rmers of secondary roles and a few of the best performers of
primary roles in the leading London theatres are Mr Benson's pupils.
Their admission to the great London companies is raising the standard
of acting in the metropolis. The marked efficiency of these newcomers
is due to a system which is inconsistent with any of the accepted
principles of current theatrical enterprise in London. Mr Benson's
disciples mainly owe their efficiency to long association with a
permanent company controlled by a manager who seeks, single-mindedly,
what he holds to be the interests of dramatic art. The many-headed
public learns its lessons very slowly, and sometimes neglects them
altogether. It has been reluctant to recognise the true significance
of Mr Benson's work. But the intelligent onlooker knows that he is
marching along the right road, in intelligent conformity with the best
teaching of the past.

Thirty years ago a meeting took place at the Mansion House to discuss
the feasibility of founding a State theatre in London, a project which
was not realised. The most memorable incident which was associated
with the Mansion House meeting was a speech of the theatrical manager
Phelps, who argued, amid the enthusiastic plaudits of his hearers,
that it was in the highest interests of the nation that the
Shakespearean drama should continuously occupy the stage. "I
maintain," Phelps said, "from the experience of eighteen years, that
the perpetual iteration of Shakespeare's words, if nothing more, going
on daily for so many months of the year, must and would produce a
great effect upon the public mind." No man or woman of sense will
to-day gainsay the wisdom of this utterance; but it is needful for the
public to make greater exertion than they have made of late if "the
perpetual iteration of Shakespeare's words" in the theatre is to be
permanently secured.

Mr Benson's efforts constitute the best organised endeavour to realise
Phelps's ambition since Phelps withdrew from management. Mr Benson's
scheme is imperfect in some of its details; in other particulars it
may need revision. But he and his associates have planted their feet
firmly on sure ground in their endeavours to interpret Shakespearean
drama constantly and in its variety, after a wise and well-considered
system and with a disinterested zeal. When every allowance has been
made for the Benson Company's shortcomings, its achievement cannot be
denied "a relish of salvation." Mr Ben