The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1905-07-25
THE ROLEOF HAMLET
MANY FAMOUS ACTRESSES EssAYEo
IT AND FAILED.

] Were Not Equal To inc NuShA-<AAaA'
/ Dickinson In the Part.
Although many Of the cleverest &C
! tresses- the world has known have es
sayed the part, they have, with Few
exceptions, faiIed in it.
Even Sarah Siddons, probably thu
! greatest tragic actress of all time, wa:
| a failure as Hamlet, largely owing Il
| the nondescript nature of her garments
which were neither masculine nor femi
nine and which made it almost impos
sible to forget that her Hamlet was
woman and not a man, says London
Tit-Blts.
Charlotte Cushman was perhaps Inc
most brilliant player Of male parts OF
her or, indeed. of any other generation
She was equally brilliant and convinc'
ing as Romeo, Cardinal Wolsey or
Claude Melnotte, but when she made
the crucial experiment of playing the
melancholy Dane even she proved
unequal to the task. In fact, her Ham
let was so badly received in Dublin
that she there and then made up her
mind never to play it again.
And yet her Romeo was such tri-
umpn Of acting that James Sheridan
Knowles, the great dramatist and crit
ic, was completely carried away by it.
OF her acting Of the passage where Ro-
meo filings himself upon the ground,
taking the measure Of an unmade
grave" he says: at was a scene Of top
most passion, not simulated passion;
no such thing-real, palpably real. The
genuine heart storm was on in its wild
est fullness Of fury, and listened and
gazed and held my breath, while my
blood ran hot and cold. / am sure it
must have been the case with every
one in the house, but was all alb
sorbed in Romeo till thunder Of ap-
plause recalled me to myself"
And Of her assumption of the difficult
part Of Claude Melnotte in "The Lady
of Lyons" Justin Mccarthy says: Il
have seen Claude Melnotte played by
many great actors, from Macready to
Irving, but Miss Cushman eclipsed
them all. She created for me the only
human, the only possible and the only
endurable Claude Melnotte 1 have ever
SEEN"
Miss Julia Seaman, a once popular
actress, was so severely criticised when
she played Hamlet some years ago that
she turned round on her critics and as
sailed them in very vigorous manner
The late Miss Marriott, who had one of
the most beautiful voices ever heard on
any stage, was more fortunate, al
though it was one Of her least success
full assumptions, and in the fifties an
American actress, Miss Percy Knowles,
made such an unfortunate exhibition
Of herself as the melancholy one that a
country manager actually issued a no.
tice warning his patrons against going
to see her.
Ellen Tree (NIrs. Charles Kean) was
the first to put on Hamlet's doublet
and hose; Mrs. Glover won Edmund
Kean's approval by her playing Of the
part, and Nine. Sarah Bernhard gave
a picturesque and clever rendering Of
Hamlet, although it was not to be com.
pared with many of her brilliant as.
sumptiOns.
Charlotte Champion was noted for
her clever acting Of masculine parts.
which would have been even more con.
vincing If she had not been such a tiny
woman. There is a woman" Mac
ready once said, referring to her, "who
would startle the world If she were but
two inches taller" She was such a
magnificent swordswoman that few
men cared to try their skill against her
on the stage, and she was undoubtedly
a genius in her way, with a courage
commensurate with her skill.
She was one Of the finest personators
Of Richard III. ever seen on the stage,
her Shyleck was among the most bril-
liant pieces Of acting in her day, and
she was almost equally clever as Iago.
Romeo and Don Caesar de Bazan, and
yet when Charlotte Champion chal- /
lenged criticism with Hamlet she fail (
ed as signally as her rival, Charlotte
Cushman, had done.
Probably the most successful of all
lady Hamlets was Anna Dickinson.
who made considerable reputation as
Macbeth and Claude Melnotte. "A /
number Of women have tried Hamlet" /.
she said. None, believe, with any /
success. Yet, in my opinion, the char /
acter of Hamlet is eminently suited for
a woman's capabilities. Hamlet was
veryi young-a mere college boy, in /
fact. Besides, a fine actress is more /
likely to bring out the wonderful wo- /
manlike delicacy of Hamlets charac-
ter than very young actor" And she
her views by giving an at
tractive and clever rendering Of the