PR 2925 G42k 1 A | A m BK - |A1 ^= o ■ i = <= ■ ■ — _ m = 3) 1° - = JO ■ 3 S ^^ o =^ . - |6 m _— _ I I 9 ■ ^= CD 1 —— ^ 1 ■4 H — * 1 i^^ -- 1 |8 S ^^ J> 1 ■ 8 = ^ - ^= < 1 I 2 = GILMER KING SHAKESPEARE J THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES •JM«0 'uojipois BRIEF i KJNG SHAKESPEARE A MASQUE OF PRAISE KING SHAKESPEARE A MASQUE OF PRAISE FOR THE SHAKESPEARE TERCENTENARY WRITTEN FOR THE DRAMA LEAGUE OF BOSTON BY ALBERT HATTON ( GILMER ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH, TUFTS COLLEGE COMPLIMENTS OF GINN AND COMPANY COPYRIGHT. 1916. BY ALBERT HATTON GILMER gfae athenaeum jirtgg C.1NN AND COMPANY • PRO- PRIETORS • BOSTON • U.S.A. ?F v FOREWORD For the many readers and 'teachers of Shakespeare, whether they be in schools, colleges, or clubs, desiring some form of appropriate exercise wherewith to commemorate the tercentennial of their be- loved author's death, is issued this booklet. The little Masque — if such it may be termed, since it embodieth neither sweet music nor graceful dance, yet waxeth strong in compliment, the essence of the Masque — was devised for the Drama League of Boston, and first presented at the Shakespeare Revels of the Twentieth Century Club in that city. The passages contained herein comprise those fair and honest terms and words indited by the persons represented ; hence it is believed that in what place soever the ceremony proveth not convenient for setting forth upon a stage, it may prove of use and interest for reading in classrooms wherein are studied the works of the master. The Masque is not unlike a victim of fell Procrustes'' bed, inasmuch as both are adaptable to the length and needs of the user. If the ceremony as printed be too long, it ?nay be shortened by the careful omission of some who speak or appear ; if too short, it may be lengthened, after exercise of skillful judgment, by the addition of other writers and actors of note and worth, of which there be many, — as Mr. Pope, Mr. S. Johnson, Mr. Pepys, Mr. and Mrs. Browning, Mr. Booth and Air. Irving, — who have honored the memory of our great dramatist by their seemly words of commen- dation. Only see to it, howsoever you modify the form, you change not the spirit. That none who wish it may be without a fitting means of respectful celebratioti for the memorable occasion, the Masque may be freely presented anywhere ; this through the permission of the author and the publishers. a % ff w Q, Tufts College, February, ig/6 [3] 11057;, I 6 I 6— i 9 i 6 " Any time these three hundred years " Merry Wives of Windsor, I, I, 12 " Not marble, nor the gilded monuments Of princes, shall outlive this powerful rhyme. When wasteful war shall statues overturn, And broils root out the work of masonry, Nor Mars his sword nor war's quick fire shall burn The living record of your memory. 'Gainst death and all-oblivious enmity Shall you pace forth ; your praise shall still find room, Even in the eyes of all posterity That wear this world out to the ending doom." The Fifty -fifth Sonnet " He was not of an age, but for all time ! " Ben fonson [4] KING SHAKESPEARE [5] CHARACTERS REPRESENTED Allegorical Figures (non-speaking) Father Time Tragedy Comedy In the Seventeenth Century John Heming Henry Condell Ben Jonson William Basse John Milton In the Eighteenth Century David Garrick In the Nineteenth Century Ralph Waldo Emerson Thomas Carlyle The passing of Father Time across the stage indicates the passing of a centu?y. All characters enter from left (actors' standpoint) and go out right. Time's entrances and exits are the opposite. [6] KING SHAKESPEARE [Well to the front of the stage hangs a curtain of black, deep red, or some neutral color, against the center of which is a bust {or picture) of Shakespeare upon a pedestal or table. At the right side of the stage stands a figure of Tragedy, in black, holding a classical tragic mask. In her girdle is a dagger. On the left sta?ids a figure of Comedy ', gowned in yellow, with bright flowers in her hair. She holds a comic mask ; in her girdle is a fool's bauble.] From the left enter Heming and Condell. Heming carries a huge volume, a copy of the First Folio Edition, leather bound, and in size about sixteen inches long, eleven wide, and three thick. It contains the thirty-six plays of Shakespeare. He bows to the bust and then to the audience. Condell stands beside the pedestal. Heming. When fierce devouring flames 'gan to destroy The Globe, our bank-side playhouse on the Thames, My friend Condell, with me, did rescue from Those blazing walls the precious manuscripts Our friend and fellow-actor, Shakespeare, wrote. We hand them on to eyes of generations Yet unborn, and in this book do bring The issue first of all his works complete. This worthy volume, it is writ for all — " From the most able, to him that can but spell. There you are numbered. We had rather you were weighed. Especially, when the fate of all books depends upon your capaci- ties ; and not of your heads alone, but of your purses. Well ! It is now public, and you will stand for your privileges we [7] KING SHAKESPEARE know : to read and censure. Do so, but buy