Edwin Booth's "Hamlet": a New Promptbook

Edwin Booth's "Hamlet": A new promptbook

The Harvard community has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters

Citation Shattuck, Charles H. 1967. Edwin Booth's "Hamlet": A new promptbook. Harvard Library Bulletin XV (1), January 1967: 20-48.

Citable link https://nrs.harvard.edu/URN-3:HUL.INSTREPOS:37363904

Terms of Use This article was downloaded from Harvard University’s DASH repository, and is made available under the terms and conditions applicable to Other Posted Material, as set forth at http:// nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:dash.current.terms-of- use#LAA ......

Edwi11Bootl1' s Hanilet: A New Pron1ptbook

Cbar/esH. Sbattuck :l;

~-- n,,,..11\TBooTH played Iia1nlct for nearly forty years. He play-cd it cvery,vhere, not onl)7 in Nc,v York and Boston and San Francisco, in England and Ger1n~ny, but in Vincennes, In- ... diana~1\1ucon, Georgia; Bay City, 1\1ichigan;Decatur, Illinois. '''hen he toured the States, especially·in the 18 7o's and 188o"s, people came to the cities fro1nmiles around to see hin1. Such cro,vds gathered at the train stations to ,velcome him (son1cti1ncs,vith brass bands and street parades) that Booth, ,vho ,vas shy of adulation except ,vhen he ,vas safely behind footlights, ,vould send out one of his actors c]ad in the ,vell-kno,vn Booth cloak and broad-brjnuned hat to impersonate hin1, ,vhile he hid in the car or escaped to his hotel incognito. He p1aycd other roles th~n Han1ler,. of conrse (in his later _years about a dozen)~ and some of thc111~ the critics thought, rather better; but Ha1nlet ,vas the role ,virh ,vhich he ,vas most identified~ in ,vhich the people loved him best .. It bccan1c a national institution, a legend.. The

An1erican ,vho had not seen hin1 in it 1 or Joe Jefferson's Rip Van ,~Tinkle~or lviark 'T\vain on the lcctl1tc p]atforn1, had not lived in his time. In one of his later touring con1panies ,vas a y·oung actress named Kitty 1\1olony·,u very indifferent actress but a char111ing enthusiast, ,vh9 kept a diar)r of the season and long after,vards ;:vrote a book about it~ Herc, in part~ is her account of the Booth-I-Ian1lct 1nanil, California .St)Tlc;or ,vhat it ,vas like to be "Behind the Scenes ,vith

Ed,vin Booth,, one l\1arch night in 1887 in San Francisco 1 ,vhcn he opened Hn111letthere~ 1 The author is indebted to the University of lliinois Center for Ad\Tanced Study an ti to th c Am eric-an Philosophical Society (The Pc nrosc Fund) for gr~ n ts in sup- port of this and f u nh e~ stnd ics of Ed ,vi n Booth. :1. I

York 1 193I), pp. 178'-1Si..

Harvard University - Houghton Library / Harvard University. Harvard Library bulletin. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Library. Volume XV, Number 1 (January 1967) Edwin Bootlis Han1let 2 I The audience 1nust have been e-xpectingthe Star to 1,·alk on, for the curtain \Vent up ,vithout a sound front the front. T'hc 19ng began his speech. ~fhcn the inky-cloaked .figure ,,,as recognizedi and they broke Joose. I ,vas in the first en tra n cc:i-pro1npt sid c -- ,v here the clock ,va!L I tj med th~ t S::1n F rn ncisco reception. It Ja.sted n1orc than five n1inutes ... l\1.r. Booth held his son1bre mood and posture as long as he couldf then bo,ved gravely~- not a trace of

a .sn1ile upon his fa.cc~ But they -- out there -- kept it up i until he \V.Os f o.rced to step out of cha rnc ter ::ind,van ly smile 11pon them . . The n ig11 t threatened to bcco1nc a dcrnonstration to Ed\vin Booth, 1vith I·Iarnler left out. 1~he actor cornpeHed qui~t hy slipping into ch:iracter, hut a Hatnlct duit 1natlc one f c e1as if Jove's Hgh tn ing bo Its had be en turned 1oosc and ,,.,ere striking all about one. She validates her story of the occasio11,vith statistics. She counted the caHs. There 1vere eight calls for the first act~ ten for the second! sixteen for the third. After the Closet scene, she says) she Jost reckon- ing~ But then, at the end:

Jj ghts go up :-:i:t once. No one 111ovesout t 1lere. The o rel 1estra is p] aying its

I-Ian1let dirge, and then 1 after complete qujet 1 reaction sets in. Ladies cljmb 11p on their sea ts, scrca1n out for Booth! Booth! Ir is rcfi ncd Bed] a 111, and then n1ore cr1Ils. I no longer pay attention to then1. l am too u~ed up . . The San F'rancjscans ,vcrc al,vays ,vonderfully· cordial to Dooth in these later years, for he had been their discovery., or perhaps one had better say·, their fathers:tdiscovery.. In San Francisco., on April 25, r 8 5 3, ,vhen he had 11otyet turned t\venty, he played 1-Iamlet for the first tin1e, to an :audience of inasculine and dcmonstr~tive (though by no n1eans unsophisticated) f rontiersmcn. The 1ncn of the Gold Rush

prided themselves on their connoisseurship in Htcraturc and the arts 1 and especially jn the art of acting~ To a n1~n they had been adn1irers of Booth's father., Junius Brutus Booth, ,vho only 8 fc,v n1onths before had played his 1astpcrforn1ancc for thc1n and gone back east to die. No,v to a 1nan they ,vcrc ,vatching the )7 oung Booth to sec \vhcthcr (ju the theatrical ja.rgon of the day) Hthe n1antle of the father ,vould descend upon the son.-u Four nights earlier, as he stun1bled uncert,a.inlythrough the first three acts of l~icbnrd Ill, his course lu1d seemed doubtful, but ,vhcn in the final acts he broke out ,vith s0111e- thing like his father's bravura~the} 7 starnpcded hin1 ,vith applause.. The Haut/et night seen1sto have hcen triu1nphant fro1nthe beginning. t,,,,e venture to assert ,vithout fc3r of contr3dictjon, that never in the his- tory of drn1na did such a. spectac]e present itself/~ etc., etc. -- so leads off the revjev{ of Ferdinand E\vcr, an ardent young critic ,vho

Harvard University - Houghton Library / Harvard University. Harvard Library bulletin. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Library. Volume XV, Number 1 (January 1967) 22 I-larvardLibrary Bulletin be can1e Booth"'s first prop! 1ct. Booth~s I-Ia n1lct) he d cclared, '' p11ts to the blush any attempt in the snn1c ch~racter ,ve ha.Yeseen in Cnlifotni2.,' It ,vas far superior, he dared assert, to the ~'icycoldness,' and ('unbend- ing iron" of Ja1ncs Stark's Han1lct, Stark being just then the reigning local favorite. In point of appearance -at least) it ,Yas superior ev·en to the Han1let of his la.te great father. The ~'chief point of hcanty'' ,vas his ''fle:,3bility.'' Ile achieved ''all the easy 111otion and the peaceful curves of 'a ,vavc of the sea., '• In n f c,v ,vords E~.vcr spelled out his

''beau idcar' of Han1let1 anticipating the Han1let of the idealizing gen~ration that ,v-asju.st con1ing into its o,vn; and he clain1ed.,probably s0111 e, vhat \v j shfu 11 y, th at Boath h2.d perfectly realized his ideal:

1\1 cla nc holy ,vithou t gloom1 con cetn pl ad ve yet , vith out misanthropy i phi lo- sophi cal yet enjoying pJa yfu l ness in social converse, a man by hin,self yet ,vi th

ardent feelings of friendship, a thorough kno"'cr of htunan nature 1 Hatnlct

stands che type of a11 that is firn11 dignified, ge ntlen1anl y and to be respected in a rnan. 2

This is no Han1lct for our f rctf ul time, of course. It had not been the I-Ia1nlct of Goethe~ though it descends fron1 Goethe's fiagllc poet- pri nee. It is too serene~ bloodless, se1 f-con fident, gentc el, rem otc from trollble, a model book for the education of a gentlemen~Eventually, in BoothJsinterfusion of digrtity-, Hintellectuaiity,n and n1anly but discreet passion, it became the An1crican I-la1nlct of the age, -and our grand- fathers accepted it ivithout question. Probably Booth did not understand at first \\.,hat E\ver ,vas talking about. In his private ]ife he took no pains to behave like Hall that is firm, dignified, gentlen1anly/' nor did he "devote him.self to study,"' as all his California revie,vers advised hin1 to do. A hot young bachelor~ he lived like c'the fcllo,vs.H I-Ic ga1nb]ed, rode hard1-drank too n1uch~ got involved ,vith ,vo111e11.I-Ic ban1storn1ed to Australja and back, a profitless advcntt1re. Nor did he· speci~lize in "genden1anly,, roles. Like any stock actor of strong- an1hition hut unsettled direction, he played ,vhat he l1adto play, building his sl,ills ~nd his favor ,vith the public as best he. could. In his ]ast California season ( J 85 5-56); ut S:icr~nncnto, he appeared in over forty roles (Han1let hut once), n1ost of thc1n junk that he ,vould never touch again}:sliis final benefit per-

ror a fuil ~ccount of Fcrdin[lnd E,\·cr and hesrdatjonsl1ip ,vjth Roothi sec '~Edwin

Rooth,s Fir~t Critic,1' Tbe~tre Sur -vey, \ 1U (~1ay 1966) 1 1, .a A full Ust of Booth is ro lcs for th is sc ason, corn piled h,r Ch~ r 1es n~rn burgh fro 111

