Morning journal and courier., 1894-02-09
sHAKEsPEARE LECTURES: I

A Large Audience Listens to an Ad-
 mirable Lecture by Professor Louns- | bury The Elfzabethan Drama Compared to the Power of the Press l An Effective Political Engine-The Small store Set by PlayWrights on
 Their Works.
 A large and highly cultivated audience assembled in the United church chapel last evening to hear Professor Lounsbury's first lecture in his course on Shakespeare. The speaker was introduced by Rev. Dr. Munzer, and he spoke in part as followe:
 ''Ay aim in this opening lecture will be to show the social, political and literary influences which were operating on ell the dEamatists of the Elizsbethan period.
 "Ths period of Shakespears's literary activity was between the years 1890 and 1911; that is, during the last of Elizaoeth's reign and the beginning of James 1's reign. We to day look upon the theater chiefly as e means of amusement. Then 1t was social and political force, as the press is now. In our own time there are two ways in which literary aspiration usually mani fests itself-the novel and the newspaper. This tendency draws many into literature who really ought not to be there. Thus the newspaper is great attraction to young men who wish to impress their opinions on the minds of others, in spite of the hard work and wretched pay. This is what the essay and satire was to the eighteenth century. What the novel and the newspaper is to us play writing was to the people of the time of James I.
 "The first thing to notice in regard to the theatsr of that time is that plays had no run as plays do to-day. One play was once enacted nine time in succession, and was on that account supposed to be espec- ially successful. There were only two play houses in London where theatrical pieces were allowed to be enacted. So people could not be supposed to bear much reputation. People spent a certain time in the theatsr then, just as people read the newspaper to day. Seventeen days is the time usually computed to have elapsed be- tween the bringing out of two new plays. This accounts for the large number of ss- pirsnts who crowded about the theater-a hungry crowd anxious to gain distinction and a livelihood by play-writing.
 "A dramatic author of that time was editor of . newspaper to-day. The amount of work produced by these men was i'm mense. Thomas Heywood in the prologue of one of his plays says that he had hand | in writing 22O pages. Thomas Decker was l 6 favorite dramatic writer of the time. He wrote nine plays himself and helped others write thirty-niue in comparatively short | spaee of time. Ben Jonson was the only l writer of the time who took pains with his productions. The rapidity of the produc- | tion of plays was marvellous and most of
 them paesed quickly into oblivion.
 l "How much of Shakespeare may have
 been lost we may never know. From sev. eral passages in his works we can infer how little store he set by his productions
 and had 1t not been for the friendlinesa
 and affection of two of his fellow actors
 such tragedies as 'Macbsth,' 'Juliut Cnsar,' Antony and Cleopatra suct
 comedies as Twelfth Night AS You Like
 1t and Tempest would probably hay.
 been lost. It is almost startling to a stu
 dent to see by what 8 slender thread som.
 of the greatest productions of the English
 mind then hung.
 "Trus, plays could not t;furnish news al
 our modern newspapers do. But it could
 reflect, satirizs and correct public opinion
 And this was often done in the most un | serupulous manner.
 "lhe writer's, many of them, led loose
 lives, but they were for the most part mel 1 of sound intellect and were far above thu
 generality of people in aims and ideas. Tn | thester acted as a sort of censor on thl
 politics and public morals. In this 1t ma,
 bs again compared to the press of to day
 To bs sstirizsd ou the stage was greatly
 feared in those days.
 "But the special inspiration of the play
 writers of that time has now perished. Tn
 play ywrights of to day can never expsct tt
 form part of those forces which regulat | or destroy nation"