Page 81 - Hamlet: The Cambridge Dover Wilson Shakespeare

kxiv H A M L E T

notmuch 'reformed.' Butitwas considerably shortened.
Valtemand, Cornelius and Reynaldo are clean gone.
Fortinbras only comes in at the very end, and his Captain
'
is not seen. The longer speeches (except To be or not
to be') are severely cut—even most of Hamlet's first
address to the Ghost. Polonius's advice to Laertes is
gone, partly, perhaps, because Polonius was (or soon
came to be) played as a wholly comic character; and the
advice to the players is also all cut out. On the other
hand, the Dumb Show, and the scene of the King's
prayer and Hamlet's speech in sparing his life are re-
tained very nearly complete. Much, therefore, of what
the study has considered the true poetic and philosophic
worth of the play was omitted; but the contentions of
Mr Alfred Hart about the cutting of plays for perform-
ance in the Elizabethan playhouse (Review of English
Studies, Vol. vin, Nos. 30, 32; Vol. x, No. 37) suggest
the possibility that the Restoration versions of Hamlet
may preserve in this matter the tradition of the original
performances, and that in both instances the robust
action, rather than the profound thought of the poet, was
what the theatre aimed at representing. To D'Avenant
only, and not to his predecessors in deletion, it is safe to
ascribe the many tiresome little verbal alterations and
excisions made, after his usual manner, in the cause of
decency, clearness or 'politeness.'
Cibber has left a vivacious account of the 'rude and
riotous havock' at Drury Lane after the secession of
Betterton and other good players from the united com-
panies in 1695. 'Shakespeare was defaced and tortured
in every signal character.—Hamlet and Othello lost in
one hour all their good sense, their dignity, and fame.'
It was probably about that time that Wilks took up the
acting of Hamlet, and almost certainly Wilks at whom
Cibber was hitting in his reference to a Hamlet, 'who,
on the first appearance of his Father's Spirit, has thrown
himself into all the straining vociferation requisite to