In 1864 Victor Hugo expressed the opinion that the expenses of a Shakespeare memorial in London ought to be defrayed by the British Government. There is small likelihood of assistance from that source. Individual effort can alone be relied upon; and it is doubtful if it be desirable to seek official aid. A great national memorial of Shakespeare in London, if it come into being at all on the lines which would alone justify its existence, ought to embody individual enthusiasm, ought to express with fitting dignity the personal sense of indebtedness and admiration which fills the hearts of his fellow-men.
INDEX
Acting, importance of, in Shakespearean drama, [13];
evil effects of long runs, [14];
Shakespeare on, [45], [47]
Actor-manager, his merits and defects, [125], [126]
Actors, training of, [139];
English, in France, [203].
(See also [Benson, Mr F.R.], and [Boys].)
Æschylus, statue of, [233]
Albert, Prince (Consort), and Shakespeare's birthplace, [222];
statues of, [237]
Alleyn, Edward, [191], [194]
Annual Register of 1770, [194]
Aristotle, Shakespeare's mention of, [144], [145];
Bacon's study of, [145]
Arnold, Matthew, on Shakespeare, [29]
Astronomy, Shakespeare on, [146]
Athens, statuary at, [233]
Aubrey, John, his gossip about Shakespeare, [67], [68]
Austria, subsidised theatres in, [131], [134]
Bacon, Anthony, in France, [203]
Bacon, Francis, philosophical method of, [143];
on memorial monuments in New Atlantis, [234], [235]
Bacon, Sir Nicholas, his fame in France, [204]
Badger, Mr Richard, proposal for a Shakespeare monument, [219]
Bannister, John, his music for The Tempest, [107]
Barker, Mr Granville, as Richard II., [13] n.
Basse, William, his tribute to Shakespeare, [50]
Beeston, Christopher, Elizabethan actor, [64]
Beeston, William the first, patron of Nash, [64]
Beeston, William the second, his theatrical career, [65], [66];
his gossip about Shakespeare, [65];
his conversation, [66];
Aubrey's account of, [67]
Beethoven, statue of, [233]
Beljame, Alexandre, on English literature, [201];
death of, [201]
[Benson], Mr F.R., his company of actors, [111];
his principles, [112] seq.;
list of Shakespeare plays produced by, [114] n.;
his production of Hamlet unabridged, [116]-118;
his training of actors, [119];
his services to Shakespeare, [121];
his pupils on the London stage, [130]
Berkenhout, John, [195]
Betterton, Thomas, at Stratford-on-Avon, [73];
contributes to Rowe's biography, [73], [76];
his rendering of Hamlet, [101], [102]
Biography, art of, in England, [51]
Bishop, Sir William, [76]
Bishopsgate (London), Shakespeare at, [226], [227]
Blackfriars, Shakespeare's house at, [227]
Boileau, and English literature, [199]
Bolingbroke, in Richard II., patriotism of, [173]
Bowman, John, actor, [69];
at Stratford-on-Avon, [76]
[Boys] in women's parts in Elizabethan theatres, [19], [41];
abandonment of the practice, [43];
superseded by women, [88], [89]
Buchanan, George, his plays, [204]
Burbage, Richard, Shakespeare's friend and fellow-actor, [33]
Burns, Mr John, [131]
Burns, Robert, French study of, [201];
monument to, [233], [237]
Byron, Lord, on Petrarch at Arquà, [225];
statue of, [237]
Calderon, [136];
monument to, [233]
Calvert, Charles A., his Shakespearean productions at Manchester, [12] n.
Camoens, monument to, [233]
Capital and the literary drama, [124], [126], [127], [128]
Carlyle, Thomas, statue of, [237]
Cataline's Conspiracy, by Ben Jonson, [30], [31]
Ceremony, Shakespeare on, [157], [158]
Chantrey, Sir Francis, and commemoration of Shakespeare, [216]
Charlecote, Shakespeare's escapade at, [76]
Chaucer, Geoffrey, French influence on, [199]
Clarendon, Lord, on Shakespeare, [78]
Cockpit theatre, Drury Lane, [65], [86]
Cockpit theatre, Whitehall, [87] and n.
