Los Angeles daily herald., 1873-10-11

This is the first muttering of the
thumder-cloud of suspicion, and why
should it not burst with all its fury on
the uncle whom "wicked speed" hur-
ries to "incestuOuS sheets" This
should not be rendered, AS it always
has been, as an exclamation of sur
prise, because it is not n surprise for
Hamlet to know that his mcle was
the villain, but should be rendered in
the voice of suspicion confirmed.
In the further speech of the Ghost,
this line,
80, horrible! O, horriblew was
spoken by Hamlet. This is incorrect,
and should bc left to the Ghost. No
one but Garrick has ever appropriated
this line when playing Hamlet.
Considering Mr.. Piercy's youth and
inexperience and the company he had
to sustain him, (Mrs. Duret excepted,)
his rendition of this whole act
though filled with many difficult pas
sages, pregnant with profound philOso-
ply and deep thought-was truly re-
markable. l was truly glad to hear
the good, ringing sound Of "hern-
shaw" in the room of our modern
corruption hand-saw." The distin-
guished commentator, Mr.. Knight,
recognized the fact that "hand-
saw is corruption, although he
adopts it,
The celebrated soliloquy of Hamlet
was also rendered with wonderfully
good taste, accuracy and grace, and
indeed, with one single exception,
without an error. Judging from the
subtle reasoning of this grand speech.
it was evident that "TO die" and "To
sleep,p are intended as Synonymous
terms; but the doubt is in the "TO
dream CAY, there's the rub" "NO
more" must be taken as nothing more,
and is translated by some French
commentator think GuizOt-rien
de plus. This portion of the sOlilo-
quy was not rendered so as to convey
this meaning.
The scene which followed between
Hamlet and Ophelia, cannot be too
highly praised, and those of the audi
ence who have seen Booth will bear
me out in this assertion.
The scene with the grave-digger was
poorly played indeed. The most that
can be said of this part is, that it was
a poor imitation of Forrest. Really,
this is a brilliant part of Hamlet. The
sudden transitions, from the thought
of the grave and death suggested by
the skulls, to the real levity of the
tilt of words with the clOwn--when
Hamlet, as it were, comes out of HIM
self, sif wearied with his own strange
and solemn meditatiOns, and then
suddenly back again to the cOntem-
platiOn of death nearer to him-even
the death Of Y0rick-the sad lingering
of the fond memory of his childhood.
Oh! how eXquisitely beautiful! |
have seen Booth make his audience in
this scene weep, laugh, and weep
again. The worst portion of the acting
is yet to come. Why i'm heavens
name did Hamlet hand ''pOOr Yor-
lexis" skull to his friend HOratio? Oh,
shocking! shocking! There is world
of meaning in the very MrODing DOM
of the skull, the very action is SO nice
ly fitted to the words. Hamlet Is
thinking of the noble deeds of the liv-
ing, the conquests of Alexander, the
genius of Imperial Caesar and yet
they must come to this, q shrinking
skull. My friend, Shakespeare always
suits the action to the word, follow
him.
My readers of the "gOwn" would
probabably be interested by curious
facts concerning this Acknowledgement
law" but my space will not permit.
vide the case of the suicide of Sir
James Hales, reported in Plowden.
Mr.. Piercy should have encourage
ment from all lovers of Shakespeare,
for we shall be proud of him some day.
We must have Hamlet again.
Col. Forney's Press is to be made up