Gordon Craig - 40 Desenhos

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TOWARDS A NEW THEATRE
/./ n^/:l.<
re!i>~a/
HAMLET
^^HOST.
I
am
thy father's
spirit
t(
\^
And
Till
Dooin'd
for the
tor a certain
term
walk the night,
day conhned to
fast in hre^,
the foul crimes
done
in
my
days of nature
But that I am forbid Are hurnt and purged away. lo tell the secrets of my prison-house, could a talc unfold whose lightest word
I
Would harrow up thy soul, freeze thy young blood, Make thy two eyes, like stars, start from their spheres,
hv knotted and combined locks to part Ai\d each particular hair to stand on end
I
Like quilU upon the fretful porpentine But this eternal bla/on must not be
lo
ears of Hesh
and blood.
List, list,
list
If ever
thou didst thy dear father love

!
Ilamht. O Ciod Ghoit. Revenge
his foul
and most unnatural murder.
low ARDS A NtW IHKA r..ii FORTY DESIGNS FOR STAGE SCENES WITH CRITICAL NOTES BY THE INVENTOR EDWARD GORDON CRAIG
M DENT & SONS LIMITED^ LONDON & TORONTO MCMXIII NEW YORK E P DUTTON & CO 2MJ
,^'\\''*
V,
TO
THE ITALIANS
IN RESPECT, AFFECTION,
AND GRATITUDE;
TO THEIR OLD AND THEIR NEW ACTORS,

EVER THE BEST IN EUROPE.
THE DESIGNS
IN
THIS BOOK
ARE DEDICATED
"
If there
be no great love
in the beginning,
Yet Heaven may decrease
it
upon
better acquaintance."
Much Ado About
Nothing.
"The
And,
as
poet's eye, in a fine frenzy rolling,
Doth glance from heaven
to earth,
from earth
to heaven.
imagination bodies forth

of things unknown, the poet's pen
to shapes,
The forms
Turns them
and gives to airy nothing,

a
local habitation
and
name."
NlliHf's
A MlDSlMMER
DrEAM.
FOREWORD
ON TRUTH AND ERROR
"THHE
1
some
the
paedias,
first
truth
has always
need of being repeated, because error

us,
is
ceaselessly
and repeatedly preached to by the crowd.
and
not
only
by
isolated voices, but
In the newspapers, encyclo-
in
the
;
schools
it
and the
universities,
everywhere
error
holds
rank
is
at its ease
with the majority,
who
charge them-
selves with its defence."
Goethe's Conversations with Eckermann^ 182 2- 1832.
A WORD OF ACKNOWLEDGMENT
acknowledge his debts, he is beginning his hardly found think no one has ever paid his debts I biography. As to the artist, he is up to his neck in time even to acknowledge them all. He is equally in debt to people and debts, and that without owing any money.
a
WHEN
things.
If
man
starts
to
not his master, nearly everything is. How many assistants also? have I had for a short time? Omitting to speak of helped me so much in my work.
everyone
is
How
And
ri.;t.ure,
many masters
all
these have
for
nature
is
always ready to help you, and expects no acknowledgment, there is one master Leonardo da Vinci. All the above all that I wish I had learned from earlier others walk on easier paths, take shorter cuts, and are ready with too clever or too many charming suggestions. He alone seems lo me to be a great master ; not
because he has painted the Last Supper and other great paintings, not because he erected great statues, and foreshadowed almost all the wonders of modern life, but
know more things and to know them rightly, and to know more about human nature and know it more rightly, and because in all his work iie
because he seemed to
calmer than other modern artists. known and studied from him. As it
is
It
is,
is
for
this
reason
wish
had
earlier
wish to acknowledge my acknowledge my debts to the limelight least a hundred people. men of the Lyceum Theatre, and to Rembrandt ; to Ruskin, to William Blake, and to Fra Angelico ; to Alexandre Dumas and to Henry Irving ; to Yeats, to Whistler, to Pryde, Max Beerbohm, Nicholson, and to Beardsley ; to Tiepolo, to Guardi, to
1
debt to at
To
begin with,
Crawhall, Hugo, and to Piranesi
to Vitruvius, to
Whitman,
to Andreini, Ganassa,
and Martinelli ; to Gherardi, Delsarte, Otway, and Vecellio ; to my boy Teddy, to Raphael, and the Martinettis ; to Nietzsche, Walter Pater, E. K. Chambers, Skeat, and to Roget ; and last but certainly not least, to my father and mother. When you are But some of this acknowledgment applies only to this book. tired of this book I have other doors to open, through which only a very few of

those
You arc not to imagine that have mentioned consent to pass with me. as scenic designer between the work shown here represents more than my work
I
the years
1900 and 1910.

'
Thus bid
" {who knrun) " reiwins behind." begins and worse
"which thev
of several wish to acknowledge the kindness of the present owners Messrs. thank to and of these dcMgns for letting me reproduce them here, way in M. Dent 6c Sons, and in particular Mr. Hugh Dent, for the cordial |. book. this have collaborated with me in the production of
Nou:\
CONTENTS
FAGl
FOREWORD
A
ix
WORD OF ACKNOWLEDGMENT
.
TOWARDS A NEW THEATRE ON A STAGE DECORATION BY "ENTER THE ARMY" THE LIGHTS OF LONDON THE MASQUE OF LONDON HENRY VTHE TENTS "THE ARRIVAL"
CINDERELLA
BIBIENA
la $ 7
9
21
="3
as
27
WAPPING OLD STAIRS VENICE PRESERVED

HAMLET, Act
I.
9
s
Scihi
33 3$
ELECTRA
JULIUS CSAR, Act
II.
Scihi a
37
THE THE THE THE THE
PRINCESS
IS
STOLEN
39
41
STEPS
STEPS
STEPS
II
43 45
47
III
STEPS IV
STUDY FOR MOVEMENT CiESAR AND CLEOPATRA

^
48 49
Act L Scihi Act

I.
Scihi 3
a
S3 55 57
Act L Scihi
DIDO AND NEAS

ziii
CONTENTS
DESIGN FOR AN ENTRANCE HALl. OF A THEATRE
6i
A STUDY FOR
MOVEMENT
CUPID AND PSYCHE
63
MACBETH AND ROSMERSHOLM A PALACE, A SLUM. AND A STAIRWAY

SCREENS
64
66
67
MACBETH,
Act
I.
Sciki 6
SciWi
i
69
71
Act
II.
MACBETH
73
Act
,1
I.
Scim
7$
77
MACBETH HAMLET HAMLET

SCREENS (iHowmo thii amanoimint
ron
79
81
thi lait Act or "Hamlit")
8$ 89
AFTERWORD
XIV
LIST
HAMLET
OF PLATES
Frlufift
ttamt r*aa
DESIGN FOR A SCENE BY GIOVANNI MARIA BIBIENA,
i6a$-i66s
12
"ENTER THE ARMY" THE LIGHTS OF LONDON THE MASQUE OF LONDON HENRY VTHE TENTS
S
7
9
ai
"THE ARRIVAL"
CINDERELLA
13 a$
>7
THE MASQUE OF LONDONWAPPING OLD STAIRS

VENICE PRESERVED, Act
II.
9
3<>
.
Act IV.
HAMLET, Act
ELECTRA
....
I.
Sciwi 5
33 35
37
JULIUS CitSAR, Act
II.
Sciwt 2
THE
PRINCESS
I
.
IS
STOLEN
39
41
ruE STEPS
THE THE THE
STEPS STEPS STEPS
II
43
45 47
III
IV.
STUDY FOR MOVEMENT CiESAR AND CLEOPATRA,

^
It *
4>
Act
I.
Scim
51
Act L Scim
53
55 57
Act L SctNi 3
i
.
DIDO AND *NEAS, Act III. Sciwi ENTRANCE HALL OF A THEATRE
5
61
A STUDY FOR MOVEMENT
LIST OF PLATES
CUPID AND PSYCHF MACBETH- SLKEP-WALKINO SCENE
rariw
rtmrn
'J
.
RdSMKRSHOl.M
....
66
$
i
A HAI.ACE, A SLUM, AND A STAIRWAY SCREKNS
MACBETH,
Act Act
I.
Scini
SciMi
.
*
7
II-
Act IL
7S
i
Act
Act Act
I.
SciHi
IS
.
I.
SciM
77
II
I.
79
a
HAMLET,
Acr
S.ini
81
Act
II
3
8$
SCREKNS-AS EMPLOYED FOR A LARGE STAGE SCENE
XVI

ITthe
out
*
seems there
is
still
very
much
to explain about the Theatre,' and the Art of
Theatre, before the world will understand rightly.

pointing in a
?
The danger of
very great.
It
is
new
direction, even towards a familiar object,

is
it
even greater where the object

"
strange to us.
Everyone
cries
first
Where, where
it
and
is
content
when
his
eye alights upon the very

is
object that
chances u|>on.
The
difficulty
he finds
to
see
hr enough, and
from
us, a child,
then, at that distance, to see in perfect deuil.

If
I
point, for instance, to a
mountain
at a great distance
tall
sitting on the grass, will look up to see the
grasses in front of his nose,
and
what he hears
me
say
;i>")ut
te,
the distance he will apply to the tops of these grasses.

instead of looking in tne direction to
A woman
will
standing by
which
point,
mc pointing. A man will probably look as fiir as he can. It one that his eye will be caught by something a hundred yards off, is or even a thousand yards oft", or it may be that a bird springing up fi-om the bushes and Boating off will catch his eye, and all interest in the mountain will It may be that he will take a castle on a hill to be the mountain; be gone. or there may be some who, looking as for as they can, searching the horizon, will finally deny that any such mountain exists. a high place ; that mountain It is a mountain that I am pointing towards As yet If it were something else, I would call it something else. is the Theatre.
probably look at
a thousand to
know no me when I
mirage of
'
other
tell
name
it
for
it.
f Let
it
you
it is is
a mountain.
then remain the Theatre, and please believe It is not a hill, nor group of hills, nor any
I
hills
the largest mountain
have seen.
No
one has yet been able
Middle ProfcMor Skeal, a French word, derived from Ltin j the Latin word from Greek. CotgrmveS Dictionary, ed. 1660. Derived from the Latin Thmlrum, derived from the Greek Smfar, a Compare 6ia, a light 1 lee Prellwitz. place for weing ihows derived from the Greek Aoafiat, I tee. Note Not a word about it being a place for httring 30,000 vnrdi hiMtJ out in two houn.
French, th/atri
<
:
Tmhtm.According to
TOWARDS
to scale
its
A
is
NEW THEATRE
no one has ever
mountain.
Now,
tell
something evidently very strange about this Had it been easily accessible, it would have been climbed long ago. me, don't you consider there is something very strange about this ?
heights, because there
its
People have wandered about

iônc to the top,
base for thousands of years, and
and many there arc who refuse to believe that it has a top ; but have seen the top I I wish flatly to contradict the many. iis 1 have seen the top, from the distance ; Fuji is not crowned more beautifully. since I began to mo/e It is towards that mountain that I am attracted, and to it than I was when I in its direction, I find that I have come a little nearer
set
out twenty-five years ago. On my journey I have come across some curious people.
past
have met some
who went
and back to the place from whence I started, and who in passing Some I met with told me they were going in the direction of that mountain. " it wasn't very backs turned to it who assured me they had just been there ; much to see after all." They had a disappointed look on their faces. Others " It is just six thousand and fifty-two there were who described it to me, saying,
me
and a half
feet
high
it
is
an extinct volcano, and the middle

;
class inhabit the
summit.
These the trade in cinders is very brisk." The climate is very dry profess to who have Others people have been looking at the wrong mountain. come from there say that it is ruled by ladies and the rest of their story is
too ridiculous to repeat.
Now
the truth.
this
is
all
very well
for use
as
paragraphs in the Press, but

;
it
isn't
Nobody
correct.
has scaled those heights
nobody's report concerning those

for
heights
is
Everybody
lies
about
it,
everybody
is
talking of some-
thing else.
do not lie about it. ! don't tell vou I am moving towards it. I new temple, for that also would be a
I
tell
you that I have discovered the place I am moving towards a I do not tell you I am moving towards a new Theatre, lie.
:
and this book
is
one of
my
contributions towards a
lies
new Theatre.
it
All
that
have put in the book
now
behind me.
less
found
in
the level plains, not
even on the rising ground,

get too excited
far
little
in
the
heights, and
therefore
larger
about the
be
discoveries for
before
2
now
the
you must not and finally the
great discoveries await us.
There
will
many
theatres
the
Theatre comes, just as there are
"

many plateaus in the mountain. It is for this reason that I call tl s book " Towards a New Theatre " instead of " Towards the New Theatre." If I were to speak of the new Theatre, some of you would be sure to think I spoke of the new theatre which is to be opened in three or four years, and as I write in the English language, ycu would be sure to think I meant the new English One of theatre, and to say to yourselves, "The English theatre is the theatre."
the
first
tilings the
English have to do
is
to get out of their heads a belief that

that
the theatre exists in England
onb
and to remember
there
is
a theatre in
France, a theatre in Germany, th<atres in Russia, Italy, Spain, Hungary, Sweden,
Norway, Denmark, and even

Caucasus, a theatre in
Africa.
think that they have thought of
and Finland, and then don't let them is a theatre beyond the the East, and there is even a theatre in America and in
in Switzerland
all
the theatres, for there
To
still
which of them
another
is my contribution made ? To none of them, for there is new Theatre being founded, and it is to that Theatre that I offer the
contents of this book.

a warning.
There
is
It is not offered as you offer food ; it is given purely as not a thing in this book that can be of any practical " use " to
you whatever except

something
as a warning,
and
this
for
your
own
the ideal Theatre, don't seize

"
upon
book
in the
sakes, and tor the sake of hope of extracting fron. 't
which can be [ut instantly into practical use in the belief that it it is more likely to bring you ^10,000 a year will bring you nearer to our ideal for ^10,000 if well worked, but that, in my opinion, would be highly unpractical one should how and learn to refuse such little is hardly worth more than a song sums if one is serious about the large ideals connected with the Art. As I have said before, what is here is what I have passed. Look at it if Pay it a certain amount of reverence by fearing it and, I hope, you like.
enjoy
it.
There
shouldn't
*
is
a particular kind of fool
in
the theatre
is
who
?
amiably asks,
"Why
surely
as
make
use
of an
idea
which
good
idea
bjr
"
and there
is
One
is
reminded uf a famous and gleeful
little latire
on the
art
of extracting,
tome unknown master which runs
follows
" Little Jack Horner sat in a corner Eating a Christmas Pie,
He put And
in his
thumb and
pulled out a
Plum
said
'
What
a good boy
am
/.'

