The Sun.
London, England, 1846-09-08 00:00:00

SURREY THEATRE.

Mr. Macready, who is engaged at this theatre for
a limited number of nights, made his first appearance
here last evening in the character of Hamlet. Was
Hamlet really mad, or did he only feign madness?
This is a question on the discussion of which much
good ink has been wasted, and which, judging from
the past, never will be definitively settled. In consider-
ing this question it would be well to refer to the language
which Shakspere himself puts into the mouth of
Hamlet—" I am but mad, Nor. Nor. West," say s
Hamlet—which would lead to the inference that he
was feigning madness merely, and.this seems to be the
idea of Mr. Macready; but then Hamlet, after observ-
ing that the world is out of joint, adds—

" Oh ! cursed spite,
That ever I was born to set it right."
He does not accept his mission—it is too great for
him—the burden of executing justice bp been cast
upon shoulders too weak to bear it. A man of firm-
ness and decision and judgment is wanted. Hamlet
has judgment, but has no firmness and no-decision.
He is from very weakness a sceptic. He will not trust
to the evidence of the ghost. He requires something
to confirm it. " The play's the thing in which
catch the conscience of the king." The play con-
firms the evidence of the ghost. It is a true ghost—
he will take the ghost's word, for a thousand pounds ;
but again he argues and doubts, and refuses
to fulfil his mission The soliloquy commencing
" Now could I kill him pat; now he is praying,"
which is omitted in the acting play, throws great
light upon Hamlet's character. It shows him to be
a man who fears to do his duty—a cloistered student
cast into the world of action. If by madness is
meant an inability to distinguish right from wrong,
then Hamlet is not mad ; but if by madness is meant
a deficiency of judgment, then Hamlet is mad. Hav-
ing feigned madness in the first instance, he at times
becomes the victim of his own feigning, and is actually
mad ; as, for instance, in his scene with Uphelia ; but
when necessity requires, he can always recall his wan-
dering ideas so as to out-manoeuvre those who would
play upon him; witness his scenes with Rosencrantz,
and Guilderstern, and with Polonius; and, above all, the
closet scene with his mother. He is such a doubter

—he has such a dread of coming to any finite deci-
sion which shall involve action as its consequence,
that he at times actually doubts his own sanity, and
almost argues 'himself into the belief that he is not
sane ; but when the occasion requires it, we find
.
Hamlet perfectly sane. Modern scientific re-
searches into the nature of sound and unsound mind
prove that doubtful sanity, _ such as that
of Hamlet, are to be found existing in nature ;
and as those researches are continued, so will
the character of Hamlet become more and more
understood. We understand Hamlet better now,
than our ancestors, even of fifty years since, under-
stood it ; and, in fifty years hence, his character will
be better understood than it is even at the present
day. In drawing the character of Hamlet, Shak-
spere was at least three centuries in advance of his
age, a proof that he possessed an intuitively mira-
culous knowledge of human nature—that he was
" not of a day, but for all time." The Hamlet of
Macready is well known to all playgoers—to write a
critique on it now would be a work of supererogation.
Admitting his conception of the character to be a
just one, his development of it is perfect.
The " letting I dare not wait upon I would," which
is the essential point of the character, was finely
given by Macready. He sees the ghost—he is all
decision—he will wipe out from his memory " all tri-
vial fond records," and proceed at once to action.
Then comes the doubt. The ghost may be the devil
tempting him to destruction,—he will have
further proof. This phase of the character
was very finely rendered by Macready. Never was
willing self-deception more truthfully delineated.
The play scene was a triumph of art. The nervous
management of the fan, as he lies at Ophelia's feet,
was very fine; and in his address to the King, ex-
plaining the plot of the play, he spoke daggers. The
closet scene, too, was sublime. "Is it the King ? "
he exclaimed, after he had stabbed Polonius, in the
tone, and with the action, of a man who felt as if he
had suddenly relieved his mind of a burden. It was
evident that he wished it might be the King, and that
he hoped he had done his duty without having had
to undergo the pangs of " screwing his courage to
the sticking place ;" and his agony at finding that it
was Polonius, and not the King, was true to Shak-
spere. He was agonised, not at having killed the
rash and meddling fool, but at finding that still the
burden of revenging his father's murder—that burden
which he felt was too hard for him to bear, and from
which he hoped that a lucky chance blow
had relieved him, was still pressing on him.
We never saw Macready act better than he
did last night ; he carried his audience with him,
throughout, and so rivetted their attention to the
stage that they, a Monday night's Surrey audience,
were, in all the principal scenes, charmed into quiet-
ness, and taught to appreciate the beauties of Shak-
spere. He was well supported. Cooper was the
Ghost, and Mrs. Ternan the Queen. The character
of Ophelia was well sustained by Mrs. C. Gill, late
Miss Fanny Vining, a lady who promises to be an
acquisition to the metropolitan boards. There is a
pathos and a natural simplicity about her style of
acting which goes at once to the heart. The housewas crammed long before the rising of the curtail! ;
the 'pit and gallery were overflowing; every seat in
the boxes was occupied, and every part of the box
lobby, from which it was possible to catch a view of
the stage, was crowded by those who were glad to
get even standing room.