Chapter II: M. Jusserand on Shakespeare in France. French (8)

The success of a Shakespeare memorial will ultimately depend on the pecuniary support that the public accord it. But in the initial stage of the movement all rests on the discovery of a sculptor capable of realising the significance of a national commemoration of the greatest of the nation's, or indeed of the worlds, heroes. It would be well to settle satisfactorily the question of such an artist's existence before anything else. The first step that any organising committee of a Shakespeare memorial should therefore take, in my view, would be to invite sculptors of every country to propose a design. The monument should be the best that artistic genius could contrive--the artistic genius of the world. There may be better sculptors abroad than at home. The universality of the appeal which Shakespeare's achievement makes, justifies a competition among artists of every race or nationality.

The crucial decision as to whether the capacity to execute the monument is available, should be entrusted to a committee of taste, to a committee of liberal-minded connoisseurs who command general confidence. If this jury decide by their verdict that the present conditions of art permit the production of a great memorial of Shakespeare on just principles, then a strenuous appeal for funds may be inaugurated with likelihood of success. It is hopeless to reverse these methods of procedure. If funds are first invited before rational doubts as to the possibility of a proper application of them are dispelled, it is improbable that the response will be satisfactory or that the issue of the movement of 1905 will differ from that of 1821 or 1864.

In 1864 Victor Hugo expressed the opinion that the expenses of a Shakespeare memorial in London ought to be defrayed by the British Government. There is small likelihood of assistance from that source. Individual effort can alone be relied upon; and it is doubtful if it be desirable to seek official aid. A great national memorial of Shakespeare in London, if it come into being at all on the lines which would alone justify its existence, ought to embody individual enthusiasm, ought to express with fitting dignity the personal sense of indebtedness and admiration which fills the hearts of his fellow-men.

INDEX

Acting, importance of, in Shakespearean drama, 13;
evil effects of long runs, 14;
Shakespeare on, 45, 47

Actor-manager, his merits and defects, 125, 126

Actors, training of, 139;
English, in France, 203.
(See also Benson, Mr F.R., and Boys.)

Æschylus, statue of, 233

Albert, Prince (Consort), and Shakespeare's birthplace, 222;
statues of, 237

Alleyn, Edward, 191, 194

_Annual Register_ of 1770, 194

Aristotle, Shakespeare's mention of, 144, 145;
Bacon's study of, 145

Arnold, Matthew, on Shakespeare, 29

Astronomy, Shakespeare on, 146

Athens, statuary at, 233

Aubrey, John, his gossip about Shakespeare, 67, 68

Austria, subsidised theatres in, 131, 134

Bacon, Anthony, in France, 203

Bacon, Francis, philosophical method of, 143;
on memorial monuments in _New Atlantis_, 234, 235

Bacon, Sir Nicholas, his fame in France, 204

Badger, Mr Richard, proposal for a Shakespeare monument, 219

Bannister, John, his music for _The Tempest_, 107

Barker, Mr Granville, as Richard II., 13 _n._

Basse, William, his tribute to Shakespeare, 50

Beeston, Christopher, Elizabethan actor, 64

Beeston, William the first, patron of Nash, 64

Beeston, William the second, his theatrical career, 65, 66;
his gossip about Shakespeare, 65;
his conversation, 66;
Aubrey's account of, 67

Beethoven, statue of, 233

Beljame, Alexandre, on English literature, 201;
death of, 201

Benson, Mr F.R., his company of actors, 111;
his principles, 112 _seq._;
list of Shakespeare plays produced by, 114 _n._;
his production of _Hamlet_ unabridged, 116-118;
his training of actors, 119;
his services to Shakespeare, 121;
his pupils on the London stage, 130

Berkenhout, John, 195

Betterton, Thomas, at Stratford-on-Avon, 73;
contributes to Rowe's biography, 73, 76;
his rendering of Hamlet, 101, 102

Biography, art of, in England, 51

Bishop, Sir William, 76

Bishopsgate (London), Shakespeare at, 226, 227

Blackfriars, Shakespeare's house at, 227

Boileau, and English literature, 199

Bolingbroke, in _Richard II._, patriotism of, 173

Bowman, John, actor, 69;
at Stratford-on-Avon, 76

Boys in women's parts in Elizabethan theatres, 19, 41;
abandonment of the practice, 43;
superseded by women, 88, 89

