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diff --git a/35109.txt b/35109.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f727f95 --- /dev/null +++ b/35109.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7751 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Shakespeare in the Theatre, by William Poel + +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 in the Theatre + +Author: William Poel + +Release Date: January 29, 2011 [EBook #35109] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SHAKESPEARE IN THE THEATRE *** + + + + +Produced by Chris Curnow and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive.) + + + + + + + + + +Shakespeare in the Theatre + + + + +[Illustration: Yours truly, Wm. Poel. + +_Photo. Bassano._] + + + + + SHAKESPEARE IN THE THEATRE + + + BY WILLIAM POEL + + FOUNDER AND DIRECTOR OF + THE ELIZABETHAN STAGE SOCIETY + + LONDON AND TORONTO + SIDGWICK AND JACKSON, LTD. + + 1913 + + + _All rights reserved._ + + + + +NOTE + + +These papers are reprinted from the _National Review_, the _Westminster +Review_, the _Era_, and the _New Age_, by kind permission of the owners of +the copyrights. The articles are collected in one volume, in the hope that +they may be of use to those who are interested in the question of stage +reform, more especially where it concerns the production of Shakespeare's +plays. + +W. P. + +_May, 1913._ + + +ADDENDUM + +An acknowledgement of permission to reprint should also have been made to +the _Nation_, in which several of the most important of these papers +originally appeared. + +W. P. + +_Shakespeare in the Theatre_ + + + + +CONTENTS + + + PAGE + I THE STAGE OF SHAKESPEARE + + The Elizabethan Playhouse--The Plays and the Players 3 + + II THE PLAYS OF SHAKESPEARE + + Some Mistakes of the Editors--Some Mistakes of the + Actors--The Character of Lady Macbeth--Shakespeare's + Jew and Marlowe's Christians--The Authors of "King + Henry the Eighth"--"Troilus and Cressida" 27 + + III SOME STAGE VERSIONS + + "The Merchant of Venice"--"Romeo and + Juliet"--"Hamlet"--"King Lear" 119 + + IV THE NATIONAL THEATRE + + The Repertory Theatre--The Elizabethan Stage + Society--Shakespeare at Earl's Court--The Students' + Theatre--The Memorial Scheme 193 + + INDEX 241 + + + + +I + +THE STAGE OF SHAKESPEARE + + THE ELIZABETHAN PLAYHOUSE + THE PLAYS AND THE PLAYERS + + + + +SHAKESPEARE IN THE THEATRE + + + + +I + +THE STAGE OF SHAKESPEARE + + +THE ELIZABETHAN PLAYHOUSE.[1] + +The interdependence of Shakespeare's dramatic art with the form of theatre +for which Shakespeare wrote his plays is seldom emphasized. The ordinary +reader and the everyday critic have no historic knowledge of the +Elizabethan playhouse; and however full the Elizabethan dramas may be of +allusions to the contemporary stage, the bias of modern dramatic students +is so opposed to any belief in the superiority of past methods of acting +Shakespeare over modern ones, as to effectually bar any serious inquiry. A +few sceptics have recognized dimly that a conjoint study of Shakespeare +and the stage for which he wrote is possible; but they have not conducted +their researches either seriously or impartially, and their conclusions +have proved disputable and disappointing. With a very hazy perception of +the connection between Elizabethan histrionic art and its literature, they +have approached a comparison of the Elizabethan drama with the +Elizabethan stage as they would a Chinese puzzle. They have read the plays +in modern printed editions, they have seen them acted on the +picture-stage, they have heard allusions made to old tapestry, rushes, and +boards, and at once they have concluded that the dramatist found his +theatre inadequate to his needs. + +Now the first, and perhaps the strongest, evidence which can be adduced to +disfavour this theory is the extreme difficulty--it might almost be said +the impossibility--of discovering a single point of likeness between the +modern idea of an Elizabethan representation of one of Shakespeare's +plays, and the actual light in which it presented itself before the eyes +of Elizabethan spectators. It is wasted labour to try to account for the +perversities of the human intellect; but displays of unblushing ignorance +have undoubtedly discouraged sober persons from pursuing an independent +line of investigation, and have led many to deny the possibility of +satisfactorily showing any intelligible connection between the Elizabethan +drama and its contemporary exponents. Nowhere has a little knowledge +proved more dangerous or more liable to misapplication, and nowhere has +sure knowledge seemed more difficult of acquisition; yet it is obvious +that investigators of the relations between the two subjects cannot +command success unless they allow their theories to be formed by facts. + +To those dilettante writers who believe that a poet's greatness consists +in his power of emancipating himself from the limitations of time and +space, it must sound something like impiety to describe Shakespeare's +plays as in most cases compositions hastily written to fulfil the +requirements of the moment and adapted to the wants of his theatre and the +capabilities of his actors. But to persons of Mr. Ruskin's opinion this +modified aspect should seem neither astonishing nor distressing; for they +know that "it is a constant law that the greatest poets and historians +live entirely in their own age, and the greatest fruits of their work are +gathered out of their own age." Shakespeare and his companions were +inspired by the prolific energies of their day. Their material was their +own and their neighbours' experiences, and their plays were shaped to suit +the theatre of the day and no other. It is therefore reasonable for the +serious critic and historian to anticipate some increase of knowledge from +a thorough examination of the Elizabethan theatre in close conjunction +with the Elizabethan drama. Students who reject this method will always +fail to realize the essential characteristic of one of the greatest ages +of English dramatic poetry, while he who adopts it may confidently expect +revelations of interest, not only to the playgoer, but to all who devote +attention to dramatic literature. Above all things should it be borne in +mind that the more the conditions of the Elizabethan theatre are studied, +the better will it be perceived how workmanlike London's theatrical +representations then were, and that they had nothing amateurish about +them. + +One of the chief fallacies in connection with the modern notion of the +Elizabethan stage is that of its poverty in colour and setting through the +absence of scenery--a notion that is at variance with every contemporary +record of the theatre and of its puritanical opponents, whose incessant +taunts were, "Behold the sumptuous theatre houses, a continual monument of +London's prodigality and folly." The interior of an Elizabethan playhouse +must have presented an unusually picturesque scene, with its mass of +colouring in the costume of the spectators; while the actors, moving, as +it were, on the same plane as the audience, and having attention so +closely and exclusively directed to them, were of necessity appropriately +and brilliantly attired. We hear much from the superficial student about +the "board being hung up chalked with the words, 'This is a wood,' when +the action of the play took place in a forest." But this is an impression +apparently founded upon Sir Philip Sidney's words in his "Apology of +Poetry," written about 1583: "What child is there that, coming to a play +and seeing Thebes written in great letters on an old door, doth believe +that it is Thebes?" And whether these words were "chalked" upon the +outside door of the building admitting to the auditorium, or whether they +appeared exhibited to the eye of the audience on the stage-door of the +tiring-room is not made clear, but this is certain, that there is no +direct evidence yet forthcoming to prove that boards were ever used in any +of Shakespeare's dramas or in those of Ben Jonson; and, with some other +dramatists, there is evidence of the name of the play and its locality +being shown in writing, either by the prologue, or hung up on one of the +posts of the auditorium. Shakespeare himself considered it to be the +business of the dramatist to describe the scene, and to call the attention +of the audience to each change in locality, and moreover he does this so +skilfully as to make his scenic descriptions appear as part of the +natural dialogue of the play. The naked action was assisted by the poetry; +and much that now seems superfluous in the descriptive passages was needed +to excite imagination. With reference to this question, Halliwell +Phillipps very justly remarks: "There can be no doubt that Shakespeare, in +the composition of most of his plays, could not have contemplated the +introduction of scenic accessories. It is fortunate that this should have +been one of the conditions of his work, for otherwise many a speech of +power and beauty, many an effective situation, would have been lost. All +kinds of elaborate attempts at stage illusion tend, moreover, to divert a +careful observance of the acting, while they are of no real service to the +imagination of the spectator, unless the author renders them necessary for +the full elucidation of his meaning. That Shakespeare himself ridiculed +the idea of a power to meet such a necessity, when he was writing for +theatres like the Curtain or Globe, is apparent from the opening chorus to +'Henry V.' It is obvious that he wished attention to be concentrated on +the players and their utterances, and that all surroundings, excepting +those which could be indicated by the rude properties of the day, should +be idealistic." The dramatist's disregard of time and place was justified +by the conditions of the stage, which left all to the intellect; a +complete intellectual representation being, in fact, a necessity, in the +absence of meretricious support. "The mind," writes John Addington +Symonds, "can contemplate the furthest just as easily as more familiar +objects, nor need it dread to traverse the longest tract of years, the +widest expanse of space, in following the sequence of an action." In +fact, the question of the advantage or disadvantage of scenery is well +summed up by Collier, whose words are all the more impressive when it is +borne in mind that his reasons are supported by an indisputable fact in +the history of our dramatic literature. "Our old dramatists luxuriated in +passages descriptive of natural or artificial beauty, because they knew +their auditors would have nothing before their eyes to contradict the +poetry; the hangings of the stage made little pretension to be anything +but covering for the walls, and the notion of the plays represented was +taken from what was written by the poet, not from what was attempted by +the painter. We owe to the absence of painted canvas many of the finest +descriptive passages in Shakespeare, his contemporaries, and immediate +followers. The introduction, we apprehend, gives the date to the +commencement of the decline of our dramatic poetry." Shakespeare could not +have failed to recognize that by employing the existing conventions of his +stage he could the more readily bring the public to his point of view, +since its thoughts were not being constantly diverted and distracted by +those outward decorations and subordinate details which in our day so +greatly obliterate the main object of dramatic work. + +As the absence of theatrical machinery helped playwrights to be poets, so +the capacity of actors stimulated literary genius to the creation of +characters which the authors knew beforehand would be finely and +intelligently rendered. Nor were the audiences in Shakespeare's time +uncritical of the actor's art, and frequent allusions in the old plays +show that they understood what "a clean action and good delivery" meant. +To quote again from Mr. Addington Symonds, "attention was concentrated on +the actors, with whose movements, boldly defined against a simple +background, nothing interfered. The stage on which they played was narrow, +projecting into the yard, surrounded on all sides by spectators. Their +action was thus brought into prominent relief, placed close before the +eye, deprived of all perspective. It acquired a special kind of realism +which the vast distances and manifold artifices of our modern theatres +have rendered unattainable. This was the realism of an actual event, at +which the audience assisted; not the realism of a scene in which the actor +plays a somewhat subordinate part." + +Noblemen used to maintain a musical establishment for the service of their +chapels, and to this department of their household the actors belonged. +When not required by their masters, these players strolled the country, +calling themselves servants of the magnate whose pay they took and whose +badge they wore. Thus Shakespeare's company first became known as "Lord +Leicester's Servants," then as the Lord Chamberlain's, afterwards, in the +reign of King James, as "The King's Company." And we can imagine the +influence of the chapel upon the art of the theatre when we consider that +choristers, who were taught to sing anthems and madrigals, would receive +an excellent training for that rhythmical and musical modulation so +indispensable to the delivery of blank verse. With regard to the boys who +performed the female characters, it is specially to be noted that they +were paid more than the ordinary actors, in consequence of the superior +physical and vocal qualifications which were needed. That the boys were +thoroughly successful in the delineation of women's parts we learn from +the Puritans, and from the insistence that those boys impressed for Queen +Elizabeth's chapel should not only be skilled in the art of minstrelsy, +but also be handsome and shapely, which seems to point to the theatrical +use that would be made of them. To this end, power was given to the +Queen's choirmaster to impress boys from any chapel in the United Kingdom, +St. Paul's only excepted. A contemporary play has the following allusion +to a boy actor: "Afore Heaven it is a sweet-faced child. Methinks he would +show well in woman's attire. I'll help thee to three crowns a week for +him, an she can act well." + +Referring once more to the construction of the theatres, it is important +to note that they differed most from modern playhouses in their size; not +so much, perhaps, in the size of the stage as in the dimensions of the +auditorium. The building was so made that the remotest spectator could +hardly have been distant more than a dozen yards, or thereabouts, from the +front of the stage. The whole auditory were thus within a hearing distance +that conveyed the faintest modulation of the performer's voice, and at the +same time demanded no exaggerated effort in the more sonorous utterances. +Especially would such a building be well adapted for the skilled and rapid +delivery for which Elizabethan players were famous. Added to this, every +lineament of the actor's countenance would have been visible without +telescopic aid. It was for such a theatre that Shakespeare wrote, says Mr. +Halliwell Phillips, "one wherein an actor of genius could satisfactorily +develop to every one of the audience not merely the written, but the +unwritten words of the drama, those latter which are expressed by gesture +or by the subtle language of the face and eye. There is much of the +unrecorded belonging to the pages of Shakespeare that requires to be +elicited in action, and no little of that much which can only be +effectively rendered under conditions similar to those which prevailed at +the opening of the Globe." + +Suitable to the construction of the Elizabethan theatre was the +construction of the Elizabethan play, the most noticeable feature of which +was the absence of division into scenes and acts. For even when a new act +and scene are marked in the old quartos and folios, they are probably only +printer's divisions, and we find the text often continuing the story as +though the characters had not left the stage. Not that it is to be +inferred that no pauses were made during the representation of the play, +especially at the cheaper and more popular houses, where jigs and musical +interludes were among the staple attractions. But judging from the +following words put into Burbage's mouth by Webster in his induction to +"The Malcontent" (a play that originally had been written for the Fortune +theatre), we may gather that at the Globe it was not usual to have musical +intervals. + +"_W. Sly_: What are your additions? + +"_D. Burb._: Sooth, not greatly needful, only as your sallet to your great +feast, to entertain a little more time, and to abridge the not received +custom of music in our theatre." + +Nor is it likely Shakespeare would have approved of any interruptions to +the dramatic movement of his plays when once it had begun. He made very +sparing use of the chorus, and avoided both prologue and epilogue when +possible. + +There is, in this same induction by Webster, some dialogue that throws +light also upon the estimation in which Shakespeare and his fellow actors +regarded their calling and its duties and responsibilities, and is worth +quoting: + +"_W. Sly_: And I say again, the play is bitter. + +"_D. Burb._: Sir, you are like a patron that, presenting a poor scholar to +a benifice, enjoins him not to rail against anything that stands within +compass of his patron's folly. Why should we not enjoy the antient freedom +of poesy? Shall we protest to the ladies that their painting makes them +angels? or to my young gallant, that his expence in the brothel shall gain +him reputation? No, sir; such vices as stand not accountable to law should +be cured as men heal tetters, by casting ink upon them." + +Above all things, may it be acknowledged that if the Fortune theatre, the +great rival playhouse to the Globe, was the most successful and prosperous +financially, the Lord Chamberlain's troupe appealed, through Shakespeare, +to the highest faculties of the audience, and showed in their performances +a certain unity of moral and artistic tone. + + +THE PLAYS AND THE PLAYERS.[2] + +An Englishman visiting Venice about 1605 wrote in a letter from that city: +"I was at one of their playhouses where I saw a comedy acted. The house +is very beggarly and base in comparison with our stately playhouses in +England, neither can the actors compare with us for apparel, shows, and +music." This opinion is confirmed by Busino, who has left an account of +his visit to the Fortune playhouse in 1617, where he observed a crowd of +nobility "listening as silently and soberly as possible." And Thomas +Heywood the dramatist, not later than 1612, affirms that the English stage +is "an ornament to the city which strangers of all nations repairing +hither report of in their countries, beholding them here with some +admiration, for what variety of entertainment can there be in any city of +Christendom more than in London?" In fact, the English people at this +time, like the Greeks and Romans before them, were lovers of the theatre +and of tragic spectacles. Leonard Digges, who was an eye-witness, has left +on record the impression made upon the spectators by a representation of +one of Shakespeare's tragedies: + + "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!" + +But plays as perfect in design as "Julius Caesar," "Othello," and "Macbeth" +were the exception, not the rule, upon the Elizabethan stage. They were +the outcome of nearly twenty years' experiment in play-writing, a period +during which Shakespeare mastered his art and schooled his audience to +appreciate the serious unmixed with the ludicrous. When he first wrote for +the stage, plays needed to have in them all that the taste of the day +demanded in the way of comic interlude and music. A dramatic +representation was a continuous performance given without pause from +beginning to end, and the dramatists, in compliance with the custom, used +the double story, so often to be found in the plays of the time, in order +that the movement should be continued uninterruptedly. The characters in +each story appeared on the stage in alternate scenes, with every now and +then a full scene in which all the characters appeared together. Ben +Jonson condemned this form of play. He ridiculed the use of short scenes, +and the bringing on to the stage of the characters in pairs. Yet he +himself found it necessary to conform to the requirements of the day, as +is shown in his first two comedies, written to be acted without pause from +beginning to end. Later on he adopted the Terentian method of +construction, that of dividing the plays into acts and making each act a +complete episode in itself; and in his dedication prefixed to the play of +"The Fox," he claims to have laboured "to reduce not only the ancient +forms, but manners of the scene." There can be no doubt, therefore, that +Ben Jonson disliked Shakespeare's tolerance of the hybrid class of play +then in vogue. Yet Shakespeare, if he thought it was not possible to work +to the satisfaction of his audience according to the rules and examples of +the ancients, none the less strove to put limits to the irregularities of +his contemporaries. At the Universities scholars regarded his plays as +compositions that were written for the public stage and therefore of no +intrinsic value; while Londoners must have looked upon them as +representations of actual life when compared with the formless dramas they +were accustomed to see. He desired unity of fable with variety of +movement, and endeavoured to abolish the use of impromptu dialogue by +writing his own interludes and making them part of the play. Shakespeare +wished to satisfy his audience and himself at the same time; and by the +force of his dramatic genius he succeeded where others failed, and wrote +plays which, if unsuitable for the modern stage, are still being acted. + +About two-thirds of the plays which were acted at the Elizabethan and +Jacobean theatres are now lost to us; and this dramatic literature must +have been of unusual excellence, unless we are to suppose that the law of +the survival of the fittest may be applied to the lives of plays. From the +names of extinct dramas, accessible to us in such places as Henslowe's +"Diary" or the Stationers' Registers, it may be inferred that the +groundwork of many of them consisted either of political or purely social +and domestic topics. Domestic tragedy was one of the most popular forms of +the drama. In fact the dramatists, in most instances, took the material +for their plays from their own and their neighbours' experiences, and all +that was uppermost in men's minds was laid hold of by them, and brought +upon the stage with only a little transparent concealment. The topical +Elizabethan drama, in the plays which have come down to us, viewed from a +purely historical standpoint, is a very accurate though not very +flattering embodiment of middle-class society in London in the sixteenth +century. From it we learn the dangers incurred by the presence of a large +class of riotous idlers, discharged soldiers and sailors, over whom the +authorities exercised little control; we are given striking descriptions +of the London "roughs"; of these "swagging, swearing, drunken, desperate +Dicks, that have the stab readier in their hands than a penny in their +purses." We read, too, of the games that children played in the streets; +of the assembling of the men of fashion and business in St. Paul's; and of +the dense crowding of the neighbouring streets at the dinner-hour, when +the throng left the cathedral. The conversation that the characters +indulge in, apart from the immediate plot, invariably relates to current +events. In a play written about the time of the Irish rebellion, one of +the characters talks about Ireland in a way that might apply to recent +days: + + "The land gives good increase + Of every blessing for the use of man, + And 'tis great pity the inhabitants + Will not be civil and live under law." + +Uninteresting and unsavoury as some of the details of the Elizabethan +domestic tragedies are, they were often used with an avowedly moral aim, +and they had, according to many contemporary accounts, the most salutary +effect on evil-doers.[3] It was not more than forty years after +Shakespeare's death that Richard Flecknoe, in his "Discourse of the +English Stage," comments upon the altered character of the drama: + + "Now for the difference betwixt our Theatres and those of former + times; they were but plain and simple, with no other scenes nor + decorations of the stage, but only old Tapestry, and the Stage + strewed with Rushes, whereas ours for cost and ornament are arrived + at the height of Magnificence, but that which makes our Stage the + better, makes our Playes the worse, perhaps through striving now to + make them more for sight than hearing, whence that solid joy of the + interior is lost, and that benefit which men formerly received from + Playes, from which they seldom or never went away but far better and + wiser than when they came." + +The short space of time--two hours and a half--in which an Elizabethan +play was acted in Shakespeare's time, has excited much discussion among +commentators. It can hardly be doubted that the dialogue, which often +exceeds two thousand lines, was all spoken on the stage, for none of the +dramatists wrote with a view to publication, and few of the plays were +printed from the author's manuscript. This fact points to the employment +of a skilled and rapid delivery on the part of the actor. Artists of the +French school, whose voices are highly trained and capable of a varied and +subtle modulation, will run through a speech of fifty lines with the +utmost ease and rapidity; and there is good reason to suppose that the +blank verse of the Elizabethan dramatists was spoken "trippingly on the +tongue." And then only a few of the plays which were written for the +public stage were divided into acts; and even in the case of a five act +drama it was not thought necessary to mark each division with an interval, +since the jigs and interludes were reserved for the end of the play. So +with an efficient elocution and no "waits," the Elizabethan actors would +have got through one-half of a play before our modern actors could cover a +third. Even Ben Jonson, while disliking the form of the Elizabethan drama, +recognized the advantage to the dramatist of simplicity in the method of +representation. He alludes, with not a little contempt, to Inigo Jones's +costly settings of the masque at the court of King James. + + "A wooden dagger is a dagger of wood, + Nor gold nor ivory haft can make it good ... + Or to make boards to speak! There is a task! + Painting and carpentry are the soul of masque. + Pack with your pedling poetry to the Stage. + This is the money-got mechanic age!" + +If a theatre were established in this country for the performance of +Shakespeare's plays with the simplicity and rapidity with which they were +acted in his time, it might limit the endless experiments, mutilations, +and profitless discussions that every revival occasions. "To read a play," +said Robert Louis Stevenson, "is a knack, the fruit of much knowledge and +some imagination, comparable to that of reading score"; the reader is apt +to miss the proper point of view. In omitting one-third of the play every +time Shakespeare is acted, the most appropriate scenes for representation +may not always be chosen. But were the entire play acted occasionally, the +author's point of view could not fail to declare itself. It is interesting +to note that Germany, always to the fore in Shakespearian matters, has +obtained in Baron Perfall, the director of the Royal Court Theatre in +Munich, an advocate for the performance of Shakespeare's plays as they +were originally acted. + +The Elizabethan dramatists, as a rule, deprecated the printing of their +plays. They regretted that "scenes invented merely to be spoken should be +inforcively published to be read." Elocution was to the playwrights an +all-important consideration. They acknowledge that the success of their +labours "lay much in the actor's voice"; that he must speak well, "though +he understand not what," for if the actor had not "a facility and natural +dexterity in his delivery, it must needs sound harsh to the auditor, and +procure his distaste and displeasure." A good tragedy, in Ben Jonson's +opinion, "must have truth of argument, dignity of persons, gravity and +height of elocution"; "words," he says, "should be chosen that have their +sound ample, the composition full, the absolution plenteous, and poured +out all grave, sinewy, and strong." And Thomas Heywood, in 1612, thus +writes in defence of the actor's art: "Tully, in his booke, 'Ad Caium +Herennium,' requires five things in an orator--invention, disposition, +eloqution, memory, and pronuntiation; yet all are imperfect without the +sixt, which is action: for be his invention never so fluent and exquisite, +his disposition and order never so composed and formall, his eloquence and +elaborate phrases never so materiall and pithy, his memory never so ferme +and retentive, his pronuntiation never so musical and plausive; yet +without a comely and elegant gesture, a gratious and a bewitching kinde of +action, a natural and familiar motion of the head, the hand, the body, and +a moderate and fit countenance suitable to all the rest, I hold all the +rest as nothing. A delivery and sweet action is the glosse and beauty of +any discourse that belongs to a scholler; and this is the action +behoovefull in any that professe this quality, not to use any impudent or +forced motion in any part of the body, nor rough or other violent gesture, +nor, on the contrary, to stand like a stiffe starcht man, but to qualifie +everything according to the nature of the person personated: for in +overacting trickes, and toyling too much in the anticke habit of humors, +men of the ripest desert, greatest opinions, and best reputations may +breake into the most violent absurdities. I take not upon me to teach, but +to advise; for it becomes my juniority rather to be pupil'd my selfe than +to instruct others." + +Shakespeare, also, though not so great an actor as he was a dramatist, +knew as well what was needed for the art of the one as of the other, and +perhaps thought even more about the acting because he had the less genius +for it. There are some descriptive passages in his plays which show that +he visualized the characters he created and gave them gestures which were +appropriate to their personalities. + +If the actors were fortunate in having poets such as Shakespeare, Jonson, +and Heywood, not only to write for them, but also to instruct them, the +poets were no less fortunate in their actors. Of Burbage, we are told that +he had all the parts of an excellent orator, animating his words with his +speech, and his speech with action, so that his auditors were "never more +delighted than when he spoke, nor more sorry than when he held his peace; +yet even then he was an excellent actor still, never failing in his part +when he had done speaking, but with his looks and gesture maintaining it +still unto the height." We learn that he was small in stature; that every +thought and mood could be understood from his face; and that because of +his gifts he was "only worthy to come on the stage," and because of his +honesty "he was more worthy than to come on." So great was Burbage's +popularity that London received the news of his death, which occurred +within a few days of that of the Queen, King James's Consort, with a +greater manifestation of grief than they bestowed on the lady. Perhaps +Shakespeare was thinking of Burbage's unusual ability when he wrote the +following lines: + + "The eyes of men + After a well-grac'd actor leaves the stage + Are idly bent on him that enters next, + Thinking his prattle to be tedious." + +Dick Robinson was an actor of women's parts. Ben Jonson has left on record +that he could dress better than forty women, and, in the disguise of a +lawyer's wife, he could convulse a supper party with merriment. Acting so +realistic as his stirred the resentment of the Puritans. Stephen Gosson +writes: "Which way, I beseech you, shall they be excused that put on, not +the apparel only, but the gate, the gestures, the voice, the passions of a +woman." Nathan Field was the son of a minister, who was one of the +earliest as well as one of the bitterest enemies of theatrical +performances. While one of the Royal Chapel boys, Field distinguished +himself in Ben Jonson's comedy, "Cynthia's Revels," acted entirely by +children. Afterwards Field became a member of Shakespeare's company, and, +like him, an author. When Burbage died, Field was his successor in the +part of the Moor. It is said that as he was naturally of a jealous +disposition, the character suited him, and his impersonation of it became +famed as "the true Othello of the poet." Many particulars have come down +to us of the clown, Kemp. His popularity with his audiences cannot be +disputed. "Clowns," writes a dramatic author in 1597, "have been thrust +into plays by the head and shoulders ever since Kemp could make a scurvy +face.... If thou canst but draw thy mouth awry, lay thy leg over thy +staff, saw a piece of cheese asunder with thy dagger, lap up drink on the +earth, I warrant thee they'll all laugh mightily." It was by tricks such +as these that Kemp won the good opinion "of the understanding gentlemen of +the ground"; but Shakespeare was not in favour of fooling. Kemp, moreover, +loved to extemporize, and Shakespeare wished to abolish a custom fatal to +dramatic unity. He preferred to write the clown's part himself, and +desired that no more should be spoken than was set down by the author. The +interference with the clown's privilege, openly advocated by Shakespeare +in a well-known passage of "Hamlet," probably led to Kemp's temporary +retirement from the company. Kemp loved notoriety and money. His morris +dance to Norwich and journeys to France and Italy were but gambling +speculations, he undertaking to be back in a certain time, and laying +wagers with large odds in his favour to that effect. + +The prosperity of the actor caused many to adopt the calling. His +vocation, we are told, was the most excellent one in the world for money, +and therefore players grew as plentifully "as spawn of frogs in March." It +was open to the actor to buy shares in his theatre, and he could, by +becoming a shareholder, attain the position of owner, and would, in +Shakespeare's theatre, as one of the King's players, be provided from the +royal wardrobe "with a cloak of bastard-scarlet and crimson velvet for the +cape." He could also term himself "gentleman," a rank he was allowed to +assume, and which he was very glad to adopt in defiance of the enemies of +theatrical performances, who constantly taunted him, in the words of the +old statute, with being "a rogue and a vagabond." The popularity of the +stage as a profession excited the envy of scholars and lawyers. They +taunted the actor with his vanity in believing that his fame would descend +to posterity. They blamed the public for affording these "glorious +vagabonds" means to ride through the "gazing streets" in satin clothes +attended by their pages, and for enabling those who had done no more than +"mouth words that better wits had framed" to purchase lands and possess +country houses. The actor retaliated by deriding the scholar's poverty and +ridiculing the lawyer's use of bad Latin. They contended that it was +better "to make a fool of the world than to be fooled of the world as you +scholars are." There is an anecdote related of Nathan Field which shows +that actors did not underrate their own importance. + +"Nathan Field, the player, being in company with a certain nobleman who +was distantly related to him, the latter asked the reason why they spelt +their names differently, the nobleman's family speling it 'Feild,' and the +player spelling it 'Field'? 'I cannot tell,' answered the player, 'except +it be that my branch of the family were the first that knew to spell.'" It +would hardly have been agreeable to this tragedian to learn that he and +his fellows, Shakespeare and Burbage, were "writ down" by the Master of +His Majesty's Revels as "players, jugglers, and such kind of creatures"; +nor would Ben Jonson have felt flattered by the candid confession of an +admirer who "could not understand how a poet could have so much +principle." + +Most of the leading actors in Shakespeare's theatre had their apprentices. +A stage aspirant was often called upon to appear before the leading +members of the company, and to give some proof of his talent. No little +importance was attached to the youth's appearance, to his command of +facial expression, and to the sufficiency of his voice. If the young man's +talent lay in the direction of comedy, Kemp might address him after this +manner: "Methinks you should belong to my tuition, and your face, +methinks, would be good for a foolish mayor, or a foolish justice of +peace." Not seldom the efforts of novices to copy nature excited the +derision of experts. Kemp, as a character in a play--"The Return from +Parnassus" acted about 1601--says to Burbage: "It is a good sport in a +part to see them never speak but at the end of the stage, just as though, +in walking with a fellow, we should never speak but at a stile, a gate, or +a ditch, where a man can go no further." Besides having a good memory, an +actor needed the gift of studying quickly. It is not generally known that +the expression "to sleep on a part," still in use among actors, was +current in Shakespeare's day; but we read in an old play of an actor, +whose memory had failed him while acting his part, blaming the negligence +of the man in charge of the stage: "It is all along of you. I could not +get my part a night or two before to sleep upon it." The prompter, or +"bookholder," as he was more often called, was not an unnecessary person +on a "new day," the first performance of a new play. He would have +received many a warning to "hold the book well, that we be not _non plus_ +in the latter end of the play." And Ben Jonson has given an amusing +description of an additional supervision on the part of the author that +was not of the actor's seeking, "to have his presence in the tiring-house, +to prompt us aloud, stamp at the bookholder, swear for our properties, +curse the poor tireman, rail the music out of tune, and sweat for every +venal trespass we commit." The members of a theatrical company being +limited in number, it was often necessary for the impersonators of kings +and heroes to represent very inferior characters in the same play, a +circumstance to the advantage of the dramatist, who could thus obtain +capable exponents for the parts of messengers and attendants, and was +able, therefore, to "write up" these parts without fear of the author's +lines being mangled by incompetence, or made ridiculous by false +pretension. Actors who doubled their parts wore the double cloak--a cloak +that might be worn on either side. A turned cloak, with a false beard and +a black or yellow peruke, supplied a ready, if not effectual, disguise. + +Although the theatres were prosperous, their existence was often +imperilled by the action of the city magnates, who forbad the acting of +plays within their own jurisdiction. They viewed with annoyance the crowds +that came from north and south to bring money to the playhouses, and they +disliked the inducements these afforded to their sons and apprentices to +neglect their occupations. No opportunity was lost by the Corporation of +urging the Sovereign to abolish the theatres. The Puritans, also, if not +influential at Court, were still potent in affecting public opinion +against stage-plays, in the pulpit and by means of the Press; while +playwrights were even more violently attacked by them than were the +actors. The sonorous and majestic verse of the Elizabethan poets, that has +become the pride of our country, appeared in the eyes of the "godly" but +as an invention of Satan to entice the unwary into his "chapel." + + "Because the sweete numbers of Poetrie flowing in verse do + wonderfully tickle the hearers eares, the devill hath tyed this to + most of our playes, that whatsoever he would have sticke fast to our + soules might slippe down in sugar by this intisement; for that which + delighteth never troubleth our swallow. Thus when any matter of love + is interlarded, though the thinge it selfe bee able to allure us, yet + it is so sette out with sweetnes of wordes fitness of Epithites, with + Metaphors, Alegories, Hyperboles, Amphibologies, Similitudes: with + Phrases so pickt, so pure, so proper; with action so smothe, so + lively, so wanton, that the poyson creeping on secretly without + griefe chookes us at last and hurleth us downe in a dead sleepe." + +This vigorous opposition to the stage had its advantage. It kept managers +alive to their responsibilities, and obliged them to maintain a high +standard of work. The poets were called upon to justify the existence of +playhouses, and to defend their own reputations, and in this they were +triumphant. They showed that playwrights had followed the advice of +Cicero, and could create a drama which was "the schoolmistress of life, +the looking-glass of manners, and the image of truth." They contended that +in the theatre men were shown, as in a mirror, "their faults though ne'er +so small." Of Shakespeare's comedies it was said, they are "so framed to +the life, that they serve for the most common commentaries of all the +actions of our lives, and all such dull and heavy-witted worldings, as +were never capable of the wit of a comedy, coming by report of them to his +representations have found that wit there that they never found in +themselves, and have parted better-witted than they came." Thomas Heywood +contended that plays had made "the ignorant more apprehensive, taught the +unlearned the knowledge of many famous histories, instructed such as +cannot read in the discovery of all our English Chronicles, and what man +have you now of that weak capacity that cannot discourse of any notable +thing recorded, even from William the Conqueror; nay, from the landing of +Brute until this day." Perhaps it was well for the public of Shakespeare's +day that it attached an educational value to the theatre, and consciously +adopted an attitude of diffidence towards the labours of the dramatist. He +was left free to teach as well as to amuse. If the amusement consisted in +putting into the mouths of the clowns "unsavoury morsels of unseemly +sentences," the teaching consisted in making folly appear ridiculous and +vice odious. So long as the dramatists were not hampered by demands from +the audience to have its social, political, or aesthetic fancies humoured, +and from the actor to have his egotism flattered, the drama flourished as +an art as well as a business. But when managers began to consider the +whims of their patrons, when the King's Players petitioned the People's +Parliament for leave to continue their vocation because "they will not +entertain any comedian that shall speak his part in a tone as if he did it +in derision of some of the pious," then the theatre ceased to be a +looking-glass that could image life truthfully. Indeed, it cannot be +doubted that if ever the drama shall again enlist the best talent of the +time in its service it will be when the nation becomes conscious of the +power of the stage, which is capable, as Bacon says, "of no small +influence, both of discipline and corruption." + + + + +II + +THE PLAYS OF SHAKESPEARE + + SOME MISTAKES OF THE EDITORS. + SOME MISTAKES OF THE ACTORS. + THE CHARACTER OF LADY MACBETH. + SHAKESPEARE'S JEW AND MARLOWE'S CHRISTIANS. + THE AUTHORS OF "KING HENRY THE EIGHTH." + "TROILUS AND CRESSIDA." + + + + +II + +THE PLAYS OF SHAKESPEARE[4] + + +Neither in the theatre nor on the printed page can it be said that +Shakespeare's dramas to-day reflect the form of his art or the thought of +his age. The versions acted on the stage are unlike those read in the +study, and all are dissimilar to the "authentic copies." In order to +understand the cause of these discrepancies it is necessary to trace their +origin and history. + + +SOME MISTAKES OF THE EDITORS + +A number of Shakespeare's plays were published during his lifetime, the +first, "The Comedy of Errors," appearing in 1595, and the last one, +"Pericles," in 1609. Some of these plays went through several editions, +and the text of four of them, in their first edition, was extremely +faulty, but the second editions of "Romeo and Juliet" and of "Hamlet" were +probably printed direct from the author's manuscripts. + +The special features of these early quartos are: + +1. The title-pages, which indicate what in Shakespeare's time were the +popular incidents and characters in each play. + +2. The unbroken continuity of the story, the plays having no divisions to +suggest where pauses were made, if any, during the representation. + +3. Some descriptive stage-directions which do not reappear in subsequent +editions, and which in all probability are authentic evidence of the +action as it was then seen on the stage. + +These quartos are the only playbooks existing to-day which can show +Shakespeare's constructive art as a dramatist, and it will be necessary to +refer to them from time to time. + +Seven years after his death, Shakespeare's fellow-actors, Heminge and +Condell, collected all his dramas, and, with the help of some booksellers, +published them in one volume in what is known as the first folio (1623). +These "trifles," as the editors called them, were dedicated to two +noblemen in the confidence that this tribute would help to keep the +author's memory alive, and the reader is invited to purchase the book +because the plays had found favour on the stage where they were first +tried and "stood out all appeales." There is, besides, some anxiety shown +by the editors lest the publication of the volume should detract from the +author's fame as a dramatist, for the reader is urged to read the plays +"againe and againe," if he does not like them, or in other words, if he +does not understand them. Now, in this first folio, Heminge and Condell +began marking divisions for intervals in the plays. This was an +innovation, probably suggested to them by the booksellers at the +instigation of Ben Jonson. Fortunately, the editors left their task +unfinished, finding, perhaps, that these divisions were unsuitable +interpolations. + +In 1709 there came a new phase in the history of Shakespearian +Bibliography when Rowe, the poet-dramatist, at the suggestion of his +bookseller, who believed that "none but a poet should presume to meddle +with a poet," undertook to present to the world a new edition of +Shakespeare's plays, in which the player-dramatist was for the first time +to be brought within the fraternity of academicians. His works were to be +edited on similar lines to those of the poets of Rowe's time, with the +appendage of a life and a recommendatory preface. The contrast between +this preface and that of Heminge and Condell is characteristic. To Rowe it +is "a great wonder" that Shakespeare should have advanced dramatic poetry +as far as he did; and, since he wrote "under a mere light of nature," and +was never acquainted with Aristotle's precepts, it would be hard to "judge +him by a law he knew nothing of." With Rowe, also, the "fable" comes first +for criticism, because even if it is not the most difficult or beautiful +part of the play, it is the most important; yet he contends that in this +art Shakespeare has "no mastery or strength." In accordance with academic +notions, Rowe completes the work begun by Heminge and Condell, and divides +all the plays into acts and scenes; cutting up the text, as it is said, on +"rational principles."