New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1881-11-14
MUSIC AND THE DRAMA.
R1rrCHERY OF SHAKESPEARE.

xour issue Of Yesterday II says that the shape Vi %
play has been altered, tie symmeiTy OF uie S"'5 Luz
been destroyed the characters have Deen t
much OF the original text mas "'e" i7
ofrecogniton." , H.. -. .no4
should hesitate before charging the "rI'er VI I'M
nrticle with ncxcusable Ignorance OF me suyc' upo
which he wrote but the fat remains lha' 'no Su''
+b rl, hos not been changed in the least the chafac
- -, not hoen distorted and Oh ~ the original text
t,od orpcors in its original condition. These state
,oDts a, readily be verified by comparison OF the
CoIcv Clbbcr version Of Twelfth Night" with my
adaptation.
II il true that "the shape OF the play has been
altered" but this consists simply IN transposiuon ~
the scenes and reduction the play from FIVE acts and
seventeep scene. to four and scenes IheTe
appears n wide diversity OF opinion as 10 WhetLer
this transposition and reduction have injured inc p"y
or benefited It; therefore viii not attempt 10 aisuo
this point. / will only cay that ne s'oiy mas D.I
,,reserved the original text has been adherea TO- " o
rIv new matter introduced is that which was neces-
ssry 70 bring forward the characters OF ." A""Te"
Aonseh6sk and Sir Toby Been
b tone of the article in question is in depreciation o.
4be altering Of or amperng WITH the work Of tho great
Toet. Iregret TO be obliged to charge THE TRIBUNE
with Inconsistency in advancing this idea hui Wheh
Robson and Crane are accused OF sacriege in having
trampled upon sacred shakespcarean traditions ana
Edwin Booth Adelaide Nelson, John McCunough'et a.
all of whom committed the crime are Landed to the
skies the excellence Of their work then u sulhe'
me that TIE TRIBUNE is inconsistent.
There is not single ShakespeSrCan play produced ny
either Booth Mccullough Barrett that is not cut ana
transposed and amended, or less, and YET HE
TRIBINE does not charge these actors with cOnocash
Miss Nelson's version OF Twelfth Night" was mutt,
lated and mangled fully rs much as the Nerslon pIv
by Robson and Crane. Not only were 'le sGeo " en-
posed and the dialogue cut but passages IRON ~ w
6cine Measure Measure" and even modern come
dies were luggcd in bring into hoderreief the chalIc
Ter of Vioia And still THE TRIBUNE did not condemn
Miss Nelson on the contrary it Ignore heT treatment
OF the play. and praised her stage work ISvlsuly.
THE TRiBUNE also praised Robson and Cranes version
of the Comedy of Errors" and yet the changes ana
"mutilatons that play were even more radical thah
in their present version of Twelfth Night" ~,
II it is a crime TO tamper with shakespe9res works.
then ali who do so should he condemned. Robson ana
Crane and ysct should not he made TO Suuer dIone LOT
ESSAYS shake and every author who amends
or abrdges the text thereof Trusting tat SOu VII I've
my remOns,IanCe careful cOnslderHuOl am IouT
Jqrerrs riGh Arenue Theatre Nor Tork, Nov 3, 1881.
Uf Mr. Webb we're TO succeed in convictmg HE
TRIBUNE of thousand Inconsistencies, he would
not thereby Justify hlm self Mr. Webb has inserted
new situations and new language into Shakespeare
comedy of Twelfth Night This is fact, and
this fact will stand, against Mr. Webb's DENIAL II
Mr. Webb were to print one or two scenes OF his
version and pre- .ent the text as 1t was spoken the
public would be better able to Judge as TO the char
acter of hsimprovemonts of Shakespeare lie has MOI
restricted himself to cutting the text and
transposing scenes. If he had, there wouu
have been no objection urged against his
N.
"chanred" the story of the play, but that he had
DESTROYED the symmetry of the story. And he has
Indeed it was only by that means that he could
"bring forward" Sir Andrcr and Sir Tony; and to
"bring forward these characters was the main and
ovowed purpose of his work. We do not pretend 10
have charged our memory with all Mr.. Webbs Ut
erary frescocs have we time or space Tor q de-
tailed retro,pecton of those that we remember but
If il be moi distortion to put verbal pun into he
og- o,a roll ~ make
pat his own head and cry oft" and to have him
dragged out neck and crop, by the servants, and
tossed in a blanket then we know not what dis
fortion Is; and if be not butchery OF Shakespeares
text TO make Sir Toby extOl the music made by
Sir AndretU when he gets the viol-de-gambo be-
tween those spindle shanks of his winch is, WORD
for word what we heard Mr.. Crane say,-then there
is no such thing as butchery, and Bowdier was
literary bcnefactOr
It's onite true as observed by Mr. Webb, that
THE TRIBUNE has not made special point of de-
Douncng those old mutilatiOns Of Shakespeare that
have come DOWN to ia from the times of Dryden
Tate Land lowne Cbber, Gdrrick, Sheridan and
others but neither has THE TRIBUNE published
any extra sheets as yet for the purpose Of re re-
hending Noah for landing his Ark on Mount Ararat
instead of the Kaatskills We should hesitate be-
fore charging Mr.. Webb with ineXcnsable ignorance
of ANYTHING whatever; but the fac remains that
tized as such. throughout the best Shakespearean
criticism of q hundred years, and that there is 10
obvious necessity for New-YOTk daily newspaper
TO 90 into this branch of the subject Tate Is dead,
and so is his play; but Mr. Webb'5 offence is fresh
and fragrant and that is why it takes precedence of
Its defunct kindred.
With reference to Mr. Webbs statements as to the
Shakespearean plays presented by Edwin Booth,
John cCullough and the late Adelaide Neilson,they
are simply untrue. Edwin Booth uses habitually
ten of Shalespeare's pieces They all in print,
and acce sble to the public Each OF them contains
the original text of Shakespeare, and nothing else.
"A few excis!ons IN the interest of brevty and de-
cency few variations to division and few trans
positions made with view to sharpen the stage
effect constitute the sum of Mr. Booths changes. No
foreign material has been inserted. Mccullough,
we believe has adopted several of these vcrsionS-
although he still adheres to Cibbers " Richard -
and both Mccullough and Lawrence Barrett are
staunch prac cal advocates for rigid adherence to
the original text of Shakespeare The late Miss
Nelson was an enthusiast on this subject and she
sedulousy labored-especially toward the
last of her great and melancholy
TO restore the true Shakespearean works. The
sion of Twelfth Night " used by her came mp
rs a fresh theme for discussion; but ID would have
been found much truer to Shakespeare than Mr.
Webb represents il to have been. II our treatment
of the first offence of Messrs. Robson and Crane
over-lenient that, perhaps, was an error OF kind
ness 1t has not been repeated this OCCASION and
1t is not likely to be repeated hereafter Mr.. Webb
seems surprised that we do not denOunce every
literary nqiy of the kind that he has perpetrated
The fact that irritated gentlemen are addicted to
writing precisely such letters his, coupled with
the other fact that do desire to be in perpet
ual hot water, may perhaps explain this apparent
nystery.-Ed.l
THE PATTI CONCERT