But the _genius loci_ has
fled from Southwark and from Shoreditch. It might be practicable to
set up a new model of an Elizabethan theatre elsewhere in London, but
such a memorial would have about it an air of unreality,
artificiality, and affectation which would not be in accord with the
scholarly spirit of an historic or biographic commemoration. The
device might prove of archaeological interest, but the commemorative
purpose, from a biographical or historical point of view, would be ill
served. Wherever a copy of an Elizabethan playhouse were brought to
birth in twentieth-century London, the historic sense in the onlooker
would be for the most part irresponsive; it would hardly be quickened.
VI
Apart from the practical difficulties of realising materially
Shakespeare's local associations with London, it is doubtful if the
mere commemoration in London of Shakespeare's personal connection with
the great city ought to be the precise aim of those who urge the
propriety of erecting a national monument in the metropolis.
Shakespeare's personal relations with London can in all the
circumstances of the case be treated as a justification in only the
second degree.
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