" that somebody who will say, pointing to one of the pictures in this book, Now " they and Wli.it objection is there to my stealing it ? really good idea. is a will " I course Of add, to -as may even go so far though it is very unlikely which I have publicly acknowledge, in programme and elsewhere, the source from this way he in acting by This particular kind of fool does not see that taken it."
weakening himself and the theatre which he is supposed to be serving with That is why I ask you and him to fear the influence of my some spirit. which you book. \I suggest to you both that if in this book you find certain ideas advice Punch's take feel you could apply with success to your new production,
is
on the other hand, you want to develop your talents as a scene then my designer, not for immediate profit, but so as to become a better worker, book is at your service. But skip the public parade-^ -avoid the danger of showing
"Don't."
)lf,
off what
is
not yet yours.

is
An
it,
idea
only of value because of the

life
life w/tic/i
gives
it
birth^
and nothing
recreating
but original vibration can e\cr give

it
to
it
agr'ri.
Even
then,
when
and it will not therefore be the same idea ; so ideas and that whe.i an Autolycus of the modern European theatre takes one of my for there kind, the of nothing thinks that he puts it into practice, he has done in a mirror and the thing reflected. is a great difference between a reflection The difference is all a matter of life, and it is so contem.ptible too to copy an
will
come out
a little different,
idea
when by
it.
little
activity of soul
yourself and so add
life
to
life
and body you can give birth to an idea and if you have no ideas, don't be ashamed of
admitting
What we do
not want
is
these dead ideas, these copied things, and every.
one should protest against the obvious hoax being practised month after month as though they were in the theatre of England of passing off unoriginal ideas
original.
critics
One
of the faults
find with
English criticism
is,
that even the best
enthusiastically
chase after some copied idea,

if
ignorant of the fact of the
existence of the original, or,
conscious of
it,
criticising the
copy
in the
same
terms
'
as
they would use towards the original.'

t.i
Tlus
is
sccniN
me
to be a little fault
eitics t
t.,
what
bein- Jone
.n
the other
the Hi.t,-h Isles and
opportunity to study whi> h miuht easily he prevented .f EnjiliNh critics were fiw. the The Eni;l.sh critic should be .n the .,thrr cties on the Continent.
sent bv the rich En.;hsh journaK

.lone in these and ..thcr place..
Archer who
deserves to know what i being Par^s to Berln., to KrAau and to Budapest. The pubhc and had it not been for Mr. William had heard of Str;nd!>erj;, for instance, until he died heard of Ibsen \ Then, just lately, were we informed by so often wei.t to Norway, wh,- ,n England would have
Who
TOWARDS
Finally, this
NEW THEATRE
of theatrical
art
book represents my preliminary efforts in one division of a phase which I have passed through. As I have written in my book
and voice.
"
On
the Art of the Theatre," the artist of the Theatre of the future will create
That was in 1905, and the future to which I referred is still before us, and therefore anybody, who can go into the matter more thoroughly than I did, is still free to alter that and to show that it My som"thing finer, simpler. can be created ou* of something different reason for mentioning it here, is to call your attention once more to something which some of you at times overlook when speaking of my work. That is to say, I am not concerned alone with what is called the "scenic" part of the art. I would like you to remember that I have clearly stated that action and Action and voice cannot voice are the other two parts which I am studying. be satisfactorily treated by means of the written word or diagrams, whereas scene
his masterpieces out of action, scene,
.
. .
to
some extent can be so

It is
treated.
therefore the scenic division

I
which comes into
this
book
and
as prelude
li
the pictures themselves,
have
now something
to say about stage scenery.
Does anyone the journals about the revival of the art of improviiation unJcr Hevcsi in the theatre* of Italy and Hungary ? know abtiut Wyspiansky and hi schonl i But who is there that does not know of the thirJ-rate imitators of these people ? The
London
Press gets hysterical about third-rate imitators
when
it
is
the duty of the editors to see that
we
are given sound informa-
tion about the origin of these imitations.
II
justice
A little later it became time, stage scenery was architecture. architecture.^ imitation architecture ; still later it became imitation artificial ever since. Then it lost its head, went quite mad, and has been in a lunatic asylum with dealing Some day, when mv school comes into being, we will issue a book shall see to it that my scenic work receives I the historical facts 'of this case. now is not -(I fear that very little of it will ever see salvation)' ut here and
ONCE
upon
:i
the time nor the place to pull
it
too
much
do.
to pieces.
more thoroughly than any of my

(with eight exceptions) in this book.
critics
My
could do that probably remarks apply to the designs

I
These thirty-two drawings represent
work done
between 1900 and 19 10.

look back
at
it
That work is now part of my past, and although I can work with interest, I have no very great sentimental affection for my
it
of yesterday just because
not so entirely without sense or quite right as without taste doesn't in my opinion excuse the lact that it is not noblest scenery when the It will not bear comparison with the stage scenery. that we know of, there period At the noblest conditions of the stage were noblest. painter was of " simplicity," and less talk of illusion, and the scene
is
mine.
That
it
is
was
little
talk
utterly
unknown.
in
dramas for and
not their In those days they built their theatres for their dramas, They played in the day-time, and with the sun their theatres.
is called streaming upon the actors and audience alike, and didn't indulge in what " lighting effects." They didn't waste an enormous amount of time trying to some false colour that would look true by artificial light. Neither did they
'
get
paint their face- with
magenta and yellow ochre so
as to look as if they
had
just
come from
the country.
But they didn't abstain from doing these thingr to

only so as to be truer.
>
be
more
natural,
but
Now,
the
it
is
very difficult
wis
fortutiatc
for
the ordinary
reader to
performKn^lan.l ,s û.Ie an oleil cou.itry tor open-a.r an,l davhslht hfhx was banned. in ^he ope,, ra,n is .ilwavs a natural the and ,^ cool; KnglanJ it ,n hot-here In the south of Euro|>e ,t ,s uncomfortably ances
a,r,
\i I,c.chw,.r.h,
i,.
the
utumn of
vr
1912,
cn.muh
to be present
a perform.nce practically
where
urt.fical
lejisUtor
ei,oui;h.
wh,.h prevents an
exafifierated
number
ot
unnecessary
feMivaU.
Kest,âK are
(or
the
,pr,nj!-time
one ,nonth
is

understand what one means by truer, and
in
it
is
really
hardly necessary for him

I
to understand, so long as the stage artist understands.
never met one of them
England who could

let
entirely understand, or if there are

I
ore or two, they have

is
is
never
mc
into the secret of their existence.

;
wish they would, for this sort
of work gets rather lonely after a time

yourself,
but to be true in art
not to
lie
to
and that
life
;
is
is
very difficult and

a
very expensive.
But
time nor of
it
form of gambling where you bet on a
no waste of certainty. There is

it
the National Gallery opposite
me
as
write to bear witness to the truth of the

life
statement, and there
is
Nelson too.
fail
Risk your
for the arts cither of peace

;
or war, and you cannot
to win.
But there must be no limitations
you must
not think that to have talked about simplicity and beauty for a season, or
a
made
of the
speech before the Playgoers' Club in which you went against the
taste
day before yesterday, that you have risked anything more than the contempt of
the angels
;
and
say this because
do not want you
to think that
should disagree
who would advise me to take all my designs and burn them unworthy of the highest traditions of scenic art. (For these designs, as I have said before, and indeed many times, in one place or another, are my efforts in one div'tston of a phase of theatrical art a phase through which I have passed. Compare them with the scenery of the Greeks, which is, I suppose, the oldest scenery we know anything about, and you will see how they suffer by the comparison. "N^ Compare them with the second noblest scenery for Drama, the scenery of the Christians, and they seem little better. Compare them with the third period, wher men began to make imitation architecture for artificially-lighted theatres that is, in the sixteenth century and they seem fairly good. I think that they would have held their own on the stage against the designs by Peruzzi, Serlio, Palladio, and the
with any serious critic
up
as being
I think they are much better than the rococo scenery of Bibiena, and I ; must say that I think they triumph over latter-day scenery. The question as to just where they triumph and where they are defeated I cannot go into now nor here, but I can ttll you something of the several periods of stage scenery without bothering you with many dates or names.
others
When Drama went

scenery went indoors too.
indoors,
it
died
and when
the
live.
Drama went
live,
indoors,
its
You must have

it
sun on you to
and Architecture must have the sun on them to

that
and Drama Of course you may say

dead
"hanging on"
is
"living," but
is
practically being
ali* ..
Drama
TOWARDS
was able to be out of doors and amusement, it was a rare festival.
a religious festival, but perhaps
it
A
in
NKW THEATRE
is
the sun because, instead of being a nightly People have always spoken about it as being a mistake nowadays to underline this, because
the word "religious" to us means one thing and in the old days it meant another Probably if you were low best to describe what it was in the old days ? thing.
I
Mark's Square - or even in Trafalgar Square, for the matter of on a sunnv dav, and see a couple of hundred pigeons wheeling round the that^ square, flapping their wings, enjoying themselves in their own god-like way, And have you would get the nearest idea to what a Greek festival was like.
to
stand
in
St.
vou
ever
noticed that
the people
in
the square
passed on and took no notice
No \ you will And that even the dullest man in the street of such an event ? Just such a performance is being played will stay and watch the performance. Over fifty or sixty people have stopped in front of mv window as I write.
to
watch
are
it,
and
that
without
single
advertisement
having
been
put
up.
There
(such
many people who will tell you that the Greek drama attracted because of its display of human passions, because of its beautiful girls dancing
peo{>le
always imagine that of
beautiful
girls
danced
in
the
Greek dramas),
audience
in
its
or
because
some
subtle
intellectual
force
which
held
It
the
grip,
it and so forth. Greeks had captured many of the secrets of nature from the birds, from the trees, from the clouds, and were not afraid to put such simple secrets to a religious And the chief secret which they caught was a small part of the secret of use. It It was the movement of the chorus which moved the onlookers. movement.
But
was nothing of the kind.
was simply that the
was the movement of the sun upon the architecture which moved the audience. A later-day critic, speaking of a performance given in some open-air theatre in Italy, where the architecture was the only scenery employed, tells of the
He was unable emotion created by the passage of the sun during the drama. to describe it exactly, and I think that very few people could do so either, and But he spoke of how time seemed actually to be in then only in a poem. The movement was felt, but felt through seeing.' motion.
Greek came the Christian theatre^ that is to say, the Christian The theme of their drama, if no more tragic than that of the Greeks, Church. For scenery, architecture again was used, and we may was perhaps gloomier.
After the
'
Remember
here the derivation of the
word " theatre,"
Sec note on
p. 1.

see
what kind of stage they had by looking

all
at
photographs and drawings of the
choirs and sanctuaries of
the early Christian churches.
We
see stages rising
one above the other, the windows placed

the entrances so arranged
significant.
at certain angles to illumine the stages,
that
movements of
call
single figures or groups are
Wc
see the seats for the musicians,
we
see the very places

in
made on which
the chief performers (for
we may
them performers) stood,

All this
is
which direction
they played
theatre
they faced, and even what they did.

