similar to
+his; but, unlike his disciples, he did not seek from his misdirected<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span>
+ingenuity pecuniary gain or even notoriety. He never set his name to
+this invention of &quot;Peel&quot; and &quot;Marle,&quot; and their insipid chatter about
+<i>Hamlet</i> at the &quot;Globe.&quot; Steevens's sole aim was to delude the unwary.
+It is difficult to detect humour in the endeavour. But the perversity
+of the human intellect has no limits. This ungainly example of it is
+only worth attention because it has sailed under its false colours
+without very serious molestation for one hundred and forty-three
+years.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="X" id="X"></a>X</h2>
+
+<h2>SHAKESPEARE IN FRANCE<a name="FNanchor_41_41" id="FNanchor_41_41"></a><a href="#Footnote_41_41" class="fnanchor">[41]</a></h2>
+
+
+<h3><a name="X.1">I</a></h3>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Nothing</span> but good can come of a comparative study of English and French
+literature. The political intercourse of the two countries has
+involved them in an endless series of broils. But between the
+literatures of the two countries friendly relations have subsisted for
+over five centuries. In the literary sphere the interchange of
+neighbourly civilities has known no interruption. The same literary
+forms have not appealed to the tastes of the two nations; but
+differences of &#230;sthetic temperament have not prevented the literature
+of the one from levying substantial loans on the literature of the
+other, and that with a freedom and a frequency which were calculated
+to breed discontent between any but the most cordial of allies. While
+the literary geniuses of the two nations have pursued independent
+ideals, they have viewed as welcome courtesies the willingness and
+readiness of the one to borrow sustenance of the other on the road. It
+is unlikely that any full or formal balance-sheet of such lendings and
+borrowings will ever be forthcoming, for it is felt instinctively by
+literary accountants and their clients on both<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span> shores of the English
+Channel that the debts on the one side keep a steady pace with the
+debts on the other, and there is no balance to be collected.</p>
+
+<p>No recondite research is needed to establish this general view of the
+situation. It is well known how the poetic career of Chaucer, the
+earliest of great English poets, was begun under French masters. The
+greatest poem of medi&#230;val France, the <i>Roman de la Rose</i>, was turned
+into English by his youthful pen, and the chief French poet of the
+day, Eustace Deschamps, held out to him the hand of fellowship in the
+enthusiastic <i>balade</i>, in which he apostrophised &quot;le grand
+translateur, noble Geoffroi Chaucer.&quot; Following Chaucer's example, the
+great poets of Elizabeth's reign and of James the First's reign most
+liberally and most literally assimilated the verse of their French
+contemporaries, Ronsard, Du Bellay, and Desportes.<a name="FNanchor_42_42" id="FNanchor_42_42"></a><a href="#Footnote_42_42" class="fnanchor">[42]</a> Early in the
+seventeenth century, Frenchmen returned the compliment by naturalising
+in French translations the prose romances of Sir Philip Sidney and
+Robert Greene, the philosophical essays of Bacon, and the ethical and
+theological writings of Bishop Joseph Hall. From the accession of
+Charles the Second until that of George the Third, the English drama
+framed itself on French models, and Pope, who long filled the throne
+of a literary dictator in England, acknowledged discipleship to
+Boileau. A little later the literary<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span> philosophers of France&#8212;Rousseau
+and the Encyclop&#233;distes&#8212;drew their nutrition from the writings of
+Hobbes and Locke. French novel-readers of the eighteenth century found
+their chief joy in the tearful emotions excited by the
+sentimentalities of Richardson and Sterne. French novel-writers one
+hundred and thirty years ago had small chance of recognition if they
+disdained to traffic in the lachrymose wares which the English
+novelists had brought into fashion.</p>
+
+<p>At the present moment the cultured Englishman finds his most palatable
+fiction in the publications of Paris. Within recent memory the English
+playgoer viewed with impatience any theatrical programme which lacked
+a Parisian flavour. The late Sir Henry Irving, who, during the past
+generation, sought to sustain the best traditions of the English
+drama, produced in his last years two original plays, <i>Robespierre</i>
+and <i>Dante</i>, by the <i>doyen</i> of living French dramatists, M. Sardou.
+Complementary tendencies are visible across the Channel. The French
+stage often offers as cordial a reception to plays of English
+manufacture as is offered in London to the plays derived from France.
+No histrionic event attracts higher interest in Paris than the
+assumption by a great actor or actress of a Shakespearean r&#244;le for the
+first time; and French dramatic critics have been known to generate
+such heat in debates over the right conception of a Shakespearean
+character that their differences have required adjustment at the
+sword's point.</p>
+
+<p>Of greater interest is it to note that in all the cultivated centres
+of France a new and unparalleled energy is devoted to-day to the study
+of English<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span> literature of both the present and the past. The research
+recently expended on the topic by French scholars has not been
+excelled in Germany, and has rarely been equalled in England. Critical
+biographies of James Thomson (of <i>The Seasons</i>), of Burns, of Young,
+and of Wordsworth have come of late from the pens of French professors
+of English literature, and their volumes breathe a minute accuracy and
+a fulness of sympathetic knowledge which are certainly not habitual to
+English professors of English literature. This scholarly movement in
+France shows signs of rapid extension. Each summer vacation sees an
+increase in the number of French visitors to the British Museum
+reading-room, who are making recondite researches into English
+literary history. The new zeal of Frenchmen for English studies claims
+the most cordial acknowledgment of English scholars, and it is
+appropriate that the most coveted lectureship on English literature in
+an English University&#8212;the Clark lectureship at Trinity College,
+Cambridge&#8212;should have been bestowed last year on the learned
+professor of English at the Sorbonne, M. Beljame, author of <i>Le Public
+et les Hommes de Lettres en Angleterre au XVIII<sup>e</sup> Si&#232;cle</i>. M.
+Beljame's unexpected death (on September 17, 1906), shortly after his
+work at Cambridge was completed, is a loss alike to English and French
+letters.</p>
+
+
+<h3><a name="X.2">II</a></h3>
+
+<p>In view of the growth of the French interest in English literary
+history, it was to be expected that serious efforts should be made in
+France to determine the character and dimensions of the influence<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span>
+exerted on French literature by the greatest of all English men of
+letters&#8212;by Shakespeare. That work has been undertaken by M.
+Jusserand. In 1898 he gave to the world the results of his
+investigation in his native language. Subsequently, with a welcome
+consideration for the linguistic incapacities of Shakespeare's
+countrymen, he repeated his conclusions in their tongue.<a name="FNanchor_43_43" id="FNanchor_43_43"></a><a href="#Footnote_43_43" class="fnanchor">[43]</a> The
+English translation is embellished with many pictorial illustrations
+of historic interest and value.</p>
+
+<p>Among French writers on English literature, M. Jusserand is the most
+voluminous and the most widely informed. His career differs in an
+important particular from that of his countrymen who pursue the same
+field of study. He is not by profession a teacher or writer: he is a
+diplomatist, and now holds the high office of French ambassador to the
+United States of America. M. Jusserand has treated in his books of
+almost all periods of English literary history, and he has been long
+engaged on an exhaustive <i>Literary History of the English People</i>, of
+which the two volumes already published bring the narrative as far as
+the close of the Civil Wars.</p>
+
+<p>M. Jusserand enjoys the rare, although among modern Frenchmen by no
+means unexampled, faculty of writing with almost equal ease and
+felicity in both French and English. His walk in life gives him a
+singularly catholic outlook. His learning is profound, but he is not
+overburdened by it, and he preserves his native gaiety of style even
+when solving crabbed problems of bibliography. He is at times
+discursive, but he is never tedious; and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span> he shows no trace of that
+philological pedantry and narrowness or obliquity of critical vision
+which the detailed study of literary history has been known to breed
+in English and German investigators. While M. Jusserand betrays all
+the critical independence of his compatriot M. Taine, his habit of
+careful and laborious research illustrates with peculiar vividness the
+progress which English scholarship has made in France since M. Taine
+completed his sparkling survey of English literature in 1864.</p>
+
+<p>M. Jusserand handles the theme of <i>Shakespeare in France under the
+Ancien R&#233;gime</i> with all the lightness of touch and wealth of minute
+detail to which he has accustomed his readers. Nowhere have so many
+facts been brought together in order to illustrate the literary
+intercourse of Frenchmen and Englishmen between the sixteenth and the
+nineteenth centuries. It is true that his opening chapters have little
+concern with Shakespeare, but their intrinsic interest and novelty
+atone for their irrelevance. They shed a flood of welcome light on
+that interchange of literary information and ideas which is a constant
+feature in the literary history of the two countries.</p>
+
+<p>Many will read here for the first time of the great poet Ronsard's
+visits to this country; of the distinguished company of English actors
+which delighted the court of Henry IV. of France; and of Ben Jonson's
+discreditable drunken exploits in the French capital when he went
+thither as tutor to Sir Walter Ralegh's son. To these episodes might
+well be added the pleasant personal intercourse of Francis Bacon's
+brother, Anthony, with the great French essayist Montaigne, when the
+Englishman was sojourning at Bordeaux in 1583. Montaigne's<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span> Essays
+achieved hardly less fame in Elizabethan England than in France. Both
+Shakespeare and Bacon gave proof of indebtedness to them.</p>
+
+<p>By some freak of fortune Shakespeare's fame was slow in crossing the
+English Channel. The French dramatists of the sixteenth and
+seventeenth centuries lived and died in the paradoxical faith that the
+British drama reached its apogee in the achievement of the Scottish
+Latinist, George Buchanan, who was reckoned in France &quot;prince of the
+poets of our day.&quot; In Buchanan's classical tragedies Montaigne played
+a part, while he was a student at Bordeaux. His tragedy of <i>Jephtha</i>
+achieved exceptional fame in sixteenth century France; three Frenchmen
+of literary repute rendered it independently into their own language,
+and each rendering went through several editions. Another delusion
+which French men of letters cherished, not only during Shakespeare's
+lifetime, but through three or four generations after his death, was
+that Sir Thomas More, Sir Philip Sidney, and the father of Lord
+Chancellor Bacon were the greatest authors which England had begotten
+or was likely to beget. French enthusiasm for the suggestive irony of
+More's Latin romance of <i>Utopia</i> outran that of his fellow-countrymen.
+A French translation anticipated the earliest rendering of the work in
+the author's native tongue. No less than two independent French
+versions of Sir Philip Sidney's voluminous fiction of <i>Arcadia</i> were
+circulating in France one hundred and twenty years before the like
+honour was paid to any work of Shakespeare.</p>
+
+<p>Shakespeare's work first arrived in France towards the close of the
+seventeenth century. Frenchmen were staggered by its originality. They
+perceived the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span> dramatist's colossal breaches of classical law. They
+were shocked by his freedom of speech. When Louis the Fourteenth's
+librarian placed on the shelves of the Royal Library in Paris a copy
+of the Second Folio of his works which had been published in London in
+1632, he noted in his catalogue that Shakespeare &quot;has a rather fine
+imagination; he thinks naturally; but these fine qualities are
+obscured by the filth he introduces into his comedies.&quot; An increasing
+mass of pedestrian literature was imported into France from England
+through the middle and late years of the seventeenth century. Yet
+Shakespeare had to wait for a fair hearing there till the eighteenth
+century.</p>
+
+<p>Then it was very gradually that Shakespeare's pre-eminence was
+realised by French critics. It is to Voltaire that Frenchmen owe a
+full knowledge of Shakespeare. Voltaire's method of teaching
+Shakespeare to his countrymen was characteristically cynical. He
+studied him closely when he visited England as a young man. At that
+period of his career he not merely praised him with discerning
+caution, but he paid him the flattery of imitation. Voltaire's tragedy
+of <i>Brutus</i> betrays an intimate acquaintance with Shakespeare's
+<i>Julius C&#230;sar</i>. His <i>Eryphile</i> was the product of many perusals of
+<i>Hamlet</i>. His <i>Za&#239;re</i> is a pale reflection of <i>Othello</i>. But when
+Voltaire's countrymen showed a tendency to better Voltaire's
+instruction, and one Frenchman conferred on Shakespeare the title of
+&quot;the god of the theatre,&quot; Voltaire resented the situation that he had
+himself created. He was at the height of his own fame, and he felt
+that his reputation as the first of French writers for the stage was
+in jeopardy.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The last years of Voltaire's life were therefore consecrated to an
+endeavour to dethrone the idol which his own hands had set up.
+Voltaire traded on the patriotic prejudices of his hearers, but his
+efforts to depreciate Shakespeare were very partially successful. Few
+writers of power were ready to second the soured critic, and after
+Voltaire's death the Shakespeare cult in France, of which he was the
+unwilling inaugurator, spread far and wide.</p>
+
+<p>In the nineteenth century Shakespeare was admitted without demur into
+the French &quot;pantheon of literary gods.&quot; Classicists and romanticists
+vied in doing him honour. The classical painter Ingres introduced his
+portrait into his famous picture of &quot;Homer's Cort&#232;ge&quot; (now in the
+Louvre). The romanticist Victor Hugo recognised only three men as
+memorable in the history of humanity, and Shakespeare was one of the
+three; Moses and Homer were the other two. Alfred de Musset became a
+dramatist under Shakespeare's spell. To George Sand everything in
+literature seemed tame by the side of Shakespeare's poetry. The prince
+of romancers, the elder Dumas, set the English dramatist next to God
+in the cosmic system; &quot;after God,&quot; wrote Dumas, &quot;Shakespeare has
+created most.&quot;</p>
+
+
+<h3><a name="X.3">III</a></h3>
+
+<p>It would be easy to multiply eulogies of Shakespeare from French lips
+in the vein of Victor Hugo and Dumas&#8212;eulogies besides which the
+enthusiasm of many English critics appears cold and constrained. So
+unfaltering a note of admiration sounds gratefully<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span> in the ears of
+Shakespeare's countrymen. Yet on closer investigation there seems a
+rift within the lute. When one turns to the French versions of
+Shakespeare, for which the chief of Shakespeare's French encomiasts
+have made themselves responsible, an Englishman is inclined to
+moderate his exultation in the French panegyrics.</p>
+
+<p>No one did more as an admiring critic and translator of Shakespeare
+than Jean Fran&#231;ois Ducis, who prepared six of Shakespeare's greatest
+plays for the French stage at the end of the eighteenth century. Not
+only did Ducis introduce Shakespeare's masterpieces to thousands of
+his countrymen who might otherwise never have heard of them, but his
+renderings of Shakespeare were turned into Italian and many languages
+of Eastern Europe. They spread the knowledge of Shakespeare's
+achievement to the extreme boundaries of the European Continent.
+Apparently Ducis did his work under favourable auspices. He
+corresponded regularly with Garrick, and he was never happier than
+when studying Shakespeare's text with a portrait of Shakespeare at his
+side. Yet, in spite of Ducis's unquestioned reverence and his
+honourable intentions, all his translations of Shakespeare are gross
+perversions of their originals. It is not merely that he is verbally
+unfaithful. He revises the development of the plots; he gives the
+<i>dramatis person&#230;</i> new names.</p>
+
+<p>Ducis's <i>Othello</i> was accounted his greatest triumph. The play shows
+Shakespeare's mastery of the art of tragedy at its highest stage of
+development, and rewards the closest study. But the French translator
+ignored the great tragic conception which gives the drama its pith and
+moment. He con<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span>verted the piece into a romance. Towards the end of his
+rendering Iago's villanies are discovered by Othello; Othello and
+Desdemona are reconciled; and the Moor, exulting in his newly
+recovered happiness, pardons Iago. The curtain falls on a dazzling
+scene of domestic bliss.</p>
+
+<p>Ducis frankly acknowledged that he was guilty of a somewhat strained
+interpretation of Shakespeare's tragic scheme, but he defended himself
+on the ground that French refinement and French sensitiveness could
+not endure the agonising violence of the true catastrophe. It is,
+indeed, the fact that the patrons of the Com&#233;die Fran&#231;aise strictly
+warned the adapter against revolting their feelings by reproducing the
+&quot;barbarities&quot; that characterised the close of Shakespeare's tragic
+masterpiece.</p>
+
+<p>If so fastidious a flinching from tragic episode breathe the true
+French sentiment, what, we are moved to ask, is the significance of
+the unqualified regard which Ducis and his countrymen profess for
+Shakespearean drama? There seems a strange paradox in the situation.
+The history of France proves that Frenchmen can face without quailing
+the direst tragedies which can be wrought in earnest off the stage.
+There is a startling inconsistency in the outcry of Ducis's French
+clients against the terror of Desdemona's murder. For the protests
+which Ducis reports on the part of the Parisians bear the date 1792.
+In that year the tragedy of the French Revolution&#8212;a tragedy of real
+life, grimmer than any that Shakespeare imagined&#8212;was being enacted in
+literal truth by the Parisian playgoers themselves. It would seem that
+Ducis<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span> and his countrymen deemed the purpose of art to be alone
+fulfilled when the artistic fabric was divorced from the ugly facts of
+life.</p>
+
+<p>A like problem is presented by Dumas's efforts in more pacific
+conditions to adapt Shakespeare for the Parisian stage. With his
+friend Paul Meurice Dumas prepared the version of <i>Hamlet</i> which long
+enjoyed a standard repute at the Com&#233;die Fran&#231;aise. Dumas's ecstatic
+adoration for Shakespeare's genius did not deter him, any more than
+Ducis was deterred by his more subdued veneration, from working havoc
+on the English text. Shakespeare's blank verse was necessarily turned
+into Alexandrines. That was comparatively immaterial. Of greater
+moment is it to note that the <i>d&#233;nouement</i> of the tragedy was
+completely revolutionised by Dumas. The tragic climax is undermined.
+Hamlet's life is spared by Dumas. The hero's dying exclamation, &quot;The
+rest is silence,&quot; disappears from Dumas's version. At the close of the
+play the French translator makes the ghost rejoin his son and
+good-naturedly promise him indefinite prolongation of his earthly
+career. According to the gospel of Dumas, the tragedy of Hamlet ends,
+as soon as his and his father's wrongs have been avenged, in this
+fashion:&#8212;</p>
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tbody>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Hamlet.<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+&nbsp;</i></td>
+<td>Et moi, vais-je rester, triste orphelin sur terre,<br />
+&#192; respirer cet air impr&#233;gn&#233; de mis&#232;re?...<br />
+Est-ce que Dieu sur moi fera peser son bras,<br />
+P&#232;re? Et quel ch&#226;timent m'attend donc?</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><i>Le Fant&#244;me.</i></td>
+<td><span style="margin-left: 15em;">Tu vivras.</span></td>
+</tr>
+</tbody>
+</table>
+
+<p>Such defiant transgressions of the true Shakespearean canon as those
+of which Ducis and Dumas stand convicted may well rouse the suspicion
+that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span> the critical incense they burn at Shakespeare's shrine is
+offered with the tongue in the cheek. But that suspicion is not
+justified. Ducis and Dumas worship Shakespeare with a whole heart.
+Their misapprehensions of his tragic conceptions are due,
+involuntarily, to native temperament. In point of fact, Ducis and
+Dumas see Shakespeare through a distorting medium. The two Frenchmen
+were fully conscious of Shakespeare's towering greatness. They
+perceived intuitively that Shakespeare's tragedies transcended all
+other dramatic achievement. But their &#230;sthetic sense, which, as far as
+the drama was concerned, was steeped in the classical spirit, set many
+of the essential features of Shakespeare's genius outside the focus of
+their vision.</p>
+
+<p>To a Frenchman a tragedy of classical rank connotes &quot;correctness,&quot; an
+absence of tumult, some observance of the classical law of unity of
+time, place, and action. The perpetration of crime in face of the
+audience outraged all classical conventions. Ducis and Dumas
+recognised involuntarily that certain characteristics of the
+Shakespearean drama could not live in the classical atmosphere of
+their own theatre. Excision, expansion, reduction was inevitable
+before Shakespeare could breathe the air of the French stage. The
+grotesque perversions of Ducis and Dumas were thus not the fruit of
+mere waywardness, or carelessness, or dishonesty; they admit of
+philosophical explanation.</p>
+
+<p>By Englishmen they may be viewed with equanimity, if not with
+satisfaction. They offer strong proof of the irrepressible strength or
+catholicity of the appeal that Shakespeare's genius makes to the mind
+and heart of humanity. His spirit survived the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span> French efforts at
+mutilation. The Gallicised or classicised contortions of his mighty
+work did not destroy its saving virtue. There is ground for
+congratulation that Ducis's and Dumas's perversions of Shakespeare
+excited among Frenchmen almost as devoted an homage as the dramatist's
+work in its native purity and perfection claims of men whose souls are
+free of the fetters of classical tradition.</p>
+
+
+<h3><a name="X.4">IV</a></h3>
+
+<p>If any still doubt the sincerity of the worship which is offered
+Shakespeare in France, I would direct the sceptic's attention to a
+pathetically simple tribute which was paid to the dramatist by a
+French student in the first year of the last century, when England and
+France were in the grip of the Napoleonic War. It was then that a
+young Frenchman proved beyond cavil by an ingenuous confession that
+the English poet, in spite of the racial differences of &#230;sthetic
+sentiment, could touch a French heart more deeply than any French or
+classical author. In 1801 there was published at Besan&#231;on, &quot;de
+l'imprimerie de M&#233;toyer,&quot; a very thin volume in small octavo, under
+fifty pages in length, entitled, <i>Pens&#233;es de Shakespeare, Extraites de
+ses Ouvrages</i>. No compiler's name is mentioned, but there is no doubt
+that the book was from the pen of a precocious native of Besan&#231;on,
+Charles Nodier, who was in later life to gain distinction as a
+bibliographer and writer of romance.</p>
+
+<p>This forgotten volume, of which no more than twenty-five copies were
+printed, and only two or three of these seem to survive, has escaped
+the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span> notice of M. Jusserand. No copy of it is in the British Museum,
+or in La Biblioth&#232;que de l'Arsenal, with which the author, Nodier, was
+long honourably associated as librarian. I purchased it a few years
+ago by accident in a small collection of imperfectly catalogued
+Shakespeareana. Lurking in the rear of a very ragged regiment on the
+shelves of the auctioneer stood Charles Nodier's <i>Pens&#233;es de
+Shakespeare</i>. None competed with me for the prize. A very slight
+effort delivered into my hands the little chaplet of French laurel.</p>
+
+<p>The major part of the volume consists of 190 numbered sentences&#8212;each
+a French rendering of an apophthegm or reflection drawn from
+Shakespeare's plays. The translator is not faithful to his English
+text, but his style is clear and often rises to eloquence. The book
+does not, however, owe its interest to Nodier's version of
+Shakespearean maxims. Nor can one grow enthusiastic over the
+dedication &quot;A elle&quot;&#8212;an unidentified fair-one to whom the youthful
+writer proffers his homage with respectful propriety. The salt of the
+little volume lies in the &quot;Observations Pr&#233;liminaires,&quot; which cover
+less than five widely-printed pages. These observations breathe a
+genuine affection for Shakespeare's personality and a sense of
+gratitude for his achievement in terms which no English admirer has
+excelled for tenderness and simplicity.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Shakespeare,&quot; writes this French worshipper, &quot;is a friend whom Heaven
+has given to the unhappy of every age and every country.&quot; The writer
+warns us that he offers no eulogy of Shakespeare; that is to be found
+in the poet's works, which the Frenchman for his own part prefers to
+read and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span> read again rather than waste time in praising them. &quot;The
+features of Alexander ought only to be preserved by Apelles.&quot; Nodier
+merely collects some of Shakespeare's thoughts on great moral truths
+which he thinks to be useful to the conduct of life. But such
+extracts, he admonishes his reader, supply no true knowledge of
+Shakespeare. &quot;From Shakespeare's works one can draw forth a
+philosophy, but from no systems of philosophy could one construct one
+page of Shakespeare.&quot; Nodier concludes his &quot;Observations&quot; thus:&#8212;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&quot;I advise those who do not know Shakespeare to study him in
+himself. I advise those who know him already to read him
+again.... I know him, but I must needs declare my admiration
+for him. I have reviewed my powers, and am content to cast a
+flower on his grave since I am not able to raise a monument
+to his memory.&quot;</p></div>
+
+<p>Language like this admits no questioning of its sincerity. Nodier's
+modest tribute handsomely atones for his countrymen's misapprehensions
+of Shakespeare's tragic conceptions. None has phrased more delicately
+or more simply the sense of personal devotion, which is roused by
+close study of his work.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="XI" id="XI"></a>XI</h2>
+
+<h2>THE COMMEMORATION OF SHAKESPEARE IN LONDON<a name="FNanchor_44_44" id="FNanchor_44_44"></a><a href="#Footnote_44_44" class="fnanchor">[44]</a></h2>
+
+
+<h3><a name="XI.1">I</a></h3>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The</span> public memory is short. At the instant the suggestion that
+Shakespeare should receive the tribute of a great national monument in
+London is attracting general attention. In the ears of the vast
+majority of those who are taking part in the discussion the proposal
+appears to strike a new note. Few seem aware that a national memorial
+of Shakespeare has been urged on Londoners many times before. Thrice,
+at least, during the past eighty-five years has it exercised the
+public mind.</p>
+
+<p>At the extreme end of the year 1820, the well-known actor Charles
+Mathews set on foot a movement for the erection of &quot;a national
+monument to the immortal memory of Shakespeare.&quot; He pledged himself to
+enlist the support of the new King, George the Fourth, of members of
+the royal family, of &quot;every man of rank and talent, every poet,
+artist, and sculptor.&quot; Mathews's endeavour achieved<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span> only a specious
+success. George the Fourth, readily gave his &quot;high sanction&quot; to a
+London memorial. Sir Walter Scott, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Tom Moore,
+and Washington Irving were among the men of letters; Sir Thomas
+Lawrence, [Sir] Francis Chantrey, and John Nash, the architect, were
+among the artists, who approved the general conception. For three or
+four years ink was spilt and breath was spent in the advocacy of the
+scheme. But nothing came of all the letters and speeches.</p>
+
+<p>In 1847 the topic was again broached. A committee, which was hardly
+less influential than that of 1821, revived the proposal. Again no
+result followed.</p>
+
+<p>Seventeen years passed away, and then, in 1864, the arrival of the
+tercentenary of Shakespeare's birth seemed to many men of eminence in
+public life, in letters or in art, an appropriate moment at which to
+carry the design into effect. A third failure has to be recorded.</p>
+
+<p>The notion, indeed, was no child of the nineteenth century which
+fathered it so ineffectually. It was familiar to the eighteenth. One
+eighteenth century effort was fortunate enough to yield a little
+permanent fruit. To an eighteenth-century endeavour to offer
+Shakespeare a national memorial in London was due the cenotaph in
+Westminster Abbey.</p>
+
+
+<h3><a name="XI.2">II</a></h3>
+
+<p>The suggestion of commemorating Shakespeare by means of a monument in
+London has thus something more than a &quot;smack of age&quot; about it,
+something more<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span> than a &quot;relish of the saltness of time&quot;; there are
+points of view from which it might appear to be already &quot;blasted with
+antiquity.&quot; On only one of the previous occasions that the question
+was raised was the stage of discussion passed, and that was in the
+eighteenth century when the monument was placed in the Poets' Corner
+of Westminster Abbey. The issue was not felicitous. The memorial in
+the Abbey failed to satisfy the commemorative aspirations of the
+nation; it left it open to succeeding generations to reconsider the
+question, if it did not impose on them the obligation. Most of the
+poets, actors, scholars, and patrons of polite learning, who in 1741
+subscribed their guineas to the fund for placing a monument in
+Westminster Abbey, resented the sculpturesque caricature to which
+their subscriptions were applied. Pope, an original leader of the
+movement, declined to write an inscription for this national memorial,
+but scribbled some ironical verses beginning:&#8212;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Thus Britons love me and preserve my fame.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>A later critic imagined Shakespeare's wraith pausing in horror by the
+familiar monument in the Abbey, and lightly misquoting Shelley's
+familiar lines:&#8212;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">I silently laugh at my own cenotaph, ...<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And long to unbuild it again.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>One of the most regrettable effects of the Abbey memorial, with its
+mawkish and irrelevant sentimentality, has been to set a bad pattern
+for statues of Shakespeare. Posterity came to invest the design with
+some measure of sanctity.</p>
+
+<p>The nineteenth century efforts were mere abortions.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span> In 1821, in spite
+of George the Fourth's benevolent patronage, which included an
+unfulfilled promise to pay the sum of 100 guineas, the total amount
+which was collected after six years' agitation was so small that it
+was returned to the subscribers. The accounts are extant in the
+Library of Shakespeare's Birthplace at Stratford-on-Avon. In 1847 the
+subscriptions were more abundant, but all was then absorbed in the
+purchase of Shakespeare's Birthplace at Stratford; no money was
+available for a London memorial. In 1864 the expenses of organising
+the tercentenary celebration in London by way of banquets, concerts,
+and theatrical performances, seem to have left no surplus for the
+purpose which the movement set out to fulfil.</p>
+
+
+<h3><a name="XI.3">III</a></h3>
+
+<p>The causes of the sweeping failure of the proposal when it came before
+the public during the nineteenth century are worthy of study. There
+was no lack of enthusiasm among the promoters. Nor were their high
+hopes wrecked solely by public apathy. The public interest was never
+altogether dormant. More efficient causes of ruin were, firstly, the
+active hostility of some prominent writers and actors who declaimed
+against all outward and visible commemoration of Shakespeare; and
+secondly, divisions in the ranks of supporters in regard to the
+precise form that the memorial ought to take. The censorious refusal
+of one section of the literary public to countenance any memorial at
+all, and the inability of another section, while promoting the
+endeavour, to concentrate its energies on a single acceptable form of
+commemoration had, as might be expected, a paralysing effect.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>&quot;England,&quot; it was somewhat casuistically argued in 1864, &quot;has never
+been ungrateful to her poet; but the very depth and fervour of the
+reverence in which he is held have hitherto made it difficult for his
+scholars to agree upon any common proceeding in his name.&quot; Neither in
+1864 nor at earlier and later epochs have Shakespearean scholars
+always formed among themselves a very happy family. That amiable
+sentiment which would treat the realisation of the commemorative aim
+as a patriotic obligation&#8212;as an obligation which no good citizen
+could honourably repudiate&#8212;has often produced discord rather than
+harmony among the Shakespearean scholars who cherish it. One school of
+these has argued in the past for a work of sculpture, and has been
+opposed by a cry for a college for actors, or a Shakespearean theatre.
+&quot;We do not like the idea of a monument at all,&quot; wrote <i>The Times</i> on
+the 20th of January 1864. &quot;Shakespeare,&quot; wrote <i>Punch</i> on the 6th of
+February following, &quot;needs no statue.&quot; In old days it was frequently
+insisted that, even if the erection of a London monument were
+desirable, active effort ought to be postponed until an adequate
+memorial had been placed in Stratford-on-Avon where the poet's memory
+had been hitherto inadequately honoured. At the same time a band of
+students was always prepared to urge the chilling plea that the
+payment of any outward honour to Shakespeare was laboursome futility,
+was &quot;wasteful and ridiculous excess.&quot; Milton's query: &quot;What needs my
+Shakespeare for his honoured bones?&quot; has always been quoted to satiety
+by a vociferous section of the critics whenever the commemoration of
+Shakespeare has come under discussion.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<h3><a name="XI.4">IV</a></h3>
+
+<p>Once again the question of a national memorial of Shakespeare in
+London has been revived in conditions not wholly unlike those that
+have gone before. Mr Richard Badger, a veteran enthusiast for
+Shakespeare, who was educated in the poet's native place, has offered
+the people of London the sum of &#163;3500 as the nucleus of a great
+Shakespeare Memorial Fund. The Lord Mayor of London has presided over
+a public meeting at the Mansion House, which has empowered an
+influential committee to proceed with the work. The London County
+Council has promised to provide a site. With regard to the form that
+the memorial ought to take, a variety of irresponsible suggestions has
+been made. It has now been authoritatively determined to erect a
+sculptured monument on the banks of the Thames.<a name="FNanchor_45_45" id="FNanchor_45_45"></a><a href="#Footnote_45_45" class="fnanchor">[45]</a></p>
+
+<p>The propriety of visibly and outwardly commemorating Shakespeare in
+the capital city of the Empire has consequently become once more an
+urgent public question. The public is invited anew to form an opinion
+on the various points at issue. No expression of opinion should carry
+weight which omits to take into account past experience as well as
+present<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span> conditions and possibilities. If regard for the public
+interest justify a national memorial in London, it is most desirable
+to define the principles whereby its precise form should be
+determined.</p>
+
+<p>In one important particular the consideration of the subject to-day is
+simpler than when it was debated on former occasions. Differences
+existed, then as now, in regard to the propriety of erecting a
+national memorial of Shakespeare in London; but almost all who
+interested themselves in the matter in the nineteenth century agreed
+that the public interest justified, if it did not require, the
+preservation from decay or demolition of the buildings at
+Stratford-on-Avon with which Shakespeare's life was associated. So
+long as those buildings were in private hands, every proposal to
+commemorate Shakespeare in London had to meet a formidable objection
+which was raised on their behalf. If the nation undertook to
+commemorate Shakespeare at all, it should make its first aim (it was
+argued) the conversion into public property of the surviving memorials
+of Shakespeare's career at Stratford. The scheme of the London
+memorial could not be thoroughly discussed on its merits while the
+claims of Stratford remained unsatisfied. It was deemed premature,
+whether or no it were justifiable, to entertain any scheme of
+commemoration which left the Stratford buildings out of account.</p>
+
+<p>A natural sentiment connected Shakespeare more closely with
+Stratford-on-Avon than with any other place. Whatever part London
+played in his career, the public mind was dominated by the fact that
+he was born at Stratford, died, and was buried there. If he left
+Stratford in youth in order to work out his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span> destiny in London, he
+returned to it in middle life in order to end his days there &quot;in ease,
+retirement, and the conversation of his friends.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>In spite of this widespread feeling, it proved no easy task, nor one
+capable of rapid fulfilment, to consecrate in permanence to public
+uses the extant memorials of Shakespeare at Stratford-on-Avon.
+Stratford was a place of pilgrimage for admirers of Shakespeare from
+early days in the seventeenth century&#8212;soon, in fact, after
+Shakespeare's death in 1616. But local veneration did not prevent the
+demolition in 1759, by a private owner, of New Place, Shakespeare's
+last residence. That act of vandalism was long in provoking any
+effective resentment. Garrick, by means of his Jubilee Festival of
+1769, effectively, if somewhat theatrically, called the attention of
+the English public to the claims of the town to the affectionate
+regard of lovers of the great dramatist. Nevertheless, it was left to
+the nineteenth century to dedicate in perpetuity to the public service
+the places which were the scenes of Shakespeare's private life in his
+native town.</p>
+
+<p>Charles Mathews's effort of 1821 took its rise in an endeavour to
+purchase in behalf of the nation the vacant site of Shakespeare's
+demolished residence of New Place, with the great garden attached to
+it. But that scheme was overweighted by the incorporation with it of
+the plan for a London monument, and both collapsed ignominiously. In
+1835 a strong committee was formed at Stratford to commemorate the
+poet's connection with the town. It was called &quot;the Monumental
+Committee,&quot; and had for its object, firstly, the repair of
+Shakespeare's tomb in the Parish Church; and secondly, the
+preservation and restoration<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span> of all the Shakespearean buildings in
+the town. Subscriptions were limited to &#163;1, and all the members of the
+royal family, including the Princess Victoria, who two years later
+came to the throne, figured, with other leading personages in the
+nation's life, in the list of subscribers. But the subscriptions only
+produced a sum sufficient to carry out the first purpose of the
+Monumental Committee&#8212;the repair of the tomb.</p>
+
+<p>In 1847 the sale by public auction was announced of the house in which
+Shakespeare was born. It had long been a show-place in private hands.
+A general feeling declared itself in favour of the purchase of the
+house for the nation. Public sentiment was in accord with the
+ungrammatical grandiloquence of the auctioneer, the famous Robins,
+whose advertisement of the sale included the sentence: &quot;It is trusted
+the feeling of the country will be so evinced that the structure may
+be secured, hallowed, and cherished as a national monument almost as
+imperishable as the poet's fame.&quot; A subscription list was headed by
+Prince Albert with &#163;250. A distinguished committee was formed under
+the presidency of Lord Morpeth (afterwards the seventh Earl of
+Carlisle), then Chief Commissioner of Woods and Forests, who offered
+to make his department perpetual conservators of the property. (That
+proposal was not accepted.) Dickens, Macaulay, Lord Lytton, and the
+historian Grote were all active in promoting the movement, and it
+proved successful. The property was duly secured by a private trust in
+behalf of the nation. The most important house identified with
+Shakespeare's career in Stratford was thus effectively protected from
+the risks that are always inherent in private ownership. The step was
+not taken with undue haste; two hundred and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span> thirty-one years had
+elapsed since Shakespeare's death.</p>
+
+<p>Fourteen years later, in very similar circumstances, the still vacant
+site of Shakespeare's demolished residence, New Place, with the great
+garden behind it, and the adjoining house, was acquired by the public.
+A new Shakespeare Fund, to which the Prince Consort subscribed &#163;100,
+and Miss Burdett-Coutts (afterwards Baroness Burdett-Coutts) &#163;600, was
+formed not only to satisfy this purpose, but to provide the means of
+equipping a library and museum which were contemplated at the
+Birthplace, as well as a second museum which was to be provided on the
+New Place property. It was appropriate to make these buildings
+depositories of authentic relics and books which should illustrate the
+poet's life and work. This national Shakespeare Fund was actively
+promoted, chiefly by the late Mr Halliwell-Phillipps, for more than
+ten years; a large sum of money was collected, and the aims with which
+the Fund was set on foot were to a large extent fulfilled. It only
+remained to organise on a permanent legal basis the completed
+Stratford Memorial of Shakespeare. By an Act of Parliament passed in
+1891 the two properties of New Place and the Birthplace were
+definitely formed into a single public trust &quot;for and in behalf of the
+nation.&quot; The trustees were able in 1892, out of their surplus income,
+which is derived from the fees of visitors, to add to their estates
+Anne Hathaway's Cottage at Shottery, a third building of high interest
+to students of Shakespeare's history.</p>
+
+<p>The formation of the Birthplace Trust has every title to be regarded
+as an outward and visible tribute to Shakespeare's memory on the part
+of the British nation<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span> at large.<a name="FNanchor_46_46" id="FNanchor_46_46"></a><a href="#Footnote_46_46" class="fnanchor">[46]</a> The purchase for the public of
+the Birthplace, the New Place property, and Anne Hathaway's Cottage
+was not primarily due to local effort. Justly enough, a very small
+portion of the necessary funds came from Stratford itself. The British
+nation may therefore take credit for having set up at least one
+fitting monument to Shakespeare by consecrating to public uses the
+property identified with his career in Stratford. Larger funds than
+the trustees at present possess are required to enable them to carry
+on the work which their predecessors began, and to compete with any
+chance of success for books and relics of Shakespearean interest&#8212;such
+as they are empowered by Act of Parliament to acquire&#8212;when these
+memorials chance to come into the market. But a number of small annual
+subscriptions from men of letters has lately facilitated the
+performance of this part of the trustees' work, and that source of
+income may, it is hoped, increase.</p>
+
+<p>At any rate, the ancient objection to the erection<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span> of a national
+monument in London, which was based on the absence of any memorial in
+Stratford, is no longer of avail. In 1821, in 1847, and in 1864, when
+the acquisition of the Stratford property was unattempted or
+uncompleted, it was perfectly just to argue that Stratford was
+entitled to have precedence of London when the question of
+commemorating Shakespeare was debated. It is no just argument in 1906,
+now that the claims of Stratford are practically satisfied.</p>
+
+<p>Byron, when writing of the memorial to Petrarch at Arqu&#224;, expressed
+with admirable feeling the sentiment that would confine outward
+memorials of a poet in his native town to the places where he was
+born, lived, died, and was buried. With very little verbal change
+Byron's stanza on the visible memorials of Petrarch's association with
+Arqu&#224; is applicable to those of Shakespeare's connexion with
+Stratford:&#8212;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">They keep his dust in Stratford, where he died;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The midland village where his later days<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Went down the vale of years; and 'tis their pride&#8212;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">An honest pride&#8212;and let it be their praise,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To offer to the passing stranger's gaze<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">His birthplace and his sepulchre; both plain<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And venerably simple, such as raise<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">A feeling more accordant with his strain<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Than if a pyramid form'd his monumental fane.<a name="FNanchor_47_47" id="FNanchor_47_47"></a><a href="#Footnote_47_47" class="fnanchor">[47]</a><br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Venerable simplicity is hardly the characteristic note of
+Shakespeare's &quot;strain&quot; any more than it is of Petrarch's &quot;strain.&quot; But
+there can be no just quarrel with the general contention that at
+Stratford, where Shakespeare gave ample proof of his characteristic
+modesty, a pyramidal fane would be out of harmony with the
+environment. There his birthplace, his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span> garden, and tomb are the
+fittest memorials of his great career.</p>
+
+
+<h3><a name="XI.5">V</a></h3>
+
+<p>It may justly be asked: Is there any principle which justifies another
+sort of memorial elsewhere? On grounds of history and sentiment, but
+in conditions which demand most careful definition, the right answer
+will, I think, be in the affirmative. For one thing, Shakespeare's
+life was not confined to Stratford. His professional career was spent
+in London, and those, who strictly insist that memorials to great men
+should be erected only in places with which they were personally
+associated, can hardly deny that London shares with Stratford a title
+to a memorial from a biographical or historical point of view. Of
+Shakespeare's life of fifty-two years, twenty-four years were in all
+probability spent in London. During those years the work that makes
+him memorable was done. It was in London that the fame which is
+universally acknowledged was won.</p>
+
+<p>Some valuable details regarding Shakespeare's life in London are
+accessible. The districts where he resided and where he passed his
+days are known. There is evidence that during the early part of his
+London career he lived in the parish of St Helen's, Bishopsgate, and
+during the later part near the Bankside, Southwark. With the south
+side of the Thames he was long connected, together with his youngest
+brother, Edmund, who was also an actor, and who was buried in the
+church of St Saviour's, Southwark.</p>
+
+<p>In his early London days Shakespeare's professional work, alike as
+actor and dramatist, brought him daily from St Helen's, Bishopsgate,
+to The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span> Theatre in Shoreditch. Shoreditch was then the chief
+theatrical quarter in London. Later, the centre of London theatrical
+life shifted to Southwark, where the far-famed Globe Theatre was
+erected, in 1599, mainly out of the materials of the dismantled
+Shoreditch Theatre. Ultimately Shakespeare's company of actors
+performed in a theatre at Blackfriars, which was created out of a
+private residence on a part of the site on which <i>The Times</i> office
+stands now. At a few hundred yards' distance from the Blackfriars
+Theatre, in the direction of Cannon Street, Shakespeare, too, shortly
+before his death, purchased a house.</p>
+
+<p>Thus Shakespeare's life in London is well identified with four
+districts&#8212;with Bishopsgate, with Shoreditch, with Southwark, and with
+Blackfriars. Unhappily for students of Shakespeare's life, London has
+been more than once remodelled since the dramatist sojourned in the
+city. The buildings and lodgings, with which he was associated in
+Shoreditch, Southwark, Bishopsgate, or Blackfriars, have long since
+disappeared.</p>
+
+<p>It is not practicable to follow in London the same historical scheme
+of commemoration which has been adopted at Stratford-on-Avon. It is
+impossible to recall to existence the edifices in which Shakespeare
+pursued his London career. Arch&#230;ology could do little in this
+direction that was satisfactory. There would be an awkward incongruity
+in introducing into the serried ranks of Shoreditch warehouses and
+Southwark wharves an arch&#230;ological restoration of Elizabethan
+playhouse or private residence. Pictorial representations of the Globe
+Theatre survive, and it might be possible to construct something that
+should<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span> materialise the extant drawings. But the <i>genius loci</i> has
+fled from Southwark and from Shoreditch. It might be practicable to
+set up a new model of an Elizabethan theatre elsewhere in London, but
+such a memorial would have about it an air of unreality,
+artificiality, and affectation which would not be in accord with the
+scholarly spirit of an historic or biographic commemoration. The
+device might prove of arch&#230;ological interest, but the commemorative
+purpose, from a biographical or historical point of view, would be ill
+served. Wherever a copy of an Elizabethan playhouse were brought to
+birth in twentieth-century London, the historic sense in the onlooker
+would be for the most part irresponsive; it would hardly be quickened.</p>
+
+
+<h3><a name="XI.6">VI</a></h3>
+
+<p>Apart from the practical difficulties of realising materially
+Shakespeare's local associations with London, it is doubtful if the
+mere commemoration in London of Shakespeare's personal connection with
+the great city ought to be the precise aim of those who urge the
+propriety of erecting a national monument in the metropolis.
+Shakespeare's personal relations with London can in all the
+circumstances of the case be treated as a justification in only the
+second degree. The primary justification involves a somewhat different
+train of thought. A national memorial of Shakespeare in London must be
+reckoned of small account if it merely aim at keeping alive in public
+memory episodes of Shakespeare's London career. The true aim of a
+national London memorial must be symbolical of a larger fact. It must
+typify Shakespeare's place, not in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span> the past, but in the present life
+of the nation and of the world. It ought to constitute a perpetual
+reminder of the position that he fills in the present economy, and is
+likely to fill in the future economy of human thought, for those whose
+growing absorption in the narrowing business of life tends to make
+them forget it.</p>
+
+<p>The day is long since past when vague eulogy of Shakespeare is
+permissible. Shakespeare's literary supremacy is as fully recognised
+by those who justly appreciate literature as any law of nature. To the
+man and woman of culture in all civilised countries he symbolises the
+potency of the human intellect. But those who are content to read and
+admire him in the cloister at times overlook the full significance of
+his achievement in the outer world. Critics of all nationalities are
+in substantial agreement with the romance-writer Dumas, who pointed
+out that Shakespeare is more than the greatest of dramatists; he is
+the greatest of thinking men.</p>
+
+<p>The exalted foreign estimate illustrates the fact that Shakespeare
+contributes to the prestige of his nation a good deal beyond repute
+for literary power. He is not merely a literary ornament of our
+British household. It is largely on his account that foreign nations
+honour his country as an intellectual and spiritual force. Shakespeare
+and Newton together give England an intellectual sovereignty which
+adds more to her &quot;reputation through the world&quot; than any exploit in
+battle or statesmanship. If, again, Shakespeare's pre-eminence has
+added dignity to the name of Englishman abroad, it has also quickened
+the sense of unity among the intelligent sections of the
+English-speaking peoples. Admiration,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span> affection for his work has come
+to be one of the strongest links in the chain which binds the
+English-speaking peoples together. He quickens the fraternal sense
+among all who speak his language.</p>
+
+<p>London is no nominal capital of the kingdom and the Empire. It is the
+headquarters of British influence. Within its boundaries are assembled
+the official insignia of British prestige. It is the mother-city of
+the English-speaking world. To ask of the citizens of London some
+outward sign that Shakespeare is a living source of British prestige,
+an unifying factor in the consolidation of the British Empire, and a
+powerful element in the maintenance of fraternal relations with the
+United States, seems therefore no unreasonable demand. Neither
+cloistered study of his plays, nor the occasional representation of
+them in the theatres, brings home to either the English-speaking or
+the English-reading world the full extent of the debt that England
+owes to Shakespeare. A monumental memorial, which should symbolise
+Shakespeare's influence in the universe, could only find an
+appropriate and effective home in the capital city of the British
+Empire. It is this conviction, and no narrower point of view, which
+gives endeavour to commemorate Shakespeare in London its title to
+consideration.</p>
+
+
+<h3><a name="XI.7">VII</a></h3>
+
+<p>The admitted fact that Shakespeare's fame is established beyond risk
+of decay does not place him outside the range of conventional methods
+of commemoration. The greater a man's recognised service to his
+fellows, the more active grows in normally constituted minds that
+natural commemorative instinct,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span> which seeks outward and tangible
+expression. A strange fallacy underlies the objection that has been
+taken to any commemoration of Shakespeare on the alleged ground that
+Milton warned the English people of all time against erecting a
+monument to Shakespeare.</p>
+
+<p>In 1630 Milton asked the question that is familiar to thousands of
+tongues:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">What needs my Shakespeare for his honoured bones?<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>By way of answer he deprecated any such &quot;weak witness of his name&quot; as
+&quot;pil&#232;d stones&quot; or &quot;star-y-pointing pyramid.&quot; The poet-laureate of
+England echoed Milton's sentiment in 1905. He roundly asserted that
+&quot;perishable stuff&quot; is the fit crown of monumental pedestals. &quot;Gods for
+themselves,&quot; he concluded, &quot;have monument enough.&quot; There are ample
+signs that the sentiment to which Milton and the laureate give voice
+has a good deal of public support.</p>
+
+<p>None the less the poet-laureate's conclusion is clearly refuted by
+experience and cannot terminate the argument. At any rate, in the
+classical and Renaissance eras monumental sculpture was in habitual
+request among those who would honour both immortal gods and mortal
+heroes&#8212;especially mortal heroes who had distinguished themselves in
+literature or art.</p>
+
+<p>A little reflection will show, likewise, that Milton's fervid couplets
+have small bearing on the question at issue in its present conditions.
+Milton's poem is an elegy on Shakespeare. It was penned when the
+dramatist had lain in his grave less that fourteen years, and when the
+writer was in his twenty-second<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span> year. The exuberant enthusiasm of
+youth was couched in poetic imagery which has from time immemorial
+been employed in panegyrics of great poets. The beautiful figure which
+presents a great man's work as his only lasting monument is as old as
+poetry itself. The conceit courses through the classical poetry of
+Greece from the time of Pindar, and through that of Italy from the
+time of Ennius. No great Renaissance writer of modern Italy, of
+sixteenth-century France, or of Elizabethan England, tired of arguing
+that the poet's deathless memorial is that carved by his own pen.
+Shakespeare himself clothed the conceit in glowing harmonies in his
+sonnets. Ben Jonson, in his elegy on the dramatist, adapted the
+time-honoured figure when he hailed his dead friend's achievement as
+&quot;a monument without a tomb.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The truest poetry is the most feigning,&quot; and, when one recalls the
+true significance and influence of great sculptured monuments through
+the history of the civilised world, Milton's poetic argument can only
+be accepted in what Sir Thomas Browne called &quot;a soft and flexible
+sense&quot;; it cannot &quot;be called unto the rigid test of reason.&quot; To treat
+Milton's eulogy as the final word in the discussion of the subject
+whether or no Shakespeare should have a national monument, is to come
+into conflict with Sir Walter Scott, Tennyson, Ruskin, Dickens, and
+all the greatest men of letters of the nineteenth century, who
+answered the question in the affirmative. It is to discredit crowds of
+admirers of great writers in classical and modern ages, who have
+commemorated the labours of poets and dramatists in outward and
+visible monuments.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The genius of the great Greek dramatists was not underrated by their
+countrymen. Their literary efforts were adjudged to be true memorials
+of their fame, and no doubt of their immortality was entertained. None
+the less, the city of Athens, on the proposition of the Attic orator,
+Lycurgus, erected in honour of &#198;schylus, Sophocles, and Euripides
+statues which ranked with the most beautiful adornments of the Greek
+capital. Calderon and Goethe, Camoens and Schiller, Sir Walter Scott
+and Burns enjoy reputations which are smaller, it is true, than
+Shakespeare's, but are, at the same time, like his, of both national
+and universal significance. In memory of them all, monuments have been
+erected as tokens of their fellow-countrymen's veneration and
+gratitude for the influence which their poetry wields.</p>
+
+<p>The fame of these men's writings never stood in any &quot;need&quot; of
+monumental corroboration. The sculptured memorial testified to the
+sense of gratitude which their writings generated in the hearts and
+minds of their readers.</p>
+
+<p>Again, the great musicians and the great painters live in their work
+in a singularly vivid sense. Music and painting are more direct in
+popular appeal than great poetry. Yet none can ridicule the sentiment
+which is embodied in the statue of Beethoven at Bonn, or in that of
+Paolo Veronese at Verona. To accept literally the youthful judgment of
+Milton and his imitators is to condemn sentiments and practices which
+are in universal vogue among civilised peoples. It is to deny to the
+Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey a rational title to existence.</p>
+
+<p>To commemorate a great man by a statue in a public place in the
+central sphere of his influence is,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span> indeed, a custom inseparable from
+civilised life. The theoretic moralist's reminder that monuments of
+human greatness sooner or later come to dust is a doctrine too
+discouraging of all human effort to exert much practical effect.
+Monuments are, in the eyes of the intelligent, tributes for services
+rendered to posterity by great men. But incidentally they have an
+educational value. They help to fix the attention of the thoughtless
+on facts which may, in the absence of outward symbols, escape notice.
+They may act as incentives to thought. They may convert the
+thoughtless into the thoughtful. Wide as are the ranks of
+Shakespeare's readers, they are not, in England at any rate, incapable
+of extension; and, whatever is likely to call the attention of those
+who are as yet outside the pale of knowledge of Shakespeare to what
+lies within it, deserves respectful consideration.</p>
+
+<p>It is never inconsistent with a nation's dignity for it to give
+conspicuous expression of gratitude to its benefactors, among whom
+great writers take first rank. Monuments of fitting character give
+that conspicuous expression. Bacon, the most enlightened of English
+thinkers, argued, within a few years of Shakespeare's death, that no
+self-respecting people could safely omit to erect statues of those who
+had contributed to the genuine advance of their knowledge or prestige.
+The visitors to Bacon's imaginary island of New Atlantis saw statues
+erected at the public expense in memory of all who had won great
+distinction in the arts or sciences. The richness of the memorial
+varied according to the value of the achievement. &quot;These statues,&quot; the
+observer noted, &quot;are some of brass,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span> some of marble and touchstone,
+some of cedar and other special woods, gilt and adorned, some of iron,
+some of silver, some of gold.&quot; No other external recognition of great
+intellectual service was deemed, in Bacon's Utopia, of equal
+appropriateness. Bacon's mature judgment deserves greater regard than
+the splendid imagery of Milton's budding muse.</p>
+
+
+<h3><a name="XI.8">VIII</a></h3>
+
+<p>In order to satisfy the commemorative instinct in a people, it is
+necessary, as Bacon pointed out, strictly to adapt the means to the
+end. The essential object of a national monument to a great man is to
+pay tribute to his greatness, to express his fellow-men's sense of his
+service. No blunder could be graver than to confuse the issue by
+seeking to make the commemoration serve any secondary or collateral
+purpose. It may be very useful to erect hospitals or schools. It may
+help in the dissemination of knowledge and appreciation of
+Shakespearean drama for the public to endow a theatre, which should be
+devoted to the performance of Shakespeare's plays. The public interest
+calls loudly for a playhouse that shall be under public control.
+Promoters of such a commendable endeavour might find their labours
+facilitated by associating their project with Shakespeare's name&#8212;with
+the proposed commemoration of Shakespeare. But the true aim of the
+commemoration will be frustrated if it be linked with any purpose of
+utility, however commendable, with anything beyond a symbolisation of
+Shakespeare's mighty genius and influence. To attempt aught else<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span> is
+&quot;wrenching the true cause the false way.&quot; A worthy memorial to
+Shakespeare will not satisfy the just working of the commemorative
+instinct, unless it take the sculpturesque and monumental shape which
+the great tradition of antiquity has sanctioned. A monument to
+Shakespeare should be a monument and nothing besides.</p>
+
+<p>Bacon's doctrine that the greater the achievement that is commemorated
+the richer must be the outward symbol, implies that a memorial to
+Shakespeare must be a work of art of the loftiest merit conceivable.
+Unless those who promote the movement concentrate their energies on an
+object of beauty, unless they free the movement of all suspicion that
+the satisfaction of the commemorative instinct is to be a secondary
+and not the primary aim, unless they resolve that the Shakespeare
+memorial in London is to be a monument pure and simple, and one as
+perfect as art can make it, then the effort is undeserving of national
+support.</p>
+
+
+<h3><a name="XI.9">IX</a></h3>
+
+<p>This conclusion suggests the inevitable objection that sculpture in
+England is not in a condition favourable to the execution of a great
+piece of monumental art. Past experience in London does not make one
+very sanguine that it is possible to realise in statuary a worthy
+conception of a Shakespearean memorial. The various stages through
+which recent efforts to promote sculptured memorials in London have
+passed suggest the mock turtle's definition in <i>Alice in Wonderland</i>
+of the four branches of arithmetic&#8212;Ambition, Distraction,
+Uglification, and Derision. Save the old statue of James the Second,
+at Whitehall, and the new<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span> statue of Oliver Cromwell, which stands at
+a disadvantage on its present site beneath Westminster Hall, there is
+scarcely a sculptured portrait in the public places of London which is
+not</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">A fix&#232;d figure for the time of scorn<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To point his slow unmoving finger at.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>London does not lack statues of men of letters. There are statues of
+Burns and John Stuart Mill on the Thames Embankment, of Byron in
+Hamilton Place, and of Carlyle on Chelsea Embankment. But all convey
+an impression of insignificance, and thereby fail to satisfy the
+nation's commemorative instinct.</p>
+
+<p>The taste of the British nation needs rigorous control when it seeks
+to pay tribute to benefactors by means of sculptured monuments. During
+the last forty years a vast addition has been made throughout Great
+Britain&#8212;with most depressing effect&#8212;to the number of sculptured
+memorials in the open air. The people has certainly shown far too
+enthusiastic and too inconsiderate a liberality in commemorating by
+means of sculptured monuments the virtues of Prince Albert and the
+noble character and career of the late Queen Victoria. The deduction
+to be drawn from the numberless statues of Queen Victoria and her
+consort is not exhilarating. British taste never showed itself to
+worse effect. The general impression produced by the most ambitious of
+all these memorials, the Albert Memorial in Kensington Gardens, is
+especially deplorable. The gilt figure of the Prince seems to defy
+every principle that fine art should respect. The endeavour to produce
+imposing effect by dint of hugeness is, in all but inspired hands,
+certain to issue in ugliness.</p>
+
+<p>It would, however, be a mistake to take too gloomy<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span> a view of the
+situation. The prospect may easily be painted in too dismal colours.
+It is a commonplace with foreign historians of art to assert that
+English sculpture ceased to flourish when the building of the old
+Gothic cathedrals came to an end. But Stevens's monument of the Duke
+of Wellington in St Paul's Cathedral, despite the imperfect execution
+of the sculptor's design, shows that the monumental art of England has
+proved itself, at a recent date, capable of realising a great
+commemorative conception. There are signs, too, that at least three
+living sculptors might in favourable conditions prove worthy
+competitors of Stevens. At least one literary memorial in the British
+Isles, the Scott monument in Edinburgh, which cost no more than
+&#163;16,000, satisfies a nation's commemorative aspiration. There the
+natural environment and an architectural setting of impressive design
+reinforce the effect of sculpture. The whole typifies with fitting
+dignity the admiring affection which gathers about Scott's name. This
+successful realisation of a commemorative aim&#8212;not wholly dissimilar
+from that which should inspire a Shakespeare memorial&#8212;must check
+forebodings of despair.</p>
+
+<p>There are obviously greater difficulties in erecting a monument to
+Shakespeare in London than in erecting a monument to Scott in
+Edinburgh. There is no site in London that will compare with the
+gardens of Princes Street in Edinburgh. It is essential that a
+Shakespeare memorial should occupy the best site that London can
+offer. Ideally the best site for any great monument is the summit of a
+gently rising eminence, with a roadway directly approaching it and
+circling round it. In 1864, when the question of a fit site for a
+Shakespeare<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span> memorial in London was warmly debated, a too ambitious
+scheme recommended the formation of an avenue on the model of the
+Champs-Elys&#233;es from the top of Portland Place across Primrose Hill;
+and at the end of the avenue, on the summit of Primrose Hill, at an
+elevation of 207 feet above the river Thames, the Shakespeare monument
+was to stand. This was and is an impracticable proposal. The site
+which in 1864 received the largest measure of approbation was a spot
+in the Green Park, near Piccadilly. A third suggestion of the same
+date was the bank of the river Thames, which was then called
+Thames-way, but was on the point of conversion into the Thames
+Embankment. Recent reconstruction of Central London&#8212;of the district
+north of the Strand&#8212;by the London County Council now widens the field
+of choice. There is much to be said for a site within the centre of
+London life. But an elevated monumental structure on the banks of the
+Thames seems to meet at the moment with the widest approval. In any
+case, no site that is mean or cramped would be permissible if the
+essential needs of the situation are to be met.</p>
+
+<p>A monument that should be sufficiently imposing would need an
+architectural framework. But the figure of the poet must occupy the
+foremost place in the design. Herein lies another embarrassment. It is
+difficult to determine which of the extant portraits the sculptor
+ought to follow. The bust in Stratford Church, the print in the First
+Folio, and possibly the Chandos painting in the National Portrait
+Gallery, are honest efforts to present a faithful likeness. But they
+are crudely executed, and are posthumous sketches largely depending on
+the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span> artist's memory. The sculptor would be compelled to work in the
+spirit of the historian, who recreates a past event from the
+indication given him by an illiterate or fragmentary chronicle or
+inscription. He would be bound to endow with artistic life those
+features in which the authentic portraits agree, but the highest
+effort of the imagination would be needed to create an impression of
+artistic truth.</p>
+
+<p>The success of a Shakespeare memorial will ultimately depend on the
+pecuniary support that the public accord it. But in the initial stage
+of the movement all rests on the discovery of a sculptor capable of
+realising the significance of a national commemoration of the greatest
+of the nation's, or indeed of the worlds, heroes. It would be well to
+settle satisfactorily the question of such an artist's existence
+before anything else. The first step that any organising committee of
+a Shakespeare memorial should therefore take, in my view, would be to
+invite sculptors of every country to propose a design. The monument
+should be the best that artistic genius could contrive&#8212;the artistic
+genius of the world. There may be better sculptors abroad than at
+home. The universality of the appeal which Shakespeare's achievement
+makes, justifies a competition among artists of every race or
+nationality.</p>
+
+<p>The crucial decision as to whether the capacity to execute the
+monument is available, should be entrusted to a committee of taste, to
+a committee of liberal-minded connoisseurs who command general
+confidence. If this jury decide by their verdict that the present
+conditions of art permit the production of a great memorial of
+Shakespeare on just principles,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span> then a strenuous appeal for funds may
+be inaugurated with likelihood of success. It is hopeless to reverse
+these methods of procedure. If funds are first invited before rational
+doubts as to the possibility of a proper application of them are
+dispelled, it is improbable that the response will be satisfactory or
+that the issue of the movement of 1905 will differ from that of 1821
+or 1864.</p>
+
+<p>In 1864 Victor Hugo expressed the opinion that the expenses of a
+Shakespeare memorial in London ought to be defrayed by the British
+Government. There is small likelihood of assistance from that source.
