, 1877-11-11

The poetry OF SHAhSPEARE Is often lost
sight OF by those who know the plays prin-
cipal}y through stage representations Of them.
4 debt of gratitude is therefore duo the au-
thor of an article on st The Non~Dramatic in
SHAKESPEARE " in the last number of the In
te,motionaI Reci,p. The people should have
better acquaintance with SHAKsPEARE, and
We do not SEQ that they are likely to get one,
in the present condition OF dramatic art, by
attendance upon the theatre. The play is
decidedly not the thing to which reverent
students of SHAKESPEARE now attach the most
value. CHARLES LAMn's 5 tlictuua, that the plays
ought mover to be seen on the stage, sounded
like blnspheny when uttered but it is now
received, if not with perfect acquiescence, at
least with respect, by the majority Of think
ing people. No one who is familiar with the
history of dramatic literature will underesti-
mate the obligations Of SHAKspEAnE, in COM
mon with nll tho poets Of his period, to the
stage; nor will any frequenter of the theatres
deny that Of late years it has done much to
elevate and purify the old versions Of his
works. But there wos time when it tend
ed hopelessly to degrade all that was fine in
SHAKESPEARE. The patch1ngs Of DRYDEN,
DAyESASr, and little DAyr GAHn1cK were in
their day mistaken foz weavings Of the poets
own genius; or, if the interpretations were
noticed, they were not regarded. It was es-
teemed nothing out Of the common that
GAnn1cK should presume to write dying
speech into *'Macbeth," while CHEERS
reputation rs an inprover Of SHAKESPEARE
has extended toour time. 0nly few weeks
ago, when S1r. BoorH played the originnl
version of 'tRichard Ill" in this city, he
found three-quarters of his audience cropping
about hopelessly for the familiar lines OF
C1BBEE, which they had always mistaken for
the coinage Of the poets brain. It
was to some of them Like 1'HAmlet l. -
without Hamlet to have Richard III"
without Henry ". !; and it WIS n
service without do1ology or bencdiction to
play without ssOf with his head; SO much for
Buckingham" and ''Now, by st. Paul, the
work goes bravcly on" This peculiar ig-
norance of any but the stage versions of
SHAKESPEARE is not peculiar to our own times;
indeed, is less now than it was when the
plays were written, or when they were
played, in the last century, by the greatest
actors the English stage has ever known.
Mrs. PngTcHARp, who is called the best Lady
Macbeth Of tho stage. is said never to have
read any moro of that play tkan her own
part; and there was another great actor of
those times-31AcK11s, we believe it was
who played O. patched version of s' Macbeth
for @ lifetime in blssful unconsciousncss of
the fact that it hnd been altered from the
original. Affairs are not SO bad with us.
Thanks to the efforts OF such conscientious
actors Us Mr. EDWIN BoorH and 1Ir. MAcnEA-
pr, who have supplied by zeal and in
te11igeuce many deficiencies Of Nnture, the
drift Of the stage now is in the direction Of
scrupulous adherence to the original text.
But this, after all, is only tendency, which,
even if it should reach its legitimate conclu-
sions, would not make the stage the best e1-
ponent of the thought Of SnAKspEAgE- Until
dramatic art can qualify number Of actors
to speak the sublime poetry Of SHAKESPEARE
intellgently, SO that in any one cast there
shall not be from two to ten marplots, the
poetry of the plays can only be admired as
it deserves in the closet.
The author Of the article in the Interna-