is
recorded.
The drama
this
known
as
the
Mass.'
is
The main
it
difference
in,
between
and the
theatre of the Greeks

particular,
that
was closed
although daylight, and sunlight in
was
still
employed.
people flocked to these religious theatres as bees to a hive. Not a word that was spoken could they understand, for all was in Latin, and yet they flocked. Could you guess why they went there ? It cost them nothing but
The
what they chose to give. Perhaps that was the reason. Anyway, do not let that worry us ; let us keep to the scenery. Against the architectural background were placed decorations of gold and jewels, silks, velvets, and other precious materials. I wonder if the people would have preferred these things if they had been made out of paste-board and tinsel ? I wonder if the same excitement and reverence could have been awakened before
a Cross of papier-mSchd
?
a few hundred years ? That was too much for the people. They couldn't resist it. One understands it, but one doesn't understand the nature of the rulers who were so mad as to put that before a not very grownup Europe. As well might one take one's children to see " Scheherazade " as call the children of a nation away from so beautiful a drama as the Mass to see For the people in Europe at a lot of boys and girls dancing nude in a circus. that time were just as innocent as our children are. You may say that it was time that they should grow up ; but look how they have grown up. You will say that I am not quite exact, and that there is as much stupidity in children as there is divinity in them. I agree with you. But if there is an equal amount both and I think that this is true of why make a point of encouraging the
this
What made
wonderful
theatre a
failure
after
Nothing but the exhibition of limbs
in a circus.
'
"The
central
and most tolenin
rite
one of the most
critical
moments
in the life
of the Christian worship was the Mass, an essentially dramatic commemoration of of the Founder." . K. Chambers Tlu AtittiMval Stagt, vol. ii. bk. iii. p. 3.
"
TOWARDS
stupidity
?
NEW THEATRE
had grown
dull,
You
thing
will
lay
that
the religious thcarre
the
was a relief. So like Europe, that "relief" ; In the old days, word "relief. modern deterioration seems to be based on that worst of it and was at his last when a champion prize-fighter was getting the the methods employed I believe that one of relief. ca^P, there was no talk of Now it is all relief. plunge it into him. was to seize hold of a bradawl and please. However, let us get back to the scenery, if you had gone under, the first false theatre After the Greek and Christian theatres the poets wrote elaborate and tedious dramas, and
other
and that the whole of
came
into
existence.
The
Palaces arcliittttural backgiound. scenery used for them was a kind of imitation cloths, and for a time the audience and even streets were fashioned or painted on and as the people Ihcse plays were prformed in actual palaces, put up with it. thought they would create a theatre of could not get a glimpse of them, they the aristocracy a treat. own, and at the same time they set out to give
their
Then
the great
Commedia dell'Aru
arose.
again.
of a street, not painted As a background they took the houses and palaces Architecture houses out in the street. palaces, nor painted houses, but the real Sun again. And this theatre survived for about three
Open
air again.
It
b^.idred
years.
is
and gave birth to Sh.-ikespcare and to Moli^re,

last theatre
the Shake-
speare theatre
about the
of
that flourished in the

this
open
air.
books have been written about as if never before if it were the first of its kind, as if it were an original idea, as beau ideal of that the were as if it had the open theatre been "given a chance," the very last matter of fact, the Shakespearean theatre was
What numbers
Shakespearean theatre,
A3 a kind of thing. We should avoid anything like and the weakest breath of the open-air thectre. leavings theatre, because it was built on the mere a return to the Shakespearean articles and books suppose there are thousands of I of a former ma-nificence. How many books are there about the written about this Shakespearean stage. theatre and its suge, or Commedia dell' Arte and its stage, about the Christian have seen a few, but hardly any I about the Greek theatre and its stage ? As a background to his plays, Shakespeare had a nice of them are adequate. erected in a bear-pit, but his plays really little wooden cosy corner of a stage The poor wooden than that. belong to a much more magnificent open-air theatre to-day, pompous which he regretted so much is made into a very
"O"
"O"
lO

and
if
wc
are to
do Shakespeare
from
justice
on
his
own
lines,
we
shall
build
him a
theatre very different
that of the Globe, if
also very different from that of
Drury Lane.
After the Shakespeare stage passed away, the daylight was shut out for ever. Oil lamps, gas lamps, electric lamps, were turned on, and the scenery, instead of You cannot call it picture, for pictorial scenery. being architectural, became
concerned only with two dimensions, and were you to ask Leonardo da Vinci or Cezanne, I think that they would agree wdth me Yet every day we get people speaking of scenery as that scenery is not picture. theatre and put if it were picture, and even painters have the temerity to enter the
picture
is
that
which
is
on
to the stage the result of their studies as painters.
They
are all descendants
Nothing pleases them so much of Bibiena, and I hope they are proud of him. " use " the stage, at the same time as the artifice of the modern theatre, and they having a contempt for its tricks, I suppose that they like this so much because they know nothing about the beauty of the ancient theatre. I can only think of this as
their excuse, but
noble scenery.
no nearer to a noble stage it brings us no nearer to Many of my own scenes, of which there are forty in this book,
it
brings us
m my
opinion bring us very

I
little
nearer.
began working, there was no school for theatrical art, there was no one to tell me these things that I have told you ; and it is only now, after many years' working, that I have seen the direction in which we are all going. And now I do not point back to the Greeks, I do not point back to the Christian Church, nor to any noble theatre that we have possessed, nor tell you to reconstruct these. future ; but what the finest I care not a scrap about the past, but only about the reach in the past teaches us is exactly the same as the finest in the future, and to
When
this
old
new ideal perhaps even
to
surpass
it
in
time
go towards a new
Theatre.
II
ON A STAGE DECORATION BY BIBIENA

'
/''ÛR
V / is which certainly may be, but which seldom are, avoided. " Among the inevitable defects I reckon the breaking of the lines in the side scenes from every point of view except one ; the disproportion between the size of the player when he appears in the background and the objects as diminished in the perspective ; the unfavourable lighting from below and behind ; the contrast between the painted and the actual lights and shades ; the impossibility of narrowing
the stage at pleasure, so that the inside of a palace and a hut have the same length
system of decoration was properly invented for the opera, to which it It has several unavoidable defects ; others also in reality best adapted.
and breadth, &c.

'*
The
errors
which may be avoided
are,
want of simplicity and of great and
reposing masses ; overloading the scenery with superfluous and distracting objects either from the painter being desirous of showing his strength in perspective, or not knowing how otherwise to fill up the space ; an architecture full of mannerism,
often altogether unconnected, nay, even at variance with possibility, coloured in a motley manner which resembles no species of stone in the world.
scene painurs owe their success entirely to the spectators' ignorance of the art of design ; I have often seen a whole pit enchanted with a decoration from which the eye of skill must have turned away with disgust, and in whose
"Most
place a plain green wall
would have been
infinitely
better.
vitiated taste for
splendour of decoration and magnificence of dress has rendered the arrangement of the theatre a complicated and expensive business, whence it frequently happens
that the
main
;
requisites,
is
matters
but this
good players, are considered as secondary an inconvenience which it is here unnecessary to mention." A. W. SCHLEGEL.
good
pieces and
And what
Bibiena.
Schlegel says here applies fairly well to this stage decoration by
The
design
is
a triumph
of the
12
artificial.
If artificiality is
what we
I.-.
i.i.iV
\NM
.'
u:l
1.11
II
ON A STAGE DECORATION BY BIBIENA

want
is
in the theatre, then this
is
a triumphant design for the theatre.
But
artificiality
not what
we want
in
the theatre.
it is
it it
The
artificial
only
falters
and
lisps,
and
that
is
only rather pretty
when
its
right place.
Still,
the
artificial is
not excluded
from nature's scheme.

all
But
Nature
is
is
as
unwise for us
as artists to exaggerate
one of
is,
the sillinesses of Nature as

the
silly
unwise to exaggerate her noble ways, omitting

not to be looked
at
ones.
If
is
by the
artist as
she
then
away with eyes, ears, and everything else. You look at her like that, and then you write a stor) about her, emitting nothing, but flattering her in a most If yi natural way. omit to fl:r;ter her, you might as well not have been born. She gives birth to on, and in that she flatters you, and the least you can do
i
_,
is
to return the compliment.
!!!
\l
(t
ENTER THE ARMY

Trafalgar Square, where
>
THAT'S
I
a stage direction, and that's a drama.

live in
all sorts
sometimes
of undramatic things
the troops go on all day long, but when I hear a band in the distance, and I see dramatic. coming along, I feel that although it is merely a regiment of men, it is What you may say is, that it is theatrical. Strange, that troops marching so trimly I think I do not think so. Is the effect theatrical ? should be called theatrical That the army may be General Booth's army, and that effect is dramatic.
!
the
to me to make it thty are carrying his coffin to the grave, does not seem that it more dramatic, but the fact that it is a body of men in uniform and all were they If marching in unison, that seems to me very dramatic. is In the ordinary ? divided and split up, in what way would they differ from the of entrance the in entrance of the army wc return to the old feeling that was choir in the medieval the chorus in the Greek drama or the entrance of the The idea of the chorus may be old-fashioned to some people. Certainly drama. spirit, and, except in the spirit of harmony and uniformity is not a very modern we seldom are aware of the army, or among the police, or in a cricket match, But in art, it seems to me entirely forgotten, and yet it is the its presence.
one
essential
Well "exit
thing that should be remembered.

the army."
1111.
I'
.11
'
THE LIGHTS OF LONDON
T
was,
HIS was one of my
earliest designs.
Previous to this,
when
produced a
play, I scrawled out rough designs with a blue pencil, and did not translate them into anything pictorial. If I had had a theatre in 1900, I should never have been forced to make these designs, and I should have preferred it had I always
been enabled to work directly with the material which the theatre offers, rather than The two things are, of course, with the material which the draughtsman is given. entirely separate, and, had I not been born in a theatre, I should have made As, however, I fiintasics which could not possibly have been realised on the stage.
I
was
able,
through
my
experience of the theatre, to
make
this.
designs which
can very nearly be perfectly materialised. If you will look at them carefully you will see signs of
will very
think you
seldom see things here
in
perspective
knows where and which no one could curtain was down and I was on the stage during the entr'actes, I would often stroll up to what is called the "back cloth," and while the music was tinkling in the orchestra, and the people were being called on to the stage, I would gaze longingly at the mountains painted there, or the twisted high roads which led to Those were fancies the mountains, and I would fancy myself walking along them. for the character I dressed As a young actor, and when in which I often indulged. was to represent in fact, when out of myself I really think I used to believe that " Olivia " painted by I remember a delightful cloth in these back cloths wer<- real. Hawes Craven, and another delightful one painted by the same artist for " Ravenswood" The first was an English landscape Yorkshire hills and a delightful evening little cottages dotted about in the distance ; and I remember there was a large sky I suppose it was meant to be Squire Thornhill's Manor House. country-seat In the " Ravenswood" scene there were thousands of small trees growing on
walk on.
avenues leading up to goodness remember that when the I
a slope covered with bluebells
there were not just a few bluebells in patches,

c
the slope was entirely covered with them.

17
THE LIGHTS OF LONDON

I
uscil
t(i
get quite near thcsi- hack cloths, anil

I
remember
always used
to touch tlum.
hornhill's house, or on the on Squire would wander up some large oak in the distance, or, with my two fingers, I Anyhow, my whole desire was to get into the picture, and I always lane. It was for this reason, I suppose, that when I regretted that I could not do so. came to design scenes for myself I avoided putting any place in my picture which
would put
my
finger
hy the actors. mention of a staircase which no one was have Now if in the drama you show that nobody ever ahle to ascend or descend, and if the dramatist wishes to painting ever will he ahle to ascend that staircase, then there seems some sense in
ct)uld not he travelled into actually
it
instead of building
it.
But
if
steps are to he
shown
in
in
" Julius Cxsar"

figures, then
it
which not only fantasy but

is
common
sense
many
for
if
preposterous to
paint those steps
some scene let us lay would people with they must be built :
to
up or down them, you suggest you only paint them, and no the spectator that there was something very eccentric about Rome on that
one ever passes
?
particular afternoon.
Is
not this true
So vou will sec this rule running right through my designs. There is not Where I have a spot in them which could not be walked upon and lived in. introduced a pyramid, as in the design for " Cxsar and Cleopatra," on page 55, It far off that in nature no one would see the figures upon it. I have put it so alone could people it and our fancy is at such a distance that our imagination
runs up and
This
down
it
with ease.
" The Lights of London.'" I left out all the lights of London which other scene-painters had put in, and I included To be natural nowadays is to be the one light thcv had always left out.
first
design in
my book was made
for
eccentric.
1
'Ihirc was
:i
âricn
scene
it
iii
a certain
ii.>
pp>iurlmt.
ol
"Twcl'th Nij;ht"
that
once saw which contine<l a lone
fli-ht of -rien
[.TSss
steps, an,l
steps.
(-ave
nut
.11
one liundred
Then
thev
sial;c
this.
a'l
sense of illu-ion f. the spectator, for no one ever went up more than six or ten turne.i off shatplv to the ri^-ht i.r the left-six or ten were real steps the rnt all
pante.i.
Champflciirv, writniR of
is
scenery, says:
"Be
faKe - but
'.i
false
is
from
first
to
last,
and you will be true."

be true to
details,
Like
most paraioxis, there
truth in
But what
is
better
remember
that
we must always
Nature and can

to be ujed,
when we under-land her. Painted steps, windows, and other such aiwavs he true to her or could be used, arc unnatural and therefore out ul place.
which have
|g
THE MASQUE OF LONDON

In 1901 I wrote which is laid in 1-ondon. of the scenes " one Masque of London," and this was the scenario for a There is another scene in this volume for this London designed for that Masque. In the original drawing, from which Masque, supposed to be Wapping Old Stairs. There are three or four this reproduction was made, all is not entirely grey. these prevent tiny pieces of very pale blue seen through the grey clouds, and church m the spectator from feeling hopelessly miserable these and the white
THIS
also
is
for a play the scene of
the middle keep the tragic place reasonably gay.
The
!
little
white churches which you see over the roofs of London, starting
how beautiful out of the sea of grey in the most surprisingly virginal manner, At night, too, they become even more beautiful. I have never underthey are poetry stood how it was that scene painters could never give us the majesty and
suppose it is that I of London when asked to design scenes for modern plays. The nearest approach I have seen to the play-writers wanted nothing majestic. Theatre, in a a fine interpretation of London on the stage was at the Surrey
lurid
melodrama,
called,
think, "
Her Second Time on Earth."

idea.
There was
view of the London streets by
night from the top
whoever he was, had evidently got the right

twenty thousand
lights,
set
of a roof, and the painter, Fhcre seemed to be at least

is
only example of a It came near suggesting the magnificent grand London scene I can remember. in our and beautiful thing London is. Oh, for a writer who should spring up expression to midst and compose a great dramatic poem which alone can give arrives. I am at his service on the day he the glory of the place we live in with These mean-spirited interpreters of the capital of England sicken me The two-inch marionettes which they create, calling their narrowness of vision. them Mrs. this and Mr. the other what have they to do with London ? Dickens Dickens has, gets nearer to the real beings, but Dickens is too comfortable, and be be dramatised by an amiable assistant before his characters can
in
great curves,
but this
the
unfortunately, to
brought on to the stage.

