The first appearance of actresses

in Shakespearean parts.

David Garrick, 1717-1779.

Killigrew inaugurated, of women for boys in female parts.
The first rôle that was professionally rendered by a woman
in a public theatre was that of Desdemona in 'Othello,'
apparently on December 8, 1660. Thomas Jordan, a very
humble poet, wrote a prologue to notify the new procedure,
and referred to the absurdity of the old custom:

For to speak truth, men act, that are between
Forty and fifty, wenches of fifteen,

With bone so large and nerve so uncompliant,
When you call DESDEMONA, enter GIANT.

The actress on the occasion is said to have been Mrs.
Margaret Hughes, Prince Rupert's mistress; but Betterton's
wife, who was at first known on the stage as Mrs. Saunderson,
was the first actress to present a series of Shakespeare's
great female characters. Mrs. Betterton gave her husband
powerful support, from 1663 onwards, in such rôles as
Ophelia, Juliet, Queen Katharine, and Lady Macbeth.
Betterton formed a school of actors who carried on his
traditions for many years after his death. Robert Wilks
(1670-1732) as Hamlet, and Barton Booth (1681–1733) as
Henry VIII and Hotspur, were popularly accounted no
unworthy successors. Colley Cibber (1671-1757), as actor,
theatrical manager, and dramatic critic, was both a loyal
disciple of Betterton and a lover of Shakespeare, though his
vanity and his faith in the ideals of the Restoration incited
him to perpetrate many outrages on Shakespeare's text
when preparing it for theatrical representation. His no-
torious adaptation of 'Richard III,' which was first pro-
duced in 1700, long held the stage to the exclusion of the
original version.

Towards the middle of the eighteenth century all earlier efforts to interpret Shakespeare in the playhouse were eclipsed in public esteem by the concentrated energy and intelligence of David Garrick. Garrick's enthusiasm for the poet and his histrionic genius riveted Shakespeare's hold on public taste. His claim to have restored to the stage the text of Shakespeare-purified of Restoration defilements cannot be allowed without serious qualifications. Garrick had no scruple in presenting plays of Shakespeare in versions that he or his friends had recklessly garbled. He supplied 'Romeo and Juliet' with a happy ending; he converted the 'Taming of The Shrew' into the

farce of 'Katharine and Petruchio,' 1754; he introduced radical changes in 'Antony and Cleopatra,' 'Two Gentlemen of Verona,''Cymbeline,' and 'Midsummer Night's Dream.' Nevertheless, no actor has won an equally exalted reputation in so vast and varied a repertory of Shakespearean rôles. His triumphant début as Richard III in 1741 was followed by equally successful performances of Hamlet, Lear, Macbeth, King John, Romeo, Henry IV, Iago, Leontes, Benedick, and Antony, in 'Antony and Cleopatra.' Garrick was not quite undeservedly buried in Westminster Abbey on February 1, 1779, at the foot of Shakespeare's statue.

Garrick was ably seconded by Mrs. Clive (1711-1785), Mrs. Cibber (1714-1766), and Mrs. Pritchard (1711-1768). Mrs. Cibber as Constance in 'King John,' and Mrs. Pritchard in Lady Macbeth, excited something of the same enthusiasm as Garrick in Richard III and Lear. There were, too, contemporary critics who judged rival actors to show in certain parts powers equal, if not superior, to those of Garrick. Charles Macklin (1697?-1797) for nearly half a century, from 1735 to 1785, gave many hundred performances of a masterly rendering of Shylock. The character had, for many years previous to Macklin's assumption of it, been allotted to comic actors, but Macklin effectively concentrated his energy on the tragic significance of the part with an effect that Garrick could not surpass. Macklin was also reckoned successful in Polonius and Iago. John Henderson, the Bath Roscius (1747-1785), who, like Garrick, was buried in Westminster Abbey, derived immense popularity from his representation of Falstaff; while in subordinate characters like Mercutio, Slender, Jaques, Touchstone, and Sir Toby Belch, John Palmer (1742?-1798) was held to approach perfection. But Garrick was the accredited chief of the theatrical profession until his death. He was then succeeded in his place of predominance by John Philip Kemble, who derived invaluable support from his association with one abler than himself, his sister, Mrs. Siddons.

Kemble,

Somewhat stilted and declamatory in speech, Kemble John enacted a wide range of characters of Shakespearean tragedy Philip with a dignity that won the admiration of Pitt, Sir Walter 1757-1823. Scott, Charles Lamb, and Leigh Hunt. Coriolanus was regarded as his masterpiece, but his renderings of Hamlet, King John, Wolsey, the Duke in 'Measure for Measure,' Leontes, and Brutus satisfied the most exacting canons of

Mrs. Sarah

Siddons, 1755-1831.

Edmund Kean, 1787-1833.

contemporary theatrical criticism. Kemble's sister, Mrs. Siddons, was the greatest actress that Shakespeare's countrymen have known. Her noble and awe-inspiring presentation of Lady Macbeth, her Constance, her Queen Katharine, have, according to the best testimony, not been equalled even by the achievements of the eminent actresses of France.

