The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-05-17
NO MORE sHAKspEAREAN ACTORS.
They May Play the Parts, but Do Not
Enter Into Their Spirit.
Harper's Weekly.

Harpers Weekly.
We no longer have English-speaking
Shakspearean actors Time was when this
was not true. Edwin Booth probably en-
gagged the last company of old-fashioned
actors who were bred in the traditions
of Shakespeare. These lived on Shakspeares
imagery. They ordered their breakfasts
in blank verse, and betrayed the touchy
dignity of the kings and knights and VIII
lains of the Elizabethan drama, but, also,
their minds were dignified, and the fiber OF
their intellect was toughened by the great
thoughts and the great passions with which
they dwelt. There are none such now, or
not so many that real Shakspearean star
could find a sufficient number to fill the
minor parts in. Hamlet or Lear" or
Macbeth" or Julius Caesar" or Romeo
and Juliet" to say nothing of the comedies
which require, on the part of the actor,
nice interpretation-thati is, nice discrimi-
nation, a consummate art, keen apprecia-
ton of the literary values of the lines, and
a quick responsiveness TO the spirit or the
poet.
The reason for this lack of actors capa-
BILE of Shakespeare is clear to all who know
the modern stage. Actors are no longer
trained TO the expression of the grand pas
sions, to the understanding of the cosmic
philosophy of Shakespeare. The old race
of actors who could fill the stage with the
heroes, the villains. and the clowns of
England, whom Shakespeare portrayed, is
dead. A new race has succeeded, and the
men and women of this race have not
been bred on celestial food. 1t is impossi-
BILE to train an actor for high thoughts or
for the appropriate repetition OF noble
sentiments by way of modern farce-comedy.
The actor of to-day spends his life either
in displaying to society its own follies. or
in amusing it by preaching to II, or in
bringing a laugh to modest cheeks that
ought to be blushing, or in beguiling the
weary with exTavaganzas. A mind de-
voted TO mere pastime is not likely TO be
hospitable to Shakespeare. A hard course
in Bowery slang does not open the intelli-
gence to the mellow humor of the Merry
0WllSh wisdom
grave-diggers in Hamlet" nor does 1T
lead TO en- appreciation of the satire OF
Dogberry, or of the keen wit of the two
who stung themselves into mutual love.
The quips and jest of the modern curbstone
not orly lack the distinction of ancient
English tavern railery, but they democrat
ize the mind that devotes itself to them.
The mind of the modern actor-we speak,
of course of the many, not of ALLIES in
his dancing legs, his side-spitting grimaces,
his business" his exaggerations of Pc
culiar lives of to-day The mind thus de-
voted to the lighter tasks of POPULARITY,
skipping also from one authors jokes to
those of another, on a moments notice, as
it's possessor skips from town TO town and
from stage TO stage, is not mind that can
suddenly turn TO the contemplation and the
study of Shakespeare with any hope that
the lines of the poet will get the better of
the encounter. The actor who is to play
Shakespeare acceptably must not frfvol
away his intellectual dignity. One cannot
sing Mary had Little Lamb" with all
the enthusiasm of his soul, for 800 nights,
and hope to be equal to the Magnificent or
a TIE Deum.. or Siegfried's Rhine journey,
on the three-hundred-and night. The
tasks TO which the modern English and
American manager puts the English and
American actor have destroyed the old
school of Shakespeare actors Now we are
not saying that this is not for the best:
that in the processes of the evolution of the
arts the theater has not naturally become
what II is.