it first. That doth best commend a book, the stationer says. Then, how odd soever your brains be, or your wisdoms, make your license the same, and spare not. Judge your six-penny worth, your shilling's worth at a time. But whatever you do, buy. And, though you be a magistrate of wit, and sit on the stage at Blackfriars, or the Cock-Pit, to arraign plays daily, know these plays [Holds forth the book] have had their trial already, and stood out all appeals, and do now come forth quitted rather by a decree of court, than any purchased letters of commendation." [Bows and retires, hands volume to Condell, and stands beside the pedestal] Condell. [Steps fonvard and bows] "It had been a thing we confess, worthie to have been wished, that the author him- self had lived to have set forth and overseen his own writings. But since it hath been ordained otherwise, and he by death departed from that right, we have collected and published them, absolute in their numbers as he conceived them, — who, as he was a happy imitator of nature, was a most gentle expresser of it. His mind and hand went together, and what he thought, he uttered with that easiness, that we have scarce received from him a blot in his papers. " But it is not our province, who only gather his works and give them you, to praise him. It is yours that read him. And there we hope you will find enough, both to draw and to hold you ; for his wit can no more lie hid than it could be lost. Read him, therefore, and again and again. And if then you do not like him, surely you are in some manifest danger not to under- stand him. And so we leave you to other of his friends, whom, if you need, can be your guides ; if you need them not, you can lead yourselves and others. And such readers we wish him." [Bows, steps back, and places the book at the foot of the bust. Heming and Condell kneel before it] [8] KING SHAKESPEARE Father Time appears, right. He is old, with ivhite hair and lo?ig white beard, and wears a long gray (or white) cloak. At his beckoning, Heming and Condell pass out, right. Time follows them out. Jonson enters, left ; sees the bust, stops before it, and meditates. Jonson. {Addressing the bust] ..." Soule of the Age ! The applause ! delight ! the wonder of our stage ! " [Turns to the audience and points to the bust] " Nature herself was proud of his designs, And joyed to wear the dressing of his lines ! Which were so richly spun and woven so fit, As, since, she will vouchsafe no other wit." [Addresses the bust] " Yet must I not give Nature all : thy Art, My gentle Shakespeare, must enjoy a part, For though the Poet's matter, Nature be, His Art doth give the fashion. And, that he, Who casts to write a living line, must sweat, (Such as thine are) and strike the second heat Upon the Muses' an vile ; turn the same, (And himself with it) that he thinks to frame ; Or for the laurell, he may gain a scorne, For a good Poet 's made, as well as borne. And such thou wert, Sweet Swan of Avon ! " " My Shakespeare, rise ! " Basse enters, left ; pauses and listens. " I will not lodge thee by Chaucer or Spenser, or bid Beaumont lie A little further to make thee a roome," In dark Westminster's sacred gloom. Basse. [Steps forward and interrupts] Nay, nay, good friend of his and mine, Entomb him with the poet line. [9] KING SHAKESPEARE " Renowned Spenser, lie a thought more nigh To learned Chaucer, and rare Beaumont, lie A little nearer Spenser, to make room For Shakespeare in your threefold, fourfold tomb. To lodge all four in one bed make a shift Until Doom'sday, for hardly will a fift Betwixt this day and that by fate be slain, For whom the curtains shall be drawn again." Jonson. Nay, Master Basse, 't is hollow honor craved ! Our poet's bones must not be huddle-graved ! [Turns to the audience] ;t I loved the man and do honor his memory on this side idolatry, as much as any. He was indeed honest, and of an open and free nature ; had an excellent phantasy, brave notions, and gentle expressions." [Addresses the bust] " Thou art a monument, without a tombe, And art alive still [Points at the volume] , while thy booke doth live; And we have wits to read and praise to give." Time enters, right, and beckons. Jonson and Basse bow to Sliakespeare, then pass out, right. John Milton, with long locks and attired as a Puritan, enters. He nods as if he had overheard the dispute. Milton. [To himself] Oncemorehath Ben the upper argument And will of others to his own hath bent. Yea! [K What needs my Shakespeare for his honored bones, The labor of an age in piled stones ? Or that his hallowed relics should be hid Under a star-ypointing pyramid ? Dear son of Memory, great heir of Fame, What needst thou such weak witness of thy name ? Thou, in our wonder and astonishment, Hast built thyself a livelong monument." [10] KING SHAKESPEARE Time enters, right, and beckons. Milton bows to the bust and obeys Time's summons. Time crosses the stage from right to left. In passing he looks questioningly at the bust of Shake- speare, passes out, left. David Garrick enters, wearing a cloak and bearing a laurel (or oak) wreath. He greets Tragedy and