An essay on the character of Hamlet: As performed by Mr. Henderson, at the Theatre Royal in the Hay-Market.

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- DEDICATION. To GEORGE COLEMAN, Esq.

AN ESSAY ON THE CHARACTER OF HAMLET.

THE writings of Shakespear have maintained the post of eminence so long, that most people feign or possess some relish for them: his beauties have been acknowledged by every man of fine taste, and his obscurities elucidated, by the most subtle, elaborate, and learned commentators this country has produced; to venture therefore upon the investigation of a subject, apparently exhausted, might be as hazardous, as it seems barren. But though it would be presumption in an artist, to design the model of a temple, or a palace, after a master in architecture, it surely cannot arraign his discretion, to fix on a single column, and catch some minute beauty in the architrave or frieze, which may have escaped a mind expanded to embrace a vaster object.

The writer of this essay, means to insulate the character of Hamlet, from the other persons of the drama; and after having considered the philosophic Prince, in regard to situation, temper, passions, and understanding, to examine with coolness and impartiality, Mr. Henderson's representation of him; compare shade, with shade, and tint, with tint, then finally ascertain the degree of conception, and execution, that gentleman exhibited in his performance.

This speices of criticism has at least novelty to recommend it; for though taste and learning dedicate every effort to establish the reputation, and perpetuate the memory of the poet, the actor, to whom he is often indebted for more than one laurel, is rarely honored with a leaf, to protect him from oblivion. The graces of action, the harmony of elocution, and the energy of soul which distinguishes the favourite of the sister muses purchase a transitory fame which perishes with the possessor, and had Garrick no personal interest with Apollo, the smiles of Thalia, and the favor of Melpomene, would have been a precarious tenure on immortality.

The character of Hamlet, though not the most finished, is certainly one of the most splendid efforts of Shakespear's genius. He has combined in it, every circumstance which can affect the heart, or interest the understanding. He represents a Prince, in the bloom of life, plunged into a deep melancholy, at the death of a father, whom he tenderly loved. The filial piety of a son, is finely contrasted by the levity of a mother, who in defiance of censure, and the ties of consanguinity, marries her deceased husband's brother.

Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears,

Had left the flushing in her gauled eyes,

Hamlet's understanding is sound, and his sensibility exquisite. He is moreover adorned with every liberal accomplishment, which can distinguish the gentleman and the scholar: his reasonings are deep, and his passions ardent; and as both are excited by great and adequate motives, his character affords the most ample field for the display of theatrical abilities. Such is the contour of Hamlet, as delineated by Shakespear, and which he has filled with as rich and glowing colours, as ever dropped from the pencil of imagination. The appearance of a young performer in a character of this importance, must excite the curiosity of every admirer of the drama. But in this sickly winter, this blight of the stage, when figure and voice, in general are the only substitutes for feeling, conception, and imagination; it is no wonder, every dawn of those fine faculties, is received with pleasure, and fostered with approbation.

Mr. Henderson, after having given infinite satisfaction in the character of Shylock, appeared for the first time in Hamlet. His success must have surpassed his most sanguine expectations; he deserved, and obtained great praise; but in justice to his abilities, and in order to maintain the candour, and ascert the dignity of taste, it is necessary to examine with coolness, and precision, his performance; and judging by the standards of nature and truth, pronounce where he merited censure, and where approbation. It has often been contested by theatrical polemicks, whether figure may not be dispensed with in an actor of real genius. It must be allowed, that a man of sense and feeling, with a tolerable person, will please a judicious audience, much more than a blockhead, with beauty and grace; but in order to compleatly fill the idea, impressed on the mind by the poet, every youthful personage, that stands eminently forward in the drama, unless marked by record or tradition, with deformity, should certainly possess those external requisites, which at sight conciliate respect and esteem; they augment our interest in the happiness or misery of the character, and render sympathy more exquisite. From the express words of the poet, Hamlet should have the most prepossessing aspect and demeanor.

