New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1867-01-29
REVIVTNG SHAKESPEARE.

We rather dissent from Mr. Stuarts announce
ment of "Shakespearean Revival" although
we thank him for doing for the stage what Few
managers have had the intrepidity to do. 10
revive play memorable for scenery, and dane
ing, and music-tO bring upon the stage q
melodrama-is the merest mercenary enterprise.
Sometimes we have foreign importation,
which attracts very much as an elephant, or
giraffe. The most popular drama ever
performed in New-York owes its attraction to
the belief that it panders to questionable taste,
and in some of our theaters we find managers
connecting with each other as to who shall
show the most attractive disregard of morality.
We do not say this in canting spirit; for the
ballet is not bad, and the beauty OF form and
motion is not to be condemned. The human
form, decked and draped, moving purely ana
gracefully to the tones of music, and the vary
ing figures of the dance, has poetry OF lts
own.
It is not the element of beauty, we fear, which
leads our managers to vie with each other IN
sensational dramas. Mr.. Stuart and Mr.
Booth deserve commentator for daring in
new path To revive Shakespeare, and play
his dramas with the addition of elaborate and
gorgeous scenery; to see that every dress Is
historical, every piece of furniture copied liter
ally, and the details of the scenery exact to
give us Hamlet as he lived, and the castle at
ElsinOre as it was; to bring the Rialto upon the
stage and have the laws Of Venice determined
in q Venetian court, is o noble ambition, and
we thank Mr.. Stuart for making the effort
We have nothing nearer to us than Shake
speare. He embodies the poetry, the wit, the
beauty. the life of English literature; and
to have him torn, and clipped, and amended, by
blacksmiths like Colley Cibber, merely to make
an effect, is to us the objectionable
sin of the drama. We honor an actor
for daring a new reading, or invent
ing a new situation. When Mr. Fechter
wears an auburn wig in Hamlet, and Mr. Mont
gomery tears out page Of Hamlets imaginary
Juvenal, as he speaks Of ISLANDERS, we may crit
icize them as fops stage dandies, milliner TRACE
dams. Yet the spirit is well, for they mean to
do their work and speak their parts as they
should be spoken. We leave tho critics to de-
termine the precise rank Of Mr.. Booth Perhaps
he is our creates. tragedian. We shall not say so
for he is too yOm man to be smothered by
flattery; and with the exception of Hamlet,
Iago, and Othello perhaps, there is no Shakes
pearean part which he has invested with more
than ordinary interest. His Richard is tradl-
tional, his Romeo tame; although Richard and
Romeo as written by Shakespeare and not as
played by the stage-managers, are grand crea-
tiOns and worthy of as keen study as Hamlet.
Not to have done this is not Mr. Booths fault
for we must give him time. We are content to
see that he uses his time WELL He can do
nothing better than revive Shakespeares
dramas in a manner worthy of Shakespeare,
and we thank him for giving us the Merchant
of Venice as superbly as it was performed at
the Winter Garden last evening. Society de-
mands dignity, and purity, and elevation of the
the stage, and we are rejoiced to see its minis
tiers anxious to attain the nOblest mission OF
the Drama.