[5] But Rowe's divisions are both misplaced and +unauthorized; and even his text is faulty through being printed from the +fourth edition of the first folio, the latest one and the least accurate. + +Pope follows Rowe as editor in 1723, and upholds the authority of the +early copies, which, as he says with truth, "hold the place of the +originals, and are the only materials left to repair the deficiencies, or +restore the corrupted sense of the author." Pope's study of the +"originals," however, confirms him in Rowe's opinion that Heminge and +Condell were ignorant men, both as editors and actors. It was-- + + "Ben Jonson, getting possession of the stage, brought critical + learning into vogue: and that this was not done without difficulty + may appear from those frequent lessons (and indeed almost + declamations) which he was forced to prefix to his first plays, and + put into the mouth of his actors.... Till then, our authors had no + thoughts of writing on the model of the ancients: their tragedies + were only histories in dialogue: and their comedies followed the + thread of any novel as they found it no less implicitly than if it + had been true history." + +Pope also remarks that "players have ever had a standard to themselves +upon other principles than those of Aristotle," and Shakespeare's "wrong +judgment as a poet" must be ascribed to his "right judgment as a player." +It is evident, then, that Pope, like Rowe, had nothing favourable to say +about Shakespeare's art in the management of his "fable," and if Heminge +and Condell put in some act and scene divisions, "often where there is no +pause in the action," Pope marks a change of scene at every removal of +place, "which is more necessary in this author than in any other, because +he shifts them more frequently." + +It was said of Pope's edition that he had rejected whatever he disliked, +and thought more of amputation than cure. In the controversy which +followed, Pope found his match in Theobald. This critic points out in his +preface (1726) that an editor should be well versed in the history and +manners of his author's age, "if he aim at doing him service." But +Theobald, like Rowe, fails to understand Shakespeare's dramatic art, and +compares him with a "corrupt classic" for whom classical remedies are +necessary. Fortunately, Theobald confines his attention entirely to +textual emendations, and, unlike Pope, he does not tamper with the text in +order to make Shakespeare "speak better than the old copies have done." +Johnson, in spite of his censure, honoured Theobald by borrowing largely +from his labours in his own edition. + +Warburton (1747) defends Pope, and shrewdly remarks that Shakespeare's +works "when they escaped the players did not fall into much better hands +when they came amongst printers and booksellers," adding, "the truth is +Shakespeare's condition was yet but ill-understood." But Warburton is +wanting in historical knowledge when he writes, "The stubborn nonsense, +with which he was incrusted, occasioned his lying long neglected amongst +the common lumber of the stage." In fact, Warburton abuses Rowe's editing, +yet none the less adopts his tone in disparaging "those impurities," the +original copies. + +Dr. Johnson (1765) brings vigour and common sense to bear upon his +editorial labours, without, however, betraying special sympathy with the +poet's achievements, or any subtle comprehension of his art as a +dramatist. But Johnson never forgets that Shakespeare wrote plays and not +poems, and that he sold them to actors and not printers. His criticisms +are those of a playgoer writing of plays, as if he had seen them acted at +the theatre. At the same time he follows Rowe's lead in saying that +Shakespeare's plots are so loosely constructed that not one play would now +"be heard to the conclusion," and similarly with Rowe, he generalizes as +to the text being vitiated "by the blunders of the penman, or changed by +the affectation of the players." About the division into acts and scenes, +he writes: + + "I have preserved the common distribution of the plays into acts, + though I believe it to be in almost all the plays void of authority. + Some of those which are divided in the later editions have no + division in the first folio, and some that are divided in the folio + have no division in the preceding copies. The settled mode of the + theatre requires four intervals in the play, but few if any of our + author's compositions can be properly distributed in that manner. An + act is so much of the drama as passes without intervention of time or + change of place. A pause makes a new act. In every real and therefore + in every imitative action, the intervals may be more or fewer, the + restriction of five acts being accidental and arbitrary. This + Shakespeare knew, and this he practised; his plays were written, and + at first printed in one unbroken continuity, and ought now to be + exhibited with short pauses, interposed as often as the scene is + changed, or any considerable time is required to pass. This method + would at once quell a thousand absurdities." + +Something must be said later on about the "short pauses." There is wisdom +as well as humour in Johnson's observation: "Let him who desires to feel +the highest pleasure that the drama can give read every play from the +first scene to the last with utter negligence of all his commentators." + +To Steevens belongs the credit of being the first to collect and reprint +(1766) in one volume the original quartos, of which a revised and +completed edition is much needed. "Many of the quartos," he writes, "as +our own printers assure me, were far from being unskilfully executed, and +some of them were much more correctly printed than the folio." With regard +to Shakespeare's text, he observes: "To make his meaning intelligible to +his audience seems to have been his only care, and with the ease of +conversation he has adopted its incorrectness." In fact, Steevens thinks +that Shakespeare, of all the writers of his day, was the most +ungrammatical. + +Capell (1768) is perhaps the least dogmatic of all the eighteenth-century +editors, and the most cautious in his judgment, when he remarks: +"Generally speaking, the more distant a new edition is from its original, +the more it abounds in faults which is done by destroying all marks of +peculiarity and notes of time." And in another passage: "That division of +scenes which Jonson seems to have attempted, and upon which the French +stage prides itself, Shakespeare does not appear to have any idea of." In +a note he adds: "The current editions are divided in such a manner that +nothing like a rule can be collected from any of them." Unfortunately, +like all the other editors, Capell believes it necessary to divide +Shakespeare's plays into acts and scenes. + +With Malone (1790) Shakespearian criticism enters upon a new phase--the +historical one--when research and evidence take precedence of conjecture. +What he says of the first editors of his century remains as true to-day as +it was when written--"that the men never looked behind them, but +considered their own era and their own phraseology as the standard of +perfection." + +Malone, moreover, observes that the two chief duties of an editor are to +show the genuine text of an author and to explain his obscurities. This, +it must be admitted, is the view taken by all his contemporaries; and yet +dramas are not poems any more than words are deeds. And while Malone +spares no pains to amend a corrupt text in the hope of arriving at verbal +accuracy, he has little scruple about marring Shakespeare's scheme of +action. "All the stage-directions," he writes, "throughout this work I +have considered as wholly in my power, and have regulated them in the best +manner I could." To do this is to run counter to an editor's province and +duty; for a dramatist to know that his text is correct affords him small +consolation if his story has been misunderstood and mutilated. It is +doubtful whether scholars who insist on editing Shakespeare's plays as if +they were anything or everything but drama have any just appreciation of +the work they undertake. When Dr. Johnson contends that Shakespeare was +"read, admired, and imitated while he was yet deformed," he is indirectly +praising deformity. All the eighteenth-century editors blame Shakespeare +for the management of his "fable," and attribute it to his ignorance, +while many modern editors altogether overlook his art of making a play. +The late Dr. Furnivall's introduction to the "Leopold Shakespeare," which +has been deservedly and universally praised, has yet one vital defect as +dramatic criticism--his comments apply to the art of a novelist, not to +that of a playwright. + +The arguments brought forward in the Bacon-Shakespeare controversy are a +striking illustration of this imperfect knowledge. While the Baconians +pride themselves on discovering a similarity in the phraseology or +philosophical sentiments of the two writers, they forget that Shakespeare +was preeminent in the writing of drama--an art which is as difficult to +master as that of a painter or a musician, and in which the hand of an +amateur can be as easily detected; an art for which Bacon showed no +aptitude, and for which he had had no training. A novelist who describes +characters vividly was once asked why she seldom made them talk. Her +answer was: "I have little talent for writing dialogue; when my characters +speak they often cease to be the same people." Undoubtedly Bacon would +have given a similar answer to anyone attributing to him the plays of +Shakespeare. Moreover, there is a wide difference between the art of +writing dialogue for a novel and for a play. The novelist has innumerable +means of escape from difficulties which beset the dramatist. The skill +required for successfully conducting the story of a play by means limited +to the use of dialogue makes the dramatist's art one of the most difficult +to succeed in, and puts it outside the reach of all but the few and the +specially gifted. To illustrate Shakespeare's constructive art it is only +necessary to look at the old play of "King John," on which his own play is +based. Then, to take an instance from a later play--"Twelfth +Night"--Viola, when first seen on the stage, is a castaway, rescued by +sailors. After an interval of one short scene she reappears as Cesario, +the Duke's favourite page. How can the gap be most naturally bridged over? +Many dramatists would add dialogue detached from the story, but +Shakespeare gives the necessary information in three words, which flash a +picture upon the spectator's mind. Valentine says to Viola as they both +enter the stage together: "If the Duke _continue these favours_ towards +you, Cesario, you are like to be much advanced," etc. In scheming the +sequence of incidents, and in suppressing explanatory narrative, lies the +art of the dramatist. This result is not obtained without a good deal of +practice. Even Shakespeare could not have written a play so compact as +"Twelfth Night" at a period when he was writing "The Two Gentlemen of +Verona." + +In his young days Shakespeare must certainly have read "Gorboduc," with +its five acts, its five dumb shows, and its chorus; he may, perhaps, have +seen it revived at Greenwich Palace, or elsewhere, and have seen other +plays of the kind which were written in five acts by academicians--amateurs +who were anxious to air their learning before Queen Bess at the +Universities or at the Inns of Court. Then there was Ben Jonson at hand to +instruct his elder rival on the superiority of Latin comedy. Chapman, too, +who was highly esteemed by clergy and scholars, was within call to point +out to "artless Will" the merits of Senecan tragedy. In fact, the Bard of +Avon had good reason to know why his playhouse dramas were despised by the +learned, who, however, were not justified in presuming that he was +ignorant of classical conventions simply because he chose to ignore them. + +No doubt it was possible in Shakespeare's time to write plays in five acts +for the public stage. We know that at the Rose and Fortune theatres the +action of the play was often suspended to allow of dancing and singing, +though whether these intervals for interludes came after the termination +of each act it is difficult to decide. + +But if the four choruses in "Henry V." were intended by Shakespeare to +denote act divisions, they are not so marked in the first folio; while +"The Tempest," which may have been divided into acts by Shakespeare, has +stage-directions which suggest that it was not written originally for +representation in the public theatre, but for the Court. + +It must also be remembered that of the plays wholly written by +Shakespeare, with the one exception of "The Tempest," all are so +constructed that characters who leave the stage at the end of an episode +are never the first to reappear, a reappearance which would involve a +short pause and an empty stage; nor, even, does a character who ends one +of the acts marked in the folio ever begin the one that follows, as Ben +Jonson directs shall be done in his tragedy of "Sejanus" (1616). Can we +reasonably suppose, then, that a method so consistently carried out by +Shakespeare throughout all his plays respecting the exit and the +re-entrance of characters was due to mere accident, and not to deliberate +intention on the part of the dramatist? And in acted drama the exact +position where a pause comes in the movement of the story is a matter of +importance to the proper understanding of the play. Yet, in the first +collected edition of Shakespeare's plays the divisions made are so +irrelevant to the story that Heminge and Condell may have considered them +as merely ornamental. It may never have occurred to them that the +divisions would some day be used as an authority for actors as well as for +readers. The result has been disastrous to both. A slavish adherence by +the actor to these unfortunate divisions for over two hundred years, has +caused the representation of Shakespeare's plays on the stage to be in +most cases unintelligent, if not almost unintelligible; while, on the +other hand, it has for an equally long period been the means of misleading +scholars as to Shakespeare's method of dramatic construction. Until +editors ignore the acts and scenes in the folio edition of 1623 and take +the form of the play as it appears in the quartos--that is, without +divisions--no progress can be made with the study of Shakespeare's +dramatic art. It is now more generally recognized, especially by American +scholars, that the folio divisions are a real stumbling-block and must go +overboard. In some of the early comedies, perhaps, pauses can be made +where the acts are marked, in the folio, without serious injury to the +representation, but the comedies were written to be acted without break, +and gain immensely when so given. Besides, the lengths of the present +divisions are absurdly unequal. The last act of "Love's Labour's Lost" is +more than twice the length of the first act, and nearly four times the +length of the second and third acts. In a theatre, it should be the +shortest act. Then, the "Comedy of Errors" was acted as an after-supper +interlude at Gray's Inn. Time there would not allow of its having four +intervals. Throughout Shakespeare's early and middle periods his plays in +their dramatic form of construction provide no opportunity for regular +intervals, nor should they ever have been divided into five acts. To put +more than one break into "Romeo and Juliet," "The Merchant of Venice," +"Macbeth," "King Lear," "Hamlet" (acting version) injures the drama. +Shakespeare rarely cares to draw breath until he has reached the crisis, +nor should the reader be expected to do so. And to halt for talk and +refreshments on the eve of a crisis is to play havoc with the story. The +crisis comes in the "Merchant of Venice" at that part of the play marked +in the folio, Act III., Scene i. But it is almost impossible for an actor +to be animated in a scene following an _entr'acte_. The story of Macready +and the ladder is a well known instance. The pause, if any, should come +after the scene and not before it. + +It cannot be urged too often that Shakespeare invented his dramatic +construction to suit his own particular stage. And but for the special +conditions of his playhouse, Shakespearian drama could never have come +into being; for Shakespeare's genius was not adapted to writing plays with +intervals for music, as was done at Court. Unity of design was his aim. +"Scene individable" is his motto. The internal evidence of the plays +themselves proves this. + +Dr. Johnson, then, was right to contend that Shakespeare wrote his plays +as they were first printed "in one unbroken continuity," but to infer that +"they ought now to be exhibited with short pauses interposed as often as +the scene is changed, or any considerable time is required to pass," shows +that he failed to grasp the real object for which Shakespeare adopted the +continuous movement. An Elizabethan audience was absorbed by the story of +the play, and thought little about lapse of time or change of place. There +was only one locality recognized, and that one was the platform, which +projected to the centre of the auditorium, where the story was recited. +There was, besides, only one period, and that was "now," meaning the +moment at which the events were being talked about or acted. All +inconsistencies, then, that are apparent in the text, arising from change +of place or break in the time, should be ignored in representing the play. +It is no advantage to rearrange the order of the scenes, or to lower the +curtain, or to make a pause in the progress of the story in order to call +attention to change of place or interval of time. Whatever information +Shakespeare wished the audience to have on these matters, he put into the +mouths of his characters, and he expected the audience to accept it +without any questioning or further illustration by actual presentation. +Elizabethan folk-songs are sung without pausing between the verses; in +this way attention is fixed on the story, and Shakespeare obtains the same +result by dispensing with the empty stage. + +Capell long ago pointed out the real difficulty, when he wrote in his +preface: "Neither can the representation be managed nor the order and +thread of the fable be properly conceived by the reader till the question +of acts and scenes be adjusted." Unfortunately, Capell could prescribe no +remedy. To this day these irregular divisions continue, and all our modern +editions need reprinting and re-editing. One of the debts we owe to +Shakespeare is to present his plays in their authentic form. This is due +to him for what he was and for what he has done for us, as our greatest +national poet and dramatist. + + +SOME MISTAKES OF THE ACTORS. + +In Shakespeare's time the relations existing between the author and his +actors were often strained. Those who interpreted the characters were +blamed for more faults than their own, while the author, who was out of +sight, had his reputation depending upon the skill of his interpreters. +The actors, besides, were the author's paymasters, and often gave less for +a new play than they paid for a silk doublet, while at the same time they +were the absolute owners of all the dramas they produced. It was natural, +then, for authors to taunt the actors with being men who thrived by +speaking words which "better wits had framed." + +The hired player, however, fared no better than the authors, and it was +only those actors who had the right to pool the theatre takings who became +rich. Before Shakespeare was forty years of age, he was earning a +competent income out of his shares in two playhouses. No other dramatist +of his time occupied so fortunate a position, nor probably one more +isolated. As a tradesman's son, brought up at a grammar school only, he +would have no standing among scholars, and as a writer of plays he was the +"upstart crow," taking the bread out of the mouths of those who had paid +for a college education. Then the historical dramas which brought the +Globe fame and fortune were not calculated to please at Court, because +neither the Queen nor the nobility cared to see their ancestors walking +the public stages, unmasked, showing authority robbed of its sincerity and +of its sanctity. Across the Thames stood the Blackfriars, where the +children of the Chapel Royal, backed by royal favour, were rapidly +becoming the attraction among the leaders of fashion and culture. These +patrons upheld a class of entertainment with which Shakespeare had no +sympathy. So the master spirit of the Elizabethan drama, like Beethoven, +withdrew from the crowd to work out his own destiny, and to perfect +himself in an art that fascinated him, and for which his practical life in +the theatre, and his independence, gave him exceptional opportunity for +experiment. During his last ten years in London he wrote some dozen or +more plays, all of them of supreme merit. That they were dramas far in +advance of the requirements of the day is probable, since few of them were +printed during the poet's lifetime. Some of them, perhaps, were acted "not +above once." He had outgrown, indeed, the theatrical taste of the day, and +now only cared for plays which were "well digested in the scenes," meaning +well constructed. But this was an achievement which no dramatist of his +time attempted, unless it was Ben Jonson, who wrote artificial comedy +after the classical models. Shakespeare, however, wanted the art of the +theatre to imitate Nature, and he contrived to make speech and story +appear natural; and, indeed, his contemporaries mistook this art for +Nature, and thought it the work of an untutored mind and an unskilled +hand. Even to-day many actors are under the impression that Shakespeare +would have sanctioned as improvements the liberties now taken on the stage +with his plays. Perhaps, also, his own fellow-actors failed to interpret +his dramas entirely in accordance with his wishes; and yet his art is so +vital and so vividly impressed on the printed page of the "authentic +copies" that there is little justification for misrepresenting it. There +is an anecdote about Mrs. Siddons, to the effect that when again reading +over the part of Lady Macbeth, after her retirement from the stage, she +was amazed to find some new points in the character "which had never +struck her before"! A confession which would seem incredible were it not +known how apt English actors are to base the study of their parts not on +the text, but on stage traditions, which often are valueless, because +unauthorized. Yet no actor should defend a conception of character which +is shown to be at variance with the author's words. + +The only copies of Shakespeare's plays which can with any authority be +called acting-versions are the quartos, published during the poet's +lifetime, and these are not acting-versions in the modern sense of the +term, because, with the exception of textual errors, or abbreviations of +dialogue, there is no shortening of the play by the omission of entire +scenes or characters. The early quartos, with the notable exceptions of +the 1599 "Romeo and Juliet," the 1604 "Hamlet," and the 1609 "Troilus and +Cressida," have the appearance of being made up from actors' parts, or +taken down by shorthand writers during performances. In consequence, they +are less esteemed by the literary expert than are the plays as they appear +printed in the first folio; yet to the actors they provide information +which cannot be found elsewhere. That in some of these quartos the text is +corrupt may be explained by the difficulty of taking down dialogue spoken +rapidly from the stage, but at the same time it is unlikely that the +note-takers went out of their way to describe any movement which they did +not actually see carried out by the actors. From the title-page of "The +Merchant of Venice" it is evident that the copyist saw the play acted +differently from the way it is now acted. Take, for instance, the headline +which is worded: "The comicall Historie of the Merchant of Venice"; and +the title-page, which sets forth the "extreme crueltie of Shylocke the +Jewe towards the sayd Merchant, in cutting a just pound of his flesh, and +the obtayning of Portia by the choyse of three chests." These two stories, +which are continued in alternate scenes throughout most of the play, were +to the Elizabethans regarded as of equal importance. To-day the title-page +would have to be rewritten, and might run thus: "The tragicall Historie of +the Jewe of Venice, with the extreme injustice of Portia towards the sayd +Jewe in denying him the right to cut a just pound of the Merchant's flesh, +together with the obtayning of the rich heiress by the prodigal Bassanio." +Over the Shylock controversy enough ink has been wasted without adding +more, but the shortening of all the Portia scenes, and the omission of the +Prince of Aragon, one of the three suitors, and one who provides excellent +comedy, are indefensible mutilations. + +The title-page of the 1600 quarto of "Henry V." mentions Henry's "battell +fought at Agin Court, in France, togither with Auntient Pistoll." +"Swaggering Pistoll," like Falstaff, had become a delight to the town. The +play is, in fact, not a "chronicle history," but a slice out of history, +and not of well-made history either, since the evils of Henry's unjust +wars are not touched upon. Then Shakespeare's King is an endless talker, +while in reality he was the most silent of men. It was ostensibly a +"Jingo" play, written to open the Globe playhouse with a patriotic +flourish of trumpets. Its object, besides, was to please those Londoners +who had not forgotten 1588, when Englishmen faced a similar ordeal to +that at Agincourt, and came out victorious, not because they had the means +but the men. The interest of this drama, to the Elizabethan playgoer, +depended on the knowledge that a handful of starved and ragged soldiers +had won a decisive battle over an army which was its superior in numbers +and equipment, and contained all the pride and chivalry of the French +nation. And the stage-direction in the folio indicates the contrast thus: +"_Enter the King and his poore Souldiers_." On the modern stage, however, +this direction is ignored, though perhaps it has never been noticed. The +whole evening is taken up by the evolutions of a handsome young prince, +gorgeously dressed, and spotlessly clean, newly come from his military +tailor, together with a large number of equally well-dressed and well-fed +soldiers, who tramp after him on and off the stage, not a penny the worse +for all the hardships they are supposed to have encountered! Of the French +episodes two are omitted and the rest mutilated, while no prominence is +given to them, nor is the numerical superiority of the French indicated. +Nothing is seen of its army beyond the leaders and their one or two +attendants, who are thrust into the contracted space of a front scene. +This seems rather an upside down way to act the play! + +Among the early quartos, the two most interesting to the actor are the +first and second editions of "Romeo and Juliet," because they show how +Shakespeare adapted his art to the stage of his time. From them it may be +inferred that characters on the stage did not always retire from view when +they had finished speaking their lines. This, perhaps, was a necessity +due to the presence of spectators on the platform, who made, as it were, +an outer ring round the forefront or acting part of the stage. Romeo +therefore did not leave the stage in the balcony episode, where Juliet is +made to call him back again. He merely retired to the side of the +platform, among the gallants. When Romeo hears of his banishment, the +direction to the Nurse is "_Enter and Knocke_," which means that she comes +in at the door of the tiring-house and remains at one side of the stage, +probably knocking the floor with her crutch. After three knocks there is +again the direction "_Enter_," when, on hearing her cue, she moves from +the side into the centre of the stage to join in the dialogue. In this +same quarto she and not the Friar is directed to snatch the dagger from +Romeo, an evidence that this so-called "traditional-business," still in +use, is not of Shakespeare's time. Another stage-direction shows how +characters denoted change of locality merely by walking round the inner +stage. No doubt this "business" was done to keep the spectators on the +stage from chattering, which might easily happen whenever the actors left +the forefront of the platform. + +With regard to the first quarto of "Hamlet," and its probable history, +something will be said later on. But it might be well here to call +attention to the three stage-directions in this quarto, which have dropped +out of all the subsequent editions, and which elucidate the context. +Ophelia, in her "mad" scene, did not bring in flowers, but had a lute in +her hands. There would be no need for the Queen so minutely to describe +Ophelia's flowers at the time of her death if she had been previously +seen with the garlands. The ghost, when in the Queen's chamber, wore a +dressing-gown, not armour, probably the same gown he wore at the time of +his death; Hamlet is overwhelmed with horror at this pitiful sight of his +father. And Ophelia's body was followed to the grave by villagers and a +solitary priest, who took no further part in the ceremony. + + * * * * * + +Elizabethan players had an advantage over modern actors in that they could +more readily appreciate the construction of Shakespeare's plays. They knew +that the dramatist's characters mutually supported each other within a +definite dramatic structure, and that it was the business of the actor to +preserve the author's framework. This attitude towards the play grew +naturally out of the conditions belonging to their theatre, for unless the +plot were adhered to, confusion would have arisen in the matter of +entrances and exits, causing the continuity of the movement to be +interrupted. + +After the Restoration, when the public theatres were reopened, the "fable" +ceased to have the same importance attached to it by the actors, and +attention became more and more centred on those characters which were good +acting parts. In 1773 appeared a collected edition of Shakespeare's plays, +"As they are now performed at the Theatres Royal, Regulated from the +Prompt Books of each House." The volumes were dedicated to Garrick, whom +Bell, the compiler, pronounced to be "the best illustrator of, and the +best living comment on, Shakespeare that ever has appeared or possibly +ever will grace the British stage"; a statement which is qualified by the +remark of Capell that "Garrick spoke many speeches of Shakespeare as if he +did not understand them." Garrick, however, expresses his fear lest-- + + "the prunings, transpositions, or other alterations which in his + province as a manager he had often found necessary to make or adopt + with regard to the text, for the convenience of representation or + accommodation to the powers and capacities of his performers, might + be misconstrued into a critical presumption of offering to the + _literati_ a reformed and more correct edition of our author's works; + this being by no means his intention." + +The reader need only examine one of the plays in Bell's "Companion to the +Theatre" to understand Garrick's modesty as to his "prunings." Take the +actor's stage-version of "Macbeth"--one of Bell's notes states, "This +play, even amidst the fine sentiments it contains, would shrink before +criticism did not Macbeth and his lady afford such uncommon scope for +acting merit. Upon the whole, it is a fine drama with some gross +blemishes." Apparently the "blemishes" are only found in those scenes +where Macbeth or his wife do not appear, for Bell continues: + + "The part of the porter is properly omitted...." + + "The flat, uninteresting scene, between Lenox and another useless + Lord, is properly omitted...." + + "Here Shakespeare, as if the vigorous exertion of his faculties in + the preceding scene required relaxation, has given us a most + trifling, superfluous dialogue between Lady Macduff, Rosse, and her + son, merely that another murder may be committed on the stage. We + heartily concur in and approve of striking out the greater part of + it...." + + "There are about eighty lines of this scene (Macduff's) omitted, + which, retained, would render it painfully tedious, and, indeed, we + think them as little deserving of the closet as of the stage," etc. + +It does not seem to have struck Garrick that the scenes he "pruned" might +have some significance in the scheme of the author's drama independently +of their individual characteristics. + +To take another instance. In Garrick's version of "Romeo and Juliet," +reprinted in Dolby's "British Theatre" (1823), the following paragraph is +inserted underneath the list of characters: + + "The scenery in 'Romeo and Juliet' at Covent Garden this season + (1823) is very grand. That of the 'Funeral of Juliet' is truly solemn + and impressive. The architectural arrangement of the interior of the + church is most chaste and appropriate: the slow approach of the + funeral procession, the tolling of the bell, and the heart-saddening + tones of the choristers, swelling in all the sublime richness of the + minor key, make an impression on the feelings of the auditory which + can never be forgotten." + +Here, then, are illustrations, in two plays, of methods adopted by +actors--methods still in use--which are a direct interference with the +poet's dramatic intentions. They are methods, moreover, which Elizabethan +actors would have regarded as unintelligent, because they turned good +drama into bad drama, and created inconsistencies between character and +situation. The earliest acting-version of "Romeo and Juliet" (1597) has +some eight hundred lines less than the unshortened play (1599), and yet +there is no entire scene omitted, nor any of the characters; and those +scenes which have dropped out of the play, on the modern stage, are those +least curtailed in the 1597 version. In the first acting-version of +"Hamlet," published in 1603, there is still more striking evidence of the +Elizabethan actor's skill in compressing a play of Shakespeare's when it +was necessary. Not only was the play considerably shortened, without the +omission of scenes and characters, but it was slightly reconstructed. Herr +Emile Devrient, the greatest exponent of the part of Hamlet in Germany, +contended that this first quarto was a better constructed play than either +the 1604 version or that of the folio. In fact, with the faulty dialogue +amended from the perfect text, this 1603 actor's copy, which has 1,757 +fewer lines than in the full play, and 557 lines less than in the modern +acting edition, would be the best model from which to shorten the play so +as to bring it within the limit of a two hours' representation. That +Shakespeare sanctioned either the compression or the reconstruction for +use in the Globe is not likely. But that he tolerated the alterations is +possible, since he would recognize that his own less regular plot, though +more artistically suited as the framework for Hamlet's irregular mind, was +too subtle and elaborate to be effective on the public stage. + +With regard to acting-versions, therefore, it may be contended that the +interests of the author are more often than not opposed to those of the +modern actor in so far as the latter considers the author's drama to be +tedious whenever it fails to enhance the acting merits of some particular +character or characters in the play. Thus it is questionable whether, in +the absence of the author, the actors are the persons best qualified to +make stage-versions of his dramas. Their point of view is rarely the same +as that of the author, and if it is necessary to shorten a play they can +hardly be expected to undertake the work entirely to the satisfaction of +the author, nor yet in the interests of the public, since the value of +the fable may or may not be a matter of moment to an actor. If, then, +Shakespeare's plays are a valuable asset to the artistic wealth of the +nation, the amount of "pruning" they require for the stage should be +determined by competent experts. Unfortunately, actors believe that a +scholar is not qualified to advise on the matter, owing to his lack of +what they call "a sense of the theatre." This "sense" would no doubt be +differently interpreted by different actors. Broadly speaking, it may be +taken to mean the ability to forecast what degree of emotion or sympathy +certain incidents can arouse in an audience when they are seen represented +on the stage. Pope rejected the Gonzalo dialogue in the second act of "The +Tempest," asserting that it was not Shakespeare's because courtiers who +had been just shipwrecked on a desert island would not indulge in idle +gossip! Here Pope missed the theatre point of view. The audience see in +the first act an old man who once had been a King, but who was cruelly and +unjustly thrust out of his kingdom, and exposed with his baby daughter in +a frail and rotten bark to the mercy of the perilous ocean. Moreover, it +hears that the very men who did this wrong are now themselves shipwrecked +on this enchanted island, where Prospero is living. What the audience is +curious to see, then, in the second act, is not noblemen who are suffering +from shipwreck, but ignoble men, who merit the contempt of those who look +upon them, and who deserve the just rebuke they receive from the man who +is once more restored to his rights. The question as to what these +noblemen have themselves suffered in the course of being shipwrecked, +Shakespeare rightly judged was not one that an audience, under the +circumstances, could be interested in. Then, again, to take a textual +illustration from "King Lear" quoted by Steevens, the commentator. He +writes in his "Advertisement to the Reader": + + "The dialogue might, indeed, sometimes be lengthened by yet other + insertions than have been made (from the quartos), without advantage + either to its spirit or beauty, as in the following instance: + + "'LEAR. No. + "'KENT. Yes. + "'LEAR. No, I say. + "'KENT. I say, yea.' + + "Here the quartos add: + + "'LEAR. No, no; they would not. + "'KENT. Yes; they have.' + + "By the admission of the negation and affirmation, would any new idea + be gained?" + +The answer given by the actor is, "Certainly! The added words from the +quartos give the idea of reality and character." It is inconceivable that +Shakespeare, himself an actor, omitted the additional lines. Without this +reiteration, the expression of Lear's amazement at the indignity put upon +his servant cannot be adequately tuned by the actor, nor yet be consistent +with his character. This, then, is the dilemma with regard to +stage-versions; scholars are hampered in their judgment by want of +knowledge of the art of the theatre; and actors by their bias for good +acting parts, or, in other words, for parts which are always in view of +the audience. + +As to elocution, it may be well to recall what an Antwerp merchant who had +for many years resided in London said of the English people, about the +year 1588. He then observed that "they do not speak from the chest like +the Germans, but prattle only with the tongue." The word "prattle" is used +in the same sense by Shakespeare in his play of "Richard the Second."[6] +In the "Stage Player's Complaint," we find an actor making use of the +expression, "Oh, the times when my tongue hath ranne as fast upon the +Sceane as a Windebanke's pen over the ocean." Added to this, there is the +celebrated speech to the players, in which Hamlet directs the actors to +speak "trippingly on the tongue." There can be no doubt, therefore, that +Shakespeare's verse was spoken on the stage of the Globe easily and +rapidly. And the actor had the advantage of standing well within the +building in a position now occupied by the stalls, nor were audiences then +stowed away under deep projecting galleries. But unless English actors can +recover the art of speaking Shakespeare's verse, his plays will never +again enjoy the favour they once had. Poetry may require a greater +elevation of style in its elocution than prose, but in either case the +fundamental condition is that of representing life, and as George Lewes +ably puts it, "all obvious violations of the truths of life are errors in +art." In the delivery of verse, therefore, on the stage, the audience +should never be made to feel that the tones are unusual. They should still +follow the laws of speaking, and not those of singing. But our actors, who +excel in modern plays by the truth and force of their presentation of +life, when they appear in Shakespeare make use of an elocution that no +human being was ever known to indulge in. They employ, besides, a +redundancy of emphasis which destroys all meaning of the words and all +resemblance to natural speech. It is necessary to bear in mind that, when +dramatic dialogue is written in verse, there are more words put into a +sentence than are needed to convey the actual thought that is uppermost in +the speaker's mind; in order, therefore, to give his delivery an +appearance of spontaneity, the actor should arrest the attention of the +listener by the accentuation of those words which convey the central idea +or thought of the speech he is uttering, and should keep in the +background, by means of modulation and deflection of voice, the words with +which that thought is ornamented. Macbeth should say: + + "That but this blow + Might be the be-all and the end-all HERE, + But HERE, upon this bank and shoal of time, + We'd jump the life to COME.--But in these cases + We still have judgment HERE; that we but teach + BLOODY instructions, which, being taught, RETURN + To plague the INVENTOR." + +If the emphasis fall upon the words marked, then these and no others +should be the words inflected; but modern actors, if they inflect the +right words, inflect the wrong ones too, until it becomes impossible for +the listener to identify the sense by the sound. This artificial way of +speaking verse seems traditional to the eighteenth century. David Garrick +and Edmund Kean no doubt used a more natural delivery, and also Mrs. +Siddons, though some of her exaggerations of emphasis probably were never +heard at the Globe. Shakespeare would hardly have endorsed her reading of +Lady Macbeth's words, "Give me the daggers!" There was nobody else to +whom Macbeth could give them. At moments of tension, speech is always +direct. A lady, _tete a tete_ with her husband at the breakfast-table, +enjoying an altercation over the contents of the newspaper, would surely +indicate the natural emphasis by exclaiming, "GIVE me the newspaper!" +words that can, in this way, be spoken in half the time that Mrs. Siddons +took to speak hers. The two and a half hours in which a play in +Shakespeare's time was often acted would not be possible to-day, even +without delays for acts and scenes, with the methods of elocution now in +vogue. It is legitimate for Romeo to exclaim in his farewell to Juliet: + + "EYES, look your last! + ARMS, take your last embrace!" + +or he may say: + + "Eyes, look your LAST! + Arms, take your last EMBRACE!" + +but it is not correct to say: + + "EYES, look your LAST! + ARMS, take your last EMBRACE!" + +which every Romeo persists in saying to-day; and this method of +duplicating emphasis, being used by all the actors throughout the whole +play, the time taken up in speaking it is at once doubled. Hence the need +for excessive "prunings." + + * * * * * + +To sum up the arguments: Shakespeare's dramatic art, which is unique of +its kind, cannot to-day be properly understood or appreciated on the stage +for the following reasons: (1) Because editors print the plays as if they +were five-act dramas, which they are not; (2) because actors, in their +stage versions, mutilate the "fable," and interpolate pictorial effects +where none are intended; (3) because, also, actors use a faulty and +artificial elocution, unsuited to the poet's verse. These causes, +combined, oust Shakespeare's original plays from the theatre, and impose +in their place pseudo-classical dramas which are not of his making, nor of +his time. To remedy this evil it is necessary to insist that the early +quartos alone represent Shakespeare's form of construction and his method +of representation, and that for the purpose of determining the text these +same quartos should be collated with the first folio, with occasional +reference to modern editions. Cheap facsimiles of the quartos as well as +the folio should be accessible to actors, and from these an attempt should +be made to standardize stage-versions of Shakespeare's most popular plays, +and these stage-versions should be the joint work of scholars and actors. + +Perhaps what is important for the general public to recognize is that the +acting-versions of Shakespeare's plays, the interpretation given to his +characters, and the actor's "readings" have altered but little during the +last two hundred years, so that the performances given on the stage to-day +are chiefly founded upon traditions which never came into touch with +Elizabethan times. More and more, therefore, must it be realized that if +an actor wishes to interpret the plays intelligently, he must shut his +eyes to all that has taken place on the stage since the poet's time, +turning to Shakespeare's text and trusting to that alone for inspiration. + + +THE CHARACTER OF LADY MACBETH. + + _I should never think, for instance, of contesting an actress's right + to represent Lady Macbeth as a charming, insinuating woman, if she + really sees the figure that way. I may be surprised at such a vision; + but so far from being scandalized, I am positively thankful for the + extension of knowledge, of pleasure, that she is able to open to + me._--HENRY JAMES. + +The introduction of women players led to one of the evils connected with +the star system. So long as boys acted the women's parts there was no +danger of any woman's character being made over-prominent to the extent of +unbalancing the play. But when Mrs. Siddons became famous by her +impersonation of Lady Macbeth, it may be contended, without prejudice to +the talent of the actress, that the character ceased to represent +Shakespeare's point of view. This is the more to be regretted in view of +Mrs. Siddons' confession that her personality was not suited to the part. +There was, besides, another drawback unfortunately in that, during the +eighteenth century, the part of Lady Macduff dropped out of the playbill, +thus removing from the play the one person in it whose presence was +necessary for the proper understanding of Lady Macbeth's character. The +appearance of Lady Macduff on the stage affords opportunity for the +reflection that Duncan's murder would never have taken place had she been +Macbeth's wife. Yet she, too, has shortcomings to which she falls a +victim, for when the assassins are at her door she exclaims: + + "Whither should I fly? + I have done no harm. But I remember now + I am in this earthly world, where to do harm + Is often laudable; to do good, sometime, + Accounted dangerous folly: why then, alas! + Do I put up that womanly defence, + To say, I have done no harm?" + +Now, admirable as this reflection is from an ethical standpoint, it is not +appropriate to the moment, and in Lady Macbeth's eyes it would have been +"dangerous folly" to talk moral platitudes at such a time. In fact, if the +mistress of Inverness Castle had been placed in Lady Macduff's cruel +position, it is more than likely she would have had the courage and the +energy to save her own life and those of her children from the fury of +Macbeth. Nor is it inconceivable that if Lady Macbeth had married a man of +stronger moral fibre than her husband, she might have lived a useful life, +loved and respected by all who knew her. And yet, unhappily for both +women, neither Macbeth nor Macduff were fine types of manhood. + +Another idea which needs to be cleared out of the way is that of the +unusual enormity of Lady Macbeth's crime in contriving the death of a man +who was her guest. Shakespeare's audience knew that a sovereign was never +immune from assassination. Queen Elizabeth's life became the mark for +assassin after assassin. Moreover, the Catholics contended that "good +Queen Bess," by beheading Mary Stuart, had murdered a woman who was her +guest and who had come into her kingdom assured of protection. There was +something childish about Duncan's credulity in face of the treachery he +had already experienced from the first Thane of Cawdor. In a monarch whose +position was open to attack from the jealousy of his nobles, Duncan's +conduct showed an almost incredible want of caution. In fact, it was his +unguarded confidence which brought about his death. No onlooker in the +Globe playhouse ever thought the murder of this King at Inverness to be an +improbable or unusual occurrence. And this inference suggests another of +even more importance, namely, the period in which Shakespeare's tragedy is +placed. When the poet-dramatist demanded that his actors should hold the +mirror up to Nature, it was not the nature of the Greeks, nor of the +Romans, nor of the early Britons that he meant. The spirit of the Italian +Renaissance, with its humanism and intellectuality, had taken too strong a +hold upon the imagination of Englishmen to allow of their playgoers being +interested in the puppets of a bygone age. Shakespeare had no need to look +beyond his own time to find his Lady Macbeth. There were many women still +existing who were uninfluenced by the didactic teaching of the Puritans +and their love of moral introspection. Queen Elizabeth herself was an +instance. As the historian Green points out, we track her through her +tortuous maze of lying and intrigue until we find that she revelled in +byways and crooked ways, and yet was adored by her subjects for a +womanliness she, in reality, never possessed. And this love of shuffling +and lack of all genuine religious emotion failed utterly to blur the +brightness of the national ideal. Or, to take her rival, Mary Stuart. The +rough Scottish nobles owned that there was in her some enchantment whereby +men were bewitched. "Her beauty," writes Green, "her exquisite grace of +manner, her generosity of temper and warmth of affection, her frankness of +speech, her sensibility, her gaiety, her womanly tears, her manlike +courage, the play and freedom of her nature ... flung a spell over friend +or foe which has only deepened with the lapse of years." And yet this +piece of feminine fascination visited her sick husband, Darnley, in his +lonely house near Holyrood Palace, in which he was lodged by her order, +kissed him, bade him farewell, and rode gaily back to a dance within two +hours of the terrible explosion which deprived him of his life, a murder +that was attributed to Bothwell, and at which Mary herself may easily have +connived. + +And so it was with Lady Macbeth. Murder, to those who were not injured by +it, was no crime in her opinion, and excited neither terror nor remorse. +She was to the last unconscious of being criminal or sinful. Her life was +the playing of a red-handed game by one who thought herself innocent. For +this reason she could walk placidly through any evil she contemplated. She +knew that her persuasive power over men lay in her womanliness, and that +in this there was nothing compromising. Unlike her husband, her face +betrayed no moral conflict. The Puritan spirit had never penetrated her +own nature. Whatever her outward religion might be, she was at heart a +materialist, not from conviction, but from shallowness, due to the absence +of all the higher powers of reflection and imagination. Banquo is dead, +and therefore she knows that it is impossible for him to come out of his +grave to torment his murderer. It is only necessary to wash the blood from +her hands, and that will clear away the consequences. Even the "spirits," +to which her husband has alluded; those which she mockingly invokes to her +feminine aid, have no reality to her, because they have no material +whereabouts. So that her husband's talk about conscience and retribution +is unintelligible to her. She knows that what he would do "wrongly" he +would like to do "holily," because she has heard about the Ten +Commandments; but these things have no meaning for her, they do not come +within her experience. With her limited outlook, the beginning and end of +everything necessary for her husband's success in life is that he should +be practical, inventive, and never appear embarrassed. + +The most marked feature, then, in Lady Macbeth's character is her +femininity, and Shakespeare dwells upon this trait throughout her career. +In the first place, no one at Inverness Castle suspects that she is +accessory to the terrible crime. Macduff is distressed at the mere thought +of telling her what has happened. The woman who would have been trampled +under foot in the courtyard on that eventful night, if the truth about her +had been known, becomes the centre of immediate anxiety when she faints, +or feigns to faint, to rescue her husband from a perilous position. Duncan +could not find words to express his delight at her charm as a hostess. The +guests at the royal coronation banquet grieve that she should be exposed +to a trying ordeal through her husband's extraordinary behaviour. The +doctor who overhears her dying confessions is a "mated" and "amazed" and +incredulous at the thought of her self-implications. One voice speaks of +her with harshness, and it is that of the son of the murdered King, and +then only at the close of the play. If, again, we turn to her own +reflections, it is always her woman's weakness which she dreads may defeat +her purpose. Murder is something foreign to her temperament; the details +are ugly and revolting; the sight of blood may unnerve her. She can do the +crime herself if she can accomplish it without seeing the wound the dagger +will make; but she evidently imagines that her husband, who has killed men +in battle, can do it better, and this conviction becomes a moral certainty +when she is confronted with the pathetic figure of that trusting, white +face, with its whiter hair, so like her own father's. When the fatal +moment arrives she cannot meet her husband in her normal mood, but has +recourse to the wine-cup, not because she shrinks from the notion of +murder, but from dislike for the details of the operation. She has, +besides, all the little partialities of a woman who delights in the beauty +of the innocent flower and in perfumes of Arabia. Then the thought of +being a Queen and wearing a real crown is an intense delight to her. +Macbeth knew of her weakness for finery when he sought her approval of the +deed; it was his bribe for her help. And women of Lady Macbeth's +temperament do not care to be disappointed of their pleasures. To break +promise in these matters, she tells her husband, is as cruel as it would +be for her to kill her own child, that being a crime of which she is +incapable, for she is a devoted mother. + +Nor must the marked contrast between her attitude before and after the +crime be overlooked. At its inception, murder is a mere means to an end, +which creates no misgivings in her mind. She sees "the future in the +instant," a future which gives her "the golden round," and bestows on her +husband "sovereign sway and masterdom." But no sooner is the crime +committed than her optimism fails her, for her husband seems no nearer to +"masterdom" than he was before. After the coronation there comes her +tragic reflection that the murder was a mistake. Unfortunately for her, it +was worse than a mistake; it was a blunder for which her husband deposes +her authority. No longer does he listen to her counsels, and although she +has not lost any of her charm or her womanliness, her spell over him has +gone for ever. Never again can she say, "From this time such I account thy +love," but merely ejaculates, "Did you send to him, _sir_?" No such cruel +awakening was in store for her husband. He knew from the first that his +crime must bring retribution and arouse the anger of the gods; but she, +for her part, foresaw no harm and no consequences. It is the shock of her +failure which paralyzes her power for further action. She is not +repentant, because she is unconscious of having sinned, and to the last +she is at a loss to understand why murdering an old man in his bed has +divorced her husband's affection from her, and turned him into a +bloodthirsty tyrant. Her brain is not big enough to take in what all these +things mean, and under strain of anxiety and disappointment her mind gives +way. This, then, is the Lady Macbeth that Mrs. Siddons identifies as "a +character which, I believe, is generally allowed to be most captivating to +the other sex, fair, feminine, nay, perhaps even fragile. Such a +combination only, respectable in energy and strength of mind and +captivating in feminine loveliness, could have composed a charm of such +potency as to fascinate the mind of a hero so dauntless as Macbeth." + +There is no portrait in Shakespeare's gallery of women more generally +misunderstood than this one, the reason, perhaps, being that the poet has +not been credited with the desire or experience to draw a type of woman so +obviously disingenuous. But no one can read Shakespeare aright who thinks +that the men and women who live in our age do not resemble those who lived +in his time. Not until we read the Lady Macduff scene carefully can we +grasp the kind of woman Shakespeare had in his mind. Then it will be +evident that the real criminal in the play is Macbeth, whose conscience +warns him that "unnatural deeds beget unnatural troubles," and who, +against his better judgment, allows himself to be influenced, out of +connubial love, into an action of which he knows his wife to be incapable +of foreseeing the consequences. When disaster follows, we can set up that +"womanly defence" for her and say, "she meant no harm." There is no such +appeal possible for her husband, who is condemned from the first out of +his own mouth. + +Shakespeare, it must be remembered, wrote the play of "Macbeth" probably +about 1605, when the Globe actors were still competing with the children +at Blackfriars, who, with their fine music, gorgeous costumes, and +"candlelight," attracted the well-to-do people of the town. In this +tragedy, therefore, Shakespeare revives interest in the Faustus legend, +once so popular at a rival house. The notion that man could set himself up +in opposition to the Deity was due to the teaching of the Reformation. If +man could defy the supremacy of the Pope, might he not challenge also +Omniscience Itself? Having once tasted of the Tree of Knowledge, Faustus +will not rest until he can know all, can do all, and dare all: + + "Till swoln with cunning of a self-conceit, + His waxen wings did mount above his reach, + And, melting, heavens conspir'd his overthrow." + +And Hecate prophesies of Macbeth that-- + + "He shall spurn fate, scorn death, and bear + His hopes 'bove wisdom, grace, and fear; + And you all know security + Is mortals' chiefest enemy." + +To playgoers at the Globe, then, the interest in the play of "Macbeth" lay +in the man's daring attempt to defeat the supernatural. The scheme of +drama requires that Macbeth, like Faustus, shall be the pivot of the play. +Of necessity, then, it is an error of judgment for a stage-manager to +allow the part of Lady Macbeth to be overacted. Apart from the witches, +there are only two women in the play, neither of whom are of more than +common mould. They are alike in this, that both are by nature domestic, +and appreciate family ties; while in other respects they are finely +contrasted, and represent the old and the new type of character which must +have so interested dramatists in Shakespeare's time--that of the +Renaissance or Italian type, upholding the doctrine of expediency; and +that of the Reformation, demanding obedience to conscience. + + +SHAKESPEARE'S JEW AND MARLOWE'S CHRISTIANS.