SHAKESPEARE A DRAMATIST, NOT A SCENIC ARTIST.

Evening Post, Volume LXX, Issue 61, 9 September 1905, Page 13

SHAKESPEARE A DRAMATIST, NOT A SCENIC ARTIST.

William Poel, in a letter to this London Times, contends, that Shakespeare would not regard the present elaborate productions of his plays as an improvement on the old manner. He says : — ! It is contended by many that Shakespeare was progressive, and that had ho lived now lie would wish to sco his plays represented with all th© additional accessories that the modern stage can provide. But apart from the question whether Shakespeare would like more put into his plays than he himself as an artist and a, dramatist conceived, it is a fact beyond dispute that pageantry masques and scenic display were in many ways as elaborate and effective in 'his- day as in those of modern times, and that these wero intentionally omitted on the public stages as being unsuitable additions to drama as it was then understood. Ben Jonsons rebuke to Inigo Jones, who valued his own inventions more than those of the poet, clearly indicates that Elizabethan audiences neither expected nor wanted scenic embollishmonts in a playhouse. The theatre then was essentiallja declamatory platform, in which the art of the dramatist consisted in the 'telling of an interesting story, full of varied inoidents, together with bold characterisation, and in 'satisfying the playgoer's imagination with poetic descriptions of th 0 characters' environment. Undoubtedly one of the stimulating conditions of playgoing in those days wns the opportunity affordod to criticise the dramatist's skill in bringing vividly before the mind's eye, by means of narration, not only a scene, but also a fight, a knock at the door, a look, or an attitude. Here lay the value of the Elizabethan playhouse to audience and poet alike. It was the great training ground for the imaginative faculties. When Shakespeare is writing his immortal balcony scene in "Romeo and Juliet," he is not thinking only of the beauty of an Italian summer night, but more particularly of the necessity of- describing moonlight to an aucliende who are conscious that it is daytime. For this reason Shakespeare makes his lovers -use the word "night" eleven times in this short scene, with moro than one allusion to the moon and the stars, and the skill with which this is done, and which at any moment can be put to the test by a recital of the scene on a grass lawn in midday, is a literary and dramatic achievement that must have impressed an Elizabethan audience, trained to realise the value of word pictures. Under theso circumstances Shakespearo would hardly consider himself honourei if he knew how a modorn audience praises the beautiful setting of his plays while ignoring altogether his poetic and descriptive powers. He, who was a. practical and popular dramatist in his lifo-time, would surely realiso that to-day his occupation is gone, and that a less gifted writer would servo equally well to provide tho kind of amusement which givos pleasure\to the patrons of tho drama. One always thought it would come to this — to the plaintive cry which follows : — "We hear a great deal of the matinee hat, but what about the matinee hair?" The columnar erections of this season, says a- writer in one of the numerous fashion journals written for women only, have been the cause of weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. But ■what can you do? You may risk a snub and ask a lady to tako off her hat. But how can you ask her to take off her hair? During the South African war the censorship of soldiers' letters home was very strict. One soldier, who always sent an account of the doings of the regiment, which account was always blotted out by tho censor, laid a plan for revenge. At the foot of his next letter he wrote. "Look under the stamp." The consor did so, after spending considerable tim& in steaming the stamp from the envelope. And ho found these words : "Was it hard to get off!",