The Press SATURDAY, JULY 29, 1933. Frank Benson.

Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 20920, 29 July 1933, Page 10

The Press SATURDAY, JULY 29, 1933. Frank Benson.

I The recent announcement that Sir I Frank Benson has been awarded a j i Civil List pension of £IOO for his services to dramatic art will not surI prise those who know the full story of his life, set to a course which has at once enabled him greatly to enrich English drama and has led him slowly down a steep financial hill. Looking back on his life. Benson , h£.s confessed himself that the mixtures in his blood of " Viking, giee- ,: man. Quaker, artist, wrestler, run- " nor, yeoman, berserker, begging- " friar, etc.. neutralised and contva- " dieted each other, the result being i " rather minus than plus." The outi j side observer can also trace eonj fiicting strains in Benson's character, | but sees him first as a reincarna- ; tion of the Elizabethan strolling player. Though he came of a wealthy family and was educated at Winchester and Oxford, his youthful world was all a stage. His people were shocked to learn that he wanted to be an actor and were not reconciled to the proposal until he achieved extraordinary success in a production of the Agamemnon in Greek at New College. Ke received congratulations from Tennyson, Gladstone, Goschen. Browning. Millais. and George Eliot, a card from Edwin Booth, and, above all, an invitation from Ellen Terry and Henry Irving to visit them at the Lyceum. From Irving, says Benson, he had advice which influenced his career: "You young men did splendidly.'' said Irving, with a sigh. "Ah, if only I had had the opportunity in my young days that you have in yours! Why do you not band together in your troupe, work, study, and become a company, the like of which this age has not seen? We have the technical skill upon the stage, we have the traditions: the difficulty nowadays is to get a company that has the literary mind and the trained intellectuality that is associated with university students. Should any oc you determine to adopt the stage as your profession I shall be only too render 3'ou any assistance I can." I Benson did not immediately accept I Irving's offer, but went to London I to develop the theory which was J later the basis of his life's work: '< " The Agamemnon company had "succeeded by their simple sin- " cerity in a Greek play. Why not '• apply the same method to Shake- " speare? " He chose Romeo and Juliet, hired a West End theatre, and put all his youthful enthusiasm into a production which one famous critic treated like this: "These "amateurs from Oxford think they " are going to teach the London " stage its business, do they? Let " them try! A Greek play by "undergraduates is one thing; "Shakespeare by incompetents, an- " other." His father helped him to settle the accounts; and then Benson went to the Lyceum. He could not have chosen a harder school. His theories were not wanted; his act- [ ing was inseparable from them. I This was the period of his hard apI prenticeship. For instance, after he had joined the Shakespearean company of Charles Bernard and Miss Allryn he grumbled because leading parts were not given to him, and was answered: "To be per- " fectly plain with you, your move- ' "ments are angular and awkward; " your elocution is most sing-songy " and unnatural; your gestures are "ungraceful and ill-timed. My ad- " vice to you is to leave the stage. " Good morning." Benson's strong individuality was a handicap in his youth, if it made him famous later. He had to be his own manager. His opportunity came when he joined the old Bentley Touring Company, which nearly broke up on its founder's flight from his creditors. With some money from his father, Benson bought the effects, to begin touring on his own account in 1883; so that the Benson Company celebrates its jubilee this year. Free now to do so, Benson put his theory into practice, produced Shakespeare's plays alone, and produced them so well that the fame of the enterprise spread. Jowett actually allowed him to play in the Oxford theatre; and, the educational value of his performances once confirmed, ' Benson entered upon that long tour which was to give every school ; child in Britain a chance of seeing the glories of early English drama. Eille Norwood, A. E. W. Mason, Miss : Constance Fetherstonhaugh (later J Lady Benson), William Mollison. ' George Weir, and Henry Jelland 1 were among the original players. '> After its provincial successes the ' company went to London and did < as well there. The' Lyceum flourished again as Benson's interpreta- s tion of A Midsummer Night's i Dream, Henry . V., . Richard 11., c Twelfth Night, and Antony and i Cleopatra surprised and delighted t great audiences; and Matheson t Lang, Lilian Braithwaite, Laurence > Irving, Isadora Duncan, and Oscar c Asche joined him there. Accord- c ing to Benson himself, 68 of this r

| "old brigade" were playing prominent parts iri London theatres in the year 1920. By the time Benson was appointed I director of the annual Shakespeare festival at Stratford-on-Avon, lhe had so perfected his tcchI nique and defined his purpose that j he had imitators all over the world, and laid claim to be called the founder of repertory as well as champion of classical English drama. He remained a consummate actor, playing his parts in a way all his own, but distinguishing them with peculiar force and clarity. Old Bensonians from the most important theatres in the English-speak-ing world gathered to honour him in 1913, and he was knighted at Drury Lane Theatre in 1916, after the tercentenary performance of Shakespeare's plays. Naturally he made a great deal of money, and he inherited some; but he admits that he was never able to make ends meet. It is, however, a gracious fault to sacrifice fortune for the sake of art. He will be remembered as a pioneer who put the theatre before his personal comfort, and it is pleasant to know that official gratitude has not shown itself too late to be kind.