Buchanan, George, his plays, 204

Burbage, Richard, Shakespeare's friend and fellow-actor, 33

Burns, Mr John, 131

Burns, Robert, French study of, 201;
monument to, 233, 237

Byron, Lord, on Petrarch at Arquà, 225;
statue of, 237

Calderon, 136;
monument to, 233

Calvert, Charles A., his Shakespearean productions at Manchester, 12 _n._

Camoens, monument to, 233

Capital and the literary drama, 124, 126, 127, 128

Carlyle, Thomas, statue of, 237

_Cataline's Conspiracy_, by Ben Jonson, 30, 31

Ceremony, Shakespeare on, 157, 158

Chantrey, Sir Francis, and commemoration of Shakespeare, 216

Charlecote, Shakespeare's escapade at, 76

Chaucer, Geoffrey, French influence on, 199

Clarendon, Lord, on Shakespeare, 78

Cockpit theatre, Drury Lane, 65, 86

Cockpit theatre, Whitehall, 87 and _n._

Coleman, John, on the subsidised theatre, 132

Coleridge S.T., and commemoration of Shakespeare, 216

Congreve, William, 91

Coriolanus and the patriotic instinct, 178, 179

Cromwell, Oliver, statue of, 237

Davenant, Robert, Sir William's brother, 70

D'Avenant, Sir William: theatrical manager, 67;
his youth at Oxford, 69;
relations in boyhood with Shakespeare, 70;
elegy on Shakespeare, 71;
champion of Shakespeare's fame, 71;
his story of Shakespeare and Southampton, 72;
his influence on Betterton, 72;
manager of the Duke's Company, 87 _n._;
as dramatist, 91;
his adaptations of Shakespeare, 103-105, 106 _n._, 108

Deschamps, Eustace, on Chaucer, 199

Desportes, Philippe, and Elizabethan poetry, 199

D'Israeli, Isaac, on Steevens's forgery, 195

Downs, John, prompter and stage annalist, 63

Dramatic societies in England, 129

Dress, Shakespeare on extravagant, 185

Drunkenness, Shakespeare on, 185

Dryden, John, on William Beeston, 66;
as dramatist, 91;
his share in the adaptation of _The Tempest_, 105

Du Bellay, Joachim, and Elizabethan poetry, 199

Ducis, Jean François, his translation of Shakespeare, 207, 208

Dugdale, Sir William, 74

Dumas _père_, on Shakespeare, 206; his translation of _Hamlet_, 209-211

Dyce, Alexander, on Steevens's forgery, 196

Elizabeth, Queen, summons Shakespeare to Greenwich, 31

Elizabethan Stage Society, 13 _n._

England, Shakespeare on history of, 180

Ennius on poetic fame, 232

Etherege, Sir George, 91

Eton College, debate about Shakespeare at, 78

Euripides, statue of, 233

Evelyn, John, on _Hamlet_, 90

Farquhar, George, 91

Faulconbridge (in _King John_), patriotism of, 174

Fletcher, John, his _Custom of the Country_, 92, 93;
its obscenity, 93

Folio, the First [of Shakespeare's plays], actors' co-operation in, 59;
list of actors in, 61;
rejected by Pepys, 94

Folio, the Second [of Shakespeare's plays], in France, 205

Folio, the Third [of Shakespeare's plays], purchased by Pepys, 94

Folio, the Fourth [of Shakespeare's plays], in Pepysian library, 94

France, subsidised theatres in, 131, 134;
Shakespeare in, 198 _seq._;
English actors in, 203

Freedom of the will, Shakespeare on, 166

Fuller, Thomas, his _Worthies of England_, 52;
notice of Shakespeare, 52

Garrick, David, his stage costume, 18

_Gentleman's Magazine_ of 1801, 195

George IV. and commemoration of Shakespeare, 215

German drama, 129, 135, 136

Germany, subsidised theatres in, 131, 134

Goethe, 136;
monument to, 233

Greene, Robert, French translation of romance by, 199

Grendon, tradition of Shakespeare at, 77

"Grenovicus" contributes to _Gentleman's Magazine_, 195

Hales, John, of Eton, 78

Hall, Bishop Joseph, French translation of works by, 199

Hart, Charles, Shakespeare's grand-nephew, actor, 59, 68

Hauptmann, Gerhart, 135

Henry V., on kingly ceremony, 157;
patriotism of, 175, 182

Heywood, Thomas, projected _Lives of the Poets_, 54 _n._;
affection for Shakespeare, 65;
his _Apology for Actors_, 65

