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annually . It stimulates the -minds of millions . Performed m barns , in minor tlieatres , and theatres royal , it always attracts . . The lowest and most ignora nt audiences delight in it : partly , no doubt , because of its Drofunditv and sublimity—for the human soul can ^ a grandeur which S cannot understand , and the dullest will listen with hushed ^ awe and sympathy to those outpourings of a great meditative mind obstinately Questioning fate and existence ; to the lowest as the highest it is , To be or not to be ! But Hamlet mainly delights the crowd by its wondrous dramatic and theatric art . ¦ ¦ ¦ ¦¦ _ . ¦ ¦ . m . „ , . The Ghostthe
Consider for a moment the variety of its effects . — tyrannous murderer—the faithless wife and queen—the melancholy hero doomed to such an awful fate—the poor OjjWw , brokenhearted , and dying mad—the play within a play , entrapping the conscience of the Iting—the grave-diggers in ghastly mirth—the funeral of Ophelia , and the quarrel over her grave—and finally , the hurried bloody denouement . Here are elements for several Fast dramas . Let us add thereto the passion and the poetry—let us note how Shakspeare by his _ art has made intensely interesting that which in other hands would have been . insufferably tedious—I mean Beverie . Hamlet is a tragedy of Thought ; there is as much reflection as action in it . It is the representation of a ^ nni- ,. «^ j ;//>^ . /> ortni o + vn rrrr iin «• pornir . st ; r » iTYM Tm stance : and in thi s resp ect
it is a theatrical paradox , for it makes Scepticism , Reverie , Jieneetion , dramatic .- Here the activity of thought supplies the place of action , and hurries the audience along with it . # ¦ " „ . „ ¦¦¦ ' . . The peculiarity of Hamlet is its indissoluble union of refinement with horrors , of thought with tumult , of high and delicate poetry with gross theatrical effects . Only pause for a moment to consider the machinery of this play . What a tissue of horrors it is ! the ghostly apparitionsthe incestuous adultery and murder—Hamlet half mad— Ophelta raving mad—Polonius killed like a rat behind the arras—grave-diggers casting Hlrnils nmn the stasre . and desecrating : the churchyard with their
ribaldry-a funeral interrupted by a furious quarrel between the two who loved the dead most dearly—murder planned—poisonings and stabbings to close this history , —and all these as the machinery for the most thoughtful and philosophic of poems ! In this respect , as in so many others , it resembles Faust : that , also , is a poem wild , fantastic , brutal in its machinery ; lofty , refined , and impassioned in its spirit . / I think , then , there is good reason for siding with fact against avuncular dogmatisms , and for declaring that Hamlet is not only a marvellous poem , but a great play . And this great play was performed here in London by the " great Germans , " who discovered Shakspeare , and who have taken out a patent for the correct appreciation of him . I have much to say on tluVhypothetieal superiority of German appreciation ; but tor the present my business is with Herr Devrient , as the acknowledged Samlet of Germany at this moment . The expectation raised was immense . Before venturing an opinion on the performance , it will be well to nx the
point of view . / . --. ' 7 , _ , There are three capital aspects in the representation ot Mamlet : —1 st . The princely elegance of a sorrowing profoundly meditative man . 2 nd . The fitful wildness of madness only half assumed . 3 rd . The lover ot Ophelia . On the first point there is no dispute . On the second and third points critics are not agreed . Now , did the occasion warrant it , 1 could prove Hamlet to be in such a state of cerebral excitement , that its outward manifestations should be those of madness , whether we consider him really mad or not ; so that , as regards the actor , at matters very little what view he takes of this vexed question , he must depict the wildness and fitfulness proper to the scene , and not , as Charles Kean does , preserve the same settled gloom and contemplative quiet after the interview with tho Ghost which served to express his mental condition before the interview On this point I shall venture to repeat what two years ago I said
when noticing Charles Kean's Hamlet : — " At the opening of the play , Hamlet is grave with the gloom of a father ' s sudden death , and the gloom is deepened and embittered by the indelicate marriage of his mother with his uncle . Tho world has become weary , flat , stale , and unprofitable to him . Woman has , in the person of his mother , been smitten from the pedestal whereon his love hud placed her , to fall down and worship , and her name lias become tho synonym of Frailty . Were it not that God had ' set his canon ' gainst self-slaughter , ' this gloom and bitterness would seelc an issuo _ in death : but lie resolves to suffer all in silence . But this state of Hamlet a mind acts the