Harvard University - Houghton Library / Harvard University. Harvard Library bulletin. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Library. Volume XV, Number 1 (January 1967) b.,.dwh1Bootb>s I-inrnlet 23 formance there "~asa ~1Grand Con1plin1entaryTcstin1onial to Ed,vin Booth, Tendered him hy· the .i\1embersof both I-lousesof the Legisla- ture nnd the City-of Sacran1 en to.' J This ,vas success to turn his head, though to sober readers in the eastern cities it n1ust haYc had a brassy . ring~ ,~Then he returned to the East in 1856, he did not y·ct kno,v himself. Although finished ,vith stock ,vork and detcrn1incd to star it in t:'the classics,H he began by· trying to bully· his ,vay to attention .. Hn.1ulet ,vas in his repertory~ but only incidentally; he did not faltor it or gjvc it an}r distinctive trcatrncnt. He preferred to che,v rugs as Sir Giles O,Tcrrcach, Richard III~ Richelieu, Pcscara in 7 1 be Apostate, Tate's King Lear, and similar ranting roles inherited fron1 his father's genera- tion" ,1\-7hat he did not kno\V ,vas that the ~'old school', of tragic acting, onts1zed,for1nalized., oratorical, heavily n1asculinc.,,,,.as on its ,vay out .. l\1obody "ranted him to perpetuate h1sfather or con1pcte ,vith Ed,vin J?arrest, that gigantic, stubborn, old-school 1nan among n1en, on For- rest's o, vn terms. Taste in theatre ,vas changing, as E\ver had kno,vn, ,vith a turn to- ,vard elegance; audiences ,vere bcjng described as ''cultivated,'~ ''crit~ ical/' '\vealthy/~ "intellectuar~~ ,\,.omen ,vcrc attending plays in ever increasing nutnbcrs; decorum 311d subtlety, de~icacy and refinement ,vcre coining to be prized above brute strength. Really nice people ,vcrc a little ashamed of Edlvin Forrest, ,vho for -allhis intelligence and strength had tarnished his reputation \Vith inv0Jven1cnt in the Astor Place lliots and scandal in the divorce courts~ ''Elemental passion ,vas to be suggested, not sho,vn/' as one old devotee of For rest grn,nbled 111anyyears aJtcr,var

piaybiJls at Tho Pb.ycrs, js in Bamburgh's Booth sct::1pbook in the H~nTard Theatre Co] Ie cti on. The old dc\Totec of Forre5t ,v~s A. C. '''hee]er ( 183 ;-1901) t ·w·ho "\Vrote th ea tee crldcisrn under the nr1mc of '~Nym Cdnk]e.p ...f\. br:nvny-minded rtlan1 he never for~ gave the gcnc.nl.tiottof "cstl1.ctei:{•311d ciedecdcs'~ ,Yho in the 186o's abandoned Forrest, the '~Amcric:an Tjt1:1n/' and preferred Booth. The 5entences I have quoted appear in a long article!:rec~ pitu 1~ti11 g his an ti-Ilooth opinions, printed in th c Jfro r Jd on June 9, l 893, inl in cd iatel y -after Booth •s death. 15 :Roston Post! April :2 r, 1857..

Harvard University - Houghton Library / Harvard University. Harvard Library bulletin. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Library. Volume XV, Number 1 (January 1967) I-I:rrvard J_jbrnry B 11l let in through Booth's still unsettled 111cthod~the critics praised hin1.. But he often disappointedthen1. He strutted at tin1cs and attitudinized. He affected his father's dra\vl and nasal t,vang. If he did not exactly rant, his ''flights \Verethose of excess.') r He 1nemorized carelessly. Some- tirnes he lazied through Jong p~ssagcs that shou 1d have n,attered, ano then in the last scenes over,vhcln1ed the audtence ,vith terri fie:bursts, firing all his guns of energy- and noise at onceJ an old theatrical trick. Of his drcarn scene in Ric/Jard Ill., said the Boston Tra11script-iHhe plunges n1adly forl'i'"ard and falls on his knees --l1is teeth chatter against each other -- his e)res glare and sccn1 bu rs ting f ron1 their sockets --his voice gushes forth nt intervals, or is lost jn hurried and

impotent_atten1pts at expression.'' 'j Is that praise or blu1ne? Critics, audiences,and friends helped hin1 find his lcveL Steadily~if not -at once~ he learned to capitalize on his slight, lithct slvift body t his con1paratively small but exquisitely n1usicalvoice, his glo,ving C)7 es and expressive play of features, his dark, altnost fen1ininc beauty, his capacity for gentleness, quictndc, and pathos~ Tn Ne,v ·~{urk City he ,vas taken in hand b1T A.dan1Badeau, a brilliant young 1ittcrateur, ,vho helped repair the forn1idab]c gaps in his education. Badeau made hitn visit picture galleries and libraries., read Shakespeare criticis1n and biographiesof actors; he attended Booth's rehearsals and performances, and discussed the fine pofr,ts of his acting ,vith hin1far into the night. In short, Badeau indoctrinated hin1in the esthetic fashions of the hour. i\1-aryDevlin, too, the young actress \,rhomBooth ,vould shortly n1arry, gave him tin1ely ad vice: c'The con,rersationa1, colloquial school )rou de~ire to adopt is the onl) 7 tn1e one., Ed,vin, for the present day." s Th us~ by his o,vn abi Jitics and th c pressures pn t upon hi 111, he , ·vas driven to\vard I-I2111let,.so to speak; for of all the classic roles, I-Iamlct is the one most susceptible to quiet playing. In 1860, after a nvo-year ~b~ence fro1n the Ne\v ,rork stage~ he pcrf urn1ed his "ne,v" Hamlet. Yol.lng 1:\'illian1v\ 7inter, ,vho from this tin1e forth ,vas his constant angel, ,vas an1azed at '\vhat gigantic strides he h-astaken tO\vards the highest excellence ..~• 'd The Ti1J1cscritic declared that 1 'of ull those \vho

have essayed the character of I-Iu111lct1 for a night or fift) 7 consecutive

I! Boston Tra1.,eller.,April :21, 1857. 11Boston Tr-a11rcript.,April 13, I 857. Ed\vina Ilooth Grossm,n111jEdri.vin Booth; Recollections by bis Daug/Jter (Ne,,v

York, 1894) 1 p. 2-7. ~Ne,v York T-ribune,,December 4j 1860.

Harvard University - Houghton Library / Harvard University. Harvard Library bulletin. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Library. Volume XV, Number 1 (January 1967) PLA"fE]

CH Ar~LES "" ITHAi\ 1 ).si, PL,, Y scr,:r•a~'] roR TH 1-:~, 100 :c-.·1G1n·~" )lROlllJC'flOh' ( Folger SfJtrk(!speare. Li!JtGr"\1)

PJ.A1E 11 "'ITHAi\l is PRELL\ 1 INARY Df.SIGJ\' FOR TJJE I 8 70 H nullet (A1u.r:cu,nof t/Je Cit)' of f,,le7.vYark)

Harvard University - Houghton Library / Harvard University. Harvard Library bulletin. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Library. Volume XV, Number 1 (January 1967) ' .. • I •• ii :::i- r--- : : - : i 00 . ._., J ,_:7.

_. . :.-, ·.; ;.J- .--

' - "1; . ·71~.-.__ ~-. -1 -~ --

Harvard University - Houghton Library / Harvard University. Harvard Library bulletin. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Library. Volume XV, Number 1 (January 1967) r--- rx, ...... ,.. 0 <., cf'. V...... -:;

......

...... ' ...... t--1

f--1 ....:I

:::;

Harvard University - Houghton Library / Harvard University. Harvard Library bulletin. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Library. Volume XV, Number 1 (January 1967) -:ti' --~·~~..._ . ' - ·~ .. r-J_.r • • I ' - . . ,'1 II ••y. ' ' ,_. ·,_ ll • '• .....,..,;--:~t ·- - JJ ·: .- • - - . ,,

..'·-:~;,·/ \ "Ii ' : \ . - \~

I J .\ ..--.. -=~ I C'.:! <:::,

-i,...._ .c;__,. t,,.....

!-...... ,.._ i:- -.:.., ;;:. ::..."! ._ 7. """i;:::,

u I.,;, r..::: ::: t-.:. h'

';;- .....'.1 .._...:::0 ;...... c,:i > '---l ::t f--1 E- '--- p,.. 0 D ...... %. < i::::; Cl u"J ...,.. .--:. -e. t::: .....f-,

Harvard University - Houghton Library / Harvard University. Harvard Library bulletin. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Library. Volume XV, Number 1 (January 1967) Edwin Bootl/s 1-latnlet 2 5 nights in this country~ l\1r.. Booth is unquestionably the best.,, 10 Al- though ,vc can reco,rer but f c,v detai1.~of his 1 860 perf orn1ancc'3one of thc1n is fan1011s: he ,v-asthe first actor on the An1erican stage ,vho dared to deliver a I-Ian1lct soliloquy· sitting in a chair. 11 And "\\·hat astonished old ph1)r-gocrs even 1nore, in the 1nidst of ,c·l'o be or not to be" he got up from the chair and ,valked to another position! Once he had cstabljshcd his O\Vnrole, he ,vas ambidous to have it 1nounted inn ,vorthy setting. In 1864 at the '~'inter Garden he got up an entirely nc,v·production, the scenery and the dressesprepared under his personal supervision. This ,vas his fatnous "Hundred Nightsn Hauzlet, \lthich put the capstone on hjs early reputation~ In Januar} 1'3 1866~ about nine n1onths after the assassination of Linco]n he revived the same production for his return to the stage. At this ti1ne, too~ he brought out his .first-acting edition of the play, e111bellishcd,vith crude engravings of half a dozen scenes as he had staged thcn1., The Hrnlllet production and everything else he o,vned ,vent up in sn1okc ,vhcn the \\ 1intcr Garden burned in 1867~ but disaster only ,vhettcd his desire to n1anagc and produce~ He ,vanted to do for the classicsin An1crica ,vhat Charles Kean had done in London in the 18 5o's, onl)r to surpass Kean in prod uctional sp]endor and ''faithfulness-to the text.>, He built his o,vn theatre, a ga\\rdy-gorgcous pile of "\1ictorian-Jta1ianate

architecture 1 the vast caverns under the stage and in the lofts above lt eq uippeJuliet ('~Of the scenery nothing can be said in praise that is not jusrificd")/ 2 follolvcd it in April ,vith a ne,v Otbello and on January 5, 1 870, after fifteen n1onths of

preparation, it \Vassaid 1 display·ed his second (and final) production of Hau1let. This he revived f ron1 ti1ne to tirnc during the next four years. Frotn here on'3 the story of his I-Iamlet is a 111ixturcof triu1nph and anti-~lin1ax. Dogged by problcn1s of 1nanagcn1cnt nnd the financial

panic of 1873, he lost Booth,,sTheatre 1 and in r874 he ,vas declared bankrupt. Thereafter he took to the road, never again to produce plays, but only to act his o\vn roles as best he could in \vhatever con1- j~Ne\Y York Tinzes, Dc.cen1her 4~ 1860. n Herur Niclion~] n1inor English ~ctor} h~d to spc~k "To he or not to he'' .se,Teral ye~rs e~ r 1i (',I". S cc A. C. Spr~.gue,S/J:1 kespcare and t be Ac tors ( Ca n1hr j dg et J944), p. 385, note 8Sa. Unidcntjfied Ie-vje,v- in the Booth Ro,ueo and Juliet fo]der in the Harvard Thc- s tre Co] lection.

