Luckily for Pepys, he was the contemporary of
at least one inspired Shakespearean actor. The exaltation of spirit to
which he confesses, when he witnessed Betterton in the role of Hamlet,
is proof that the prosaic multitude for whom he speaks will always
respond to Shakespeare's magic touch when genius wields the actor's
wand. One could wish nothing better for the playgoing public of to-day
than that the spirit of Betterton, Shakespeare's guardian angel in the
theatre of the Restoration, might renew its earthly career in our own
time in the person of some contemporary actor.
V
MR BENSON AND SHAKESPEAREAN DRAMA[20]
[Footnote 20: This paper was first printed in the _Cornhill Magazine_,
May 1900.]
I
Dramatic criticism in the daily press of London often resembles that
method of conversation of which Bacon wrote that it seeks "rather
commendation of wit, in being able to hold argument, than of judgment,
in discerning what is true." For four-and-twenty years Mr F.R. Benson
has directed an acting company which has achieved a reputation in
English provincial cities, in Ireland, and in Scotland, by its
exclusive devotion to Shakespearean and classical drama.
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