CHAPTER V
SHAKESPEARE AS AN ACTOR
Nearly a quarter of a century of Shakespeare’s life was passed in the theatrical world. Under these circumstances we should naturally expect to find scattered through his works many allusions in connexion with the stage. On this point we shall not be disappointed; with the exception of “Titus Andronicus,” which many critics discredit the Shakesperean authorship, every play contains references to the contemporary stage.
By carefully reading through all the plays of Shakespeare, and assisted materially by Bartlett’s concordance, I have extracted all such allusions and have appended notes, which I hope will be found useful and instructive.
Shakespeare played many parts in connexion with the theatre, one of the most important being that of an actor; chiefly in that capacity he acquired a great advantage over his fellow dramatists. By adopting this career, he gained a thorough knowledge of stage-craft in all its minute ramifications, which in a great measure assisted him most materially in his vocation as a practical playwright: and his rapid and marvellous progress as a dramatist must in some degree be due to his having studied the requirements of the stage in all its branches.
Molière, the great French dramatist, who wrote in the middle of the seventeenth century, is another instance of a successful dramatist, being also an actor.
When we enquire how far Shakespeare succeeded in his profession, or with what parts his name is associated, we are again baffled, and that mystery which enshrouds the entire life of this mighty genius again defies us. The First Folio of Shakespeare’s works was published in the year 1623. In one of the preliminary pages is a list of actors’ names who took part in the several plays; at the head of this list is the name of Shakespeare, but this by no means qualifies him as ranking first in the order of merit. Richard Burbage, whose name stands second, was the greatest actor of his time, and in this capacity is highly praised by his contemporaries, whereas the name of Shakespeare is rarely mentioned as an actor. There is a tradition that he acted the part of Adam in “As You Like It,” which the following passage, written by Oldys about the year 1650, corroborates. This author wrote many notes on the life of Shakespeare, which were used by Reed, an editor of Shakespeare’s works:
“One of Shakespeare’s younger brothers, who lived to a good old age, even some years as I compute, after the Restoration of Charles the Second, would in his younger days come to London to visit his brother Will, as he called him, and be a spectator of him as an actor in some of his own plays. This custom, as his brother’s fame enlarged, and his dramatic entertainments grew the greatest support of our principal, if not of all our theatres, he continued, it seems, so long after his brother’s death, as even to the latter end of his own life. But when questioned, it seems he was so stricken in years and infirmities, which might make him the easier pass for a man of weak intellect, that he could but give them very little light into their enquiries; and all that he recollected of his brother Will in that station was the faint, general and almost lost ideas he had of having once seen him act a part in one of his own comedies, wherein, having to personate a decrepit old man, he wore a long beard, and appeared so weak and drooping and unable to walk that he was forced to be supported and carried by another person to a table, at which he was seated among some company, who were eating, and one of them giving a song.”
Another well known tradition is that Shakespeare played the part of the Ghost in his own play Hamlet. Rowe, the first real editor of Shakespeare, mentions this almost as a fact; he further adds that this part was the top of his performance, although he gives no authority for either statement. John Davies, poet and epigrammatist, in a few lines, circa 1611, addressed “To our English Terence Mr. Will Shakespeare,” mentions that he enacted Kingly parts, but gives no further particulars. The same writer had previously alluded to Shakespeare as a player in a work entitled, “Microcosmus,” dated 1603. Sir Richard Baker, in his chronicle history of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, published in 1643, mentions Shakespeare in the double capacity of poet and player. As the reference is rather interesting, I append it in full:
“Men of Note in her times (Elizabeth) (Statesmen, Writers and Divines). After such men it might be thought ridiculous to speak of stage-players, but seeing excellence in the meanest things desires remembering, as Roscius, the Comedian, is recorded in History with such commendation, it may be allowed us to do the same, with some of our Nation. Richard Burbage and Edward Allen, two such actors as no age must ever look to see the like, and to make their comedies complete, Richard Tarleton, who for the Part called the Clown’s Part never had his match, never will have. For writers of Plays, and such as had been players themselves, William Shakespeare and Benjamin Jonson have specially left their names recommended to posterity.”