Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-03-17

not fail to be interested in seeing him once
more as prince of lovers. Especial inter-
/ est has been manifested in Mr.. Mantell's
| Hamlet The fact that he is good Ham
! let was years ago within the knowledge of
| those who cared to inform themselves in
/ the matter. When he playing a rep
ertory which included such pieces as The
! Corsican Brothers and "Monbars, he
would occasionally reserve Saturday
night for the qualification of his personal
inclination for the poetic drama. His
Hamlet was good. Indeed, if personal
opinion may b" vcntured few Hamlets are
! bad. No character in the drama lends It
self so successfully TO variations of in
dividual temperament. Even the French
actor, Mounet-Sully, offered an explosive
and highly declamatOry Hamlet in fash
ion which in the course of the performance
became interesting and plausible. 1t was q
surprise to hear him recite the soliloquy
with the vociferous agitation of man in
actual terror of nightmare. Yet this mode
of expression was what Frenchman III
Hamlet's position might reasonably be eX-
pected TO adopt. MY. Mantell's Hamlet was
the romantic Hamlet. The picture he drew
was that OF youth endowed with all the
graces cast down by a great sorrow: ine
SN III HIS riitI WIS !IIciS tudiI bHC
interest in his revenge.
Poor old Cooley 'Cibber. The fashion of
abusing him which was set by Alexander
Pope and DR.. Johnson has been followed
until il has become Il tradition. Elsewhere
Mr.. Mantell announces his intention Of
eventually going back To the original of
Richard III and discarding the Cibber
There is certain
that follows the man who campers with
Shakespeare Or, as Mantell spells him,
SHAKESPEARE
These innovations in spelling lead to
dangerous ground. They are an open in
vitation to the Baconians To get busy
again.
The curse launched on the man who
| hampers with the Avon poets. place of
interment extends even to the dramatist
who NEEDLES with his plays. Practical
| evidence is all in favor of the proposition
| that Cibber made a very good job of it
when he re-wrote this tragedy. Without
! some of his stalwart lnterjections it
would be a compa rativeIy tame affair.
The performances which omitted them
! have almost invariably been rejected by
! the public. But somehow or other it be-
came habit to abuse him. and even the
| actors who have profted by his clever
| ness have fallen into it. AS the public APP
probation of Shakespeare advances the
disposition to hold him in an attitude of
| demi- dedication recedes. II is the intense
| humanity of his characters that charms.
and the apt application of his philosophy
| to everyday life that renders him help
| full AS he is better understood he be-
! comes more mortal, and. the fact that
some modern dramatists have ventured,
| like frolicsome small boys, to shy an oc-
| casional rock al him, is only proof that
he is again walking in our midst SUI
preme artistic influence. But some Of the
plays he turned out for the ediication Of
those London audiences who insisted that
the most exalted classic characters should
occasionally drop into the vernacular of
their own streets by no means reflected
his best stagecraft. There are several of
Shakespeare's plays. conspicuous among
them "Cymbeline," in which a number of
yawns would have been saved had Cibber
readjusted them as completely as he did
Richard ILL.," Let US Try to think . little