The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-06-10


the old, old question during the Bern,
hardts first appearance as the Prince of
Denmark, and the quarrel naturally re,
suIung was settled on the field Of honor
the next day the upholder of Hamlet
thinness, NJ Mendes, receiving a sword
wound from which he yet lies i'll, but abat-
ing no Jot of mis- conviction that IA,
Ham.et would be worse than a histrionir
lett would be absurd.
Nheh in Act V, scene 2 Hamlet and
Laertes fence and the King says "Our
son shall win,' the Queen replies:
He's fat and scant of breath.
Only half a dozen little words written
perhaps, because Shakespeare knew tbat
his fat friend, she actor Burbadge. was 70
play the part; perhaps written with an in
lehtlon never read into them by an az
TOR; perhaps never written as thew are
now always printed; yet for every word
there have been a hundred learned essays
composed and published for the eyerlasfine
bewilderment of man
Inc controversy which reached blood
shedding violence in Paris began early
Buroadge died only three years after
Shakespeare, in 1919, and some one cole
DRAFTED his talents in an elegy wherein oc-
cur the lines:
No more young Hamlet, though but scant
of breath
Shall cry "Revenger' for mis- dear faith
ers death.
Surely the couplet has a simple. con-
ventional sound, and seems not 10 nre-
sage centuries of controversial thunder
ana least Of all a French duel in which
real blood. was to be shed! But those lines
have done much to make arbitration a
day-dream so far as the war of the "thins"
and fats" is concerned.
The great Clarke has declared thar tho
elegiac lines refer to the character. nor 10
the actor; and Roberts, in answer to Pope.
said that poor Burbadge's fat had moth
ing TO DO with the case, for it was Iowin
who created the part of Hamlet not Bur
badge
Then George Stevens who not only ed
tied Shakespeare on his own account
but was associated with DR.. johnson in
that endless task declared that Iowin
also acted Faistaff, and any one fat
enough for that was sure to have been a
fat Hamlet
Then the fight was fairly on Germans
italians and Spaniards rushed into the
fray, and the plaguey line was torn and
twisted, dissected, restored, and had a
deuce of an existence generally.
Edmund Malone the Irish editor and
commentator, declared in the last century
that neither Lowin nor Burbadge plaHeJ
Hamlet, but that one Taylor did and thus
started search for personal information
concerning Taylor that must have amazed
the modest shade of that long-forgotten
actor.
OF course this process or trying to match
Hamlet with the actor who first played
the part was much too simple 10 satisfy
no
scorn all but internal evidence. and the
question turned upon texts which could
be related 10 the troublesome line. In this
| The fats had rather the best Of IT,
They pointed the finger Of triumph Ia
Hamlet's reply to the Invitation 10 drink
during the fencing bout
dare not drink vet, Madam; by and bv
to his reply to Osric-
1t is very sultry and hot for my complex
ion,
70 Poioniuss speech concerning Hamlet
You know sometimes he walks four hours
together.
All this they asserted, related to a man
so stout Of person that he was careful of
himself in that respect
The Trims" were content to harm unor
Ophelia's speech descriptive of Hamlet as
| the glass or tashlon and The mould Of
form"
Another departure was started early IN
| the present century by Howard Staunton
who besides being a Shakespeare editor
was famous writer ON chess. and hence
possibly an authority on queens" who
asked abruptly, May not the Queen have
referred to Laertes" when she sad ..He,s
fat and scant of BREATH"
This took the whole business into tho
field of possibility, and then there was
fun.
DR.. Clement Mansfield Inglebv. who
must have been a very wise man for
he calls one of his books "Shakesnear 70
Hermeneuucs, wrote in 1864 that he ha1
heard of a proposed reading thus: "Hn
is faint and scant of breath"
This was received with joy by the
'thns," and they had a jubilee when a
httle later there was translated from shs