Harvard University - Houghton Library / Harvard University. Harvard Library bulletin. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Library. Volume XV, Number 1 (January 1967) Harvard Library Bulletin panics he could gather and ,vhatever scenic investiture other n1anugc- n1ents ,vould afford hi1n. He continued to use his O\Vll acting version (or versions, rather, for he tampered ,vith the text constantly); in r 878 he published it, or pcrn1itted ,, 7illi21n \~Tinter to publish it~ a second tin1e.1a He tutored supporting actors to ncco111n1odatethc111- selves to his o,vn st-age business, but gre\v increasingly indifferent to ,vhat happened ,vhen he ,vas not on stage~ leaving the Ophelias and Poloniuscs and Gravediggers 111orcand 1nore to ,vork out their o,vn separate roles. In 1 880 he played I-Ian1lcth1 l.,ondon not altogether h-appily, for London by then belonged to Hent)T Irving, and the critics found Booth~s ,vork merely·elocutionary and, like all things A.n1erican, .son1e t-;.vcnty years behind the times. In 1883 he toured Germany and Austrja, playing I-Iamlct, Lear, Othello, -and Iago in English ,vith resident cun1panies supporting hi n1 in Gcrn1an. The German pub lie, n1ost of ,vhom had never heard an English-speaking Shakespearean before, packed the houses~ The Gem1an actors loved him, called hitn c 'i\1eistcr,J' shu\vcred on him gold and silver laurel ,vreachs, backstage a.pplause'tand continental en1brnces .. 1""hecritics, to put it n1i1dly,,vere crit1caI,1·1 but Booth prohahl)Tnever kne,v ,vhat 111osrof then1 s-aid, and by this ti1nc of life he had no use for "crickets/, a.s he called them, any,vay~ I-le ahvays looked hack upon this adventure as the climax of his career. In r 886, for a· brief but fan1ous ,vhile, he ,vas host in A1ncrica to the great 1... ommaso Salvini ~- another experiment in macaronics, lie playing Iago to S:ilvini's Ot]1ello; and Salvini sup- ported his I-Ian1lct,vith an lt::1.1ianGhost4 In the faH of 1886 he put hin1sclfunder the mana.gen1entof Linvrence

Barrettt and began that series of nation2l tours 1 three of thcn1 transcon- tinental, ,vhich brought his career to its close. Aging nolv, and often

illt he could not ahvuys be fired up to his he.~t1 and he scen1ed so1nc- tin1cs to ''let the role p1ayitselfi 1 i -as Otis Skinner obscrved. 1~ In the fourth of these seasons, 1889-9ot he ,vas paired ''"~ith 1-Ielenalvlodjcska, incon1p2rabl)T the finest Ophelia he had ever had. Her earnestness,

1 Jn the "Prom pt Book 1' edition of Booth 's- acting version~. Booth encouraged \~linter to publish the Pron1pt Books, for sale in the the8.trcl the profits to go to V\Tinwr. :14 The An1cdc£1n pres.'. of the time pdntcd scraps of Gcrnu.n eulogy of Booth. Nccdlrss to say, these do not fairJy represent the Gernrnus' critical opinion.

-i~ Otis Skinnel\ 'Footligbts aud Sf1otligbtr (Ne,v ·Yurk~ 191.4), p. 99.

Harvard University - Houghton Library / Harvard University. Harvard Library bulletin. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Library. Volume XV, Number 1 (January 1967) Edwin Bootb1s Hamlet 27 tenderness, and histrionics of jnsanity brought a rene\ving zest to the perforn1anccsJ so1netin1eseven to Booth. The story d,vindlcs out sadly at a n1atincc in Brooklyn jn the spring of I 891. In late J\1arch of that year L~nvrcnce Barrett suddenly died,

and t,vo ,vccks after,vards, on April 4 1 ,vithout fanfare or special an- nounccrnent., Booth p1aycd his Jast Harn1et, his Jast appearance on any stage. It ,vas n sorry occasion. The faithful '''illian1 1,7\'intcr ,vas there to n1en1oriulizeit in a brief, violet-colored notice. Others reported it less an1iably hut tnore truly- the shabby costnn1es :tnd 111isn1atchedsccncr) 7 , the list]ess con1pany., the ,vrerchcd stage 1nanage- 1nent, and Booth"so,vn inadequacy: Bootl1 ,cspokcso faintly that 1n11ch of his speech ,vas inaudible even in the front of the house, and several tin1cs he heightened the difficulty hyrde]ivering long speeches in a lo\v tone ,,rith his back to the audience/' IG His farevtcll .speech ,vas 1nur- n1urcd so softly that fc,v knc,v \Vhat he had said~

BooTn's SouVENIR PRo.i\1:PTBOOK. oF HIS 1870 PRODUCTION Booth's Ha111letis more fully docun1ented than any· other stage production of the older past, and I think "re can recover every significant feature of it; can cvcntua11y reconstruct it as thoroughly as ,vritten description can record any stage production, even those that "\Ve have actually·seen. The point of focus~ of course,. should be the 1870 H(1111letat Booth~s Theatre~ Only there did Booth ha,re the full stage

equipn1cnt to realize his productional ideas~ There too 1 at the age of thirt)7 -six, he , 1{as probably· at his peak of energy as an actor. I-Iis Jarcr years of Hatnlct n1ust also be accounted for4 I-le ,vould discover further subtleties in the role, ,vould learn to still and gcnde it into closer approxin1ation to his ideal of the character; his national and international reputation, upon ,vhich his present fame rests, expanded vastly through the 1870Js and 188ots; 1niles of ne,vsprint ,vould con- tinue to flo\v, recording sound and unsound critjcal judgn1ents, bio- gJaphical dat-2,and fresh glimpses of his personality and his arr. Several cxcelle1lt prorHptbooksof the 188ojlsare extant. These must be handled gingerly, ho,vever, for their versions of text and stage business (jn son1e points '~irnproverncnt.s/J in others nlcrc surrenders to conditions of p1aying·on the road) 1vandcr far from the production of 1870 .. Booth lcf ta privaLc notebook of 1-ln,nlet, an interleaved cop)· of

1 ~ Stanley Kimmel, Tbc Afad Bootbs of A!arJ·land (Ne,v York, 1940)1 p. 3 2 S-.

Harvard University - Houghton Library / Harvard University. Harvard Library bulletin. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Library. Volume XV, Number 1 (January 1967) llrrr·vnrdLibrary I111lleth1 the 1878 acting edition in ,vhich he entered many dozens of con11ncnts about the play and his o,vn pcrforn1ing, son1c of the comments spc- cifica 11 y rec al1 in g his ear1 i er pra ctic cs. A er itic nam cd Ed "~~rd Tu ckcr- ma n l\1ason con1pilcd in pro1nptbook f or111a record of Booth's 1nost striking stage business and the 111ajorchanges Booth n1adc during the thirty years that ?\1sson had observed hin1. Of in1n1cdiate relevance to the 1870 production> -anduntil no\v our only direct evidence of ,vhat the stage looked like, are Charles "\\1ithan1,s ,vatercolor designs for four of the indoor .scenes.11 The 111ost icxtraordinary do cun1cnt of all is a manuscript description, factual and intcrpietativct scene-by-scene -and of ten ,vord-by-,vord~ of Booth's pJuying of Ha1nlet in r 870. This account, over nvo hundred pages long in type,vritten transcription, ,vas put together by a nvcnty- year old adrnircr of Booth na n1ed Charles Clarke, not an actor, by the ,vay, nor other,visc affiliated ,vith the theatre, but a .ccn1ercplaygoeI," an employe jn a con1mcrcial firm, a )7 0ung 1nan \\1ho took his pla)Tgoing seriously·,even a little solcn1nly,as an education of the characte1· and tl1esoul. I-le had never seen Booth until this Ha-u1let. Deeply 1noved, he determined to make a study of the experience. He began by 1nen1or~ izing the entire play (not just the acting version), repeating it to hirnself to test the meaning of evcr} 7 line; and by reading aU the Hrt11tletcriti- cisn1 he cou]d lay· hands on. Iie sa,\7 Booth eight times during the

seaso 11 1 and spent the ensuing su1111ner in the country tn rn in g his notes and memories into earnest, honest, boyfah but fluent prose. r~Jedid not ,vritc it to be pub]ished, to exhibit hitnsclf or to impress anybody, but si111 ply for his o,v n p1 eas u re, the better to 11n derstand and rc1ncn1her the 1nost significant art-experience he had ever kno,vn. He described

Booth's performance only1 not that of the supporting players, so that nothing is recorded of the scenes in ,vhich Han1lct docs not appear .. I-fis notes on .scenery and dresses, too, arc occasional rather than sys- ten1at1c. The late "\Villiam \ 7in J...,ennep, Cur~tor of the Harvard Theatre Collection, undertook son1e years ago to bring together the evidence of these several docun1ents into :t publishable account; but bct,-veenhis

1 • The prompt boo ks Arc at Th c Players, the Ha rvn.rd ThcJ tee Colle ctio 11, ~nd in pri Yate hands. Boot] 1"s n n tchoo k is at The Pla ycrs. l\·fason' s b no l{s (duplicate co pies) are at The Players and the Boston Athenaeum. ,vithatn's ,vatcrcolors are at the h1useum of the Cjty-of New· York~ The Charles Clarke nw:nuscript is at the Fo]ger Sh-nkcspeare Li L ra ry. S tc 1~be Shake sp eare Pro n1p th oo kr: A Descriptive Cat alague ( Urb1na1 1965 ).

Harvard University - Houghton Library / Harvard University. Harvard Library bulletin. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Library. Volume XV, Number 1 (January 1967) Edwiu Bootb's Han1Ict curatorial duties, failing health, and ,vork on The London Surge, he ,vas not able to carry the project very far. Perhaps (to hazard a irucss) he ,vas discouraged by the diffict1lty· of n1atching the C]arke account ,vith the promptbooks, al1 of ]atcr vintage. Tl1e discrepancies arc nu1ncrous and in son1c points f or1njdable. The late Pat Carroll of The }Jlayersclub, 1vho knc,v the prornptbooks ,vclI, ,vas convjnccd that the CJark e -account ,vas not to be trusted. No,v, holvevcr~ there Jn1scon1e to light the one great n1issingpiece in the puzzle, a. docurnent 1vhich fil1sin ,vhat -~;vasin do11btand 1nakes a reconstruction of Booth,s production of Htnnlet possible. The I-Janrard Theatre CoI]ection has acquired Booth's O-\VTI souvcnjr pro1nptbook of r 870., the text cut exactly as it ,vas played, the basic stage business professionally recorded, and Charles "\,\7ithan1's ,vater- colors of all ten of the sets .. Not least of this bookis values is that it validates Charles Clarke's description, defining a production upon ,vhich Clarke's account comfortably firs. That such a book existed lu1s Jong been suspected, 8nd the rle::1Icr ,vho obtained it fron1 ''a n1c1nherof the fan1ily',,could readily identify it froJn the follo-\vingcircun1stance. Opposite page one of tl1e vol11mc of Booth"'sletters published h)7 Edv?ina Booth Gross1nan11jn 1 894 is printed the final quatrain of Bn1,ver-J,.Jytton"s' 1Ta.lent ::ind Genius,', ending ,v·ith a Unc \vhich Booth ,vas fond of CJUoting~'~And fools on fool~ stiH ask,vhat ,:I-fn111lct'mean~.'' 1~his quatrain, A1rs.Gro.ssnlann says, ,vas ,vrittcn in Booth's Hrnnlet pron1ptbook ,iby hin1sclf.'" No book so inscribed has heretofore been seen. But on the flyleaf of this ne\y-found book, in pnrple ink and Booth's o,vn hand, are the vcr)T lines. The details of the hook's construction ~re ns follo,vs. Tbc text: pages 1 39-196 ( double-co]un1ncd) f ro111voluine JI of the l(cnn) 7 l\1eado,vs SlJnkespeare ( 7 X Io¾ jnches). Tbe i11terlea•ves:blue-lined

