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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 Elizabeth