conspicuous expression of gratitude to its benefactors, among whom
great writers take first rank. Monuments of fitting character give
that conspicuous expression. Bacon, the most enlightened of English
thinkers, argued, within a few years of Shakespeare's death, that no
self-respecting people could safely omit to erect statues of those who
had contributed to the genuine advance of their knowledge or prestige.
The visitors to Bacon's imaginary island of New Atlantis saw statues
erected at the public expense in memory of all who had won great
distinction in the arts or sciences. The richness of the memorial
varied according to the value of the achievement. "These statues," the
observer noted, "are some of brass, some of marble and touchstone,
some of cedar and other special woods, gilt and adorned, some of iron,
some of silver, some of gold." No other external recognition of great
intellectual service was deemed, in Bacon's Utopia, of equal
appropriateness. Bacon's mature judgment deserves greater regard than
the splendid imagery of Milton's budding muse.
VIII
In order to satisfy the commemorative instinct in a people, it is
necessary, as Bacon pointed out, strictly to adapt the means to the
end. The essential object of a national monument to a great man is to
pay tribute to his greatness, to express his fellow-men's sense of his
service. No blunder could be graver than to confuse the issue by
seeking to make the commemoration serve any secondary or collateral
purpose. It may be very useful to erect hospitals or schools. It may
help in the dissemination of knowledge and appreciation of
Shakespearean drama for the public to endow a theatre, which should be
devoted to the performance of Shakespeare's plays. The public interest
calls loudly for a playhouse that shall be under public control.
Promoters of such a commendable endeavour might find their labours
facilitated by associating their project with Shakespeare's name--with
the proposed commemoration of Shakespeare. But the true aim of the
commemoration will be frustrated if it be linked with any purpose of
utility, however commendable, with anything beyond a symbolisation of
Shakespeare's mighty genius and influence. To attempt aught else is
"wrenching the true cause the false way." A worthy memorial to
Shakespeare will not satisfy the just working of the commemorative
instinct, unless it take the sculpturesque and monumental shape which
the great tradition of antiquity has sanctioned. A monument to
Shakespeare should be a monument and nothing besides.
Bacon's doctrine that the greater the achievement that is commemorated
the richer must be the outward symbol, implies that a memorial to
Shakespeare must be a work of art of the loftiest merit conceivable.
Unless those who promote the movement concentrate their energies on an
object of beauty, unless they free the movement of all suspicion that
the satisfaction of the commemorative instinct is to be a secondary
and not the primary aim, unless they resolve that the Shakespeare
memorial in London is to be a monument pure and simple, and one as
perfect as art can make it, then the effort is undeserving of national
support.
IX
This conclusion suggests the inevitable objection that sculpture in
England is not in a condition favourable to the execution of a great
piece of monumental art. Past experience in London does not make one
very sanguine that it is possible to realise in statuary a worthy
conception of a Shakespearean memorial. The various stages through
which recent efforts to promote sculptured memorials in London have
passed suggest the mock turtle's definition in _Alice in Wonderland_
of the four branches of arithmetic--Ambition, Distraction,
Uglification, and Derision. Save the old statue of James the Second,
at Whitehall, and the new statue of Oliver Cromwell, which stands at
a disadvantage on its present site beneath Westminster Hall, there is
scarcely a sculptured portrait in the public places of London which is
not
A fixèd figure for the time of scorn
To point his slow unmoving finger at.
London does not lack statues of men of letters. There are statues of
Burns and John Stuart Mill on the Thames Embankment, of Byron in
Hamilton Place, and of Carlyle on Chelsea Embankment. But all convey
an impression of insignificance, and thereby fail to satisfy the
nation's commemorative instinct.
