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from them towards Horatio standing at his left, and sinking his voice into a musing and an undertone inquired of Horatio particularly, “ Arm'd, say you?" no one could have been misled from this special reference to the Ghost.'

In the First Folio, and in the early Quarto editions, the answers to Hamlet's particular inquiries are printed differently; being in one copy ascribed to 'both,' and in another to 'all'; but whether these answers properly belong to the two officers only, or to all three who were witnesses, is quite immaterial; because in the acting of the scene it is right and proper to use the most obvious method to convey to an audience the dramatist's meaning. . . . . And Hackett recommends the actor of Hamlet to confine his questions concerning the Ghost to Horatio, for various good reasons.

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[Page 148.] His beard was grizzled? No?' Mr Macready after grizzled,' allowed the witnesses not a moment for reflection, but impatiently and rather comically stammered, 'N'-n'-no?'

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Pol. Will you walk out of the air, my lord? Ham. Into my grave! Mr Macready uttered Hamlet's reply interrogatively, which was new to my ear upon the stage; but, though it is the punctuation of the Folio 1623, I would prefer that it should be given as an exclamation.

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Mr Macready's style wanted the philosophic sententiousness requisite for an harmonious delivery of the analysis of man;' besides which he adopted the late John Kemble's omission of the indefinite article a' before man'; an omission not warranted by any of the original and authentic editions: the true text is, when Hamlet would analyze God's animated machine, What a piece of work is a man!' The article 'a' prefixed to the word 'man' is essential here, because Hamlet descants particularly upon the male sex and their attributes as constituting the paragon of animals,' and in contradistinction to the female portion of human kind, enumerates the peculiar and highest order of men's intellectual gifts combined with a perfection of personal formation, and when he has summed them all up, he adds, Man delights not me!' The courtier then smiles, and he rebukes him with, Nor woman neither,' &c. Now had Hamlet begun with What a piece of work is man? such a general term, man, in his premises would have signified the genus Homo, and been understood by the courtier as comprehending woman also, and thus the point of Hamlet's rebuke at this imagined impertinence been lost.

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[Page 149.] Mr Macready's emphasis and intonation of the word 'southerly,' 'I am but mad north, northwest; when the wind is southerly I know a hawk from a handsaw,' were such as to imply to a listener that when the wind may be from the south the atmosphere is clearer than when from the north, northwest; whereas the very reverse, according to Shakespeare elsewhere, is the fact; for example, see As You Like It, III, v: You foolish shepherd, wherefore do you follow her, Like foggy south, puffing with wind and rain.' Hamlet, as I understand the passage,* means to reflect gently upon the conceited cleverness of those clumsy spies, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, whose ill-concealed designs are transparent to him, by intimating to them that their employers are deceived in respect to the point or direction of his madness; that, figuratively, his brain is disordered only upon one of the clearest points of the compass, to wit, north, northwest; but that even when the wind is southerly, and his intellectual atmosphere in consequence most befogged and impenetrable, his observation is not so mad or erratic as to be unable to distinguish between two such dissimilar objects, for example, as a hawk and a handsaw,' &c.

[Page 151.] In the sentence To die? to sleep,-No more!' Mr Macready to my

surprise, but not satisfaction, punctuated by his tone of voice the words 'no more' (?) as an interrogatory, and as though they involved the continuity of a question, instead of that denoting an emphatic and responsive exclamation (!) of a conclusive reflection upon his own preceding answer to his self-inquiry.

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[Page 159.] Guil. The king, sir, is in his retirement, marvellously distempered. Ham. With drink, sir?' Mr Macready, instead of as an interrogation, uttered the words rapidly and in a tone of exclamation, denoting an unquestionable conclusion. It was good and not objectionable, for the reason that the sneer at the habits of the bloat king' is practically conveyed to the listener by either punctuation.

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[Page 168.] That skull had a tongue in it and could sing once.' Mr Macready, like every other actor seen by me, by his emphasis rendered 'tongue' and 'sing' antithetical, which fails to point to the listener the moral intended. Hamlet begins moralizing to Horatio as they enter the graveyard, upon the grave-digger's habit of singing whilst engaged in so melancholy an employment; when they have approached him more nearly the grave-digger sings a second verse, and with his spade at the same time throws up a skull; Hamlet then remarks, That SKULL had a tongue in it and could sing ONCE!' to convey the idea that the skull now so mute, and knocked about by the rude clown, ONCE had a tongue in it, and could do that which he (the grave-digger), is then doing, namely SINGING; this moral-painting of Hamlet's reflection can be most clearly conveyed to an auditor's comprehension by special emphasis and intonation, rendering the words, ‘SKULL' and 'once,' strongly emphatical as antitheses, thus, That SKULL, had a tongue in it and could sing ONCE.'

[Mr Barry Sullivan, when playing Hamlet during his recent tour of the United States, uniformly rendered the passage 'When the wind is southerly I know a hawk from a handsaw,' thus, When the wind is southerly I know a hawk from a heron. Pshaw!

