Betterton
acted Lear, we are positively informed, "exactly as Shakespeare wrote
it"; and at the dates when Pepys saw _Hamlet_, _Twelfth Night_, and
the rest, there is no evidence that the old texts had been tampered
with. The rage for adapting Shakespeare to current theatrical
requirements reached its full tide after the period of Pepys's diary.
Pepys witnessed only the first-fruits of that fantastic movement. It
acquired its greatest luxuriance later. The pioneer of the great
scheme of adaptation was Sir William D'Avenant, and he was aided in
Pepys's playgoing days by no less a personage than Dryden. It was
during the succeeding decade that the scandal, fanned by the energies
of lesser men, was at its unseemly height.
No disrespect seems to have been intended to Shakespeare's memory by
those who devoted themselves to these acts of vandalism. However
difficult it may be to realise the fact, true admiration for
Shakespeare's genius seems to have flourished in the breasts of all
the adapters, great and small. D'Avenant, whose earliest poetic
production was a pathetic elegy on the mighty dramatist, never ceased
to write or speak of him with the most affectionate respect.
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