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

177
spade and lade ?r, evidently for use in thic scene. George
Barrett, as first gravedigger, won considerable praise -
typical of the oritice* response is Scott's comoient that he
gave "a true bit of hu-aoroue acting divested of all traditional
nonsense and time-worn gag". The prompt-copy liutc a
number of realistic details, none of them outstandingly
inventive, but evidence of & v/ell-judged performance. At
"fetch me a stoop of liquor" he got into the grave, spat on
his hands, and beean to dig; < uring the first veroo of his
song he uced a pick-axe, during the second a sp;,de. In the
second verse he paused after "But ,-if e, with his stealing cteps",
unearthed a skull at "Hath caught me in his clutch"; then he
brought it clown-stage (how far is not specified) and hit it
with the spade. The business was repeated in the third verse,
with the words "a s ->ade, a spade", the rr:'vodigger ;runted
as he dug. His answer to Hamlet's query - "mine,sir" - was
given "snappishly as if annoyed to be interrupted", and
Yorick's , kull v; c taken up "professionally and appreciatively".
George Barrett seems to have conveyed the man't pleasure in
his business.
Hamlet wore a rod-lined cloak, and rcclin*d at the foot
of a stone, Saxon cross to cr>e.-.k to the gr-avedig/TcrJ
31
. Apart
from the prompt-copy's note tlic.t he seemed p.raost afraid to
take Yorick's skull in his hand, and was annoyed by the smell,
little of the business was recorded. The Cr.ptiouu; Critic
thought that Barrett lectured the skull "like a professor of
anatoiiy". It is iiitore tine that the actor should convey in
pantomime Hamlet's dic^-uct at the cmoll of the .kull, although
the line "And cnclt so? pchj" wrro onitted(as was Hamlet's
declaration thnt hie £;or~c rices, and the cravcdi^-cr's
professional reflection on the l;.rge number of pocky corpses
cent for burial). Other omic,vionc v/ere E?.jnlet's cpecul.v.tions
about the courtier and the great buyer of land (82-7, "Or
of a courtier.. ,6Ji wo hid the trick GO &ee 't", and. 101-113,
"Thic; fellow.. .seek out ac, ur