Obvious conditions of time cannot turn "the accomplishments of many
years into an hour glass." Shakespeare is airing no private grievance.
He is not complaining that his plays were in his own day inadequately
upholstered in the theatre, or that the "scaffold" on which they were
produced was "unworthy" of them. The words have no concern with the
contention that modern upholstery and spectacular machinery render
Shakespeare's play a justice which was denied them in his lifetime. As
reasonably one might affirm that the modern theatre has now conquered
the ordinary conditions of time and space; that a modern playhouse
can, if the manager so will it, actually hold within its walls the
"vasty fields of France," or confine "two mighty monarchies."
A wider and quite impersonal trend of thought is offered for
consideration by Shakespeare's majestic eloquence. The dramatist bids
us bear in mind that his lines do no more than suggest the things he
would have the audience see and understand; the actors aid the
suggestion according to their ability. But the crucial point of the
utterance is the warning that the illusion of the drama can only be
rendered complete in the theatre by the working of the "imaginary
forces" of the spectators.
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