Los Angeles herald., 1905-01-21
MUSIC AND
THE DRAMA
Versions Of Great Play

Versions Of Great Play
one OF the most important events in
the history Of dramatic affairs in Los
Angeles is the fact that the Ben Greet
company of players will produce Ham
let" at the Temple auditorium on Sat-
urday afternoon and evening. The play
will be given in its entirety, COM
mencing at 8 in the afternoon and last
ing until 5, when an intermission will
be taken until S:15. the conclusion Of
the play being at If.
The version Of the play familiar to
theater- goers is that made by Kemble
for his performance in 1888. A COM
parison of his version with that OF
Cambridge editors shows but a single
line and some dozen words not Shake
speare's. There is no doubt that for
modern audiences Kemble's is the bet
ter acting version. But the Kemble
version gives a decided misconception
of Shakespeare's drama. Naturally
everything is subordinated to Hamlet,
the speeches of others being drastically
"cut," entire scenes omitted and inn
portant characters eliminated. In es-
pecial Claudius is degraded from his
well nigh imperial position to kings
ship over Denmark, usually confuse1
with the modern state, and the back
ground of the international complica-
tions against which this domestic trag-
edy is cast entirely disappears.
It is worth the while, therefore, of
every one to take advantage of an OPP
portunity-for most the single chance
of a lifetime-of seeing staged Shake
speare's Hamlet" instead Of Kemble's.
The earliest reference to the play
called Hamlet" dates from 15S9 but
practically no scholar thinks this
drama was by Shakespeare. AS in
many other cases, however, this older
play was probably used by him as the
basis of the Hamlet he produced
about 1902. In July of that year a
book called 1.-THE Revenge of Hamlet,
Prince of Denmark was entered on
the stationers register. but if it was
published in that year no copy is
known. The earliest extant edition is
dated 1903 and is entitled "The Tragi-
cal Historic of Hamlet, Prince of Dem
mark" This the first quarto,'' was
apparently published from shorthand
notes taken during the performances,
with possibly some corrections from
parts furnished by INSCRIPTIONS ac-
tors or minor characters. Though full
of interest to Shakespeare students, It
is for our present purpose negligible
In 1904 appeared another edition, in
which, according to the title page, the
play was enlarged to almost as much
again as it was, according to the true
and perfect copie." The differences
between this and the earlier edition
are too great to be attributed alto
gether to careless note-taking, tran
scribing and printing. Apparently in
the interval Shakespeare practically
rewrote the play. This second quar-
to- the tercentenary of which is being
marked by performances in Germany,
as we'll as here. is the basis of all sub
sequent editions. twas reprinted seven
times during the seventeenth century,
thrice during shakespeare life.
In 1923, seven years after the poets
death, his fellowactors, Heminge AMI
Condell, published the First Folio
edition of his plays, the Hamlet OF
which is substantially that of 1904.
But each contains passages not in the
other, and as, in the opinion of critics,
both were acting versions of long
play, the standard text of today, the
Cambridge is made by combining the
two The result is believed to repre-
sent more nearly than any previous
version the Hamlet" in which Bur-
bage played the title role and Shake
speare the ghost in the Globe theater
just three hundred years ago.