The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1876-01-17

EDWIN BOOTHS ENGAGEMENT -HAMLET. -
George William Curtis, critic of no ordi
nary discernment, says: sfWhat Garrict
was In Richard I'LL, or Edmund kean il
Shylock, Edwin Booth is in Hamlet. Bootf
looks the ideal Hamlet; for the Hamlet o.
our imaginations, which Is the Hamlet o
Shakespeare, IS not the scant-of- breath gen.
tleman whom the seVerer critics insist tha!
he should be. He Is sad, slight, Prince.
Booth is altogether princely. His costume
| is still the solemn suit of sables, varied &C.
cording to bis fancy Of greater fitness and
| his small, 1.-the form, with the mobility and
Intellectual sadness Of his face, and bis
| large, melancholy eyes, satisfy the most fas-
tidious imagination that this Is Hamlet as he
lived in Shakspeare's world. His playing
| throughout has an exquisite tone, like an
old picture. The charm of the finest por-
traits of Raphaers Julius, or Leo; Of Titian's
Francis l., or Appetite de Medici; of Van
dyck's Charles l., is not the drawing. nor
even the coloriDg, 80 much as the nameess,
subtle harmony which is called tone. So in
Booths Hamlet it is any particular scene,
or passage, or look, or movement that con-
veys the impression 1t is the consistency of
every part with every other-the pervasive
sense of the mind OF true gentleman sadly
strained and Jared. Through the whole
play the mind is borne on in mournful reye-
rie. 1t Is not SO much what he says or does.
that we observe; Tor under all-beneath every
scene, and word, and active hear what is not
audiole-the melancboly music Of the sweet
bells tangled out~of tune and harsh. This
gives curious reality to the whole. Booths
conception OF Hamlet is that of a morbid
mind conscious of its power to master the
mystery of life, which in its details bafias
and oVerWhelms him. There is, therefore.
serene consciousness of superiority in his
oehavlor, even in the most perpleXed mo-
ments. In the chamber scene with his
mother, when the ghost passes and Hamlet
iaiis lot moment PROSTATE with emotion at
his disappearance, the @ Ieen nsinuates that
| ne Is mad. There Is a kind of calm, Ditying
dlsdain mingled with the sense that her feel
Ing Is natural with which H4mlet steps to.
| ward her, his finger on his pulse. The
tragedy in Hamlet is not only The vital GU.
riosity about existence, the mastering love
of life which almost subdues his soul with
fear and doubt, and keeps it tense with
eager questioning, but it is the conviction of
a mind morbid with this continual strain
that it is most sacred duty TO end another
life, to plunge guilty soul into the abyss
of doubt, and that soul the one dearest to
his mother. Ihls explains the fascination
which the idea of his uucle's death always
exercises upon his mind, and also bis ina
biity to do more than dream and doubt over
the action. 1t Is this complication which
produces one of Booths finest scenes. In
the interview with bis mother he stabs Po-
lonus through the arras. For an instant
the possibility of what he has done sweeps
over his mind-always the victim of COM
plex emotions, the instructive satisfaction of
knowing the act done Is mingled with the
old, familiar horror of the doom to which be
may have consigned his uncle. With sword
uplifted, and vague terror both of hope
and fear in bis face and tone, Hamlet does
not slide rapidly back and hurriedy ex.
claim, us it the kiBg'' but, totteriDg with
emotion, be asks slowly, in an appalling
stacclto, 'Is-it-the- king'2 The cumu-
lative sadness of the play was never SO pal
pable as in Booths acting. lisa spell from
which sou cannot escape"
Tonight our people will have the oppor'
tunity of determining for themselves the
Justice OF this criticism.