I have heard the late Charles Kean, and other actors, emphasize the following passage thus, Hor. I saw him once; he was a goodly king. Ham. He was a MAN! Take him for all in all,' &c. J. C.]

FECHTER

MISS KATE FIELD (Fechter as Hamlet. Atlantic Monthly, November, 1870): I'll cross it though it blast me.' Heretofore Horatios have senselessly crossed the Ghost's path, as if such a step would stay its progress. Not so with Fechter, whose Horatio makes the sign of the cross, at which the Ghost stops, as a Catholic ghost should. . . .

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He is gloomy enough, is Fechter's Hamlet, as he sits beside his mother, starting when the King addresses him as our son,' yet gently exclaiming, while kissing the Queen's hand with courtly grace, and giving by an almost imperceptible accent a key to the estimate in which he holds his uncle-father: I shall in all my best obey you, madam.' Left to himself, he gazes fondly at his father's portrait, worn about his neck, and illustrates his beautiful apostrophe by reference to it. . . .

Fechter, meditating on the startling intelligence that the apparition wore his beaver up, murmurs: Very like,' as if the sentence read: Very like - my father!

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When Horatio calls without, Heaven secure him,'-meaning Hamlet,-Fechter, intent upon the Ghost, prayerfully adds, ‘So be it.'

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'Conception is a blessing; but as your daughter may conceive,-friend, look to't.' It is a mad laugh that follows friend.' Hamlet points to his open book as he mutters look to't,' and Polonius, literal in all things, runs his eye over the page to learn the cause of this defect.'

Hamlet's reception of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern is most cordial until he sees his uncle's portrait around the neck of the latter; then the expression and manner change. . . . . Hamlet's rejoinder, And those that would make mouths at him while my father lived give twenty, forty, fifty, an hundred ducats apiece for his picture in little,' is illustrated by his taking up the picture pendent from Guildenstern's neck. Upon dropping it, he crosses to the right, and makes an ‘aside' of the succeeding sentence, 'There is something in this,' &c. . . .

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Fechter points the moral of the soliloquy, To be, or not to be,' by bringing on an unsheathed sword, as if he had again been contemplating the suicide that would free him from his oath. . . . .

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[When the Players enter, Fechter] was the first to introduce a boy with chopins, in lieu of a woman actress [sic].

[Hamlet] never forgets to spare Polonius in the presence of others. . . . . ‘It was a brute part of him,' Hamlet replies; and then, walking away, adds as an aside, ‘to kill so capital a calf there!' . . . .

That's wormwood' is addressed to Horatio.

Before the sobbing Queen retires, she once more turns to her son, exclaiming, 'Hamlet!'-this is Fechter's introduction,-and stretches out her hands for a filial embrace. Hamlet holds up his father's picture, the sight of which speaks volumes to the wretched woman, who staggers from the stage. Kissing this picture, Hamlet murmurs sadly, I must be cruel only to be kind;' then, taking light in hand and raising the arras, gazes at Polonius, exclaiming: Thus bad begins, and worse remains behind.'

When Fechter produces Hamlet in his own theatre, the time of the churchyard scene is that of a brilliant sunset, making a fine contrast between the thoughtless joy of Nature and the grief of humanity. . . .

'What, the fair Ophelia ?' and, overwhelmed with agony, Hamlet falls on his knees beside a tomb, and buries his head in his hands. In the controversy between Hamlet and Laertes, Macready and Kemble leaped into the grave, and there went through the grappling in true Punch and Judy fashion. The illustrious example [see the stage-direction in the First Quarto. ED.] has been often followed; but Fechter wisely abstains from the absurdity, not approaching the grave until his last word is spoken, when, gazing in agony at the gaping void and at Ophelia's corse, he is dragged off the stage by Horatio.

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Fechter's arrangement of the stage [in the last scene] is admirable. In the background runs a gallery, to which a short flight of stairs leads on each side of the stage, and by which all exits and entrances are made. To the left stands the throne where sits the King. The moment Hamlet exclaims, Ho! let the door be locked; Treachery! seek it out,' the King exhibits signs of fear, and, while Laertes makes his terrible confession, he steals to the opposite stairs, shielding himself from Hamlet's observation behind the group of courtiers, who, paralyzed with horror, fail to remark the action. Laertes no sooner utters the words, The king's to blame,' than Hamlet turns suddenly to the throne in search of his victim; discovering the ruse, he rushes up the left-hand stairs, meets the King in the centre of the gallery, and stabs him. . . . . Descending, the potent poison steals upon Hamlet, who, murmur

ing, 'The rest is silence,' falls dead on the corpse of Laertes, thus showing his for. giveness of treachery and remembrance of Ophelia.

MACREADY

(The Hamlets of the Stage. Atlantic Monthly, August, 1869.)—In the scene before the [court-play,] where the Prince says to Horatio, 'They are coming to the play; I must be idle,' all other Hamlets had taken idle' in the sense of being listless and unoccupied. Macready gave it a much more liberal construction [see III, ii, 85, and note. ED.], counterfeiting a foolish youth, skipping across the stage in front of the footlights, and switching his handkerchief, which he held by one corner, over his right and left shoulder alternately, until the King asked after his health.

