The Sun.
London, England, 1840-01-14 00:00:00

COVENT GARDEN THEATRE.

The tragedy of .11landet was performed at this
,heatre last night. It is a play better fitted for the
closet than the stage, for it is of a reflective, rather
than an active character, and lacks the stir and vivid-
ness of incident neces'cary to recommend it to an
English audience. The actioo, what little there is,
constantly baits in order to bring out the peculiar idio-
syncrasy of the chief 176rsonage, who, as represented on
the boards, must ever" be etitkre to the generality
of pla)-goers. He is. an enigma dulyto be solved,
t at all, efts!? attentive study, in the privacy of
one's closet. Goethe, wo think, has given us the best
clue to Hamlet's character, by his remark that a burden
has been laid on his shoulders too heavy for him to bear.
Taking this suggestion as our guide, we arc pretty well
able to account for his waywardness of temper, his sub-
lued spirits, his profound melancholy, and habit of in-
tense and subtle reflection. He moves constantly under
a sense of awful responsibility, which has so forcibly in-
fluenced his susceptible imagination, that his mind, if it
In not wholly break down, yet reels and staggers
under the shock. A voice from the grave
uas summoned him—a quiet, contemplative man
—to become an active instrument of vengeance ; and
,ie dare not refuse, even while every faculty of his
soul, but nerved by fits and starts, shrinks from the deed.
M r.Moore, who played this very difficult and perplexing
character, played it with judgment, but not with the
Jeep feeling that it requires. He made several good
doitits, and one or two brilliant ones ; but he gave no
continuous interest to the part. He put on, and put
tiff his melancholy, like a garment, instead of giving us
the idea that it was engrained into his nature. His scene
.vith the Ghost was well conceived ; but his soliloquies
were deficient in depth and earnestness. In that remark-
able one, in particular—which no one who has once
read, ever forgets—when he alludes to the heartlesS
conduct of his mother in marryibg so soon after the
,loath of his father, he delivered the words " but two
months dead !" as if he were giving utterance to a mere
trite matter-of-fact, instead of a solerim,. and harrowing
recollection. The same objection applies to his delivery of
man delights not me, nor woman neither," than which
ihere is nothing more heart-felt or melancholy in the tra-
gedy. In the well-known passage," there are more things
in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamed of in
Our philosophy," he laid the emphasis on the last
word ; whereas it should have been on " your ;" other-
wise the observation loses all its force. Mr. Moore's
nest scene was that with his mother, where he stabs
Polonius behind the arras, which was judiciously and
feelingly played. On the whole, we may say that
tie makes a very fair Hamlet; and in characters
of less moment, will be an acquisition to the
stage. Bartley played the grave-digger with spirit and
effect, and Farren would have been a better Polonius if
he had not thrown a little too much of the grotesque
into the character. Mrs. Walter Lacy s Ophelia was
just above common-place. The house was " full, but
sot crowded.