The taste of the British nation needs rigorous control when it seeks
to pay tribute to benefactors by means of sculptured monuments. During
the last forty years a vast addition has been made throughout Great
Britain--with most depressing effect--to the number of sculptured
memorials in the open air. The people has certainly shown far too
enthusiastic and too inconsiderate a liberality in commemorating by
means of sculptured monuments the virtues of Prince Albert and the
noble character and career of the late Queen Victoria. The deduction
to be drawn from the numberless statues of Queen Victoria and her
consort is not exhilarating. British taste never showed itself to
worse effect. The general impression produced by the most ambitious of
all these memorials, the Albert Memorial in Kensington Gardens, is
especially deplorable. The gilt figure of the Prince seems to defy
every principle that fine art should respect. The endeavour to produce
imposing effect by dint of hugeness is, in all but inspired hands,
certain to issue in ugliness.
It would, however, be a mistake to take too gloomy a view of the
situation. The prospect may easily be painted in too dismal colours.
It is a commonplace with foreign historians of art to assert that
English sculpture ceased to flourish when the building of the old
Gothic cathedrals came to an end. But Stevens's monument of the Duke
of Wellington in St Paul's Cathedral, despite the imperfect execution
of the sculptor's design, shows that the monumental art of England has
proved itself, at a recent date, capable of realising a great
commemorative conception. There are signs, too, that at least three
living sculptors might in favourable conditions prove worthy
competitors of Stevens. At least one literary memorial in the British
Isles, the Scott monument in Edinburgh, which cost no more than
£16,000, satisfies a nation's commemorative aspiration. There the
natural environment and an architectural setting of impressive design
reinforce the effect of sculpture. The whole typifies with fitting
dignity the admiring affection which gathers about Scott's name. This
successful realisation of a commemorative aim--not wholly dissimilar
from that which should inspire a Shakespeare memorial--must check
forebodings of despair.
There are obviously greater difficulties in erecting a monument to
Shakespeare in London than in erecting a monument to Scott in
Edinburgh. There is no site in London that will compare with the
gardens of Princes Street in Edinburgh. It is essential that a
Shakespeare memorial should occupy the best site that London can
offer. Ideally the best site for any great monument is the summit of a
gently rising eminence, with a roadway directly approaching it and
circling round it. In 1864, when the question of a fit site for a
Shakespeare memorial in London was warmly debated, a too ambitious
scheme recommended the formation of an avenue on the model of the
Champs-Elysées from the top of Portland Place across Primrose Hill;
and at the end of the avenue, on the summit of Primrose Hill, at an
elevation of 207 feet above the river Thames, the Shakespeare monument
was to stand. This was and is an impracticable proposal. The site
which in 1864 received the largest measure of approbation was a spot
in the Green Park, near Piccadilly. A third suggestion of the same
date was the bank of the river Thames, which was then called
Thames-way, but was on the point of conversion into the Thames
Embankment. Recent reconstruction of Central London--of the district
north of the Strand--by the London County Council now widens the field
of choice. There is much to be said for a site within the centre of
London life. But an elevated monumental structure on the banks of the
Thames seems to meet at the moment with the widest approval. In any
case, no site that is mean or cramped would be permissible if the
essential needs of the situation are to be met.
A monument that should be sufficiently imposing would need an
architectural framework. But the figure of the poet must occupy the
foremost place in the design. Herein lies another embarrassment. It is
difficult to determine which of the extant portraits the sculptor
ought to follow. The bust in Stratford Church, the print in the First
Folio, and possibly the Chandos painting in the National Portrait
Gallery, are honest efforts to present a faithful likeness. But they
are crudely executed, and are posthumous sketches largely depending on
the artist's memory. The sculptor would be compelled to work in the
spirit of the historian, who recreates a past event from the
indication given him by an illiterate or fragmentary chronicle or
inscription. He would be bound to endow with artistic life those
features in which the authentic portraits agree, but the highest
effort of the imagination would be needed to create an impression of
artistic truth.
The success of a Shakespeare memorial will ultimately depend on the
pecuniary support that the public accord it. But in the initial stage
of the movement all rests on the discovery of a sculptor capable of
realising the significance of a national commemoration of the greatest
of the nation's, or indeed of the worlds, heroes. It would be well to
settle satisfactorily the question of such an artist's existence
before anything else. The first step that any organising committee of
a Shakespeare memorial should therefore take, in my view, would be to
invite sculptors of every country to propose a design. The monument
should be the best that artistic genius could contrive--the artistic
genius of the world. There may be better sculptors abroad than at
home. The universality of the appeal which Shakespeare's achievement
makes, justifies a competition among artists of every race or
nationality.
