Page:Life of Thomas Hardy - Brennecke.pdf/283

 power of tragedy should be felt apart from representation and actors.

The production of The Dynasts in abbreviated form at the Kingsway Theatre, London, on November 25, 1914, forms a rather unique paragraph in English stage history. It is the story of an unplayable play made playable. Hardy had already tentatively suggested in the Preface, that a performance some day might be made possible by the use of a "monotonic delivery of speeches, with dreamy conventional gestures, something in the manner traditionally maintained by the old Christmas mummers . . . with gauzes or screens to blur the outlines . . . and shut off the actual." This suggestion despite the rather apologetic manner in which it was thrown out, drew a small storm of ridicule from the reviewers, as might have been expected. Yet the actual performance proved "a success no less delightful than unlikely." A special prologue and epilogue were added by Hardy for this performance. The prologue is as follows: