The National tribune., 1882-05-13
"HAMLETu IN STREET CLOTHES.

IiS - hSAEIi VIZ
Maze Edwards, manager for Edwin Booth
thus describes their appearance at Water
bury, Conn, last winter, when the troupe
played without their costumes: when !
found the baggage, with the costumes, had
not arrived l was just going to throw my
self into the river, when L thought would
go and tell Mr. Booth about it and bid
goodbye to some of the people who had
always thought Il good deal of me, before
killing myself. To my astonishment, Mr.
Booth took it as cool as you would take
an invitation to drink. He said, inasmuch
as the people were in the hall, he would
make a few remarks to them about the
accident, and then they would 90 on and
play three acts of Hamlet in the clothes
they had on. And so it was fixed up that way.
Well the thought of Hamlet in ashort-tailed
coat and tight pants almost made me sick,
and when Mr.. Booth came on the stage
looking like an Episcopal minister, with a
Knight Templar's cheese-knife that he had
borrowed, l couldn't think Of anything but
Hamlet. / forgot all about his clothes, and
l believe if he had only had Oh pair of
sailor pants and n red-fanneI fremans
shirt that the people would only have seen
Hamlet. tell you he is the greatest actor
that ever lived. The people sat perfectly
still, and seemed wrapt up in Booth. That is,
they were when they did not look at the other
fellows. But when they took in Laertes,
with short ham-fat coat on, pair of Ia
de-dah pants and pancake hat, it seemed
to me l could hear them smile And the
king, Hamlet's step-tather, he was q sight
Imagine n king with Il cut-away checkered
coat, a Pullman car blanket thrown over his
shoulder for robe, and leg of chair for
q sceptre, mashed on queen with tray
eling-dress and gray woolen basque, with
buttons on it. Aud think of Polonius with
q linen duster and straw hat with blue
ribbon on. On, it made me tired. Ophelia
was all right enough. She had on some
crazy clothes that she had been travelling
in, and we got some straw out of q barn and
some artificial flowers off the bonnets, and
she pulled through pretty well. But the
ghost. You would have died to see the
ghost. He had on one of those long hand
me-down ulster overcoats with buckle in
the back as big as curry-comb, and the belt
was hanging down on both sides. The boys
got him green mosquito bar to put over it
and, with stuffed club for q sceptre, he fell
over chair and then came on. l should
have laughed if l had been on my death
bed when he said to Hamlet, / am thy
fathers ghost He looked more like a
drummer for wholesale confectionery
house, with q sort of tin skinner on his
head, and / believe the audience would
have gone wild with laughter, if it had not
been for Mr.. Booth. 1 don't believe you
could get him to laugh on the stage for
million dollars. He just looked at the
ghost as though it was genuine one,
and the audience looked at Booth, and
forgot all about the ulster and the ghosts
pants being rolled up at the bottom.
1t was probably the greatest triumph that
an actor ever had for Mr. Booth to compeI
the vast audience to forget the ludicrous
surroundings and think only of the char
acter he was portraying. 1 wouldn't have
missed the nights performance for thou