is only preparatory . It bears tho same relation to tho subsequent as Bolemn , ghostly opening scenes , with their awful revelations , bear to the scenes of madness and crime which follow . The play opens on the platform ofthe castle at Elainoro It is tho depth of midnight ; tho sentinel pacing to and fro is nipped with cold , and shivering with vague terrors : nofc a mouse stirring ! The silence is broken only by tho regular footstep on the platform , and tho hoarse sullen innrmurs of the Keltic raving below . On this scene appoars tho Ghost . Ho roveals the crime which sent him from tho world , nnd then tho storm and terror of tho play biffins ; then come the madness of Hamlet , tho conviction of tho King , the murder of Polonius , the raving * of Ophelia , Ophelia ' s funeral interrupted and distrraced by tho quarrel , and , finally , tho general massacre of tho last scono ! lhq same ascension from settled gloom to wild and whirling horror and madness may be seen in Hamlet . After tho visitation of the Ghost , Hamlot is a changed man . horror ho that
His sorrowing nature has been ploughed to its depths by » . great his distended brain refuse * every alternate moment to credit it : tho shock has unsettled his reason . If ho is not mad , he is afc any roto in such a state ot irrepressible excitement that to feign madness scorns tho only possible relief to him . After tho revelations of the Ghost , Hamlot must bo in a totally different condition of mind from what ho was before . That difference Charles Koan doQB not repre-Hont Tho same gloom overshadows him whon alone ; tho s oxpresHion of lace accompanies him . ' Instead of tho agonizod houI of a boh in presence of an adulterous mother and a murderous uncle , ho exhibits the concentrated Borrow of the first act , diversified only by tho outbreaks of assumed madness . Ho does not clcuiofc tho hurrying agitation of thought that daro not settle on . tho ono horror which , nevertheless , they cannot escape . Tho excitement , even as simple excitement , is not represented ; and thus neither tho meaning of tho assumed madness , nor the effects of tho Ghost ' s revelations , are apparent in his acting . " According to tho view taken of Haml e t 's madness , his demeanour
toto answer the question . How did Emil Devrient succeed m Hamlet ? Indifferently . The princely elegance was never represented ; indeed I thought him ungainly , hut those around me thought him graceful , so let him have the benefit of their admiration . The sorrowing of a profoundly meditative nature I caught no glimpse of ; it was . more like dyspepsia than sorrow , and as unlike meditation as it was unlike reality . In fact , the first scene was very inferior to that played by Charles Kean , who does represent the settled sorrow of Hamlet , if he represent little else . While , in his interview with the Ghost , Herr Devrient had more the demeanour of a frightened school-boy than of the sceptical student and affectionate son . Let ine say , once for all , that I see no trace of superior intelligence in Emil Devrient ' s reading of his part , but very many evisuch will bear
wards Ophelia will be somewhat modified ; That he loved her is clear enough ; his treatment of her is not so clear if he were sane , though explicable upon the assumption of his derangenlent . At any rate , in their great scene there is a mingled tenderness and bitterness which affords the actor great scope : he should always looh the contrary of what he utters , and his ferocity should have that restless wildness in it which would excuse it in her eyes . If he is assuming madness , he would wish , her to believe him mad , and so interpret his harshness ; if he is really mad , the wildness is natural . I have thus established , as it were , some definite grounds of philosophic criticism on the representation of jHamlet . Setting details aside , I call your attention to the three central points in the character : if the actor rightly seize them , we may pass over imperfections of detail ; if he miss them , no excellence of detail will compensate . And now I am prepared
dences of careless , superficial interpretation , as no examination . There is too much of what may be called haphazard emotion — i . e ., emotion not following a thorough study of identification with the character , but arising from a sort of guess at what should be the feeling of the moment . To ^ give an example : He asks the players if they can perform a certain piece which he has in his eye , and moijeover , if they will insert some dozen lines that he will write . I am ashamed to be forced into such an obvious remark as th at Hamlet must be thoroughly aware of the peculiar bearing of the play lie has chosen , and has already determined upon , the use he will make of it to catch the conscience of the King ; but I am forced to make the remark , because Herr Devrient , in the soliloquy whicli followed- — " O what a rogue and peasant slave am I , " &c .