The crucial decision as to whether the capacity to execute the
monument is available, should be entrusted to a committee of taste, to
a committee of liberal-minded connoisseurs who command general
confidence. If this jury decide by their verdict that the present
conditions of art permit the production of a great memorial of
Shakespeare on just principles, then a strenuous appeal for funds may
be inaugurated with likelihood of success. It is hopeless to reverse
these methods of procedure. If funds are first invited before rational
doubts as to the possibility of a proper application of them are
dispelled, it is improbable that the response will be satisfactory or
that the issue of the movement of 1905 will differ from that of 1821
or 1864.
In 1864 Victor Hugo expressed the opinion that the expenses of a
Shakespeare memorial in London ought to be defrayed by the British
Government. There is small likelihood of assistance from that source.
Individual effort can alone be relied upon; and it is doubtful if it
be desirable to seek official aid. A great national memorial of
Shakespeare in London, if it come into being at all on the lines which
would alone justify its existence, ought to embody individual
enthusiasm, ought to express with fitting dignity the personal sense
of indebtedness and admiration which fills the hearts of his
fellow-men.
INDEX
Acting, importance of, in Shakespearean drama, 13;
evil effects of long runs, 14;
Shakespeare on, 45, 47
Actor-manager, his merits and defects, 125, 126
Actors, training of, 139;
English, in France, 203.
(See also Benson, Mr F.R., and Boys.)
Æschylus, statue of, 233
Albert, Prince (Consort), and Shakespeare's birthplace, 222;
statues of, 237
Alleyn, Edward, 191, 194
_Annual Register_ of 1770, 194
Aristotle, Shakespeare's mention of, 144, 145;
Bacon's study of, 145
Arnold, Matthew, on Shakespeare, 29
Astronomy, Shakespeare on, 146
Athens, statuary at, 233
Aubrey, John, his gossip about Shakespeare, 67, 68
Austria, subsidised theatres in, 131, 134
Bacon, Anthony, in France, 203
Bacon, Francis, philosophical method of, 143;
on memorial monuments in _New Atlantis_, 234, 235
Bacon, Sir Nicholas, his fame in France, 204
Badger, Mr Richard, proposal for a Shakespeare monument, 219
Bannister, John, his music for _The Tempest_, 107
Barker, Mr Granville, as Richard II., 13 _n._
Basse, William, his tribute to Shakespeare, 50
Beeston, Christopher, Elizabethan actor, 64
Beeston, William the first, patron of Nash, 64
Beeston, William the second, his theatrical career, 65, 66;
his gossip about Shakespeare, 65;
his conversation, 66;
Aubrey's account of, 67
Beethoven, statue of, 233
Beljame, Alexandre, on English literature, 201;
death of, 201
Benson, Mr F.R., his company of actors, 111;
his principles, 112 _seq._;
list of Shakespeare plays produced by, 114 _n._;
his production of _Hamlet_ unabridged, 116-118;
his training of actors, 119;
his services to Shakespeare, 121;
his pupils on the London stage, 130
Berkenhout, John, 195
Betterton, Thomas, at Stratford-on-Avon, 73;
contributes to Rowe's biography, 73, 76;
his rendering of Hamlet, 101, 102
Biography, art of, in England, 51
Bishop, Sir William, 76
Bishopsgate (London), Shakespeare at, 226, 227
Blackfriars, Shakespeare's house at, 227
Boileau, and English literature, 199
Bolingbroke, in _Richard II._, patriotism of, 173
Bowman, John, actor, 69;
at Stratford-on-Avon, 76
Boys in women's parts in Elizabethan theatres, 19, 41;