Coleman, John, on the subsidised theatre, [132]
Coleridge S.T., and commemoration of Shakespeare, [216]
Congreve, William, [91]
Coriolanus and the patriotic instinct, [178], [179]
Cromwell, Oliver, statue of, [237]
Davenant, Robert, Sir William's brother, [70]
D'Avenant, Sir William: theatrical manager, [67];
his youth at Oxford, [69];
relations in boyhood with Shakespeare, [70];
elegy on Shakespeare, [71];
champion of Shakespeare's fame, [71];
his story of Shakespeare and Southampton, [72];
his influence on Betterton, [72];
manager of the Duke's Company, [87] n.;
as dramatist, [91];
his adaptations of Shakespeare, [103]-105, [106] n., [108]
Deschamps, Eustace, on Chaucer, [199]
Desportes, Philippe, and Elizabethan poetry, [199]
D'Israeli, Isaac, on Steevens's forgery, [195]
Downs, John, prompter and stage annalist, [63]
Dramatic societies in England, [129]
Dress, Shakespeare on extravagant, [185]
Drunkenness, Shakespeare on, [185]
Dryden, John, on William Beeston, [66];
as dramatist, [91];
his share in the adaptation of The Tempest, [105]
Du Bellay, Joachim, and Elizabethan poetry, [199]
Ducis, Jean François, his translation of Shakespeare, [207], [208]
Dugdale, Sir William, [74]
Dumas père, on Shakespeare, [206];
his translation of Hamlet, [209]-211
Dyce, Alexander, on Steevens's forgery, [196]
Elizabeth, Queen, summons Shakespeare to Greenwich, [31]
Elizabethan Stage Society, [13] n.
England, Shakespeare on history of, [180]
Ennius on poetic fame, [232]
Etherege, Sir George, [91]
Eton College, debate about Shakespeare at, [78]
Euripides, statue of, [233]
Evelyn, John, on Hamlet, [90]
Farquhar, George, [91]
Faulconbridge (in King John), patriotism of, [174]
Fletcher, John, his Custom of the Country, [92], [93];
its obscenity, [93]
Folio, the First [of Shakespeare's plays], actors' co-operation in, [59];
list of actors in, [61];
rejected by Pepys, [94]
Folio, the Second [of Shakespeare's plays], in France, [205]
Folio, the Third [of Shakespeare's plays], purchased by Pepys, [94]
Folio, the Fourth [of Shakespeare's plays], in Pepysian library, [94]
France, subsidised theatres in, [131], [134];
Shakespeare in, [198] seq.;
English actors in, [203]
Freedom of the will, Shakespeare on, [166]
Fuller, Thomas, his Worthies of England, [52];
notice of Shakespeare, [52]
Garrick, David, his stage costume, [18]
Gentleman's Magazine of 1801, [195]
George IV. and commemoration of Shakespeare, [215]
German drama, [129], [135], [136]
Germany, subsidised theatres in, [131], [134]
Goethe, [136];
monument to, [233]
Greene, Robert, French translation of romance by, [199]
Grendon, tradition of Shakespeare at, [77]
"Grenovicus" contributes to Gentleman's Magazine, [195]
Hales, John, of Eton, [78]
Hall, Bishop Joseph, French translation of works by, [199]
Hart, Charles, Shakespeare's grand-nephew, actor, [59], [68]
Hauptmann, Gerhart, [135]
Henry V., on kingly ceremony, [157];
patriotism of, [175], [182]
Heywood, Thomas, projected Lives of the Poets, [54] n.;
affection for Shakespeare, [65];
his Apology for Actors, [65]
History plays of Shakespeare, character of, [180]
Hobbes, Thomas, in France, [200]
Howe, Josias, on a Shakespeare tradition, [77]
Hugo, Victor, on Shakespeare, [206];
on Shakespeare memorial, [241]
Imagination in the audience, [22], [47], [48]
Ingres, Jean, his painting of Shakespeare, [206]
Irving, Sir Henry, experience of Shakespearean spectacle, [10];
and the literary drama, [123];
and the municipal theatre, [132];
and French drama, [200]
Irving, Washington, and commemoration of Shakespeare, [216]
James I., his alleged letter to Shakespeare, [72]
James II., statue of, [236]
John of Gaunt in Richard II., dying speech of, [115]-116, [181]
Johnson, Dr, on false patriots, [171]
Jonson, Ben, testimony to Shakespeare's popularity, [29];
his classical tragedies compared with Shakespeare's, [30];
his elegy on Shakespeare, [50], [232];
his dialectical powers contrasted with Shakespeare's, [53];
on the players' praise of Shakespeare, [60];
his son, Shakespeare's godson, [61];
Beeston's talk of, [67];
popularity of his plays at Restoration, [91], [92]
Jusserand, Jules, on English literature, [202];
his Shakespeare in France, [203]
Kean, Charles, experience of Shakespearean spectacle, [9];
Macready's criticism of, [14]
Kemp, William, Elizabethan comedian, [33]
Killigrew, Tom, manager of the King's Company, [87] n.