made a great point of suddenly conceiving this idea of using the play as a means of testing the King ; lie smacked his forehead , paused a long while , tried to throw speculation , into his eyes , and in low , mysterious accents announced to himself this very determination . Now this is what I call haphazard emotion . The slightest consideration of the character as a whole will serve to exhibit repeated instances of the same kind .- Of all characters on the stage , Hamlet raost demands from its performer a subtle sympathy and an appreciation of intellect , which certainly are not with Herr Devrient's nature . Whatever else there may be in his acting , there is not intense mental vigour . Were it not that space and time are wanting , I would undertake to ^ o through any scene , and point out proofs of whatlsav . Having , however , expressed my opinion with a frankness
demanded by the occasion , and by the enormous praise which Has greeted Herr Devrient , with more hospitality than discernment , let me now turn to what was excellent in his performance . The second aspect which tho character presents—viz ., that ot Matnlet half mad , was forcibly given . Herr Devrient—probably according to German tradition—preserve ^ the significant phrases addressed to the Ghost , " How now , old mole ! dost work i' the earth so fast , &c , and taking the plain hint given in such language , he represents the reason ot Hamlet as completely unsettled by the revelations of the Ghost—he is the madman lie affects to be . This one sceno was sufficient to show that a new version of Hamlet , more consistent with the text , would be far more effective than our English versions . Herr Devrient was wild , fittul , and ferhaps
impressive . The change from the earlier manner was complete , . in tho subsequent scenes a more intelligent actor would have been less monotonous m his wildness ; but , ' at any rate , it was something to seo the mad view of the part seriously taken up . As Ophelia's lover—the tmra aspect of tho part—Herr Devriont wanted tenderness altogctlior ( lie always does ) , but he played without tho harshness which usually spoils this scone ; and , indeed , it only wanted a little tenderness to make ic perfect . The elegance , the pathos , the fluctuating passion , and the ^" ft , of Hamlet , were but poorly represented ; but , on the other hand , tno madness was thoroughly grasped ; and very many of the speeches wJiici ono has boon accustomed to hear ranted and mouthed , were spoicen with a naturalness far more effective . To Bum up in a phrase : lien Dovrient has not a spark of genius , but lie is a practised actor , capamo of giving offect to certain passages ; and his Hamlet has some 8 ° Jn one can honestly praise , though not ono passage that roused any
ontnumo . _ . n e Tho JPolonius of Horr Limbiich , on tho contrary , was a lino piece w acting . He conceived JPolonius rather as a stupid than a sonilo man , an in so far ho orrcd , I think ; nevertheless , this is almost hyperoritioiBm o his excellent performance , which was admirable within its own limits , j was " mado up" like a Vaiulycko ; and tho unconscious garrulity ana feebleness of intellect woro naively and quietly hit oil .
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THE VAMPIRE AND THE . ENGLISH DRAMA . Prksonal reasons , which are unnecessary to bo stated hero , provorr w offering an opinion on Mr . Bourcicault in his now character as « ° ' ™\ t " contont myself with recording his complete huocosh in tho now at , j » and quote tho nrticlo on the Vampire from tho Times , on account 01 admirable and timely remarks on tho present condition of our drwnu * "Wo must regret tlmfc , while such progreBs lm « heen nintlo in tlio art <» P " ranting dramatic works to Iho ]) ublic , there bIiouM lw a complete BtandHi-iu ^ poetical drama n « a branch of literature . Wo liuvo still sovorul mte wU 0 Jn ouly comic dramatic prose , but turn our eyea in wl » at direction wo mny , wo
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594 THE DEADER . SS ^ xjb ^ ax ,
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), June 19, 1852, page 594, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1940/page/22/
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