+Individual effort can alone be relied upon; and it is doubtful if it
+be desirable to seek official aid. A great national memorial of
+Shakespeare in London, if it come into being at all on the lines which
+would alone justify its existence, ought to embody individual
+enthusiasm, ought to express with fitting dignity the personal sense
+of indebtedness and admiration which fills the hearts of his
+fellow-men.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="INDEX" id="INDEX"></a>INDEX</h2>
+
+
+<p>
+<span class="smcap">Acting</span>, importance of, in Shakespearean drama, <a href='#Page_13'>13</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">evil effects of long runs, <a href='#Page_14'>14</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Shakespeare on, <a href='#Page_45'>45</a>, <a href='#Page_47'>47</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Actor-manager, his merits and defects, <a href='#Page_125'>125</a>, <a href='#Page_126'>126</a><br />
+<br />
+Actors, training of, <a href='#Page_139'>139</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">English, in France, <a href='#Page_203'>203</a>.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(See also <a href="#Benson">Benson, Mr F.R.</a>, and
+<a href="#Boys">Boys</a>.)</span><br />
+<br />
+&#198;schylus, statue of, <a href='#Page_233'>233</a><br />
+<br />
+Albert, Prince (Consort), and Shakespeare's birthplace, <a href='#Page_222'>222</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">statues of, <a href='#Page_237'>237</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Alleyn, Edward, <a href='#Page_191'>191</a>, <a href='#Page_194'>194</a><br />
+<br />
+<i>Annual Register</i> of 1770, <a href='#Page_194'>194</a><br />
+<br />
+Aristotle, Shakespeare's mention of, <a href='#Page_144'>144</a>, <a href='#Page_145'>145</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Bacon's study of, <a href='#Page_145'>145</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Arnold, Matthew, on Shakespeare, <a href='#Page_29'>29</a><br />
+<br />
+Astronomy, Shakespeare on, <a href='#Page_146'>146</a><br />
+<br />
+Athens, statuary at, <a href='#Page_233'>233</a><br />
+<br />
+Aubrey, John, his gossip about Shakespeare, <a href='#Page_67'>67</a>, <a href='#Page_68'>68</a><br />
+<br />
+Austria, subsidised theatres in, <a href='#Page_131'>131</a>, <a href='#Page_134'>134</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<span class="smcap">Bacon</span>, Anthony, in France, <a href='#Page_203'>203</a><br />
+<br />
+Bacon, Francis, philosophical method of, <a href='#Page_143'>143</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">on memorial monuments in <i>New Atlantis</i>, <a href='#Page_234'>234</a>, <a href='#Page_235'>235</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Bacon, Sir Nicholas, his fame in France, <a href='#Page_204'>204</a><br />
+<br />
+Badger, Mr Richard, proposal for a Shakespeare monument, <a href='#Page_219'>219</a><br />
+<br />
+Bannister, John, his music for <i>The Tempest</i>, <a href='#Page_107'>107</a><br />
+<br />
+Barker, Mr Granville, as Richard II., <a href='#Page_13'>13</a> <i>n.</i><br />
+<br />
+Basse, William, his tribute to Shakespeare, <a href='#Page_50'>50</a><br />
+<br />
+Beeston, Christopher, Elizabethan actor, <a href='#Page_64'>64</a><br />
+<br />
+Beeston, William the first, patron of Nash, <a href='#Page_64'>64</a><br />
+<br />
+Beeston, William the second, his theatrical career, <a href='#Page_65'>65</a>, <a href='#Page_66'>66</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his gossip about Shakespeare, <a href='#Page_65'>65</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his conversation, <a href='#Page_66'>66</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Aubrey's account of, <a href='#Page_67'>67</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Beethoven, statue of, <a href='#Page_233'>233</a><br />
+<br />
+Beljame, Alexandre, on English literature, <a href='#Page_201'>201</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">death of, <a href='#Page_201'>201</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<a name="Benson">Benson</a>, Mr F.R., his company of actors, <a href='#Page_111'>111</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his principles, <a href='#Page_112'>112</a> <i>seq.</i>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">list of Shakespeare plays produced by, <a href='#Page_114'>114</a> <i>n.</i>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his production of <i>Hamlet</i> unabridged, <a href='#Page_116'>116</a>-118;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his training of actors, <a href='#Page_119'>119</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his services to Shakespeare, <a href='#Page_121'>121</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his pupils on the London stage, <a href='#Page_130'>130</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Berkenhout, John, <a href='#Page_195'>195</a><br />
+<br />
+Betterton, Thomas, at Stratford-on-Avon, <a href='#Page_73'>73</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">contributes to Rowe's biography, <a href='#Page_73'>73</a>, <a href='#Page_76'>76</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his rendering of Hamlet, <a href='#Page_101'>101</a>, <a href='#Page_102'>102</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Biography, art of, in England, <a href='#Page_51'>51</a><br />
+<br />
+Bishop, Sir William, <a href='#Page_76'>76</a><br />
+<br />
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span>Bishopsgate (London), Shakespeare at, <a href='#Page_226'>226</a>, <a href='#Page_227'>227</a><br />
+<br />
+Blackfriars, Shakespeare's house at, <a href='#Page_227'>227</a><br />
+<br />
+Boileau, and English literature, <a href='#Page_199'>199</a><br />
+<br />
+Bolingbroke, in <i>Richard II.</i>, patriotism of, <a href='#Page_173'>173</a><br />
+<br />
+Bowman, John, actor, <a href='#Page_69'>69</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">at Stratford-on-Avon, <a href='#Page_76'>76</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<a name="Boys">Boys</a> in women's parts in Elizabethan theatres, <a href='#Page_19'>19</a>, <a href='#Page_41'>41</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">abandonment of the practice, <a href='#Page_43'>43</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">superseded by women, <a href='#Page_88'>88</a>, <a href='#Page_89'>89</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Buchanan, George, his plays, <a href='#Page_204'>204</a><br />
+<br />
+Burbage, Richard, Shakespeare's friend and fellow-actor, <a href='#Page_33'>33</a><br />
+<br />
+Burns, Mr John, <a href='#Page_131'>131</a><br />
+<br />
+Burns, Robert, French study of, <a href='#Page_201'>201</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">monument to, <a href='#Page_233'>233</a>, <a href='#Page_237'>237</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Byron, Lord, on Petrarch at Arqu&#224;, <a href='#Page_225'>225</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">statue of, <a href='#Page_237'>237</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<span class="smcap">Calderon</span>, <a href='#Page_136'>136</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">monument to, <a href='#Page_233'>233</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Calvert, Charles A., his Shakespearean productions at Manchester, <a href='#Page_12'>12</a> <i>n.</i><br />
+<br />
+Camoens, monument to, <a href='#Page_233'>233</a><br />
+<br />
+Capital and the literary drama, <a href='#Page_124'>124</a>, <a href='#Page_126'>126</a>, <a href='#Page_127'>127</a>, <a href='#Page_128'>128</a><br />
+<br />
+Carlyle, Thomas, statue of, <a href='#Page_237'>237</a><br />
+<br />
+<i>Cataline's Conspiracy</i>, by Ben Jonson, <a href='#Page_30'>30</a>, <a href='#Page_31'>31</a><br />
+<br />
+Ceremony, Shakespeare on, <a href='#Page_157'>157</a>, <a href='#Page_158'>158</a><br />
+<br />
+Chantrey, Sir Francis, and commemoration of Shakespeare, <a href='#Page_216'>216</a><br />
+<br />
+Charlecote, Shakespeare's escapade at, <a href='#Page_76'>76</a><br />
+<br />
+Chaucer, Geoffrey, French influence on, <a href='#Page_199'>199</a><br />
+<br />
+Clarendon, Lord, on Shakespeare, <a href='#Page_78'>78</a><br />
+<br />
+Cockpit theatre, Drury Lane, <a href='#Page_65'>65</a>, <a href='#Page_86'>86</a><br />
+<br />
+Cockpit theatre, Whitehall, <a href='#Page_87'>87</a> and <i>n.</i><br />
+<br />
+Coleman, John, on the subsidised theatre, <a href='#Page_132'>132</a><br />
+<br />
+Coleridge S.T., and commemoration of Shakespeare, <a href='#Page_216'>216</a><br />
+<br />
+Congreve, William, <a href='#Page_91'>91</a><br />
+<br />
+Coriolanus and the patriotic instinct, <a href='#Page_178'>178</a>, <a href='#Page_179'>179</a><br />
+<br />
+Cromwell, Oliver, statue of, <a href='#Page_237'>237</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<span class="smcap">Davenant</span>, Robert, Sir William's brother, <a href='#Page_70'>70</a><br />
+<br />
+D'Avenant, Sir William: theatrical manager, <a href='#Page_67'>67</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his youth at Oxford, <a href='#Page_69'>69</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">relations in boyhood with Shakespeare, <a href='#Page_70'>70</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">elegy on Shakespeare, <a href='#Page_71'>71</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">champion of Shakespeare's fame, <a href='#Page_71'>71</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his story of Shakespeare and Southampton, <a href='#Page_72'>72</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his influence on Betterton, <a href='#Page_72'>72</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">manager of the Duke's Company, <a href='#Page_87'>87</a> <i>n.</i>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">as dramatist, <a href='#Page_91'>91</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his adaptations of Shakespeare, <a href='#Page_103'>103</a>-105, <a href='#Page_106'>106</a> <i>n.</i>, <a href='#Page_108'>108</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Deschamps, Eustace, on Chaucer, <a href='#Page_199'>199</a><br />
+<br />
+Desportes, Philippe, and Elizabethan poetry, <a href='#Page_199'>199</a><br />
+<br />
+D'Israeli, Isaac, on Steevens's forgery, <a href='#Page_195'>195</a><br />
+<br />
+Downs, John, prompter and stage annalist, <a href='#Page_63'>63</a><br />
+<br />
+Dramatic societies in England, <a href='#Page_129'>129</a><br />
+<br />
+Dress, Shakespeare on extravagant, <a href='#Page_185'>185</a><br />
+<br />
+Drunkenness, Shakespeare on, <a href='#Page_185'>185</a><br />
+<br />
+Dryden, John, on William Beeston, <a href='#Page_66'>66</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">as dramatist, <a href='#Page_91'>91</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his share in the adaptation of <i>The Tempest</i>, <a href='#Page_105'>105</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Du Bellay, Joachim, and Elizabethan poetry, <a href='#Page_199'>199</a><br />
+<br />
+Ducis, Jean Fran&#231;ois, his translation of Shakespeare, <a href='#Page_207'>207</a>, <a href='#Page_208'>208</a><br />
+<br />
+Dugdale, Sir William, <a href='#Page_74'>74</a><br />
+<br />
+Dumas <i>p&#232;re</i>, on Shakespeare, <a href='#Page_206'>206</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">his translation of <i>Hamlet</i>, <a href='#Page_209'>209</a>-211</span><br />
+<br />
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span>Dyce, Alexander, on Steevens's forgery, <a href='#Page_196'>196</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<span class="smcap">Elizabeth</span>, Queen, summons Shakespeare to Greenwich, <a href='#Page_31'>31</a><br />
+<br />
+Elizabethan Stage Society, <a href='#Page_13'>13</a> <i>n.</i><br />
+<br />
+England, Shakespeare on history of, <a href='#Page_180'>180</a><br />
+<br />
+Ennius on poetic fame, <a href='#Page_232'>232</a><br />
+<br />
+Etherege, Sir George, <a href='#Page_91'>91</a><br />
+<br />
+Eton College, debate about Shakespeare at, <a href='#Page_78'>78</a><br />
+<br />
+Euripides, statue of, <a href='#Page_233'>233</a><br />
+<br />
+Evelyn, John, on <i>Hamlet</i>, <a href='#Page_90'>90</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<span class="smcap">Farquhar</span>, George, <a href='#Page_91'>91</a><br />
+<br />
+Faulconbridge (in <i>King John</i>), patriotism of, <a href='#Page_174'>174</a><br />
+<br />
+Fletcher, John, his <i>Custom of the Country</i>, <a href='#Page_92'>92</a>, <a href='#Page_93'>93</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">its obscenity, <a href='#Page_93'>93</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Folio, the First [of Shakespeare's plays], actors' co-operation in, <a href='#Page_59'>59</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">list of actors in, <a href='#Page_61'>61</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">rejected by Pepys, <a href='#Page_94'>94</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Folio, the Second [of Shakespeare's plays], in France, <a href='#Page_205'>205</a><br />
+<br />
+Folio, the Third [of Shakespeare's plays], purchased by Pepys, <a href='#Page_94'>94</a><br />
+<br />
+Folio, the Fourth [of Shakespeare's plays], in Pepysian library, <a href='#Page_94'>94</a><br />
+<br />
+France, subsidised theatres in, <a href='#Page_131'>131</a>, <a href='#Page_134'>134</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Shakespeare in, <a href='#Page_198'>198</a> <i>seq.</i>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">English actors in, <a href='#Page_203'>203</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Freedom of the will, Shakespeare on, <a href='#Page_166'>166</a><br />
+<br />
+Fuller, Thomas, his <i>Worthies of England</i>, <a href='#Page_52'>52</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">notice of Shakespeare, <a href='#Page_52'>52</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<span class="smcap">Garrick</span>, David, his stage costume, <a href='#Page_18'>18</a><br />
+<br />
+<i>Gentleman's Magazine</i> of 1801, <a href='#Page_195'>195</a><br />
+<br />
+George IV. and commemoration of Shakespeare, <a href='#Page_215'>215</a><br />
+<br />
+German drama, <a href='#Page_129'>129</a>, <a href='#Page_135'>135</a>, <a href='#Page_136'>136</a><br />
+<br />
+Germany, subsidised theatres in, <a href='#Page_131'>131</a>, <a href='#Page_134'>134</a><br />
+<br />
+Goethe, <a href='#Page_136'>136</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">monument to, <a href='#Page_233'>233</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Greene, Robert, French translation of romance by, <a href='#Page_199'>199</a><br />
+<br />
+Grendon, tradition of Shakespeare at, <a href='#Page_77'>77</a><br />
+<br />
+&quot;Grenovicus&quot; contributes to <i>Gentleman's Magazine</i>, <a href='#Page_195'>195</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<span class="smcap">Hales</span>, John, of Eton, <a href='#Page_78'>78</a><br />
+<br />
+Hall, Bishop Joseph, French translation of works by, <a href='#Page_199'>199</a><br />
+<br />
+Hart, Charles, Shakespeare's grand-nephew, actor, <a href='#Page_59'>59</a>, <a href='#Page_68'>68</a><br />
+<br />
+Hauptmann, Gerhart, <a href='#Page_135'>135</a><br />
+<br />
+Henry V., on kingly ceremony, <a href='#Page_157'>157</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">patriotism of, <a href='#Page_175'>175</a>, <a href='#Page_182'>182</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Heywood, Thomas, projected <i>Lives of the Poets</i>, <a href='#Page_54'>54</a> <i>n.</i>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">affection for Shakespeare, <a href='#Page_65'>65</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his <i>Apology for Actors</i>, <a href='#Page_65'>65</a></span><br />
+<br />
+History plays of Shakespeare, character of, <a href='#Page_180'>180</a><br />
+<br />
+Hobbes, Thomas, in France, <a href='#Page_200'>200</a><br />
+<br />
+Howe, Josias, on a Shakespeare tradition, <a href='#Page_77'>77</a><br />
+<br />
+Hugo, Victor, on Shakespeare, <a href='#Page_206'>206</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">on Shakespeare memorial, <a href='#Page_241'>241</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<span class="smcap">Imagination</span> in the audience, <a href='#Page_22'>22</a>, <a href='#Page_47'>47</a>, <a href='#Page_48'>48</a><br />
+<br />
+Ingres, Jean, his painting of Shakespeare, <a href='#Page_206'>206</a><br />
+<br />
+Irving, Sir Henry, experience of Shakespearean spectacle, <a href='#Page_10'>10</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and the literary drama, <a href='#Page_123'>123</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and the municipal theatre, <a href='#Page_132'>132</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and French drama, <a href='#Page_200'>200</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Irving, Washington, and commemoration of Shakespeare, <a href='#Page_216'>216</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<span class="smcap">James I.</span>, his alleged letter to Shakespeare, <a href='#Page_72'>72</a><br />
+<br />
+James II., statue of, <a href='#Page_236'>236</a><br />
+<br />
+John of Gaunt in <i>Richard II.</i>, dying speech of, <a href='#Page_115'>115</a>-116, <a href='#Page_181'>181</a><br />
+<br />
+Johnson, Dr, on false patriots, <a href='#Page_171'>171</a><br />
+<br />
+Jonson, Ben, testimony to Shakespeare's popularity, <a href='#Page_29'>29</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his classical tragedies compared with Shakespeare's, <a href='#Page_30'>30</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his elegy on Shakespeare, <a href='#Page_50'>50</a>, <a href='#Page_232'>232</a>;</span><br />
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 1em;">his dialectical powers contrasted with Shakespeare's, <a href='#Page_53'>53</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">on the players' praise of Shakespeare, <a href='#Page_60'>60</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his son, Shakespeare's godson, <a href='#Page_61'>61</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Beeston's talk of, <a href='#Page_67'>67</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">popularity of his plays at Restoration, <a href='#Page_91'>91</a>, <a href='#Page_92'>92</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Jusserand, Jules, on English literature, <a href='#Page_202'>202</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his <i>Shakespeare in France</i>, <a href='#Page_203'>203</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<span class="smcap">Kean</span>, Charles, experience of Shakespearean spectacle, <a href='#Page_9'>9</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Macready's criticism of, <a href='#Page_14'>14</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Kemp, William, Elizabethan comedian, <a href='#Page_33'>33</a><br />
+<br />
+Killigrew, Tom, manager of the King's Company, <a href='#Page_87'>87</a> <i>n.</i><br />
+<br />
+Kingship, Shakespeare on, <a href='#Page_155'>155</a>-160, <a href='#Page_180'>180</a>-182<br />
+<br />
+Kirkman, Francis, his account of William Beeston the second, <a href='#Page_66'>66</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<span class="smcap">Lacy</span>, John, actor, <a href='#Page_67'>67</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">acquaintance with Ben Jonson, <a href='#Page_68'>68</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">adaptation of <i>The Taming of the Shrew</i>, <a href='#Page_108'>108</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Lawrence, Sir Thomas, and commemoration of Shakespeare, <a href='#Page_216'>216</a><br />
+<br />
+Lessing, <a href='#Page_136'>136</a><br />
+<br />
+Lincoln's Inn Fields (Portugal Row), Theatre at, <a href='#Page_86'>86</a>, <a href='#Page_87'>87</a> and <i>n.</i><br />
+<br />
+Literary drama, on the modern stage, <a href='#Page_123'>123</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">antagonism of capital to, <a href='#Page_126'>126</a>-128</span><br />
+<br />
+<i>Lives of the Poets</i> of the seventeenth century, <a href='#Page_54'>54</a><br />
+<br />
+Locke, John, in France, <a href='#Page_200'>200</a><br />
+<br />
+Locke, Matthew, Shakespearean music of, <a href='#Page_105'>105</a>, <a href='#Page_108'>108</a><br />
+<br />
+Logic, Shakespeare on, <a href='#Page_146'>146</a><br />
+<br />
+London, Shakespeare's association with, <a href='#Page_226'>226</a> <i>seq.</i>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">statues in, <a href='#Page_236'>236</a>, <a href='#Page_237'>237</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">proposed sites for Shakespeare monument in, <a href='#Page_239'>239</a></span><br />
+<br />
+London County Council, and the theatre, <a href='#Page_130'>130</a>, <a href='#Page_131'>131</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and subsidised enlightenment, <a href='#Page_133'>133</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and Shakespeare monument, <a href='#Page_219'>219</a></span><br />
+<br />
+London Trades Council and the theatre, <a href='#Page_132'>132</a><br />
+<br />
+Lowin, John, original actor in Shakespeare's plays, <a href='#Page_61'>61</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">coached by Shakespeare in part of <i>Hamlet</i>, <a href='#Page_63'>63</a>, <a href='#Page_71'>71</a>, <a href='#Page_72'>72</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Lycurgus, Attic orator, <a href='#Page_233'>233</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<span class="smcap">Macready</span>, W.C., his criticism of spectacle, <a href='#Page_14'>14</a><br />
+<br />
+Marlowe, Christopher, Shakespeare's senior by two months, <a href='#Page_37'>37</a>, <a href='#Page_193'>193</a><br />
+<br />
+Massinger, Philip, his <i>Bondman</i>, <a href='#Page_92'>92</a>, <a href='#Page_93'>93</a><br />
+<br />
+Mathews, Charles, on a monument of Shakespeare, <a href='#Page_214'>214</a><br />
+<br />
+Mercy, Shakespeare on, <a href='#Page_152'>152</a>, <a href='#Page_153'>153</a><br />
+<br />
+Metaphysics, Shakespeare on, <a href='#Page_146'>146</a>-148<br />
+<br />
+Mill, John Stuart, statue of, <a href='#Page_237'>237</a><br />
+<br />
+Milton, his elegy on Shakespeare, <a href='#Page_51'>51</a>, <a href='#Page_231'>231</a><br />
+<br />
+Moli&#232;re, accepted methods of producing his plays, <a href='#Page_16'>16</a>, <a href='#Page_18'>18</a>, <a href='#Page_136'>136</a><br />
+<br />
+Montaigne, Michel de, and Anthony Bacon, <a href='#Page_203'>203</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his essays in English, <a href='#Page_204'>204</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Moore, Thomas, and commemoration of Shakespeare, <a href='#Page_216'>216</a><br />
+<br />
+More, Sir Thomas, his <i>Utopia</i> in France, <a href='#Page_204'>204</a><br />
+<br />
+Municipal theatre, its justification, <a href='#Page_122'>122</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in Europe, <a href='#Page_134'>134</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Musset, Alfred de, on Shakespeare, <a href='#Page_206'>206</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<span class="smcap">Nash</span>, John, and commemoration of Shakespeare, <a href='#Page_216'>216</a><br />
+<br />
+Nash, Thomas, <a href='#Page_64'>64</a><br />
+<br />
+Nodier, Charles, his <i>Pens&#233;es de Shakespeare</i>, <a href='#Page_211'>211</a>-213<br />
+<br />
+Norwegian drama, <a href='#Page_129'>129</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<span class="smcap">Obedience</span>, the duty of, <a href='#Page_161'>161</a><br />
+<br />
+Oldys, William, antiquary, <a href='#Page_68'>68</a>, <a href='#Page_69'>69</a><br />
+<br />
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span>Opera in England, <a href='#Page_131'>131</a><br />
+<br />
+Oxford, the Crown Inn at, <a href='#Page_69'>69</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Shakespeare at, <a href='#Page_70'>70</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">visitors from, to Stratford, <a href='#Page_75'>75</a>-77</span><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<span class="smcap">Patriotism</span>, Shakespeare on, <a href='#Page_170'>170</a> <i>seq.</i><br />
+<br />
+Peele, George, alleged letter of, <a href='#Page_189'>189</a> <i>seq.</i><br />
+<br />
+Pepys, Samuel, his play-going experience, <a href='#Page_81'>81</a>-86;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">on Elizabethan and Jacobean drama, <a href='#Page_91'>91</a>-93;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">on Shakespeare, <a href='#Page_94'>94</a> <i>seq.</i>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his attitude to poetic drama, <a href='#Page_95'>95</a>, <a href='#Page_96'>96</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his musical setting of &quot;To be or not to be,&quot; <a href='#Page_100'>100</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Petrarch, his tomb at Arqu&#224;, <a href='#Page_225'>225</a><br />
+<br />
+Phelps, Samuel, at Sadler's Wells, <a href='#Page_11'>11</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">list of plays produced by, <a href='#Page_11'>11</a>, <a href='#Page_114'>114</a> <i>n.</i>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his mode of producing Shakespeare, <a href='#Page_12'>12</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">on a State theatre in London, <a href='#Page_120'>120</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">on public control of theatres, <a href='#Page_140'>140</a>, <a href='#Page_141'>141</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Philosophy, Shakespeare's attitude to, <a href='#Page_143'>143</a> <i>seq.</i><br />
+<br />
+Pindar on poetic fame, <a href='#Page_232'>232</a><br />
+<br />
+Platter, Thomas, journal of his London visit (1599), <a href='#Page_38'>38</a><br />
+<br />
+<a name="Playhouses">Playhouses</a> in London, Blackfriars, <a href='#Page_227'>227</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Drury Lane, <a href='#Page_86'>86</a>, <a href='#Page_87'>87</a> and <i>n.</i>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">&quot;The Globe,&quot; <a href='#Page_38'>38</a>, <a href='#Page_227'>227</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">&quot;The Red Bull,&quot; <a href='#Page_86'>86</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Sadler's Wells, <a href='#Page_11'>11</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Salisbury Court, Whitefriars, <a href='#Page_66'>66</a>, <a href='#Page_86'>86</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">&quot;The Theatre&quot; at Shoreditch, <a href='#Page_37'>37</a>, <a href='#Page_227'>227</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Pope, Alexander, and French literature, <a href='#Page_199'>199</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">on the Shakespeare cenotaph, <a href='#Page_216'>216</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<span class="smcap">Richardson</span>, Samuel, in France, <a href='#Page_200'>200</a><br />
+<br />
+Robinson, Richard, actor, <a href='#Page_68'>68</a><br />
+<br />
+Ronsard, Pierre de, and Elizabethan poetry, <a href='#Page_199'>199</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in England, <a href='#Page_203'>203</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Rousseau, J.J., and English literature, <a href='#Page_200'>200</a><br />
+<br />
+Rowe, Nicholas, Shakespeare's first formal biographer, <a href='#Page_54'>54</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his acknowledgment to Betterton, <a href='#Page_73'>73</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his biography of Shakespeare, <a href='#Page_79'>79</a>, <a href='#Page_80'>80</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Royal ceremony, irony of, <a href='#Page_158'>158</a><br />
+<br />
+Russell, Lord John, on patriotism, <a href='#Page_172'>172</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<span class="smcap">Sadler's Wells Theatre</span>, <a href='#Page_11'>11</a><br />
+<br />
+Sand, George, on Shakespeare, <a href='#Page_206'>206</a><br />
+<br />
+Sardou, Victorien, work of, <a href='#Page_200'>200</a><br />
+<br />
+Scenery, its purpose, <a href='#Page_5'>5</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">uselessness of realism, <a href='#Page_23'>23</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Schiller, on the German stage, <a href='#Page_136'>136</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">monument to, <a href='#Page_233'>233</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Scott, Sir Walter, and commemoration of Shakespeare, <a href='#Page_216'>216</a>, <a href='#Page_232'>232</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Edinburgh monument of, <a href='#Page_238'>238</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Sedley, Sir Charles, <a href='#Page_91'>91</a><br />
+<br />
+Seneca on mercy, <a href='#Page_153'>153</a> <i>n.</i><br />
+<br />
+Shadwell, Thomas, <a href='#Page_67'>67</a>,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">adaptation of <i>The Tempest</i>, <a href='#Page_106'>106</a> <i>n.</i></span><br />
+<br />
+Shakespeare, Edmund, actor, <a href='#Page_227'>227</a><br />
+<br />
+Shakespeare, Gilbert, actor, <a href='#Page_68'>68</a><br />
+<br />
+Shakespeare, William, his creation of the Ghost in <i>Hamlet</i>, <a href='#Page_27'>27</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">contemporary popularity of, <a href='#Page_29'>29</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">at Court, <a href='#Page_31'>31</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">early London career, <a href='#Page_32'>32</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">advice to the actor, <a href='#Page_45'>45</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his modest estimate of the actor's powers, <a href='#Page_47'>47</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">elegies on death of, <a href='#Page_49'>49</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Fuller's notice of, <a href='#Page_52'>52</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">early biographies of, <a href='#Page_54'>54</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">oral tradition of, in seventeenth century, <a href='#Page_55'>55</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">similarity of experience with that of contemporary dramatists and actors, <a href='#Page_57'>57</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Elizabethan players' commendation of, <a href='#Page_60'>60</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">resentment with a publisher, <a href='#Page_65'>65</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">William Beeston's reminiscences of, <a href='#Page_67'>67</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Stratford gossip about, <a href='#Page_74'>74</a>-76;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">present state of biographical knowledge, <a href='#Page_81'>81</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his attitude to philosophy, <a href='#Page_143'>143</a> <i>seq.</i>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his intuition, <a href='#Page_149'>149</a>-150;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">concealment of his personality, <a href='#Page_150'>150</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his private sentiments, <a href='#Page_151'>151</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">on mercy, <a href='#Page_152'>152</a>-153;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">on rulers of states, <a href='#Page_154'>154</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">on divine right of kings, <a href='#Page_159'>159</a>;</span><br />
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 1em;">on obedience, <a href='#Page_161'>161</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">on social order, <a href='#Page_162'>162</a>-163;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">on freedom of the will, <a href='#Page_166'>166</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">on women's will, <a href='#Page_168'>168</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his humour and optimism, <a href='#Page_169'>169</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">on patriotism, <a href='#Page_170'>170</a> <i>seq.</i>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">on English history, <a href='#Page_180'>180</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">on social foibles, <a href='#Page_184'>184</a>-186;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">commemoration of, in London, <a href='#Page_214'>214</a> <i>seq.</i>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">portraits of, <a href='#Page_239'>239</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Shakespearean drama, attitude of students and actors to, <a href='#Page_1'>1</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">costliness of modern production, <a href='#Page_2'>2</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the simple method and the public, <a href='#Page_8'>8</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Charles Kean's spectacular method, <a href='#Page_9'>9</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Irving's method, <a href='#Page_10'>10</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">plays produced by Phelps, <a href='#Page_11'>11</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">reliance on the actor, <a href='#Page_13'>13</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in Vienna, <a href='#Page_17'>17</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">advantage of its performance constantly and in variety, <a href='#Page_23'>23</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">importance of minor r&#244;les of, <a href='#Page_115'>115</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">its ethical significance, <a href='#Page_164'>164</a>, <a href='#Page_165'>165</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in France, <a href='#Page_198'>198</a> <i>seq.</i>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">and British prestige, <a href='#Page_229'>229</a></span><br />
+<br />
+&#8212;&#8212;, (separate plays):&#8212;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Antony and Cleopatra</i> in Vienna, <a href='#Page_17'>17</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Coriolanus</i>, political significance of, <a href='#Page_164'>164</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">and patriotism, <a href='#Page_178'>178</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Cymbeline</i> (III. i., 16-22), on patriotism, <a href='#Page_183'>183</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Hamlet</i>, Shakespeare's performance of the Ghost, <a href='#Page_27'>27</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">early popularity of the play, <a href='#Page_29'>29</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Pepys's criticism of, <a href='#Page_95'>95</a>, <a href='#Page_99'>99</a>-101;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">the stage abridgment contrasted with the full text, <a href='#Page_117'>117</a>-119</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Henry IV.</i> (Part I.), Pepys's criticism of, <a href='#Page_97'>97</a>, <a href='#Page_98'>98</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Henry V.</i>, meaning of first chorus, <a href='#Page_19'>19</a>, <a href='#Page_46'>46</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">quoted, <a href='#Page_157'>157</a>, <a href='#Page_158'>158</a>, <a href='#Page_162'>162</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Julius C&#230;sar</i>, preferred by contemporary playgoers to Jonson's <i>Cataline</i>, <a href='#Page_31'>31</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">political significance of, <a href='#Page_164'>164</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Lear, King</i>, performed at Elizabeth's Court, <a href='#Page_36'>36</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">quarto of, <a href='#Page_36'>36</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Love's Labour's Lost</i>, performed at Court, <a href='#Page_34'>34</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">title-page of the quarto, <a href='#Page_35'>35</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Macbeth</i>, Pepys's criticism of, <a href='#Page_104'>104</a>-105;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">quoted, <a href='#Page_156'>156</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Measure for Measure</i>, ethics of, <a href='#Page_164'>164</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Merry Wives of Windsor, The</i>, title-page of the quarto, <a href='#Page_36'>36</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Pepys's criticism of, <a href='#Page_97'>97</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Midsummer Night's Dream, A</i>, Pepys's criticism of, <a href='#Page_96'>96</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Othello</i>, Pepys's criticism of, <a href='#Page_95'>95</a>, <a href='#Page_98'>98</a>, <a href='#Page_99'>99</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Richard II.</i>, purport of John of Gaunt's dying speech, <a href='#Page_115'>115</a>-116, <a href='#Page_181'>181</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Romeo and Juliet</i>, Pepys's criticism of, <a href='#Page_96'>96</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Tempest, The</i>, Pepys's criticism of, <a href='#Page_105'>105</a>-108;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">spectacular production of, at Restoration, <a href='#Page_107'>107</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Troilus and Cressida</i> (II. ii., 166), on Aristotle, <a href='#Page_144'>144</a>, <a href='#Page_145'>145</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">(I. iii., 101-124), on social equilibrium, <a href='#Page_163'>163</a></span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Twelfth Night</i>, Pepys's criticism of, <a href='#Page_96'>96</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Sheffield, John, Earl of Mulgrave and Duke of Buckinghamshire, <a href='#Page_72'>72</a><br />
+<br />
+Shoreditch, the theatre in, <a href='#Page_227'>227</a><br />
+<br />
+Sidney, Sir Philip, French translations of <i>Arcadia</i>, <a href='#Page_199'>199</a>, <a href='#Page_204'>204</a><br />
+<br />
+Somerset, the &quot;proud&quot; Duke of, on Shakespeare, <a href='#Page_79'>79</a><br />
+<br />
+Sophocles, statue of, <a href='#Page_233'>233</a><br />
+<br />
+Southampton, Earl of, and Shakespeare, <a href='#Page_72'>72</a><br />
+<br />
+Southwark, the Globe Theatre at, <a href='#Page_227'>227</a><br />
+<br />
+Spenser, Edmund, Beeston's gossip about, <a href='#Page_67'>67</a><br />
+<br />
+Steevens, George, character of, <a href='#Page_191'>191</a>;<br />
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 2em;">a forged letter by, <a href='#Page_192'>192</a>, <a href='#Page_193'>193</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Sterne, Laurence, in France, <a href='#Page_200'>200</a><br />
+<br />
+Stevenson, R.L., his imaginary discovery of lost works by Shakespeare, <a href='#Page_25'>25</a><br />
+<br />
+Stratford-on-Avon, Shakespeare's tomb at, <a href='#Page_50'>50</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Betterton at, <a href='#Page_73'>73</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">visitors from Oxford to, <a href='#Page_75'>75</a>, <a href='#Page_76'>76</a>, <a href='#Page_77'>77</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Shakespeare tradition at, <a href='#Page_75'>75</a>, <a href='#Page_76'>76</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Shakespeare memorials at, <a href='#Page_218'>218</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">destruction of New Place, <a href='#Page_221'>221</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the monumental committee of, <a href='#Page_221'>221</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">sale of Shakespeare's birthplace, <a href='#Page_222'>222</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">purchase of New Place site, <a href='#Page_223'>223</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the Birthplace Trust, <a href='#Page_223'>223</a>, <a href='#Page_224'>224</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Suckling, Sir John, his love for Shakespeare, <a href='#Page_71'>71</a><br />
+<br />
+Sudermann, Hermann, <a href='#Page_135'>135</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<span class="smcap">Tate</span>, Nahum, his adaptations of Shakespeare, <a href='#Page_103'>103</a>, <a href='#Page_104'>104</a><br />
+<br />
+Theatres in Elizabethan London, <a href='#Page_36'>36</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">seating arrangements, <a href='#Page_39'>39</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">prices of admission, <a href='#Page_39'>39</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the scenery, <a href='#Page_40'>40</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the costumes, <a href='#Page_41'>41</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">contrast between their methods of production and those of later date, <a href='#Page_44'>44</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Theatres, at Restoration, <a href='#Page_86'>86</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">characteristics of, <a href='#Page_87'>87</a>-90.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(See also <a href="#Playhouses">Playhouses</a>.)</span><br />
+<br />
+<i>Theatrical Review</i> of 1763, <a href='#Page_190'>190</a><br />
+<br />
+Theatrical spectacle in Shakespearean drama, effect of excess, <a href='#Page_3'>3</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">its want of logic, <a href='#Page_4'>4</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">its costliness, <a href='#Page_7'>7</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">at the Restoration, <a href='#Page_89'>89</a>, <a href='#Page_109'>109</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">at the present day, <a href='#Page_110'>110</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Thomson, James, French study of, <a href='#Page_201'>201</a><br />
+<br />
+Tuke, Sir Samuel, his <i>Adventures of Five Hours</i>, <a href='#Page_98'>98</a>-99<br />
+<br />
+Taylor, Joseph, original actor in Shakespeare's plays, <a href='#Page_61'>61</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">coached by Shakespeare in part of Henry VIII., <a href='#Page_63'>63</a>, <a href='#Page_71'>71</a>, <a href='#Page_72'>72</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<span class="smcap">Vanbrugh</span>, Sir John, <a href='#Page_91'>91</a><br />
+<br />
+Veronese, Paolo, statue of, <a href='#Page_233'>233</a><br />
+<br />
+Victoria, Queen, and Stratford-on-Avon, <a href='#Page_222'>222</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">statues of, <a href='#Page_237'>237</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Vienna, production of <i>Antony and Cleopatra</i> at the Burg-Theater, <a href='#Page_17'>17</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">types of subsidised theatres at, <a href='#Page_136'>136</a>, <a href='#Page_138'>138</a>;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">conservatoire of actors at, <a href='#Page_139'>139</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Voltaire on Shakespeare, <a href='#Page_205'>205</a>, <a href='#Page_206'>206</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<span class="smcap">War</span>, popular view of, <a href='#Page_177'>177</a><br />
+<br />
+Ward, John, vicar of Stratford-on-Avon, <a href='#Page_74'>74</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his <i>Diary</i>, <a href='#Page_74'>74</a></span><br />
+<br />
+Warner, Mrs, at Sadler's Wells, <a href='#Page_11'>11</a><br />
+<br />
+Wellington, Duke of, monument to, <a href='#Page_238'>238</a><br />
+<br />
+Westminster Abbey, Shakespeare's exclusion from, <a href='#Page_50'>50</a>;<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">his cenotaph in, <a href='#Page_215'>215</a>-216</span><br />
+<br />
+Will, freedom of, <a href='#Page_166'>166</a><br />
+<br />
+Women, Shakespeare's views on, <a href='#Page_168'>168</a><br />
+<br />
+Wordsworth, William, French study of, <a href='#Page_201'>201</a><br />
+<br />
+Wycherley, William, <a href='#Page_91'>91</a><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<span class="smcap">Young</span>, Edward, French study of, <a href='#Page_201'>201</a><br />
+</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<h3><a name="FOOTNOTES" id="FOOTNOTES"></a>FOOTNOTES</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> This paper was first printed in <i>The Nineteenth Century</i>,
+January 1900.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> A minor practical objection, from the dramatic point of
+view, to realistic scenery is the long pause its setting on the stage
+often renders inevitable between the scenes. Intervals of the kind,
+which always tends to blunt the dramatic point of the play, especially
+in the case of tragic masterpieces, should obviously be as brief as
+possible.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> It is just to notice, among endeavours of the late years
+of the past century, to which I confine my remarks here, the efforts
+to produce Shakespearean drama worthily which were made by Charles
+Alexander Calvert at the Prince's Theatre, Manchester, between 1864
+and 1874. Calvert, who was a warm admirer of Phelps, attempted to
+blend Phelps's method with Charles Kean's, and bestowed great scenic
+elaboration on the production of at least eight plays of Shakespeare.
+Financially the speculation saw every vicissitude, and Calvert's
+experience may be quoted in support of the view that a return to
+Phelps's method is financially safer than a return to Charles Kean's.
+More recently the Elizabethan Stage Society endeavoured to produce,
+with a simplicity which erred on the side of severity, many plays of
+Shakespeare and other literary dramas. No scenery was employed, and
+the performers were dressed in Elizabethan costume. The Society's work
+was done privately, and did not invite any genuine test of publicity.
+The representation by the Society on November 11, 1899, in the Lecture
+Theatre at Burlington House, of <i>Richard II.</i>, in which Mr Granville
+Barker played the King with great charm and judgment, showed the
+fascination that a competent rendering of Shakespeare's text exerts,
+even in the total absence of scenery, over a large audience of
+suitable temper.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> This paper, which was first printed in &quot;An English
+Miscellany, presented to Dr Furnivall in honour of his seventy-fifth
+birthday&quot; (Oxford: At the Clarendon Press, 1901), was written as a
+lecture for delivery on Tuesday afternoon, March 20, 1900, at Queen's
+College (for women) in Harley Street, London, in aid of the Fund for
+securing a picture commemorating Queen Victoria's visit to the College
+in 1898.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> Performances of plays in Shakespeare's time always took
+place in the afternoon.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> Professor Binz of Basle printed in September 1899 some
+extracts from Thomas Platter's unpublished diary of travels under the
+title: <i>Londoner Theater und Schauspiele im Jahre 1599</i>. Platter spent
+a month in London&#8212;September 18 to October 20, 1599. Platter's
+manuscript is in the Library of Basle University.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> Chapman's <i>Revenge of Bussy D'Ambois</i>, Act I., Sc. i.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> See
+  <a href="#Page_20">pp. 20-1</a>, <i>supra</i>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> This paper was first printed in <i>The Nineteenth Century
+and After</i>, February 1902.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> Such a compilation had been contemplated in 1614, two
+years before the dramatist died, by one of Shakespeare's own
+associates, Thomas Heywood. Twenty-one years later, in 1635, Heywood
+spoke of &quot;committing to the public view&quot; his summary <i>Lives of the
+Poets</i>, but nothing more was heard of that project.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> Iago says of Othello, in <i>Othello</i> I., iii. 405: &quot;The
+Moor is <i>of a free and open nature</i>.&quot;</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> Like almost all their colleagues, they had much literary
+taste. When public events compulsorily retired them from the stage,
+they, with the aid of the dramatist Shirley and eight other actors,
+two of whom were members with them of Shakespeare's old company, did
+an important service to English literature. In 1647 they collected for
+first publication in folio Beaumont and Fletcher's plays; only one,
+<i>The Wild Goose Chase</i>, was omitted, and that piece Taylor and Lowin
+brought out by their unaided efforts five years later.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> Aubrey's <i>Lives</i>, being reports of his miscellaneous
+gossip, were first fully printed from his manuscripts in the Bodleian
+Library by the Clarendon Press in 1898. They were most carefully
+edited by the Rev. Andrew Clark.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_14_14" id="Footnote_14_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> A paper read at the sixth meeting of the Samuel Pepys
+Club, on Thursday, November 30, 1905, and printed in the <i>Fortnightly
+Review</i> for January, 1906.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_15_15" id="Footnote_15_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> At the restoration of King Charles II., no more than two
+companies of actors received licenses to perform in public. One of
+these companies was directed by Sir William D'Avenant, Shakespeare's
+reputed godson, and was under the patronage of the King's brother, the
+Duke of York. The other was directed by Tom Killigrew, one of Charles
+II.'s boon companions, and was under the patronage of the King
+himself. In due time the Duke's, or D'Avenant's, company occupied the
+theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields, and the King's, or Killigrew's,
+company occupied the new building in Drury Lane.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_16_16" id="Footnote_16_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> Charles II. formed this private theatre out of a
+detached building in St James's Park, known as the &quot;Cockpit,&quot; and to
+be carefully distinguished from the Cockpit of Drury Lane. Part of the
+edifice was occupied by courtiers by favour of the King. General Monk
+had lodgings there. At a much later date, cabinet councils were often
+held there.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_17_17" id="Footnote_17_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> For a fuller description of this theatrical practice,
+see <a href="#Page_41">pages 41-3</a> <i>supra</i>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_18_18" id="Footnote_18_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_18_18"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> Sir Frederick Bridge, by permission of the Master and
+Fellows of Magdalene College, Cambridge, caused this setting of &quot;To be
+or not to be&quot; (which bears no composer's signature) to be transcribed
+from the manuscript, and he arranged the piece to be sung at the
+meeting of the Pepys Club on November 30, 1905. Sir Frederick Bridge
+believes Pepys to be the composer.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_19_19" id="Footnote_19_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_19_19"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> The Dryden-D'Avenant perversion of <i>The Tempest</i> which
+Pepys witnessed underwent a further deterioration in 1673, when Thomas
+Shadwell, poet laureate, to the immense delight of the playgoing
+public, rendered the piece's metamorphosis into an opera more
+complete. In 1674 the Dryden-D'Avenant edition was reissued, with
+Shadwell's textual and scenic amplification, although no indication
+was given on the title-page or elsewhere of his share in the venture.
+Contemporary histories of the stage make frequent reference to
+Shadwell's &quot;Opera&quot; of <i>The Tempest</i>; but no copy was known to be
+extant until Sir Ernest Clarke proved, in <i>The Athen&#230;um</i> for August
+25, 1906, that the second and later editions of the Dryden-D'Avenant
+version embodied Shadwell's operatic embellishments, and are copies of
+what was known in theatrical circles of the day as Shadwell's &quot;Opera.&quot;
+Shadwell's stage-directions are more elaborate than those of Dryden
+and D'Avenant, and there are other minor innovations; but there is
+little difference in the general design of the two versions. Shadwell
+merely bettered Dryden's and D'Avenant's instructions.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_20_20" id="Footnote_20_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_20_20"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> This paper was first printed in the <i>Cornhill Magazine</i>,
+May 1900.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_21_21" id="Footnote_21_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_21_21"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> Mr Benson, writing to me on 13th January 1906, gives the
+following list of plays by Shakespeare which he has produced:&#8212;<i>Antony
+and Cleopatra</i>, <i>As You Like It</i>, <i>The Comedy of Errors</i>,
+<i>Coriolanus</i>, <i>Hamlet</i>, <i>Henry IV. (Parts 1 and 2)</i>, <i>Henry V.</i>,
+<i>Henry VI. (Parts 1, 2, and 3)</i>, <i>Henry VIII.</i>, <i>Julius C&#230;sar</i>, <i>King
+John</i>, <i>King Lear</i>, <i>Macbeth</i>, <i>The Merchant of Venice</i>, <i>The Merry
+Wives of Windsor</i>, <i>A Midsummer Night's Dream</i>, <i>Much Ado About
+Nothing</i>, <i>Othello</i>, <i>Pericles</i>, <i>Richard II.</i>, <i>Richard III.</i>, <i>Romeo
+and Juliet</i>, <i>The Taming of the Shrew</i>, <i>The Tempest</i>, <i>Timon of
+Athens</i>, <i>Twelfth Night</i>, and <i>A Winter's Tale</i>. Phelps's record only
+exceeded Mr Benson's by one. He produced thirty-one of Shakespeare's
+plays in all, but he omitted <i>Richard II.</i>, and the three parts of
+<i>Henry VI.</i>, which Mr Benson has acted, while he included <i>Love's
+Labour's Lost</i>, <i>The Two Gentlemen of Verona</i>, <i>All's Well that Ends
+Well</i>, <i>Cymbeline</i>, and <i>Measure for Measure</i>, which Mr Benson, so
+far, has eschewed. Mr Phelps and Mr Benson are at one in avoiding
+<i>Titus Andronicus</i> and <i>Troilus and Cressida</i>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_22_22" id="Footnote_22_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_22_22"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> The performance occupied nearly six hours. One half was
+given in the afternoon, and the other half in the evening of the same
+day, with an interval of an hour and a half between the two sections.
+Should the performance be repeated, I would recommend, in the
+interests of busy men and women, that the whole play be rendered at a
+single sitting, which might be timed to open at a somewhat earlier
+hour in the evening than is now customary, and might, if need be,
+close a little later. There should be no difficulty in restricting the
+hours occupied by the performance to four and a half.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_23_23" id="Footnote_23_23"></a><a href="#FNanchor_23_23"><span class="label">[23]</span></a> This paper was first printed in the <i>New Liberal
+Review</i>, May 1902.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_24_24" id="Footnote_24_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor_24_24"><span class="label">[24]</span></a> This paper, which was originally prepared in 1899 for
+the purposes of a popular lecture, is here printed for the first
+time.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_25_25" id="Footnote_25_25"></a><a href="#FNanchor_25_25"><span class="label">[25]</span></a> Tranio, the attendant on the young Pisan, Lucentio, who
+has come to Padua to study at the university, counsels his master to
+widen the field of his studies:&#8212;
+</p>
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Only, good master, while we do admire<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">This virtue and this moral discipline,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Let's be no Stoics, nor no stocks, I pray,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Or so devote to <i>Aristotle's checks</i>,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">As Ovid be an outcast quite adjured.<br /></span>
+<span class="i8">(<i>The Taming of the Shrew</i>, I., ii., 29-33.)</span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_26_26" id="Footnote_26_26"></a><a href="#FNanchor_26_26"><span class="label">[26]</span></a> The speeches of the clown in <i>Twelfth Night</i> are
+particularly worthy of study for the satiric adroitness with which
+they expose the quibbling futility of syllogistic logic. <i>Cf.</i> Act I.,
+Scene v., ll. 43-57.
+</p><p>
+<i>Olivia.</i> Go to, you're a dry fool; I'll no more of you: besides you
+grow dishonest.
+</p><p>
+<i>Clown.</i> Two faults, Madonna, that drink and good counsel will amend:
+for give the dry fool drink, then is the fool not dry: bid the
+dishonest man mend himself; if he mend, he is no longer dishonest; if
+he cannot, let the botcher mend him. Anything that's mended is but
+patched: virtue that transgresses is but patched with sin; and sin
+that amends is but patched with virtue. If that <i>this simple
+syllogism</i> will serve, so; if it will not, what remedy?</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_27_27" id="Footnote_27_27"></a><a href="#FNanchor_27_27"><span class="label">[27]</span></a> <i>Hamlet</i>, I., v., 166-7.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_28_28" id="Footnote_28_28"></a><a href="#FNanchor_28_28"><span class="label">[28]</span></a> <i>Much Ado About Nothing</i>, V., i., 35-6.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_29_29" id="Footnote_29_29"></a><a href="#FNanchor_29_29"><span class="label">[29]</span></a> In a paper on &quot;Latin as an Intellectual Force,&quot; read
+before the International Congress of Arts and Sciences at St Louis in
+September 1904, Professor E.A. Sonnenschein sought to show that
+Portia's speech on mercy is based on Seneca's tract, <i>De Clementia</i>.
+The most striking parallel passages are the following:&#8212;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i10">It becomes<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The throned monarch better than his crown.<br /></span>
+<span class="i8">(<i>M. of V.</i>, IV., i. 189-90.)<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>
+Nullum clementia ex omnibus magis quam regem aut principem decet.
+(Seneca, <i>De Clementia</i>, I., iii., 3):&#8212;
+</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">'Tis mightiest in the mightiest.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>
+Eo scilicet formosius id esse magnificentiusque fatebimur quo in
+maiore praestabitur potestate (I., xix., 1):&#8212;
+</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">But mercy is above this sceptred sway;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">It is enthroned in the hearts of kings,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">It is an attribute to God himself.<br /></span>
+<span class="i8">(<i>M. of V.</i>, IV., i., 193-5.)<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>
+Quod si di placabiles et aequi delicta potentium non statim fulminibus
+persequuntur, quanto aequius est hominem hominibus praepositum miti
+animo exercere imperium? (I., vii., 2):&#8212;
+</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">And earthly power doth then show likest God's<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">When mercy seasons justice.<br /></span>
+<span class="i8">(<i>M. of V.</i>, IV., i., 196-7.)<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>
+Quid autem? Non proximum eis (d&#238;s) locum tenet is qui se ex deorum
+natura gerit beneficus et largus et in melius potens? (I., xix., 9):&#8212;
+</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i8">Consider this,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">That in the course of justice none of us<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Should see salvation.<br /></span>
+<span class="i8">(<i>M. of V.</i>, IV., i., 198-200.)<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>
+Cogitato ... quanta solitudo et vastitas futura sit si nihil
+relinquitur nisi quod iudex severus absolverit (I., vi., 1).
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This remarkable series of parallelisms does not affect the argument in
+the text that Shakespeare, who reiterated Portia's pleas and
+phraseology in Isabella's speeches, had a personal faith in the
+declared sentiment. Whether the parallelism is to be explained as
+conscious borrowing or accidental coincidence is an open question.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_30_30" id="Footnote_30_30"></a><a href="#FNanchor_30_30"><span class="label">[30]</span></a>
+</p>
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">From lowest place, when virtuous things proceed,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The place is dignified by the doer's deed:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Where great additions swell's, and virtue none,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">It is a dropsied honour: good alone<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Is good without a name; vileness is so:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The property by what it is should go,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Not by the title; ... that is honour's scorn,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Which challenges itself as honour's born,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And is not like the sire: honours thrive<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">When rather from our acts we them derive<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Than our foregoers: the mere word's a slave,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Debauch'd on every tomb; on every grave<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">A lying trophy; and as oft is dumb<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Where dust and damn'd oblivion is the tomb<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Of honour'd bones indeed.<br /></span>
+<span class="i8">(<i>All's Well</i>, II., iii., 130 <i>seq.</i>)</span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_31_31" id="Footnote_31_31"></a><a href="#FNanchor_31_31"><span class="label">[31]</span></a>
+</p>
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">For men have marble, <i>women waxen minds</i>,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And therefore are they formed as marble will;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The weak oppressed, the impression of strange kinds<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Is form'd in them by force, by fraud, or skill.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Then call them not the authors of their ill,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">No more than wax shall be accounted evil,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Wherein is stamp'd the semblance of a devil.<br /></span>
+<span class="i8">(<i>Lucrece</i>, 1240-6.)</span>
+</div></div>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">How easy it is for the proper-false<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">In <i>women's waxen hearts</i>, to set their forms!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Alas! our frailty is the cause, not we;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">For, such as we are made of, such we be.<br /></span>
+<span class="i8">(<i>Twelfth Night</i>, II., ii., 31.)</span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_32_32" id="Footnote_32_32"></a><a href="#FNanchor_32_32"><span class="label">[32]</span></a> This paper was first printed in the <i>Cornhill Magazine</i>,
+May 1901.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_33_33" id="Footnote_33_33"></a><a href="#FNanchor_33_33"><span class="label">[33]</span></a> The pun on &quot;cant&quot; and &quot;recant&quot; was not original, though
+Lord John's application of it was. Its inventor seems to have been
+Lady Townshend, the brilliant mother of Charles Townshend, the elder
+Pitt's Chancellor of the Exchequer. When she was asked if George
+Whitefield, the evangelical preacher, had yet recanted, she replied:
+&quot;No, he has only been canting.&quot;</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_34_34" id="Footnote_34_34"></a><a href="#FNanchor_34_34"><span class="label">[34]</span></a> In passing cursorily over the whole field I must ask
+pardon for dwelling occasionally on ground that is in detached detail
+sufficiently well trodden, as well as for neglecting some points which
+require more thorough exploration than is practicable within my
+present limits.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_35_35" id="Footnote_35_35"></a><a href="#FNanchor_35_35"><span class="label">[35]</span></a> On this point the Shakespearean oracle always speaks
+with a decisive and practical note:&#8212;
+</p>
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i10">Beware<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Of entrance to a quarrel, but being in<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Bear't that the opposed may beware of thee.<br /></span>
+<span class="i8">(<i>Hamlet</i>, I., iii., 65-7.)</span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_36_36" id="Footnote_36_36"></a><a href="#FNanchor_36_36"><span class="label">[36]</span></a> <i>Cymbeline</i>, III., iv., 139-43.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_37_37" id="Footnote_37_37"></a><a href="#FNanchor_37_37"><span class="label">[37]</span></a> <i>Coriolanus</i>, V., iii., 34-7.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_38_38" id="Footnote_38_38"></a><a href="#FNanchor_38_38"><span class="label">[38]</span></a> This paper was first printed in <i>The Author</i>, October
+1903.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_39_39" id="Footnote_39_39"></a><a href="#FNanchor_39_39"><span class="label">[39]</span></a> Other independent publications of similar character
+appeared under the identical title of <i>The Theatrical Review</i> both in
+1758 and 1772. The latter collected the ephemeral dramatic criticisms
+of John Potter, a well-known writer for the stage.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_40_40" id="Footnote_40_40"></a><a href="#FNanchor_40_40"><span class="label">[40]</span></a> William Young's <i>History of Dulwich College</i>, 1889, II.,
+41-2.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_41_41" id="Footnote_41_41"></a><a href="#FNanchor_41_41"><span class="label">[41]</span></a> This paper was first printed in <i>The Nineteenth
+Century</i>, June 1899.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_42_42" id="Footnote_42_42"></a><a href="#FNanchor_42_42"><span class="label">[42]</span></a> In the Introduction to a collection of Elizabethan
+Sonnets, published in Messrs Constable's re-issue of Arber's <i>English
+Garner</i> (1904), the present writer has shown that numerous sonnets,
+which Elizabethan writers issued as original poems, were literal
+translations from the French of Ronsard, Du Bellay, and Desportes.
+Numerous loans of like character were levied silently on Italian
+authors.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_43_43" id="Footnote_43_43"></a><a href="#FNanchor_43_43"><span class="label">[43]</span></a> <i>Shakespeare in France under the Ancien R&#233;gime</i>, by J.J.
+Jusserand. London: T. Fisher Unwin. 1899.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_44_44" id="Footnote_44_44"></a><a href="#FNanchor_44_44"><span class="label">[44]</span></a> This paper was first printed in <i>The Nineteenth Century
+and After</i>, April 1905.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_45_45" id="Footnote_45_45"></a><a href="#FNanchor_45_45"><span class="label">[45]</span></a> The proceedings of the committee which was formed in the
+spring of 1905 have been dilatory. Mr Badger informs me that he paid
+the organisers, nearly two years ago, the sum of &#163;500 for preliminary
+expenses, and deposited bonds to the value of &#163;3000 with Lord Avebury,
+the treasurer of the committee. The delay is assigned to the
+circumstance that the London County Council, which is supporting the
+proposal, is desirous of associating it with the great Council Hall
+which it is preparing to erect on the south side of the Thames, and
+that it has not yet been found practicable to invite designs for that
+work. (Oct. 1, 1906.)</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_46_46" id="Footnote_46_46"></a><a href="#FNanchor_46_46"><span class="label">[46]</span></a> Nor is this all that has been accomplished at Stratford
+in the nineteenth century in the way of the national commemoration of
+Shakespeare. While the surviving property of Shakespearean interest
+was in course of acquisition for the nation, an early ambition to
+erect in Stratford a theatre in Shakespeare's memory was realised&#8212;in
+part by subscriptions from the general public, but mainly by the
+munificence of members of the Flower family, three generations of
+which have resided at Stratford. The Memorial Theatre was opened in
+1879, and the Picture Gallery and Library which were attached to it
+were completed two years later. The Memorial Buildings at Stratford
+stand on a different footing from the properties of the Birthplace
+Trust. The Memorial institution has an independent government, and is
+to a larger extent under local control. But the extended series of
+performances of Shakespearean drama, which takes place each year in
+April at the Memorial Theatre, has something of the character of an
+annual commemoration of Shakespeare by the nation at large.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_47_47" id="Footnote_47_47"></a><a href="#FNanchor_47_47"><span class="label">[47]</span></a> Cf. <i>Childe Harold</i>, Canto IV., St. xxxi.</p></div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="full" />
+<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SHAKESPEARE AND THE MODERN STAGE***</p>
+<p>******* This file should be named 18780-h.txt or 18780-h.zip *******</p>
+<p>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:<br />
+<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/8/7/8/18780">http://www.gutenberg.org/1/8/7/8/18780</a></p>
+<p>Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.</p>
+
+<p>Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.</p>
+
+
+
+<pre>
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/license">http://www.gutenberg.org/license)</a>.
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS,' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/pglaf.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at http://www.gutenberg.org/about/contact
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/pglaf
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations.
+To donate, please visit: http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+Each eBook is in a subdirectory of the same number as the eBook's
+eBook number, often in several formats including plain vanilla ASCII,
+compressed (zipped), HTML and others.
+
+Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks replace the old file and take over
+the old filename and etext number.  The replaced older file is renamed.
+VERSIONS based on separate sources are treated as new eBooks receiving
+new filenames and etext numbers.
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org">http://www.gutenberg.org</a>
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
+
+EBooks posted prior to November 2003, with eBook numbers BELOW #10000,
+are filed in directories based on their release date.  If you want to
+download any of these eBooks directly, rather than using the regular
+search system you may utilize the following addresses and just
+download by the etext year.
+
+<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext06/">http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext06/</a>
+
+    (Or /etext 05, 04, 03, 02, 01, 00, 99,
+     98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, 91 or 90)
+
+EBooks posted since November 2003, with etext numbers OVER #10000, are
+filed in a different way.  The year of a release date is no longer part
+of the directory path.  The path is based on the etext number (which is
+identical to the filename).  The path to the file is made up of single
+digits corresponding to all but the last digit in the filename.  For
+example an eBook of filename 10234 would be found at:
+
+http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/0/2/3/10234
+
+or filename 24689 would be found at:
+http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/4/6/8/24689
+
+An alternative method of locating eBooks:
+<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/GUTINDEX.ALL">http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/GUTINDEX.ALL</a>
+
+*** END: FULL LICENSE ***
+</pre>
+</body>
+</html>
diff --git a/18780.txt b/18780.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f201d3f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/18780.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,8433 @@
+The Project Gutenberg eBook, Shakespeare and the Modern Stage, by Sir
+Sidney Lee
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: Shakespeare and the Modern Stage
+       with Other Essays
+
+
+Author: Sir Sidney Lee
+
+
+
+Release Date: July 7, 2006  [eBook #18780]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SHAKESPEARE AND THE MODERN STAGE***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Thierry Alberto, Linda Cantoni, and the Project
+Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net/)
+
+
+
+SHAKESPEARE AND THE MODERN STAGE
+
+With Other Essays
+
+by
+
+SIDNEY LEE
+
+Author of "A Life of William Shakespeare"
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+London
+Archibald Constable and Company Limited
+1907
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+The eleven papers which are collected here were written between 1899
+and 1905. With the exception of one, entitled "Aspects of
+Shakespeare's Philosophy," which is now printed for the first time,
+they were published in periodicals in the course of those six years.
+The articles treat of varied aspects of Shakespearean drama, its
+influences and traditions, but I think that all may be credited with
+sufficient unity of intention to warrant their combination in a single
+volume. Their main endeavour is to survey Shakespearean drama in
+relation to modern life, and to illustrate its living force in current
+affairs. Even in the papers which embody researches in sixteenth- or
+seventeenth-century dramatic history, I have sought to keep in view
+the bearings of the past on the present. A large portion of the book
+discusses, as its title indicates, methods of representing Shakespeare
+on the modern stage. The attempt is there made to define, in the light
+of experience, the conditions which are best calculated to conserve or
+increase Shakespeare's genuine vitality in the theatre of our own day.
+
+In revising the work for the press, I have deemed it advisable to
+submit the papers to a somewhat rigorous verbal revision. Errors have
+been corrected, chronological ambiguities due to lapse of time have
+been removed, passages have been excised in order to avoid repetition,
+and reference to ephemeral events which deserve no permanent chronicle
+have been omitted. But, substantially, the articles retain the shape
+in which they were originally penned. The point of view has undergone
+no modification. In the essays dealing with the theatres of our own
+time, I have purposely refrained from expanding or altering argument
+or illustration by citing Shakespearean performances or other
+theatrical enterprises which have come to birth since the papers were
+first written. In the last year or two there have been several
+Shakespearean revivals of notable interest, and some new histrionic
+triumphs have been won. Within the same period, too, at least half a
+dozen new plays of serious literary aim have gained the approval of
+contemporary critics. These features of current dramatic history are
+welcome to playgoers of literary tastes; but I have attempted no
+survey of them, because signs are lacking that any essential change
+has been wrought by them in the general theatrical situation. My aim
+is to deal with dominant principles which underlie the past and
+present situation, rather than with particular episodes or
+personalities, the real value of which the future has yet to
+determine.
+
+My best thanks are due to my friend Sir James Knowles, the proprietor
+and editor of _The Nineteenth Century and After_, for permission to
+reproduce the four articles, entitled respectively, "Shakespeare and
+the Modern Stage," "Shakespeare in Oral Tradition," "Shakespeare in
+France," and "The Commemoration of Shakespeare in London." To Messrs
+Smith, Elder, & Co., I am indebted for permission to print here the
+articles on "Mr Benson and Shakespearean Drama," and "Shakespeare and
+Patriotism," both of which originally appeared in _The Cornhill
+Magazine_. The paper on "Pepys and Shakespeare" was first printed in
+the _Fortnightly Review_; that on "Shakespeare and the Elizabethan
+Playgoer" in "An English Miscellany, presented to Dr Furnivall in
+honour of his seventy-fifth birthday" (1901); that on "The Municipal
+Theatre" in the _New Liberal Review_; and that on "A Peril of
+Shakespearean Research" in _The Author_. The proprietors of these
+publications have courteously given me permission to include the
+articles in this volume. The essay on "Aspects of Shakespeare's
+Philosophy" was prepared for the purposes of a popular lecture, and
+has not been in type before.
+
+In a note at the foot of the opening page of each essay, I mention the
+date when it was originally published. An analytical list of contents
+and an index will, I hope, increase any utility which may attach to
+the volume.
+
+SIDNEY LEE.
+
+_1st October 1906._
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+                                                                 PAGE
+
+PREFACE                                                           vii
+
+
+I
+
+SHAKESPEARE AND THE MODERN STAGE
+
+      I. The Perils of the Spectacular Method of Production         1
+
+     II. The Need for Simplifying Scenic Appliances                 4
+
+    III. Consequences of Simplification. The Attitude of the
+         Shakespearean Student                                      7
+
+     IV. The Pecuniary Experiences of Charles Kean and Sir
+         Henry Irving                                               9
+
+      V. The Experiment of Samuel Phelps                           11
+
+     VI. The Rightful Supremacy of the Actor                       12
+
+    VII. The Example of the French and German Stage                16
+
+   VIII. Shakespeare's Reliance on the "Imaginary Forces"
+         of the Audience                                           18
+
+     IX. The Patriotic Argument for the Production of
+         Shakespeare's Plays constantly and in their
+         variety on the English Stage                              23
+
+
+II
+
+SHAKESPEARE AND THE ELIZABETHAN PLAYGOER
+
+      I. An Imaginary Discovery of Shakespeare's Journal           25
+
+     II. Shakespeare in the role of the Ghost on the First
+         Production of _Hamlet_ in 1602                            27
+
+    III. Shakespeare's Popularity in the Elizabethan Theatre       29
+
+     IV. At Court in 1594                                          31
+
+      V. The Theatre an Innovation in Elizabethan England          36
+
+     VI. Elizabethan Methods of Production                         38
+
+    VII. The Contrast between the Elizabethan and the
+         Modern Methods                                            43
+
+   VIII. The Fitness of the Audience an Essential Element
+         in the Success of Shakespeare on the Stage                46
+
+
+III
+
+SHAKESPEARE IN ORAL TRADITION
+
+      I. The Reception of the News of Shakespeare's Death          49
+
+     II. The Evolution in England of Formal Biography              51
+
+    III. Oral Tradition concerning Shakespeare in Theatrical
+         Circles                                                   57
+
+     IV. The Testimonies of Seventeenth-century Actors             61
+
+      V. Sir William D'Avenant's Devotion to Shakespeare's
+         Memory                                                    69
+
+     VI. Early Oral Tradition at Stratford-on-Avon                 73
+
+    VII. Shakespeare's Fame among Seventeenth-century
+         Scholars and Statesmen                                    78
+
+   VIII. Nicholas Rowe's Place among Shakespeare's
+         Biographers. The Present State of Knowledge
+         respecting Shakespeare's Life                             79
+
+
+IV
+
+PEPYS AND SHAKESPEARE
+
+      I. Pepys the Microcosm of the Average Playgoer               82
+
+     II. The London Theatres of Pepys's _Diary_                    85
+
+    III. Pepys's Enthusiasm for the Later Elizabethan Drama        90
+
+     IV. Pepys's Criticism of Shakespeare. His Admiration
+         of Betterton in Shakespearean roles                       93
+
+      V. The Garbled Versions of Shakespeare on the Stage
+         of the Restoration                                       102
+
+     VI. The Saving Grace of the Restoration Theatre.
+         Betterton's Masterly Interpretation of Shakespeare       109
+
+
+V
+
+MR BENSON AND SHAKESPEAREAN DRAMA
+
+      I. A Return to the Ancient Ways                             111
+
+     II. The Advantages of a Constant Change of
+         Programme. The Opportunities offered Actors by
+         Shakespeare's Minor Characters. John of Gaunt            113
+
+    III. The Benefit of Performing the Play of _Hamlet_
+         without Abbreviation                                     116
+
+     IV. Mr Benson as a Trainer of Actors. The Succession
+         to Phelps                                                119
+
+
+VI
+
+THE MUNICIPAL THEATRE
+
+      I. The True Aim of the Municipal Theatre                    122
+
+     II. Private Theatrical Enterprise and Literary Drama.
+         The Advantages and Disadvantages of the Actor-Manager
+         System. The Control of the Capitalist                    123
+
+    III. Possibilities of the Artistic Improvement of
+         Theatrical Organisation in England                       127
+
+     IV. Indications of a Demand for a Municipal Theatre          129
+
+      V. The Teaching of Foreign Experience. The
+         Example of Vienna                                        134
+
+     VI. The Conditions of Success in England                     138
+
+
+VII
+
+ASPECTS OF SHAKESPEARE'S PHILOSOPHY
+
+      I. The Conflicting Attitudes of Bacon and Shakespeare
+         to Formal Philosophy                                     142
+
+     II. Shakespeare's "Natural" Philosophy. Concealment
+         of his Personality in his Plays                          148
+
+    III. His Lofty Conception of Public Virtue. Frequency
+         of his Denunciation of Royal "Ceremony"                  152
+
+     IV. The Duty of Obedience to Authority                       161
+
+      V. The Moral Atmosphere of Shakespearean Drama              164
+
+     VI. Shakespeare's Insistence on the Freedom of the
+         Will                                                     166
+
+    VII. His Humour and Optimism                                  169
+
+
+VIII
+
+SHAKESPEARE AND PATRIOTISM
+
+      I. The Natural Instinct of Patriotism. Dangers of
+         Excess and Defect                                        170
+
+     II. An Attempt to Co-ordinate Shakespeare's Detached
+         Illustrations of the Working of Patriotic
+         Sentiment. His Ridicule of Bellicose Ecstasy.
+         Coriolanus illustrates the Danger of Disavowing
+         Patriotism                                               172
+
+    III. Criticism of One's Fellow-countrymen Consistent
+         with Patriotism. Shakespeare on the Political
+         History of England. The Country's Dependence
+         on the Command of the Sea. The Respect Due
+         to a Nation's Traditions and Experience                  179
+
+     IV. Shakespeare's Exposure of Social Foibles and Errors      184
+
+      V. Relevance of Shakespeare's Doctrine of Patriotism
+         to Current Affairs                                       187
+
+
+IX
+
+A PERIL OF SHAKESPEAREAN RESEARCH
+
+      I. An Alleged Meeting of Peele, Ben Jonson,
+         Alleyn, and Shakespeare at "The Globe" in
+         1600                                                     188
+
+     II. The Fabrication by George Steevens in 1763 of a
+         Letter signed "G. Peel"                                  190
+
+    III. Popular Acceptance of the Forgery. Its
+         Unchallenged Circulation through the Eighteenth,
+         Nineteenth, and Twentieth Centuries                      194
+
+
+X
+
+SHAKESPEARE IN FRANCE
+
+      I. Amicable Literary Relations between France and
+         England from the Fourteenth to the Present Century       198
+
+     II. M. Jusserand on Shakespeare in France. French
+         Knowledge of English Literature in Shakespeare's
+         day. Shakespeare in Eighteenth-century France.
+         Eulogies of Victor Hugo and Dumas _pere_                 201
+
+    III. French Misapprehensions of Shakespeare's Tragic
+         Conceptions. Causes of the Misunderstanding              206
+
+     IV. Charles Nodier's Sympathetic Tribute. The Rarity
+         of his _Pensees de Shakespeare_, 1801                    211
+
+
+XI
+
+THE COMMEMORATION OF SHAKESPEARE IN LONDON
+
+      I. Early Proposals for a National Memorial of
+         Shakespeare in London                                    214
+
+     II. The Cenotaph in Westminster Abbey                        215
+
+    III. The Failure of the Nineteenth-century Schemes            217
+
+     IV. The National Memorial at Stratford-on-Avon               219
+
+      V. Shakespeare's Association with London                    226
+
+     VI. The Value of a London Memorial as a Symbol of his
+         Universal Influence                                      228
+
+    VII. The Real Significance of Milton's Warning against
+         a Monumental Commemoration of Shakespeare                230
+
+   VIII. The Undesirability of making the Memorial serve
+         Utilitarian Purposes                                     235
+
+     IX. The Present State of the Plastic Art. The
+         Imperative Need of securing a Supreme Work of
+         Sculpture                                                236
+
+
+INDEX                                                             245
+
+
+
+
+SHAKESPEARE AND THE MODERN STAGE
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+SHAKESPEARE AND THE MODERN STAGE[1]
+
+[Footnote 1: This paper was first printed in _The Nineteenth Century_,
+January 1900.]
+
+
+I
+
+Without "the living comment and interpretation of the theatre,"
+Shakespeare's work is, for the rank and file of mankind, "a deep well
+without a wheel or a windlass." It is true that the whole of the
+spiritual treasures which Shakespeare's dramas hoard will never be
+disclosed to the mere playgoer, but "a large, a very large, proportion
+of that indefinite all" may be revealed to him on the stage, and, if
+he be no patient reader, will be revealed to him nowhere else.
+
+There are earnest students of Shakespeare who scorn the theatre and
+arrogate to themselves in the library, often with some justification,
+a greater capacity for apprehending and appreciating Shakespeare than
+is at the command of the ordinary playgoer or actor. But let Sir
+Oracle of the study, however full and deep be his knowledge, "use all
+gently." Let him bear in mind that his vision also has its
+limitations, and that student, actor, and spectator of Shakespeare's
+plays are all alike exploring a measureless region of philosophy and
+poetry, "round which no comprehension has yet drawn the line of
+circumspection, so as to say to itself 'I have seen the whole.'" Actor
+and student may look at Shakespeare's text from different points of
+view: but there is always as reasonable a chance that the efficient
+actor may disclose the full significance of some speech or scene which
+escapes the efficient student, as that the student may supply the
+actor's lack of insight.
+
+It is, indeed, comparatively easy for a student of literature to
+support the proposition that Shakespeare can be, and ought to be,
+represented on the stage. But it is difficult to define the ways and
+means of securing practical observance of the precept. For some years
+there has been a widening divergence of view respecting methods of
+Shakespearean production. Those who defend in theory the adaptability
+of Shakespeare to the stage are at variance with the leading managers,
+who alone possess the power of conferring on the Shakespearean drama
+theatrical interpretation. In the most influential circles of the
+theatrical profession it has become a commonplace to assert that
+Shakespearean drama cannot be successfully produced, cannot be
+rendered tolerable to any substantial section of the playgoing public,
+without a plethora of scenic spectacle and gorgeous costume, much of
+which the student regards as superfluous and inappropriate. An
+accepted tradition of the modern stage ordains that every revival of a
+Shakespearean play at a leading theatre shall base some part of its
+claim to public favour on its spectacular magnificence.
+
+The dramatic interest of Shakespearean drama is, in fact, deemed by
+the manager to be inadequate to satisfy the necessary commercial
+purposes of the theatre. The average purveyor of public entertainment
+reckons Shakespeare's plays among tasteless and colourless
+commodities, which only become marketable when they are reinforced by
+the independent arts of music and painting. Shakespeare's words must
+be spoken to musical accompaniments specially prepared for the
+occasion. Pictorial tableaux, even though they suggest topics without
+relevance to the development of the plot, have at times to be
+interpolated in order to keep the attention of the audience
+sufficiently alive.
+
+One deduction to be drawn from this position of affairs is
+irrefutable. Spectacular embellishments are so costly that, according
+to the system now in vogue, the performance of a play of Shakespeare
+involves heavy financial risks. It is equally plain that, unless the
+views of theatrical managers undergo revolution, these risks are
+likely to become greater rather than smaller. The natural result is
+that in London, the city which sets the example to most
+English-speaking communities, Shakespearean revivals are comparatively
+rare; they take place at uncertain intervals, and only those plays are
+viewed with favour by the London manager which lend themselves in his
+opinion to more or less ostentatious spectacle, and to the
+interpolation of music and dancing.
+
+It is ungrateful to criticise adversely any work the production of
+which entails the expenditure of much thought and money. More
+especially is it distasteful when the immediate outcome is, as in the
+case of many Shakespearean revivals at the great West-end theatres of
+London, the giving of pleasure to large sections of the community.
+That is in itself a worthy object. But it is open to doubt whether,
+from the sensible literary point of view, the managerial activity be
+well conceived or to the public advantage. It is hard to ignore a
+fundamental flaw in the manager's central position. The pleasure which
+recent Shakespearean revivals offer the spectator reaches him mainly
+through the eye. That is the manager's avowed intention. Yet no one
+would seriously deny that the Shakespearean drama appeals, both
+primarily and ultimately, to the head and to the heart. Whoever seeks,
+therefore, by the production of Shakespearean drama chiefly to please
+the spectator's eye shows scant respect both for the dramatist and for
+the spectator. However unwittingly, he tends to misrepresent the one,
+and to mislead the other, in a particular of first-rate importance.
+Indeed, excess in scenic display does worse than restrict
+opportunities of witnessing Shakespeare's plays on the stage in London
+and other large cities of England and America. It is to be feared that
+such excess either weakens or distorts the just and proper influence
+of Shakespeare's work. If these imputations can be sustained, then it
+follows that the increased and increasing expense which is involved in
+the production of Shakespeare's plays ought on grounds of public
+policy to be diminished.
+
+
+II
+
+Every stage representation of a play requires sufficient scenery and
+costume to produce in the audience that illusion of environment which
+the text invites. Without so much scenery or costume the words fail to
+get home to the audience. In comedies dealing with concrete conditions
+of modern society, the stage presentation necessarily relies to a very
+large extent for its success on the realism of the scenic appliances.
+In plays which, dealing with the universal and less familiar
+conditions of life, appeal to the highest faculties of thought and
+imagination, the pursuit of realism in the scenery tends to destroy
+the full significance of the illusion which it ought to enforce. In
+the case of plays straightforwardly treating of contemporary affairs,
+the environment which it is sought to reproduce is familiar and easy
+of imitation. In the case of drama, which involves larger spheres of
+fancy and feeling, the environment is unfamiliar and admits of no
+realistic imitation. The wall-paper and furniture of Mrs So-and-so's
+drawing-room in Belgravia or Derbyshire can be transferred bodily to
+the stage. Prospero's deserted island does not admit of the like
+translation.
+
+Effective suggestion of the scene of _The Tempest_ is all that can be
+reasonably attempted or desired. Plays which are wrought of purest
+imaginative texture call solely for a scenic setting which should
+convey effective suggestion. The machinery to be employed for the
+purpose of effective suggestion should be simple and unobtrusive. If
+it be complex and obtrusive, it defeats "the purpose of playing" by
+exaggerating for the spectator the inevitable interval between the
+visionary and indeterminate limits of the scene which the poet
+imagines, and the cramped and narrow bounds, which the stage renders
+practicable. That perilous interval can only be effectually bridged
+by scenic art, which is applied with an apt judgment and a light hand.
+Anything that aims at doing more than satisfy the condition essential
+to the effective suggestion of the scenic environment of Shakespearean
+drama is, from the literary and logical points of view, "wasteful and
+ridiculous excess."[2]
+
+[Footnote 2: A minor practical objection, from the dramatic point of
+view, to realistic scenery is the long pause its setting on the stage
+often renders inevitable between the scenes. Intervals of the kind,
+which always tends to blunt the dramatic point of the play, especially
+in the case of tragic masterpieces, should obviously be as brief as
+possible.]
+
+But it is not only a simplification of scenic appliances that is
+needed. Other external incidents of production require revision.
+Spectacular methods of production entail the employment of armies of
+silent supernumeraries to whom are allotted functions wholly
+ornamental and mostly impertinent. Here, too, reduction is desirable
+in the interest of the true significance of drama. No valid reason can
+be adduced why persons should appear on the stage who are not
+precisely indicated by the text of the play or by the authentic stage
+directions. When Caesar is buried, it is essential to produce in the
+audience the illusion that a crowd of Roman citizens is taking part in
+the ceremony. But quality comes here before quantity. The fewer the
+number of supernumeraries by whom the needful illusion is effected,
+the greater the merit of the performance, the more convincing the
+testimony borne to the skill of the stage-manager. Again, no
+processions of psalm-singing priests and monks contribute to the
+essential illusion in the historical plays. Nor does the text of _The
+Merchant of Venice_ demand any assembly of Venetian townsfolk,
+however picturesquely attired, sporting or chaffering with one another
+on the Rialto, when Shylock enters to ponder Antonio's request for a
+loan. An interpolated tableau is indefensible, and "though it make the
+unskilful laugh, cannot but make the judicious grieve." In _Antony and
+Cleopatra_ the pageant of Cleopatra's voyage up the river Cydnus to
+meet her lover Antony should have no existence outside the gorgeous
+description given of it by Enobarbus.
+
+
+III
+
+What would be the practical effects of a stern resolve on the part of
+theatrical managers to simplify the scenic appliances and to reduce
+the supernumerary staff when they are producing Shakespearean drama?
+The replies will be in various keys. One result of simplification is
+obvious. There would be so much more money in the manager's pocket
+after he had paid the expenses of production. If his outlay were
+smaller, the sum that he expended in the production of one play of
+Shakespeare on the current over-elaborate scale would cover the
+production of two or three pieces mounted with simplicity and with a
+strict adherence to the requirements of the text. In such an event,
+the manager would be satisfied with a shorter run for each play.
+
+On the other hand, supporters of the existing system allege that no
+public, which is worth the counting, would interest itself in
+Shakespeare's plays, if they were robbed of scenic upholstery and
+spectacular display. This estimate rests on insecure foundations. That
+section of the London public which is genuinely interested in
+Shakespearean drama for its own sake, is prone to distrust the modern
+theatrical manager, and as things are, for the most part avoids the
+theatre altogether. The student stays at home to read Shakespeare at
+his fireside.
+
+It may be admitted that the public to which Shakespeare in his purity
+makes appeal is not very large. It is clearly not large enough to
+command continuous runs of plays for months, or even weeks. But
+therein lies no cause for depression. Long runs of a single play of
+Shakespeare bring more evil than good in their train. They develop in
+even the most efficient acting a soulless mechanism. The literary
+beauty of the text is obliterated by repetition from the actors'
+minds. Unostentatious mounting of the Shakespearean plays, however
+efficient be the acting with which it is associated, may always fail
+to "please the million"; it may be "caviare to the general."
+Nevertheless, the sagacious manager, who, by virtue of comparatively
+inexpensive settings and in alliance with a well-chosen company of
+efficient actors and actresses, is able at short intervals to produce
+a succession of Shakespeare's plays, may reasonably expect to attract
+a small but steady and sufficient support from the intelligent section
+of London playgoers, and from the home-reading students of
+Shakespeare, who are not at present playgoers at all.
+
+
+IV
+
+The practical manager, who naturally seeks pecuniary profit from his
+ventures, insists that these suggestions are counsels of perfection
+and these anticipations wild and fantastic dreams. His last word is
+that by spectacular method Shakespeare can alone be made to "pay" in
+the theatre. But are we here on perfectly secure ground? Has the
+commercial success attending the spectacular production of Shakespeare
+been invariably so conspicuous as to put summarily out of court, on
+the purely commercial ground, the method of simplicity? The pecuniary
+results are public knowledge in the case of the two most strenuous and
+prolonged endeavours to give Shakespeare the splendours of spectacle
+which have yet been completed on the London stage. What is the message
+of these two efforts in mere pecuniary terms?
+
+Charles Kean may be regarded as the founder of the modern spectacular
+system, though it had some precedents, and has been developed since
+his day. Charles Kean, between 1851 and 1859, persistently endeavoured
+by prodigal and brilliant display to make the production of
+Shakespeare an enterprise of profit at the Princess's Theatre, London.
+The scheme proved pecuniarily disastrous.
+
+Subsequently Kean's mantle was assumed by the late Sir Henry Irving,
+the greatest of recent actors and stage-managers, who in many regards
+conferred incalculable benefits on the theatre-going public and on the
+theatrical profession. Throughout the last quarter of the last
+century, Irving gave the spectacular and scenic system in the
+production of Shakespeare every advantage that it could derive from
+munificent expenditure and the co-operation of highly endowed artists.
+He could justly claim a finer artistic sentiment and a higher
+histrionic capacity than Charles Kean possessed. Yet Irving announced,
+not long before his death, that he lost on his Shakespearean
+productions a hundred thousand pounds. Sir Henry added:
+
+     The enormous cost of a Shakespearean production on the
+     liberal and elaborate scale which the public is now
+     accustomed to expect makes it almost impossible for any
+     manager--I don't care who it is--to pursue a continuous
+     policy of Shakespeare for many years with any hope of profit
+     in the long run.
+
+In face of this authoritative pronouncement, it must be conceded that
+the spectacular system has been given, within recent memory, every
+chance of succeeding, and, as far as recorded testimony is available,
+has been, from the commercial point of view, a failure.
+
+Meanwhile, during and since the period when Sir Henry Irving filled
+the supreme place among producers of Shakespeare on the stage, the
+simple method of Shakespearean production has been given no serious
+chance. The anticipation of its pecuniary failure has not been put in
+satisfactory conditions to any practical test. The last time that it
+was put to a sound practical test it did not fail. While Irving was a
+boy, Phelps at Sadler's Wells Theatre gave, in well-considered
+conditions, the simple method a trial. Phelps's playhouse was situated
+in the unfashionable neighbourhood of Islington. But the prophets of
+evil, who were no greater strangers to Phelps's generation than they
+are to our own, were themselves confuted by his experience.
+
+
+V
+
+On the 27th of May 1844 Phelps, a most intelligent actor and a serious
+student of Shakespeare, opened the long-disused Sadler's Wells Theatre
+in partnership with Mrs Warner, a capable actress, whose rendering of
+Imogen went near perfection. Their design was inspired by "the hope,"
+they wrote in an unassuming address, "of eventually rendering Sadler's
+Wells what a theatre ought to be--a place for justly representing the
+works of our great dramatic poets." This hope they went far to
+realise. The first play that they produced was _Macbeth_.
+
+Phelps continued to control Sadler's Wells Theatre for more than
+eighteen years. During that period he produced, together with many
+other English plays of classical repute, no fewer than thirty-one of
+the thirty-seven great dramas which came from Shakespeare's pen. In
+his first season, besides _Macbeth_ he set forth _Hamlet_, _King
+John_, _Henry VIII._, _The Merchant of Venice_, _Othello_, and
+_Richard III._ To these he added in the course of his second season,
+_Julius Caesar_, _King Lear_, and _The Winter's Tale_. _Henry IV._,
+part I., _Measure for Measure_, _Romeo and Juliet_, and _The Tempest_
+followed in his third season; _As You Like It_, _Cymbeline_, _The
+Merry Wives of Windsor_, and _Twelfth Night_, in his fourth. Each
+succeeding season saw further additions to the Shakespearean
+repertory, until only six Shakespearean dramas were left
+unrepresented, viz.--_Richard II._, the three parts of _Henry VI._,
+_Troilus and Cressida_, and _Titus Andronicus_. Of these, one alone,
+_Richard II._, is really actable.
+
+The leading principles, to which Phelps strictly adhered throughout
+his career of management, call for most careful consideration. He
+gathered round him a company of actors and actresses, whom he
+zealously trained to interpret Shakespeare's language. He accustomed
+his colleagues to act harmoniously together, and to sacrifice to the
+welfare of the whole enterprise individual pretensions to prominence.
+No long continuous run of any one piece was permitted by the rules of
+the playhouse. The programme was constantly changed. The scenic
+appliances were simple, adequate, and inexpensive. The supernumerary
+staff was restricted to the smallest practicable number. The general
+expenses were consequently kept within narrow limits. For every
+thousand pounds that Charles Kean laid out at the Princess's Theatre
+on scenery and other expenses of production, Phelps in his most ornate
+revivals spent less than a fourth of that sum. For the pounds spent by
+managers on more recent revivals, Phelps would have spent only as many
+shillings. In the result, Phelps reaped from the profits of his
+a handsome unencumbered income. During the same period Charles
+Kean grew more and more deeply involved in oppressive debt, and at a
+later date Sir Henry Irving made over to the public a hundred thousand
+pounds above his receipts.
+
+
+VI
+
+Why, then, should not Phelps's encouraging experiment be made
+again?[3]
+
+[Footnote 3: It is just to notice, among endeavours of the late years
+of the past century, to which I confine my remarks here, the efforts
+to produce Shakespearean drama worthily which were made by Charles
+Alexander Calvert at the Prince's Theatre, Manchester, between 1864
+and 1874. Calvert, who was a warm admirer of Phelps, attempted to
+blend Phelps's method with Charles Kean's, and bestowed great scenic
+elaboration on the production of at least eight plays of Shakespeare.
+Financially the speculation saw every vicissitude, and Calvert's
+experience may be quoted in support of the view that a return to
+Phelps's method is financially safer than a return to Charles Kean's.
+More recently the Elizabethan Stage Society endeavoured to produce,
+with a simplicity which erred on the side of severity, many plays of
+Shakespeare and other literary dramas. No scenery was employed, and
+the performers were dressed in Elizabethan costume. The Society's work
+was done privately, and did not invite any genuine test of publicity.
+The representation by the Society on November 11, 1899, in the Lecture
+Theatre at Burlington House, of _Richard II._, in which Mr Granville
+Barker played the King with great charm and judgment, showed the
+fascination that a competent rendering of Shakespeare's text exerts,
+even in the total absence of scenery, over a large audience of
+suitable temper.]
+
+Before anyone may commit himself to an affirmative reply, it is
+needful for him to realise fully the precise demands which a system
+like that of Phelps makes, when rightly interpreted, on the character,
+ability, and energy of the actors and actresses. If scenery in
+Shakespearean productions be relegated to its proper place in the
+background of the stage, it is necessary that the acting, from top to
+bottom of the cast, shall be more efficient and better harmonised than
+that which is commonly associated with spectacular representations.
+The simple method of producing Shakespeare focusses the interest of
+the audience on the actor and actress; it gives them a dignity and
+importance which are unknown to the complex method. Under the latter
+system, the attention of the spectator is largely absorbed by the
+triumphs of the scene-painter and machinist, of the costumier and the
+musicians. The actor and actress often elude notice altogether.
+
+Macready, whose theatrical career was anterior to the modern
+spectacular period of Shakespearean representation, has left on record
+a deliberate opinion of Charles Kean's elaborate methods at the
+Princess's Theatre in their relation to drama and the histrionic art.
+Macready's verdict has an universal application. "The production of
+the Shakespearean plays at the Princess's Theatre," the great actor
+wrote to Lady Pollock on the 1st of May 1859, rendered the spoken text
+"more like a running commentary on the spectacles exhibited than the
+scenic arrangements an illustration of the text." No criticism could
+define more convincingly the humiliation to which the author's words
+are exposed by spectacle, or, what is more pertinent to the immediate
+argument, the evil which is worked by spectacle on the actor.
+
+Acting can be, and commonly tends to be, the most mechanical of
+physical exercises. The actor is often a mere automaton who repeats
+night after night the same unimpressive trick of voice, eye, and
+gesture. His defects of understanding may be comparatively unobtrusive
+in a spectacular display, where he is liable to escape censure by
+escaping observation, or at best to be regarded as a showman.
+Furthermore, the long runs which scenic excess brings in its train
+accentuate the mechanical actor's imperfections and diminish his
+opportunities of remedying them. On the other hand, acting can rise in
+opposite conditions into the noblest of the arts. The great actor
+relies for genuine success on no mere gesticulatory mechanism.
+Imaginative insight, passion, the gift of oratory, grace and dignity
+of movement and bearing, perfect command of the voice in the whole
+gamut of its inflections are the constituent qualities of true
+histrionic capacity.
+
+In no drama are these qualities more necessary, or are ampler
+opportunities offered for their use, than in the plays of Shakespeare.
+Not only in the leading roles of his masterpieces, but in the
+subordinate parts throughout the range of his work, the highest
+abilities of the actor or actress can find some scope for employment.
+It is therefore indispensable that the standard of Shakespearean
+acting should always be maintained at the highest level, if
+Shakespearean drama is to be fitly rendered in the theatre. The worst
+of the evils, which are inherent in scenic excess, with its
+accompaniment of long runs, is its tendency to sanction the
+maintenance of the level of acting at something below the highest.
+Phelps was keenly alive to this peril, and his best energies were
+devoted to training his actors and actresses for all the roles in the
+cast, great and small. Actors and actresses of the first rank on
+occasion filled minor parts, in order to heighten the efficiency of
+the presentation. Actors and actresses who have the dignity of their
+profession at heart might be expected to welcome the revival of a
+system which alone guarantees their talent and the work of the
+dramatist due recognition, even if it leave histrionic incompetence no
+hope of escape from the scorn that befits it. It is on the aspiration
+and sentiment of the acting profession that must largely depend the
+final answer to the question whether Phelps's experiment can be made
+again with likelihood of success.
+
+
+VII
+
+Foreign experience tells in favour of the contention that, if
+Shakespeare's plays are to be honoured on the modern stage as they
+deserve, they must be freed of the existing incubus of scenic
+machinery. French acting has always won and deserved admiration. There
+is no doubt that one cause of its permanently high repute is the
+absolute divorce in the French theatre of drama from spectacle.
+
+Moliere stands to French literature in much the same relation as
+Shakespeare stands to English literature. Moliere's plays are
+constantly acted in French theatres with a scenic austerity which is
+unknown to the humblest of our theatres. A French audience would
+regard it as sacrilege to convert a comedy of Moliere into a
+spectacle. The French people are commonly credited with a love of
+ornament and display to which the English people are assumed to be
+strangers, but their treatment of Moliere is convincing proof that
+their artistic sense is ultimately truer than our own.
+
+The mode of producing Shakespeare on the stage in Germany supplies an
+argument to the same effect. In Berlin and Vienna, and in all the
+chief towns of German-speaking Europe, Shakespeare's plays are
+produced constantly and in all their variety, for the most part, in
+conditions which are directly antithetical to those prevailing in the
+West-end theatres of London. Twenty-eight of Shakespeare's
+thirty-seven plays figure in the repertoires of the leading companies
+of German-speaking actors.
+
+The currently accepted method of presentation can be judged from the
+following personal experience. A few years ago I was in the
+Burg-Theater in Vienna on a Sunday night--the night on which the great
+working population of Vienna chiefly take their recreation, as in this
+country it is chiefly taken by the great working population on
+Saturday night. The Burg-Theater in Vienna is one of the largest
+theatres in the world. It is of similar dimensions to Drury Lane
+Theatre or Covent Garden Opera-house. On the occasion of my visit the
+play produced was Shakespeare's _Antony and Cleopatra_. The house was
+crowded in every part. The scenic arrangements were simple and
+unobtrusive, but were well calculated to suggest the Oriental
+atmosphere of the plot. There was no music before the performance, or
+during the intervals between the acts, or as an accompaniment to great
+speeches in the progress of the play. There was no making love, nor
+any dying to slow music, although the stage directions were followed
+scrupulously; the song "Come, thou Monarch of the Vine," was sung to
+music in the drinking scene on board Pompey's galley, and there were
+the appointed flourishes of trumpets and drums. The acting was
+competent, though not of the highest calibre, but a satisfactory level
+was evenly maintained throughout the cast. There were no conspicuous
+deflections from the adequate standard. The character of whom I have
+the most distinct recollection was Enobarbus, the level-headed and
+straight-hitting critic of the action--a comparatively subordinate
+part, which was filled by one of the most distinguished actors of the
+Viennese stage. He fitted his part with telling accuracy.
+
+The whole piece was listened to with breathless interest. It was acted
+practically without curtailment, and, although the performance lasted
+nearly five hours, no sign of impatience manifested itself at any
+point. This was no exceptional experience at the Burg-Theater. Plays
+of Shakespeare are acted there repeatedly--on an average twice a
+week--and, I am credibly informed, with identical results to those of
+which I was an eye-witness.
+
+
+VIII
+
+It cannot be flattering to our self-esteem that the Austrian people
+should show a greater and a wiser appreciation of the theatrical
+capacities of Shakespeare's masterpieces than we who are Shakespeare's
+countrymen and the most direct and rightful heirs of his glorious
+achievements. How is the disturbing fact to be accounted for? Is it
+possible that it is attributable to some decay in us of the
+imagination--to a growing slowness on our part to appreciate works of
+imagination? When one reflects on the simple mechanical contrivances
+which satisfied the theatrical audiences, not only of Shakespeare's
+own day, but of the eighteenth century, during which Shakespeare was
+repeatedly performed; when one compares the simplicity of scenic
+mechanism in the past with its complexity in our own time, one can
+hardly resist the conclusion that the imagination of the theatre-going
+public is no longer what it was of old. The play alone was then "the
+thing." Now "the thing," it seems, is something outside the
+play--namely, the painted scene or the costume, the music or the
+dance.
+
+Garrick played Macbeth in an ordinary Court suit of his own era. The
+habiliments proper to Celtic monarchs of the eleventh century were
+left to be supplied by the imagination of the spectators or not at
+all. No realistic "effects" helped the play forward in Garrick's time,
+yet the attention of his audience, the critics tell us, was never
+known to stray when he produced a great play by Shakespeare. In
+Shakespeare's day boys or men took the part of women, and how
+characters like Lady Macbeth and Desdemona were adequately rendered by
+youths beggars belief. But renderings in such conditions proved
+popular and satisfactory. Such a fact seems convincing testimony, not
+to the ability of Elizabethan or Jacobean boys--the nature of boys is
+a pretty permanent factor in human society--but to the superior
+imaginative faculty of adult Elizabethan or Jacobean playgoers, in
+whom, as in Garrick's time, the needful dramatic illusion was far more
+easily evoked than it is nowadays.
+
+This is no exhilarating conclusion. But less exhilarating is the
+endeavour that is sometimes made by advocates of the system of
+spectacle to prove that Shakespeare himself would have appreciated the
+modern developments of the scenic art--nay, more, that he himself has
+justified them. This line of argument serves to confirm the suggested
+defect of imagination in the present generation. The well-known chorus
+before the first act of _Henry V._ is the evidence which is relied
+upon to show that Shakespeare wished his plays to be, in journalistic
+dialect, "magnificently staged," and that he deplored the inability of
+his uncouth age to realise that wish. The lines are familiar; but it
+is necessary to quote them at length, in fairness to those who judge
+them to be a defence of the spectacular principle in the presentation
+of Shakespearean drama. They run:--
+
+    O for a muse of fire, that would ascend
+    The brightest heaven of invention,
+    A kingdom for a stage, princes to act,
+    And monarchs to behold the swelling scene!
+    Then should the warlike Harry, like himself,
+    Assume the port of Mars; and at his heels,
+    Leash'd in like hounds, should famine, sword and fire
+    Crouch for employment. But pardon, gentles all,
+    The flat unraised spirits that have dar'd
+    On this unworthy scaffold to bring forth
+    So great an object: can this cockpit hold
+    The vasty fields of France? or may we cram
+    Within this wooden O the very casques
+    That did affright the air at Agincourt?
+    O, pardon! since a crooked figure may
+    Attest in little place a million;
+    And let us, ciphers to this great accompt,
+    On your imaginary forces work.
+    Suppose within the girdle of these walls
+    Are now confined two mighty monarchies,
+    Whose high upreared and abutting fronts,
+    The perilous narrow ocean parts asunder;
+    Piece out our imperfections with your thoughts;
+    Into a thousand parts divide one man,
+    And make imaginary puissance:
+    Think, when we talk of horses, that you see them
+    Printing their proud hoofs i' the receiving earth.
+    For 'tis your thoughts that now must deck our kings,
+    Carry them here and there, jumping o'er times,
+    Turning the accomplishment of many years
+    Into an hour glass.
+
+There is, in my opinion, no strict relevance in these lines to the
+enquiry whether Shakespeare's work should be treated on the stage as
+drama or spectacle. Nay, I go further, and assert that, as far as the
+speech touches the question at issue at all, it tells against the
+pretensions of spectacle.
+
+Shortly stated, Shakespeare's splendid prelude to his play of _Henry
+V._, is a spirited appeal to his audience not to waste regrets on
+defects of stage machinery, but to bring to the observation of his
+piece their highest powers of imagination, whereby alone can full
+justice be done to a majestic theme. The central topic of the choric
+speech is the essential limitations of all scenic appliances. The
+dramatist reminds us that the literal presentation of life itself, in
+all its movement and action, lies outside the range of the stage,
+especially the movement and action of life in its most glorious
+manifestations. Obvious conditions of space do not allow "two mighty
+monarchies" literally to be confined within the walls of a theatre.
+Obvious conditions of time cannot turn "the accomplishments of many
+years into an hour glass." Shakespeare is airing no private grievance.
+He is not complaining that his plays were in his own day inadequately
+upholstered in the theatre, or that the "scaffold" on which they were
+produced was "unworthy" of them. The words have no concern with the
+contention that modern upholstery and spectacular machinery render
+Shakespeare's play a justice which was denied them in his lifetime. As
+reasonably one might affirm that the modern theatre has now conquered
+the ordinary conditions of time and space; that a modern playhouse
+can, if the manager so will it, actually hold within its walls the
+"vasty fields of France," or confine "two mighty monarchies."
+
+A wider and quite impersonal trend of thought is offered for
+consideration by Shakespeare's majestic eloquence. The dramatist bids
+us bear in mind that his lines do no more than suggest the things he
+would have the audience see and understand; the actors aid the
+suggestion according to their ability. But the crucial point of the
+utterance is the warning that the illusion of the drama can only be
+rendered complete in the theatre by the working of the "imaginary
+forces" of the spectators. It is needful for them to "make imaginary
+puissance," if the play is to triumph. It is their "thoughts" that
+"must deck" the kings of the stage, if the dramatist's meaning is to
+get home. The poet modestly underestimated the supreme force of his
+own imaginative genius when giving these admonitions to his hearers.
+But they are warnings of universal application, and can never be
+safely ignored.
+
+Such an exordium as the chorus before _Henry V._ would indeed be
+pertinent to every stage performance of great drama in any age or
+country. It matters not whether the spectacular machinery be of royal
+magnificence or of poverty-stricken squalor. Let us make the
+extravagant assumption that all the artistic genius in the world and
+all the treasure in the Bank of England were placed at the command of
+a theatrical manager in order to enable him to produce a great play on
+his stage supremely well from his own scenic point of view. Even then
+it would be neither superfluous nor impertinent for the manager to
+adjure the audience to piece out the "imperfections" of the scenery
+with their "thoughts" or imagination. The spectator's "imaginary
+puissance" is, practically in every circumstance, the key-stone of the
+dramatic illusion.
+
+The only conditions in which Shakespeare's adjuration would be
+superfluous or impertinent would accompany the presentment in the
+theatre of some circumscribed incident of life which is capable of so
+literal a rendering as to leave no room for any make-believe or
+illusion at all. The unintellectual playgoer, to whom Shakespeare will
+never really prove attractive in any guise, has little or no
+imagination to exercise, and he only tolerates a performance in the
+theatre when little or no demand is made on the exercise of the
+imaginative faculty. "The groundlings," said Shakespeare for all time,
+"are capable of [appreciating] nothing but inexplicable dumb shows and
+noise." They would be hugely delighted nowadays with a scene in which
+two real motor cars, with genuine chauffeurs and passengers, raced
+uproariously across the stage. That is realism in its nakedness. That
+is realism reduced to its first principles. Realistic "effects,"
+however speciously beautiful they may be, invariably tend to realism
+of that primal type, which satisfies the predilections of the
+groundling, and reduces drama to the level of the cinematograph.
+
+
+IX
+
+The deliberate pursuit of scenic realism is antagonistic to the
+ultimate law of dramatic art. In the case of great plays, the dramatic
+representation is most successful from the genuinely artistic point of
+view--which is the only point of view worthy of discussion--when the
+just dramatic illusion is produced by simple and unpretending scenic
+appliances, in which the inevitable "imperfections" are frankly left
+to be supplied by the "thoughts" or imagination of the spectators.
+
+Lovers of Shakespeare should lose no opportunity of urging the cause
+of simplicity in the production of the plays of Shakespeare. Practical
+common-sense, practical considerations of a pecuniary kind, teach us
+that it is only by the adoption of simple methods of production that
+we can hope to have Shakespeare represented in our theatres constantly
+and in all his variety. Until Shakespeare is represented thus, the
+spiritual and intellectual enlightenment, which his achievement offers
+English-speaking people, will remain wholly inaccessible to the
+majority who do not read him, and will be only in part at the command
+of the few who do. Nay, more: until Shakespeare is represented on the
+stage constantly and in his variety, English-speaking men and women
+are liable to the imputation, not merely of failing in the homage due
+to the greatest of their countrymen, but of falling short of their
+neighbours in Germany and Austria in the capacity of appreciating
+supremely great imaginative literature.
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+SHAKESPEARE AND THE ELIZABETHAN PLAYGOER[4]
+
+[Footnote 4: This paper, which was first printed in "An English
+Miscellany, presented to Dr Furnivall in honour of his seventy-fifth
+birthday" (Oxford: At the Clarendon Press, 1901), was written as a
+lecture for delivery on Tuesday afternoon, March 20, 1900, at Queen's
+College (for women) in Harley Street, London, in aid of the Fund for
+securing a picture commemorating Queen Victoria's visit to the College
+in 1898.]
+
+
+I
+
+In a freak of fancy, Robert Louis Stevenson sent to a congenial spirit
+the imaginary intelligence that a well-known firm of London publishers
+had, after their wont, "declined with thanks" six undiscovered
+tragedies, one romantic comedy, a fragment of a journal extending over
+six years, and an unfinished autobiography reaching up to the first
+performance of _King John_ by "that venerable but still respected
+writer, William Shakespeare." Stevenson was writing in a frivolous
+mood; but such words stir the imagination. The ordinary person, if he
+had to choose among the enumerated items of Shakespeare's
+newly-discovered manuscripts, would cheerfully go without the six new
+tragedies and the one romantic comedy if he had at his disposal, by
+way of consolation, the journal extending over six years and the
+autobiography reaching up to the first performance of _King John_. We
+should deem ourselves fortunate if we had the journal alone. It would
+hardly matter which six years of Shakespeare's life the journal
+covered. As a boy, as a young actor, as an industrious reviser of
+other men's plays, as the humorous creator of Falstaff, Benedick, and
+Mercutio, as the profound "natural" philosopher of the great
+tragedies, he could never have been quite an ordinary diarist. Great
+men have been known to keep diaries in which the level of interest
+does not rise above a visit to the barber or the dentist. The common
+routine of life interested Shakespeare, but something beyond it must
+have found place in his journal. Reference to his glorious achievement
+must have gained entry there.
+
+Some notice, we may be sure, figured in Shakespeare's diary of the
+first performances of his great plays on the stage. However eminent a
+man is through native genius or from place of power, he can never,
+whatever his casual professions to the contrary, be indifferent to the
+reception accorded by his fellow-men to the work of his hand and head.
+I picture Shakespeare as the soul of modesty and gentleness in the
+social relations of life, avoiding unbecoming self-advertisement, and
+rating at its just value empty flattery, the mere adulation of the
+lips. Gushing laudation is as little to the taste of wise men as
+treacle. They cannot escape condiments of the kind, but the smaller
+and less frequent the doses the more they are content. Shakespeare no
+doubt had the great man's self-confidence which renders him to a large
+extent independent of the opinion of his fellows. At the same time,
+the knowledge that he had succeeded in stirring the reader or hearer
+of his plays, the knowledge that his words had gripped their hearts
+and intellects, cannot have been ungrateful to him. To desire
+recognition for his work is for the artist an inevitable and a
+laudable ambition. A working dramatist by the circumstance of his
+calling appeals as soon as the play is written to the playgoer for a
+sympathetic appreciation. Nature impelled Shakespeare to note on the
+pages of his journal his impression of the sentiment with which the
+fruits of his pen were welcomed in the playhouse.
+
+But Shakespeare's journal does not exist, and we can only speculate as
+to its contents.
+
+
+II
+
+We would give much to know how Shakespeare recorded in his diary the
+first performance of _Hamlet_, the most fascinating of all his works.
+He himself, we are credibly told, played the Ghost. We would give much
+for a record of the feelings which lay on the first production of the
+play beneath the breast of the silent apparition in the first scene
+which twice crossed the stage and affrighted Marcellus, Horatio, and
+the guards on the platform before the castle of Elsinore. No piece of
+literature that ever came from human pen or brain is more closely
+packed with fruit of the imaginative study of human life than is
+Shakespeare's tragedy of _Hamlet_; and while the author acted the part
+of the Ghost in the play's initial representation in the theatre, he
+was watching the revelation of his pregnant message for the first time
+to the external world. When the author in his weird role of Hamlet's
+murdered father opened his lips for the first time, we might almost
+imagine that in the words "pity me not, but lend thy serious hearing
+to what I shall unfold," he was reflecting the author's personal
+interest in the proceedings of that memorable afternoon.[5] We can
+imagine Shakespeare, as he saw the audience responding to his grave
+appeal, giving with a growing confidence, the subsequent words, which
+he repeated while he moved to the centre of the platform-stage, and
+turned to face the whole house:--
+
+                           I find thee apt;
+    And duller shouldst thou be than the fat weed
+    That rots itself in ease on Lethe wharf,
+    Wouldst thou not stir in this.
+
+[Footnote 5: Performances of plays in Shakespeare's time always took
+place in the afternoon.]
+
+As the Ghost vanished and the air rang mysteriously with his piercing
+words "Remember me," we would like to imagine the whole intelligence
+of Elizabethan England responding to that cry as it sprang on its
+first utterance in the theatre from the great dramatist's own lips.
+Since that memorable day, at any rate, the whole intelligence of the
+world has responded to that cry with all Hamlet's ecstasy, and with
+but a single modification of the phraseology:--
+
+                              Remember thee!
+    Ay, thou _great soul_, while memory holds a seat
+    In this distracted globe.
+
+
+III
+
+There is a certain justification, in fact, for the fancy that the
+_plaudites_ were loud and long, when Shakespeare created the role of
+the "poor ghost" in the first production of his play of _Hamlet_ in
+1602. There is no doubt at all that Shakespeare conspicuously caught
+the ear of the Elizabethan playgoer at a very early date in his
+career, and that he held it firmly for life. "These plays," wrote two
+of his professional associates of the reception of the whole series in
+the playhouse in his lifetime--"These plays have had their trial
+already, and stood out all appeals." Matthew Arnold, apparently quite
+unconsciously, echoed the precise phrase when seeking to express
+poetically the universality of Shakespeare's reputation in our own
+day.
+
+    Others abide our judgment, thou art free,
+
+is the first line of Arnold's well-known sonnet, which attests the
+rank allotted to Shakespeare in the literary hierarchy by the
+professional critic, nearly two and a half centuries after the
+dramatist's death. There was no narrower qualification in the
+apostrophe of Shakespeare by Ben Jonson, a very critical
+contemporary:--
+
+                            Soul of _the age_,
+    The applause, delight, and wonder of _our stage_.
+
+This play of _Hamlet_, this play of his "which most kindled English
+hearts," received a specially enthusiastic welcome from Elizabethan
+playgoers. It was acted within its first year of production repeatedly
+("divers times"), not merely in London "and elsewhere," but also--an
+unusual distinction--at the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. It
+was reprinted four times within eight years of its birth.
+
+Thus the charge sometimes brought against the Elizabethan playgoer of
+failing to recognise Shakespeare's sovereign genius should be reckoned
+among popular errors. It was not merely the recognition of the
+critical and highly educated that Shakespeare received in person. It
+was by the voice of the half-educated populace, whose heart and
+intellect were for once in the right, that he was acclaimed the
+greatest interpreter of human nature that literature had known, and,
+as subsequent experience has proved, was likely to know. There is
+evidence that throughout his lifetime and for a generation afterwards
+his plays drew crowds to pit, boxes, and gallery alike. It is true
+that he was one of a number of popular dramatists, many of whom had
+rare gifts, and all of whom glowed with a spark of the genuine
+literary fire. But Shakespeare was the sun in the firmament: when his
+light shone, the fires of all contemporaries paled in the contemporary
+playgoer's eye. There is forcible and humorous portrayal of human
+frailty and eccentricity in plays of Shakespeare's contemporary, Ben
+Jonson. Ben Jonson was a classical scholar, which Shakespeare was not.
+Jonson was as well versed in Roman history as a college tutor. But
+when Shakespeare and Ben Jonson both tried their hands at dramatising
+episodes in Roman history, the Elizabethan public of all degrees of
+intelligence welcomed Shakespeare's efforts with an enthusiasm which
+they rigidly withheld from Ben Jonson's. This is how an ordinary
+playgoer contrasted the reception of Jonson's Roman play of
+_Catiline's Conspiracy_ with that of Shakespeare's Roman play of
+_Julius Caesar_:--
+
+    So have I seen when Caesar would appear,
+    And on the stage at half-sword parley were
+    Brutus and Cassius--oh! how the audience
+    Were ravished, with what wonder they went thence;
+    When some new day they would not brook a line
+    Of tedious though well-laboured Catiline.
+
+Shakespeare was the popular favourite. It is rare that the artist who
+is a hero with the multitude is also a hero with the cultivated few.
+But Shakespeare's universality of appeal was such as to include among
+his worshippers from the first the trained and the untrained playgoer
+of his time.
+
+
+IV
+
+Very early in his career did Shakespeare attract the notice of the
+cultivated section of Elizabeth's Court, and hardly sufficient notice
+has been taken by students of the poet's biography of the earliest
+recognition accorded him by the great queen, herself an inveterate
+lover of the drama, and an embodiment of the taste of the people in
+literature. The story is worth retelling. In the middle of December
+1594, Queen Elizabeth removed from Whitehall to Greenwich to spend
+Christmas at that palace of Greenwich in which she was born sixty-one
+years earlier. And she made the celebration of Christmas of 1594 more
+memorable than any other in the annals of her reign or in the literary
+history of the country by summoning Shakespeare to Court. It was less
+than eight years since the poet had first set foot in the metropolis.
+His career was little more than opened. But by 1594 Shakespeare had
+given his countrymen unmistakable indications of the stuff of which he
+was made. His progress had been more sure than rapid. A young man of
+two-and-twenty, burdened with a wife and three children, he had left
+his home in the little country town of Stratford-on-Avon in 1586 to
+seek his fortune in London. Without friends, without money, he had,
+like any other stage-struck youth, set his heart on becoming an actor
+in the metropolis. Fortune favoured him. He sought and won the humble
+office of call-boy in a London playhouse; but no sooner had his foot
+touched the lowest rung of the theatrical ladder than his genius
+taught him that the topmost rung was within his reach. He tried his
+hand on the revision of an old play, and the manager was not slow to
+recognise an unmatched gift for dramatic writing.
+
+It was not probably till 1591, when Shakespeare was twenty-seven, that
+his earliest original play, _Love's Labour's Lost_, was performed. It
+showed the hand of a beginner; it abounded in trivial witticisms. But
+above all, there shone out clearly and unmistakably the dramatic and
+poetic fire, the humorous outlook on life, the insight into human
+feeling, which were to inspire Titanic achievements in the future.
+
+Soon after, Shakespeare scaled the tragic heights of _Romeo and
+Juliet_, and he was hailed as the prophet of a new world of art.
+Fashionable London society then, as now, befriended the theatre.
+Cultivated noblemen offered their patronage to promising writers for
+the stage, and Shakespeare soon gained the ear of the young Earl of
+Southampton, one of the most accomplished and handsome of the queen's
+noble courtiers, who was said to spend nearly all his time in going
+to the playhouse every day. It was at Southampton's suggestion, that,
+in the week preceding the Christmas of 1594, the Lord Chamberlain sent
+word to The Theatre in Shoreditch, where Shakespeare was at work as
+playwright and actor, that the poet was expected at Court on two days
+following Christmas, in order to give his sovereign on the two
+evenings a taste of his quality. He was to act before her in his own
+plays.
+
+It cannot have been Shakespeare's promise as an actor that led to the
+royal summons. His histrionic fame had not progressed at the same rate
+as his literary repute. He was never to win the laurels of a great
+actor. His most conspicuous triumph on the stage was achieved in
+middle life as the Ghost in his own _Hamlet_, and he ordinarily
+confined his efforts to old men of secondary rank. Ample compensation
+was provided by his companions for his personal deficiencies as an
+actor on his first visit to Court; he was to come supported by actors
+of the highest eminence in their generation. Directions were given
+that the greatest of the tragic actors of the day, Richard Burbage,
+and the greatest of the comic actors, William Kemp, were to bear the
+young actor-dramatist company. With neither of these was Shakespeare's
+histrionic position then or at any time comparable. For years they
+were leaders of the acting profession.
+
+Shakespeare's relations with Burbage and Kemp were close, both
+privately and professionally. Almost all Shakespeare's great tragic
+characters were created on the stage by Burbage, who had lately roused
+London to enthusiasm by his stirring presentation of Shakespeare's
+_Richard III._ for the first time. As long as Kemp lived, he conferred
+a like service on many of Shakespeare's comic characters; and he had
+recently proved his worth as a Shakespearean comedian by his original
+rendering of the part of Peter, the Nurse's graceless attendant, in
+_Romeo and Juliet_. Thus stoutly backed, Shakespeare appeared for the
+first time in the royal presence-chamber of Greenwich Palace on the
+evening of St Stephen's Day (the Boxing Day of subsequent generations)
+in 1594.
+
+Extant documentary evidence attests that Shakespeare and his two
+associates performed one "comedy or interlude" on that night of Boxing
+Day in 1594, and gave another "comedy or interlude" on the next night
+but one; that the Lord Chamberlain paid the three men for their
+services the sum of L13, 6s. 8d., and that the queen added to the
+honorarium, as a personal proof of her satisfaction, the further sum
+of L6, 13s. 4d. These were substantial sums in those days, when the
+purchasing power of money was eight times as much as it is to-day, and
+the three actors' reward would now be equivalent to L160.
+
+Unhappily the record does not go beyond the payment of the money. What
+words of commendation or encouragement Shakespeare received from his
+royal auditor are not handed down, nor do we know for certain what
+plays were performed on the great occasion. All the scenes came from
+Shakespeare's repertory, and it is reasonable to infer that they were
+drawn from _Love's Labour's Lost_, which was always popular in later
+years at Elizabeth's Court, and from _The Comedy of Errors_, where the
+farcical confusions and horse-play were after the queen's own heart
+and robust taste. But nothing can be stated with absolute certainty
+except that on December 29 Shakespeare travelled up the river from
+Greenwich to London with a heavier purse and a lighter heart than on
+his setting out. That the visit had in all ways been crowned with
+success there is ample indirect evidence. He and his work had
+fascinated his sovereign, and many a time during her remaining nine
+years of life was she to seek delight again in the renderings of plays
+by himself and his fellow-actors at her palaces on the banks of the
+Thames. When Shakespeare was penning his new play of _A Midsummer
+Night's Dream_ next year, he could not forbear to make a passing
+obeisance of gallantry (in that vein for which the old spinster queen
+was always thirsting) to "a fair vestal throned by the West," who
+passed her life "in maiden meditation, fancy free."
+
+Although literature and art can flourish without royal favour and
+royal patronage, still it is rare that royal patronage has any other
+effect than that of raising those who are its objects in the
+estimation of contemporaries. The interest that Shakespeare's work
+excited at Court was continuous throughout his life. When James I.
+ascended the throne, no author was more frequently honoured by
+"command" performances of his plays in the presence of the sovereign.
+And then, as now, the playgoer's appreciation was quickened by his
+knowledge that the play they were witnessing had been produced before
+the Court at Whitehall a few days earlier. Shakespeare's publishers
+were not above advertising facts like these, as may be seen by a
+survey of the title-pages of editions published in his lifetime. "The
+pleasant conceited comedy called _Love's Labour's Lost_" was
+advertised with the appended words, "as it was presented before her
+highness this last Christmas." "A most pleasant and excellent
+conceited comedy of _Sir John Falstaff and the Merry Wives of
+Windsor_" was stated to have been "divers times acted both before her
+majesty and elsewhere." The great play of _Lear_ was advertised, "as
+it was played before the king's majesty at Whitehall on St Stephen's
+night in the Christmas holidays."
+
+
+V
+
+Although Shakespeare's illimitable command of expression, his
+universality of knowledge and insight, cannot easily be overlooked by
+any man or woman of ordinary human faculty, still, from some points of
+view, there is ground for surprise that the Elizabethan playgoer's
+enthusiasm for Shakespeare's work was so marked and unequivocal as we
+know that it was.
+
+Let us consider for a moment the physical conditions of the theatre,
+the methods of stage representation, in Shakespeare's day. Theatres
+were in their infancy. The theatre was a new institution in social
+life for Shakespeare's public, and the whole system of the theatrical
+world came into being after Shakespeare came into the world. In
+estimating Shakespeare's genius one ought to bear in mind that he was
+a pioneer--almost the creator or first designer--of English drama, as
+well as the practised workman in unmatched perfection. There were
+before his day some efforts made at dramatic representation. The
+Middle Ages had their miracle plays and moralities and interludes. But
+of poetic, literary, romantic drama, England knew nothing until
+Shakespeare was of age. Marlowe, who in his early years inaugurated
+English tragedy, was Shakespeare's senior by only two months. It was
+not till 1576, when Shakespeare was twelve, that London for the first
+time possessed a theatre--a building definitely built for the purpose
+of presenting plays. Before that year, inn-yards or platforms, which
+were improvised in market-places or fields, served for the performance
+of interludes or moralities.