Kingship, Shakespeare on, [155]-160, [180]-182
Kirkman, Francis, his account of William Beeston the second, [66]
Lacy, John, actor, [67];
acquaintance with Ben Jonson, [68];
adaptation of The Taming of the Shrew, [108]
Lawrence, Sir Thomas, and commemoration of Shakespeare, [216]
Lessing, [136]
Lincoln's Inn Fields (Portugal Row), Theatre at, [86], [87] and n.
Literary drama, on the modern stage, [123];
antagonism of capital to, [126]-128
Lives of the Poets of the seventeenth century, [54]
Locke, John, in France, [200]
Locke, Matthew, Shakespearean music of, [105], [108]
Logic, Shakespeare on, [146]
London, Shakespeare's association with, [226] seq.;
statues in, [236], [237];
proposed sites for Shakespeare monument in, [239]
London County Council, and the theatre, [130], [131];
and subsidised enlightenment, [133];
and Shakespeare monument, [219]
London Trades Council and the theatre, [132]
Lowin, John, original actor in Shakespeare's plays, [61];
coached by Shakespeare in part of Hamlet, [63], [71], [72]
Lycurgus, Attic orator, [233]
Macready, W.C., his criticism of spectacle, [14]
Marlowe, Christopher, Shakespeare's senior by two months, [37], [193]
Massinger, Philip, his Bondman, [92], [93]
Mathews, Charles, on a monument of Shakespeare, [214]
Mercy, Shakespeare on, [152], [153]
Metaphysics, Shakespeare on, [146]-148
Mill, John Stuart, statue of, [237]
Milton, his elegy on Shakespeare, [51], [231]
Molière, accepted methods of producing his plays, [16], [18], [136]
Montaigne, Michel de, and Anthony Bacon, [203];
his essays in English, [204]
Moore, Thomas, and commemoration of Shakespeare, [216]
More, Sir Thomas, his Utopia in France, [204]
Municipal theatre, its justification, [122];
in Europe, [134]
Musset, Alfred de, on Shakespeare, [206]
Nash, John, and commemoration of Shakespeare, [216]
Nash, Thomas, [64]
Nodier, Charles, his Pensées de Shakespeare, [211]-213
Norwegian drama, [129]
Obedience, the duty of, [161]
Oldys, William, antiquary, [68], [69]
Opera in England, [131]
Oxford, the Crown Inn at, [69];
Shakespeare at, [70];
visitors from, to Stratford, [75]-77
Patriotism, Shakespeare on, [170] seq.
Peele, George, alleged letter of, [189] seq.
Pepys, Samuel, his play-going experience, [81]-86;
on Elizabethan and Jacobean drama, [91]-93;
on Shakespeare, [94] seq.;
his attitude to poetic drama, [95], [96];
his musical setting of "To be or not to be," [100]
Petrarch, his tomb at Arquà, [225]
Phelps, Samuel, at Sadler's Wells, [11];
list of plays produced by, [11], [114] n.;
his mode of producing Shakespeare, [12];
on a State theatre in London, [120];
on public control of theatres, [140], [141]
Philosophy, Shakespeare's attitude to, [143] seq.