The courtier's, soldier's scholar's eye, tongue, sword,

Th' expectancy and rose of the fair state

The glass of fashion, and the mould of form

And again,

That unmatch'd form and feature of blown youth

Mr. Henderson's person is far from striking; it is rather under the middle size, and moulded with no extraordinary elegance, or symmetry. His eye is good, and all his other features, bold and marking; but his countenance seemed incapable of assuming the pathetic engaging look, which should peculiarly distinguish the character; his deportment was easy, but not graceful; and was considerably injured by his appearing over solicitous about the disposal of his hands; it is particular, and ungraceful, to confine them too much to the bosom. Mr. Henderson's first impression therefore was not very favorable to him. But if he appeared inadequate to the character in aspect, and deportment, he soon convinced his auditors, that he was not deficient in judgment and feeling. When the Queen charges Hamlet, almost in direct terms, with hypocrisy, persevering in obstinate sorrow, for a loss which could not be retrieved, Mr. Henderson delivered his pathetic reply with great sensibility; his look, tone, and gesture, were as well conceived, as executed, and finely marked the resentment of a delicate, and liberal spirit hurt by a reproach it was conscious of not meriting. Excellence in speaking a soliloquy, is one of the greatest difficulties in the art of acting. Nature is the only dictator inspirited and impassioned scenes, moreover in dialogue, the eye of the speaker is fixed by the person addressed; but in those cool deliberations which the mind holds with itself, when reason drops a curtain before the eye of sense, and every external object is excluded, it is then the genius of the actor is tried, for unless he has a strong imagination to render him thoroughly possessed of the character, united to a sound judgment, and the happiest powers of execution, his attention will unavoidably be solicited by the audience, and render his words ridiculous and unnatural. Though we cannot pronounce Mr. Henderson excellent in this department of the histrionic art, yet he was far from reprehensible; he appeared to want practice more than judgment, and a young actor seldom possesses his powers at once in full flexibility. When the mind is strongly agitated, the body is restless and unsettled—therefore Mr. Henderson's walking to and fro during the time he waited to see his father's spirit was extremely natural; however we most earnestly intreat him never in future to prepare us for a start by pulling off his hat immediately before the appearance of the ghost; if he apprehends that appendage to dress may conceal the part of his face, where terror and anxiety are most strongly expressed, let him contrive to get rid of it in his first confusion; which if he cannot do with ease, let him remember, that in the fine arts, nothing is a beauty which militates with nature and truth. In the solemn address to the Ghost, Mr. Henderson's voice was low, tremulous, and interrupted; rising gradually to a more confirmed tone, as his fears subsided; but his ejaculation to the protecting Angels of grace, was offered up before he saw the spirit; his succeeding pause was just and natural; for terror incites an instantaneous wish for safety; and it is always some time before the mind recovers itself enough to attend to any other object. There is a very capital blunder in the conduct of this scene, of which most Hamlets are guilty; when the spirit appears, Horatio and Marcellus, instead of consulting their own safeties, seize Hamlet's arms; as if, from their prior acquaintance with the Ghost, they were become familiar. This is not only absurd and unnatural, but robs the principal object of a picturesque and striking attitude. Hamlet, when first acquainted of the apparition, seems to have a precognition that his father was come to reveal some important secret; for he says.

I pray you all, if you have hitherto conceal'd this sight

Let it be treble in your silence still;

And whatsoever shall befall to night,

Give it an understanding, but no tongue.

And from the following passage, he appears determined, in spite of opposition, to interrogate the spirit, and know what seduced him from the bourne of eternity—

If it assume my noble father's person,

I'll speak to it, tho' hell shou'd gape

And bid me hold my peace.

