A H A N D BOO K TO

THE STRATFO RD - U PON - AVON FESTIVAL

A Handb o o k to the

St rat fo rd- u p o n- A V O H

Fe st iv al

WITH ART I C LE S BY N R . B N O F . E S ARTHUR HUTCHINSO N N R EG I A L D R . B UC K L EY CECI L SH RP J. A

A ND [ LL USTRA TI ONS

P UBLI SHED UNDER TH E A USPICES A ND WITH THE SPECIAL

SANCTION OF TH E SHAKESPEARE M EMORIAL COUNCI L

LONDON NY L GEO RGE ALLEN COM PA , T D.

44 45 RATH B ONE P LA CE I 9 1 3

[All rig hts reserved] P rinted b y A L L A NT Y NE A NSON ér' B , H Co .

A t the Ballant ne P ress y , Edinb urg h P R E F A IC E

“ T H E Shakespeare Revival , published two years ago , has familiarised many with the ideas inseparable from any national dramatic

Festival . But in that book one necessarily Opened up vistas of future development beyond the requirements of those who desire a Hand a book rather than Herald of the Future . For them an abridgment and revision are effected here . Also there are considerable additions , and Mr . Cecil J . Sharp contributes a chapter explaining the Vacation School of Folk Song

o f and Dance , which he became Director since the previous volume was issued . The present volume is intended at once to supplement and

no t condense , to supersede , the library edition . B R . R . .

4 3 4 4 6 8

C O N T E N T S

TH E FESTIVAL I DEA

B F R B E S y . . N ON .

THE SHAKESPEARE M EM ORIAL THEATRE AT STRAT

FORD - UPON-AVON I A . R ECORD OF I TS WORK

T H E I I . FURTHER DEVEL OPM ENTS OF TH E SHAKESPEARE AN M EM ORIA L A SSOCIA TION B A H H y RT UR UTCH I NSON .

NATUR E OF DRAM A

T H E ENGL S D M E F E S E I . I H RA A B OR HAK SPEARE

F E E I I . T HE SPIRIT O SHAKESP AR

B EG I LD R B K LEY y R NA . UC .

T H E STRAT FORD-UPON-A VON VACATION SCHOOL OF FOL K SONG AND DANCE

B SH P . y C ECIL J. AR

E FES L S F - N THE SHAKESPEAR TIVA , TRAT ORD UPO AVON

I L L U S T R A T I O N S

’ ES E E S T M ENE THE S A ND T L E To SHAK P AR O B, B ATH BU T AB T H I S EM I N TH E C OF TH E H L T N M ORY, HURCH O Y RI ITY, A s GARLANDED WITH F L OWERS ON A PRI L 2 3

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TH E FESTI VAL I DEA

. NS BY F R . B E ON

T H E F E S T I VAL I D E A

I A M very proud to be asked to contri bute to a work published by a firm so long associated with the name of J ohn Ruskin ; proud that o ur work at Stratford should be

regarded , by the writers of it , as part of that campaign against the unloveliness of modern life in which Ruskin was the pro ni tag o st. The outlines of the dream that

Mr . Charles Flower and the founders of the

- - Stratford upon Avon Shakespeare Memorial ,

their friends and successors , have been dream ing and developing for more than thirty years may be summed up in the following general

terms . Even if the exact shape of the towers be

lost in the clouds , the rainbow and the sunshine , seemingly variable because ever growing ; if for a moment one is bewildered by the vast

ness of its possibilities for the future , one is recalled to action in the present by the practical example o f the founder and by the joyous stir and bustle attending the Festival . One o f the 1 3 THE FE ( ST I VAL I D EA

dream 15 that its foundation is on solid earth , formulated in bricks and mortar linked to Warwickshire soil by creeping plants and twining flowers . For the man and his co o workers , who will always have the chief h nour of designing the fabric , like the rest of our race, could do as well as dream . The picture has n many settings . H ere is o e o f them .

I t is the first of May . The dreamer is lying on a smooth lawn by the river- side ; part of the garden attached to the theatre buildings . To the right , through a frame of rush and willow , yew and cedar and elm , the spire of the church lo oks down on the mill where Celt , Roman , Saxon and Dane, Nor man and E nglishman for Centuries have ground their harvest . In front, beyond the

- field river , stretches the playing of the town ; secured to the towns - folk fo r ever by wise -fiel s burgesses . The playing d are deserted

- to day , save for a few youths enjoying the last o f kick the season at a football , or their first renewal of the controversy between cricket bat com and ball . The leisure energy of the

munity is occupied elsewhere . The clock in the old church tower strikes

twelve , and the jackdaws and the starlings notify to the rooks that another sun has I 4

T H E FE S T I VAL I D EA

Queen of the May , a fair little maiden seated

on a throne of flowers in the midst of her court .

The rough spear, entwined with ivy pointing

upwards , connects the eternal homage paid by age to youth with the primitive worship from

our ancestors to the earth and the sun . Then the Folk- songs o f our forefathers ring out

blithely on the spring air, and the twinkling feet o f the little dancers on the grass catch ’ something of the rhythm o f Shakespeare s

verse and the music of the spheres . Among the crowd are many people from over - seas ;

blood brothers of the race , fellow subjects

from distant parts of our Empire , friends from foreign countries all the world over— Scandi

navia , the N etherlands , France , Germany ,

Russia , Austria , Italy, Switzerland , and the

Balkans . The Spaniard, the Bohemian , the

African , the Asiatic recognise in many of the dances some primitive ceremony still in vogue among their own folk to this day . I n the B room dance of an elderly but active villager the American from H onolulu notes as an old friend the spear dance of the Pacific I slanders .

The I ndian Prince , guest of honour on this occasion , expresses his pleasure at being “ o f present with words full meaning . I will take back to my country the story o f yo ur 1 6 T H E F E ST I VA L I D E A song and your dance and your Shakespeare

Festival , that my people may have more joy

in their lives , and that your folk and my folk ’ u may better nderstand each other s religion . “ As said an Eastern in a bygone age , Your

people shall be my people , and your gods my ” - o f gods . And then the May day part the Festival ends and the crowd disperse to their

various tasks , and the Queen of the May steals forth in the afternoon to lay her crown and the ’ bouquet , given by the Mayor , on her father s

recently made grave . For her , as for the others , sorrow sojourneth but for a season in the promise of the May .

’ ’ Th e n e o e her o e arth,that s atur s m th r, is t mb ; h r n e h e r . What is buryi g grav , that is e wo mb A nd fro m her wo mb children o f divers kind We sucking o n her natural b o so m find n e e c n Many for ma y virtu s x elle t ,

fo r o e and et ffe en . None but s m , y all di r t O c e the o e ce e , mi kl is p w rful gra that li s

n o ne and e e e . I n herbs, pla ts , st s, th ir tru qualiti s

The dreamer watches the streams of people

scatter , some to the library or to the picture

gallery , some to study the heraldic meaning of the decorations in the streets— the blazon of achievement won by Warwickshire worthies ’ o r heroes of Shakespeare s verse ; some to the 1 7 B T H E F E ST I VAL I D EA h birt place or the school , the cottage of Anne ’ H athaway, the home of Shakespeare s mother ,

Mary Arden , or the monument in the church .

' The bands o f teachers tro o p Off to their daily - - o r lessons in Folk song and Folk dances , to ’ o n - o r hear a lecture Folk Lore, Shakespeare s

Girls and their Flowers . S ome repair to o f the exhibition of arms and armour, house hold gear and furniture — the furniture and metal- work made in the days when handicraft and skilled workmanship were the cherished possessions of every artisan . Or the onlooker may have followed the man with the spade , unconsciously helping to solve the problem of how to make a profit of £60 a year out of a a single cre . H is thoughts , however , going back to the land and the garden city , would be interrupted by another phase in this cradle o f

E nglish yeoman life . H e catches sight of a country waggon drawn by a gaily - decked

- horse half hidden with tapestry , embroideries , and woven webs , whence look out the wistful faces of some workers from the neighbouring school of needlework , not strong enough to join in the dances except with their deft hands and hearts . Some , had he questioned

them , would have told him that their poet had shown them in the Playhouse how “ we 1 8 T H E FE ST I VAL I D EA English became what we are and how we ” re can keep so . H e would have reverently cognised that power o f growth in the great ’ Master s w ork that makes him eternally o f modern , so that the people a thousand years hence will still have their lesson to learn to apply properly the wisdom of the Anglo - Celtic seer to the practical details of

their everyday life . But now the crowd are beginning to re - assemble that they may attend

the evening performance , and the dreamer will have to hurry off to get his place at the theatre . I t may be that he will see some - VI SItI n pilgrim from the country side , g the o n theatre for the first time in her life , drop

her knees and pray , vaguely realising that this Festival of Drama may have something to do

with the relation of man to God . H e may hear in the theatre such remarks as H e is a ” clever one that wrote yon . Or the simple conclusion , breathlessly uttered at the end of “ ” Macbeth , Aye , but that chap was a waster . Then he will watch the audience disperse to rest, and he will know the pilgrims have g ained — “ something of strength and knowledge Aye , ’ & man , it helps one to do a better week s work .

On this starlit night, when the nightingale is singing, the triumph of the spring in every I 9 T H E FE ST I VA L I D E A

hedgerow round , the ceremony grows on his fancy and the dreamer returns to the river

side to think it out . And now in place of the swallows the bats fly their cloistered flights

The shard-b o rne beetle with his drowsy hums ’ Hath ru ng night s yawning peal .

The waters of the Avon reflect the music of

- the myriad of young eyed cherubim , and as in the surface of a shield the dreamer seeks to

catch a Vision of the future . H is fancy builds

upon the events of the day , upon the shadow of

the theatre , as he sees it reflected in the starry

depths . There rises before him with added courts and upper storeys a temple dedicated to

- the genius of the Anglo Celtic race . Around

are shrines to the Greek and the I ndian Sage ,

to Aeschylus , to Phidias , to Plato, to Michael

Angelo and Beethoven , where the service of song is perpetually celebrated by priests and pilgrims Side by side with the Morality , the Mystery , and the Miracle play are per formed Sakuntala and the Drama of the East . The Orphic hymn in its early and latest de velo pm e nt mixes with the bardic drama of the

I v ernian . minnesingers Goethe , Cervantes , e Moli re, and the moderns from every country Off contribute their ering at the dramatic altar, 2 0 T H E ‘ F E STIVAL I D EA send their message of poetry— the making o f of life and action for the children men . U nder its roof, books , pictures , statues help to express and formulate the work of this college of humanity . Stratford , Warwickshire , the British Empire , and A merica join in an informal conference o f the Anglo- Celtic co n federation . With their differences adjusted in o f a world art , music and literature their common race possession , they will realise, as they join hands with the subtle strength of

India, the triumph of the Aryan Empire , which seems o n this night of May to be drawing nearer with the dawn , for the pilgrims who have realised Shakespeare’s message of strong

- and strenuous self Control . For them the blending o f East and West and the recon ciliation of Black and White can be left to the coming of the years .

Fro m the fo ur co rners o f the earth th ey co me To ne o re n n kiss this shri , this m rtal b athi g sai t, bringing in their train the fervour of the

Romance nations , the discipline of the Teuton , o f the primitive vigour the Slav , the enterprise of the Scandinavian , the mystic reverence of the Oriental . can The gazer in the stream , in fancy , hear 2 1 T H E F E ST I VAL I D EA

o f the prayer agony, the praise of j oy , the the ae lyric of love , p an of the battle , the call of the blood , the anthem of a new awakened and a larger faith , mingled with the thou o f sand voices our mother Earth , as the

Master Singer unrolls his written scroll . insis Above these variant notes , dominant , in tent , the great peace of the night sounds the call of the H igher H umanity , throbs the note of nature that makes the whole world kin . “ I f it be not now , yet it will come let be

the workers round the temple can wait .

2 2

T H E S H A K E S P EARE M E MO RI AL T H EAT RE

A R ECOR D OF ITS WOR K

A FA L L A CY very commonly maintained by those who have set themselves to doubt the identity of the play - actor of Stratford - upon - Avon with the author o f the great literary heritage known

‘ co n as the work of William Shakespeare, has sisted in the frequent statement that Shake speare himself attained but little glory while he

lived , and gained still less tribute from those who came after him within the century or more that immediately followed his death . It is a point of curiosity that any such

View should ever have gained currency , either fo r in print or in conversational argument , ,

as a matter of fact , the praise of Shakespeare went onward in steady development and accu m ulatio n , from the tributes of his contempo raries and immediate successors in literature “ ” Rare Ben J onson , Francis 2 5 T H E M E MO RIA L TH EAT RE Muses would speak with Shakespeare’s fine

filed phrase , if they would speak Barnfield Richard , J ohn Weever, Michael — Drayton , and others to the stately eulogy of ’ Milton s famous sonnet . ’ From Milton s time onward , through the o f modish literature the Restoration period , and the more pedantic feeling of eighteenth century criticism , approval of Shakespeare progressed , until the more humane spirit of nineteenth - century letters completed the shrine of appreciation that had gradually been built ’ around the name and work of Stratford s son , ’ “ who , in Ben J onson s phrase , was not for ” an age , but for all time . The compiler of “ ’ ” Shakespe are s Centurie of Prayse gave an interesting survey of the continuity with which homage was paid to Shakespeare throughout

the first century after his death, and Mr . “ C . E . H ughes , in his delightful volume , The ” Praise of Shakespeare , presents a still more

comprehensive record , and one brought down

to the tributes of our own day .

