DOI Heft:
Heft 1
DOI Artikel:Baring, Maurice: Hamlet and Dr. Dodd: Letter from a frenchman, translated from the french
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.73550#0037
is not held in obloquy; for instance, the brother of Dr. Dodd succeeded to his
living on the recommendation of Lord Chesterfield.
Now to return to the playhouse and Hamlet. How is it that a people which
abhors bloodshed in general, which fears murder, to whom poison and assassina-
tion are unknown, and which carries, regard even towards the criminal to
the extent I have described, can take
pleasure in theatrical spectacles as barba-
rous and revolting as their own ? The
executions at London seem but games.
The tragedies of the playhouse, on the
other hand, are butcheries, causing even
such spectators as are familiar with
bloodshed to shudder.
It is only fair to say that those
Englishmen who have read and travelled
are slightly embarrassed when a
foreigner, who has heard the extravagant
praises paid to the "divine" Shakespeare,
comes to London to see for himself the
works of this genius. They teil us that
the populace are the lords of the English
stage, and that they must needs be
pleased. It is their depraved taste, we are
told, which maintains these spectacles
which would empty the theatres in any
other country. I am quite ready to
believe it; but then it is only drunken
sailors who should be asked to admire
Shakespeare, since it is only by drunken
sailors that his altars are supported.
On the other hand, I cannot help
adding that educated society shares to
a certain extent the prejudice of the
rabble, since it shares their pleasures.
The boxes are always full when
Shakespeare is on the bill, and last
night the play was well received;
the disgusting jokes and the extravagant
ravings duly listened to and applauded
by men, women, lawyers, merchants,
Gordon Craig
Figur aus dem Hamlet der Cranach-Presse
lords, and sailors. One and all they seemed to breathe with delight the obnoxious
vapours of that earth which is made up of the remains of corpses. Compare
this deliberate brutality, which educated men have tried to justify in books,
with the mildness of the penal laws and the real executions, and explain it if you
can! As for me, I will not visit the playhouse again until the question is solved.
(Mit Genehmigung des Verlages William Heinemann Ltd. London.)
11
living on the recommendation of Lord Chesterfield.
Now to return to the playhouse and Hamlet. How is it that a people which
abhors bloodshed in general, which fears murder, to whom poison and assassina-
tion are unknown, and which carries, regard even towards the criminal to
the extent I have described, can take
pleasure in theatrical spectacles as barba-
rous and revolting as their own ? The
executions at London seem but games.
The tragedies of the playhouse, on the
other hand, are butcheries, causing even
such spectators as are familiar with
bloodshed to shudder.
It is only fair to say that those
Englishmen who have read and travelled
are slightly embarrassed when a
foreigner, who has heard the extravagant
praises paid to the "divine" Shakespeare,
comes to London to see for himself the
works of this genius. They teil us that
the populace are the lords of the English
stage, and that they must needs be
pleased. It is their depraved taste, we are
told, which maintains these spectacles
which would empty the theatres in any
other country. I am quite ready to
believe it; but then it is only drunken
sailors who should be asked to admire
Shakespeare, since it is only by drunken
sailors that his altars are supported.
On the other hand, I cannot help
adding that educated society shares to
a certain extent the prejudice of the
rabble, since it shares their pleasures.
The boxes are always full when
Shakespeare is on the bill, and last
night the play was well received;
the disgusting jokes and the extravagant
ravings duly listened to and applauded
by men, women, lawyers, merchants,
Gordon Craig
Figur aus dem Hamlet der Cranach-Presse
lords, and sailors. One and all they seemed to breathe with delight the obnoxious
vapours of that earth which is made up of the remains of corpses. Compare
this deliberate brutality, which educated men have tried to justify in books,
with the mildness of the penal laws and the real executions, and explain it if you
can! As for me, I will not visit the playhouse again until the question is solved.
(Mit Genehmigung des Verlages William Heinemann Ltd. London.)
11