any utility which may attach to
the volume.
SIDNEY LEE.
_1st October 1906._
CONTENTS
PAGE
PREFACE vii
I
SHAKESPEARE AND THE MODERN STAGE
I. The Perils of the Spectacular Method of Production 1
II. The Need for Simplifying Scenic Appliances 4
III. Consequences of Simplification. The Attitude of the
Shakespearean Student 7
IV. The Pecuniary Experiences of Charles Kean and Sir
Henry Irving 9
V. The Experiment of Samuel Phelps 11
VI. The Rightful Supremacy of the Actor 12
VII. The Example of the French and German Stage 16
VIII. Shakespeare's Reliance on the "Imaginary Forces"
of the Audience 18
IX. The Patriotic Argument for the Production of
Shakespeare's Plays constantly and in their
variety on the English Stage 23
II
SHAKESPEARE AND THE ELIZABETHAN PLAYGOER
I. An Imaginary Discovery of Shakespeare's Journal 25
II. Shakespeare in the role of the Ghost on the First
Production of _Hamlet_ in 1602 27
III. Shakespeare's Popularity in the Elizabethan Theatre 29
IV. At Court in 1594 31
V. The Theatre an Innovation in Elizabethan England 36
VI. Elizabethan Methods of Production 38
VII. The Contrast between the Elizabethan and the
Modern Methods 43
VIII. The Fitness of the Audience an Essential Element
in the Success of Shakespeare on the Stage 46
III
SHAKESPEARE IN ORAL TRADITION
I. The Reception of the News of Shakespeare's Death 49
II. The Evolution in England of Formal Biography 51
III. Oral Tradition concerning Shakespeare in Theatrical
Circles 57
IV. The Testimonies of Seventeenth-century Actors 61
V. Sir William D'Avenant's Devotion to Shakes
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