I t is , however, somewhat curious , but still

the fact , that while the literary love for Shake ’ I n speare s work , and the resulting increase the

study of it, marched steadily onward , belief ’ in the poet s plays as entertainments for 2 6 T H E M E M O R I A L TH E ATRE

- the theatre going public gradually decreased , “ ” from the days o f their improvement and adaptation for the artificial tastes o f the period

by Dryden , Nahum Tate , and other play i o f wrights , unt l , by the middle the Victorian fe w era, only some half dozen , or but more

than that , of the greater tragedies and comedies

could be said any longer to hold the stage .

Samuel Phelps , in his memorable management ’ of Sadler s Wells Theatre , did his utmost to

remove this reproach ; but , with the gradual passing o f the actors trained in the traditions “ ” of the old stock companies , all but the more ’ admittedly popular o f Shakespeare s plays were

relegated from the stage to the study again . There they awaited the full renaissance of the Shakespearean drama on the stage under the enlightened rule o f the more literary of our

- modern actor managers . Meanwhile Shakespeare ’s native town of Stratford - upon - Avon was in even poorer plight than the metropolis or the larger provincial f Cities , since it obviously could not of er the strongest form of inducement to the actor managers o f succeeding generations to make any lengthy sojourn within its gates for the sole purpose of producing the Shakespearean

drama . For many years it could not even 2 7 T H E M E MO RI AL T H E ATRE extend the hospitality of a permanent theatre for stage Visitors of rep ute at any ordinary o f period the year , but erected a temporary pavilion for the occasional commemoration of that son who in its noble parish church lay “ as ” lord , not tenant to the grave . The first recorded celebration of Shake ’ speare s memory in his native place, as dis tinct from the ordinary performance o f his — more popular plays by strollingplayers, among whom are known to have been both Peg Wo ffin to n g and Roger Kemble , the father of — the famous Mrs . Siddons was a performance “ of Othello given in 1 74 8 by a touring o f manager some repute named J ohn Ward ,

the maternal grandfather of Mrs . Siddons, for the raising of funds 'to repair Shakespeare’s

monument in the church . 1 The performance realised £ 7 , and the occasion has been handed down to the present time by a curiously direct memento in the form of a pair of buckskin gloves which are believed

to have belonged originally to Shakespeare .

They were presented , as such , in recognition

of the performance , to the actor J ohn Ward ,

by Shakespeare Hart, a descendant of the ’ poet s sister . Ward subsequently gave them to David Garrick , from whom they passed to 2 8 T H E M E M OR I A L T H EATR E

Mrs . Siddons, and through her to Fanny

Kemble , who presented them to Dr . H orace autho Howard Furness, the eminent American ’ rity o n Shakespeare s work . The first Shakespearean Commemoration of “ any organised importance was a J ubilee 1 6 promoted by David Garrick in 7 9 . This f co n was in its way a very brilliant af air, but cerned itself less with the actual plays of Shake

speare than has since become the custom ,

- banquets, balls , and even horse racing forming

the larger part of its programme . The opening of a regular theatre in 1 8 2 7 led to the visiting of Stratford by many well

. K eans graced players H ither came the , father

. is b ett and son , Macready , Dillon , Mrs N , and others who made the theatrical history of their ’ o f day . The more popular Shakespeare s plays were given from time to time by these and less distinguished actors , but after a time

. 1 8 2 the theatre fell on evil days At last , in 7 ,

- it was bought by Mr . Halliwell Phillipps , and pulled down , amid general approval , in order that the ground which it now cumbered to no sufficient purpose might be restored to its former state , as part of the garden belong ing to New Place , the home of Shakespeare after his withdrawal from London life . 2 9 T H E M E M O RI AL T H E AT RE I n the course of these ordinary professional performances there were held two Festivals — one in 1 8 2 7 and the other in I 83 0— Which were intended to inaugurate a series to be held thre e ears once every y , but the scheme fell through after the second celebration . There after all commemoration ceremonies fell into 1 86 o f abeyance until 4 , when the tercentenary the poet’s birth was marked by a series of o f performances his plays , in which Buck stone , Compton , Creswick, and Sothern took part .

The great success of this Festival , which was held in a temporary building erected for the purpose , inspired local enthusiasts with a wish for more permanent headquarters for future in 1 8 S celebrations . At length , 7 5 , a few trat

- - ford upon Avon men , led by the late Charles

Edward Flower , formed themselves into an

Association for the purpose of building , as a memorial to Shakespeare in his native town , a theatre to form a permanent centre for the frequent revival of his works , without regard to the limitations all too long imposed upon the selection of plays by the preferences of “ ” star actors , or the determination of the older playgoing public that only a few of the most famous tragedies and comedies of 30

T H E M E M O RI A L T H EATRE

1 8 1 08 Between the years 75 and 9 Mr . Charles

Flower and his wife, who long survived him , contributed some to the building and

endowment of the Memorial , and at her death

M rs . Flower bequeathed to the Association the riverside property of A v o nb ank which adjoins o f the original grounds the Memorial buildings , and therefore considerably extends their domain

for the benefit of future generations . To illustrate the principles upon which the o f theatre is governed , it may be interest to quote here a clause of the Articles o f Associa tIo n

The income and property o f the Associa e tion , whencesoev r derived , shall be applied solely towards the promotion of the objects of the Association as set forth in this Memorandum o f Association and no portion thereof shall be paid or transferred , directly or indirectly, by way o f dividend o r bonus or otherwise how soever by way of profit , to the persons who at o r any time are , have been , Members of the

' o f Association , or to any them or to any person

Claiming through any of them . Provided that nothing herein shall prevent the payment in good faith of remuneration to any officers or servants o f the Association or to any Membe rs 3 2

T H E M E MO R I A L T H EATR E of the Association or other person in return for any services actually rendered to the Associa ” tion .

I n the Memorial Theatre , which thus came ’ into existence, Shakespeare s reputed birthday

- 2 rd and his probable death day too , April 3 , and a varying number of preceding or ensuing days , have for the past thirty years seen the ’ performance of a number of the poet s plays . And each year has added to this list at least one play not previously performed there , until “ but three remain unproduced , Troilus and ” “ ’ é‘ Titus Cressida , Andronicus , and All s fir Well that E nds Well . Of these the s t ’ named is to be presented at this year s Festival . To have added such a goodly number of previously neglected works to the ranks of the comparatively few which have been at all “ frequently glorified by sumptuous long - run revivals would have amounted to an achieve ment more than j ustifying the Memorial Theatre of its critics , even if the plays had been mounted but now and again . But with the growth of ’ the Festival s audiences , and the consequent

extension of the annual series of performances, it has now for some years been possible to repeat quite a large number of these revivals ’ can every year . Thus Shakespeare s town 3 3 C T H E M E M O R I AL T H E AT RE to - day with honourable pride claim to be the one place in the world where a visitor can ’ witness as many as sixteen o f the poet s plays ’ within a brief three weeks season . Beginning its work at a time when even the traditions of Shakespearean acting had fallen out of memory with the passing o f the older generations of players , and only a few of the ’ more familiar o f the poet s tragedies and comedies were at all frequently performed upon the English stage , the Council of the Memorial Theatre set itself to restore to the ’ modern theatre the long array o f Shakespeare s tragedies , comedies , and historical plays , which had all too long been omitted from any ’ theatrical repertoire in the poet s own country, and could be seen performed only in the sub o f sidised theatres Germany . The opening “ 1 8 production , in 7 7 , was Much Ado about ” Nothing , in which Lady Martin , the famous n F aucit o f H ele earlier days , emerged from her retirement and played Beatrice to the ” u “ Benedick of Barry S llivan . Hamlet , As Y o u in Like I t, and other plays were also cluded in the programme of this first of the modern Festivals . I n the following year the Memorial Coun ’ Cil ag ain availed itself of Barry Sullivan s 34 T H E M E MO R I AL T H EAT RE

o f experience for the conduct the revivals , and then for two years Mr . Edward Compton , whose distinguished father had contributed much to o f 1 86 en the success the 4 Celebration , was trusted with the artistic control of a programme ” “ which included Twelfth N ight , Romeo and “ ” Juliet , and The Comedy of Errors as chief

88 . a . 1 n novelties In 3 Mr Elliot Galer, Eng lishman chiefly associated as actor with the “ ” “ American stage , added Macbeth , H enry “ ” I V . , Part and King Lear to the list of the Memorial productions , and in the following “ two years M iss Alleyn contributed Cym b e ” “ ” “ ’ line , Measure for Measure , and Love s ’ Labour s Lost . The list of productions already wears an im

portant air, but it must be admitted that they had so far been leavened wi th sundry modern plays that were in no sense worthy o f the

occasion . The real fact probably was that the affair still remained for the most part a

local one , and local audiences were not large enough to require several performances of one

play . The Festival had still to await the gradual growth o f a gathering of visitors such 1 6 as now supports it . I n 88 the control o f the theatrical arrangements was fo r the first time entrusted by the Memorial Council to 3 5 T H E M E M OR I AL T H EATRE

. . . e Mr F R Benson , who had not long b fore organised his now famous Shakespearean

. M r Repertoire Company S ince then . and

Mrs . Benson and their company have been responsible for the productions of the Memo o f rial Theatre , with the exception of those 1 88 — 0 9 9 , when the performances were directed 1 8 by the late Osmond Tearle , and of 9 5 , when

Mr . Ben Greet was invited to produce the re series of plays for the year , and with his “ ’ ”

l o f . v iv a . The Winter s Tale , with Mr H . B

I rving , Miss Beatrice Lamb , Miss Dorothea F reear Baird , and Miss Louie in the cast , made a notable addition to the Memorial ’ Theatre s record . With the more continuous policy made pos sible by a single directorate the reputation of has the Memorial productions grown apace . When the Memorial buildings were first projected , many a voice was raised to protest that the o ne thing lacking would prove to be the audience . The prophecy has proved idle . 1 8 By 9 7 , when the theatre was just twenty ’ years old , the Festival s brief span of a week was extended to a fortnight , and in five years came a further expansion to three weeks ; and with each added week has come the further series o f audiences that the enterprise 3 6

T H E M E MO RIAL T H E ATR E the stage has been revived with special elaboration , and at a time when most of these “ ’ ” works , such as A M idsummer N ight s Dream , “ ” “ o f The Tempest, The Merry Wives Wind ” “ ” “ ” sor , Twelfth N ight , Timon of Athens, and the historical plays , Roman and English , had been entirely neglected on the London or provincial stage fo r practically a whole genera tion , they were revived year by year at the

Memorial Theatre , and not revived for the moment merely , but carried away to the country as part of the regular repertoire of ’ M r . Benson s itinerary and brought back to Stratford - upon - Avon to be repeated in support ’ of the chief novelty o f the next year s series . “ o f The Merry Wives Windsor , for instance , 1 886 it first revived at the Festival of , when had no t been seen on the stage at all fo r many a long day , has been frequently given in ensuing years in immediate company with the historical plays in which Falstaff figures . Thus the Festival playgoer has achieved Queen Eliza beth ’s wish to see the truculent knight pass from the plays which show him in the real o f history his day , but only as a subordinate rOle o f character, into the protagonist in the world o f merriment with which the poet e m dowed the wives of Windsor . 3 8 T H E M E MO R I AL T H E ATRE

a 1 8 1 Julius C esar , again , first revived in 9 , effe c has since been repeated , in all the fresh tiveness which the historical plays acquire by such proximity to each other , in Festival programmes in which it has stood midway between the other Roman plays , Coriolanus “ ” and Antony and Cleopatra . Few points of interest in such matters could be more illuminating than the contrast brought o ut by this juxtaposition between the austerity of the ” Rome of Coriolanus, the fuller yet still self “ o f ae critical spirit the Rome of Julius C sar, and the sensuous abandonment o f that g o r n geo s East which Cleopatra held in fee . As o f far as one can gather , the experiment giving these three plays from Roman history in close conjunction had never before been attempted on any stage , any more than had the intensely interesting scheme subsequently carried out at the Memorial Theatre , by the performance , in ’ o f chronological sequence , Shakespeare s long f series o plays from English history . The interest of these Chronicle - plays is enor m o usly enhanced by their consecutive perfor o f mance in the historical order their events . ’ Such a moment as H enry the Fifth s prayer b e fore the Battle of Agincourt , wherein the kneel ing monarch protests his attempted atonement 39 T H E M E MO R I AL T H EATR E

for the murder of Richard the Second , which ’ o i secured his father s crown , becomes doubly p g nant when the auditors have but two nights previously seen the hapless Richard grace the triumph of proud Bolingbroke , and but one night since have witnessed the alarums and ex cursio ns which left that same Victorious Boling broke small joy in his advancing years . The trumpet - call of English patriotism sounded at the close of “ King J ohn forms the prelude to Shakespeare’s long epic in dramatic form , which closes with the Vision of national prosperity foreshadowed in the bap tismal blessing of the infant Queen Elizabeth , in the last Act of Henry V I I I . Then comes the Lancastrian trilogy which , to quote “ from Professor Dowden , commences with ’ ‘ The Tragedy of King Richard I I . and ‘ ’ closes with The Life of King H enry V . In four successive plays is presented the story of the rise and triumph of the House of Lan — o f caster . Four other plays the three parts ’ ‘ ‘ o f King H enry V I . and The Tragedy ’ King Richard I I I . present the story of the decline of the H ouse o f Lancaster and the rise and fall o f the H ouse o f York . These plays of the Wars o f the Roses and the life and death of the usurper Richard were the 40 T H E M E MOR I AL T H EATRE

