SHAKESPEARE’S OLD THEATRE

Evening Star, Issue 22596, 13 March 1937, Page 22

SHAKESPEARE’S OLD THEATRE

PLAN TO REBUILD THE GLOBE ANGLO-AMERICAN TRIBUTE Leading Shakespearians in England and America are combining to promote “ a scheme to,establish a great Shakespeare centre in London, the city where the dramatist’s working life was spent, and where his plays were written and first acted.” The Globe-Mermaid Association of England and America has - been formed with the threefold object:— (1) Of rebuilding old Globe Theatre (destroyed by, file in June, 1613); (2) Of rebuilding, with it, the old Mermaid Tavern, originally Ideated in Bread street, Cheapside, and made famous by the poet and his friends; - (3) Of founding a great Elizabethan library- and museum for the use of students and visitors from all over the world. . ,It is proposed tp put up these buildings on a prominent site oh the South' Embankment of the Thames, in r tho heart of London’s Shakespeare-land, the whole to be surrounded with trees, shrubs, and flowers from Warwickshire, where the poet was born. BACK TO THE SIXTEENTH CENTORY. An. official statement describing the scheme says— . _ The project is in many ways unique. The theatre and the tavern Willembody all that is best and inost characteristic of their Tudor Originals, while eschewmg their cruder and more primitive elements. In these days of improved Sanitation and higher standards of safety and comfort there is bound to be 'Comproinise. The aim will be not so much to copy, slavishly, Idle letter; as to recapture the spirit and atmosphere of the tavern and theatre as’ Shakespeare knew them—not merely to afford a hunting-ground for pedants and antiquaries, but to give the people ah’ unrivalled opportunity to pass at will from the twentieth back to the sixteenth* century. ■■ r ; Architecturally, the most imposing of the group of buildings composing' 1 the memorial will be the' library . and -museum. "Here - the student will bo given facility to improve his knowledge of the Elizabethan period, in its litera-, ture arid its life: Provision will ‘bo made for a spacious music chamber, equipped with an orehestra'covering the whole range of contemporary instruments. In addition there will be lecture and congress halls, and rooms for clubs and social gathenrigs. It is the aim of tho association that the memorial shall become a thriving centre? of cultural activity. ■ The Globe Theatre was built on tho sßankside, in .the Southwark quarter of London, early in-1599. It .was roughly circular in. shape, and was constructed mainly of wood. In-the -prologue-fo ‘Henry V.’ there is .the well-known .reference;— may. we cram Within this wooden O the very casques ' ; That did affright the air at Agincourt? , .. : Shakespeare, was part-owrier "of the theatre with Burbage and his fellow actors, and.- seems to. have;, .drawn a steady and' considerable revenue from it. Here his plays were successively, produced.- , -• THE MERMAID. The Mermaid Tavern stood in Bread street;' off Cheapside,- In the 5 sa,m« street John Milton was born in December, 1608. No description of this most famous of the old London taverns has come down to as, the only surviring document beifag' a detailed tavern bill dated at the-end of the sixteerith century, and now in the possession of Di A. S. W. Rosenbach. of New York. An American scholar, Mr Mark Eccles (Harvard), recently discovered that the landlord of the tavern in Shakespeare’s day was a Mr Williamson. Here were held those wonderful supper parties presided over by Beri‘ ;, Jonson and celebrated by Francis Beaumont— What things have we seen Done at the Mermaid !, heard word* that have been So nimble and so full of-subtle flame, As if that every one from whence they came Had meant to put his whole wit in a jest, -."■■■■■■' And had resolved to live a fool r th« ' ' ' rest , Of his dull life. - The president of the association in England is Lord Derby; in America, Di Nicholas Murray Butler, president of Columbia University. The vice-presi-dents are Lord Bessborough, ex-Presi- ■ dent Hoover, Lord Border; Lord Leverhulme, Dr George Norlin (president of the University of Colorado) ,■ General Smuts, Lord Wakefield, and Lord Willingdon. Among the general council are Dr John Finley, Professor J. Livingston Lowes (Harvard), Sir 1 John Martin-Harvey,- Mr Eden' Phillpotts, Professor J. Dover Wilson, and Mr Robert Atkins, Professor' Lascelles Abercrombie, Professor William Lyon Phelps (Yale), Dr A, S. W, Rosenbach, Miss Marie Tempest, Mr Arthur Machen, and Mr James Stephens. - £250,000 SCHEME- / . It is estimated that, the complete scheme will cost about £250,000, The general council are anxious that a great effort should be made to secure the site arid begin building operations, in the Coronation year. They therefore “ earnestly appeal to the peoples of our two countries to rally to the support of this great cause, and by generously subscribing to the funds make it sible to realise- this dream of ' the world’s central memorial and shrine to the genius, of William Shakespeare.” The names of all subscribers will Le recorded in a permanent* Book of Remembrarice. Donors. of £2OO will, be termed “ founders,” and then: names recorded- on a founders’ roll. Honors of £2,000 will be made life governors, and will each be given for life two prln. cipal seats in the theatre, with inscribed plates affixed. All subscribers of a minimum sum of 5s will be termed associates.” ■ ! Cheques and drafts should be mads payable to the Globe-Mermaid Association and forwarded to the Right. - Hon. Reginald M'Kenna, treasurer, GlobeMermaid Association, Midland- Bank Head Office, Poultry, Lohdon, E.C. 2, or to Martins Bank Liiriited, Kingsway, W.C. 2. , - - '