The apparition, instead of replying, continues to make repeated signals, as if he wished to impart something to Hamlet alone.—He prepares to follow, but is held by his friends; it is natural to suppose that this check must rather increase than diminish his anxiety; and by his own words he appears worked up to the most extravagant pitch of desperation —he declares that he does not value his life, that he thinks himself summoned by the voice of fate, and that he feels the pettiest channel that throbs with life in his body as hardy as the Nemaean lion's nerve. Therefore during the struggle to disengage himself from Marcellus and Horatio, his look and gesture should be wild, and his voice piercingly energic.—Mr. Henderson fell infinitely short of this conception, either from want of vivacity of passion, or a deficiency of power in the upper tones of his voice; his painting was just, but not bold or masterly; from faintness of colouring the effect of light and shade was inconsiderable, had he been more animated, the transition from extremity of emotion to respect and duty, when he bids the ghost proceed, would have had a prodigious fine effect.—Short as this scene is, Garrick's excellence in it was astonishing; he preserved Shakespear's fire undiminished, faithful as the electric, and sent the animated shock of nature's flame home to the heart.—It is to be regretted that a young performer of Mr. Henderson's abilities can never behold this great model of Theatrical Perfection; for men of real genius profit from each other, without descending to the servility of imitation.— During the subsequent scene with the Ghost, Mr. Henderson was every thing that criticism could wish; but if he would observe the minutiae of propriety, he would drop his sword when the spirit tells him that he is his father; hitherto he had but presumptive proofs.

It must be confessed that this is a piece of stage etiquette, which may be complied or dispensed with AD LIBITUM; and perhaps it never would have been noticed by the writer of this essay, but for the extraordinary ingenuity of a news-paper Drawcansir, who most sagaciously remarked, in one of his daily critique's, that Hamlet's promising to revenge his father's death after he had dropped his sword, was absurd, judiciously supposing that he could not take it up again.

From the disappearing of the Ghost to the close of the first act, there are few opportunities for the display of superior talents. Mr. Henderson spoke the soliloquy previous to the entry of Horatio and Marcellus, with great feeling and propriety, and preserved a beauty in this speech which is either lost or rendered rediculous by the generality of performers; it is Hamlet's taking his tablets out, in order to set down—

That man may smile, and smile and be a villain.

This is an action strong emotion may dictate, but which nothing else can authorize. Therefore, if the actor be not animated, it will pass unnoticed, or appear like the flight of a lunatic. Mr. Henderson felt, and nature sustained no injury. At the conclusion of the first act, Hamlet becomes a new character, determined on avenging the murder of his father, and justly alarmed for his own safety, he assumes the mask of insanity, to conceal his intentions, and lull the suspicions of the king his uncle. There is no part of acting more difficult to exhibit, than that of madness. It requires great flexibility of voice, and countenance, to express the rapid succession of images, that float across a distracted fancy. The eye should be wild, yet vacant, and the tones piercing. It is true, Hamlet's madness is feigned; but it is evident from the following lively description, that the poet meant, it should be counterfeited with great strength of imagination and masterly touches of nature.—

My Lord as I was sewing in my closet

Lord Hamlet with his doublet all unbraced

No hat upon his head, his stockings loose,

Ungartered, and down gyred to his ankle,

Pale as his shirt, his knees knocking each other

And with a look so piteous, in purport,

As if he had been loosed out of hell

To speak of horrors, thus he comes, before me.

In the first scene with Polonius, Mr. Henderson would have been unexceptionable, had he paid more regard to a striking and picturesque manner. He looked, and conceived the poet justly, but diminished the fine effect his disordered appearance would have had, by inattention to attitude and grace. There never was perhaps a more admirable description of a rooted melancholy, than the relation Hamlet gives to Rosincraus and Guildenstern, of the progress of his distemper. It rises with striking and noble images, in grand succession to an astonishing pitch of sublimity. The last objection made to Mr. Henderson, stands here also against him. His tones and manner had not the correspondent weight, which the majesty of the sentiments he uttered required. If he delivered this speech less rapidly, and made a short pause previous to the words— ‘What a piece of work is man,’ it would have had a much better effect. In his scene with the players he was easy, sensible and spirited; and gave the charge to them, as well, perhaps, as any man who ever performed the character.—It is painful to point out blemishes, where many beauties are to be met with. But the parterre will be soon over-run, if the weeds are suffered to remain, lest the act of removing them should lacerate the flowers.— Hamlet is stung with shame, to see a player, by the force of imagination, deeply affected, for the calamities of a person who has been dead for centuries, and naturally asks, "what would such a man do, had he motives to stir the cause of vengeance which he himself had. In enumerating them, his passion kindles, till he becomes frantic with rage. Mr. Henderson wanted fire and rapidity. In reasoning upon the imagination of the player, and his own tardiness to revenge, he was striking and natural, but his indignation was not vented with the energy of strong passion. When the mind is shook with violent anger, every sentence is uttered in the highest key of the voice. It is the native tone of rage, and if the performer cannot reach it, he comes tardy of the poet's conception. Mr. Henderson never employs the upper key, which we are inclined to attribute to want of judgment rather than to want of genius. Rant consists in the misapplication, not in the great exertion of the voice. For in the impassioned part of this speech, every word Mr. Garrick utters, seems to rush from the burning mint of sensibility; which proves, that the loudest extent of voice will not offend, when the heart replies to it in sympathy. Mr. Henderson laid a glaring false emphasis in this speech. In repeating