’ ’ o f work Shakespeare s prentice hand , when he worked in conjunction with some of his early contemporaries , and was subject to the dominant influence of the greatest among them

Christopher Marlowe . The Lancastrian ‘ group contains some early work , for King ’ Richard I I . cannot be remote in date from King Richard but the former o f these plays , whether chronologically the second in order or not , is far more independent and native to Shakespeare’s genius as a dramatic work than the Marlowesque tragedy of ‘ King ’ Richard I I I . The Lancastrian group has also in it work which represents Shakespeare ’s full maturity as a craftsman in dramatic history . I t excels the Yorkist series of plays beyond all fine comparison in its studies of character , in o f its presentation heroic action , and in its free and joyous humour . The action may be said to move on with ‘ out interruption from the opening o f King ’ ‘ . V Richard I I to the close of King Henry . , from Bolingbroke’s challenge of Norfolk to the wooing of the French princess by the

Victor of Agincourt . “ Then follows the series of dramas present ing the rise and fall of the H ouse of York , and through the eight plays which make up the 4 1 T H E ME MO RIAL T H EATRE

whole connected series of Lancaster and York , runs a continuous moral purpose— a setting o f o f G o d forth , as it were, the justice in the o f o f history England , the sins the father being ’ visited upon the children o r upon the children s children , until at last on Bosworth Field the evil has reached its term , and Richmond and Elizabeth

‘ The true succeeders of each royal hous e

‘ ’ ’ o n enter by God s fair ordinance , their ” 1 o f heritage loyalty and peace . Vivid and impressive as are each o f these plays singly , taken as a consecutive series they present us with a Vision of history e x trao rdi naril f yilluminative o the national character . ’ Shakespeare s kings are not, nor are meant , as Walter Pater says , to be , great men rather, o r little quite ordinary humanity , thrust upon n great ess , with those pathetic results , the natural self- pity o f the weak heightened in them into irresistible appeal to others as the net result of their royal prerogative . One after another , they seem to lie composed in Shakespeare ’s embalming pages , with just that touch of

1 ’ “ e e e H en IV I . and e b Shak sp ar s ry . , Parts illustrat d y i r D n D E ri z n E o L L . G t e . n c n b e . dward I tro du ti o y dward wd , C e Co ass ll . 4 2 T H E M E MOR I A L T H EATR E

Nature about them , making the whole world akin , which has infused into their tombs at ” 1 Westminster a rare poetic grace . While these kings were living their little day the national character was evolving , slowly and imperceptibly . Even Shakespeare him n o r self whe he wrote these plays , rewrote them from older models , could not see their to o full historical value , because he lived soon to see the long results o f the strange happen ings which he merely accepted from their first x ra r chroniclers . But he accepted with an e t o di m o f arily fine sense selection , and throughout he seems to see the general trend o f the English character, while monarch succeeded monarch ’ and then went down to Death s public tiring ” house . I n these historical plays , ranging from ” “ King J ohn to H enry he shows no t himself only as a great dramatist, but as an English patriot , illustrating the slow but f sturdy growth o his own countrymen . The splendidly Vivid interest with which Shakespeare has endowed this long series o f pictures of the gradual but continuous e v o lu tion of the English national Character under f many rulers , was emphasised to the ull for the first time , for the bulk of the audiences , by

1 ” . l n ec on b e e c Co . Appr iati s, yWalt r Pat r Ma mi la 4 3 T H E M E MO R I AL T H EATRE

o f the staging these plays , and the effect was f strangely moving . The series o performances will endure as a most interesting memory to

all who witnessed them , and as a monument o f what has been accomplished at Stratford

- upon Avon , in a cause which had previously

been attempted only in Germany . I f the Memorial Theatre had done nothing else in its history but provide this fascinating

experience, it would have justified its exist

ence . An instrument of national education of the finest value would be supplied by the more

frequent performance of these plays , especially

if given , as at Stratford , in their chronological

sequence . But even the most ardent of Stratford’s pil

- grims lives not by chronicle plays alone , and amid all the recondite labour of restoring to to o the stage such all long neglected work , the ’ more generally popular o f Shakespeare s plays have still yearly held their own . The Prince ’ o f Denmark has tardily avenged his father s no t o f murder , only within the wonted limits o f the modern stage , but in the larger sphere character and motive supplied by the perform o f ance the entire text of the play , with whole speeches and scenes long omitted from accepted ” ’ - acting versions . Verona s star crossed lovers 44

T H E M E M OR I AL T H E AT RE

’ some of their poet s most lovable moments , become transmuted into simple Warwickshire , so that his own stage directions for o ne of his plays might be reversed and his native fo r countryside be accounted for , once and “ all , as to be found dispersedly in various countries . “ H is Wood near Athens slopes over to o f -flo win wards the bank the soft g Avon , and N ick Bottom and his fellow “ rude mechanicals are true - born Warwickshire yokels although “ they work for bread upon A thenIan stalls . Titania ’s “ nine men ’s morris ” recalls the fore bears o f the very dancers who revive their old

- world measure at present day Festivals , and Oberon and Titania have planted their Grecian forest with the same wild - fl o w ers which to - day are strewn in the church where

n f r o Ki gs o such a t o mb sh uld wish to die . And who more M idland in his rusticity than ” the “ rural fellow w ho bears unto the grim “ Egyptian monument the pretty worm o f N ilus to bring liberty to Cleopatra & Hamlet abandons his journey towards Eng land only to find a typical Warwickshire peasant

digging the grave for Ophelia, and the stream in which 46 T H E M E MOR I AL T H EA T R E

H er weedy trophies and herself ” e in the ee n o o F ll w pi g br k , flows even nearer Stratford than the water in o f which a maid Clopton met her death , and

suggested to the poet , says tradition , the manner ’ of Ophelia s pitiful end . Both King Lear and Ophelia in their madness toy with the same old- fashioned Warwickshire flowers as Perdita

in her simple joy . Even if this process o f identification be “ to ” consider too curiously, there is still no escaping from the charm of the conditions of playgoing amid the green meadows and old- world build ’ i ngs associated with the life of Stratford s dramatist . I n a delightful article on the sub ect 7 716 S eaéw’ j which first appeared in fi , and has since been reprinted in his volume “ of essays entitled Ideas of Good and Evil ,

Mr . W . B . Yeats says “ I have been hearing Shakespeare , as the traveller in News from Nowhere ’ might have heard him , had he not been hurried back into our noisy time . One passes through quiet

W - re streets , here gabled and red tiled houses member the Middle Age , to a theatre that has been made not to make money , but for of the pleasure making it , like the market houses that set the traveller chuckling ; nor 4 7 T H E M E MOR I A L T H E AT RE does o ne find it among hurrying cabs and ringing pavements , but in a green garden by a river side . I nside I have to be content for a while with a chair , for I am unexpected , and there is not an empty seat but this ; and yet there is no o ne who has come merely because one must go somewhere after dinner . to o in All day , , one does not hear or see an congruous or noisy thing , but spends the hours la s and reading the p y , the wise and foolish things men have said of them , in the library of the o ak- theatre , with its panelled walls and leaded windows of tinted glass ; or o ne rows by

reedy banks and by old farmhouses , and by

old Churches among great trees . I t is certainly ’ f o r . one s fault if one opens a newspaper, Mr o ne Benson gives a new play every night, and one need talk of nothing but the play in

- o ak the inn parlour , under the beams blackened by time and showing the mark of the adze that

shaped them . I have seen this week K ing ’ J ohn , Richard the second part of ‘ H enry ‘ H enry and the second ‘ ‘ ’ part o f Henry and Richard I I I .

played in their right order, with all the links that bind play to play unbroken ; and partly o f because a spirit in the place , and partly

because of the way play supports play , the 48

T H E M E M O R I AL T H EAT RE theatre has moved me as it has never done o f before . That strange procession kings and o f o f queens , warring nobles , insurgent crowds , o f o f o f courtiers , and people the gutter has to o to o been to me almost visible , audible , o f too full an unearthly energy . I have felt as I have sometimes felt o n grey days o n S the Galway hore , when a faint mist has hung over the grey sea and the grey stones , as if the world might suddenly vanish and no t leave nothing behind , even a little dust ’ ’ under one s feet . The people my mind s eye has seen have too much o f the ex trav a o f o f gance dreams , like all the inventions art before o ur crowded life had brought to moderation and compromise , seem more than a dream , and yet all else has grown dim before them .

s o f a The ea iness travel , which is alw ys growing , began by emptying the country , but it may end by filling it ; for adventures like this o f Stratford - o n- Avon show that people are ready to journey from all parts o f England and Scotland and I reland , and even from

America , to live with their favourite art as shut away from the world as though they were 49 T H E M E M O RI AL T H E AT RE

‘ ’ in retreat , as Catholics say . N obody but an impressionist painter, who hides it in light and mist , even pretends to love a street for its own sake ; and could we meet our friends n and hear music and poetry in the cou try , none of us that are not captive would ever ” 1 leave the thrushes .

Writing on the same subject, another Visitor ’ to Stratford s Festival , Mr . C . E . Montague , says in his brilliant volume of “ Dramatic ” Values , reprinted from his contributions to Tb e M anob estor Guardian “ A thing not easily to be spoilt for you in Stratford is the way you go to the theatre there , at any rate on a fine evening in late

April , in a year when the spring has not been

- soured by an ill placed frost . Y o u go into it from a garden by a river , alive just now with little jocund noises ; there is that sound which to hear is like drinking cool water in summer - the dip o f oars and the little tinkle of laughter from people coming home in boats at twilight ; beyond the stream some lambs are leaping about in a meadow of juicy grass , or posting

back to their mothers in silent thirst . Wherever

& . you look, behold it is very good Behind

1 “ ” I . F e o f G o o and b . . Y e . e d as d Evil, y W B ats T ish r Un n nd H n. wi a A . . Bulle 5 0

T H E M E MO R I AL T H E AT RE

their eyes . What dead silence receives , ’ most theatres , Le Beau s discreet civility

e e e in e e o n H r aft r, a b tt r w rld tha this , I shall desire m o re l o ve and knowledge o f yo u

o r I t is not , was not , so at Stratford you feel a whole audience to be delightedly tasting flavours and valuing qualities in what they hean After an act you step o ut into the more than pastoral quietude o f a country town settling to rest after the day . The growth of stillness , o u since you went in , is measured for y by the new clearness of the little distant sounds , o r voices at far off cottage doors , the shouts of a few children late at their play in the meadows . When the play ends , outside there is white river mist and dead silence . You all go to bed like o ne household . H alf an hour after the Oresteia was done there was no t a sound in the H igh Street ; at midnight the footsteps of two belated actors and their voices at the corner as they said good - night rang like ” 1 a sound in midnight Oxford . The record o f the Memorial Theatre has hitherto been primarily a Shakespearean one , but other interesting revivals and productions

1 “ ” V b . E . n . n Co D c e C o e e e . ramati alu s , y M tagu M thu 5 2 T H E M E MOR I AL T H E AT RE

have occasionally figured in the programme . Possibly those who are pilgrims to S tratford for the sole purpose of this series of perform ances would prefer to remain undisturbed in their Shakespearean mood . But then there is the very considerable local element o f the audiences to be considered , the element drawn not only from the town of Stratford itself, but from a larg e surrounding district , and the late

Mr . Charles Flower and the other founders of the Memorial Theatre had it ever before them as an ideal to endow a home primarily for

Shakespearean celebrations, but incidentally also for a good deal else that is worthiest of repetition in our dramatic literature , whether ancient or modern . They intended , indeed , to concede , and even to approve the fact that there have been dramatists both before and “ after Shakespeare , just as there were heroes ” l l on o interact/ o. before Agamemnon , though g The idea has seemed more suitable to the occasion since the Festival ’s span was extended

no n- to three weeks , and some of the Shake spearean fare presented has proved remarkably f interesting . The dif erence between the ideal of tragedy held by the Greek dramatists and that o f Shakespeare has been illustrated by a very impressive production of the Orestean 5 3 I T H E M E M O R I AL T H E ATR E

fEsch lus o f trilogy of y . Typical work Shake speare ’s predecessors on the English stage has ” been seen in four o f the Chester “ Mystery ’ “ Ed plays , and in Christopher Marlowe s ward I and his contemporaries have been represented by Ben J onson ’s “ Every Man in ” H is H umour . Of later dramatists Wycherley

(adapted by Garrick), Sheridan , Goldsmith ,

Tom Taylor, Lord Lytton , Mr . Stephen

Phillips , and Mr . G . E . Morrison and Mr .