Pindar on poetic fame, [232]
Platter, Thomas, journal of his London visit (1599), [38]
[Playhouses] in London, Blackfriars, [227];
Drury Lane, [86], [87] and n.;
"The Globe," [38], [227];
"The Red Bull," [86];
Sadler's Wells, [11];
Salisbury Court, Whitefriars, [66], [86];
"The Theatre" at Shoreditch, [37], [227]
Pope, Alexander, and French literature, [199];
on the Shakespeare cenotaph, [216]
Richardson, Samuel, in France, [200]
Robinson, Richard, actor, [68]
Ronsard, Pierre de, and Elizabethan poetry, [199];
in England, [203]
Rousseau, J.J., and English literature, [200]
Rowe, Nicholas, Shakespeare's first formal biographer, [54];
his acknowledgment to Betterton, [73];
his biography of Shakespeare, [79], [80]
Royal ceremony, irony of, [158]
Russell, Lord John, on patriotism, [172]
Sadler's Wells Theatre, [11]
Sand, George, on Shakespeare, [206]
Sardou, Victorien, work of, [200]
Scenery, its purpose, [5];
uselessness of realism, [23]
Schiller, on the German stage, [136];
monument to, [233]
Scott, Sir Walter, and commemoration of Shakespeare, [216], [232];
Edinburgh monument of, [238]
Sedley, Sir Charles, [91]
Seneca on mercy, [153] n.
Shadwell, Thomas, [67],
adaptation of The Tempest, [106] n.
Shakespeare, Edmund, actor, [227]
Shakespeare, Gilbert, actor, [68]
Shakespeare, William, his creation of the Ghost in Hamlet, [27];
contemporary popularity of, [29];
at Court, [31];
early London career, [32];
advice to the actor, [45];
his modest estimate of the actor's powers, [47];
elegies on death of, [49];
Fuller's notice of, [52];
early biographies of, [54];
oral tradition of, in seventeenth century, [55];
similarity of experience with that of contemporary dramatists and actors, [57];
Elizabethan players' commendation of, [60];
resentment with a publisher, [65];
William Beeston's reminiscences of, [67];
Stratford gossip about, [74]-76;
present state of biographical knowledge, [81];
his attitude to philosophy, [143] seq.;
his intuition, [149]-150;
concealment of his personality, [150];
his private sentiments, [151];
on mercy, [152]-153;
on rulers of states, [154];
on divine right of kings, [159];
on obedience, [161];
on social order, [162]-163;
on freedom of the will, [166];
on women's will, [168];
his humour and optimism, [169];
on patriotism, [170] seq.;
on English history, [180];
on social foibles, [184]-186;
commemoration of, in London, [214] seq.;
portraits of, [239]
Shakespearean drama, attitude of students and actors to, [1];
costliness of modern production, [2];
the simple method and the public, [8];
Charles Kean's spectacular method, [9];
Irving's method, [10];
plays produced by Phelps, [11];
reliance on the actor, [13];
in Vienna, [17];
advantage of its performance constantly and in variety, [23];
importance of minor rôles of, [115];
its ethical significance, [164], [165];
in France, [198] seq.;
and British prestige, [229]
——, (separate plays):—
Antony and Cleopatra in Vienna, [17]
Coriolanus, political significance of, [164];
and patriotism, [178]
Cymbeline (III. i., 16-22), on patriotism, [183]
Hamlet, Shakespeare's performance of the Ghost, [27];
early popularity of the play, [29];
Pepys's criticism of, [95], [99]-101;
the stage abridgment contrasted with the full text, [117]-119
Henry IV. (Part I.), Pepys's criticism of, [97], [98]
Henry V., meaning of first chorus, [19], [46];
quoted, [157], [158], [162]
Julius Cæsar, preferred by contemporary playgoers to Jonson's Cataline, [31];
political significance of, [164]
Lear, King, performed at Elizabeth's Court, [36];
quarto of, [36]
Love's Labour's Lost, performed at Court, [34];
title-page of the quarto, [35]
Macbeth, Pepys's criticism of, [104]-105;
quoted, [156]
Measure for Measure, ethics of, [164]
Merry Wives of Windsor, The, title-page of the quarto, [36];
Pepys's criticism of, [97]
Midsummer Night's Dream, A, Pepys's criticism of, [96]
Othello, Pepys's criticism of, [95], [98], [99]
Richard II., purport of John of Gaunt's dying speech, [115]-116, [181]
Romeo and Juliet, Pepys's criticism of, [96]
Tempest, The, Pepys's criticism of, [105]-108;
spectacular production of, at Restoration, [107]
Troilus and Cressida (II. ii., 166), on Aristotle, [144], [145];
(I. iii., 101-124), on social equilibrium, [163]
Twelfth Night, Pepys's criticism of, [96]