[7] + +In the opinion of Heinrich Heine, Shylock, as a typical study of Judaism, +was merely a caricature. If this is a correct estimate of the character, +then Shakespeare's Jew is the Elizabethan Christian's notion of an +infidel in much the same way as the modern stage Paddy is the Englishman's +idea of an Irishman. Shakespeare, in fact, thrusts the conventional usurer +of the old Latin comedy into a play of love and chance and money-bags in +order to serve the purpose of a stage villain, and calls him a Jew. +Shylock is an isolated figure, unsociable, parsimonious, and relentless, +who tries to inflict harm on those who envy him his wealth and hate him +for his avarice. + +Perhaps it is this marked isolation in which the dramatist has placed +Shylock that tempts the modern actor to represent him as a victim of +religious persecution, and therefore as one who does not merit the +misfortune that falls upon him. In this way the figure becomes tragic, +and, contrary to the dramatist's intention, is made the leading part; so +that when the Jew finally leaves the stage, the interest of the audience +goes with him. But if Shakespeare intended his comedy to produce this +impression, he was at fault in writing a last act in which every character +that appears is evidently not aware that Shylock's defeat was undeserved; +nor is there any evidence to show that Shakespeare designed his comedy as +a satire on the inhumanity of Christians. How then has it been brought +about that, while the exigencies of the drama require Shylock to be the +wrongdoer, he now appears on the stage as the one who is wronged? + +In the first place, a change of opinion in a nation's religion or politics +causes a change in the theatre. New plays are written to give expression +to the new sentiment, and the old plays, when revived, must be modified +or readjusted to bring them in touch with the new opinions. To meet this +marked change in public taste managers and actors are forced to abandon +convention. It is useless at such a time to quote authorities. Public +opinion is arbitrary, and the genius of a Macklin or a Kean would fail to +arouse interest if it were out of sympathy with the newly awakened +conscience. A popular actor is tempted, therefore, to show the old figure +in the light of the new sentiment, and his impersonation is then set up as +a model to which every contemporary candidate for favour is expected to +conform. + +It must be conceded, also, that our playgoers are rarely familiar with the +text of Shakespeare's plays, and thus increased opportunity is given to +the actor to overrule the author. Yet this does not explain why an +interpretation, quite unjustified by the text, should find favour with +many dramatic critics. If a sound judgment and true taste are to prevail +among playgoers, criticism should dissociate history from sentiment and +discriminate between old conventions and modern innovations. Few critics, +however, care to separate themselves from the opinions of their day; in +fact, so far as Shakespeare's plays are concerned, newspaper criticism is +often limited to the business of reporting. Otherwise it is difficult to +explain the chorus of unanimous approval with which the Press, as well as +the public, hailed the new Shylock in the picturesque and sympathetic +rendering given at the Lyceum in the early eighties. + +Even if it be admitted that the terms of opprobrium with which Shylock is +accosted by all the Christians in Shakespeare's comedy are unnecessarily +harsh, even if it be granted that to Gratiano, Solanio, and Salarino he is +the "dog Jew," meaning a creature outside the pale of heaven, yet if we +read between the lines it is evident that religious differences are not +the chief grievance. Shylock is a Jew, therefore a moneylender; a +moneylender, therefore rich; rich, yet a miser, and therefore of little +value to the community, which remains unbenefited by his usurious loans. +This, in the eyes of the Christian merchants, is the real significance of +the word Jew. The Catholic Church, by forbidding Christians to take +interest, had unintentionally given the Jews a monopoly of the +money-market, but with it that odium which attaches to the usurer. This +point of view can be specially illustrated by Marlowe's Barabas, in "The +Jew of Malta," the precursor of Shylock. Barabas makes no secret as to the +unpopularity of his profession: + + "I have been zealous in the Jewish faith, + Hard-hearted to the poor, a covetous wretch, + That would for lucre's sake have sold my soul. + A hundred for a hundred I have ta'en; + And now for store of wealth may I compare + With all the Jews in Malta." + +His riches are blessings reserved exclusively for his race: + + "And thus are we on every side enriched: + These are the blessings promised to the Jews." + + * * * * * + + "Rather had I a Jew be hated thus, + Than pitied in a Christian poverty:" + + * * * * * + + "Aye, wealthier far than any Christian." + + * * * * * + + "What more may Heaven do for earthly man + Than thus to pour out plenty in their laps." + +This, then, was the Christian notion of the Jew in Shakespeare's time, and +while we have no reason for supposing that it was Shakespeare's also, +there is enough evidence to show that for the purpose of his story the +dramatist adopted the prevalent opinion that the Jew was a man who lived +solely for his wealth. In the face of this knowledge it is difficult to +understand the opinion of some commentators that Shylock was intended as a +protest against Marlowe's "mere monster." The similarity between Shylock +and Barabas has been pointed out by Dr. Ward. Both love money, both hoard +their wealth, both starve their servants to save expense, both defend +their religion as well as their usury, both love to despoil the Christians +and taunt them with their lack of fairness. Of course, every good critic +admits that there are two sides to an argument. Even Sir Walter Scott, +when reviewing a book, confesses to his son-in-law that his criticism +might have been very different were the mandate _dechirer_. And those who +want to defame Shylock's character will not find it a difficult thing to +do. The following illustration of the character is given after the manner +of a schoolboy's paraphrase: + + Shylock thinks it folly to lend money without interest. Jacob was + blessed for thriving, even if he prospered by cunning means, and to + thrive by any means short of stealing is to deserve God's blessing. + Shylock can make money as quickly as ewes and rams can breed. He will + show how generous he can be towards Christians by lending Antonio + money without asking a farthing of interest, provided Antonio + consents, by way of a joke, to lose a pound of his flesh if he should + fail to repay the money on a special day; and this pound to be taken + from any part of his body which Shylock may choose, meaning, no + doubt, nearest to the heart, so as to ensure death. Yet Bassanio need + have no anxiety about the safety of his friend's life, because human + flesh is not a marketable commodity like mutton or beef. + + Shylock has a servant who eats too much, and is so lazy that the Jew + is glad to part with him to the impecunious Bassanio, in the hope + that Launcelot will help to squander his new master's "borrowed + purse." For a similar reason he will himself go to Bassanio's feast, + although his religion forbids him to eat with Christians. His + daughter is not to have any pleasure from the masque, but to shut + herself up in the house so that no sound of Christian masquerading + may reach her ears. His last words to her are in praise of thrift. + + The Jew's first exclamation on hearing that Jessica cannot be found + is that he has lost a diamond worth 2,000 ducats. He would like to + see his daughter dead at his feet if only he can have again the + jewels that are in her ears, and find the ducats in her coffin. It is + heartrending to think how Jessica has been squandering his treasures, + and of the additional loss to him in having to pay Tubal for trying + to find the girl; yet it is gratifying to hear of Antonio's + misfortunes; and since the merchant is likely to become bankrupt it + will be well to fee an officer in readiness to arrest him the moment + the time of the bond expires. If only Antonio can be got out of the + way, Shylock will be able to make as much money as ever he likes. + With this thought to console him he goes to the synagogue to say his + prayers. + + When Antonio is arrested, Shylock demands the utmost penalty of the + law because of a "lodged hate and a certain loathing" he bears the + bankrupt. No amount of money will tempt him to forgo his rights, and + the letter of the law must be observed in every detail; not even a + surgeon must be allowed on the spot in the hope of saving this + lend-you-money-for-nothing merchant's life. When Portia frustrates + his purpose and he finds the law against him, he can still ask that + the loan be repaid "thrice" (Portia and Bassanio thought "twice" a + sufficiently tempting offer). And when Portia points out that, as an + alien, who has deliberately plotted to take the life of a Christian, + Shylock's own life is forfeited, as well as the whole of his wealth, + he still demands the return of his principal. + +Now if we go back to the Latin Comedies and consider the origin of the +moneylender, we find a type of character similar to that of Shylock. +Moliere's Harpagon, who is modelled on the miser of Plautus, has a strong +resemblance to Barabas and to Shylock, although Shylock is undoubtedly the +most human. Reference has already been made to the likeness between +Barabas and Shylock, and it needs but a few illustrations to show the +resemblance between the English and French miser. Both are moneylenders, +who when asked for a loan declare that it is necessary for them to borrow +the sum required from a friend. Sheridan makes little Moses do the same. +Harpagon exclaims to his servant: "Ah, wretch, you are eating up all my +wealth," and Shylock says the same thing to Launcelot. Harpagon's, "It is +out of Christian charity that he covets my money," is not unlike the +reproach of Shylock, "He was wont to lend out money for a Christian +courtesy!" And "justice, impudent rascal, will soon give me satisfaction!" +is with Shylock "the Duke shall grant me justice!" While if we compare the +words which Moliere puts into the mouths of those who revile the miser, +they suggest the taunts thrown at Shylock. "I tell you frankly that you +are the laughing-stock of everybody, and that nothing delights people more +than to make game of you"; has its equivalent in the speech "Why, all the +boys in Venice follow him," etc. And "never does anyone mention you, but +under the name of Jew and usurer," tallies with Launcelot's "My master is +a very Jew." Other instances might be quoted. + +Of course it cannot be overlooked that Shakespeare has given Shylock one +speech of undoubted power which silences all his opponents. For while the +Christians are unconscious of any wrongdoing on their side towards the +Jew, Shylock complains loudly and bitterly of the indignities thrust upon +him by the Christians, and in that often-quoted speech beginning "Hath not +a Jew eyes" he complains with an insistence which certainly claims +consideration. Now in so far as Shylock resents the want of tolerance +shown him by the Christians, he is in the right and Shakespeare is with +him; but when he tries to justify his method of retaliation and schemes to +take Antonio's life, not simply in order to revenge the indignities thrust +upon him, but also that he may put more money into his purse, Shylock is +in the wrong and Shakespeare is against him. For it is obvious that +Shylock does not seek the lives of Gratiano, Solanio, or Salarino, the men +who called him the "dog Jew," or the life of the man who ran away with his +daughter, but of the merchant who lends out money gratis, who helps the +unfortunate debtors, and who exercises generosity and charity. Whatever +blame attaches to the Christians on the score of intolerance, Antonio is +the least offender, except in so far as it touches Shylock's pocket. And +when Shylock the usurer asserts that a Christian is no better than a Jew, +he forgets that Christianity, in its original conception and purpose, +forbade the individual to prey on his fellow-creatures; and this is the +Christianity which Antonio practises. + +Finally it is the intention of the comedy, as Shakespeare has designed it, +to illustrate the consequence of a too rigid adherence to the letter of +the law. The terms of the bond to which Shylock clings so tenaciously, and +for which he demands unquestioning obedience, ultimately endanger his own +life and with it the whole of his property. Shylock falls a victim to his +own plot in the same way that Barabas tumbles into his own burning +caldron; but the Christians spare the Jew's life and half his wealth is +restored to him, and restored to him by Antonio "the bankrupt," who is +still himself greatly in need of money. That Shylock must in return for +this mercy deny his faith is not in the eyes of the Christian a punishment +or even an act of malice, but a means of salvation. + +The basis, then, of Shakespeare's comedy, it is contended, is a romantic +story of love and adventure. It shows us a lovable and high-minded +heroine, her adventurous and fervent lover, and his unselfish friend, +together with their merry companions and sweethearts. And into this happy +throng, for the purpose of having a villain, the dramatist thrusts the +morose and malicious usurer, who is intended to be laughed at and +defeated, not primarily because he is a Jew, but because he is a +curmudgeon; thus the prodigal defeats the miser. + + * * * * * + +If we look more closely into the two plays of Marlowe and Shakespeare, and +compare not only Barabas with Shylock, but also Marlowe's Christians with +those of Shakespeare, we find a dissimilarity in the portraiture of the +Christians so marked that it is impossible to ignore the idea that +Shakespeare, perhaps, wished to protest not against Marlowe's "inhuman +Jew," but against his pagan Christians. The variance, in fact, is too +striking to be accidental, as the following table will show: + + THE FAMOUS TRAGEDY OF THE THE MOST EXCELLENT + RICH JEW OF MALTA. HISTORY OF THE MERCHANT + OF VENICE. + + The play is named after the The play is named after the + Jew who owns the argosies. Christian who owns the + argosies. + + The Christians take forcible The Christians ask a loan of + possession of all the Jew's the Jew on business terms. + wealth. + + The Jew upbraids the Christians The Christian upbraids the + for quoting Scripture to Jew for quoting Scripture to + defend their roguery. defend his roguery. + + The Christians break faith A Christian Court upholds + with the Turks, and also with the Jew's claim to his bond. + the Jew. + + The Jew's daughter Abigail Jessica gives away her father's + rescues her father's money money to the Christians. + from the Christians. + + The Jew's servant helps his Launcelot leaves his master + master to cheat the Christians. to join the Christians. + + Two Christians try to cajole Lorenzo elopes with Jessica, + the Jew of his daughter, and die and finally inherits the Jew's + victims to his treachery. wealth. + + Abigail becomes a Christian Jessica becomes a Christian + and is poisoned by her father. and is happy ever after. + + The Jew is the means of Portia saves the Christian + saving the Christians from the from the Jew. + Turks. + + The Christians are accessory The Christians spare the + to the Jew's death, which is an Jew's life, which is an act of + act of treachery on their part. mercy on their part. + +It might be objected that the interval of seven years between the +production of the two plays renders it improbable that Shakespeare would +have intentionally contrasted his play with Marlowe's. But the popularity +of "The Jew of Malta" exceeded that of any other contemporary play. +Although it was not printed till 1604, it was produced in 1588, and +references to it in contemporary plays continue to be found until 1609. +Owing, besides, to Alleyne's extraordinary success as Barabas, the play +continued to be acted at intervals until 1594, between which date and 1598 +Shakespeare had written his own comedy. The setting-off, too, of play +against play was a common practice, especially among the early Elizabethan +dramatists, and Greene did not hesitate to avail himself of the success of +Marlowe's "Doctor Faustus" to write his "Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay." + +Now in so far as "The Jew of Malta" makes fun of friars and nuns, it would +be considered legitimate amusement by a Protestant audience. We have a +similar record on the French stage of revolutionary times when as M. +Fleury remarks: "All the convents in France were shown up at the theatres, +and the surest mode of drawing money to the treasury was to raise a laugh +at the expense of the Veil." But Marlowe goes further than this. He +attacks Christianity wantonly and aggressively, not only by portraying +Barabas's contempt for the Christians, but by making the Christians +contemptible in themselves, and wanting in all those virtues which were +upheld in the newly accessible Gospels. They are without honour and +chivalry or any sense of justice or loyalty. They are false and +treacherous to Jew and Turk alike, and Barabas can well say of them: + + "For I can see no fruits in all their faith, + But malice, falsehood, and excessive pride, + Which methinks fits not their profession." + +Further, the Christians take by force the Jew's money to pay the city's +tribute to the Turks, which after all is not paid, the Christians keeping +the money for themselves. It is but the bare truth that Barabas states +when he mutters: + + "Who, of mere charity and Christian truth, + To bring me to religious purity, + And as it were in catechising sort, + To make me mindful of my mortal sins, + Against my will, and whether I would or no, + Seized all I had, and thrust me out o' doors." + +And Marlowe also makes Barabas say, indignant at the Christians' +hypocrisy: + + "Is theft the ground of your religion? + + * * * * * + + What, bring you scripture to confirm your wrongs? + Preach me not out of my possessions." + +Scepticism is rampant throughout "The Jew of Malta," and Marlowe flaunts +his opinions before a theatre full of Christians. Not that it is contended +that Marlowe was himself an atheist, but in "The Jew of Malta" he seems, +perhaps out of a spirit of retaliation for the wanton attacks made upon +him, to be bent on exposing to ridicule the upholders of the orthodox +faith. In Marlowe's "Faustus" the good angel, the aged pilgrim, and the +final repentance satisfy the religious conscience, but his later play has +no such compensations. The boast of Barabas that, "some Jews are wicked as +_all_ Christians are," passes unchallenged. + +Now it is unlikely that any member of Elizabeth's Court, any Protestant +nobleman who was responsible for upholding the reformed faith, much less +that any Catholic, could have been present at the performance of this play +without protesting against the poet's attitude towards Christianity. Nor +is it probable that the Lord Chamberlain's servants would overlook +Marlowe's taunts at the national religion spoken from the citizens' +playhouse. So that the poet-player whose sonnets were being circulated in +the houses of the nobility, whose patron was the Earl of Southampton, the +friend of Essex, and who had begun to be talked about at Court, might with +advantage to himself expose the other side of the picture, and defend the +abused Christians. + +It remained then for Shakespeare to show that Christians, if they hated +the infidel, were not in themselves contemptible. In addition to her many +fascinations of mind and person, Portia possesses in an eminent degree a +sense of honour and a love of mercy. The obligations imposed upon her by +her father are religiously observed. Even when her lover is choosing the +caskets, and a glance would have put him out of his misery, her attitude +towards him is uncompromising. Later on she upholds the Jew's plea for +justice, while at the same time she urges the more divine attribute of +mercy. + +Where Shakespeare, however, differs from Marlowe most strikingly is in the +character of the Merchant after whom the comedy is named. Barabas has +boasted that-- + + "he from whom my most advantage comes + Shall be my friend. + This is the life we Jews are used to lead." + +Then he naively adds: + + "And reason, too, for Christians do the like." + +Now the dearest object of affection in the world for Antonio is Bassanio, +and it is the knowledge that his beloved friend has a rival for his love +in Portia, which causes Antonio's sadness; yet he not only gives up his +companion ungrudgingly to the enjoyment of greater happiness, but provides +him with the necessary means; and for this purpose he signs a perilous +bond with his bitterest foe. Of necessity he dislikes Shylock, whose +debtors he has so often saved from ruin. With Jessica's flight he had +nothing to do. He certainly never sanctioned it. Moreover, when misfortune +comes upon him he has no desire to escape from the penalty of the bond, +and when he himself is in poverty he saves from a similar calamity a man +who hates him. In face of these facts it is difficult to understand why +Heine should consider Antonio unworthy to tie Shylock's shoelaces! + +Again, Bassanio is often called a fortune-hunter, but without +justification. He knew that he enjoyed the esteem and affection of Portia +while her father was yet alive. The "speechless messages" of her eyes +invited his return to Belmont. On his arrival he finds that she can no +longer dispose of herself, and yet, unlike most of the other suitors, he +does not on that account withdraw: he wins her because he loves her and +knows that love is worth more than gold or silver. When he hears of +Antonio's danger he rushes to his friend's side to offer his own life to +save him. It is to be noticed also that Portia's esteem for Antonio's +openly proclaimed virtues is drawn from a comparison with those of +Bassanio. They are by no means contemptible. + +Jessica, again, who must be counted among the Christians, finds life at +home too hopelessly rigid to be longer endured. There is not a word in the +text to justify the belief that her father loves her, apart from his own +needs. She is expected to guard his gold and silver and to listen to his +discussions with Tubal and Chus about the hated Antonio and his bond. So +the girl must look after herself if she is to enjoy happiness in the +future. Lorenzo knows that to allow Jessica to forsake her father and to +rob him is a sin towards Heaven. He prays for punishment to be withheld +because she has married a Christian, and, to his credit, it must be +acknowledged that he is unconscious of any hypocrisy. As for the +"braggart" Gratiano and the remaining Christians, we tolerate them because +they love Antonio, the man who of all others most deserves our respect. +Perhaps as Christians they insist too much on their moral superiority, but +this is natural after Marlowe's play had been seen on the stage. + +Of course, there are critics who will hold that Marlowe's Christians, in +some respects, are more life-like than Shakespeare's. Perhaps if "The +Merchant of Venice" had been written while Marlowe was alive, he would +have challenged Shakespeare to uphold that in matters of conduct where +money interests were involved there was any marked distinction between the +morals of the believer and the unbeliever. Marlowe might have contended +that out of one hundred Christians ninety-nine would act as his Governor +of Malta had done, though he was a Knight of St. John. It might not be +impossible for a Christian to persuade himself that money taken forcibly +from the infidel Jew, as a tribute, could justly be withheld from the +infidel Turk to whom it was due, and that it was folly to hesitate in +cutting the cord that would let the infidel Jew into the burning cauldron, +instead of the infidel Turk for whom it was designed, especially when one +hundred thousand pounds of the citizens' money would in that way be saved. +As a mere worldly truism the words that Barabas utters, when his daughter +changes her faith, have a deeper significance than the "noble platitudes" +of Lorenzo and Jessica: + + "She that varies from me in belief, + Gives great presumption that she loves me not; + Or loving, does mislike of something done." + +Shakespeare, probably, would have answered Marlowe's objection with the +assurance that there still remained the odd Christian out of every hundred +to be reckoned with, and that he himself was more interested in showing +the world what men ought to be like than what they actually were. But if +Shakespeare preferred to live outside the walls of reality, he did so only +in imagination, for he must have had a very practical knowledge of men's +dealings with each other. No doubt our great dramatist was not eager to +break with conventions or to imitate Marlowe by saying unpalatable truths +about the Christians at a time when he himself was still seeking the +favour of Elizabeth's Court. + + +THE AUTHORS OF "KING HENRY THE EIGHTH."[8] + +The play of "Henry VIII." first appeared in print in 1623, seven years +after Shakespeare's death. It was published in the first collected edition +of the poet's dramas, and so became known to the world as his play. For +two centuries the genuineness of the drama was not called in question. The +earliest commentators never expressed misgivings on the subject, nor is +there evidence to show that Shakespeare's contemporaries disputed the +authorship. Choice extracts from the play have appeared in collections of +poetry, which compare favourably with selections from "Hamlet" or +"Macbeth." Wolsey's famous soliloquy is universally thought to be +Shakespeare's reflections on the vicissitudes of life. At the British +Museum will be found versions of the play in French, German, Italian, and +even one in Greek. The drama, moreover, is familiar to the playgoer, while +eminent actors and actresses, with no intention of impersonating the +creations of an inferior dramatist, have won distinction in the characters +of the Cardinal and of Queen Katharine. Yet, in the face of evidence that +is apparently convincing, it may be safely assumed that "Henry VIII." is +not Shakespeare's play in the sense in which we speak of "Hamlet" or +"Macbeth" as being his. Indeed, the statement has been put forth that not +one line of the play was written by its reputed author. + +Now it is always an ungrateful task to defend an argument which no one +cares to accept, and the admirers of those scenes which have made actors +and actresses famous, and of those speeches which adorn our books of +extracts, are still too numerous and too enthusiastic to desire any other +dramatist than Shakespeare to be the author of them. Possession is nine +points of the law, and while tradition has the prior claim, public opinion +will not readily endorse the verdict of a handful of literary sceptics. On +the other hand, it must be conceded that even to challenge the genuineness +of a play attributed to the world's greatest dramatist does involve, to +some extent, a censure upon that play. The doubt implies that the play, as +a whole, does not average the work of Shakespeare's later dramas, that it +does not bear comparison with the "Winter's Tale," "Cymbeline," and the +"Tempest," plays which, in the date of their composition, are contemporary +with "Henry VIII.," and which were written at a time when the poet had +obtained complete mastery over the resources of his art. If there are +precedents of poets living till their once-glowing imaginations become +cold, there is no record of a dramatist losing technical skill which has +been acquired by the experience of a lifetime. It was but natural, then, +that there should exist a feeling of uneasiness in the minds of impartial +inquirers in regard to the authorship of this play, and it may be worth +while to consider the history of the controversy. + +The earliest known mention of the play is by a contemporary, Thomas +Lorkin, in a letter of the last day of June, 1613. He writes that the day +before, while Burbage and his company were playing "Henry VIII." in the +Globe Theatre, the building was burnt down through a discharge of +"chambers," that is to say of small pieces of cannon. Early in the month +following Sir Henry Wotton writes to his nephew giving particulars of the +fire, and describing the pageantry, which was evidently an important +feature of the play: + + "The King's players had a new play called 'All is True,' representing + some principal pieces of the reign of Henry the Eighth, which was set + forth with many extraordinary circumstances of pomp and majesty, even + to the matting of the stage; the Knights of the Order with their + Georges and Garter, the guards with their embroidered coats, and the + like; sufficient in truth, within a while, to make greatness very + familiar if not ridiculous." + +Now, if Sir Henry Wotton is correct in his assertion that the play was a +_new_ one in 1613, it was probably the last play written by Shakespeare: +although some commentators contend that there is internal evidence to show +that the play was written during Elizabeth's reign, and that after her +death it was amended by the insertion of speeches complimentary to the new +sovereign, King James. In 1623 the play appears in print inserted in the +first collected edition of Shakespeare's dramas, by Heminge and Condell, +who were the poet's fellow-actors, and who claim to have printed all the +plays from the author's manuscripts. If, then, this statement were +trustworthy, there could be no reason to doubt the genuineness of the +drama. But the copies in the hands of Heminge and Condell were evidently +in some cases very imperfect, either in consequence of the burning of the +Globe Theatre, or by the necessary wear and tear of years. And it is +certain that, in several instances, the editors reprinted the plays from +the earlier quarto impressions with but few changes, sometimes for the +better, and sometimes for the worse. It has also been ascertained that at +least four of the plays in the folio were only partially written by +Shakespeare, while no mention is made of his possible share in "Pericles," +the play having been omitted altogether. So that it is presumed that if +"Henry VIII.," in its present form, was a play rewritten by theatre-hacks +to replace a similar play by Shakespeare that was destroyed in the fire, +the editors would not be unlikely to insert it in the folio instead of the +original. + + * * * * * + +So long as Shakespeare's authorship was not doubted there seems to have +been no desire on the part of commentators to call attention to faults +which are obvious to every careful reader of the play. Most of the early +criticisms are confined to remarks on single scenes or speeches +irrespective of the general character of the drama and its personages. +Comments such as the following of Dr. Drake fairly represent those of most +writers until the middle of the last century. He writes in 1817: "The +entire interest of the tragedy turns upon the characters of Queen +Katherine and Cardinal Wolsey, the former being the finest picture of +suffering and defenceless virtue, and the latter of disappointed ambition, +that poet ever drew." Dr. Johnson, who ranks the play as second class +among the historical works, had previously asserted "that the genius of +Shakespeare comes in and goes out with Katherine. Every other part may be +easily conceived and easily written." + +When, however, the play is judged as a work of art in its complete form, +the difficulty of writing favourably of its dramatic qualities becomes +evident by the apologetic modes of expression used. Schlegel remarks that +"Henry VIII." has somewhat "of a prosaic appearance, for Shakespeare, +artist-like, adapted himself to the quality of his materials. While others +of his works, both in elevation of fancy, and in energy of pathos and +character tower far above this, we have here, on the other hand, occasion +to admire his nice powers of discrimination and his perfect knowledge of +courts and the world." Coleridge is content to define the play as that of +"a sort of historical masque or show play"; and Victor Hugo observes that +Shakespeare is so far English as to attempt to extenuate the failings of +Henry VIII., adding, "it is true that the eye of Elizabeth is fixed upon +him!" + +In an interesting little volume containing the journal of Emily Shore, who +made some valuable contributions to natural history, are to be found some +remarks upon the play written in the year 1836. The criticism is the more +noteworthy since Miss Shore was only in her sixteenth year when she wrote +it, and she then showed no slight appreciation of literature, especially +of Shakespeare: + + "This evening my uncle finished reading 'King Henry VIII.' I must say + I was mightily disappointed in it. Whether it is that I am not + capable of understanding Shakespeare and cannot distinguish his + beauties, I do not know. There is no effort in Shakespeare's works; + he takes so little pains that what is interesting or noble or sublime + or finely exhibiting the features of the mind, seems to drop from his + pen by chance. One cannot help thinking that every play is executed + with slovenly neglect, that he has done himself injustice and that if + he pleased he might have given to the world works which would throw + into the shade all that he has actually written. To be sure this + gives one a very exalted idea of his intellect, for even if the mere + unavoidable overflowings of his genius excel the depths of other + men's minds, how magnificent must have been the fountain of that + genius whose very bubbles sparkle so beautifully! But to speak of + 'Henry VIII.' in particular. Henry himself, Katherine and Wolsey, + though they display a degree of character, are not half so vigorously + drawn as I had expected, or as I would methinks have done myself. The + character of Cranmer exists more in Henry's language about him than + in his own actions." + +To come now to the opinion of the German commentators. Gervinus observes: + + "No one in this short explanation of the main character of 'Henry + VIII.' will mistake the certain hand of the poet. It is otherwise + when we approach closer to the development of the action and + attentively consider the poetic diction. The impression on the whole + becomes then at once strange and unrefreshing; the mere external + threads seem to be lacking which ought to link the actions to each + other; the interest of the feelings becomes strangely divided, it is + continually drawn into new directions and is nowhere satisfied. At + first it clings to Buckingham, and his designs against Wolsey, but + with the second act he leaves the stage; then Wolsey attracts our + attention in an increased degree, and he, too, disappears in the + third act; in the meanwhile our sympathies are more and more strongly + drawn to Katherine, who then likewise leaves the stage in the fourth + act; and after we have been thus shattered through four acts by + circumstances of a purely tragic character, the fifth act closes with + a merry festivity for which we are in no wise prepared, crowning the + King's loose passion with victory in which we could take no warm + interest." + +Ulrici is even more severe in his remarks upon the play: + + "The drama of 'Henry VIII.' is poetically untrue, devoid of real + life, defective in symmetry and composition, because wanting in + internal organic construction, _i.e._, in ethical vitality." + +So also is Professor Hertzberg: + + "A chronicle history with three and a half catastrophes varied by a + marriage and a coronation pageant, ending abruptly with the baptism + of a child in which are combined the elements of a satirical drama + with a prophetic ecstasy, and all this loosely connected by the + nominal hero whom no poet in heaven or earth could ever have formed + into a tragic character." + +And Dr. Elze, who is a warm supporter of Shakespeare's authorship, admits +that the play-- + + "measured by the standard of the historical drama is inferior to the + other histories and wants both a grand historical substance and the + unity of strictly defined dramatic structure." + +But it is not only with the general design of the play and its feeble +characterization that fault is found, but also with the versification. The +earliest criticism on the peculiarity of the metre of the play appeared +about 1757. It consists of some remarks, published by Mr. Thomas Edwards, +which were made by Mr. Roderick on Warburton's edition of Shakespeare. Mr. +Roderick, after pointing out that there are in the play many more lines +than in any other which end with a redundant syllable, continues: + + "This Fact (whatever Shakespeare's design was in it) is undoubtedly + true, and may be demonstrated to Reason, and proved to sense; the + first by comparing any number of lines in this Play, with an equal + number in any other Play, by which it will appear that this Play has + very near _two_ redundant verses to _one_ in any other Play. And to + prove it to sense, let anyone read aloud an hundred lines in any + other Play, and an hundred in this; and if he perceives not the tone + and cadence of his own voice to be involuntarily altered in the + latter case from what it was in the former, I would never advise him + to give much credit to the information of his ears." + +Later on we find that Emerson is also struck with the peculiarity of the +metre, and in his lecture on "Representative Men," observes: + + "In 'Henry VIII.' I think I see plainly the cropping out of the + original rock on which his (Shakespeare's) own finer structure was + laid. The first play was written by a superior thoughtful man, with a + vicious ear. I can mark his lines and know well their cadence. See + Wolsey's soliloquy, and the following scene with Cromwell, where, + instead of the metre of Shakespeare, whose secret is that the thought + constructs the tune, so that reading for the sense will best bring + out the rhythm; here the lines are constructed on a given tune; and + the verse has even a trace of pulpit eloquence." + +Now these quotations, it may be urged, were picked out with a view to +prejudice a favourable opinion of the play. But disparagements are, none +the less, important links in a question of authorship. In fact it was +because Shakespearian critics, of undisputed authority, declared that +"Henry VIII." was not a play worthy of the poet's genius that a few +advanced scholars were encouraged to come forward and pronounce that no +part of the play had been written by Shakespeare. + + * * * * * + +In the autumn of 1850 Mr. Spedding, the able editor of Bacon's works, +published a paper in the _Gentleman's Magazine_ in which he stated it to +be his belief that a great portion of the play of "Henry VIII." was +written by Fletcher; a conjecture that indeed had been anticipated and was +at once confirmed by other writers. Tennyson, on Mr. Spedding's authority, +had pointed out many years previously the resemblance of the style in some +parts of the play to Fletcher's. In fact, the conclusion arrived at by the +advanced critics was that the play has two totally different metres which +are the work of two different authors. On this point Mr. Spedding wrote: + + "A distinction so broad and so uniform running through so large a + portion of the same piece cannot have been accidental, and the more + closely it is examined, the more clearly will it appear that the + metre in these two sets of scenes is managed upon entirely different + principles and bears evidence of different workmen." + +This conclusion, however, was not endorsed by all commentators. It was +acknowledged that metrical evidence must not be neglected, and that "there +is no play of Shakespeare's in which eleven syllable lines are so frequent +as they are in "Henry VIII."; and even Swinburne, whose faith in +Shakespeare's authorship was unwavering, asserted "that if not the partial +work it may certainly be taken as the general model of Fletcher, in some +not unimportant passages." It was contended besides that the poet's hand +was hampered by a difficulty inherent in the subject, since of all +Shakespeare's plays, "Henry VIII." is the nearest in its story to the +poet's own time, and that the elliptical construction and the licence of +versification, which are peculiar to this play, are necessary in order to +bring the dialogue closer to the language of common life. In fact, Mr. +Spedding's opponents, while admitting an anonymous hand in the prologue +and epilogue, rejected the theory as to the manner in which the +collaboration was carried out, and asserted that the structure of the +play, the development of the action and the characters showed it to be the +work of one hand, and that Shakespeare's. + +Another challenger of the metre was Mr. Robert Boyle, who endeavoured to +show, from a careful and elaborate study of Elizabethan blank verse, that +Shakespeare had no share whatever in the composition of the play, and that +whoever was the author who collaborated with Fletcher (in Mr. Boyle's +opinion it was Massinger) he certainly did not write before 1612, for the +metrical peculiarities of the verse are those of the later dramatic style, +of which the earliest characteristics did not make themselves felt in the +work of any poet till about 1607. It was after reading this paper that +Robert Browning, then the president of the New Shakspere Society, wrote +his final judgment on the play which was published in the Society's +"Transactions." + + "As you desired I have read once again 'Henry the Eighth'; my opinion + about the scanty portion of Shakespeare's authorship in it was formed + about fifty years ago, while ignorant of any evidence external to the + text itself. I have little doubt now that Mr. Boyle's judgment is + right altogether; that the original play, presumably Shakespeare's, + was burnt along with the Globe Theatre; that the present work is a + substitution for it, probably with certain reminiscences of 'All is + true.' In spite of such huff-and-bullying as Charles Knight's for + example, I see little that transcends the power of Massinger and + Fletcher to execute. It is very well to talk of the tediousness of + the Chronicles, which have furnished pretty well whatever is + admirable in the characters of Wolsey and Katherine; as wisely should + we depreciate the bone which holds the marrow we enjoy on a toast. + The versification is nowhere Shakespeare's. But I have said my little + say for what it is worth." + +There is yet another peculiarity that is special to this play, and it is +one which seems to have escaped the notice of the critics. The +stage-directions in it are unlike those of any other play published in the +first folio. In no other play are they so full, and so carefully detailed. +With the exception of "Henry VIII.," the stage-directions in the folio are +so few in number and so abbreviated that they appear to have been written +solely for the author's convenience. It is very rare that any reference is +made to movement, more than to indicate the entrance or exit of +characters, or to note that they fight or that they die. Sometimes the +characters are not so much as named, and the direction is simply, "Enter +the French Power and the English Lords"; at other times the directions +are so concise as to be almost incomprehensible to the modern reader, for +example, "Enter Hermione (like a statue)," "Enter Imogene (in her bed)"! +The legitimate inference, therefore, is that Shakespeare considered