Pictorial Shakespeare, 1880-1890 - eTheses Repository - University ...

Io4
and was follo\ved by Polonius, but no other business of any
interest was observed.
Barrett's second scene opened v;ith Rosencrantz and
Guildenstern kneeling, one on each side of Cl>-.utfiuc ( a-oimtcopy).
It ran continuously through the original 11,2 and 111,1,
from the arrival of the two friends, end Poloniuo's conference
with the Kin,"- • ".rid Queen, to Hamlet »s teasin/-; of the old nan,
his conversation /.ith Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, and the
arrival of the Players. Rather than stop after the "Rogue and
peasant slave" soliloquy, as Irving and most others hrd done,
Barrett parsed immediately to the scene vith Ophelia, ending
tha • ct vdth Claudius's "Madness in great ones uust not unvratched
go". Clement ^cott praised the new ord- r, which o''ve
a sufficient lapse of time for the supposed preparation of
The uruer of Ganzago, but observed that Barrett seemed tired
by the furious pace he adopted.
The moot importr.nt passages in the elongated second act
were Hamlet's soliloquy, "To be, or not to be", and his confrontation
with Ophelia. The soliloquy was Delivered in a
uanncr which Scott praised as a "noble example of untricky
declamation" - Barrett leaned against a fr ble v;ith his , r:i,;
folded, t?.s an illustration in The_ Jj-lustroted Lonfipn ilexvs
reveals. The soliloquies convoyed, it soomc, a calmness and
deliberation ..liocinp in his conversations r.ith other chcr; cters.
For t.ic Polonius scene (II.2.167 etc) the prompt-copy . ivcs
minute directions whos.e tenor is "all conversations v/ith Pol.
Hysterical style". Hamlet's response to Polonias's initi; 1
enquiry, "vVell, O'ocl-c-..icrcy", is i^olnon "snappishly" c..o he
"throwe. hir::self on a couch", ano his v-ish c^i-t Polonius were
"so ho., cst a man" as a fiohraonacr is sarcastic in tone. "For
if tlic ,.un breed ma^ots..." is read, from a book held by Hamlet,
v.iiilo Polonius "creeps round & peers ovr-r Hamlet's shoulder at
the book. H .mlet "shuts it up shrrply" and a^!:;, "Hi vc you a
daughter?". His next r.pocch is hysterical, ai.r \:ith "31. nders,
sir" he "f;l .noes at bool: nov/ & tlion as ii1 re;-'ciing' v .
This madness is evidently noro Gri,r^etic tlian melancholic.
Rosencr.- ntz and thill', ens tern speak "frvminrly", anc Hoialet
imitates then v/ith "f.Ty excellent good friends", eyeing them
suspiciously throu -;liout the scene, and catching then :.:. J:ing