Excerpt from Shaksperian Studies Coquelin asserted that the spectator of Moliere, becoming a reader, supplied mentally the illustrative actions which he could not find in the text. But how about the reader of Moliere who has never been a spectator? His memory cannot supply this material; and even if his imagination is active, he can never invent as adroitly or as abundantly as the actors themselves, charged with the high responsibility of actual performance and trained to seru tinize the dialog assiduously in search of histrionic opportunity. The task which Regnier began and which Coquelin failed to carry out, may yet be completed by one or another of the come dians of the Theatre Francais; and even before it is finally accomplished for Moliere, it may be undertaken for Shakspere. The Shaksperian traditions are as many, as varied and as helpful; and they are now kept alive only by word of mouth, descending orally from actor to actor or preserved by the industry of a chance stage-manager in the flagrant insecurity of an unprinted prompt-copy. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.