+
+Nor was it precisely in London proper that this primal theatre, which
+is known in history simply as The Theatre, was set up. London in
+Shakespeare's day was a small town, barely a mile square, with a
+population little exceeding 60,000 persons. Within the circuit of the
+city-walls vacant spaces were sparse, and public opinion deprecated
+the erection of buildings upon them. Moreover, the puritan clergy and
+their pious flocks, who constituted an active section of the citizens,
+were inclined to resist the conversion of any existing building into
+such a Satanic trap for unwary souls as they believed a playhouse of
+necessity to be.
+
+It was, accordingly, in the fields near London, not in London itself,
+that the first theatre was set up. Adjoining the city lay pleasant
+meadows, which were bright in spring-time with daisies and violets.
+Green lanes conducted the wayfarer to the rural retreat of Islington,
+and citizens went for change of air to the rustic seclusion of
+Mary-le-bone. A site for the first-born of London playhouses was
+chosen in the spacious fields of Finsbury and Shoreditch, which the
+Great Eastern Railway now occupies. The innovation of a theatre, even
+though it were placed outside the walls of the city, excited serious
+misgiving among the godly minority. But, after much controversy, the
+battle was finally won by the supporters of the play, and The Theatre
+was launched on a prosperous career. Two or three other theatres
+quickly sprang up in neighbouring parts of London's environment. When
+Shakespeare was reaching the zenith of his career, the centre of
+theatrical life was transferred from Shoreditch to the Southwark bank
+of the river Thames, at the south side of London Bridge, which lay
+outside the city's boundaries, but was easy of access to residents
+within them. It was at the Globe Theatre on Bankside, which was
+reached by bridge or by boat from the city-side of the river, that
+Shakespearean drama won its most glorious triumphs.
+
+
+VI
+
+Despite the gloomy warnings of the preachers, the new London theatres
+had for the average Elizabethan all the fascination that a new toy has
+for a child. The average Elizabethan repudiated the jeremiads of the
+ultra-pious, and instantaneously became an enthusiastic playgoer.
+During the last year of the sixteenth century, an intelligent visitor
+to London, Thomas Platter, a native of Basle, whose journal has
+recently been discovered,[6] described with ingenuous sympathy the
+delight which the populace displayed in the new playhouses.
+
+[Footnote 6: Professor Binz of Basle printed in September 1899 some
+extracts from Thomas Platter's unpublished diary of travels under the
+title: _Londoner Theater und Schauspiele im Jahre 1599_. Platter spent
+a month in London--September 18 to October 20, 1599. Platter's
+manuscript is in the Library of Basle University.]
+
+Some attractions which the theatres offered had little concern with
+the drama. Their advantages included the privileges of eating and
+drinking while the play was in progress. After the play there was
+invariably a dance on the stage, often a brisk and boisterous Irish
+jig.
+
+Other features of the entertainment seem to have been less
+exhilarating. The mass of the spectators filled the pit, where there
+was standing room only; there were no seats. The admission rarely cost
+more than a penny; but there was no roof. The rain beat at pleasure on
+the heads of the "penny" auditors; while pickpockets commonly plied
+their trade among them without much hindrance when the piece absorbed
+the attention of the "house." Seats or benches were only to be found
+in the two galleries, the larger portions of which were separated into
+"rooms" or boxes; prices there ranged from twopence to half-a-crown.
+If the playgoer had plenty of money at his command he could, according
+to the German visitor, hire not only a seat but a cushion to elevate
+his stature; "so that," says our author, "he might not only see the
+play, but"--what is also often more important for rich people--"be
+seen" by the audience to be occupying a specially distinguished place.
+Fashionable playgoers of the male sex might, if they opened their
+purses wide enough, occupy stools on the wide platform-stage. Such a
+practice proved embarrassing, not only to the performers, but to those
+who had to content themselves with the penny pit. Standing in front
+and by the sides of the projecting stage, they could often only catch
+glimpses of the actors through chinks in serried ranks of stools.
+
+The histrionic and scenic conditions, in which Shakespeare's plays
+were originally produced, present a further series of disadvantages
+which, from our modern point of view, render the more amazing the
+unqualified enthusiasm of the Elizabethan playgoer.
+
+There was no scenery, although there were crude endeavours to create
+scenic illusion by means of "properties" like rocks, tombs, caves,
+trees, tables, chairs, and pasteboard dishes of food. There was at the
+outset no music, save flourishes on trumpets at the opening of the
+play and between the acts. The scenes within each act were played
+continuously without pause. The bare boards of the platform-stage,
+which no proscenium nor curtain darkened, projected so far into the
+auditorium, that the actors spoke in the very centre of the house.
+Trap-doors were in use for the entrance of "ghosts" and other
+mysterious personages. At the back of the stage was a raised platform
+or balcony, from which often hung loose curtains; through them the
+actors passed to the forepart of the stage. The balcony was pressed
+into the service when the text of the play indicated that the speakers
+were not actually standing on the same level. From the raised platform
+Juliet addressed Romeo in the balcony scene, and the citizens of
+Angers in _King John_ held colloquy with the English besiegers. This
+was, indeed, almost the furthest limit of the Elizabethan
+stage-manager's notion of scenic realism. The boards, which were bare
+save for the occasional presence of rough properties, were held to
+present adequate semblance, as the play demanded, of a king's
+throne-room, a chapel, a forest, a ship at sea, a mountainous pass, a
+market-place, a battle-field, or a churchyard.
+
+The costumes had no pretensions to fit the period or place of the
+action. They were the ordinary dresses of various classes of the day,
+but were often of rich material, and in the height of the current
+fashion. False hair and beards, crowns and sceptres, mitres and
+croziers, armour, helmets, shields, vizors, and weapons of war, hoods,
+bands, and cassocks, were mainly relied on to indicate among the
+characters differences of rank or profession.
+
+The foreign observer, Thomas Platter of Basle, was impressed by the
+splendour of the actors' costumes. He accounted for it in a manner
+that negatives any suggestion of dramatic propriety:--
+
+     "The players wear the most costly and beautiful dresses, for
+     it is the custom in England, that when noblemen or knights
+     die, they leave their finest clothes to their servants, who,
+     since it would not be fitting for them to wear such splendid
+     garments, sell them soon afterwards to the players for a
+     small sum."
+
+The most striking defect in the practice of the Elizabethan playhouse,
+according to accepted notions, lies in the allotment of the female
+roles. It was thought unseemly for women to act at all. Female parts
+were played by boys or men--a substitution lacking, from the modern
+point of view, in grace and seemliness. But the standard of propriety
+in such matters varies from age to age. Shakespeare alludes quite
+complacently to the appearance of boys and men in women's parts. He
+makes Rosalind say, laughingly and saucily, to the men of the
+audience in the epilogue to _As You Like It_: "If I were a woman I
+would kiss as many of you as had beards that pleased me." "_If I were_
+a woman," she says. The jest lies in the fact that the speaker was not
+a woman but a boy. Similarly, Cleopatra on her downfall in _Antony and
+Cleopatra_, (V. ii. 220), laments
+
+                          the quick comedians
+    Extemporally will stage us ... and I shall see
+    Some squeaking Cleopatra _boy_ my greatness.
+
+The experiment of entrusting a boy with the part of Ophelia was lately
+tried in London not unsuccessfully; but it is difficult to realise how
+a boy or young man could adequately interpret most of Shakespeare's
+female characters. It seems almost sacrilegious to conceive the part
+of Cleopatra, the most highly sensitised in its minutest details of
+all dramatic portrayals of female character,--it seems almost
+sacrilegious to submit Cleopatra's sublimity of passion to
+interpretation by an unfledged representative of the other sex. Yet
+such solecisms were imperative under the theatrical system of the late
+sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. Men taking women's parts
+seem to have worn masks, but that can hardly have improved matters.
+Flute, when he complains that it would hardly befit him to play a
+woman's part because he had a beard coming, is bidden by his
+resourceful manager, Quince, play Thisbe in a "mask." At times actors
+who had long lost the roses of youth masqueraded in women's roles.
+Thereby the ungainliness, which marked the distribution of the cast in
+Elizabethan and Jacobean playhouses, was often forced into stronger
+light.
+
+It was not till the seventeenth century was well advanced that women
+were permitted to act in public theatres. Then the gracelessness of
+the masculine method was acknowledged and deplored. It was the
+character of Desdemona which was first undertaken by a woman, and the
+absurdity of the old practice was noticed in the prologue written for
+this revival of _Othello_, which was made memorable by the innovation.
+Some lines in the prologue describe the earlier system thus:--
+
+    For to speak truth, men act, that are between
+    Forty or fifty, wenches of fifteen,
+    With bone so large and nerve so uncompliant,
+    When you call Desdemona, enter Giant.
+
+Profound commiseration seems due to the Elizabethan playgoer, who was
+liable to have his faith in the tenderness and gentleness of Desdemona
+rudely shaken by the irruption on the stage of a brawny,
+broad-shouldered athlete, masquerading in her sweet name. Boys or men
+of all shapes and sizes squeaking or bawling out the tender and
+pathetic lines of Shakespeare's heroines, and no joys of scenery to
+distract the playgoer from the uncouth inconsistency! At first sight
+it would seem that the Elizabethan playgoer's lot was anything but
+happy.
+
+
+VII
+
+The Elizabethan's hard fate strangely contrasts with the situation of
+the playgoer of the nineteenth or twentieth century. To the latter
+Shakespeare is presented in a dazzling plenitude of colour. Music
+punctuates not merely intervals between scenes and acts, but critical
+pauses in the speeches of the actors. Pictorial tableaux enthral the
+most callous onlooker. Very striking is the contrast offered by the
+methods of representation accepted with enthusiasm by the Elizabethan
+playgoer and those deemed essential by the fashionable modern manager.
+There seems a relish of barbarism in the ancient system when it is
+compared with the one now in vogue.
+
+I fear the final conclusion to be drawn from the contrast is, contrary
+to expectation, more creditable to our ancestors than to ourselves.
+The needful dramatic illusion was obviously evoked in the playgoer of
+the past with an ease that is unknown to the present patrons of the
+stage. The absence of scenery, the substitution of boys and men for
+women, could only have passed muster with the Elizabethan spectator
+because he was able to realise the dramatic potency of the poet's work
+without any, or any but the slightest, adventitious aid outside the
+words of the play.
+
+The Elizabethan playgoer needs no pity. It is ourselves who are
+deserving objects of compassion, because we lack those qualities, the
+possession of which enabled the Elizabethan to acknowledge in
+Shakespeare's work, despite its manner of production, "the delight and
+wonder of his stage." The imaginative faculty was far from universal
+among the Elizabethan playgoers. The playgoing mob always includes
+groundlings who delight exclusively in dumb shows and noise. Many of
+Shakespeare's contemporaries complained that there were playgoers who
+approved nothing "but puppetry and loved ridiculous antics," and that
+there were men who, going to the playhouse only "to laugh and feed
+fool-fat," "checked at all goodness there."[7] No public of any age or
+country is altogether free from such infirmities. But the reception
+accorded to Shakespeare's plays in the theatre of his day, in
+contemporary theatrical conditions, is proof-positive of a signal
+imaginative faculty in an exceptionally large proportion of the
+playgoers.
+
+[Footnote 7: Chapman's _Revenge of Bussy D'Ambois_, Act I., Sc. i.]
+
+To the Elizabethan actor a warm tribute is due. Shakespeare has
+declared with emphasis that no amount of scenery can secure genuine
+success on the stage for a great work of the imagination. He is no
+less emphatic in the value he sets on competent acting. In _Hamlet_,
+as every reader will remember, the dramatist points out the perennial
+defects of the actor, and shows how they may and must be corrected. He
+did all he could for the Elizabethan playgoer in the way of insisting
+that the art of acting must be studied seriously, and that the
+dramatist's words must reach the ears of the audience, clearly and
+intelligibly enunciated.
+
+"Speak the speech, I pray you," he tells the actor, "as I pronounce it
+to you, trippingly on the tongue; but if you mouth it, as many of your
+players do, I had as lief the town-crier spoke my lines. Nor do not
+saw the air too much with your hand, thus; but use all gently: for in
+the very torrent, tempest, and--as I may say--whirlwind of passion,
+you must acquire and beget a temperance, that may give it smoothness.
+
+"Be not too tame neither, but let your own discretion be your tutor:
+suit the action to the word, the word to the action; with this special
+observance, that you o'erstep not the modesty of nature. O! there be
+players that I have seen play, and heard others praise, and that
+highly, not to speak it profanely, that, neither having the accent of
+Christians nor the gait of Christian, pagan, nor man, have so strutted
+and bellowed that I have thought some of nature's journeymen had made
+men and not made them well, they imitated humanity so abominably."
+
+The player amiably responds: "I hope we have reformed that
+indifferently with us." Shakespeare in the person of Hamlet retorts in
+a tone of some impatience: "O! reform it altogether. And let those
+that play your clowns speak no more than is set down for them." The
+applause which welcomed Shakespeare's masterpieces on their first
+representation is adequate evidence that the leading Elizabethan
+actors in the main obeyed these instructions.
+
+
+VIII
+
+Nevertheless the final success of a great imaginative play on the
+stage does not depend entirely on the competence of the actor.
+Encircling and determining all conditions is the fitness of the
+audience. A great imaginative play well acted will not achieve genuine
+success unless the audience has at command sufficient imaginative
+power to induce in them an active sympathy with the efforts, not only
+of the actor, but of the dramatist.
+
+It is not merely in the first chorus to _Henry V._ that Shakespeare
+has declared his conviction that the creation of the needful dramatic
+illusion is finally due to exercise of the imagination on the part of
+the audience.[8] Theseus, in _A Midsummer Night's Dream_, in the
+capacity of a spectator of a play which is rendered by indifferent
+actors, makes a somewhat depreciatory reflection on the character of
+acting, whatever its degree or capacity. But the value of Theseus's
+deliverance lies in its clear definition of the part which the
+audience has to play, if it do its duty by great drama.
+
+[Footnote 8: See pp. 20-1, _supra_.]
+
+"The best in this kind," says Theseus of actors, "are but shadows, and
+the worst are no worse, _if imagination amend them_." To which
+Hippolyta, less tolerant than Theseus of the incapacity of the players
+to whom she is listening, tartly retorts: "It must be your imagination
+(_i.e._, the spectator's), then, and not theirs (_i.e._, the
+actors')."
+
+These sentences mean that at its very best acting is but a shadow or
+simulation of life, and that acting at its very worst is likewise a
+shadow or simulation. But the imagination of the audience is supreme
+controller of the theatre, and can, if it be of adequate intensity,
+even cause inferior acting to yield effects hardly distinguishable
+from those of the best.
+
+It would be unwise to press Theseus's words to extreme limits. All
+that it behoves us to deduce from them is the unimpeachable principle
+that the success of the romantic drama on the stage depends not merely
+on the actor's gift of imagination, but to an even larger extent on
+the possession by the audience of a similar faculty. Good acting is
+needful. Scenery in moderation will aid the dramatic illusion,
+although excess of scenery or scenic machinery may destroy it
+altogether. Dramatic illusion must ultimately spring from the active
+and unrestricted exercise of the imaginative faculty by author,
+actor, and audience in joint-partnership.
+
+What is the moral to be deduced from any examination of the
+Elizabethan playgoer's attitude to Shakespeare's plays? It is
+something of this kind. We must emulate our ancestors' command of the
+imagination. We must seek to enlarge our imaginative sympathy with
+Shakespeare's poetry. The imaginative faculty will not come to us at
+our call; it will not come to us by the mechanism of study; it may not
+come to us at all. It is easier to point out the things that will
+hinder than the things that will hasten its approach. Absorption in
+the material needs of life, the concentration of energy on the
+increase of worldly goods, leave little room for the entrance into the
+brain of the imaginative faculty, or for its free play when it is
+there. The best way of seeking it is by reading the greatest of great
+imaginative literature, by freely yielding the mind to its influence,
+and by exercising the mind under its sway. And the greatest
+imaginative literature that was ever penned was penned by Shakespeare.
+No counsel is wiser than that of those two personal friends of his,
+who were the first editors of his work, and penned words to this
+effect: "Read him therefore, and again and again, and then if you do
+not like him, surely you are in some manifest danger" of losing a
+saving grace of life.
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+SHAKESPEARE IN ORAL TRADITION[9]
+
+[Footnote 9: This paper was first printed in _The Nineteenth Century
+and After_, February 1902.]
+
+
+I
+
+Biographers did not lie in wait for men of eminence on their
+death-beds in Shakespeare's epoch. To the advantage of literature, and
+to the less than might be anticipated disadvantage of history (for
+your death-bed biographer, writing under kinsfolk's tear-laden eyes,
+must needs be smoother-tongued than truthful), the place of the modern
+memoir-writer was filled in Shakespeare's day by friendly poets, who
+were usually alert to pay fit homage in elegiac verse to a dead hero's
+achievements. In that regard, Shakespeare's poetic friends showed at
+his death exceptional energy. During his lifetime men of letters had
+bestowed on his "reigning wit," on his kingly supremacy of genius,
+most generous stores of eulogy. Within two years of the end a
+sonneteer had justly deplored that something of Shakespeare's own
+power, to which he deprecated pretension, was needful to those who
+should praise him aright. But when Shakespeare lay dead in the spring
+of 1616, when, as one of his admirers technically phrased it, he had
+withdrawn from the stage of the world to the "tiring-house" or
+dressing-room of the grave, the flood of panegyrical lamentation was
+not checked by the sense of literary inferiority which in all
+sincerity oppressed the spirits of surviving companions.
+
+One of the earliest of the elegies was a sonnet by William Basse, who
+gave picturesque expression to the conviction that Shakespeare would
+enjoy for all time an unique reverence on the part of his countrymen.
+In the opening lines of his poem Basse apostrophised Chaucer, Spenser,
+and the dramatist Francis Beaumont, three poets who had already
+received the recognition of burial in Westminster Abbey--Beaumont, the
+youngest of them, only five weeks before Shakespeare died. To this
+honoured trio Basse made appeal to "lie a thought more nigh" one
+another, so as to make room for the newly-dead Shakespeare within
+their "sacred sepulchre." Then, in the second half of his sonnet, the
+poet, developing a new thought, argued that Shakespeare, in right of
+his pre-eminence, merited a burial-place apart from all his fellows.
+With a glance at Shakespeare's distant grave in the chancel of
+Stratford-on-Avon Church, the writer exclaimed:--
+
+    Under this carved marble of thine own
+    Sleep, brave tragedian, Shakespeare, sleep _alone_.
+
+The fine sentiment found many a splendid echo. It resounded in Ben
+Jonson's lines of 1623:--
+
+    My Shakespeare, rise! I will not lodge thee by
+    Chaucer, or Spenser, or bid Beaumont lie
+    A little further to make thee a room.
+    Thou art a monument without a tomb,
+    And art alive still, while thy book doth live
+    And we have wits to read and praise to give.
+
+Milton wrote a few years later, in 1630, how Shakespeare, "sepulchred"
+in "the monument" of his writings,
+
+                   in such pomp doth lie,
+    That kings for such a tomb would wish to die.
+
+Never was a glorious immortality foretold for any man with more solemn
+confidence than it was foretold for Shakespeare at his death by his
+circle of adorers. When Time, one elegist said, should dissolve his
+"Stratford monument," the laurel about Shakespeare's brow would wear
+its greenest hue. Shakespeare's critical friend, Ben Jonson, was but
+one of a numerous band who imagined the "sweet swan of Avon," "the
+star of poets," shining for ever as a constellation in the firmament.
+Such was the invariable temper in which literary men gave vent to
+their grief on learning the death of the "beloved author," "the famous
+scenicke poet," "the admirable dramaticke poet," "that famous writer
+and actor," "worthy master William Shakespeare" of Stratford-on-Avon.
+
+
+II
+
+Unqualified and sincere was the eulogy awarded to Shakespeare, alike
+in his lifetime and immediately after his death. But the spirit and
+custom of the age confided to future generations the duty of first
+offering him the more formal honour of prosaic and critical biography.
+The biographic memoir, which consists of precise and duly
+authenticated dates and records of domestic and professional
+experiences and achievements, was in England a comparatively late
+growth. It had no existence when Shakespeare died. It began to blossom
+in the eighteenth century, and did not flourish luxuriantly till a far
+more recent period. Meagre seeds of the modern art of biography were,
+indeed, sown within a few years of Shakespeare's death; but outside
+the unique little field of Izaak Walton's tillage, the first
+sproutings were plants so different from the fully developed tree,
+that they can with difficulty be identified with the genus. Apart from
+Izaak Walton's exceptional efforts, the biographical spirit first
+betrayed itself in England in slender, occasional pamphlets of
+rhapsodical froth, after the model of the funeral sermon. There
+quickly followed more substantial volumes of collective biography,
+which mainly supplied arbitrarily compiled, if extended, catalogues of
+names. To each name were attached brief annotations, which
+occasionally offered a fact or a date, but commonly consisted of a few
+sentences of grotesque, uncritical eulogy.
+
+Fuller's _Worthies of England_, which was begun about 1643 and was
+published posthumously in 1662, was the first English compendium of
+biography of this aboriginal pattern. Shakespeare naturally found
+place in Fuller's merry pages, for the author loved in his eccentric
+fashion his country's literature, and he had sought the society of
+those who had come to close quarters with literary heroes of the past
+generation. Of that generation his own life just touched the fringe,
+he being eight years old when Shakespeare died. Fuller described the
+dramatist as a native of Stratford-on-Avon, who "was in some sort a
+compound of three eminent poets"--Martial, "in the warlike sound of
+his name"; Ovid, for the naturalness and wit of his poetry; and
+Plautus, alike for the extent of his comic power and his lack of
+scholarly training. He was, Fuller continued, an eminent instance of
+the rule that a poet is born not made. "Though his genius," he warns
+us, "generally was jocular and inclining him to festivity, yet he
+could, when so disposed, be solemn and serious." His comedies, Fuller
+adds, would rouse laughter even in the weeping philosopher Heraclitus,
+while his tragedies would bring tears even to the eyes of the laughing
+philosopher Democritus.
+
+Of positive statements respecting Shakespeare's career Fuller is
+economical. He commits himself to nothing more than may be gleaned
+from the following sentences:--
+
+     Many were the wit-combats betwixt him and Ben Jonson; which
+     two I behold like a Spanish great galleon and an English
+     man-of-war: master Jonson (like the former) was built far
+     higher in learning; solid, but slow, in his performances.
+     Shakespeare, with the English man-of-war, lesser in bulk,
+     but lighter in sailing, could turn with all tides, tack
+     about, and take advantage of all winds, by the quickness of
+     his wit and invention. He died _Anno Domini_ 1616, and was
+     buried at Stratford-upon-Avon, the town of his nativity.
+
+Fuller's successors did their work better in some regards, because
+they laboured in narrower fields. Many of them showed a welcome
+appreciation of a main source of their country's permanent reputation
+by confining their energies to the production of biographical
+catalogues, not of all manners of heroes, but solely of those who had
+distinguished themselves in poetry and the drama.[10] In 1675 a
+biographical catalogue of poets was issued for the first time in
+England, and the example once set was quickly followed. No less than
+three more efforts of the like kind came to fruition before the end of
+the century.
+
+[Footnote 10: Such a compilation had been contemplated in 1614, two
+years before the dramatist died, by one of Shakespeare's own
+associates, Thomas Heywood. Twenty-one years later, in 1635, Heywood
+spoke of "committing to the public view" his summary _Lives of the
+Poets_, but nothing more was heard of that project.]
+
+In all four biographical manuals Shakespeare was accorded more or less
+imposing space. Although Fuller's eccentric compliments were usually
+repeated, they were mingled with far more extended and discriminating
+tributes. Two of the compilers designated Shakespeare "the glory of
+the English stage"; a third wrote, "I esteem his plays beyond any that
+have ever been published in our language"; while the fourth quoted
+with approval Dryden's fine phrase: "Shakespeare was the Man who of
+all Modern and perhaps Ancient Poets had the largest and most
+comprehensive Soul." But the avowed principles of these tantalising
+volumes justify no expectation of finding in them solid information.
+The biographical cataloguers of the seventeenth century did little
+more than proclaim Shakespeare and the other great poets of the
+country to be fit subjects for formal biography as soon as the type
+should be matured. That was the message of greatest virtue which these
+halting chroniclers delivered.
+
+In Shakespeare's case their message was not long neglected. In 1709
+Nicholas Rowe, afterwards George the First's poet laureate, published
+the first professed biography of the poet. The eminence of the
+subject justified such alacrity, and it had no precise parallel. More
+or less definite lives of a few of Shakespeare's great literary
+contemporaries followed his biography at long intervals. But the whole
+field has never been occupied by the professed biographer. In some
+cases the delay has meant loss of opportunity for ever. Very many
+distinguished Elizabethan and Jacobean authors have shared the fate of
+John Webster, next to Shakespeare the most eminent tragic dramatist of
+the era, of whom no biography was ever attempted, and no positive
+biographic fact survives.
+
+But this is an imperfect statement of the advantages which
+Shakespeare's career enjoyed above that of his fellows from the
+commemorative point of view. Although formal biography did not lay
+hand on his name for nearly a century after his death, the authentic
+tradition of his life and work began steadily to crystallise in the
+minds and mouths of men almost as soon as he drew his last breath.
+Fuller's characteristically shadowy hint of "wit-combats betwixt
+Shakespeare and Ben Jonson" and of the contrasted characters of the
+two combatants, suggests pretty convincingly that Shakespeare's name
+presented to the seventeenth-century imagination and tongue a better
+defined personality and experience than the embryonic biographer knew
+how to disclose. The commemorative instinct never seeks satisfaction
+in biographic effort exclusively, even when the art of biography has
+ripened into satisfying fulness. A great man's reputation and the
+moving incidents of his career never live solely in the printed book
+or the literary word. In a great man's lifetime, and for many years
+after, his fame and his fortunes live most effectually on living lips.
+The talk of surviving kinsmen, fellow-craftsmen, admiring
+acquaintances, and sympathetic friends is the treasure-house which
+best preserves the personality of the dead hero for those who come
+soon after him. When biography is unpractised, no other treasure-house
+is available.
+
+The report of such converse moves quickly from mouth to mouth. In its
+progress the narration naturally grows fainter, and, when no
+biographer lies in wait for it, ultimately perishes altogether. But
+oral tradition respecting a great man whose work has fascinated the
+imagination of his countrymen comes into circulation early, persists
+long, even in the absence of biography, and safeguards substantial
+elements of truth through many generations. Although no biographer put
+in an appearance, it is seldom that some fragment of oral tradition
+respecting a departed hero is not committed to paper by one or other
+amateur gossip who comes within earshot of it early in its career. The
+casual unsifted record of floating anecdote is not always above
+suspicion. As a rule it is embodied in familiar correspondence, or in
+diaries, or in commonplace books, where clear and definite language is
+rarely met with; but, however disappointingly imperfect and trivial,
+however disjointed, however deficient in literary form the registered
+jottings of oral tradition may be, it is in them, if they exist at all
+with any title to credit, that future ages best realise the fact that
+the great man was in plain truth a living entity, and no mere shadow
+of a name.
+
+
+III
+
+When Shakespeare died, on the 23rd of April, 1616, many men and women
+were alive who had come into personal association with him, and there
+were many more who had heard of him from those who had spoken with
+him. Apart from his numerous kinsfolk and neighbours at
+Stratford-on-Avon, there was in London a large society of
+fellow-authors and fellow-actors with whom he lived in close
+communion. Very little correspondence or other intimate memorials,
+whether of Shakespeare's professional friends or of his kinsfolk or
+country neighbours, survive. Nevertheless some scraps of the talk
+about Shakespeare that circulated among his acquaintances or was
+handed on by them to the next generation has been tracked to written
+paper of the seventeenth century and to printed books. A portion of
+these scattered memorabilia of the earliest known oral traditions
+respecting Shakespeare has come to light very recently; other portions
+have been long accessible. As a connected whole they have never been
+narrowly scrutinised, and I believe it may serve a useful purpose to
+consider with some minuteness how the mass of them came into being,
+and what is the sum of information they conserve.
+
+The more closely Shakespeare's career is studied the plainer it
+becomes that his experiences and fortunes were identical with those of
+all who followed in his day his profession of dramatist, and that his
+conscious aims and ambitions and practices were those of every
+contemporary man of letters. The difference between the results of his
+endeavours and those of his fellows was due to the magical and
+involuntary working of genius, which, since the birth of poetry, has
+exercised "as large a charter as the wind, to blow on whom it
+pleases." Speculation or debate as to why genius bestowed its fullest
+inspiration on Shakespeare is no less futile than speculation or
+debate as to why he was born into the world with a head on his
+shoulders instead of a block of stone. It is enough for wise men to
+know the obvious fact that genius endowed Shakespeare with its richest
+gifts, and a very small acquaintance with the literary history of the
+world and with the manner in which genius habitually plays its part
+there, will show the folly of cherishing astonishment that
+Shakespeare, rather than one more nobly born or more academically
+trained, should have been chosen for the glorious dignity. Nowhere is
+this lesson more convincingly taught than by a systematic survey of
+the oral tradition. Shakespeare figures there as a supremely favoured
+heir of genius, whose humility of birth and education merely serves to
+intensify the respect due to his achievement.
+
+In London, where Shakespeare's work was mainly done and his fortune
+and reputation achieved, he lived with none in more intimate social
+relations than with the leading members of his own prosperous company
+of actors, which, under the patronage of the king, produced his
+greatest plays. Like himself, most of his colleagues were men of
+substance, sharers with him in the two most fashionable theatres of
+the metropolis, occupiers of residences in both town and country,
+owners of houses and lands, and bearers of coat-armour of that
+questionable validity which commonly attaches to the heraldry of the
+_nouveaux riches_. Two of these affluent associates predeceased
+Shakespeare; and one of them, Augustine Phillips, attested his
+friendship in a small legacy. Three of Shakespeare's fellow-actors
+were affectionately remembered by him in his will, and a fourth, one
+of the youngest members of the company, proved his regard for
+Shakespeare's memory by taking, a generation after the dramatist's
+death, Charles Hart, Shakespeare's grand-nephew, into his employ as a
+"boy" or apprentice. Grand-nephew Charles went forth on a prosperous
+career, in which at its height he was seriously likened to his
+grand-uncle's most distinguished actor-ally, Richard Burbage. Above
+all is it to be borne in mind that to the disinterested admiration for
+his genius of two fellow-members of Shakespeare's company we owe the
+preservation and publication of the greater part of his literary work.
+The personal fascination of "so worthy a friend and fellow as was our
+Shakespeare" bred in all his fellow-workers an affectionate pride in
+their intimacy.
+
+Such men were the parents of the greater part of the surviving oral
+tradition of Shakespeare, and no better parentage could be wished for.
+To the first accessible traditions of proved oral currency after
+Shakespeare's death, the two fellow-actors who called the great First
+Folio into existence pledged their credit in writing only seven years
+after his death. They printed in the preliminary pages of that volume
+these three statements of common fame, viz., that to Shakespeare and
+his plays in his lifetime was invariably extended the fullest favour
+of the court and its leading officers; that death deprived him of the
+opportunity he had long contemplated of preparing his literary work
+for the press; and that he wrote with so rapidly flowing a pen that
+his manuscript was never defaced by alteration or erasure.
+Shakespeare's extraordinary rapidity of composition was an especially
+frequent topic of contemporary debate. Ben Jonson, the most intimate
+personal friend of Shakespeare outside the circle of working actors,
+wrote how "the players" would "often mention" to him the poet's
+fluency, and how he was in the habit of arguing that Shakespeare's
+work would have been the better had he devoted more time to its
+correction. The players, Ben Jonson adds, were wont to grumble that
+such a remark was "malevolent," and he delighted in seeking to
+vindicate it to them on what seemed to him to be just critical
+grounds.
+
+The copious deliverances of Jonson in the tavern-parliaments of the
+London wits, which were in almost continuous session during the first
+four decades of the seventeenth century, set flowing much other oral
+tradition of Shakespeare, whom Jonson said he loved and whose memory
+he honoured "on this side idolatry as much as any." One of Jonson's
+remarks which seems to have lived longest on the lips of
+contemporaries was that Shakespeare "was indeed honest and [like his
+own Othello] of an open and free nature,[11] had an excellent
+phantasy, brave notions and gentle expressions, wherein he flowed with
+that facility that sometimes it was necessary he should be stopped."
+
+[Footnote 11: Iago says of Othello, in _Othello_ I., iii. 405: "The
+Moor is _of a free and open nature_."]
+
+To the same category of oral tradition belongs the further piece which
+Fuller enshrined in his slender biography with regard to Shakespeare's
+alert skirmishes with Ben Jonson in dialectical battle. Jonson's
+dialectical skill was for a long period undisputed, and for gossip to
+credit Shakespeare with victory in such conflict was to pay his
+memory even more enviable honour than Jonson paid it in his own
+_obiter dicta_.
+
+There is yet an additional scrap of oral tradition which, reduced to
+writing about the time that Fuller was at work, confirms Shakespeare's
+reputation for quickness of wit in everyday life, especially in
+intercourse with the critical giant Jonson. Dr Donne, the Jacobean
+poet and dean of St Paul's, told, apparently on Jonson's authority,
+the story that Shakespeare, having consented to act as godfather to
+one of Jonson's sons, solemnly promised to give the child a dozen good
+"_Latin_ spoons" for the father to "translate." _Latin_ was a play
+upon the word "latten," which was the name of a metal resembling
+brass. The simple quip was a good-humoured hit at Jonson's pride in
+his classical learning. Dr Donne related the anecdote to Sir Nicholas
+L'Estrange, a country gentleman of literary tastes, who had no
+interest in Shakespeare except from the literary point of view. He
+entered it in his commonplace book within thirty years of
+Shakespeare's death.
+
+
+IV
+
+Of the twenty-five actors who are enumerated in a preliminary page of
+the great First Folio, as filling in Shakespeare's lifetime chief
+roles in his plays, few survived him long. All of them came in
+personal contact with him; several of them constantly appeared with
+him on the stage from early days.
+
+The two who were longest lived, John Lowin and Joseph Taylor, came at
+length to bear a great weight of years. They were both Shakespeare's
+juniors, Lowin by twelve years, and Taylor by twenty; but both
+established their reputation before middle age. Lowin at twenty-seven
+took part with Shakespeare in the first representation of Ben Jonson's
+_Sejanus_ in 1603. He was an early, if not the first, interpreter of
+the character of Falstaff. Taylor as understudy to the great actor
+Burbage, a very close ally of Shakespeare, seems to have achieved some
+success in the part of Hamlet, and to have been applauded in the role
+of Iago, while the dramatist yet lived. When the dramatist died, Lowin
+was forty, and Taylor over thirty.
+
+Subsequently, as their senior colleagues one by one passed from the
+world, these two actors assumed first rank in their company, and
+before the ruin in which the Civil War involved all theatrical
+enterprise, they were acknowledged to stand at the head of their
+profession.[12] Taylor lived through the Commonwealth, and Lowin far
+into the reign of Charles the Second, ultimately reaching his
+ninety-third year. Their last days were passed in indigence, and Lowin
+when an octogenarian was reduced to keeping the inn of the "Three
+Pigeons," at Brentford.
+
+[Footnote 12: Like almost all their colleagues, they had much literary
+taste. When public events compulsorily retired them from the stage,
+they, with the aid of the dramatist Shirley and eight other actors,
+two of whom were members with them of Shakespeare's old company, did
+an important service to English literature. In 1647 they collected for
+first publication in folio Beaumont and Fletcher's plays; only one,
+_The Wild Goose Chase_, was omitted, and that piece Taylor and Lowin
+brought out by their unaided efforts five years later.]
+
+Both these men kept alive from personal knowledge some oral
+Shakespearean tradition during the fifty years and more that followed
+his death. Little of their gossip is extant. But some of it was put
+on record, before the end of the century, by John Downes, the old
+prompter and librarian of a chief London theatre. According to
+Downes's testimony, Taylor repeated instructions which he had received
+from Shakespeare's own lips for the playing of the part of Hamlet,
+while Lowin narrated how Shakespeare taught him the theatrical
+interpretation of the character of Henry the Eighth, in that play of
+the name which came from the joint pens of Shakespeare and Fletcher.
+
+Both Taylor's and Lowin's reminiscences were passed on to Thomas
+Betterton, the greatest actor of the Restoration, and the most
+influential figure in the theatrical life of his day. Through him they
+were permanently incorporated in the verbal stage-lore of the country.
+No doubt is possible of the validity of this piece of oral tradition,
+which reveals Shakespeare in the act of personally supervising the
+production of his own plays, and springs from the mouths of those who
+personally benefited by the dramatist's activity.
+
+Taylor and Lowin were probably the last actors to speak of Shakespeare
+from personal knowledge. But hardly less deserving of attention are
+scraps of gossip about Shakespeare which survive in writing on the
+authority of some of Taylor's and Lowin's actor-contemporaries. These
+men were never themselves in personal relations with Shakespeare, but
+knew many formerly in direct relation with him. Probably the
+seventeenth century actor with the most richly stored memory of the
+oral Shakespearean tradition was William Beeston, to whose house in
+Hog Lane, Shoreditch, the curious often resorted in Charles the
+Second's time to listen to his reminiscences of Shakespeare and of
+the poets of Shakespeare's epoch.
+
+Beeston died after a busy theatrical life, at eighty or upwards, in
+1682. He belonged to a family of distinguished actors or
+actor-managers. His father, brothers, and son were all, like himself,
+prominent in the profession, and some of them were almost as
+long-lived as himself. His own career combined with that of his father
+covered more than a century, and both sedulously and with pride
+cultivated intimacy with contemporary dramatic authors.
+
+It was probably William Beeston's grandfather, also William Beeston,
+to whom the satirical Elizabethan, Thomas Nash, dedicated in 1593,
+with good-humoured irony, one of his insolent libels on Gabriel
+Harvey, a scholar who had defamed the memory of a dead friend. Nash
+laughed at his patron's struggles with syntax in his efforts to write
+poetry, and at his indulgence in drink, which betrayed itself in his
+red nose. But, in spite of Nash's characteristic frankness, he greeted
+the first William Beeston as a boon companion who was generous in his
+entertainment of threadbare scholars. Christopher Beeston, this man's
+son, the father of the Shakespearean gossip, had in abundance the
+hereditary taste for letters. He was at one time Shakespeare's
+associate on the stage. Both took part together in the first
+representation of Ben Jonson's _Every Man in His Humour_, in 1598. His
+name was again linked with Shakespeare's in the will of their
+fellow-actor, Augustine Phillips, who left each of them a legacy as a
+token of friendship at his death in 1605. Christopher Beeston left
+Shakespeare's company of actors for another theatre early in his
+career, and his closest friend among the actor-authors of his day in
+later life was not Shakespeare himself but Thomas Heywood, the popular
+dramatist and pamphleteer, who lived on to 1650. This was a friendship
+which kept Beeston's respect for Shakespeare at a fitting pitch.
+Heywood, who wrote the affectionate lines:
+
+    Mellifluous Shakespeare, whose inchanting Quill
+    Commanded Mirth or Passion, was but _Will_,
+
+enjoys the distinction of having published in Shakespeare's lifetime
+the only expression of resentment that is known to have come from the
+dramatist's proverbially "gentle lips." Shakespeare (Heywood wrote)
+"was much offended" with an unprincipled publisher who "presumed to
+make so bold with his name" as to put it to a book of which he was not
+the author. And Beeston had direct concern with the volume called _An
+Apology for Actors_, to which Heywood appended his report of these
+words of Shakespeare. To the book the actor, Beeston, contributed
+preliminary verses addressed to the author, his "good friend and
+fellow, Thomas Heywood." There Beeston briefly vindicated the
+recreation which the playhouse offered the public. Much else in
+Christopher Beeston's professional career is known, but it is
+sufficient to mention here that he died in 1637, while he was filling
+the post that he had long held, of manager to the King and Queen's
+Company of Players at the Cockpit Theatre in Drury Lane. It was the
+chief playhouse of the time, and his wife was lessee of it.
+
+Christopher's son, William Beeston the second, was his father's
+coadjutor at Drury Lane, and succeeded him in his high managerial
+office there. The son encountered difficulties with the Government
+through an alleged insult to the King in one of the pieces that he
+produced, and he had to retire from the Cockpit to a smaller theatre
+in Salisbury Court. Until his death he retained the respect of the
+play-going and the literature-loving public, and his son George, whom
+he brought up to the stage, carried on the family repute to a later
+generation.
+
+William Beeston had no liking for dissolute society, and the open vice
+of Charles the Second's Court pained him. He lived in old age much in
+seclusion, but by a congenial circle he was always warmly welcomed for
+the freshness and enthusiasm of his talk about the poets who
+flourished in his youth. "Divers times (in my hearing)," one of his
+auditors, Francis Kirkman, an ardent collector, reader, and publisher
+of old plays, wrote to him in 1652--"Divers times (in my hearing), to
+the admiration of the whole company you have most judiciously
+discoursed of Poesie." In the judgment of Kirkman, his friend, the old
+actor, was "the happiest interpreter and judg of our English
+stage-Playes this Nation ever produced; which the Poets and Actors
+these times cannot (without ingratitude) deny; for I have heard the
+chief, and most ingenious of them, acknowledg their Fames and Profits
+essentially sprung from your instructions, judgment, and fancy." Few
+who heard Beeston talk failed, Kirkman continues, to subscribe "to his
+opinion that no Nation could glory in such Playes" as those that came
+from the pens of the great Elizabethans, Shakespeare, Fletcher, and
+Ben Jonson. "Glorious John Dryden" shared in the general enthusiasm
+for the veteran Beeston, and bestowed on him the title of "the
+chronicle of the stage"; while John Aubrey, the honest antiquary and
+gossip, who had in his disorderly brain the makings of a Boswell,
+sought Beeston's personal acquaintance about 1660, in order to "take
+from him the lives of the old English Poets."
+
+It is Aubrey who has recorded most of such sparse fragments of
+Beeston's talk as survive--how Edmund "Spenser was a little man, wore
+short hair, little bands, and short cuffs," and how Sir John Suckling
+came to invent the game of cribbage. Naturally, of Shakespeare Beeston
+has much to relate. In the shrewd old gossip's language, he "did act
+exceedingly well," far better than Jonson; "he understood Latin pretty
+well, for he had been in his younger years a schoolmaster in the
+country;" "he was a handsome, well-shaped man, very good company, and
+of a very ready and pleasant smooth wit;" he and Ben Jonson gathered
+"humours of men daily wherever they came." The ample testimony to the
+excellent influence which Beeston exercised over "the poets and actors
+of these times" leaves little doubt that Sir William D'Avenant,
+Beeston's successor as manager at Drury Lane, and Thomas Shadwell, the
+fashionable writer of comedies, largely echoed their old mentor's
+words when, in conversation with Aubrey, they credited Shakespeare
+with "a most prodigious wit," and declared that they "did admire his
+natural parts beyond all other dramatical writers."[13]
+
+[Footnote 13: Aubrey's _Lives_, being reports of his miscellaneous
+gossip, were first fully printed from his manuscripts in the Bodleian
+Library by the Clarendon Press in 1898. They were most carefully
+edited by the Rev. Andrew Clark.]
+
+John Lacy, another actor of Beeston's generation, who made an immense
+reputation on the stage and was also a successful writer of farces,
+was one of Beeston's closest friends, and, having been personally
+acquainted with Ben Jonson, could lend to many of Beeston's stories
+useful corroborative testimony. With Lacy, too, the gossip Aubrey
+conversed of Shakespeare's career.
+
+At the same time, the popularity of Shakespeare's grand-nephew,
+Charles Hart, who was called the Burbage of his day, whetted among
+actors the appetite for Shakespearean tradition, especially of the
+theatrical kind. Hart had no direct acquaintance with his great
+kinsman, who died fully ten years before he was born, while his
+father, who was sixteen at Shakespeare's death, died in his son's
+boyhood. But Hart's grandmother, the poet's sister, lived till he was
+twenty-one, and Richard Robinson, the fellow-member of Shakespeare's
+company who first taught Hart to act, survived his pupil's
+adolescence. That Hart did what he could to satisfy the curiosity of
+his companions there is a precise oral tradition to confirm. According
+to the story, first put on record in the eighteenth century by the
+painstaking antiquary, William Oldys, it was through Hart that some
+actors made, near the date of the Restoration, the exciting discovery
+that Gilbert, one of Shakespeare's brothers, who was the dramatist's
+junior by only two years, was still living at a patriarchal age. Oldys
+describes the concern with which Hart's professional acquaintances
+questioned the old man about his brother, and their disappointment
+when his failing memory only enabled him to recall William's
+performance of the part of Adam in his comedy of _As You Like It_.
+
+It should be added that Oldys obtained his information of the episode,
+which deserves more attention than it has received, from an actor of
+a comparatively recent generation, John Bowman, who died over eighty
+in 1739, after spending "more than half an age on the London
+theatres."
+
+
+V
+
+Valuable as these actors' testimonies are, it is in another rank of
+the profession that we find the most important link in the chain of
+witnesses alike to the persistence and authenticity of the oral
+tradition of Shakespeare which was current in the middle of the
+seventeenth century. Sir William D'Avenant, the chief playwright and
+promoter of theatrical enterprise of his day, enjoyed among persons of
+influence and quality infinite credit and confidence. As a boy he and
+his brothers had come into personal relations with the dramatist under
+their father's roof, and the experience remained the proudest boast of
+their lives. D'Avenant was little more than ten when Shakespeare died,
+and his direct intercourse with him was consequently slender; but
+D'Avenant was a child of the Muses, and his slight acquaintance with
+the living Shakespeare spurred him to treasure all that he could learn
+of his hero from any who had enjoyed fuller opportunities of intimacy.
+
+To learn the manner in which the child D'Avenant and his brothers came
+to know Shakespeare is to approach the dramatist through oral tradition
+at very close quarters. D'Avenant's father, a melancholy person who
+was never known to laugh, long kept at Oxford the Crown Inn in Carfax.
+Gossip which was current in Oxford throughout the seventeenth century,
+and was put on record before the end of it by more than one scholar of
+the university, establishes the fact that Shakespeare on his annual
+journeys between London and Stratford-on-Avon was in the habit of
+staying at the elder D'Avenant's Oxford hostelry. The report ran that
+"he was exceedingly respected" in the house, and was freely admitted
+to the inn-keeper's domestic circle. The inn-keeper's wife was
+credited with a mercurial disposition which contrasted strangely with
+her husband's sardonic temperament; it was often said in Oxford that
+Shakespeare not merely found his chief attraction at the Crown Inn in
+the wife's witty conversation, but formed a closer intimacy with her
+than moralists would approve. Oral tradition speaks in clearer tones
+of his delight in the children of the family--four boys and three
+girls. We have at command statements on that subject from the lips of
+two of the sons. The eldest son, Robert, who was afterwards a parson
+in Wiltshire, and was on familiar terms with many men of culture,
+often recalled with pride for their benefit that "Mr William
+Shakespeare" had given him as a child "a hundred kisses" in his
+father's tavern-parlour.
+
+The third son, William, was more expansive in his reminiscences. It
+was generally understood at Oxford in the early years of the
+seventeenth century that he was the poet's godson, as his Christian
+name would allow, but some gossips had it that the poet's paternity
+was of a less spiritual character. According to a genuine anecdote of
+contemporary origin, when the boy, William D'Avenant, in Shakespeare's
+lifetime, informed a doctor of the university that he was on his way
+to ask a blessing of his godfather who had just arrived in the town,
+the child was warned by his interlocutor against taking the name of
+God in vain. It is proof of the estimation in which D'Avenant held
+Shakespeare that when he came to man's estate he was "content enough
+to have" the insinuation "thought to be true." He would talk freely
+with his friends over a glass of wine of Shakespeare's visits to his
+father's house, and would say "that it seemed to him that he wrote
+with Shakespeare's very spirit." Of his reverence for Shakespeare he
+gave less questionable proof in a youthful elegy in which he
+represented the flowers and trees on the banks of the Avon mourning
+for Shakespeare's death and the river weeping itself away. He was
+credited, too, with having adopted the new spelling of his name
+D'_Aven_ant (for Davenant), so as to read into it a reference to the
+river Avon.
+
+In maturer age D'Avenant sought out the old actors Taylor and Lowin,
+and mastered their information respecting Shakespeare, their early
+colleague on the stage. With a curious perversity he mainly devoted
+his undoubted genius in his later years to rewriting in accordance
+with the debased taste of Charles the Second's reign the chief works
+of his idol; but until D'Avenant's death in 1668 the unique character
+of Shakespeare's greatness had no stouter champion than he, and in the
+circle of men of wit and fashion, of which he was the centre, none
+kept the cult alive with greater enthusiasm. His early friend Sir John
+Suckling, the Cavalier poet, who was only seven years old when
+Shakespeare died, he infected so thoroughly with his own affectionate
+admiration that Suckling wrote of the dramatist in familiar letters as
+"my friend Mr William Shakespeare," and had his portrait painted by
+Vandyck with an open volume of Shakespeare's works in his hand. Even
+more important is Dryden's testimony that he was himself "first
+taught" by D'Avenant "to admire" Shakespeare.
+
+One of the most precise and valuable pieces of oral tradition which
+directly owed currency to D'Avenant was the detailed story of the
+generous gift of L1000, which Shakespeare's patron, the Earl of
+Southampton, made the poet, "to enable him to go through with a
+purchase which he heard he had a mind to." Rowe, Shakespeare's first
+biographer, recorded this particular on the specific authority of
+D'Avenant, who, he pointed out, "was probably very well acquainted
+with the dramatist's affairs." At the same time it was often repeated
+that D'Avenant was owner of a complimentary letter which James the
+First had written to Shakespeare with his own hand. A literary
+politician, John Sheffield, Earl of Mulgrave and Duke of
+Buckinghamshire, who survived D'Avenant nearly half a century, said
+that he had examined the epistle while it was in D'Avenant's keeping.
+The publisher Lintot first printed the Duke's statement in the preface
+to a new edition of Shakespeare's Poems in 1709.
+
+D'Avenant's devotion did much for Shakespeare's memory; but it
+stimulated others to do even more for the after-generations who wished
+to know the whole truth about Shakespeare's life. The great actor of
+the Restoration, Thomas Betterton, was D'Avenant's close associate in
+his last years. D'Avenant coached him in the parts both of Hamlet and
+of Henry the Eighth, in the light of the instruction which he had
+derived through the medium of Taylor and Lowin from Shakespeare's own
+lips. But more to the immediate purpose is it to note that D'Avenant's
+ardour as a seeker after knowledge of Shakespeare fired Betterton
+into making a pilgrimage to Stratford-on-Avon to glean oral traditions
+of the dramatist's life there. Many other of Shakespeare's admirers
+had previously made Stratford Church, where stood his tomb, a place of
+pilgrimage, and Aubrey had acknowledged in hap-hazard fashion the
+value of Stratford gossip. But it was Betterton's visit that laid the
+train for the systematic union of the oral traditions of London and
+Stratford respectively.
+
+It was not until the London and Warwickshire streams of tradition
+mingled in equal strength that a regular biography of Shakespeare was
+possible. Betterton was the efficient cause of this conjunction. All
+that Stratford-on-Avon revealed to him he put at the disposal of
+Nicholas Rowe, who was the first to attempt a formal memoir. Of
+Betterton's assistance Rowe made generous acknowledgment in these
+terms:--
+
+     I must own a particular Obligation to him [_i.e._,
+     Betterton] for the most considerable part of the Passages
+     relating to his [_i.e._, Shakespeare's] Life, which I have
+     here transmitted to the Publick; his veneration for the
+     Memory of Shakespear having engag'd him to make a Journey
+     into Warwickshire, on purpose to gather up what Remains he
+     could of a Name for which he had so great a Value.
+
+
+VI
+
+The contemporary epitaph on Shakespeare's tomb in Stratford-on-Avon
+Church, which acclaimed Shakespeare a writer of supreme genius, gave
+the inhabitants of the little town no opportunity of ignoring at any
+period the fact that the greatest poet of his era had been their
+fellow-townsman. Stratford was indeed openly identified with
+Shakespeare's career from the earliest possible day, and Sir William
+Dugdale, the first topographer of Warwickshire, writing about 1650,
+noted that the place was memorable for having given "birth and
+sepulture to our late famous poet Will Shakespeare." But the obscure
+little town produced in the years that followed Shakespeare's death
+none who left behind records of their experience, and such fragments
+of oral tradition of Shakespeare at Stratford as are extant survive
+accidentally, with one notable exception, in the manuscript notes of
+visitors, who, like Betterton, were drawn thither by a veneration
+acquired elsewhere.
+
+The one notable exception is John Ward, a seventeenth-century vicar of
+Stratford, who settled there in 1662, at the age of thirty-three,
+forty-six years after Shakespeare's death. Ward remained at Stratford
+till his death in 1681. He is the only resident of the century who
+wrote down any of the local story. Ward was a man of good sentiment.
+He judged that it became a vicar of Stratford to know his Shakespeare
+well, and one of his private reminders for his own conduct
+runs--"Remember to peruse Shakespeare's plays, and bee much versed in
+them, that I may not bee ignorant in that matter."
+
+Ward was a voluminous diarist and a faithful chronicler as far as he
+cared to go. Shakespeare's last surviving daughter, Judith Quiney, was
+dying when he arrived in Stratford; but sons of Shakespeare's sister,
+Mistress Joan Hart, were still living in the poet's birthplace in
+Henley Street. Ward seems, too, to have known Lady Barnard,
+Shakespeare's only grandchild and last surviving descendant, who,
+although she only occasionally visited Stratford after her second
+marriage in 1649 and her removal to her husband's residence at
+Abington, near the town of Northampton, retained much property in her
+native place till her death in 1670. Ward reported from local
+conversation six important details, viz., that Shakespeare retired to
+Stratford in his elder days; that he wrote at the most active period
+of his life two plays a year; that he made so large an income from his
+dramas that "he spent at the rate of L1000 a year"; that he
+entertained his literary friends Drayton and Jonson at "a merry
+meeting" shortly before his death, and that he died of its effects.
+
+Oxford, which was only thirty-six miles distant, supplied the majority
+of Stratford tourists, who, before Betterton, gathered oral tradition
+there. Aubrey, the Oxford gossip, roughly noted six local items other
+than those which are embodied in Ward's diary, or are to be gleaned
+from Beeston's reminiscences, viz., that Shakespeare had as a lad
+helped his father in his trade of butcher; that one of the poet's
+companions in boyhood, who died young, had almost as extraordinary a
+"natural wit"; that Shakespeare betrayed very early signs of poetic
+genius; that he paid annual visits to his native place when his career
+was at its height; that he loved at tavern meetings in the town to
+chaff John Combe, the richest of his fellow-townsmen, who was accused
+of usurious practices; and finally, that he died possessed of a
+substantial fortune.
+
+Until the end of the century, visitors were shown round the church by
+an aged parish clerk, some of whose gossip about Shakespeare was
+recorded by one of them in 1693. The old man came thus to supply two
+further items of information: how Shakespeare ran away in youth, and
+how he sought service at a playhouse, "and by this meanes had an
+opportunity to be what he afterwards proved." A different visitor to
+Stratford next year recorded in an extant letter to a friend yet more
+scraps of oral tradition. These were to the effect that "the great
+Shakespear" dreaded the removal of his bones to the charnel-house
+attached to the church; that he caused his grave to be dug seventeen
+feet deep; and that he wrote the rude warning against disturbing his
+bones, which was inscribed on his gravestone, in order to meet the
+capacity of the "very ignorant sort of people" whose business it was
+to look after burials.
+
+Betterton gained more precise particulars--the date of baptism and the
+like--from an examination of the parochial records; but the most
+valuable piece of oral tradition with which the great actor's research
+must be credited was the account of Shakespeare's deer-stealing
+escapade at Charlecote. Another tourist from Oxford privately and
+independently put that anecdote into writing at the same date, but
+Rowe, who first gave it to the world in his biography, relied
+exclusively on Betterton's authority. At a little later period
+inquiries made at Stratford by a second actor, Bowman, yielded a
+trifle more. Bowman came to know a very reputable resident at
+Bridgtown, a hamlet adjoining Stratford, Sir William Bishop, whose
+family was of old standing there. Sir William was born ten years after
+Shakespeare died, and lived close to Stratford till 1700. He told
+Bowman that a part of Falstaff's character was drawn from a
+fellow-townsman at Stratford against whom Shakespeare cherished a
+grudge owing to his obduracy in some business transaction. Bowman
+repeated the story to Oldys, who put it on record.
+
+Although one could wish the early oral tradition of Stratford to have
+been more thoroughly reported, such as is extant in writing is
+sufficient to prove that Shakespeare's literary eminence was well
+known in his native place during the century that followed his death.
+In many villages in the neighbourhood of Stratford--at Bidford, at
+Wilmcote, at Greet, at Dursley--there long persisted like oral
+tradition of Shakespeare's occasional visits, but these were not
+written down before the middle of the eighteenth century; and although
+they are of service as proof of the local dissemination of his fame,
+they are somewhat less definite than the traditions that suffered
+earlier record, and need not be particularised here. One light piece
+of gossip, which was associated with a country parish at some distance
+from Stratford, can alone be traced back to remote date, and was
+quickly committed to writing. A trustworthy Oxford don, Josias Howe,
+fellow and tutor of Trinity, was born early in the seventeenth century
+at Grendon in Buckinghamshire, where his father was long rector, and
+he maintained close relations with his birthplace during his life of
+more than ninety years. Grendon was on the road between Oxford and
+London. Howe stated that Shakespeare often visited the place in his
+journey from Stratford, and that he found the original of his
+character of Dogberry in the person of a parish constable who lived on
+there till 1642. Howe was on familiar terms with the man, and he
+confided his reminiscence to his friend Aubrey, who duly recorded it,
+although in a somewhat confused shape.
+
+
+VII
+
+It is with early oral tradition of Shakespeare's personal experience
+that I am dealing here. It is not my purpose to notice early literary
+criticism, of which there is abundant supply. It was obviously the
+free circulation of the fame of Shakespeare's work which stimulated
+the activity of interest in his private fortunes and led to the
+chronicling of the oral tradition regarding them. It could easily be
+shown that, outside the circle of professional poets, dramatists,
+actors, and fellow-townsmen, Shakespeare's name was, from his first
+coming into public notice, constantly on the lips of scholars,
+statesmen, and men of fashion who had any glimmer of literary taste.
+The Muse of History indeed drops plain hints of the views expressed at
+the social meetings of the great in the seventeenth century when
+Shakespeare was under discussion. Before 1643, "all persons of quality
+that had wit and learning" engaged in a set debate at Eton in the
+rooms of "the ever-memorable" John Hales, Fellow of the College, on
+the question of Shakespeare's merits compared with those of classical
+poets. The judges who presided over "this ingenious assembly"
+unanimously and without qualification decided in favour of
+Shakespeare's superiority.
+
+A very eminent representative of the culture and political
+intelligence of the next generation was in full sympathy with the
+verdict of the Eton College tribunal. Lord Clarendon held Shakespeare
+to be one of the "most illustrious of our nation." Among the many
+heroes of his admiration, Shakespeare was of the elect few who were
+"most agreeable to his lordship's general humour." Lord Clarendon was
+at the pains of securing a portrait of Shakespeare to hang in his
+house in St James's. Similarly, the proudest and probably the richest
+nobleman in political circles at the end of the seventeenth century,
+the Duke of Somerset, was often heard to speak of his "pleasure in
+that Greatness of Thought, those natural Images, those Passions finely
+touch'd, and that beautiful Expression which is everywhere to be met
+with in Shakespear."
+
+
+VIII
+
+It was to this Duke of Somerset that Rowe appropriately dedicated the
+first full and formal biography of the poet. That work was designed as
+a preface to the first critical edition of Shakespeare's plays, which
+Rowe published in 1709. "Though the works of Mr Shakespear may seem to
+many not to want a comment," Rowe wrote modestly enough, "yet I fancy
+some little account of the man himself may not be thought improper to
+go along with them." Rowe did his work quite as well as the
+rudimentary state of the biographic art of his day allowed. He was
+under the complacent impression that his supply of information
+satisfied all reasonable curiosity. He had placed himself in the hands
+of Betterton, an investigator at first hand. But the fact remains that
+Rowe made no sustained nor scholarly effort to collect exhaustively
+even the oral tradition; still less did he consult with thoroughness
+official records or references to Shakespeare's literary achievements
+in the books of his contemporaries. Such labour as that was to be
+undertaken later, when the practice of biography had assimilated more
+scientific method. Rowe preferred the straw of vague rhapsody to the
+brick of solid fact.
+
+Nevertheless Rowe's memoir laid the foundations on which his
+successors built. It set ringing the bell which called together that
+mass of information drawn from every source--manuscript archives,
+printed books, oral tradition--which now far exceeds what is
+accessible in the case of any poet contemporary with Shakespeare. Some
+links in the chain of Shakespeare's career are still missing, and we
+must wait for the future to disclose them. But, though the clues at
+present are in some places faint, the trail never altogether eludes
+the patient investigator. The ascertained facts are already numerous
+enough to define beyond risk of intelligent doubt the direction that
+Shakespeare's career followed. Its general outline is, as we have
+seen, fully established by one source of knowledge alone--one out of
+many--by the oral tradition which survives from the seventeenth
+century.
