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

Mr. Campbell's Eglantine,p ins sst 71b

The Ayrshire Mineral Stakes of 20 sovs. each, 10 ft, and 5
only if declared, with 15 added; the second saves his
stake. One mile and a half. (19 Subs., 8 of whom de-
clared.)
Mr. Meiklam's Inheritress, 6 yrs, 9st ...... ...(Templeman) 1
Mr. Ramsay's Inglewood, 3 yrs, 6st slb 2
Mr. Merry's John Harris, 4 yrs, 7st 9lb
The following also started, but were not placed :—Mr.
Merry's Hope, 4 yrs, 7st 10Ib ; Mr. Robertson's Saladin, 6
yrs, 7st; and Lord Eglinton's Plaudit, 6 yrs, 7st 71b.
Plate of 501. Heats, two miles.
Mr, Nicoll's Cameleopard, 4 yrs (Holmes) 1 1
Mr. A. Cook's Surety, 5 yrs 0 2
Lord 4
Eglinton's
Bretwalda, yrs
__ 0 3

.
_son J.—Kennedy's fby The Doctor, 3 yrs 0 4
Mr. W. 11. Jonstone's Marian Ramsay, 4 yrs
Mr. Merry's Brevity, 6 yrs
Sweepstakes of 5 SON'S.. each, p.p.. with 100 added. Heats,
one mile. (10 Subs.)
Mr. Robertson's Tom Tough, 6 yrs, Bst 101 b ...(Parr) 1 1
Lord Eglin ton's Plaudit, 4 yrs, Bst 21b
Mr. Merry's br cby Don John,out of Peri, 3 yrs, 7st 71b 0 3
Mr. Rqmsay's Inglewood, 3 yrs, 7st 71b 2 dr
Mr._Meiklam's Trueboy, 6 yrs, Bst 121 b
..._ ... _ .

Match 501., p.p. H-alf a mile.—Mr. Telfer's Young Ire-
Land, 6 yrs, LOst 71b, beat Mr. Miller's Parlington, 6 yrs,
LOst 71b.

BECCLES RACES.-FRIDAY.

The Stand Stakes of 2 sous. each, and 10 added, once round
(4 Subs.), w( re won, in two heats, by Mr. Theobald's
Chemise, 4 yrs, 9st 61b (Cotton), beating Sir Edmund and
Kitty.
The Town Plate of 50/. ; winner to be sold for 180/. Heats,

twice round.
Mr. Pemberton's b g Best Bower, 5 yrs, Bst 101 b 2 1 1
Mr. Theobald's Pigskin, aged, 7st 101 b
Three well-contested heats.
The Whoo Whoop Stakes were won, in two heats, by Sir
Fretful, beating Pigskin and two others.

COOMBES AND LETT.—The match between these
celebrated scullers, for 50/., is appointed to come off on
the 23d instant between Battersea and Hammersmith.
LONDON V. NEWCASTLE.--The London watermen
have accepted the challenge of the Newcastle men to row
on the London river for 3001. a side.
The Honourable Mr. Fane and the Honourable E.
Stopford embarked on Saturday morning on board the
General Steam Navigation Company's mail steam-ship
Princess Royal, for liaraburgh•

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 Lcharacter 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, judgirg from
the past, never will be definitively settled. in con-
sidering 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," saj s
Hamlet—which would lead to the inference, that he
was feigning madness merely, andthis 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 has 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 I'll
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, but 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 feigning, and is actually
mad ; as, for instance, in his scene with Ophelia ; but
when necessity requires, he can always recall his wan-
dering ideas so as to out-manceuvre those who would
play upon him; witness his scenes with Rosencrantz,
and Guilderstein, 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 dec

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 is 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 snpererogation.
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
_ _

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given by Maerea;'iy. 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 Lear, 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 rivktted their attention to the
stage that they, a Monday night's Surrey audience,
were, in all the principal scenes, charms-d into quiet-

ness, and taught to appreciate the beauties of hak-

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 house
was crammed long I:efore the rising of the curtain ;
the pit and gallery were overflowing; every seat in
the boxes was ocrupied, 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.

THE MARQUIS OF WORCESTER
AND HIS CONSTITUENTS AT STOW.

The Marquis of Worcester dined with a party of his
constituents at the Unicorn Inn, St )w-on-the- %Vold. on
Friday, Aug. 28. The festivity partook both of a sport-
ing and of a political character. It was formerly an an-
nual custom with the late Duke of Beaufort, when -he
hunted that part of the country, to send a present of ve-
nison as a compliment to the farmers over whose land he
hunted ; but that custom has been discontinued for seve-
ral years until the present time, when a renewal has been
thought politic, having an eye to the pos.-ible contingen-
cies of a general election. Accordingly, in the early part
of last week, the following note of invitation was sent to
a very large number of the Tory residents within a range
of ei,..;ht or !en milt's of Stow :

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"In consequence of his Grace the Duke of Beaufort
havCng sent some venison to S' ow, as a compliment to
the yeomanry of this district, the Marquis of Worcester
has expressed his wish to meet with his constituents and
to dine with them, at the Unicorn Inn, on Friday next,
at four o'clock in the afternoon, when the pleasure of
your company is requested.
" Stow-on-the- Wold, Aug. 24, 1846."
The gathering, however, was not by any means so nu-
merous as was expected, and as a political demonstration
it was a signal failure. Thirty-eight gentlemen and
farmers sat down to the dinner; the company including
Lord Redesdale, who was in the chair, H. E. Waller,
Esq., of Farmington, about six clergymen of the neigh-
bourhood, a few professional gentlemen, three or four
tradesmen, and the remainder consisted of a sprinkling of
farmers and some old sportsmen who formerly hunted
with the duke's hounds. It was a comfortable " venison
dinner" enough, but the marquis's " wish to meet his
constituents" was certainly a disappointment. The ho-
nour of a visit from the self•invited nobleman, even
though the privilege of a cut at a haunch of venison was
superadded, was not a sufficient attraction to draw the
agriculturists from their useful occupations in their
fields ; and if he is wise, the most noble the Marquis of
Worcester will take this circumstance as a hint that the
electors of East Gloucestershire are not so enraptured
with their representative as to make his re-electon a t all
a matter to be very confidently calculated upon.— Glou-
cester Journal.