The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 13.1510  Tuesday, 11 June 2002

From:           Terence Hawkes <
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Date:           Monday, 10 Jun 2002 13:10:19 -0400
Subject: Re: Did Shakespeare Hate Actors?
Comment:        SHK 13.1504 Re: Did Shakespeare Hate Actors?

As a writer, Shakespeare might, not unreasonably, have been suspicious
of 'players' (the term hints at a broader and more appropriate range of
practices than 'actors'). Hamlet's rather prissy advice to them in
Elsinore certainly suggests the basis for a potential clash. He is of
course spectacularly mistaken.  Mere 'acting', as The Mousetrap
demonstrates, and as we know today to our cost, is no threat to anyone.

T. Hawkes

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