>9
HENRY V-THE TENTS

THIS
middle
scene
represents
is
the
trenches
surrounding
the
English
camp.
The
king's tent
up on
the
seen in the background, and the fence stretching across the They enter from behind, climbing of the scene is for the comedians. to the fence and speaking while perched up there like sparrows on
their positions just as
telegraph wires, changing

other.
I
sparrows
flit
from one
to
side
to
think comedians would be able to put this scene Comedians generally can ferret out the ideas of a scene and
good
use
use.
make
of
them.
If only
tragedians could
as
it
do
so, all
would be
well.
The only men who
can play tragedy

the Gaiety.
If
was meant to be played are now in the music-halls or at
Mr. G. P. Huntley had not given so much time to the lighter forms of tragedy, he could by now be terrorising the English public in the heavier forms The only serious performance I saw in London last year was of comedy. Even Grasso, a light entertainment by Mr. G. P. Huntley at a music hall. the Sicilian tragedian, who was playing on the same evening, was not more
grave.
Well,
suppose we shall have to look to our comedians for tragedy.

Cardinal Wolsey was certainly a most
in
Mr.
Pcllissier as
little skit I
terrifying figure, in a tragic
once saw
London.
21
"THE ARRIVAL
THIS
the
tion.
is
for
no
particular play, but
it
is
for
what
believe to be true drama.

in this
The name
explains the drama.

,
Army ")
It tells
is
a stage direction
so
The first picture is " The Arrival "

is
volume
(" Enter
kind of stage direc-
being done, and not of something which who is arriving and why they is being said, and the fact that we do not know makes it, to my mind, are arriving, or what they will look like when they appear,
us of something which
dramatic.
if
" And," you
will
say,
"
unsatisfying."
in the
That depends.
That depends
It
you arc more interested
in the
end than
middle or the beginning.
seems to
be.
me
that the longer one postpones the end, the
more
exciting
life
must
stars, to the golden doors and find nothing but great glittering stupid thing have to admit to Bill " that there ain't no heaven," seems to me a that Provided that you do not open the doors, you never know, and hasten.
To open
to
is is
heaven.
to find
I
it
Maeterlinck, of course, mainuins that to

heaven, but that won't do,
know
the
room one
sits
in
you anything. I don't mean that you great blessing, should never hear any words spoken, although that would be a be finished they the things done, the ambitions awakened, should never
feel
that
dramas should never
tell
but
should always be a mystery

finish
;
and mystery no longer
exists
the
moment
things
when you touch the soul of things or see the soul quite Then, what nonsense we talk when wc speak about the mystery of clearly. rather mysterious, but enthis play or that play, when these plays are perhaps You wish that I would be a little more comprehensible. tirely comprehensible. ten years ago, " Give me a theatre," I wished to be, I should say what I said
mystery dies
If
and then you
shall
be like blind Gloucester, and " see feelingly."
''Lear. Read.
" Gloucesur. What, with this case of eyes ? " Lear. Oh, ho, arc you there with me
23
No
eyes in your head, nor no
"THE ARRIVAL"
money
vet
in
your purse
YHir eyes are in a heavy case, your purse in a light

gcx-s.
vou see liow this " Giottcrsfcr. I see

But
I
uorhi
it
feelingly."
a theatre.
no longer want
us after
We
us
no longer need
turn,
'^
theatres.
Wc
need
all
first
to
hceomc masters of
left
the art.
Let
then, to our studies with
the
seriousness
in
luiiuireds of years
prewndin^:^
24
CINDERELLA
THEWhat
I
design
on the
I
lait
page was
dated
igoi.
This one
is
dated
1904.
is
could
have been doing

?
in between those times, that there
no
design of 1902-3 to put in this book
was designing on a stage, operas and plays and masques, and there was have a great I therefore less need to translate my full intentions on to paper.
boxful of sketches and diagrams of this period on
this
paper, but they are
not for
These designs were for have a book to themselves. " Acis and Galatea," "The Masque of Love," "Sword "Dido and JEncas" and Song," " The Vikings," " Much Ado about Nothing," and yet an old " Craig, Scotch friend said to me the other day, with his fine biting accent
book.
They
shall
you have only to show them what you can do on the stage of a theatre, and then Begin in any simple little way," he said, you will get all the support you want. " a little room somewhere, and you won't want any money to do it, everybody wl!! work for you for nothing, and you will go on for several years, and then everyone I told him that the people who worked with me in the operas of will support you." " Dido and itneas," " Acis and Galatea," and " The Masque of Love " all worked for nothing, about eighty of them, and for about eight months on each production.
understood that to ask for free All willingly contributed their time and energy to help is to spoil the millionaires. Of course one could still go on asking people to contribute these, but the task. The people whom I ask I have made an important discovery since those days.
But that was when
was
thirty,
and before
to
which are very unique ones. These two qualities they must all First, obedience ; second, enthusiastic loyalty. Now if they succeed in the task to which I put possess, or obtain or develop. them, that is the end of my demand from them ; but I am by no means going to sit down and sec these people, who succeed where others fail, passed over and
work with me must have two
particular qualities
taken no notice
of.
of mine suggested,
They would, I have no doubt, work for me, as this friend till kingdom come, if I were to call upon their loyalty and
25
CINOKKFLLA
thc^r obedience.
qualities in them they ^hall But once having found these tw.. hnd two thousand workers w.ih but the.. have everything eKe ; and could I everything eUe, and then the .ut.ou two qualities the theatre s!,.,uld have
should have the theatre.
One
really
ought to explain a
l.ttW
vvhat
one nuans
for these two things are s<. Intle by enthusiastic lovaltv and obedience, uica .s sut.mcd How' best explain in a word' I think the whole nowadays. " family." One has heard of sons and daughters being obcda-nt up in the word strength of a nation. Some' sav that this obedience is the to their father. Two things .re necessary that healthy. Doubtless it is natural, prettv, and
understo.K^
the
father shall
know
everything about
until
it
the ht.use,
and
that
the
sons shall
not
pretend to
know anything
comes
to their turn to play the iather,
and
that
cats. the daughters shall learn to despise
Well, then.
26
WAPPING OLD STAIRS
Ar
,
the
time that
designed
this,
was
living
in
little
studio
somewhere
^îs
all
in the
middle of London, and hating the very sight of

I
man
except on those
days
when
could afford to ride on
a 'bus to
Hampton
Court.
At
time
die
of mimo-drama, planning it out, designmg I was writing a strange kind It was a " Hunger." scenes, and the movements ; and it was called
thing.
I
fearful
was asked to produce it in Berlin, but by that time I I think in that was a little unfair. a nice encouraging city, and I found that it "respectable mimo-drama I had brought together all those wretched lazy yet fruffle their skirts, women who carry two thousand pounds around their necks and that they are not quite so I do not think I understood and seem very detestable. so heartily at the time that I detestable as they seem, but indeed I hated them They were the reason why a whoL family was r the pages. smeared them all this comic-tragic thing called done to death upo.. the stage in front of your eyes in " Hunger." There was a kii^ in it, a great fat creature who was wheeled about through he was a kind of money king, swollen in a chair like a large frog
;
had escaped into
eating too
a king
many
I
dinners at the
Savoy.
Not
real
king, of
course a
he^st of
remember his entrance particularly pleased me. like a sea of cushions ; those on ready throned on an invalids throne that seemed Their progress was who propelled him were the chief gentlemen of the Court. nearly feinted with first four steps, and then everyone made in this manner
and
:
He was wheeled
pause, silence, and a tiny, squ^ky fatigue a fenning a smelling of salts during a Then another bold for relief. voice from the depths of the cushions calling So the same play repeated. effort four steps forward and another pause with do not think I shall have anything I destination.
at
last
they reached their
half of 'he truth. do with this drama until I can show the other but the hunger of the rich The hunger of the poor was put down right enough, tragic. had not been fairly treated. I daresay it is as
more
to
27
WAPPING OLD STAIRS

to be called same time I was preparing a second mimo-drama never I made. I "London,' and the picture facing is one of the designs that Arabia. or beg..n somewhere in Persia finished the drama, but I remember it what land you flooded with light, so that you couldn't see in
At
the
In
great hall,
meditating (as they meditate in were, a philosopher and a poet were discovered Blake's poet who saw not at all like a brown studv), and the poet was the East And the poet would not and the philosopher saw ^.vith them.
through
belicvT
his
all
eyes, the things which the philosopher was telling

at
taken out of Arabia, out of the sun, and landed

he
bi
him of London, so he was There Wapping Old Stairs.

the dead souls of
*as
shown
that
London
in
is
the place to which
all
men
arc
some wretched case, either that of a newspaper boy or a boots to black, and sent shoeblack, given some trade, some papers to sell, some And I remember they all arrived in great barges down along to his business. sacks of coal and sent flying up those the brown Thames, and were shot out like out by some infernal spirit who vteps, their names or numbers being shouted
ought and placed
stood ticking them
In this
be getting the
There was another scene, and then I left it. first one, seems to design, however, the two hgures, or rather the do not suppose it is at all like the actual I of the place.
ofl^
on
a paper.
best
Wapping Old
Stairs of to-day, but
perhaps you will overlook that.
2'>
.]
Ml n
',
!!
\.
'
VENICE PRESERVED
conspirators of the designs I made for the scene where the would not propose such a scene for any theatre I little street in Venice. the seats all on an inclined floor except one of a special form that is to say, with a special How wonderfiil it is that one should speak of such a theatre as bemg its all have time this by that every theatre in the world should not
ONE
seats
meet in a
one, and
by Richard Wagner, and has now, every year there is a new least thirty or forty such theatres, and I suppose, at are being What am I talking about ? Why, at least ten new theatres one. ships German about One sees so much in the papers year.
on such
a floor
Germany was taught
this
built
Why, simply through ships. which are being built, as if one defeated a nation things rude saying mean by you can defeat them through the theatre I don't our own courage and our and about them on the stage, or by flattering ourselves which are ahead of the own ships on the stage, but I mean by building theatres
times, or at least
there every
up
to date.
BEHIND THE TIMES, AND IT IVS A/!E BUUDIXG TUEATKF.S SIXTY OR SEVENTY YEARS LOSE THE BATTLE WHEN THE DAY COMES. IT WILL IS N^T THE SHIPS THAT ARE GOING TO INSTITUTIONS. BE THE THEATRES AND THOSE OTHER ANTIQUATED other day I Worse than that. We are not even building old theatres. The experimentally, rather ahead of was in a garden city which is supposed to be, No one was to be found who would build a theatre for the the limes. there, and who have been young fellows who were working to create a theatre If this had been a working to create a theatre there for a couple of years. build themone German garden cityand I believe Germans are beginning to down as necessary, as essential to of the first things which they w ild have put designed by one of the most the life of the place, would have been a theatre, would be performed every go-ahead young architects, in which a diflirent play
29
VENICE PRESERVED
nicht
classical as well
as
modern
plavs
-in which probably one thousand people
our dramatic writers, stage managers, could be seated, in which the most advanced of given full opportunity to go ahead. scene painters and the rest, would be Fngland will bche^-e it when an \nd the extraordinary thing is that no one in great activity of the German Kngli^hman brings news from (krmany of the
theatre.
" Venice Preserved, but, as hardly any of you have read Otway's I suppose built by Otway, who perhaps you can imagine, it 'is laid in Venice -a Venice who followed the fashion of the knew very little about it, and cared less, but Hugo background for his drama of passion. time, and employed Venice as a less freely Otway's masterpiece von Hoffmansthal of Vienna had adapted more or was asked in 1904 to go over to Berlin for a German theatre director, and I tragedy and to superintend the proand design the scenes and costumes for the conditions, and as an indicatioij did this as well as I could under the I duction showed I example of what I mean of the circumstances, I will give you an had one, to the director, who fornricrly this picture, for the last scene but studied the theatre for a few years been a literary critic, and who had only He looked at ,t with " literary gent." and then not as an artist, but as a asked He then looked at me with more suspicion, and some suspicion. said, "There I said, " But there is no door." I me where was the door. handle nor door said, "Yes, but I see no
is
.,
_,
..
and a way out." He But You cannot have a door without a handle." lock ' There is a way in and a way out." There is no door. and became quite sent him into a rage, but he changed copied exactly line pleased when I informed him that it was leave the reader to guess whether I I manuscript.
a
way
in
again
repeated
nearly
This very calm

for line
again
and from an
it
old Italian
had copied
theatrical
or
in
no
You
see the trouble
is,
and always
will
be, that
certain
men
high
did not want this nice old gentleman to I no imagination. imagination to see that no door imagine a door, but I wanted him through his assured him that it was a replica was necessary, and I only succeeded when I Now this good man was particularly unwise in making it imposof an actuality. piece with him by this unimaginative way of sible for me to consider any second
places
have
looking
his
practically lost control over things, for within three or tour years he the opposition theatre, which patrons, who left his theatre and went over to
at
30
VENICE PRESERVED
was managed by a friend of mine, and
the
who had the what

