Orlando John Stevenson

Transcription

1 Orlando John Stevenson Orlando John Stevenson, head of the English Department at the Ontario Agricultural College from 1919 to 1939, was the foremost interpreter of Shakespeare s plays during the twentieth century for Canadian students and their teachers. Between 1915 and 1943 Stevenson wrote the Canadian School Shakespeare Series; a series of edited and annotated texts of fourteen Shakespearean plays. Published by Copp Clark, these books formed the standard Shakespeare guides for public and high school pupils in Canadian schools from the time of the First World War until well into the 1970s. Even after Stevenson s death in 1950, Copp Clark continued to publish his texts: over one million of these books were sold between 1950 and Pocketbook sized, these small guides packed much more into the history and interpretation of the plays than other student guides available at the time. Stevenson provided background on the life of Shakespeare, on the theatre in Shakespeare s period, on the metre of the plays, on their literary constructions and on the sources of the characters and plots Shakespeare used. Along with a thorough lexicon to guide students through the language of Shakespeare s day, Stevenson also included a detailed chapter on how to stage a Shakespearean play. Many of his guides were beautifully illustrated by Elsie Starling with pen and ink drawings in an Art Nouveau style. Perhaps most appreciated by his Canadian readers though, were Stevenson s engaging and exhaustive review notes on each play. Stevenson designed his notes to appeal to students and to address their study needs. As Stevenson stated, The material is so arranged that the pupil in junior classes many easily obtain the help that he finds necessary; while at the same time the senior pupil will also find in the book all the assistance he requires in preparation for his examinations. (Until the mid-1960s, admission to universities was dependent on the results of comprehensive Grade 13 examinations administered by the Province of Ontario.) To help these students, Stevenson included lists of questions from previous Provincial exams such as this one from As You Like It: Corin is a real shepherd, Shakespeare s compliment to honest labour. Discuss. Stevenson s notes challenged students to think carefully about the construction and the content of the plays he presented to them. He issued contentious statements and urged students to debate them. For instance, he asked students of Romeo and Juliet to consider if Act II, Scene I, of Romeo and Juliet should be dropped altogether since, Stevenson suggested, it does not contribute anything important to the development of the play. He maintained that the best way to understand Shakespearean drama was to stage it, and advised teachers to divide their students into two casts for each scene, and have them compete to produce the most effective interpretation. While Stevenson s notes provided engaging exercises for millions of schoolchildren across the country and their teachers to help them understand Shakespeare s plays, Stevenson himself brought Shakespeare to life for students at the Ontario Agricultural College. In 1916, shortly after publishing his guide to Julius Caesar, Stevenson joined the English Department at the Ontario Agricultural College and soon became the head of the Department and its preeminent professor. As he did in his published guides to Shakespeare, Stevenson tried to engage students on campus through a variety of teaching methods. He was an advocate of the New Education Movement a student-centred philosophy of experiential and visual learning, begun years earlier in Ontario by Egerton Ryerson. In his first year at the College, Stevenson brought a phonograph to the classroom and played recordings of Shakespearean plays to his English literature classes. He showed them magic lantern slides (an early form of slide projection) to illustrate his lectures and hung portraits of Shakespeare on his classroom walls.

