The daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1848-1851, 1849-03-12
" Horatio. thou art e en- as just man
As e'er my conversation cop d WIthal.
- Tive ME mat man
That is not passion slave. and will wear him
In nv hearts core, ay, in my heat OF heart,

| IN nv nefrt core, dy, III my heat Vi neat,
As do thee"
Such friendship as this is not the friendship OF
| powerful and active natures it is contemplative
| and sentimental, not instructive and passionate.
So also Hamet's feeling towards his father; it is
one of admiration and reverence than of ordl-
nary flial love and affection The love for Ophe-
liza is the nearest approach to passion that the dis
tracted prince maniess; yet this living sentiment
is swallowed up and overwhelmed by his horror of
the crime revealed to him by the ghost. Mr.. Ma
cready's Hamlet is altogether different. He con-
ceives the Dane a of intense passions, hay
ing his active imagination wrought upon by the
terrible history of his fathers MURDER yet kept in a
state of doubt and distraction by the strength
of a reason and conscience constantly suggesting
difficulties than by the weakness of his hate to-
wards the persons who have committed the crime.
To us, Hamlet seems to resemble most other men
in making the subtlety of his mind the slave of his
desires; and the doubts which his reason suggests
are more the excuses of a hesitating and dilatory
disposition than of an unconvinced mind seeking
after truth
From the first scene in which Hamlet appears,
we perceive that Mr.. Macready has deepened and
strengthened the passions of Shakspeare's crea-
ton. His reply to his mother beginning Seems,
madam - is given far more in the tones of man
half angry at the injury done to his feelings than
of one who thinks merely of indicating the grief
which darkens his whole existence. The remark
to the uncle King, too much i the sum- ex-
presses more of sarcasm than of sorrow it sounds
more like reproach to the man that could so soon
forget his brothers death, than declaration that
the glare of court unfit for one who had so
lately lost so good father. We might follow Mr.
Nc, Ir, III ~, Il
make similar observations. For example, the in
tensely anxious emotion of the Prince when he first
hears of the ghosts appearance his rapid and hur
ried strides along the platform; the terrified alb
sracion-if we may use the phrase-wiih which
he remarks, ''The air bites shrewdly it is very
cold -; the utter prostraton of Hamlet when the
ghost appears, followed by sudden and determined
recovery of all his energies his complete self pos
session after the disappearance of the ghost, look
ing like man bent on some desperate purpose all
these indicate that Mr.. Macready wishes to repre-
sent Hamlet as a man possessing strong and power
full passions. But it is in the madness of the Dane
that the actor most clearly carries out this concep-
ton. certain intensity of passion is necessary
for insanity. The wide, broad, discursive intellect
hardly ever loses its balance it is the narrow, in
tense mind that screws up its strings until thew
snap. Hence, if our idea of Hamlet is correct, the
actor should make the madness of the Prince appear
feigned. If Mr.. Macready, however, has rightly
conceived the character, he acts properly in repre-
senting the madness as real. Accordingly, in the
interview with Ophelia, especially in the magnif-
cent manner with which he pronounces, &c Get thee
to nunnery," and g To nunnery co. it is mani
fest that Mr.. Macready Thinks like the maid, tina,
a noble mind is here o'erthrown,"" quite, quite
down. Then, too, Mr. Macready is finest in those
parts of the play where Hamlet is really most pas
sionate, as in the scene where he upbrads and re-
proaches his mother for her murderous and adul,e.
rous conduct The famed soliloquy, in which Ham.
let most shows his contempative tendencies, though
well pronounced-for what could Macready do
ill does not strike as much as other parts of his
performance. He seemed to pass over it as out of
harmony with the rest of the Princes character:
while he omits altogether the strongly characteristic
speech of Hamlet when he catches his uncle prav
ing. Mr. Macready's Hamlet could hardly have
been arrested in his action by such reflections AS