Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1915-02-11
shakespeare in Prose,
Shaw in Blank Verse
as. Dark LADY OF THE soNNETs, By

- n,ARK LADY OF THE soNNETs. BY
lrsssa shaw. Little Theatre.
,ssspeare ....,....,.',' Robert oempis1ter e,appi1Sl
~ Dtfk lady .....-...'..'.'.'AHa sterl,nts prl,t,s
- Elisabeth .'.''''.'.''' 't,,ssi;s,taa, p0ycs
hsIsai.r .i.s,e $4,000. Midsummer night on
IN rsre es of the Palace at whitehall, over
f,sln' n,, might expect Shaw to throttle his
- rival, once he got Will Shake
=, 10 the stage In flesh and blood.
=. ,nstead. he only set him to flirting
IN Queen Elizabeth, swapping UP some
:, Il. most immortal phrases from the
n.,asred trlfes OF his acuuaintances'
...,.atIon. and demonstrating that the
.v,I was Just as terrible a problem
.hs 18th century as 1t Is today. He
~, sven further into the, theatrical
~. of things in England then and now
s. plea to Elizabeth to endow ma
s...l theatre after the style of Muscovy
"a ,hs bamlets of Teutony. For the
q, shaw managed TO demonstrate his
,..orlte theories about Shakespeare
s,,lnentality and lewdness. his con-
.,, notboiling in LAS You Like 1t"
~ oAfueh Ado About Nothing" and his
ss,.,.rv opinion of Ben Jonson. Yet It
- mean figure that Robert Dempster
|. made to set SO illuslvely on the stage.
~" ehakesneare's avoidance of 1.-The
Sd..t cough OF minor poet" may be
...ssr verbose and vainglorious; but, at
,.s.t shaw's manikin, talking of the
'-ds,ca of his speech as "a thing to
- the world with" goes no further
,s.r the one who said:
n, marble nor the gilded monuments
cs9 css9,r,nces shall outlive this powerful rhyme.
THE ADMIRABLE NASHVILLE, OR CON
sTANcY REWARDED % ,,,,i "A drama mn IN blank
cashsl Byron ..,.............. -: FRED ,t Eric
Ig,1IIsh gd1IIIs h.........,., Robert s. EntwIstle
bb.hviI,Is ,.,.............Rob Robert DempBter
pste,sayo o..,................. Brigham Royce
pss.aise .................. Roland Rushton
fsrs Worfhington ........... John c. Hicks
Aaster OF Revels .,.....'''.''''ii iiSe2rge bohn som
Policeman ....'.'.'''''' '''.'''''''E r. t,Iy tneSoy
Ast IA Glade in Wiltstoken Park, Act ii
scene T. A room in lydia's House In Lon
fon Scene 2, The Agricultural Hall in lsllng-
,en Act lila room In the warren Lodge ut
Wilstoken Time, 1857.
Ii was the sharpest of tributes to Shaw's
ehakespearean genius that when the COM
psny of the Little Theatre repaired to
lis dramatization OF the pugllistic novel,
acashel Byron's Profession" they almost
spolled 1t by mistaking it's blank verse
for the genuine article. The scene of the
meeting OF Cashel and Lydia in the forest
became unbelievably tame simply be-
cause Mr.. Dempster and Miss Hamilton
said such lines as:
Wllstoken's windows wandering beneath,
wilstolen's holy bell hearkeninE.
Wlistoken's lady loving breathlessly
tst as II they took them seriously.
But with the next scene the whole COM
rany had shaken off the influence of the
Bard and was declaimlng with real comic
energy such balderdash as
cab!
60 call q. cab; and let a cab be called
And let the man that calls 1t be thy footman.
As for the scene of Cashers battle In
tie ring with the professor" Paradise,
Il couldn't have been better set or better
played
The whole thing is wild burlesque in
sctlon and words, but it is something
scd can appreciate almost as much
whether you know how closely 1t copies
he far-fung metaphors of Webster or
are only just able to recognize that
Personlhed pusllanImity.
d blank verse by count.
And in spite of his literary foolery.
Shaw manages to be the old Shaw and
fast his derlsion at the 'gentlemanly''
things that even a prize-hghter will not
sloop to. Here he is impaling his
arlstocratic victims as of yore. even in
blank verse:
gentleman! l. Cashel Byron stoop
10 be the thing that bets on me! the fool
hatier at 80 many coins n lesson
das sereaming creature who beside the ring
And pays with money that he never earned!
Let me die broken hearted rather!