it to +be no part of his business to be explicit in these matters. It is +startling, then, to find, in the play of "Henry VIII.," a stage-direction +so elaborate as the following: "The Queen makes no answer, rises out of +her chair, goes about the Court, comes to the King, and kneels at his +feet, then speaks." No doubt in Elizabeth's time all stage movement was of +the simplest kind, and of a conventional order, so as to be applicable to +a great variety of plays, and what was special to any particular play in +the way of movement would, in Shakespeare's dramas, be explained at +rehearsal by the author. So that the detailed and minute stage-directions +that in the first folio are special to "Henry VIII." would seem to suggest +that the play was written at a time when the author was absent from the +theatre. To the actor, however, who is experienced in the technicalities +of the stage, these elaborate directions show that the author was not only +very familiar with what in theatrical parlance is known as stage +"business," but that he regarded the minute description of the actors' +movements as forming an essential part of the dramatist's duty. In fact, +the story of the play is made subservient to the "business" or to pageant +throughout. A dramatic incident, then a procession, another dramatic +incident, and then another procession. This seems to be the sort of effect +aimed at. Towards the year 1610 the taste for spectacle created by the +genius of Inigo Jones spread from the Court to the public theatre. Perhaps +this may account for Shakespeare's early retirement. He wrote plays and +not masques, and his genius lay in portraying the drama of human life. +Unlike Ben Jonson, he never devoted his talents to the service of the +stage carpenter. Seeing the altered condition of the public taste, there +would be nothing unnatural in his yielding his place silently and without +bitterness to others who were willing to supply the theatrical market with +the desired commodity. Had Shakespeare wanted money it would perhaps be +difficult to deny that he would have adapted his work to the requirement +of the times. But by 1610 he was very well able to live in retirement upon +a competent income, and it is difficult to believe that one who had +attained his wonderful balance of intellect and heart, of reason and +imagination, would have condescended to elaborate the details of baptismal +and coronation festivities. + +And now in conclusion, what is there to be said for or against the +genuineness of the play? The supporters of the Shakespearian authorship +dwell upon the beauty of particular passages, and on the general +similarity, in many scenes, to Shakespeare's verse in his later plays; the +sceptics contend that it is a mistake to leave entirely out of view the +most important part of every drama--viz., its action and its +characterization; and unreasonable, moreover, to suppose that Shakespeare +had no imitators at the close of his successful career. But, say the +admirers, this kind of reasoning is no evidence that Shakespeare was not +the author of all that is most liked in the play. Here, however, we are +met with the argument that the popular scenes of all others in the play, +are those the most easily to be identified with the metre peculiar to +Fletcher. Then, again, it is hardly possible to accept the opinion of +Charles Knight, Professor Delius, and Dr. Elze that all the shortcomings +of the play, both in the structure and versification, are due to the fact +that the poet was hampered by a "difficulty inherent in the subject." Is +genius ever hampered by its subject? Does not history prove the contrary? +Have not the shackles put upon musicians, poets, painters, and sculptors +by their patrons, instead of checking their genius, elicited the most +exquisite products of their imagination? The conscientious inquirer, +therefore, who wades through a mass of literary criticism in the hope of +obtaining some elucidation of the question, seems only doomed to +experience disappointment. Nothing is gained but an unsettling of all +preconceived ideas. If expectations of a possible solution are aroused +they are not fulfilled because the unprejudiced mind refuses to accept +conjectural criticism and to believe more than it is possible to know. +Still, it must be admitted that in re-reading the play in the light of all +the more modern criticism upon it, the dissatisfaction with the inferior +portions becomes more acute, while the finer scenes shine with a lessened +glory. It is not only dramatic perception in the development of character +that is wanting, but the power which gives words form and meaning is also +lacking; the closely packed expression, the lifelike reality and +freshness, the rapid and abrupt turnings of thought, so quick that +language can hardly follow fast enough; the impatient audacity of +intellect and fancy with which we are familiar in Shakespeare's later +plays are not to be found in "Henry VIII." We miss even the objections +raised by modern grammarians, the idle conceits, the play upon words, the +puns, the improbability, the extravagance, the absurdity, the obscenity, +the puerility, the bombast, the emphasis, the exaggeration. Therefore it +must be admitted that in order to uphold "Henry VIII." as a late play of +Shakespeare's, it becomes necessary for his sincere admirers to invent all +sorts of apologies for its faults, and to overlook the consistent +development of the poet's genius from the close of the great tragedies to +the play of the "Tempest," "where we see him shining to the last in a +steady, mild, unchanging glory." + + +TROILUS AND CRESSIDA[9] + +The mystery in which the history of this play is shrouded bewilders +students, for the information available is scanty. The play was entered on +the _Stationers' Register_ on February 7, 1603, as "The Booke of Troilus +and Cresseda," but it was not to be printed until the publisher had got +the necessary permission from its owners; and it was also the same book, +"as it _is_ acted by my Lord Chamberlen's men," and a play of +Shakespeare's had never before been entered on the _Register_ as one that +was being acted at the time of its publication, plays being seldom printed +in those days until they had become, to some extent, obsolete on the +stage. Then Mr. A. W. Pollard points out that the Globe managers often got +some publisher to enter a play on the _Stationers' Register_ in order to +protect their playhouse copies from pirates, and for this or some other +reason not yet fully explained, the play did not get printed. But on +January 28, 1609, another firm of publishers entered on the _Register_ a +book with a similar name, which soon afterwards was published, with the +following words on its title-page: "The Historie of Troylus and Cresseda. +As it _was_ acted by the Kings Majesties servants at the 'Globe.'" Shortly +afterwards this title-page was suppressed, being torn out of the book, and +another one inserted to allow of the following qualification: "The Famous +Historie of Troylus and Cresseid. Excellently expressing the beginning of +their loves, with the conceited wooing of Pandarus, Prince of Licia." On +both title-pages Shakespeare is announced as the author, and apparently +the object of the second title-page was to contradict the former statement +that the play had been acted at the Globe, or, in other words, was the +property of the Globe managers; and also to suggest by the title "Prince +of Licia" that the book was not the same play as the one the actors of the +theatre owned. In addition to the altered title there appeared on the back +of the new leaf a preface, and this was another unusual proceeding, since +there had not appeared before one attached to a Shakespeare play. No +further editions were issued until 1623, when Heminge and Condell +published their player's copy, with additions and corrections taken from +the 1609 quarto. It was inserted in the first folio in a position between +the Histories and Tragedies, where it appears unpaged after having been +removed from its original position among the Tragedies. No mention is made +of it in the contents of the volume. In the folio the play is called a +tragedy, which, if a correct title, is not the one given to it in the 1609 +preface. + +Now, in the Epilogue to "Henry IV., Part Two," we have this allusion to a +recently acted play by Shakespeare, which had not been well received by +the audience, "Be it known to you, as it is very well, I was lately here +in the end of a displeasing play, to pray your patience for it and to +promise you a better. I meant, indeed, to pay you with this." And in 1903 +Mr. Arthur Acheson, of Chicago, in his book on "Shakespeare and the Rival +Poet," advanced the theory (1) that this "displeasing play," was "Troilus +and Cressida"; (2) that it was written at some time between the autumn of +1598 and the spring of 1599; (3) that it preceded and did not follow Ben +Jonson's "Poetaster," and therefore had nothing to do with the "War of the +Theatres"; (4) that it was written to ridicule Chapman's fulsome praise of +Homer and his Greek heroes--praise which was displayed in his prefaces to +the seven books of the Iliad issued in that year. On this point Mr. +Acheson says, forcibly: + + "Chapman claims supremacy for Homer, not only as a poet, but as a + moralist, and extends his claims for moral altitude to include the + heroes of his epics. Shakespeare divests the Greek heroes of the + glowing, but misty, nimbus of legend and mythology, and presents them + to us in the light of common day, and as men in a world of men. In a + modern Elizabethan setting he pictures these Greeks and Trojans, + almost exactly as they appear in the sources from which he works. He + does not stretch the truth of what he finds, nor draw wilfully + distorted pictures, and yet, the Achilles, the Ulysses, the Ajax, + etc., which we find in the play, have lost their demigodlike pose. + How does he do it? The masterly realistic and satirical effect he + produces comes wholly from a changed point of view. He displays pagan + Greek and Trojan life in action--with its low ideals of religion, + womanhood, and honour, with its bloodiness and sensuality--upon a + background from which he has eliminated historical perspective." + +Nor is this explanation inapplicable when we realize how exaggerated are +Chapman's eulogies on Homer. To take as an instance the following passage: + + "Soldiers shall never spende their idle howres more profitablie then + with his studious and industrious perusell; in whose honors his + deserts are infinite. Counsellors have never better oracles then his + lines; fathers have no morales so profitable for their children as + his counsailes; nor shal they ever give them more honord injunctions + then to learne Homer without book, that being continually conversant + in him his height may descend to their capacities, and his substance + prove their worthiest riches. Husbands, wives, lovers, friends, and + allies, having in him mirrors for all their duties; all sortes of + which concourse and societie, in other more happy ages, have in steed + of sonnets and lascivious ballades, sung his Iliades." + +Now, Mr. Acheson may be right as to the date in which "Troilus and +Cressida" was written, because neither in its dramatic construction nor in +its verse and characterization can the play consistently be called a later +composition, so that it is possible to contend that the whole of the play, +with the exception, perhaps, of the prologue, was written before "Henry +IV., Part Two." It can be urged, also, that Ben Jonson's "Poetaster," +which was acted in 1601, contains allusions to Shakespeare's play, and to +its having been unfavourably received; then that certain incidents in the +life of Essex come into the play, and that these would not have been +mentioned had the play been written later than the spring of 1599, when +Essex had left for Ireland. + +With regard to the "Poetaster," it is now generally admitted that there is +no evidence to support the assertion that, at the time this satirical play +was written, its author was on bad terms with Shakespeare. In it Jonson +announced his next production to be a tragedy, and in 1603 "Sejanus" +followed at the Globe; Shakespeare was in the cast, and may have been also +a collaborator. But the failure of this tragedy to please the patrons of +the Globe may have led to a temporary estrangement from that theatre, for +Jonson did not undervalue himself or forget that Chapman, as Mr. Acheson +has clearly shown, was always a bitter opponent of Shakespeare, while it +was characteristic of Jonson himself to be equally ready to defend or to +quarrel with friends. Now in the "Poetaster" Jonson refers to Chapman and +to his "divine" Homer, as, for instance, when he makes the father of Ovid +say: "Ay, your god of poets there, whom all of you admire and reverence so +much, Homer, he whose worm-eaten statue must not be spewed against but +with hallowed lips and grovelling adoration, what was he? What was he?... +You'll tell me his name shall live; and that, now being dead, his works +have eternized him and made him divine" (Act I., Scene 1.) Again, the +incident of the gods' banquet, although it is modelled by Ben Jonson upon +the synod of the Iliad, is obviously a satire upon Chapman's ecstatic +admiration for Homer's heroes. It may also refer to Shakespeare's "Troilus +and Cressida," for if this comedy was acted in 1598 it might well have +been suppressed after its first performance, since to the groundlings it +must have been "caviare," and to Chapman's allies, the scholars, a +malicious piece of "ignorance and impiety," while the Court would have +been sure to take offence at the Essex incidents. Besides Jonson, in the +"Poetaster," seems to be defending someone from attacks who has dared to +laugh at Chapman's idol. This appears in such witty expressions as "Gods +may grow impudent in iniquity, and they must not be told of it" ... "So +now we may play the fool by authority" ... "What, shall the king of gods +turn the king of good fellows, and have no fellow in wickedness? This +makes our poets that know our profaneness live as profane as we" (Act IV., +Scene 3.) Continually in this play is Jonson attacking Chapman for the +same reason that Shakespeare did, and, more than this, Jonson proclaims +that the poet Virgil is as much entitled to be regarded "divine" as Homer, +while the word "divine" is seized hold of for further satire in the +remark, "Well said, my divine deft Horace." + +Jonson says he wrote his "Poetaster" to ridicule Marston, the dramatist, +who previously had libelled him on the stage. In addition to Marston, +Jonson appeared himself in the play as Horace, together with Dekker and +other men in the theatre. It was but natural, then, for commentators to +centre their attention on those parts of the play where Marston and Horace +were prominent. But there is an underplot to which very little attention +hitherto has been given, and it is hardly likely, if Jonson was writing a +comedy in order to satirize living persons and contemporary events, that +his underplot would be altogether free from topical allusions. It may be +well, then, to relate the story of the underplot, and, if possible, to try +to show its significance. Julia, who is Caesar's daughter, lives at Court, +and she invites to the palace her lover, Ovid, a merchant's son, and some +tradesmen of the town, with their wives; then she contrives, unknown to +her father, for these plebeians to counterfeit the gods at a banquet +prepared for them. An actor of the Globe reports to one of Caesar's spies +that Julia has sent to the playhouse to borrow suitable properties for +this "divine" masquerade, so that while the sham gods are in the midst of +their licentious convivialities Caesar suddenly appears, led there by his +spy, and is horrified at the daring act of profanity perpetrated by his +daughter. "Be they the gods!" he exclaims, + + "Oh impious sight!... + Profaning thus their dignities in their forms, + And making them like you but counterfeits." + +Then he goes on to say: + + "If you think gods but feigned and virtue painted, + Know _we_ sustain our actual residence, + And with the title of our emperor + Retain his spirit and imperial power." + +And then, with correct imperial conventionality, he proceeds to punish the +offenders, locking up his daughter behind "iron doors" and exiling her +lover. Now, Horace--that is to say, Jonson--is supposed by the revellers +to be responsible for having betrayed the inspirer of these antics. But +this implication Jonson indignantly repudiates in a scene between Horace, +the spy, and the Globe player, in which Horace severely upbraids them for +their malice: + + "To prey upon the life of innocent mirth + And harmless pleasures bred of noble wit," + +a rebuke that found expression in almost similar words in the 1609 preface +to Shakespeare's "Troilus and Cressida": "For it is a birth of (that) +brain that never undertook anything comical vainly: and were but the vain +names of comedies changed for titles of commodities or of plays for pleas, +you should see all those grand censors that now style them such vanities +flock to them for the main grace of their gravities." Now Jonson, if he, +indeed, intended to defend the attacks made on his friend Shakespeare's +play, has shown considerable adroitness in the delicate task he undertook, +for since the "Poetaster" was written to be acted at the Blackfriars, a +theatre under Court patronage, Jonson could not there abuse "the grand +censors," and this he avoids doing by making Caesar justly incensed at the +impudence of the citizens in daring to counterfeit the divine gods, while +Horace, out of reach of Caesar's ear, soundly rates the police spy and the +actor for mistaking the shadow for the substance and regarding playacting +as if it were political conspiracy. But what, it may be contended, +connects the underplot in the "Poetaster" directly with Shakespeare's play +is the speech of citizen Mercury and its satirical insistence that +immorality may be tolerated by the gods: + + "The great god Jupiter, of his licentious goodness, willing to make + this feast no fast from any manner of pleasure, nor to bind any god + or goddess to be anything the more god or goddess for their names, he + gives them all free licence to speak no wiser than persons of baser + titles; and to be nothing better than common men or women. And, + therefore, no god shall need to keep himself more strictly to his + goddess than any man does to his wife; nor any goddess shall need to + keep herself more strictly to her god than any woman does to her + husband. But since it is no part of wisdom in these days to come into + bonds, it should be lawful for every lover to break loving oaths, to + change their lovers, and make love to others, as the heat of + everyone's blood and the spirit of our nectar shall inspire. And + Jupiter save Jupiter!" + +Now this speech, it may be contended, is but a good-natured parody of +Shakespeare's travesty of the Iliad story, as he wrote it in answer to +Chapman's absurd claim for the sanctity of Homer's characters. +Shakespeare's consciousness of power might naturally have incited him to +place himself immediately by the side of Homer, but it is more likely that +he was interested in the ethical than in the personal point of view. +Unlike most of his plays, as Dr. Ward has pointed out, this comedy follows +no single original source accurately, because the author's satire was more +topical than anything he had previously attempted, except, perhaps, in +"Love's Labour's Lost." But Shakespeare for once had miscalculated not his +own powers, but the powers of the "grand censors," who could suppress +plays which reflected upon the morality or politics of those who moved in +high places; nor had he sufficiently allowed for the hostility of the +"sinners who lived in the suburbs." Shakespeare, indeed, found one of the +most striking compositions of his genius disliked and condemned not from +its lack of merit, but for reasons that Jonson so forcibly points out in +words put into the mouth of Virgil: + + "'Tis not the wholesome sharp morality, + Or modest anger of a satiric spirit, + That hurts or wounds the body of the state; + But the sinister application + Of the malicious, ignorant, and base + Interpreter, who will distort and strain + The general scope and purpose of an author + To his particular and private spleen." + +The stigma that rested on Shakespeare in his lifetime for having written +this play rests on him still, for some unintelligible reason, since no +man ever sat down to put his thoughts on paper with a loftier motive. But +so it is! Then, as now, whenever a dramatist attempts to be teacher and +preacher, all the other teachers and preachers in the world hold up their +hands in horror and exclaim: "What impiety! What stupendous ignorance!" + + * * * * * + +Gervinus, in his criticism of this play, compares the satire of the +Elizabethen poet with that of Aristophanes, and points out that the Greek +dramatist directed his sallies against the living. This, he contends, +should ever be the object of satire, because a man must not war against +the defenceless and dead. Yet Shakespeare's instincts as a dramatist were +too unerring for him to be unconscious of this fundamental principle of +his art. The stage in his time supplied the place now occupied by the +Press, and political discussions were carried on in public through the +mouth of the actor, of which few indications can now be traced on the +printed page, owing to the difficulty of fitting the date of composition +with that of the performance. Heywood, the dramatist, in his answer to the +Puritan's abuse of the theatre, alludes to the stage as the great +political schoolmaster of the people. And yet until recent years the +labours of commentators have been chiefly confined to making literary +comparisons, to discovering sources of plots, and the origin of +expressions, so that there still remains much investigation needed to +discover Shakespeare's political, philosophical, and religious affinities +as they appear reflected in his plays. Mr. Richard Simpson, the brilliant +Shakespearian scholar, many years ago pointed out the necessity for a new +departure in criticism, and added that it was still thought derogatory to +Shakespeare "to make him an upholder of any principles worth assertion," +or to admit that, as a reasoner, he took any decided part in the affairs +which influenced the highest minds of his day. Now, in regard to politics, +government by factions was then the prevailing feature; factions +consisting of individuals who centred round some nobleman, whom the Queen +favoured and made, or weakened, according to her judgment or caprice. In +the autumn of 1597 Essex's influence over the Queen was waning, and after +a sharp rebuke received from her at the Privy Council table, he abruptly +left the Court and sullenly withdrew to his estate at Wanstead, where he +remained so long in retirement that his friends remonstrated with him +against his continued absence. One of them, who signed himself "Thy true +servant not daring to subscribe," urged him to attend every Council and to +let nothing be settled either at home or abroad without his knowledge. He +should stay in the Court, and perform all his duties there, where he can +make a greater show of discontent than he possibly could being absent; +there is nothing, adds this writer, that his enemies so much wish, enjoy, +and rejoice in as his absence. He is advised not to sue any more, "because +necessity will entreat for him." All he need do now is to dissemble like a +courtier, and show himself outwardly unwilling of that which he has +inwardly resolved. For by retiring he is playing his enemies' game, since +"the greatest subject that ever is or was greatest, in the prince's +favour, in his absence is not missed." In "Troilus and Cressida" we have a +similar situation, and we hear similar advice given. Achilles, like Essex, +has withdrawn unbidden and discontentedly to his tent, refusing to come +again to his general's council table. For doing so Ulysses remonstrates +with him in almost the same words as the writer of the anonymous letter. + + "The present eye praises the present object. + Then marvel not, thou great and complete man, + That all the Greeks begin to worship Ajax; + Since things in motion sooner catch the eye + Than what not stirs. The cry went once on thee, + And still it might, and yet it may again, + If thou would'st not entomb thyself alive, + And case thy reputation in thy tent; + Whose glorious deeds, but in these fields of late, + Made emulous missions 'mongst the gods themselves + And drave great Mars to faction." + +Then Achilles replies: + + "Of this my privacy I have strong reasons." + +And Ulysses continues: + + "But 'gainst your privacy + The reasons are more potent and heroical, + 'Tis known, Achilles, that you are in love + With one of Priam's daughters. + ACHILLES: Ha! known? + ULYSSES: Is that a wonder? + + * * * * * + + All the commerce that you have had with Troy + As perfectly is ours as yours, my lord; + And better would it fit Achilles much + To throw down Hector than Polyxena." + +If, again, we turn to the life and letters of Essex, we find there that +upon the 11th of February, 1598, "it is spied out by some that my Lord of +Essex is again fallen in love with his fairest B.: it cannot chance but +come to her Majesty's ears, and then he is undone." The lady in question +was Mary Brydges, a maid-of-honour and celebrated beauty. Again, in the +same month Essex writes to the Queen, "I was never proud till your Majesty +sought to make me too base." And Achilles is blamed by Agamemnon for his +pride in a remarkably fine passage. Then after news had come of the +disaster to the Queen's troops in Ireland, in the summer of 1598, Essex +reminds the Queen that, "I posted up and first offered my attendance after +my poor advice to your Maj. But your Maj. rejected both me and my letter: +the cause, as I hear, was that I refused to give counsel when I was last +called to my Lord Keeper." A similar situation is found in the play. +Agamemnon sends for Achilles to attend the Council and he refuses to come, +and later on, when he desires a reconciliation, the Council pass him by +unnoticed. It is almost impossible to read the third act of this play +without being reminded of these and other incidents in Essex's life. Nor +would Shakespeare forget the stir that had been created in London when in +1591 it was known at Court that Essex, at the siege of Rouen, had sent a +personal challenge to the governor of the town couched in the following +words: "Si vous voulez combattre vous-meme a cheval ou a pied je +maintiendrai que la querelle du rois est plus juste que celle de la ligue, +et que ma Maitresse est plus belle que la votre." And AEneas, the Trojan, +brings a challenge in almost identical words from Hector to the Greeks. It +is true that this incident is in the Iliad together with the incidents +connected with the withdrawal of Achilles, but Shakespeare selected his +material from many sources and appears to have chosen what was most likely +to appeal to his audience. Now it is not presumed that Achilles is Essex, +nor that Ajax is Raleigh, nor Agamemnon Elizabeth, or that Shakespeare's +audience for a moment supposed that they were; although it is to be +noticed that the Achilles who comes into Shakespeare's play is not the +same man at the beginning and end of the play as he is in the third act, +where, in conversation with Ulysses he suddenly becomes an intelligent +being and not simply a prize-fighter. To the injury of his drama, +Shakespeare here runs away from his Trojan story, and does so for reasons +that must have been special to the occasion for which the play was +written. For about this time, the Privy Council wrote to some Justices of +the Peace in Middlesex, complaining that certain players at the Curtain +were reported to be representing upon the stage "the persons of some +gentlemen of good descent and quality that are yet alive," and that the +actors were impersonating these aristocrats "under obscure manner, but yet +in such sorte as all the hearers may take notice of the matter and the +persons that are meant thereby. This being a thing very unfit and +offensive." The protest seems almost to suggest that the Achilles's scenes +in Shakespeare's play express, "under obscure manner," reflections upon +contemporary politicians. But, indeed, the growing political unrest which +marked the last few years of Elizabeth's reign could not fail to find +expression on the stage. + +It must be remembered, besides, that the years 1597 to 1599 were marked by +a group of dramas which may be called plays of political adventure. Nash +had got into trouble over a performance of "The Isle of Dogs" at the Rose +in 1597. In the same year complaints were made against Shakespeare for +putting Sir John Oldcastle on the stage in the character of Falstaff. Also +at the same period Shakespeare's "Richard the Second" was published, but +not without exciting suspicions at Court, for the play had a political +significance in the eyes of Catholics: Queen Mary of Scotland told her +English judges that "she remembered they had done the same to King +Richard, whom they had degraded from all honour and dignity." Then on the +authority of Mr. H. C. Hart we are told that Ben Jonson brought Sir Walter +Raleigh, the best hated man in England, on to the stage in the play of +"Every Man Out of His Humour," in 1599, and, as a consequence, in the +summer of the same year it was decided by the Privy Council that +restrictions should be placed on satires, epigrams, and English histories, +and that "noe plays be printed except they be allowed by such as have an +authoritie." Dramatists, therefore, had to be much more circumspect in +their political allusions after 1599 than they were before. + +There are two new conjectures therefore put forward in this article: (1) +That the underplot in the "Poetaster" contains allusions to Shakespeare's +play, and (2) that the withdrawal of Achilles is a reflection on the +withdrawal of Essex from Elizabeth's Court. Presuming that further +evidence may one day be found to support these suppositions, it is worth +while to consider them in relation to the history of the play. + +And first to clear away the myth in connection with the idea that this is +one of Shakespeare's late plays, or that it was only partly written by the +poet, or written at different periods of his life. It may be confidently +asserted that Shakespeare allowed no second hand to meddle with a work so +personal to himself as this one, nor was he accustomed to seek the help of +any collaborator in a play that he himself initiated. We know, besides, +that he wrote with facility and rapidly. As to the date of the play, the +evidence of the loose dramatic construction, and the preference for +dialogue where there should be drama, place it during the period when +Shakespeare was writing his histories. The grip that he ultimately +obtained over the stage handling of a story so as to produce a culminating +and overpowering impression on his audience is wanting in "Troilus and +Cressida." In fact, it is impossible to believe that this play was written +after "Julius Caesar," "Much Ado," or "Twelfth Night." Nor is there +evidence of revision in the play, since there are no topical allusions to +be found in it which point to a later date than 1598 except perhaps in the +prologue, which could hardly have been written before 1601, and did not +appear in print before 1623. Again, it is contended that there is too much +wisdom crammed into the play to allow of its being an early composition. +But the false ethics underlying the Troy story, which Shakespeare meant to +satirize in "Troilus and Cressida," had been previously exposed in his +poem of "Lucrece": + + "Show me the strumpet that began this stir, + That with my nails her beauty I may tear. + Thy heat of lust, fond Paris, did incur + This load of wrath that burning Troy did bear: + Thy eye kindled the fire that burneth here; + And here in Troy, for trespass of thine eye + The sire, the son, the dame, and daughter die. + + "Why should the private pleasure of some one + Become the public plague of many moe? + Let sin, alone committed, light alone + Upon his head that hath transgressed so; + Let guiltless souls be freed from guilty woe: + For one's offence why should so many fall, + To plague a private sin in general. + + "Lo, here weeps Hecuba, here Priam dies, + Here manly Hector faints, here Troilus swounds, + Here friend by friend in bloody charnel lies, + And friend to friend gives unadvised wounds, + And one man's lust these many lives confounds; + Had doting Priam check'd his son's desire, + Troy had been bright with fame, and not with fire." + +The difficulty with commentators is the knowledge that the play might have +been written yesterday, while the treatment of the subject, in its +modernity, is as far removed from "The Tempest" as it is from "Henry V." +Now, if the drama be recognized as a satire written under provocation and +with extraordinary mental energy, the date of the composition can be as +well fixed for 1598, when Shakespeare was thirty-four years old, as for +the year 1609. There is, besides, something to be said with regard to its +vocabulary, as Mr. Richard Simpson has shown, which is peculiar to this +play alone. Shakespeare introduces into it a large number of new words +which he had never used before and never employed afterwards. The list is +a long one. There are 126 latinized words that are coined or used only for +this play, words such as propugnation, protractive, Ptisick, publication, +cognition, commixture, commodious, community, complimental. And in +addition to all the latinized words there are 124 commoner words simple +and compound, not elsewhere to be found in the poet's plays, showing an +unwonted search after verbal novelty. + +We will now, with the help of the new information, attempt to unravel the +mystery as to the history of the play. The creation of the character of +Falstaff in "Henry IV." (Part I.) brought Shakespeare's popularity, as a +dramatist, to its zenith, and he seized the opportunity to reply to the +attacks made upon himself, as a poet, by his rival poet, Chapman, and +wrote a play giving a modern interpretation to the story of Troy, and +working into the underplot some political allusion to Essex and the Court. +The play may have been acted at the Curtain late in 1598, or at the Globe +in the spring of 1599, or, perhaps, privately at some nobleman's mansion, +who might have been one of Essex's faction. It was not liked, and +Shakespeare experienced his first and most serious reverse on the stage. +But he quickly retrieved his position by producing another Falstaff play, +"Henry IV." (Part II.), in the summer of 1599, followed by "Henry V." in +the same autumn, when Essex's triumphs in Ireland are predicted. +Shakespeare, none the less, must have felt both grieved and annoyed by the +treatment his satirical comedy had received from the hands of the "grand +censors." So at Christmas, 1601, when Ben Jonson produced his "Poetaster" +at Blackfriars, the younger dramatist defended his friend from the silly +objections which had been made to the Trojan comedy. Then early in 1603 a +revival of "Troilus and Cressida" may have been contemplated at the +Globe, and also its publication, but the death of Essex was still too near +to the memory of Londoners to make this possible, and the suggestion may +have been dropped on the eve of its fulfilment; Shakespeare, meanwhile, +had written a prologue, to be spoken by an actor in armour, in imitation +of Jonson's prologue, with a view to protect his play from further +hostility. In 1609 Shakespeare was preparing to give up his connection +with the stage, and may have handed his copy of the play to some +publishers, for a consideration, and the book was then printed. The Globe +players, however, demurred and claimed the property as theirs. The +publishers then removed their first title page and inserted another one to +give the appearance to the reader of the play being new. They also wrote a +preface to show that the publication, if unauthorized, was warranted, +since the play had not been acted on the _public_ stage. The real object +of the preface, however, was to defend the play from the attacks of the +"grand censors," who thought that the comedy had some deep political +significance, and was not merely intended to amuse and instruct. It also +shows the writer's resentment at the high-handed action of the "grand +possessors," the Globe players, who were unwilling either to act the play +themselves or yet to allow it to be published. + + + + +III + +SOME STAGE VERSIONS + + "THE MERCHANT OF VENICE." + "ROMEO AND JULIET." + "HAMLET." + "KING LEAR." + + + + +III + +SOME STAGE VERSIONS + + +A critical and genuine appreciation of the poet's work imposes a reverence +for the constructive plan as well as for the text. Why should a +Shakespeare, whose cunning hand divined the dramatic sequence of his +story, have it improved by a modern playwright or actor-manager? The +answer will be: Because the modern experts are familiar with theatrical +effects of a kind Shakespeare never lived to see. But if a modern +rearrangement of Shakespeare's plays is necessary to suit these theatrical +effects, the question may well be discussed as to whether rearrangements +with all their modern advantages are of more dramatic value than the +perfect work of the master. + +Among all innovations on the stage, perhaps the most far-reaching in its +effect on dramatic construction was the act-drop. Elizabethan dramatists +had to round off a scene to a conclusion, for there was no kindly curtain +to cover retreat from a deadlock. The art of modern play-writing is to +arrest the action suddenly upon a thrilling situation, and leave the +characters between the horns of a dilemma. At a critical moment the +act-drop comes down; and after the necessary interval goes up again, +showing that the characters have in the meantime somehow got out of the +difficulty. This leaves much to the fancy, but does not feed the +imagination. This leading up to a terminal climax, a "curtain," is but the +appetite for the feast, and not the food itself. It assumes that the +palate of the audience is depraved in its taste, and that it is one for +which the best work is perhaps not best suited; but it is a form of art, +and plays can be written after this form, and well written. Apart, +however, from the question as to the theatrical gain of such a crude +device as a "curtain," Shakespeare wrote with consummate art to show the +tide of human affairs, its flow and its ebb, and his constructive plan is +particularly unsuited to the act-drop. Upon one of Shakespeare's plays the +curtain falls like the knife of a guillotine, and the effect is similar to +ending a piece of music abruptly at its highest note, simply for the sake +of creating some startling impression. + +The way in which some modern managers, both here and in America, set about +producing a play of Shakespeare's seems to be as follows: Choose your +play, and be sure to note carefully in what country the incidents take +place. Having done this, send artists to the locality to make sketches of +the country, of its streets, its houses, its landscape, of its people, and +of their costumes. Tell your artists that they must accurately reproduce +the colouring of the sky, of the foliage, of the evening shadows, of the +moonlight, of the men's hair and the women's eyes; for all these details +are important to the proper understanding of Shakespeare's play. Send, +moreover, your leading actor and actress to spend some weeks in the +neighbourhood that they may become acquainted with the manners, the +gestures, the emotions of the residents, for these things also are +necessary to the proper understanding of the play. Then, when you have +collected, at vast expense, labour, and research, this interesting +information about a country of which Shakespeare was possibly entirely +ignorant, thrust all this extraneous knowledge into your representation, +whether it fit the context or not; let it justify the rearrangement of +your play, the crowding of your stage with supernumeraries, the addition +of incidental songs and glees, to say nothing of inappropriateness of +costume and misconception of character, until the play, if it does not +cease to be intelligible or consistent, thrives only by virtue of its +imperishable vitality, or by its strength of characterization, and by its +brilliancy of dialogue. + +These are but a few of the inconsistencies consequent upon the rage for +foisting foreign local colour into a Shakespearian play. But if the same +amount of industry bestowed in ascertaining the manners and customs of +foreign countries had been spent in acquiring a knowledge of Elizabethan +playing, and in forming some notion of what was uppermost in Shakespeare's +mind when he wrote his plays, we should have had representations which, if +possibly less pictorially successful, would have been more dramatic, more +human, and more consistent. + +To use a homely image, the question of the stage representation of +Shakespeare's plays is just the question of the foot and the shoe. Must we +cut off a toe here, and slice off a little from the heel there; or stretch +the shoe upon the last, and, if need be, even buy a new pair of shoes? It +is not enough to say that modern audiences demand "curtain" and scenery +for Shakespeare's plays. No public demands what is not offered to it. +Before demand can create supply, a sample of the new ware must be shown. +Most modern playgoers are unaware of the methods of Elizabethan +stage-playing, and therefore cannot condemn them as unsatisfactory. They +may have heard something about old tapestry, rushes, and boards, but they +have no reason to infer that our greatest dramatists were "thoroughly +handicapped by the methods of representation then in vogue." + +It is indeed to be regretted that no scholar nor actor has thought it +necessary to study the art of Shakespeare's dramatic construction from the +original copies. Some of our University men have written intelligently +about Shakespeare's characters and his philosophy, and one of them has +done something more than this. But it is doubtful if any serious attention +has been given yet to the way Shakespeare conducts his story and brings +his characters on and off the stage, a matter of the highest moment, since +the very life of the play depends upon the skill with which this is done. +And how many realize that the art of Shakespeare's dramatic construction +differs fundamentally from that of the modern dramatist? In fact, a Pinero +would no more know how to set about writing a play for the Elizabethan +stage, in which the characters appear in the course of the story in +twenty-six different localities during twenty-six years, than Shakespeare +would know how to make twenty-six persons live their lives through a whole +play in one room or on one day. + + +THE MERCHANT OF VENICE.