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From the introductory. IN these supreme days of our nation's struggle for existence and freedom, there is no direction in which we can more profitably turn for solace and distraction from our overweighted thoughts, and for support and inspiration in our hours of trial and strain, than to our great national poet, Shakespeare, in whose works, whether acted or read, while being lifted out of our- selves, we may find expressed more thoroughly and intensely than in those of any other Englishman the spirit and the feelings which animate us -- his fellow countrymen -- at this tremendous crisis in the fate of our -- and his -- beloved country. This, it is hoped, may be sufficient apology for submitting at such a time the results of the writer's researches into the mode in which one of Shakespeare's plays was presented in his life-time, and probably under his personal superintendence, before the Court of King James at Whitehall. Especially may this be so, perhaps - small as the subject may seem, beside the vast, and ever-expanding lore, that deals with Shakespeare and his art, and insignificant as may appear the present writer's contribution towards it -- if, nevertheless, it should help us, however so little, towards arriving at the right solution of that ever-present and ever-pressing problem -- equally pressing for play-goers, play actors, and play producers -- namely, what is, with due regard to the dramatist's work, the best and most loyal, as well as the most effective and convincing mode of presenting his plays on the modern stage? It is now just 306 years and a half since, on 1st November, 1611, in the old banqueting-house of Whitehall Palace, on the site where stands to-day Inigo Jones's later building, there was presented by Shakespeare's Company of His Majesty's Players, before King James and his Court, that most perfect and enchanting creation of our great dramatist -- the crown of his life's work -- The Tempest.

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