R . P . Stewart , with their interesting play ” Do n Quixote , presenting the hero of Shake ’ speare s great S panish contemporary , Cervantes , had divided the honours o f these non - Shake s earean p performances , with the addition of

- 1 1 0 . certain one act plays , down to the year 9 Then the innovation of a prize o f 1;3 00 offered by one o f the governors of the Memorial o ut 1 Theatre , resulted in the selection , of 3 5 “ ” plays submitted , of The Piper , a new version ’ of the Pied Piper of H am elin s story by an

American poet , J osephine Preston Peabody

(Mrs . Lionel Marks) . Since then the modern additions to the Festival repertory have been Maurice Maeterlinck ’s poignant tragedy of ” Pelleas and Melisande , and George Bernard ’ “ Shaw s witty comedy You Never Can Tell , and this year ’s programme will include the latter 5 4 T H E M E MO RI A L T H EAT RE

’ “ ’ author s The Devil s Disciple , J ohn Mase ’ “ ” fields The Tragedy of Pompey the Great , ’ “ ” and J ohn Galsworthy s The Silver Box . I t would almost seem that in his elaborate o f classification the drama, Polonius had the

Festival programme generally in View , for surely no other repertoire company has ever presented as varied a bill as that which forms the annual three weeks ’ traffic of the Memorial f . o co stage But , thanks to the fine spirit operation in which many accomplished players share the arduous work of rehearsal and per fo rmance descri , it is possible to adopt the p tion given by Polonius himself in answer to ’ “ &” Hamlet s question , What players are they i and to say

The best actors in the world , either for tragedy , comedy , history , pastoral , pastoral i histo rical- - comical , pastoral , tragical historical ,

- - - tragical comical historical pastoral , scene indi Vidab le , or poem unlimited Seneca cannot be ” too heavy nor Plautus too light . For among the players who have taken part in the Memorial Theatre performances may be named the following

A n e . . e . Mr . H enry i l y Mr L wis Ball

O c c e . . e . Mr . s ar As h Mr Shi l Barry

A to n . . . en o n n r . Mr . F . Ra dle y Mr F R B s T H E M E M O R I A L T H E AT RE

. e . . e . Mr Charl s Bibby . Mr H Halliw ll H o bbes

. c o n o n . . o Mr A t B d Mr Balli l H ollo way .

. i . B o urch er . . . n Mr Arthur Mr H B Irvi g .

. ne o . . n. Mr Graham Br w . Mr H Jarma

. e o ne . . o ff o Mr Alfr d Bryd Mr M at J hnsto n.

. eo e c n n. . e Mr G rg Bu ha a Mr Cyril K ightley .

. n . . n e n enne . Mr Harry Cai . Mr C Ra K dy

. . . e . e o n n Mr W H Calv rt . Mr Math s La g .

. o e e Mr L uis Calv rt . Mr . Jam s Lewis .

. e e . . o e o n Mr Jam s Car w Mr R b rt L rai e .

. n n. . . n. Mr Murray Carri gto Mr F H . Mackli

. O . . enc . . c o n Mr B Clar e Mr Eri Max .

. n o c ne . . . O . c o Mr Fra k C hra Mr H Ni h lso n.

. o n o n . . en ne . Mr J h C lema . Mr B Id Pay

. n . e en . Mr Edward C o mpto . Mr St ph Phillips

. . P i . tta Mr Thalberg Co rb ett Mr B . A . r.

nn . . N e . Mr . Ha am Clark Mr ig l Playfair

. . e c . o e . Mr W Cr swi k . Mr William P l m enc e n . . e uarter ai . Mr . Clar e D rwe t Mr Charl s Q ne

o n e . . o ne . Mr . J h Dr w Mr Guy Rathb

- . e . n. . . o e o e o n Mr Jam s B Faga Mr J F rb s R b rts .

eo e z e . . e o o e . Mr . G rg Fit g rald Mr J rr ld R b rtshaw I an e n o e . . o o . Mr . Elli t Gal r Mr R b rts

. . e o e . n o ne . Mr A E . G rg . Mr Fra k R d y

e . . o n o ne . Mr . William Gilb rt Mr Stratt R d y

. . e e o . Mr B en Greet . Mr H rb rt R ss

en e . . . o e . Mr . Arthur Gr vill Mr G Kay S up r

e e o o . . O o . Mr . H rb rt Grimw d Mr th Stuart

e en. . n. Mr . Walt r Hampd Mr Barry Sulliva

n e . . . e e . Mr . Marti Harv y Mr E Lyall Sw t

e e n. . O o n e e . Mr . Jam s H ar Mr sm d T arl

n e e . . e e . Mr . H e ry H rb rt Mr Fr d T rry

- i ne t. . e . . H . n . t Ne o Mr H . R g Mr D ils T rry 5 6 T H E M E M O R I A L T H EAT RE

Sir Herbert Tree . M r. Arthur Whitby .

. . co . Mr H ermann Vez in. Mr Har urt Williams

. e . on. Mr L wis Waller . Mr . J P . Wils

. n . . o oc . Mr Edward Warburto . Mr F . G W rl k

eo e e . Mr . G rg W ir

b h r o r r e . Miss Elino r Aickin. Miss Vi let Fa e o t

Miss Alleyn. Miss H elen Faucit (Lady n Miss Sara Allgo o d . Marti ) .

Miss Lena Ashwell . Miss Ada Ferrar .

e ce e . Miss Mary Anderson. Miss B atri F rrar e reear Miss D orothea Baird . Miss Lo ui F .

Miss Virginia Bateman Miss D o ro thy Green.

. n e n. ( Mrs Edward Co mpt o ) . Miss Margar t Halsta H man n e an . Miss Jessi e Bat ema . Miss L ah

. . . n e en e . Mrs F R B e so n. Miss H l Hay

e n . e o o n Madam Sarah B er hardt Miss Kat H ds .

n o n. o n o n. Mrs . Billi gt Miss Laura J h s

n e en o n. Miss Lilia Braithwaite . Miss H tty K y

T n n e . Miss ita Bra d . Miss Mary Ki gsl y

n c . Miss Lily Brayto . Miss B eatri e Lamb

e e e No nc e . Madam Mari Br ma . Miss ra La ast r

n n o . Miss Huti Britto . Miss Auri l Le e

Miss Eleano r Calh o un. Miss Kitty Lo ftus .

e e e . Mrs . Charl s Calv rt . Miss Mari Lohr c e . M wall Miss Elsie Ch ster Miss Eth el Do . ° n Miss Co nstance Co llier . Miss Madge M I to sh .

D n l n n. Miss Alice e vi . Miss Wy ne Matthis o n D n il e n o e v . n Miss Mari Miss J a Macki lay .

de . e n . Miss N. Silva Miss Ev ly Millard

nc o . Miss Fra es Dill n. Miss Mabel M o o re

e e o . Miss G rtrud Eli t Miss Margaret M o rris .

e . o Miss B eryl Fab r Miss Julia Neils n. 5 7 T H E M E MORI AL T H E ATR E

e A ne Nic l hol s. Madam g s Miss Christine Silver .

O e No e . en Miss liv bl Miss Ell Terry . ’

e O Neill. on Miss Mair Miss Mari Terry .

- o n . O . Ne Miss M a K ram Miss Phyllis ilson Terry .

o n nce e s e . e Tithera e Miss C sta P lis i r Miss Madg dg . N nc ce . Eve Tithera Miss a y Pri Miss dg e .

e n. o e Miss Ada R ha Miss Vi l t Vanbrugh .

o n nce o e on. Miss C sta R b rts Miss Wallis .

ez . ene e e Miss Saumar Miss G vi v Ward .

er e co . n e ll Miss G trud S tt Miss Fra c s Wethera .

H ere , one may well feel confident , with

Polonius, is an artistic fellowship indeed equal “ to every call . Seneca cannot be too heavy, ” nor Plautus too light , for the players at any — rate , and as for the audiences but that is another story & Certainly o ne may assume ’ that at Stratford , at any rate , Shakespeare s own work more than holds its o w n against the Latin author of whom another Eliza “ bethan dramatist said , What are twelve kicks to a man who can read Seneca & ” Plautus is from time to time represented on ’ Stratford s stage indirectly , but only to the extent to which Shakespeare borrowed from “ ” him in The Comedy of Errors . o f For this golden pomp Tragedy , Comedy , ’ H istory , Pastoral from Shakespeare s work which year by year finds “ a local habitation on the Festival stage , a yearly larger and more cosmopolitan series of audiences has gathered . 5 8

T H E M E M OR I AL T H EAT RE the Memorial productions to many another ’ stage . Visitors to Stratford s Festival cannot but feel that something of the fitting qualities of place and occasion has contributed to the luminous revival of many of the plays for which all acting “ traditions ” had long been lost, and are accordingly glad that the work contributed to the annual Festival is often re peated in London and other centres by the players , to an extent which gives to the Memorial productions a value far exceeding the scope of merely local commemoration . From this point o f View the most important of all developments in the Memorial scheme may be considered the arrangements , now de

finitely completed , by which two companies of o f players , presenting a large selection Shake ’ spearean and other plays from Stratford s re e rto r p y, will set forth , later in the present year , o f under the auspices the Memorial Theatre ,

- upon far reaching tours through Canada, the

U . nited States , South America , and South Africa

One company , headed by M r . F . R . Benson O himself, pens its Canadian and American tour o f at Montreal in the first week October , and

o f . the other, under the direction Mr H enry

H erbert , begins its South African season at o n Capetown the same date . 60 THE FURTH ER DEVEL OPMENTS OF THE SH A KESPEA R EAN M EMORI A L A SSOCI ATI ON

I N the theatres of the Metropolis , and the larger cities which follow its example , fashions come and go , but the ideal which inspires the work o f the Memorial Theatre remains unchanged , and therefore attracts unto itself in yearly increasing numbers , from all parts o f the kingdom , from the Continent , and from U the nited States , as well as from British

Colonies , those who have learned to find in ’ Shakespeare s little town a rallyi ng point for certain interests which they have much at heart . That ideal has , indeed , made the

Memorial Buildings , Theatre Library , Picture

Gallery , Lecture H all , and Club Room some “ ” o f o f thing a College Humanities .

’ So fro m old Shakespeare s honoured dust this day and new e n Springs up buds a r vivi g play, wrote John Dryden two and a half centuries 6 1 FU RT H E R D EVE LO P M E N TS OF a o - g , and the lines might be taken to day to refer not only to the new life in the theatrical o f o f repertory our time , given to many Shake speare ’s plays which were previously to be seen only in the subsidised theatres of Germany , but to the revival of folk -song and dance and other kindred movements , now associated ’ with Stratford s intelligent patriotism . The organisation of these various interests in Shakespeare ’s town is fulfilling an important ’ part of the Memorial Theatre s high purpose . More than a century has elapsed since David Garrick formulated his ideal of a Shakespearean Theatre in the poet’s native o f town , and it is upwards thirty years since the late Charles Flower set himself to translate that ideal into tangible form ; and , substantial though the results achieved have already proved , it may be doubted whether either Garrick o r the public - spirited local enthusiasts o f later date can have foreseen ho w largely their ideal would outgrow that of mere local celebration , and develop and concentrate around itself in the twentieth century what Miss Mary N eal has aptly “ described as the new movement o f the ” - hitherto unlearned towards self expression . Tb e Times 1 1 0 Writing in in 9 M iss Neal , 6 2 T H E M E MORI AL AS SOC I AT I ON

whose well -known work in such causes gives

special authority to her opinions , said “ To those who have eyes to see and ears to hear it is evident that there is to -day

an awakening throughout England . It is an awakening of national consciousness and national responsibility ; I t I nvolves a race consciousness that shall overcome class pre judice and that Shall be strong enough to unite

the dwellers in all parts of the Empire , in that

it means a new I mperial ideal . This renaissance is to- day finding an out ward and visible sign in a revival o f folk -art and in a love of nature having its deep roots

in the traditions of the E nglish people . I n the great Cities young men and women from shop and factory are spending the hour of

recreation in singing the songs of long ago , dancing the dances evolved by the tillers of the soil as an expression of religious cere monial no less than of joy in everyday work

and life , and in acting and reciting the master o f pieces English literature . I n remote villages

miracle plays , pageants of history , songs and dances are studied during long winter evenings to make merry the days when the sun shines c n and life a be lived out o f doors . In schools eyes and hands are ‘ being trained 63 F U RT H E R D EV E LOP M E N TS O F and bare walls are made gay with the colours of the beautiful brushwork of the children ; and here and there are looms and shuttles making tapestries and materials for dresses and decorations . There is everywhere a striving after a saner , fuller , and more whole some life , for something more vital and simpler . There are everywhere signs that the ugliness of cities has reached its limit ; that the power o f commercialism has palled , and once more men and women are returning to the rhythm of life long ago broken by the rush and whirr of machinery , and are seeking beauty in colour and form and sound as men found them in olden days when they saw in all beauty, whether n o r in ature in art , a manifestation of the gods ” they worshipped . Held in the centre o f the yeoman life o f

England , the Shakespeare Festival and its organisation has proved its power to share in the work of beautifyi ng the life o f o ur large n o f towns , and quickeni g and brightening that o ur countryside . Already it forms one more link to bind closer to the mother country her

Children beyond the seas, and it is hoped that its annual celebration may ultimately become for future generations what the Olympic

Festival was to the States of Greece . 64

MR F R ENSON A S EN V . . . B H RY .

T H E M E M O RI AL AS SOC I AT I ON their brief summer holiday to the practical study of everything connected with the Folk movement , go back to their towns and villages , all over the country , well equipped to help the children under their charge to live happier and more refined and better lives through the simple , healthful agency of drama and song and dance . Besides these two main divisions of their work the Council also try to foster the study of Shakespeare and the story of England ’s past

b y lectures , discussions , and exhibitions bear ing on the plays and other matters mostly con t d nec e with the Elizabethan period . But the M emorial Theatre is the central organisation

on which the general success depends , and it is in this direction in particular that they are

anxious to extend their activities . I t is no easy matter in a remote town in the provinces to fill a theatre holding nearly a thousand people day after day for a period of several

weeks . The fact that this has now been done for many years shows plainly that there is a public which definitely appreciates what the

M emorial Theatre provides . Gifts of property

and legacies contributed by Mr . and Mrs . Charles Flower form the nucleus of an endow ment fund now standing at about 15 66 T H E M E M OR I AL AS SOC I AT I ON

Additional money is needed , not only to pro vide a larger income for the general purposes of the work , but to enlarge the theatre and increase the accommodation of the gallery and library . “ With this object in View the Council invite the public to support their efforts by becoming minimu members of the Association . The m

s . minimum annual subscription is only 5 , and a donation of z;5 will make the giver an Associate for life . It is hoped that the considerations put forward in this article may have the effect of enabling the Council to enlarge the scope of their work , free from the influence of pecuniary ‘ anxiety . It might be done, and E ngland ’ a ought to do it . Without doubt this is ” national work .

THE NATU RE O F DRA M A

R KLEY BY EG I NA LD R . BUC

THE ENGLI SH DRA MA BEFOR E SH AKESPEARE

AMONG the Greeks primitive song and dance developed into a religious art expressive of the beliefs and ideas of the people . And in Greek folk- song to this day one may trace the interweaving of H ellenic and Christian conceptions . I n these examples of peasant art , which are moreover the groundwork o f modern literature in Athens , the words Olympos and

Bethlehem appear in close proximity . The connection is not so clearly defined in our own literature , but the developments are quite as interesting . I t is wrong to suppose that the Elizabethan age produced Shakespeare . H owever lusty , brave, and imaginative a period may be, genius is individual . H ad Shakespeare lived at the time of

B oadicea, he would have been a chanting “ bard leading armies , and calls to Lay on , or To be or not to he & would have sounded on the field and at the war council . 7 1 T H E E N GL I S H D RAM A

H ad he been contemporary with Euripides , S “ ” ophocles , and Aeschylus , Macbeth would

- have been a one act play , with no change of

scene , and it would have been filled with ’ references to many gods . As it is , Banquo s “ ghost , the trees of Birnam wood , and the

witches , are far from Greek in conception . Witches and ghosts are English to the tips of their broomsticks and the depths of their

shadows . Walking trees would have been unthinkable in so orderly and philosophic a place as Athens . Once indicate the nature o f the pre - Shake speare drama, and we have the key to the whole situation . The English drama came into being through institu the Church . Among savages such an tion did not exist, while in Athens it was identical with the theatre . The temples of the gods were for sacrifice & the theatre for dramatic rites and worship . I n mediaeval E ngland the Mass stood to the people as an expression of divine things . re But , being in Latin , the religious rites quired popular interpretation and found it in the play . When Bibles were unknown , and later when they were scarce , the clergy ’ became actors , the elder taking the men s 7 2

T H E E NG L I S H D RAMA the meaning clear to an unlettered peasantry through acted scenes either in the church itself or in the churchyard The great festivals were o f course Christmas and Easter. Easter had been a pagan feast , and it actually happened that the flowers offered o ld lo ralia o r in the F , again in the N orthern worship of Freia, were devoted as an Easter f of ering to the risen Christ . Some writers believe that the fact that our

Christian festivals are, in nearly every case , grafted upon some old pagan ceremony, robs them of their original and sacred nature . But I rejoice to think that each offering that we make has not only its divine but its human significance that when I remember the bounty o f the Giver at harvest - time I am not unmind

- ful of Erda, the Earth mother, in whom I u have comm nity with the folk , with those who o r are dead , or alive , who yet are to be . I have kinship with every man or woman who says ” Our Father , who in any way believes in the brotherhood of man . The dramas of “ The Three Maries and of The Descent into H ell were among the first of their kind . The former was known in the tenth century , while the latter is mentioned “ “ in Piers Plowman . Of The Descent 74 BE FO R E S H A KES P EARE we have records . On Easter Eve a procession was formed outside the church . Approaching one of the doors a character representing Christ knocked . The guardian or porter of hell sought to dissuade him from entering . But at last the Master, victorious , broke through and burst the gates . On Easter Monday a similar Charade or parable took place, dealing with the walk to

Emmaus . The early play of “ The Three Kings at first was a simple ceremonial for Christmas in which the kings standing on the altar steps

- greeted the new born babe . The way in which these works developed explains the power o f a Church which , despite Roman ritual , appealed to the national and human character of the people at a time when the peasantry and many no of the nobility could t write . This was no case of blind superstition , as some suppose , but of a human and national form o f religion supplementing the mystic and sacramental . This early art was popular because it grew “ out of the folk . The play of The Three Maries was built up until it included a

dramatic concept of H erod and his doings . I n 1 06 a M S . of 0 the part is written down . H e is portrayed as a bombastic and Opinionated 7 5 T H E E N GL I S H D RAMA

fellow , subject to brain storms and maniacal ’ temper . Hence Shakespeare s allusion in ” - Hamlet to those who out H erod H erod . And the H erod of “ Salome ” is revealed by Richard Strauss to - day as the neurotic scion of a degenerate race . Characterisation such as this was bound to burst the boundary wall of illustrated scrip ture . Though plays ceased to be part of the actual services of the Church , an intimate relation ship continued . The Mysteries were plays dealing with the Scriptures , while Miracle plays were based upon the lives o f the saints . The first of the latter was said to have been H s h ro w it a. written by a Benedictine nun ,

Though a German , living in the reign of

Otto the Great , in Saxony, she wrote in 1 1 2 Latin . About 5 H ilarius was writing Latin plays with occasional lapses into the common speech . H e was an Englishman who studied under Abelard , and his plays included works “ o n Darius and David , The Raising of ” “ Lazarus , and , of course, a nativity play , St .

N icholas . “ I t was performed on the Feast of the

Saint , when an actor was dressed to represent the image of St . N icholas , and stood in a niche 7 6 B E FO RE S H AK E S P EARE

in the church . To the shrine came a wealthy co m heathen who , before taking a journey, mitted a o f his tre sure to the keeping the Saint . ’ o n But thieves entered , and the heathen s return the Saint stood guardian over a rifled

hold . Furious , he took a whip and lashed

the image , which thereupon assumed life ,

descended , and accusing the robbers , bade them restore their plunder . As all are amazed at this marvel , lo , the inanimate image is once more silent stone , the Saint himself appears , and preaches Christ . The whole is typical of m edimval no t the mind , which only creates what it desires , but equally eliminates what ” 1 displeases it . The whole point of true dramatic art lies in that last sentence . As Wagner put it , the artist creates for himself a Vision of the future

and longs to be contained therein . Or better , let us create an ideal concept of life in the

o ur - o f- present , and let practical , matter fact nation see to it that everyday life is up to

the standard of our dreams . Of course, the

modern dramatist , with a few exceptions , aims “ ” at nothing but striking situations . Neither no r he the manager, nor the poor, patient

1 “ ” b E . H on . English Miracle Plays, y amilt Mo ore (Sherratt

andHugh es . ) 77 T H E E NG L I S H D RAM A

public takes the thing seriously , and even the jokes are painfully evolved to “ bring down “ ” the house . S o that the patient playgoer of to - day would have been very much at sea in the M iddle Ages when people took things

cheerfully and seriously . When o ne looks at the childhood of the M iddle Ages o ne fears that our own period is “ ” one of middle age .

This was going on all over Europe . Bohemia

had its Sepulchre plays , with a prayer for the o f welfare the folk . For the emotion was

national as well as religious . The Passion o f Play Oberammergau alone has survived , if ” we except the Punch and J udy show , which o ne knows as a corrupt version o f the play o f “ ” “ ” Pontius Pilate . By corrupt I mean no f fo r of ence , never do I miss a chance of

witnessing this ancient diversion .

One feature about these old plays, which o f seems to me the greatest importance , is that they were played by communities representing trades and occupations . For in modern times the stage has become so remote from actuality that not only are the events without meaning and the dialogue without inspiration , but the actors are, for the most part , competitive

specialists , taking no interest save in their 78 B E FO R E S H AK E S P EARE own professional skill and the consequent “ ’ o f applause and pay . The play N oah s Deluge ” was performed most appropriately by

- the water leaders and drawers of the Dee , not

by a number of isolated units , who knew more

- about grease paints than water . The barbers and wax- Chandlers of Chester “ did a work in which appeared God , Abraham ,

Lot , I saac, and Melchisedec . Why they did

this I cannot say , but they would be the better

barbers for it , and their candles would burn as

brightly . The shepherds of Wakefield did a Nativity o f play , which is a delightful example a quality

- which is the great glory of folk art . I t com bines rustic buffoonery with true religious feel

ing . The shepherds were Yorkshire peasants ,

and , though the author probably was a monk , the transition from Wakefield to Bethlehem has the simple inevitability of a game played

by children . n Turni g to the Coventry Cycle , one finds

the shearmen engaged in a Nativity play . The

prophet I saiah is the Prologue , who , in a

manner by no means unworthy of I saiah , sets

out his prophecy . This in the natural sequence

is fulfilled by the Angel Gabriel . From this o f and point the play is full interest beauty, 7 9 T H E E N GL I S H D RAM A though the rustic humour of the Yorkshire shepherds is lacking . And we cannot but believe that the people were nearer to God and to the humour and mystery of life in those days . Popular amusement was based upon

Truth , upon the setting forth of vital ideas in dramatic form . By the end of the fourteenth century the

English countryside was alive with drama , though it is very regrettable that Wycliffe and the “ reformers stood out against a freedom of religious expression which of course should have appealed to their own zeal . I n fact , o w n any shortcomings of their deeds , and the narrowness that led to so bitter a religious struggle , may be set down to a certain lack of broad humanity in their attitude to the freedom of the early drama . The cause must have suffered , and certainly the drama fell into decay . The Corpus Christi Festival often was a national ceremony , as when Richard I I . beheld the plays at York in 1 39 7 . The feast certainly tended to become a mere revel , and u to restore the tr e nature of Corpus Christi , ro th 1 2 6 on the of J une 4 , the Mayor , Peter

Buckley , and the citizens of York decreed that the Sacramental procession should take place 80

T H E E N G L I S H D RAM A mythical in conception and broader in dramatic o f resource than those the other cycles . And there is every reason to suppose that anti phonal hymns o n the lines o f the Greek chorus

were used . This means that quite a large o f body the people took part , as in the modern

choral society , a fact worth remembering when we consider the relation o f modern choral art to the stage . The various Craft Guilds continued their religious plays even when Protestantism had f ef ectively censored Roman Catholic works , thus maintaining a catholicity apart from any

definite party .

The folk , being by nature dramatic , would not give up a source o f inspiration so full of — pleasure and self expression .

I t was inevitable that the Elizabethan theatre , centring at the Globe and Blackfriars in London , but taking root also at the houses and castles o f nobles all over the country, should to some

o f - extent curb the creative spirit the folk play . The revival o f the Elizabethan stage was a forward step that naturally left much that was good In the lurch .

- But not only was the folk play overshadowed . The classical models had been followed by those to whom European travel and culture had 8 2 BE FO RE S H AK E S P EAR E

revealed the possibilities of polite art . And naturally the nobles and eleg ants who tried to imitate the classics without the genius o f the old authors , provided a very cold dish for

dilettanti and dabblers .

- However crude the folk plays were , and they were not nearly so unskilful as might be supposed , they have retained an interest and

Vitality to this day . Were I to record the doings of the classicist ” school the reader of

- to day would lose patience . The secular drama of Shakespeare broke in like a sea breeze . I am not at all sure whether the Victory was not too complete , and that the old Craft Guild plays should not be revived , as indeed has been the case with “ Everyman ” revivals . Perhaps it would be better to start again from the beginning , on the lines of the modern village plays . A careful study of their possibilities would ’ form part of the literary adviser s work , at the

Memorial Theatre , were any such policy decided upon by the Governors . For a musical quality may be found in these old plays , a feature seldom mentioned by those whose business it should be to reveal the natural beauties of our arts . I have believed for a long time that the finest work could never 83 T H E E N G L I S H D RAMA be popular so long as it remained merely literary , musical , or pictorial . The literary tradition of Shakespeare almost succeeded in banishing him from the theatre to

- the schoolroom and lecture hall . On the other hand the qualities of music and dance appeal strongly to the people . When these qualities are absent from the drama popular interest is driven away . The public never were o r ever can be interested in art unless in some way they come into touch with human and festive conditions . Until for the purposes of this study I looked fairly closely into the matter I did not know to what an extent history had repeated itself. I f we look at these old dramas no t only are dramatic action and song present in a simple form , but the very setting of them , in churches n or in the open air , forces us back to ature

f - and simplicity o stage craft . Simple realism upon the stage is right . A restful scene , o f or the symbolism a church , the essentially English character of a scene in the garden of a castle , brings back the modern stage manager from the amazing uselessness of an elaborate setting in which no one has the faintest belief.

The only exception to this is , of course , 84 BE FO RE S H A K E S PEARE

pageantry , a form of display that does not aim u at spectacular realism , but at genero s and romantic festivity . This union of the arts in their simplest forms , for the pleasure of the people , is the peculiar glory of Stratford , and is destined in ever greater degree to be her contribution to

- the world history of the stage . This the re critics are beginning to observe, and the search o f scholars reveals the beginning of the

- movement in pre Shakespearean days . I n the larger book I have shown how ’ musical were Shakespeare s devices , and how essentially scenic his conceptions , that his particular form of art lay midway between the eternal rightness of the primitive folk - drama and the wider developments which led to the modern music drama . S Scholars like ir Sidney Lee , and special pleaders on the lines of Mr . Frank Harris , have done their best to explain Shakespeare . But the stumbling - block always has been that the

- people have not met them half way , as would have been the case had simpler forms of drama , and a general conception of the interplay of

the arts , put them into close touch with his

idiom . c For instance, whenever songs o cur in a 85 T H E E N G LI S H D RAMA

Shakespearean work , the action stops dead ,

and a Virtuoso display takes place . Then the

drama ambles on . “ Yet if we look at Childermas Day , a 1 1 2 miracle play done in the year 5 , a musical

epilogue followed , which either was a choral dance or led up to a dance in which the audience

joined . Thus the gulf was bridged between

audience and player . Of course this could not be done in the u t o f reg lar heatre , though the spirit it would

bind the player and audience more closely .