During the present century the most conspicuous histrionic successes in Shakespearean drama have been won by Edmund Kean, whose triumphant rendering of Shylock on his first appearance at Drury Lane Theatre on January 26, 1814, is one of the most stirring incidents in the history of the English stage. Kean defied the rigid convention of the 'Kemble School,' and gave free rein to his impetuous passions. Besides Shylock, he excelled in Richard III, Othello, Hamlet, and Lear. No less a critic than Coleridge declared that to see him act was like 'reading Shakespeare by flashes of lightning.' Among other Shakespearean actors of Kean's period a high place was allotted by public esteem to George Frederick Cooke (1756-1811), whose Richard III, first given in London at Covent Garden Theatre, October 31, 1801, was accounted his masterpiece. Charles Lamb, writing in 1822, declared that of all the actors who flourished in his time, Robert Bensley 'had most of the swell of soul,' and Lamb gave with a fine enthusiasm in his 'Essays of Elia' an analysis (which has become classical) of Bensley's performance of Malvolio. But Bensley's powers were rated more moderately by more experienced playgoers. Lamb's praises of Mrs. Jordan (1762– 1816) in Ophelia, Helena, and Viola in 'Twelfth Night,' are corroborated by the eulogies of Hazlitt and Leigh Hunt. In the part of Rosalind Mrs. Jordan is reported on all sides to have beaten Mrs. Siddons out of the field.

William The torch thus lit by Garrick, by the Kembles, by Kean Charles and his contemporaries was worthily kept alive by William Macready, 1793-1873. Charles Macready, a cultivated and conscientious actor, who, during a professional career of more than forty years (1810-1851), assumed every great part in Shakespearean tragedy. Although Macready lacked the classical bearing of Kemble or the intense passion of Kean, he won as the interpreter of Shakespeare the whole-hearted suffrages of the educated public. Macready's chief associate in women characters was Helen Faucit (1820-1898, afterwards Lady Martin), whose refined impersonations of Imogen, Beatrice,

Juliet, and Rosalind form an attractive chapter in the history of the stage.

The most notable tribute paid to Shakespeare by any Recent actor-manager of recent times was paid by Samuel Phelps revivals. (1804-1878), who gave during his tenure of Sadler's Wells Theatre between 1844 and 1862 competent representations of all the plays save six; only 'Richard II,' the three parts of Henry VI,' 'Troilus and Cressida,' and 'Titus Andronicus' were omitted. The ablest actress who appeared with Phelps at Sadler's Wells was Mrs. Warner (1804-1854), who had previously supported Macready in many Shakespearean dramas, and was a partner in Phelps's Shakespearean speculation in the early days of the venture. Sir Henry Irving, who since 1878 has been ably seconded by Miss Ellen Terry, has revived at the Lyceum Theatre between 1874 and the present time eleven plays ('Hamlet,' 'Macbeth,' 'Othello,'Richard III,' The Merchant of Venice,' Much Ado About Nothing,' 'Twelfth Night,' 'Romeo and Juliet,' 'King Lear,' Henry VIII,' and 'Cymbeline'), and has given all of them every advantage that they can derive from thoughtful acting as well as from lavish scenic elaboration. "Hamlet' in 1874-5 and 'Macbeth' in 1888-9 were each performed by Sir Henry Irving for 200 nights in uninterrupted succession; these are the longest continuous runs that any of Shakespeare's plays are known to have enjoyed. But theatrical revivals of plays of Shakespeare are in England intermittent, and no theatrical manager since Phelps's retirement has sought systematically to illustrate on the stage the full range of Shakespearean drama. Far more in this direction has been attempted in Germany. In one respect the history of recent Shakespearean representations can be viewed by the literary student with unqualified satisfaction. Although some changes of text or some rearrangement of the scenes are found imperative in all theatrical representations of Shakespeare, a growing public sentiment in England and elsewhere has for many years favoured as loyal an adherence to the authorised version of the plays as is practicable on the part of theatrical managers; and the evil traditions of the stage which sanctioned the perversions of the eighteenth century are happily wellnigh extinct.

Music and art in England owe much to Shakespeare's In music influence. From Thomas Morley, Purcell, Matthew Locke, and art,

In
America.

Trans

lations.

and Arne to William Linley, Sir Henry Bishop, and Sir Arthur Sullivan, every distinguished musician has sought to improve on his predecessor's setting of one or more of Shakespeare's songs, or has composed concerted music in illustration of some of his dramatic themes. In art, the publisher John Boydell organised in 1787 a scheme for illustrating scenes in Shakespeare's work by the greatest living English artists. Some fine pictures were the result. A hundred and sixty-eight were painted in all, and the artists, whom Boydell employed, included Sir Joshua Reynolds, George Romney, Thomas Stothard, John Opie, Benjamin West, James Barry, and Henry Fuseli. All the pictures were exhibited from time to time between 1789 and 1804 at a gallery specially built for the purpose in Pall Mall, and in 1802 Boydell published a collection of engravings of the chief pictures. The great series of paintings was dispersed by auction in 1805. Few eminent artists of later date, from Daniel Maclise to Sir John Millais, have lacked the ambition to interpret some scene or character of Shakespearean drama.

In America no less enthusiasm for Shakespeare has been manifested than in England. Editors and critics are hardly less numerous there, and some criticism from American pens, like that of James Russell Lowell, has reached the highest literary level. Nowhere, perhaps, has more labour been devoted to the study of his works than that given by Mr. H. H. Furness of Philadelphia to the preparation of his 'New Variorum' edition. The Barton collection of Shakespeareana in the Boston Public Library is one of the most valuable extant, and the elaborate catalogue (1878-80) contains some 2,500 entries. First of Shakespeare's plays to be represented in America, 'Richard III,' was performed in New York in March 1750. More recently Junius Brutus Booth (1796-1852), Edwin Forrest (1806-1892), John Edward McCullough, Forrest's disciple (1837-1885), Edwin Booth, Junius Brutus Booth's son (1833-1893), Charlotte Cushman (1816-1876), and Miss Ada Rehan (b. 1859) have maintained on the American stage the great traditions of Shakespearean acting; while Mr. E. A. Abbey has devoted high artistic gifts to pictorial representation of scenes from the plays.

The Bible, alone of literary compositions, has been translated more frequently or into a greater number of