2 Stevenson was a mentor to thousands of OAC students, among them John Kenneth Galbraith, who described Stevenson and his colleague E.C. McLean as men who deeply loved their craft, and were willing to spend endless hours with a student, however obscure his talent. OAC students were equally devoted to O.J. Stephenson. With the Governor General Lord and Lady Tweedsmuir in attendance, the student body gave Stevenson a standing ovation at his retirement ceremony in He humbly replied in the words of the Bard as spoken by Bassanio in The Merchant of Venice You have bereft me of all words I am beset with shame and courtesy. Stevenson s passion for teaching and his concern for his OAC students reverberated long after they graduated and left the Guelph campus. He published a column of English usage in every issue of the OAC Review until his death in Fondly called the Grand Old Man of the Campus, Stevenson is still remembered by alumni as one of the best teachers that ever lived. Shakespeare deserves no less. References Cited Galbraith, Jon Kenneth. Writing, Typing and Economics The Atlantic Monthly, March 1978, pp McConkey, O.M. Dr. O.J. Stephenson OAC Review November 1951, pp McMaster University Archives, Copp Clark Fonds, Accession , Series 9, Royalty Ledgers, Box 30a. Stephenson, O.J The Old and the New in Literature Teaching The English Journal Vol.3, No.2. (Feb., 1914) pp Stephenson O.J., Canadian School Shakespeare Series: Shakespeare s Julius Caesar; For Use in Public and High Schools. With annotations by O. J. Stevenson. Toronto, Copp Clark, Shakespeare s Macbeth; For Use in Public and High Schools. With annotations by O. J. Stevenson. Vancouver, Copp Clark, Shakespeare s The Merchant of Venice; For Use in Public and High Schools. With annotations by O. J. Stevenson.Toronto, Copp Clark, Shakespeare s A Mid-Summer s Night Dream; For Use in Public and High Schools. With annotations by O. J. Stevenson.Toronto, Copp Clark, Shakespeare s As You Like It; For Use in Public and High Schools. With annotations by O. J. Stevenson.Toronto, Copp Clark, Shakespeare s Henry the Fourth, Part 1; For Use in Public and High Schools. With annotations by O. J. Stevenson. Toronto, Copp Clark, Shakespeare s King Henry the Fifth; For Use in Public and High Schools. With annotations by O. J. Stevenson. Toronto, Copp Clark, 1923.

3 Shakespeare s Twelfth Night; For Use in Public and High Schools. With annotations by O. J. Stevenson. Toronto, Copp Clark, Shakespeare s The Tempest. With annotations by O. J. Stevenson. Toronto, Copp Clark, Shakespeare s Hamlet; For Use in Universities and High Schools. With annotations by O. J. Stevenson. Toronto, Copp Clark, Shakespeare s The Taming of the Shrew. With annotations by O. J. Stevenson. Toronto, Copp Clark, Shakespeare s Romeo and Juliet; For Use in Universities and High Schools. With annotations by O. J. Stevenson. Toronto, Copp Clark, Shakespeare s Much Ado About Nothing. With annotations by O. J. Stevenson. Toronto, Copp Clark, Shakespeare s Richard II. With annotations by O. J. Stevenson. Toronto, Copp Clark, Wagner, Rosemary, Dr. O.J. Stevenson, A Legacy of Teaching Humanities at the Ontario Agricultural College. Guelph: Alumni, Ontario Agricultural College, 2001.

4 Publishing statistics for O.J. Stevenson, Canadian School Shakespeare Series in Copp Clark Fonds, McMaster University Archives. Accession Series Royalty Ledgers, Box 30a: (rough) The Tempest: 13,545 Twelfth Night 107,560 The Taming of the Shrew 53,329 Hamlet 71,604 As You Like It 63,408 Henry Fourth, Part I 71,238 Henry Fifth 23,587 Julius Caesar 102,445 Macbeth 135,744 The Merchant of Venice 266,666 A Midsummer s Night Dream 40,215 Romeo and Juliet 73,455 Richard III 14,565 Box 35 Publications Book 1930s-1940s shows sales of 80,250 copies most of which are Hamlet. An extant typed index indicates that most of the records for the texts in the Canadian School Shakespeare Series are missing from the publications data for this period, as are the records for the 1920s. Each book was assigned a number, and limp editions listed separately from stiff. Entries are handwritten: No. 698 Hamlet Limp Edition : 58,500 copies. [Also reference to other unspecified sales listed in Old book which is missing and not in Archives] No. 699 Hamlet Stiff cover 1,000 copies June 1956, [Reference to Old Book ] No. 730 Macbeth paper craft 1,750 copies, 1934.

5 No. 735 Julius Caesar: 750 copies, 1934; No 753 Julius Caesar 5,000 copies: 1935 No. 754 Macbeth; 5,000 copies: [ text only ] No. 755 Merchant of Venice: Limp 5,000 copies: 1935 [ text only ] No. 756 Twelfth Night limp 5000; 1935 [ text only ] No.757 Midsummer s Night Dream: 5000 copies; 1935 [ text only ]