Daily Yellowstone journal., 1889-12-03
Tuesday, December ), 1889.
A DECADE OF HAMLET.
Famous Actors Who Im-personated Shake.
speare's Masterpiece Within Ten Years.

PlaygoetS n New York between the
years $50 and 1921 were blessed, as
play9oers haze never been blessed be.
fore, in being able to enjoy and to
compare the performances Of three Of
the greatest acturs il has ever been the
lot of any single pair Of eyes to see or
of any single pair Of ear Ia hear, to
wit: Cooke. kean and Booth. George
Frederick Cooke arrived in America
in 1910, and remained here until his
death in 1872. Setting at defiance all
of the laws Of nature, society and art,
he WIS in nothing more remarkable
than in the fact that IN the whole his.
tory of the drama in this country he
is the only really great t~ra@ediau, old
or young. who never attempted To
play Hamlet here. His diary records
his failure in The part in London years
before; and leigh Hunt, who praises
him highly il other lines, says that he
could willing ely spare the recollection
of his Ham u, and that the most nc
complished character on the stage he
converted INTO an unpublished, ohsti.
nate, Sarc 5tic mailman"
EdmUn kean first played Hamlet
in New York in the month Of De
&mbcr l~20, Junius Brutus Booth in
the Uci Der Of the following year
Concer ING these men and their ri
valry yplumys have been written; each
had hi, enthusiastic admirers, aud the
HAM It of each has become a nat
ter OF history. That Kean believed in
his own Hamlet in his younger DAYS
there "a be 10 question now, and he
gave 10 it the closest study until the
widow of Garrick induced him to alter
his reading of the closet scene" and
TO adopt the manner Of her husband.
En innovation which left him ever
after dissatisfied with himself in that
part of the tragedy.
Hazlitt considered Kean's kissing of
0phelia's hand, in the famous scene
between them in Act Ill, the finest
commentary that wa V G made on
Shakespeare. The manner in which
Mr.. Kean acted in the scene of the
play before the king and queen" he
added, was the most daring Of any,
and the force and animation which he
gave it cannot be too highly applaud
ed. Its extreme boldness bordered 'on
the verge Of all we hate. and the
effect il produced was a test of the ex-
t%raordinary powers of this extraor.
binary actor
The younger Booth. writing of the
elder kean, zones TO the defense of his
fathers foe in the following noble and
we'll chosen words; The fact that
Kean disliked To act Hamlet, and failed
to satisfy his critics in that character.
is no proof that his PRESERVATION was
false. II il was consistent with his
conception, and that conception was
ineligible. as it must have been, il
was true. What right have ], whose
temperament and mode Of thinking
IN disslmilar 10 yours, 10 dcnounce
your exposition Of such u puzzle IA
Hamleti He is the epitome of man
kind. not an individual. "A sort of magic
mirror in which all men and all women
see the reflex Of themselves, and there.
fore has his story always been, is still.
and will ever be the most popular of
stage tragedies
That Edwin Booth should not have
written concerning the Hamlet of his
father IN the same charming vein is
greatly TO lie regretted. There are
men still living who recollect the ED.
er Booth in the part-he played il for
the last time in New York in lS43-
and TO these il is of the most de-
lightful Of memories. Thomas X.
Gould, writing in 1868, sums up as
follows his own ideas Of the Hamlet
Of this great man: THE total impress
sion left by his impersonation at the
time Of its occurrence, and which
still abides, was that of q spiritual
melancholy, at once acute and pro-
found. This quality colored his ten
derest feeling and his ARREST fancy.
You felt It's presence even when he
was off the stage"
This famous decade Of the New York
stage saw other great actors and other
great Hamlets, some of whom, in
point Of time, preceded Kean and
Booth. Joseph George Holman PLAYED
Hamlet at the Park theatre in Septem-
Der, 1912, James William Wallack,
on the same stage, in September, 1918
Robert Campbell haywood in 1915,
John Jay Adams in 1922. William Au-
gustus Conway in 1924, Thomas Ham.
bin in 1926, and last, but not least,
William Charles Macready in Octo.
Der, 1926.
OF the Hamlet Of John r. Duff
t-1ere is, strange 10 say, no record in
New York, although ho played hero
occasionally between the years 1914
and 1927 lie was very popular IN
Boston aud Philadelphia. and a writer
in The Boston Centincl ina the autumn
Of 1910 does mot hesitate 10 say that
in someo IF the scenes Of Hamlpth and
those Of no ordinary grade Of dill,
Guilty, he has never been cxcelled On
the Boston boards, Ills wife IL still
considered by certain old plnygncr5 10
have been the best OpI0llH over seen
in the United States, aud nD account
Of the tragedy in This country can DO
complete without mention ul her
name. A. Ophoiia iu New York aud
elsewhere, she supported The elder
Booth, tho elder Bcln, thc elder Con-
war Cooper Payne, Wallack and
Ollcr STARS. and Booth wrote 10 George
Holland ih 1885 iInt ho considered her
'ihe grealcst Crtrcss iu tho wOrldn-
Laurence Hutton 10 LiHrpcr's Maya
tibc.