Mr Benson's
disciples mainly owe their efficiency to long association with a
permanent company controlled by a manager who seeks, single-mindedly,
what he holds to be the interests of dramatic art. The many-headed
public learns its lessons very slowly, and sometimes neglects them
altogether. It has been reluctant to recognise the true significance
of Mr Benson's work. But the intelligent onlooker knows that he is
marching along the right road, in intelligent conformity with the best
teaching of the past.
Thirty years ago a meeting took place at the Mansion House to discuss
the feasibility of founding a State theatre in London, a project which
was not realised. The most memorable incident which was associated
with the Mansion House meeting was a speech of the theatrical manager
Phelps, who argued, amid the enthusiastic plaudits of his hearers,
that it was in the highest interests of the nation that the
Shakespearean drama should continuously occupy the stage. "I
maintain," Phelps said, "from the experience of eighteen years, that
the perpetual iteration of Shakespeare's words, if nothing more, going
on daily for so many months of the year, must and would produce a
great effect upon the public mind.
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