The Sun.
London, England, 1864-04-20 00:00:00

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Shakspere not a Man of Parts.

Commemorate the birth of Shakspere indeed
If you knew as much of Shakspere as I do, or had
suffered as much at his hands, you would curse the
day that he ever was born. 1 tell you that Shaks-
pere has written more bad parts than any dramatic
author living, or dead. I ought to know, for I have
been acting in his plays all my life, at least ever
since I Legan to act, and that was when I was young
and a fool, and didn't know better. I won't sub-
scribe to his monument : there. Why should I ?
What has Shakspere done for me ? Done ?
Way, made my life a misery and a torment.
Look at the parts he has written for me. There's
Reynaldo, that's a pretty bit of character, isn't it?
"I will, my lord ;" "My lord, I did intend it ;"
" Ay, very well, my lord ;" "But, my lord ;" "Ay,
my good lord;" "Very well, my lord." And you
have to put on a velvet shirt and a pair of tights to
say that. There's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern in
the same play. . . . You say lam picking out
one or two of the worst parts. Am 1 ? What about
Voltimand, Cornelius, Francisco, Fortinbras, Ber-
nardo, Marceline, the priest, and the captain ? Why,
there are eleven characters in this one play that
are as bad as they can be. Not one of them ever
gets a hand or a laugh. No dramatic author of
the present day would dare to write such bad
parts. Why, the very supers would strike at
them, let alone general utility. Take any play you
like; one is as bad as another. The Merchant of
Venice ? What do you think arc the feelings of an
actor who has to buy a pair of new silk tights to
play Salanio, or Salarino ? They're both swells,
and must wear silk tights; but they haven't a good
line between them. A pretty thing, too, to have to
dress yourself up for the Prince of Arragon, and
find your own tights, hat, shoes, and jewellery.
Once, when I was Prince of Morocco, I didn't have
a dinner for a week, having been obliged to si end
all my salary on the get up. Shakspere, as en
actor himself, ought to have known better than
write such parts. Let me see what are
the other characters in the play—Salerio, Leo-
nardo, Balthazar, Stephano, and the Duke. I
have played every one of them, and never
could make anything of them—never knew any-
body that could. Macbeth better ? Not a bit.
Worse. What do you say to Lennox, Reese, Men-
teith, Angus, Caithness, Fleance, Siward, old and
young, the Doctor, the bleeding officer, the porter,
the old man ? Why, it swarms with bad parte.
Othello is not so bad ; but yet you can't say there's
much to be made of the Duke of Venice and Ludo-
vico. There's only one merit in Shakepere's dukes,
and that is, that they generally sit at a table and
don't show their legs. You may wear your street
trousers; only you must be careful to keep the
tablecloth before you when you get up, so as not to
show them. Take King John: I've played the
King of France, but I must say a more ungrateful
part I never dressed for ; and a king too
Cardinal Pandnlph is not worth a —; well, if you
object to the word, I'll say straw, which is weak,
and doesn't half express my feelings. I repeat, the
Cardinal is not worth—allow me to say, a maledic-
tion, even when doubled with the Citizen of Anglers,
Rho has to stand on a box with a tin pot on his head
on t:.le top of a pasteboard battlement, at the risk of
his naeß. I once went on for Cardinal Pandulph in
a red froc:.z and sugar-loaf hat, which is the correct
thing, and somebody called out " Mother Shipton
by Jove!" ana when I popped my head over the
battlements afterwards as the Citizen, the boys in
the gallery shallooed me. It is no joke, I can tel
you, to be a cardinal one minute and a citizen on the
top of a wall the next.—Dickens' • 411 the Year
Bound."