The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1913-11-30

with respect TO the boxl
Student-lt il called its contents.
Professor-Whyt
Studcnt--Because the cook is content
TO end plenty Of salt in the box
Profcssor-Go are very right sec
you nave not misspept your time
The reader will say that il is very
absurd 90 state that any annotator
ever applied auy such extraordinary
method 10 the text of Shakespeare. II
he thinks in this way, he will presently
! DC disillusioned. Let US take few
lines from the text and then discover
| the notes 90 them.
90, sleep. o gentle sleep.
| Nature : SOFT nurse, how have
That thou no more wilt weigh my eve
lids down
And steep my sense in forgetfulness7
Here are the annotations:
! Note the first line: "This line
means that sleep is soft and caressiug
but that the speaker has scared the
tImid creature and is suffering violently
! from that dreadful disease Insomnia
/ lie has oeen assigned TO a noisy room
in a hotel. And vet he is so lacking in
discernment that he asks how the timid
| one has been so frightened. y
Note to line two; "Would il not
| have been better for Shakespeare to
| have said Lovely nurse instead o,
soft nurse! Certainly the bard did NOT
mean that this nurse was mushy.N
Note to line three: "It is evident
| that the speaker cannot keep his eyes
| closed. and going 10 sleep. forget. 1t
is a pretty figure, the idea of weighing
| the eyelids down as one does the eyes
of dead man, with copper cents. This
custom evidently. prevailed in Shake
| speare s time
Note to line four. "Hasn I Shake
speare made frghtful blnnder in mix
ing his metaphors In line three be
| speaks of weighing the evelids down,
| evidently with pennies, and here in the
| fourth line be speaks of sleeping the
| sleeplcss persons senses-that is OF
holding the head over pot OF boiling
water, l. c., soaking the head. y
This is the sort of thing that cma.
mates from those persons who consider
that Shakespeare is for the study and
| not for the stage. But all one has TO
do to appreciate the complete absurdity
| of this notion, is first. to read the notes
commonly affixed to one Of the plays,
! and then to see the play acted.
There arc whole passages in the
dramas which arc entirely lost on the
| reader unless he knows or sees the stage
''business which goes with them
Lately, in Washington. wellknown
! literary man saw a performance OF the
Sothern and Marlowe company in
"Twclfth Night
That night he wrote Mr.. SothcTu as
follows ~ read the play this after
noon and l hadn't then the slightest
! notion that there was such.a wealth of
fun and comicality in the lines and
situations. After all. it takes the actor
70 elucidatc the text, either by infec-
ton, facial expression or by what is
called business 1t is surprising to
discover what difference there is be.
tween reading play and seeing it well
acted -
What is true Of "Twelfth Night
applies to all of the plays. Shake
speare left much of the sense Of many
passages for the actor to illustrate and
embellish. Consequently, in order to
really know one of the plays in its
fullest sense, 1t must he seen upon the
stage, for, as it has been said, 1.-The
dramas were written for the theater,'
If Shakespeare had intended them
for the closet, he would have supplied
his own notes and illustrations, and
thus saved the world from n partial Of
ridiculous annotations.
The individual who does not 20 to
the thcSter TO sec Shakespeare plays
performed and knows them only in the
library. reminds one of that sapient
countryman who did not visit the ruins
of Pompeii, for the reason that, As he
expressed it, "they were out of re-
pair.
Actors with large salaries will here
after mention the fact under their
brcaths for fear the income tax col.
lector will overhear them, Inquiry of
the government has elected the infor-
nation that taxes will be collected at
the source of income on all actors sal
aries over $4,000 if the actors are
single, and $1,000 if they are married.
Managers are not to he responsible
TO the government for the tax on a
given actor IS income until they have
paid the stated amount to him. In
case the actor receives his total Of
three or four thousand, as the case
may be, from diffevent managers, he
will have to make his personal return
on February /, 1914. The law dates
from March /, 1918.
sThc way the managers are to collect
the tax is to withhold it from the ac-
tor S salary, turning the amount over
to the government at the proper time
Klaw and Erlanger, Charles Frohman.
and the Shuberts have already in
stalled special bookkeeping. depart
mcnts TO meet the condition.
Under the treasury regulation for
the year 1913, the manager would
wholly disregard any salary paid the
actor before November l, and would
have no obligation to withhold the tax
except i'm eases where the actor s sal
airy for the two months of Novem-
ber and December aggregated more
than $4,000 or $4,000. This would in
cludc only salaries of approximately
$500 per week. BY claiming exemP-
ton on his salary the actor may post
ponc his manager 's withholding Of the
tax until tho amount Of three OF four
thousand has been paid, 1t is said the
government is going to insist on tux;
ing Oh all printed statements of sal
ary, which means that the press agent
will be curtailed in his imagination.
A board Of censorship in Cincinnati
nat includes a health officer amont
its members. has announced through
its safety director that the manage
ments Of the local theaters must sub
NIT to them their lists of bookings for
the season. "The Lure, which was
bookcP for the Lyric theater in that
city, has been prohibited, Damaged
Goods (which opened at the Grand
opera house, was censored.