Page 104 - Hamlet: The Cambridge Dover Wilson Shakespeare
P. 104
STAGE-HISTORY xcvii
at Oxford and in London, Mr Poel also staged Fratri-
cide Punished, an English version of Der bestrafte
Brudermord, which may have been derived from a
version of Hamlet acted in Germany early in the seven-
teenth century. Hamlet was the first Shakespeare play to
be acted in modern times in modern dress. The Birming-
ham Repertory Company, under Sir Barry Jackson,
gave it at the Kingsway Theatre in August, 1925, and
again at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre in the
following November. A performance at the Sloane
School, London, in March, 1933, adopted, among other
suggestions made by Professor Dover Wilson, these two:
in Act 11, scene ii, Hamlet overheard Polonius proposing
to 'loose my daughter to him' and eavesdrop on their
meeting; and the Dumb Show was performed, the King
being too deep in talk with Polonius and the Queen
about Hamlet's behaviour to look at it, and Hamlet
distressed at this unauthorised addition to the Play,
which threatened to explode his mine too soon.
l
9H HAROLD CHILD.
