The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1896-09-14
HAMLET LEFT OUT.
THE PRODUCTION OF PLAYS WITH
OUT THt PRINCIPAL CHARACTER.

but other Plays Have Been go John
Brougham's story OF the Absence Of Po-
cahontas and How the Play Was Put On.
II was Sir Walter Scott who furnish
ed the base for the proverbial express
sion, Hamlet with Hamlet left out. "
In the introduction to his "Talisman"
he wrote about playful which ID
said to have announced the tragedy Of |
Hamlet, the character of the Prince OF |
Denmark being left out. AS in the
case of most modern proverbs, the fin
ished 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 in almost every 9th
er way. In 1881, in London, the YER
sion of the first quarto, which was print
ed in 1908, was acted by amateurs.
They followed the customs OF the thea
ter of Queen Bess' time, using no seen
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 Below
Kyrle Bellows father-read the play at
a desk in front of the proscenium, while
the actors moved about the stage with
appropriate gestures and opened and
shut their mouths and said no words
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 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 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 1919 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 b,-
yond redemption.
John Brougham, however, really
, played play with one of the principal
, characters left out, though, as he says
sit was frightfully dangerous expert
> ment."
3 The play was his famous burlesqu'
l "Pocahontas, produced at WalIack's
0 then on Broadway, near Broome street
t in 1856. Brougham played Powhatan
r Charles Walcot, Captain Smith; Mis-
r Hodson, Pocahontas; Peters, the Dutch
r man; and the play worked its way N
o in the public estimation. Let Broughan
Q tell of his feat:
}. Zone evening Mr.. Lester Wallace
4 came into the dressing room wher
J. Walcot and myself were preparing TO
j. the performance, with the announce
ment that Pocahontas was plissing an
= could not be found anywhere in tic city
I "What was to be done under the Gil
T. cumstances we couldn't conceive. A.
sorts of plans were projected, but non
,s would work. At last, in desperation,
n said to Walcott, Suppose we do it will
If out Pocahontas!
D. Agreed said Charley, who wa
in always bright. quick and witty. We
It, do it anyhow
ID "Mr. Wallack went on the stage an
d. announced that, owing to the absent
I'd of Miss Hodson' (the truth was she ha
of eloped with somebody, the play woul
be produced without her, Messrs. Wa
cot and Brougham having kindly col
sented to fill her part.
"For a moment dead silence reigne'
30 but directly the fun OF the thing wi
w. taken in, and the people fairly screame
-, We went on. First Charley would sa
90 This is what Miss Pocahontas Won
-, w remark if she were present, and thu
~ he would talk to himself Where
80 Pokey?' he would exclaim, to which
~ would reply: Lost among the iceber
a. of Broadway. But If she were here
L. know she would answer you In II
% way, and then would give her speec
S T "At the end, when it became nect
nS sary to join their hands in matrimon
u" we didn't know exactly what to do, br
~, looking around the stage, ! saw broo'
, and, seizing it, boldly advanced
,as the 'front.' saying, as l handed 1t
, .e Charley, Take her. my boy. and
~" happy 1t brought the house down, b
-. it was frightfully dangerous expe
,ad ment."
"1 The audience the next night want
ono Pocahontas left out again, but Brough'
e.99 wouldn't have it so. Hamlet may
~, ~, left out once, ON the spur of the II
LIS ment, but not second time, and ne'
VS. when the man who makes the gh
i"o walk has time to put even a graved
ger in the princes place. The hist'
of the stage seems to prove that Scot
playbill was not actual, but, like
." quotations from "Old Plays, " mer
Vas nroduced for the occasion from his w
oos derful imagination. New York Sun
..~~Nrt. al NtlCCR Dl AZ