Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1896-08-21
HAMLET LEFT OUT.
THE PRODUCTION OF PLAYS WITH
OUT THE PRINCIPAL CHARACTER.

ed the base for the proverbial express
sion, Hamlet with Hamlet left out. "
In the introduction to his Craftsman"
he wrote about playful which is
said to have announced the tragedy of
Hamlet, the character of the Prince of
Denmark being left out. D." AS in the
case Of most modern proverbs, the fin
ishod product differs in form from the
raw material.
There is no record that "Hamlet" ev-
or was acted with the character of the
Prince of Denmark left out, though the
play has been acted i'll almost every 9TH
CT way. In 1881, in London, the YER
sion of the first quartO, which was print
ed in 1903, was acted by amateurs.
They followed the customs of the thea
ter of Queen Bess' time, using no seem
cry or decorations, and the actors were
CARRIED as Raleigh and his friends were.
About the same time too, Edwin
Booth and his company arrived at Hart
ford minus their trunks and gave three
acts of the play in their travelling cos
tunes. Probably, however, the effect
was not vastly different from Booths
ordinary production of the tragedy.
Then the Count Joannes and James
Owen O'Conor acted the part Of Ham
let with two readers, man and woman,
to take the other parts; and Bellew-
Kyrle Bellows father-read the play at
a desk III front of the prOscenium, while
the actors moved about the stage with
appropriate gestures and opened and
tl,,., 4
But most nearly approaching to Scott's
omitted Prince Of Denmark must have
been the performances where women
played Hamlet; Charlotte Cushman,
Miss Marriott (who made famous
prince, Adele Belgrade, Anna Dickin-
son, and a round dozen of others tried
the part.
But if Hamlet" has not been played
without the prince, other plays have
been on occasion.
In the last century there was a Han
nah Brand, schoolteacher. She
thought she could write a play, and so
worked on John Kemble until he pro-
duced during the season of 1912 her
five act tragedy 'Huniades," based on
Hungarian history. Kemble played
Huniades Miss Brand played Agmunda,
the heroine. The play failed; and then
Hannah Brand left out kemble's part
and produced the rest of the play under
the name "Agmunda. AS before, she
played the heroine, and as before she
heard the play Kissed and damned be-
yond redemption.
John Brougham, however, really
played a play with one of the principal
characters left out, though, as he says,
"it was frightfully dangerous expert
ment. "
The play was his famous burlesque
"POcahontas, produced at Wallack S.,
then on Broadway, near Broome street,
i'll 1856. Brougham played Powhatan,
Charles Walcot, Captain Smith; Miss
Hodson, Pocahontas; Peters, the Dutch
man; and the play worked its way up
in the public estimation. Let Brougham
tell of his feat:
Zone evening Mr.. Lester Wallack
came into the dressing room where
Walcot and myself We're preparing for
the performance with the announce
ment that PocahOntas was missing and
could not be found anywhere in the city.
"What was to be done under the cir
cumstances we couldn't conceive. All
sorts of plans were projected, but none
would work. AT last, in desperation,
said to Walcott, Suppose we do it with
out PocahontasP
Agreed, said Charley, who was
always bright, quick and witty. Well
do it anyhowP
"Mr. Wallack went ON the stage and
announced that, owing to the absence
of Miss Hodson' (the truth was she had
eloped with somebody, the play would
be produced without her, Messrs. Wal
cot and Brougham having kindly con-
scented to fill her part.
"For a moment dead silence reigned,
but directly the fun of the thing was
taken in, and the people fairly screamed.
We went on. First Charley would say,
This is what Miss Pocahontas would
remark if she were present, and theI
he would talk to himself. Where is
Pokey?' he would eXclaim, to which
would reply: Lost among the iceberg'
of Broadway. But if she We're here
way, and then would give her speech
"At the end, when it became neces
sary to join their hands in matrimony,
we didn't know exactly what to do, but
looking around the stage, l saw a BROOM
and, Selling it, l boldly advanced t.
the front, saying, as L handed it t.
Charley, Take her, my boy, and bC
happy 1t brought the house down, bu
it was a frightfully dangerous expert
ment."
The audience the next night wanted
Pocahontas left out again, but Broughan
wouldn't have it so. Hamlet may b.
left out once on the spur of the mo
ment, but not second time, and nevel
when the man who makes the ghos
walk has time to put even a gravedig
ger in the princes place The histor,
of the stage seems to prove that Scott
playful was not actual, but like hi
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