Children were trained to sing in these plays , so that music must have been an integral part

of them .

These children also took part in the acting , a most human influence both for the children

. a and the drama . The late Mr Goddard ssured us that in The Adoration of the Shepherds (in the T o w neley collection of plays) part

singing was used . Therefore we have authority in advocating

the union of the arts , and in setting up an ideal of the theatre much wider than that of the

specialised spoken play . I t will be seen also ’ that Shakespeare s art is above all rhapsodic, and a form of song , inasmuch as all the essential features of folk - art are to be found in 86 BE FORE SHA K E SP EARE

his dramas , richer and more sonorous , more pliable and fluent , but not to be confused with classical verse , nor their golden coinage to be o f debased by the silver stilted declamation , nor the tinsel of realistic display . THE SPI R I T OF SH AK ESPEAR E

I N discussing Shakespeare from the plain man 's point o f view it must not be thought that scholarship in any way is underrated . At the same time the Stratford movement , though having behind it the steadying power of scholarship , is above all things popular . Shakespeare is important to us not because he was a unique Englishman , but because he is the typical Englishman . H is reverence for custom and pomp , his talk about love and b e wine , the fact that regarded Falstaff as

- in funny and Hamlet as tragic a word , his easy acceptance of authority , coupled with occasional outbursts of emotion , are English to “ a degree . Take Gonzalo in The Tempest . Has not Gonzalo the E nglish attitude to Utopias and Socialism & He begins with a fine scheme and then is gently laughed out of

it , being ruled by his betters , though in some little danger from Caliban . If Shakespeare intended this play to be his Vision of a world 88

T H E S P I R I T OF S H AK E S P EAR E Movement to set down on paper a description

of the typical Englishman . Shakespeare was too clever and J ohn Bull too stupid to use

as an illustration . Mr . N ewman being the cleverest of the anti - nationalists I gave him

a definition of the E nglishman . I repeat it

here , because nothing could do more harm to the Stratford Movement than to convey the

idea that we wish to foster a local type . The o f English are a mixture many races , pure in

- one respect . We are I ndo Europeans , and

are kindred of the Celtic , Teutonic , and I ndian

stock . Emerson wrote that the Englishman was the — mud of all the races that is to say, the mixed

soil of Europe , piled up by the avalanche of

invasion , silted by the rivers of time . To this

day , the fair hair and blue eyes of Scarborough and Whitby fishermen make one remember the

Vikings . N or need I remind a musical critic that the word Elgar bespeaks Norse descent, and that in the music of Olaf and o f British o r Caractacus that blood cries aloud . The N man invasion did not dominate the English type , but was absorbed . Who knows whether ’ the enienie com zu/o did not begin at Senlac & And not only have armed invaders fought their way into the family circle , but each 90 T H E S P I RI T OF S H A K E S P EAR E

county has moulded its type and its dialect, throwing up defences against the common

enemy , Cosmopolitanism . And when I walk K affirs along a London street , seeing Parsees , ,

Frenchmen , J ews , Germans, and Spaniards ,

London does not seem less English . These

barriers of race are everywhere in evidence . o w n Each face flies its flag .

Mr . Newman held that all this talk about

nationality and race feeling was a pose , that

- Reason , the sharp tongued goddess , had broken

down these sentimental barriers . When Shakespeare drew Shylock he showed his race

feeling . Though Shylock is the hero of the

work , no J ew would have pictured him as did

Shakespeare . Though I have several good

friends among the J ews , Reason has never

shown me that I am a J ew . But when Shake speare created Othello it was a very different

matter . The character is drawn as an E nglish

man , and only colour marks the difference . The cleverest critic cannot acquit Shakespeare

of the natural race feelings common to all men . f ” o e . Reason is all countries , says La Bruy re

But if all countries were one , Reason would V have less opportunity for aried development .

True , nations depend upon each other for new phases of thought and new expressions of art . 9 1 T H E S P I RI T O F S H AK E S P EARE We love Wagner none the less because his art sprang from the so ul o f a people and was based “ - on folk tales . But here is the flaw & Our good friends the nationalists and the folk- song enthusiasts always seem to me to come to grief ‘ here . Before we begin to found a national ’ school , let us at least agree as to what the national characteristics are . The critic wants o ut to find first , by reason and science , what is “ national . The answer lies on our breakfast tables , in the form of eggs and bacon or news o f papers . The food the English , French , and German replies to a question which abstract f . o reason stammers over The fiction England ,

o ur . like drama , cannot be mistaken At the same time the English race derives from so many sources that it is difficult to find half

- a dozen main characteristics . Admittedly we are insular— some one said that the Channel

was wider than the Atlantic . And this also u is true of the North Sea . The English niver

sities , public schools , and games such as Rugby

football , are distinctive . The independence ho w that will not to militarism , and the public

opinion that bars the way to revolution , are at

once E nglish . The modesty of the English

man , who is content for his island (or rather peninsula) to be a centre of self- governing 9 2

T H E S P I R I T O F S H AK E SP EAR E

Movement lies in the race question . I f we o ur have lost national individuality , or even o f are suspected having lost it , our powers of corporate action and mutual sympathy are

weakened . We should be like men who were

not clear as to their own individuality . Shakespeare reflected the Elizabethan age

- as might a mirror . H e is the banner bearer round whom we must rally if anything like the Elizabethan spirit o f enterprise and self preservation are to be regained . The tendency o f education and sentiment in the past has been to regard Shakespeare as the tailor’s model of language rather than of character u as a profound philosopher , who sed poetry as a puzzle as a writer whom one should hold in solemn awe, read as seldom as possible , and whose plays are to be watched in a spirit of solemn admiration .

We , in accepting him as a master, the master o f indeed the ceremonies of a national festival , place his art upon a human basis

H e was an E nglishman to the core , o f born in the heart England , and living

in the hearts of E nglishmen .

As author of the Sonnets he is re vealed to us as a man o f like passions with 9 4 T H E S P I R I T OF S H AK E S P E AR E

ex e ri ourselves, purified in the fire of p

ence , rising from height to height by and

through his dramas .

“ Of his earlier plays , Much Ado About ” N othing holds the stage to - day because it

’ was the work o f a man who had loved and suffered in youth , till by reason of his buoyant spirit he was able comically to View love , giving us Beatrice and Benedick . Those two characters are clad in the I mmortality born o f a can comedy that laugh at love without banality . “ Measure for Measure ” wins additional interest owing to the little recognised fact that Richard Wagner used it as the poem of his ” early opera Liebesverbot . I t is the custom to smile in a superior way ” “ o f at The Two Gentlemen Verona , and to regard “ Romeo and J uliet as alternating between sentiment and a melancholy passion that leads to death . And in these two Verona

- plays we are able to rebut the anti nationalists . The Italians themselves do not regard Shake speare as insular , despite the anachronisms that are to be found there . The city of Verona regards the Shakespearean connection h o II r I n 1 1 as a great o n . November 9 0 a bust was set up there in honour of the great foreign 9 5 T H E S P I R I T OF S H AK E S P EARE

dramatist . They honoured him as we regard

Dante . The sculpture is the work of Renato

Cattani , and represents the tragic Shakespeare

standing by the reputed tomb of J uliet . The M orning P ost commenting upon this said some interesting things about Italy and I talian feeling as they differ from ours I talian sentiment is more imaginative than

ours . I t can ignore proprieties o f fact and

date . I t is no effort for the Italian mind to

assume a retrospective attitude . I n England

it is different ; we are learning the lesson , as the pageants o f recent years witness ; but

Oxford venerates its mythical founder , King

Alfred , with less grace and natural acceptance o f the improbable than I taly displays in o f No t honouring the legends the Capitol . that the English lack imagination ; but the

Italian imagination is more Vivid , and its

exercise more spontaneous . Poetry , though o f England is one its favourite homes , is treated with scanty acknowledgment by our nation in Italy poetical sentiment is honoured by all ; the look and dress o f the people in the street reveal a nation which is conscious o f beauty and not ashamed of it, the speech and gesture o f gondoliers and fruit - sellers are

poetical , it is never a long way to the ideal . 9 6

T H E S P I RI T OF S H AK E S PEARE giving as the absence o f any useful direction

for artistic expenditure that keeps us back . o u For instance , if y enter the Valhalla of

Saxon heroes , set up by Ludwig I I . near

Ratisbon , the first figure that meets your eye

is that of Alfred the Great . Yet , in these days of N ational Service Leagues and Dread

noughts, he , the originator of modern nation alism fo r , is barely remembered , and mostly his f lack o skill as a toaster of cakes . And it is precisely this traditional spirit for which the Stratford Movement stands , and which has kept it alive with private endow ment, but entirely without public subsidy . “ From an educational point o f View the o f o ur abstract Chronicles times , as revealed in the pageants and historical plays of Shake o f speare , are chief importance . And in a book which of necessity tries to show how much more may be done in all o f sections and domains art, if all the publics will centralise at Stratford , it is satisfactory

. k that, under Mr Benson , this side of the wor has been carried out to the extreme limit, and with complete success . The following plays of this class have been produced at Stratford “ ” “ King J ohn , Richard Henry I V . “ “ ( Parts I . and H enry Henry V I . 9 8 T H E S P I R I T O F S H AK E S P EAR E

“ I . l . (Parts I , and and Richard I I I “ and H enry V I I I .

Is there one of us , from the most superior critic to the humble author of these words, who would not have a clearer vision and a brighter fire of national consciousness for this experience &

And when Mr . Benson produced them as a continuous cycle , the panorama of genera tions passed before one ’s eyes like a Vivid dream . This method of teaching history will in time lighten the labours of schoolmasters , and invest the details of history with a relevance and force unthinkable without the Vivid spectacle of actual events . I am not going to discuss the authorship ” of H enry V I I I . Whoever wrote it , whether in whole or part , it is Shakespearean drama, and was produced a few years after the King ’s death . The characters were as near to the Beaco nsfield audience as are Gladstone , , and

Parnell to us . Even in the legendary plays , Shakespeare depicted men and women of his own day, even when the scene was laid in

Bohemia . “ Then we have the Roman plays , J ulius ” ” a a “ C es r, Antony and Cleopatra , especially 9 9 T H E S PI R I T OF S H AK E S PEARE

valuable in maintaining a balance, and pre venting our nationalism from degenerating into insular drama . For even our critics contribute to the breadth and humanity of the scheme .

And the others I should group thus , men tio ning nothing that has not been played at the Memorial Theatre

” “ ” “ H amlet, Othello , Macbeth , and “ King Lear, the plays of the soul ,

each Character of which reveals , as it o r were , a possible phase tendency of

our individual characters .

’ ” A Midsummer N ight s Dream , As ” You Like I t , and the other comedies .

’ o f The Tempest, Shakespeare s Vision

the ideal world, peopled by human

beings , but a world in which Caliban no longer has the mastery as he has

- u to day in o r midst . I t is a world

ruled by Prospero , an Eden in which Ferdinand and Miranda regain para

dise for us .

These plays provide an atmosphere , a school an of beauty , to which humanity may turn , element in which the soul may bathe as does

the body in the veritable sea . 1 00

OF S H AK E S PEARE

' i I f we e plac upon the stage modern reality , what sort of picture will it make & I n a hundred years our successors may have f a dif erent answer . The honest answer now is and that we have lost much , that were the days of Elizabeth to come again we should be

the gainers . Stratford is not building upon unholy fo unda ’ tions a fool s paradise , but awaking traditions , clothed in the warm flesh of a living and

throbbing actuality . Modern drama gives us few pictures that

are either sane or splendid , whatever their age

or period . I t is , as a rule , artificial and “ romantic , concerned with the more or less

exciting episodes in the lives of puppets , in whose existence we do not for a moment “ ” believe . The Merry Wives of Windsor is a fair picture of what England was and might

well become again without deterioration . Show me a similar comedy in contemporary

drama . Where the Elizabethans had “ As You Like It ” we must put up with German musical

comedies , or French farces , mutilated and adapted till they have lost even the original raciness that made them palatable to flaneurs abroad . 1 0 2 T H E S P I RI T O F S H A K ES P E ARE Where they had the tragedy of “ Macbeth

we have melodramas , which carry but a faint

echo of real horror , and fail to approach to the o f humanity great tragic art . I mention no names because there would be no point in censuring plays that are here to - day

- and gone to morrow . The works which were in my mind in writing this will be forgotten ’ before the printer s proofs are corrected , but new examples will hear me out .

On the other hand , I see no incongruity in mentioning Galsworthy ’s “ J ustice ” in the “ same sentence as Macbeth . The one deals w ith ambition and pride , the other with failure and disgrace . ’ And , just as Shakespeare s play must have gone to the hearts o f many in an age o f bound “ ” less ambition and energy , so J ustice , with its picture of a blind vengeance , strikes compassion o f into the hearts those who View the hopeless ,

CI tI es - aimless struggle for life in the of to day . Both artists wrote the work in obedience to their own need for creative expression , leaving o f action to the world action . With so matter of fact a people as ours

there is no need to insist upon the obvious . Our natural I nstInct to take pleasures seriously provides the popular dramatist with a peculiarly 1 0 3 T H E S P I R I T O F S H A K E S PEA RE receptive audience . And I hope the time will never come fo r the Memorial Theatre to open its doors to an art that deals with problems in

- a peddling fashion . The self conscious play wright should b e excluded . Apparently the cities cannot detect the flimsy can in art, but only life and beauty live in the

Festival town on the Avon . I t now remains to leave the tilled field and to look upon the prairie , for there is no limit to the possibilities of development .

