Eulogies of Victor Hugo and Dumas _pere_ 201

III. French Misapprehensions of Shakespeare's Tragic
Conceptions. Causes of the Misunderstanding 206

IV. Charles Nodier's Sympathetic Tribute. The Rarity
of his _Pensees de Shakespeare_, 1801 211

XI

THE COMMEMORATION OF SHAKESPEARE IN LONDON

I. Early Proposals for a National Memorial of
Shakespeare in London 214

II. The Cenotaph in Westminster Abbey 215

III. The Failure of the Nineteenth-century Schemes 217

IV. The National Memorial at Stratford-on-Avon 219

V. Shakespeare's Association with London 226

VI. The Value of a London Memorial as a Symbol of his
Universal Influence 228

VII. The Real Significance of Milton's Warning against
a Monumental Commemoration of Shakespeare 230

VIII. The Undesirability of making the Memorial serve
Utilitarian Purposes 235

IX. The Present State of the Plastic Art. The
Imperative Need of securing a Supreme Work of
Sculpture 236

INDEX 245

SHAKESPEARE AND THE MODERN STAGE

I

SHAKESPEARE AND THE MODERN STAGE[1]

[Footnote 1: This paper was first printed in _The Nineteenth Century_,
January 1900.]

I

Without "the living comment and interpretation of the theatre,"
Shakespeare's work is, for the rank and file of mankind, "a deep well
without a wheel or a windlass." It is true that the whole of the
spiritual treasures which Shakespeare's dramas hoard will never be
disclosed to the mere playgoer, but "a large, a very large, proportion
of that indefinite all" may be revealed to him on the stage, and, if
he be no patient reader, will be revealed to him nowhere else.

There are earnest students of Shakespeare who scorn the theatre and
arrogate to themselves in the library, often with some justification,
a greater capacity for apprehending and appreciating Shakespeare than
is at the command of the ordinary playgoer or actor. But let Sir
Oracle of the study, however full and deep be his knowledge, "use all
gently." Let him bear in mind