[10] + +The story of this play is as follows. In the opening scene, the words of +Antonio to Bassanio-- + + "Well, tell me now, what lady is the same + To whom you swore a secret pilgrimage, + That you _to-day_ promised to tell me of?" + +And Lorenzo's apology for withdrawing-- + + "My lord Bassanio, since you have _found_ Antonio + We two will leave you:" + +and that of Salarino-- + + "We'll make our leisures to attend on _yours_"-- + +lead us to suppose that Bassanio has come by appointment to meet Antonio, +and that Antonio should be represented on his entrance as somewhat +anxiously expecting his friend, and we may further presume from Solanio's +words to Salarino in Act II., Scene 8-- + + "I think he only loves the world for _him_"-- + +that there is a special cause for Antonio's sadness, beyond what he +chooses to admit to his companions, and that is the knowledge that he is +about to lose Bassanio's society. + +With regard to Bassanio, we learn, in this first scene, that he is already +indebted to Antonio, that he desires to borrow more money from his friend, +to free himself from debt, before seeking the hand of Portia, a rich +heiress, and that Portia has herself encouraged him to woo her. In fact, +we are at once deterred from associating purely sordid motives with +Bassanio's courtship by his glowing description of her virtues and beauty, +as also by Antonio's high opinion of Bassanio's character. + +Antonio, however, has not the money at hand, and it is arranged that +Bassanio is to borrow the required sum on Antonio's security. The entrance +of Gratiano is skilfully timed to dispel the feeling of depression that +Antonio's sadness would otherwise leave upon the audience, and to give the +proper comedy tone to the opening scene of a play of comedy. + +In Scene 2 we are introduced to the heroine and her attendant, and learn, +what probably Bassanio did not know, that Portia by her father's will is +powerless to bestow her hand on the man of her choice, the stratagem, as +Nerissa supposes, being devised to insure Portia's obtaining "one that +shall rightly love." This we may call the first or casket-complication. +Portia's strong sense of humour is revealed to us in her description of +the suitors "that are already come," and her moral beauty in her +determination to respect her father's wishes. "If I live to be as old as +Sibylla, I will die as chaste as Diana, unless I be obtained by the manner +of my father's will." The action of the play is not, however, continued +till Nerissa questions Portia about Bassanio, in a passage that links this +scene to the last, and confirms, in the minds of the audience, the truth +of the lover's statement-- + + "Sometimes from her eyes + I did receive fair speechless messages." + +A servant enters to announce the leave-taking of four of the suitors, who +care not to submit to the conditions of the will, and to herald the +arrival of a fifth, the Prince of Morocco. + +We now come to the third scene of the play. Bassanio enters conversing +with one, of whom no previous mention has been made but whose first +utterance tells us he is the man of whom the required loan is demanded, +and before the scene has ended, we discover further that he is to be the +chief agent in bringing about the second, or pound-of-flesh-complication. +There are no indications given us of Shylock's personal appearance, except +that he has been dubbed "old Shylock," which is, perhaps, more an +expression of contempt than of age, for he is never spoken of as old man, +or old Jew, and is chiefly addressed simply as Shylock or Jew; but the +epithet is one recognized widely enough for Shylock himself to quote-- + + "Well, thou shalt see, thy eyes shall be thy judge, + The difference of _old Shylock_ and Bassanio:" + +as also does the Duke-- + + "Antonio and _old Shylock_ both stand forth." + +So was it with Silas Marner. George Eliot writes: "He was so withered and +yellow that though he was not yet forty the children always called him +'old master Marner.'" However, the language that Shakespeare has put into +the mouth of Shylock does not impress us as being that of a man whose +physical and mental faculties are in the least impaired by age; so +vigorous is it at times that Shylock might be pictured as being an Edmund +Kean-like figure, with piercing black eyes and an elastic step. From +Shylock's expression, "the _ancient_ grudge I bear him," and Antonio's +abrupt manner towards Shylock, we may conclude that the two men are +avowed enemies, and have been so for some time previous to the opening of +the play. This fact should, from the very first, be made evident to the +audience by the emphasis Shylock gives to Antonio's name, an emphasis that +is repeated every time the name occurs till he has made sure there is no +doubt about who the man is that shall become bound. + +The dramatic purpose of this scene is to show us Shylock directly plotting +to take the life of Antonio, and the means he employs to this end are +contrived with much skill. Shylock, in his opening soliloquy, discloses +his intention to the audience, and at once deprives himself of its +sympathy by admitting that his motives are guided more by personal +considerations than by religious convictions-- + + "I hate him for he is a Christian, + But _more_ for that in low simplicity + He lends out money gratis and brings down + The rate of usance here with us in Venice." + +The three first scenes should be so acted on the stage as to accentuate in +the minds of the audience (1) that Bassanio is the very dear friend of +Antonio; (2) that Portia and Bassanio are in love with each other; (3) +that Antonio and Shylock are avowed enemies; (4) that Shylock conspires +against Antonio's life with full intent to take it should the bond become +forfeit. + +We are again at Belmont and witness the entrance of the Prince of Morocco, +and the whole scene has a poetic dignity and repose which form a striking +contrast to the preceding one. We get in the character of the Prince of +Morocco a preliminary sketch of Shakespeare's Othello, and certainly the +actor, to do justice to the part, should have the voice and presence of a +Salvini. The second scene shows us the Jew's man about to leave his rich +master to become the follower of Bassanio, and the latter, now possessed +of Shylock's money, preparing his outfit for the journey to Belmont, +whither Gratiano also is bent on going. There is, besides, some talk of +merrymaking at night-time, which fitly leads up to our introduction to +Jessica in the next scene, and prepares us to hear of her intrigue with +Lorenzo. Jessica is the third female character in the play, and the +dramatist intends her to appear, in contrast to Portia and Nerissa, as a +tragic figure, dark, pale, melancholy, demure, yet chaste in thought and +in action, and with a heart susceptible of tender and devoted love. She +plans her elopement with the same fixedness of purpose as the father +pursues his revenge. In Scene 4 the elopement incident is advanced a step +by Lorenzo receiving Jessica's directions "how to take her from her +father's house," and a little further in the next scene, by Shylock being +got out of the way, when we hear Jessica's final adieu. It is worth noting +in this scene that, at a moment when we are ready to sympathize with +Shylock, who is about to lose his daughter, the dramatist denies us that +privilege by further illustrating the malignancy of the man's character. +He has had an unlucky dream; he anticipates trouble falling upon his +house; he is warned by Launcelot that there are to be masques at night; he +admits that he is not invited to Bassanio's feast out of love, but out of +flattery, and still he can say-- + + "But yet I'll go _in hate_, to feed upon + The prodigal Christian." + +No personal inconvenience must hinder the acceleration of Antonio's +downfall. + +In Scene 6 the elopement takes place, but is almost prevented by the +entrance of Antonio, whose solemn voice ringing clear on the stillness of +the night is a fine dramatic contrast to the whispering of the lovers. + +Shakespeare now thinks it time to return to Belmont, and we are shown the +Prince of Morocco making his choice of the caskets, and we learn his fate. +But he bears his disappointment like a hero, and his dignified retreat +moves Portia to exclaim: "A _gentle_ riddance!" + +Scene 8 is one of narration only, but the speakers are in an excited frame +of mind. The opening lines are intended to show that Antonio was not +concerned in the flight of Jessica, and our interest in his character is +further strengthened by the touching description of his farewell to +Bassanio. + +Scene 9 disposes of the second of Portia's remaining suitors, and, being +comic in character, is inserted with good effect between two tragic +scenes. The keynote to its action is to be found in Portia's words: "O, +these _deliberate_ fools!" The Prince of Morocco was a warrior, heroic to +the tips of his fingers; the Prince of Arragon is a fop, an affected ass, +a man "full of wise saws and modern instances," and the audience should be +prepared for a highly amusing scene by the liveliness with which Nerissa +announces his approach. His mannerism is indicated to us in such +expressions as "Ha! let me see," and "Well, but to my choice." He should +walk deliberately, speak deliberately, pause deliberately, and when he +becomes sentimental, "pose." Highly conscious of his own superiority, and +unwilling to "jump with _common_ spirits" and "rank me with the +_barbarous_ multitudes," he assumes superiority, and gets his reward in +the shape of a portrait of a blinking idiot. In fact, the whims of this +Malvolio are intended to put everyone on and off the stage into high +spirits, and even Portia is carried away by the fun as she mimics the +retiring suitor in her exclamation to the servant. The scene ends with the +announcement that Bassanio, "Lord Love," is on his way to Belmont, and we +go on at once to Act III., Scene 1, which, I take it, is a continuation of +Act II., Scene 8, and which, therefore, should not form part of another +act. + +The scene opens with Salarino and Solanio hurrying on the stage anxiously +questioning each other about Antonio's rumoured loss at sea. Shylock +follows almost immediately, to whom they at once turn in the hope of +hearing news. It is usual on the stage to omit the entrance of Antonio's +man, but apart from the dramatic effect produced by a follower of Antonio +coming on to the stage at that moment, his appearance puts an end to the +controversy, which otherwise would probably continue. Salarino and Solanio +leave the stage awed almost to breathlessness, and Tubal enters. Then +follows a piteous scene as we see Shylock's outbursts of grief, rage, and +despair over the loss of his gold; yet is his anguish aggravated by the +one from whom of all others he had a right to expect sympathy. But +Shylock, after Tubal's words, "But Antonio is certainly undone," mutters, +"Nay, that's true, that's very true," and takes from his purse a coin, and +with a countenance and gesture expressive of indomitable purpose, +continues: "_Go_, Tubal, fee me an officer; bespeak him a _fortnight_ +before. I will have the _heart_ of him if he forfeit.... _Go_, Tubal, and +meet me at our synagogue. _Go_, good Tubal; at our synagogue, Tubal." + +Shylock's misfortunes in this scene would arouse sympathy were it not for +the damning confession to Tubal of his motive for hating Antonio "for were +he out of Venice I can make what merchandise I will." Words that Jessica's +lines prove are not idle ones. + + "When I was with him I have heard him swear + To Tubal and to Chus, his countrymen, + That he would rather have Antonio's flesh + Than twenty times the value of the sum + That he did owe him." + +Act III., Scene 2, brings us to the last stage of the casket complication, +and here Shakespeare, to avoid sameness, directs that a song shall be sung +while Bassanio is occupied in deciding his fate; so that his long speech +is spoken after the choice has been made, the leaden casket being then in +his hands, and his words merely used to justify his decision. That +Bassanio must win Portia is realized from the first. Moreover, his +success, after Shylock's threats in the last scene, has become a dramatic +necessity, and is thus saved from an appearance of unreality, so that his +love adventure develops naturally. His good fortune is Gratiano's; then +news is brought of Antonio's bankruptcy and Bassanio is sent to his +friend's relief. Scene 3 does no more than show in action what was +previously narrated by Solanio in the preceding one, for the Elizabethan +dramatists, differing in their methods from the Greeks, rarely allowed +narration to take the place of action on the stage. Perhaps this was on +account of the mixed character of the audience, the "groundlings" being +too busy cracking nuts to take in an important situation merely from its +narration. To them Antonio's danger would not become a fact till they +actually saw the man in irons and the jailor by his side. In the fourth +scene we go back to Belmont to hear that Portia and Nerissa are to be +present at the trial, though with what object we are not told. We hear, +also, of Portia's admiration for Antonio, whose character she compares +with that of her husband. Scene 5 being comic, well serves its purpose as +a contrast to the tragic intensity displayed in the scene which follows. +Here, too, Portia and Bassanio win golden opinions from Jessica: + + "It is very meet, + The Lord Bassanio live an upright life; + For having such a blessing in his lady, + He finds the joys of heaven here on earth; ... + Why, if two gods should play some heavenly match, + And on the wager lay two earthly women, + And Portia one, there must be something else + Pawn'd with the other, for the poor rude world + Hath not her fellow." + +The trial scene is so well known that I shall not dwell upon it except to +mention that I think the dramatist intended the scene to be acted with +more vigour and earnestness on the part of all the characters than is +represented on the modern stage, and with more vehemence on the part of +Shylock. Conscious of his lawful right, he defies the duke and council in +language not at all respectful, + + "What if my house be troubled with a rat, + And I be pleased to give _ten_ thousand ducats + To have it baned?" + +When Shylock is worsted the traditional business is for him to leave the +stage with the air of a martyr going to his execution, and thus produce a +tragic climax where none is wanted. We seem to get an indication of what +should be Shylock's behaviour in his hour of adversity by reading the +Italian version of the story, with which Shakespeare was familiar. +"Everyone present was greatly pleased and deriding the Jew said: 'He who +laid traps for others, is caught himself.' The Jew seeing he could gain +nothing, tore in pieces the bond _in a great rage_." Indeed, Shylock's +words, + + "Why, then the devil give him good of it! + I'll stay no longer question," + +are exactly suited to the action of tearing up the bond. Certain it is +that only by Shylock being "in a great rage," as he rushes off the stage, +can the audience be greatly pleased, and in a fit humour to be interested +in the further doings of Portia. Scene 2 of this act is generally omitted +on the stage, though it seems to me necessary in order to show how Nerissa +gets possession of Gratiano's ring; it also affords an opportunity for +some excellent business on the part of Nerissa, who walks off arm in arm +with her husband, unknown to him. + +The last act is the shortest fifth act in the Globe edition, and if +deficient in action Shakespeare gives it another interest by the wealth +and music of its poetry, a device more than once made use of by him to +strengthen undramatic material. Shakespeare's knowledge of the value of +sound, in dramatic effect, is shown by Launcelot interrupting the +whispering of the lovers, and profaning the stillness of the night with +his halloas, which have a similar effect to the nurse's calls in the +balcony scene of Romeo and Juliet; it is also shown by the music, and in +the tucket sound; while the picture brought to the imagination, by +allusion to the light burning in Portia's hall, gives reality to the +scene. + + +ROMEO AND JULIET.[11] + +The argument that Arthur Brooke affixes to his poem, "Romeus and Iuliet," +runs as follows: + + "Loue hath inflamed twayne by sodayn sight, + And both do graunt the thing that both desyre: + They wed in shrift, by counsell of a frier. + Yong Romeus clymes fayre Iuliets bower by night, + Three monthes he doth enjoy his cheefe delight. + By Tybalts rage, prouoked unto yre, + He payeth death to Tybalt for his hyre. + A banisht man, he scapes by secret flight, + New mariage is offred to his wyfe. + She drinkes a drinke that seemes to reue her breath, + They bury her, that sleping yet hath lyfe. + Her husband heares the tydinges of her death: + He drinkes his bane. And she with Romeus knyfe, + When she awakes, her selfe (alas) she sleath." + +And the title of the same story in William Painter's "Palace of Pleasure," +is on the same lines: + + "The goodly Hystory of the true, and constant Loue betweene Rhomeo + and Iulietta, the one of whom died of Poyson, and the other of + sorrow, and heuinesse: wherein be comprysed many aduentures of Loue, + and other deuises touchinge the same." + +Here is Shakespeare's Prologue to his adaptation of the story for the +stage: + + "Two housholds, both alike in dignitie, + In faire Verona, where we lay our Scene, + From auncient grude breake to new mutinie + Where ciuill bloud makes ciuill hands uncleane. + From forth the fatall loynes of these two foes + A paire of starre-crost louers take their life; + Whose misaduentur'd pittious overthrowes + Doth, with their death, burie their Parents strife. + The fearfull passage of their death-markt loue, + And the continuance of their Parents rage, + Which, but their childrens end, nought could remoue, + Is now the two houres trafficque of our Stage; + The which, if you with patient eares attend, + What here shall misse, our toyle shall striue to mend." + +Why the dramatist thought fit to choose a different motive for his tragedy +to the one shown in the poem and the novel, we shall never know. He may +have found the hatred of the two houses accentuated in an older play on +this subject, and his unerring dramatic instinct would prompt him to use +the parents' strife as a lurid background on which to portray with greater +vividness the "fearfull passage" of the "starre-crost louers"; or the +modification may have been due to his reflections upon the political and +religious strife of his day; or to his irritation at Brooke's +short-sightedness in upholding, as more deserving of censure, the passion +of improvident love than the evil of ready-made hatred. Whatever be the +reason, the fact remains that Shakespeare, who was not partial to +Prologues, has in this instance made use of one to indicate the lines that +guide the action of his play, and it is upon these lines that I propose +to-night to discuss the stage representation. + +I divide the characters into three groups. Those who belong to the House +of Capulet, the House of Montague, and those who, as partisans of neither +of the houses, we may call the neutrals. These include Escalus, Mercutio, +Paris, Friar Laurence, Friar John, an apothecary, and all the citizens of +any position and standing, the Italian municipalities being ever anxious +to repress the feuds of nobles. + +The play opens with a renewal of hostilities between the two houses, which +serves not only as a striking opening, but brings on to the stage many of +the chief actors without unnecessary delay. In less than thirty lines we +are introduced to seven persons, all of whom indicate their character by +the attitude they assume towards the quarrel. We are shown the +peace-loving Benvolio, the fiery Tybalt, the imperious and vigorous +Capulet, calling for his two-handed sword-- + + "What noyse is this? giue me my long sword, hoe!"-- + +his characterless wife, feebly echoing her husband's moodiness-- + + "A crowch, a crowch, why call you for a sword?" + +and the calm dignity of Romeo's mother-- + + "Thou shalt not stir one foote to seeke a foe." + +We are also shown the citizens hastily arming themselves to part the two +houses, and hear for the first time their ominous shout: + + "Downe with the Capulets, downe with the Mountagues." + +It is heard on two subsequent occasions during the play, and is the +death-knell of the lovers. The quarrel is abruptly terminated by the +entrance of the Prince, who speaks with a precision and decision which +throws every other character on the stage into insignificance, and stamps +him at once in our eyes as a central figure. After the belligerents +disperse, admonished by the Prince that death awaits the next offender +against the peace, a scene follows to prepare us for Romeo's entrance, +Shakespeare having wisely kept him out of the quarrel, that the audience +may see him indifferent to every other passion but the one of love. Romeo, +until he had been shot with Cupid's arrow, seems to have passed for a +pleasant companion, as we learn from Mercutio's words, spoken to him in +the third act: + + "Why is not this better now, than groning for loue; now art thou + sociable, now art thou Romeo: now art thou what thou art, by art as + well as by nature." + +Romeo's romantic temperament naturally leads him into a love affair of a +sufficiently compromising character to need being kept from the knowledge +of his parents. Brooke narrates Rosaline's reception of Romeo's passion: + + "But she that from her youth was fostred euermore, + With vertues foode, and taught in schole of wisdomes skillful lore: + By aunswere did cutte of th' affections of his loue, + That he no more occasion had so vayne a sute to moue." + +And Shakespeare gives to Romeo almost similar words: + + "And in strong proofe of chastitie well armd, + From loues weak childish bow she liues uncharmd; + Shee will not stay the siege of louing tearmes, + Nor bide th' incounter of assailing eies, + Nor ope her lap to sainct seducing gold." + +A note in the Irving stage-version, referring to Mercutio's words, "stabd +with a white wenches blacke eye," states that "a pale woman with black +eyes" is suggestive of a wanton nature. Is this Rosaline's character? If +we are to accept seriously Mercutio's words as being the poet's +description of Rosaline's personal appearance, we may also give a literal +interpretation to the following lines: + + "I conjure thee by Rosaline's bright eyes, + By her high forehead, and her Scarlet lip." + +In Charlotte Bronte's opinion, a high forehead was an indication of +conscientiousness; she could get on, she would say, with anyone "who had a +lump at the top of the head." The reproaches of the Friar are, in my +opinion, levelled against Romeo, and not Rosaline. Romeo says: + + "Thou chidst me oft for louing Rosaline." + +And the Friar replies: + + "For doting, not for louing, pupill mine." + +Romeo could not openly woo one who was of the House of Capulet, and +Rosaline would not tolerate a clandestine courtship. + +In Scene 2 allusion is made for the second time to the quarrel of the two +houses. We also hear of Juliet for the first time, and are shown Paris, no +less a person than the Prince's kinsman, as a suitor for her hand. The +assumed dignity and good breeding of Capulet in this scene are to be +noted. The Irving acting-version leaves out the whole of the servant's +very amusing speech about the shoemaker and his "yard." Why are virtuous +tragedians always anxious to rob the low comedians of their cakes and ale? + +In Scene 3 we are introduced to our principal comic character, the Nurse, +brought into the play no doubt to supply "those unsavoury morsels of +unseemly sentences, which doth so content the hungry humours of the rude +multitude." We are shown Juliet, and hear again of Paris, whose high rank +and fine clothes have won the simple mother's heart, but Juliet's +independence of character is indicated in the line: + + "He looke to like, if looking liking moue." + +And a touch of subtlety is revealed to us in the words: + + "But no more deepe will I endart mine eye, + Than your consent giues strength to make (it) flie." + +In Scene 4 Mercutio is brought on to the stage; a character that figures +in many Elizabethan plays, and in the theatrical parlance of the poet's +time was known as the "braggart" soldier, and yet the part had never +received such brilliant treatment till Shakespeare took it in hand. Scene +5 is the hall in Capulet's house, where Romeo and Juliet see each other +for the first time, the audience now being fully aware of the conditions +under which the two meet. It has seen the hatred of the houses; the +purse-proud Capulet contracting a fashionable marriage for his daughter; +Romeo's melancholy; his longing for the love and sympathy of woman; and +Juliet's loneliness amid conventional and uncongenial surroundings. The +sight of a Montague within Capulet's house gives warning for a fresh +outbreak of hostilities-- + + "but this intrusion shall, + Now seeming sweet, conuert to bittrest gall"-- + +and Romeo's cry, + + "Is _she_ a Capulet? + O deare account! my life is my foes debt"-- + +and Juliet's exclamation, + + "Prodigious birth of loue it is to mee, + That I must loue a loathed _enemie_!" + +foreshadow the doom prophesied by Romeo as about to begin "with this +night's reuels." + +In the rebuke of Tybalt we get an indication of Capulet's character. A +note in the Irving-version states that Capulet is a meddlesome mollycoddle +not unlike Polonius. But the fussiness of Polonius proceeds from his +vanity, from his mental and physical impotence. Capulet's activity is the +outcome of a love for domineering that springs from his pride of birth, +and his consciousness of physical superiority. Tybalt, who is no child, +sinks into insignificance at the thunder of this man's voice: + + "He shall be endured. + What goodman boy, I say he shall, go too. + Am I the master here, or you? go too, + Youle not endure him, god shall mend my soule, ... + You will set cock a hoope, youle be the man ... + You must contrarie _me_." + +Capulet, I fear, would have annihilated the bloodless and decorous +Polonius with the breath of his nostrils. Women who marry men of this +overbearing character often lose their own individuality, and become mere +ciphers. So does Lady Capulet. She dare not call her soul her own; she +cannot be mistress even in the kitchen. It is Capulet's indignation at his +nephew's interference with his affairs that prepares us for his outburst +of passion, in the fourth act, when his daughter threatens opposition to +his will. + +At the close of Scene 5 Shakespeare thinks it necessary to bring the +Chorus on to the stage in order to make known to the audience the +direction in which the future action of the play will turn, and to account +for the suppression of Rosaline, of whom, until the entrance of Juliet, so +much has been said. That the words were not printed in the first quarto, a +piratical version published from notes taken at a performance of the play, +seems to suggest that after the first representation the Chorus did not +appear on the stage, for the speech was found to be an unnecessary +interruption. + +Presuming, therefore, that there is no delay in the progress of the +action, Romeo returns from the ball, and, giving his companions the slip, +hides himself in Capulet's orchard, where he hears their taunts about his +Rosaline. The value, to the poet, of the Rosaline episode is thus further +shown by the use he makes of it to conceal from Romeo's inquisitive +companions this second love intrigue, so fraught with danger. That David +Garrick, in his acting-version, should allow Mercutio to make open fun of +Romeo's love for the daughter and heiress of old Capulet proves how rarely +the actor is able to replace the author. + +It is incomprehensible to me why our stage Juliets, in the "Balcony +Scene," go through their billing-and-cooing as deliberately as they do +their toilets, never for a moment thinking that the "place is death" to +Romeo, and that "loves sweet bait must be stolen from fearful hookes." In +Shakespeare's time this scene was acted in broad daylight, and the +dramatist is careful to stimulate the imagination of his audience with +appropriate imagery. The word "night" occurs ten times, and I suppose the +actor would be instructed to give a special emphasis to it. There are, +besides, several allusions to the moon and the stars, including that +descriptive couplet: + + "Lady, by yonder blessed Moone I vow, + That tips with siluer all these frute tree tops." + +When Shakespeare could give us in words so vivid a picture of moonlight, +Ben Jonson could well afford to have a fling at Inigo Jones's mechanical +scenery, and say: + + "What poesy e'er was painted on a wall?" + +Romeo goes direct from Capulet's orchard to Friar Lawrence's cell to make +confession of his "deare hap." He loves now in earnest, and love teaches +him to brave all dangers, and even to face matrimony; and his virtuous +mood wins for him the good-will of the Friar, who sees in the alliance of +the two houses their reconciliation. In the poem and novel both the lovers +avow a similar disinterested motive to justify their union, but the mind +of reason never enters the heart of love, and Shakespeare, in their case, +wisely omits this bit of sophistry. The advance of the love episode must +move side by side with the quarrel episode, so in the next scene we hear +of Romeo receiving a challenge from Tybalt. The Irving-version omits most +of the good-natured banter between Romeo and Mercutio, which is all +telling comedy if spoken lightly and quickly. The Nurse enters, and +Mercutio and Benvolio set off for Montague's house, where they propose +dining. The incident that follows must have been very irritating to the +Elizabethan Puritans, who complained of the corruption of morals begot in +"the chapel of Satan" by witnessing the carrying and recarrying of letters +by laundresses "to beguile fathers of their children." Here more excellent +comedy is omitted in the Irving-version, including the Nurse's allusion to +Paris as being "the properer man" of the two, and her naive question, +"Doth not Rosemarie and Romeo begin both with a letter?" The Nurse had +overheard Juliet talk about "Rosemarie and Romeo." Later on we see +rosemary strewed over the body of the apparently dead Juliet. + +The scene in which Romeo and Juliet meet to be married at the Friar's Cell +ends on the stage the second act. But to drop the curtain here interrupts +the dramatic movement just as it is about to reach a climax in the death +of Tybalt, followed by the banishment of Romeo. These incidents require +action that is all hurry and excitement, and are therefore out of place at +the beginning of an act, unless it be the opening act of a play. Besides, +they are immediately connected with the scene in which allusion is made to +Tybalt having challenged Romeo. We are shown Mercutio and Benvolio +returning from Montague's house, where they proposed dining. And Mercutio +has, apparently, indulged too freely in his host's wine, for the prudent +Benvolio is anxious to get his friend out of the public streets as quickly +as possible. Benvolio's worst fears are realized by the entrance of the +quarrelsome Tybalt, whom Mercutio, as is the way with fuddled people, at +once offers to fight. But Tybalt hesitates to cross swords with a relative +of the Prince, and is glad of the excuse of Romeo's appearance to transfer +the quarrel to him. Romeo will not draw sword upon his wife's cousin, and +Mercutio, exasperated, takes up the challenge, is stabbed by Tybalt under +Romeo's arm, and dies cursing the two houses. This tragedy rouses Romeo to +action; he will now defend his own honour since he was Mercutio's dear +friend. Tybalt is challenged and killed. The citizens "are up," and for +the second time we hear their ominous shout: + + "Downe with the Capulets, downe with the Montagues!" + +They enter, followed by the Prince, with the heads of the two houses and +their wives. The Capulets call for Romeo's death. The Montagues protest +that Romeo in killing a man whose life was already forfeited has but taken +the law into his own hands. For that offence he is exiled by the Prince. + + "I haue an interest in your hates proceeding: + My bloud for your rude brawles doth lie a bleeding. + But ile amerce you with so strong a fine, + That you shall all repent the losse of mine. + I will be deafe to pleading and excuses, + Nor teares, nor prayers, shall purchase out abuses. + Therefore use none, let Romeo hence in hast, + Else when he is found, that houre is his last." + +The whole of the latter part of this scene is brilliant in the variety and +rapidity of its action, and should not, I consider, be omitted in +representation as is directed to be done in the Irving-version. To take +out the second renewal of hostilities between the two houses; not to show, +in action on the stage, the rage of the Capulets at the death of Tybalt, +and the grief of the Montagues at the banishment of Romeo, is to weaken +the tragic significance of the scenes that follow. Without it the audience +cannot vividly realize that the hatred of the two houses has reached its +acutest stage, and that all hope of reconciliation is at an end. + +Mercutio at the commencement of this scene says to Benvolio: "Thou wilt +quarell with a man for cracking nuts, having no other reason but because +thou hast hazel eyes." Did Shakespeare, who, according to tradition had +hazel eyes, act the part of Benvolio? I think he did. It is the only part +in the play I can fancy him able to act. A study of both the bust and the +Droeshout portrait of the poet-dramatist leads me to believe that he would +not have been able to disguise easily his identity on the stage. His +flexibility was essentially of a mental and not of a physical nature. The +face is entirely wanting in mobility, and the head is so large that no wig +could hide its unusual size. Shakespeare, moreover, became bald probably +early in life. The Droeshout portrait shows undoubtedly the likeness of a +youngish man, about thirty-five years old, while his baldness would still +justify the epithet of "grandsire" with which Mercutio dubs Benvolio; and +"grandsire" may have been a nickname of Shakespeare's suggested by his +baldness. "Come hither, goodman bald-pate"--words spoken by Lucio in +"Measure for Measure"--have been quoted as a reason for presuming that +Shakespeare played the Duke in that comedy. Sir William Davenant, who +liked to be thought a natural son of the poet, in an adaption of this play +altered the words to, "She has been advised by a bald dramatic poet of +the next cloister." If the audience recognized their "gentle Will" in the +part of the peace-loving Benvolio, we may imagine the laughter that would +arise at Mercutio's words: "Thy head is as full of quarelles, as an egg is +full of meate"--Shakespeare's head being egg-shaped. If my supposition be +correct, we may honour the self-abnegation, the entire absence of personal +vanity that enabled Shakespeare, like Moliere, to direct laughter against +himself. The scattered references to him which we find in the writings of +his contemporaries show us, says Professor Dowden, "the poet concealed and +sometimes forgotten in the man, and make it clear that he moved among his +fellows with no assuming of the bard or prophet, no air of authority as of +one divinely commissioned; that, on the contrary, he appeared as a +pleasant comrade, genial, gentle, full of civility in the large meaning of +the word, upright in dealing, ready and bright in wit, quick and sportive +in conversation." How aptly does this description fit the character of +Benvolio! One quality was especially common to the two men--tact. It was +the possession of tact that made Shakespeare so invaluable to his +fellow-actors as a manager. Benvolio's tact is shown in his conversation +with Romeo's parents, with Romeo himself, with Mercutio when hot-headed, +and with the Prince, Mercutio's relative. It is true that Benvolio +attributes Mercutio's death to Tybalt's interference, while in reality it +was due to Mercutio's indiscretion; but we have no pity for Tybalt, who, +as Brooke says, thirsting after the death of others, lost his life. + +Romeo's banishment brings us to the middle and "busy" part of the play, +where the Elizabethan actors were expected to thunder their loudest to +split the ears of the groundlings; and Shakespeare, not yet sufficiently +independent as a dramatist to dispense with the conventions of his stage, +follows suit on the same fiddle to the same tune; and after all the +ranting eloquence on the part of Romeo and Juliet, we are just where we +were before with regard to any advance made with the story. Act III., +Scene 2, is often entirely omitted in representation, but the +Irving-version retains most of it. It is not till the middle of Act III., +Scene 3, that the action advances again. But this, and the previous +scenes, if acted with animation and rapidly spoken by all the characters +concerned, would not take up much time, and could be declaimed with +effect. The stage fashion of making the Friar stolidly indifferent to the +unexpected complication that has arisen through Tybalt's death is not only +undramatic, but inconsistent with the text. A heavy responsibility lies on +him, and his position is full of difficulty and danger. The scene that +follows shows us Capulet fixing a day for the marriage of Juliet with +Paris, and the father's words-- + + "I thinke she will be rulde + In all respects by _me_: nay, more, I doubt it not," + +have a significance, and render the parting of the lovers in the next +scene highly dramatic. In the poem and novel, Juliet, before parting with +Romeo, proposes to accompany him disguised as his servant; about the best +thing she could do. After a good deal of arguing on both sides the idea is +abandoned as impracticable. Shakespeare prefers his lovers to discourse +about the nightingale. Romeo being gone, the mother enters to announce to +the wife her betrothal to Paris, and the early day of marriage. The news +is sprung upon her with terrible abruptness, though the audience have been +in the secret from the first, and Juliet has hardly time to protest +against "this sudden day of joy" before the father enters to complete her +discomfiture by his torrents of abuse. Capulet's varnish of good manners +entirely disappears in this scene, and his coarse nature is exposed in all +its ugliness. But in the emergency of this tragic moment, as Professor +Dowden points out, does Juliet leap into womanhood, and realize her +position and responsibilities as a wife, and in the following lines +Shakespeare touches the first note of highest tragedy in the play: that of +the mind's suffering as opposed to the mere tragedy of incident-- + + "O God, o Nurse, how shall this be preuented? + My husband is on earth, my faith in heauen; + How shall that faith returne againe to earth, + Unlesse that husband send it me from heauen + By leauing earth? comfort me, counsaile me." + +I am curious to learn on what grounds these thrilling words are omitted in +the Irving-version. To me they are the climax of the scene and of the play +so far as it has progressed. They mark the turning-point in Juliet's moral +nature. They enable us to forgive her any indiscretions of which she may +previously have been guilty. From this point onwards all is calm in +Juliet's breast, because there is no infirmity of purpose, + + "If all else faile, my self have power to die." + +As the shadows fall across the path of the lovers, so do they over that of +the Friar. + + "O _Iuliet_, I already know thy greefe, + It straines me past the compasse of my wits," + +is his greeting in the next scene. A "desperate preventive" to shame or +death is decided upon, and then follows what is perhaps the most dramatic +episode in the whole play. We are shown Capulet's household busy with the +preparations for the marriage-feast, and the father, now bent on having a +"great ado," hastily summoning "twenty cunning Cookes"--the consequence +possibly of Juliet's threatened opposition to his wishes. Juliet enters to +feign submission and beg forgiveness, which enables the father to indulge +in another despotic freak by hastening the day of marriage, heedless of +all the inconvenience it may cause. Juliet retires to her chamber, and +Capulet goes to prepare Paris against to-morrow. Then comes Juliet's +terrible ordeal, the undertaking "of a thing like death," which is all the +more terrible because it must be done alone. This scene is often overacted +on the stage. Our Juliets do far too much "stumping and frumping" about. I +once saw the "potion-scene" acted with dramatic intelligence by an actress +quite unknown to fame. When Juliet lays her dagger on the table, the +actress took up the vial, and, standing motionless in the centre of the +stage, spoke the lines in a hurried, low whisper, conveying the impression +of reflection as well as the need for discretion. At the words, + + "O looke, me thinks I see my Cozins Ghost," + +she sank on one knee, and, raising the right arm with a quick movement, +pointed into space, the eye following the hand, a very simple but telling +gesture. The words, "Stay, _Tybalt_, stay!" were not given with a scream, +but in a tone of alarm and entreaty, followed immediately by the drinking +of the potion, as if to suggest Juliet's desire to come to Romeo's rescue. +The whole scene was acted in less than two minutes. The vision of Tybalt's +ghost pursuing Romeo for vengeance, an incident not to be found in the +originals, shows the touch of the master dramatist. We feel the need of +some immediate incentive to nerve Juliet to raise the vial to her lips; +and what more effectual than that of her overwrought imagination picturing +to herself the husband in danger. + +While the poor child lies prostrate upon her bed in the likeness of death, +we are shown the dawn of the morning, the rousing and bustle of the +household; we hear the bridal march in the distance, the sound coming +nearer every moment; the Nurse knocking at Juliet's chamber-door; her +awful discovery; the entrance of the parents; the filling of the stage by +the bridal party, led by the Friar; the wailing, and wringing of the hands +as the first quarto directs; the changing of the sound of instruments to +that of melancholy bells, of solemn hymns to sullen dirges, of bridal +flowers to funeral wreaths. All this is thrilling in conception, and yet +the episode as conceived by Shakespeare is never represented on the stage. +Why are the Capulet scenes omitted, those which are dovetailed to the +"potion scene," and make it by contrast so terribly tragic? The +accentuation here of Capulet's tyranny, of his sensuality, his brutal +frankness, his indifference to every one's convenience but his own, his +delight in exacting a cringing obedience from all about him, are designed +by the dramatist to move us with deep pity for Juliet's sufferings, and by +emphasizing its necessity to save the "potion scene" from the danger of +appearing grotesque. But Shakespeare's method of dramatic composition, +that of uniting a series of short scenes with each other in one dramatic +movement, will not bear the elaboration of heavy stage sets, and with the +demand for carpentry comes the inducement for mutilation. At the +Shakespeare Reading Society's recital of this play, given recently under +my direction at the London Institution, these scenes were spoken without +delay or interruption, and with but one scene announced, and the interest +and breathless attention they aroused among the audience convinced me that +my conception as to the dramatic treatment of them was the right one. +Until these scenes are restored to the acting version, Shakespeare's +tragedy will not be seen on the stage as he conceived it; and when they +are restored, their dramatic power will electrify the house, and +twentieth-century dilettantism will lose its influence among playgoers. +The comic scene between Peter and the Musicians should also be restored. +It comes in as a welcome relief after the intensity of the previous +scenes, and is, besides, a connecting link with the comedy in the earlier +part of the play. + +The last act can be briefly dealt with. We anticipate the final +catastrophe, though we do not know by what means it will be brought about. +It is carried out, as it should be, effectively but simply. The children +have loved and suffered, let them die easily and quickly. Romeo's costume +in exile is described in the poem as that of a merchant venturer, which is +certainly a more appropriate dress than the conventional black velvet of +the stage. After hearing the fatal news, which provokes the boy to mutter, +"Is it even so?" in the Lyceum version is inserted the stage-direction, +"_He pauses, overcome with grief_." But as there is no similar +stage-direction in the originals, the actor may, without violation to the +author's intentions, pause _before_ the words are spoken. The blow is too +sudden, too cruel, too overwhelming to allow of any immediate response in +words. The colour would fly from Romeo's face, his teeth grip his under +lip, his eyes gleam with a look of frenzy, _looks_ that "import some +misadventure," but there is no action and no sound for a while, and +afterwards only a muttering. The stillness of Romeo's desperation is very +dramatic. There is nothing, in my opinion, unnatural in Romeo's +description of the Apothecary's shop. All sorts of petty details float +before our mental vision when the nerves are over-wrought, but the actor +should be careful not to accentuate the description in any way; it is but +introductory to the dominant words of the speech, + + "And if a man did need a poyson now." + +As Juliet's openly acknowledged lover, Paris occupies too prominent a +place in the play to be lightly dismissed, and so he is involved in the +final catastrophe. In Brooke's poem, Romeo, before dying, prays to Heaven +for mercy and forgiveness, and the picture of the boy kneeling by his +wife's side, with her hand clasped in his, pleading to his Redeemer to-- + + "Take pity on my sinnefull and my poore afflicted mynde!" + +would, on the stage, have been a supremely pathetic situation. But +Shakespeare's stern love of dramatic truth rejects it. In Romeo's +character he strikes but one note, love--and love as a passion. Love is +Romeo's divinity, physical beauty his deity. The assertion that-- + + "In nature there's no blemish but the mind, + None can be call'd deform'd but the unkind," + +would have sounded in Romeo's ears profanation. When he first sees Juliet +he will by touching hers make _blessed_ his rude hand, and when he dies he +will seal the doors of breath "with a _righteous_ kiss." To the Friar he +cries: + + "Do thou but close our hands with holy words, + Then loue-deuouring death do what he dare. + It is inough I may but call her _mine_." + +And "love-devouring death" accepts the challenge, but the agony of death +does not "countervail the exchange of joy" that one short minute gives him +in her presence. Here Shakespeare's treatment of the love-episode differs +from that of Brooke's in his tolerance for the children's love, though it +be carried out in defiance of the parents' wishes, and in his recognition +that love, so long as it be strong as death, has an ennobling and not a +debasing influence on character: we are made to feel that it is better for +Romeo to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all. For the +hatred of the two houses Shakespeare shows no tolerance. Juliet's death +is carried out with the greatest simplicity, and within a few moments of +her awakening. There is neither time for reflection nor lamentation; the +watch has been roused, and is heard approaching. She has hardly kissed the +poison from her dead husband's lips before they enter the churchyard, and +nothing but the darkness of the night screens from them the sight of the +steel that Juliet plunges into her breast. It is the presence of the +watch, almost within touch of her, that goads her to lift the knife, just +as it is the vision of Tybalt's ghost pursuing Romeo that nerves her to +drink the potion. The dramatist's intention is clearly indicated in the +stage-directions of the two quartos and the folio, but the Irving-version +retains in this last scene the modern stage-directions. + +Professor Dowden is of opinion "that it were presumptuous to say that had +Shakespeare been acquainted with the earlier form of the story (in which +Juliet wakes before Romeo dies), he would not have altered his ending." +But an ending of this kind is inartistic. It is bringing the axe down +twice instead of once. It is introducing a new complication and a new +movement at a moment when none is wanted. The catastrophe should be and +always is, by Shakespeare, carried out with simplicity and directness. +After Juliet's death other watchmen enter with the Friar in custody, while +from afar we hear for the third and last time the cries of the citizens: + + "Downe with the Capulets, downe with the Mountagues!" + +the only child of each of the two rival houses lying dead before the +spectators. Nature had done her best to effect a reconciliation, but man +thwarted her in her purpose. Then the Prince and the heads of the two +houses enter and learn for the first time that + + "_Romeo_ there dead, was husband to that _Iuliet_, + And she there dead, that's _Romeo's_ faithfull wife." + +Well may the Prince say-- + + "_Capulet, Montague_, + See what a scourge is laide upon your hate + That heauen finds means to kill your joyes with loue." + +All this last scene is full of animation, and presents a fine opportunity +for the _regisseur_. I am obliged to use the French word, for we have no +similar functionary in this country. Our public is sufficiently +indifferent to the welfare of dramatic art to allow its leading actors to +be their own stage-managers and often their own authors. As a consequence +the public gets no English plays worthy of being called plays, and no +guarantee that a dead author's intentions shall be respected. Human nature +has its prejudices, and the actor is seldom to be found who can look at a +play from any other point of view than in relation to the prominence of +his own part in it. It is owing to the despotism of the actor on the +English stage, and consequently to the star system, that I attribute the +mutilation of Shakespeare's plays in their representation. The closing +scene of this play might be made very effective in action. The crowd +hurrying with "bated breath" to the spot; its horror at the sight of the +dead children, who for all it knows are murdered; its amazement at finding +they are man and wife; the Prince's stern rebuke; the bowed grief and +shame of Montague and Capulet; the reconciliation of the bereaved parents, +and joining of hands across the dead bodies. The Irving-version omits all +but the entrance of the citizens with Montague, Capulet, and the Prince, +who at once ends the play with the couplet-- + + "For neuer was a Storie of more wo + Than this of _Iuliet_ and her _Romeo_." + +But if the Prince hears no story, he and those who enter with him cannot +be aware that Romeo and Juliet are man and wife, or that they died by +their own hands, and are not victims to an act of treachery. Then why open +your play with the quarrel of the two houses if you do not intend to show +them reconciled? Why not follow the Cumberland acting-version, and take +out the crowd scenes altogether? It is a more intelligible proceeding than +this compromise of the Irving-version. + +Criticized as classical tragedy, the play of "Romeo and Juliet" is a +veritable hotch-potch. It seems to defy the laws of criticism. The +characters at one moment talk in the highest poetical language, and at +another in the most commonplace colloquy. Nothing can well seem more +inconsistent than to put into the mouth of Capulet these words-- + + "Death lies on her like an untimely frost, + Upon the sweetest flower of all the field." + +Bombast goes side by side with poetry; passion with pantomime. Yet, as +Lessing says, "Plays which do not observe the classical rules, must yet +observe rules of some kind if they are to please;" and Shakespeare sought +to establish rules in accordance with the national taste, his first aim +being the combination of the serious and the ludicrous. Vigorous +characterization, a vital and varied movement, and the skilful handling +of scenes well calculated to stir the emotions of an audience, make "Romeo +and Juliet" an acting play of enduring interest. + +In conclusion, I hold that no stage-version of "Romeo and Juliet" is +consistent with Shakespeare's intentions which does not give prominence to +the hatred of the two houses and retain intact the three "crowd +scenes"--the one at the opening of the play, the second in the middle, and +the third at the end. To represent only the love episode is to make that +episode far less tragic, and therefore less dramatic. + + +"HAMLET."