Lecture on late-Victorian Shakespeare production and the influence of William Poel [manuscript] : in two parts, 1930?.
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Lecture on late-Victorian Shakespeare production and the influence of William Poel [manuscript] : in two parts, 1930?.
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2 items
Summary
Autograph draft of manuscript (incomplete) by William Hayman Cummings.
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This is a PRELIMINARY RECORD. It may contain incorrect information. Please email catalog@folger.edu for assistance
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Manuscripts (documents)
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FAST ACC 271847 (flat)
Folger-specific note
From dealer's description: "Lillah McCarthy [Lady Keeble] (1875-1960), actress associated with Bernard Shaw and her husband Harley Granville-Barker [William Poel (1852-1934), pioneer director of Shakespeare] [Lillah McCarthy (Lady Keeble), actress, wife of Harley Granville-Barker, on William Poel.] Parts (one in autograph the other a printed proof) of an [unpublished?] lecture on late-Victorian Shakespeare production and the influence of William Poel.] [The Pioneer Club and The Writers' Club, London.] [1930s?] Parts of the text of a lecture - apparently unpublished - by the actress and theatre manager Lillah McCarthy, wife and female lead of the innovative director Harley Granville-Barker, regarding late-Victorian practice in Shakespearian production, and the enormous positive influence of the Shakespearian director William Poel. In her autobiography McCarthy claims that it is to Poel, the 'pioneer of modern Shakespeare production', that she owes 'more than to all the many others who have taught me'. According to the first of the two items, the lecture was given to two London clubs for women, the Writers' and the Pioneer. Both were established in 1892. The Pioneer, founded by Emily Massingberd, closed in 1939; and the Writers' some time in the 1920s. Both items in good condition, lightly aged. Item One with a vertical fold up one margin. The author is not named, but Item One is in McCarthy's autograph, and the two items are from her papers. ONE: Autograph draft of start of lecture on William Poel's influence on Shakespeare production, titled 'Poetry and Verse Speaking'. First page headed: 'Lecture Recital - to The Pioneer Club. & Writers Club Ltd. Subject "Poetry & Verse Speaking" Thursday Nov 13th. 7-15.' 3pp, 4to. The text of the lecture (paginated [1]-2) fills the whole of the first page, and breaks off five lines into the second. The third page lists the nine pieces (by Yeats, Blake, Keats and Shakespeare) which make up the 'Actual Programme - of Recital". In fair condition, creased and lightly aged. With a few minor emendations. In the margin at the head of the lecture is the word 'Shakespeare'. It begins with McCarthy explaining that she is leaving the question of 'the art of Poetry & the messages the Poets give [...] to the literary critics'. She will instead 'appeal' to the listeners for their 'interest in the art of Verse speaking', and she will 'begin by giving you a few Sonnets from Shakespeare'. A list of nine sonnets follows. She next turns to Poel, whom she states is responsible for the 'greatest Reform the English Stage has ever known'. For fifty years Poel 'fought a hard fight to bring back to the Stage the production of Shakespeare's plays [with] the same simple, direct, production which Shakespeare himself used'. She claims that 'Shakespeare the Player-dramatist knew well the limitations of the Stage for which he wrote & the kind of drama the Open Platform needed - He knew also that [for] his character to appear life like, must talk and act as people usually do & not Represent them as if they were merely stage puppets. Or turn his plays into [second page begins here] Spectacular productions, or as they were being produced 50 years ago as Shaw described them as Shakespearian Orgies. William Poel had a tremendous Fight to Restore to the Stage Shakespeares plays to their Original text.' The text ends here. TWO: Proof of earlier draft of continuation of the same lecture, with annotation by McCarthy directing that the greater part is to be omitted. 2pp, 8vo. Printed on both sides of one leaf, and paginated 3-4. All but eight out of a total of 89 lines (44 on p.3 and 45 on p.4) have been struck through in pencil, with autograph note by McCarthy 'Omit Rest of Page'. P.3 begins with a reworking of the conclusion of Item One above: '[...]ductions which were presented to the public at that time in some of the important London theatres, as "Shakespearian orgies," he denounced the practice of these star-actor managers who took unheard of pains to manufacture "business" to help out scenes that positively bristle with missed Shakespearian points, and he said the occasional crimes against literature are positively blasphemous.' This takes the text down to the seventh line of the first page, and the rest of the item, until the last five words on p.4 ('The play is the [...]'), is deleted vy McCarthy. The deleted text includes the last sentence of Item One: 'William Poel had a tremendous fight to restore to the stage Shakespeare's plays to their original text.' The deleted passage of 81 lines begins with an example of 'the practice of these star-managers', from a production of 'Much Ado About Nothing' at His Majesty's. Paraphrasing Shaw, she gives the 'thatched' visor exchange between 'Prince' and 'Hero'. Clearly unaware of the bawdy nature of the words, she marvels how 'the little scrap of their conversation that reaches us is exquisitely caught up at the end into a little thrill of verse'. The rest of the deleted passage concerns Sir Henry Irving and Ellen Terry, with lengthy quotations from the 'four lectures given by our greatest English actress, our beloved Ellen Terry. She knew that this ill treatment of Shakespeare's text was "barbarous." The theatre managers sacrificed the demands of art to the needs of the box office.' This includes Terry's reminiscence of her rejection of 'traditional business' suggested by 'Mr. Lacy' ('an actor of the old school'), and her distress at Irving forcing her to perform 'a traditional "gag"' at the Lyceum."|Ordered from Richard Ford, D9350, 2019-09-30, email quote.