The great actor of
the Restoration, Thomas Betterton, was D'Avenant's close associate in
his last years. D'Avenant coached him in the parts both of Hamlet and
of Henry the Eighth, in the light of the instruction which he had
derived through the medium of Taylor and Lowin from Shakespeare's own
lips. But more to the immediate purpose is it to note that D'Avenant's
ardour as a seeker after knowledge of Shakespeare fired Betterton
into making a pilgrimage to Stratford-on-Avon to glean oral traditions
of the dramatist's life there. Many other of Shakespeare's admirers
had previously made Stratford Church, where stood his tomb, a place of
pilgrimage, and Aubrey had acknowledged in hap-hazard fashion the
value of Stratford gossip. But it was Betterton's visit that laid the
train for the systematic union of the oral traditions of London and
Stratford respectively.
It was not until the London and Warwickshire streams of tradition
mingled in equal strength that a regular biography of Shakespeare was
possible. Betterton was the efficient cause of this conjunction. All
that Stratford-on-Avon revealed to him he put at the disposal of
Nicholas Rowe, who was the first to attempt a formal memoir.
Pages:
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114