be termed the representative of an important period in the Annals of our National Drama.  In turning over the leaves of a history of the life of Edmund Kean, I came across the following sentence (the writer is speaking of Edmund Kean as having restored Nature to the stage):  “There seems always to have been this alternation between the Schools of Nature and Art (if we may so term them) in the annals of the English Theatre.”  Now if for Art I may be allowed to substitute Artificiality, which is what the author really meant, I think that his sentence is an epitome of the history of our stage; and it struck me at once that I could not select anything more appropriate—­I will not say as a text, for that sounds as if I were going to deliver a sermon—­but as the motif, or theme of the remarks I am about to address to you.  The four actors of whom I shall attempt to tell, you something—­Burbage, Betterton, Garrick, and Kean—­were the four greatest champions, in their respective times, on the stage of Nature in contradistinction to Artificiality.

When we consider the original of the Drama, or perhaps I should say of the higher class of Drama, we see that the style of acting must necessarily have been artificial rather than natural.  Take the Greek Tragedy, for instance:  the actors, as you know, wore masks, and had to speak, or rather intone, in a theatre more than half open to the air, and therefore it was impossible they could employ facial expression, or much variety of intonation.  We have not time now to trace at length the many vicissitudes in the career of the Drama, but I may say that Shakespeare was the first dramatist who dared to rob Tragedy of her stilts; and who successfully introduced an element of comedy which was not dragged in by the neck and heels, but which naturally evolved itself from the treatment of the tragic story, and did not violate the consistency of any character.

It was not only with regard to the writing of his plays that Shakespeare sought to fight the battle of Nature against Artificiality.  However naturally he might write, the affected or monotonous delivery of his verse by the actors would neutralize all his efforts.  The old rhyming ten-syllable lines could not but lead to a monotonous style of elocution, nor was the early blank verse much improvement in this respect; but Shakespeare fitted his blank verse to the natural expression of his ideas, and not his ideas to the trammels of blank verse.

In order to carry out these reforms, in order to dethrone Artifice and Affectation, he needed the help of actors in whom he could trust, and especially of a leading actor who could interpret his greatest dramatic creations; such a one he found in Richard Burbage.