The herald., 1894-04-15
SHAKESPEARE'S TIME AND OURS
The Development of the Stage
and Actor.
The 0ld-Time Play Houses and the
Audiences.
Bhaksspsare's Two Parts the Chest and
Adam-Edwin Booths COncop-
tIon of the Character
of Hamlet.

the Ojsi, has the following interesting
paper j
have met with no more complete
and graphic description OF the theater
in Shakespeare's day than that contained
in Golfers History OF English Literature
from which the following passage is
quoted:
"When in 1876 the first licensed
theater WAS opened at Blsckfrisrs in
London, it was merely a round wooden
wall or building, enclosing q space
open TO the sky. The stage, indeed,
was covered with q roof OF thRtch !;
but upon the greater part OF the house
as in modern days We call the spectators
the sun nhone and the rain fell with
out let or hindrence.
Tine rude attempt at scenery in such
theaters as the Rose and the GLOBE,
which were among the leading Lon
don houses, make US smile, who
have witnessed the gorgeous scenic
triumps OF Kean and his brother man
ayers. Some faded tapestry or poorly
dRubed canvAs hung round the timbsrs
OF the stage, at the back of which ran q
gallery-eight or 10 feet high-to hold
those actors who might be supposed to
speak from castle walls, windows, high
rocks or other lofty places. A change
OF scene was denoted by hanging out in
view OF the spectators placard with the
name OF the place-Fadua. Athena, or
Paris painted on it. A farther stretch
Of imagination was required from the
assembly, when the removal OF dingy
throne, and the setting down of a rough
table with drinking vessels, we're sup
posed to turn q palace into tavern; or
the exchange OF a pssteboard rock for q
thorn bush was expected to delude all
into the belief that they saw no longer a
pebbly shore, but lesfy forest.
"The audience consisted of two classes,
the groundlings or lower orders, who
paid trifle for admittance to the pit !;
and the gallants who paid sixpenoe
apiece for stools upon the rush-strewn
stage, where they sat in two rows smok--
ing, and showing off their ruffs and
doublets, while the actors played be-
tween them. The circle of the pit re-
sounded with oaths and quarreling, min
gled with the clatter of ale pots and the
noise OF card playing. Nor did tie occu-
pants of the iull-drese stools show better
breeding than the unwashed ground
lings. Noiee, tobacco smoke, and the
heavy fumes OF ale formed tho main
| noDIest plays wers ushered into fame.
When the trumpets had sounded, ig-
ure in long, black-velvst cloak came
forward to reeite the prologue. Then
the play began and, if it's early scenes
did not suit the taste of the audience, a
storm of noises arose hissey, yells, cat
calls, cock-crowing. whistling drowned
the actors voices, and stopped
the progress OF the play. In short,
Elzabeth's royal subjects used or abused
their lungs just as vigorously as those of
Queen Victoria eau do in parliament,
and out of it as well. The actors-at-
tired in the costume of their own day
played in masks and wigs; and the
female parts. the Violas, the Portias,
the Rosalinds, were filed by boys, or
smootn-faced young men, in women's
dress."
1t is not strange that tradition assigns
but two characters to Shakespeare the
&ctor-that of the ghost in Hamlet aud
OF old Adam in As You Like 1t. 1t is
unsatisfactory, indeed, to imagine the
great dramatist delivering the lines of
the ghost among the surroundings de-
scribed, and where Hamlet's mother
was represented by bsardless young
mani Fancy Shakespeare as Adam in
the forest of Arden, while the lovely
Roaalind, 80 far from being such as
figures upon the stags of our day, is
personated by an sffeminate boy Surely
the dramatist had more than one reason
for expressing his personal dislike for
the actors calling, as ne does in OK
sonnet:
"Alss, it's true have gone here and there,
And m sde my self q motley to the view;
t1Ora1 mine thOuQhtH. 9nld w q 10
most dear
Made old offsnses of affections new."
Let US turn from that picture unto
this. More than 80 years ago. when
the late Edwin Booth was in his
prime, I saw his Hamlet in company
with lady whose intellectual discern
ment is evident from her published
narrative of the occasion. The descrip-
tion OF the modern stage presents a
wonderful contrast to that of Golfers
and it ia the more interesting because
of the writer's unusual and independent
criticism of Mr.. Booth in his most popu-
lar character. The text is given as fol-
lows. and as it appeared in the New
York Evening Post of that day:
''For my own personal reading. next
to the Bible comes Shakespeare and
of all his creations none has ever stir
red my blood like Hamlet-the dreamy
Dane; the watcher with the dead; the
soul in whom SO strangely
blend the freshness of the morning, the
wearinese of the ages upon whose sclil-
oquy the world hangs as almost upon
the droppings OF revelation with the
pulse and fire of whose spiritual strug-
gle humanity keeps time, to that 'eter-
nal blazon' listening with bated breath,
and bending it's gaze forever on those
strange, weird scenes. The curtain
rises. Moonlight--cold, silvery pale
upon the battlements of Elsinore.
'Sentries on guard One feels the chill
of midnight, and is baptized into its
spirit. Enter the CHEST.
Here comes the first disappoint-
the first doubt. Can q
play which turns so chiefly upon q
purely spiritual appearance be put
upon the stage? The embodiment of
that which should be intangible. rather
felt than seen, causing the hssh to
creep and the hair to stand up as it
passes by;' this incarnation of what
ia. in its nature. bodilesB, lays the axe
At the very root of this marvellous
drama. Every art has, of course, been
used to mako the apparition as un-
as possible; the very
Armor he had on in color ami texture.
looking As il forged OF cobweb; the
football noissless. Yet. in order to
represent the lair and wsrlike form in
which the majesty OF buried Denmark
lid sometime march, there is una