abandonment of the practice, 43;
superseded by women, 88, 89
Buchanan, George, his plays, 204
Burbage, Richard, Shakespeare's friend and fellow-actor, 33
Burns, Mr John, 131
Burns, Robert, French study of, 201;
monument to, 233, 237
Byron, Lord, on Petrarch at Arquà, 225;
statue of, 237
Calderon, 136;
monument to, 233
Calvert, Charles A., his Shakespearean productions at Manchester,
12 _n._
Camoens, monument to, 233
Capital and the literary drama, 124, 126, 127, 128
Carlyle, Thomas, statue of, 237
_Cataline's Conspiracy_, by Ben Jonson, 30, 31
Ceremony, Shakespeare on, 157, 158
Chantrey, Sir Francis, and commemoration of Shakespeare, 216
Charlecote, Shakespeare's escapade at, 76
Chaucer, Geoffrey, French influence on, 199
Clarendon, Lord, on Shakespeare, 78
Cockpit theatre, Drury Lane, 65, 86
Cockpit theatre, Whitehall, 87 and _n._
Coleman, John, on the subsidised theatre, 132
Coleridge S.T., and commemoration of Shakespeare, 216
Congreve, William, 91
Coriolanus and the patriotic instinct, 178, 179
Cromwell, Oliver, statue of, 237
Davenant, Robert, Sir William's brother, 70
D'Avenant, Sir William: theatrical manager, 67;
his youth at Oxford, 69;
relations in boyhood with Shakespeare, 70;
elegy on Shakespeare, 71;
champion of Shakespeare's fame, 71;
his story of Shakespeare and Southampton, 72;
his influence on Betterton, 72;
manager of the Duke's Company, 87 _n._;
as dramatist, 91;
his adaptations of Shakespeare, 103-105, 106 _n._, 108
Deschamps, Eustace, on Chaucer, 199
Desportes, Philippe, and Elizabethan poetry, 199
D'Israeli, Isaac, on Steevens's forgery, 195
Downs, John, prompter and stage annalist, 63
Dramatic societies in England, 129
Dress, Shakespeare on extravagant, 185
Drunkenness, Shakespeare on, 185
Dryden, John, on William Beeston, 66;
as dramatist, 91;
his share in the adaptation of _The Tempest_, 105
Du Bellay, Joachim, and Elizabethan poetry, 199
Ducis, Jean François, his translation of Shakespeare, 207, 208
Dugdale, Sir William, 74
Dumas _père_, on Shakespeare, 206;
his translation of _Hamlet_, 209-211
Dyce, Alexander, on Steevens's forgery, 196
Elizabeth, Queen, summons Shakespeare to Greenwich, 31
Elizabethan Stage Society, 13 _n._
England, Shakespeare on history of, 180
Ennius on poetic fame, 232
Etherege, Sir George, 91
Eton College, debate about Shakespeare at, 78
Euripides, statue of, 233
Evelyn, John, on _Hamlet_, 90
Farquhar, George, 91
Faulconbridge (in _King John_), patriotism of, 174
Fletcher, John, his _Custom of the Country_, 92, 93;
its obscenity, 93
Folio, the First [of Shakespeare's plays], actors' co-operation in, 59;
list of actors in, 61;
rejected by Pepys, 94
Folio, the Second [of Shakespeare's plays], in France, 205
Folio, the Third [of Shakespeare's plays], purchased by Pepys, 94
Folio, the Fourth [of Shakespeare's plays], in Pepysian library, 94
France, subsidised theatres in, 131, 134;
Shakespeare in, 198 _seq._;
English actors in, 203
Freedom of the will, Shakespeare on, 166
Fuller, Thomas, his _Worthies of England_, 52;
notice of Shakespeare, 52
Garrick, David, his stage costume, 18
_Gentleman's Magazine_ of 1801, 195
George IV. and commemoration of Shakespeare, 215
German drama, 129, 135, 136
Germany, subsidised theatres in, 131, 134
Goethe, 136;
monument to, 233
Greene, Robert, French translation of romance by, 199
Grendon, tradition of Shakespeare at, 77
"Grenovicus" contributes to _Gentleman's Magazine_, 195
