2.1 Claudius in Henry Irving's 1878 Hamlet and in the First Quarto

2. POETIC ECONOMY AND DRAMATIC CHARACTER

This chapter explores the relationship of poetic economy to the representation of character in the Hamlet versions. It might come as a surprise, perhaps, that Hamlet as the play’s protagonist has not been selected as a subject for analysis in this chapter. A survey of the stage versions shows, however, that they gen- erally cut very little from the part considering its overall length. To illustrate the effects of alterations two other characters have been selected which are of- ten affected by cutting: Claudius and Polonius. As the villain in the tragedy of Hamlet , the character of Claudius has to fulfil the function of providing a counterpart to the play’s protagonist. The balance between the part of the hero and the part of the villain is shifted in stage versions which alter the part of Claudius. The analysis of Claudius will concentrate on the treatment of the character in one particular stage version, which considerably shortens the part, namely Henry Irving’s 1878 Hamlet . Irving’s approach will be compared to the approach taken to the character in the First Quarto of Hamlet , which also gives the King less room than Q2 and F. The character of Polonius particularly lends itself to an analysis of poetic economy because the character’s use of language creates the impression of ‘uneconomy’ in all of the three substantive Hamlet texts. In conjunction with other character traits evoked by the text, the tendency to be verbose leads to an ambiguity of the character Polonius as a sign, i.e. as a part of the play’s communication with the audience. This ambiguity makes several interpretations of Polonius’s character, i.e. his character as an imitation of human character, pos- sible. My analysis will explore how ‘uneconomy’ on the internal level of communication can become functional on the external level of communication. Besides, it will show how the character’s uneconomy is affected by alterations in the stage versions and how this, in turn, influences the ambiguity of the character and our interpretation of Polonius.

2.1 Claudius in Henry Irving’s 1878 Hamlet and in the First Quarto

Henry Irving’s first London production of Hamlet premiered at the Lyceum Theatre in October 1874 and became a great success with 200 consecutive 84 VERSIONS OF HAMLET performances. 1 It comes as little surprise, then, that when Irving took over the Lyceum Theatre in 1878, he chose Hamlet as the first play to be staged under his management. The production ran for seven years with Ellen Terry as Ophelia and Irving in the lead role. For many, Irving “became the Hamlet of his generation” (Richards 123). As a survey of existent Irving prompt books shows, he not only left his marks on the play’s main character but also on the playtext as a whole. Irving continuously worked with the text, making alterations and producing ever new versions of Hamlet . For his 1878 Hamlet revival, Irving had his current version of the playtext printed to be sold at the theatre. In the preface to this volume, Frank A. Marshall notes that Irving was guided in the preparation of his Hamlet versions by both his experience as a perfor- mer and his awareness of the textual history of the play (cf. xii-xiii). The 1878 Irving prompt book (Shattuck No. 93) held at the Shakespeare Centre Library and Archive (SCLA) in Stratford is based on the acting text printed for Irving’s 1878 Lyceum production but records further cuts in addi- tion to the already extensive omissions in the printed text. 2 The following

1 The Lyceum Theatre’s manager at the time was Hezekiah Linthicum Bateman (cf. Richards 4). Irving directed and starred in several plays during Bateman’s management, which lasted until his death in 1878 (cf. 4). 2 This prompt book will be referred to as Irving 1878 throughout the chapter. As regards the nature of the markings found in Irving’s 1878 prompt book, there are conflicting views. While Shattuck identifies it as a “[c]arefully marked prompt book” ( The Shakespeare Prompt Books 110), a note which accompanies the book suggests that, compared to those in an 1874 Irving prompt book held at the Folger Library, the markings in this particular copy are incomplete from act 3 onwards. The anonymous note concludes that the book was not used in performance but possibly prepared in part for a tour, abandoned and later taken up again. The note does not give a reason for this assumption other than that the markings differ from the 1874 Folger copy. It is not entirely clear which Folger Irving prompt book the note refers to. Shattuck lists an undated Irving prompt book kept at the Folger Library based on an 1873 Clarendon Press edition: “Given by Irving to Charles Lamb Kenney, ‘with marks as per- formed by him at the Lyceum.’ Cuts and transpositions only” (Shattuck No. 92; Ham 15 in Prompt Books from the Folger Shakespeare Library ). For a study of this prompt book see Claris Glick’s “ Hamlet in the English Theater: Acting Texts from Betterton (1676) to Olivier (1963).” While I was not able to consult the Folger prompt book, I had access to photographs of a 1873 study book prepared by Irving, also on the basis of a 1873 Clark and Wright Clar- endon Press edition, kept at the Harvard Theatre Collection (Shattuck No. 91; listed as 76 in Newlin). A comparison of the 1873 study book and Irving 1878 shows that the markings found in the 1878 prompt book cannot be considered incomplete in the sense of ‘unfinished,’ even though they might differ from the markings found in other Irving prompt books. Some of the cuts made in the 1873 study book have been adopted in Irving’s 1878 printed acting text (e.g. 1.1.73-128, 1.1.177-80, 1.2.11-13, 1.2.17-41, 1.2.44-50, 1.2.96-106, 1.2.110-16), while some cuts found in Irving 1873 – for instance, 1.1.65-67 – have not. While Irving 1873 cuts 1.1.142 (“Stop it”) to 146, Irving 1878 only omits 1.1.143-44. There are cases where the Irving 1878 prompt book indicates a cut which, together with an omission in the acting text, reflects a longer cut found in the 1873 study book. This is the case in the first scene where 1873 cuts lines 160-70. The 1878 printed acting version only adopts a cut of lines 160-62, but the 1878 prompt book cuts the remaining lines to reflect the entire omission indicated in 1873. While the 1873 study book cuts the entire exchange between Reynaldo and Polonius at the beginning of 2.1, the printed 1878 acting text includes the first and final lines of the en- counter (1.2.1-5, 71-73), but these are marked as cut in the 1878 prompt book. At other times,