THE ELIZABETHAN STAGE SOCIETY.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR.]
Siii,—May I call the attention of your readers to an appeal made by Mr. Sidney Lee on behalf of the funds of our Society, which was published in the Times of July 31st as well as in other daily papers? After four years' experience it has been found impossible to revive our classical drama in a becoming and dignified manner without incurring a loss of £50 on each revival. The funds available to meet this loss are now exhausted, and we are obliged either to abandon the revivals or to ask for subscriptions. Some of the Press ridicule our confession that the work is not self-supporting. And yet Ruskin asks why a nation should expect to make money out of a theatre, and not out of a man-of-war. Our music academies, art schools, and picture-galleries are all liberally endowed, but the theatre of Shakespeare's time, that which all commentators are agreed upon is our most precious intellectual inheritance, still remains with its doors closed, waiting for the nation to recognise its claims and to honour its playwrights,—to honour them by giving back to their written page what the Elizabethans called "the life of the action."—I am, Sir, &c.,
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