1.vhi tc paper 1 trin1nled fl us h, vi th th c pages, \ vater-rn a r J{ed ((Care, v Co '1 and "E P]urihus Unumn above the United States ~hield. Tbe biudiug: bro,vn leather boards ( 7 X r I inches) Yvith gilt borders front and b2ck; the title gilt on the spine and cover, and qEd\vin flooth"' gilt on the cover; bro\vn and \vhitc n1otclcd end-papers. It is not an attractive object, as the best of souvenir pron1ptbooks go~ Tl1e doub]c-col111nned

pages1 never used in good ''\vorking'' pro1nptbooks., n1akc for a\vk- ,vurd reference. The paper stock of the interleaves is ordinary., and the hand of the transcriber sho,vs none of the cal1igraphic art ,vhich

Harvard University - Houghton Library / Harvard University. Harvard Library bulletin. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Library. Volume XV, Number 1 (January 1967) 30 1-lrtr-vard Librnr}' B11lletiu first-rate pron1ptbook 1nakers took pride in. The binding is ugly. So f::ir as appearance 1nattersJ the best one can sa)7 of the book is that it has been ,veH preserved. Pro1npthooks rarely include title pages., nor does this one, so ,ve cannot date the text.. The three-,,.olun1e ''Kenny l\1cado,ys'' Sbake- spenre :first can1e out in London jn 1843, but it ,vus reissued many tin1es. Noting tl1e broken border ]ines a.round the pages used in this pron1pthook, one lVould guess thut the plates \Vere \Vorn and the issue a late one. The general editor ,vho arranged the text for l\1cado,vs' edition., ,vrotc the biography of Shakespeare and an (~essay on his genius, n and co 11ec te d a nnotati ons f ron1 "111 any distinguishcd , v rj tcrs n ,v-as the poet ''Barry Corn,vall~J (Bryan "'\1/altcr Proctor); but the edition is ahvays identified ,vith its illustrator .. Joseph Kenny A1eado\Vf, ( 1790-1874) provided hundreds of dra,vings for the plays (there -are t,vcnL)7 -cight for Hn111letalone), so fa111ousin their tin1e that eventually l\1cado\vs ,vas given a civil pension for his contriblltion to 1'Shakespcarc.'' So1nc arc crudely and son1c neatly executed; son1e are vivid1)7 theatrical; the ''bcse'' are the sy1nbolic-sun1marizing ones~ as, at the beginning of the play, a n1urdcrcr pouring pojson ,v hile a skele- ton steals a cro\vn; or at the head of Act II, n n1ouse in a cage ,vith drarnatic 1nusks lying at either side.. One picture in the Graveyard scene caught Booth's fancy: the skull of Yorick, just tos~cd out of the grave, still ,.vearsremnants of cap and bells. Booth ahvays insisted that the skull used in his perforrnanccs he dressed ,vith scraps of rotten leather.

THE PROl\'.lPTER.,S f\1ARKTNGS The pronipthook annotations 8rc not generous, being, ns is usual in o 1d prompt books, no n1ore than the stage 111an ager Js n cccssary d ircc- ti on s for "running the sho,vu or instructing u ne,v company.. The information given includes act and s ccn c divisions, property 1ists, nu n1here d calls for a.eta rs) entrances and -cxits and n1 aj or crossesj ba~ic business for the supporting nctors'l frequent maps or groundpfo.ns sho,ving the positions of the actors, and cues for music and curtains. Thus, to st2rt the first scene (ver3Tmuch as in Booth's Jater promptbooks): Dell strikes twelve tb11es;at tbe eigbtb stroke tbe curtain rises~-· Francisco

discovered wtilkiug X stage,~ wben Den1nrdo spenks ,;.uithi·n1 Francisco stops, stands on guard & Jpeaks.

[at line 14] 1. Extt Fnnicisco L.3.E. [ at Jin~ J 5 J 2. spoken withh1 L.3.E. [at line 1 B] 3. Enter Af nrcellus L-.3.E~ [at Hnc 19] 4. l?.'literH or11tio J_,,3.E~ fat Jine 20] 5. Bernardo X'es to (?~ fat line 34J 6. 1..,heygo up R.C. Bernardo sits on stonr!t C. I-1oratio seated, L. of hhn & A1rrrcellurstanding R. of t!Je1n.

It does not 111akc very exciting reading. Yet here in this sixth annotation is 3 scrap of business peculiar to the production of r 870 and signjficant of something bigger than itself, the sitting. In 1 870 the actors could sit because Booth's scenery provided a place to sit~ Bnt scenery on the road could not be counted on for stairs or benches to accomn1odatcthe business, so that in l:1ter pron1ptbooks the sitting disappears. In hjs 1878 acting edition Booth even deleted Horatio's spoken direction., ,csit ,vc do,vn." In all later promptbooks Act I, 2, the first Court scene., opens \vith the l(ing and Queen upstage center on n double throne. In I 870 there "'ere no thrones: the King and the Queen., f ollo\ved by the other necessary characters, entered through an ~rch,\ 1ay upstage center 2nd took standing positions near the f rontt \vhilc tean1s of J..... adics and Gentlen1en dressed the side,valls~ five to a side. Only· no,v that \VC are sho,vn this si1nplc fact can ,ve give credence to tl1e ''thronclcss- ncss'' of Charles Clarkc,s description of the scene. The piling up of such revelations thro11ghoutthe pl:1yn1akes the pro1npter's annotations n1ore valnahle than at first sight they ,,rould appear. \T ery little of Han1Ices o,vn business is given -- only such as meshes \vith that of the other characters. At the end of Act I~4, for instance, as Han1lct is about to f ollo,v the Ghost, ,ve find: 5. Dra-wsbis sword & breaks froJu tb~n; 11tsbes straight toward Gbost-- stops -- & says-- ,cGo 011 e:....c~'. Ghost exits slowly L.l.E. H a1nlet re- coils f ro1n e1itrCl11ce-.1--I or 6'" A.f«r rush to hnn, .. be 1~1ves the,n oJl & exits slowly L.I.E. Tbey f ollm.vslo-wly.

Herc is not a ,vord of Booth's celebrated business of holding the .s,vord bcfo1·c hi1nhilt~cnd up\vard to forn1 a crucifix, hut only such play and interplay as the supporting actors ,vould need to kno\v in. order to

Harvard University - Houghton Library / Harvard University. Harvard Library bulletin. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Library. Volume XV, Number 1 (January 1967) 32 Harvard Library Bulletin keep to their places. l~or Booth in action ,ve must look to his O\Vn notebook, or to E. T. !\1ason's records., or, best of ::ill,ro Clarke's detailed account. At the great soliloquies, ,vhich in Booth's handling ,vere 1narvelous ,vcbs of n1ovement, posture, gesture,. pause, and in- tonations, this pro1nptbook like the later ones is silent. Only Clarke gives us the full specifics for 1870. Clarke., on the other hand) by devoting his attention aln1ost ex- clusively to Booth)s acting, fai]s us for the production as a \vholc~ '''e are thro,vn hack 11pon the promptbook for its flo,v of inforn1ationt thin b11t steady-,for e\Tery scene.

THE J.l\.CTINC \TERSIO){"

Booth presented the play in 1 870 in five acts,.the four breaks falling ,vhcre they arc con1n1onlyindicated in n1odern editions~ In later years he divided it ju varjous other patternsa He reduced the nun1ber of scenes f ron1t\vcnty to fifteen. Act I ,vent off in its norn1~l five scenes. Act II hecatne a .sing]c scene, the brief dialogue of lJolonius and Ophelia being t::1.ckcdon to the beginning of the long second scene. Act III gained a scene: the passage f rorn uSpe:ik the speech, I pray you"~ through lala1nlct's discourse to Horntio ,v~.sgiven a. scparrrtc sct- ting4 Act I\ 1, cut to the bone (see belo\v)., \Va.s played continuousl) 7 in a single setting. Act ,, gained a scene: the passage of I-Ian1lces narrative to I-Joratio and the dialogue ,;vith Osric ,verc given a separate . setting. The clain1 ,vas 1n3 de and the opinion ,vas ,v idesprcad th3 t Booth "restored the text.i, The curtain ,vas announced for an unusually early risjng because, in the ,vords of the Suu ne\vsp2per., "l\1r. Booth's artistic and co nscien ti ou~ regard has not pern1itte d hi n1 to abbreviate any·of its length or heauty.u l 8 So far as length goes, this is si1nply not true. The copy of I-Inn1let upon ,vhich I have transcribed his cuts nu1nbcrs 3860 lines~ Booth deleted over 30% of them, pla)7ed only 2680. The arn1chair Shakespearean ,vho should happen upon Boothls pro1nptbook ,vould be .scandalized by the gouges in the colu1nns n1adc by the cutter's pen. '-''c must reme111ber,of course, that in nineteenth ccntur) 7 theatrical parlance the phrase ~1to restore the text" had long since settled into a pious advertising clichc by ,vhich actor~111anagers sought status ,vith

l!I Ne\v York S1m.,J 9nuary 11, 1870.

