The Washington herald., 1907-12-15
E. H. S0THERN IN HAMLET"
Fine Presentation Of Shakespeare
Closes Successful Week.

Closes Successful Week.
Mr.. Z. II. Sothern closed his successful
weeks engagement at the Belasco The
alter by presenting, before a fashionable
and well pleased audience, Hamlet" in
the central character Of which he has
an opportunity TO display at their best
those Intellectual qualities that have made
him the great actor that he is II has
been some five years since the writer Of
this last saw Mr. Sothern in Hamlet"
and it is noticeable that in those years
the player has broadened TO a marked
degree his Interpretation and his read
ing.
Mr.. Sotaern's Hamlet appeals not
alone to the sympathies-this it does most
stronghold 70 the intellect. It is 4
delight to hear Sha5espeare's beautiful
lines rendered with much meaning and
insight, so that the play which every
one has studied IN his chamber takes on
new meanings, new delights, and reveals
poetic wonders that ever afterward will
be fine memory to those that heard.
or course the play has to be shortened
for modern audiences-as it was. last
night the curtain rose promptly at S and
descended at mldnight-but one cannot
help but grieve that Mr. Sothern should
deem 1t necessary TO cut out the
fine speech Of Polonlous advice to
Laertes. This, however. IS an old
quarrel over Mr.. SOthern's acting version
and has been pretty thoroughly thrashed
out on both sides Of the matter. In vari-
Gus important passages of the play Mr.
SOthern has found new readings. most Of
them the growth of ripening experience.
and lettering the old. For instance. he
has found a most adroit way-and artis-
tic. too-of breaking up that somewhat long
soliloquy which often has>had a tendency
to be a bit prosy: "Oh. that this too. too
solid flesh would melt" He divides this by
having Il interrupted by the clamor of
trUmpets off stage where. it may be i'm.
agined. the king is holding high reyel
over the wedding feast.
Excellently new, too, was his v0icing Of
the speech:
MY fathers spirit in arms, all is not weIr
For here he lays a decided emphasis on
the words lin arms" as if that fact We're
even more significant than that his father
were abroad He seems TO realize that
the poor ghost armed cap-a-pie" appears
so because some foul wrong has been
done
And so. throughout the play. the lover
of Shakespeare viii find a dozen new
beauties OF Interpretation to delight the
ear and satisfy the mind. On the whole.
the presentation was delight
The supporting company was adequate.
but not strikingly good; notable excep-
lions to this being the fine acting Of Miss
Virginia Hammond, as Ophelia, dainty.
sweet, and altogether lovable and the
robustious comedy of Rowland Blackstone
as the first grave digger. Mr.. John Tay-
Tor, as the King, was not good He
reads Shakespeare a thought unhappily.
and evidently does not realize the beau
ties Of the meter. His ending Of the
speech must not unmatched go" in
which he gave unmatched" the modern
pronunciation Of two syllables, and set
the teeth Of his hearers on edge, was a
case In point.
But these. and such as these, were
minor faults Of a presentation that II
was good to have seen. that was most
heartily and thoroughly enjoyed, and
which was a fitting and perfect climax to
a fine week Of dramatic treat.
HECTOR FULLER.