It is ungrateful to criticise adversely any work the production of
which entails the expenditure of much thought and money. More
especially is it distasteful when the immediate outcome is, as in the
case of many Shakespearean revivals at the great West-end theatres of
London, the giving of pleasure to large sections of the community.
That is in itself a worthy object. But it is open to doubt whether,
from the sensible literary point of view, the managerial activity be
well conceived or to the public advantage. It is hard to ignore a
fundamental flaw in the manager's central position. The pleasure which
recent Shakespearean revivals offer the spectator reaches him mainly
through the eye. That is the manager's avowed intention. Yet no one
would seriously deny that the Shakespearean drama appeals, both
primarily and ultimately, to the head and to the heart. Whoever seeks,
therefore, by the production of Shakespearean drama chiefly to please
the spectator's eye shows scant respect both for the dramatist and for
the spectator. However unwittingly, he tends to misrepresent the one,
and to mislead the other, in a particular of first-rate importance.
Indeed, excess in scenic display does worse than restrict
opportunities of witnessing Shakespeare's plays on the stage in London
and other large cities of England and America.
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