Harvard University - Houghton Library / Harvard University. Harvard Library bulletin. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Library. Volume XV, Number 1 (January 1967) Edwin Bootl/s Ha1nlet 33 the "intellectualn part of the commun1ty. l\1acrcady· had n1ade the phrase fashionable, and he part]y· earned the right to use it ,vhen he banished Tate fron1 l(ing Lenr. At one tin1c or another Thon1son had been cut ont of Coriolanus, Dryden out of Antony and Cleopatra, Davcna.nt out of A1rrcbetb;some of Frederic Reynold's operatic ver~ sions of the comedies had been de-operatizcd; Booth hi1nself, follo,ving San1uel Phelps' example, for a.,vhilc banished Cibbcr frotn Richard Ill. These ,vcrc .:~restorations',, of a sorL The phrase 111cansat 1nost c;~no sand in the sug3e\ it docs not 1nean "full measure guaranteed.,, No one in that age thought it desirab]e to stage a11the ,-vordsand actions of a Shakespeare text. No one in the theatre ,vas then interested in the n iccties of Shakespc arean dran1 a rurg)', ,v hi ch concern us so rnu ch (on paper at least) today. No one rcal1), 111eant to stage ''Shakespeare,1 ' for all the lip service~ but only \Tictorian dran1as knocked do,vn fro1n Shak espc arc an origina] s~ as th cir acting versions ev ery,v here d e,n on- stra tc. Han1let for Ilooth, as for cvcry·onc else, ,vas onlJr ''a play'" -- like Ricbe!ieu or Tbe Apostate but n1arvelously better ,vritten --

,vhich cxhjbitcd characters, n1oralizcd, and told n stor) 7 • One ~'re- storcd'i Ha1JJ!etby· tuckjng in bits and pieces of the origjnal ,vhich had not been heard before. So it is not fair to judge Booth's text on1J7 by co1nparh1git to Shakc- speare\L~To understand his c]aim ,ve must compare his text to the received acting ver.sionof the day., that published in (Frcnch 1s) A1od- ern Standard Drn111rr~\vhich had heen used by n1ost actors from at least the 184o~s."\\Te ohserv·e at once that the bulk of BoothJs cuts ,vere the traditional ones. The entire n1atter of the Nor,vegian ,vars and the comjng on of Fortinbras (ca. 240 lines) had ah·,/ay·.sseemed an expend- able excrescence, a.nd Booth accordingly .. dropped it. No one ever spoke the adram of cale'J speech (11 lines). Laertes and Polonius ,verc ahvays relieved of so111c40 lines of their advice to Ophelia. The Ghost's narrative ,vas shorn of a dozen lines. The llcynuldo scene ,vas never p]ay·cd ( 73 Jines). Hamlet's first encounter ,vith lloscncr2ntz and G11ildenstem,vas reduced hy about 40 lines~ including for obvious reasons the ba,vdry· and also~ not so obviousJ) 7, the lines about "a1nbi- tion.'' Excision of all th~ topical talk about the strolling pla)7 Crs, together ,vith trim1ning of the ''rugged Pyrrhus" speeches and of the dialogue of the Play·cr IGng and Onccn, got rid of nearly 1 oo lines~

In the scene bcnvcen Hamlet and his n)other 1 the sllpprcssion of a 1nultitudc of jndelicacies and cutting the ,vhole fina] rnoven1ent (fron1

Harvard University - Houghton Library / Harvard University. Harvard Library bulletin. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Library. Volume XV, Number 1 (January 1967) 34 Har·vardLibrary B11Jleti11 1iOne ,vord n1or~ good lady'') gave up 77 lines~Booth slashed Act IV fron1 655 Jines to 360, here for once going beyond tradition to do so:

he on1ittcd scenes 1 1 2 1 and 6 altogether, ,vhich (,vhcthcr they ,vcrc con1111onlyplayed or not) ,vere printed in the it1odern Standard Drau,a; by precedent he on1itted scene 4 (Fortjnbras n1attcr) nnd

pruned scenes 5 and 7 of ahout 170 lines. In the last act1 follo-\vh1g tradition, he reduced the dialogue ,vith Osric and cut out the J_.Jord ,vho should follo,v Osric (50 lines). The play·ended inllnediately after Han1let's death. The statistics ( the numb crs ron nd ed off) 2re -as f o 11o,vs: Tl 1e total of cuts in the standard acting version of the day ,vas about 1400 lines (2460 left to be spoken); the totul of Booth is ctlts \Vas 1180 lines (2680 to be spoken.) Booth's cuts concurred ,vith the traditional cuts to the nurnbcr of 960 lines. I-Jc cut 9 5 1norc ,vhich had been printed in the standard vcr.sion.. He restored 315 lines. 1-Iis acting version of 1870~ thcni \Vas but 220 Encs longer than the con1monly received one,

For the time1 the place, and his style of acting, it 1.vaslong enough. As ,ve kno,v fron1 various ne\vspaper reports, the p]ay·lasted over four hours, beginning before eight o'clock and ending after midnight. A portion of the time., perhaps :fifteen n1inutes~,vas given over to music~ for Ed,vard i\1.ollenhauer~sorchestra ,vas a featured attraction of Ilooth"'s1"""heatre~ rn Yet jf nearly four hours ,vas given to speaking the

text,• the pace of the acting n1ust have hee111 by· n1odern standards, intolerably· .slo1~/,averaging, as I reckon it, not more than r I or r 2 Jines per n1innte. I-Jere is a clue to one of the directions ,vhich Booth's '~inteHectual'Jacting took hin1~he paused long and ,vell bet,veen the 1 lines for ~cthought~' The audience and the critics, ho,vcvcr, ,vcrc convinced that Booth had restored the pla)r nobly. And since it is ,vhut one docs hear rather than ,vhat one docs not that n1akcs an effect in the theatre~ \Ye should notice son1c of the novelties Booth introduced. Near the end of the first scene the little seven-line poem :t.hout the se:lson ",vhcrcin our 1 Saviour,s birth is cclcbratcd ' added a pleasant Christian touch for an al1dicncc that had not altogether forgotten the old association of play·- house and si11.The poem~hy the ,vay·,\\ras taken a.,vayfron1 l\1arcellus and assigned to Horatio, perhaps to be snrc of gn elocutionist ,vorthy

in The ov·crture ,vas Gluck's Overture to lpbigenla; and beh1iteen the third nnd fourth acts there \Vas phyc

Harvard University - Houghton Library / Harvard University. Harvard Library bulletin. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Library. Volume XV, Number 1 (January 1967) Edwin Rootb"sHan1let 35 to speak iL In the third scene the restoration of Polonius' advice to Lacrtcs n1ust have pleased a public ,vhich pnt its trust jn moral n1axims. l?ro1n Booth~s re1narks in his notebook about the character of Polonius ,ve may be sure that the speech ,vas delivered ,vith head-on earnestness, and perh~ps,ve may date fron1 here its enorn1ous popularity as a piece to be memorized by American schoolboys. At the end of Act I, 5, Booth restored some 1 5 lines jn ,vhich Ham]ct addresses his fathcrts spirit as Hboy/J utruepenny/J "this feIIo,v in the ceUarage/' "old mole," and '\vorthy- pioner." He meant to express (so he ,vrote in his notebook) "not unfeeling levity., hut the ver_y-intensity of n1ental excitement." A pparcntly the effect did not con1e off..Audiences ,v ere troubled by the see1ning disrespect for the dead parent. Critics de- bated the propriety of the lines or disputed Booth's manner of saying thc1n. In his 1878 edition he retained only the line containing '"'boy'~ and "trucpcnny" and dropped the Iest. In ..!.4-.ctII It 3, it ,vas custon1ary to stage onlyr the fc,v lines of inf or~ 1nation necessary to n1ovc the plot along-~ the Kjng's decision to send Hamlet to Eng]and and Polonius' plan to hide behind an 2rras during the forthcoming intervje,-v of Hamlet and the Queen. Herc Dooth restored to Claudius his agonized soliloquy., and to Hamlet the great (sorne ,vou]d think it the dramatica11J7 central) speech of ''No,v n1ight I do it pat~t~ a tota! of 64 lines. This restoration, \vhich as a 1nattcr of fact he had first 111adcso1nc years earlier, ,vns 1nuch admired. In later .seasons Booth often omitted his u,vn speech, but 3II actor of C]audius ,vho .sho\vedany qnalit~r,vas ahvays given the opportuniryTto bare his soul. At the opening of Act , 1, 2, he restored Han1lces nar~ rativc toHoratio ( 74 Jjnes). Char1esClarke liked the passage because it '~disclosedBooth's elocutionary po,ver in the narrative style'",; but he recognized! too, that the 111atter of jr His of litt1einterest _saveto literary· people, or precisians," and supposed it ,v-asintroduced only· as a ,icarpenter scene'' to cover the backstage sl1ifting fron1 Graveyard to Court. In the 1878 edition Booth suppressed it .. After the intervie~;v ,vith Osric, he restored the four-line passage~''If it be no,vJ 'tis not to conic, n ,vhich .suited so 1vell his n1edjtatiYemanner. I-le of ten cited th cse lincs as his f avori tc passagein all Shakespc arc. H c aptly res tored to Horatio the period to his version of the p]ay: ''N o,v cracks a noble heart. Good night~ ~~veetPrjnce, And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.n Beyond these he restored perhaps r 20 lines in s1nallcr scraps of 1ess

Harvard University - Houghton Library / Harvard University. Harvard Library bulletin. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Library. Volume XV, Number 1 (January 1967) Harvard Library Bulletiu te1lingmatter, hut the passages I have enumerated arc the n1ost significant. They are not 1n2ny~and f ron1 a rnodern point of vie,v they arc not astonishing. '-~'hut ,vc n1ost n1iss in BoothJs text is, of course, Han1Iet's savagery: the ferocious energy in hin1 \vhich under pressure

breaks out in uncompron1ising anger, crnelt) 7 1 ribaldry 1 and near-brut- ishness. Ilooth's Hamlet could not possibly lug the guts into the neigh- bor roon1, or discourse on ho,v ,vc fat oursehTesfor n1aggots, or see in his mind"s eye King Claudius in the incestuous pleasure of his hed. The sex i111agcryof the play ,vas nltnost entirely supprcsscdr He could 11ot possi bl}"have read his 1nother a 1ccn1 re against 1naking 1ove over the nasty· St)7 t or threatened Ophelia \vith a groaning to take off his edge. In Booth,s version not even Dan1c l;ortune, that strun1pett could be allo,ved her allegorical secret parts. But it is as uselessto thro" 7 the book at Booth~sIJa1nlet as it js to quarrel ,vjth hjsroryT.lt served its ,vorld in its tin1e, and served it ,vcll, and ,ve n1ust take it as ,vc find it.. An1erican societJ7 in those decades ,vas aspiring, at times frantically·, even comically, to achieve gen~ tility·. It took J~Jan1lct for its ideal and (no 1natter -..vhat Shake- speare ,vrote!) its I-Ja1nlcthad to be spotless. Booth himself believed ,vichout reservation in the idealized, gent1cn1anized Han1let of his acting version, and I dare Sa)7 he rarely· looked at or rernenlbered the parts he had left out. n A n1ost absolute gentlcn1an/' he ,Y-rotein his notebook (qnoting Osric?), ~(fullof most excellent differences, of ver5T soft society· (but not) great sho,ving-4Indeed, to speak feelingly of him, he is the card and calendar of gentry/' Then in his o,vn ,vords he ,vrote on: "Courteous., easy, kindlJT,vith all; to the lo-vi.restjn rank he is most affablc4 Above a11 things a gentle111a11,even to those he hates. Feminine, but not effe1ninatc, in feeling. This is the basis on ,vh ich you may· build ,vh atever Hamlet pleaseth thcc4,,.