+
+It may be justifiable to cherish regret for the loss of Shakespeare's
+autograph papers and of his familiar correspondence. But the absence
+of such documentary material can excite scepticism of the received
+tradition only in those who are ignorant of the fate that invariably
+befell the original manuscripts and correspondence of Elizabethan and
+Jacobean poets and dramatists. Save for a few fragments of small
+literary moment, no play of the era in its writer's autograph escaped
+early destruction by fire or dustbin. No machinery then ensured, no
+custom then encouraged, the due preservation of the autographs of men
+distinguished for poetic genius. Provision was made in the public
+record offices or in private muniment-rooms for the protection of the
+official papers and correspondence of men in public life, and of
+manuscript memorials affecting the property and domestic history of
+great county families. But even in the case of men of the sixteenth or
+seventeenth century in official life who, as often happened, devoted
+their leisure to literature, the autographs of their literary
+compositions have for the most part perished, and there usually only
+remain in the official depositories remnants of their writings about
+matters of official routine.
+
+Not all those depositories, it is to be admitted, have yet been fully
+explored, and in some of them a more thorough search than has yet been
+undertaken may be expected to throw new light on Shakespeare's
+biography. Meanwhile, instead of mourning helplessly over the lack of
+material for a knowledge of Shakespeare's life, it becomes us to
+estimate aright what we have at our command, to study it closely in
+the light of the literary history of the epoch, and, while neglecting
+no opportunity of bettering our information, to recognise frankly the
+activity of the destroying agencies which have been at work from the
+outset. Then we shall wonder, not why we know so little, but why we
+know so much.
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+PEPYS AND SHAKESPEARE[14]
+
+[Footnote 14: A paper read at the sixth meeting of the Samuel Pepys
+Club, on Thursday, November 30, 1905, and printed in the _Fortnightly
+Review_ for January, 1906.]
+
+
+I
+
+In his capacity of playgoer, as indeed in almost every other capacity,
+Pepys presents himself to readers of his naive diary as the
+incarnation, or the microcosm, of the average man. No other writer has
+pictured with the same lifelike precision and simplicity the average
+playgoer's sensations of pleasure or pain. Of the play and its
+performers Pepys records exactly what he thinks or feels. He usually
+takes a more lively interest in the acting and in the scenic and
+musical accessories than in the drama's literary quality. Subtlety is
+at any rate absent from his criticism. He is either bored or amused.
+The piece is either the best or the worst that he ever witnessed. His
+epithets are of the bluntest and are without modulation. Wiser than
+more professional dramatic critics, he avoids labouring at reasons for
+his emphatic judgments.
+
+Always true to his role of the average man, Pepys suffers his mind to
+be swayed by barely relevant accidents. His thought is rarely free
+from official or domestic business, and the heaviness or lightness of
+his personal cares commonly colours his playhouse impressions. His
+praises and his censures of a piece often reflect, too, the physical
+comforts or discomforts which attach to his seat in the theatre. He is
+peculiarly sensitive to petty annoyances--to the agony of sitting in a
+draught, or to the irritation caused by frivolous talk in his near
+neighbourhood while a serious play is in progress. On one occasion,
+when he sought to practise a praiseworthy economy by taking a back
+seat in the shilling gallery, his evening's enjoyment was well-nigh
+spoiled by finding the gaze of four clerks in his office steadily
+directed upon him from more expensive seats down below. On another
+occasion, when in the pit with his wife and her waiting-woman, he was
+overcome by a sense of shame as he realised how shabbily his
+companions were dressed, in comparison with the smartly-attired ladies
+round about them.
+
+Everyone knows how susceptible Pepys was in all situations of life to
+female charms. It was inevitable that his wits should often wander
+from the dramatic theme and its scenic presentation to the features of
+some woman on the stage or in the auditory. An actress's pretty face
+or graceful figure many times diverted his attention from her
+professional incompetence. It is doubtful if there were any affront
+which Pepys would not pardon in a pretty woman. Once when he was in
+the pit, this curious experience befell him. "I sitting behind in a
+dark place," he writes, "a lady spit backward upon me by mistake, not
+seeing me; but after seeing her to be a very pretty lady, I was not
+troubled at it at all." The volatile diarist studied much besides the
+drama when he spent his afternoon or evening at the play.
+
+Never was there a more indefatigable playgoer than Pepys. Yet his
+enthusiasm for the theatre was, to his mind, a failing which required
+most careful watching. He feared that the passion might do injury to
+his purse, might distract him from serious business, might lead him
+into temptation of the flesh. He had a little of the Puritan's dread
+of the playhouse. He was constantly taking vows to curb his love of
+plays, which "mightily troubled his mind." He was frequently resolving
+to abstain from the theatre for four or five months at a stretch, and
+then to go only in the company of his wife. During these periods of
+abstinence he was in the habit of reading over his vows every Sunday.
+But, in spite of all his well-meaning efforts, his resolution was
+constantly breaking down. On one occasion he perjured himself so
+thoroughly as to witness two plays in one day, once in the afternoon
+and again in the evening. On this riotous outbreak he makes the
+characteristic comment: "Sad to think of the spending so much money,
+and of venturing the breach of my vow." But he goes on to thank God
+that he had the grace to feel sorry for the misdeed, at the same time
+as he lamented that "his nature was so content to follow the pleasure
+still." Pepys compounded with his conscience for such breaches of his
+oath by all manner of casuistry. He excused himself for going,
+contrary to his vow, to the new theatre in Drury Lane, because it was
+not built when his vow was framed. Finally, he stipulated with himself
+that he would only go to the theatre once a fortnight; but if he went
+oftener he would give L10 to the poor. "This," he added, "I hope in
+God will bind me." The last reference that he makes to his vows is
+when, in contravention of them, he went with his wife to the Duke of
+York's House, and found the place full, and himself unable to obtain
+seats. He makes a final record of "the saving of his vow, to his great
+content."
+
+
+II
+
+All self-imposed restrictions notwithstanding, Pepys contrived to
+visit the theatre no less than three hundred and fifty-one times
+during the nine years and five months that he kept his diary. It has
+to be borne in mind that, for more than twelve months of that period,
+the London playhouses were for the most part closed, owing to the
+Great Plague and the Fire. Had Pepys gone at regular intervals, when
+the theatres were open, he would have been a playgoer at least once a
+week. But, owing to his vows, his visits fell at most irregular
+intervals. Sometimes he went three or four times a week, or even twice
+in one day. Then there would follow eight or nine weeks of abstinence.
+If a piece especially took his fancy, he would see it six or seven
+times in fairly quick succession. Long runs were unknown to the
+theatre of Pepys's day, but a successful piece was frequently revived.
+Occasionally, Pepys would put himself to the trouble of attending a
+first night. But this was an indulgence that he practised sparingly.
+He resented the manager's habit of doubling the price of the seats,
+and he was irritated by the frequent want of adequate rehearsal.
+
+Pepys's theatrical experience began with the reopening of theatres
+after the severe penalty of suppression, which the Civil Wars and the
+Commonwealth imposed on them for nearly eighteen years. His playgoing
+diary thus became an invaluable record of a new birth of theatrical
+life in London. When, in the summer of 1660, General Monk occupied
+London for the restored King, Charles II., three of the old theatres
+were still standing empty. These were soon put into repair, and
+applied anew to theatrical uses, although only two of them seem to
+have been open at any one time. The three houses were the Red Bull,
+dating from Elizabeth's reign, in St John's Street, Clerkenwell, where
+Pepys saw Marlowe's _Faustus_; Salisbury Court, Whitefriars, off Fleet
+Street; and the Old Cockpit in Drury Lane, both of which were of more
+recent origin. To all these theatres Pepys paid early visits. But the
+Cockpit in Drury Lane, was the scene of some of his most stirring
+experiences. There he saw his first play, Beaumont and Fletcher's
+_Loyal Subject_; and there, too, he saw his first play by Shakespeare,
+_Othello_.
+
+But these three theatres were in decay, and new and sumptuous
+buildings soon took their places. One of the new playhouses was in
+Portugal Row, Lincoln's Inn Fields; the other, on the site of the
+present Drury Lane Theatre, was the first of the many playhouses that
+sprang up there. It is to these two theatres--Lincoln's Inn Fields and
+Drury Lane--that Pepys in his diary most often refers. He calls each
+of them by many different names, and the unwary reader might infer
+that London was very richly supplied with playhouses in Pepys's day.
+But public theatres in active work at this period of our history were
+not permitted by the authorities to exceed two. "The Opera" and "the
+Duke's House" are merely Pepys's alternative designations of the
+Lincoln's Inn Field's Theatre; while "the Theatre," "Theatre Royal,"
+and "the King's House," are the varying titles which he bestows on the
+Drury Lane Theatre.[15]
+
+[Footnote 15: At the restoration of King Charles II., no more than two
+companies of actors received licenses to perform in public. One of
+these companies was directed by Sir William D'Avenant, Shakespeare's
+reputed godson, and was under the patronage of the King's brother, the
+Duke of York. The other was directed by Tom Killigrew, one of Charles
+II.'s boon companions, and was under the patronage of the King
+himself. In due time the Duke's, or D'Avenant's, company occupied the
+theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields, and the King's, or Killigrew's,
+company occupied the new building in Drury Lane.]
+
+Besides these two public theatres there was, in the final constitution
+of the theatrical world in Pepys's London, a third, which stood on a
+different footing. A theatre was attached to the King's Court at
+Whitehall, and there performances were given at the King's command by
+actors from the two public houses.[16] The private Whitehall theatre
+was open to the public on payment, and Pepys was frequently there.
+
+[Footnote 16: Charles II. formed this private theatre out of a
+detached building in St James's Park, known as the "Cockpit," and to
+be carefully distinguished from the Cockpit of Drury Lane. Part of the
+edifice was occupied by courtiers by favour of the King. General Monk
+had lodgings there. At a much later date, cabinet councils were often
+held there.]
+
+At one period of his life Pepys held that his vows did not apply to
+the Court theatre, which was mainly distinguished from the other
+houses by the circumstances that the performances were given at night.
+At Lincoln's Inn Fields or Drury Lane it was only permitted to perform
+in the afternoon. Half-past three was the usual hour for opening the
+proceedings. At Whitehall the play began about eight, and often lasted
+till near midnight.
+
+The general organisation of Pepys's auditorium was much as it is
+to-day. It had improved in many particulars since Shakespeare died.
+The pit was the most popular part of the house; it covered the floor
+of the building, and was provided with seats; the price of admission
+was 2s. 6d. The company there seems to have been extremely mixed; men
+and women of fashion often rubbed elbows with City shopkeepers, their
+wives, and apprentices. The first gallery was wholly occupied by
+boxes, in which seats could be hired separately at 4s. apiece. Above
+the boxes was the middle gallery, the central part of which was filled
+with benches, where the seats cost 1s. 6d. each, while boxes lined the
+sides. The highest tier was the 1s. gallery, where footmen soon held
+sway. As Pepys's fortune improved, he spent more on his place in the
+theatre. From the 1s. gallery he descended to the 1s. 6d., and thence
+came down to the pit, occasionally ascending to the boxes on the first
+tier.
+
+In the methods of representation, Pepys's period of playgoing was
+coeval with many most important innovations, which seriously affected
+the presentation of Shakespeare on the stage. The chief was the
+desirable substitution of women for boys in the female roles. During
+the first few months of Pepys's theatrical experience, boys were still
+taking the women's parts. That the practice survived in the first days
+of Charles II.'s reign we know from the well-worn anecdote that when
+the King sent behind the scenes to inquire why the play of _Hamlet_,
+which he had come to see, was so late in commencing, he was answered
+that the Queen was not yet shaved. But in the opening month of 1661,
+within five months of Pepys's first visit to a theatre, the reign of
+the boys ended. On January 3rd of that year, Pepys writes that he
+"first saw women come upon the stage." Next night he makes entry of a
+boy's performance of a woman's part, and that is the final record of
+boys masquerading as women in the English theatre. I believe the
+practice now survives nowhere except in Japan. This mode of
+representation has always been a great puzzle to students of
+Elizabethan drama.[17] Before, however, Pepys saw Shakespeare's work
+on the stage, the usurpation of the boys was over.
+
+[Footnote 17: For a fuller description of this theatrical practice,
+see pages 41-3 _supra_.]
+
+It was after the Restoration, too, that scenery, rich costume, and
+scenic machinery became, to Pepys's delight, regular features of the
+theatre. When the diarist saw _Hamlet_ "done with scenes" for the
+first time, he was most favourably impressed. Musical accompaniment
+was known to pre-Restoration days; but the orchestra was now for the
+first time placed on the floor of the house in front of the stage,
+instead of in a side gallery, or on the stage itself. The musical
+accompaniment of plays developed very rapidly, and the methods of
+opera were soon applied to many of Shakespeare's pieces, notably to
+_The Tempest_ and _Macbeth_.
+
+Yet at the side of these innovations, one very important feature of
+the old playhouses, which gravely concerned both actors and auditors,
+survived throughout Pepys's lifetime. The stage still projected far
+into the pit in front of the curtain. The actors and actresses spoke
+in the centre of the house, so that, as Colley Cibber put it, "the
+most distant ear had scarce the least doubt or difficulty in hearing
+what fell from the weakest utterance ... nor was the minutest motion
+of a feature, properly changing with the passion or humour it suited,
+ever lost, as they frequently must be, in the obscurity of too great a
+distance." The platform-stage, with which Shakespeare was familiar,
+suffered no curtailment in the English theatres till the eighteenth
+century, when the fore-edge of the boards was for the first time made
+to run level with the proscenium.
+
+
+III
+
+One of the obvious results of the long suppression of the theatres
+during the Civil Wars and Commonwealth was the temporary extinction of
+play-writing in England. On the sudden reopening of the playhouses at
+the Restoration, the managers had mainly to rely for sustenance on the
+drama of a long-past age. Of the one hundred and forty-five separate
+plays which Pepys witnessed, fully half belonged to the great period
+of dramatic activity in England, which covered the reigns of
+Elizabeth, James I., and Charles I. John Evelyn's well-known remark in
+his _Diary_ (November 26, 1661): "I saw _Hamlet, Prince of Denmark_,
+played; but now the old plays begin to disgust this refined age,"
+requires much qualification before it can be made to apply to Pepys's
+records of playgoing. It was in "the old plays" that he and all
+average playgoers mainly delighted.
+
+Not that the new demand failed quickly to create a supply of
+new plays for the stage. Dryden and D'Avenant, the chief dramatists
+of Pepys's day, were rapid writers. To a large extent they carried
+on, with exaggeration of its defects and diminution of its merits,
+the old Elizabethan tradition of heroic romance, tragedy, and
+farce. The more matter-of-fact and lower-principled comedy of
+manners, which is commonly reckoned the chief characteristic
+of the new era in theatrical history, was only just beginning
+when Pepys was reaching the end of his diary. The virtual leaders
+of the new movement--Wycherley, Vanbrugh, Farquhar, and Congreve--were
+not at work till long after Pepys ceased to write. He records only the
+first runnings of that sparkling stream. He witnessed some impudent
+comedies of Dryden, Etherege, and Sedley. But it is important to note
+that he formed a low opinion of all of them. Their intellectual glitter
+did not appeal to him. Their cynical licentiousness seemed to him to be
+merely "silly." One might have anticipated from him a different
+verdict on the frank obscenity of Restoration drama. But there are the
+facts. Neither did Mr Pepys, nor (he is careful to remind us) did Mrs
+Pepys, take "any manner of pleasure in" the bold indelicacy of Dryden,
+Etherege, or Sedley.
+
+When we ask what sort of pieces Pepys appreciated, we seem to be faced
+by further perplexities. His highest enthusiasm was evoked by certain
+plays of Ben Jonson, of Beaumont and Fletcher, and of Massinger. Near
+the zenith of his scale of dramatic excellence he set the comedies of
+Ben Jonson, which are remarkable for their portrayal of eccentricity
+of character. These pieces, which incline to farce, give great
+opportunity to what is commonly called character-acting, and
+character-acting always appeals most directly to average humanity.
+Pepys called Jonson's _Alchemist_ "a most incomparable play," and he
+found in _Every Man in his Humour_ "the greatest propriety of speech
+that ever I read in my life." Similarly, both the heroic tragedies and
+the comedies of Beaumont and Fletcher, of which he saw no less than
+nineteen, roused in him, as a rule, an ecstatic admiration. But of all
+dramatic entertainments which the theatre offered him, Pepys was most
+"taken" by the romantic comedy from the pen of Massinger, which is
+called _The Bondman_. "There is nothing more taking in the world with
+me than that play," he writes.
+
+Massinger's _Bondman_ is a well-written piece, in which an heroic
+interest is fused with a genuine spirit of low comedy. Yet Pepys's
+unqualified commendation of it presents a problem. Massinger's play,
+like the cognate work of Fletcher, offers much episode which is hardly
+less indecent than those early specimens of Restoration comedy of
+which Pepys disapproved. A leading character is a frowsy wife who
+faces all manner of humiliation, in order to enjoy, behind her elderly
+husband's back, the embraces of a good-looking youth.
+
+Pepys is scarcely less tolerant of Fletcher's more flagrant
+infringements of propriety. In the whole of the Elizabethan drama
+there was no piece which presented so liberal a mass of indelicacy as
+Fletcher's _Custom of the Country_. Dryden, who was innocent of
+prudery, declared that there was "more indecency" in that drama "than
+in all our plays together." This was one of the pieces which Pepys
+twice saw performed after carefully reading it in his study, and he
+expressed admiration for the rendering of the widow's part by his
+pretty friend, Mistress Knipp. One has to admit that Pepys condemned
+the play from a literary point of view as "a very poor one, methinks,"
+as "fully the worst play that I saw or believe shall see." But the
+pleasure which Mistress Knipp's share in the performance gave him
+suggests, in the absence of any explicit disclaimer, that the
+improprieties of both plot and characters escaped his notice, or, at
+any rate, excited in him no disgust. Massinger's _Bondman_, Pepys's
+ideal of merit in drama, has little of the excessive grossness of the
+_Custom of the Country_. But to some extent it is tarred with the same
+brush.
+
+Pepys's easy principles never lend themselves to very strict
+definition. Yet he may be credited with a certain measure of
+discernment in pardoning the indelicacy of Fletcher and Massinger,
+while he condemns that of Dryden, Etherege, or Sedley. Indelicacy in
+the older dramatists does not ignore worthier interests. Other topics
+attracted the earlier writers besides conjugal infidelity and the
+frailty of virgins, which were the sole themes of Restoration comedy.
+Massinger's heroes are not always gay seducers. His husbands are not
+always fools. Pepys might quite consistently scorn the ribaldry of
+Etherege and condone the obscenity of Fletcher. It was a question of
+degree. Pepys was clear in his own mind that a line must be drawn
+somewhere, though it would probably have taxed his logical power to
+make the delimitation precise.
+
+
+IV
+
+There is, apparently, a crowning difficulty of far greater moment when
+finally estimating Pepys's taste in dramatic literature. Despite his
+admiration for the ancient drama, he acknowledged a very tempered
+regard for the greatest of all the old dramatists--Shakespeare. He
+lived and died in complacent unconsciousness of Shakespeare's supreme
+excellence. Such innocence is attested by his conduct outside, as well
+as inside, the theatre. He prided himself on his taste as a reader and
+a book collector, and bought for his library many plays in quarto
+which he diligently perused. Numerous separately issued pieces by
+Shakespeare lay at his disposal in the bookshops. But he only records
+the purchase of one--the first part of _Henry IV._, though he mentions
+that he read in addition _Othello_ and _Hamlet_. When his bookseller
+first offered him the great First Folio edition of Shakespeare's
+works, he rejected it for Fuller's _Worthies_ and the newly-published
+Butler's _Hudibras_, in which, by the way, he failed to discover the
+wit. Ultimately he bought the newly-issued second impression of the
+Third Folio Shakespeare, along with copies of Spelman's _Glossary_ and
+Scapula's _Lexicon_. To these soporific works of reference he
+apparently regarded the dramatist's volume as a fitting pendant. He
+seemed subsequently to have exchanged the Third Folio for a Fourth, by
+which volume alone is Shakespeare represented in the extant library
+that Pepys bequeathed to Magdalene College, Cambridge.
+
+As a regular playgoer at a time when the stage mainly depended on the
+drama of Elizabethan days, Pepys was bound to witness numerous
+performances of Shakespeare's plays. On the occasion of forty-one of
+his three hundred and fifty-one visits to the theatre, Pepys listened
+to plays by Shakespeare, or to pieces based upon them. Once in every
+eight performances Shakespeare was presented to his view. Fourteen
+was the number of different plays by Shakespeare which Pepys saw
+during these forty-one visits. Very few caused him genuine pleasure.
+At least three he condemns, without any qualification, as "tedious,"
+or "silly." In the case of others, while he ignored the literary
+merit, he enjoyed the scenery and music with which, in accordance with
+current fashion, the dramatic poetry was overlaid. In only two cases,
+in the case of two tragedies--_Othello_ and _Hamlet_--does he show at
+any time a true appreciation of the dramatic quality, and in the case
+of _Othello_ he came in course of years to abandon his good opinion.
+
+Pepys's moderate praise and immoderate blame of Shakespeare are only
+superficially puzzling. The ultimate solution is not difficult.
+Despite his love of music and his zeal as a collector, Pepys was the
+most matter-of-fact of men; he was essentially a man of business. Not
+that he had any distaste for timely recreation; he was, indeed,
+readily susceptible to every manner of commonplace pleasures--to all
+the delights of both mind and sense which appeal to the practical and
+hard-headed type of Englishman. Things of the imagination, on the
+other hand, stood with him on a different footing. They were out of
+his range or sphere. Poetry and romance, unless liberally compounded
+with prosaic ingredients, bored him on the stage and elsewhere.
+
+In the plays of Beaumont and Fletcher, of Massinger and Ben Jonson,
+poetry and romance were for the most part kept in the background. Such
+elements lay there behind a substantial barrier of conventional stage
+machinery and elocutionary scaffolding. In Shakespeare, poetry and
+romance usually eluded the mechanical restrictions of the theatre.
+The gold had a tendency to separate itself from the alloy, and Pepys
+only found poetry and romance endurable when they were pretty thickly
+veiled behind the commonplaces of rhetoric or broad fun or the
+realistic ingenuity of the stage carpenter and upholsterer.
+
+There is, consequently, no cause for surprise that Pepys should write
+thus of Shakespeare's ethereal comedy of _A Midsummer Night's Dream_:
+"Then to the King's Theatre, where we saw _A Midsummer Night's Dream_,
+which I had never seen before, nor shall ever again, for it is the
+most insipid, ridiculous play that ever I saw in my life. I saw, I
+confess, some good dancing and some handsome women, which was all my
+pleasure." This is Pepys's ordinary attitude of mind to undiluted
+poetry on the stage.
+
+Pepys only saw _A Midsummer Night's Dream_ once. _Twelfth Night_, of
+which he wrote in very similar strains, he saw thrice. On the first
+occasion his impatience of this romantic play was due to external
+causes. He went to the theatre "against his own mind and resolution."
+He was over-persuaded to go in by a friend, with whom he was casually
+walking past the house in Lincoln's Inn Fields. Moreover, he had just
+sworn to his wife that he would never go to a play without her: all
+which considerations "made the piece seem a burden" to him. He
+witnessed _Twelfth Night_ twice again in a less perturbed spirit, and
+then he called it a "silly" play, or "one of the weakest plays that
+ever I saw on the stage."
+
+Again, of _Romeo and Juliet_, Pepys wrote: "It is a play of itself the
+worst I ever heard in my life." This verdict, it is right to add, was
+attributable, in part at least, to Pepys's irritation at the badness
+of the acting, and at the actors' ignorance of their words. It was a
+first night.
+
+The literary critic knows well enough that the merit of these three
+pieces--_A Midsummer Night's Dream_, _Twelfth Night_, and _Romeo and
+Juliet_--mainly lies in their varied wealth of poetic imagery and
+passion. One thing alone could render the words, in which poetic
+genius finds voice, tolerable in the playhouse to a spectator of
+Pepys's prosaic temperament. The one thing needful is inspired acting,
+and in the case of these three plays, when Pepys saw them performed,
+inspired acting was wanting.
+
+It is at first sight disconcerting to find Pepys no less impatient of
+_The Merry Wives of Windsor_. He expresses a mild interest in the
+humours of "the country gentleman and the French doctor." But he
+condemns the play as a whole. It is in his favour that his bitterest
+reproaches are aimed at the actors and actresses. One can hardly
+conceive that Falstaff, fitly interpreted, would have failed to
+satisfy Pepys's taste in humour, commonplace though it was. He is not
+quite explicit on the point; but there are signs that the histrionic
+interpretation of Shakespeare's colossal humorist, rather than the
+dramatist's portrayal of the character, caused the diarist's
+disappointment.
+
+Just before Pepys saw the first part of _Henry IV._, wherein Falstaff
+figures to supreme advantage, he had bought and read the play in
+quarto. "But my expectation being too great" (he avers), "it did not
+please me as otherwise I believe it would." Here it seems clear that
+his hopes of the actor were unfulfilled. However, he saw _Henry IV._
+again a few months later, and had the grace to describe it as "a good
+play." On a third occasion he wrote that, "contrary to expectation,"
+he was pleased by the delivery of Falstaff's ironical speech about
+honour. For whatever reason, Pepys's affection for Shakespeare's fat
+knight, as he figured on the stage of his day, never touched the note
+of exaltation.
+
+Of Shakespeare's great tragedies Pepys saw three--_Othello_, _Hamlet_,
+and _Macbeth_. But in considering his several impressions of these
+pieces, we have to make an important proviso. Only the first two of
+them did he witness in the authentic version. _Macbeth_ underwent in
+his day a most liberal transformation, which carried it far from its
+primordial purity. The impressions he finally formed of _Othello_ and
+_Hamlet_ are not consistent one with the other, but are eminently
+characteristic of the variable moods of the average playgoer.
+
+_Othello_ he saw twice, and he tells us more of the acting than of the
+play itself. On his first visit he notes that the lady next him
+shrieked on seeing Desdemona smothered: a proof of the strength of the
+histrionic illusion. Up to the year 1666 Pepys adhered to the
+praiseworthy opinion that _Othello_ was a "mighty good" play. But in
+that year his judgment took a turn for the worse, and that for a
+reason which finally convicts him of incapacity to pass just sentence
+on the poetic or literary drama. On August 20, 1666, he writes: "Read
+_Othello, Moor of Venice_, which I have ever heretofore esteemed a
+mighty good play; but having so lately read the _Adventures of Five
+Hours_, it seems a mean thing."
+
+Most lovers of Shakespeare will agree that the great dramatist rarely
+showed his mature powers to more magnificent advantage than in his
+treatment of plot and character in _Othello_. What, then, is this
+_Adventures of Five Hours_, compared with which _Othello_ became in
+Pepys's eyes "a mean thing"? It is a trivial comedy of intrigue,
+adapted from the Spanish by one Sir Samuel Tuke. A choleric guardian
+arranges for his ward, who also happens to be his sister, to marry
+against her will a man whom she has never seen. Without her guardian's
+knowledge she, before the design goes further, escapes with a lover of
+her own choosing. In her place she leaves a close friend, who is wooed
+in mistake for herself by the suitor destined for her own hand. This
+is the main dramatic point; the thread is very slender, and is drawn
+out to its utmost limits through five acts of blank verse. The
+language and metre are scrupulously correct. But one cannot credit the
+play with any touch of poetry or imagination. It presents a trite
+theme tamely and prosaically. Congenital inability of the most
+inveterate toughness to appreciate dramatic poetry could alone account
+for a mention of the _Adventures of Five Hours_ in the same breath
+with _Othello_.
+
+Pepys did not again fall so low as this. The only other tragedy of
+Shakespeare which he saw in its authentic purity moved him,
+contradictorily, to transports of unqualified delight. One is glad to
+recall that _Hamlet_, one of the greatest of Shakespeare's plays,
+received from Pepys ungrudging commendation. Pepys's favourable
+opinion of _Hamlet_ is to be assigned to two causes. One is the
+literary and psychological attractions of the piece; the other, and
+perhaps the more important, is the manner in which the play was
+interpreted on the stage of Pepys's time.
+
+Pepys is not the only owner of a prosaic mind who has found
+satisfaction in Shakespeare's portrait of the Prince of Denmark. Over
+minds of almost every calibre, that hero of the stage has always
+exerted a pathetic fascination, which natural antipathy to poetry
+seems unable to extinguish. Pepys's testimony to his respect for the
+piece is abundant. The whole of one Sunday afternoon (November 13,
+1664), he spent at home with his wife, "getting a speech out of
+_Hamlet_, 'To be or not to be,' without book." He proved, indeed, his
+singular admiration for those familiar lines in a manner which I
+believe to be unique. He set them to music, and the notes are extant
+in a book of manuscript music in his library at Magdalene College,
+Cambridge. The piece is a finely-elaborated recitative fully equal to
+the requirements of grand opera. The composer gives intelligent and
+dignified expression to every word of the soliloquy. Very impressive
+is the modulation of the musical accompaniment to the lines--
+
+                                To die, to sleep!
+    To sleep, perchance to dream! ay, there's the rub.
+
+It is possible that the cadences of this musical rendering of Hamlet's
+speech preserve some echo of the intonation of the great actor,
+Betterton, whose performance evoked in Pepys lasting adoration.[18]
+
+[Footnote 18: Sir Frederick Bridge, by permission of the Master and
+Fellows of Magdalene College, Cambridge, caused this setting of "To be
+or not to be" (which bears no composer's signature) to be transcribed
+from the manuscript, and he arranged the piece to be sung at the
+meeting of the Pepys Club on November 30, 1905. Sir Frederick Bridge
+believes Pepys to be the composer.]
+
+It goes without saying that, for the full enjoyment of a performance
+of _Hamlet_ by both cultured and uncultured spectators, acting of
+supreme quality is needful. Luckily for Pepys, Hamlet in his day was
+rendered by an actor who, according to ample extant testimony,
+interpreted the part to perfection. Pepys records four performances of
+_Hamlet_, with Betterton in the title-role on each occasion. With
+every performance Pepys's enthusiasm rose. The first time he writes
+(August 24, 1661): "Saw the play done with scenes very well at the
+Opera, but above all Betterton did the Prince's part beyond
+imagination." On the third occasion (May 28, 1663) the rendering gave
+him "fresh reason never to think enough of Betterton." On the last
+occasion (August 31, 1668) he was "mightily pleased," but above all
+with Betterton, "the best part, I believe, that ever man acted."
+
+_Hamlet_ was one of the most popular plays of Pepys's day, mainly
+owing to Betterton's extraordinary faculty. The history of the
+impersonation presents numerous points of the deepest interest. The
+actor was originally coached in the part by D'Avenant. The latter is
+said to have derived hints for the rendering from an old actor, Joseph
+Taylor, who had played the role in Shakespeare's own day, and had been
+instructed in it by the dramatist himself. This tradition gives
+additional value to Pepys's musical setting in recitative of the "To
+be or not to be" soliloquy. If we accept the reasonable theory that
+that piece of music preserves something of the cadences of Betterton's
+enunciation, it is no extravagance to suggest that a note here or
+there enshrines the modulation of the voice of Shakespeare himself.
+For there is the likelihood that the dramatist was Betterton's
+instructor at no more than two removes. Only the lips of D'Avenant,
+Shakespeare's godson, and of Taylor, Shakespeare's acting colleague,
+intervened between the dramatist and the Hamlet of Pepys's diary.
+Those alone, who have heard the musical setting of "To be or not to
+be" adequately rendered, are in a position to reject this hypothesis
+altogether.
+
+Among seventeenth century critics there was unanimous agreement--a
+rare thing among dramatic critics of any period--as to the merits of
+Betterton's performance. In regard to his supreme excellence, men of
+the different mental calibre of Sir Richard Steele, Colley Cibber, and
+Nicholas Rowe, knew no difference of opinion. According to Cibber,
+Betterton invariably preserved the happy "medium between mouthing and
+meaning too little"; he held the attention of the audience by "a
+tempered spirit," not by mere vehemence of voice. His solemn,
+trembling voice made the Ghost equally terrible to the spectator and
+to himself. Another critic relates that when Betterton's Hamlet saw
+the Ghost in his mother's chamber, the actor turned as pale as his
+neckcloth; every joint of his body seemed to be affected with a tremor
+inexpressible, and the audience shared his astonishment and horror.
+Nicholas Rowe declared that "Betterton performed the part as if it had
+been written on purpose for him, as if the author had conceived it as
+he played it." It is difficult to imagine any loftier commendation of
+a Shakespearean player.
+
+
+V
+
+There is little reason to doubt that the plays of Shakespeare which I
+have enumerated were all seen by Pepys in authentic shapes. Betterton
+acted Lear, we are positively informed, "exactly as Shakespeare wrote
+it"; and at the dates when Pepys saw _Hamlet_, _Twelfth Night_, and
+the rest, there is no evidence that the old texts had been tampered
+with. The rage for adapting Shakespeare to current theatrical
+requirements reached its full tide after the period of Pepys's diary.
+Pepys witnessed only the first-fruits of that fantastic movement. It
+acquired its greatest luxuriance later. The pioneer of the great
+scheme of adaptation was Sir William D'Avenant, and he was aided in
+Pepys's playgoing days by no less a personage than Dryden. It was
+during the succeeding decade that the scandal, fanned by the energies
+of lesser men, was at its unseemly height.
+
+No disrespect seems to have been intended to Shakespeare's memory by
+those who devoted themselves to these acts of vandalism. However
+difficult it may be to realise the fact, true admiration for
+Shakespeare's genius seems to have flourished in the breasts of all
+the adapters, great and small. D'Avenant, whose earliest poetic
+production was a pathetic elegy on the mighty dramatist, never ceased
+to write or speak of him with the most affectionate respect. Dryden,
+who was first taught by D'Avenant "to admire" Shakespeare's work,
+attests in his critical writings a reverence for its unique
+excellence, which must satisfy the most enthusiastic worshipper. The
+same temper characterises references to Shakespeare on the part of
+dramatists of the Restoration, who brought to the adaptation of
+Shakespeare abilities of an order far inferior to those of Dryden or
+of D'Avenant. Nahum Tate, one of the least respected names in English
+literature, was one of the freest adapters of Shakespearean drama to
+the depraved taste of the day. Yet even he assigned to the master
+playwright unrivalled insight into the darkest mysteries of human
+nature, and an absolute mastery of the faculty of accurate
+characterisation. For once, Tate's literary judgment must go
+unquestioned.
+
+It was no feeling of disrespect or of dislike for Shakespeare's
+work--it was the change that was taking place in the methods of
+theatrical representation, which mainly incited the Shakespearean
+adapters of the Restoration to their benighted labours. Shakespeare
+had been acted without scenery or musical accompaniment. As soon as
+scenic machinery and music had become ordinary accessories of the
+stage, it seemed to theatrical managers almost a point of honour to
+fit Shakespearean drama to the new conditions. To abandon him
+altogether was sacrilege. Yet the mutation of public taste offered, as
+the only alternative to his abandonment, the obligation of bestowing
+on his work every mechanical advantage, every tawdry ornament in the
+latest mode.
+
+Pepys fully approved the innovations, and two of the earliest of
+Shakespearean adaptations won his unqualified eulogy. These were
+D'Avenant's reconstructions of _The Tempest_ and _Macbeth._ D'Avenant
+had convinced himself that both plays readily lent themselves to
+spectacle; they would repay the embellishments of ballets, new songs,
+new music, coloured lights, and flying machines. Reinforced by these
+charms of novelty, the old pieces might enjoy an everlasting youth. No
+spectator more ardently applauded such bastard sentiment than the
+playgoing Pepys.
+
+Of the two pieces, the text of _Macbeth_ was abbreviated, but
+otherwise the alterations in the blank-verse speeches were
+comparatively slight. Additional songs were provided for the Witches,
+together with much capering in the air. Music was specially written by
+Matthew Locke. The liberal introduction of song and dance rendered the
+piece, in Pepys's strange phrase, "a most excellent play for variety."
+He saw D'Avenant's version of it no less than eight times, with
+ever-increasing enjoyment. He generously praised the clever
+combination of "a deep tragedy with a divertissement." He detected no
+incongruity in the amalgamation. "Though I have seen it often," he
+wrote later, "yet is it one of the best plays for a stage, and for
+variety of dancing and music, that ever I saw."
+
+_The Tempest_, the other adapted play, which is prominent in Pepys's
+diary, underwent more drastic revision. Here D'Avenant had the
+co-operation of Dryden; and no intelligent reader can hesitate to
+affirm that the ingenuity of these worthies ruined this splendid
+manifestation of poetic fancy and insight. It is only fair to Dryden
+to add that he disclaimed any satisfaction in his share in the
+outrage. The first edition of the barbarous revision was first
+published in 1670, after D'Avenant's death, and Dryden wrote a
+preface, in which he prudently remarked: "I do not set a value on
+anything I have written in this play but [_i.e._, except] out of
+gratitude to the memory of Sir William Davenant, who did me the honour
+to join me with him in the alteration of it."
+
+The numerous additions, for which the distinguished coadjutors are
+responsible, reek with mawkish sentimentality, inane vapidity, or
+vulgar buffoonery. Most of the leading characters are duplicated or
+triplicated. Miranda has a sister, Dorinda, who is repellently
+coquettish. This new creation finds a lover in another new character,
+a brainless youth, Hippolito, who has never before seen a woman.
+Caliban becomes the most sordid of clowns, and is allotted a sister,
+Milcha, who apes his coarse buffoonery. Ariel, too, is given a female
+associate, Sycorax, together with many attendants. The sailors are
+increased in number, and a phalanx of dancing devils join in their
+antics.
+
+But the chief feature of the revived _Tempest_ was the music,
+the elaborate scenery, and the scenic mechanism.[19] There was
+an orchestra of twenty-four violins in front of the stage, with
+harpsichords and "theorbos" to accompany the voices; new songs
+were dispersed about the piece with unsparing hand. The curious
+new "Echo" song in Act III.--a duet between Ferdinand and Ariel--was
+deemed by Pepys to be so "mighty pretty" that he requested the
+composer--Bannister--to "prick him down the notes." Many times did the
+audience shout with joy as Ariel, with a _corps de ballet_ in
+attendance, winged his flight to the roof of the stage.
+
+[Footnote 19: The Dryden-D'Avenant perversion of _The Tempest_ which
+Pepys witnessed underwent a further deterioration in 1673, when Thomas
+Shadwell, poet laureate, to the immense delight of the playgoing
+public, rendered the piece's metamorphosis into an opera more
+complete. In 1674 the Dryden-D'Avenant edition was reissued, with
+Shadwell's textual and scenic amplification, although no indication
+was given on the title-page or elsewhere of his share in the venture.
+Contemporary histories of the stage make frequent reference to
+Shadwell's "Opera" of _The Tempest_; but no copy was known to be
+extant until Sir Ernest Clarke proved, in _The Athenaeum_ for August
+25, 1906, that the second and later editions of the Dryden-D'Avenant
+version embodied Shadwell's operatic embellishments, and are copies of
+what was known in theatrical circles of the day as Shadwell's "Opera."
+Shadwell's stage-directions are more elaborate than those of Dryden
+and D'Avenant, and there are other minor innovations; but there is
+little difference in the general design of the two versions. Shadwell
+merely bettered Dryden's and D'Avenant's instructions.]
+
+The scenic devices which distinguished the Restoration production of
+_The Tempest_ have, indeed, hardly been excelled for ingenuity in our
+own day. The arrangements for the sinking of the ship in the first
+scene would do no discredit to the spectacular magnificence of the
+London stage of our own day. The scene represented "a thick cloudy
+sky, a very rocky coast, and a tempestuous sea in perpetual
+agitation." "This tempest," according to the stage-directions, "has
+many dreadful objects in it; several spirits in horrid shapes flying
+down among the sailors, then rising and crossing in the air; and when
+the ship is sinking, the whole house is darkened and a shower of fire
+falls upon the vessel. This is accompanied by lightning and several
+claps of thunder till the end of the storm." The stage-manager's notes
+proceed:--"In the midst of the shower of fire, the scene changes. The
+cloudy sky, rocks, and sea vanish, and when the lights return,
+discover that beautiful part of the island, which was the habitation
+of Prospero: 'tis composed of three walks of cypress trees; each
+side-walk leads to a cave, in one of which Prospero keeps his
+daughter, in the other Hippolito (the interpolated character of the
+man who has never seen a woman). The middle walk is of great depth,
+and leads to an open part of the island." Every scene of the play was
+framed with equal elaborateness.
+
+Pepys's comment on _The Tempest_, when he first witnessed its
+production in such magnificent conditions, runs thus:--"The play has
+no great wit but yet good above ordinary plays." Pepys subsequently,
+however, saw the piece no less than five times, and the effect of the
+music, dancing, and scenery, steadily grew upon him. On his second
+visit he wrote:--"Saw _The Tempest_ again, which is very pleasant, and
+full of so good variety, that I cannot be more pleased almost in a
+comedy. Only the seamen's part a little too tedious." Finally, Pepys
+praised the richly-embellished _Tempest_ without any sort of reserve,
+and took "pleasure to learn the tune of the seamen's dance."
+
+Other adaptations of Shakespeare, which followed somewhat less
+spectacular methods of barbarism, roused in Pepys smaller enthusiasm.
+_The Rivals_, a version by D'Avenant of _The Two Noble Kinsmen_ (the
+joint production of Fletcher and Shakespeare), was judged by Pepys to
+be "no excellent piece," though he appreciated the new songs, which
+included the familiar "My lodging is on the cold ground," with music
+by Matthew Locke. Pepys formed a higher opinion of D'Avenant's
+liberally-altered version of _Measure for Measure_, which the adapter
+called _The Law against Lovers_, and into which he introduced, with
+grotesque effect, the characters of Beatrice and Benedick from _Much
+Ado about Nothing_. But it is more to Pepys's credit that he bestowed
+a very qualified approval on an execrable adaptation by the actor Lacy
+of _The Taming of the Shrew_. Here the hero, Petruchio, is
+overshadowed by a new character, Sawney, his Scottish servant, who
+speaks an unintelligible _patois_. "It hath some very good pieces in
+it," writes Pepys, "but generally is but a mean play, and the best
+part, Sawny, done by Lacy, hath not half its life by reason of the
+words, I suppose, not being understood, at least by me."
+
+
+VI
+
+It might be profitable to compare Pepys's experiences as a spectator
+of Shakespeare's plays on the stage with the opportunities open to
+playgoers at the present moment. Modern managers have been producing
+Shakespearean drama of late with great liberality, and usually in much
+splendour. Neither the points of resemblance between the modern and
+the Pepysian methods, nor the points of difference, are flattering to
+the esteem of ourselves as a literature-loving people. It is true that
+we no longer garble our acting versions of Shakespeare. We are content
+with abbreviations of the text, some of which are essential, but many
+of which injure the dramatic perspective, and with inversion of scenes
+which may or may not be justifiable. But, to my mind, it is in our
+large dependence on scenery that we are following too closely that
+tradition of the Restoration which won the wholehearted approval of
+Pepys. The musico-scenic method of producing Shakespeare can always
+count on the applause of the average multitude of playgoers, of which
+Pepys is the ever-living spokesman. It is Shakespeare with scenic
+machinery, Shakespeare with new songs, Shakespeare with incidental
+music, Shakespeare with interpolated ballets, that reaches the heart
+of the British public. If the average British playgoer were gifted
+with Pepys's frankness, I have little doubt that he would echo the
+diarist's condemnation of Shakespeare in his poetic purity, of
+Shakespeare as the mere interpreter of human nature, of Shakespeare
+without flying machines, of Shakespeare without song and dance; he
+would characterise undiluted Shakespearean drama as "a mean thing," or
+the most tedious entertainment that ever he was at in his life.
+
+But the situation in Pepys's day had, despite all the perils that
+menaced it, a saving grace. Great acting, inspired acting, is an
+essential condition to any general appreciation in the theatre of
+Shakespeare's dramatic genius. However seductive may be the
+musico-scenic ornamentation, Shakespeare will never justly affect the
+mind of the average playgoer unless great or inspired actors are at
+hand to interpret him. Luckily for Pepys, he was the contemporary of
+at least one inspired Shakespearean actor. The exaltation of spirit to
+which he confesses, when he witnessed Betterton in the role of Hamlet,
+is proof that the prosaic multitude for whom he speaks will always
+respond to Shakespeare's magic touch when genius wields the actor's
+wand. One could wish nothing better for the playgoing public of to-day
+than that the spirit of Betterton, Shakespeare's guardian angel in the
+theatre of the Restoration, might renew its earthly career in our own
+time in the person of some contemporary actor.
+
+
+
+
+V
+
+MR BENSON AND SHAKESPEAREAN DRAMA[20]
+
+[Footnote 20: This paper was first printed in the _Cornhill Magazine_,
+May 1900.]
+
+
+I
+
+Dramatic criticism in the daily press of London often resembles that
+method of conversation of which Bacon wrote that it seeks "rather
+commendation of wit, in being able to hold argument, than of judgment,
+in discerning what is true." For four-and-twenty years Mr F.R. Benson
+has directed an acting company which has achieved a reputation in
+English provincial cities, in Ireland, and in Scotland, by its
+exclusive devotion to Shakespearean and classical drama. Mr Benson's
+visits to London have been rare. There he has too often made sport for
+the journalistic censors who aim at "commendation of wit."
+
+Even the best-intentioned of Mr Benson's critics in London have fallen
+into the habit of concentrating attention on unquestionable defects in
+Mr Benson's practice, to the neglect of the vital principles which are
+the justification of his policy. Mr Benson's principles have been
+largely ignored by the newspapers; but they are not wisely
+disregarded. They are matters of urgent public interest. They point
+the right road to the salvation of Shakespearean drama on the modern
+stage. They cannot be too often pressed on public notice.
+
+These, in my view, are the five points of the charter which Mr Benson
+is and has long been championing with a persistency which claims
+national recognition.
+
+Firstly, it is to the benefit of the nation that Shakespeare's plays
+should be acted constantly and in their variety.
+
+Secondly, a theatrical manager who undertakes to produce Shakespearean
+drama should change his programme at frequent intervals, and should
+permit no long continuous run of any single play.
+
+Thirdly, all the parts, whatever their significance, should be
+entrusted to exponents who have been trained in the delivery of blank
+verse, and have gained some knowledge and experience of the range of
+Shakespearean drama.
+
+Fourthly, no play should be adapted by the manager so as to give
+greater prominence than the text invites to any single role.
+
+Fifthly, the scenic embellishment should be simple and inexpensive,
+and should be subordinated to the dramatic interest.
+
+There is no novelty in these principles. The majority of them were
+accepted unhesitatingly in the past by Betterton, Garrick, Edmund
+Kean, the Kembles, and notably by Phelps. They are recognised
+principles to-day in the leading theatres of France and Germany. But
+by some vagary of fate or public taste they have been reckoned in
+London, for a generation at any rate, to be out of date.
+
+In the interest of the manager, the actor, and the student, a return
+to the discarded methods has become, in the opinion of an influential
+section of the educated public, imperative. Mr Benson is the only
+manager of recent date to inscribe boldly and continuously on his
+banner the old watchwords: "Shakespeare and the National Drama,"
+"Short Runs," "No Stars," "All-round Competence," and "Unostentatious
+Setting." What better title could be offered to the support and
+encouragement of the intelligent playgoer?
+
+
+II
+
+A constant change of programme, such as the old methods of the stage
+require, causes the present generation of London playgoers, to whom it
+is unfamiliar, a good deal of perplexity. Londoners have grown
+accustomed to estimate the merits of a play by the number of
+performances which are given of it in uninterrupted succession. They
+have forgotten how mechanical an exercise of the lungs and limbs
+acting easily becomes; how frequent repetition of poetic speeches,
+even in the most competent mouths, robs the lines of their poetic
+temper.
+
+Numbness of intellect, rigidity of tone, artificiality of expression,
+are fatal alike to the enunciation of Shakespearean language and to
+the interpretation of Shakespearean character. The system of short
+runs, of the nightly alterations of the play, such as Mr Benson has
+revived, is the only sure preservative against maladies so fatal.
+
+Hardly less important is Mr Benson's new-old principle of "casting" a
+play of Shakespeare. Not only in the leading roles of Shakespeare's
+masterpieces, but in subordinate parts throughout the range of his
+work, the highest abilities of the actor can find some scope for
+employment. A competent knowledge of the poet's complete work is
+needed to bring this saving truth home to those who are engaged in
+presenting Shakespearean drama on the stage. An actor hardly realises
+the real force of the doctrine until he has had experience of the
+potentialities of a series of the smaller characters by making
+practical endeavours to interpret them. Adequate opportunities of the
+kind are only accessible to members of a permanent company, whose
+energies are absorbed in the production of the Shakespearean drama
+constantly and in its variety, and whose programme is untrammelled by
+the poisonous system of "long runs." Shakespearean actors should drink
+deep of the Pierian spring. They should be graduates in Shakespeare's
+university; and, unlike graduates of other universities, they should
+master not merely formal knowledge, but a flexible power of using it.
+
+Mr Benson's company is, I believe, the only one at present in
+existence in England which confines almost all its efforts to the
+acting of Shakespeare. In the course of its twenty-four years'
+existence its members have interpreted in the theatre no less than
+thirty of Shakespeare's plays.[21] The natural result is that Mr
+Benson and his colleagues have learned in practice the varied calls
+that Shakespearean drama makes upon actors' capacities.
+
+[Footnote 21: Mr Benson, writing to me on 13th January 1906, gives the
+following list of plays by Shakespeare which he has produced:--_Antony
+and Cleopatra_, _As You Like It_, _The Comedy of Errors_,
+_Coriolanus_, _Hamlet_, _Henry IV. (Parts 1 and 2)_, _Henry V._,
+_Henry VI. (Parts 1, 2, and 3)_, _Henry VIII._, _Julius Caesar_, _King
+John_, _King Lear_, _Macbeth_, _The Merchant of Venice_, _The Merry
+Wives of Windsor_, _A Midsummer Night's Dream_, _Much Ado About
+Nothing_, _Othello_, _Pericles_, _Richard II._, _Richard III._, _Romeo
+and Juliet_, _The Taming of the Shrew_, _The Tempest_, _Timon of
+Athens_, _Twelfth Night_, and _A Winter's Tale_. Phelps's record only
+exceeded Mr Benson's by one. He produced thirty-one of Shakespeare's
+plays in all, but he omitted _Richard II._, and the three parts of
+_Henry VI._, which Mr Benson has acted, while he included _Love's
+Labour's Lost_, _The Two Gentlemen of Verona_, _All's Well that Ends
+Well_, _Cymbeline_, and _Measure for Measure_, which Mr Benson, so
+far, has eschewed. Mr Phelps and Mr Benson are at one in avoiding
+_Titus Andronicus_ and _Troilus and Cressida_.]
+
+Members of Mr Benson's company have made excellent use of their
+opportunities. An actor, like the late Frank Rodney, who could on one
+night competently portray Bolingbroke in _Richard II._ and on the
+following night the clown Feste in _Twelfth Night_ with equal effect,
+clearly realised something of the virtue of Shakespearean versatility.
+Mr Benson's leading comedian, Mr Weir, whose power of presenting
+Shakespeare's humorists shows, besides native gifts, the advantages
+that come of experienced study of the dramatist, not only interprets,
+in the genuine spirit, great roles like Falstaff and Touchstone, but
+gives the truest possible significance to the comparatively
+unimportant roles of the First Gardener in _Richard II._ and Grumio in
+_The Taming of the Shrew_.
+
+Nothing could be more grateful to a student of Shakespeare than the
+manner in which the small part of John of Gaunt was played by Mr
+Warburton in Mr Benson's production of _Richard II._ The part includes
+the glorious panegyric of England which comes from the lips of the
+dying man, and must challenge the best efforts of every actor of
+ambition and self-respect. But in the mouth of an actor who lacks
+knowledge of the true temper of Shakespearean drama, this speech is
+certain to be mistaken for a detached declamation of patriotism--an
+error which ruins its dramatic significance. As Mr Warburton delivered
+it, one listened to the despairing cry of a feeble old man roused for
+a moment from the lethargy of sickness by despair at the thought that
+the great country he loved was in peril of decay through the selfish
+and frivolous temper of its ruler. Instead of a Chauvinist manifesto
+defiantly declaimed under the limelight, there was offered us the
+quiet pathos of a dying patriot's lament over his beloved country's
+misfortunes--an oracular warning from a death-stricken tongue,
+foreshadowing with rare solemnity and dramatic irony the violent doom
+of the reckless worker of the mischief. Any other conception of the
+passage, any conscious endeavour to win a round of applause by
+elocutionary display, would disable the actor from doing justice to
+the great and sadly stirring utterance. The right note could only be
+sounded by one who was acclimatised to Shakespearean drama, and had
+recognised the wealth of significance to be discovered and to be
+disclosed (with due artistic restraint) in Shakespeare's minor
+characters.
+
+
+III
+
+The benefits to be derived from the control of a trained school of
+Shakespearean actors were displayed very conspicuously when Mr Benson
+undertook six years ago the heroic task of performing the play of
+_Hamlet_, as Shakespeare wrote it, without any abbreviation. _Hamlet_
+is the longest of Shakespeare's plays; it reaches a total of over 3900
+lines. It is thus some 900 lines longer than _Antony and Cleopatra_,
+which of all Shakespeare's plays most nearly approaches its length.
+Consequently it is a tradition of the stage to cut the play of
+_Hamlet_ by the omission of more than a third. Hamlet's part is
+usually retained almost in its entirety, but the speeches of every
+other character are seriously curtailed. Mr Benson ventured on the
+bold innovation of giving the play in full.[22]
+
+[Footnote 22: The performance occupied nearly six hours. One half was
+given in the afternoon, and the other half in the evening of the same
+day, with an interval of an hour and a half between the two sections.
+Should the performance be repeated, I would recommend, in the
+interests of busy men and women, that the whole play be rendered at a
+single sitting, which might be timed to open at a somewhat earlier
+hour in the evening than is now customary, and might, if need be,
+close a little later. There should be no difficulty in restricting the
+hours occupied by the performance to four and a half.]
+
+Only he who has witnessed the whole play on the stage can fully
+appreciate its dramatic capabilities. It is obvious that, in whatever
+shape the play of _Hamlet_ is produced in the theatre, its success
+must always be primarily due to the overpowering fascination exerted
+on the audience by the character of the hero. In every conceivable
+circumstance the young prince must be the centre of attraction.
+Nevertheless, no graver injury can be done the play as an acting drama
+than by treating it as a one-part piece. The accepted method of
+shortening the tragedy by reducing every part, except that of Hamlet,
+is to distort Shakespeare's whole scheme, to dislocate or obscure the
+whole action. The predominance of Hamlet is exaggerated at the expense
+of the dramatist's artistic purpose.
+
+To realise completely the motives of Hamlet's conduct, and the process
+of his fortunes, not a single utterance from the lips of the King,
+Polonius, or Laertes can be spared. In ordinary acting versions these
+three parts sink into insignificance. It is only in the full text that
+they assume their just and illuminating rank as Hamlet's foils.
+
+The King rises into a character almost of the first class. He is a
+villain of unfathomable infamy, but his cowardly fear of the discovery
+of his crimes, his desperate pursuit of the consolations of religion,
+the quick ingenuity with which he plots escape from the inevitable
+retribution that dogs his misdeeds, excite--in the full text of the
+play--an interest hardly less intense than those wistful musings of
+the storm-tossed soul which stay his nephew's avenging hand.
+
+Similarly, Hamlet's incisive wit and honesty are brought into the
+highest possible relief by the restoration to the feebly guileful
+Polonius of the speeches of which he has long been deprived. Among the
+reinstated scenes is that in which the meddlesome dotard teaches his
+servant Reynaldo modes of espionage that shall detect the moral lapses
+of his son Laertes in Paris. The recovered episode is not only
+admirable comedy, but it gives new vividness to Polonius's maudlin
+egotism which is responsible for many windings of the tragic plot.
+
+The story is simplified at all points by such amplifications of the
+contracted version which holds the stage. The events are evolved with
+unsuspected naturalness. The hero's character gains by the expansion
+of its setting. One downright error which infects the standard
+abridgement is wholly avoided. Ophelia is dethroned. It is recognised
+that she is not entitled to share with Hamlet the triumphal honours of
+the action. Weak, insipid, destitute of all force of character, she
+deserves an insignificant place in Shakespeare's gallery of heroines.
+Hamlet's mother merits as much or more attention. At any rate, there
+is no justification for reducing the Queen's part in order to increase
+Ophelia's prominence. Such distortions are impossible in the
+production of the piece in its entirety. Throughout _Hamlet_, in the
+full authorised text, the artistic balance hangs true. Mr Benson
+recognised that dominant fact, and contrived to illustrate it on the
+stage. No higher commendation could be allowed a theatrical manager or
+actor.
+
+
+IV
+
+Much else could be said of Mr Benson's principles, and of his
+praiseworthy energy in seeking to familiarise the playgoer with
+Shakespearean drama in all its fulness and variety, but only one other
+specific feature of his method needs mention here. Perhaps the most
+convincing proof that he has given of the value of his principles to
+the country's dramatic art is his success in the training of actors
+and actresses. Of late it is his company that has supplied the great
+London actor-managers with their ablest recruits. Nearly all the best
+performers of secondary roles and a few of the best performers of
+primary roles in the leading London theatres are Mr Benson's pupils.
+Their admission to the great London companies is raising the standard
+of acting in the metropolis. The marked efficiency of these newcomers
+is due to a system which is inconsistent with any of the accepted
+principles of current theatrical enterprise in London. Mr Benson's
+disciples mainly owe their efficiency to long association with a
+permanent company controlled by a manager who seeks, single-mindedly,
+what he holds to be the interests of dramatic art. The many-headed
+public learns its lessons very slowly, and sometimes neglects them
+altogether. It has been reluctant to recognise the true significance
+of Mr Benson's work. But the intelligent onlooker knows that he is
+marching along the right road, in intelligent conformity with the best
+teaching of the past.
+
+Thirty years ago a meeting took place at the Mansion House to discuss
+the feasibility of founding a State theatre in London, a project which
+was not realised. The most memorable incident which was associated
+with the Mansion House meeting was a speech of the theatrical manager
+Phelps, who argued, amid the enthusiastic plaudits of his hearers,
+that it was in the highest interests of the nation that the
+Shakespearean drama should continuously occupy the stage. "I
+maintain," Phelps said, "from the experience of eighteen years, that
+the perpetual iteration of Shakespeare's words, if nothing more, going
+on daily for so many months of the year, must and would produce a
+great effect upon the public mind." No man or woman of sense will
+to-day gainsay the wisdom of this utterance; but it is needful for the
+public to make greater exertion than they have made of late if "the
+perpetual iteration of Shakespeare's words" in the theatre is to be
+permanently secured.
+
+Mr Benson's efforts constitute the best organised endeavour to realise
+Phelps's ambition since Phelps withdrew from management. Mr Benson's
+scheme is imperfect in some of its details; in other particulars it
+may need revision. But he and his associates have planted their feet
+firmly on sure ground in their endeavours to interpret Shakespearean
+drama constantly and in its variety, after a wise and well-considered
+system and with a disinterested zeal. When every allowance has been
+made for the Benson Company's shortcomings, its achievement cannot be
+denied "a relish of salvation." Mr Benson deserves well of those who
+have faith in the power of Shakespeare's words to widen the horizon of
+men's intellects and emotions. The seed he has sown should not be
+suffered to decay.
+
+
+
+
+VI
+
+THE MUNICIPAL THEATRE[23]
+
+[Footnote 23: This paper was first printed in the _New Liberal
+Review_, May 1902.]
+
+
+I
+
+Many actors, dramatic critics, and men in public life advocate the
+municipal manner of theatrical enterprise. Their aim, as I understand
+it, is to procure the erection, and the due working, of a playhouse
+that shall serve in permanence the best interests of the literary or
+artistic drama. The municipal theatre is not worth fighting for,
+unless there is a reasonable probability that its establishment will
+benefit dramatic art, promote the knowledge of dramatic literature,
+and draw from the literary drama and confer on the public the largest
+beneficial influence which the literary drama is capable of
+distributing.
+
+None of Shakespeare's countrymen or countrywomen can deny with a good
+grace the importance of the drama as a branch of art. None will
+seriously dispute that our dramatic literature, at any rate in its
+loftiest manifestation, has contributed as much as our armies or our
+navies or our mechanical inventions to our reputation through the
+world.
+
+There is substantial agreement among enlightened leaders of public
+opinion in all civilised countries that great drama, when fitly
+represented in the theatre, offers the rank and file of a nation
+recreation which brings with it moral, intellectual, and spiritual
+advantage.
+
+
+II
+
+The first question to consider is whether in England the existing
+theatrical agencies promote for the general good the genuine interests
+of dramatic art. Do existing theatrical agencies secure for the nation
+all the beneficial influence that is derivable from the truly
+competent form of drama? If they do this sufficiently, it is otiose
+and impertinent to entertain the notion of creating any new theatrical
+agency.
+
+Theatrical agencies of the existing type have never ignored the
+literary drama altogether. Among actor-managers of the past
+generation, Sir Henry Irving devoted his high ability to the
+interpretation of many species of literary drama--from that by
+Shakespeare to that by Tennyson. At leading theatres in London there
+have been produced in the last few years poetic dramas written in
+blank verse on themes drawn from such supreme examples of the world's
+literature as Homer's _Odyssey_ and Dante's _Inferno_. Signs have not
+been wanting of public anxiety to acknowledge with generosity these
+and other serious endeavours in poetic drama, whatever their precise
+degree of excellence. But such premisses warrant no very large
+conclusion. Two or three swallows do not make a summer. The literary
+drama is only welcomed to the London stage at uncertain intervals;
+most of its life is passed in the wilderness.