What is Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba,

That he should weep for her?

he puts the stress upon HER, though there is no antithesis. Hamlet is not surprised at the player's weeping for Hecuba in PARTICULAR, but that he shou'd weep for any person, with whom he was utterly unconnected; if this passage be received as Mr. Henderson spoke it, one would be apt to conclude, that there was something in the miseries of Hecuba, which excluded her from compassion.

The third act opens with the celebrated soliloquy upon suicide. Hamlet, weary of being obliged to procrastinate his revenge, and sick of the calamities of life, from which he saw no rank or condition to be exempted, reflects which should be preferred in adversity, existence or death [*] the magnitude of this subject gives great scope to an actor of genius. Mr. Henderson appeared in every respect equal to it; his words and action seemed to flow from deep and strong thinking; and both were regulated by the strictest rules of taste and judgment. Hamlet's meditations are interrupted by the presence of Ophelia. He addresses her at first, with gentleness and delicacy. But recollecting the character he had to sustain, he starts wildly from the point, and under the shelter of frenzy, vents the keenest satyr against the sex in general. Here Mr. Henderson was too tame. He should remember, that though there be truth, and strong sense in what he says, that he is still the mad-man; and that unless his look and manner be wild, and his utterance rapid, he will be discovered. No actor will perform this scene well, without a fine imagination, to catch the enthusiasm of the poet; and out of love to the expiring genius of the stage, we hope Mr. Henderson possesses it. It would be tedious and unnecessary to dwell upon passages which any performer of good sense may execute without incurring censure, or extorting applause. We shall confine our observations to those parts alone where excellence may be displayed. From the king's confusion at the murder of Gonzago, Hamlet is convinced of his guilt. His doubts therefore are removed, respecting the veracity of the ghost, and he determines upon revenge the first opportunity. Upon finding the king at prayers, he is about to put him to death; but recollecting that it was not in the moment of contrition, he killed his father, that he took him, full of bread, ‘With all his crimes, broad blown, as flush as May.’ he resolves to defer his vengeance to the unprepared hour of pleasure and debauch. This principal link, being omitted in the representation, and no other cause substituted, for Hamlet's continuing to procrastinate, he appears 'weak and inconsistent, during the last two acts. At the private interview Hamlet has with his mother, Mr. Henderson was rather too boisterous and irreverent to a queen and his parent. A liberal mind will preserve delicacy, even in reproaches. In speaking,

You are the queen, your husband's, brother's wife,

Wou'd it were not so; you are my mother,

he pauses after the words, "Your husband's, brother's wife," and by uttering the rest of the passage in one continued tone, perverts the sense, appearing to desire, that the queen was not his mother, when the poet means he should wish, that she was not married to his uncle. This interpretation of the passage is sanctified, not only by Hamlet's general character, but by his own words. Notwithstanding the incontinence of his mother, he constantly betrays the tenderness of a son, and feels for her weakness as a woman.

O heart, lose not thy nature; let not ever

The soul of Nero enter this firm bosom;

Let me be cruel, but not unnatural,

'Twill speak daggers to her, but use none.

