418 Mr. S. Lee on Shakespeare and True Patriotism. [May 11, 



the great dying speech of John of Gaunt, we were warned that all 

 the greatness and glory with which nature and history had endowed 

 England ran a risk of dissipation, if her rulers proved selfish and 

 frivolous, and unequal to the responsibilities that a great past laid 

 on their shoulders. 



In two ways we seemed to be neglecting opportunities of doing 

 outwardly and visibly our Shakespearian duty. It became us to 

 encourage the study of Shakespeare's works, to bring his work 

 prominently to the notice of all. It could not be brought more 

 prominently to the notice of the nation at large than on the stages 

 of our theatres. Yet less was now done for the interpretation of 

 Shakespeare's work in our theatres than was done by former genera- 

 tions in England, or than was being done at the moment in the 

 theatres of France and Germany. One of the causes of the practical 

 suppression of Shakespeare on the London stage was due to the 

 current fallacy, that the Shakespearian drama required spectacular 

 magnificence which involved managers in expenses not easily borne. 

 The interpretation of Shakespeare must chiefly depend on the acting. 

 The relations between the Shakespearian and the modern drama were 

 something like those subsisting between Westminster Abbey and a 

 " desirable " suburban villa. The scheme of decoration that fitted 

 the one was ridiculously out of place in the other. To establish a 

 Shakespearian theatre in London where the Shakespearian drama 

 should be represented constantly and in its variety, with efficient 

 actors, and with the scenery subordinated to the dramatic interest, 

 would be a very welcome and profitable manifestation of true 

 patriotism. We failed, too, in our filial piety to Shakespeare in 

 indifferently permitting so many of the original editions of his 

 works to leave our shores. Valuable Shakespeariana now passed 

 almost automatically, when offered for sale here, to our cousins in 

 America. These Shakespearian volumes should be treated as national 

 heirlooms, and heirlooms only passed to cousins when the direct line 

 was extinct. With regard to the First Folio, of which very few, less 

 than twenty, quite perfect copies were known, it was greatly to be 

 wished that, when copies henceforth came into the market, they 

 might be acquired, through the private munificence of true patriots, 

 by one or other of the great public libraries in the great centres of 

 population. 



[S. L.] 