+
+The recognition that is given in England to literary or poetic drama,
+alike of the past and present, is chiefly notable for its
+irregularity. The circumstance may be accounted for in various ways.
+It is best explained by the fact that England is the only country in
+Europe in which theatrical enterprise is wholly and exclusively
+organised on a capitalist basis. No theatre in England is worked
+to-day on any but the capitalist principle. Artistic aspiration may be
+well alive in the theatrical profession, but the custom and
+circumstance of capital, the calls of the counting-house, hamper the
+theatrical artist's freedom of action. The methods imposed are
+dictated too exclusively by the mercantile spirit.
+
+Many illustrations could be given of the unceasing conflict which
+capitalist methods wage with artistic methods. One is sufficient. The
+commercially capitalised theatre is bound hand and foot to the system
+of long runs. In no theatres of the first class outside London and New
+York is the system known, and even here and in New York it is of
+comparatively recent origin. But Londoners have grown so accustomed to
+the system that they overlook the havoc which it works on the theatre
+as a home of art. Both actor and playgoer suffer signal injury from
+its effects. It limits the range of drama which is available at our
+great theatres to the rank and file of mankind. Especially serious is
+the danger to which the unchangeable programme exposes histrionic
+capacity and histrionic intelligence. The actor is not encouraged to
+widen his knowledge of the drama. His faculties are blunted by the
+narrow monotony of his experience. Yet the capitalised conditions of
+theatrical enterprise, which are in vogue in London and New York,
+seem to render long runs imperative. The system of long runs is
+peculiar to English-speaking countries, where alone theatrical
+enterprise is altogether under the sway of capital. It is specifically
+prohibited in the national or municipal theatre of every great foreign
+city, where the interests of dramatic art enjoy foremost
+consideration.
+
+The artistic aspiration of the actor-manager may be set on the
+opposite side of the account. Although the actor-manager belongs to
+the ranks of the capitalists (whether he be one himself or be
+dependent on one), yet when he exercises supreme control of his
+playhouse, and is moved by artistic feeling, he may check many of the
+evils that spring from capitalist domination. He can partially
+neutralise the hampering effect on dramatic art of the merely
+commercial application of capital to theatrical enterprise.
+
+The actor-manager system is liable to impede the progress of dramatic
+art through defects of its own, but its most characteristic defects
+are not tarred with the capitalist brush. The actor-manager is prone
+to over-estimate the range of his histrionic power. He tends to claim
+of right the first place in the cast of every piece which he produces.
+He will consequently at times fill a role for which his powers unsuit
+him. If he be wise enough to avoid that error, he may imperil the
+interests of dramatic art in another fashion; he may neglect pieces,
+despite their artistic value, in which he knows the foremost part to
+be outside his scope. The actor-manager has sometimes undertaken a
+secondary role. But then it often happens, not necessarily by his
+deliberate endeavour, but by the mere force and popularity of his name
+among the frequenters of his playhouse, that there is focussed on his
+secondary part an attention that it does not intrinsically merit, with
+the result that the artistic perspective of the play is injured. A
+primary law of dramatic art deprecates the constant preponderance of
+one actor in a company. The highest attainable level of excellence in
+all the members is the true artistic aim.
+
+The dangers inherent in the "star" principle of the actor-manager
+system may be frankly admitted, but at the same time one should
+recognise the system's possible advantages. An actor-manager does not
+usually arrive at his position until his career is well advanced and
+he has proved his histrionic capacity. Versatility commonly
+distinguishes him, and he is able to fill a long series of leading
+roles without violating artistic propriety. At any rate, the
+actor-manager who resolutely cherishes respect for art can do much to
+temper the corrupting influences of commercial capitalism in the
+theatrical world.
+
+It is probably the less needful to scrutinise closely the theoretic
+merits or demerits of the actor-manager system, because the dominant
+principle of current theatrical enterprise in London and America
+renders most precarious the future existence of that system. The
+actor-manager seems, at any rate, threatened in London by a new and
+irresistible tide of capitalist energy. Six or seven leading theatres
+in London have recently been brought under the control of an American
+capitalist who does not pretend to any but mercantile inspiration. The
+American capitalist's first and last aim is naturally to secure the
+highest possible remuneration for his invested capital. He is
+catholic-minded, and has no objection to artistic drama, provided he
+can draw substantial profit from it. Material interests alone have any
+real meaning for him. If he serve the interests of art by producing an
+artistic play, he serves art by accident and unconsciously: his object
+is to benefit his exchequer. His philosophy is unmitigated
+utilitarianism. "The greatest pleasure for the greatest number" is his
+motto. The pleasure that carries farthest and brings round him the
+largest paying audiences is his ideal stock-in-trade. Obviously
+pleasure either of the frivolous or of the spectacular kind attracts
+the greatest number of customers to his emporium. It is consequently
+pleasure of this spectacular or frivolous kind which he habitually
+endeavours to provide. It is Quixotic to anticipate much diminution in
+the supply and demand of either frivolity or spectacle, both of which
+may furnish quite innocuous pleasure. But each is the antithesis of
+dramatic art; and whatever view one holds of the methods of the
+American capitalist, it is irrational to look to him for the
+intelligent promotion of dramatic art.
+
+
+III
+
+From the artistic point of view the modern system of theatrical
+enterprise thus seems capable of improvement. If it be incapable of
+general improvement, it is at least capable of having a better example
+set it than current modes can be reckoned on to offer. The latter are
+not likely to be displaced. All that can be attempted is to create a
+new model at their side. What is sought by the advocates of a
+municipal theatre is an institution which shall maintain in
+permanence a high artistic ideal of drama, and shall give the public
+the opportunity of permanently honouring that ideal. Existing theatres
+whose programmes ignore art would be unaffected by such a new
+neighbour. But existing enterprises, which, as far as present
+conditions permit, reflect artistic aspiration, would derive from such
+an institution new and steady encouragement.
+
+The interests of dramatic art can only be served whole-heartedly in a
+theatre organised on two principles which have hitherto been
+unrecognised in England. In the first place, the management should
+acknowledge some sort of public obligation to make the interests of
+dramatic art its first motive of action. In the second place, the
+management should be relieved of the need of seeking unrestricted
+commercial profits for the capital that is invested in the venture.
+Both principles have been adopted with successful results in
+Continental cities; but their successful practice implies the
+acceptance by the State, or by a permanent local authority, of a
+certain amount of responsibility in both the artistic and the
+financial directions.
+
+It is foolish to blind oneself to commercial considerations
+altogether. When the municipal theatre is freed of the unimaginative
+control of private capital seeking unlimited profit, it is still wise
+to require a moderate return on the expended outlay. The municipal
+theatre can only live healthily in the presence of a public desire or
+demand for it, and that public desire or demand can only be measured
+by the playhouse receipts. A municipal theatre would not be
+satisfactorily conducted if money were merely lost in it, or spent on
+it without any thought of the likelihood of the expenditure proving
+remunerative. Profits need never be refused; but all above a fixed
+minimum rate of interest on the invested capital should be applied to
+the promotion of those purposes which the municipal theatre primarily
+exists to serve--to cheapen, for example, prices of admission, or to
+improve the general mechanism behind and before the scenes. No surplus
+profits should reach the pocket of any individual manager or
+financier.
+
+
+IV
+
+There is in England a demand and desire on the part of a substantial
+section of the public for this new form of theatrical enterprise,
+although its precise dimensions may not be absolutely determinate. The
+question is thereby adapted for practical discussion. The demand and
+desire have as yet received inadequate recognition, because they have
+not been satisfactorily organised or concentrated. The trend of an
+appreciable section of public opinion in the direction of a limited
+municipalisation of the theatre is visible in many places. Firstly,
+one must take into account the number of small societies which have
+been formed of late by enthusiasts for the exclusive promotion of one
+or other specific branch of the literary drama--the Elizabethan drama,
+the Norwegian drama, the German drama. Conspicuous success has been
+denied these societies because their leaders tend to assert narrow
+sectional views of the bases of dramatic art, or they lack the
+preliminary training and the influence which are essential to the
+efficient conduct of any public enterprise. Many of their experiences
+offer useful object-lessons as to the defects inherent in all narrow
+sectional effort, however enthusiastically inspired. But at the same
+time they testify to a desire to introduce into the current theatrical
+system more literary and artistic principles than are at present
+habitual to it. They point to the presence of a zeal--often, it may
+be, misdirected--for change or reform.
+
+The experiment of Mr Benson points more effectively in the same
+direction. A public-spirited champion of Shakespeare and the classical
+drama, he has maintained his hold in the chief cities of Ireland,
+Scotland, and the English provinces for a generation. Although for
+reasons that are not hard to seek, he has failed to establish his
+position in London, Mr Benson's methods of work have enabled him to
+render conspicuous service to the London stage in a manner which is
+likely to facilitate reform. For many years he has supplied the
+leading London theatres with a succession of trained actors and
+actresses. Graduates in Mr Benson's school can hardly fail to
+co-operate willingly in any reform of theatrical enterprise, which is
+calculated to develop the artistic capacities of the stage.
+
+Other circumstances are no less promising. The justice of the cry for
+the due safeguarding of the country's dramatic art by means of
+publicly-organised effort has been repeatedly acknowledged of late by
+men of experience alike in dramatic and public affairs. In 1898 a
+petition was presented to the London County Council requesting that
+body to found and endow a permanent opera-house "in order to promote
+the musical interest and refinement of the public and the advancement
+of the art of music." The petition bore the signatures of two hundred
+leaders of public opinion, including the chief members of the dramatic
+profession. In this important document, particulars were given of the
+manner in which the State or the municipality aided theatres in
+France, Germany, Austria, and other countries of Europe. It was shown,
+that in France twelve typically efficient theatres received from
+public bodies an annual subsidy amounting in the aggregate to
+L130,000. The wording of the petition and the arguments employed by
+the petitioners were applicable to drama as well as to opera. In fact,
+the case was put in a way which was more favourable to the pretensions
+of drama than to those of opera. One argument which always tells
+against the establishment of a publicly-subsidised opera-house in
+London does not affect the establishment of a publicly-subsidised
+theatre. Opera is an exotic in England; drama is a native product, and
+has exerted in the past a wider influence and has attracted a wider
+sympathy than Italian or German music.
+
+The London County Council, after careful inquiry, gave the scheme of
+1898 benevolent encouragement. Hope was held out that a site for
+either a theatre or an opera-house might be reserved "in connection
+with one of the contemplated central improvements of London." Nothing
+in the recent history of the London County Council gives ground for
+doubting that it will be prepared to give practical effect to a
+thoroughly matured scheme.
+
+Within the Council the principle of the municipal theatre has found
+powerful advocacy. Mr John Burns, who is not merely the spokesman of
+the working classes, but is a representative of earnest-minded
+students of literature, has supported the principle with generous
+enthusiasm. The intelligent artisans of London applaud his attitude.
+The London Trades Council passed resolutions in the autumn of 1901
+recommending the erection of a theatre by the London County Council,
+"so that a higher standard of dramatic art might be encouraged and
+made more accessible to the wage-earning classes, as is the case in
+the State and municipal theatres in the principal cities on the
+Continent." The gist of the argument could hardly be put more
+pintally. [Transcriber's Note: so in original.]
+
+Of those who have written recently in favour of the scheme of a
+municipal theatre many speak with the authority of exceptional
+experience. The actor Mr John Coleman, one of the last survivors of
+Phelps's company at Sadler's Wells Theatre, argued with cogency,
+shortly before his death in 1903, that the national credit owed it to
+itself to renew Phelps's experiment of the middle of last century;
+public intervention was imperative, seeing that no other means were
+forthcoming. The late Sir Henry Irving in his closing years announced
+his conviction that a municipal theatre could alone keep the classical
+and the poetic drama fully alive in the theatres. The dramatic critic
+Mr William Archer, has brought his expert knowledge of dramatic
+organisation at home and abroad to the aid of the agitation. Various
+proposals--unhappily of too vague and unauthoritative a kind to
+guarantee a satisfactory reception--have been made from time to time
+to raise a fund to build a national theatre, and to run it for five
+years on a public subsidy of L10,000 a year.
+
+The advocates of the municipalising principle have worked for the most
+part in isolation. Such independence tends to dissipate rather than
+to conserve energy. A consolidating impulse has been sorely needed.
+But the variety of the points of views from which the subject has been
+independently approached renders the less disputable the genuine width
+of public interest in the question.
+
+The argument that it is contrary to public policy, or that it is
+opposed to the duty of the State or municipality, to provide for the
+people's enlightened amusement, is not formidable. The State and the
+municipality have long treated such work as part of their daily
+functions, whatever the arguments that have been urged against it. The
+State, in partnership with local authorities, educates the people,
+whether they like it or no. The municipalities of London and other
+great towns provide the people, outside the theatre, with almost every
+opportunity of enlightenment and enlightened amusement. In London
+there are 150 free libraries, which are mainly occupied in providing
+the ratepayers with the opportunities of reading fiction--recreation
+which is not always very enlightened. The County Council of London
+furnishes bands of music to play in the parks, at an expenditure of
+some L6000 a year. Most of our great cities supply, in addition,
+municipal picture galleries, in which the citizens take pride, and to
+which in their corporate capacity they contribute large sums of money.
+The municipal theatre is the natural complement of the municipal
+library, the municipal musical entertainment, and the municipal art
+gallery.
+
+
+V
+
+Of the practicability of a municipal theatre ample evidence is at
+hand. Foreign experience convincingly justifies the municipal mode of
+theatrical enterprise. Every great town in France, Germany, Austria,
+and Switzerland has its municipal theatre. In Paris there are three,
+in addition to four theatres which are subsidised by the State. It is
+estimated that there are seventy municipal theatres in the
+German-speaking countries of Europe, apart from twenty-seven State
+theatres. At the same time, it should be noted that in the French and
+German capitals there are, at the side of the State and municipal
+playhouses, numerous theatres which are run on ordinary commercial
+lines. The prosperity of these houses is in no way checked by the
+contiguity of theatrical enterprise of State or municipality.
+
+All municipal theatres on the continent of Europe pursue the same
+aims. They strive to supply the citizens with true artistic drama
+continuously, and to reduce the cost of admission to the playhouse to
+the lowest possible terms. But the working details of the foreign
+municipal theatres differ widely in individual cases, and a
+municipality which contemplates a first theatrical experiment is
+offered a large choice of method. In some places the municipality acts
+with regal munificence, and directly assumes the largest possible
+responsibilities. It provides the site, erects the theatre, and allots
+a substantial subsidy to its maintenance. The manager is a municipal
+officer, and the municipal theatre fills in the social life of the
+town as imposing a place as the town-hall, cathedral, or university.
+
+Elsewhere the municipality sets narrower limits to its sphere of
+operations. It merely provides the site and the building, and then
+lets the playhouse out at a moderate rental to directors of proved
+efficiency and public spirit, on assured conditions that they honestly
+serve the true interests of art, uphold a high standard of production,
+avoid the frivolity and spectacle of the market, and fix the price of
+seats on a very low scale. Here no public funds are seriously
+involved. The municipality pays no subsidy. The rent of the theatre
+supplies the municipality with normal interest on the capital that is
+invested in site and building. It is public credit of a moral rather
+than of a material kind which is pledged to the cause of dramatic art.
+
+In a third class of municipal theatre the public body confines its
+material aid to the gratuitous provision of a site. Upon that site
+private enterprise is invited to erect a theatre under adequate
+guarantee that it shall exclusively respect the purposes of art, and
+spare to the utmost the pockets of the playgoer. To render dramatic
+art accessible to the rank and file of mankind, with the smallest
+possible pressure on the individual citizen's private resources, is of
+the essence of every form of municipal theatrical enterprise.
+
+The net result of the municipal theatre, especially in German-speaking
+countries, is that the literary drama, both of the past and present,
+maintains a grip on the playgoing public which is outside English
+experience. There is in Germany a very flourishing modern German drama
+of literary merit. Sudermann and Hauptmann hold the ears of men of
+letters throughout Europe. Dramas by these authors are constantly
+presented in municipal theatres. At the same time, plays by the
+classical dramatists of all European countries are performed as
+constantly, and are no less popular. Almost every play of Shakespeare
+is in the repertory of the chief acting companies on the German
+municipal stage. At the side of Shakespeare stand Schiller and Goethe
+and Lessing, the classical dramatists of Germany; Moliere, the
+classical dramatist of France; and Calderon, the classical dramatist
+of Spain. Public interest is liberally distributed over the whole
+range of artistic dramatic effort. Indeed, during recent years
+Shakespeare's plays have been performed in Germany more often than
+plays of the modern German school. Schiller, the classical national
+dramatist of Germany, lives more conspicuously on the modern German
+stage than any one modern German contemporary writer, eminent and
+popular as more than one contemporary German dramatist deservedly is.
+Thus signally has the national or municipal system of theatrical
+enterprise in Germany served the cause of classical drama. All the
+beneficial influence and gratification, which are inherent in artistic
+and literary drama, are, under the national or municipal system,
+enjoyed in permanence and security by the German people.
+
+Vienna probably offers London the most instructive example of the
+national or municipal theatre. The three leading Viennese
+playhouses--the Burg-Theater, the Stadt-Theater, and the
+Volks-Theater--illustrate the three modes in which public credit may
+be pledged to theatrical enterprise. The palatial Burg-Theater is
+wholly an institution of the State. The site of the Stadt-Theater, and
+to a large extent the building, were provided by the municipality,
+which thereupon leased them out to a private syndicate, under a
+manager of the syndicate's choosing. The municipality assumes no more
+direct responsibility for the due devotion of the Stadt-Theater to
+dramatic art than is implied in its retention of reversionary rights
+of ownership. The third theatre, the Volks-Theater, illustrates the
+minimum share that a municipality may take in promoting theatrical
+enterprise, while guaranteeing the welfare of artistic drama.
+
+The success of the Volks-Theater is due to the co-operation of a
+public body with a voluntary society of private citizens who regard
+the maintenance of the literary drama as a civic duty. The site of the
+Volks-Theater, which was formerly public property and estimated to be
+worth L80,000, is in the best part of the city of Vienna. It was a
+free gift from the government to a limited liability company, formed
+of some four hundred shareholders of moderate means, who formally
+pledged themselves to erect on the land a theatre with the sole object
+of serving the purposes of dramatic art. The interest payable to
+shareholders is strictly limited by the conditions of association. An
+officially sanctioned constitution renders it obligatory on them and
+on their officers to produce in the playhouse classical and modern
+drama of a literary character, though not necessarily of the severest
+type. Merely frivolous or spectacular pieces are prohibited, and at
+least twice a week purely classical plays must be presented. No piece
+may be played more than two nights in immediate succession. The
+actors, whose engagements are permanent, are substantially paid, and
+an admirably devised system of pensions is enforced without making
+deductions from salaries. The price of seats is fixed at a low rate,
+the highest price being 4s., the cheapest and most numerous seats
+costing 10d. each. Both financially and artistically the result has
+been all that one could wish. There is no public subsidy, but the
+Emperor pays L500 a year for a box. The house holds 1800 persons,
+yielding gross receipts of L200 for a nightly expenditure of L125.
+There are no advertising expenses, no posters. The newspapers give
+notice of the daily programme as an attractive item of news.
+
+
+VI
+
+There is some disinclination among Englishmen deliberately to adopt
+foreign methods, to follow foreign examples, in any walk of life. But
+no person of common sense will reject a method merely because it is
+foreign, if it can be proved to be of utility. It is spurious
+patriotism to reject wise counsel because it is no native product. On
+the other hand, it is seriously to asperse the culture and
+intelligence of the British nation to assume that no appreciable
+section of it cherishes that taste for the literary drama which keeps
+the national or municipal theatre alive in France and Germany. At any
+rate, judgment should be held in suspense until the British playgoers'
+mettle has been more thoroughly tested than hitherto.
+
+No less humiliating is the argument that the art of acting in this
+country is at too low an ebb to justify the assumption by a public
+body of responsibility for theatrical enterprise. One or two critics
+assert that to involve public credit in a theatre, until there exist
+an efficient school of acting, is to put the cart before the horse.
+This objection seems insubstantial. Competent actors are not
+altogether absent from the English stage, and the municipal system of
+theatrical enterprise is calculated to increase their number rapidly.
+
+Abroad, the subsidised theatres, with their just schemes of salary,
+their permanent engagements, their well-devised pension systems,
+attract the best class of the profession. A competent company of
+actors, which enjoys a permanent home and is governed by high
+standards of art, forms the best possible school of acting, not merely
+by force of example, but by the private tuition which it could readily
+provide. In Vienna the companies at the subsidised theatres are
+recruited from the pupils of a State-endowed conservatoire of actors.
+It is improbable that the British Government will found a like
+institution. But it would be easy to attach a college of acting to the
+municipal theatre, and to make the college pay its way.
+
+Much depends on the choice of manager of the enterprise. The manager
+of a municipal theatre must combine with business aptitude a genuine
+devotion to dramatic art and dramatic literature. Without a fit
+manager, who can collect and control a competent company of actors,
+the scheme of the municipal theatre is doomed to failure. Managers of
+the requisite temper, knowledge, and ability are not lacking in France
+or Germany. There is no reason to anticipate that, when the call is
+sounded, the right response will not be given here.
+
+Cannot an experiment be made in London on the lines of the Vienna
+Volks-Theater? In the first place, it is needful to bring together a
+body of citizens who, under leadership which commands public
+confidence, will undertake to build and control for a certain term of
+years a theatre of suitable design in the interests of dramatic art,
+on conditions similar to those that have worked with success in
+Berlin, Paris, and notably Vienna. Then the London County Council,
+after the professions it has made, might be reasonably expected to
+undertake so much responsibility for the proper conduct of the new
+playhouse as would be implied by its provision of a site. If the
+experiment failed, no one would be much the worse; if it succeeded, as
+it ought to succeed, the nation would gain in repute for intelligence,
+culture, and enlightened patriotism; it would rid itself of the
+reproach that it pays smaller and less intelligent regard to
+Shakespeare and the literary drama than France, Germany, Austria, or
+Italy.
+
+Phelps's single-handed effort brought the people of London for
+eighteen years face to face with the great English drama at his
+playhouse at Sadler's Wells. "I made that enterprise pay," he said,
+after he retired; "not making a fortune certainly, but bringing up a
+large family and paying my way." Private troubles and illness
+compelled him suddenly to abandon the enterprise at the end of
+eighteen years, when there happened to be none at hand to take his
+place of leader. All that was wanting to make his enterprise
+permanent, he declared, was some public control, some public
+acknowledgment of responsibility which, without impeding the efficient
+manager's freedom of action, would cause his post to be filled
+properly in case of an accidental vacancy. Phelps thought that if he
+could do so much during eighteen years by his personal, isolated, and
+independent endeavour, much more could be done in permanence under
+some public method of safeguard and guarantee. Phelps's services to
+the literary drama can hardly be over-estimated. His mature judgment
+is not to be lightly gainsaid. It is just to his memory to put his
+faith to a practical test.
+
+
+
+
+VII
+
+ASPECTS OF SHAKESPEARE'S PHILOSOPHY[24]
+
+[Footnote 24: This paper, which was originally prepared in 1899 for
+the purposes of a popular lecture, is here printed for the first
+time.]
+
+
+I
+
+A French critic once remarked that a whole system of philosophy could
+be deduced from Shakespeare's pages, though from all the works of the
+philosophers one could not draw a page of Shakespeare. The second
+statement--the denial of the presence of a page of Shakespeare in the
+works of all the philosophers--is more accurate than the assertion
+that a system of philosophy could be deduced from the plays of
+Shakespeare. It is hopeless to deduce any precise system of philosophy
+from Shakespeare's plays. Literally, philosophy means nothing more
+recondite than love of wisdom. Technically, it means scientifically
+restrained speculation about the causes of human thought and conduct;
+it embraces the sciences of logic, of ethics, of politics, of
+psychology, of metaphysics. Shakespeare's training and temper unfitted
+him to make any professed contribution to any of these topics.
+
+Ignorant persons argue on hazy grounds that the great avowed
+philosopher of Shakespeare's day, Francis Bacon, wrote Shakespeare's
+plays. There is no need to confute the theory, which confutes itself.
+But, if a confutation were needed, it lies on the surface in the
+conflicting attitudes which Shakespeare and Bacon assume towards
+philosophy. There is no mistaking Bacon's attitude. The supreme aim of
+his writings was to establish the practical value, the majestic
+importance, of philosophy in its strict sense of speculative science.
+He sought to widen its scope, and to multiply the ranks of its
+students.
+
+Bacon's method is formally philosophic in texture. He carefully
+scrutinises, illustrates, seeks to justify each statement before
+proceeding to a conclusion. Every essay, every treatise of Bacon,
+conveys the impression not merely of weighty, pregnant eloquence, but
+of the argumentative and philosophic temper. Bacon's process of
+thinking is conscious: it is visible behind the words. The argument
+progresses with a cumulative force. It draws sustenance from the
+recorded opinions of others. The points usually owe consistency and
+firmness to quotations from old authors--Greek and Latin authors,
+especially Plato and Plutarch, Lucretius and Seneca. To Bacon, as to
+all professed students of the subject, philosophy first revealed
+itself in the pages of the Greek writers, Plato and Aristotle, the
+founders for modern Europe of the speculative sciences of human
+thought and conduct. Greatly as Bacon modified the Greek system of
+philosophy, he began his philosophic career under the influence of
+Aristotle, and, despite his destructive criticism of his master, he
+never wholly divested himself of the methods of exposition to which
+the Greek philosopher's teaching introduced him.
+
+In their attitudes to philosophy, Shakespeare and Bacon are as the
+poles asunder. Shakespeare practically ignores the existence of
+philosophy as a formal science. He betrays no knowledge of its Greek
+origin and developments.
+
+There are two short, slight, conventional mentions of Aristotle's name
+in Shakespeare's works. One is a very slight allusion to Aristotle's
+"checks" or "moral discipline" in _The Taming of the Shrew_. That
+passage is probably from a coadjutor's pen. In any case, it is merely
+a playful questioning of the title of "sweet philosophy" to monopolize
+a young man's education.[25]
+
+[Footnote 25: Tranio, the attendant on the young Pisan, Lucentio, who
+has come to Padua to study at the university, counsels his master to
+widen the field of his studies:--
+
+    Only, good master, while we do admire
+    This virtue and this moral discipline,
+    Let's be no Stoics, nor no stocks, I pray,
+    Or so devote to _Aristotle's checks_,
+    As Ovid be an outcast quite adjured.
+
+    (_The Taming of the Shrew_, I., ii., 29-33.)]
+
+The other mention of Aristotle is in _Troilus and Cressida_, and
+raises points of greater interest. Hector scornfully likens his
+brothers Troilus and Paris, when they urge persistence in the strife
+with Greece, to "young men whom Aristotle thought unfit to hear
+_moral_ philosophy" (II., ii., 166). The words present the meaning,
+but not the language, of a sentence in Aristotle's "Nicomachean
+Ethics" (i. 8). Aristotle there declares passionate youth to be
+unfitted to study _political_ philosophy; he makes no mention of
+_moral_ philosophy. The change of epithet does, however, no injustice
+to Aristotle's argument. His context makes it plain, that by
+_political_ philosophy he means the ethics of civil society, which
+are hardly distinguishable from what is commonly called "morals." The
+maxim, in the slightly irregular shape which Shakespeare adopted,
+enjoyed proverbial currency before the dramatist was born. Erasmus
+introduced it in this form into his far-famed _Colloquies_. In France
+and Italy the warning against instructing youth in _moral_ philosophy
+was popularly accepted as an Aristotelian injunction. Sceptics about
+the obvious Shakespearean tradition have made much of the circumstance
+that Bacon, who cited the aphorism from Aristotle in his _Advancement
+of Learning_, substituted, like Shakespeare in _Troilus and Cressida_,
+the epithet "moral" for "political." The proverbial currency of the
+emendation deprives the coincidence of point.
+
+The repetition of a proverbial phrase, indirectly drawn from
+Aristotle, combined with the absence of other references to the Greek
+philosopher, renders improbable Shakespeare's personal acquaintance
+with his work. In any case, the bare mention of the name of Aristotle
+implies nothing in this connection. It was a popular synonym for
+ancient learning. It was as often on the lips of Elizabethans as
+Bacon's name is on the lips of men and women of to-day, and it would
+be rash to infer that those who carelessly and casually mentioned
+Bacon's name to-day knew his writings or philosophic theories at first
+hand.
+
+No evidence is forthcoming that Shakespeare knew in any solid sense
+aught of philosophy of the formal scientific kind. On scientific
+philosophy, and on natural science, Shakespeare probably looked with
+suspicion. He expressed no high opinion of astronomers, who pursue
+the most imposing of all branches of scientific speculation.
+
+    Small have continual plodders ever won,
+    Save base authority from others' books.
+    These earthly godfathers of heaven's light,
+    That give a name to every fixed star,
+    Have no more profit of their shining nights
+    Than those that walk, and wot not what they are.
+
+    (_Love's Labour's Lost_, I., i., 86-91.)
+
+This is a characteristically poetic attitude; it is the antithesis of
+the scientific attitude. Formal logic excited Shakespeare's disdain
+even more conspicuously. In the mouths of his professional fools he
+places many reductions to absurdity of what he calls the "simple
+syllogism." He invests the term "chop-logic" with the significance of
+foolery _in excelsis_.[26] Again, metaphysics, in any formal sense,
+were clearly not of Shakespeare's world. On one occasion he wrote of
+the topic round which most metaphysical speculation revolves:--
+
+                     We are such stuff
+    As dreams are made on, and our little life
+    Is rounded by a sleep.
+
+    (_Tempest_, IV., i., 156-8.)
+
+[Footnote 26: The speeches of the clown in _Twelfth Night_ are
+particularly worthy of study for the satiric adroitness with which
+they expose the quibbling futility of syllogistic logic. _Cf._ Act I.,
+Scene v., ll. 43-57.
+
+_Olivia._ Go to, you're a dry fool; I'll no more of you: besides you
+grow dishonest.
+
+_Clown._ Two faults, Madonna, that drink and good counsel will amend:
+for give the dry fool drink, then is the fool not dry: bid the
+dishonest man mend himself; if he mend, he is no longer dishonest; if
+he cannot, let the botcher mend him. Anything that's mended is but
+patched: virtue that transgresses is but patched with sin; and sin
+that amends is but patched with virtue. If that _this simple
+syllogism_ will serve, so; if it will not, what remedy?]
+
+Such a theory of human life is first-rate poetry; it is an
+illuminating figure of poetic speech. But the simplicity with which
+the theme is presented, to the exclusion of many material issues, puts
+the statement out of the plane of metaphysical disquisition, which
+involves subtle conflict of argument and measured resolution of doubt,
+rather than imaginative certainty or unconditional assertion. Nor is
+Hamlet's famous soliloquy on the merits and demerits of suicide
+conceived in the spirit of the metaphysician. It is a dramatic
+description of a familiar phase of emotional depression; it explains
+nothing; it propounds no theory. It reflects a state of feeling; it
+breathes that torturing spirit of despondency which kills all hope of
+mitigating either the known ills of life or the imagined terrors of
+death.
+
+The faint, shadowy glimpses which Shakespeare had of scientific
+philosophy gave him small respect for it. Like the typical hard-headed
+Englishman, he doubted its practical efficacy. Shakespeare viewed all
+formal philosophy much as Dr Johnson's Rasselas, whose faith in it
+dwindled, when he perceived that the professional philosopher, who
+preached superiority to all human frailties and weaknesses, succumbed
+to them at the first provocation.
+
+    There are more things in heaven and earth
+    Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.[27]
+
+    For there was never yet philosopher
+    That could endure the toothache patiently.[28]
+
+[Footnote 27: _Hamlet_, I., v., 166-7.]
+
+[Footnote 28: _Much Ado About Nothing_, V., i., 35-6.]
+
+Such phrases sum up Shakespeare's habitual bearing to formal
+philosophy. The consideration of causes, first principles, abstract
+truths, never, in the dramatist's opinion, cured a human ill. The
+futility of formal philosophy stands, from this point of view, in no
+further need of demonstration.
+
+
+II
+
+But it is permissible to use the words philosopher and philosophy,
+without scientific precision or significance, in the popular
+inaccurate senses of shrewd observer and observation of life. By
+philosophy we may understand common-sense wisdom about one's
+fellow-men, their aspirations, their failures and successes. As soon
+as we employ the word in that significance, we must allow that few men
+were better philosophers than Shakespeare.
+
+Shakespeare is what Touchstone calls the shepherd in _As You Like
+It_--"a natural philosopher"--an observer by light of nature, an acute
+expositor of phases of human life and feeling. Character, thought,
+passion, emotion, form the raw material of which ethical or
+metaphysical systems are made. The poet's contempt for formal ethical
+or metaphysical theory co-existed with a searching knowledge of the
+ultimate foundations of all systematised philosophic structures. The
+range of fact or knowledge within which the formal theorist speculates
+in the fields of ethics, logic, metaphysics, or psychology, is,
+indeed, very circumscribed when it is compared with the region of
+observation and experience over which Shakespeare exerted complete
+mastery.
+
+Almost every aspect of life Shakespeare portrays with singular
+evenness of insight. He saw life whole. The web of life always
+presented itself to him as a mingled yarn, good and ill together. He
+did not stay to reconcile its contradictions. He adduces a wealth of
+evidence touching ethical experience. It may be that the patient
+scrutiny of formal philosophers can alone reveal the full significance
+of his harvest. But the dramatist's exposition of the workings of
+virtue or vice has no recondite intention. Shakespeare was no patient
+scholar, who deliberately sought to extend the limits of human
+knowledge. With unrivalled ease and celerity he digested, in the
+recesses of his consciousness, the fruit of personal observation and
+reading. His only conscious aim was to depict human conduct and human
+thought. He interpreted them unconsciously by virtue of an involuntary
+intuition.
+
+Shakespeare's intuition pierces life at the lowest as well as at the
+highest level of experience. It is coloured by delicate imaginative
+genius as well as by robust and practical worldliness. Not his
+writings only, but the facts of his private life--his mode of managing
+his private property, for example--attest his alert knowledge of the
+material and practical affairs of human existence. Idealism and
+realism in perfect development were interwoven with the texture of his
+mind.
+
+Shakespeare was qualified by mental endowment for success in any
+career. He was by election a dramatist, and, necessarily, one of
+unmatched versatility. His intuitive faculty enabled him, after
+regarding life from any point of view that he willed, to depict
+through the mouths of his characters the chosen phase of experience in
+convincing, harmonious accord with his characters' individual
+circumstances and fortunes. No obvious trace of his own personal
+circumstance or experience was suffered to emerge in the utterances of
+his characters, who lived for the moment in his brain. It is a
+commonplace to credit Shakespeare with supreme dramatic instinct. It
+is difficult fully to realise the significance of that attribute. It
+means that he could contract or expand at will and momentarily, his
+own personality, so that it coincided exactly, now with a
+self-indulgent humorist like Falstaff, now with an introspective
+student like Hamlet, now with a cynical criminal like Iago, now with a
+high-spirited girl like Rosalind, now with an ambitious woman like
+Lady Macbeth, and then with a hundred more characters hardly less
+distinctive than these. It means that he could contrive the
+coincidence so absolutely as to leave no loophole for the
+introduction, into the several dramatic utterances, of any sentiment
+that should not be on the face of it adapted by right of nature to the
+speakers' idiosyncracies. That was Shakespeare's power. It is a power
+of which the effects are far easier to recognise than the causes or
+secret of operation.
+
+In the present connection it is happily only necessary to dwell on
+Shakespeare's dramatic instinct in order to guard against the peril of
+dogmatising from his works about his private opinions. So various and
+conflicting are Shakespeare's dramatic pronouncements on phases of
+experience that it is difficult and dangerous to affirm which
+pronouncements, if any, present most closely his personal sentiment.
+He fitted the lips of his _dramatis personae_ with speeches and
+sentiments so peculiarly adapted to them as to show no one quite
+undisputed sign of their creator's personality.
+
+Yet there are occasions, when, without detracting from the omnipotence
+of Shakespeare's dramatic instinct, one may tentatively infer that
+Shakespeare gave voice through his created personages to sentiments
+which were his own. The Shakespearean drama must incorporate somewhere
+within its vast limits the personal thoughts and passions of its
+creator, even although they are for the most part absorbed past
+recognition in the mighty mass, and no critical chemistry can with
+confidence disentangle them. At any rate, there are in the plays many
+utterances--ethical utterances, or observations conceived in the
+spirit of "a natural philosopher"--which are repeated to much the same
+effect at different periods of the poet's career. These reiterated
+opinions frequently touch the conditions of well-being or calamity in
+civilised society; they often deal with man in civic or social
+relation with his neighbour; they define the capabilities of his will.
+It is unlikely that observations of this nature would be repeated if
+the sentiments they embody were out of harmony with the author's
+private conviction. Often we shall not strain a point or do our
+critical sense much violence if we assume that these recurring
+thoughts are Shakespeare's own. I purpose to call attention to a few
+of those which bear on large questions of government and citizenship
+and human volition. Involuntarily, they form the framework of a
+political and moral philosophy which for clear-eyed sanity is without
+rival.
+
+
+III
+
+Shakespeare's political philosophy is instinct with the loftiest moral
+sense. Directly or indirectly, he defines many times the essential
+virtues and the inevitable temptations which attach to persons
+exercising legalised authority over their fellow-men. The topic always
+seems to stir in Shakespeare his most serious tone of thought and
+word. No one, in fact, has conceived a higher standard of public
+virtue and public duty than Shakespeare. His intuition rendered him
+tolerant of human imperfection. He is always in kindly sympathy with
+failure, with suffering, with the oppressed. Consequently he brings at
+the outset into clearer relief than professed political philosophers,
+the saving quality of mercy in rulers of men. Twice Shakespeare pleads
+in almost identical terms, through the mouths of created characters,
+for generosity on the part of governors of states towards those who
+sin against law. In both cases he places his argument, with
+significant delicacy, on the lips of women. At a comparatively early
+period in his career as dramatist, in _The Merchant of Venice_, Portia
+first gave voice to the political virtue of compassion. At a much
+later period Shakespeare set the same plea in the mouth of Isabella in
+_Measure for Measure_. The passages are too familiar to justify
+quotation. Very brief extracts will bring out clearly the identity of
+sentiment which finds definition in the two passages.
+
+These are Portia's views of mercy on the throne (_Merchant of Venice_,
+IV., i., 189 _seq._):--
+
+    'Tis mightiest in the mightiest; it becomes
+    The throned monarch better than his crown;
+
+           *       *       *       *       *
+
+              Mercy is above this sceptred sway;
+    It is enthroned in the hearts of kings,
+    It is an attribute to God himself;
+    And earthly power doth then show likest God's
+    When mercy seasons justice.
+
+                          Consider this,
+    That in the course of justice none of us
+    Should see salvation.[29]
+
+[Footnote 29: In a paper on "Latin as an Intellectual Force," read
+before the International Congress of Arts and Sciences at St Louis in
+September 1904, Professor E.A. Sonnenschein sought to show that
+Portia's speech on mercy is based on Seneca's tract, _De Clementia_.
+The most striking parallel passages are the following:--
+
+                              It becomes
+    The throned monarch better than his crown.
+
+    (_M. of V._, IV., i. 189-90.)
+
+Nullum clementia ex omnibus magis quam regem aut principem decet.
+(Seneca, _De Clementia_, I., iii., 3):--
+
+    'Tis mightiest in the mightiest.
+
+Eo scilicet formosius id esse magnificentiusque fatebimur quo in
+maiore praestabitur potestate (I., xix., 1):--
+
+    But mercy is above this sceptred sway;
+    It is enthroned in the hearts of kings,
+    It is an attribute to God himself.
+
+    (_M. of V._, IV., i., 193-5.)
+
+Quod si di placabiles et aequi delicta potentium non statim fulminibus
+persequuntur, quanto aequius est hominem hominibus praepositum miti
+animo exercere imperium? (I., vii., 2):--
+
+    And earthly power doth then show likest God's
+    When mercy seasons justice.
+
+    (_M. of V._, IV., i., 196-7.)
+
+Quid autem? Non proximum eis (dis) locum tenet is qui se ex deorum
+natura gerit beneficus et largus et in melius potens? (I., xix., 9):--
+
+                            Consider this,
+    That in the course of justice none of us
+    Should see salvation.
+
+    (_M. of V._, IV., i., 198-200.)
+
+Cogitato ... quanta solitudo et vastitas futura sit si nihil
+relinquitur nisi quod iudex severus absolverit (I., vi., 1).
+
+This remarkable series of parallelisms does not affect the argument in
+the text that Shakespeare, who reiterated Portia's pleas and
+phraseology in Isabella's speeches, had a personal faith in the
+declared sentiment. Whether the parallelism is to be explained as
+conscious borrowing or accidental coincidence is an open question.]
+
+Here are Isabella's words in _Measure for Measure_ (II., ii., 59
+_seq._):--
+
+    No ceremony that to great ones 'longs,
+    Not the king's crown, nor the deputed sword,
+    The marshal's truncheon, nor the judge's robe,
+    Become them with one half so good a grace
+    As mercy does.
+
+                    How would you be
+    If He, which is the top of judgment, should
+    But judge you as you are?
+
+                              O, it is excellent
+    To have a giant's strength; but it is tyrannous
+    To use it like a giant.
+
+Mercy is the predominating or crowning virtue that Shakespeare demands
+in rulers. But the Shakespearean code is innocent of any taint of
+sentimentality, and mercifulness is far from being the sovereign's
+sole qualification or primal test of fitness. More especially are
+kings and judges bound by their responsibilities and their duties to
+eschew self-glorification or self-indulgence. It is the _virtues_ of
+the holders of office, not their office itself, which alone in the end
+entitles them to consideration. Adventitious circumstances give no man
+claim to respect. A man is alone worthy of regard by reason of his
+personal character. Honour comes from his own acts, neither from his
+"foregoers," _i.e._, ancestors, nor from his rank in society. "Good
+alone is good without a name." This is not the view of the world,
+which values lying trophies, rank, or wealth. The world is thereby the
+sufferer.[30]
+
+[Footnote 30:
+
+    From lowest place, when virtuous things proceed,
+    The place is dignified by the doer's deed:
+    Where great additions swell's, and virtue none,
+    It is a dropsied honour: good alone
+    Is good without a name; vileness is so:
+    The property by what it is should go,
+    Not by the title; ... that is honour's scorn,
+    Which challenges itself as honour's born,
+    And is not like the sire: honours thrive
+    When rather from our acts we them derive
+    Than our foregoers: the mere word's a slave,
+    Debauch'd on every tomb; on every grave
+    A lying trophy; and as oft is dumb
+    Where dust and damn'd oblivion is the tomb
+    Of honour'd bones indeed.
+
+    (_All's Well_, II., iii., 130 _seq._)]
+
+The world honours a judge; but if the judge be indebted to his office
+and not to his character for the respect that is paid him, he may
+deserve no more honour than the criminal in the dock, whom he
+sentences to punishment. "A man may see how this world goes with no
+eyes," says King Lear to the blind Gloucester. "Look with thine ears;
+see how yond justice rails upon yond simple thief. Hark, in thine ear;
+change places, and, handy-dandy, which is the justice, which is the
+thief? Thou hast seen a farmer's dog bark at a beggar? And the
+creature run from the cur? There thou mightst behold the great image
+of authority; a dog's obeyed in office." "The great image of
+authority" is often a brazen idol.
+
+Hereditary rulers form no inconsiderable section of Shakespeare's
+_dramatis personae_. In _Macbeth_ (IV., iii., 92-4) he specifically
+defined "the king-becoming graces":--
+
+    As justice, verity, temperance, stableness,
+    Bounty, perseverance, mercy, lowliness,
+    Devotion, patience, courage, fortitude.
+
+But the dramatist's main energies are devoted to exposure of the
+hollowness of this counsel of perfection. Temptations to vice beset
+rulers of men to a degree that is unknown to their subjects. To
+avarice rulers are especially prone. Stanchless avarice constantly
+converts kings of ordinary clay into monsters. How often they forge
+
+    Quarrels unjust against the good and loyal,
+    Destroying them for wealth.
+
+    (_Macbeth_, IV., iii., 83-4.)
+
+Intemperance in all things--in business and pleasure--is a standing
+menace of monarchs.
+
+             Boundless intemperance
+    In Nature is a tyranny: it hath been
+    Th' untimely emptying of the happy throne
+    And fail of many kings.
+
+    (_Macbeth_, IV., iii., 66-9.)
+
+A leader of men, if he be capable of salvation, must "delight no less
+in truth than life." Yet "truth," for the most part, is banished from
+the conventional environment of royalty.
+
+Repeatedly does Shakespeare bring into dazzling relief the irony which
+governs the being of kings. Want of logic and defiance of ethical
+principle underlie their pride in magnificent ceremonial and
+pageantry. The ironic contrast between the pretensions of a king and
+the actual limits of human destiny is a text which Shakespeare
+repeatedly clothes in golden language.
+
+It is to be admitted that nearly all the kings in Shakespeare's
+gallery frankly acknowledge the make-believe and unreality which dogs
+regal pomp and ceremony. In self-communion they acknowledge the
+ruler's difficulty in finding truth in their traditional scope of
+life. In a great outburst on the night before Agincourt, Henry V.--the
+only king whom Shakespeare seems thoroughly to admire--openly
+describes the inevitable confusion between fact and fiction which
+infects the conditions of royalty. Anxiety and unhappiness are so
+entwined with ceremonial display as to deprive the king of the reliefs
+and recreations which freely lie at the disposal of ordinary men.
+
+                   What infinite heart's-ease
+    Must kings neglect that private men enjoy!
+    And what have kings that privates have not too,
+    Save ceremony, save general ceremony?
+    And what art thou, thou idol ceremony?
+    What kind of god art thou, that suffer'st more
+    Of mortal griefs than do thy worshippers?
+    What are thy rents? what are thy comings-in?
+    O ceremony, show me but thy worth!
+    What is thy soul of adoration?
+    Art thou aught else but place, degree, and form,
+    Creating awe and fear in other men?
+    Wherein thou art less happy being fear'd
+    Than they in fearing.
+    What drink'st thou oft, instead of homage sweet,
+    But poison'd flattery? O, be sick, great greatness,
+    And bid thy ceremony give thee cure!
+    Think'st thou the fiery fever will go out
+    With titles blown from adulation?
+    Will it give place to flexure and low bending?
+    Canst thou, when thou command'st the beggar's knee,
+    Command the health of it? No, thou proud dream
+    That play'st so subtly with a king's repose:
+    I am a king that find thee; and I know
+    'Tis not the balm, the sceptre, and the ball,
+    The sword, the mace, the crown imperial,
+    The intertissued robe of gold and pearl,
+    The farced title running 'fore the king,
+    The throne he sits on, nor the tide of pomp
+    That beats upon the high shore of this world,--
+    No, not all these, thrice gorgeous ceremony,
+    Not all these, laid in bed majestical,
+    Can sleep so soundly as the wretched slave
+    Who, with a body fill'd and vacant mind
+    Gets him to rest, cramm'd with distressful bread.
+
+    (_Henry V._, IV., i., 253-287.)
+
+Barely distinguishable is the sentiment which finds expression in the
+pathetic speech of Henry V.'s father when he vainly seeks that sleep
+which thousands of his poorest subjects enjoy. The sleepless king
+points to the irony of reclining on the kingly couch beneath canopies
+of costly state when sleep refuses to weigh his eyelids down or steep
+his senses in forgetfulness. The king is credited with control of
+every comfort; but he is denied by nature comforts which she places
+freely at command of the humblest. So again does Richard II.
+soliloquize on the vain pride which imbues the king, while death all
+the time grins at his pomp and keeps his own court within the hollow
+crown that rounds the prince's mortal temples. Yet again, to identical
+effect is Henry VI.'s sorrowful question:--
+
+    Gives not the hawthorn-bush a sweeter shade,
+    To shepherds looking on their silly sheep,
+    Than doth a rich-embroidered canopy
+    To kings that fear their subjects' treachery?
+
+    (III. _Henry VI._, II., v., 42-5.)
+
+To this text Shakespeare constantly recurs, and he bestows on it all
+his fertile resources of illustration. The reiterated exposition by
+Shakespeare of the hollowness of kingly ceremony is a notable feature
+of his political sentiment The dramatist's independent analysis of the
+quiddity of kingship is, indeed, alike in manner and matter, a
+startling contribution to sixteenth century speculation. In manner it
+is worthy of Shakespeare's genius at its highest. In matter it is for
+its day revolutionary rationalism. It defies a popular doctrine, held
+almost universally by Shakespeare's contemporary fellow-countrymen,
+that royalty is divine and under God's special protection, that the
+gorgeous ceremony of the throne reflects a heavenly attribute, and
+that the king is the pampered favourite of heaven.
+
+Bacon defined a king with slender qualifications, as "a mortal god on
+earth unto whom the living God has lent his own name." Shakespeare was
+well acquainted with this accepted doctrine. He often gives dramatic
+definition of it. He declines to admit its soundness. Wherever he
+quotes it, he adds an ironical comment, which was calculated to
+perturb the orthodox royalist. Having argued that the day-labourer or
+the shepherd is far happier than a king, he logically refuses to admit
+that the monarch is protected by God from any of the ills of
+mortality. Richard II. may assert that "the hand of God alone, and no
+hand of blood or bone" can rob him of the sacred handle of his
+sceptre. But the catastrophe of the play demonstrates that that theft
+is entirely within human scope. The king is barbarously murdered. In
+_Hamlet_ the graceless usurping uncle declares that "such divinity
+doth hedge a king," that treason cannot endanger his life. But the
+speaker is run through the body very soon after the brag escapes his
+lips.
+
+Shakespeare is no comfortable theorist, no respecter of orthodox
+doctrine, no smooth-tongued approver of fashionable dogma. His acute
+intellect cuts away all the cobwebs, all the illusions, all the
+delusions, of formulae. His untutored insight goes down to the root of
+things; his king is not Philosopher Bacon's "mortal god on earth"; his
+king is "but a man as I am," doomed to drag out a large part of his
+existence in the galling chains of "tradition, form and ceremonious
+duty," of unreality and self-deception.
+
+Shakespeare's intuitive power of seeing things as they are, affects
+his attitude to all social conventions. Not merely royal rulers of men
+are in a false position, ethically and logically. "Beware of
+appearances," is Shakespeare's repeated warning to men and women of
+all ranks in the political or social hierarchy. "Put not your trust in
+ornament, be it of gold or of silver." In the spheres of law and
+religion, the dramatist warns against pretence, against shows of
+virtue, honesty, or courage which have no solid backing.
+
+    The world is still deceiv'd with ornament.
+    In law what plea so tainted and corrupt
+    But, being season'd with a gracious voice,
+    Obscures the show of evil? In religion
+    What damned error, but some sober brow
+    Will bless it and approve it with a text,
+    Hiding the grossness with fair ornament?
+    There is no vice so simple but assumes
+    Some mark of virtue on his outward parts:
+    How many cowards, whose hearts are all as false
+    As stairs of sand, wear yet upon their chins
+    The beards of Hercules and frowning Mars,
+    Who, inward searched, have livers white as milk.
+
+    (_Merchant of Venice_, III., ii., 74-86.)
+
+Shakespeare was no cynic. He was not unduly distrustful of his
+fellow-men. He was not always suspecting them of something
+indistinguishable from fraud. When he wrote, "The world is still
+deceived with ornament" which "obscures the show of evil," he was
+expressing downright hatred--not suspicion--of sham, of quackery, of
+cant. His is the message of all commanding intellects which see
+through the hearts of men. Shakespeare's message is Carlyle's message
+or Ruskin's message anticipated by nearly three centuries, and more
+potently and wisely phrased.
+
+
+IV
+
+At the same time as Shakespeare insists on the highest and truest
+standard of public duty, he, with characteristically practical
+insight, acknowledges no less emphatically the necessity or duty of
+obedience to duly regulated governments. There may appear
+inconsistency in first conveying the impression that governments, or
+their officers, are usually unworthy of trust, and then in bidding
+mankind obey them implicitly. But, although logical connection between
+the two propositions be wanting, they are each convincing in their
+place. Both are the outcome of a robust common-sense. Order is
+essential to a nation's well-being. There must be discipline in
+civilised communities. Officers in authority must be obeyed. These are
+the axiomatic bases of every social contract, and no question of the
+personal fitness of officers of state impugns their stability.
+
+Twice does Shakespeare define in the same terms what he understands by
+the principle of all-compelling order, which is inherent in
+government. Twice does he elaborate the argument that precise orderly
+division of offices, each enjoying full and unquestioned authority, is
+essential to the maintenance of a state's equilibrium.
+
+The topic was first treated in the speeches of Henry V.'s
+councillors:--
+
+_Exeter._  For government, though high and low and lower,
+           Put into parts, doth keep in one consent,
+           Congreeing in a full and natural close,
+           Like music.
+
+_Cant._                Therefore doth heaven divide
+           The state of man in divers functions,
+           Setting endeavour in continual motion;
+           To which is fixed, as an aim or butt,
+           Obedience: for so work the honey-bees,
+           Creatures that by a rule in nature teach
+           The act of order to a peopled kingdom.
+
+(_Henry V._, I., ii., 180-9.)
+
+There follows a very suggestive comparison between the commonwealth of
+bees and the economy of human society. The well-worn comparison has
+been fashioned anew by a writer of genius of our own day, M.
+Maeterlinck.
+
+In _Troilus and Cressida_ (I., iii., 85 _seq._) Shakespeare returns to
+the discussion, and defines with greater precision "the specialty of
+rule." There he approaches nearer than anywhere else in his writings
+the sphere of strict philosophic exposition. He argues that:--
+
+    The heavens themselves, the planets, and this centre,
+    Observe degree, priority, and place,
+    Insisture, course, proportion, season, form,
+    Office, and custom in all line of order.
+
+Human society is bound to follow this celestial example. At all
+hazards, one must protect "the unity and married calm of states."
+Degree, order, discipline, are the only sure safeguards against brute
+force and chaos which civilised institutions exist to hold in check:--
+
+                       How could communities,
+    Degrees in schools and brotherhoods in cities,
+    Peaceful commerce from dividable shores,
+    The primogeniture and due of birth,
+    Prerogative of age, crowns, sceptres, laurels,
+    But by degree stand in authentic place?
+    Take but degree away, untune that string,
+    And, hark, what discord follows! each thing meets
+    In mere oppugnancy: the bounded waters
+    Should lift their bosoms higher than the shores,
+    And make a sop of all this solid globe:
+    Strength should be lord of imbecility,
+    And the rude son should strike his father dead:
+    Force should be right; or rather, right and wrong,
+    Between whose endless jar justice resides,
+    Should lose their names, and so should justice too.
+    Then every thing includes itself in power,
+    Power into will, will into appetite;
+    And appetite, an universal wolf,
+    So doubly seconded with will and power,
+    Must make perforce an universal prey,
+    And last eat up himself.
+
+Deprived of degree, rank, order, society dissolves itself in "chaos."
+
+Near the end of his career, Shakespeare impressively re-stated his
+faith in the imperative need of the due recognition of social rank and
+grade in civilised communities. In _Cymbeline_ (IV., ii., 246-9) "a
+queen's son" meets his death in fight with an inferior, and the
+conqueror is inclined to spurn the lifeless corpse. But a wise veteran
+solemnly uplifts his voice to forbid the insult. Appeal is made to the
+sacred principle of social order, which must be respected even in
+death:--
+
+                 Though mean and mighty, rotting
+    Together, make one dust; yet reverence,--
+    That angel of the world,--doth make distinction
+    Of place 'twixt high and low.
+
+"Reverence, that angel of the world," is the ultimate bond of civil
+society, and can never be defied with impunity, it is the saving
+sanction of social order.
+
+
+V
+
+I have quoted some of Shakespeare's avowedly ethical utterances which
+bear on conditions of civil society--on morals in their social aspect.
+There is no obscurity about their drift. Apart from direct ethical
+declaration, it may be that ethical lessons touching political virtue
+as well as other specific aspects of morality are deducible from a
+study of Shakespeare's plots and characters. Very generous food for
+reflection seems to be offered the political philosopher by the plots
+and characters of _Julius Caesar_ and _Coriolanus_. The personality of
+Hamlet is instinct with ethical suggestion. The story and personages
+of _Measure for Measure_ present the most persistent of moral
+problems. But discussion of the ethical import of Shakespeare's
+several dramatic portraits or stories is of doubtful utility. There is
+a genuine danger of reading into Shakespeare's plots and characters
+more direct ethical significance than is really there. Dramatic art
+never consciously nor systematically serves obvious purposes of
+morality, save to its own detriment.
+
+Nevertheless there is not likely to be much disagreement with the
+general assertion that Shakespeare's plots and characters
+involuntarily develop under his hand in conformity with the
+straightforward requirements of moral law. He upholds the broad canons
+of moral truth with consistency, even with severity. There is no
+mistaking in his works on which side lies the right. He never renders
+vice amiable. His want of delicacy, his challenges of modesty, need
+no palliation. It was characteristic of his age to speak more plainly
+of many topics about which polite lips are nowadays silent. But
+Shakespeare's coarsenesses do no injury to the healthy-minded. They do
+not encourage evil propensities. Wickedness is always wickedness in
+Shakespeare, and never deludes the spectator by masquerading as
+something else. His plays never present problems as to whether vice is
+not after all in certain conditions the sister of virtue. Shakespeare
+never shows vice in the twilight, nor leaves the spectator or reader
+in doubt as to what its features precisely are. Vice injures him who
+practises it in the Shakespearean world, and ultimately proves his
+ruin. One cannot play with vice with impunity.
+
+    The gods are just, and of our pleasant vices
+    Make instruments to plague us.
+
+It is not because Shakespeare is a conscious moralist, that the wheel
+comes full circle in his dramatic world. It is because his sense of
+art is involuntarily coloured by a profound conviction of the ultimate
+justice which governs the operations of human nature and society.
+
+Shakespeare argues, in effect, that a man reaps as he sows. It may be
+contended that Nature does not always work in strict accord with this
+Shakespearean canon, and that Shakespeare thereby shows himself more
+of a deliberate moralist than Nature herself. But the dramatist
+idealises or generalises human experience; he does not reproduce it
+literally. There is nothing in the Shakespearean canon that runs
+directly counter to the idealised or generalised experience of the
+outer world. The wicked and the foolish, the intemperate and the
+over-passionate, reach in Shakespeare's world that disastrous goal,
+which nature at large keeps in reserve for them and only by rare
+accident suffers them to evade. The father who brings up his children
+badly and yet expects every dutiful consideration from them is only in
+rare conditions spared the rude awakening which overwhelms King Lear.
+The jealous husband who wrongly suspects his wife of infidelity
+commonly suffers the fate either of Othello or of Leontes.
+
+
+VI
+
+Shakespeare regards it as the noblest ambition in man to master his
+own destiny. There are numerous passages in which the dramatist
+figures as an absolute and uncompromising champion of the freedom of
+the will. "'Tis in ourselves that we are thus or thus," says one of
+his characters, Iago; "Our bodies are our gardens, to the which our
+wills are gardeners." Edmond says much the same in _King Lear_ when he
+condemns as "the excellent foppery of the world" the ascription to
+external influences of all our faults and misfortunes, whereas they
+proceed from our wilful, deliberate choice of the worser way.
+Repeatedly does Shakespeare assert that we are useful or useless
+members of society according as we will it ourselves.
+
+    Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie
+    Which we ascribe to heaven; the fated sky
+    Gives us free scope,
+
+says Helena in _All's Well_ (I., i., 231-3).
+
+    Men at some time are masters of their fates,
+
+says Cassius in _Julius Caesar_ (I., ii., 139-41);
+
+    The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,
+    But in ourselves that we are underlings.
+
+Hereditary predispositions, the accidents of environment, are not
+insuperable; they can be neutralised by force of will, by character.
+Character is omnipotent.
+
+The self-sufficing, imperturbable will is the ideal possession, beside
+which all else in the world is valueless. But the quest of it is
+difficult, and success in the pursuit is rare. Mastery of the will is
+the result of a rare conjunction--a perfect commingling of blood and
+judgment. Without such harmonious union man is "a pipe"--a musical
+instrument--"for Fortune's finger to sound what stop she pleases." Man
+can only work out his own salvation when he can control his passions
+and can take with equal thanks Fortune's buffets or rewards.
+
+The best of men is--
+
+                                Spare in diet
+    Free from gross passion or of mirth or anger,
+    Constant in spirit, not swerving with the blood.
+
+    (_Henry V._, II., ii., 131-3.)
+
+His is
+
+                                   the nature
+    Whom passion could not shake--whose solid virtue
+    The shot of accident nor dart of chance
+    Could neither graze nor pierce.
+
+    (_Othello_, IV., i., 176-9.)
+
+Stability of temperament is the finest fruit of the free exercise of
+the will; it is the noblest of masculine excellences.
+
+                            Give me that man
+    That is not passion's slave, and I will wear him
+    In my heart's core--ay, in my heart of hearts.
+
+    (_Hamlet_, III., ii., 76-8.)
+
+In spite of his many beautiful portrayals of the charms and tenderness
+and innocence of womanhood, Shakespeare had less hope in the ultimate
+capacity of women to control their destiny than in the ultimate
+capacity of men. The greatest of his female creations, Lady Macbeth
+and Cleopatra, stand in a category of their own. They do not lack high
+power of will, even if they are unable so to commingle blood and
+judgment as to master fate.