Hales, John, of Eton, 78
Hall, Bishop Joseph, French translation of works by, 199
Hart, Charles, Shakespeare's grand-nephew, actor, 59, 68
Hauptmann, Gerhart, 135
Henry V., on kingly ceremony, 157;
patriotism of, 175, 182
Heywood, Thomas, projected _Lives of the Poets_, 54 _n._;
affection for Shakespeare, 65;
his _Apology for Actors_, 65
History plays of Shakespeare, character of, 180
Hobbes, Thomas, in France, 200
Howe, Josias, on a Shakespeare tradition, 77
Hugo, Victor, on Shakespeare, 206;
on Shakespeare memorial, 241
Imagination in the audience, 22, 47, 48
Ingres, Jean, his painting of Shakespeare, 206
Irving, Sir Henry, experience of Shakespearean spectacle, 10;
and the literary drama, 123;
and the municipal theatre, 132;
and French drama, 200
Irving, Washington, and commemoration of Shakespeare, 216
James I., his alleged letter to Shakespeare, 72
James II., statue of, 236
John of Gaunt in _Richard II._, dying speech of, 115-116, 181
Johnson, Dr, on false patriots, 171
Jonson, Ben, testimony to Shakespeare's popularity, 29;
his classical tragedies compared with Shakespeare's, 30;
his elegy on Shakespeare, 50, 232;
his dialectical powers contrasted with Shakespeare's, 53;
on the players' praise of Shakespeare, 60;
his son, Shakespeare's godson, 61;
Beeston's talk of, 67;
popularity of his plays at Restoration, 91, 92
Jusserand, Jules, on English literature, 202;
his _Shakespeare in France_, 203
Kean, Charles, experience of Shakespearean spectacle, 9;
Macready's criticism of, 14
Kemp, William, Elizabethan comedian, 33
Killigrew, Tom, manager of the King's Company, 87 _n._
Kingship, Shakespeare on, 155-160, 180-182
Kirkman, Francis, his account of William Beeston the second, 66
Lacy, John, actor, 67;
acquaintance with Ben Jonson, 68;
adaptation of _The Taming of the Shrew_, 108
Lawrence, Sir Thomas, and commemoration of Shakespeare, 216
Lessing, 136
Lincoln's Inn Fields (Portugal Row), Theatre at, 86, 87 and _n._
Literary drama, on the modern stage, 123;
antagonism of capital to, 126-128
_Lives of the Poets_ of the seventeenth century, 54
Locke, John, in France, 200
Locke, Matthew, Shakespearean music of, 105, 108
Logic, Shakespeare on, 146
London, Shakespeare's association with, 226 _seq._;
statues in, 236, 237;
proposed sites for Shakespeare monument in, 239
London County Council, and the theatre, 130, 131;
and subsidised enlightenment, 133;
and Shakespeare monument, 219
London Trades Council and the theatre, 132
Lowin, John, original actor in Shakespeare's plays, 61;
coached by Shakespeare in part of _Hamlet_, 63, 71, 72
Lycurgus, Attic orator, 233
Macready, W.C., his criticism of spectacle, 14
Marlowe, Christopher, Shakespeare's senior by two months, 37, 193
Massinger, Philip, his _Bondman_, 92, 93
Mathews, Charles, on a monument of Shakespeare, 214
Mercy, Shakespeare on, 152, 153
Metaphysics, Shakespeare on, 146-148
Mill, John Stuart, statue of, 237
Milton, his elegy on Shakespeare, 51, 231
Molière, accepted methods of producing his plays, 16, 18, 136
Montaigne, Michel de, and Anthony Bacon, 203;
his essays in English, 204
Moore, Thomas, and commemoration of Shakespeare, 216
More, Sir Thomas, his _Utopia_ in France, 204
Municipal theatre, its justification, 122;
in Europe, 134
Musset, Alfred de, on Shakespeare, 206
Nash, John, and commemoration of Shakespeare, 216
Nash, Thomas, 64
Nodier, Charles, his _Pensées de Shakespeare_, 211-213
Norwegian drama, 129