(so
shall
one
fill
call
it
nous to
make
use of
my
old
ideas
they
said),
and so
his
theatre
to overflowing.
One
has to say these things
now and
then, and
it
is
easier to
do lo when no
ventures whatever. longer in competition with any managers or theatrical
3'
HAMLET
ACT
1
SCKNE
AS
frontispiece to this book,
have another design for this same scene in Hamlet.
shows you what I It 1904, the other in 1907. In the 1904 design, you see I really think of the attor and of his powers. In 1907 I put difficulty. have put him in a place where he can dominate with him in a place that would need a hero to dominate it.
/\
One was
made
in
Why
put the actor in a Guignol Theatre ? Everyone calls him a pupjKt, and, by Roscius,
if
he
is
to be one, he shall
He shall be as small as you like, the place shall tower be a superior puppet. His fiice shall go, nothmg above his little head, and yet he shall dominate it. Movement shall be dominate it. shall be left but his actions, and vet he shall situation that nothing taken from him, and he shall be 'placed in so hopeless a But all this shall but a mask shall be left him, and yet he shall dominate. " But why theatre. be done only at enormous self-sacrifice for the sake of the " Well, if it can be done in any other way, all the savs somebody. sacrifice ? that it never will be done. better, but it never has been done, and it seems " Why ? you ask. Well, when you have answered all the questions the poet much wiser than ever I asks about the flower in the crannied wall you will be life, If there are no mysteries could be, and there will be no need to ask me. a great mystery, and then life is of absolutely no value ; but every tiny thing is
every tiny thing should be treated as such. the world and that Sc; shall we develop ourselves and dominate Then we shall indeed be actors. difficult thing ourselves.
much more
33
ELECTRA
11
AVE
never seen
I
Electra acted, although

in
ha\c seen the play done in a
I
lady
theatre.
saw
little
it
Germany.
a
My
lot
taking a
revenge with
impression was that Electra was a little This impression was created of gusto.
and as no beauty, because there was no beauty in the periormance, " And Keats has answered " And what is Truth ? asks jesting Pilate. or Beauty is the complete, .and even a touch of it here and for all. complete is performance showing that the performer has perceived the
no Truth. him once

there in a
show us
have
not
If you are that the performer feels like a true artist. great seen the complete completely, then you create a
enough to able to show that you This is work of art.
all said
is
there
the faintest
design here, but perhaps to prove anything in tiivour of or against the no I glimmer in it of something which may be called beauty.
it
longer have the eyes to find
one of the designs that I like What really is the best definition of beauty ? It cannot be that best to keep. You cannot take sides the two which throws spirit and matter out of harmony
there, although
it
is
things must be fused, before beauty can
come
near the place.
v;
JUI.IUS C/ESAR
,UT
II. SCKNK
tn his
2
Enter (^^sAR,
night-gown
at
" Help
c
And
ÂiS/lR. Nor heaven nor earth have been
peace to-night
rhrite hath Calphurnia in her sleep cried out, Who's within ? ho, they murder Cxsar "
!
Enter
Servant,
Skrvant
My
Go
me
I
lord
Casar.
bring
Servttnf.
bid the priests
do present
sacrifice.
their opinions of success.
will,
my
lord.
\Exit.
Enter Cai.phirnia
Cal.
What mean you,
("a'sar
think you to walk forth
You
shall not stir
out of your house to-day.

shall forth
;
Casar. Cxsar
the things that threatened

;
me
Ne'er looked but on
my
back
when they
shall see
The
Yet
face of Cssar, they are vanished.
6V//.
Cxsar,
never stood on ceremonies.
one within, Besides the things that we have heard and seen. Recounts most horrid sights seen by the watch.
they fright me.
now
There
is
lioness hath
whelped
in the streets
And
graves have yawned, and yielded
up
their
dead
Fierce fiery warriors fi)ught
upon
37
the clouds,
In ranks and squadrons and right form of war,
Jl'Lirs
Which
tiri/,/.lcd
Cil-SAR
('.apitol
air,
;
blocul
upon the
Ihi- noise ol'
kmk-
hurtled in the
Horses did neigh, and dying men did groan, And ghosts did shriek and squeal about the streets.
Oh,
Ca-sar
I
these things are
beyond
all
use.
And
do
fear
them.
Cusiir.
What can
i^
be avoided
?
Whose end
Yet Cx-ar
purposed by the mighty gods
shall
go
in
forth
for these predictions

Cia-sar.
Are
to the
world
general as to
beggars die there are no comets seen ; The heavens themselves bla/.e forth the death of princes. Cvsiir. Cowards die many times before their death ;
('.ill.
When
rhe
valiant never taste of death but once.
Of
It
all
the wonders that
yet have heard,
seems to
me most
it
strange that
men should
fear
Seeing that death, a necessary end.

Will
come when
will
come.
>H
THE PRINCESS
THIS
very
IS
STOLEN
been called " The Life of I suppose the scene adventures.
1
one of her earliest was romantic, and so would do equally well for any other play that that ' Here it is." difficult to say anything about it except
is
was an incident a Princess," and this
in a
minm-drama
to have
find
it
3"^
K.%
'^1'?
>/T^-,^,.,îitBl^Wi-sii--
'
i':
-^^^
\
>%
.-
-.
iiiWHj'jtoi
r-i:
;*BSrT''''-"''""
-53U-.
%
^^^ iîn>w-...
^::t^:..:.zîi.^*-^
^^
i
Vita -w*-- *.'; J- **'r^;
ill.
-II.
THE STEPS
FIRST
MOOD
us that
drama is not only concerned with the good and bad feelings of I that part of life which is life without the assistance of murder, individuals, and that there is much drama in He then leads us up to a fountam or into jealousy, and the other first passions. makes a cock crow, and shows us how a wood, or brings a stream upon us, showed us all that a few centuries dramatic these things are. Of course, Shakespeare
THINK
It
is
Maeterlinck
who
pointed out to
earlier,
but there
is
much good and no harm
in having repeated
it.
Still I
think
two kinds of drama, and that they that he might have told us that there are These two I would call the Drama of Speech and the divided.
are very sharply
Drama of Silence, and I think that his trees, his fountains, Drama of Silence that rest come under the heading of the
where speech becomes
this
his streams,
is
and the to say, dramas
paltry
and inadequate.
Very
well,
then, if
we pursue
many things other than works of thought further, we find that there are this and a very grand note Nature which enter into this Drama of Silence, There is Architecture. Drama is struck by that noblest of all men's work, great city at a time of the night something so human and so poignant to me in a dreadfiilly sad unti you when there are no people about and no sounds. It is
And among all exciting. walk till six o'clock in the morning. Then it is very know of no more lovely things dreams that the architect has laid upon the earth, I down, and of this feeling about than his flights of steps leading up and leading how one could give life (not a architecture in my art I have often thought
the
voice) to to
these
places, using
them
to a
dramatic end.
When
this desire
came
me
and
lent itself
place was architectural was continually designing dramas wherein the And so I began with a drama called "The Steps. to my desire.
is
This
the
first
design,
and there are three

41
others.
In each design,
show
'
THE STEPS
the
belong to each same place, but the people who are cradled in it children arc playmg In the hrst it is light and gay, and three different moods. liippopotamus lymg asleep on it as you sê the birds do on the back of a large What the children do I cannot tell you, although I have it an African river. seen it is valueless. It is simply technical, and until written down somewhere. which rabbits sound little stamping But if you can hear in your mind's ear the you will have a glimpse of make, and can hear a rustle of tiny silver bells, yourself the queer quick little what I mean, and will be able to picture to movements. Now on to the next one.
its
of
+2
4"î?wrr>^
,..
>~-
*;r..^
THE STEPS
SECOND MOOD
II
YOU
to changed, but they are, as it were, going and deep terrace we see many girls and sleep, and at the very top of a flat And in the foreground, and farthest from them, boys jumping about like fireflies. respond to their movements. I have made the earth
see that the
steps have not
The
earth
is
made
to dance.
43
1111
II
I-
ill
THE STEPS
THIRD MOOD
III
SOMETHING
a
Another figure appears at the top of He moves no longer, and she descends the steps slowly to the steps- a woman. whether she ever does jom him, It does not seem to me very clear join him. Together they might once but when deaigning it I had hoped that she might. man and woman mtcrcst more commence to thread the maze. But although the move me. The me to some extent, it is the steps on which they move which
the floor.
come upon the steps. It is very late evening The movement commences with the passing of a single figure with them. which is defined upon man. He begins to trace his way through the maze
a
little
older has
He
fails
to reach the centre.
are for all time.^ figures doi..;nate the steps for a time, but the steps and some day I shall get nearer to the secret of these things,
that
it
I I
believe that
tell
may
you
If they were dead, how dull very exciting approaching such mysteries. life, more so than that of they would be, but they are trembling with a great
is
man
than that of woman.
45
I'll
-1
1-1
1.
I\
THE STEPS
IV
full
FOURTH MCX)D
THEcommence
steps
and to carved marks with, I want you to cover with your hand the the top of at fountains on the floor and to shut out from your eyes the curved on the Imagine also the figure which is leaning there, placed over the steps. some with heavy is He other side of the steps that is to say, in the shadow. you see him movmg unnecessary sorrow, for sorrow is always unnecessary, and Soon he passes on to the hither and thither upon this highway of the world. When he arrives there, his head is sunk position in which I have placed him. upon his breast, and he remains immobile. with Then things commence to stir ; at first ever so slowly, and then
this
time have
t-.
bear
more weight.
It
is
night,
increasing
rapidity.
Up
it
the rising
moon when
above him you see the crest of a fountain rising like It rises and rises, now and then is heavy in autumn.
Then a second fountain appears. in a great throe, but more often regularly. streams have risen Together they pour out their natures in silence. When these Upon the ground is outlined last movement commences.
to their full height, the
in
warm
light the carved shapes of

is
two
a
large
windows, and in the centre of one
of these
head.
the shadow of a
is
man and
woman.
The
figure
on the
steps raises his
The drama
finished.
47
STUDY FOR MOVEMENT

we HERE both snow and
see
a
man man
battling
through
snowstorm,
the
movements
of
being made actual.
Now
be better if we should have no snowstorm suggest to us a man fighting against the his symbolical gestures which should Still I have some doubts ; In a way I suppose this would be better. elements. would it not its logical sequence, then, for, following that line of argument in but only movements of sonie inbe still more near to art if we had no man, would suggest the movements which the soul of man
visualised,
I wonder whether it would but only the man, making
tangible
material
which
all.
makes
to-day
battling against the soul

If this
is
of nature
Perhaps
art,
it
would be even
at
its
better to
last
have nothing at
to be, then
being almost
in
gasp,
we seem
to be nearer perfection
than
if
we were even
the days
of the
great symbolical designers of India.
But
we
are to have the actual
man going
its
scene going through through actual gestures, why not have the actual
actual
pantomime
I
anybody is really very interested m such questions one way or another. one seems to be making any efforts to answer them
don't
know
if
no
Let
us turn over the page.
l'>o6
Ml
|)N
liK
\\<'\
I.Ml.M
G/ESAR
AND CLEOPATRA
this
A
it
ALTHOUGH
would be
How
and the following two scenes for myself, designed them for Professor Remhardt. it may be more exactly said that I Professor Remhardt many scenes I have not designed both for myself and
I
really designed
me for the fifth or sixth moment anybody asks one to time to produce him a play, and of course, the My son asks me to produce plays every now produce a play one gets excited.
difficult
to say, but
in
1905, he asked
and then, and then

excited with
a couple
this
get
really
excited, and
in
the same way,
duction.
remember I also made a on Monday or on 1 uesday these things when one is young -that is to say, foolishly stops domg these thmgs. but when one gets older, on Wednesday, one London that I should proFor instance, someone suggested the other day in Now instead of rashly running to paper and pencil, duce such and such a play. These I said to myself and creating something which might interest me later,
I
:
set I of Professor Reinhardt's. projects for the proof days had put down in colour eight or ten One does model for the First Scene.
suggestion
grew really to work, and m

I
people
lost for
are
not
serious,
Ihe
thing
will
never
take
place."
And
so
have
very nice designs myself a couple of days' excitement and some then get artists to begin a work and are not serious, these people who invite all young men to be I advise frightened at their own request, but for all that world, and an invitation contracts are fairly worthless in the theatrical
rash.
They
All
to collaborate in a
is
work
is
for
the
theatre
equally valueless, but what
is
valuable
hope which "Will you do this

the
inspired in
you when some
"important" person
says:
for
me, Herr Jones, or Senor Smith?"
Of
course you inis
(for the artist's heart stantly say to yourself with a beating heart dreams as and properly foolish): "This is tremendous; all my
always young
an
artist
will
be
you young, and on Wednesmake ten designs. That is on Monday, when you are the world is old, and one halt day you become cautious because you find that you are yourself. dreadful place-even more dreadful than
realised.
We
shall
all
of us be flying soon."
And you
rush off and
of
it
a really
'
very
Extraordinary
49
^4
d
i.
-m'^
aVJ ^-M
m
*
i.
. ai
Bffl
itawm
'
'''
'
EBB
'^^^^
Jl
xM
I
:
'
'I
i:
\,
\.
GyÂR AND CLEOPATRA

