Part 15 (1/2)

In 1601 Shakespearea plot from North's noble translation of Plutarch's 'Lives' {211a} Plutarch is the king of biographers, and the deference which Shakespeare paid his work by adhering to the phraseology wherever it was practicable illustrates his literary discrimination On Plutarch's lives of Julius Caesar, Brutus, and Antony, Shakespeare based his historical tragedy of 'Julius Caesar'

Weever, in 1601, in his 'Mirror of Martyrs,' plainly refers to the masterly speech in the Forum at Caaesar's funeral which Shakespeare put into Antony's estion of the speech in Plutarch; hence the composition of 'Julius Caesar' may be held to have preceded the issue of Weever's book in 1601 The general topic was already fae Polonius told Hamlet hohen he was at the university, he 'did enact Julius Caesar; he was kill'd in the Capitol: Brutus kill'd him' {211b} A play of the same title was known as early as 1589, and was acted in 1594 by Shakespeare's co study of political life, and, although the murder and funeral of Caesar foredy is thoroughly well planned and balanced Caesar is ironically depicted in his dotage The characters of Brutus, Antony, and Cassius, the real heroes of the action, are exhibited with faultless art The fifth act, which presents the battle of Philippi in progress, proves ineffective on the stage, but the reader never relaxes his interest in the fortunes of the vanquished Brutus, whose death is the catastrophe

While 'Julius Caesar' inning its first laurels on the stage, the fortunes of the London theatres wereprejudice on the part of the public The earlier h speciously the more serious, was in effect innocuous The puritans of the city of London had long agitated for the suppression of all theatrical perforitators triumphed when they induced the Privy Council on June 22, 1600, to issue to the officers of the Corporation of London and to the justices of the peace of Middlesex and Surrey an order forbidding the maintenance of more than two playhouses--one in Middlesex (Alleyn's newly erected playhouse, the 'Fortune' in Cripplegate), and the other in Surrey (the 'Globe' on the Bankside) The contemplated restriction would have deprived very many actors of employment, and driven others to seek a precarious livelihood in the provinces Happily, disaster was averted by the failure of the istrates of Surrey and Middlesex to make the order operative All the London theatres that were already in existence went on their way unchecked {213a}

The strife between adult and boy actors

More calamitous was a temporary reverse of fortune which Shakespeare's company, in common with the other companies of adult actors, suffered soon afterwards at the hands, not of fanatical eneoers ere its avowed supporters The company of boy-actors, chiefly recruited from the choristers of the Chapel Royal, and known as 'the Children of the Chapel,' had since 1597 been installed at the new theatre in Blackfriars, and after 1600 the fortunes of the veterans, who occupied rival stages, were put in jeopardy by the extravagant outburst of public favour that the boys' performances evoked In 'Hamlet,' the play which followed 'Julius Caesar,' Shakespeare pointed out the perils of the situation {213b} The adult actors, Shakespeare asserted, were prevented fro off in their efficiency, but by the 'late innovation' of the children's vogue {214a} They were coo on tour in the provinces, at the expense of their revenues and reputation, because 'an aery [_ie_ nest] of children, little eyases [_ie_ young hawks],' dominated the theatrical world, and monopolised public applause 'These are now the fashi+on,' the dramatist lamented, {214b} and he made the topic the text of a reflection on the fickleness of public taste:

HAMLET Do the boys carry it away?

ROSENCRANTZ Ay, that they do, my lord, Hercules and his load too

HAMLET It is not very strange; forof Denmark, and those that would ive twenty, forty, fifty, a hundred ducats apiece for his picture in little

Jealousies in the ranks of the dramatists accentuated the actors'

difficulties Ben Jonson was, at the end of the sixteenth century, engaged in a fierce personal quarrel with two of his fellow draenerally avowed syht an offensive alliance with 'the Children of the Chapel' Under careful tuition the boys proved capable of perfor much the same pieces as the men To 'the children'

Jonson offered in 1600 his comical satire of 'Cynthia's Revels,' in which he held up to ridicule Dekker, Marston, and their actor-friends The play, when acted by 'the children' at the Blackfriars Theatre, armly welcomed by the audience Next year Jonson repeated his reater effect He learnt that Marston and Dekker were conspiring with the actors of Shakespeare's company to attack hi of the Huain with 'the Children of the Chapel,' his 'Poetaster,' which was throughout a venoainst his enemies--dramatists and actors alike Shakespeare's co Dekker and Marston's 'Satiro-Mastix' at the Globe Theatre next year But Jonson's action had given new life to the vogue of the children Playgoers took sides in the struggle, and their attention was for a season riveted, to the exclusion of topics ermane to their province, on the actors' and dramatists' boisterous war of personalities

{215}

Shakespeare's references to the struggle

In his detailed references to the conflict in 'Haainst the abusive coes' or public theatres which were put into the children's mouths

Rosencrantz declared that the children 'so berattle [_ie_ assail] the co rapiers are afraid of goose-quills, and dare scarce come thither [_ie_ to the public theatres]' Hamlet in pursuit of the theue of the 'child-actors' did them a poor service, because when the boys should reach men's estate they would run the risk, if they continued on the stage, of the salect which now threatened their seniors

HAMLET What are they children? Who maintains 'em? how are they escoted [_ie_ paid]? Will they pursue the quality [_ie_ the actor's profession] no longer than they can sing? Will they not say afterwards, if they should grow themselves to common players--as it is most like, if theirto ainst their own succession?

ROSENCRANTZ Faith, there has been much to do on both sides, and the nation holds it no sin to tarre [_ie_ incite] theument, unless the poet and the player went to cuffs in the question

HAMLET Is it possible?

GUILDENSTERN O, there has beenabout of brains!

Shakespeare clearly favoured the adult actors in their rivalry with the boys, but he wrote more like a disinterested spectator than an active partisan when he made specific reference to the strife between the poet Ben Jonson and the players In the prologue to 'Troilus and Cressida'