Theatre Design & Technology - Feb 1974 - 35

remain today a constant source of renewed
inspiration-and controversy. To catagorize the exact
nature of his contribution is difficult, for the
breadth and scope of his experiments transcended all
previous conceptions of the theatrical arts, and
shattered conventions.

This volume is certainly required reading for anyone who
is trying to understand the man and his work. Edward
begins his narrative long before Gordon Craig's birth
because he feels that only through knowledge of his
father's parents can the initial threads of the biographical
tapestry be woven. The story is then chronologically
developed through adolescence, two marriages and three
major affairs all coupled with the continually evolving
artistic stature. As Gordon penned in a letter in 1905:
The people thought I was reckless-see how cautious
my recklessness was. I threw overboard their old
machine first-then their scenes-then their methods
for moving the figures-then the playright-then
speech-now, last of all, the figures themselves-real
or pasteboard-over they go, trumpery and
unworthy-until a breed can be grown which are like
the rest of thought, hard, clear, passionless-

Tempestuous and unyielding in art, he was exactly the
same in his personal life. Singleminded in the pursuit of
his ideas and ideals, he was extravagant and generous, rude
and irresponsible, arrogant and touchy, moody and with
absolutely no sense of business or finances. His weak
character was balanced by his artistic brilliance, and the
combination produced monumental tragedy in the midst
of monumental genius. His son's biography captures the
job, the waste, the abundance, the struggles, the emptiness
and the loss in a touching and accurate protrait of a
flawed yet gigantic personality.
Today, as I look through his sketches and
manuscripts, I am caught by the excitement and the
enthusiasm in the ideas that he has
recorded-revelations of beauty, always a revelation,
always a development of the art of the theatre. The
fervor and devotion that he put into his work is
enshrined within it, and as one follows h is words or
looks at a scribbled sketch ...why, there he is again,
and all the old excitement begins once more.

Robert H. Cowden

A NEW COMPANION TO SHAKESPEARE
STUDIES
Edited by Kenneth Muir and S. Schoenbaum
Cambridge at the Univeisity Press
1971
298 pp.
A New Companion to Shakespeare Studies is really an
old companion revived and revised for the contemporary
study of the great Elizabethan. The original Companion
was published in 1934 and edited by two well-known men

THEATRE DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY

There is something for every interest. For those
theatrically oriented, there are chapters on the Elizabethan
public and private theaters, the acting and how it might
have been interpreted, the use of music in the plays, and
the interpretations of Shakespeare's plays in the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries.
Those more scholarly minded will find new considerations of Shakespeare's use of rhetoric, his poetry, his
narrative poems, and a comprehensive coverage of dramatic theory and criticism from the Restoration to 1970.
Personal preferences must single out some of the topics
and chapters. One decidedly valuable chapter for a better
understanding of the period, is W. R. Elton'sconsideration
of the thought, bel iefs, and practices of the Bard's age.
Another interesting chapter is the manner in which Joel
Hurstfield places Shakespeare in England's historical and
social background.
Randolph Quirk's extremely detailed and most knowledgeable essay, "Shakespeare and the English Language",
attempts to establish the kind of language study that is
most significant to students of Shakespeare today. He
points out the reading difficulties that exist for us which
did not exist for Shakespeare's time. We cannot respond
as Elizabethans did because we cannot comprehend the
archaic language and the "word-play."
Although much of what Shakespeare did is admittedly
conjecture (save for his plays), G. K. Hunter attempts
to determine what the playwright might have read as background for his plays. At most, it is good point of departure for informing the reader what an Elizabethan man
either acquired during his schooling or the literary material
he was exposed to during his adult years. Still another
chapter deals with Shakespeare's relationship with his
contemporaries (men such as Lyly, Marlowe, Jonson, and
Fletcher) and their influence upon his work.
There is also a fine reading list and a chronological
table paralleling Shakespeare's life and work with important national, literary, and theatrical events of the day.

Wayne State University

of the English theatre, Harley Granville-Barker and G. B.
Harrison. The new work, now edited by Mu ir and
Schoenbaum, brings together in one volume the knowledge of eighteen scholars; the sum total of which presents
Shakespeare, his theatre, his work, and his times in a
three dimensional and functional usage in the seventies.

One may not be an authority on William Shakespeare
by the time one finishes this collection of essays, but one
will certainly have a multi-faceted picture of the playwright, his work and his world. One minor criticism: The
reader would have appreciated biographical material on
the eighteen well-informed contributors.

David E. MacArthur
California State College - Long Beach

FEBRUARY. 1974

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Feb 1974