Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1891-06-15


A VAIN QUEST.
been aforetime doing the one night
towns. His troupe came in from the
west on load of hay at about i o'clock,
and played before the mayor at o'clock
in order to get license to play here
this week at the Globe, under the man
agement of John Burbage.
We would naturally think that John
Burbage would have enough ''ssvey"
about him, even if this young scene eater
of his did not, to see that the press might
be decently treated and suitable seats
provided for its representatives, but, as
nearly as we are able 70 make out. the
bright young poacher from Avon desired
to have an entirely unprecedented opinion
regarding his debut, and if he will cast
his eye over these columns he will prob
ably read in these lines good imita ton
Of man trying TO write an unbi lsed
and entirely bipartisan opinion of play
after paying for his tickets.
Dick Burbage, Larry Fletcher, Gus
Phillips, Jack Heminge, Hank Conden,
Billy Sly, Bob Arnim and Dick Cov-ley
supported Shakespeare fairly well, but
not so well as his wife used to do, if we
are not occupied in barking up the
wrong tree.
Hamlet" is not destined to reach holi-
day performance in the opinion of the
critic of this paper. If we had written
it we would give it a souvenir night,
and IN answer 70 loud and press ng
call on the part of the public we would
substitute "Fanchou with Magrie
Mitchell in the title role.
Hamlet" is sort of Scandinavian or
Danish play. Shakespeare takes the
title role, but he lacks a good deal of
taking the cake. Most of the audie1 &c
were worried all the evening, and sew
eral even inquired of the star openly
what was eating him.
Shakespeare SAID afterward that ne
thought the play was too subtle for our
people. Also that he could have played
better if he had had something to eat
during the day. Shakespeare Is essen
italy tank actor, and when he tries 20
elevate the stage he should do it by ma
chanical means. We could not help
feeling sorry for Dick Burbage, who
played Ophelia, last evening His whis-
kers cast a gloom over the character,
and when he stepped on his dress and
tore out all the gathers in the front
breadths he would have been indeed
tough who could have sat there AMI
laughed and cracked hickory nuts, as
some near Us done last night.
The day may come when the stage will
be elevated, but if Bill Shakespeare Is
going to do it he will have to get more Of
move on him than he had last night, he
can safely bet his sweet life. As it is
now, an actor is regarded here as a sort
of leper in grease paint, and we look to
somebody with more intellectual par
and high purposes than this canvas COW
cred Hamlet from the interior to jerk
the profession out Of the sinkhole to
which IL has sunk.
Shakespeare knows as well as ANYBODY
this sad condition of things, for last
evening after the alleged play, and while
washing off his makeup at the horse
trough back Of the Globe theater, he
was approached by a young schoolmis-
tress from Whitechapel road, who had
a plush album, and after drying his
hands on her apron with profuse apollo
gies wrote as follows:
o for my sake do you with Fortune chide,
The guilty goddess Of my harmful deeds,
That did not better for my life provide
Than public means. which public manners
breeds
Thence comes it that my name receives a
brand.
And almost thence my nature is subdued
To what it works in like the dyer's hand.
"You are welcome to the verse" he
Baid, as he gave her back the album and
stylographic pen, "but if there be yet
anything in your dinner pail, cen though
it be but despised Bacon rind. would
take it most kindly, fair one, if might
sock my snoot beneath the lid and find,
mayhap, besides, the pelt of a forgotten
prune." With that he did straightway
clean out the dinner bucket of the
wench, rs he had tasted all the way
from Albuquerque, where he last played.
Hamlet, it would appear, is a prince
whose father dies in such manner as to
create talk, and sort of Staten Island
inquest fails TO throw any light on the
subject, though Hamlet has his sus-
picions that his uncle and his mother
Ao-- ~ LII