The Arkansaw traveler., 1889-09-28

sidered e an indispensable appendage of hero. Long perukes and top- knots held their grip in hercica tragedy long as In real life and after that for considerable period the actor who should Eled hair would have been looked upon as . bar baran. Think, now, of one of our trAgedians wear ing such head covering, mounted with . helmet variegated feathers and c taieta scarf hutssring over paper coat of mail
 Although the earlier English stage was barren of decoration, 1t was certainly not destitute of machinery. The celebrated architect, Inigo Jones' who hourished contemporaneously with James l., devised elaborate mechanism for Ben Jonson's Maques, which were acted at court
 When the stage had remained . moment empty and other persons came in by another entrance the spectator was presumed to suppose change Of scene had been made. Thus the author was not obliged to consult the scenic artist to know what could or could not be represented. He was not driven to impose restraint the action as to time and place, but represented it 1t would naturally have occurred-leaving the imagination to fill up the intervals In harmony with the text and to con- ceive all the surroundings. Of course this call the imagination presupposes intelligence and poetic feeling in the auditor. One consummAte observer of the stage holds that the only true illusion Is when the sitter at play Is 90 carried away by his impressions of the poetry and the acting that he overooks secondary matters and forgets the remain ing objects around him.
 In dialogue which Is prehxed to volume of DOubleye" "Ol0 rays several Eng guenmen expfe8s the opinion that the actors of the Elizabethan period greatly superior to those of the Resto- ration, with the possible exception of David Gar rick. As to Shakespeare himself no certain account has been obtained that he ever appeared in one of his principal characters. We do know, however that he played the Ghost, in "Hamlet," which has always been regarded as a very important part and for which to this day the leading man of the com- pany is cast. On the restoration of the theatre under the second Charles traditions and authentic records of the former theatrical epoch were col lected with much assiduity. From these we learn that Lowin the original Hdnlet instructed Better ton in that character. There still alive brother of Shakespeare, decrepit old man who had never had any literary cultivation and whose memory was impaired by age. From him the antiquaries could learn nothing beyond the fact that he had sometimes gons up to London to visit his brother and once saw him play an old man with white hair and beard. It was conjec- tured that this must have been Adam In "As You Like It."
 There is no room for doubt that the stage of ShAkespeare's time had many "bad actors 1" bur- les ques of whom and satirical alusions to whom literally found in the plays of the master him. self. "Shakespeare," says an able commentator appears to have had all the fexibility of mind and all the modesty of Raphael, who also, without ever being an imitator, or becoming unfaithful to his sublime and tranquil genius, applied to his own advantage all the improvements of his oom- petitors."-DetrOn Free Press.