The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1899-07-16

cssy q some of he greatest ssags heroes.
Hut II Ia next 70 certain that tho role *
Hzmses was net one Of those attempfe&
by Dentr. a. II 10 both certain and unac-
eounfahie that II WAS never done ~ Ai0
cusbman-
sun another woman Hamlet, who once
amused Chicago audiences By . more or
less successful perpcnAfsoH. was Miss Char
Iotte Champion, . New York actress. cf
whom Macready, the Enxiish actor. afsef
seeing her Hamlet In New York. said. III
she were but . foot taller she would STAR
tie the world"
BaE one must 50 back many years 70 find
the beginning % the convention OF the
female Hamlet in this country. Appar-
entity u was established here by MrA
BARLEY. who played Hamlet .: the Park
faeaser. New York. on March =, issS.
About three months afferwzrd a native
actre1s. ene Nrs. Barnes. attempted the
character III the same house The result
is not recorded. but IN after days the iaty's
daughter Charlotte tMrx. Connorl could
play nothing fcieraaiy save the prince.
New York had OCCASION TO sit in Judgment
on another outrage on the character on
May =. lSz3. when Mrs Baffersby was the
cufprtt
The FIRST woman Hamlet Of later period
In this country was Mrs. Shaw. who about
character at the Bowsry sheAser. New
York. Al nearly the same time Mrs. John
Brcugaam, the first wife Of the celebrated
actor Of that name. played the part In
mosf OF the Eastern cities. Next came ~
Hamlet, another New Yorker. Fanny Wal
lack. and the tradition II that she succeed
81 ~ well ~ any OF those that have been
named or Of the following named women
who have aspired TO equal male actors In
the part Of the melancholy prince Of Dem
mark: Adele Belgrade. Sophie Miles. Nell
lie HoIbFook, Viola whficomb, Eliza War.
rem and Mrs. r. b. Conway.
Mrs siAaens ~ Hamlet
Another Sarah, and a no less famous act
ress than Nine. Bernhardt heraeff-tfe
great Mrs. Sddons-was the frst English
woman of note 20 don the inky cloak
and customary suit OF solemn black, and
20 appear tn this part. She played Il In
the old theasers Of Bath and Bristol. then
the moss distinguished OF ali the proyfn-
ctai psayhonses So much the London
Graphic has learned from Rev. Mr. Genest.
a Bath clergyman. who from his vast
and unrivaied collection OF piaybills en-
abied him to furnish US with the precise
date-June q ISL" II was in the YER
sion Of the tragedy by Garriek and Lee
and one OF her sisters, described In the
bin an Mise kembie. enacted on the same
formance was. It seems repeated In Bath,
though never before London audience.
and, strangely enough. Mrs. Siddons'
biographers. James Boaden ana Thomas
Campbell. the poet, are silent about an
episode In their heroine,s career which
was certainly curious and interesting
Queen Gertrude She had often played.
What were the motives OF the great ira
Eedienne for donninG the doubIet and hose
- H. L..
attire. thus challenging comparisons with
Garriek and Henderson. Whose impersona-
tons Of the prince OF Denmark were ia
milar 20 Bath audiencesg Whatever they
may have been, II must be assumed that
the venture was not particularly success
fui. No portrait OF her I'm the character
has ever been seen and all the information
tina; has come down 10 US ON the subject
II that she wore "a black-fringed cloak
draped about her like iady.s shawl" and
that the general effect was that or "a
bury. Iil-formsd man"
Youth at least was on her side. for Sarah
eIddons At that time had not completed
her 18th year But the truth Is that she
had played Hamlet some years before the
Bath and Bristol experiment. There is
extapt q letter Of hers to her friend. Mrs
Inchbaid the drauafis. written In 1916. in
which she says: Il played Hamlet in Liv-
erpool 10 near Eio0." II also appears tina.
at Manchester In the following year the
prince OF Denmark was one OF her most
appiauded characters. StiI, though she
acted It In Dublin. she could never be pre-
vailed to do so in London. an evident in
dicstlon that she was not well satisfied
with this only attemp: OF hers to play
male Shakespearean character.
Later Women Hamlets In England.
But these later times have not been with
out examples OF lady Hamlets. Miss Alice
Marriott. an actress Of some power, who
played an important par, In the version of
Dickens Tale Of Two Cities has enacted
this part during tho last thirty years or SO
in town and country on both sides 90 the
Atlantic nearly 900 times This fact in IT.
self sufficiently atteass the popularity Of
Miss Marrsosrs impcrsoaarion. nut II seems
that her assumption OF the character was
originally rather due TO accident than de-
iioerate intention. IL was her husband
the late Robert Edgar. who first suggested
10 her to play the young prince OF Dem