"[7] No public of any age or
country is altogether free from such infirmities. But the reception
accorded to Shakespeare's plays in the theatre of his day, in
contemporary theatrical conditions, is proof-positive of a signal
imaginative faculty in an exceptionally large proportion of the
playgoers.
[Footnote 7: Chapman's _Revenge of Bussy D'Ambois_, Act I., Sc. i.]
To the Elizabethan actor a warm tribute is due. Shakespeare has
declared with emphasis that no amount of scenery can secure genuine
success on the stage for a great work of the imagination. He is no
less emphatic in the value he sets on competent acting. In _Hamlet_,
as every reader will remember, the dramatist points out the perennial
defects of the actor, and shows how they may and must be corrected. He
did all he could for the Elizabethan playgoer in the way of insisting
that the art of acting must be studied seriously, and that the
dramatist's words must reach the ears of the audience, clearly and
intelligibly enunciated.
"Speak the speech, I pray you," he tells the actor, "as I pronounce it
to you, trippingly on the tongue; but if you mouth it, as many of your
players do, I had as lief the town-crier spoke my lines.
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