T1~R ScENE DESIGNS The ten scene designs in the pron1ptbook are of maxi1num interest, for, taken together ,vith the promptcr,s gro11ndplans.,they sho,v us the exact shape of rhc stage picn1rc.s. They· do not sho,v the colors: the artist has confined his palette to black, gray, and ,vhitc, \Vith here and there a streak of hro,vn. Probably he h:.:1snot sacrificed n1uch: Booth's production ,v;ls predo1ninandy nocturnal (Ophclia~s burjal took ph1ce by 1noonlight!) and even in the interior scenes., as ,ve see in \i\'irlunn's

Harvard University - Houghton Library / Harvard University. Harvard Library bulletin. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Library. Volume XV, Number 1 (January 1967) 37 colored designs at the A1useum of the City of Nc,v York~ only sober tapestries (often dimly-lighted) and a fe,v banners \Yarn1cd up the graJr,\ialls. The period jn ,\'hich Booth set the play, he said, \Vas tenth-century Dentnark., \vhich the artists expressed ,vith \val]s of stone block, a pio- fnsion of heavy cu}umns, round arches decorated ,vith zig-zag, and dcep-bean1ed or barrel-vaulted cci1ings of stone or ,vood~ The style \V8S romanesque. In general tone and in n1any· details, its effect ,vas not unE1,cthat of Sir I..Ja-\vrenceOH vier, s black-and-,vhite H rnnlet n1ovie. In l 870 the sty-le,vas taken to be a great novelty, for the pla.)7 had usually·been mounted in conventional Gothic or theatrical nondescript settings~ Booth \Vast\vitted by the critic of the Post for snpposil1g th~t the Danish kings 0 ,vere really housed an1id such regal splendor/, 20 but everyone agreed that the seen ery ,vas a. masterpiecc of historical research and painter's skill. The scenery ,v·as n1ain]y credited to Charles 1,rjt11amand Russell • r Srnith~ although th rec other painters, I-Ien ry I-Iii ly~ rd., J\11in ar d I Je,v j s, and John Thorne~ contributed to it. Our kno,vledge of nineteenth- ccn tur) 7 An1crican seen e painters j s so shabby th at I cannot prop er Iy account for these 111cn.Thorn ct ,vho 111ayhnvc co1nc f ron1 the nu111er- ous theatrical fatnily of Charles Thornet had shared \Vith ,¥ithan1 the painting of the ((Hundred Nights'' llnn!let in 1864t and he ,vorkcd for Ilooth off and on, according to Booth's account books, fuI several years~ Of Le\vis.,,vho painted only the Forest scene for Act I.,5, 1 kno,v

nothing. I-Iillyard, born in England in 18061 c-ame to An1erica a.bout l 840 and ,vorkcd in n12113r Nc,v York theatres during the fo1lo\ving decades. Russell S1nith ( 181 2-1 897) is the on1}7 one of the group ,vhosc reputation as an artist ,vins him a place in biographical diction-

arics-/~1Bor11 in Glasgo,v1 he ,vas brought to An1erjca as a child 1 and lived n1ostly in Pennsylvania, ,vhere he became a distinguished land-- scape painter. His easel ,vork ,vas exhibited at the annual sho\v of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts for over :fifty years~ He n1adea specialty·of theatrical act dropsJ and had in f3ct painted the act drop for IloothJs Theatre ,vhcn it opened in 1869. As a theatrical paintert CharJes '~'itham is the best kno-,vn of the lot, but his biography is nearly a blank. rlis dates, according to the

bl New York I'ost. January 6., 1870. ~-Sec for examp]e, l\13ntle FfoldingtsDictio11ary of A·n1eric,1nPainters, Sculptors and E'ligra•pfi'S (Philadelphia rI 924] )1 p. 340.

Harvard University - Houghton Library / Harvard University. Harvard Library bulletin. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Library. Volume XV, Number 1 (January 1967) I-inrvn rd Libr ar y Bu11 eti 11

·1935 An1111alReport of the l\Iuscum of the Cit:)7 of Ne\v York~ are r 842 to 1926.. In r 864.,,vhcn he ,vas only-t\vcnty-t,vo, he appears to have been the principal painter of the "liundred Nights"'' Hant/et. According to the first playbillst Thorne did the three exterio1·s und \Virham the seven or eight interiors; by the end of the run Thorne's na1nc disappears from the bills and ,~1ithan1 alone js 11an1edus the artist. ''-'henthe play \Vas revived in 1866., ,,ritham ref urbishcd the old sets and added ne,v ones~ In the years bet\.YCCnthe burning of the "\i\1inter Garden and the opening of Booth"'s Theatre, his ,vages a.re entered in Booth's account books, usually at forty-five dollars a ,veck .. ,, 1e kno\v f ro1n the playbills that he had a 1nain or a ,vhole h,g_ndin the ne,v productions at Booth's Theatre --l{o111eo and Juliet~ Htunlet,

Ricbelie111 A1:ucbAdo, Julius Caesar, and others .. A collection of his designs and sketches preserved at the 1\1uscnm of the Cit}7 of Ne,v York 22 includes pencil sketcl1es of four scenes in the ~cr-Iundrcd Nights 1' Hant/et from ,vhich ,vere derived the illustra.tionsin Boothts first acting cdi ti on; f onr ,va ter-co lor designs for th c 187 o I-/rNn let (one of these in t\vo renderings); a fe,v designs for Ricbr:lie11,Lear, and ]'ltlius Caesar; about t\VO dozen designs for contemporary p1ays; half a dozen designs for act drops; and a notebook containing son1c forty sketches of nori~theatrical subjects. His best-kno,vn painting~ no\Y to be seen in the Ed\Yin Booth cubicle in the theatre museum of Lincoln Center, is the often-published vic,v of the interior of Booth "'s Theatre on the occasion of its opening, sho,ving on the stage the first act set for Ro111eoand Juliet. 23 Although the scene desigus in the pro1nptbook are not signed, jt is probably safe to attribute the1n to "'\i\Titha1n.'"fhey appear to be in his sty-le~The paper on ,vhich they are n1adc -- n1edium-vtcightsheets, sou1e gray, son1e gray-bro,vn --is the stock 11seclfor n12ny of his kno,vn designs~l\1orc than any·of the others concerned in the Ha1nlct production~ he seen1sto have been Booth's favorite painter. Probably it is correct, too, to assun1e that these designs ,vere nladc ,vhcn the production ,vas con1pleted. So1nc of them, jn comparison ,vith the

1 f!:il TJwsc \Vere ghTen to the A1useum Ly "\\ il1b.1n Sey-n1our~the actor, ;and by "\:Vithan1is-sister't a J\1rs. S. E. 1\.-icGlonc. Neither donor, unfortun~tcly~ left any infornladon -about ""\Ji;r"iths1n':slife. A thorough d.iscussinn <,f \~.ritharn's st-:cncpainting, including his htf::t \vork for Augusdn ))aly nnd for Ed,,Tard Harrjgan! w·~s ddivered at the Intcu·nadonal Theatre Conference -at Amstcrd~•n jn 1965, by Tho1n(is F. 1\1arsha1l of K~nt St:atc Uni,;.Tcrsity. ]\:1r.l\1~rsh:ilrs paper is to be published in tl1c Procetdi'iJgx of the conference.

Harvard University - Houghton Library / Harvard University. Harvard Library bulletin. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Library. Volume XV, Number 1 (January 1967) Ed ..JJin Bootlls I-Ia1nlet 39 desjgns at the fvluseu111of the City"of Ne,v York~.sho,v simplification

or reduction of detaH1 probably a sign that they represent ,vhat actually· appeared on the stage Iathcr than ,vhut the designer had first seen in his mind's eye. Artjsts arc artistst ho,vcvcr, not photographic ma- chines, and \Ve can not be sure that in these pro1nptboo k renderings '''itha,n did not go on ~'improvjng")his pictures.. In one of thcn1~ to be 1ncntioned later, ,ve certainly catch him jnserting a happy second thought. There ,vcrc ten scttingst then, to illustrate the fifteen scenes in ,vhich Booth presen tc d the play.. , ~'il Iiatn "\i\1inter said in his re vie\V th at there v.rcrc 1,vclvcl24 but ,vith :111that glor}~dazz]ing hjs ey·es,ve should not expect a poetical pancgyrist like '''inter to he careful about statistics. Our principal authority for the settings, before the discovery of this prornptbook, hgs been a little souvenir p:unphlet issued ''for the 1nanagcmcnt"' at the ti111e of the production, by one Arthur l\1atthison,the actor ,vho played Dernardo.~.r;l\1atthison also n1entions ten settings, but he arrives at that n un1b er by 0111 ittin g three th at , vc kno'"v,vere staged and., as no,v 'ilppears,by· including three that ,verc not. The most interesting of 1\1atthi.son's"errors'' is his rhapsodic account of the final scene. He says it is to be HThe Grand Banqueting f-Jall of the Palace (Russell Sn1ith)., and here all the architecturalj arrn or ial, and decorative s p lcn dours of that chivalrous age arc revived and united, being a gorgeous finale to this chain of ancient, yet novel~ scenic pictures; and f orn1ing altogether a ,vorthy· frarnc-\vork to this

grand inspiration of the 1nastcr ,vritcr! )j A gorgeous finale, indeed! But by every cvjdcncc of the ·promptbook, ,vhich includes no such picrurc and does jnclude groundpJans clearly de.finingthe ]ast ~ccnc? the play ended in the comparatively simple Audience Chan1bcr in ,vhich the Court first convened jn Act I., z. "\\7e are reduced to con~ jccture .. lVlatthisonprobably took his cue for this splurge of rhetoric fro1n having seen llussell Smith's design for the ''Grand Banqueting Hall>\ but at the Jast rninute,, after l\1atthison's parnph1et\Vas jn press, the design ,vas scrapped. 1 take con1fort in this guess from the fact that, as ,ve shall see, one· other design ,vas scrapped in the rush of putting t1ie production together .. But this is not the end of the matter. Charles Clarkcj ·yvhosu,v the

~j No,,._T, ...ork TTibunf:, January 6, 1870.

f!I Arthur l\·1atthisoni Booth's 1"beatrc: Ha'/11/et (Ne-w Yorkt 1870 ).