History plays of Shakespeare, character of, 180

Hobbes, Thomas, in France, 200

Howe, Josias, on a Shakespeare tradition, 77

Hugo, Victor, on Shakespeare, 206;
on Shakespeare memorial, 241

Imagination in the audience, 22, 47, 48

Ingres, Jean, his painting of Shakespeare, 206

Irving, Sir Henry, experience of Shakespearean spectacle, 10;
and the literary drama, 123;
and the municipal theatre, 132;
and French drama, 200

Irving, Washington, and commemoration of Shakespeare, 216

James I., his alleged letter to Shakespeare, 72

James II., statue of, 236

John of Gaunt in _Richard II._, dying speech of, 115-116, 181

Johnson, Dr, on false patriots, 171

Jonson, Ben, testimony to Shakespeare's popularity, 29;
his classical tragedies compared with Shakespeare's, 30;
his elegy on Shakespeare, 50, 232;
his dialectical powers contrasted with Shakespeare's, 53;
on the players' praise of Shakespeare, 60;
his son, Shakespeare's godson, 61;
Beeston's talk of, 67;
popularity of his plays at Restoration, 91, 92

Jusserand, Jules, on English literature, 202;
his _Shakespeare in France_, 203

Kean, Charles, experience of Shakespearean spectacle, 9;
Macready's criticism of, 14

Kemp, William, Elizabethan comedian, 33

Killigrew, Tom, manager of the King's Company, 87 _n._

Kingship, Shakespeare on, 155-160, 180-182

Kirkman, Francis, his account of William Beeston the second, 66

Lacy, John, actor, 67;
acquaintance with Ben Jonson, 68;
adaptation of _The Taming of the Shrew_, 108

Lawrence, Sir Thomas, and commemoration of Shakespeare, 216

Lessing, 136

Lincoln's Inn Fields (Portugal Row), Theatre at, 86, 87 and _n._

Literary drama, on the modern stage, 123;
antagonism of capital to, 126-128

_Lives of the Poets_ of the seventeenth century, 54

Locke, John, in France, 200

Locke, Matthew, Shakespearean music of, 105, 108

Logic, Shakespeare on, 146

London, Shakespeare's association with, 226 _seq._;
statues in, 236, 237;
proposed sites for Shakespeare monument in, 239

London County Council, and the theatre, 130, 131;
and subsidised enlightenment, 133;
and Shakespeare monument, 219

London Trades Council and the theatre, 132

Lowin, John, original actor in Shakespeare's plays, 61;
coached by Shakespeare in part of _Hamlet_, 63, 71, 72

Lycurgus, Attic orator, 233

Macready, W.C., his criticism of spectacle, 14

Marlowe, Christopher, Shakespeare's senior by two months, 37, 193

Massinger, Philip, his _Bondman_, 92, 93

Mathews, Charles, on a monument of Shakespeare, 214

Mercy, Shakespeare on, 152, 153

Metaphysics, Shakespeare on, 146-148

Mill, John Stuart, statue of, 237

Milton, his elegy on Shakespeare, 51, 231

Molière, accepted methods of producing his plays, 16, 18, 136

Montaigne, Michel de, and Anthony Bacon, 203;
his essays in English, 204

Moore, Thomas, and commemoration of Shakespeare, 216

More, Sir Thomas, his _Utopia_ in France, 204

Municipal theatre, its justification, 122;
in Europe, 134

Musset, Alfred de, on Shakespeare, 206

Nash, John, and commemoration of Shakespeare, 216

Nash, Thomas, 64

Nodier, Charles, his _Pensées de Shakespeare_, 211-213

Norwegian drama, 129

Obedience, the duty of, 161

Oldys, William, antiquary, 68, 69

Opera in England, 131

Oxford, the Crown Inn at, 69;
Shakespeare at, 70;
visitors from, to Stratford, 75-77

