Evening star., 1900-12-15
\ NEW CATCH QUESTION.
s:c~s How Many of Shakespeare's
Plays You !iuve Seen Acted.

Ne"
sccxs How Many of Shakespeare's
Plays You Have Seen Acted.
ron tie New York Tribune.
IIr-e Is a new question to int1ict on your
ic.p. : friends after you have asked them
where the Book of Hezekiah is and who
wrote BE good sweet maid, and let who
will be clever" Ask them how many of
Shakespeare's plays they have seen on Che
stage. They must answer by guess, not
stopping to count up. That is just the
point. After they have guessed let them
count up and see how near they came. You
might try it yourself before you read any
further You will find that most persons if
they are theatergoers will guess far too
few.
This fact was discovered recently in the
course Of a discussion of the subject occa-
stoned by Mr.. Nanstield's production of tie
seldom played King Henry W One per-
son present, who cherishes fond ambition
to every one OF Shakespeare's dramas
on the stage, and consequently keeps aC-
count of how many he has seen. said that
this made his twenty-fOurth. Another, VINO
pretendS to no such object, said that ht
thought that he had seen half a dozen or
" hen the list was read over 70 him it
proved that he had seen eighteen. Another,
who has been constant attendant al TIE
aterS for the last thirt y-tive or forty years,
said that he thought that he must have
seen ten Ii proved that he had seen tweu-
ty-nine.
AS there are only thirty-seven in all, this
may count as pretty good record 1t is
probable that this man has missed scarcely
anything which has been played in New
York in the last thirty years, and therefore
his exact list may be interesting. This is
1t: Hamlet. Macbeth" Romeo and Ju-
Het, "Othello," The Merchant OF Vertae'
'As You Like It." "A Midsummer Night $
Dream" The Tanning of the Shrew." "Ju-
lius Caesar. Measure for Measure" :"
AIS Well That Ends Well" "Corioanus' -
king Lear Loves Labor's Lost" 1.-TWO
Gentlemen of Verona The Comedy Of
Errors" "Cymbeline, Antony and Cleo
patra, The Winters Tale" King John =
part /; king Henry v, KING Richard
III. King Henry VIII The Merry
Wives of Windsor" Tempest" Much 400
About Nothing" Twelfth Night" lie
thought that he had seen "Alls Well That
Ends Wel.' but was not sure.
This Is pretty good list, and the plays
which are not contained in it are not likely
often to be seen by anybody. There are
only eight of them, king Henry W" part
z: the three parts of king Henry W."
"Pericles, Prince of Tyre" and "Troilns
and Cressida." Both "Tirnon'' and peri
land within a short time. and Richard
Mansfield has long had "Timon in his
mind though he has not yet got quite so
far as to play it.
Americans who have seen the less usual
plays of Shakespeare within the last few
years are indebted to Augustin Daly for
many of their opportunities. though other
managers and actors have helped a good
deal One of Mr.. Dalys most important
productions of this sort was of course
The Tanning of the Shrew." When he pro-
duced this play it had been so long known
on the stage only in it's abbreviated form
called katherine and Petruchio'' that it
had been almost forgotten that the whole
pay was susceptible of stage setting. The
ind
time little heard of except on Mr. Daly's
stage, although 1t became quite a fashion
a leW seasons ago, and William H. Crane
and Beerbohm Tree both PLAYED ii here to
say nothing of the opera "A Midsummer
Nights Dream is scarcely to he counted
among the unusual plays for ! ,ias had
seVeral productions of late. and d company
is making tour with it this season 1t is
has put Tempest" Two Gentlemen Of
Verona" and Loves Labor's Lost on the
stage in this country
There have been two recent productions
OF the first part of King Henry w. by
Miss Julia Marlowe and Beerbohm Tree
TWO of king Henry VIII" by Sir Henry Irv-
ing and Nine. Modjeska and two of "Cvm-
beline" by Nine Modjeska and Miss Mar
garet Mather. Miss Mary Anderson closed
her stage career in this country with The
Winters Tale" and Mrs. James Brown
Potter favored the public with Antony and
Cleopatra, which Mrs. Langtry has since
played in England Nothing has been heard
of THE Comedy of Errors since Stuart
Robson made an only partially successful
attempt at 1t few seasons ago. Some
time before. when he and Mr. Crane were
partners. they had made a costly produc-
ton of the play. Mr.. Mansfield is giving
the first produ ton of king Henry w
which New York has seen IN twenty-seven
years. King John has long been a
stranger but Nine. Modjeska is now play
ing it about the country
When you have exhausted the interest
in the number of plays seen, you can re-
quest your victim TO try how many of
Shakespeare's plays he can name. He is
pretty good at such things If he can name
all the thirty-seven. The chances are that
he will leave out some Of the most familiar
ones. Three confirmed theatergoers tried
the experiment together the other day and
succeeded i'll thinking of thirty-siX. When
they were finally forced to give up and ap-
peal to the list, 1t was found that the miss
ing one was Romeo and Juliet. which
they had all seen played repeatedly.