ACT
I
SCENE
HARDLY
I
his
think
fault.
that
Mr. Bernard Shaw
will
like
this
design, but
that
is
own
He
should have designed the scene for us.
He
wrote the
play, he also wrote the stage directions in full, then
why
did he omit to design
the scene and the
you meddle with the tools of a trade, it is hcst to master them and for a dramatic writer to add stage directions to his written play, and to omit to show how those directions are to be carried out, is to tinker. In the Greek and Elizabethan drama you will find no stage
costumes
?
If
directions.
I
was asked to produce

to forget to
this
play in
Berlin,
do was
read
the
author's
stage
play.
and the only thing I could directions, so that I might make
sure of getting at
the
meaning of the
And
as
read
the
words,
When "o Scene seemed so excellent. wanted to omit these too, for the Sr had got the words out of my head ooked to see what was left of the First I Scene, and I found this First Scene to be a great rat-trap in which figures were hurrying and scurrying to and fro like so many squeaking animals, one real Ftatateeta. So you will sec in figure standing out in a comic tragic mask my design no other individuals whom you can recognise, and only the figure
in the centre rivets the attention.
- \l,
'
i:
\.
G/ESAR
AND CLEOPATRA
ACT
1
SCF-'.NK
know
and Cleopatra being seated side by side on the throne, and she I put the bars turns to him and asks him to point out to her where is Cssar. and all round to keep out the mob and the soldiers, so that we have Caesar
in Caesar
IF
you have read :he play, you
will
this
is
the sctne which culminates
Cleopatra quite alone in the scene.

the leading actor and actress.
times
let
And
yet
the actors say
never think of
I
They would be more
exact to say that
some-
my
eyes wander away from the centre of the stage.
What
the actors
seem to forget is this, that plays are not made up entirely of the leading actor and actress, and although you may have them, as in this case, in the centre, and very much in the centre, there are other times when it is essential for the drama that the leading actor and actress shall be in a corner or under an exThat is what " star " actors will never admit. There must be times tinguisher.
when they
ridiculous,
are absolutely extinguished,
when
but
they appear ridiculous, and not only

the
but
loathsome or
but he
pitiful
leading
actor
or
actress
always
wants to be sympathetic and
central.
He
wants to
from
that
first
to last,
is
fails
in achieving his
be loved purpose just because he forgets
the whole time
not a thing made up of only one feeling, but is necessarily made up of every feeling. Therefore the leading actor is not really loved on the For instance, in Macbeth you never really detest the man, and yet it stage.
love
is
necessary
to
detest
that
;
Macbeth
is
before
you
can
understand
that
\'ou never feel

sit
he
ridiculous
if
so ridiculous
him thoroughly. you feel ashamed to
in
your
leaving
should
would
against
even in his own work, and aside the drama as a whole, and shutting out the truth that the actor make no personal appeal, if he were even as serious as this, then he certainly do as I say, and would move every feeling in the audience both him and for him. He possesses them from the start he has no fear
seat
yet
the
actor were
serious,
S3
CiT.SAR
that
AND CLPIOPATRA
well, then.
he will lose them.
V^cry
Play with them.
Risk everything
at all.
with them.
has tried to
Yes, vou say, and empty the theatre of 'hem.
Not
In
all
the past centuries the theatre has never been able to be emptied.
The Church
;
empty
the theatre, the State has tried to
empty the theatre

all
everything
has tried, and everything has failed.

talk
What, then,
is
this
nonsense that people
about the tlanger

artist in
of
running a theatre successfully, and especially the danger

?
of being an
the theatre
Tomaso
Salvini, Irving,
Does Giovanni Grasso empty the theatre Talma, Andreini, and (iherardi empty the theatres ?
Did
am
I
very sorrv that
iiave
it
not talked about this design, but you see the

ot the actor.
m.mient
think oi the scene
makes me think
54
G/ESAR
AND CLEOPATRA
ACT
1. SCENK
2
THIS
probably know, but it is not As I have said in another book, when unlike the Bernard Shaw Sphinx. acts as interpreter, following the stage manager sets to work to design a scene, he picture is a good example of the lead of the poet or the playwright ; and this this something of the sculptures of Egypt, and I know I know what I mean. - that it is light in tone, sharp cut, and as sharp in the moonlight as it is in
is
not at
all
like
the
Sphinx, as you
the sunlight.
So noble are these creations that I Like noble ghosts, they should would never bring them on to a stage as they are. Sphinx, and I put But here it was a matter of putting on a Socialistic be invisible. precise lines, with virtue him down in less than thirty minutes. Instead of sharp must be splodgy, restless, threatenin every inch of them, the Socialistic Sphinx almost write his must be hardly out of his tiger stage -one could
It
is
the noblest of
all
art.
ing.
He
"stage-tiger stage."
Act of the play will not be I have only of this monste out of place crawling in and out of the wrinkles with drawing Should you ever go to Egypt, take this one request to make. Then of the Pyramids. vou and compare this monster with the god at the foot again " received satisfaction "-you will never look at my design i shall have
That
little
cat
who looms
so large in the
First
no, nor think of
" Caesar and Cleopatra."
55
DIDO
THIS was
It
is
AND
y^NEAS
there
is
it. designed for the opera six years after I had already once produced which intended for the scene which precedes the last scene of all, in When I presented chorus "Come away, fellow-sailors."
sailors'
the opera in
had only a plain blue backLights from above ground which has become dreadftilly popular since then. " which we built a grey proscenium, such as many of the placed on a " bridge movement. have used since 1904 a colour scheme- very little
1900, with
my
friend
Martin Shaw,
German
theatres
English temperament, and, This very little movement is a characteristic of the Germans, Russians, and being incomprehensible to other nations, is avoided by
French.
57
DFSKJN FOR AN ENTRANCE
HAI.I.
OF A
THEATRE
ONF
argue
of these days
inconvenient
it
wv
the
away from the jrilt and the rococo and Wc shall conveniences of modern theatre buildings.
shall
get
about
a great deal
before
then,
and we
shall
hear a
lot
of nonsense
things, cheap things, about what the public wants, and how it wants oidy stupid number of years, but and uncomfortable things, anJ this will go on for quite a and wc we shall come round to exactly what 1 say and what jnany of us feel, will be far more beautiful than any shall have our beautiful theatres, only they But it is quite likely that use will be made of this design of us can picture. Here we have a stairway which before passing on to a more beautiful one.
leads from
the
first
hall
the
doors at the back open-air theatre or a closed theatre, and
of the theatre into an open foyer, and so on through It would do equally well for an into the auditorium.
1
hope the
ladies will
agree with
me
of persons beautifully dressed to be that I have made it possible for quite a number this staircase first showing the seen at the same time. I can picture them passing up back, then showing the right side of left side of the dress, then showing the
the dress, then they could
turn round, and
we could
see the front part, then

side again, and then
we
should see the back again, then we should sec the left .And as they passed up the steps they would be placed against would disappear. they are, some golden statue or that which is only a little less beautiful than
statue in ivory by a master,
they
golden and ivory statues would mark descended, and finally, the different stages of their progress as they ascended and on arriving at the top she who wished to look most beautiful of all would turn willing frame to beauty. of the staircase where two figures make an archway, a am entirely at your service. If only those people with thousands of
and these
little
Ladies,
pounds,
art,
who do
not
know what
theatre
to
we would have your
do with them, would put them at the service of up for you in less than a year, and in that theatre,
A
t
,i
'
1;
"*^
I.N
KAM
I-
II.
"I
nil \l
HI.
ENTRANCE HALL OF A THEATRE

iK-forc
y..u passed into the |Hrrformancc
pleasure
ind those
who
where perhaps you too might derive some clod-hoppers and the snobs, you would be able to teach much to the whisky and tread on people', toes, for you
gi> to the theatre to
drink
would have a reception-room in the world. Ik- the most Iwautiful nation
in
which you could show by your grace what
it
.s
to
5'>
im
&1
%*-
lib'.
"1-
'.;'.
Ml
STLiDY FOR
MOVEMENT
with movement, and can understand that people have something to do movement. What steps have that the moon has something to do with of movers, is not as clear to nie to do with movement, except as the recipients inclined to speak right on one day as it is on another day, and here I feel it, The design has, I think, some feeling of movement these steps.
ONF
against
way some dancing school may probably plump of their room and make poor girls run a big flight of hard steps at the end want to escape from, then up and down them, posirg like the dreadful things we section with movement, and regret curse anything so material as steps in c I tion between the two things. ever made any record suggesting a com
hut
when
come
to think of the
that
6i
ill
AMI
l--\i 111
CUPID AND PSYCHE

There is only one man who speak about Cupid or Psyche ? about these two, and this is ever spoke well in the English language said that made this design vvhat he said, and it was what he exceeding " lived a king and queen who had three daughters
How
can
In a certain city
fair
pleasant to behold, yet passed But the beauty of the two elder, though such was the loveliness of the youngest not the measure of human praise, while commend it worthily and could express it that men's speech was too poor to excellent Many of the citizens and the strangers whom the fame of this not at all. by that matchless beauty, could but kiss vision had gathered thither, confounded at sight of her, as in adoration of the the finger-tips of their right hands And soon a rumour passed through the country that goddess Venus herself. forbearing her divine dignity, was even then she whom the blue deep had borne, fresh germination from the stars not the living among men, or that, by some a new Venus, endued with the flower of sea now, but the earth, had put forth
virginity.
" This
into
glorious
went daily tarther with the fame of the maiden's loveliness, to behold that together drawn distant lands, so that many people were Men sailed no longer to Paphos, to Cnidus, or model of the age.
belief,
...
-i
Venus ; her sacred rites were neglected, Cythera, to the presence of the goddess cold ashes were left to disfigure her forsaken her images stood uncrowned, the men's prayers were oflired It was to a -ai idcn that
altars.
. .
63
MACBETH AND ROSMERSHOLM

They are for two The first is for the quite opposite types ol" drama, Shakespeare and Ihsen. " in the "Home room Maebeth," and the second for the Sleep-walking Scene in The first is for high classical tragedy, and the second for modern of Rosmer."
THIS
design and the oni
following
will
take together.
domestic drama.
of Macbeth and
the active
creator
In each
case the catastrophe

in
is
to
whole house, the houses

tell
Rosmer, and
each case the author causes a
of the catastrophe.
But can anyone

his
woman it how me
to
is
be
that
the grandeur of Ibsen, his
by the greater mvsterv and force of Shakespeare ? Judged by comparison with any modern author, Ibsen seems to mc to be a giant, and then, judged by the side of Shakemystery and
force, are
eclipsed
speare,
little
He disappears into his own particular where docs he disappear to ? house, and Sliakespeare is still sailing free over the mountains. What, then, is the extraordinary difference between Shakespeare and Ibsen ? A
is this, that Shakespeare I take it that it few centuries cannot be the explanation. that Ibsen is an extraordinary man, and that was an artist, and Ibsen is not he is one of the most extraordinary men of the nineteenth century, that he is
solving the
problems which other people cannot or will not solve, that he is putting questions which no other person ever puts, and that all the time he Ibsen remains comparatively of no importance because he is not an artist. simple. call we what ordinary, somehow seems frightened of being commonplace, And one feels this when one compares him to Shakespeare, a thing people tell
us
is
we should never
do.
But
am
not so sure about that

fix
in fact,
think
it
very necessary and very good.
Unless you
a standard for dramatic literature
and compare dramas with

instead of the first-rate.
that standard, the
And
the first-rate
world would be accepting the tenth-rate But is not Shakespeare, but if^schylus.
^schylus
refuses to enter a closed-in theatre, with its artificial light,
and
refiises
to be entirely comprehensible to any but Greeks
to those
Greeks
who
are dead,
64
1906
M.ur.KIM
M.l.l.l'-WAI.KINi;
St l-.NK
MACBETH AND ROSMERSHOLM

But this
much wc
that
Fnglish can comprehend

literary
I
it
is
thai our
highest
standard of
at
drama
drama.
is
mingled
this,
I
and theatrical
c,
I
art
which Shakespeare gave ut
Feeling
sup|-
have never yet dared to design a scene for

Trilogy
theatres,
itschylus, although
have
in
read
his
Ihey act them to-day

old
closed in
Heaven knows how many times. and they prance and gesticulate,
in
and even venture phonetically to speak his lines
Cireek.
;
Why
not
let
the
it,
monument aUme
It
stands there crumbling away

it
better not to touch
better to build
up outside, taking
as a standard.
65
A PALACE, A SLUM, AND A STAIRWAY

IDARFSAY
this
that,
looking at these and several of the other designs, you
may
For imagine that in their original form they are grey, but they are not. mention black. I yellow, white, red, and instance, this is a design in blue,
because grey
I
is
rather depressing,
I
and to depress
is
not
my
wish.
was asked how
should
design a
scene containing suggestions of the
dwellings of the upper and lower classes, and also put into the scene a neutral
spot
So I designed, on the one side, a where the two classes always met. palace, of which the only thing palatial about it was its upright and severe form, and its golden colour, and on the other side a slum, with its little windows and shadows, and its geranium in the window ; and in between these two came a stairwav, as the magic spot where the whole world meets practically in harmony. It is for no particular plot or play, but one can imagine that perhaps some day a writer or even a stage manager will perhaps plan a series of dramas dealing with these two classes, wherein we see them separated and then continually Who knows, I might do it with proper care myself if someone doesn't united.
light-heartedly seize the
cheerily idea
carelessly
and, slapping
me on
the back,
tell
me
I'm good to
steal
from.
66
SCREENS
parts, it is the least Spectacle has, indeed, an emotional attraction of its own, but of all the sure, is felt even and connected least with the art of poetry. For the power of tragedy, we may be more on the depends effects spectacular Besides, the production of apart from representation and actors. poet." of the on that art of the stage machinist than Aristotle's Poetics, VI. i. 19.
"The
artistic,
is, of course, by stating that all art is has nothing It is so exaggerated that one might say that art an exaggeration. so does way, that in whatever to do with Imitation. Just as he has exaggerated One can hardly say of he exaggerate in this when he speaks of Spectacle.
WHILE reading
his
this,
one must remember that Aristotle

Imitation.
is
man who opens
discourse
This
bad writer, but writers who wish to be held as great Aristotle here wishes to writers must be careful to choose the exact word.' Why, then, does speak about the scene in which tragedy or drama is represented.
Aristotle
that
he
is
he use the word " spectacle " ? Why, then, does he also go on to speak about For this gives us the idea that he is talking about something spectacular effects ? common-place and vulgar, whereas we know that scene can be beautiful, not merely effective
I
beautiful.
The remnants of
the scene at
Taormina
are beautiful.
suppose that Aristotle is speaking of some degenerate form of spectacle, but why does he choose a bad example of scenic art when he wishes to compare it He could be unfair ? Is it possible that Aristotle with the fine poetic art ? of art If he had spoken of spectacle as an enemy of the almost runs it down.
poetry, and of poetry as an
better, but to put the art
enemy of
the art of spectacle, he
would have done
of poetry up on a high place and say that that vulgar both fellow Spectacle has nothing whatever to do with so exalted a personage is
preposterous and ill-judged.
What
have
left
all
this
all
out
do with the picture facing, I don't know ; but as I the figures from the scene, and as nothing is happening there,
has
to
'
Perhapt
it i>
the translators of AriMotle
who
are to blame.
67
SCREENS
as
no word
is
being spoken,
the
suppose
was feeling that

thereby
tacle
or scene from
realms of poetry,
had removed specpreventing any future conI
tamination to the art of poetry.