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EDWIN FORREST *

In the line, I shall in all my best obey you, madam,' Mr Forrest has the good taste not to emphasize 'you.'

'Niobe' was pronounced Niobe, not Nerobe.

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The line, Thrift, thrift, Horatio,' was read so as to convey the idea of haste, not the motive of economy which the word seems to imply, in making funeral-baked meats furnish forth the marriage-tables.'

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The line, Then saw you not his face?' was given as a soliloquy.

By Forrest's instruction, no doubt, the Ghost read: 'So art thou to revenge when thou shalt hear I am thy father's spirit,' no pause being made after the word 'hear.' In the line, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy,' the last word was emphasized, not your.'

'Sea of troubles' was read 'siege of troubles.'

The line to Ophelia, Nymph, in thy orisons Be all my sins remembered,' was read as a tender question: Be all my sins remembered?'

The instructions to the Player, Speak the speech,' &c., were made a great point by Forrest. It was subdued and wholly conversational. After speaking a few sentences he turned his back on the Player, and walked toward a chair. He then faced him, and again approached, again retired and seated himself, delivering the greater part of the speech in this attitude.

In the interview with the Queen large pictures on the wall were used, instead of miniatures.

The line to Polonius, 'Do you see yonder cloud?' was addressed to him at the wing, the wand pointing off the side scene, as through a window

EDWIN BOOTH

(Atlantic Monthly, May, 1866.)—Where a burlier tragedian must elaborately pose himself for the youth he would assume, this actor so easily and constantly falls into beautiful attitudes and movements, that he seems to go about, as we heard a humor

*This extract is from an old newspaper cutting, from which all indication of its date or title has been cut away. ED.

ist say, 'making statues all over the stage.' No picture can equal the scene where Horatio and Marcellus swear by his sword, he holding the crossed hilt upright between the two, his head thrown back and lit with high resolve.

LUCIA GILBERT CALHOUN (The Galaxy, Jan. 1869): 'O that this too too solid flesh would melt,' was given moving from side to side of the stage, or half flung down upon his chair in an attitude of utter abandonment. The story of the appearance of the Ghost he hears with feverish eagerness, but with extreme quiet.

In the scene with the Ghost, Hamlet is turned away, when Horatio suddenly exclaims, 'Look, my lord, it comes !' He catches sight of the vision, staggers toward Horatio, falls against him, gasping, ‘Angels and ministers of grace, defend us! It is not terror of the supernatural alone. It is the appalling confirmation of his fears. It is the presence of his father hovering on some awful border-land, which is not life nor death, but wherein is seen the horrible image of both. His voice is husky and far away. He shivers as if the cold of the grave were upon him. Then reverence for the majestical presence banishes fear. His voice gathers power and sweetness as the words struggle forth. When he utters the one word father, his love seems to overflow it, and expand it into volumes of tenderest speech as he falls on his knees and stretches out eager hands to the solemn shade. [See I, iv, 45. ED.] The Oh, answer me!' was incredibly imploring and persuasive.

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In the Third Act, the scene is handsomely set as an audience-chamber. A stately double staircase leads to a gallery, from which small doors open on the corridors without. In a deep embayed window Ophelia kneels. From a low arched door beneath the stairway glides the Prince, his head bent, his hands clasped before him, his step slow and uncertain. He steadies himself by the balustrade, moves on again mechanically, is stopped by a chair, sinks into it,-still silent, utterly absorbed. In another moment the 'To be, or not to be,' is uttered in a voice at first almost inaudible. . . . . Rising suddenly and crossing toward the window, he sees Ophelia. His whole face changes. A lovely tenderness suffuses it. Sweetness fills his tones as he addresses her. When, with exquisite softness of manner, he draws nearer to her, he catches a glimpse of the lawful espials' in the gallery above. . . . . When he says suddenly, Where's your father?' he lays his hand on Ophelia's head, and turns her face up to his as he stands above her. She answers, looking straight into the eyes that love her, At home, my lord.' No accusation, no reproach, could be so terrible as the sudden plucking away of his hand, and the pain of his face as he turns from her. The whole scene he plays like one distract. He is never still. He strides up and down the stage, in and out at the door, speaking outside with the same rapidity and vehemence. The speech I have heard of your paintings, too, well enough,' he begins in the outer room, and the contemptuous words hiss as they fall. It hath made me mad,' was uttered with a flutter of the hand about the head more expressive than words. As he turned toward Ophelia for the last time, all the bitterness, all the reckless violence seemed to die out of him; his voice was full of unutterable love, of appealing tenderness, of irrevocable doom, as he uttered the last To a nunnery go!' and tottered from the room as one who could not see for

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During the court-play, Hamlet lies at Ophelia's feet, watching the guilty King with ever fiercer regard. As the action proceeds he creeps toward him, and, as the mimic murder is accomplished, he springs up with a cry like an avenging spirit. It seems to drive the frightened court before it. In an instant he is alone with Horatio,

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