authority, for Merchant Taylors' (where his younger brother Theophilus, afterwards Bishop of Hereford, was certainly educated). His father was a Puritan preacher, with a strong bias against the stage. About 1600 Field was "taken" by Nathaniel Giles, and became one of the leading members of his troupe. At a later date (1609) he acted the namepart in Jonson's "Epicoene, or the Silent Woman," and in the fifth act found, perhaps, little difficulty in representing the noisy boy into whom the "Silent Woman" is changed. When he left the stage Field collaborated with Fletcher in more than one of his plays, and with Massinger in the "Fatal Dowry," thus carrying on the tradition of actor-author which we see in Shakespeare. Of the plays written entirely by Field the best are "A Woman's a Weathercock,' and the sequel, "Amends for Ladies." He afterwards became a publisher, and to this period belongs a spirited defence of the stage, which he wrote in answer to Puritan attacks. He died a few years before the theatres were closed by order of the Long Parliament. Salathiel Pavy's career was brief. He also was a good actor, excelling in old men's parts, but died at the age of thirteen. Ben Jonson, who evidently had a liking for these young actors (see his induction to "Cynthia's Revels"), wrote a poem on Pavy's death: "Weep with me, all ye that read This little story: And know, for whom a tear you shed, 'Twas a child, that so did thrive In grace and feature, As Heaven and Nature seemed to strive Which own'd the creature. Years he numbered scarce thirteen When Fates turn'd cruell, Yet three filled zodiacs had he been And did act, what now we moan, Old men so duely As, sooth, the Parcae thought him one, He plai'd so truely. So, by error, to his fate They all consented. But viewing him since (alas, too late!), They have repented. And have sought, to give new birth, In baths to steep him, But being so much too good for earth In the induction to "Cynthia's Revels" three boy-actors dispute as to which of them shall speak the prologue. They decide it by casting lots. Before the winner can begin, one of the losers spoils the effect of the prologue by a description of the plot. He also imitates the action of a man smoking as he talks, and generally behaves on the stage as we may suppose these boys behaved when off it. This suggests a somewhat unpleasing effect of the profession of actor upon boys, making them pert and self-assertive. Their life was one of unhealthy excitement, and their general education suffered to some extent. But it must be remembered that theatre hours were earlier then than they are now; and acting was held by practical teachers like Mulcaster to be a part of a liberal education, as it embodied graceful gesture and clear elocution. To the early training of the boy-actors we may attribute some of the excellence of the men's companies. The influence of boy-actors upon the choice of subject and dramatic treatment is an important question, of which only the outlines can here be given. To boy-actors are due: (1) The choice of satiric, farcical, or allegorical subjects, where a nimble wit and fancy were needed in the actor rather than strong passions. We see the distinction when we contrast Peele's or Lyly's plays with those of, say, Marlowe or Shakespeare. (2) The musical element: many of the songs in the Elizabethan dramatists were written to show the boy's voices. (3) The frequency of disguises: in Elizabethan plays women readily slip into doublet and hose; instances are, in Shakespeare, Rosalind, Viola, and Imogen; in Beaumont and Fletcher, Euphrasia. Whether the character of any of Shakespeare's women suggests that the dramatist was intentionally writing for a boy is doubtful. Rosalind is, perhaps, a case in point, but Constance, Miranda, Olivia, Cleopatra, Lady Macbeth, are clear cases of the contrary. It was not till the time of the Restoration that women were employed as actresses in England. The last boy-actor to appear in female parts was Francis Kynaston, of whom it is related that King Charles II, coming earlier than usual to the play, VOL. XXXII. 7 was kept waiting; and, becoming impatient, asked why the play did not begin. He was informed that the Queen (Kynaston) was unfortunately not yet shaven.* In Japan, at the present day, it is said that there are few actresses, as, until recently, the stage was considered to be an occupation unfit for women. 66 * I am indebted for one or two suggestions to F. C. Schelling The Queen's Progress" (Essays,' 1904), pp. 105, foll. REALISM IN POETRY. BY ERNEST HARTLEY COLERIDGE, M.A., HON.F.R.S.L. [Read March 19th, 1913.] REALISM in its living and current sense, as applied to poetry or painting or sculpture, is a misbegotten word. It is used to convey the very opposite meaning to its original and proper significance. It denotes that process of the intellect which ignores the phenomenal or actual and fastens upon the invisible essence and substance, but it passes for a convenient label for the attempt or desire to fix the attention upon the actual, and to belittle or ignore the unseen. It identifies truth with fact, and demands the fact, the whole fact, and nothing but the fact. It wastes no time in selection or preparation in the quest of the fittest or the most becoming. It expends its energy in reproducing whatever is, as if its whole vocation were an endless imitation, or, rather, copying of the accidental, and thus by a natural process, and just because the imagination is sterilised, realism exaggerates and exalts the meaner, the uglier, and the grosser facts as the truer truth and averts the gaze from "all that poets feign of bliss and joy." I am speaking of realism in poetry, not as it has been, or is, or as it might be, but of its vulgar connotation, of what is meant by the VOL. XXXII. 8 |