Patriotism, Shakespeare on, 170 _seq._

Peele, George, alleged letter of, 189 _seq._

Pepys, Samuel, his play-going experience, 81-86;
on Elizabethan and Jacobean drama, 91-93;
on Shakespeare, 94 _seq._;
his attitude to poetic drama, 95, 96;
his musical setting of "To be or not to be," 100

Petrarch, his tomb at Arquà, 225

Phelps, Samuel, at Sadler's Wells, 11;
list of plays produced by, 11, 114 _n._;
his mode of producing Shakespeare, 12;
on a State theatre in London, 120;
on public control of theatres, 140, 141

Philosophy, Shakespeare's attitude to, 143 _seq._

Pindar on poetic fame, 232

Platter, Thomas, journal of his London visit (1599), 38

Playhouses in London, Blackfriars, 227;
Drury Lane, 86, 87 and _n._;
"The Globe," 38, 227;
"The Red Bull," 86;
Sadler's Wells, 11;
Salisbury Court, Whitefriars, 66, 86;
"The Theatre" at Shoreditch, 37, 227

Pope, Alexander, and French literature, 199;
on the Shakespeare cenotaph, 216

Richardson, Samuel, in France, 200

Robinson, Richard, actor, 68

Ronsard, Pierre de, and Elizabethan poetry, 199;
in England, 203

Rousseau, J.J., and English literature, 200

Rowe, Nicholas, Shakespeare's first formal biographer, 54;
his acknowledgment to Betterton, 73;
his biography of Shakespeare, 79, 80

Royal ceremony, irony of, 158

Russell, Lord John, on patriotism, 172

Sadler's Wells Theatre, 11

Sand, George, on Shakespeare, 206

Sardou, Victorien, work of, 200

Scenery, its purpose, 5;
uselessness of realism, 23

Schiller, on the German stage, 136;
monument to, 233

Scott, Sir Walter, and commemoration of Shakespeare, 216, 232;
Edinburgh monument of, 238

Sedley, Sir Charles, 91

Seneca on mercy, 153 _n._

Shadwell, Thomas, 67,
adaptation of _The Tempest_, 106 _n._

Shakespeare, Edmund, actor, 227

Shakespeare, Gilbert, actor, 68

Shakespeare, William, his creation of the Ghost in _Hamlet_, 27;
contemporary popularity of, 29;
at Court, 31;
early London career, 32;
advice to the actor, 45;
his modest estimate of the actor's powers, 47;
elegies on death of, 49;
Fuller's notice of, 52;
early biographies of, 54;
oral tradition of, in seventeenth century, 55;
similarity of experience with that of contemporary dramatists and
actors, 57;
Elizabethan players' commendation of, 60;
resentment with a publisher, 65;
William Beeston's reminiscences of, 67;
Stratford gossip about, 74-76;
present state of biographical knowledge, 81;
his attitude to philosophy, 143 _seq._;
his intuition, 149-150;
concealment of his personality, 150;
his private sentiments, 151;
on mercy, 152-153;
on rulers of states, 154;
on divine right of kings, 159;
on obedience, 161;
on social order, 162-163;
on freedom of the will, 166;
on women's will, 168;
his humour and optimism, 169;
on patriotism, 170 _seq._;
on English history, 180;
on social foibles, 184-186;
commemoration of, in London, 214 _seq._;
portraits of, 239

Shakespearean drama, attitude of students and actors to, 1;
costliness of modern production, 2;
the simple method and the public, 8;
Charles Kean's spectacular method, 9;
Irving's method, 10;
plays produced by Phelps, 11;
reliance on the actor, 13;
in Vienna, 17;
advantage of its performance constantly and in variety, 23;
importance of minor rôles of, 115;
its ethical significance, 164, 165;
in France, 198 _seq._;
and British prestige, 229