Harvard University - Houghton Library / Harvard University. Harvard Library bulletin. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Library. Volume XV, Number 1 (January 1967) I-I.nrva·rd Li brar y B11 I Ietit i productjon eight times during the eleven-\vcck run, beginning not on the .first night but on Jan1H1r) 7 1 8, t\VO ,veeks later, says plainl)7 that the fin al seenc ,vas staged in th c great s tairca sc set, called th c Grand Hall of Audience.,,vhich had been used for th c Pla)r scene in the third act. I·Ic specifically mentions that in the final scene groups of courtiers ,vcrc stationed on the stairs and in the gallcr) 7 overhead. Probably· ,v hat happened, then, ,vas that a \Yeek or nvo aftcr the opening, and after this promptbook ,vas n1adc up, Booth can1c to feel thut the last scene, deprived of its uGrand Banqueting HaH,,,1 needed a scenic boost, and so reintroduced the spectacular great staircase set to achieve it. Of course this sort of specu]ation is slippcr)T· But the staging of p12ysis slippery too. It is easier to believe that Booth's production ,vas -altered beny·een design and execution, bct,vccn first night and later nightsj than to in1p cach the ,vi n1esses. Although during the perforn1ancc there "\\'"eren1any scene changes (four ,vjtl1in the first act"' four ''"Tithinthe third., t,vo ,vithin the fifth and four during the entr"actes), it must be understood that these ,vere nut tin1e-consu1ni n g. No c11 rtainsf c 11,except at the en tr 1 a c tcs, to con~

ccal the c:hangcs1 as usuall5Tthey must do in the nlodern theatre. The stage of Booth's Theatre ,vas equipped ,vith hydraulic lifts ,vhich in a 111attcrof seconds could 1(rise and sink'" ,vho1e pictures through opcn- jngs in the floor, ,vith border pieces (utop scenes") flying do,vn fron1 the lofts to n1eet and complete thern. "\\Thenheavily constructed sets ,vere ca1lcdfor, such as the great staircase, these could he rolled into their upstage position during the entr\tctc; as the act proceeded, alter- nating scenes ,vould be played in shallo,vcr sets ,vhich ,vould rise and sink in the d O\V ns tageareas. In the o Ider tradition al system, lik c,visc speedy but less smooth.,nc,v pictures ,vere created by sliding on to the stage (or dra,ving off) huge half-flats, set in grooves, the ha.Ivesn1eet- ing at center. The marvel of Booth's hydraulic 1nachincry ,vas mainly that it eli111inatcdthe te11-talc vertical crack at the center of the picture and the inevitable jerks and mistin1ings of tnanual operation. "Nothing broke the pleasing spell,'' exclain1edthe critic of 1··-,,eSpirit of tbe Tin1est ''so carefully had the piece been rehearsed that there ,vere no a,vk"~ard \vnirs,' no catching of scenery; ever57 thing 111oved -- not like clock-,vork, for the impression produced ,vus rather that of 1nagicthan machinery·/' I-le ,vus so enraptured by· the drean1-like perfection of it 211that he ,vent on to regret that Shakespeare in his o,vn lifctin1e could not ha\Teseen his play .so produced., 11ndto lan1ent the

Harvard University - Houghton Library / Harvard University. Harvard Library bulletin. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Library. Volume XV, Number 1 (January 1967) Edwin Bootbts Hamlet 41 ''sad tyranny of the other ,vor 1d'' ,vh ich prcven ted Sha kes pc are' s spirit f ro1n hovering over th c bat tic n1en ts of th c cas tic scene or "\ vall,::jng an1ong the trees and tomhs of the churchyard ,vhen the bod), of Ophelia ,vas giyen to the earth~n26

Of the ten sets1 three ,vere exteriors. ( 1) The Platforn1 in Front of the Cast1eof Elsinore, used in the opening scene -and used again for the Ghostts second vjsitation in Act I., 4, ,vas "by all odds the n1ost perfect jllusion of its kind I ever sa,v, '' said the critic of the lJ' orld. 27 The back scene of this set sho,vcd in its stage 1cft.,half the near portion of a n1any-bastioncd 11100111it castle; in its stage right, half the ,vhite moo11in a clouded sk}~· The practical clements in the foreground "rere the ground-level def cnscs of the castle: an arched porta 1 at center .flankedby lo,v tov.rers;lo\v ,valls running off from it to tall at extreme rjght and left; fo]iage pieces dressing the sides of the stage

just inside the proscenium.. (2) The set for Act \ 11 r (the Graveyard scene) , ,vas adrnircd ecstati caHy, even hy· Nym Crinkle, \V ho ,vas never inclined to yield Booth points. ~'It occupies the entire stage,' 1 he ,vrotc, "and represents an ancient churchyard, ,vith its ton1bs and mounds and chapel in the rear. [Plate \T] The scene is at night, 11nd is lit ,vjth moonlight~ [ ,v hich] js 1nadc to shed itself in a n1cllo,vcff ul- gence equaII}.,.over the vie,"1'~fal1ing only in a n1ass upon the round limbs of a gaunt tree ("Thich, thus silvered, stands out in clear relief against a mysterious background) and in a broad shaft across the end of the little chapel. The effect of thjs studied arrangement of light is charming.J'28 (3) The set for Act I, 5 (Han1Ices intcrvic,v ,vith the Ghost)~ ,vas~ by Booth,s confession, a. sort of error. It \Vas a 1noonlit forest, n1ade up of standard "'Vood and Cut ''-'oodH units fron1 the scenic stock roon1. Alongside the promptbook picture of it Booth ,vrotet ,:'This ,vas used -as a substimte for a. 'remote part of the plat- f or1n, having no time to paint the latter.~1 Curiously, though., Arthur !\1ntrhison Hsted thfa set in his pamphlet as ''a grove adjoining the castl c.'' So the decision to abandon the origin al a.rehi tectura l design and insert this romantic ,voodland vista 111ust have been n1ade before the pamph1et ,vent to press. One or t\VO observers 1ncntion the set as if surprised by it but not displeased.

Spirit of tf;e Tiuu:si J onuary Si 1870. l-:' ~Te,v 1-:--orkTVotld, January 6, 18jo. A c1i pping of N ym Cdnkl e's re\·ie·w is preserved in the Harvard Theatre Co]- Jectio n,

Harvard University - Houghton Library / Harvard University. Harvard Library bulletin. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Library. Volume XV, Number 1 (January 1967) 42 Harvard Library Bi,lleth1 Of the several .interiors, four ,vcre simply box-1ike roon1s. 1~,voof

these ,vere deep sets. The Audience Room 1 used for the first gathering of the Court in Act I, 2~ and tc1nporarily·used for the ending of the play, had hoth arch,vay and door\VaJ7 in either side-,vall and a Jarge, heavily decorated arched entrance upstage center .. In the pro111ptbook picture "\:\1itham hns sho,vn nvo thrones on a

Harvard University - Houghton Library / Harvard University. Harvard Library bulletin. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Library. Volume XV, Number 1 (January 1967) Ed·wh1Booth's Hamlet 43 the Pla)r scene ju Act III~ nnd uitiinatcly., according to Cluirles Clarke, for the play"sconclusion. It is a 1narvcl of vastness. Architecturally, to be sure, the upper reaches of it do not n1akc sense. The cei1ing is divided into triple v-au1ts:like the ceiling of a church covering a ,vidc nave and t,vo side aisles. The pendant arches, ho,vcver, have no col- umns to rest upon., but are finished off high in the air v?ith huge hosses.. 1' 1 o build er , vou Id contrive such th in gs, for they violate struc- tural purpose and are 1nuch too heavy· to serve as decorative ''drop vaulting/' [-Jere., too, cspcciall}r to,vard the sides of the cei]ing, more than n suspicion of Gothic style has crept in. The lo\ver portions of the set, ho,vcvcr, arc fine. At the back is a very 1.vide opening, the princip~l entrance, sho,vjng a paneled corridor beyond. Crossing the stage above this entrance is a practical colonnaded gallery, fron1 ,vhich at either end practical stone staircases lead do,vn to,vard us to .stage le vcl. }?onv arcl of these stairs at cither sid c are nv o arch cd op cni ngs, those nearer llS being -angledoff so that ,vc get good vic,vs into s1nall, ,vindo\vcd side roon1s~ The: floor of the hall ,vas tcssclatcd~ ~s Clarke tclJs us and as is indicated in '''ithan1,s original design: this detail js 0111ittcdf ron1 the prompt book picture. 1 ..he one interior set yet to be mentioned, caHed the Hall of Arches~ ,vas used for the ,,rhole of Acts JI and l\ 7, and it ,vas like\vise vast. It, too, uses a triple vaulted ceiling~ probably, in fact, the ver)T same ceiling tl1at hung over the Act III staircase set. Tl1e pendant arches do not no,v look so dangerous., for their bos.s:esrest upon a stone screen ,vhich runs up the ,tnave," crosses it tolv::i.rd the hack, and to,vard the foreground crosses the t sid c aisles.'' Seven I a rge arch es in this screen give the set its na1nea Again, to speak by the book, one 1nig ht q u cstion the archi tcct nra l lik cli l1 o o d of the ar r.J.ngcn1en t; hut it certainly" con11nunicatcs depth and spaciousness. The clain1s advanced by the n1anagcn1ent and subscribed to ,virh surprising unanimity· by the critics, th at the production ,-vas an entirely ne,v one m11st be discounted.. One need but glance ut the engravings in Booth ts earlier acting edirion to recognize that the 18 70 production ,vas really only ~n elaboration of the ,iI-Iundred Nights"'' production of six years earlier. The sa1nc ron1ancsquc arcbitc.cture ~- stone block ,valls, round arches, heavy colu1nns -- h~d been used + hef ore., and even in the arrangcn1cnt of individual sets) though ,ve .find handson1cr dra\\ring and richer details, there is nothing nc,v in idea. Thus, in the .firstscene., \Ve find castle, moon, and ground-level battle-

Harvard University - Houghton Library / Harvard University. Harvard Library bulletin. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Library. Volume XV, Number 1 (January 1967) 44 Harvard Library B1,lletiu 1nents in very nearly· the same spatial relationships. The Hall of Arches ,vas the satne in principle; only in 1864 there had been five arches instead of the later seven., and no triple-vaulted ceiling.. The

great staircase set ,vas invented in 18641 though it had not yet a colon- nadc across t l1 e gallery·nor n vaulted ceiling. 1.... 11 e Queen's Ch an)ber ,vas i1nproved in I 870 onl)r by increasing its t\VO decorative niches to three. The Gra\"'cyard set ,vns iinproved i1111nenselyin detail :ind

execution, but the grave, the chapcl1 and the to1nb ,vhere Han1lct c.:en tcrcd his action, ,v·erc in rough1 y th c same pos iti ans in 1 87 o as they had been in 1 864. U nq nesti ona bly the later production ,,/as better

researched~n1orc richly cn1bcllishcd1 better finished, n1ore abeantifnl'' than the earlier ones, and \Vith the nc\v stage 1nachincry of Booth's Theatre it ,vorkcd better~ But for us ,vho can only st2re at flat pictures of itl the conscrvatisn1 of idea in the transition fro1111864 to 1 870 is as striking as the in1provcmcnts of detail. For the audiences there ,vas no question about the beauty. The crjtic of the TJTorld dcc]ared that the .scenery surpassed that of Ro1neo and Juliet of the preceding season, ,vhich itself had surpassed 9.l1)T thing Char]es Kean had done in London in the 185o's~ or anything ever done in Paris except perhaps at the Opera. 2g Ny1n Crinkle paid respect to

''the imaginationt the learning1 *nd the experience of the best 1ninds'~ ,vhich had "lit the vlho]e ga11ery·of ponderous pictures ,vith a flood of beauty never atten1pted~n1uch less attained, before in such huge pie~ torjal cbefs d"reuvre.'' The A1etropolitan declared that .c(thc~ccncry and costumes are the most beautiful~ n1ost gorgeous and 1nost nppro- priate e,rer seen in a production of Han1let on the Ne\v York stage, or perhaps on any stage in the ,vorld/' ao "fhe If. 01ne Jourunl found it,, 1'indeedJ difficult to ,vrite of it in ten1perate langnage, hec~use ordinary ,vords see111inadequate to a proper expression of its positive grand- eur.'' 31 Such rapn1re cannot be denied. Yet ,vhcn ,vc co1npare these sets to the ,vork of the best English scene-painters of the era-~ the Grieves a.nd Tclbins ,vho had ,vorkcd for Charles l(can in the I 8 5o's, or l\1acready's artists as ear1yas the 183o's--,ve must demur. The fundamental principle governing the designs of V\7itham and his associates \Vas considerably· out of date. In ahnost every set ,ve find rc-

1':: Nevi York H'"or!d, January 6~ 1870. ro Ne,v Yurk M,~ropolita11jJ ~nuary 15 i 1870. 1 ~ 1'Tc.,vYork I-Jonw I oun1rt11 January 12.11870.

