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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