----, (separate plays):--
_Antony and Cleopatra_ in Vienna, 17
_Coriolanus_, political significance of, 164;
and patriotism, 178
_Cymbeline_ (III. i., 16-22), on patriotism, 183
_Hamlet_, Shakespeare's performance of the Ghost, 27;
early popularity of the play, 29;
Pepys's criticism of, 95, 99-101;
the stage abridgment contrasted with the full text, 117-119
_Henry IV._ (Part I.), Pepys's criticism of, 97, 98
_Henry V._, meaning of first chorus, 19, 46;
quoted, 157, 158, 162
_Julius Cæsar_, preferred by contemporary playgoers to Jonson's
_Cataline_, 31;
political significance of, 164
_Lear, King_, performed at Elizabeth's Court, 36;
quarto of, 36
_Love's Labour's Lost_, performed at Court, 34;
title-page of the quarto, 35
_Macbeth_, Pepys's criticism of, 104-105;
quoted, 156
_Measure for Measure_, ethics of, 164
_Merry Wives of Windsor, The_, title-page of the quarto, 36;
Pepys's criticism of, 97
_Midsummer Night's Dream, A_, Pepys's criticism of, 96
_Othello_, Pepys's criticism of, 95, 98, 99
_Richard II._, purport of John of Gaunt's dying speech, 115-116,
181
_Romeo and Juliet_, Pepys's criticism of, 96
_Tempest, The_, Pepys's criticism of, 105-108;
spectacular production of, at Restoration, 107
_Troilus and Cressida_ (II. ii., 166), on Aristotle, 144, 145;
(I. iii., 101-124), on social equilibrium, 163
_Twelfth Night_, Pepys's criticism of, 96

Sheffield, John, Earl of Mulgrave and Duke of Buckinghamshire, 72

Shoreditch, the theatre in, 227

Sidney, Sir Philip, French translations of _Arcadia_, 199, 204

Somerset, the "proud" Duke of, on Shakespeare, 79

Sophocles, statue of, 233

Southampton, Earl of, and Shakespeare, 72

Southwark, the Globe Theatre at, 227

Spenser, Edmund, Beeston's gossip about, 67

Steevens, George, character of, 191;
a forged letter by, 192, 193

Sterne, Laurence, in France, 200

Stevenson, R.L., his imaginary discovery of lost works by Shakespeare, 25

Stratford-on-Avon, Shakespeare's tomb at, 50;
Betterton at, 73;
visitors from Oxford to, 75, 76, 77;
Shakespeare tradition at, 75, 76;
Shakespeare memorials at, 218;
destruction of New Place, 221;
the monumental committee of, 221;
sale of Shakespeare's birthplace, 222;
purchase of New Place site, 223;
the Birthplace Trust, 223, 224

Suckling, Sir John, his love for Shakespeare, 71

Sudermann, Hermann, 135

Tate, Nahum, his adaptations of Shakespeare, 103, 104

Theatres in Elizabethan London, 36;
seating arrangements, 39;
prices of admission, 39;
the scenery, 40;
the costumes, 41;
contrast between their methods of production and those of later
date, 44

Theatres, at Restoration, 86;
characteristics of, 87-90.
(See also Playhouses.)

_Theatrical Review_ of 1763, 190

Theatrical spectacle in Shakespearean drama, effect of excess, 3;
its want of logic, 4;
its costliness, 7;
at the Restoration, 89, 109;
at the present day, 110

Thomson, James, French study of, 201

Tuke, Sir Samuel, his _Adventures of Five Hours_, 98-99

Taylor, Joseph, original actor in Shakespeare's plays, 61;
coached by Shakespeare in part of Henry VIII., 63, 71, 72

Vanbrugh, Sir John, 91

Veronese, Paolo, statue of, 233

Victoria, Queen, and Stratford-on-Avon, 222;
statues of, 237

Vienna, production of _Antony and Cleopatra_ at the Burg-Theater,
17;
types of subsidised theatres at, 136, 138;
conservatoire of actors at, 139

Voltaire on Shakespeare, 205, 206

War, popular view of, 177

Ward, John, vicar of Stratford-on-Avon, 74;
his _Diary_, 74

Warner, Mrs, at Sadler's Wells, 11

Wellington, Duke of, monument to, 238

Westminster Abbey, Shakespeare's exclusion from, 50;
his cenotaph in, 215-216

Will, freedom of, 166

Women, Shakespeare's views on, 168

Wordsworth, William, French study of, 201

Wycherley, William, 91

Young, Edward, French study of, 201