- To day the Memorial Theatre is alive , but in time it might fossilise . Yet if it became

a re- formal , ce sing to develop and refusing birth , surely the waters of the Avon would turn into ’ lead , and Shakespeare s birthplace mark the burial o f his ideals and our own .

1 04

THE STRATFORD U PO N AVO N VA CAT ION S C HOOL OF FOLK SONG AND DAN CE

R B Y C E C I L J. SHA P

T H E VACAT I O N SC H OO L OF

. time The work of recovery is not yet , perhaps , ffi ac completed , but su cient material has been cumulated to allow of an impartial estimate of its value , artistic and educational , to be formed . A widespread and progressive interest in the subject has been created by means of books , effec lectures , and public demonstrations . The tive dissemination , however , of the material now available , in a way that shall be productive of t permanent results , is a task of great difficul y . It involves the transplantation of an art from the folk who created it to the rest of the

nation ; in other words , the revival amongst educated people of songs and dances generi cally different from those with which they have hitherto been solely concerned .

Naturally it was upon school teachers , upon those , that is , who in training the children of to -day are moulding the character and artistic o f - tastes of the men and women to morrow ,

that attention was first concentrated . But,

from the nature of their occupation , it is only in their holidays that teachers can find time

for the study of new subjects . The problem ,

therefore , was to found a vacation school of

- folk song and dance, upon sound educational

and artistic principles , at which school teachers r and others could , under competent inst uction , 1 08 F OL K SON G A ND DANC E

acquire the necessary knowledge in an easy , fi pleasant , and ef cient manner . The choice o f Stratford -upon -Avon as the place fo r the establishment of such a school was a peculiarly happy one . N ot only is it easily accessible from all parts of England , but , being the birthplace of Shakespeare , it is n widely known , having for ma y years annually attracted an immense number of Visitors . Stratford - upon -Avon has also for thirty years or more been the centre of a great national and educational movement akin to that which the pioneers of the folk - song and dance revival are promoting , and with which therefore they are in close sympathy . o f Now, in the works Shakespeare the Eng lish people found , if not their first , certainly ro a their most complete expression . To p p f a gate , there ore , knowledge and understanding of the Shakespearean drama is to nourish and quicken the spirit of nationalism and to stimu late the growth o f a pure and wholesome o ur patriotism . Shakespeare is called greatest national poet because , in a higher degree than any other, he was the spokesman of our race the mouthpiece , as it were , of the English o f folk, in the wider sense the word . It is here that the link between the two move 1 09 T H E VACAT I ON S C H OOL O F m S ents , now associated with tratford , is to be found . F o r the art of the peasantry , whatever else it may be , is the sincere expression of a com o f munity, the embodiment in terms literature ,

& n dance , or so g , of national ideals and aspira tions . Indeed , in the nature of things , an intimate and abiding relationship must ever exist between the conscious , intentioned works o f the really great individual artist and the un selfconscious output of the people from which in he sprang . What , then , S hakespeare the dividual achieved through the medium of drama is precisely what the folk have , in a lesser degree , because within far narrower limits , attempted collectively to express in their own primitive art .

I t was , then , only natural that the Governors of the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre , finding themselves in close sympathy with the move ment fo r the revival o f English folk -song and dance , should wish to do all that lay in their power to further the advancement o f these aims . Hence it is that Stratford -upon- Avon has b e come the centre of two educational and artistic schemes of the highest national significance , both moving along converging lines toward 1 1 0

T H E VACAT I O N SC H OO L O F

country . The movement for the revival of

- folk dancing is , therefore , something more than a reformation . I t is an attempt to establish what to the present generation is practically a new art . As already stated , a great deal of col preliminary work , in the matter of the

- lection and publication of existing folk dances , has already been accomplished . The pressing need of the moment is to disseminate the knowledge thus acquired . And this , it should

- be pointed out , cannot , as with the folk songs , be done by means of books only ; for the Charm and distinctive character of a dance will often reside in those deli cate nuances and f subtleties which are the most di ficult, perhaps

impossible , to explain in words . H ence the

- h need of skilled , well trained teac ers to supple ment and interpret by practical demonstration

written descriptions , and an organisation which

shall bring them in touch with the schools . Such an organisation exists in “ The English ” Folk Dance Society , in whose hands the Governors o f the Memorial Theatre have

placed the management of their vacation school . This Society was founded “ to disseminate a

- knowledge of English folk dances , singing

- games and folk songs , and to encourage the

practice of them in their traditional form s . 1 1 2 FO L K S O N G AN D DAN C E

has I t a staff of qualified teachers , many local correspondents and several branches in the

provinces . The mutual advantage of the co - operation

of these two organisations is considerable . To the Society it is invaluable to have a recognised provincial centre where the secretaries and chief supporters o f the branches may meet periodically and confer with the members and f the o ficials of parent Society while , by making Stratford -upon - Avon the home of such confer e nces and placing their organisation at the

disposal of the Society , the Governors of the Memorial Theatre attract an increased number to of visitors to their town , and are thus enabled o f enlarge the scope their own educational work . Few people have as yet realised either the number or the varied character and beautiful

- nature of the folk dances of this country . The repertory of ‘ the English Folk Dance Society 1 60 in consists of no less than dances , which elude examples o f each of the three main types

- . I of folk dance found in E ngland , Viz ( ) Sword 2 Dance , ( ) Morris Dance , and (3) Country

Dance . t n A shor account of the ature, origin , and educat ional uses‘ of each of these three species

of dance will now be given . 1 1 3 H T H E VACAT I ON SC H OO L OF

T H E M ORRI S D A NCE

The Morris is , in its higher developments , a dance of some complexity . It is , traditionally , a ceremonial , spectacular and professional dance , performed by men only. It has no sex characteristics , and is remarkable for the total absence of the love- motive from all its move ments . The extra characters who accompany the — the dancers Squire or Fool , King , Queen ,

- - — Moll , Cake and Sword Bearer and the many curious customs which are‘ commonly associated with the dance , suggest that for its origin we must hark back to primitive ceremonies of a - n quasi religious ature , peculiar to the early village communities . Many of the character istics o f the latter - day Morris are indicative o f this its primitive and ceremonial origin . For instance , it is performed only on certain high and days holidays , usually in Whitsun week or

- - o n i. e. Club day , the Patronal Feast day of the

Village , and it is danced by six men , dressed in traditional costume , who have been instructed fo r and trained for the purpose , and chosen their agility and natural aptitude for dancing .

The Morris is not, therefore , primarily a pleasure dance ; for many centuries its chief 1 1 4

FO L K SO N G A ND DANC E function had been to provide a pageant , an integral part of the ritual of a popular holiday .

The religious origin of the dance , however, the traditional customs associated with it, the restrictions with respect to the time and place 810 of its performance, , have nowadays little or no practical signification except to the folklorist .

To us the Morris , whatever its derivation , is simply an art - form to be preserved and valued solely for its intrinsic merits . So long , then , as the artistic character of the dance is pre served inviolate , we are at liberty to perform it when and where we will . I n Morris dancing the movements are strong and vigorous— at times almost Violent— and make considerable demands on the agility and endurance of the performers . These strenuous actions must, however, be executed quietly and o f gracefully , without apparent effort or sign physical distress and the ability to do this can only be acquired by regular practice under capable supervision . Drill and discipline , too , are needed in order that the dancers shall keep their lines even and maintain the prescribed distances from each other . Vigour under control plenty of brisk but — no excitement is, then , the dominant note of the Morris dance , as it is also its chief claim 1 1 5 T H E VACAT I ON SC H OO L OF

to educational recognition . On the one hand , the dance must not be allowed to degenerate into a disorderly romp ; nor, lest it become tame and lifeless , should it be curbed by too rigid a restraint . The expert Morris dancer is one who knows how to hit the right mean between freedom and reserve , forcefulness and ease , gracefulness and dignity .

T H E SWORD D A NCE The English Sword dance has nothing to do with the S cottish Sword dance . I ts origin is the same as that of the Morris , by which name the Sword dance is often known . I t is a set dance performed by five , six , or eight men , each of whom carries a sword . Like the Morris dance the S word dance has its spe c ial season , and , where still extant , is danced at Christmas , at N ew Year, or on Plough o r Monday . I t may be performed in out of doors . The true Sword dance is a composite form of entertainment which includes acting and singing as well as dancing . I n many of the dances a prefatory song is sung by one of the — 001 o r extra characters the F , Captain , Betty - in which the dancers are severally introduced 1 1 6

T H E VACAT I ON S C H OO L OF

T H E C OUNT RY D A NCE The Country dance is a much quieter and more reposeful dance than either o f the two just described , more easily learned , and , physi

cally , far less exacting . It is a homely, inti

mate , and mannered dance performed by an o f m e n equal number and women , and is o f No essentially the dance the amateur .

special dress is required . The steps and

figures are simple and easily mastered , and any one o f ordinary intelligence and physique can qualify as a competent performer with very

little trouble . The traditional Country dance o f the present

day is always executed , like Sir Roger de o n o ne Coverley, in two parallel lines , men

. co m side , women on the other But this is ,

arativ el . p y speaking , a modern development I n Tudor days and as late as the Restoration

the dance was performed in other formations , 6 g . rounds , squares for eight , in one line , and

o r . o r for two , three four couples All that is is ever likely to be known o f the Country dance ’ o f that period is contained in Playfo rds E ng /is/i — Dancin M asher 1 6 0 1 g (eighteen editions , 5 o f Many the older forms , named above , are 1 1 8 FOL K SON G AN D DAN C E

o described in this work , m re especially in the

first and earlier editions . These are very

beautiful and attractive , and teachers are

strongly recommended not to neglect them . The beauty o f the Country dance lies in its w figures and evolutions , hich are many and

. T o varied remember these , and the order in o ne which they follow another in each dance , “ the and to time them neatly with music , o f o ne is the art country dancing , and which o f calls for a quick intelligence , plenty common fo r sense and a keen feeling rhythm . Attempts have been made to introduce

- t drawing room steps , together wi h the postur o f ings and mannerisms the theatre , into the o ld Country dances . This is greatly to be o f deprecated . The dominant characteristic the Country dance is its gay simplicity ” - to borrow an expression from an early nine tee nth- — century writer and , obviously , anything savouring of the languors o f the eighteenth century Court or Assembly Room is altogether alien to the spirit o f the dance— as unsuitable “ ” “ ” as a caper in a M inuet , or a galley in a Pavane . Such procedure is not only historically quite indefensible , but , in addition , will convert what is an excellent dance for m the schoolroo into a very undesirable one . 1 1 9 T H E VACAT I ON SC H OOL OF

T H E P H YSI CA L VA L UE OF T H E DA NCES From the physical point of View the Morris the is , manifestly , the most valuable dance of three . At the same time , it is too strenuous fi and , technically , far too dif cult a dance for o f children below , say , the age ten or twelve , or for those who suffer from any physical iffi . d disability Moreover , because of the culty of maintaining interest during the long period of preliminary study which is involved , it is not a suitable dance fo r beginners . I t will be advisable , therefore , to reserve the ‘ fo r and Morris dance older children adults , and , more particularly, for those who possess a natural aptitude fo r dancing and have already attained some skill in its practice . For these it is undoubtedly a stimulating physical and artistic exercise . If the end and aim of true physical education he to acquire complete co n trol over the limbs , no student should neglect the study of this dance , for it is just this faculty co - which the Morris , with its ordinated move

ments of arms , feet , and body, will cultivate .

Although , as we have seen , the Morris is , ’ traditionally , a man s dance, it has , during the n present revival , been freely danced by wome .

N o great Violence , however , will be done to 1 2 0

T H E VACAT I O N SC H OO L O F

hands , and , above all , keep his wits about him , so that he may co -ordinate his actions with

those of his fellow dancers . Some of the dances are so long and the movement so continuous that the performers must be thoroughly fit if they are to go through them a without fl gging . Although comparatively few in number the

Sword dances are very varied in character . For beginners the Kirkby- Malzeard and Flam d borough ances are the best . The rapper dances are the most difficult . From the teachers ’ point of View the Country dance is by far the most useful of the folk dances . I t is easily taught and quickly learned , and can be introduced into the school with the minimum of preliminary practice . I t is ’ essentially the beginners dance , an easy and convenient stepping - stone to the other and more difficult dances , and one in which very A l young children are able to participate . “ though simple , the Country dance is a moderate ” and healthful exercise , by means of which many useful lessons may be taught— in grace of manner , in the simple and unaffected courtesies between men and women , or boys and girls, in the art of moving easily and naturally , and in maintaining a “ fair presence ” and dignified 1 2 2 FOL K S O N G AN D DAN C E

- hearing . The ever changing figures require an active and retentive memory ; every movement is rhythmical ; while the sober gaiety which pervades the dance creates just that fresh and wholesome atmosphere that is wanted in the

school . I t is , too , the dance which made its way on to the Continent and won for “ the

dancing English an European reputation .

The longways dance , though less interest h ing in many ways t an some of the other forms , I n b e is specially adapted for use the school , cause large numbers can dance in this forma tion in a comparatively small space . The rounds f are easy and very ef ective dances . The squares , ffi though quite as fascinating, are more di cult ; as are also those for two couples , and , in a lesser degree , those for three and four couples .

