Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-11-13
THE GOWNSMAN
Hamlet

| Hamlet
| WITH Sir Johnston Forbes Robertson s
| w deIirhtrul "discourses', nm Sbnkospoa ro
md Mr. Walter Uomnden's recent inner.
sonation of the nrocrostinot;na nono in this
nervousness of Hamlet As to Sir Johnston.
| he may be said TO rcvolve in the orbit OF
! liamlet-and this is said in admiration. not
| in disdain. For Sir Johnston has made
| Hamlet in sense his own. in a rcincarna
! tion which extends back through ''his
master as he has called him. Samuel
| Phelps to Macrcady. the Kembles and to
! Garrick himself. TO lose itself in deeper
| past As the GownSman listened the other
evening to the familiar speech to the players
! pronounced without affectation or man
| nerlsm and as il it were the easiest thing
/ IN the world. he could not but feel that here
is the realization in practice of Shakespeare 8
own simple and sensible advice wherein he
warns how things "overdone' are from
| tho purpose of playing and pleads for 'the
| mirror held up TO nature Sir Johnston S
| English is a delight. for there is no mouth
ing in it. no trace of localism nor of man
| nerism. In listening to. Sir Henry Irving.
| years ago. We were always sensible. great as
| was his art that this was Sir Henry Irving
| impcrsonating Hamlet With Sir Johnston.
| the other evening neither the convention of
evening clothes. most un Hamletlike of
| habilimonts. nor pcrilous play with pince-
| here was Che veritablc Hamlet.
COMPARISONS are odious and generally
~ quite gratuitous. The Gownsman has
not been so fortunate as TO see Mr.. Hamp-
den this time but he remembers his Hamlet
of wear ago ana n vivid and most bonnv
impression remains. If Sir Johnston
Forbes Robertson represents the English
tradition. barking back to Garrick: MIR.
IIampdcm stands-be it said to his credit
for the tradition of our American Booth and
Forrest before him. The Gownsman. as n
boy. was raised on tho Booth Hamlet To
him. Hamlct's was the dark saturniuc face
of man bordering on the elderly. black of
har. save for n prizzlinv IN tbo tomn,os
Of dignificd. graceful figure deem melan.
cholv voice volatilesip his cbohpe of mood
lust n bit-dare it he saidP-theatric sus.
taincd always with subconscious scnse of
his rank as n prince apG-to nernotroto m
anti climax. usually abom;noblv SUMMARIZED
Mr. Hampdcn's is n romantic n beautiful
Hamlet. He looks the mart according to tho
than the Gownsman's late recollection of
Booth. as lithc. as graceful as melancholy,
as sonorously musical lin the rendition of
ms Ih's.
"
S'Mhb'i'a mas written interestingly
~ about the grand manner of Shakespeare
ana Mr.. Shaw has stuck his tongue in his
cheek as to all this olf romp and circum
stance. Sir Johnston called attention the
other evening to the large proportion of
prose employed by Shakespeare. not only in
itamlet-which contains great deal-but
throughout the plays. and he made the point
one never too frequently to be emphasized
that the poetry OF the play does not flicker
IN and out with the verse in word that
IN" prose Is often no less poctical than the
verse. Iheer is poctical glamour over the
"holo or the Shakespearean age. glamour
"h'rh exists TO us not only because we see
u afar on Dut because the romantic way
IN that time. Such an age expressed itself
III i.s own language ana that language is
nap.."a.E imaginative because SUCH was the
nap'' VI itS ,housh'' 10 ooJect 10 the granG
.,,a""el VI HnuhfsPeare Is TO quarrel about
ny 'nr runs, 'ne nowerrd ooup'ets and the
'''"'" ''o"'''"''S Vi o'u 'ihie'
II AMLEI' the greatest of tragedies, is
written like all the serious plays of
Shakespeare in the grand manner Its
scenes are gorgeous with the colors of the
imagination and glittering with wit and
with fancy. 1t is emphatically the story of
a PRINCE; and the poet has raised the petty
little castle of Elsinor with everything in it
to the heights of any poetic dilaton to
which your mind can follow him But all
this. like the robes of the king or the staff
of Office of Polonius. is but the trapping.
the garniture. not the essence of the play
Hamlet does not move us because he is a
prince, but because he is a man. We are
not so much concerned with his loss of a
kingdom perhaps as NAV have been the