Sheffield, John, Earl of Mulgrave and Duke of Buckinghamshire, [72]
Shoreditch, the theatre in, [227]
Sidney, Sir Philip, French translations of Arcadia, [199], [204]
Somerset, the "proud" Duke of, on Shakespeare, [79]
Sophocles, statue of, [233]
Southampton, Earl of, and Shakespeare, [72]
Southwark, the Globe Theatre at, [227]
Spenser, Edmund, Beeston's gossip about, [67]
Steevens, George, character of, [191];
a forged letter by, [192], [193]
Sterne, Laurence, in France, [200]
Stevenson, R.L., his imaginary discovery of lost works by Shakespeare, [25]
Stratford-on-Avon, Shakespeare's tomb at, [50];
Betterton at, [73];
visitors from Oxford to, [75], [76], [77];
Shakespeare tradition at, [75], [76];
Shakespeare memorials at, [218];
destruction of New Place, [221];
the monumental committee of, [221];
sale of Shakespeare's birthplace, [222];
purchase of New Place site, [223];
the Birthplace Trust, [223], [224]
Suckling, Sir John, his love for Shakespeare, [71]
Sudermann, Hermann, [135]
Tate, Nahum, his adaptations of Shakespeare, [103], [104]
Theatres in Elizabethan London, [36];
seating arrangements, [39];
prices of admission, [39];
the scenery, [40];
the costumes, [41];
contrast between their methods of production and those of later date, [44]
Theatres, at Restoration, [86];
characteristics of, [87]-90.
(See also [Playhouses].)
Theatrical Review of 1763, [190]
Theatrical spectacle in Shakespearean drama, effect of excess, [3];
its want of logic, [4];
its costliness, [7];
at the Restoration, [89], [109];
at the present day, [110]
Thomson, James, French study of, [201]
Tuke, Sir Samuel, his Adventures of Five Hours, [98]-99
Taylor, Joseph, original actor in Shakespeare's plays, [61];
coached by Shakespeare in part of Henry VIII., [63], [71], [72]
Vanbrugh, Sir John, [91]
Veronese, Paolo, statue of, [233]
Victoria, Queen, and Stratford-on-Avon, [222];
statues of, [237]
Vienna, production of Antony and Cleopatra at the Burg-Theater, [17];
types of subsidised theatres at, [136], [138];
conservatoire of actors at, [139]
Voltaire on Shakespeare, [205], [206]
War, popular view of, [177]
Ward, John, vicar of Stratford-on-Avon, [74];
his Diary, [74]
Warner, Mrs, at Sadler's Wells, [11]
Wellington, Duke of, monument to, [238]
Westminster Abbey, Shakespeare's exclusion from, [50];
his cenotaph in, [215]-216
Will, freedom of, [166]
Women, Shakespeare's views on, [168]
Wordsworth, William, French study of, [201]
Wycherley, William, [91]
Young, Edward, French study of, [201]
FOOTNOTES
[1] This paper was first printed in The Nineteenth Century, January 1900.
[2] A minor practical objection, from the dramatic point of view, to realistic scenery is the long pause its setting on the stage often renders inevitable between the scenes. Intervals of the kind, which always tends to blunt the dramatic point of the play, especially in the case of tragic masterpieces, should obviously be as brief as possible.
[3] It is just to notice, among endeavours of the late years of the past century, to which I confine my remarks here, the efforts to produce Shakespearean drama worthily which were made by Charles Alexander Calvert at the Prince's Theatre, Manchester, between 1864 and 1874. Calvert, who was a warm admirer of Phelps, attempted to blend Phelps's method with Charles Kean's, and bestowed great scenic elaboration on the production of at least eight plays of Shakespeare. Financially the speculation saw every vicissitude, and Calvert's experience may be quoted in support of the view that a return to Phelps's method is financially safer than a return to Charles Kean's. More recently the Elizabethan Stage Society endeavoured to produce, with a simplicity which erred on the side of severity, many plays of Shakespeare and other literary dramas. No scenery was employed, and the performers were dressed in Elizabethan costume. The Society's work was done privately, and did not invite any genuine test of publicity. The representation by the Society on November 11, 1899, in the Lecture Theatre at Burlington House, of Richard II., in which Mr Granville Barker played the King with great charm and judgment, showed the fascination that a competent rendering of Shakespeare's text exerts, even in the total absence of scenery, over a large audience of suitable temper.