+
+Elsewhere, the dramatist seems to betray private suspicion of the
+normal woman's volitional capacity by applying to her heart and mind
+the specific epithet "waxen." The feminine temperament takes the
+impress of its environment as easily as wax takes the impress of a
+seal. In two passages where this simile is employed,[31] the deduction
+from it is pressed to the furthest limit, and free-will is denied
+women altogether. Feminine susceptibility is pronounced to be
+incurable; wavering, impressionable emotion is a main constituent of
+woman's being; women are not responsible for the sins they commit nor
+the wrongs they endure.
+
+[Footnote 31:
+
+    For men have marble, _women waxen minds_,
+    And therefore are they formed as marble will;
+    The weak oppressed, the impression of strange kinds
+    Is form'd in them by force, by fraud, or skill.
+    Then call them not the authors of their ill,
+    No more than wax shall be accounted evil,
+    Wherein is stamp'd the semblance of a devil.
+
+    (_Lucrece_, 1240-6.)
+
+    How easy it is for the proper-false
+    In _women's waxen hearts_, to set their forms!
+    Alas! our frailty is the cause, not we;
+    For, such as we are made of, such we be.
+
+    (_Twelfth Night_, II., ii., 31.)]
+
+This is reactionary doctrine, and one of the few points in
+Shakespeare's "natural" philosophy which invites dissent. But he makes
+generous amends by ascribing to women a plentiful supply of humour. No
+writer has proclaimed more effectively his faith in woman's brilliance
+of wit nor in her quickness of apprehension.
+
+
+VII
+
+Despite the solemnity which attaches to Shakespeare's philosophic
+reflections, he is at heart an optimist and a humorist. He combines
+with his serious thought a thorough joy in life, an irremovable
+preference for the bright over the dismal side of things. The creator
+of Falstaff and Mercutio, of Beatrice and the Princess in _Love's
+Labour's Lost_, could hardly fail to set store by that gaiety of
+spirit which is the antidote to unreasoning discontent, and keeps
+society in good savour.
+
+    Dost thou think, because thou art virtuous,
+    There shall be no more cakes and ale?
+
+is the voice of Shakespeare as well as of Sir Toby Belch. The
+dramatist was at one with Rosalind, his offspring, when she told
+Jaques:--
+
+    I had rather have a fool to make me merry,
+    Than experience to make me sad.
+
+The same sanguine optimistic temper constantly strikes a more
+impressive note.
+
+    There is some soul of goodness in things evil,
+    Would men observingly distil it out,
+
+is a comprehensive maxim, which sounds as if it came straight from
+Shakespeare's lips. This battle-cry of invincible optimism is uttered
+in the play by Shakespeare's favourite hero, Henry V. It is hard to
+quarrel with the inference that these words convey the ultimate
+verdict of the dramatist on human affairs.
+
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+SHAKESPEARE AND PATRIOTISM[32]
+
+[Footnote 32: This paper was first printed in the _Cornhill Magazine_,
+May 1901.]
+
+    His noble negligences teach
+    What others' toils despair to reach.
+
+
+I
+
+Patriotism is a natural instinct closely allied to the domestic
+affections. Its normal activity is as essential as theirs to the
+health of society. But, in a greater degree than other instincts, the
+patriotic impulse works with perilous irregularity unless it be
+controlled by the moral sense and the intellect.
+
+Every student of history and politics is aware how readily the
+patriotic instinct, if uncontrolled by morality and reason, comes into
+conflict with both. Freed of moral restraint it is prone to engender a
+peculiarly noxious brand of spurious sentiment--the patriotism of
+false pretence. Bombastic masquerade of the genuine impulse is not
+uncommon among place-hunters in Parliament and popularity-hunters in
+constituencies, and the honest instinct is thereby brought into
+disrepute. Dr Johnson was thinking solely of the frauds and moral
+degradation which have been sheltered by self-seekers under the name
+of patriotism when he none too pleasantly remarked: "Patriotism is the
+last refuge of a scoundrel."
+
+The Doctor's epigram hardly deserves its fame. It embodies a
+very meagre fraction of the truth. While it ignores the beneficent
+effects of the patriotic instinct, it does not exhaust its evil
+propensities. It is not only the moral obliquity of place-hunters or
+popularity-hunters that can fix on patriotism the stigma of offence.
+Its healthy development depends on intellectual as well as on moral
+guidance. When the patriotic instinct, however honestly it be
+cherished, is freed of intellectual restraint, it works even more
+mischief than when it is deliberately counterfeited. Among the
+empty-headed it very easily degenerates into an over-assertive, a
+swollen selfishness, which ignores or defies the just rights and
+feelings of those who do not chance to be their fellow-countrymen. No
+one needs to be reminded how much wrong-doing and cruelty have been
+encouraged by perfectly honest patriots who lack "intellectual
+armour." Dr Johnson knew that the blockhead seeks the shelter of
+patriotism with almost worse result to the body politic than the
+scoundrel.
+
+On the other hand, morality and reason alike resent the defect of
+patriotism as stoutly as its immoral or unintellectual extravagance. A
+total lack of the instinct implies an abnormal development of moral
+sentiment or intellect which must be left to the tender mercies of the
+mental pathologist. The man who is the friend of every country but his
+own can only be accounted for scientifically as the victim of an
+aberration of mind or heart. Ostentatious disclaimers of the patriotic
+sentiment deserve as little sympathy as the false pretenders to an
+exaggerated share of it. A great statesman is responsible for an
+apophthegm on that aspect of the topic which always deserves to be
+quoted in the same breath as Dr Johnson's familiar half-truth. When
+Sir Francis Burdett, the Radical leader in the early days of the last
+century, avowed scorn for the normal instinct of patriotism, Lord John
+Russell, the leader of the Liberal party in the House of Commons,
+sagely retorted: "The honourable member talks of the _cant_ of
+patriotism; but there is something worse than the _cant_ of
+patriotism, and that is the _recant_ of patriotism."[33] Mr Gladstone
+declared Lord John's repartee to be the best that he ever heard.
+
+[Footnote 33: The pun on "cant" and "recant" was not original, though
+Lord John's application of it was. Its inventor seems to have been
+Lady Townshend, the brilliant mother of Charles Townshend, the elder
+Pitt's Chancellor of the Exchequer. When she was asked if George
+Whitefield, the evangelical preacher, had yet recanted, she replied:
+"No, he has only been canting."]
+
+It may be profitable to consider how patriotism, which is singularly
+liable to distortion and perversion, presented itself to the mind of
+Shakespeare, the clearest-headed student of human thought and
+sentiment.
+
+
+II
+
+In Shakespeare's universal survey of human nature it was impossible
+that he should leave patriotism and the patriotic instinct out of
+account. It was inevitable that prevalent phases of both should
+frequently occupy his attention. In his role of dramatist he
+naturally dealt with the topic incidentally or disconnectedly rather
+than in the way of definite exposition; but in the result, his
+treatment will probably be found to be more exhaustive than that of
+any other English writer. The Shakespearean drama is peculiarly
+fertile in illustration of the virtuous or beneficent working of the
+patriotic instinct; but it does not neglect the malevolent or morbid
+symptoms incident either to its exorbitant or to its defective growth;
+nor is it wanting in suggestions as to how its healthy development may
+be best ensured. Part of Shakespeare's message on the subject is so
+well known that readers may need an apology for reference to it; but
+Shakespeare's declarations have not, as far as I know, been
+co-ordinated.[34]
+
+[Footnote 34: In passing cursorily over the whole field I must ask
+pardon for dwelling occasionally on ground that is in detached detail
+sufficiently well trodden, as well as for neglecting some points which
+require more thorough exploration than is practicable within my
+present limits.]
+
+Broadly speaking, the Shakespearean drama enforces the principle that
+an active instinct of patriotism promotes righteous conduct. This
+principle lies at the root of Shakespeare's treatment of history and
+political action, both English and Roman. Normal manifestations of the
+instinct in Shakespeare's world shed a gracious light on life. But it
+is seen to work in many ways. The patriotic instinct gives birth to
+various moods. It operates with some appearance of inconsistency. Now
+it acts as a spiritual sedative, now as a spiritual stimulant.
+
+Of all Shakespeare's characters, it is Bolingbroke in _Richard II._
+who betrays most effectively the tranquillising influence of
+patriotism. In him the patriotic instinct inclines to identity with
+the simple spirit of domesticity. It is a magnified love for his own
+hearthstone--a glorified home-sickness. The very soil of England,
+England's ground, excites in Bolingbroke an overmastering sentiment of
+devotion. His main happiness in life resides in the thought that
+England is his mother and his nurse. The patriotic instinct thus
+exerts on a character which is naturally cold and unsympathetic a
+softening, soothing, and purifying sway. Despite his forbidding
+self-absorption and personal ambition he touches hearts, and rarely
+fails to draw tears when he sighs forth the bald lines:--
+
+    Where'er I wander, boast of this I can,
+    Though banished, yet a true-born Englishman.
+
+In such a shape the patriotic instinct may tend in natures weaker than
+Bolingbroke's to mawkishness or sentimentality. But it is incapable of
+active offence. It makes for the peace and goodwill not merely of
+nations among themselves, but of the constituent elements of each
+nation within itself. It unifies human aspiration and breeds social
+harmony.
+
+Very different is the phase of the patriotic instinct which is
+portrayed in the more joyous, more frank, and more impulsive
+characters of Faulconbridge the Bastard in the play of _King John_,
+and of the King in _Henry V._ It is in them an inexhaustible stimulus
+to action. It is never quiescent, but its operations are regulated by
+morality and reason, and it finally induces a serene exaltation of
+temper. It was a pardonable foible of Elizabethan writers distinctly
+to identify with the English character this healthily energetic sort
+of patriotism--the sort of patriotism to which an atmosphere of
+knavery or folly proves fatal.
+
+Faulconbridge is an admirable embodiment of the patriotic sentiment in
+its most attractive guise. He is a manly soldier, blunt in speech,
+contemning subterfuge, chafing against the dictates of political
+expediency, and believing that quarrels between nations which cannot
+be accommodated without loss of self-respect on the one side or the
+other, had better be fought out in resolute and honourable war. He is
+the sworn foe of the bully or the braggart. Cruelty is hateful to him.
+The patriotic instinct nurtures in him a warm and generous humanity.
+His faith in the future of his nation depends on the confident hope
+that she will be true to herself, to her traditions, to her
+responsibilities, to the great virtues; that she will be at once
+courageous and magnanimous:--
+
+    Come the three corners of the world in arms,
+    And we shall shock them. Nought shall make us rue,
+    If England to itself do rest but true.
+
+Faulconbridge's patriotism is a vivacious spur to good endeavour in
+every relation of life.
+
+Henry V. is drawn by Shakespeare at fuller length than Faulconbridge.
+His character is cast in a larger mould. But his patriotism is of the
+same spirited, wholesome type. Though Henry is a born soldier, he
+discourages insolent aggression or reckless displays of prowess in
+fight. With greater emphasis than his archbishops and bishops he
+insists that his country's sword should not be unsheathed except at
+the bidding of right and conscience. At the same time, he is terrible
+in resolution when the time comes for striking blows. War, when it is
+once invoked, must be pursued with all possible force and fury:--
+
+    In peace there's nothing so becomes a man
+    As modest stillness and humility.
+    But when the blast of war blows in his ears,
+    Then imitate the action of the tiger.[35]
+
+[Footnote 35: On this point the Shakespearean oracle always speaks
+with a decisive and practical note:--
+
+                                   Beware
+    Of entrance to a quarrel, but being in
+    Bear't that the opposed may beware of thee.
+
+    (_Hamlet_, I., iii., 65-7.)]
+
+But although Henry's patriotic instinct can drive him into battle, it
+keeps him faithful there to the paths of humanity. Always alive to the
+horrors of war, he sternly forbids looting or even the use of
+insulting language to the enemy. It is only when a defeated enemy
+declines to acknowledge the obvious ruin of his fortunes that a sane
+and practical patriotism defends resort on the part of the conqueror
+to the grimmest measure of severity. The healthy instinct stiffens the
+grip on the justly won fruits of victory. As soon as Henry V. sees
+that the French wilfully deny the plain fact of their overthrow, he is
+moved, quite consistently, to exclaim:--
+
+    What is it then to me if impious war,
+    Arrayed in flames like to the prince of fiends,
+    Do with his smirched complexion all fell feats,
+    Enlinked to waste and desolation?
+
+The context makes it clear that there is no confusion here between the
+patriotic instinct and mere bellicose ecstasy.
+
+The confusion of patriotism with militant aggressiveness is as
+familiar to the Shakespearean drama as to the external world; but it
+is always exhibited by Shakespeare in its proper colours. The
+Shakespearean "mob," unwashed in mind and body, habitually yields to
+it, and justifies itself by a speciousness of argument, against which
+a clean vision rebels. The so-called patriotism which seeks expression
+in war for its own sake is alone intelligible to Shakespeare's
+pavement orators. "Let me have war, say I," exclaims the professedly
+patriotic spokesman of the ill-conditioned proletariat in
+_Coriolanus_; "it exceeds peace as far as day does night; it's
+spritely, waking, audible, and full of vent. Peace is a very apoplexy,
+lethargy; mulled, deaf, sleepy, insensible.... Ay, and it makes men
+hate one another." For this distressing result of peace, the reason is
+given that in times of peace men have less need of one another than in
+seasons of war, and the crude argument closes with the cry: "The wars
+for my money." There is irony in this suggestion of the mercantile
+value of war on the lips of a spokesman of paupers. It is solely the
+impulsive mindless patriot who strains after mere military glory.
+
+    Glory is like a circle in the water,
+    Which never ceaseth to enlarge itself,
+    Till by broad spreading it disperse to nought.
+
+    (I. _Henry VI._, I., ii., 133-5.)
+
+No wise man vaunts in the name of patriotism his own nation's
+superiority over another. The typical patriot, Henry V., once makes
+the common boast that one Englishman is equal to three Frenchmen, but
+he apologises for the brag as soon as it is out of his mouth. (He
+fears the air of France has demoralised him.)
+
+Elsewhere Shakespeare utters a vivacious warning against the patriot's
+exclusive claim for his country of natural advantages, which all the
+world shares substantially alike.
+
+    Hath Britain all the sun that shines? Day, night,
+    Are they not but in Britain? I' the world's volume
+    Our Britain seems as of it, but not in 't;
+    In a great pool, a swan's nest: prithee, think
+    There's livers out of Britain.[36]
+
+[Footnote 36: _Cymbeline_, III., iv., 139-43.]
+
+It is not the wild hunger for war, but the stable interests of peace
+that are finally subserved in the Shakespearean world by true and
+well-regulated patriotism. _Henry V._, the play of Shakespeare which
+shows the genuine patriotic instinct in its most energetic guise, ends
+with a powerful appeal to France and England, traditional foes, to
+cherish "neighbourhood and Christianlike accord," so that never again
+should "war advance his bleeding sword 'twixt England and fair
+France."
+
+However whole-heartedly Shakespeare rebukes the excesses and illogical
+pretensions to which the lack of moral or intellectual discipline
+exposes patriotism, he reserves his austerest censure for the
+disavowal of the patriotic instinct altogether. One of the greatest of
+his plays is practically a diagnosis of the perils which follow in the
+train of a wilful abnegation of the normal instinct. In _Coriolanus_
+Shakespeare depicts the career of a man who thinks that he can, by
+virtue of inordinate self-confidence and belief in his personal
+superiority over the rest of his countrymen, safely abjure and defy
+the common patriotic instinct, which, after all, keeps the State in
+being. "I'll never," says Coriolanus,
+
+    "Be such a gosling to obey instinct, but stand
+    As if a man were author of himself,
+    And knew no other kin."[37]
+
+[Footnote 37: _Coriolanus_, V., iii., 34-7.]
+
+Coriolanus deliberately suppresses the patriotic instinct, and, with
+greater consistency than others who have at times followed his
+example, joins the fighting ranks of his country's enemies by way of
+illustrating his sincerity. His action proves to be in conflict with
+the elementary condition of social equilibrium. The subversion of the
+natural instinct is brought to the logical issues of sin and death.
+Domestic ties are rudely severed. The crime of treason is risked with
+an insolence that is fatal to the transgressor. With relentless logic
+does the Shakespearean drama condemn defiance of the natural instinct
+of patriotism.
+
+
+III
+
+It does not, however, follow that the patriotic instinct of the
+Shakespearean gospel encourages blind adoration of state or country.
+Intelligent citizens of the Shakespearean world are never prohibited
+from honestly criticising the acts or aspirations of their fellows,
+and from seeking to change them when they honestly think they can be
+changed for the better. It is not the business of a discerning patriot
+to sing paeans in his nation's honour. His final aim is to help his
+country to realise the highest ideals of social and political conduct
+which are known to him, and to ensure for her the best possible
+"reputation through the world." Criticism conceived in a patriotic
+spirit should be constant and unflagging. The true patriot speaks out
+as boldly when he thinks the nation errs as when, in his opinion, she
+adds new laurels to her crown. The Shakespearean patriot applies a
+rigorous judgment to all conditions of his environment--both social
+and political.
+
+Throughout the English history plays Shakespeare bears convincing
+testimony to the right, and even to the duty, of the patriot to
+exercise in all seriousness his best powers of criticism on the
+political conduct of his fellow-citizens and of those who rule over
+him.
+
+Shakespeare's studies of English history are animated by a patriotism
+which boldly seeks and faces the truth. His dramatic presentations of
+English history have been often described as fragments of a national
+epic, as detached books of an English _Iliad_. But they embody no epic
+or heroic glorification of the nation. Taking the great series which
+begins chronologically with _King John_ and ends with _Richard III._
+(_Henry VIII._ stands apart), we find that Shakespeare makes the
+central features of the national history the persons of the kings.
+Only in the case of _Henry V._ does he clothe an English king with any
+genuine heroism. Shakespeare's kings are as a rule but men as we are.
+The violet smells to them as it does to us; all their senses have but
+human conditions; and though their affections be higher mounted than
+ours, yet when they stoop they stoop with like wing. Excepting _Henry
+V._, the history plays are tragedies. They "tell sad stories of the
+death of kings." But they do not merely illustrate the crushing
+burdens of kingship or point the moral of the hollowness of kingly
+pageantry; they explain why kingly glory is in its essence brittle
+rather than brilliant. And since Shakespeare's rulers reflect rather
+than inspire the character of the nation, we are brought to a study of
+the causes of the brittleness of national glory.
+
+The glory of a nation, as of a king, is only stable, we learn, when
+the nation, as the king, lives soberly, virtuously, and wisely, and
+is courageous, magnanimous, and zealous after knowledge. Cowardice,
+meanness, ignorance, and cruelty ruin nations as surely as they ruin
+kings. This is the lesson specifically taught in the most eloquent of
+all the direct avowals of patriotism which are to be found in
+Shakespeare's plays--in the dying speech of John of Gaunt.
+
+That speech is no ebullition of the undisciplined patriotic instinct.
+It is a solemn announcement of the truth that the greatness and glory,
+with which nature and history have endowed a nation, may be dissipated
+when, on the one hand, the rulers prove selfish, frivolous, and
+unequal to the responsibilities which a great past places on their
+shoulders, and when, on the other hand, the nation acquiesces in the
+depravity of its governors. In his opening lines the speaker lays
+emphasis on the possibilities of greatness with which the natural
+physical conditions of the country and its political and military
+traditions have invested his countrymen. Thereby he brings into lurid
+relief the sin and the shame of paltering with, of putting to ignoble
+uses, the national character and influence. The dying patriot
+apostrophises England in the familiar phrases, as:--
+
+    This royal throne of kings, this sceptred isle....
+    This fortress, built by nature for herself,
+    Against infection and the hand of war;
+    This happy breed of men, this little world;
+    This precious stone set in the silver sea,
+    Which serves it in the office of a wall,
+    Or as a moat defensive to a house,
+    Against the envy of less happier lands:
+    This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England,
+    This land of such dear souls, this dear, dear land,
+    Dear for her reputation through the world.
+
+    (_Richard II._, II., i., 40-58.)
+
+The last line identifies with the patriotic instinct the aspiration of
+a people to deserve well of foreign opinion. Subsequently the speaker
+turns from his survey of the ideal which he would have his country
+seek. He exposes with ruthless frankness the ugly realities of her
+present degradation.
+
+    England, bound in with the triumphant sea,
+    Whose rocky shore beats back the envious siege
+    Of wat'ry Neptune, is now bound in with shame,
+    With inky blots, and rotten parchment bonds,--
+    That England, that was wont to conquer others,
+    Hath made a shameful conquest of itself.
+
+    (_Richard II._, II., i., 61-6.)
+
+At the moment the speaker's warning is scorned, but ultimately it
+takes effect. At the end of the play of _Richard II._, England casts
+off the ruler and his allies, who by their self-indulgence and moral
+weakness play false with the traditions of the country.
+
+In _Henry V._, the only one of Shakespeare's historical plays in which
+an English king quits the stage in the full enjoyment of prosperity,
+his good fortune is more than once explained as the reward of his
+endeavour to abide by the highest ideals of his race, and of his
+resolve to exhibit in his own conduct its noblest mettle. His
+strongest appeals to his fellow-countrymen are:--
+
+    Dishonour not your mothers; now attest
+    That those whom you call'd fathers did beget you;
+
+           *       *       *       *       *
+
+                                       Let us swear
+    That you are worth your breeding.
+
+The kernel of sound patriotism is respect for a nation's traditional
+repute, for the attested worth of the race. That is the large lesson
+which Shakespeare taught continuously throughout his career as a
+dramatist. The teaching is not solely enshrined in the poetic
+eloquence either of plays of his early years like _Richard II._ or of
+plays of his middle life like _Henry V._ It is the last as well as the
+first word in Shakespeare's collective declaration on the true
+character of patriotism. _Cymbeline_ belongs to the close of his
+working life, and there we meet once more the assurance that a due
+regard to the past and an active resolve to keep alive ancestral
+virtue are the surest signs of health in the patriotic instinct.
+
+The accents of John of Gaunt were repeated by Shakespeare with little
+modulation at that time of his life when his reflective power was at
+its ripest. The Queen of Britain, Cymbeline's wife, is the personage
+in whose mouth Shakespeare sets, not perhaps quite appropriately, the
+latest message in regard to patriotism that he is known to have
+delivered. Emissaries from the Emperor Augustus have come from Rome to
+demand from the King of Britain payment of the tribute that Julius
+Caesar had long since imposed on the island, by virtue of a _force
+majeure_, which is temporarily extinguished. The pusillanimous King
+Cymbeline is indisposed to put himself to the pains of contesting the
+claim, but the resolute queen awakens in him a sense of patriotism and
+of patriotic obligation by recalling the more nobly inspired attitude
+of his ancestors, and by convincing him of the baseness of ignoring
+the physical features which had been bestowed by nature on his domains
+as a guarantee of their independence.
+
+                   Remember, sir my liege,
+    The kings your ancestors, together with
+    The natural bravery of your isle, which stands
+    As Neptune's park, ribbed and paled in
+    With rocks unscaleable and roaring waters,
+    With sands, that will not bear your enemies' boats,
+    But suck them up to the topmast.
+
+    (_Cymbeline_, III., i., 16-22.)
+
+The appeal prevails, and the tribute is refused. Although the
+evolution of the plot which is based on an historical chronicle
+compels the renewed acquiescence of the British king in the Roman tax
+at the close of the play, the Queen of Britain's spirited insistence
+on the maritime strength of her country loses little of its
+significance.
+
+
+IV
+
+Frank criticism of the social life of the nation is as characteristic
+of Shakespearean drama as outspoken exposition of its political
+failings. There is hardly any of Shakespeare's plays which does not
+offer shrewd comment on the foibles and errors of contemporary English
+society.
+
+To society, Shakespeare's attitude is that of a humorist who invites
+to reformation half-jestingly. His bantering tone, when he turns to
+social censure, strikingly contrasts with the tragic earnestness that
+colours his criticism of political vice or weakness. Some of the
+national failings on the social side which Shakespeare rebukes may
+seem trivial at a first glance. But it is the voice of prudent
+patriotism which prompts each count in the indictment. The keenness of
+Shakespeare's insight is attested by the circumstance that every
+charge has a modern application. None is yet quite out of date.
+
+Shakespeare rarely missed an opportunity of betraying contempt for the
+extravagances of his countrymen and countrywomen in regard to dress.
+Portia says of her English suitor Faulconbridge, the young baron of
+England: "How oddly he is suited! I think he bought his doublet in
+Italy, his round hose in France, his bonnet in Germany, and his
+behaviour everywhere." Another failing in Englishmen, which Portia
+detects in her English suitor, is a total ignorance of any language
+but his own. She, an Italian lady, remarks: "You know I say nothing to
+him, for he understands not me nor I him. He hath neither Latin,
+French, nor Italian. He is a proper man's picture, but, alas! who can
+converse with a dumb show." This moving plaint draws attention to a
+defect which is not yet supplied. There are few Englishmen nowadays
+who, on being challenged to court Portia in Italian, would not cut a
+sorry figure in dumb show--sorrier figures than Frenchmen or Germans.
+No true patriot ought to ignore the fact or to direct attention to it
+with complacency.
+
+Again, Shakespeare was never unmindful of the drunken habits of
+his compatriots. When Iago sings a verse of the song beginning,
+"And let me the cannikin clink," and ending, "Why then let a
+soldier drink," Cassio commends the excellence of the ditty.
+Thereupon Iago explains: "I learned it in England, where indeed
+they are most potent in potting; Your Dane, your German, and
+your swag-bellied Hollander--drink, ho!--are nothing to your
+English." Cassio asks: "Is your Englishman so expert in his drinking?"
+Iago retorts: "Why, he drinks you, with facility, your Dane dead
+drunk," and gains, the speaker explains, easy mastery over the German
+and the Hollander.
+
+A further stroke of Shakespeare's social criticism hits the
+thoughtless pursuit of novelty, which infected the nation and found
+vent in Shakespeare's day in the patronage of undignified shows and
+sports. When Trinculo, perplexed by the outward aspect of the hideous
+Caliban, mistakes him for a fish, he remarks: "Were I in England now,
+as once I was, and had but this fish painted, not a holiday fool there
+but would give a piece of silver: there would this monster make a man;
+any strange beast there makes a man: when they will not give a doit to
+relieve a lame beggar, they will lay out ten to see a dead Indian."
+
+Shakespeare seems slyly to confess a personal conviction of defective
+balance in the popular judgment when he makes the first grave-digger
+remark that Hamlet was sent into England because he was mad.
+
+"He shall recover his wits there," the old clown suggests, "or if he
+do not, 'tis no great matter there."
+
+"Why?" asks Hamlet.
+
+"'Twill not be seen in him there; there the men are as mad as he."
+
+So, too, in the emphatically patriotic play of _Henry V._, Shakespeare
+implies that he sees some purpose in the Frenchman's jibes at the
+foggy, raw, and dull climate of England, which engenders in its
+inhabitants, the Frenchman argues, a frosty temperament, an ungenial
+coldness of blood. Nor does the dramatist imply dissent from the
+French marshal's suggestion that Englishmen's great meals of beef
+impair the efficiency of their intellectual armour. The point of the
+reproof is not blunted by the subsequent admission of a French critic
+in the same scene to the effect that, however robustious and rough in
+manner Englishmen may be, they have the unmatchable courage of the
+English breed of mastiffs. To credit men with the highest virtues of
+which dogs are capable is a grudging compliment.
+
+
+V
+
+To sum up. The Shakespearean drama enjoins those who love their
+country wisely to neglect no advantage that nature offers in the way
+of resisting unjust demands upon it; to remember that her prosperity
+depends on her command of the sea,--of "the silver sea, which serves
+it in the office of a wall, or as a moat defensive to a house, against
+the envy of less happier lands"; to hold firm in the memory "the dear
+souls" who have made "her reputation through the world"; to subject at
+need her faults and frailties to criticism and rebuke; and finally to
+treat with disdain those in places of power, who make of no account
+their responsibilities to the past as well as to the present and the
+future. The political, social, and physical conditions of his country
+have altered since Shakespeare lived. England has ceased to be an
+island-power. The people rule instead of the king. Social
+responsibilities are more widely acknowledged. But the dramatist's
+doctrine of patriotism has lost little of its pristine vitality, and
+is relevant to current affairs.
+
+
+
+
+IX
+
+A PERIL OF SHAKESPEAREAN RESEARCH[38]
+
+[Footnote 38: This paper was first printed in _The Author_, October
+1903.]
+
+
+I
+
+For some years past scarcely a month passes without my receipt of a
+communication from a confiding stranger, to the effect that he has
+discovered some piece of information concerning Shakespeare which has
+hitherto eluded research. Very often has a correspondent put himself
+to the trouble of forwarding a photograph of the title-page of a late
+sixteenth or early seventeenth century book, on which has been
+scrawled in old-fashioned script the familiar name of William
+Shakespeare. At intervals, which seem to recur with mathematical
+regularity, I receive intelligence that a portrait of the poet, of
+which nothing is hitherto known, has come to light in some recondite
+corner of England or America, and it is usually added that a
+contemporary inscription settles all doubt of authenticity.
+
+I wish to speak with respect and gratitude of these confidences. I
+welcome them, and have no wish to repress them. But truth does not
+permit me to affirm that such as have yet reached me have done more
+than enlarge my conception of the scope of human credulity. I look
+forward to the day when the postman shall, through the generosity of
+some appreciative reader of my biography of Shakespeare, deliver at my
+door an autograph of the dramatist of which nothing has been heard
+before, or a genuine portrait of contemporary date, the existence of
+which has never been suspected. But up to the moment of writing,
+despite the good intentions of my correspondents, no experience of the
+kind has befallen me.
+
+There is something pathetic in the frequency with which
+correspondents, obviously of unblemished character and most generous
+instinct, send me almost tearful expressions of regret that I should
+have hitherto ignored one particular document, which throws (in their
+eyes) a curious gleam on the dramatist's private life. At least six
+times a year am I reminded how it is recorded in more than one obscure
+eighteenth-century periodical that the dramatist, George Peele, wrote
+to his friend Marle or Marlowe, in an extant letter, of a merry
+meeting which was held at a place called the "Globe." Whether the
+rendezvous were tavern or playhouse is left undetermined. The
+assembled company, I am assured, included not merely Edward Alleyn the
+actor, and Ben Jonson, but Shakespeare himself. Together these
+celebrated men are said to have discussed a passage in the new play of
+_Hamlet_. The reported talk is at the best tame prattle. Yet, if
+Shakespeare be anywhere revealed in unconstrained intercourse with
+professional associates, no biographer deserves pardon for overlooking
+the revelation, however disappointing be its purport.
+
+Unfortunately for this neglected intelligence, the letter in question
+is an eighteenth century fabrication. It is a forgery of no intrinsic
+brilliance or wit. It bears on its dull face marks of guilt which
+could only escape the notice of the uninformed. It is not likely to
+mislead the critical. Nevertheless it has deceived many an uncritical
+reader, and has constantly found its way into print without meeting
+serious confutation. It may therefore be worth while setting its true
+origin and subsequent history on record. No endeavour is likely in all
+the circumstances of the case to prevent an occasional resurrection of
+the meagre spectre; but at present it appears to walk in various
+quarters quite unimpeded, and an endeavour to lay it may not be
+without its uses.
+
+
+II
+
+Through the first half of 1763 there was published in London a monthly
+magazine called the _Theatrical Review, or Annals of the Drama_, an
+anonymous miscellany of dramatic biography and criticism. It was a
+colourless contribution to the journalism of the day, and lacked
+powers of endurance. It ceased at the end of six months. The six
+instalments were re-issued as "Volume I." at the end of June 1763; but
+that volume had no successor.[39]
+
+[Footnote 39: Other independent publications of similar character
+appeared under the identical title of _The Theatrical Review_ both in
+1758 and 1772. The latter collected the ephemeral dramatic criticisms
+of John Potter, a well-known writer for the stage.]
+
+All that is worth noting of the _Theatrical Review_ of 1763 now is
+that among its contributors was an extremely interesting personality.
+He was a young man of good education and independent means, who had
+chambers in the Temple, and was enthusiastically applying himself to a
+study of Shakespeare and Elizabethan dramatic literature. His name,
+George Steevens, acquired in later years world-wide fame as that of
+the most learned of Shakespearean commentators. Of the real value of
+Steevens's scholarship no question is admissible, and his reputation
+justly grew with his years. Yet Steevens's temper was singularly
+perverse and mischievous. His confidence in his own powers led him to
+contemn the powers of other people. He enjoyed nothing so much as
+mystifying those who were engaged in the same pursuits as himself, and
+his favourite method of mystification was to announce anonymously the
+discovery of documents which owed all their existence to his own
+ingenuity. This, he admitted, was his notion of "fun." Whenever the
+whim seized him, he would in gravest manner reveal to the Press, or
+even contrive to bring to the notice of a learned society, some
+alleged relic in manuscript or in stone which he had deliberately
+manufactured. His sole aim was to recreate himself with laughter at
+the perplexity that such unholy pranks aroused. It is one of these
+Puck-like tricks on Steevens's part that has spread confusion among
+those of my correspondents, who allege that Peele has handed down to
+us a personal reminiscence of the great dramatist.
+
+The _Theatrical Review_, in its second number, offered an anonymous
+biography of the great actor and theatrical manager of Shakespeare's
+day, Edward Alleyn. This biography was clearly one of Steevens's
+earliest efforts. It is for the most part an innocent compilation. But
+it contains one passage in its author's characteristic vein of
+mischief. Midway in the essay the reader is solemnly assured that a
+brand-new contemporary reference to Alleyn's eminent associate
+Shakespeare was at his disposal. The new story "carries with it"
+(asserts the writer) "all the air of probability and truth, and has
+never been in print before." "A gentleman of honour and veracity," run
+the next sentences, which were designed to put the unwary student off
+his guard, "in the commission of the peace for Middlesex, has shown us
+a letter dated in the year 1600, which he assures us has been in the
+possession of his family, by the mother's side, for a long series of
+years, and which bears all the marks of antiquity." The superscription
+was interpreted to run: "For Master Henrie Marle, livynge at the sygne
+of the rose by the palace."
+
+There follows at length the paper of which the family of the
+honourable and veracious gentleman "in the commission of the peace for
+Middlesex" had become possessed "by the mother's side." The words were
+these:--
+
+     "FRIENDE MARLE,
+
+     "I must desyre that my syster hyr watche, and the cookerie
+     booke you promysed, may be sent by the man. I never longed
+     for thy company more than last night; we were all very
+     merrye at the Globe, when Ned Alleyn did not scruple to
+     affyrme pleasantely to thy friend Will, that he had stolen
+     his speech about the qualityes of an actor's excellencye, in
+     _Hamlet_ hys tragedye, from conversations manyfold which had
+     passed between them, and opinyons given by Allen touchinge
+     the subject. Shakespeare did not take this talke in good
+     sorte; but Jonson put an end to the stryfe with wittielie
+     saying: 'This affaire needeth no contentione; you stole it
+     from Ned, no doubt; do not marvel; have you not seen him act
+     tymes out of number?'
+
+     "Believe me most syncerelie,
+
+     "Harrie,
+
+     "Thyne,
+
+     "G. PEEL."
+
+The text of this strangely-spelt, strangely-worded epistle, with its
+puny efforts at a jest, was succeeded by a suggestion that "G. Peel,"
+the alleged signatory, could be none other than George Peele, the
+dramatist, who achieved reputation in Shakespeare's early days, and
+was an industrious collector of anecdotes.
+
+Thus the impish Steevens baited his hook. The sport which followed
+must have exceeded his expectations. Any one familiar with the bare
+outline of Elizabethan literary history should have perceived that a
+trap had been set. The letter was assigned to the year 1600.
+Shakespeare's play of _Hamlet_, to the performance of which it
+unconcernedly refers, was not produced before 1602; at that date
+George Peele had lain full four years in his grave. Peele could never
+have passed the portals of the theatre called the "Globe"; for it was
+not built until 1599. No historic tavern of the name is known. The
+surname of the person, to whom the letter was pretended to have been
+addressed, is suspicious. "Marle" was one way of spelling "Marlowe" at
+a period when forms of surnames varied with the caprice of the writer.
+The great dramatist, _Christopher_ Marle, or Marloe, or Marlowe, had
+died in 1593. "Henrie Marle" is counterfeit coinage of no doubtful
+stamp.
+
+The language and the style of the letter are undeserving of serious
+examination. They are of a far later period than the Elizabethan age.
+They cannot be dated earlier than 1763. Safely might the heaviest odds
+be laid that in no year of the reign of Queen Elizabeth "did friende
+Marle promyse G. Peel his syster that he would send hyr watche and the
+cookerie book by the man," or that "Ned Alleyn made pleasante
+affirmation to G. Peel of friend Will's theft of the speech in
+_Hamlet_ concerning an actor's excellencye."
+
+From top to toe the imposture is obvious. But the general reader of
+the eighteenth century was confiding, unsuspicious, greedy of novel
+information. The description of the source of the document seemed to
+him precise enough to silence doubt.
+
+
+III
+
+The _Theatrical Review_ of 1763 succeeded in launching the fraud on a
+quite triumphal progress. Again and again, as the century advanced,
+was G. Peel's declaration to "friende Marle" paraded, without hint of
+its falsity, before snappers-up of Shakespearean trifles. Seven years
+after its first publication, the epistle found admission in a slightly
+altered setting to so reputable a periodical as the _Annual Register_.
+Burke was still directing that useful publication, and whatever
+information the _Register_ shielded, was reckoned to be of veracity.
+"G. Peel" and "friende Marle" were there, in the year 1770, suffered
+to exchange their confidences in the most honourable environment.
+
+Another seven years passed, and in 1777 there appeared an ambitious
+work of reference, entitled _Biographia Literaria, or a Biographical
+History of Literature_, which gave its author, John Berkenhout, a
+free-thinking physician, his chief claim to remembrance. Steevens was
+a friend of Berkenhout, and helped him in the preparation of the book.
+Into his account of Shakespeare, the credulous physician introduced
+quite honestly the fourteen-year-old forgery. The reputed date of
+1600, which the supposititious justice of the peace had given it in
+the _Theatrical Review_, was now suppressed. Berkenhout confined his
+comment to the halting reminiscence: "Whence I copied this letter I do
+not recollect; but I remember that at the time of transcribing it, I
+had no doubt of its authenticity."
+
+Thrice had the trick been worked effectively in conspicuous places
+before Steevens died in 1800. But the evil that he did lived after
+him, and within a year of his death the imposture renewed its youth. A
+correspondent, who concealed his identity under the signature of
+"Grenovicus" (_i.e._, of Greenwich), sent Peel's letter in 1801 to the
+_Gentleman's Magazine_, a massive repertory of useful knowledge. There
+it was duly reprinted in the number for June. "Grenovicus" had the
+assurance to claim the letter as his own discovery. "To my knowledge,"
+he wrote, "it has never yet appeared in print." He refrained from
+indicating how he had gained access to it, but congratulated himself
+and the readers of the _Gentleman's Magazine_ on the valiant feast
+that he provided for them. His action was apparently taken by the
+readers of the _Gentleman's Magazine_ at his own valuation.
+
+Meanwhile the discerning critic was not altogether passive. Isaac
+D'Israeli denounced the fraud in his _Curiosities of Literature_; but
+he and others did their protesting gently. The fraud looked to the
+expert too shamefaced to merit a vigorous onslaught. He imagined the
+spurious epistle must die of its own inanity. In this he miscalculated
+the credulity of the general reader. "Grenovicus" of the _Gentleman's
+Magazine_ had numerous disciples.
+
+Many a time during the past century has that worthy's exploit been
+repeated. Even so acute a scholar as Alexander Dyce thought it worth
+while to reprint the letter in 1829 in the first edition of his
+collected works of George Peele (Vol. I., page 111), although he
+declined to pledge himself to its authenticity. The latest historian
+of Dulwich College[40] has admitted it to his text with too mildly
+worded a caveat. Often, too, has "G. Peel" emerged more recently from
+a long-forgotten book or periodical to darken the page of a modern
+popular magazine. I have met him unabashed during the present century
+in two literary periodicals of repute--in the _Academy_ (of London),
+in the issue of 18th January 1902, and in the _Poet Lore_ (of Boston)
+in the following April number. Future disinterments may safely be
+prophesied. In the jungle of the _Annual Register_ or the _Gentleman's
+Magazine_ the forgery lurks unchallenged, and there will always be
+inexperienced explorers, who from time to time will run the unhallowed
+thing to earth there, and bring it forth as a new and unsuspected
+truth.
+
+[Footnote 40: William Young's _History of Dulwich College_, 1889, II.,
+41-2.]
+
+Perhaps forgery is too big a word to apply to Steevens's concoction.
+Others worked at later periods on lines of mystification similar to
+his; but, unlike his disciples, he did not seek from his misdirected
+ingenuity pecuniary gain or even notoriety. He never set his name to
+this invention of "Peel" and "Marle," and their insipid chatter about
+_Hamlet_ at the "Globe." Steevens's sole aim was to delude the unwary.
+It is difficult to detect humour in the endeavour. But the perversity
+of the human intellect has no limits. This ungainly example of it is
+only worth attention because it has sailed under its false colours
+without very serious molestation for one hundred and forty-three
+years.
+
+
+
+
+X
+
+SHAKESPEARE IN FRANCE[41]
+
+[Footnote 41: This paper was first printed in _The Nineteenth
+Century_, June 1899.]
+
+
+I
+
+Nothing but good can come of a comparative study of English and French
+literature. The political intercourse of the two countries has
+involved them in an endless series of broils. But between the
+literatures of the two countries friendly relations have subsisted for
+over five centuries. In the literary sphere the interchange of
+neighbourly civilities has known no interruption. The same literary
+forms have not appealed to the tastes of the two nations; but
+differences of aesthetic temperament have not prevented the literature
+of the one from levying substantial loans on the literature of the
+other, and that with a freedom and a frequency which were calculated
+to breed discontent between any but the most cordial of allies. While
+the literary geniuses of the two nations have pursued independent
+ideals, they have viewed as welcome courtesies the willingness and
+readiness of the one to borrow sustenance of the other on the road. It
+is unlikely that any full or formal balance-sheet of such lendings and
+borrowings will ever be forthcoming, for it is felt instinctively by
+literary accountants and their clients on both shores of the English
+Channel that the debts on the one side keep a steady pace with the
+debts on the other, and there is no balance to be collected.
+
+No recondite research is needed to establish this general view
+of the situation. It is well known how the poetic career of Chaucer,
+the earliest of great English poets, was begun under French masters.
+The greatest poem of mediaeval France, the _Roman de la Rose_,
+was turned into English by his youthful pen, and the chief French
+poet of the day, Eustace Deschamps, held out to him the hand of
+fellowship in the enthusiastic _balade_, in which he apostrophised
+"le grand translateur, noble Geoffroi Chaucer." Following Chaucer's
+example, the great poets of Elizabeth's reign and of James the
+First's reign most liberally and most literally assimilated the
+verse of their French contemporaries, Ronsard, Du Bellay, and
+Desportes.[42] Early in the seventeenth century, Frenchmen returned
+the compliment by naturalising in French translations the prose
+romances of Sir Philip Sidney and Robert Greene, the philosophical
+essays of Bacon, and the ethical and theological writings of Bishop
+Joseph Hall. From the accession of Charles the Second until that
+of George the Third, the English drama framed itself on French
+models, and Pope, who long filled the throne of a literary dictator
+in England, acknowledged discipleship to Boileau. A little later the
+literary philosophers of France--Rousseau and the Encyclopedistes--drew
+their nutrition from the writings of Hobbes and Locke. French
+novel-readers of the eighteenth century found their chief joy in the
+tearful emotions excited by the sentimentalities of Richardson and
+Sterne. French novel-writers one hundred and thirty years ago had
+small chance of recognition if they disdained to traffic in the
+lachrymose wares which the English novelists had brought into fashion.
+
+[Footnote 42: In the Introduction to a collection of Elizabethan
+Sonnets, published in Messrs Constable's re-issue of Arber's _English
+Garner_ (1904), the present writer has shown that numerous sonnets,
+which Elizabethan writers issued as original poems, were literal
+translations from the French of Ronsard, Du Bellay, and Desportes.
+Numerous loans of like character were levied silently on Italian
+authors.]
+
+At the present moment the cultured Englishman finds his most palatable
+fiction in the publications of Paris. Within recent memory the English
+playgoer viewed with impatience any theatrical programme which lacked
+a Parisian flavour. The late Sir Henry Irving, who, during the past
+generation, sought to sustain the best traditions of the English
+drama, produced in his last years two original plays, _Robespierre_
+and _Dante_, by the _doyen_ of living French dramatists, M. Sardou.
+Complementary tendencies are visible across the Channel. The French
+stage often offers as cordial a reception to plays of English
+manufacture as is offered in London to the plays derived from France.
+No histrionic event attracts higher interest in Paris than the
+assumption by a great actor or actress of a Shakespearean role for the
+first time; and French dramatic critics have been known to generate
+such heat in debates over the right conception of a Shakespearean
+character that their differences have required adjustment at the
+sword's point.
+
+Of greater interest is it to note that in all the cultivated centres
+of France a new and unparalleled energy is devoted to-day to the study
+of English literature of both the present and the past. The research
+recently expended on the topic by French scholars has not been
+excelled in Germany, and has rarely been equalled in England. Critical
+biographies of James Thomson (of _The Seasons_), of Burns, of Young,
+and of Wordsworth have come of late from the pens of French professors
+of English literature, and their volumes breathe a minute accuracy and
+a fulness of sympathetic knowledge which are certainly not habitual to
+English professors of English literature. This scholarly movement in
+France shows signs of rapid extension. Each summer vacation sees an
+increase in the number of French visitors to the British Museum
+reading-room, who are making recondite researches into English
+literary history. The new zeal of Frenchmen for English studies claims
+the most cordial acknowledgment of English scholars, and it is
+appropriate that the most coveted lectureship on English literature in
+an English University--the Clark lectureship at Trinity College,
+Cambridge--should have been bestowed last year on the learned
+professor of English at the Sorbonne, M. Beljame, author of _Le Public
+et les Hommes de Lettres en Angleterre au XVIIIe Siecle_. M.
+Beljame's unexpected death (on September 17, 1906), shortly after his
+work at Cambridge was completed, is a loss alike to English and French
+letters.
+
+
+II
+
+In view of the growth of the French interest in English literary
+history, it was to be expected that serious efforts should be made in
+France to determine the character and dimensions of the influence
+exerted on French literature by the greatest of all English men of
+letters--by Shakespeare. That work has been undertaken by M.
+Jusserand. In 1898 he gave to the world the results of his
+investigation in his native language. Subsequently, with a welcome
+consideration for the linguistic incapacities of Shakespeare's
+countrymen, he repeated his conclusions in their tongue.[43] The
+English translation is embellished with many pictorial illustrations
+of historic interest and value.
+
+[Footnote 43: _Shakespeare in France under the Ancien Regime_, by J.J.
+Jusserand. London: T. Fisher Unwin. 1899.]
+
+Among French writers on English literature, M. Jusserand is the most
+voluminous and the most widely informed. His career differs in an
+important particular from that of his countrymen who pursue the same
+field of study. He is not by profession a teacher or writer: he is a
+diplomatist, and now holds the high office of French ambassador to the
+United States of America. M. Jusserand has treated in his books of
+almost all periods of English literary history, and he has been long
+engaged on an exhaustive _Literary History of the English People_, of
+which the two volumes already published bring the narrative as far as
+the close of the Civil Wars.
+
+M. Jusserand enjoys the rare, although among modern Frenchmen by no
+means unexampled, faculty of writing with almost equal ease and
+felicity in both French and English. His walk in life gives him a
+singularly catholic outlook. His learning is profound, but he is not
+overburdened by it, and he preserves his native gaiety of style even
+when solving crabbed problems of bibliography. He is at times
+discursive, but he is never tedious; and he shows no trace of that
+philological pedantry and narrowness or obliquity of critical vision
+which the detailed study of literary history has been known to breed
+in English and German investigators. While M. Jusserand betrays all
+the critical independence of his compatriot M. Taine, his habit of
+careful and laborious research illustrates with peculiar vividness the
+progress which English scholarship has made in France since M. Taine
+completed his sparkling survey of English literature in 1864.
+
+M. Jusserand handles the theme of _Shakespeare in France under the
+Ancien Regime_ with all the lightness of touch and wealth of minute
+detail to which he has accustomed his readers. Nowhere have so many
+facts been brought together in order to illustrate the literary
+intercourse of Frenchmen and Englishmen between the sixteenth and the
+nineteenth centuries. It is true that his opening chapters have little
+concern with Shakespeare, but their intrinsic interest and novelty
+atone for their irrelevance. They shed a flood of welcome light on
+that interchange of literary information and ideas which is a constant
+feature in the literary history of the two countries.
+
+Many will read here for the first time of the great poet Ronsard's
+visits to this country; of the distinguished company of English actors
+which delighted the court of Henry IV. of France; and of Ben Jonson's
+discreditable drunken exploits in the French capital when he went
+thither as tutor to Sir Walter Ralegh's son. To these episodes might
+well be added the pleasant personal intercourse of Francis Bacon's
+brother, Anthony, with the great French essayist Montaigne, when the
+Englishman was sojourning at Bordeaux in 1583. Montaigne's Essays
+achieved hardly less fame in Elizabethan England than in France. Both
+Shakespeare and Bacon gave proof of indebtedness to them.
+
+By some freak of fortune Shakespeare's fame was slow in crossing the
+English Channel. The French dramatists of the sixteenth and
+seventeenth centuries lived and died in the paradoxical faith that the
+British drama reached its apogee in the achievement of the Scottish
+Latinist, George Buchanan, who was reckoned in France "prince of the
+poets of our day." In Buchanan's classical tragedies Montaigne played
+a part, while he was a student at Bordeaux. His tragedy of _Jephtha_
+achieved exceptional fame in sixteenth century France; three Frenchmen
+of literary repute rendered it independently into their own language,
+and each rendering went through several editions. Another delusion
+which French men of letters cherished, not only during Shakespeare's
+lifetime, but through three or four generations after his death, was
+that Sir Thomas More, Sir Philip Sidney, and the father of Lord
+Chancellor Bacon were the greatest authors which England had begotten
+or was likely to beget. French enthusiasm for the suggestive irony of
+More's Latin romance of _Utopia_ outran that of his fellow-countrymen.
+A French translation anticipated the earliest rendering of the work in
+the author's native tongue. No less than two independent French
+versions of Sir Philip Sidney's voluminous fiction of _Arcadia_ were
+circulating in France one hundred and twenty years before the like
+honour was paid to any work of Shakespeare.
+
+Shakespeare's work first arrived in France towards the close of the
+seventeenth century. Frenchmen were staggered by its originality. They
+perceived the dramatist's colossal breaches of classical law. They
+were shocked by his freedom of speech. When Louis the Fourteenth's
+librarian placed on the shelves of the Royal Library in Paris a copy
+of the Second Folio of his works which had been published in London in
+1632, he noted in his catalogue that Shakespeare "has a rather fine
+imagination; he thinks naturally; but these fine qualities are
+obscured by the filth he introduces into his comedies." An increasing
+mass of pedestrian literature was imported into France from England
+through the middle and late years of the seventeenth century. Yet
+Shakespeare had to wait for a fair hearing there till the eighteenth
+century.
+
+Then it was very gradually that Shakespeare's pre-eminence was
+realised by French critics. It is to Voltaire that Frenchmen owe a
+full knowledge of Shakespeare. Voltaire's method of teaching
+Shakespeare to his countrymen was characteristically cynical. He
+studied him closely when he visited England as a young man. At that
+period of his career he not merely praised him with discerning
+caution, but he paid him the flattery of imitation. Voltaire's tragedy
+of _Brutus_ betrays an intimate acquaintance with Shakespeare's
+_Julius Caesar_. His _Eryphile_ was the product of many perusals of
+_Hamlet_. His _Zaire_ is a pale reflection of _Othello_. But when
+Voltaire's countrymen showed a tendency to better Voltaire's
+instruction, and one Frenchman conferred on Shakespeare the title of
+"the god of the theatre," Voltaire resented the situation that he had
+himself created. He was at the height of his own fame, and he felt
+that his reputation as the first of French writers for the stage was
+in jeopardy.
+
+The last years of Voltaire's life were therefore consecrated to an
+endeavour to dethrone the idol which his own hands had set up.
+Voltaire traded on the patriotic prejudices of his hearers, but his
+efforts to depreciate Shakespeare were very partially successful. Few
+writers of power were ready to second the soured critic, and after
+Voltaire's death the Shakespeare cult in France, of which he was the
+unwilling inaugurator, spread far and wide.
+
+In the nineteenth century Shakespeare was admitted without demur into
+the French "pantheon of literary gods." Classicists and romanticists
+vied in doing him honour. The classical painter Ingres introduced his
+portrait into his famous picture of "Homer's Cortege" (now in the
+Louvre). The romanticist Victor Hugo recognised only three men as
+memorable in the history of humanity, and Shakespeare was one of the
+three; Moses and Homer were the other two. Alfred de Musset became a
+dramatist under Shakespeare's spell. To George Sand everything in
+literature seemed tame by the side of Shakespeare's poetry. The prince
+of romancers, the elder Dumas, set the English dramatist next to God
+in the cosmic system; "after God," wrote Dumas, "Shakespeare has
+created most."
+
+
+III
+
+It would be easy to multiply eulogies of Shakespeare from French lips
+in the vein of Victor Hugo and Dumas--eulogies besides which the
+enthusiasm of many English critics appears cold and constrained. So
+unfaltering a note of admiration sounds gratefully in the ears of
+Shakespeare's countrymen. Yet on closer investigation there seems a
+rift within the lute. When one turns to the French versions of
+Shakespeare, for which the chief of Shakespeare's French encomiasts
+have made themselves responsible, an Englishman is inclined to
+moderate his exultation in the French panegyrics.
+
+No one did more as an admiring critic and translator of Shakespeare
+than Jean Francois Ducis, who prepared six of Shakespeare's greatest
+plays for the French stage at the end of the eighteenth century. Not
+only did Ducis introduce Shakespeare's masterpieces to thousands of
+his countrymen who might otherwise never have heard of them, but his
+renderings of Shakespeare were turned into Italian and many languages
+of Eastern Europe. They spread the knowledge of Shakespeare's
+achievement to the extreme boundaries of the European Continent.
+Apparently Ducis did his work under favourable auspices. He
+corresponded regularly with Garrick, and he was never happier than
+when studying Shakespeare's text with a portrait of Shakespeare at his
+side. Yet, in spite of Ducis's unquestioned reverence and his
+honourable intentions, all his translations of Shakespeare are gross
+perversions of their originals. It is not merely that he is verbally
+unfaithful. He revises the development of the plots; he gives the
+_dramatis personae_ new names.
+
+Ducis's _Othello_ was accounted his greatest triumph. The play shows
+Shakespeare's mastery of the art of tragedy at its highest stage of
+development, and rewards the closest study. But the French translator
+ignored the great tragic conception which gives the drama its pith and
+moment. He converted the piece into a romance. Towards the end of his
+rendering Iago's villanies are discovered by Othello; Othello and
+Desdemona are reconciled; and the Moor, exulting in his newly
+recovered happiness, pardons Iago. The curtain falls on a dazzling
+scene of domestic bliss.
+
+Ducis frankly acknowledged that he was guilty of a somewhat strained
+interpretation of Shakespeare's tragic scheme, but he defended himself
+on the ground that French refinement and French sensitiveness could
+not endure the agonising violence of the true catastrophe. It is,
+indeed, the fact that the patrons of the Comedie Francaise strictly
+warned the adapter against revolting their feelings by reproducing the
+"barbarities" that characterised the close of Shakespeare's tragic
+masterpiece.
+
+If so fastidious a flinching from tragic episode breathe the true
+French sentiment, what, we are moved to ask, is the significance of
+the unqualified regard which Ducis and his countrymen profess for
+Shakespearean drama? There seems a strange paradox in the situation.
+The history of France proves that Frenchmen can face without quailing
+the direst tragedies which can be wrought in earnest off the stage.
+There is a startling inconsistency in the outcry of Ducis's French
+clients against the terror of Desdemona's murder. For the protests
+which Ducis reports on the part of the Parisians bear the date 1792.
+In that year the tragedy of the French Revolution--a tragedy of real
+life, grimmer than any that Shakespeare imagined--was being enacted in
+literal truth by the Parisian playgoers themselves. It would seem that
+Ducis and his countrymen deemed the purpose of art to be alone
+fulfilled when the artistic fabric was divorced from the ugly facts of
+life.
+
+A like problem is presented by Dumas's efforts in more pacific
+conditions to adapt Shakespeare for the Parisian stage. With his
+friend Paul Meurice Dumas prepared the version of _Hamlet_ which long
+enjoyed a standard repute at the Comedie Francaise. Dumas's ecstatic
+adoration for Shakespeare's genius did not deter him, any more than
+Ducis was deterred by his more subdued veneration, from working havoc
+on the English text. Shakespeare's blank verse was necessarily turned
+into Alexandrines. That was comparatively immaterial. Of greater
+moment is it to note that the _denouement_ of the tragedy was
+completely revolutionised by Dumas. The tragic climax is undermined.
+Hamlet's life is spared by Dumas. The hero's dying exclamation, "The
+rest is silence," disappears from Dumas's version. At the close of the
+play the French translator makes the ghost rejoin his son and
+good-naturedly promise him indefinite prolongation of his earthly
+career. According to the gospel of Dumas, the tragedy of Hamlet ends,
+as soon as his and his father's wrongs have been avenged, in this
+fashion:--
+
+_Hamlet._      Et moi, vais-je rester, triste orphelin sur terre,
+               A respirer cet air impregne de misere?...
+               Est-ce que Dieu sur moi fera peser son bras,
+               Pere? Et quel chatiment m'attend donc?
+
+_Le Fantome._                                         Tu vivras.
+
+Such defiant transgressions of the true Shakespearean canon as those
+of which Ducis and Dumas stand convicted may well rouse the suspicion
+that the critical incense they burn at Shakespeare's shrine is
+offered with the tongue in the cheek. But that suspicion is not
+justified. Ducis and Dumas worship Shakespeare with a whole heart.
+Their misapprehensions of his tragic conceptions are due,
+involuntarily, to native temperament. In point of fact, Ducis and
+Dumas see Shakespeare through a distorting medium. The two Frenchmen
+were fully conscious of Shakespeare's towering greatness. They
+perceived intuitively that Shakespeare's tragedies transcended all
+other dramatic achievement. But their aesthetic sense, which, as far as
+the drama was concerned, was steeped in the classical spirit, set many
+of the essential features of Shakespeare's genius outside the focus of
+their vision.
+
+To a Frenchman a tragedy of classical rank connotes "correctness," an
+absence of tumult, some observance of the classical law of unity of
+time, place, and action. The perpetration of crime in face of the
+audience outraged all classical conventions. Ducis and Dumas
+recognised involuntarily that certain characteristics of the
+Shakespearean drama could not live in the classical atmosphere of
+their own theatre. Excision, expansion, reduction was inevitable
+before Shakespeare could breathe the air of the French stage. The
+grotesque perversions of Ducis and Dumas were thus not the fruit of
+mere waywardness, or carelessness, or dishonesty; they admit of
+philosophical explanation.
+
+By Englishmen they may be viewed with equanimity, if not with
+satisfaction. They offer strong proof of the irrepressible strength or
+catholicity of the appeal that Shakespeare's genius makes to the mind
+and heart of humanity. His spirit survived the French efforts at
+mutilation. The Gallicised or classicised contortions of his mighty
+work did not destroy its saving virtue. There is ground for
+congratulation that Ducis's and Dumas's perversions of Shakespeare
+excited among Frenchmen almost as devoted an homage as the dramatist's
+work in its native purity and perfection claims of men whose souls are
+free of the fetters of classical tradition.
+
+
+IV
+
+If any still doubt the sincerity of the worship which is offered
+Shakespeare in France, I would direct the sceptic's attention to a
+pathetically simple tribute which was paid to the dramatist by a
+French student in the first year of the last century, when England and
+France were in the grip of the Napoleonic War. It was then that a
+young Frenchman proved beyond cavil by an ingenuous confession that
+the English poet, in spite of the racial differences of aesthetic
+sentiment, could touch a French heart more deeply than any French or
+classical author. In 1801 there was published at Besancon, "de
+l'imprimerie de Metoyer," a very thin volume in small octavo, under
+fifty pages in length, entitled, _Pensees de Shakespeare, Extraites de
+ses Ouvrages_. No compiler's name is mentioned, but there is no doubt
+that the book was from the pen of a precocious native of Besancon,
+Charles Nodier, who was in later life to gain distinction as a
+bibliographer and writer of romance.
+
+This forgotten volume, of which no more than twenty-five copies were
+printed, and only two or three of these seem to survive, has escaped
+the notice of M. Jusserand. No copy of it is in the British Museum,
+or in La Bibliotheque de l'Arsenal, with which the author, Nodier, was
+long honourably associated as librarian. I purchased it a few years
+ago by accident in a small collection of imperfectly catalogued
+Shakespeareana. Lurking in the rear of a very ragged regiment on the
+shelves of the auctioneer stood Charles Nodier's _Pensees de
+Shakespeare_. None competed with me for the prize. A very slight
+effort delivered into my hands the little chaplet of French laurel.