[12] + +In comparing the acting-edition of "Hamlet" with the authorized text of +the Globe edition, I find that it is shorter by 1,191 lines, and omits the +characters of Voltemand, Cornelius, Reynaldo, a gentleman, and Fortinbras. +Such a modification should, perhaps, exclude the acting-editions from +being classed as the same play with either the folio or second quarto. It +is a question whether 1,200 lines can be taken out of any Shakespearian +play without defeating the poet's dramatic intentions; but if it is +necessary to shorten a play to this extent in order to make it suitable +for the stage, so important an alteration should not, surely, be left +entirely to the discretion of the actor, but should be the work of +Shakespearian scholars, assisted by the advice of the dramatic profession. +One would think that Shakespeare's world-famed greatness as a dramatist +should make all his plays so valued by his countrymen that any alteration +in their stage representation which had not been sanctioned by the highest +authorities would be repudiated. But, unfortunately, it is not so. That +the omission of some of the characters in the acting-edition of "Hamlet" +has not impaired Shakespeare's dramatic conception of the play is at least +a matter of doubt. In the second quarto we have a play constructed for the +purpose of showing us types of character contrasted one with the other. +Strong men, weak men, old men, fond women, all living and moving under the +influence of a destiny that is not of their own seeking. We have also a +Danish court in which a terrible crime has been committed, and over which +an avenging angel is hovering with drawn sword waiting to descend on the +head of the guilty one; and, because the influence of good in this court +is too weak to conquer the evil, the sword falls on the good as well as on +the evil, on the weak as well as on the strong. Something is rotten in the +State of Denmark; no one there is worthy to rule; the kingdom must be +taken away and given to a stranger. It is the play as an epitome of life +which is interesting the mind of Shakespeare, and not the career of one +individual, even though the whole play be influenced by the actions of +that individual. Look at the first quarto and we find a proof of this. +Mutilated as that version is, care has been taken to avoid confusing the +story of the play. Everything relating to Fortinbras is kept in the +quarto, because Fortinbras has to appear like Richmond in "Richard III.," +as the hero who will restore peace and order to the distracted kingdom. +This much-abused quarto has 557 lines less than the modern acting +edition, of which 254 are not in that edition, although they are in the +second quarto (or rather have a meaning equivalent to lines in the second +quarto), showing clearly that it is possible to shorten the text in more +ways than one. The first quarto comes nearer to Shakespeare's dramatic +conception of the play than the modern stage version, because the latter, +by omitting some of the persons represented, and also many of the lines +which reveal the weaker side of Hamlet's character, have altered the story +of the play, and placed the part of Hamlet in a different aspect to the +one conceived by the author. + +I will now compare French's acting-edition of "Hamlet," scene by scene, +with the Globe edition. The Globe edition contains all the lines of the +second quarto and the folio. It adheres to the text, but not to the +stage-directions. For reading purposes, perhaps, the alterations which +have been made in the latter may be justified to some extent as a +necessity, yet for the acting-edition it would have been better to copy +the originals. There are alterations made to the stage-directions in the +first scene. Horatio, Marcellus, and the Ghost are shown to enter a line +later in the Globe edition than is marked in the quarto or folio. But the +attention of an audience is better sustained if the entrances of +characters, especially of the Ghost, is not anticipated, and also if the +dialogue is not interrupted by pauses for entrances and exits. + +In comparing the text, I find that lines 69 to 125 of the Globe edition +are omitted in the acting-edition. But these lines explain to the audience +why Marcellus, Bernardo, and Horatio are engaged in this same "strict and +most observant watch." Marcellus and Bernardo are not common sentries. +They are gentlemen and scholars, who are on duty as soldiers for this +particular occasion. Lines 140 to 142 I should also like to see inserted, +because they are needed to explain the words which follow-- + + "We do it wrong, being so majestical, + To offer it this show of violence." + +On the stage these words are spoken, but no violence is shown towards the +Ghost. Besides, the business of striking at the Ghost is a fine invention +of the author to assist the imagination to realize it is a spirit. I am +sorry lines 157 to 165 are omitted, because not only are they beautiful in +themselves, but also appropriate, for they help to give solemnity to the +scene. The omission of the last four lines of the scene leaves it +unfinished. Altogether seventy-one lines have been cut out of the first +scene, but the first quarto retains most of them. + +The stage-directions at the head of the second scene, both in the Globe +edition and folio, place Hamlet's name after the Queen's, to indicate the +order to be observed by the actors when they come on to the stage. In the +second quarto, however, Hamlet's name comes last. As he has an antipathy +to the King, and is displeased with his mother, it is not likely he would +be much in the company of either, not even on State occasions, for Hamlet +regards the King as a usurper. I would venture to suggest, then, that +Hamlet should enter last of all, from another doorway to that used by the +King and his train, having his hat and cloak in his hand, as if he had +come to take leave of the Court before starting for Wittenberg. + +Passing on now to the fourth scene, I notice that in the acting-edition +the last five lines of the scene have been cut out, including that +expressive one-- + + "Something is rotten in the state of Denmark." + +I do not myself sympathize with this cutting out the end of scenes, as is +done so persistently in every acted play of Shakespeare's. It is +inartistic, because it is done to allow the principal actor to leave the +stage with applause. Besides, it creates a habit, with actors, of trying +to make points at the end of scenes, whether it is necessary or not, and +this distorts the play and delays its progress. + +In the fifth scene the line-- + + "O horrible, horrible, most horrible"-- + +spoken by the Ghost, is marked in the acting-edition to be spoken by +Hamlet. Such an alteration is unwarranted by the text. The first quarto, +by making Hamlet exclaim "O God" after the Ghost has said "O horrible," +gives indication that the words "O horrible" were spoken on the +Elizabethan stage by the Ghost. + +An alteration has also been made in the Ghost's last line, which to some +may appear a trivial matter. The folio attaches the word "Hamlet" to the +"Adieu," and puts a colon between it and the words "Remember me," showing +thereby that a slight pause should be made before these two last words are +spoken, in order to make them more impressive; and the first quarto gives +the same reading. French's acting-version, however, tacks the name on to +the "Remember me." Cumberland's version gives the reading of the second +quarto, which I think the best-- + + "Adieu, adieu, adieu, Remember me." + +The omission in all the stage-versions of Hamlet's lines addressed to the +Ghost, beginning "Ha, ha, boy!" "Hic et ubique?" "Well said, old Mole!" +is, I think, not judicious, because it causes some actors to misconceive +Shakespeare's intention in this scene. One can hardly read the authorized +text without feeling that Hamlet is here shown as a young man, or, +perhaps, a "boy," as his mother calls him, in the first quarto, thrown +into the intensest excitement. His delicate, nervous temperament has +undergone a terrible shock from the interview with the Ghost, yet, owing +to the absence of these lines, our Hamlets on the stage finish this scene +with the most dignified composure. From the first act 217 lines have been +omitted in French's acting-edition. + +In the beginning of the second act the scene between Polonius and Reynaldo +is left out in all the acting-versions. It is a very amusing scene, and in +my opinion gives a better insight into the character of Polonius than any +of the others. If it were inserted I believe it would become popular with +the audience, and we find it retained in the first quarto. The second +scene is called "_A Room in the Castle_" both in the Globe and acting +editions. Might it not be an exterior scene? It is true that Polonius +remarks "Here in the lobby," but the line next to this in the first quarto +suggests that he is pointing to some place off the scene, for he adds +"There let Ophelia walk," and Ophelia is on the stage. An exterior scene +would, in my opinion, give more meaning to the words "Will you walk out of +the air, my lord?" and to Hamlet's speech, "This most excellent canopy +the air," etc. The scene of a palace garden or cloister could be well +introduced in a play so full of interiors. It would add to the interest of +the scene if Hamlet took advantage of the early entrance in the quarto and +in the folio. For Hamlet to catch sight of Polonius hurrying the King and +Queen off the scene would account for his suspicions and explain his +rudeness to Polonius. Lines 374 to 378, Globe edition, are omitted in the +acting-edition, but should surely be inserted, because they are needed to +explain why Hamlet's reception of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern when they +first enter, differs from that of the Players. I have always thought that +the Hamlets of our stage, not being familiar with the context, mistake +Shakespeare's intention. I gather from the omitted lines that Hamlet +should warmly welcome the players, and take them by the hand. + +At line 381, in the Globe edition, Polonius is marked to enter and speak +on the stage the line "Well be with you, gentlemen." In the acting-edition +he is marked to speak this "_without_" (to whom? certainly not to the +players; Polonius would not have addressed them in such terms), and to +enter at a cue lower down the page. The alteration is an instance of what +I consider the wrong principle adopted in making stage-versions. The +actors have preferred thinking Shakespeare wrong to using a little +ingenuity to meet his stage-directions. They have said: "It will never do +to have Polonius stand still saying nothing while Hamlet is making fun of +him to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, so he must speak his line off the +stage." Would it not have shown more consideration for the author's text +to make Polonius enter where directed, and then find something for him to +do after he is on the stage? For instance, he might enter from a side +entrance, as if summoned by the sound of the trumpet, move hastily towards +the back of the stage, where the new-comers would arrive, and greet +Hamlet, Rosencrantz, and Guildenstern, as he passes them, with the words, +"Well be with you, gentlemen." + +The wording in the acting-version of the stage-direction, "_Enter four or +five_ Players _and two_ Actresses," is questionable. Perhaps it is not a +matter of great consequence, unless the period chosen for representation +be the Elizabethan one, and I would suggest that this is the most +appropriate period for the play, because to adopt an early Danish period +is contradictory to the text, and overloads the piece with material +foreign to the author's intentions. Shakespeare's thoughts were not in +Denmark when he wrote this play. + +Hamlet's recitation of Priam's slaughter in the acting-version has been +cut down from thirteen to three lines, and I venture to think unwisely. +Hamlet has chosen these lines because they express in biting words his +contempt for the King, his uncle, and the audience should become aware of +this by the marked emphasis Hamlet lays on each epithet applied to +Pyrrhus. + +I am sorry that Hamlet's line to the Player, "He's for a jig, or a tale of +bawdry, or else he sleeps," has been cut out. Besides being a fine hit at +Polonius, it is an instructive piece of sarcasm. Playgoers in the +twentieth century need as much to be told the truth as those in the +sixteenth. + +In Cumberland's acting version the editor has inserted the +stage-direction--"_pointing to Hamlet_"--before Polonius speaks his line, +"Look whether he hath not changed colour," etc. I believe this is the +right reading, although it is not the one usually adopted on the stage. If +Polonius had been speaking the words to Hamlet with reference to the +player he surely would have inserted the words "my lord." Besides, these +manifestations of grief are more likely to arouse sympathy in Polonius +coming from the "mad" Hamlet than from the actor, whose business it was to +simulate emotion. By the way, the skill of this play-actor seems to have +been underrated on our stage. Actors are always considered at liberty to +rant the part, but from Hamlet's description of his performance he should +be an executant of considerable ability. It is curious that in Oxberry's +acting-edition the first half of Hamlet's closing soliloquy is omitted, +and he begins at the line, "I have heard that guilty creatures," etc.; +showing that even a great actor such as Edmund Kean could take some +unpardonable liberties with his author. Two hundred and thirty-eight lines +have been omitted from the second act of the stage-version. + +The first scene in the third act is called in French's acting-edition, "_A +Room in the Castle as prepared for the Play_," and in Cumberland's, "_A +Hall in the Palace, Theatre in the Background_." But the interview between +Ophelia and Hamlet should take place in the lobby spoken of by Polonius, +the play being acted later in the day. It would add to the interest of the +scene if the actor impersonating Hamlet availed himself of the position +marked in the second quarto for his entrance, and actually saw the King +and Polonius concealing themselves. Was not this Shakespeare's intention? + +I notice, in Hamlet's soliloquy, that the folio has the expression, "the +_poor_ man's contumely." As the Globe edition, and, indeed, all the modern +editions, retain the expression "proud," used in the second quarto, I +suppose that the "poor man's contumely" is not considered a legitimate +expression. It is curious, however, that the first quarto has an +expression somewhat similar in meaning, "The rich man cursed of the poor." +In "Twelfth Night," also, a play written not long before "Hamlet," Olivia +says: "O world, how apt the poor are to be proud!" + +In the scene with Ophelia and Hamlet, both in French's and Cumberland's +acting-version, Hamlet is marked to exit after the word "Farewell," and to +re-enter again directly afterwards, thus conveying the impression that he +returns in order to give more force to his reproaches. These +stage-directions are not to be found in either of the quartos or yet in +the folio, and I can find no foundation for them in the text. They seem to +me to be an unnecessary interruption in a solemn scene, and to interfere +with its impressiveness. Hamlet is dismissing Ophelia to a nunnery, and +the word "Farewell" is added to impress her with the necessity of her +going. She must leave him, not he her. It is, indeed, a subtle touch of +Shakespeare's that Ophelia here should think Hamlet's intense feeling and +earnestness was madness, for the Prince was "hoist with his own petard," +having previously assumed madness for the purpose of breaking off his +engagement with her, "made in honourable fashion, with almost all the +holy vows of heaven." After the exit of Polonius and the King, the +stage-direction in the acting version is: "_Enter_ Hamlet _and_ First +Player." The Globe edition makes this the beginning of another scene, and +where changes of scene take place in a theatre it would be correct to make +an alteration, for the scene in the text is a banqueting hall and the time +night. The stage-direction of the second quarto gives, "_Enter_ Hamlet +_and three of the_ Players," and that of the folio, "_Enter_ Hamlet _and +two or three of the_ Players." Hamlet, therefore, should not enter, as he +does now, with only one player. + +I should like to make a remark in passing on Hamlet's expression, +"trippingly on the tongue." If Burbage's company spoke Shakespeare's lines +in this way, I believe the longer plays could be acted in three hours. The +late Mr. Brandram's recitals showed how much more effective Shakespeare's +lines can be made when spoken "trippingly on the tongue," and that the +enjoyment of the public depends more upon the appropriate rendering of the +text than upon the scenic accessories. + +The stage-direction in the folio for the entrance of the court to see the +play reads: "_Enter_ King, _etc., with his guard carrying torches_." It is +a pity, I think, that these directions are not inserted in our acting +versions. It would make a pretty picture for the stage to be darkened, and +to have the mimic play acted by torchlight. + +The "_dumb-show_" is omitted in all the stage-versions, and is not +represented on the stage, but I think the play-scene is imperfectly +realized by leaving it out. The Queen's reply to Hamlet's question, +"Madame, how like you the play?" and the King's inquiry, "Have you heard +the argument? Is there no offence in it?" would have a deeper significance +with it represented; for evidently the poisoning in the "_dumb show_" has +made no impression on the Queen, but a very marked one on the King, and +Hamlet's reply, "poison in jest," assumes quite a different meaning. +Besides, Hamlet's words, "The croaking raven doth bellow for revenge," +shows that he already has become convinced of the King's guilt before the +appearance of Lucianus--and how, except by means of the "_dumb show_"? I +believe, too, that if it were represented, then the mistake many actors +fall into of making a climax at the lines, "He poisons him in the garden," +etc., and speaking them to the King, and not to his courtiers, would be +corrected. There seems no justification for Hamlet making a climax of +these lines. It is anticipating the King's exit, which is the last thing +Hamlet would wish for. He tells the court that it shall see "_anon_" how +the murderer will marry the wife of Gonzago, and the King defeats his +nephew's purpose by stopping the play. Hamlet's most dramatic line in this +scene, one at which a point might be legitimately made, is cut out in the +acting-version. Ophelia says, "The King rises." Then Hamlet exclaims, +"What! frighted with _false_ fire!" Also the Queen's remark to her +husband, "How fares my lord?" has been omitted. The words have some value +as evidence of the Queen's ignorance of the King's crime. If she knew of +it the question was unnecessary. + +"_Exit Horatio_" is the stage-direction in the acting-edition, after +Hamlet's words, "Come, some music;" but there is no similar +stage-direction in either the second quarto or folio. Later on, in the +acting-edition, comes the direction: "_Enter_ Horatio _with_ Recorders." +In the second quarto it is, "_Enter the Players with recorders_," and in +the folio, "_Enter one with a recorder_." It seems just possible that +Hamlet's lines-- + + "Ah! ha! come, some music; come, the recorders. + For if the King like not the tragedy, + Why, then, belike he likes it not, perdy"-- + +may not be said to Horatio at all, but to one of the players who may be +hanging about the stage waiting for instructions after the sudden +interruption of the performance. He would then retire, and send some of +his fellows with recorders. In French's acting-edition the words, "To +withdraw with you," are altered to "So withdraw with you," after which +comes the rather curious stage-direction, "_Exeunt_ Horatio _and_ +Recorders." There are no such directions in the quartos or folio. A +recorder is not a person, but a musical instrument. From indications in +the first quarto, Horatio should remain on the stage until the end of the +scene, for Hamlet says, "Good-night, Horatio," to which Horatio replies, +"Good-night unto your lordship." + +The third scene in the Globe edition is the second scene in the +acting-version. French's edition contains the King's long soliloquy, and +omits Hamlet's entrance. Cumberland's edition omits both. I think that to +omit Hamlet's entrance in this scene is to interfere with Shakespeare's +dramatic construction. Its omission breaks an important link between the +closet scene and the play scene, and prevents the audience fully realizing +the consequences of Hamlet's clemency. Shakespeare shows us Hamlet +wishing to take the King's life at three different periods during the +play, but the King's craft and Hamlet's conscience stand in the way; for +the Ghost's word must first be challenged; then the mother's wishes must +be respected; while the King's prayers must not be interrupted; and when +the next opportunity occurs the wrong man is killed. This is the sequence +of the story, and it should not be broken; even the compiler of the first +quarto knew this, for all three incidents are made prominent in his text. +But our stage Hamlets try to tone down the inconsistencies and +imperfections of the character; they exploit his sentiments, but do not +show his inclinations. Hamlet wants to kill the King, notwithstanding that +his sensitive nature instinctively rebels against the deed. A student, a +controversialist, and a moralist, what has he to do with revenge or +murder? But Hamlet, regardless of his own temperament, thinks only of his +duty to his father. + +Passing now to the third scene, which is the fourth in the Globe edition, +I find that after the exit of the Ghost no less than 52 lines have been +cut out, and their omission has caused actors to introduce stage-business +which is contradictory to the text. Many Hamlets show an emotional +tenderness towards the Queen which would be quite out of place if all the +text were spoken. Look at the fierce satire expressed in lines 190 +onwards! Hamlet in his self-constituted office "as scourge and minister" +cannot caress his mother or hold her in his arms as is now done by actors. +However much she may solicit his sympathy, his reply is: "I must be cruel +only to be kind." I should like to see inserted in the acting-edition the +fine lines of Hamlet to the Queen-- + + "Forgive me this my virtue, + For in the fatness of these pursy times + Virtue itself of vice must pardon beg, + Yea, curb and woo, for leave to do him good." + +From the third act 216 lines have been omitted. + +The fourth act on the stage sometimes begins with the fifth scene, Globe +edition, but very often the first and the third scenes are acted. These +scenes seem to belong to the third act. They take place the same night, +and are a continuation of the closet scene, for in the first quarto and +folio the Queen is not marked to go off, but the King to enter after +Hamlet's exit. Between the fourth and fifth scenes a pause can well take +place to allow of Laertes' return from France. This addition to the third +act would make it very long, unless the Hamlet and Ophelia scene were made +part of the second act, bringing down the curtain on the words, "Madness +in great ones must not unwatched go." Two objections to this suggestion, +however, can be urged owing to the lapse of a day between the second and +third acts, and the bringing together of Hamlet's two long soliloquies. +But an interval is only needed to show that time has been allowed to +prepare the play, and, therefore, can come as well after the scene with +Ophelia as before; and a good actor would surmount the difficulty of the +two soliloquies by varying the delivery of each. This revision of +act-intervals would make the construction of the play resemble more that +of the first quarto, which, for acting purposes, is certainly the better +version of the two. Moreover, in the folio there appear no divisions +beyond the second act, nor any indications in the text to show where +Shakespeare may have wished another pause to come in the representation. + +In the first scene of the fourth act, Globe edition, the Queen, speaking +of Hamlet, says: + + "To draw apart the body he hath killed, + O'er whom his very madness, like some ore + Among a mineral of metals base, + Shows itself pure; he weeps for what is done." + +These lines are omitted in the acting-versions. Perhaps, if they were +inserted, many actors might consider it necessary to show more concern for +the death of Polonius than has hitherto been the stage practice. + +The fifth scene, Globe edition, is the second scene in French's, and the +fourth in Cumberland's. I think it would add to the dignity of Horatio's +character if, as directed in the second quarto, the Queen and Horatio +entered with "a gentleman," who brings news of Ophelia's mental +derangement. Horatio is not a servant, nor even a gentleman-in-waiting; +but a visitor from Wittenberg. The Queen, having lost her son, would +naturally seek the society of his bosom friend. The stage-direction in the +first quarto for Ophelia's entrance should be noticed; I should like to +see it inserted in the acting-edition: "_Enter_ Ophelia _playing on a +lute, with her hair hanging down, singing_." This, no doubt, is how she +appeared on Burbage's stage. I can imagine Ophelia entering as if she were +wandering about the corridors of the palace singing and muttering to +herself unconscious of what she was saying, where she was going, or to +whom she was speaking; the imbecility of a pretty young girl who had +been, at one time, fond of her songs as of her sewing. In the +acting-edition the stage-direction for the second entrance describes her +as being "_fantastically dressed with straws and flowers_," but there is +no similar direction in the quartos or folio. Ophelia has very little time +allowed her to go anywhere, and certainly not beyond the palace precincts, +where she might not find straws or daisies. Shakespeare may have intended +the flowers to be imaginary ones to which she refers that the audience may +anticipate her ramble beyond the palace to make garlands in the meadows. +Songs were rarely sung on the stage unaccompanied, and it must be +remembered that Ophelia was a court lady, more accustomed to handle the +lute than to pick wildflowers. The third scene of the fourth act, being +the fifth scene in the Globe edition, I have never seen acted on the +stage. The omission is, perhaps, not important, except that the spectators +are left ignorant as to the cause of Hamlet's return. From the fourth act +303 lines have been omitted in the acting-version. + +Coming now to the fifth act, the stage-direction for Ophelia's burial, +both in the Globe and acting-editions, is as follows: "_Enter_ Priests, +_etc., in Procession, the corpse of_ Ophelia, Laertes, _and_ Mourners +_following_, King, Queen, _their Trains, etc._" This direction is hardly +consistent with Hamlet's description, "Such maimed rites." I should prefer +the direction in the first quarto: "_Enter_ King _and_ Queen, Laertes _and +other_ Lords, _with a_ Priest _after the coffin_." The absence of +religious ceremony should attract the attention of the audience as much +as it does Hamlet's. I should like to see only _one_ Priest present, and +the coffin borne by soldiers or villagers, not by monks or nuns. It is +often the stage practice for the Priest to stand over the grave with a +book in his hand and intone his lines (replies to Laertes' questions) as +if they were part of the burial service. A rather erroneous conception of +Shakespeare's churlish Priest, who objects to the funeral taking place on +sacred ground, and refuses even to approach the grave. + +In the first quarto, at the words "What's he that conjures so," is written +the stage-direction, "Hamlet _leaps in after_ Laertes," and I find that +Oxberry's edition has the same direction, only inserted a little lower +down. I presume, therefore, that the elder Kean did actually leap into the +grave. Our modern Hamlets would object to this business as undignified, +and perhaps it is; but, at the same time, Hamlet's public apology to +Laertes in the last scene requires some marked movement of his in this +scene. He owns himself that he was in a towering passion. Laertes may +handle Hamlet roughly, but not till Hamlet has interfered with him. + +None of our stage Hamlets appear in the churchyard in any change of +costume. From the familiar way in which the clown talks to Hamlet, and +Hamlet's declaration, "Behold, 'tis I, Hamlet, the Dane," I imagine that +Shakespeare intended Hamlet to be dressed in some disguise in this scene. +When Hamlet, writing to the King, says, "Naked and alone," he may not only +mean unarmed, but stripped of his fine clothes, so that it would not be +inappropriate for him to appear at the grave in some common sailor's +dress. In the second scene in this act Hamlet says, "With my sea-gown +scarf'd about me," a line that also would furnish some excuse for change +of costume. Both in the first quarto and the folio the lines, "This is +mere madness," etc., are spoken by the King. The acting-edition follows +the second quarto, and gives the lines to the Queen. The King had good +reason to impress upon others the belief that Hamlet is mad; and when the +villagers hear the taunt they should shun the lunatic. + +The second scene is divided in the stage-version; and now that it has +become the custom to lower the curtain for each change of scene, I would +suggest that the churchyard-scene be changed at once to the hall where the +duel takes place. The forcing of this duel upon Hamlet by the King would +be better shown by the King and all the court coming down to Hamlet than +Hamlet's going to them. It is the difference between his going to meet +death and death coming to him. + +In this second scene of the acting-edition there is a line of the King's +omitted, which, perhaps, if it were inserted, would cause an alteration in +the stage-business connected with it. The King says: "Give me the cups," +showing that more than one cup is brought to the King, one of them, +probably, containing the poison. In this cup the King places his jewel, to +insure Hamlet's drinking out of it. On the stage it is the common practice +to use only one cup, and to imagine that the pearl contains the poison. + +I have before expressed my regret that the play should end at Hamlet's +death. Shakespeare would have considered the play unfinished, and even the +partisans of stage effect would lose nothing by the introduction of +Fortinbras. The distant sound of the drum, the tramp of soldiers, the +gradual filling of the stage with them, the shouts of the crowd outside, +the chieftain's entrance fresh from his victories, and the tender, +melancholy young prince, dead in the arms of his beloved friend, are +material for a fine picture, a strong dramatic contrast. Life in the midst +of death! Was not this Shakespeare's conception? From the last act 219 +lines have been omitted. + + * * * * * + +The acting-editions of Shakespeare's plays are worth examining by students +in order to ascertain how far they are consistent with the author's +intention. Since the chronological order of the plays has been fixed with +more or less certainty, the study of Shakespeare has become much easier, +and his dramatic and poetical conceptions are more accurately realized +than they ever were before. The time has now come when our acting-editions +could be profitably revised. Eminent actors may prefer, perhaps, arranging +versions from their own study of the text, but there must always exist a +standard version for general use in the profession. I should like to see +existing a playbook of "Hamlet" which has been altered and shortened by a +joint board of actors and scholars. It should have a carefully written +introduction describing minutely the play as it is believed the author +conceived it. There should also be a short sketch of the persons +represented, with hints to the actor where to look in omitted passages for +glimpses of character; besides notes on obscure passages, unfamiliar +expressions, and different readings; and a description of costume and +scenery most appropriate to the play. Such a book might be the beginning +of a new era for the Shakespearian drama on our stage, and, by stimulating +actors to study their parts from an artistic point of view, and less from +a theatrical one, it would enable the public to appreciate Shakespeare in +the only place where he can be properly understood, and that is the +theatre. + + +"KING LEAR."[13] + +When I opened the newspapers to read the criticisms on a recent +performance of "King Lear," and found that the first comments made were in +praise of the costumes, the scenery, and the music, then I knew that once +more Shakespeare and tragedy had failed to assert themselves in the +English Theatre. Charlotte Bronte, the novelist, who was educated in +Brussels, and saw Rachel in one of her greatest impersonations, once +astounded a London dinner-party by saying that the English knew nothing +about tragedy. In her diary she writes: "I have twice seen Macready act, +once in 'Macbeth' and once in 'Othello.' It is the fashion to rave about +his splendid acting; anything more false and artificial, less genuinely +impressive than his whole style, I could scarcely have imagined. The fact +is the stage system is altogether hollow nonsense. They act farces well +enough; the actors comprehend their parts and do justice to them. They +comprehend nothing about tragedy or Shakespeare, and it is a failure. I +said so, and by so saying produced a blank silence, a mute +consternation." Unfortunately, Charlotte Bronte's reproach still remains +true. Perhaps, had she continued to protest, the public would then have +recognized the truth of her remarks. As it was, she never again referred +to the subject. Like most of our literary men and women, then and now, she +preferred to remain discreetly silent upon all matters connected with +Shakespeare and the stage. + +Last night, in a London theatre, Charlotte Bronte's words were forcibly +brought back to my mind. I have once seen a great rendering of the part of +Lear, but it was given by an Italian, Signor Rossi. I have seen the whole +play correctly rendered, with every character a vivid realization of the +poet's conception, but this was at a performance in the Court Theatre at +Munich. For thirty years I have been a constant playgoer, and seen the +best art this country can produce, but never can I say that I have seen +English tragedy on the English stage. The cause is not far to seek. We +have actors in abundance, and some of them creative artists; yet we have +no tragic actors, because we have no school in which to develop them. +Until we can set apart a theatre for the exclusive use of classical drama +and its interpreters, we cannot hope to have tragedy finely acted. A +tragedy in verse is the severest test of the artist's powers, of his +physical flexibility in voice and face, of his training and sensibility. +When, therefore, I heard who was going to essay the greatest tragic role +that has ever been written, the result was a foregone conclusion: exit +Shakespeare and enter the Producer. + +Yes! He is the hero of the moment, as all our newspapers have told us, +only it is unfortunate, in the interests of art, that to the praise there +should have been added no discernment. Macaulay has said that the sure +sign of the general decline of an art is the frequent occurrence, not of +deformity, but of misplaced beauty, and whatever beauty has been put into +the production is undoubtedly misplaced. We can accept accuracy in scenery +and costume when the play itself is historically accurate--that is to say, +when it has been written to show the difference between two periods as +that of British and Norman, or when it defines some distinctive +characteristic of race relating to its morals or manners. But what is +there in "King Lear" that suggests such a remote period as 800 B.C.? We +are told in the programme that Shakespeare purposely removes the story +from Christian times to give the tragedy its proper setting in "a remote +age of barbarism, when man in wanton violence was at war with Nature." The +story, however, belongs to one of the popular fables of European +literature. Like "Cinderella," it was in all probability transplanted into +our country from a foreign source. In its application it is universal, and +marks no special epoch or nationality, nor is there in the story or its +characters anything out of keeping with a Christian age. Have there been +no ungrateful daughters, no adulterers, no bastards, no tyrants, no +jealous lovers since the years B.C.? The motive for crime remains pretty +much the same to-day as it did before the Christian era, and will continue +to remain the same until the economic conditions of human existence are +readjusted. It is contrary to history and experience to suppose that in +Shakespeare's time dramatists deliberately aimed at illustrating not only +the customs but also the morals of a barbaric age. If we do not to-day +tear out the eyes of our enemy, it is because we have discovered some less +clumsy way of revenging our injuries. But because our manners are more +refined, it does not follow that our morals are purer. The story of "King +Lear," as Shakespeare has set it forth, is one that may happen to-day in +any kingdom and any home. This is what the producer has failed to grasp, +and why his scenes and costumes do not illustrate his play. + +Throughout the performance the spectators' eyes are at variance with the +spoken words. Did the early Britons have stocks? Were there such persons +as marshals, heralds, knights, drums, and colours? Did beldames walk the +villages, and were there wakes and fairs in market-towns? Why was fish +eaten on Fridays? Had "Bessy" crossed the bourn? How did the ballads +become known a thousand years before they were written? Needlessly is the +attention distracted by these anachronisms which upset the spectator's +equanimity in a play that is pulsating with ever-living human emotion. +Then, again, costume is an essential adjunct in drama, as an indication of +character. We know at a glance a man's rank, his wealth, and his taste, by +the aid of his clothes, provided always that we are familiar with the +period in which the apparel was worn. But put the men into bath-sheets or +into night-shirts, and we cannot tell the master from the servant. As a +fact the producer has put all his characters into dressing-gowns--showy +ones, doubtless--while the hair of the men is as long as that of the +women. In vain do we seek among these sexless creatures for our familiar +characters, to know who is who. Where is the king, the earl, the peasant, +the knave, the soldier, the civilian? There are slight distinctions in the +costumes worn by these characters, but to the uninitiated they are +meaningless. Infinite variety in character and situation is created by the +author, and none shown by the producer owing to the choice of an archaic +period. How the spectator longs for sight of the fool's cap, bells and +bauble, of the herald's tabard, and the knight's armour; to see a girl as +a girl, and a man as a man, and to know which is the lady and which the +queen! + + * * * * * + +A country squire, whose hobby was horses, once told me that although at +twenty he thought himself a good judge of a thoroughbred, after fifty more +years of experience he hesitated a long while in determining a nag's good +points. It is the same with the student of Shakespeare; the oftener he has +read one of the poet's plays, and the more study he has given to it, the +longer he hesitates to criticize. The art of the dramatist is too thorough +and too subtle to be lightly discussed. To all stage-managers who wish to +mend or improve Shakespeare I say: "Hands off! Produce this play as it is +written or leave it alone. Don't take liberties with it; the man who does +that does not understand his own limitations!" Let us uphold that there is +but one rule to be followed when it becomes necessary to shorten one of +the poet's plays; and that is to omit lines, but never an entire scene. +Shakespeare, of all his contemporaries, unless it be Ford, gave to his +dramas--especially to his later ones--unity of design; so that each scene +has a relation to the whole play. But in the preparation of this +stage-version of "King Lear" it must be admitted that no rule, no method, +no love, nor respect has been shown; and, what is the least pardonable +fault, no knowledge is apparent. Scenes and passages have been torn out of +the play, just as children might tear up bank-notes, regardless of the +value of the parts to the whole. No matter if the story to modern minds is +unintelligible, the characters incoherent, and the ethics of the play +unconvincing, the management presumes that, as everything in "King Lear" +took place among the early Britons, eight hundred years before Christ, +only the costumes and scenery of the producer can be expected to elucidate +the barbarities of the play or its people. + +Stowed away in an odd corner of the drama, Shakespeare generally +introduces some words to indicate his point of view, and, in regard to +"King Lear," his view is thus expressed: + + "EDMUND: This is the excellent foppery of the world, that, when we + are sick in fortune [often the surfeit of our own behaviour], we make + guilty of our disasters the sun, the moon, and stars; as if we were + villains by necessity; fools by heavenly compulsion ... and all that + we are evil in, by divine thrusting on" (Act I., Scene 2). + +And Shakespeare repeats the warning in "Coriolanus": + + "The gods be good unto us!... No, in such a case the gods will not be + good unto us," etc. (Act V., Scene 4). + +Now, unfortunately, Edmund's speech is omitted from the stage-version, so +that the playgoer who does not know his Shakespeare misses the irony of +the terrible tragedy he is called upon to witness. The poet wishes us to +understand that if a community leaves to the care of the gods man's +responsibility to his fellow-men, instead of taking that responsibility +upon itself, then life will go on to-day--and does go on--just as it did +in the age of Elizabeth. All through the play Shakespeare denies +omnipotence to man's self-made gods. Edmund has good looks, intelligence, +and good intentions (Act I., Scene 2). The community, however, in which he +lives decides that because he is an illegitimate child these gifts shall +not be profitably employed for the good of the State or for the benefit of +the individual who possesses them. Edmund therefore becomes embittered, +and revenges himself upon that community. Goneril, Regan, and Cornwall, +being vicious in mind and self-seeking, make use of Edmund's abilities to +serve their own ends, by which means the catastrophe in the death of +Cordelia and Lear is brought about, together with the deaths of the +plotters. But Kent, Albany, Gloucester, and Edgar believe that all their +misfortunes are brought about by the gods. Well, perhaps they are, if we +admit that by the gods is meant society's instinct for self-preservation, +which compels it to rebel against bad laws and bad conventions. +Unfortunately, however, history shows that a community can live too much +in awe of its self-imposed gods, who overrule natural instinct, and +encourage ignorance and folly, when a nation soon perishes, and is wiped +out of existence. + +It has been said that the putting out of Gloucester's eyes is an artistic +mistake on Shakespeare's part. I hold that it is a necessary incident in +the play, and that the dramatist has shown the reason for it. Cordelia +has set foot in the country with her French soldiers, determined to regain +the kingdom for her father, and Gloucester, whom Cornwall regards as +belonging to his own faction, is conniving with Cordelia. Now had +Gloucester been a common soldier, Cornwall could have put him to death as +a traitor (Act III., Scene 7); but the offender being an earl, Cornwall +dare not do this, so he puts out the old man's eyes to prevent him reading +Cordelia's despatches. He is blinded, moreover, in sight of the audience, +that Cornwall may be seen receiving his death-wound. And even the fact +that Regan and Goneril were capable of acting so inhumanly towards +Gloucester makes Lear's plight more desperate, and therefore more +pathetic. Yet Shakespeare never makes his characters suffer without giving +them compensations, and the meeting and reconciliation between the blind +Gloucester and his son is one of the most touching incidents in the play. +That this reconciliation was omitted in representation suggests that the +ugly incident of putting out Gloucester's eyes was retained merely as a +piece of sensationalism, and, if so, it merits severe condemnation. + +Shakespeare has often been blamed for being intolerant to democracy, and +this is in part a well-founded reproach, but it was a fault of the age and +not of the man. Still, in "King Lear" the dramatist abundantly proves his +sympathy with the hard lot of the poor. For this reason the play preaches +no pessimism. Lear, Gloucester, and Edgar are the happier for the troubles +they experience. Such hardships as they endure are brought upon +themselves by their own shortcomings; but these hardships are mitigated +by the gain to their moral natures of a fellow-sympathy for the sufferings +of those who have done no wrong, and by an appreciation of the injustice +done towards those whose miseries are created through the selfishness of +the rich. Lear, who has ruled a country as a despot for half a century, +discovers for the first time in his life that-- + + "Through tattered clothes small vices do appear; Robes and furred gowns + hide all." + +Having exposed himself to feel what wretches feel, he knows, as he has +never known before, how the heart of a desolate father can crave for the +love of a gentle daughter. To prison he can cheerfully go with her, + + "To pray and sing and tell old tales, and laugh at gilded butterflies," + +because now he is no longer himself in the wrong, but the one who is +wronged. And the blind Gloucester, also, is happy in his misery, because +for the first time he can say: + + "Let the superfluous and lust-dieted man;-- + that will not see + Because he does not feel, feel your power quickly; + So distribution should undo excess, + And each man have enough." + +This is Shakespeare's message to the aristocracy to-day, and yet all this +is cut out by the actor-manager who seems to imagine that these sentiments +are barbaric, and only represent the opinions of men who lived some three +thousand years ago. + +The omissions in this stage-version are in a great measure due to +carelessness in the study of the play. The right point of view from which +to present this colossal tragedy on the stage has been missed, and the +stage-manager having allowed his actors to take up half the evening in +drawling out the words of the first two acts, the blue pencil has been +used for the remaining three with a freedom and ignorance which never +should have been sanctioned. + + * * * * * + +"_Matinees_ every Wednesday and Saturday." These words appear on all +printed bills announcing the performance of "King Lear." They go far to +explain why the play fails to represent tragedy either in its emotion or +terror, and why it sends playgoers back to their homes as cold and +indifferent to human suffering as it left them. What is offered to the +public is a kinematograph show; walking figures who gesticulate and utter +human sounds; puppets who mechanically move through their parts conscious +that the business must be done all over again within a few hours. Does an +actor honestly think that he can impersonate Lear's hysterical passion, +madness, and death, twice in a day, and day by day, and that he can do +this efficiently together with all his other duties of management? That he +may wish to do so is intelligible, but that the public should sanction it +and the critics tolerate it is strange indeed. That the exigencies of +modern theatrical management impose these conditions is beside the +question. A less exacting play might have been chosen instead of +distorting one of Shakespeare's masterpieces. Salvini, whose reputation as +a tragedian is universally acknowledged, refused to act Othello more than +three times in a week, and never on two consecutive days; and those who +saw his moving performance must admit that it was a physical impossibility +for him to do otherwise. A man does not suffer the tortures of jealousy +without physical and mental prostration; and the actor endures a very +heavy strain when he seeks to simulate an emotion which has not been +aroused in a natural way. + +The actor, however, not only fails to reproduce the emotions of Lear, he +never even shows us the outside of the man. We look in vain about the +stage to find the King; instead we see a decrepit, commonplace old man, +though Lear is neither the one nor the other. He should resemble an +English hunting "squarson," a man overflowing with vitality, who is as +hale and active at eighty as he was at forty; a large-hearted, +good-natured giant, with a face as red as a lobster. He is one of the +spoilt children of nature, spoilt by reason of his favoured position in +life. Responsible to no one, he thinks himself omnipotent. No one but Lear +must be "fiery," no one but him unreasonable or contrary. In the crushing +of this strong, unyielding, but lovable personality lies the drama of the +play: this is what an Elizabethan audience went to the Globe Playhouse to +see. But how can the story be told when a Lear comes on the stage, who at +his _first_ appearance is broken-down and half-witted? Where is the +purpose or the art in showing us such a helpless creature being +ill-treated by his own kindred? Yet Lear boasts of his physical strength; +and how skilfully the dramatist has planned the entrance, so as to +accentuate the virility of the man! The play opens with prose, and the +first line of verse is spoken by the King, so that the change of rhythm +may the better call attention to his entrance. Those who saw Signor Rossi, +in the part, dart on to the stage, and with a voice of commanding +authority utter the words-- + + "_Attend_ the lords of France and Burgundy, Gloster"-- + +recognized the Lear of Shakespeare. This single line, as by a flash of +lightning, revealed the impetuosity and imperious disposition of the King, +and prepared us for the volcanic disturbance that followed the thwarting +of his will. Another thing, overlooked by all our English actors, is the +necessity for Lear to come on the stage with Cordelia. On her first +appearance she should be seen with her father in affectionate +companionship, so as to balance with the last scene, where she is carried +on in his devoted arms. Lear's division of his kingdom among his three +daughters is not so eccentric a proceeding as the critics would make out. +The King needs an excuse for giving the largest portion to his youngest +child, and he thinks the most plausible reason is a public acknowledgment +of the bond of affection between them. But Cordelia's sense of modesty and +self-respect have not been taken into account, and Lear, who never +tolerates a rebuff, in a moment of temper upsets all his pre-arranged +plans, with disastrous consequence to himself and others. All this +animated drama is omitted in the present performance, because Lear, on his +first entrance, fails to give the keynote to the character or to the +tragedy. Lear, in fact, is never seen on the stage, but only a Piccadilly +actor who assumes the part, divested of frock coat and top hat. + +The title-role, unfortunately, is not the only part which has been +wrongly cast. With the exception of Goneril and Regan, every character has +been falsified and distorted. This is not due to want of ability in the +actors, but to their physical limitations and to deficiency in training. +Their reputations have been won in modern plays, and they seem quite +unable to give expression to character when the medium of speech is verse. +To those who think more about the actor than about the character he +represents this is perhaps not a matter of much moment, but it is one of +considerable importance to the play, since with all great dramatists the +incidents are evolved by the characters; and if the men and women we see +on the stage are not those that Shakespeare drew, his incidents are apt to +appear ill-timed and ridiculous. After the title-role the most serious +misconception of character is in the part of Edmund, the man whose wits +control the movement of the drama. He is an offspring of the Italian +Renaissance, a portrait of Machiavel's Prince, whose merit consists in his +mental and physical fitness. He should be the handsomest man in the play, +the most alert, the most able; he is a victim neither to sentimentality +nor to self-deception, and he is fully capable of turning the weakness of +others to his own advantage. It is impossible to hate the well-bred young +schemer, because he is too clever, and his dupes are too silly. +Unfortunately, the actor who is cast for this important part is quite +unsuited for it. Another brilliant part which has suffered badly at the +hands of its interpreter is Edgar, a character in which the Elizabethans +delighted, because of its variety and the scope it allows for effective +character-impersonation. The actor has to assume four parts--Edgar, an +imbecile beggar, a peasant, and a knight-errant, and each of these +characters should be a distinct creation; but the actor gave us nothing +but a modern young man making himself unintelligibly ridiculous. Even more +disastrous was the casting of the part of the fool, that gentle, frail lad +who perishes from exposure to the storm, a child with the wisdom of a +child, which is often the profoundest wisdom. Then a lady with a majestic +figure cannot represent the little Cordelia, and she should not have been +given the part. Of course the obvious retort to this kind of criticism is +that the play must be cast from a company selected for repertory work, +most of which, perhaps, will be modern. London managers, also, impose +actors on the public because they have a London reputation, and this +creates a monopoly which becomes a tyranny upon art. Whether the artist is +suited or not for the part, he must be put into it, for box-office +considerations. + +To sum up. For the first time in the history of our stage the theatre is +put under the management of a literary director, presumably with a view to +bringing scholarly intelligence to bear upon the exponents of drama; but +the result to the public, in so far as "King Lear" is concerned, is that +it gets quite the most chaotic interpretation of the poet's work that it +has ever been my misfortune to see represented on the stage. What is the +reason? Has the director, like the fly, walked into the spider's parlour, +or, in other words, into the network of theatrical commercialism, to find +his artistic soul silenced and himself bound? Time perhaps will show us! + + + + +IV + +THE NATIONAL THEATRE + + THE REPERTORY THEATRE. + THE ELIZABETHAN STAGE SOCIETY. + SHAKESPEARE AT EARL'S COURT. + THE STUDENTS' THEATRE. + THE MEMORIAL SCHEME. + + + + +IV + +A NATIONAL THEATRE + + +THE REPERTORY THEATRE.