Obedience, the duty of, 161
Oldys, William, antiquary, 68, 69
Opera in England, 131
Oxford, the Crown Inn at, 69;
Shakespeare at, 70;
visitors from, to Stratford, 75-77
Patriotism, Shakespeare on, 170 _seq._
Peele, George, alleged letter of, 189 _seq._
Pepys, Samuel, his play-going experience, 81-86;
on Elizabethan and Jacobean drama, 91-93;
on Shakespeare, 94 _seq._;
his attitude to poetic drama, 95, 96;
his musical setting of "To be or not to be," 100
Petrarch, his tomb at Arquà, 225
Phelps, Samuel, at Sadler's Wells, 11;
list of plays produced by, 11, 114 _n._;
his mode of producing Shakespeare, 12;
on a State theatre in London, 120;
on public control of theatres, 140, 141
Philosophy, Shakespeare's attitude to, 143 _seq._
Pindar on poetic fame, 232
Platter, Thomas, journal of his London visit (1599), 38
Playhouses in London, Blackfriars, 227;
Drury Lane, 86, 87 and _n._;
"The Globe," 38, 227;
"The Red Bull," 86;
Sadler's Wells, 11;
Salisbury Court, Whitefriars, 66, 86;
"The Theatre" at Shoreditch, 37, 227
Pope, Alexander, and French literature, 199;
on the Shakespeare cenotaph, 216
Richardson, Samuel, in France, 200
Robinson, Richard, actor, 68
Ronsard, Pierre de, and Elizabethan poetry, 199;
in England, 203
Rousseau, J.J., and English literature, 200
Rowe, Nicholas, Shakespeare's first formal biographer, 54;
his acknowledgment to Betterton, 73;
his biography of Shakespeare, 79, 80
Royal ceremony, irony of, 158
Russell, Lord John, on patriotism, 172
Sadler's Wells Theatre, 11
Sand, George, on Shakespeare, 206
Sardou, Victorien, work of, 200
Scenery, its purpose, 5;
uselessness of realism, 23
Schiller, on the German stage, 136;
monument to, 233
Scott, Sir Walter, and commemoration of Shakespeare, 216, 232;
Edinburgh monument of, 238
Sedley, Sir Charles, 91
Seneca on mercy, 153 _n._
Shadwell, Thomas, 67,
adaptation of _The Tempest_, 106 _n._
Shakespeare, Edmund, actor, 227
Shakespeare, Gilbert, actor, 68
Shakespeare, William, his creation of the Ghost in _Hamlet_, 27;
contemporary popularity of, 29;
at Court, 31;
early London career, 32;
advice to the actor, 45;
his modest estimate of the actor's powers, 47;
elegies on death of, 49;
Fuller's notice of, 52;
early biographies of, 54;
oral tradition of, in seventeenth century, 55;
similarity of experience with that of contemporary dramatists and
actors, 57;
Elizabethan players' commendation of, 60;
resentment with a publisher, 65;
William Beeston's reminiscences of, 67;
Stratford gossip about, 74-76;
present state of biographical knowledge, 81;
his attitude to philosophy, 143 _seq._;
his intuition, 149-150;
concealment of his personality, 150;
his private sentiments, 151;
on mercy, 152-153;
on rulers of states, 154;
on divine right of kings, 159;
on obedience, 161;
on social order, 162-163;
on freedom of the will, 166;
on women's will, 168;
his humour and optimism, 169;
on patriotism, 170 _seq._;
on English history, 180;
on social foibles, 184-186;
commemoration of, in London, 214 _seq._;
portraits of, 239
Shakespearean drama, attitude of students and actors to, 1;
costliness of modern production, 2;
the simple method and the public, 8;
Charles Kean's spectacular method, 9;
Irving's method, 10;
plays produced by Phelps, 11;
reliance on the actor, 13;
in Vienna, 17;
advantage of its performance constantly and in variety, 23;
importance of minor rôles of, 115;
its ethical significance, 164, 165;
in France, 198 _seq._;
and British prestige, 229