I
remember.
friend
Just
as
was forgetting.
Enemies
is
will
always
make you
forget friends for a
moment.
B.
Mv
W.
Yeats says that the
scene
for
by no means disconnected
with the art of poetry.

threatens and
stage has presented for
What
is
to be
done
I
the poor stage,
when
as
Aristotle
this
Yeats beckons?
Was
there ever
such a
spectacle
poor
centuries?
so poor and
In fact
have
passed through
is.
London and
that
found no other
intend to do
all
woman
I
so low as she
And
else.
for
reason
can to
place her higher than anyone
68
I
.'.-g?
\'
i;i
H.
-.
MACBETH
ACT
Before the Castle
;
I.SCENE
6.
hatitboys
servants of
Macbeth
attending.
Lennox, Enter Duncan, Malcolm, Donalbain, Banuuo, Ross, Angus, and Attendants.
Macduff,
D
The
By
Ihe
UNCAN.
The
air
This castle hath a pleasant

senses.
seat
itself
nimbly and sweetly recommends
Unto our gentle

Banquo.
This guest of summer,
temple-haunting martlet, doth approve.
breath his loved mansionry, that the heaven's Smells wooingly here : no jutty, frieze.
nor coign of vantage but this bird cradle Hath made his pendent bed and procreant Where they most breed and haunt, I have observ'd
Buttress,
:
air is delicate.
Enter Lady Macbeth.
Duncan.
The Which
!See, see, our honoured hostess trouble. love that follows us, sometime is our Herein I teach you. still we thank as love.
How
And
you
shall bid
God
'ild
us for your pains
thank us for your trouble.

All our service.
Lady Macbeth.
done double. In every point twice done, and then contend Were poor and single business to
Against those honours deep and broad, 69
MACBETH
Wherewith vour majesty loads our house ; For those of old, and the late dignities Heap'd up to them, we rest your hermits. Where's the Thane of Cawdor Duncan. and had a purpose heels, the We cours'd lum at
To be
his
purveyor
but he rides well,
And To his home
his great love (sharp as his spur), hath holp
him
before us.
Fair and noble hostess,
We
are vour guest to-night.
Lady Macbeth.
Have To make
Still
Your
is
servants ever
theirs, in
theirs, themselves, and what
compt,
their audit at
your highness' pleasure.

Give
to return your own.
Duncan. Conduet me
me your hand
love
to
mine
host
we
him highly,
And
shall
continue our Graces towards him.
By vour
leave, Hostess.
\Exeunt.
70
l.i
III
I.
II
-.
SI
MACBETH
AC!
II. SCKNE
I
J\J ACBE'TH. Go
JVl,
Is this a
bid thy mistress,

bell.
when my drink
is
ready,
She strike upon the
Get thee to bed.

[jfi> Servant.
dagger which
see before
?
me,
let
The handle towards my hand

I
Come,
still.
mc
clutch thee.
have thee not, and yet

feeling as to sight
see ihec
Art thou not,
fatal vision, sensible

?
To
or art thou but
dagger of the mind, a false creation. Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain I see thee yet, in form as palpable
As
this
which now
draw.
the
Thou
marshall'st
me
way
I
that
was going
ArXd such an instrument

Nfinc eyes are
was to
I
use.
made
all
the fools o' the other senses.

;
Or
else
worth
the rest
see thee
still
And on
It is thi;
thy blade and <ludgeon gouts of blood,

so befor .
Which was not

Thus
to
There's no such thing

o'er the
bloody business, which informs
one half world Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse
mine
eyes.
Now
\
The
curtain'd sleep
witchcraft celebrates
j
Pale Hecate's offerings
and wither'd murder,
Alarum'd by
his sentinel, the wolf.
Whose
howl's his watch, thus with his stealthy pact,

7'
MACBETH
is his design With Tarquin's ravishing stride Moves like a ghost. Thou sure and firm-set earth, Hear not my steps, which way they walk, for fear
.
Thv very stones prate of my whereabout. And take the present horror from the time. Which now suics with it. Whiles threat, he lives Words to the heat of deeds too cold breath gives.
I
{y4 hell rings.)

I
go, and
it
is
Hear it not, That summons thee
the done Duncan, for

;
bell invites
it
me.
[Exit.
is
a knell.
to heaven, or to hell.
72
MACBETH
Eckermann^ Goethe once spoke as follows " In general, scenery ought to be of a tint favourable to the costumes which move before it, as the scenery of Beuther, which always tends more or less to
IN
his Conversations cnth
dun colour, and lets " If the scene
the stuffs of the dresses stand out in painter

is
all
their freshness.
obliged to forsake this indefinite and very fevouror yellow, or a tent able tone, if it is necessary for him to paint a hall red the precaution white, or a garden green, the act> rs ought in this case to take If an actor in a red coat or green to avoid these colours in their costumes.
trousers
walks across a red room, the upper part of his body disappears, and it one only sees his legs; if he walks in the same costume in a green garden, I have only the upper part of his body remains. is his legs which disappear disappeared half seen an actor in a white coat and very dark trousers who thus And even w hen the standing against a white tent or dark background.
way
in
scene painter
represents
keep
his tints
yellow room, or grass, he ought always to rather low and aerial, so that the costumes can harmonise with
a
red
or
them and produce

This
is
their effect."
little
Goethe, and should be learned Obviously thoroughly, and should be tested on the stage and the effect noted. against a dark one sees .hat it is a sensible thing to place a white costume It makes the background, and a dark costume against a light background. out ; but what should you do when you want the figure to be
a
lesson, this
lecture
from
figure stand
merged
castle
when
Macbeth, roaming round his remember that at night-time seems to be prt of his habitotion ; and I the same Irving played the part he was dressed in a costume almost
in the scene,
if
not lost in the scene?
colour as
the walls.
Yet
Irving
went contrary to
was right.
whom
But so was Goethe right. you can learn, all of whom will
73
and Irving In feet there arc many masters from be right, and all of whom will conGoerlic's advice,
"
MACBETH
tradict
one another.
Phis
is
a lesson to us
thing to rely upon in such a case is kncnvn. that you know everything that can be
not to be too eocksurc, and the best your instinct, provided, at the same time,
Knowledge cannot harm you,
Knowledge is the very food for the instinct. nor make your instinct less sharp. than crumbs to otfer you on this table, but I cannot I wish I had more at best. find stage scenery much better than dry bread
74
MACBETH
ACT
1.SCKNK
I.
An
open place.
Thunder and
lightning.
Enter three Witches.
TTrirCH. When
shall
we
three meet again

?
yy
Witch.
In thunder, lightning, or in rain
When
the hurlyburly's done,

lost
When
Wttch.
Witch.
Ifîtch.
the battle's
and won.
set
That will be ere the
of sun.
the heath.
Where
the place
Upon
1
IVitch.
There to meet with Macbeth.
come, Graymalkin. anon \ All. Paddock calls Fair is foul, and foul is fair. Hover through the fog and filthy
Witch.
:
air.
[Witches vanish.
75
.!
1.1
III
MACBETH
ACT LSCKNE
.,.
I.
tht same scene, for the one preceding it arc tor particulars. certain in difRr and arc practically the same idea, the two designs When I showed the design to an actor-manager who shall be nameless,' he looked shown him a ghost, and he asked mc what it was for. I told at it as if I ha " that the three him that it was for the First Scene, First Act of Macbeth," and tell hini that not did I witches would be at the foot of the pillar, and so forth. at the opening of pillar was to give the spectators the same feeling
HOUGH
this
design and
the
/\
'
the str?5ght the
his Symphony Eroica. play as Beethoven gives his hearers in the opening of " Would For he wanted something more matter-of-fact, and soon out it came. " course Of represent ? you mind telling me," he said, " what that is supposed to
such
courteous
question
deserves
courteous
answer, so
replied
that
my
whole reason for placing the pillar there was that it he Scone at which the Kings of Scotland were crowned. " Most interesting," to fact historical Now had I been unable to furnish him with some replied.
back
should stand for the stone at
up
purely fantastical,
imaginative
design
made
for
purely
fantastical
used I am imaginative scene, he would have been dissatisfied. to a stupid reply a stupid thing, and so 1 am generally ready with
to this
sort
of
question.
young man of twenty-one had to what was never intended this celebrated man plied him to give rhyme and reason To be quite fbir to this actor-manager, I must say to have rhyme or reason. There are quite a number of people like him, and one that he is not unique. I came across in Berlin. You will see what this one asked me on page 30,
But
it
would have been
rather
hard luck
when
'
was producing " Venice Preserved "

I
in that city.
I
Ust
shall
be 5upectol of lway>
meaning one celebrated Ktor-maniger,
hid better stale
here that
do not
allude lu Sir Herbert
Beerbohm Tree.
77
ffT'
^^*.-i. .%*
t
.f-
i^.
MACBETH
WHEN
see irony in
exhibited this design

it
I
spoke of
as
"a
design,
paper the Leicester Galleries a theatrical dedicated -ironically, we presume to Alexandre

at
Dumas p^rer and
mv
able to hold it^for
anybody could have been wondering for a whole year how discovered Ihis scene, although some stage might be dedication. arc immense vou look at the proportions, you will see that they
if
Again, instead of being tor high tragedy, it for Shakespeare, and I thought It is not, in my mind, satisfactory is for romance. bell is have liked. 1 he was just the thing that Alexandre Dumas would it such loved The Romanticists of Dumas' period striking, and y.m hear it tinkling. not so Shakespearean as Hernani's horn is just such anothe. touch, things. The knocking at the door, that is Shakespearean. Romantic.
is much more of a book
illustration.
Macbeth.
I
Whence
!
is
that
knocking
low
is 't
What
Will
with me, when every noise appals me ? Ma they pluck out mine eyes hands are here
I
all
great Neptune's ocean
wash
this
this
blood
will rather
No ; Clean from my hand ? incarnardine. seas multitudinous The

Making
the green
my hand
one
red.
Re-enter Lady Macbeth.
Lady Macheth. My hands
are of your colour
but
a
To
wear a heart so
sN\\\tc.
:
At the south entry
{Knocking. ] I hear retire we to our chamber

of
this
shame knocking
I
A little water clears us How easy is it, then

!
deed
Your constancy Hark

!
Hath
left
you unattended. [/:a:i'^.]