Comedy, who return his bow. Before the hist he bows. Garrick. [To the bust] " Look down, blest spirit, from above, With all thy wonted gentleness and love. Sweetest bard that ever sung, Nature's glory, Fancy's child ; Never, sure, did witching tongue Warble forth such wood-notes wild ! " r Turning to the audience\ This laurel then L 6 J " To him the first of poets, best of men. ' We ne'er shall look upon his like again ' — But his name and undiminished fame Shall never pass away. Let Fame, expanding all her wings, With all her trumpet-tongues proclaim The loved, revered, immortal name ! Shakespeare ! Shakespeare ! Shakespeare ! " [He places the wreath upon the book and addresses " Then view thou thy work, the bus{ \ To Nature sacred as to Truth." [He then throws aside his cloak, and recites from " As You Like It," the Seven Ages of Man] " All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players : They have their exits and their entrances ; And one man in his time plays many parts, His acts being seven ages. At first the infant, [11] KING SHAKESPEARE Mewling and puking in his nurse's arms. And then the whining school-boy, with his satchel And shining morning face, creeping like snail Unwillingly to school. And then the lover, Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad Made to his mistress' eyebrow. Then the soldier, Full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard, Jealous in honor, sudden and quick in quarrel, Seeking the bubble reputation Even in the cannon's mouth. And then the justice, In fair round belly with good capon lined, With eyes severe and beard of formal cut, Full of wise saws and modern instances ; And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts Into the lean and slippered pantaloon, With spectacles on nose and pouch on side, His youthful hose, well-saved, a world too wide For his shrunk shank ; and his big manly voice, Turning again toward childish treble, pipes And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all, That ends this strange eventful history, Is second childishness and mere oblivion, Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything." Father Time enters, right, and beckons. Garrick picks up his cloak, bows to the bust, waves farewell to Comedy and Tragedy, who wave to him as he departs. Father Time crosses, stopping a few seconds to gaze upon the bust, and passes out, left. Carlyle and Emerson enter, left, engaged in conversation. Emerson. Yes, that is true. " His mind is the horizon beyond which at present we do not see. What mystery has Shakespeare not signified his knowledge of?" Carlyle. Aye, " he penetrated into innumerable things. He knew what men are and what the world is." [12] KING SHAKESPEARE Emerson. " I am always happy to meet persons who per- ceive the transcendent superiority of Shakespeare over all other writers." [They walk to the bust] Carlyle. [Pointing to bust] " In spite of the sad state Hero- worship now lies in, consider what this Shakespeare has actually become among us. Which Englishmen we ever made in this land of ours, which million of Englishmen, would we not give up rather than this Stratford peasant ? There is no regiment of the highest Dignitaries that we would sell him for. He is the greatest thing we have yet done. For our honor among foreign nations, as an ornament to our English House-hold, what item is there that we would not surrender rather than him ? If they asked us, ' Will you give up your Indian Empire or your Shakespeare, you English ? ' . . . should not we be forced to answer : ' Indian Empire or no Indian Empire, we cannot do without Shakespeare ! Indian Empire will go at any rate, some day, but this Shakespeare does not go ; he lasts forever with us. We cannot give up our Shakespeare.' " Before long there will be a Saxondom covering great spaces of the globe. Now what can keep all these together, so that they do not fall out and fight, but live in peace, in brotherlike intercourse, helping one another? This King Shakespeare is the noblest, gentlest yet strongest of all rallying signs. Where- soever English men and women are, they will say to one another, ' Yes, this Shakespeare is ours : we produced him, we speak and think by him ; we are of one blood and kind with him ! It is a great thing for a nation that it get an articulate voice to speak forth melodiously what the heart of it means.' ' Time appears, right, and beckons. After bowing, Carlyle and Emerson depart. Tragedy and Comedy cross and kneel, one at each side of the bust. Time enters, stands before the bust, crowns it with the laurel wreath, takes the book from the pedestal, opens it, gazes upon it, closes and then presses it to his heart, and kneels. Curtain [13] KING SHAKESPEARE SUGGESTIONS FOR COSTUMING Full-length portraits of all the speaking characters, except Heming, Condell, and Basse, are available in illustrated histories of English literature. If it is not convenient to "make up" or costume the persons in detail, they may be gowned in long cloaks of different colors and cut, and wear hats suggestive of the several periods. If possible, attire the persons of the Masque