Shakespeare on the American Stage: From the Hallams to Edwin Booth by Charles H. Shattuck (review)

REVIEWS Charles H. Shattuck. Shakespeare on the American Stage: From the Hal/ams to Edwin Booth. Washington, D.C. : The Folger Shakespeare Library, 1976. Pp. xiv + 170. $7.95 paper; $ 19.95 cloth. 106 illustrations. In his Preface, the author indicates that Shakespeare on the American Stage grew out of the "thought that during the Bicentennial Year the American history of Shakespeare should be celebrated as .part of the nation's history." Because the topic came to seem too extensive, however, he decided to end his account near the end of .the nineteenth century, specifically with the career of Edwin Booth. Furthermore, within this time span he did not attempt to provide a complete history of Shake­ spearean production in America. Rather, he states, "it has been my method to select those few figures in each generation whose work seems to me to typify or to set the tone for the Shakespearean theatre of their time, and to treat those figures in suffi cient detail that their significance becomes clear." This handsomely illustrated book is divided into five chapters. Chap­ ter I, ''The Eighteenth Century," concentrates primarily on the Hallam­ Douglass company and the reestablishment of the theatre after the Revolutionary War; Chapter II, ''The Wild Ones," is largely devoted to George Frederick Cooke, Edmund Kean, and Junius Brutus Booth; Chapter III, "Three Natives-and Another Visitor," describes the acting careers of James H. Hackett, Edwin Forrest, William C. Macready (including the Forrest-Macready feud) , and Charlotte Cushman; Chap­ ter IV, "Fresh Fashions from Abroad," treats Charles and Fanny Kemble, Mr. and Mrs. Charles Kean, and William E. Burton; and Chapter V, "Masters of the Craft,'' completes the overview with an examination of E. L. Davenport, John McCullough, and Edwin Booth. A glance at this list will show that the majority of those selected for detailed atten­ tion are English rather than American. Other Shakespearean actors are treated only briefly; many relatively famous ones are barely mentioned or are allotted less than a page of text. Thus, Shattuck remains true to his decision to discuss only those few performers who seem to him to "typify or set the tone" for their time. Shattuck further states: "I have refrained, too, from any attempt to report the spread of Shakespeare across the nation. . . . I have limited my scope mainly to the cities of the East and, after the turn into the nineteenth century, mainly to what happened in New York City. For ultimately whatever set the style of Shakespearean playing and produc­ tion in America came into or came out of the theatrical capital of the 75 76 Comparative Drama country and was well reported there." Overall, then, this book seeks to make the reader aware of the essence of Shakespearean performance in America at specific points in time and of how performance changed over a period of approximately 150 years. Within the limits established by Shattuck, this book is very success­ ful, as one might expect from an author who has already demonstrated in other works his mastery of Shakespearean production in the nine­ teenth century. His is no dull account. His style is graceful and his narrative consistently interesting. He manages to convey a feeling for the personality and style of each performer and, because Shakespearean acting was so often considered the ultimate test of theatrical skill, his account captures much of the flavor of the American theatre as a whole during the years between 1750 and 1 900. Thus, Shattuck's overall ac­ complishment is impressive. Nevertheless, the book is open to criticism on a number of points. First, the decision to end with Booth seems excessively arbitrary. It would appear more logical to have broken off the account at the first World War, after which distinctive new trends became evident in Shakespearean production. Furthermore, it seems inevitable that each reader will quarrel with the omission of one or more of his favorite actors. In addition, the usefulness of the excellent illustrations is dimin­ ished by the failure to date many of them or to identify adequately the specific content. For example, Figure 35, "Interior of Niblo's Garden," is located in a chapter that ends around 1850; but...