79
more knocking
MACBETH
Get on your night-gown, lest oeeasion And show us to be watchers - be not So poorlv in vour thoughts.
:
call us, lost
Miicb'cth.
io know my deed, 'twere

with thy knocking
!
best not
know
myself.
\Knocking.
Wake Duncan
would thou couldst
\Excunt.
80
HAMLET
THIS
An
You
him
It
is
is
the
Second Sctm-,
Yni
as
it
First
Act of "Hamlet,"
in
as
it
was produced by mc,

191
1
with Mr.
Theatre.'
fallen,
it,
Stanislawsky's assistance,
see
the winter
of
at
the
Moscow
side
sits
the
stage
into a
divided
by
barrier.
On
the
one
Hamlet,
see
is
like
dream, on rhe other side you see his dream. Ihat which is behind as it were, through the minds eye of Hamlet. Queen of Denmark. It is the Court of the King and molten gold.
were,
The King speaks as if he the grotesque caricature of a vile kind of royalty. them out ferociously. were an automaton ; his jaws snap on the words, he grunts see that they are pure caricature, If you will read the words in the plav, you will The actual thing it is a vision. It is not an and should be treated as such. it him what you will, but to barrier which divides Hamlet from the Court is
seems to be like the shrouded graves of body murdered.
his
hopes, amongst which
lies his father's
death King. Though yet of Hamlet our dear brother's The memory be green, and that it us befitted To bear our hearts in grief", and our whole kingdom
To
be contracted in one brow of woe Yet so far hath discretion fought with nature
,
That we with wisest sorrow think on him, Together with remembrance of ourselves. Therefore our sometime sister, now our queen,
Th' im|KTial
I
jointress to this warlike state,
lave we, as 'twere with a defeated joy With an auspicious and a dropping eye,
Witli mirth in funeral, and with dirge in marriage,

'
S,.nieimei called
the
I'hratre of ilw Seigull.
81
HAMLET
In equal sialc \vcij;liinu delight and dole nor have we herein barr'd Taken to wile
:
Your
belter wisilonis, wliieli have Ireely

F)r all,
gone
Willi this affair alonii.
our thanks.
Now
lollows, thai
a
you know, \oung Foriinhras,

ol
Molding
weak suppoâl
our worth,
Or thinkina hv our late dear brothers death Our stale to be disjoint and out of frame,
Colleagutd with
I
tiiis
t)
dream
ol" his
advantage
le
huh
bv
not laild
pester us with message,

ol those lands
all
Importing the surrender

I.o>i
I
hi- lather,
with
bonds
ot law,
o our most
valiant brother.
So mueh
for him.
82
^-::;f~~S^-'?V
HAMLET
employ curtains in place of The thought was a good one but scenery for the Klizabethan drama. employ curtains in place of scenery, to when it came to the further questi)n of //ow that is to say, they contented themselves with " hanging the thinkers gave it up
FEW
years
ago
the
attempt
was
made
to
up the clothes," with the

nose."
result that
the critics
came along "and pecked
off their
dcjicnd upon, and always appear simuluneously with, a fullyThe thinker's ideas are not so inspired. planned method for carrying his ideas out. The artist's inspiration may fail, or it may wane like the moon - but while it lives it
The
artist's ideas
is
an entirely complete and
jK-rfect
power.
It is
for this reason that

artists.
attribute this
idea of using curtains to the thinkers, and not to the
began looking into the idea, I saw almost inhnite possibilities in it, and for some time I developed the idea until it began to grow into a serious study. shall return to it some day in my school and see whether or no it can yield all I
When
want.
This design
shows curtains of
very dear.
vast
proportions and of great bulk.

is
Perhaps
as clearly
vou don't find

defined in
it
Yet
my
method for dealing with curtains

is
my
brain as the painting of a portrait
in the
mind of
a painter.
will
Yet
if
make a few you ask a painter to show vou in a sketch what he intends to do, he marks here, a dash of col)ur there, and the scheme is complete. " Not for me,"
you
say.
But the scheme
is
not for you
the finished painting

I
is.
Well, you shall have the finished
work when
like
have dragged
my
materials
from
your million hands which cling to
it
tentacles.
You
shall have the finished

artists to realise, that
work when I have forced the thev made a mistake to laugh
fcxjls
who
hinder everyone of us
what they had not even the right to praise to try and misunderstand what they have not even the power to forget. We and you we the artist, you the men and women who work- we have
at
HAMLFT
bt-in atui
that ever finally an still Ining swindled bv the most damnable monster Conceit, and it Its father was I,a/yness, its mother found its wav into a /...o. no strength, no sense, no It has tontr<^ls I.omh.n, Paris, Ik-rlin, and Ncu York. it pretends to Wood, no brain vet it has a lot of money and through this money humour its pretensions. strength and sensej and t<M> manv women and men
;
put
woman
first, for
women
could, and won't, settle the fate ot this Earth-
w)rm.
who, reading this, will have the courage almighty and mighty weak power of the to release herself from the tyranny of the will put her om' woman out of all womankind who can and Is then Dollar? power t) the oiitroUing of this ama/.ing and tenth-rate monster ? So said a woman once to " Ilu- Rhine gold, it was a true thing- no fable." Let them remember that there arc other So feels manv a w..man to-dav. me. looks to them to serve the cause true things and the truest is that the world p.)wer to do cause of votes ; and that they have it in their
Is
there a single
woman on
earth
of Ikauty before the M., bv destroying the

p)wer of monev.
brat
Ugliness which
is
created solely
by the ill-dirccted
So
will they give
new
life
to the w1h)1c world
-to the whole world.
SCREENS
LAST ACT OF SHOWING THEIR ARRANGEMENT FOR THE
HAMLET
T-HE
of a new chapter in Sn<>g^P^'y end of the book and the beginning At the theatre. theatre will aga,n become I hoDe to see the day when the welcome any pretender .s prejTptet nds to bl the theatre, and therefore ^"^ only pretence is the Ueboard citadel, and 7-^^-f;"'"=trvth. and m whole conspiracy is against art, against ,ut into transformed by the magic ot Emotions are pretended, aped, not and patterns-into poems. Em ,", firm and beautiful shapes b down-tor the arms are g low rather held is which mirror are reflected in a of art, pretence merest the This reflection is t"e'd-and this reflection we call art.
Sn
f-r/^r''7<U
"^/^^f
very
little
"'J^
-^T;;r;::tr:nXt3:^tdtf tyranny a
"'"^tdThrthTatfis1ei\^d?nrtt;t
childl and^,;erchildren,
sterile,
thing, easily
the let, f
,
umsy, --1 ,,^ age by """""S the comfort Some to-day consider it their duty to ak age a e w pagination and Emotions of an U allt:" shoul/be. and that if the faithfully chromcle the & the art of the age must the edge o'f '-^^^J^Xôn Narcissus nger As if any eye can find .me to 1 point of view.
and our Emotions tame
that our hands are c
" - '"'r"'td I ,^"2" " -'
We
ages,
and for our children.
destruction-wooing
itself
and
its insipidities
glorying in the
silly
retiecaon
""imagination
for
and the Emotions are not

the Imagination -''.
for
purposes of ""-'"y-'h^^r
cLion. 'when
f l^":^,-"
I
;f
[êts
'it
mall.
';;:cX\^::ltt:^^rtLrwLrle
Tme
art.
When we
celebrate his
Coronadon,
^5
am
sure
we use no
art
at
SCREENS
When wc
They are bear the brunt. record that Coronation, our journalists ha\e to emotions and no Imagination, a ordered to th- front to fabricate by the use of false Were Imagmation and inadequate. true record ot an event which was both childish coronation ceremony which would ordered to the front, it would first of .ill create a event would mspire the even the King himself, and our records after the
inspire
'''"''
When we
build a citv, art
is
not reckoned with.
After the city
is
there,
some
records, photographic
as a and caligraphic, are taken of it. These records serve but at blundenng of the folly laughing-stock and a warning to future ages, recording recording how through is too late the beginning, and taking infinite pains when it peoples, even our own lives, because fear wc omit to face fluts about nations, cities, no other reason and how we are forced ..i the end lo pay it seems so costly our price for what we could have had, had we but trusted
:
thousand times the Imagination and our Emotions. That the men of the theatre will
realise this if
none others
will
is is
my hope
perhaps the the heart of
and
sole
let
them remember this that their art, only deeply rooted art which is still part of our life, and is not
:
the art of the theatre,
in
the people
its
Im.aginative,
"
is
its
universal heart
its
is
the people's heart.
" Popular
word
which has lost
meaning and
not, that
to-day implies vulgarity,

true
and
"
But we are sure, are that alone. " implies an Ideal. popular
we
the
sense of the
word
Life,
Wc
centuries
are sure of this.
Otherwise, had
we not given up
the
game of
ago
be to recreate a Life on a Preaching never did fresh endeavour. true stage, which might inspire the people to Only by Imagination and through the men of Imagination that, and never will.
The
Ideal, the popular Ideal of the theatre, should
can such endeavour be awakened in the people. there is no need to The people know
.
to
mighty,
them there is less reason There are journals, large and waste millions of money lying to ourselves. They tell themselves that they are mighty and lying daily to themselves.
. .
lie
to
that they are governing the people.
They
tyranny of
are being fooled by the people

all
is
let them know
it.
If the people dislike
There
then shall they be fooled to like this cheap new tyranny ? only one power which commands to-day, as it has always commanded 86
kinds,
how
SCREENS
in
which I call Royal. The Imaginative Power holds both the King and the People, the Rich and the Poor, in It holds them and regards them the same embrace for these are its children.
the past.
It
is
the Imaginative Power.
It
is
this
It punishes without preference- -but is prejudiced always in the favour of Beauty. is the only It punishing. while forgives it forgives; to be quite true, it always good Power. Every man has a share of it an equal share and some families have mine. held it more precious than gold, and others have sold it for a share in a
Those
families to
whom
it
is
precious
still
predominate, and are bound together by
the strongest and most lasting bonds that nature ever

live this
made
or will make.
Long
King of Kings.
87
AFTERWORD
THE
popularisation of Ugliness, the bearing of false witness against Beauty I wish these Designs these are the achievements of the Realistic Theatre.
of mine to stand as
tendency.
my
protest against the Realistic Theatre
and
its
anarchistic
The modern
reflect the times.
Realistic Theatre, forgetftil of all the

It reflects a
Laws of Art,
it
sets
out to
small particle of the times,
drags back a curtain

his
and exposes to our view an agitated caricature of gross in its attitude and hideous to look upon.
This
is
Man
and
Life,
figure
true
neither to
life
nor to
art.
It
has
never been the
purpose of
art to reflect
and make uglier the ugliness of things, but to transform and make
the already beautiful
more
beautiful, and,
in
following this purpose, art shields
us with sweet influences from the dark sorrows of our weakness. The modern Realistic Theatre helps to stir up in the people that restlessness
which
is the enemy of I'll things. The duty of the Theatre
(both as Art and as an Institution)

in
more calmness and more wisdom

its
mankind by the
inspiration
awaken exhaling from

is
to
beauty.
Phonographic Realism injure the minds of the people. They thrust upon them a grotesque and inaccurate representation of the outward
Photographic and
and
all
visible life
with
is
the divine essence

it
the
spirit
the beauty of
Unimportant
what subject the

it
artist turns to
life left
is
out.
his pleasure
to illumine
at the
that he touches so that

will
shall shine brightly.
momentary glance
works of the Masters

But
this
endorse the truth of the statement. modern Realistic Theatre pays no heed to the Masters, even
if it
be aware of the existence of their works. Realism contains the seeds of Revolt, and
man may
lean with
pity
towards those
89
whom
however much the heart of fate seems to follow relentlessly,
AFTERWORD
the
artist
must never lend

For there
is
his
art,
with
its
it
terrible
is
destruction of that just

prese"^^
Balance which
no poison more swift .dolatry of Rcalilm-this traitor to the Imag.nat,on-th.s fhi. false-witnessing Theatre would compel us. ugliness to which the Realistic For a time .t but only after .789 first appeared in Paris,
Ihis
power of appeal, towards the and the a,m ot mankind to create than that wh.ch cats .nto th^" ".'nd-
thing
mob it revolted the mtelhgent flourished, but, while exciting the mto Portugal and other Then it passed into Russia, into Germany,
restless
these yet in Ireland has it ventured-in '''"^Neither in England nor America, nor of Realism. in its vulgarities without the a.d lands the Theatre ofên succeeds ot against the very Laws of the Art and dangerous -it is a Revolt
Daring
the Theatre.
is an impossibility. Daring, because to reproduce nature tizen. the well-ordered hfe of the C Dangerous, because it is a threat against gloomy in the Theatre of Reahsm-the Each whisper of Revolt finds an echo spasmodic the dark and closc-d-in scenes-the expressions the shuffling movements lend things muffled atmosphere -all these exclamations of the actors-the strange
themselves to form one sinister impression.
Alas of the realm and as an Art. With the Freedom of the theatre-free
!
all
this
is
false
and unworthy of the

to
theatre,
/
both
as
an institution
11
select
what
it
shall
,k,. A-^^ show-free
as to how it from the tutorship of the other arts restored. Only by its freedom can its health be
shall
show-comes new
hope.
I-riniKl
by Ballantvh*. II*nsun * Co.
Eaiabwgh
6>
Lowln

Gordon Craig - 40 Desenhos

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cas: le symbole signifie "A SUIVRE", symbole V signifie "FIN".

TOWARDS A NEW THEATRE

walk the night,

the foul crimes

thou didst thy dear father love

Ilamht. O Ciod Ghoit. Revenge

and most unnatural murder.

TO THEIR OLD AND THEIR NEW ACTORS,

Yet Heaven may decrease

Much Ado About

poet's eye, in a fine frenzy rolling,

Doth glance from heaven

imagination bodies forth

and gives to airy nothing,

need of being repeated, because error

and repeatedly preached to by the crowd.

isolated voices, but

In the newspapers, encyclo-

with the majority,

selves with its defence."

Goethe's Conversations with Eckermann^ 182 2- 1832.

Crawhall, Hugo, and to Piranesi

TOWARDS A NEW THEATRE

1900 and 1910.

" {who knrun) " reiwins behind." begins and worse

WAPPING OLD STAIRS VENICE PRESERVED

THE THE THE THE THE

STUDY FOR MOVEMENT CiESAR AND CLEOPATRA

Act L Scihi Act

DIDO AND NEAS

CUPID AND PSYCHE

MACBETH AND ROSMERSHOLM A PALACE, A SLUM. AND A STAIRWAY

MACBETH HAMLET HAMLET

thi lait Act or "Hamlit")

DESIGN FOR A SCENE BY GIOVANNI MARIA BIBIENA,

" 'l.""t'on, soit