+
+The major part of the volume consists of 190 numbered sentences--each
+a French rendering of an apophthegm or reflection drawn from
+Shakespeare's plays. The translator is not faithful to his English
+text, but his style is clear and often rises to eloquence. The book
+does not, however, owe its interest to Nodier's version of
+Shakespearean maxims. Nor can one grow enthusiastic over the
+dedication "A elle"--an unidentified fair-one to whom the youthful
+writer proffers his homage with respectful propriety. The salt of the
+little volume lies in the "Observations Preliminaires," which cover
+less than five widely-printed pages. These observations breathe a
+genuine affection for Shakespeare's personality and a sense of
+gratitude for his achievement in terms which no English admirer has
+excelled for tenderness and simplicity.
+
+"Shakespeare," writes this French worshipper, "is a friend whom Heaven
+has given to the unhappy of every age and every country." The writer
+warns us that he offers no eulogy of Shakespeare; that is to be found
+in the poet's works, which the Frenchman for his own part prefers to
+read and read again rather than waste time in praising them. "The
+features of Alexander ought only to be preserved by Apelles." Nodier
+merely collects some of Shakespeare's thoughts on great moral truths
+which he thinks to be useful to the conduct of life. But such
+extracts, he admonishes his reader, supply no true knowledge of
+Shakespeare. "From Shakespeare's works one can draw forth a
+philosophy, but from no systems of philosophy could one construct one
+page of Shakespeare." Nodier concludes his "Observations" thus:--
+
+     "I advise those who do not know Shakespeare to study him in
+     himself. I advise those who know him already to read him
+     again.... I know him, but I must needs declare my admiration
+     for him. I have reviewed my powers, and am content to cast a
+     flower on his grave since I am not able to raise a monument
+     to his memory."
+
+Language like this admits no questioning of its sincerity. Nodier's
+modest tribute handsomely atones for his countrymen's misapprehensions
+of Shakespeare's tragic conceptions. None has phrased more delicately
+or more simply the sense of personal devotion, which is roused by
+close study of his work.
+
+
+
+
+XI
+
+THE COMMEMORATION OF SHAKESPEARE IN LONDON[44]
+
+[Footnote 44: This paper was first printed in _The Nineteenth Century
+and After_, April 1905.]
+
+
+I
+
+The public memory is short. At the instant the suggestion that
+Shakespeare should receive the tribute of a great national monument in
+London is attracting general attention. In the ears of the vast
+majority of those who are taking part in the discussion the proposal
+appears to strike a new note. Few seem aware that a national memorial
+of Shakespeare has been urged on Londoners many times before. Thrice,
+at least, during the past eighty-five years has it exercised the
+public mind.
+
+At the extreme end of the year 1820, the well-known actor Charles
+Mathews set on foot a movement for the erection of "a national
+monument to the immortal memory of Shakespeare." He pledged himself to
+enlist the support of the new King, George the Fourth, of members of
+the royal family, of "every man of rank and talent, every poet,
+artist, and sculptor." Mathews's endeavour achieved only a specious
+success. George the Fourth, readily gave his "high sanction" to a
+London memorial. Sir Walter Scott, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Tom Moore,
+and Washington Irving were among the men of letters; Sir Thomas
+Lawrence, [Sir] Francis Chantrey, and John Nash, the architect, were
+among the artists, who approved the general conception. For three or
+four years ink was spilt and breath was spent in the advocacy of the
+scheme. But nothing came of all the letters and speeches.
+
+In 1847 the topic was again broached. A committee, which was hardly
+less influential than that of 1821, revived the proposal. Again no
+result followed.
+
+Seventeen years passed away, and then, in 1864, the arrival of the
+tercentenary of Shakespeare's birth seemed to many men of eminence in
+public life, in letters or in art, an appropriate moment at which to
+carry the design into effect. A third failure has to be recorded.
+
+The notion, indeed, was no child of the nineteenth century which
+fathered it so ineffectually. It was familiar to the eighteenth. One
+eighteenth century effort was fortunate enough to yield a little
+permanent fruit. To an eighteenth-century endeavour to offer
+Shakespeare a national memorial in London was due the cenotaph in
+Westminster Abbey.
+
+
+II
+
+The suggestion of commemorating Shakespeare by means of a monument in
+London has thus something more than a "smack of age" about it,
+something more than a "relish of the saltness of time"; there are
+points of view from which it might appear to be already "blasted with
+antiquity." On only one of the previous occasions that the question
+was raised was the stage of discussion passed, and that was in the
+eighteenth century when the monument was placed in the Poets' Corner
+of Westminster Abbey. The issue was not felicitous. The memorial in
+the Abbey failed to satisfy the commemorative aspirations of the
+nation; it left it open to succeeding generations to reconsider the
+question, if it did not impose on them the obligation. Most of the
+poets, actors, scholars, and patrons of polite learning, who in 1741
+subscribed their guineas to the fund for placing a monument in
+Westminster Abbey, resented the sculpturesque caricature to which
+their subscriptions were applied. Pope, an original leader of the
+movement, declined to write an inscription for this national memorial,
+but scribbled some ironical verses beginning:--
+
+    Thus Britons love me and preserve my fame.
+
+A later critic imagined Shakespeare's wraith pausing in horror by the
+familiar monument in the Abbey, and lightly misquoting Shelley's
+familiar lines:--
+
+    I silently laugh at my own cenotaph, ...
+    And long to unbuild it again.
+
+One of the most regrettable effects of the Abbey memorial, with its
+mawkish and irrelevant sentimentality, has been to set a bad pattern
+for statues of Shakespeare. Posterity came to invest the design with
+some measure of sanctity.
+
+The nineteenth century efforts were mere abortions. In 1821, in spite
+of George the Fourth's benevolent patronage, which included an
+unfulfilled promise to pay the sum of 100 guineas, the total amount
+which was collected after six years' agitation was so small that it
+was returned to the subscribers. The accounts are extant in the
+Library of Shakespeare's Birthplace at Stratford-on-Avon. In 1847 the
+subscriptions were more abundant, but all was then absorbed in the
+purchase of Shakespeare's Birthplace at Stratford; no money was
+available for a London memorial. In 1864 the expenses of organising
+the tercentenary celebration in London by way of banquets, concerts,
+and theatrical performances, seem to have left no surplus for the
+purpose which the movement set out to fulfil.
+
+
+III
+
+The causes of the sweeping failure of the proposal when it came before
+the public during the nineteenth century are worthy of study. There
+was no lack of enthusiasm among the promoters. Nor were their high
+hopes wrecked solely by public apathy. The public interest was never
+altogether dormant. More efficient causes of ruin were, firstly, the
+active hostility of some prominent writers and actors who declaimed
+against all outward and visible commemoration of Shakespeare; and
+secondly, divisions in the ranks of supporters in regard to the
+precise form that the memorial ought to take. The censorious refusal
+of one section of the literary public to countenance any memorial at
+all, and the inability of another section, while promoting the
+endeavour, to concentrate its energies on a single acceptable form of
+commemoration had, as might be expected, a paralysing effect.
+
+"England," it was somewhat casuistically argued in 1864, "has never
+been ungrateful to her poet; but the very depth and fervour of the
+reverence in which he is held have hitherto made it difficult for his
+scholars to agree upon any common proceeding in his name." Neither in
+1864 nor at earlier and later epochs have Shakespearean scholars
+always formed among themselves a very happy family. That amiable
+sentiment which would treat the realisation of the commemorative aim
+as a patriotic obligation--as an obligation which no good citizen
+could honourably repudiate--has often produced discord rather than
+harmony among the Shakespearean scholars who cherish it. One school of
+these has argued in the past for a work of sculpture, and has been
+opposed by a cry for a college for actors, or a Shakespearean theatre.
+"We do not like the idea of a monument at all," wrote _The Times_ on
+the 20th of January 1864. "Shakespeare," wrote _Punch_ on the 6th of
+February following, "needs no statue." In old days it was frequently
+insisted that, even if the erection of a London monument were
+desirable, active effort ought to be postponed until an adequate
+memorial had been placed in Stratford-on-Avon where the poet's memory
+had been hitherto inadequately honoured. At the same time a band of
+students was always prepared to urge the chilling plea that the
+payment of any outward honour to Shakespeare was laboursome futility,
+was "wasteful and ridiculous excess." Milton's query: "What needs my
+Shakespeare for his honoured bones?" has always been quoted to satiety
+by a vociferous section of the critics whenever the commemoration of
+Shakespeare has come under discussion.
+
+
+IV
+
+Once again the question of a national memorial of Shakespeare in
+London has been revived in conditions not wholly unlike those that
+have gone before. Mr Richard Badger, a veteran enthusiast for
+Shakespeare, who was educated in the poet's native place, has offered
+the people of London the sum of L3500 as the nucleus of a great
+Shakespeare Memorial Fund. The Lord Mayor of London has presided over
+a public meeting at the Mansion House, which has empowered an
+influential committee to proceed with the work. The London County
+Council has promised to provide a site. With regard to the form that
+the memorial ought to take, a variety of irresponsible suggestions has
+been made. It has now been authoritatively determined to erect a
+sculptured monument on the banks of the Thames.[45]
+
+[Footnote 45: The proceedings of the committee which was formed in the
+spring of 1905 have been dilatory. Mr Badger informs me that he paid
+the organisers, nearly two years ago, the sum of L500 for preliminary
+expenses, and deposited bonds to the value of L3000 with Lord Avebury,
+the treasurer of the committee. The delay is assigned to the
+circumstance that the London County Council, which is supporting the
+proposal, is desirous of associating it with the great Council Hall
+which it is preparing to erect on the south side of the Thames, and
+that it has not yet been found practicable to invite designs for that
+work. (Oct. 1, 1906.)]
+
+The propriety of visibly and outwardly commemorating Shakespeare in
+the capital city of the Empire has consequently become once more an
+urgent public question. The public is invited anew to form an opinion
+on the various points at issue. No expression of opinion should carry
+weight which omits to take into account past experience as well as
+present conditions and possibilities. If regard for the public
+interest justify a national memorial in London, it is most desirable
+to define the principles whereby its precise form should be
+determined.
+
+In one important particular the consideration of the subject to-day is
+simpler than when it was debated on former occasions. Differences
+existed, then as now, in regard to the propriety of erecting a
+national memorial of Shakespeare in London; but almost all who
+interested themselves in the matter in the nineteenth century agreed
+that the public interest justified, if it did not require, the
+preservation from decay or demolition of the buildings at
+Stratford-on-Avon with which Shakespeare's life was associated. So
+long as those buildings were in private hands, every proposal to
+commemorate Shakespeare in London had to meet a formidable objection
+which was raised on their behalf. If the nation undertook to
+commemorate Shakespeare at all, it should make its first aim (it was
+argued) the conversion into public property of the surviving memorials
+of Shakespeare's career at Stratford. The scheme of the London
+memorial could not be thoroughly discussed on its merits while the
+claims of Stratford remained unsatisfied. It was deemed premature,
+whether or no it were justifiable, to entertain any scheme of
+commemoration which left the Stratford buildings out of account.
+
+A natural sentiment connected Shakespeare more closely with
+Stratford-on-Avon than with any other place. Whatever part London
+played in his career, the public mind was dominated by the fact that
+he was born at Stratford, died, and was buried there. If he left
+Stratford in youth in order to work out his destiny in London, he
+returned to it in middle life in order to end his days there "in ease,
+retirement, and the conversation of his friends."
+
+In spite of this widespread feeling, it proved no easy task, nor one
+capable of rapid fulfilment, to consecrate in permanence to public
+uses the extant memorials of Shakespeare at Stratford-on-Avon.
+Stratford was a place of pilgrimage for admirers of Shakespeare from
+early days in the seventeenth century--soon, in fact, after
+Shakespeare's death in 1616. But local veneration did not prevent the
+demolition in 1759, by a private owner, of New Place, Shakespeare's
+last residence. That act of vandalism was long in provoking any
+effective resentment. Garrick, by means of his Jubilee Festival of
+1769, effectively, if somewhat theatrically, called the attention of
+the English public to the claims of the town to the affectionate
+regard of lovers of the great dramatist. Nevertheless, it was left to
+the nineteenth century to dedicate in perpetuity to the public service
+the places which were the scenes of Shakespeare's private life in his
+native town.
+
+Charles Mathews's effort of 1821 took its rise in an endeavour to
+purchase in behalf of the nation the vacant site of Shakespeare's
+demolished residence of New Place, with the great garden attached to
+it. But that scheme was overweighted by the incorporation with it of
+the plan for a London monument, and both collapsed ignominiously. In
+1835 a strong committee was formed at Stratford to commemorate the
+poet's connection with the town. It was called "the Monumental
+Committee," and had for its object, firstly, the repair of
+Shakespeare's tomb in the Parish Church; and secondly, the
+preservation and restoration of all the Shakespearean buildings in
+the town. Subscriptions were limited to L1, and all the members of the
+royal family, including the Princess Victoria, who two years later
+came to the throne, figured, with other leading personages in the
+nation's life, in the list of subscribers. But the subscriptions only
+produced a sum sufficient to carry out the first purpose of the
+Monumental Committee--the repair of the tomb.
+
+In 1847 the sale by public auction was announced of the house in which
+Shakespeare was born. It had long been a show-place in private hands.
+A general feeling declared itself in favour of the purchase of the
+house for the nation. Public sentiment was in accord with the
+ungrammatical grandiloquence of the auctioneer, the famous Robins,
+whose advertisement of the sale included the sentence: "It is trusted
+the feeling of the country will be so evinced that the structure may
+be secured, hallowed, and cherished as a national monument almost as
+imperishable as the poet's fame." A subscription list was headed by
+Prince Albert with L250. A distinguished committee was formed under
+the presidency of Lord Morpeth (afterwards the seventh Earl of
+Carlisle), then Chief Commissioner of Woods and Forests, who offered
+to make his department perpetual conservators of the property. (That
+proposal was not accepted.) Dickens, Macaulay, Lord Lytton, and the
+historian Grote were all active in promoting the movement, and it
+proved successful. The property was duly secured by a private trust in
+behalf of the nation. The most important house identified with
+Shakespeare's career in Stratford was thus effectively protected from
+the risks that are always inherent in private ownership. The step was
+not taken with undue haste; two hundred and thirty-one years had
+elapsed since Shakespeare's death.
+
+Fourteen years later, in very similar circumstances, the still vacant
+site of Shakespeare's demolished residence, New Place, with the great
+garden behind it, and the adjoining house, was acquired by the public.
+A new Shakespeare Fund, to which the Prince Consort subscribed L100,
+and Miss Burdett-Coutts (afterwards Baroness Burdett-Coutts) L600, was
+formed not only to satisfy this purpose, but to provide the means of
+equipping a library and museum which were contemplated at the
+Birthplace, as well as a second museum which was to be provided on the
+New Place property. It was appropriate to make these buildings
+depositories of authentic relics and books which should illustrate the
+poet's life and work. This national Shakespeare Fund was actively
+promoted, chiefly by the late Mr Halliwell-Phillipps, for more than
+ten years; a large sum of money was collected, and the aims with which
+the Fund was set on foot were to a large extent fulfilled. It only
+remained to organise on a permanent legal basis the completed
+Stratford Memorial of Shakespeare. By an Act of Parliament passed in
+1891 the two properties of New Place and the Birthplace were
+definitely formed into a single public trust "for and in behalf of the
+nation." The trustees were able in 1892, out of their surplus income,
+which is derived from the fees of visitors, to add to their estates
+Anne Hathaway's Cottage at Shottery, a third building of high interest
+to students of Shakespeare's history.
+
+The formation of the Birthplace Trust has every title to be regarded
+as an outward and visible tribute to Shakespeare's memory on the part
+of the British nation at large.[46] The purchase for the public of
+the Birthplace, the New Place property, and Anne Hathaway's Cottage
+was not primarily due to local effort. Justly enough, a very small
+portion of the necessary funds came from Stratford itself. The British
+nation may therefore take credit for having set up at least one
+fitting monument to Shakespeare by consecrating to public uses the
+property identified with his career in Stratford. Larger funds than
+the trustees at present possess are required to enable them to carry
+on the work which their predecessors began, and to compete with any
+chance of success for books and relics of Shakespearean interest--such
+as they are empowered by Act of Parliament to acquire--when these
+memorials chance to come into the market. But a number of small annual
+subscriptions from men of letters has lately facilitated the
+performance of this part of the trustees' work, and that source of
+income may, it is hoped, increase.
+
+[Footnote 46: Nor is this all that has been accomplished at Stratford
+in the nineteenth century in the way of the national commemoration of
+Shakespeare. While the surviving property of Shakespearean interest
+was in course of acquisition for the nation, an early ambition to
+erect in Stratford a theatre in Shakespeare's memory was realised--in
+part by subscriptions from the general public, but mainly by the
+munificence of members of the Flower family, three generations of
+which have resided at Stratford. The Memorial Theatre was opened in
+1879, and the Picture Gallery and Library which were attached to it
+were completed two years later. The Memorial Buildings at Stratford
+stand on a different footing from the properties of the Birthplace
+Trust. The Memorial institution has an independent government, and is
+to a larger extent under local control. But the extended series of
+performances of Shakespearean drama, which takes place each year in
+April at the Memorial Theatre, has something of the character of an
+annual commemoration of Shakespeare by the nation at large.]
+
+At any rate, the ancient objection to the erection of a national
+monument in London, which was based on the absence of any memorial in
+Stratford, is no longer of avail. In 1821, in 1847, and in 1864, when
+the acquisition of the Stratford property was unattempted or
+uncompleted, it was perfectly just to argue that Stratford was
+entitled to have precedence of London when the question of
+commemorating Shakespeare was debated. It is no just argument in 1906,
+now that the claims of Stratford are practically satisfied.
+
+Byron, when writing of the memorial to Petrarch at Arqua, expressed
+with admirable feeling the sentiment that would confine outward
+memorials of a poet in his native town to the places where he was
+born, lived, died, and was buried. With very little verbal change
+Byron's stanza on the visible memorials of Petrarch's association with
+Arqua is applicable to those of Shakespeare's connexion with
+Stratford:--
+
+    They keep his dust in Stratford, where he died;
+    The midland village where his later days
+    Went down the vale of years; and 'tis their pride--
+    An honest pride--and let it be their praise,
+    To offer to the passing stranger's gaze
+    His birthplace and his sepulchre; both plain
+    And venerably simple, such as raise
+    A feeling more accordant with his strain
+    Than if a pyramid form'd his monumental fane.[47]
+
+[Footnote 47: Cf. _Childe Harold_, Canto IV., St. xxxi.]
+
+Venerable simplicity is hardly the characteristic note of
+Shakespeare's "strain" any more than it is of Petrarch's "strain." But
+there can be no just quarrel with the general contention that at
+Stratford, where Shakespeare gave ample proof of his characteristic
+modesty, a pyramidal fane would be out of harmony with the
+environment. There his birthplace, his garden, and tomb are the
+fittest memorials of his great career.
+
+
+V
+
+It may justly be asked: Is there any principle which justifies another
+sort of memorial elsewhere? On grounds of history and sentiment, but
+in conditions which demand most careful definition, the right answer
+will, I think, be in the affirmative. For one thing, Shakespeare's
+life was not confined to Stratford. His professional career was spent
+in London, and those, who strictly insist that memorials to great men
+should be erected only in places with which they were personally
+associated, can hardly deny that London shares with Stratford a title
+to a memorial from a biographical or historical point of view. Of
+Shakespeare's life of fifty-two years, twenty-four years were in all
+probability spent in London. During those years the work that makes
+him memorable was done. It was in London that the fame which is
+universally acknowledged was won.
+
+Some valuable details regarding Shakespeare's life in London are
+accessible. The districts where he resided and where he passed his
+days are known. There is evidence that during the early part of his
+London career he lived in the parish of St Helen's, Bishopsgate, and
+during the later part near the Bankside, Southwark. With the south
+side of the Thames he was long connected, together with his youngest
+brother, Edmund, who was also an actor, and who was buried in the
+church of St Saviour's, Southwark.
+
+In his early London days Shakespeare's professional work, alike as
+actor and dramatist, brought him daily from St Helen's, Bishopsgate,
+to The Theatre in Shoreditch. Shoreditch was then the chief
+theatrical quarter in London. Later, the centre of London theatrical
+life shifted to Southwark, where the far-famed Globe Theatre was
+erected, in 1599, mainly out of the materials of the dismantled
+Shoreditch Theatre. Ultimately Shakespeare's company of actors
+performed in a theatre at Blackfriars, which was created out of a
+private residence on a part of the site on which _The Times_ office
+stands now. At a few hundred yards' distance from the Blackfriars
+Theatre, in the direction of Cannon Street, Shakespeare, too, shortly
+before his death, purchased a house.
+
+Thus Shakespeare's life in London is well identified with four
+districts--with Bishopsgate, with Shoreditch, with Southwark, and with
+Blackfriars. Unhappily for students of Shakespeare's life, London has
+been more than once remodelled since the dramatist sojourned in the
+city. The buildings and lodgings, with which he was associated in
+Shoreditch, Southwark, Bishopsgate, or Blackfriars, have long since
+disappeared.
+
+It is not practicable to follow in London the same historical scheme
+of commemoration which has been adopted at Stratford-on-Avon. It is
+impossible to recall to existence the edifices in which Shakespeare
+pursued his London career. Archaeology could do little in this
+direction that was satisfactory. There would be an awkward incongruity
+in introducing into the serried ranks of Shoreditch warehouses and
+Southwark wharves an archaeological restoration of Elizabethan
+playhouse or private residence. Pictorial representations of the Globe
+Theatre survive, and it might be possible to construct something that
+should materialise the extant drawings. But the _genius loci_ has
+fled from Southwark and from Shoreditch. It might be practicable to
+set up a new model of an Elizabethan theatre elsewhere in London, but
+such a memorial would have about it an air of unreality,
+artificiality, and affectation which would not be in accord with the
+scholarly spirit of an historic or biographic commemoration. The
+device might prove of archaeological interest, but the commemorative
+purpose, from a biographical or historical point of view, would be ill
+served. Wherever a copy of an Elizabethan playhouse were brought to
+birth in twentieth-century London, the historic sense in the onlooker
+would be for the most part irresponsive; it would hardly be quickened.
+
+
+VI
+
+Apart from the practical difficulties of realising materially
+Shakespeare's local associations with London, it is doubtful if the
+mere commemoration in London of Shakespeare's personal connection with
+the great city ought to be the precise aim of those who urge the
+propriety of erecting a national monument in the metropolis.
+Shakespeare's personal relations with London can in all the
+circumstances of the case be treated as a justification in only the
+second degree. The primary justification involves a somewhat different
+train of thought. A national memorial of Shakespeare in London must be
+reckoned of small account if it merely aim at keeping alive in public
+memory episodes of Shakespeare's London career. The true aim of a
+national London memorial must be symbolical of a larger fact. It must
+typify Shakespeare's place, not in the past, but in the present life
+of the nation and of the world. It ought to constitute a perpetual
+reminder of the position that he fills in the present economy, and is
+likely to fill in the future economy of human thought, for those whose
+growing absorption in the narrowing business of life tends to make
+them forget it.
+
+The day is long since past when vague eulogy of Shakespeare is
+permissible. Shakespeare's literary supremacy is as fully recognised
+by those who justly appreciate literature as any law of nature. To the
+man and woman of culture in all civilised countries he symbolises the
+potency of the human intellect. But those who are content to read and
+admire him in the cloister at times overlook the full significance of
+his achievement in the outer world. Critics of all nationalities are
+in substantial agreement with the romance-writer Dumas, who pointed
+out that Shakespeare is more than the greatest of dramatists; he is
+the greatest of thinking men.
+
+The exalted foreign estimate illustrates the fact that Shakespeare
+contributes to the prestige of his nation a good deal beyond repute
+for literary power. He is not merely a literary ornament of our
+British household. It is largely on his account that foreign nations
+honour his country as an intellectual and spiritual force. Shakespeare
+and Newton together give England an intellectual sovereignty which
+adds more to her "reputation through the world" than any exploit in
+battle or statesmanship. If, again, Shakespeare's pre-eminence has
+added dignity to the name of Englishman abroad, it has also quickened
+the sense of unity among the intelligent sections of the
+English-speaking peoples. Admiration, affection for his work has come
+to be one of the strongest links in the chain which binds the
+English-speaking peoples together. He quickens the fraternal sense
+among all who speak his language.
+
+London is no nominal capital of the kingdom and the Empire. It is the
+headquarters of British influence. Within its boundaries are assembled
+the official insignia of British prestige. It is the mother-city of
+the English-speaking world. To ask of the citizens of London some
+outward sign that Shakespeare is a living source of British prestige,
+an unifying factor in the consolidation of the British Empire, and a
+powerful element in the maintenance of fraternal relations with the
+United States, seems therefore no unreasonable demand. Neither
+cloistered study of his plays, nor the occasional representation of
+them in the theatres, brings home to either the English-speaking or
+the English-reading world the full extent of the debt that England
+owes to Shakespeare. A monumental memorial, which should symbolise
+Shakespeare's influence in the universe, could only find an
+appropriate and effective home in the capital city of the British
+Empire. It is this conviction, and no narrower point of view, which
+gives endeavour to commemorate Shakespeare in London its title to
+consideration.
+
+
+VII
+
+The admitted fact that Shakespeare's fame is established beyond risk
+of decay does not place him outside the range of conventional methods
+of commemoration. The greater a man's recognised service to his
+fellows, the more active grows in normally constituted minds that
+natural commemorative instinct, which seeks outward and tangible
+expression. A strange fallacy underlies the objection that has been
+taken to any commemoration of Shakespeare on the alleged ground that
+Milton warned the English people of all time against erecting a
+monument to Shakespeare.
+
+In 1630 Milton asked the question that is familiar to thousands of
+tongues:
+
+    What needs my Shakespeare for his honoured bones?
+
+By way of answer he deprecated any such "weak witness of his name" as
+"piled stones" or "star-y-pointing pyramid." The poet-laureate of
+England echoed Milton's sentiment in 1905. He roundly asserted that
+"perishable stuff" is the fit crown of monumental pedestals. "Gods for
+themselves," he concluded, "have monument enough." There are ample
+signs that the sentiment to which Milton and the laureate give voice
+has a good deal of public support.
+
+None the less the poet-laureate's conclusion is clearly refuted by
+experience and cannot terminate the argument. At any rate, in the
+classical and Renaissance eras monumental sculpture was in habitual
+request among those who would honour both immortal gods and mortal
+heroes--especially mortal heroes who had distinguished themselves in
+literature or art.
+
+A little reflection will show, likewise, that Milton's fervid couplets
+have small bearing on the question at issue in its present conditions.
+Milton's poem is an elegy on Shakespeare. It was penned when the
+dramatist had lain in his grave less that fourteen years, and when the
+writer was in his twenty-second year. The exuberant enthusiasm of
+youth was couched in poetic imagery which has from time immemorial
+been employed in panegyrics of great poets. The beautiful figure which
+presents a great man's work as his only lasting monument is as old as
+poetry itself. The conceit courses through the classical poetry of
+Greece from the time of Pindar, and through that of Italy from the
+time of Ennius. No great Renaissance writer of modern Italy, of
+sixteenth-century France, or of Elizabethan England, tired of arguing
+that the poet's deathless memorial is that carved by his own pen.
+Shakespeare himself clothed the conceit in glowing harmonies in his
+sonnets. Ben Jonson, in his elegy on the dramatist, adapted the
+time-honoured figure when he hailed his dead friend's achievement as
+"a monument without a tomb."
+
+"The truest poetry is the most feigning," and, when one recalls the
+true significance and influence of great sculptured monuments through
+the history of the civilised world, Milton's poetic argument can only
+be accepted in what Sir Thomas Browne called "a soft and flexible
+sense"; it cannot "be called unto the rigid test of reason." To treat
+Milton's eulogy as the final word in the discussion of the subject
+whether or no Shakespeare should have a national monument, is to come
+into conflict with Sir Walter Scott, Tennyson, Ruskin, Dickens, and
+all the greatest men of letters of the nineteenth century, who
+answered the question in the affirmative. It is to discredit crowds of
+admirers of great writers in classical and modern ages, who have
+commemorated the labours of poets and dramatists in outward and
+visible monuments.
+
+The genius of the great Greek dramatists was not underrated by their
+countrymen. Their literary efforts were adjudged to be true memorials
+of their fame, and no doubt of their immortality was entertained. None
+the less, the city of Athens, on the proposition of the Attic orator,
+Lycurgus, erected in honour of AEschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides
+statues which ranked with the most beautiful adornments of the Greek
+capital. Calderon and Goethe, Camoens and Schiller, Sir Walter Scott
+and Burns enjoy reputations which are smaller, it is true, than
+Shakespeare's, but are, at the same time, like his, of both national
+and universal significance. In memory of them all, monuments have been
+erected as tokens of their fellow-countrymen's veneration and
+gratitude for the influence which their poetry wields.
+
+The fame of these men's writings never stood in any "need" of
+monumental corroboration. The sculptured memorial testified to the
+sense of gratitude which their writings generated in the hearts and
+minds of their readers.
+
+Again, the great musicians and the great painters live in their work
+in a singularly vivid sense. Music and painting are more direct in
+popular appeal than great poetry. Yet none can ridicule the sentiment
+which is embodied in the statue of Beethoven at Bonn, or in that of
+Paolo Veronese at Verona. To accept literally the youthful judgment of
+Milton and his imitators is to condemn sentiments and practices which
+are in universal vogue among civilised peoples. It is to deny to the
+Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey a rational title to existence.
+
+To commemorate a great man by a statue in a public place in the
+central sphere of his influence is, indeed, a custom inseparable from
+civilised life. The theoretic moralist's reminder that monuments of
+human greatness sooner or later come to dust is a doctrine too
+discouraging of all human effort to exert much practical effect.
+Monuments are, in the eyes of the intelligent, tributes for services
+rendered to posterity by great men. But incidentally they have an
+educational value. They help to fix the attention of the thoughtless
+on facts which may, in the absence of outward symbols, escape notice.
+They may act as incentives to thought. They may convert the
+thoughtless into the thoughtful. Wide as are the ranks of
+Shakespeare's readers, they are not, in England at any rate, incapable
+of extension; and, whatever is likely to call the attention of those
+who are as yet outside the pale of knowledge of Shakespeare to what
+lies within it, deserves respectful consideration.
+
+It is never inconsistent with a nation's dignity for it to give
+conspicuous expression of gratitude to its benefactors, among whom
+great writers take first rank. Monuments of fitting character give
+that conspicuous expression. Bacon, the most enlightened of English
+thinkers, argued, within a few years of Shakespeare's death, that no
+self-respecting people could safely omit to erect statues of those who
+had contributed to the genuine advance of their knowledge or prestige.
+The visitors to Bacon's imaginary island of New Atlantis saw statues
+erected at the public expense in memory of all who had won great
+distinction in the arts or sciences. The richness of the memorial
+varied according to the value of the achievement. "These statues," the
+observer noted, "are some of brass, some of marble and touchstone,
+some of cedar and other special woods, gilt and adorned, some of iron,
+some of silver, some of gold." No other external recognition of great
+intellectual service was deemed, in Bacon's Utopia, of equal
+appropriateness. Bacon's mature judgment deserves greater regard than
+the splendid imagery of Milton's budding muse.
+
+
+VIII
+
+In order to satisfy the commemorative instinct in a people, it is
+necessary, as Bacon pointed out, strictly to adapt the means to the
+end. The essential object of a national monument to a great man is to
+pay tribute to his greatness, to express his fellow-men's sense of his
+service. No blunder could be graver than to confuse the issue by
+seeking to make the commemoration serve any secondary or collateral
+purpose. It may be very useful to erect hospitals or schools. It may
+help in the dissemination of knowledge and appreciation of
+Shakespearean drama for the public to endow a theatre, which should be
+devoted to the performance of Shakespeare's plays. The public interest
+calls loudly for a playhouse that shall be under public control.
+Promoters of such a commendable endeavour might find their labours
+facilitated by associating their project with Shakespeare's name--with
+the proposed commemoration of Shakespeare. But the true aim of the
+commemoration will be frustrated if it be linked with any purpose of
+utility, however commendable, with anything beyond a symbolisation of
+Shakespeare's mighty genius and influence. To attempt aught else is
+"wrenching the true cause the false way." A worthy memorial to
+Shakespeare will not satisfy the just working of the commemorative
+instinct, unless it take the sculpturesque and monumental shape which
+the great tradition of antiquity has sanctioned. A monument to
+Shakespeare should be a monument and nothing besides.
+
+Bacon's doctrine that the greater the achievement that is commemorated
+the richer must be the outward symbol, implies that a memorial to
+Shakespeare must be a work of art of the loftiest merit conceivable.
+Unless those who promote the movement concentrate their energies on an
+object of beauty, unless they free the movement of all suspicion that
+the satisfaction of the commemorative instinct is to be a secondary
+and not the primary aim, unless they resolve that the Shakespeare
+memorial in London is to be a monument pure and simple, and one as
+perfect as art can make it, then the effort is undeserving of national
+support.
+
+
+IX
+
+This conclusion suggests the inevitable objection that sculpture in
+England is not in a condition favourable to the execution of a great
+piece of monumental art. Past experience in London does not make one
+very sanguine that it is possible to realise in statuary a worthy
+conception of a Shakespearean memorial. The various stages through
+which recent efforts to promote sculptured memorials in London have
+passed suggest the mock turtle's definition in _Alice in Wonderland_
+of the four branches of arithmetic--Ambition, Distraction,
+Uglification, and Derision. Save the old statue of James the Second,
+at Whitehall, and the new statue of Oliver Cromwell, which stands at
+a disadvantage on its present site beneath Westminster Hall, there is
+scarcely a sculptured portrait in the public places of London which is
+not
+
+    A fixed figure for the time of scorn
+    To point his slow unmoving finger at.
+
+London does not lack statues of men of letters. There are statues of
+Burns and John Stuart Mill on the Thames Embankment, of Byron in
+Hamilton Place, and of Carlyle on Chelsea Embankment. But all convey
+an impression of insignificance, and thereby fail to satisfy the
+nation's commemorative instinct.
+
+The taste of the British nation needs rigorous control when it seeks
+to pay tribute to benefactors by means of sculptured monuments. During
+the last forty years a vast addition has been made throughout Great
+Britain--with most depressing effect--to the number of sculptured
+memorials in the open air. The people has certainly shown far too
+enthusiastic and too inconsiderate a liberality in commemorating by
+means of sculptured monuments the virtues of Prince Albert and the
+noble character and career of the late Queen Victoria. The deduction
+to be drawn from the numberless statues of Queen Victoria and her
+consort is not exhilarating. British taste never showed itself to
+worse effect. The general impression produced by the most ambitious of
+all these memorials, the Albert Memorial in Kensington Gardens, is
+especially deplorable. The gilt figure of the Prince seems to defy
+every principle that fine art should respect. The endeavour to produce
+imposing effect by dint of hugeness is, in all but inspired hands,
+certain to issue in ugliness.
+
+It would, however, be a mistake to take too gloomy a view of the
+situation. The prospect may easily be painted in too dismal colours.
+It is a commonplace with foreign historians of art to assert that
+English sculpture ceased to flourish when the building of the old
+Gothic cathedrals came to an end. But Stevens's monument of the Duke
+of Wellington in St Paul's Cathedral, despite the imperfect execution
+of the sculptor's design, shows that the monumental art of England has
+proved itself, at a recent date, capable of realising a great
+commemorative conception. There are signs, too, that at least three
+living sculptors might in favourable conditions prove worthy
+competitors of Stevens. At least one literary memorial in the British
+Isles, the Scott monument in Edinburgh, which cost no more than
+L16,000, satisfies a nation's commemorative aspiration. There the
+natural environment and an architectural setting of impressive design
+reinforce the effect of sculpture. The whole typifies with fitting
+dignity the admiring affection which gathers about Scott's name. This
+successful realisation of a commemorative aim--not wholly dissimilar
+from that which should inspire a Shakespeare memorial--must check
+forebodings of despair.
+
+There are obviously greater difficulties in erecting a monument to
+Shakespeare in London than in erecting a monument to Scott in
+Edinburgh. There is no site in London that will compare with the
+gardens of Princes Street in Edinburgh. It is essential that a
+Shakespeare memorial should occupy the best site that London can
+offer. Ideally the best site for any great monument is the summit of a
+gently rising eminence, with a roadway directly approaching it and
+circling round it. In 1864, when the question of a fit site for a
+Shakespeare memorial in London was warmly debated, a too ambitious
+scheme recommended the formation of an avenue on the model of the
+Champs-Elysees from the top of Portland Place across Primrose Hill;
+and at the end of the avenue, on the summit of Primrose Hill, at an
+elevation of 207 feet above the river Thames, the Shakespeare monument
+was to stand. This was and is an impracticable proposal. The site
+which in 1864 received the largest measure of approbation was a spot
+in the Green Park, near Piccadilly. A third suggestion of the same
+date was the bank of the river Thames, which was then called
+Thames-way, but was on the point of conversion into the Thames
+Embankment. Recent reconstruction of Central London--of the district
+north of the Strand--by the London County Council now widens the field
+of choice. There is much to be said for a site within the centre of
+London life. But an elevated monumental structure on the banks of the
+Thames seems to meet at the moment with the widest approval. In any
+case, no site that is mean or cramped would be permissible if the
+essential needs of the situation are to be met.
+
+A monument that should be sufficiently imposing would need an
+architectural framework. But the figure of the poet must occupy the
+foremost place in the design. Herein lies another embarrassment. It is
+difficult to determine which of the extant portraits the sculptor
+ought to follow. The bust in Stratford Church, the print in the First
+Folio, and possibly the Chandos painting in the National Portrait
+Gallery, are honest efforts to present a faithful likeness. But they
+are crudely executed, and are posthumous sketches largely depending on
+the artist's memory. The sculptor would be compelled to work in the
+spirit of the historian, who recreates a past event from the
+indication given him by an illiterate or fragmentary chronicle or
+inscription. He would be bound to endow with artistic life those
+features in which the authentic portraits agree, but the highest
+effort of the imagination would be needed to create an impression of
+artistic truth.
+
+The success of a Shakespeare memorial will ultimately depend on the
+pecuniary support that the public accord it. But in the initial stage
+of the movement all rests on the discovery of a sculptor capable of
+realising the significance of a national commemoration of the greatest
+of the nation's, or indeed of the worlds, heroes. It would be well to
+settle satisfactorily the question of such an artist's existence
+before anything else. The first step that any organising committee of
+a Shakespeare memorial should therefore take, in my view, would be to
+invite sculptors of every country to propose a design. The monument
+should be the best that artistic genius could contrive--the artistic
+genius of the world. There may be better sculptors abroad than at
+home. The universality of the appeal which Shakespeare's achievement
+makes, justifies a competition among artists of every race or
+nationality.
+
+The crucial decision as to whether the capacity to execute the
+monument is available, should be entrusted to a committee of taste, to
+a committee of liberal-minded connoisseurs who command general
+confidence. If this jury decide by their verdict that the present
+conditions of art permit the production of a great memorial of
+Shakespeare on just principles, then a strenuous appeal for funds may
+be inaugurated with likelihood of success. It is hopeless to reverse
+these methods of procedure. If funds are first invited before rational
+doubts as to the possibility of a proper application of them are
+dispelled, it is improbable that the response will be satisfactory or
+that the issue of the movement of 1905 will differ from that of 1821
+or 1864.
+
+In 1864 Victor Hugo expressed the opinion that the expenses of a
+Shakespeare memorial in London ought to be defrayed by the British
+Government. There is small likelihood of assistance from that source.
+Individual effort can alone be relied upon; and it is doubtful if it
+be desirable to seek official aid. A great national memorial of
+Shakespeare in London, if it come into being at all on the lines which
+would alone justify its existence, ought to embody individual
+enthusiasm, ought to express with fitting dignity the personal sense
+of indebtedness and admiration which fills the hearts of his
+fellow-men.
+
+
+
+
+INDEX
+
+
+Acting, importance of, in Shakespearean drama, 13;
+  evil effects of long runs, 14;
+  Shakespeare on, 45, 47
+
+Actor-manager, his merits and defects, 125, 126
+
+Actors, training of, 139;
+  English, in France, 203.
+  (See also Benson, Mr F.R., and Boys.)
+
+AEschylus, statue of, 233
+
+Albert, Prince (Consort), and Shakespeare's birthplace, 222;
+  statues of, 237
+
+Alleyn, Edward, 191, 194
+
+_Annual Register_ of 1770, 194
+
+Aristotle, Shakespeare's mention of, 144, 145;
+  Bacon's study of, 145
+
+Arnold, Matthew, on Shakespeare, 29
+
+Astronomy, Shakespeare on, 146
+
+Athens, statuary at, 233
+
+Aubrey, John, his gossip about Shakespeare, 67, 68
+
+Austria, subsidised theatres in, 131, 134
+
+
+Bacon, Anthony, in France, 203
+
+Bacon, Francis, philosophical method of, 143;
+  on memorial monuments in _New Atlantis_, 234, 235
+
+Bacon, Sir Nicholas, his fame in France, 204
+
+Badger, Mr Richard, proposal for a Shakespeare monument, 219
+
+Bannister, John, his music for _The Tempest_, 107
+
+Barker, Mr Granville, as Richard II., 13 _n._
+
+Basse, William, his tribute to Shakespeare, 50
+
+Beeston, Christopher, Elizabethan actor, 64
+
+Beeston, William the first, patron of Nash, 64
+
+Beeston, William the second, his theatrical career, 65, 66;
+  his gossip about Shakespeare, 65;
+  his conversation, 66;
+  Aubrey's account of, 67
+
+Beethoven, statue of, 233
+
+Beljame, Alexandre, on English literature, 201;
+  death of, 201
+
+Benson, Mr F.R., his company of actors, 111;
+  his principles, 112 _seq._;
+  list of Shakespeare plays produced by, 114 _n._;
+  his production of _Hamlet_ unabridged, 116-118;
+  his training of actors, 119;
+  his services to Shakespeare, 121;
+  his pupils on the London stage, 130
+
+Berkenhout, John, 195
+
+Betterton, Thomas, at Stratford-on-Avon, 73;
+  contributes to Rowe's biography, 73, 76;
+  his rendering of Hamlet, 101, 102
+
+Biography, art of, in England, 51
+
+Bishop, Sir William, 76
+
+Bishopsgate (London), Shakespeare at, 226, 227
+
+Blackfriars, Shakespeare's house at, 227
+
+Boileau, and English literature, 199
+
+Bolingbroke, in _Richard II._, patriotism of, 173
+
+Bowman, John, actor, 69;
+  at Stratford-on-Avon, 76
+
+Boys in women's parts in Elizabethan theatres, 19, 41;
+  abandonment of the practice, 43;
+  superseded by women, 88, 89
+
+Buchanan, George, his plays, 204
+
+Burbage, Richard, Shakespeare's friend and fellow-actor, 33
+
+Burns, Mr John, 131
+
+Burns, Robert, French study of, 201;
+  monument to, 233, 237
+
+Byron, Lord, on Petrarch at Arqua, 225;
+  statue of, 237
+
+
+Calderon, 136;
+  monument to, 233
+
+Calvert, Charles A., his Shakespearean productions at Manchester,
+12 _n._
+
+Camoens, monument to, 233
+
+Capital and the literary drama, 124, 126, 127, 128
+
+Carlyle, Thomas, statue of, 237
+
+_Cataline's Conspiracy_, by Ben Jonson, 30, 31
+
+Ceremony, Shakespeare on, 157, 158
+
+Chantrey, Sir Francis, and commemoration of Shakespeare, 216
+
+Charlecote, Shakespeare's escapade at, 76
+
+Chaucer, Geoffrey, French influence on, 199
+
+Clarendon, Lord, on Shakespeare, 78
+
+Cockpit theatre, Drury Lane, 65, 86
+
+Cockpit theatre, Whitehall, 87 and _n._
+
+Coleman, John, on the subsidised theatre, 132
+
+Coleridge S.T., and commemoration of Shakespeare, 216
+
+Congreve, William, 91
+
+Coriolanus and the patriotic instinct, 178, 179
+
+Cromwell, Oliver, statue of, 237
+
+
+Davenant, Robert, Sir William's brother, 70
+
+D'Avenant, Sir William: theatrical manager, 67;
+  his youth at Oxford, 69;
+  relations in boyhood with Shakespeare, 70;
+  elegy on Shakespeare, 71;
+  champion of Shakespeare's fame, 71;
+  his story of Shakespeare and Southampton, 72;
+  his influence on Betterton, 72;
+  manager of the Duke's Company, 87 _n._;
+  as dramatist, 91;
+  his adaptations of Shakespeare, 103-105, 106 _n._, 108
+
+Deschamps, Eustace, on Chaucer, 199
+
+Desportes, Philippe, and Elizabethan poetry, 199
+
+D'Israeli, Isaac, on Steevens's forgery, 195
+
+Downs, John, prompter and stage annalist, 63
+
+Dramatic societies in England, 129
+
+Dress, Shakespeare on extravagant, 185
+
+Drunkenness, Shakespeare on, 185
+
+Dryden, John, on William Beeston, 66;
+  as dramatist, 91;
+  his share in the adaptation of _The Tempest_, 105
+
+Du Bellay, Joachim, and Elizabethan poetry, 199
+
+Ducis, Jean Francois, his translation of Shakespeare, 207, 208
+
+Dugdale, Sir William, 74
+
+Dumas _pere_, on Shakespeare, 206;
+ his translation of _Hamlet_, 209-211
+
+Dyce, Alexander, on Steevens's forgery, 196
+
+
+Elizabeth, Queen, summons Shakespeare to Greenwich, 31
+
+Elizabethan Stage Society, 13 _n._
+
+England, Shakespeare on history of, 180
+
+Ennius on poetic fame, 232
+
+Etherege, Sir George, 91
+
+Eton College, debate about Shakespeare at, 78
+
+Euripides, statue of, 233
+
+Evelyn, John, on _Hamlet_, 90
+
+
+Farquhar, George, 91
+
+Faulconbridge (in _King John_), patriotism of, 174
+
+Fletcher, John, his _Custom of the Country_, 92, 93;
+  its obscenity, 93
+
+Folio, the First [of Shakespeare's plays], actors' co-operation in, 59;
+  list of actors in, 61;
+  rejected by Pepys, 94
+
+Folio, the Second [of Shakespeare's plays], in France, 205
+
+Folio, the Third [of Shakespeare's plays], purchased by Pepys, 94
+
+Folio, the Fourth [of Shakespeare's plays], in Pepysian library, 94
+
+France, subsidised theatres in, 131, 134;
+  Shakespeare in, 198 _seq._;
+  English actors in, 203
+
+Freedom of the will, Shakespeare on, 166
+
+Fuller, Thomas, his _Worthies of England_, 52;
+  notice of Shakespeare, 52
+
+
+Garrick, David, his stage costume, 18
+
+_Gentleman's Magazine_ of 1801, 195
+
+George IV. and commemoration of Shakespeare, 215
+
+German drama, 129, 135, 136
+
+Germany, subsidised theatres in, 131, 134
+
+Goethe, 136;
+  monument to, 233
+
+Greene, Robert, French translation of romance by, 199
+
+Grendon, tradition of Shakespeare at, 77
+
+"Grenovicus" contributes to _Gentleman's Magazine_, 195
+
+
+Hales, John, of Eton, 78
+
+Hall, Bishop Joseph, French translation of works by, 199
+
+Hart, Charles, Shakespeare's grand-nephew, actor, 59, 68
+
+Hauptmann, Gerhart, 135
+
+Henry V., on kingly ceremony, 157;
+  patriotism of, 175, 182
+
+Heywood, Thomas, projected _Lives of the Poets_, 54 _n._;
+  affection for Shakespeare, 65;
+  his _Apology for Actors_, 65
+
+History plays of Shakespeare, character of, 180
+
+Hobbes, Thomas, in France, 200
+
+Howe, Josias, on a Shakespeare tradition, 77
+
+Hugo, Victor, on Shakespeare, 206;
+  on Shakespeare memorial, 241
+
+
+Imagination in the audience, 22, 47, 48
+
+Ingres, Jean, his painting of Shakespeare, 206
+
+Irving, Sir Henry, experience of Shakespearean spectacle, 10;
+  and the literary drama, 123;
+  and the municipal theatre, 132;
+  and French drama, 200
+
+Irving, Washington, and commemoration of Shakespeare, 216
+
+
+James I., his alleged letter to Shakespeare, 72
+
+James II., statue of, 236
+
+John of Gaunt in _Richard II._, dying speech of, 115-116, 181
+
+Johnson, Dr, on false patriots, 171
+
+Jonson, Ben, testimony to Shakespeare's popularity, 29;
+  his classical tragedies compared with Shakespeare's, 30;
+  his elegy on Shakespeare, 50, 232;
+  his dialectical powers contrasted with Shakespeare's, 53;
+  on the players' praise of Shakespeare, 60;
+  his son, Shakespeare's godson, 61;
+  Beeston's talk of, 67;
+  popularity of his plays at Restoration, 91, 92
+
+Jusserand, Jules, on English literature, 202;
+  his _Shakespeare in France_, 203
+
+
+Kean, Charles, experience of Shakespearean spectacle, 9;
+  Macready's criticism of, 14
+
+Kemp, William, Elizabethan comedian, 33
+
+Killigrew, Tom, manager of the King's Company, 87 _n._
+
+Kingship, Shakespeare on, 155-160, 180-182
+
+Kirkman, Francis, his account of William Beeston the second, 66
+
+
+Lacy, John, actor, 67;
+  acquaintance with Ben Jonson, 68;
+  adaptation of _The Taming of the Shrew_, 108
+
+Lawrence, Sir Thomas, and commemoration of Shakespeare, 216
+
+Lessing, 136
+
+Lincoln's Inn Fields (Portugal Row), Theatre at, 86, 87 and _n._
+
+Literary drama, on the modern stage, 123;
+  antagonism of capital to, 126-128
+
+_Lives of the Poets_ of the seventeenth century, 54
+
+Locke, John, in France, 200
+
+Locke, Matthew, Shakespearean music of, 105, 108
+
+Logic, Shakespeare on, 146
+
+London, Shakespeare's association with, 226 _seq._;
+  statues in, 236, 237;
+  proposed sites for Shakespeare monument in, 239
+
+London County Council, and the theatre, 130, 131;
+  and subsidised enlightenment, 133;
+  and Shakespeare monument, 219
+
+London Trades Council and the theatre, 132
+
+Lowin, John, original actor in Shakespeare's plays, 61;
+  coached by Shakespeare in part of _Hamlet_, 63, 71, 72
+
+Lycurgus, Attic orator, 233
+
+
+Macready, W.C., his criticism of spectacle, 14
+
+Marlowe, Christopher, Shakespeare's senior by two months, 37, 193
+
+Massinger, Philip, his _Bondman_, 92, 93
+
+Mathews, Charles, on a monument of Shakespeare, 214
+
+Mercy, Shakespeare on, 152, 153
+
+Metaphysics, Shakespeare on, 146-148
+
+Mill, John Stuart, statue of, 237
+
+Milton, his elegy on Shakespeare, 51, 231
+
+Moliere, accepted methods of producing his plays, 16, 18, 136
+
+Montaigne, Michel de, and Anthony Bacon, 203;
+  his essays in English, 204
+
+Moore, Thomas, and commemoration of Shakespeare, 216
+
+More, Sir Thomas, his _Utopia_ in France, 204
+
+Municipal theatre, its justification, 122;
+  in Europe, 134
+
+Musset, Alfred de, on Shakespeare, 206
+
+
+Nash, John, and commemoration of Shakespeare, 216
+
+Nash, Thomas, 64
+
+Nodier, Charles, his _Pensees de Shakespeare_, 211-213
+
+Norwegian drama, 129
+
+
+Obedience, the duty of, 161
+
+Oldys, William, antiquary, 68, 69
+
+Opera in England, 131
+
+Oxford, the Crown Inn at, 69;
+  Shakespeare at, 70;
+  visitors from, to Stratford, 75-77
+
+
+Patriotism, Shakespeare on, 170 _seq._
+
+Peele, George, alleged letter of, 189 _seq._
+
+Pepys, Samuel, his play-going experience, 81-86;
+  on Elizabethan and Jacobean drama, 91-93;
+  on Shakespeare, 94 _seq._;
+  his attitude to poetic drama, 95, 96;
+  his musical setting of "To be or not to be," 100
+
+Petrarch, his tomb at Arqua, 225
+
+Phelps, Samuel, at Sadler's Wells, 11;
+  list of plays produced by, 11, 114 _n._;
+  his mode of producing Shakespeare, 12;
+  on a State theatre in London, 120;
+  on public control of theatres, 140, 141
+
+Philosophy, Shakespeare's attitude to, 143 _seq._
+
+Pindar on poetic fame, 232
+
+Platter, Thomas, journal of his London visit (1599), 38
+
+Playhouses in London, Blackfriars, 227;
+  Drury Lane, 86, 87 and _n._;
+  "The Globe," 38, 227;
+  "The Red Bull," 86;
+  Sadler's Wells, 11;
+  Salisbury Court, Whitefriars, 66, 86;
+  "The Theatre" at Shoreditch, 37, 227
+
+Pope, Alexander, and French literature, 199;
+  on the Shakespeare cenotaph, 216
+
+
+Richardson, Samuel, in France, 200
+
+Robinson, Richard, actor, 68
+
+Ronsard, Pierre de, and Elizabethan poetry, 199;
+  in England, 203
+
+Rousseau, J.J., and English literature, 200
+
+Rowe, Nicholas, Shakespeare's first formal biographer, 54;
+  his acknowledgment to Betterton, 73;
+  his biography of Shakespeare, 79, 80
+
+Royal ceremony, irony of, 158
+
+Russell, Lord John, on patriotism, 172
+
+
+Sadler's Wells Theatre, 11
+
+Sand, George, on Shakespeare, 206
+
+Sardou, Victorien, work of, 200
+
+Scenery, its purpose, 5;
+  uselessness of realism, 23
+
+Schiller, on the German stage, 136;
+  monument to, 233
+
+Scott, Sir Walter, and commemoration of Shakespeare, 216, 232;
+  Edinburgh monument of, 238
+
+Sedley, Sir Charles, 91
+
+Seneca on mercy, 153 _n._
+
+Shadwell, Thomas, 67,
+  adaptation of _The Tempest_, 106 _n._
+
+Shakespeare, Edmund, actor, 227
+
+Shakespeare, Gilbert, actor, 68
+
+Shakespeare, William, his creation of the Ghost in _Hamlet_, 27;
+  contemporary popularity of, 29;
+  at Court, 31;
+  early London career, 32;
+  advice to the actor, 45;
+  his modest estimate of the actor's powers, 47;
+  elegies on death of, 49;
+  Fuller's notice of, 52;
+  early biographies of, 54;
+  oral tradition of, in seventeenth century, 55;
+  similarity of experience with that of contemporary dramatists and
+    actors, 57;
+  Elizabethan players' commendation of, 60;
+  resentment with a publisher, 65;
+  William Beeston's reminiscences of, 67;
+  Stratford gossip about, 74-76;
+  present state of biographical knowledge, 81;
+  his attitude to philosophy, 143 _seq._;
+  his intuition, 149-150;
+  concealment of his personality, 150;
+  his private sentiments, 151;
+  on mercy, 152-153;
+  on rulers of states, 154;
+  on divine right of kings, 159;
+  on obedience, 161;
+  on social order, 162-163;
+  on freedom of the will, 166;
+  on women's will, 168;
+  his humour and optimism, 169;
+  on patriotism, 170 _seq._;
+  on English history, 180;
+  on social foibles, 184-186;
+  commemoration of, in London, 214 _seq._;
+  portraits of, 239
+
+Shakespearean drama, attitude of students and actors to, 1;
+  costliness of modern production, 2;
+  the simple method and the public, 8;
+  Charles Kean's spectacular method, 9;
+  Irving's method, 10;
+  plays produced by Phelps, 11;
+  reliance on the actor, 13;
+  in Vienna, 17;
+  advantage of its performance constantly and in variety, 23;
+  importance of minor roles of, 115;
+  its ethical significance, 164, 165;
+  in France, 198 _seq._;
+  and British prestige, 229
+
+----, (separate plays):--
+  _Antony and Cleopatra_ in Vienna, 17
+  _Coriolanus_, political significance of, 164;
+    and patriotism, 178
+  _Cymbeline_ (III. i., 16-22), on patriotism, 183
+  _Hamlet_, Shakespeare's performance of the Ghost, 27;
+    early popularity of the play, 29;
+    Pepys's criticism of, 95, 99-101;
+    the stage abridgment contrasted with the full text, 117-119
+  _Henry IV._ (Part I.), Pepys's criticism of, 97, 98
+  _Henry V._, meaning of first chorus, 19, 46;
+    quoted, 157, 158, 162
+  _Julius Caesar_, preferred by contemporary playgoers to Jonson's
+    _Cataline_, 31;
+    political significance of, 164
+  _Lear, King_, performed at Elizabeth's Court, 36;
+    quarto of, 36
+  _Love's Labour's Lost_, performed at Court, 34;
+    title-page of the quarto, 35
+  _Macbeth_, Pepys's criticism of, 104-105;
+    quoted, 156
+  _Measure for Measure_, ethics of, 164
+  _Merry Wives of Windsor, The_, title-page of the quarto, 36;
+    Pepys's criticism of, 97
+  _Midsummer Night's Dream, A_, Pepys's criticism of, 96
+  _Othello_, Pepys's criticism of, 95, 98, 99
+  _Richard II._, purport of John of Gaunt's dying speech, 115-116,
+      181
+  _Romeo and Juliet_, Pepys's criticism of, 96
+  _Tempest, The_, Pepys's criticism of, 105-108;
+    spectacular production of, at Restoration, 107
+  _Troilus and Cressida_ (II. ii., 166), on Aristotle, 144, 145;
+    (I. iii., 101-124), on social equilibrium, 163
+  _Twelfth Night_, Pepys's criticism of, 96
+
+Sheffield, John, Earl of Mulgrave and Duke of Buckinghamshire, 72
+
+Shoreditch, the theatre in, 227
+
+Sidney, Sir Philip, French translations of _Arcadia_, 199, 204
+
+Somerset, the "proud" Duke of, on Shakespeare, 79
+
+Sophocles, statue of, 233
+
+Southampton, Earl of, and Shakespeare, 72
+
+Southwark, the Globe Theatre at, 227
+
+Spenser, Edmund, Beeston's gossip about, 67
+
+Steevens, George, character of, 191;
+    a forged letter by, 192, 193
+
+Sterne, Laurence, in France, 200
+
+Stevenson, R.L., his imaginary discovery of lost works by Shakespeare,
+25
+
+Stratford-on-Avon, Shakespeare's tomb at, 50;
+  Betterton at, 73;
+  visitors from Oxford to, 75, 76, 77;
+  Shakespeare tradition at, 75, 76;
+  Shakespeare memorials at, 218;
+  destruction of New Place, 221;
+  the monumental committee of, 221;
+  sale of Shakespeare's birthplace, 222;
+  purchase of New Place site, 223;
+  the Birthplace Trust, 223, 224
+
+Suckling, Sir John, his love for Shakespeare, 71
+
+Sudermann, Hermann, 135
+
+
+Tate, Nahum, his adaptations of Shakespeare, 103, 104
+
+Theatres in Elizabethan London, 36;
+  seating arrangements, 39;
+  prices of admission, 39;
+  the scenery, 40;
+  the costumes, 41;
+  contrast between their methods of production and those of later
+    date, 44
+
+Theatres, at Restoration, 86;
+  characteristics of, 87-90.
+  (See also Playhouses.)
+
+_Theatrical Review_ of 1763, 190
+
+Theatrical spectacle in Shakespearean drama, effect of excess, 3;
+  its want of logic, 4;
+  its costliness, 7;
+  at the Restoration, 89, 109;
+  at the present day, 110
+
+Thomson, James, French study of, 201
+
+Tuke, Sir Samuel, his _Adventures of Five Hours_, 98-99
+
+Taylor, Joseph, original actor in Shakespeare's plays, 61;
+  coached by Shakespeare in part of Henry VIII., 63, 71, 72
+
+
+Vanbrugh, Sir John, 91
+
+Veronese, Paolo, statue of, 233
+
+Victoria, Queen, and Stratford-on-Avon, 222;
+  statues of, 237
+
+Vienna, production of _Antony and Cleopatra_ at the Burg-Theater,
+    17;
+  types of subsidised theatres at, 136, 138;
+  conservatoire of actors at, 139
+
+Voltaire on Shakespeare, 205, 206
+
+
+War, popular view of, 177
+
+Ward, John, vicar of Stratford-on-Avon, 74;
+  his _Diary_, 74
+
+Warner, Mrs, at Sadler's Wells, 11
+
+Wellington, Duke of, monument to, 238
+
+Westminster Abbey, Shakespeare's exclusion from, 50;
+  his cenotaph in, 215-216
+
+Will, freedom of, 166
+
+Women, Shakespeare's views on, 168
+
+Wordsworth, William, French study of, 201
+
+Wycherley, William, 91
+
+
+Young, Edward, French study of, 201
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SHAKESPEARE AND THE MODERN STAGE***
+
+
+******* This file should be named 18780.txt or 18780.zip *******
+
+
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/8/7/8/18780
+
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+http://www.gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/pglaf.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at http://www.gutenberg.org/about/contact
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations.
+To donate, please visit:
+http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     http://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
+
diff --git a/18780.zip b/18780.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0565d97
--- /dev/null
+++ b/18780.zip
diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6312041
--- /dev/null
+++ b/LICENSE.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements,
+metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be
+in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES.
+
+Procedures for determining public domain status are described in
+the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org.
+
+No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in
+jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize
+this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright
+status under the laws that apply to them.
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b2f01a5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #18780 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/18780)