[14] + +The anxiety of dramatic critics to explain "the scant success" of Mr. +Frohman's Repertory Theatre has created a large amount of paper argument, +of more or less doubtful value, and now Mr. William Archer has added his +view to that of others, and concludes his remarks with some practical +advice to those who, in his opinion, are entitled to be regarded as "some +of our ablest dramatists." The nature of this advice, however, is not only +curious, but startling, when we recall the reception that was given to +Ibsen's plays on their first appearance in this country, and remember that +Mr. Archer was their warmest defender. Regardless of this defence, he now +contends that "it is a grave misfortune for any writer, but it is a +disaster for the dramatist, to get into the habit of despising popular +taste and thinking that he has only himself to please in his +writings."[15] But those who take their dramatic art seriously, and who +wish their plays to have more than an ephemeral existence, cannot possibly +accept this advice. They will recognize that the highest aim of a +dramatist is to create a work valuable for all time, and that the most +intimate knowledge of the moods and vagaries of playgoers cannot outweigh +the smallest fault in the art of dramatic construction or character +drawing. The conscientious artist repudiates the interference of public +opinion with the expression of his art; he does not try to follow popular +taste, but seeks to control and direct it. "The public," says George Sand, +"is no artist; I will not tell you that we must please it, but we must win +it. It winces, but gets over it." This is the advice Mr. Archer should +have tendered to English playwrights, and let us hope it is the advice he +meant to tender them. Nature has nowhere resigned her prerogative to the +demands of popular taste, nor should the artist abandon his privileges. +There is no record of a poet or musician having created a masterpiece +through pandering to the "groundlings." Mozart, on completing an opera, +would say: "I shall gain but little by this, but I have pleased myself, +and that must be my recompense." It was Schiller who wrote: "My submission +to the public convenience does not extend so far that I can allow any +holes in my work and mutilate the characters of men." And Goethe +exclaimed: "Nothing is more abhorrent to a reasonable man than an appeal +to the majority." Lessing has said: "I have no objection to criticism +condemning an artist, but it must not contaminate him. He must continue +his work knowing that he is happier than his detractors." And Lessing +points the moral in adding: "Genius is condemned to utter only absurdities +when it is unfaithful to its mission." Bernard Shaw and Granville Barker, +two of the able dramatists to whom Mr. Archer tenders his advice, have won +"the ear of their contemporaries" equally with the more popular writers, +Barrie and Maugham, and this they have done by the production of one or +two plays which did not reach their hundredth performance. Euripides was +none the less famous, as a dramatist, because the Athenian playgoers +disliked his opinions and banished him from their midst. In fact, a +dramatist is only great when he is able to dispense with the requirements +of popular taste; nor will he be satisfied with the knowledge that his +play leaves some definite impression upon an audience unless it be that +particular impression which belongs to tragedy, or comedy, or history, or +pastoral drama, or conversational comedy. + +Let it be, then, frankly admitted that a dramatist cannot both live in +advance of the opinions of his audience and also reflect them. It is very +well for Mr. Archer to talk about the vessel which does not float, but his +illustration is surely less obvious than he imagines. A Noah's Ark will +float on the ocean to-day as easily as it did in the days of the Flood, +but no modern shipbuilder now would risk his reputation in constructing +such a boat on the plea that it remains above water. Will the vessel +weather the storms? Will it outlive its competitors? These are the vital +questions in the art of both shipbuilding and playwriting. + +Mr. Archer seems to forget that there is a prejudice among audiences as +well as among individuals, and that every period of life has its own +peculiar notions. Sometimes playgoers will receive an author's brightest +comedy with coldness. The burden of Charles Lamb's reflections was--that +the audience of his day came to the theatre to be complimented on its +goodness. "The Stranger," "The Castle Spectre," and "George Barnwell," are +specimens of the dramatic bill of fare which then found favour. On the +other hand, the comic dramatists tried to disparage purity in men and +women, and the sparkle of their comedies is unwholesome. In the opinion of +many sober minds the dramatic literature of the Restoration is a blot upon +our national history, while the gloomy productions that delighted the +sentimental contemporaries of Charles Lamb are offences against dramatic +art. At neither period was the drama national, in so far as it was +representative of the tastes of all classes. Congreve and Wycherly wrote +for the fashionable, while the admirers of Lillo's and Lewis's moral +dramas were chiefly respectable shopkeepers. It was in Shakespeare's day +that the nobility and groundlings together resorted to the playhouse, +constituting themselves at once the patrons and pupils of the drama. The +Elizabethan playgoer had no desire to bias the judgment of the dramatist. +It left him free to represent life vividly and truly. It even encouraged +him to be studious of the playgoer's profit as well as of his pleasure. +But the playgoers of the Restoration, and of the period that immediately +succeeded it, were intolerant of all views but their own. They regarded +with disfavour plays which did not uphold their notions of amusement and +morality. They called upon the dramatist to accept the opinion of his +public, in these matters, as being superior to his own. As a consequence, +the drama suffered in the attempt made to reconcile principles that are +in themselves inconsistent, and the judgment of the audience was in no +sense a criterion of merit in a play. This explains why some good plays +have been coldly received on their first appearance. "She Stoops to +Conquer" would have failed but for the presence in the theatre of Dr. +Johnson and his friends; Sheridan's "Rivals," an even more brilliant +comedy, did not secure a fair hearing on its first performance. Of +Diderot's comedy, the "Pere de Famille," its author gives us the following +information: + + "And why did this piece, which nowadays fills the house before + half-past four, and which the players always put up when they want a + thousand crowns, have so lukewarm a welcome at first?" + + "... If I did not succeed at first it was because the style was new + to the audience and actors; because there was a strong prejudice, + still existing, against what people call tearful comedy; because I + had a crowd of enemies at court, in town, among magistrates, among + Churchmen, among men of letters." + + "And how did you incur so much enmity?" + + "Upon my word, I don't know, for I have not written satires on great + or small, and I have crossed no man on the path of fortune and + dignities. It is true that I was one of the people called + Philosophers, who were then viewed as dangerous citizens, and on whom + the Government let loose two or three subalterns without virtue, + without insight, and, what is worse, without talent.... + + "To say nothing of the fact that these philosophers had made things + more difficult for poets and men of letters in general, and that it + was no longer possible to make oneself distinguished by knowing how + to turn out a madrigal or a nasty couplet."[16] + +This argument applies as forcibly to what goes on in the theatre in London +to-day as it did in Paris nearly two hundred years ago. Perhaps, however, +enough has been said to discount the suggestion that popular opinion is +in any way responsible for the making of a good play. + +M. Claretie once expressed a doubt if Englishmen quite understood the +limitations of the French National Theatre; because when the Comedie +Francaise visited London in 1893, the Press (including Mr. Archer) +ridiculed the intention of the director to give a more classical programme +than English taste demanded, presumably forgetting that the selection of +plays should be judged by an academic standard. The Comedie Francaise +visited the Metropolis with a repertory apparently designed to illustrate +the whole range of French dramatic literature, and yet, at the bidding of +an exacting and ignorant public, it was called upon, without a protest +from the critics, to withdraw the masterpieces of Moliere and Racine in +favour of the modern drama; nor was it to the dignity of the Theatre +Francaise that its members consented to humour the caprices of playgoers, +and condescended to bid for popularity when popularity meant bad taste and +a craving for "stars." But the director, having entered into an +arrangement with commercial gentlemen for commercial purposes, +unexpectedly found himself compelled to forfeit his academic position, and +to place his theatre on a level with a commercial playhouse. Fortunately +the surrender did not serve its purpose. General dissatisfaction was +expressed with the visit of the Comedie Francaise. The speculator lost his +money, the playgoer did not see his "star," and the student heard no +masterpieces. + +Now, presumably, there is this difference between a National Theatre and a +Repertory Theatre, that the object of the former is to keep before the +public the best plays of the country, and those of other countries, and +to give occasional performances of new plays of rare excellence and +dignity. The Repertory Theatre, on the other hand, as we understand it in +England, has for its task the exploiting of the new school of dramatists; +of those men who have advanced ideas about their art and of the purpose it +should serve. It is essentially, therefore, a theatre of experiment. If +this is the case, and a manager such as Mr. Frohman cares to finance the +undertaking, he can hardly be credited with considering the scheme in the +light of a business speculation, nor would those dramatists who were +invited to provide plays for this Repertory Theatre be expected to supply +Mr. Frohman with the same class of work that they would submit to the +ordinary theatrical manager. Here, evidently, is the opportunity, and the +only opportunity a dramatist can get in this country, of providing a bill +of fare capable of nourishing the weak intellects and the weaker +susceptibilities of an audience. Looked at from this standpoint, it may be +contended that no new play was produced under the Frohman Repertory +management which did not advance the cause of dramatic art by adding to +the knowledge of its author, to the experience of its actors, and to the +education of the audience. "Misalliance" was a brilliant satire on modern +society, one of the ripest conversational plays that Mr. Shaw's genius has +yet produced; one in which the dramatist's observation probes deeper, and +his wisdom and philosophy, as revealed in the play of character, are as +subtle and less personal than anything Mr. Shaw, perhaps, has achieved +hitherto in domestic drama. Why, then, are we now told that this play +failed to attract, and with whom does the fault rest--is it with the +author or his public? There was no insufficiency of "go," of wit, of +raillery, of originality, or novelty; but there was, none the less, one +thing wanting that to a modern audience is an unpardonable omission, and +that is flattery. Society, as it lives to-day, under the maternal wing of +the old lady in Stable Yard, expects to be humoured at the theatre, and to +be complimented, not on its goodness, but on its vices. "Paint us as black +as the devil," it says to the dramatist, "but don't dare to admit that we +are a penny the worse because we are black!" And this menace is equivalent +to demanding that an author shall take men and women at their own +valuation, and ignore the hidden motives and forces which control human +conduct. A very few strokes of the pen, a little falsification in +character-drawing, and "Misalliance" could have been made an acceptable +play; but there was a writer holding the pen who was inexorable. Mr. Shaw +drew life as he saw it, and left the public to approve or not as it liked. +But if London rejected "Misalliance," this did not kill the play; it is no +more dead than Mozart's "Le Nozze di Figaro" is dead because on its first +appearance Vienna sneered at the work of one whose talent outshone that of +its own musicians. The Viennese winced and got over their dislike; in the +same way Londoners will come to think well of "Misalliance." It is true +that we are indebted to its author for at least one popular success, which +future historians of the stage will declare was an epoch-making play, +being the first of its kind to arrest the attention of the +man-in-the-street, and bring him into the theatre to listen to nothing +more exciting than a "talk." But the success of "John Bull's Other +Island," so far as the public was concerned, had less to do with the +merits of the play than the demerits of the audience. The City man woke up +one morning to find himself famous, as he thought, and hugely enjoyed his +notoriety. What did it matter if a company promoter was silly and cunning +so long as he was always amusing and successful! This, as they thought, +was the profound wisdom that Mr. Shaw meant to preach to the world! What a +strange instance of egotistical vanity! And when the same play was +performed in Dublin, the enjoyment of the audience was no less marked, but +with this difference--that the laughter was all against Broadbent and not +with him. Whether the Englishman was successful or not, he was a +"fathead," because no Irishman was silly enough to put his pocket before +his politics or to prefer his neighbour's omniscience to his own. Yet this +play is not the less virile and wholesome because company-promoters think +themselves flattered by it. It is not Mr. Shaw pandering to his audience, +but vanity looking at itself in the looking-glass. + +Of that other "failure," "The Madras House," Mr. Archer admits that he +found a good deal in the play to interest him, and it is difficult to +believe that the author of "The Voysey Inheritance" had not something +fresh and inspiring to tell his audience. There are some subjects which do +not admit of being treated in drama in a way to enlist general favour. No +thinker would argue that "Troilus and Cressida" was written by Shakespeare +with a view to its surpassing the popularity of "Hamlet." It is +sufficient if the author has treated his subject in a way consistent with +the laws of nature and probability. For the critics to assume, as they do, +that the author is not conscious of the dramatic limitations imposed upon +him by the choice of his subject is an impertinence. As Voltaire once said +in defence of a play: "We cannot do all that our friends advise. There are +such things as necessary faults. To cure a humpbacked man of his hump we +should have to take his life. My child is humpbacked, but otherwise it is +quite well." Indeed, Mr. Barker's time will be better employed in +educating his critics than in re-writing his play. Nor must it be +forgotten that Mr. Barker was hardly out of his teens when he wrote "The +Marrying of Ann Leete," a comedy that has not yet received the attention +it deserves. Fortunately it has been printed and published, and will +undoubtedly again be seen on the stage; for the play has unusual +possibilities for a stage-manager with constructive imagination and poetic +sensibility, and there is not now wanting in London an audience capable of +appreciating a work of the kind in the spirit in which it is conceived. +This comedy was undoubtedly inspired by the art of Maeterlinck at the time +when the Belgian dramatist was writing such plays as "The Interlude." But +where Maeterlinck fails Mr. Barker succeeds. With the poet the disjointed +dialogue and constant repetition of the monosyllable becomes a mannerism, +and is never convincing. Mr. Barker's method is a nearer approach to +reality. He has chosen his characters with more care to give point to +their abrupt method of speech, and with no little art. In a country house +remote from the world, among people who are well bred if not well read, +who give more time to sport and cards than to books, and who have little +power to express themselves except in unfinished sentences, is unfolded a +domestic tragedy of wonderful power and sadness. And in this lies the +weirdness and fascination of the play--that no word of the story is +related by the characters, and only from fragments of conversation, +apparently trivial and unimportant, does the spectator gradually bit by +bit piece together and arrange for himself the puzzle of these people's +existence. This comedy, then, is an experiment to try and show the inner +life of a family exactly as it might be learnt by a neighbour who was not +personally known to any of its members, and it is a very remarkable +achievement. + +To sum up. Let us be honest with ourselves and to others over this +question of the Repertory Theatre, and drop the business side of the +matter, which is not the vital one. Let us admit that we can easier spare +from the ranks of our dramatists men like Barrie and Maugham than Shaw and +Barker; for while the former seek to amuse us (for which we are grateful), +the latter hold forth a hand to help us out of the ditch. Nor is it better +for us to laugh with Messrs. Barrie and Maugham than to accept the +proffered hand, leap out, and walk forward with the preachers. + + +THE ELIZABETHAN STAGE SOCIETY. + +The Elizabethan Stage Society was founded with the object of reviving the +masterpieces of the Elizabethan drama upon the stage for which they were +written, so as to represent them as nearly as possible under the +conditions existing at the time of their first production--that is to say, +with only those stage appliances and accessories which were usually +employed during the Elizabethan period. "Everything," said Sir Walter +Scott, "beyond correct costume and theatrical decorum" is foreign to the +"legitimate purposes of the drama," and it is on this principle that the +work of the Society is based. + +Although the actual life of the Elizabethan Stage Society began in 1895 it +may be said to have had its origin as far back as 1881, when a performance +of the first quarto of "Hamlet" was given in St. George's Hall, London, in +Elizabethan costume, and without scenery. The play was acted continuously, +and lasted two hours. Here, then, probably for the first time since +Shakespeare's day, was reality given to Shakespeare's words: "The two +hours' traffic of our stage." The success of this performance fully +justified the experiment. It was generally admitted by those present that +the absence of scenery did not lessen the interest, and that with +undivided attention being given to the play and to the acting, a fuller +appreciation and keener enjoyment of Shakespeare's tragedy became +possible. + +This performance was followed by others of a similar nature, and with the +same results, and the advantage of representing the Elizabethan drama +under the conditions it was written to fulfil being thus demonstrated, the +idea was suggested of building a stage after the Elizabethan model, yet it +was not until 1893 that this long cherished scheme was carried into +effect. In the autumn of that year the interior of the Royalty Theatre, +Soho, was converted into as near a resemblance of the old Fortune +Playhouse as was possible in a roofed theatre. The play acted was "Measure +for Measure," and in commenting upon this revival the _Times_ said: "The +experiment proved at least that scenic accessories are by no means as +indispensable to the enjoyment of a play as the manager supposes"; and a +professor of literature at one of our London colleges wrote: "I don't +think I was ever more interested--nay, fascinated--by a play upon the +stage, and now I shall ever think the cutting up into scenes and acts a +useless cruelty and an utter spoiling of the story." A regularly +constituted society was now formed, and among the first to subscribe were +Mr. and Mrs. Edmund Gosse, Sir Walter Besant, Rev. Stopford A. Brooke, +Com. Walter Crane, Professor Israel Gollancz, Professor Hales, Sir Sidney +Lee, W. H. Thornycroft, Esq., R.A., Miss Swanwick, the Hon. Lionel +Tollemache, and Lady Ritchie. At the performance of "Twelfth Night" at the +Middle Temple in 1897 His Majesty King Edward, then Prince of Wales, was +present as a Bencher of the Inn. + +At the annual meeting of the Society in 1899, Sir Sidney Lee, the +Chairman, said: "Speaking as one who has studied the works of Shakespeare +and his contemporaries with some attention, both on and off the stage, I +have never witnessed the simple, unpretentious representation of a great +play by this Society without realizing more of the dramatic spirit and +intention than I found it possible to realize when reading it in the +study." + +Of the Society's more recent revivals, the interest aroused by the old +morality play, "Everyman," both in London and in many towns throughout the +country, and in America, was very marked. The last play given by the +Society under the present direction was "Troilus and Cressida." + +LIST OF THE SOCIETY'S PERFORMANCES. + + 1893. "Measure for Measure" Royalty Theatre, London. + + 1895. "Twelfth Night" Burlington Hall. + + " "Comedy of Errors" Gray's Inn Hall. + + 1896. Marlowe's "Doctor Faustus" St. George's Hall. + + " "Two Gentlemen of Verona" Merchant Taylors' Hall. + + 1897. "Twelfth Night" Middle Temple Hall. + + " Scenes from "Arden of + Feversham" and "Edward + III." St. George's Hall. + + " "Tempest" Egyptian Hall, Mansion House. + + " " Goldsmiths' Hall. + + 1898. Beaumont and Fletcher's + "Coxcomb" Inner Temple Hall. + + " Middleton and Rowley's + "Spanish Gipsy" St. George's Hall. + + " Ford's "Broken Heart" St. George's Hall. + + " Ben Jonson's "Sad Shepherd" Courtyard, Fulham Palace. + + " "Merchant of Venice" St. George's Hall. + + 1899. Ben Jonson's "Alchemyst" Apothecaries' Hall. + + " Swinburne's "Locrine" St. George's Hall. + + " Calderon's "Life's a Dream" St. George's Hall. + (Edward Fitzgerald's translation) + + " Kalidasa's "Sakuntala" Botanical Gardens. + (Translated from the Sanscrit) + + " "Richard II." Lecture Theatre, University of + London. + + 1900. Moliere's "Don Juan" Lincoln's Inn Hall. + (Acted in English) + + " "Hamlet" (First Quarto) Carpenters' Hall. + + " Milton's "Samson Agonistes" Lecture Theatre, Victoria and Albert + Museum. + + " Schiller's "Wallenstein" Lecture Theatre, University of + (Coleridge's translation) London. + + " Scott's "Marmion" Lecture Theatre, University of + London. + + 1901. Morality Play "Everyman" The Charterhouse, London. + + " "Henry V." Lecture Theatre, University of + London. + + 1902. Ben Jonson's "Alchemyst" Cambridge Summer Meeting. + + 1903. "Twelfth Night" Lecture Theatre, University of + London. + + " Marlowe's "Edward II." Oxford Summer Meeting. + + 1904. "Much Ado about Nothing" London School Board Evening Schools. + + 1905. "The First Franciscans" St. George's Hall. + + " "Romeo and Juliet" Royalty Theatre, London. + + 1906. "The Good Natur'd Man" Cambridge Summer Meeting. + + 1907. "The Temptation of Agnes" Coronet Theatre, London. + + " "The Merchant of Venice" Fulham Theatre. + + 1908. "Measure for Measure" Gaiety Theatre, Manchester. + + " " " Stratford-on-Avon Festival. + + " "The Bacchae of Euripides" Court Theatre, London. + (Gilbert Murray's translation) + + " "Samson Agonistes" Lecture Theatre, Burlington Gardens. + (Milton Tercentenary Celebration) + + " Ditto Owen's College, Manchester. + + 1909. "Macbeth" Fulham Theatre, London. + + 1910. "Two Gentlemen of Verona" His Majesty's Theatre. + + " " " Gaiety Theatre, Manchester. + + 1911. "Jacob and Esau," and Little Theatre, London. + Scenes from "Edward III." + + " Schiller's "Wallenstein" Oxford Summer Meeting. + + " "The Alcestes of Euripides" Imperial Institute. + (Francis Hubback's translation) + + 1912. Kalidasa's "Sakuntala" Cambridge Summer Meeting. + + " "Troilus and Cressida" The King's Hall, Covent Garden. + + 1913. " " Stratford-on-Avon Festival. + + +SHAKESPEARE AT EARL'S COURT.[17] + +The obsolete but picturesque phrase "Ye Olde" has perhaps something +fascinating in it to the modern aesthetic temperament, but it would be just +as well if those responsible for educating public opinion at Earl's Court +about matters relating to the Elizabethan stage did not misapply the +words. To the Elizabethan the Globe was a new building; there was nothing +"olde" about it. What, then, the authorities mean is the Old Globe +Playhouse, a definition that can mislead no one. There are some merits +attached to the design, but also several errors, notably, on the stage, in +the position of the traverse, in that of the staircases, and in the use +made of the side boxes as approaches to the stage. These are details which +are not of interest to the general public, and it is not necessary now to +dwell upon them, though exception might be taken to the movement of the +costumed figures who are supposed to impersonate the "groundlings." + +The programme tells us that the vagaries of the groundlings are drawn from +Dekker's "The Guls Horn-Booke," a satirical pamphlet published in +Shakespeare's time, which can no more be seriously accepted as criticism +than can a description in _Punch_ of a modern theatrical performance. The +evidence of foreigners visiting London in the seventeenth century gives a +very different impression to that which Dekker chose to admit; and we are +told of the staid and decorous attitude of those playgoers frequenting the +Fortune, and of the stately dignity of the representations given at the +Blackfriars. The handling of these incidents in the auditorium at Earl's +Court have the appearance of being planned by one who is only +superficially acquainted with the period and not in sympathy with the +conditions of theatrical representation then in vogue--a circumstance to +be regretted at an exhibition which was ostensibly organized to raise +funds for a memorial to Shakespeare. Apparently it is forgotten that +between 1590 and 1610 the finest dramatic literature which the world +perhaps ever has known was being written in London, a coincidence which is +inconceivable were the staging so crude and unintelligent as that which is +shown us at Earl's Court. Everything there appears to have been done on +the assumption that 300 years ago there was a less amount of brain power +existing among dramatists, actors, and audience than there is found among +them to-day, while the reverse argument is nearer to the truth, for a +Shakespearian performance at the Globe on Bankside was then a far more +stimulating and intellectual achievement than it is on the modern stage +to-day. + +To illustrate this point it is only necessary to witness one of the +"excerpts" presented at Earl's Court, the one called "The Tricking of +Malvolio." Now, we may presume that attention is invited to the talents of +the chief actor by the publicity given to his name, for on one small +printed page it is "starred" five times in capital letters against the +parts he impersonates. We can find no record of a similar keenness for +publicity in any Elizabethan actor. But unfortunately this is the least +remarkable illustration of modesty at Earl's Court, and it is impossible +to suppose that so many mistakes could have been crammed into a single +scene of "Twelfth Night" by anyone who had carefully read the play. Of +Shakespeare's plays it was said, in his own day, that they erred from +being too life-like, and that in consequence they lacked art; that is to +say, there was nothing theatrical about them. The persons he put on the +stage, in their speech, costume, and manner, so exactly resembled those +the audience recognized in the town that it was difficult to believe that +the characters had not been transferred from the street to the stage. Now, +in "Twelfth Night" the central figure in the story, and the one round +which all the other characters revolve, is Olivia, a young lady who is +plunged in the deepest grief by the loss, first of her father, and then of +her only brother, and we are told that because of this grief-- + + "The element itself, till seven years heat, + Shall not behold her face at ample view; + But, like a cloistress, she will veiled walk + And water once a day her chamber round + With eye-offending brine." + +We may presume, therefore, that, as in the custom of Elizabethan times, +Olivia is dressed in the deepest mourning, and wears a black veil to hide +her sorrowing face. Next in social importance, in Olivia's house, comes +her uncle, Sir Toby, who, as a blood relation--for Olivia's father may +have been his brother--also wears black, and, being a knight, should wear +velvet or silk, and a gold order. He is out of humour with his niece for +the way she parades her grief and shuts herself away from all company. To +relieve the monotony of his existence he brings a fellow-knight into the +house, calls back the clown who had run away out of sheer boredom, and +gives himself up to eating, drinking, and singing. Maria, who marries Sir +Toby at the end of the play, is a lady by birth and breeding, attending on +the Countess, and, therefore, as one of the household, is dressed in +black, and so also are the servants, including Fabian and Malvolio. These +latter would all wear black cloth liveries, and Malvolio, in addition, a +braided steward's gown, not unlike that worn by a beadle, with a badge on +his arm showing his mistress's coat of arms, and a plated neck-chain, as a +symbol of his office. It will be seen at once what a shock it would be to +Olivia's sense of propriety, in view of her recent bereavement, for her +steward to turn up unexpectedly in coloured stockings, especially when she +had reason to believe that he had more regard and compassion for her +sorrow than anyone else in the house, because of his staid and solemn +demeanour. It is not unlikely, besides, that Malvolio, in anticipation of +his certain promotion to the ranks of the aristocracy by his marriage with +Olivia, had donned, in addition to yellow stockings, some rich costume, +put on in imitation of those fashionable young noblemen at court who wore +silk scarves crossed above and below the knee, since without the costume +his own cross-gartering would not have been in keeping. And indeed in +anticipation of his social advancement he alluded to this change of +costume in his soliloquy, "sitting in my state ... in my branched _velvet_ +gown." Here, then, was Malvolio appearing before the Countess in a "get +up" that was not so much comic as audacious in its daring imitation of the +only man suitable in rank to marry a rich countess--that is, an earl. + +The environment, then, of the play is this: a house of mourning against +which all its inmates are in rebellion with the exception of the Countess +and Malvolio; the latter, who is a time-server, seizing his opportunity to +ingratiate himself with his mistress by his pious and correct behaviour +and the sternness with which he suppresses mirth within the house. All +this information Shakespeare gives us in the text of the play, and yet how +does the actor avail himself of this knowledge? Malvolio, the Countess's +head flunkey, so to speak, appears not in the costume of a servant, but as +if he were the best dressed person in the house. Had he been a peer of the +realm and the Lord High Treasurer, his apparel, with one exception, could +not have been more correct. Like Prince Hamlet, he is in black velvet, +doublet, and trunks, and wears a magnificent black velvet gown reaching to +his ankles, a gold chain and a gold order! Incongruous and impossible as +this costume is for the character who has to wear it, an element of +burlesque is added to it by the conical hat, a yard high, which never +could have rested on any human head outside of a Drury Lane pantomime! Of +course, when this initial error is made in the costume of the character +impersonated by the leading actor, it is not surprising to find other +mistakes made in regard to the costumes of those who appear on the scene. +Sir Toby is not in black, nor does he wear his order of knighthood, but +appears in a leather jerkin and stuffed breeches, as if he were an +innkeeper! Not only is Maria not in black, but she is not even attired as +one who is by birth a lady, attending on the Countess, since she wears the +dress of a kitchen-maid; nor yet is Fabian in black; while the Countess +herself appears in a yellow dress, that being a colour Maria tells us "she +abhors," and without a veil, her face beaming with smiles, as if she were +the happiest creature in the comedy! What would any modern author say if +such liberties were taken with his play? But equally unintelligent is the +reading of the text. For Malvolio to say that when he is Olivia's husband +he will ask for his kinsman "Toby," is to miss the humour of the +situation. It is the pleasure of being able to call Sir Toby a "kinsman" +that is flattering to Malvolio's vanity; while in the same scene the one +word in Olivia's letter (of Maria's composition) which is captivating and +convincing to Malvolio's credulity is unnoticed by the actor. Malvolio's +doubts as to whom the letter is written are entirely set at rest when he +comes to the words, "let me see thee a _steward_ still." From the moment +he gets sight of the word "steward," everything becomes as clear as +daylight to him, so that when he appears in his velvet suit before Olivia, +and cross-gartered--which does not mean the cross-gartering of the brigand +in Italian Opera, as the impersonator imagines--his assurance carries +everything before him, and makes him turn every remark of the Countess to +his own advantage, and this self-deception is kept up with unflagging +animation, until he flings his final words at his tormentors: "Go, hang +yourselves _all_! You are idle, _shallow_ things: _I_ am not of _your_ +element; you shall know _more_ hereafter." But this rendering of the scene +entirely misses fire at Earl's Court. + +It would be ungracious and invidious, under the circumstances, to indulge +in criticism of this kind without examining into the origin of the errors +we have tried to point out. They are nearly all traditional. The actor is +not the real culprit. If one appealed to him for an explanation, his +answer would be, "What is good enough for Sir Herbert Tree is good enough +for me," and Sir Herbert Tree might say, "What was good enough for +Macready satisfies me." In the production of Shakespeare on the modern +stage our actor-managers show originality and novelty. In the +interpretation of Shakespeare's characters, and in the intelligent reading +of his text, there seems to be no progress made and no individuality +shown. In these matters we are still in the middle of the eighteenth +century, the most artificial age in the history of Shakespearian drama. As +a consequence, Shakespeare's plays are not taken seriously by actors of +to-day. To them his characters are theatrical types which are not supposed +to conform to the conditions that govern human beings in everyday life. +They do not recognize that Shakespeare's art and his characters were as +true to the life of his day as is the art of Shaw or Galsworthy to our +own. Yet because the construction of his play is unsuited to the modern +stage, therefore it is contended that Shakespeare is a bad constructor of +plays, and any liberties may be taken in the matter of reconstruction that +are convenient to the producer. And because his plays are written in +verse, a medium we do not now use in modern drama, therefore it may be +spoken in a way no human being ever did or could speak his thoughts. So it +comes that there is always an apology on the actor's lips for +"Shakespeare's shortcomings" whenever the actor wants to take liberties +with this author. It is Shakespeare who is always in the wrong, and never +the actor. Ask the actress who impersonates Olivia why she is not wearing +a black dress, and she replies without a moment's hesitation that black is +not becoming to her, as if it were an impertinence on Shakespeare's part +to expect her to wear black. The havoc that is made with the +characterization and story is of no consequence. "Oh, hang Shakespeare!" +was what a popular Shakespearian actor once said to the present writer. +That is the normal feeling of many actors towards Shakespeare's plays, and +one which will continue unless public opinion can be roused to a sense of +its responsibilities and insists that a more reverent and loyal treatment +shall be bestowed on the work of the world's greatest poet and dramatist. + +Unpleasant and ungracious as these remarks may appear to those who look to +the Earl's Court Exhibition as a means for raising money for a national +theatre, they are not unnecessary. From all parts of the country visitors, +comprising many teachers and their scholars, come to this exhibition +expecting to receive a correct impression of Shakespeare's playhouse and +of the Elizabethan method of staging plays. But what they see cannot +inspire them with confidence or belief that dramatic art at that time, +both in its composition and expression, was at its high-water mark. This +is because the spirit and the intellect of Elizabethan times are wanting. +These qualities do not appear in modern actors nor in their productions. +There is nothing to be seen but the restlessness of our own stage-methods, +which no more fit the Elizabethan stage than would the Elizabethan +methods fit the modern stage. In another of the excerpts given at Earl's +Court, which is entitled the "Enchantment of Titania," the costumes, +business, and action of the proscenium stage are wholly reproduced on the +open platform. In Shakespeare's time the actors did not scamper all over +the stage and in and out of the private boxes while they were saying their +lines, nor was music played during their speeches. Then, again, the +stage-management of the scenes from "The Merchant of Venice" in the +poverty and meanness of their appointments and costumes is a libel on the +old Globe representation. It is only necessary to consult the +stage-directions in the first folio to recognize the fact. Bassanio then +came on to the stage dressed like one of the Queen's noblemen, with three +or four servants. At Earl's Court he comes on unattended in a pair of +patched leather boots and worn suit, looking more like a bandit than a +nobleman. There is no indication given of his superior rank to which so +much importance was attached in Shakespeare's time. Indeed, those who are +anxious to revive an interest in Elizabethan staging, and who urge its +claim for recognition, are justified in making their protest against this +travesty of Shakespearian drama. + + +A STUDENTS' THEATRE.[18] + +1. _Miss Rosina Filippi's Project._ + +This project, advocated by one who is herself an able exponent of dramatic +art, both as an actress and a teacher, is worthy of careful +consideration, nor can Miss Filippi's strictures on actors and managers +be read with indifference or passed over in silence. It is asserted that +acting is no longer a profession, but a business, and that it will +continue to be a business until the actors themselves take the necessary +steps to give their calling the status of a profession. This is true, +because even if the public can be roused to demand that acting shall be +treated as an art, it cannot manufacture artists, nor control the choice +of the talent which is submitted to its judgment. Miss Filippi believes, +moreover, that the thinking portion of the British playgoer is beginning +to learn that English theatres need "something" before they can rank in +reputation with those on the Continent, an assumption which cannot be +denied; although Miss Filippi will hardly expect that all well-wishers of +the drama will agree with her as to what that "something" should be. In +this, indeed, lies the difficulty, for the divergence of opinion among +actors on questions connected with dramatic art is so bewildering that +both the public and the profession become indifferent to the controversy +from mere weariness. + +The question for consideration at the moment is the "Students' Theatre," +and whether Miss Filippi's project is one more practical and more +promising than the many rival suggestions now claiming attention and +support from the public; and here, at least, there is room for criticism. +In the first place, it may be doubted how far the public would support the +theatre by buying stalls, even at the reduced price of 4s., in order to +see students act plays which can be seen acted elsewhere under more +favourable conditions. Let a novice be ever so well coached, yet the +ordeal of facing a theatre full of human beings who all stare at him from +the auditory deprives him of the power to control and move that audience. +This is a drawback which can only be removed by long practice. Then, as a +rule, youth possesses too eager and confident a temperament to appreciate +the meaning of restraint. Students must wonder what chances they get by +acting in a theatre where no reputations are allowed to be made, no +personal ambition can be gratified, and no names may be inserted in the +programme! And after reading about these severe impositions, which are to +give artistic stability to the "Students' Theatre," it is a comfort to be +told by Miss Filippi that it is not her intention "to serve the interests +of any particular set of faddists, but to present good plays by a picked +company of young actors." Let us hope, then, that Miss Filippi does not +intend to limit her players to those who are students in the ordinary +sense of the word. And, indeed, might not the co-operation be obtained of +those artists who, being temporarily out of an engagement, would be +willing to join Miss Filippi's enterprise in support of the cause she +advocates, which is, in effect, a devotion to art for art's sake, and the +still more praiseworthy desire to obtain for the art of acting some public +recognition of what constitutes the standard of excellence? Such a +combination of forces, under artistic control, would have far-reaching +results. + +And, after all, it should be possible for those actors who claim to take +their art seriously to agree upon a certain standard of qualification +which should be considered indispensable to everyone wishing to become an +actor. The late Sir Henry Irving in a speech once said: "I think there is +but one way to act, and that is by impersonation. We hear the expression +'character-acting.' I maintain that all acting is character-acting--at any +rate, it ought to be." But we live in an age when personality is valued by +the public at 50 per cent. more than is the talent of impersonation. As a +consequence, it becomes more and more the practice among managers and +dramatic authors to select actors for parts for which they are naturally +fitted by age, face, voice, and temperament, with the result that the +character is played by one who succeeds tolerably well, and even may excel +in certain scenes, in the only part in which he is ever likely to excel. +Yet such a one is not an actor at all in the legitimate sense of the word, +and if he is without vocal or physical flexibility, he is limited to the +business of impersonating his own personality. Then if he happens to +appear in a play which becomes a success, he may hope to continue acting +his own personality throughout the English-speaking towns of the two +hemispheres for a run of four, or even seven, years, after which he will +have the pleasure of "resting" until another part can be found for him as +much like himself as was the last one. And while this method of casting +plays has the advantage of distributing more equally the chances of an +engagement in a profession which has always a larger supply of actors than +is required, it has the distinct disadvantage of depriving the character +actor of the opportunity of learning his art. + +Now, it is evident that Miss Filippi's object in forming her "Students' +Theatre" comes very near in its aim to the one the character-actors +should have in view, that of removing the attention of playgoers from +personality, and concentrating it on the art of impersonation. And this is +an art which no novice can hope to excel in. The training for this kind of +art requires a long apprenticeship, and the actor cannot hope to reach the +topmost height as an impersonator until he has had many years of +experience on the boards. In fact, he will have passed into the meridian +of life before he can become a fine character-actor. May it not, then, be +put forth as a practical proposition that Miss Filippi and her youthful +enthusiasts should join forces with the character-actors, and try to run a +theatre with some small public endowment for a common cause? In this way +there would be a possibility of the public being attracted, and willing to +pay for its seats, having the assurance that both talent and experience +would be seen at the "Students' Theatre." + +The initial difficulty in such a scheme would, of course, be the admission +of candidates, whether students or actors. And while it would be essential +to ask for the willing co-operation of those actors who already possessed +undoubted reputations as character-actors, a test qualification would have +to be found which would inspire confidence both in the public and in the +profession, that those who were elected members had in them the necessary +material for the art of impersonating character. In fact, the reputation +of the theatre should be built upon the knowledge that only those who had +passed the test qualification were admitted to the rights of membership. +The following kind of test might be tried, perhaps, to ascertain the +ability of the candidate as an impersonator. He might appear before +twelve of the members, and during the space of half an hour, without +leaving the platform, impersonate three different characters all of the +same type. If the candidate wishes to qualify for juvenile parts, then he +must satisfy his judges that he is able to impersonate three young men who +may have some resemblance to each other in appearance, but who are all +different in character, in voice, and in deportment, or he may decide to +be judged by his impersonation of middle-aged city clerks, bumpkins, or +pedants; but in every case he should be able to satisfy his judges that he +can show three distinct characters of the same type. In this way mere +vocal dexterity, mimicry, and "make-up," would not insure election. The +best character-acting is, of necessity, limited in its extent. The "light" +comedian cannot and should not appear as the "heavy" father, nor the lean +beggar as the fat boy. Some actors can include a larger range of parts in +their repertory than others. But the real test of character-acting is in +having the ability to reproduce subtle shades of characterization in +certain recognized types. + +In putting forth this plea for an enlargement of the scope of the proposed +"Students' Theatre" it is hoped that, by some such suggestion, the +difficulties in raising the necessary funds for the endowment which Miss +Filippi at present experiences, may disappear. There is no doubt that the +money would be forthcoming as soon as the public had a scheme presented to +it which was the "something" needed. And the profession, on its side, +should remember that, while it has established many associations to +protect its business interests, it has not yet thought it worth while to +devote either time or money to the by no means unnecessary part of a +professional career, which shall provide actors with the opportunity of +perfecting themselves in the study of their art. + +2. _Mr. Gordon Craig's Sketches._ + +Shakespeare has long since failed to hold his own against modern staging, +and the possibility of bringing more taste, skill, and naturalness into +the art of the scene-painter does not remove the difficulty, but rather +increases it. When a dramatist is not on the spot to rewrite his play to +suit the altered conditions of mounting, the question then arises as to +whether the play or the scenery is the thing of most value. Mr. Sargent +does not ask leave to repaint Raphael's canvas because the draperies in +which the Italian artist has clothed his divine figures are conventional +ones. The advocates for modernism demand that new wine shall be put into +old bottles. No doubt there are some old stone jars that will bear the +strain, in the same way as there are some old plays which will stand a +good deal of decoration; but the business of the producer is to know what +kind of decoration is becoming to the art of the dramatist, and what is +derogatory to it. Mr. Craig's art may help us to derive additional +pleasure from the theatre, but will it help us to understand Shakespeare's +tragedies? If not, let him make his experiments on the plays of some less +gifted dramatist. The inappropriateness of scenery for Shakespeare lies, +mainly, in its unreality, and Mr. Craig tries to make it still more +unreal. Such properties, or scenes, as were in use in the poet's lifetime +were suggestive of immediate, and not remote, objects, because what is +distant in place and time has less actuality than what is near at hand. To +see in an Elizabethan playhouse built-up doors, windows, caverns, arbours, +ramparts, ladders, prepared the minds of the audience for action, and +brought the actors into closer touch with life. + +Now, Mr. Craig's art resembles that of Turner. He has a sense of beauty +and restraint, with a poet's insight into the meaning of landscape and +atmosphere which stamps him as an artist, and distinguishes him at once +from the scene-painter of Globe Alley. With him, as with Turner, it is the +sun that is the centre of the universe. His passion is for airy landscape, +unsullied by the presence of the concrete; and Turner's palaces, boats, +and men seem shadowy things beside the splendour of Turner's sunshine. But +the central interest of drama is human, and it is necessary that the +figures on the stage should appear larger than the background, or let the +readers of Shakespeare remain at home. To see Mr. Craig's "rectangular +masses illuminated by a diagonal light" while the poet's characters walk +in a darkened foreground, is not, I venture to think, to enjoy the "art of +the theatre." There must be some sane playgoers who still wish to see in +the playhouse Juliet smile upon Romeo, and Othello frown on Iago. "What a +piece of work is man!" says the poet; but there is no room for man in Mr. +Craig's world. + +It is because Mr. Craig's art exposes to view a background which is +effective and suggestive apart from the needs of drama, that it fails in +its purpose. Had he studied the methods of Rembrandt, instead of those of +Turner, something practical for the stage might have been forthcoming. +With Rembrandt, whether it is a windmill, a temple, or a man, it is +always the object, not the landscape, that arrests attention. The light +coming from the front, and not from the side, first illuminates the +objects before reaching the background. The spectator, as it were, turns +on a bull's-eye lantern, and is thus able to see the story written on the +men's faces. Then the artist contrives that the mind shall pass by an easy +transition from the faces to the more sombre background. But unless this +transition is gradual and the background is sombre, interest in figures is +proportionally weakened. + + * * * * * + +Now, Mr. Roger Fry's sympathetic appreciation of Mr. Gordon Craig's +designs for "Macbeth" may predispose his readers to believe that they form +a suitable background for a representation of Shakespeare's tragedy. Some +years ago I saw Mr. Craig's production of "Acis and Galatea," followed by +a masque. It was a stagery of great beauty, and seemed to initiate new +possibilities. But then both were musical entertainments which gained +appreciably by a picturesque background. The action never clashed with the +quaint setting. Unlike the demands of tragedy, the representation made no +direct appeal to the reason, and no obvious attempt to purify the +emotions. Its main business was to delight the eye. + +Mr. Craig, in his foreword to the printed catalogue of his exhibition at +the Leicester Galleries, remarks that the designs and models "speak for +themselves." This admission is a merit if the designs are intended for +book illustrations. A picture which arrests the attention and stirs the +imagination gives a pleasurable and legitimate emotion when it does not +clash with the emotions aroused by the poet or the actor. Mr. Fry tries to +answer this criticism, but not altogether successfully, since it must be +remembered that Shakespeare, in his day, had no other way of approaching +his audience except through the actors, and so he was obliged to construct +his plays with this means in view. It is only necessary to quote from Mr. +Craig's notes to his sketches to show that the poet and the designer do +not always pull together, and that it is doubtful if Mr. Craig's scenery +is more appropriate than any other kind of scenery when it is used as a +background for a Shakespearian play. + + "No. 2.