Voices inside a poet's garden: John Masefield's theatricals at Boar's Hill

Abstract

Press reports of John Masefield's theatrical activities at Boar's Hill paradoxically detail his energetic idealism and ability to speak across social boundaries, efforts at once both democratic and elitist. A cultural reading of these reports, besides documenting one neglected facet of Masefield's theatrical career, exposes contrasting values embedded and unrecognized by those within the Boar's Hill Circle and connects “the poet's elocution” and Masefield's theatricals with larger cultural and social debates over appropriate speech, leisure time activities as cultural enrichment, and social mobility.