Hamlet's producing the picture of his father and his uncle, is a happy and affecting incident; but we think Mr. Henderson's conception, in one part of it, erroneous. When the pious prince dwells upon the personal beauty of his father, and contrasts it with the deformity of his uncle, admiration, not grief, is the predominant passion; sorrow chills the fancy, and the following images appear to be the offspring of the most glowing imagination.—

An eye, like Mars, to threaten or command,

A station like the herald Mercury;

New lighted on a heaven-kissing hill,

A combination, and a form indeed;

Where ev'ry God had set his seal,

To give the world assurance of a man.

Imagery rich as this, requires a firm animated tone of grandeur. But Mr. Henderson's voice broke into a boyish whimper, which not a syllable he had to utter could justify, or dictate. Throwing away the king's picture, savours rather of trick; besides it does not seem to augment our sensibility. Mr. Henderson's terror was finely expressed upon the appearance of the ghost; his voice, countenance and attitude, consprired with united force to strike us with awe, pity, and admiration; and if he would avoid the errors hinted at, his closet scene would be a most capital piece of acting.—One of the principal defects in this tragedy, is the almost total exclusion of Hamlet from the fourth act; so long losing sight of the chief personage in the drama, our interest for him is diminished: as the piece was originally written, Hamlet has three scenes in the fourth act, but two of which are retained, though the third contains a most beautiful soliloquy, in which Hamlet justifies himself, for suspending the revenge he promised his father. In Mr. Garrick's alteration this speech is preserved. The opening of the fifth act is stained with low ribaldry, but so intimately connected with striking beauties, that it would be impossible to expunge the one without losing the other. Hamlet's reflections upon the last humiliating state of human nature, are awful and affecting, particularly those upon the skull of Yorick, when he beholds the sad disfigured remains, of a man who was once dear to him, mouldring into dust, hideous with deformity, the food and habitation of the worm; but the genius of Shakespear penetrated all nature, and his voice is heard from the tomb. We were surprized and chagrined, to find Mr. Henderson fell short of our expectations in this scene. His expression was languid and unimpassioned. He appeared over solicitous to give force and solemnity to his manner, and in the attempt lost the fine spirit of the poet. In uttering the rant into which Hamlet breaks at Ophelia's funeral, Mr. Henderson distorts the sense of one line by a false emphasis. Laertes, when his sister's obsequies are nearly finished, overcome with sorrow, leaps into her grave, and cries, ‘Now heap your mountains on the quick and dead,’ desiring, in the extravagance of grief, to be interred alive with one so dear to him. Hamlet, whose affection for Ophelia was not less ardent, challenges him to give a proof of superior tenderness, and after proposing the wildest tests which frenzy could dictate, says, ‘BE buried quick with her and so will I.’ As this was a proposal of Laertes, not Hamlet, the emphatical word undoubtedly is the monosylable BE. Mr. Henderson does not observe this emphasis, therefore from his tone we would conclude that Laertes had not, prior to Hamlet, desired to be interred with Ophelia, but that this thought was originally the latter's, and only in the climas of extravagant images which burst from him in the effervescence of imagination. When Ostrick cries a hit, a palpable hit; Laertes' point is at Hamlet's breast, owing to Mr. Henderson's ignorance of the sword. Fencing is an accomplishment, not to be dispensed with in an actor; and nothing so much promotes gracefulness of deportment. Mr. Henderson's dying scene was capital, it appeared indeed the last struggle of the spirit, when life hangs quivering to a point, and death extinguishes it.—

Having thus progressively traced Mr. Henderson through the character of Hamlet, and remarked with equal candour upon his merits and imperfections; we must pronounce him, notwithstanding some blemishes, the best performer now left to support the drooping trophies of the stage. He possesses taste, feeling and good sense; and though not blessed by nature with that portion of aetherial fire, which alone could once purchase him eminence on the stage, he must always maintain the superiority of men, who in general are indebted to accident, person, or interest, for their situations.

