Page 83 - Hamlet: The Cambridge Dover Wilson Shakespeare

lxxvi HAMLE T

great cast would have been Wilks as Hamlet, Mills as
Horatio, Barton Booth as the Ghost, Ryan or Powell as
Laertes, Mrs Knight or Mrs Porter as the Queen, the
'majestic' Keene as the King, Dogget or Johnson as the
First Gravedigger, and Mrs Mountfort or Miss Santlow
(who became Mrs Baiton Booth) as Ophelia. As time
went on, other Hamlets were many. Thurmond first took
up the part in 1708, Elrington in 1716, and Ryan (one
of"the best) in 1719; and in 1733 Mills, then between
sixty and seventy years of age, suddenly and unwisely
made a first appearance in the character. He had been
(as had Barton Booth also) an excellent Horatio, others
worthy of commendation in that part being Lee, Walker,
and Milward. To the Ophelias must be added Mrs
Bracegirdle, Mrs Cross, Mrs Bradshaw, Mrs Thur-
mond, and—to Ryan's Hamlet in March, 1728, two
months after the first wild welcome of her Polly
Peachum—no less a light than Lavinia Fenton. Quin
made his first appearance as the King in 1719, and
Milward in 1733. Hippisley was a favourite Polonius;
Johnson the greatest of all First Gravediggers after
Underhill, with Bullock for his only serious rival.
'Ostrick,' or the Fop, passed from Colley Cibber to his
son Theophilus; and in 1731 Quin, copying Booth as
closely as possible, must have made a very impressive
Ghost. These lists of names could be greatly lengthened.
Unfortunately, they do no more than show that the
tragedy was steadily popular at all three playhouses and
that everyone wanted to act most of the parts in it. They
can tell nothing about how those parts were acted. From
the want of advertisements of scenic displays it has been
judged that Hamlet was one of the plays that were
soberly (when they were not meanly) staged; one of what
Cibber calls 'select plays that were able to be their own
support, and in which we found our constant account
without painting and patching them out like prostitutes
with these follies in fashion.' We may imagine the