as follows : Heming, Condell, Basse : Characteristic Elizabethan costume — doublet, hose, cloak, ruffs, plumed velvet hats. Beards and moustaches of the time. (Make-up hair may be put on easily with spirit gum. These are obtainable at a costumer's or at drug stores.) Shoes of velvet or soft leather. Jonson : Plain dress of hose and close-fitting coat with large white collar that spreads out like a ruff. Thin short beard and roughly roached light hair. May wear long brown coat. Soft, slipper-like shoes. Milton: Puritan costume; suit, cloak, shoes, stockings, and hat all of black. White collar and cuffs. Long hair falling down over ears. Garrick : Customary eighteenth-century suit of long vest, long coat with white lacy cuffs, white stockings and low shoes. Neck- cloth of white with jabot of same color. Powdered bagwig of white, curled up at the sides of the head. The clothes may be of a variety of solid colors. Scant satin knickerbockers. Carlyle, Emerson : Long coats of black, plain waistcoats, beaver hats. Collars, turndown or with wide opening in front, with black, old-fashioned stocks. Soft black boots. Carlyle has rough beard of dark gray, with moustache. Emerson is smooth faced, except for thin gray side whiskers. [14] ANNOUNCEMENTS FOR TEACHERS AND STUDENTS OF SHAKESPEARE THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE NOW PUBLISHED AT 30 CENTS THE VOLUME The New Hudson Shakespeare holds a leading place among the many school editions of Shakespeare. In its power to impart to the student the actual spirit of Shake- speare and his times it stands supreme. In the new edition the notes and introductions have been brought into accord with the latest results of Shakespearean scholarship, while retaining all that made Dr. Hudson's work so distinctively of value. Some of the features of superiority which mark this as the ideal edition for school use are : The notes, incomparable for their suggestive power, placed at the bottom of each text page — full but not too full. The analysis of dramatic construction by act and scene for each play. The historical discussions of plot sources. The text, based upon that of the First Folio, with the significant variant readings of Quartos, Folios, and other leading editions given at the foot of the page. The physical beauty of the books. A flexible binding of blue cloth, light, convenient, and attractive, especially suits this edition to the uses of the student. The price, 30 cents per volume, which together with all the editorial excellence distinguishes this edition as a rare opportunity for the student as well as for the general reader. On the following page is given a list of the plays that have already appeared and others soon to be published. Write for an attractive special pamphlet giving full information about this important new edition of Shakespeare THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE Each volume, 30 cents THE volumes listed below in the first group have been published, and the others will follow at short intervals, until the entire list of twenty-three vol- umes has been completed. A Midsummer Night's Dream As You Like It Hamlet Julius Caesar King Henry the Fifth King Lear Macbeth Much Ado About Nothing The Merchant of Venice The Tempest Twelfth Night 2~c^3> Coriolanus Richard the Second Richard the Third Romeo and Juliet King John Antony and Cleopatra Cymbeline Henry the Fourth Parti Henry the Fourth Part II Henry the Eighth Othello The Winter's Tale SHAKESPEARE: HIS LIFE, ART, AND CHARACTERS BY HENRY NORMAN HUDSON, LL.D. Two volumes, i2mo, 1003 pages Cloth, $4.00; half morocco, $8.00 THIS has been called the greatest work in the field of aesthetic criticism of Shakespeare yet produced in this country, and the equal of the best by English and German scholars. It will be found of great value in the school, public or private library, and should be available for the use of all students who are mak- ing a general or detailed study of Shakespeare's plays. Volume I contains chapters on the Life of Shake- speare, a historical sketch of the Origin and Growth of the Drama in England, Shakespeare's Contempo- raries, Shakespeare's Art, and Shakespeare's Charac- ters as depicted in his Comedies. Volume II contains an admirable discussion of the characters in his his- torical plays and tragedies, and a comprehensive index. GINN AND COMPANY : Publishers Boston New York Chicago London Atlanta Dallas G>lumbus San Francisco 53° - I 9 I - Qinn and Company Cjentlemen : We should like to have you quote us net prices to schools and dealers on the c I^ew Hudson Shake- speare. 'During the year we shall probably use the fol- lowing plays : Please quote us net price on Shakespeare's " Life, oArt, and Characters " fo.b., nearest office (see description on following page). Please check preferred edition. | 2 vols., cloth binding, list price, $4.00 J 2 vols., half morocco, list price, $8.00 c Name. Position oAddress.- UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY Los Angeles This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. orm L9-Series4939 pleas: THIS OT REM inn iiiiii LAJ :h Library unt I 1