Is it not ridiculous and disgusting to hear a man without an atom of feeling draul out in one uniform, unvaried tone, the most pointed observation or lively passion? Is it not monstrous to behold another with the sepulchral aspect of an undertaker, and a voice as dismal as the hooting of the owl warbling out Romeo, and putting Shakespear to death? But what is infinitely, if possible, more preposterous, we are sometimes obliged to bear a man, whose enormous bulk and drousy eye would incline us to believe, that he had better taste in Calipash and Calipee, than in delicacy of sentiment, and resembles an alderman or a butcher more than a lover or a hero [*] For heaven's sake, does a manager ever purchase actors by the pound, tha he will employ such people? We congratulate the public upon their acquisition in Mr. Henderson, and hope his genius will protect us at least in part from like mortifications in future.

FINIS.

Notes

*
Warburton, in his comment upon this soliloquy from a happy facility, he often displays of sophisticating the sense of the clearest passages, gives a strange turn to Shakespear's meaning. He interprets to be or not to be, am I to exist hereafter or not? Hamlet at first appears satisfied that he would not, for he asks, is it nobler to endure calamity or end it by death? This leads him to consider the nature of death, which he concludes to be a sleep, a privation from feeling, a tomb in which life and sufferance were both buried. He afterward hazards a conjecture that there may be dreams in this sleep, and that the dread of them must certainly prevent the wretched putting a period to their existence. But there is one circumstance which has escaped the learned commentator, why should Hamlet doubt the separate existence of the soul after having seen and conversed with his father's spirit? Johnson remarks upon this speech that the prince enumerate evils to which the lower orders of life only were subject. But Hamlet does not adduce them as causes for his own disgust with the world. They are merely the observations of a speculative mind touched with the miseries of human nature.
↵

*
This GREAT man, who for some time added considerable WEIGHT to the Edinburgh stage, was one night to doze thro' a capital character, in which he expected to infuse more of the poppy than usual; but a wag who was sensible that no man contributed so much as himself to the repose of an audience, politely inserted at the bottom of the bills: N. B. Gentlemen are requested to bring night-cape.
↵

AN ESSAY ON THE CHARACTER OF HAMLET. AS PERFORMED BY MR. HENDERSON, AT THE THEATRE ROYAL in the HAY-MARKET.

To hold as it were the mirror up to nature.—Now this o'er-done, or come tardy off, tho' it make the unskilful laugh, cannot but make the judicious grieve, the censure of which one must in your allowance o'er-weigh a whole theatre of others.
SHAKESPEAR.

LONDON, Printed for W. FLEXNEY, the Corner of Southampton-Buildings, Holborn.

DEDICATION. To GEORGE COLEMAN, Esq.

AS one of the Town I consider myself your debtor, for the unexpected addition you have made to our dramatic entertainments. The Hay-Market hitherto has been considered merely as a little Summer Retreat, the proprietor of which never furnished more than a glass of wine and a sweatmeat, but you, Sir, like a wise host, extend your plan, and beside, the light regale of Aristophanes and Fun, indulge your guests with the rich banquet of Shakespear and strong sense. But I have another motive for addressing the following little Essay to you, it is to beg pardon for attempting to analyze the performance of an actor, whose merit was sealed by the sanction of your patronage. I have the honour to be,

Sir,
Your most humble and obedient Servant, The AUTHOR.

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An essay on the character of Hamlet: As performed by Mr. Henderson, at the Theatre Royal in the Hay-Market.

Pilon, Frederick, 1750-1788.

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9781106015969

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— An essay on the character of Hamlet: As performed by Mr. Henderson, at the Theatre Royal in the Hay-Market., Pilon, Frederick, 1750-1788.. [4],8,11-25,[1]p. ; 8⁰. London :: printed for W. Flexney,. [1777]. [Anonymous. By Frederick Pilon.] [Text is continuous despite pagination.] [Reproduction of original from the British Library.] [English Short Title Catalog, ESTCT74605.] [Electronic data. Farmington Hills, Mich. : Thomson Gale, 2003. Page image (PNG). Digitized image of the microfilm version produced in Woodbridge, CT by Research Publications, 1982-2002 (later known as Primary Source Microfilm, an imprint of the Gale Group).]

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