--The aim of the designer has been to conceive some background + which would not offend whilst these lines were being spoken." + +But eight lines further on Macbeth says: "Liar and slave!" This arouses +quite another kind of emotion from that of "To-morrow and to-morrow," +etc., and one for which Mr. Craig's scene is not suitable. + + "No. 3.--... So I conducted the lady to her bedroom, which is hung + with red, and altogether a mysterious room, the only fresh thing + being the sunlight which comes in...." + +There are three movements in this scene which stir varying emotions. The +entrance of the lady with the letter, the return of the husband, the +arriving of Duncan. The last two incidents are more dramatic than the +first one; but Mr. Craig never allows the spectator to forget the bed, the +window, the light, and the letter. By the way, is it not moonlight which +comes in at the window? + + "No. 11.--This is known as the 'Murder Scene.' I hope it is vast + enough...." + +It is not the vastness of the scene, nor the huge door leading to the +little room where Duncan lies murdered, which can show the terror in +Macbeth's soul at the thought of what he has done, and this terror is the +central idea of the scene. + + "No. 16.--... As it is there is great need for scenery, and therefore + the better the scenery the better for the play...." + +These words might be interpreted thus: "The more of Gordon Craig's scenery +the better, because Shakespeare and his actors are very little good +without it." But this is not at all what a producer should say. + + "... Her progress is a curve; she seems to come from the past into + the present and go away into the future...." + +Shakespeare makes Lady Macbeth come from her bedroom to speak a soliloquy +about past events, and then sends her back to her bedroom. But Mr. Craig +seeks to impose another idea upon the attention of the audience, which is +not Shakespeare's idea at all. + + "No. 17.--... As the sleeping woman descends the stairway with her + lamp, she feels her way with her right hand, touching each figure, + lighting them as she passes ... and when she has gone from the scene + all life has gone from the figures--once more they have become cold + history...." + +A pretty idea, but absolutely at variance with the text. Shakespeare +restates in this scene what led to the undoing of this unhappy but +fascinating woman. Before the murder it was the material side of things +only that appealed to Lady Macbeth. She thought it was as impossible for a +murdered man to come out of his grave to torment his murderers as it was +for a man who died a natural death. The dim consciousness that somehow +she was mistaken begins to prove too great a strain for her energetic +little brain. It was also her misfortune, because not her fault, that she +was without imagination. She was a devoted wife, and possessed sweet and +gracious manners; and Shakespeare, in this last scene, in which she +appears before the spectators, asks them to pity her because of all that +she is now suffering. But what has this throbbing emotion, aroused by the +author, to do with these "dead kings and queens" in the cold statuary +which has been superimposed by the artist? + +Mr. Gordon Craig seems to think that Shakespearian representation at the +present moment is unsatisfactory, because of our miserable theatres, with +their low proscenium and unimaginative scenery, which cannot suggest +immensity! Shakespeare would tell us that the fault lies in our big scenic +stages and our voiceless, dreary acting; and two men with such different +ideas about the theatre are not likely to prove successful in +collaboration. + + +THE MEMORIAL SCHEME.[19] + + "_Doesn't that only prove how little important we regard the drama as + being, and how little seriously we take it, if we won't even trouble + ourselves to bring about decent civil conditions for its + existence._"--HENRY JAMES. + +Does the present scheme appeal to the nation? Will it supply the higher +needs of the nation's drama? These are questions on which light should be +thrown. Personally I should like to see every theatre in the country a +national one, only the claims of the actor-manager and the syndicates +stand in the way. Certain it is that the imagination of the public has not +yet been touched by this Whitehall scheme; but then the executive +committee has not made the best of its opportunity. It is two years and +three months now since the first appeal for funds was made, and so far the +response has not been encouraging. In March, 1909, the scheme was launched +and priced at half a million of sovereigns; we are now within five years +of April, 1916, and the total amount of money raised for the project is +about L10,000, excluding the gift of L70,000 given by Sir Carl Meyer, and +the amount raised by entertainments. Unfortunately, the cost of collecting +this L10,000 has been very considerable, although it is not possible to +quote the exact amount, because no accounts have been published during the +three years the executive has been in office. In fact, the attitude +adopted by the executive towards the general committee is what most calls +for explanation. + +HISTORY OF THE MOVEMENT. + +The movement began so far back as the year 1900. It was then proposed by +myself to present to the London County Council a petition for the grant of +a site for the erection of a memorial in the form of the old Globe +Playhouse, so as to perpetuate for the benefit of posterity the kind of +stage with which Shakespeare was so long and intimately associated. The +outcome of this proposal, which remained in abeyance during the anxious +period of the war, was a meeting organized by T. Fairman Ordish, F.S.A., +and held in the hall of Clifford's Inn on "Shakespeare Day," 1902. The +chair was taken by Mr. Frederic Harrison, and two resolutions were passed +by the meeting, one establishing the London Shakespeare Commemoration +League, the other recommending that the proposed memorial of the model +Globe Playhouse should be considered by the committee of the League. It +was ultimately found, however, that a structure of the kind could not be +erected in a central position in London owing to the County Council's +building restrictions. In the following year an interesting development +arose in connection with the League in the formation of a provisional +committee for a London Shakespeare Memorial. The movement was made +possible by the generous gift of Mr. Richard Badger to the London County +Council of the sum of L2,500 to form the nucleus of a fund for the +erection of a statue, and the Council offered a site, if sufficient funds +could be collected to insure a worthy memorial. The League then formed a +provisional committee composed of a number of influential people, among +whom were eight members of their own council, including the President, the +late Dr. Furnivall. But the idea of a statue was not the only scheme +offered for the provisional committee's deliberations. Some were in favour +of a "Shakespeare Temple" to "serve the purposes of humane learning, much +in the same way as Burlington House has served those of natural science." +This suggestion, however, called forth a protest, and on February 27, +1905, a letter appeared in the _Times_ in which it was stated that "any +museum which could be formed in London would be a rubbish heap of +trivialities." The letter was signed by J. M. Barrie, Professor A. C. +Bradley, Lord Carlisle, Sir W. S. Gilbert, Mr. Edmund Gosse, Mr. Maurice +Hewlett, the Earl of Lytton, Dr. Gilbert Murray, Lord Onslow, Sir A. W. +Pinero, Sir Frederick Pollock, Mr. A. B. Walkley, and Professor W. Aldis +Wright. On the next day was held a public meeting at the Mansion House, +with the Lord Mayor presiding. No special mention of a statue was made, +nor of a "Shakespeare Temple," while Mr. Bram Stoker pointed out the +difficulties and expense of a National Theatre. On the proposition of Dr. +Furnivall, seconded by Sir H. Beerbohm Tree, the following resolution was +passed: + + "That the meeting approves of the proposal for a Shakespeare Memorial + in London, and appoints a general committee, to be further added to, + for the purpose of organizing the movement and determining the form + of a memorial." + +On this general committee I was asked to serve and was duly elected. + +On Thursday, July 6, 1905, the general committee was summoned to the +Mansion House to receive the report of the special committee appointed to +consider the various proposals. This committee, which was elected by the +general committee, was as follows: Lord Alverstone, Lord Avebury, Lord +Reay, Sir Henry Irving, Sir R. C. Jebb, Sir E. Maunde Thompson, Mr. F. R. +Benson, Mr. S. H. Butcher, Mr. W. L. Courtney, Mr. Walter Crane, Dr. F. J. +Furnivall, Sir G. L. Gomme, Mr. Anthony Hope Hawkins, Mr. Bram Stoker, Dr. +A. W. Ward. + +The recommendation made by this committee, which was unanimously adopted, +was that "the form of the memorial be that of an architectural monument +including a statue." But it was also recommended, if funds permitted, as +a possible subsidiary project, "the erection of a building in which +Shakespeare's plays could be acted without scenery." This part of the +scheme met with strong opposition from some members of the general +committee, and Sir Herbert Tree, as representing the dramatic profession, +declared that he could not, and would not, countenance it. + +Finally, by the narrow majority of one vote (that of the chairman, Lord +Reay) it was decided that this part of the report should be dropped, as +well as the proposal to use, as a site, a space near the new London County +Hall, recommended for its proximity to the locality of the old Globe +playhouse. + +On March 5, 1908, the general committee were again summoned to the Mansion +House to receive the further recommendations of the executive committee +after their consultation with an advisory committee consisting of seven +persons, five of whom were members of the Royal Academy. The meeting +confirmed the recommendation that a statue be erected in Park Crescent, +Portland Place, at a cost of not less than L100,000, and an additional +L100,000, if collected, "to be administered by an international committee +for the furtherance of Shakespearian aims." What was remarkable to me +about this meeting was the small attendance. There could not have been +more than two dozen persons present. I believe I was the only one there to +raise a debate on the report, and, my objections being ignored, letters +from me appeared the next day in the _Times_ and the _Daily News_ +attacking the constitution of the committee selected to approve of the +design. Among those chosen there was not one Shakespearian scholar, no +poet, and no dramatist. What, then, would be the effect upon the designers +of having to submit their models to a committee of this kind? Instead of +the artists giving their faculties full play to produce some original and +great piece of sculpture worthy of Shakespeare's genius, they would be +striving to design something specially suited to meet the limited and, +perhaps, prejudiced ideas of their judges (the professional experts), +while the general committee, responsible to the public for the National +Memorial, would be handing over its duties to an academy which had never +shown any special appreciation of the poet and his plays; for, so far as +my experience goes, there never has been a Shakespearian picture exhibited +on the walls of the Royal Academy which was not, as to costume and in +idea, a burlesque of the dramatist's intentions, always excepting those +painted by Seymour Lucas, R.A., who, strange to say, was not one of the +judges selected. + +But it soon became evident from correspondence in the newspapers that the +project of a statue in Portland Place did not satisfy the wishes of a very +large number of influential men, and of a very important section of the +public. Accordingly, a public meeting took place at the Lyceum Theatre, +under the presidency of Lord Lytton, on Tuesday May 19, 1908, when a +resolution was carried in favour of a National Theatre as a memorial to +Shakespeare. Steps were then taken to amalgamate the existing Shakespeare +Memorial Committee with the National Theatre Committee. A new executive +was nominated, and again, for the third time, the general committee was +summoned on March 23, 1909, to receive and sanction the report, which +recommended the raising by subscription of L500,000 to build and endow a +theatre in which Shakespeare's plays should be acted for at least one day +in each week. + +This, then, is the history of the movement, we may almost call it of the +conflict, which for seven years centred round the great event that is to +happen in 1916. And, alas! this scheme, like all the others, is now found +to be impracticable, because the amount of money asked for is far more +than the country is able to give. The executive did not grasp the fact +that there is so large a demand made upon the public's purse to fight +political battles and to fill the Government treasury, that half a million +of money cannot now be raised both to build and endow a theatre. The +executive is obsessed with the notion that you cannot have a National +Theatre without building a new theatre, while as a fact you cannot have it +without an endowment. It is by protecting the art of the actor, so that +the poet's words and characters may be finely interpreted, that the memory +of Shakespeare can be best honoured. + +THE EXECUTIVE'S REPORT. + +We now have to consider what seems to me to be the chief flaw in the +National Theatre scheme as it is at present initiated, and that is the +report which was brought before the general committee on March 23, 1909, +and which was accepted by them, but not without protest--at least, from +myself. The Lord Mayor's "parlour" was crowded with at least a hundred men +and women, consisting of the general and provisional committees of the +two rival schemes, now amalgamated, all of whom were meeting together for +the first time; and it was evident to me that with the exception of the +executive, those present had little idea of what they were called upon to +do, or were aware that they were conferring powers upon the executive as +to the management of our National Theatre which, when once granted, made +it impossible for the general committee to reopen any point, to revise +their decisions, or to alter them. It is true that the executive stated in +their report "that the time had not arrived for framing statutes in a form +which could be considered final," but so far as the general committee was +concerned what they once sanctioned they could not withdraw. On the other +hand, what modifications or additions the executive afterwards made in the +report should naturally have come again before the general committee for +its approval, a point overlooked or ignored by the executive, as will +appear later on. But the fact is that the report is a mistake, and should +never have been passed by the general committee, for it either states too +much or too little, and can please nobody. Since the executive had decided +that they must purchase a site and build a new theatre (an altogether +unnecessary proceeding, in my opinion), it would have been better to +report on this part of the scheme first, and to leave the question of +management for future discussion; for the financial question alone might +well have received more careful consideration. As the report now stands, +subscribers are not protected in any way. The executive may begin building +whenever they choose, and incur debts, and mortgage both land and +building as soon as they possess either. They can spend on bricks and +mortar all the money they receive to the extent of L250,000, without +putting by a penny towards the endowment fund. In fact, no precautions +have been taken to avoid a repetition of the disaster that befell the +building of the English Opera House, which soon afterwards became the +Palace Music-Hall. + +But more inexplicable still are the clauses referring to the management of +the theatre, to which, unfortunately, the general committee have pledged +themselves. We have decided that "the supreme controlling authority of the +theatre" shall be a body of governors who will number about forty, but +apparently their "supreme control" is limited to nominating seven of their +number as a standing committee, some of whom, and under certain +eventualities all of whom, may be elected for life. This standing +committee, however, is to hand over all that is vital in the management of +a theatre to a director over whom it has no control beyond either +confirming all he does or dismissing him, so that the National Theatre in +reality becomes a one-man's hobby. So long as the director is clever +enough to humour four out of the seven members of the standing committee, +he can run the theatre for the amusement of himself and his friends. He +may choose the plays, arrange the programmes, engage and dismiss the +artistes, and can even produce all the plays himself; the only thing he +cannot do is to act in them; and yet so little have the framers of the +report grasped the realities of the situation that, in their other +clauses, they refer to the governors dispensing pensions and honorary +distinctions on the actors, forgetting that the unfortunate players are +the servants of their servant the director, who can dismiss them three +days before the honours and pensions become due, so that even in +dispensing favours the voice of the director is supreme. As the report +stands at present confirmed there is no elasticity allowed to the standing +committee to give permanency to those parts of the director's management +which are evidently successful and efficient, and to restrict and finally +abolish what is unsatisfactory. There is no choice between dismissing the +director, or tolerating his defects for the sake of what he does well. But +the director should be the chairman of the standing committee; he should +have power to engage the producers of the plays, because more than one is +wanted; and each producer should be given sole control over the cast and +the staging of the play for which he is specially engaged. Then in the +case of failure there would be always a remedy. Producers, authors, and +actors who showed that they were unskilful in the work they were called +upon to do would not be again invited to help in the performances of the +National Theatre; but in regard to those who had shown exceptional talent, +steps would be taken to gradually add them to the permanent staff, while +the fact that the director was chairman of the standing committee would +add to the dignity and importance of the artistes' engagements, and would +insure respect and fair treatment for their labours. As the position is +now, no talent can come into the theatre except at the will of one person, +who would occupy no higher post there than that of a salaried official. +This means that outside talent, however admirable of its kind, would +never be seen in our National Theatre if it is not to the liking of the +director; and it may be taken for granted, as the clause now stands, that +no artist would accept dismissal from the director without appealing to +the standing committee, hoping to prejudice the director in its eyes, and +thus to create friction between the standing committee and its director. + +Now, in regard to the choice of new plays. Here the standing committee +apparently has the final word, which, as a fact, has no real value +attached to it, because all new plays have first to be reported upon (that +is, recommended) by the director and the literary manager, and if a new +play is chosen against the wishes of the director, its fate is none the +less sealed, since he has sole control over the casting of the play and +its production. But before a new play can be produced at the National +Theatre it ought to be submitted to the opinion of the three parties +interested in its production. Experts know that a dramatic success depends +upon (1) the quality of the play, (2) the ability of the actors who +interpret the play, (3) the intelligence or taste of the audience; +therefore the play, to be fairly judged, should be read before a tribunal +consisting of the director, two dramatists (who have contributed plays to +the repertory), two of the theatre's leading actors, and two members of +the standing committee. Authors would then know that their work would be +judged by experts representing every department of the theatre. + +Then there is the question of what plays, other than new ones, should be +included in the repertory. Here, again, the choice rests with the +director, and if his taste is not catholic, what confusion he will make of +it! For instance, are such plays classical as "Still Waters Run Deep," +"The Road to Ruin," and "Black-Eyed Susan"? In one sense I think they are, +because they represent the best examples of types of English plays at a +certain period. But some men might not think so. It is too large a +question for one man to handle. + +The fault, then, of the constitution of the National Theatre, as it is at +present framed, is that all the direction of what is vital to the dignity +and permanency of the institution is put under the control of one man, +when no single person can possibly have the knowledge and experience to +cover so large a variety of work. Discrimination has not been shown +between what is required of a Repertory Theatre and a National Theatre. +The former is purely an experimental theatre, where courage and freedom is +an advantage in a director. We look upon him as the pioneer to +revolutionize existing conventions which have had their day and lost their +use. He is an innovator, and we forgive his failures for the sake of his +successes. Far different is the position of the National Theatre. Its +mission is not to make experiments, but to assimilate the talent which has +already been tried and found deserving, and to rescue from oblivion good +plays for the permanent use of the community. Besides, its proceedings +must be carried on with decorum. It has State functions and duties to +consider; it has all shades of political and religious differences to take +into consideration. One mistake might alienate the support of Royalty or +of the Government; of Parliament, of the Clergy, or of the Democracy. +Surely the direction of such an institution can be more efficiently +carried on by a committee than by an individual! + +Now, I sympathize with a National Theatre as a memorial to Shakespeare, +because I think the highest honour that can be rendered to our +poet-dramatist is to provide English actors--and Shakespeare was himself +an actor--with a permanent home where dramatic art as an art can be +recognized and encouraged; and a National Theatre can give dignity to the +dramatic profession and inspire emulation among its members by conferring +upon them honours and rewards, provided always that the actors are the +servants of the institution and not of a salaried official in that +institution. Personally, I do not care to see Shakespeare acted in a +modern theatre, and I do not think his plays can ever have justice done to +them in such a building. But, none the less, I look upon a National +Theatre as an imperative need if the drama is to flourish, and I believe, +if Shakespeare were living to-day, he would say so too. The executive of +the present Memorial, to my mind, made a false start by concentrating +public attention on the building as the primary object, instead of on the +institution, and then by ignoring the claims of the dramatic profession to +recognition. The labour, the anxiety, the expense of providing the public +with plays in this country has been hitherto, and is still, borne by our +actor-managers. They at present are the people's favourites, and all have +individually a large public following. It was but just to these men to ask +them to come into the scheme as honorary members of the institution, in +the hope that they would associate themselves with those parts and plays +of more than ordinary merit which undoubtedly have a claim to be admitted +into the repertory of a National Theatre, and with which they individually +were specially identified. But while I appreciate the wisdom and justice +of inviting those gentlemen who have hitherto borne the burden of +theatrical management to contribute the best of their talent to the stage +of a National Theatre, I fail to see the advantage of their help on the +executive. However eminent as an expert a man may be, his use on the +executive entirely depends on the confidence he inspires among his +fellow-councillors, and it is only necessary to read the names of those +who constitute the executive to realize that there is no possibility of +any one personality dominating the council. As a consequence, the +committee breaks up into groups whose aims are more political than +practical. The second urgent matter for consideration by the executive was +the provincial Repertory Theatre. Where is the advantage of a National +Theatre in London unless there are existing at least six Repertory +Theatres in the provinces which may serve as training grounds for actors +and for the experiments of dramatists? Every encouragement, then, should +have been given to our leading municipalities to interest themselves in +raising money to endow local Repertory Theatres, and the executive of the +London Memorial would be doing more good to the cause of drama by spending +the interest of its capital in helping these local theatres to come into +existence than by wasting their money in the way they are doing at the +present time. Indeed, it seems as if the only hope of a National Theatre +becoming a reality will consist in the assurance that the capital already +raised shall be set apart for the endowment fund, and that only the +interest of this capital shall be available for expenditure by the +executive committee. + + + + +INDEX + + + Acheson, Mr. Arthur, on "Troilus and Cressida," 100 + + Act-drop, the, 119 + + Acting and stage illusion, 7; + rapid delivery, 17; + Heywood on, 19; + as a business, 217; + character acting, 219 _et seq._ + + Actors: Elizabethan, 8, 9, 20, 21; + prosperity and position of, 22; + apprentices, 24; + qualities of, 24; + in double parts, 25; + relations between authors and, 44; + hired players, 45; + Elizabethan, and the construction of Shakespeare's plays, 51, 53; + elocution of, 56 + + Actors, English: and English tragedy, 177; + personality of, 219 + + Agincourt, representation of, 48 + + "All is True," 87 + + Alleyne, Edward, 79 + + Apprentices, actors', 24 + + Archer, Mr. William, and popular taste in drama, 193 _et seq._ + + + Bacon and the writing of drama, 39 + + Bacon-Shakespeare controversy, 38 + + Badger, Mr. Richard, 229 + + Barker, Mr. Granville, 194, 202 + + Barrie, Mr. J. M., 195 + + Bell's edition of Shakespeare, 51, 58 + + Blackfriars Theatre, 45, 68, 115, 208 + + Boy actors in women's parts, 9 + + Boyle, Robert, and "Henry VIII.," 93 + + Brandram, Samuel, 166 + + Bronte, Charlotte: and a high forehead, 137; + and English tragedy, 176 + + Brooke, Arthur, 133, 151 + + Browning, Robert, on "Henry VIII.," 93 + + Brydges, Mary, 110 + + Burbage, Richard, as actor, 20, 86, 166 + + Busino's visit to the Fortune Playhouse, 13 + + + Capell, Edward, as Shakespeare editor, 37, 44 + + "Castle Spectre, The," 196 + + "Cesario," 39 + + Chapel Royal, children of the, 45 + + Chapman, George: and "Troilus and Cressida," 100 _et seq._; + opponent of Shakespeare, 102 + + Character-acting, 219 _et seq._ + + Chorus, the, 12 + + Christians, Marlowe's, and Shakespeare's Jew, 69 _et seq._ + + Claretie, M., 198 + + Clowns, 21 + + Coleridge, S. T., on "Henry VIII.," 89 + + Collier, J. P., on the effect of theatrical absence of scenery on + dramatic poetry, 8 + + Comedie Francaise, the, visit to London, 198 + + "Comedy of Errors," 31, 42 + + Congreve, William, 196 + + Craig, Mr. Gordon: sketches, 222; + inappropriateness of his scenery for Shakespeare, 222; + comparison with Turner, 223; + criticism of his art, 223; + designs for "Macbeth," 224-227; + his "Acis and Galatea," 224 + + "Curtain" in theatres, 120 + + Curtain Theatre, 7, 111, 115 + + "Cynthia's Revels," 21 + + + Davenant, Sir William, 144 + + Dekker, Thomas: as player, 103; + "Gul's Horn-Booke," 208 + + Diderot's "Pere de Famille," 197 + + Digges, Leonard, on a Shakespeare performance, 13 + + Dolby's "British Theatre," 53 + + Dowden, Edward, 145, 147, 153 + + Drake, Dr., on "Henry VIII.," 88 + + Dramatists and the public, 194 _et seq._ + + Dramatists: the Elizabethan, and the contemporary theatre, 5, 10; + topical plays, 15; + moral aim, 16; + and the printing of plays, 18; + supervision of acting, 25; + Puritans and, 26; + relations between, and actors, 44 + + Duncan (in "Macbeth"), 62 + + + Earl's Court: Shakespeare at, 208; + staging at, 209; + "The Tricking of Malvolio," 209; + star actor, 209; + "Twelfth Night," 210; + performances misleading, 215; + "Enchantment of Titania," 216; + "The Merchant of Venice," 216; + a travesty of Shakesperian drama, 216 + + Edwards, Thomas, 91 + + Elizabeth, Queen, 62, 63; + Lord Essex and, 108-112 + + Elizabeth's, Queen, Chapel, boys for, 10 + + Elizabethan Stage Society, the, 203; + its origin, 204; + "Measure for Measure," 205; + "Twelfth Night," 205; + list of plays performed (1893-1913), 206-207 + + Elocution: of Elizabethan actors, 19, 56; + modern, in Shakespeare acting, 57, 58, 59 + + Elze, Dr. Karl, on "Henry VIII.," 91 + + Emerson, R. W. on "Henry VIII.," 91 + + Emphasis, faulty, in rendering Shakespeare, 59 + + English Opera House (now Palace Music Hall), 235 + + Essex, Earl of, 101; + in "Troilus and Cressida," 108-112 + + Euripides, 195 + + "Everyman," 206 + + + Falstaff: Sir John Oldcastle as, 112; + effect of character of, on Shakespeare's position, 115 + + Faustus legend, 68 + + Field, Nathan, 21; + anecdote of, 23 + + Filippi's, Miss Rosina, project for a students' theatre, 216 + + Flecknoe, Richard, on the drama after Shakespeare's death, 16 + + Fletcher, John, and authorship of "Henry VIII.," 92 + + Fleury, M., 79 + + Folk-songs, Elizabethan, 44 + + Ford, John, 180 + + Fortune Theatre, 11, 12, 13, 40, 205, 208 + + Frohman's, Mr., Repertory Theatre, 193, 199 + + Fry's, Mr. Roger, appreciation of Mr. Gordon Craig, 224 + + Furnivall, Dr. F. J., 38, 229 + + + Garrick, David: as exponent of Shakespeare, 5; + version of "Romeo and Juliet," 140 + + "George Barnwell," 196 + + Gervinus, G. G.: on "Henry VIII.," 90; + on "Troilus and Cressida," 107 + + Globe players' rights in "Troilus and Cressida," 116 + + Globe Playhouse, memorial in form of, 228, 231 + + Globe Theatre, 7, 11, 45, 48, 54, 57, 58, 68, 86, 98, 102, 104, 115, + 116, 180 + + Globe Theatre at Earl's Court, 208 + + Goethe, 194 + + Gonzalo dialogue in "The Tempest," 55 + + "Gorbuduc," 40 + + Gosson, Stephen, 21 + + Gray's Inn, 42 + + Green, J. R., on Queen Elizabeth and Mary Stuart, 63 + + Greene, Robert, "Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay," 79 + + Greenwich Palace, 40 + + + Halliwell-Phillipps, J. O., on the Shakespearian theatre, 7, 11 + + "Hamlet": clown referred to, 22; + early quartos, 31, 47; + breaks in, 42; + stage directions in first quarto, 50, 53, 54; + alterations, 54, 160; + acting edition and Globe edition, 156; + omissions, 156, 157, 161-175; + Fortinbras, 157; + French's acting edition and Globe edition compared, 158 _et seq._; + stage directions, 159; + entrance of Hamlet, 159; + Cumberland's version, 160, 163, 164, 168, 171; + the period of the play, 163; + Oxberry's edition, 164; + the Dumb Show, 166; + the exit of the King, 167; + changes suggested, 170; + Ophelia and flowers, 172; + her burial, 173; + the poison cups, 174; + the conclusion, 175; + suggestions for an authoritative acting version, 175; + performance of first quarto, 204 + + Hart, H. C., 112 + + Heine, Heinrich, on Shylock, 69 + + Heminge and Condell: and the first folio, 32; + and divisions in the plays, 41; + and "Henry VIII.," 87; + and "Troilus and Cressida," 99 + + "Henry IV.," 115; + epilogue to Part II., 101 + + "Henry V.": choruses, 7, 40; + the early quarto, 48; + produced, 115 + + "Henry VIII.": the authorship of, 85 _et seq._; + earliest mention of, 86; + criticisms, 88 _et seq._; + stage directions, 94; + summary of the arguments as to its genuineness, 96 + + Henslowe's "Diary," 15 + + Hertzberg, Professor, on "Henry VIII.," 90 + + Heywood, Thomas: on the English stage, 13; + in defence of acting, 19; + of plays, 27; + reply to the Puritans, 107 + + Historical dramas disapproved, 45 + + Homer, Chapman and Shakespeare renderings, 100 + + Hugo, Victor, on "Henry VIII.," 89 + + + Impersonation in acting, 219 + + Ireland in Elizabethan drama, 16 + + Irving, Sir Henry: as Shylock, 71; + on acting, 219 + + + Jew: Shakespeare's, 70; + Christian ideas of, 73. + _See also_ Shylock + + "Jew of Malta, The," Marlowe's, 72, 80 + + "John Bull's Other Island," 200 + + Johnson, Dr.: on Shakespeare, 36, 38; + and continuous performance, 43; + on "Henry VIII.," 88; + and "She Stoops to Conquer," 197 + + Jones, Inigo, 18, 96, 141 + + Jonson, Ben: and double story in plays, 14; + and simplicity of representation, 17; + and a good tragedy, 19; + a "poet with principle," 23; + and Latin comedy, 40; + and "Sejanus," 41, 102; + "Poetaster," allusion to Shakespeare in, 100 _et seq._; + relations with Shakespeare, 102; + "Every Man Out of His Humour," 112; + and Inigo Jones's scenery, 141 + + "Julius Caesar," 13 + + + Kean, Edmund: delivery of, 58; + and Hamlet, 164 + + Kemp the clown, 21, 22, 24 + + "King John," 39 + + "King Lear": breaks in, 41; + Steevens's comment on dialogue, 56; + Rossi's rendering, 177; + its period, 178; + its modern production, 179; + anachronisms and costumes, 179; + excisions, 181, 184; + Edmund's speech, 181; + the putting out of Gloucester's eyes, 182; + sympathy with poor, 183; + its modern dramatic presentation, 185-189; + misrepresentation of Lear, 186; + and of Edmund, 188 + + "King's Company, The," 9, 27 + + Knight, Charles, 94 + + + Lady Macduff, 61 + + Lamb, Charles, 196 + + Lee, Sir Sidney, 205 + + "Leicester's, Lord, Servants," 9 + + Lessing, G. E., 155, 194 + + Lewis, L. D., 196 + + Lillo, George, 196 + + London Corporation and theatres, 25 + + London County Council and Shakespeare Memorial, 228, 229 + + London life in Elizabethan drama, 15 + + London Shakespeare Commemoration League, 229 + + London theatres, seventeenth century, 13 + + Lord Chamberlain's company, 9, 12 + + Lorkin, Thomas, 86 + + "Love's Labour's Lost," 42 + + Lucas, Mr. Seymour, R.A., 232 + + "Lucrece," 113 + + Lyceum Theatre, 71 + + + "Macbeth": perfect in design, 13; + breaks in, 41; + Bell's criticism of, 52; + Garrick's version of, 52; + when written, 68; + Mr. Gordon Craig's designs for, 224-227 + + Macbeth, Lady: the character of, 61 _et seq._; + Mrs. Siddons as, 61; + her femininity, 65; + the character misunderstood, 68; + part overacted, 69 + + Macready, W. C., and the ladder, 43; + Charlotte Bronte on his acting, 176 + + "Madras House, The," 201 + + Maeterlinck, M., 202 + + Malone, Edmund, as Shakespeare editor, 37 + + Marlowe, Christopher: "Barabas," 72, 80, 84; + Jews and Christians in "Rich Jew of Malta" and "Merchant of Venice," + 78; + "Faustus," 80; + and Christianity, 79-81 + + "Marrying of Ann Leete, The," 202 + + Marston, John, 103 + + Mary Stuart, 62, 63 + + Massinger, Philip, 93 + + Maugham, W. S., 195 + + "Measure for Measure," revival of, 205 + + "Merchant of Venice": breaks in, 42, 43; + the early quarto, 47; + story of the play, 123-133; + the Prince of Morocco, 126; + the Prince of Arragon, 128; + the trial scene as now acted, 131. + _See also_ Shylock + + "Misalliance," Shaw's, 199 + + Moneylenders in plays, 75 + + Mozart, W. A., 194, 200 + + Munich, Court Theatre, 177 + + Music in the Elizabethan theatre, 11 + + + Nash, Thomas, "The Isle of Dogs," 112 + + National theatre, a, 198 + + New Shakespeare Society, 94 + + Noblemen and the maintenance of actors, 9 + + + Oldcastle, Sir John, 112 + + Opinion, change of, effect on plays, 70 + + Ordish, Mr. T. Fairman, 228 + + "Othello," 13 + + Othello, Nathan Field as, 21 + + + Painter, William, 133 + + Perfall, Baron, 18 + + "Pericles," 31 + + Personality in acting, 219 + + Playgoers, intolerant, 196 + + Plays, Elizabethan: not divided into acts, 11; + lost, 15 + + Pollard, Mr. A. W., 98 + + Pope, Alexander: as Shakespeare editor, 33; + and "The Tempest," 55 + + Popular taste in drama, 194 + + Portia, 81 + + Portland Place for Shakespeare Memorial, 231, 232 + + "Prattle," 57 + + Prompters, 24 + + Puritans, the: and actors, 21; + and theatres, 25 + + + Raleigh, Sir Walter, 112 + + Reformation, the, 68, 69 + + Renaissance, the, 69 + + Repertory theatre, the, 193; + and a national theatre, 198 + + Restoration, the, drama, 196 + + "Richard II.," political significance of, 112 + + Robinson, Dick, 21 + + Roderick, Richard, on "Henry VIII.," 91 + + "Romeo and Juliet": second edition of, 31; + breaks in, 41; + early quarto, 47, 49; + Garrick's version, 53; + earliest acting version, 53; + Shakespeare's prologue and change in the motive, 134; + stage representation, 135; + story of the play, 135-155; + hostilities between the two houses, 135, 156; + Rosaline's character, 137; + Irving acting version, 137, 141, 146, 147, 151, 153, 155; + Mercutio, 138; + Capulet's character, 139; + Garrick's version, 140; + "balcony scene," 140; + Shakespeare as Benvolio, 144; + the Friar, 146; + Juliet as wife, 147; + her part overdone on stage, 148; + scenes omitted, 149; + "potion scene," 150; + the catastrophe, 153; + Cumberland version, 155; + mixed nature of the play, 155 + + Rose Theatre, 40, 112 + + Rossi, Signor, as King Lear, 177, 187 + + Rowe's, Nicholas, edition of Shakespeare, 33 + + Royalty Theatre, Soho, 205 + + Ruskin, John, on poets and their courage, 5 + + + Salvini as Othello, 127, 185 + + Sand, George, on popular taste, 194 + + Scenery: disadvantages of, 7; + Mr. Gordon Craig's designs, 222-227 + + Schiller, J. C. F. von, 194 + + Schlegel on "Henry VIII.," 88 + + "Sejanus," 41, 102 + + Shakespeare: and contemporary representation, 3; + effect of absence of theatrical scenery, 8; + avoids interruptions in his plays, 12; + and double story in plays, 14; + interludes, 15; + representations of to-day, 18; + and acting, 20; + and extemporization, 22; + opinion of his comedies, 26; + dramas to-day and discrepancies, 31; + mistakes of editors, 31; + plays published in his lifetime, 31; + the early quartos, 31; + the first folio, 32; + divisions in the plays, 32, 41-44; + Rowe's edition, 33; + Pope's edition, 34; + Steevens's edition, 36; + Capell's edition, 37; + Malone's edition, 37; + Shakespeare as dramatic writer, 39; + arrangement of characters, 41; + plays without intervals, 43; + need of re-editing without divisions, 44; + his income, 45, 96; + dramas ahead of his day, 46; + interpretation of his plays, 46; + acting versions (the quartos), 47; + Bell's edition of 1773, 51; + interference with his dramatic intentions, 53; + shortening of plays, 54; + faulty elocution in modern rendering, 57; + causes of present-day want of appreciation, 59; + need to edit the early quartos for acting, 60; + actors interpret to suit change of opinions, 71; + writes of plays and not of masques, 96; + satire, 107; + his affinities as reflected in his plays, 107; + political allusions, 112; + innovations of the stage, 119; + how modern representations are produced, 120; + contrast between Shakespeare and modern drama, 122; + and prologues, 134; + his tact, 145; + the star actor and mutilation of the plays, 154; + acting editions and the author's intentions, 175; + authoritative acting versions suggested, 175; + should be produced as written, 180; + Shakespeare and democracy, 183; + as revised at Earl's Court, 208-216; + as rendered to-day, 214. + _See also under the names of the separate plays_ + + Shakespeare Memorial Scheme: raising of funds, 227, 228; + history of the movement, 228-233; + the executive's report, 233-240 + + Shakespeare statue, projected, 231 + + "Shakespeare Temple," 229 + + Shaw, Mr. G. Bernard, 194; his "Misalliance," 199; + "John Bull's Other Island," 200 + + Sheridan's "The Rivals," 197 + + Shore, Emily, on "Henry VIII.," 89 + + "Shylock": controversy, 48; + Heine on, 69; + the character of, 70 _et seq._; + as usurer, 72, 75; + paraphrase of the character, 73; + as an old man, 125; + the worsting of, 132 + + Siddons, Mrs.: and Lady Macbeth, 46, 61; + and rendering of Shakespeare, 58 + + Sidney, Sir Philip, and scenery of plays, 6 + + "Silas Marner," George Eliot's, 125 + + Simpson, Richard, 108, 114 + + Spedding, James, on "Henry VIII.," 92 + + Stage: the Elizabethan, and its contemporary dramatists, 3; + ignorance concerning the relations between the theatre and the + dramatists, 14; + quality of the performances, 5; + colour, 6; + scenes, 6; + disadvantages of scenery, 7; + construction of theatres, 10; + quality of the plays, 13; + performance continuous, 14, 43; + Flecknoe on changes after Shakespeare, 16; + length of performance, 17; + opposition, 25; + educational value, 27; + "business" on, 50; + movement on, 95. + _See also_ Theatre + + Stage: the modern, and Shakespeare, 119; + how plays are now produced, 120 + + "Stage Player's Complaint," 57 + + Stationers' Register, the, 15, 98 + + Steevens, George: as Shakespeare editor, 36; + comment on "King Lear," 56 + + Stevenson, Robert Louis, 18 + + "Stranger, The," 196 + + Students' theatre, a, 216 + + Swinburne, A. C., on "Henry VIII.," 93 + + Symonds, J. A., on the Elizabethan theatre, 7, 9 + + + "Tempest, The," 41; + the Gonzalo dialogue, 55 + + Tennyson, Lord, on the authorship of "Henry VIII.," 92 + + Theatre, National: as Shakespeare Memorial, 230, 232-240; + its proposed management, 235-240 + + Theatre, the repertory, 193; + and a national theatre, 198; + a students' theatre, 216 + + Theatres: Elizabethan, construction and small size of, 10; + musical interludes, 11, 40; + length of performance, 17; + the City Corporation and, 25; + the Puritans and, 25. + _See also_ Stage + + Theatres, English and Continental, 217 + + Tragedy, English, and the English stage, 176, 177 + + Tree Sir Herbert, 214, 231 + + "Troilus and Cressida": early quarto, 47; + the mystery of, 98, 115, 116; + in the first folio, 99; + Jonson and, 100 _et seq._; + Chapman and, 100 _et seq._; + dislike of the play, 106; + its satire, 107; + and the Earl of Essex, 108-112; + when written, 113, 114; + Troy story in, 113; + the word used in, 114; + Globe players' rights in, 115 + + Troy story in "Troilus and Cressida," and in "Lucrece," 113 + + "Twelfth Night": constructive art in, 39; + revival of, 205; + mistakes in, at Earl's Court, 210-213; + traditional errors, 214 + + "Two Gentlemen of Verona," 40 + + + Ulrici on "Henry VIII.," 90 + + + Valentine, 39 + + Venetian theatre in 1605, 12 + + Viola, 39 + + "Voysey Inheritance, The," 201 + + + Ward, Dr. A. W., 73, 106 + + Webster, John, 11 + + Women players, effect of their introduction, 61 + + Women's parts, boy actors for, 9 + + Wotton, Sir Henry, 86 + + Wycherley, William, 196 + + +THE END + + +BILLING AND SONS, LTD., PRINTERS, GUILDFORD + + + + +Footnotes: + +[1] Part of a paper read before the Elizabethan Literary Society, November +1, 1893. + +[2] _The National Review_, August, 1890. + +[3] See "The Topical Side of the Elizabethan Drama" in the Transactions of +the New Shakspere Society, 1887. + +[4] The first three articles of this chapter appeared in _The Nation_, +March, 1912. + +[5] Sir Sidney Lee, "Dictionary of National Biography." + +[6] See quotation on p. 21. + +[7] _The Westminster Review_, January, 1909. + +[8] _The New Age_, September 15, 1910. + +[9] _The New Age_, November 28, 1912. + +[10] Part of a paper read before the _New Shakspere Society_ in June, +1887. + +[11] Read at the meeting of the _New Shakspere Society_, Friday, April 12, +1889. + +[12] Read before the _New Shakspere Society_, June 10, 1881; published in +the _Era_, July 2, 1881. + +[13] _The New Age_, September, 1909. + +[14] _The New Age_, November, 1910. + +[15] _Fortnightly Review_, October, 1910, "The Theatrical Situation," by +William Archer. + +[16] "The Paradox of Acting," translated by Walter Herries Pollock. + +[17] _The New Age_, August 22, 1912. + +[18] _The Nation_, August, 1912. + +[19] _The New Age_, June, 1911. + + + + +FROM SIDGWICK & JACKSON'S LIST + + +THE ELIZABETHAN STAGE. + +HENSLOWE'S DIARY. Printed verbatim and literatim from the Original MS. at +Dulwich. Edited by W. W. GREG. Two vols. Crown 4to., cloth, 21s. net. +_Prospectus on application._ + + "The work is a directory of the Elizabethan stage, and will remain + for many years to come the standard book of reference on the + playhouses, companies, and plays of Henslowe's eventful + managership."--_Athenaeum._ + +HENSLOWE PAPERS: Being Documents Supplementary to Henslowe's Diary. Edited +by W. W. GREG. Crown 4to., 10s. 6d. net. _Uniform with the above._ + + "Students of Elizabethan drama will welcome the appearance of this + skilfully edited collection.... The volume forms a contribution + singularly valuable in its own way to the learned literature of + English social history."--_The Scotsman._ + +COLLECTANEA: Being Papers on Elizabethan Dramatists. By CHARLES CRAWFORD. +In two Series, super-royal 16mo., 3s. 6d. net each. + + SERIES I.--Barnfield, Marlowe, and Shakespeare--Ben Jonson's Method + of Composing Verse--Webster and Sidney--Spenser, _Locrine_ and + _Selimus_--The Authorship of _Arden of Feversham_. + + SERIES II.--Montaigne, Webster, and Marston: Donne and Webster--The + Bacon-Shakespeare Question. + + "They should bring him the reputation of a real discoverer in a + well-worked field."--_Athenaeum._ + + "In the latter Mr. Crawford makes good sport with certain Baconians. + Of the conclusions at which he arrives, the first is that the + Baconians ought to know more about Bacon and his contemporaries than + they do, and that if Bacon was any one else than himself, he was Ben + Jonson rather than Shakespeare."--_Spectator._ + +NOTES ON THE HISTORY OF THE REVELS OFFICE UNDER THE TUDORS. By E. K. +CHAMBERS, author of _The Mediaeval Stage_. Demy 8vo., 3s. 6d. net. + + A preliminary study for a book dealing with the conditions of the + London stage during the lifetime of Shakespeare. + + "Mr. Chambers has gathered together a quantity of matter that is not + only interesting to the reader but of inestimable value to the + 'student.'"--_Daily News._ + + +PLAYS PERFORMED BY THE ELIZABETHAN STAGE SOCIETY. + +MARLOWE'S TRAGICAL HISTORY OF DOCTOR FAUSTUS. With a Prologue by A. C. +SWINBURNE. Demy 8vo, wrappers, 1s. net. + +EVERYMAN: A Morality Play. Edited by F. SIDGWICK. Twenty-fifth thousand. +Demy 8vo., wrappers, 1s. net. Also an edition on hand-made paper, stiff +parchment case, 2s. 6d. net. + + +SIDGWICK & JACKSON, LTD., 3 ADAM ST., LONDON, W.C. + + + + +Transcriber's Notes: + +Passages in italics are indicated by _italics_. + +Punctuation has been corrected without note. + +The following misprints have been corrected: + "reponsibilities" corrected to "responsibilities" (Page 26) + "Shakespeares's" corrected to "Shakespeare's" (page 152) + "Shakepeare" corrected to "Shakespeare" (Index) + +Other than the corrections listed above, inconsistencies in spelling and +hyphenation have been retained from the original. + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Shakespeare in the Theatre, by William Poel + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SHAKESPEARE IN THE THEATRE *** + +***** This file should be named 35109.txt or 35109.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/5/1/0/35109/ + +Produced by Chris Curnow and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive.) + + +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. 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