1905.] on Dramatic Thoughts: Retrospective— Anticipative. 11 



fame by the endowment of an English theatre for National purposes 

 in perpetuity with one stroke of the pen. Could such a man be 

 found ? I, for one, think the search might not be hopeless, if wisely, 

 discreetly, pursued ; in so important a quest there should be no false 

 step. I have been granted the privilege of reading a privately 

 printed book — a veritable monument of labour — in wliich such a 

 scheme is propounded ; embracing as it does, every material point — 

 mainly the work of a man of letters distinguished alike as a critic and 

 as a lover of the stage. With an earnest hope that its aspirations may 

 be completely attained I commend the volume to all who desire to see 

 the foundation of an English National Theatre. 



There is yet a second way. By an akeady prosperous and 

 established manager, if he would forego certain commercial gains, 

 engaging leading members of his company for annual incomes in 

 place of weekly salaries and granting them some share in the financial 

 results of his enterprise ; while they on their part might lessen their 

 chief's labours and relieve him of many anxieties : for instance, by 

 taking in turn, as is so ably done at the Theatre Francais — which 

 remains, in spite of some decay, the first theatre of the world — the 

 duties of semainier, laudably vieing with each other when on the rota 

 of weekly control, in capacity and thoroughness. The burden of 

 management might otherwise be lightened, but this is neither the 

 place nor the moment for detail. I doubt if it is sufficiently remem- 

 bered that the director of an important theatre takes rank with other 

 employers of labour as a practical benefactor, for he supports large 

 numbers of homes and families in ease and comfort. 



A third and final project. By a body of capable and enthusiastic 

 actors forming themselves into a commonwealth ; to act as a council 

 but choosing their leader from among themselves, for if the head of 

 a theatre, however it may be endowed or founded, is to even hope to 

 be successful, I contend he must be as much an autocrat as the 

 captain of a ship. The history of the English stage tells us beyond 

 all doubt and question that its ablest and loftiest work has ever 

 been achieved by actor-managers ; the fact is proclaimed by the 

 names of Garrick, Kemble, Macready, Mathews, Phelps, Kean, 

 Webster, Wigan, Hare, Kendal, Irving — if in that list I would in- 

 clude my own name you will forgive me in the remembrance that 

 it is also owned by one who shared my labours — and just as truly 

 now is- the best work being done by those actors who are at the 

 helm to-day. 



As we players, with the other crafts, pass down the ages, the 

 remorseless figure of Time following at our heels with his relentless 

 scythe, mowing us one by one from his path, successors happily 

 and joyously, in all the splendour of youth, arrive to take on our 

 work, as those of to-day replaced others whose turn was done with. 

 Nearly three hundred years have rolled away since Philip Massinger, 



