Evening star., 1925-09-08
NEW BOOKS
AT RANDOM
OUR FELLOW SHAKESPEARE.
Jorara Qrid-as Do cnal Cnuici
/. C.. NJ.


tation. Such, in part, is the conten-
ton of Mr.. Horace Bridges In Our
Fellow Shakespeare. Shakespeare
stands today within the deep OBJ
scurity that, layer by layer. 900 years
Of learned controversy have set about
him. Stripped of these scholastic
subleties and confusions. the man
comes human, understan ndable. com.
panionable, a source of delight to the
commonalty, no longer a mere field of
battle whereupon pundits wage their
unceasing intellectual warfare.
One of the prime purposes of this
study is, in effect, to get back to
normalcy in the consideration OF
Shakespeare and his work.
One goes back into the past under
sta ndingly only by way of the pres
ent. The sure road, then, TO the
London theater of 800 years ago is by
way of the theater OF our time. And
in essentials they prove 10 be no
different. In both there is nothing
more than the play, the actors, the
manager, the audience. Nor has the
prime motive of the theater changed
in these intervening years. Enter
tainment measured by the returns of
the box office, then as now, decided
the fate OF both play and players.
And William Shakespeare, manager,
was IN those days, as 1t turns out,
one of the go-getters of the craft,
much in that respect like our own
Belasco. and the earlier Frohmans.
and dozen others, who, with eyes
on the audience and hands on the
stage. fit the latter TO the former in
wizardry of ready insight and swift
readjustments. The making of the
, plays for that London audience of
men and boys was often a makeshift
process, as it frequently is now. Old
stories were seized wherever they
might be found and revamped TO play
able uses. Two or more separate
plots were welded into one--alI as
sembled in a hurry and projected 10
catch the applause and patronage of
the common London crowds of men
whose sense of propriety was not too
finey whose sense of good drama was
just about nothing at all. And here
one comes upon William Shakespeare re
playmaker as well as manager, reach
ing out in. all directions for stories
and themes to catch the crowd and
build up. the receipts. Often he
worked alone. Sometimes MarIowe
heiped him. In every case he worked
IN hurry. Then, as actor, he
brought another art TO bear on the
drama which he was destined to
glorify.
The picture drawn by Mr.. Bridges
is a very satisfying one. First, in all
| save the most superficial and incon-
! sidera BILE features il so accords With
| what may be seen going on today in
! respect TO the drama and it's produc-
ton that one accepts it as a true pic
ture. An important acceptance. this,
! since 1t adds to the reality of the man
a AMI tor II,y
| merged in unreality. BY these
| familiar activities so plainly set out
| here, Shakespeare moves many steps
nearer to a living mans actual estate
! This picture. besides. stands in effect
/ an open door through which one
moves into Shakespeare's work in a
! singular simplicity of outlook-the
mind going along with that work not
looking at 1t through ,well-nigh i'm
! penetrable barricades.
| The sonnets and five of the PLAYS
provide material here for this authors s
| sane and simple outlook upon Shakes
peore and his work. There is besides
a discussion of the Bacon myth and
a running sketch Of Shakespeare ap-
prenticeship to poetry and the drama
Paying deep homage throughout to
I
| peare. Mr.. Bridges elects to study
| him as a man also, one who, like
genius everywhere, is keenly sensitive
/ TO his surroundings, TO the medium
from which he draws the body of his
! inspiration. A man, too. whose
| genius is not supported by great
| learning nor uplifted 10 impossible
heights of spirituality. This point of
departure is refreshing, since love
pr-f@o to &c =,
| scuring passion. No obscura mist
this writer, either on the side of true
+! love or from a. willingness TO show
| how much of deep research may be
| set up around the genius OF the
greatest of poets,
| x &
Everybody. more or less. knows
| Hamlet Everybody. more or less
is in possession of the stock phrases
of judgment that pass as currency IN
respect TO this character. A melan-
choly man. diffident and withdraw
| ing man. unstable in purpose, shrink
| ing in action, temporizing, shifting
! youth who knew his own mind 50
| little that finally he lost 1t entirely
/! through such habitual unrecognition.
| From high school days on through all
! ones reading years this is. in sub
| stance, the picture of Hamlet as he
| has grown out of the multitudinous
| literature that has grown around this
| Shakespearean character alone. Fa
miliar with the most that has been
written on this theme. If not with all
! of it, the writer chooses to set this
| bulk of literature aside for the words
! of the play itself. And out of this
as the source of his conclusions >he
| draws certain theories Hamlet was
not insane. He, instead, feigncd mad.
-.
| dom in the pursuit of his father 6
murderer and incidentally to spare his
own life. He was not n vacillating
man, save as such moves advanced
him in the single pursuit OF his life
A persistent man and a most shrewd
| and artful one as well. AS a whole
| Hamlet" turns out to be a prime de-
| tective story-a rather disconcerting
| name to give to literature become In
a measure sacrasanct. Yet, reading
1t clean, apart from the interference
of carefully nurtured, theories of the
scholars, a detective story is exactly
| what Ii is, BY such discovery or
agreement, one feels Shakespeare step
ping forward in seven.feague boots
An immense gain to readers, this. tc
| those who desire ardentlv to feel
actually the immeasurable gift oi
| this man.
1t is with A distinct shock that one
hears Hamlet" called a pure melo
drama. Yet we knew it all the time
Ghosts, murder, incest, madness. sui
eide, pirates, imprisonmentAall these
and more range themselves here in a
irush of melodramatic fervor. Man
ager Shakespeare knew his audience
SO, from this old, old saga of the
j North he fitted a play to their taste
But. melodrama though it be, it has
periods of passion and superlative
genius. These are the times, SO Mr.
Bridges reasonably concludes. wher
the greatest of poets came into mo
| raenfS iSfialu his Is