A RTI STI C VA L UE OF TH E D A NCES Educationists should remember that dancing is something more than a physical exercise . I t is an art, and a highly expressive one ; an art, too , like music , to which children are peculiarly responsive . And in the process of education , the quickening of the artistic sense is at least

- as important as muscle building . N ow the end o f Art is not merely to amuse ; indeed , as “ Ruskin has well said , Art which proposes 1 2 3 FO L K SONG AN D DAN CE

fo r amusement as its end , or which is sought that end , must be of an inferior , and is probably of a harmful class . We must be careful , then , not to estimate the educational value of dancing solely by its capacity to amuse . I f, for instance , dancing in the school is to be permitted to degenerate into a disorderly romp , to become a mere outlet for high spirits , it may , and very likely will , amuse the children ; but this is , surely , a form of amusement that is calculated to do them quite as much harm as good . I t i will not stimulate the imaginat on , discipline no r o f f the emotions , have any those ef ects which it is the especial function of art , educa i all t o n . y considered , to produce If, therefore ,

' s dancing is to be justified as a chool subject , b e and to accepted as an aid to education , it must be treated seriously , like all other arts that are taught in the school , and adequate attention paid to its technical side . The steps and figures must be taught carefully and accurately , and the Children trained to dance in as the proper way , just in the music class they ‘ R e are taught to sing in the proper way . r - st aint , so far from suppressing self expression or diminishing enjoyment , will have precisely ff - the contrary e ect . To confine the mill stream is to increase its powe r . 1 24

Shak espeare M emo rial T heatre

STRATFORD- UPON- AVON m Su mer Season, 19 13

’ The Th eatre Pro gramm e will i nclude three o f Shakespeare s & o n o en the o c Plays fr m E glish Hist ry H ry F urth , Ri hard the ” “ ” “ ” eco n and in o n the f S d, K g J h ; Tragedi es o Hamlet and ” Ro m eo and Juliet ; andsix o f the C o m edi es The M erchant ” “ ” “ ” o f n s Y Ve ce, A ou e I , The n o f the e i Lik t Tami g Shr w, “ ” “ c A do o No n e N an “ T Mu h Ab ut thi g , Tw lfth ight , d he ” e e o f n M rry Wiv s Wi ds o r. “ The m o dern plays to b e presented are & The Trag edy o f ” “ ’ o e the e o n M asefiel and T P mp y Gr at, by J h d, he D evil s ”

c e n . Dis iple , by G . B r ard Shaw “

c e e o o n o b e n e . Ri h li u , by L rd Lytt , will als e pr s e t d I n on to the e o nce to b e en the additi p rf rma s giv by F . R . n o n o n the o e nc e a o n f B e s C mpa y , pr gramm will i lud illustr ti s o l o c al dramatic wo rk . ” Th e e th - n- n e Harv st Masqu , e Stratfo rd upo Avo Masque for 1 1 the eco n in the e ie o f c en e n en c 9 3 , is s d s r s su h t rtai m ts whi h n o n e e co n o n to the e n the to w sf lk arra g as th ir tributi Summ er S aso . The Masque devised fo r this Summ er relates in symbo lism o f r e and to e nd e o the oc en in the story Ha v st , this mpl ys l al tal t ’ n nce and en e n e Folk So g , Da , Drama, Childr s Gam s, limiti g its lf to no partic ular cult o r hist o rical perio d . B ecause o f its unconventi o nal fo rm and fro m the fact that it e e e- e c e e for the e seem s to b e the o n lit rary stag typ r at d amat ur , “ ” the Masqu e has b een Cho sen as the b est vehicle for such expressi on. “ . n The Harvest Masque has been written by R . T Ru dle “ ” ll en o e e Of the Ro e c e so c en Mi ik , wh s Masqu s attra t d mu h att tion last year . n So me I 5 0 peo ple will take part i it . The Lady Isabel M arg esson is o rganisi ng a series of Village ’ Children s Plays . “ The No rwi ch Players will pro duce The Drama o f Jo b

t n e . T he e o e (arranged by he H o . Sybil Amh rst) B df rd Play rs “ ” h . T e n the R ev. . . will app ear in Glasto bury , by W T Saward “ ’ ” Dunm ow Players will give The Ti nk er s Wedding . PROG RAM M E 3

e o n o n in o nce o nce and o n D m strati s M rris Da s , Sw rd Da s , C u try nce b e en e c ee and e e e n b e Da s will giv a h w k, will, w ath r p rmitti g , h eld in the Gardens .

n o n n c o ns o n the e c ee . Mr. B e s will i itiate dis ussi Plays a h w k During the Festival Lectures (fo ll o wed by discussi o n) will b e “ en n n c . e e n o e e o f the giv o Ha d raft (Mr Ll w lly H w ll, Mast r ” “ ne o n e n e . e o Tur rs C mpa y) , D sig , H raldry (Mr Alfr d R dway) , ” ” “ ” o o e o on o nce and o e ec . F lk L r , F lk S g, F lk Da , th r subj ts

A pro gramme giving details o f Lectures will b e issu ed s eparately . ’ n b e n e in the o c e e A M e s Camp will arra g d Padd k, Wat rsid ,

- if sufficient applicatio ns are received . Furnish ed bell tents can l b e o btained o n hire at a weekly rental . A l appli catio ns to b e o th Box ffice addressed t e O .

A SCHO O F FO K SON A ND D NCE L O L G A , o rganis ed by the English Fo lk Dance S o ciety under the directio n of . ec e . The o e f c o o Mr C il Sharp , is establish d purp s o this S h l is to give to Teach ers andStudents a kno wledge o f and i nsight into the c c e of n o nc n and n n hara t r E glish F lk Da i g Si gi g, that will enable th em to intro duce th ese subj ects into th eir Sch o ols o n h o n c and e c ne . n in V e t s u d artisti du atio nal li s With this e d i w, e teaching is entrusted to th o se o nly who have been sp ecially ne in the o f c - c n and o e o o and trai d art lass tea hi g, p ss ss a th r ugh intimate kno wledge o f the way in which Fo lk S o ngs and Dances sh o uld b e perfo rm ed . The o e nc e ec e on o o e the eo C urs i lud s L tur s up F lk L r , Th ry and Hist o ry o f English Fo lk So ng and Dance and its educati o nal n fic nce e e ar o sig i a , whil Class s e h eld every day at whi ch F lk ’ on en n n e o o n and o S gs, Childr s Si gi g Gam s , M rris, C u try , Sw rd nce are and the en n e to en e n o an Da s taught , Stud ts i vit d t r i t info rmal dis cussion o n anypo ints of difficulty upo n which they may d esire help o r enlightenment . I n this way it is h o p ed that the Scho o l stands fo r so mething o e n e e er e o f ec n c e o n and the en m r tha a m r s i s t h i al l ss s , that Stud ts , ’ e ee co e e n to e o e no t o n aft r a w k s urs , will r tur th ir h m s ly with n so me practical k owl edge o f the subj ects studied , but with a full realisatio n and appreciatio n o f the m eaning and purpo se o f nc c n th i luding su h subj ects i e Sch o o l curriculum . A s eparate programm e is issu ed giving the time- table o f the f n n S ch oo l o Folk S o g and Da ce . SUMMER SEASON

TEA CHERS A ND STUDENTS

(a) C oup o ns admitting to R e s e rved S eats at six P erfo rm ’ ances the e e ee I n o at Th atr , a full w k s structi n at the c o o and i S h l, all Lectures n co nnectio n with eith er Plays o r Fo lk S o ng and Dance £1 1 0 o (b) Teach ers wishing to take mo re than o ne week at the S ch o ol may do so ( and they may use their six Theatre T i ckets o n any day during their stay) at an ex t ra co st p er w e ek o f 0 1 2 O (5 ) T each ers o r A SSOCIATES wishing to take a B o o k o f C o o n fo r the P L S NL fo r R e e up s AY O Y , s rved S eats s ix e o nce do s o co o f O 1 8 o at P rf rma s , may at a st (d) T eachers wishing to tak e a B oo k o f Coupo ns fo r the S L NL o o co o f 1 83 er CHOO O Y may d s at a st . p week o r 1 er 3 . p day .

FOR A NYONE OTHER THA N TEA CHERS A ND STUDENTS

( a) £1 I 6 0 (b) o 1 8 o ( c) (if also an Associate) 0 1 8 o d 1 3 . er ee o r e r . ( ) £ , 4 p w k p day

As adequate i nstruction at the S cho o l can o nly b e given to ce n n e in o ne ee and the e n cco o on a rtai umb r w k , s ati g a mm dati the e e not e n en n o o e at Th atr is larg , i t di g visit rs sh uld apply arly

stating which week o r weeks they wish to attend . Applicatio ns b e e in the o e in c e are ece e and will d alt with rd r whi h th y r iv d , b f e n n cco n o ee . I n must acco mpa ied by a d ep o sit o f sr. o a u t f s the e en o f f e to e the o o n and the nce v t ailur tak up C up pay bala , ’ this d ep o sit will b e applied as an Ass ociate 5 Subs criptio n to the e n n 2 r Shak speare M em o rial Ass oc iatio n fo rthe year e di g April 3 d,

1 9 1 4 . RAI LWA Y A RRANGEMENTS

The Railway Co mpani es have agreed to the fo llo wing arrange en & A n e c e o r en n the o o o f o o n to m ts yT a h r Stud t , taki g B k C up s , b e con e e f r an fo r the o e o ne v y d o & (i) Fare d a third d ubl j ur y , c on o f enn n o ne n the c e to b e plus fra ti s a p y, mi imum shilli g, ti k ts available fro m any Friday o r Saturday to the fo llo wing Mo nday e e anda fo r the o e o ne c on we k . (ii) Far half d ubl j ur y , plus fra ti s

SU M M ER SEASON

FI RST WEEK

A u 2 8 TH E E N o r EN E Saturday, g , at M RCHA T V IC .

on a 2 P GEA N P ESS N AND D M d y , 4 , at A T ROC IO OL ENGL I SH SPORTS.

DEM NS N OF F L D N E O TRATIO O K A C .

A s Y U L E I T O IK .

H M L A ET .

H E EN TH F r I I . S 1 ) RY OURTH (Pa t )

R EL E o o n ICH I U . By L rd Lytt .

T E H E E H S S . Thursday, ARV T MA QU

T H E T M NG F THE A I O SHR EW .

’ F LL GE C L ENS PL S. riday, VI A HI DR AY A D N MUCH O A BOUT OTHING .

SECOND WEEK N T EL F G . Saturday, Aug . 9 , at W TH I HT

8 T H E T GE F P M E THE 9 , at RA DY O O P Y

E o n Masefield GR AT . By J h .

H E o n I 1 T H E ES S . M day, , at ARV T MA QU

R H ICHARD T E SECOND .

e R EL E . o on. Tu sday, ICH I U By L rd Lytt

e ne A s Y OU L E I T. W d sday, IK

HAM L ET .

T DEM NS ON OF F L D N E . hursday , O TRATI O K A C

MUCH A DO A BOUT NOTHING .

he No r F riday T H E DRAM A OF JOB . By t

wich Players .

N r 1 a 8 T H E D M OF OB. the o s, t RA A J By

wich Players . PRO G RAM M E

THIRD WEEK

1 6 THE E N OF EN E. Saturday, Aug. , at M RCHA T V IC N 1 8 T ELF G . 6, at W TH I HT ’ o n 1 8 8 T H E DE L S D S LE . M day, , at VI I CIP By G .

Be rnard Shaw .

e T H E H ES S E . Tu sday, ARV T MA QU T H E TRAGEDY OF POMPEY TH E

E . M GR AT By John asefield.

e ne DEM NS N OF F L D N E W d sday, O TRATIO O K A C . K N N I G JOH . ADO A N NG Thursday, MUCH BOUT OTHI .

R . ICH EL I EU ByL o rd Lytto n. N th R F L S . e ev W . T riday, G A TO BURY By . .

. The e o e Saward B df rd Play rs .

2 2 8 L S N . the R ev. W . T , at G A TO BURY By .

The e o e . Saward . B df rd Play rs

F OUR TH WEEK

2 R TH E SE N . Saturday, Aug. 3 , at ICHARD CO D 2 8 H EN TH E F I I . 3 , at RY OURTH (Part )

on 2 THE H A R vEST S E . M day , 5 , at MA QU

2 8 R E A ND L E . 5 , at OM O JU I T

2 TH E E W ES OF W 6 8 N S . , at M RRY IV I D OR N 2 K NG . 7, at I JOH T H E N ’ WE N 2 8 T E S G. 7) 7 , at I K R DDI By J. M .

n e. The D n o e Sy g u m w Play rs . DEM NS N OF F L D N E Thursday , O TRATIO O K A C .

H AM L ET . ’ N E WE T H E T S N . G . I K R DDI By J M . n e he D n . T o Sy g u m w Players .

R EL E . o on ICH I U By L rd Lytt . ’ T H E DE L S D S L E Saturday, VI I CIP . By G .

B ernard Shaw . E T N F TH 0 8 T H M G O E S E . 3 , at A I HR W T H E M E M ORIA L THEA T RE

D oors will o pen half an h our earlier than times mentio ned fo r

the e o nc p rf rma es.

Balco ny ( I st R o w)

Dress Circle

Wi ndo w S eats

Orch estra Stalls

Pit Stalls (unnumb ered) 3 o

Unreserv ed

n n and ec e 2s n 1 d s. o s a o s . a Dem tr ti L tur s ,

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