Harvard University - Houghton Library / Harvard University. Harvard Library bulletin. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Library. Volume XV, Number 1 (January 1967) Edwin Boot/ls Hamlet 45 peated the ''c]assicalupattern of center focus and symmetryt ,vhere by 1870 ,ve should expect sophisticated use of the nineteenth century "ro1nanticH pattern of side focus 2nd 3syn1mctry4

Shakespeare's plays ,vcrc ,vTittcn for a rjgorous-lyS) 7 ffin1ctrical pla)7 - houscJ of course, and in co11ntlessfeatures, from doub]e plots to rhyn1cd endings, they· respond in,vard1y to their symmetrical an1bience~But in the theatre all that had 1011gbeen forgotten. The acting versions, concocted only· to tell storjes :ind hold the mirror up to another sort of nah1re than Shakespeare had in n1ind, delihera.tel)7 blurred Shake- spcare,s baroque artifices :-indcut the111c]can out ,vhen they got in the ,vay·. Booth, for instance, could not avoid speaking the cou plct,

Foul

hut he ,vrote in his notebook, ''Of all the hatcful rhy"lning cxils 1 this is the ~.-vorst.nIf the fonnalis111of rhy1nc ,vas so oifcnsiv-cto hi111,ho,v then could he put up ,vith such rigidly symn1ctrjcal scenery? In the eighteenth century and through the ngc of John Philip Ken1ble, scenery in the English-speaking theatret at least for represen- tation of architccn1raI units and interiors, had continued to be don1- juated hy· syn1metry .. The reason for this is not, I think, to be sought in Shakespeare's little understood dramaturgy-, nor jn the long-Jost realities of the Elizabethan playhouse, hut in the taste for architectural balance pecu1iar to the Georgians., and in the .sin1plctechnical circum- stance that ,vjng-and-shuttcr scenery·, ,vhich divided stage pich1rcs into neat halves, itself invited balance. The place for a prjncipal en-

trance (the doors of u great haU~the city gatcs 1 the entrance to a castle), or the p1acefor a. focal object (a thronct a tomb, an altar, a banquet table) a gallo,vs) ,vas cxactl) 7 at upstage center. '''hena king entered attended by :i dozen courtiers, he took center stage and his foHo\vers divided and ranged themselves six to a side4

Final] )7 , a genera tion or 1n ore behind the other arts, the English theatre discovered the charrns of i1nbnlancc.. "\~7hcn, say, in the r 83o's i\-1acready·rea.lized that Lear's throne cou1d be set at a quarter angle at stage left, and the n1cn1bcrsof his court could group the1nselve.sfreely· across the stage, bu]king to,vard stage right., the ne\V ron1antic age of stage co111position,vas ,vell under ,vay~ T,vo decades later Charles l{can not only set Lear's throne to one side but turned the ,-vholcroo1n at an ang1e, so that one looked both into it and across it, thus receiving

Harvard University - Houghton Library / Harvard University. Harvard Library bulletin. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Library. Volume XV, Number 1 (January 1967) I--1fl rvnrd T..ihrnryllulletin

an enhan c cd i 111prc.ssion of its n1 agni tu d c and 111y .stcry. I Cean is sta gc architecture ,vr1srcn1arkablc generally· for off~ccntcring of focus,. for diagonal house fronts, streets on the bjas~canted great ha11sivistas of farther roon1sseen through and to one side of colonnaded near roon1s. In such settings stage n1overnent itself becan,e easier, freer; action hec2me, as jr ,vere.,more co1loqui~t Stage center, ,vhich for so long had been the only place for the strong actor speaking strongly.,Jost its value~ and the positions -a.,vayf ron1 center ,vere found to yield more cn1phasis 2nd attraction. It bccarnc esthetically desirable for the actor to do ,vhat in fact Booth loved to do: turn onc"s back upon the audi~

cncc 1 or deliver soliloquies sitting in a chair. One ,vould think, to read Henry I-Iinton,~patnphlcc, Booth's The- atre- Hebindtbe Sc.enes/i'2,vhich ,vas publishedjn the y·car of Booth's H a111lettthat '''ithatn and his associates ,vcre past masters of the ro- n1antic method. They· kno,v., says Hinton, "that by painting parts of a structure, and lctti ng th c1n 1cad off in to un dcfi n c d li1nits, th c i1nagi n a- ti on suppliesplace and extent. All the scenes at Booth>sTheatre arc so set that the eye ,vandcrs off into suggestion~ of space.", liinton only· ,vish es this \Vere tru c. In th c first sc t of Hau 1Jet the n10011and clouds and castle of the back scene do indeed lead off and out of the picture. But do,vn front ,vhere the action is ,ve face a stone \Vallset dead across the stage, from tall to,ver to n1atchjng tall to\ver, and one fortified entrance at exact center. The Hall of Arches an(\ the great staircase set, though deep and spa<.:ious,are both of them absolutely·symmetrical in Jay·out. All the other interiors, ,vith their squared-off ,vallst match-

ing side entrances., e1nphatic center archcs1 and identically spaced niches~send the eye no,Yherebut into thernselvesin the n1ost confining n1anner. The only sets ,v-hich do achieve ,vl1at Hinton clain1s for all of thetn are the 1nasterfully· rotnantic Graveyard ,gnd the ''\,rood and Cut \~'lood'~ set fot Act I, 5 .. The second of the.sci as ,vc have .seen, ,vas not actuall}T designed for Ha111let~but \Vas only a 111akcshiftfrom the stock room. 33 At one important 1non1ent in the production Booth rejected the scenery, .so to speak) and stage~n1anaged ''ag-ainst it., 7 "\~ 1hen the stair-

a:?Hinton ts sixtee 11-p:1 gc pa n1p hlct is n reprj n t of an ar tide in Appl eton~ s Jou NW I, ,roL JU, no. 61 ( l\1-ny18, 1870). !3 In fairness to l\litham it must be noted that in other and later productions - Julius Cm:.fl.TT,Ricbelieu, l(i11g Leart the. Harrigan comedies, etc,~ he seems to have "'orked vdth -a freer hand. Thomas F. i\1arshall concludes~ indccdj that 'this composi-

tions ten a to be asymmet ri ca 11 ,.,, ith ;strong o:ff-c cntcr s:1ant.! i

Harvard University - Houghton Library / Harvard University. Harvard Library bulletin. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Library. Volume XV, Number 1 (January 1967) Edwin Bootb's Han1lct 47 case set 1vasinvented in 1864,,the purpose of the broad center arch bc- t,veen the pairs of stairs ,vns to house the ph1y~,vithin~u~pla)7 • ,,,esee it being so used, as an inner stage, in the I 866 engraving. In 1870 ,~r1than1 lluilt it again. By no,v, ho,vever, Booth sensed the impractic- ability of this particular upstage center focnsi ,·vhich con1pels ~uthe prlncipa1s~if the)7 are to act ''11aturally·/' to turn a,-vay f ron1 the audi~ ence. He improvjsed a dais-and-double-throne for the l(ing and Queen at one side, a platf orn1 for the Players at the other, and a place for himselfand Ophc}in.just left of center, and played the action cross-

,visc of th c sta gc, thus ('sh o,, .. j n g'' it \V l th maximum p ossi61 c open n css4 J)robably this js the only ,vay the scene can be presented satisfactorily in a.picture-I rame the a.tre. But the 2rr2n gcment is obvionsl y· -apatch- ,vork, sccnicallv disoriented, and it denies 1li 7itha1n's center focus set • its reason for being. If Booth ,vas to use a modern ''ron1antict' cross- stage acdon, one ,vishes he could have had an ang]ed .set to stage it in.

But st2ge scenery did not in the long run interest Booth very deeply4 Proud as he ,vas of his record as a producer, first at the ''-'inter Garden, then at Booth's ...fheatre., once his o,vn theatre ,vas lost, he never ,vanted to man age or prod ll cc again. I-Ic pref erred to ,van d er., to carry his per.song}gifts to audiences far and \Yidc.. Good thcatrcsJ good scenery, good actors about hin11vere\velcome ,vhen he found then1~but often, ,vith incredible s,veetness of ten1per, he 1nade do ,vith bad. For his }ast fe\v seasons his 111a1H1gcr-partncrLa,l/rcnce Barrett got up so1nc

vcr)7 hundson1estagings 1 for ,vhich he vtas grateful; hut he resisted every argument Barrett could 1nustcr that thcyr take a Nc,v York theatre of their o,vn. A.cting \ras enough for him. The auxiJiary arts 111cantless and less. And in the role of I-Ian1let,,vhich the people loved best~ he could al111ostsurrender even the art of acting. I1e hardly needed to i1npcrsonatc the gentJe1-sad, thoughtful, djgnificdt kindly character ,vhich he in,ag.inedI-Jamlet to be, for he himself ,vas that charactcr4 Given ~ny,.decent background~ and a supporting con1p::1.ny not too hopelessly inept) he ,vas contented to build up night after night inn hundred cities ,vhat he cal]ed "m)7 O\V·n fancy \YOrld, ,vhcrc I drcan1 n1y life a,va)7 .t, 134

He could not have grrivcd nt this fi11alidendfication, ho,vevcr 1 ,vithour havjng lived through n1any other I-Iamlets~ I-Iis 1-Inn!letpro- ducrjon of , 870 is a 1najor ]nndn1ark in his o\vn dcvclopn1cnt; it is :tlso

tiL From :n Jetter to Ferdinand E"\r·er in 1877. See Edwina ll. Grossrnan 1 op. cit.1 p. 188.

covery of this production I until nu\ v err1b a rrassed by a confusion of informing document~., can at last be brought into focus because ,vc have Bootl1's o\vn pron1ptbook to guide us. University of Illinois

Harvard University - Houghton Library / Harvard University. Harvard Library bulletin. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Library. Volume XV, Number 1 (January 1967)