Part 10 (1/2)
Bombast goes side by side with poetry; pa.s.sion with pantomime. Yet, as Lessing says, ”Plays which do not observe the cla.s.sical rules, must yet observe rules of some kind if they are to please;” and Shakespeare sought to establish rules in accordance with the national taste, his first aim being the combination of the serious and the ludicrous. Vigorous characterization, a vital and varied movement, and the skilful handling of scenes well calculated to stir the emotions of an audience, make ”Romeo and Juliet” an acting play of enduring interest.
In conclusion, I hold that no stage-version of ”Romeo and Juliet” is consistent with Shakespeare's intentions which does not give prominence to the hatred of the two houses and retain intact the three ”crowd scenes”--the one at the opening of the play, the second in the middle, and the third at the end. To represent only the love episode is to make that episode far less tragic, and therefore less dramatic.
”HAMLET.”[12]
In comparing the acting-edition of ”Hamlet” with the authorized text of the Globe edition, I find that it is shorter by 1,191 lines, and omits the characters of Voltemand, Cornelius, Reynaldo, a gentleman, and Fortinbras.
Such a modification should, perhaps, exclude the acting-editions from being cla.s.sed as the same play with either the folio or second quarto. It is a question whether 1,200 lines can be taken out of any Shakespearian play without defeating the poet's dramatic intentions; but if it is necessary to shorten a play to this extent in order to make it suitable for the stage, so important an alteration should not, surely, be left entirely to the discretion of the actor, but should be the work of Shakespearian scholars, a.s.sisted by the advice of the dramatic profession.
One would think that Shakespeare's world-famed greatness as a dramatist should make all his plays so valued by his countrymen that any alteration in their stage representation which had not been sanctioned by the highest authorities would be repudiated. But, unfortunately, it is not so. That the omission of some of the characters in the acting-edition of ”Hamlet”
has not impaired Shakespeare's dramatic conception of the play is at least a matter of doubt. In the second quarto we have a play constructed for the purpose of showing us types of character contrasted one with the other.
Strong men, weak men, old men, fond women, all living and moving under the influence of a destiny that is not of their own seeking. We have also a Danish court in which a terrible crime has been committed, and over which an avenging angel is hovering with drawn sword waiting to descend on the head of the guilty one; and, because the influence of good in this court is too weak to conquer the evil, the sword falls on the good as well as on the evil, on the weak as well as on the strong. Something is rotten in the State of Denmark; no one there is worthy to rule; the kingdom must be taken away and given to a stranger. It is the play as an epitome of life which is interesting the mind of Shakespeare, and not the career of one individual, even though the whole play be influenced by the actions of that individual. Look at the first quarto and we find a proof of this.
Mutilated as that version is, care has been taken to avoid confusing the story of the play. Everything relating to Fortinbras is kept in the quarto, because Fortinbras has to appear like Richmond in ”Richard III.,”
as the hero who will restore peace and order to the distracted kingdom.
This much-abused quarto has 557 lines less than the modern acting edition, of which 254 are not in that edition, although they are in the second quarto (or rather have a meaning equivalent to lines in the second quarto), showing clearly that it is possible to shorten the text in more ways than one. The first quarto comes nearer to Shakespeare's dramatic conception of the play than the modern stage version, because the latter, by omitting some of the persons represented, and also many of the lines which reveal the weaker side of Hamlet's character, have altered the story of the play, and placed the part of Hamlet in a different aspect to the one conceived by the author.
I will now compare French's acting-edition of ”Hamlet,” scene by scene, with the Globe edition. The Globe edition contains all the lines of the second quarto and the folio. It adheres to the text, but not to the stage-directions. For reading purposes, perhaps, the alterations which have been made in the latter may be justified to some extent as a necessity, yet for the acting-edition it would have been better to copy the originals. There are alterations made to the stage-directions in the first scene. Horatio, Marcellus, and the Ghost are shown to enter a line later in the Globe edition than is marked in the quarto or folio. But the attention of an audience is better sustained if the entrances of characters, especially of the Ghost, is not antic.i.p.ated, and also if the dialogue is not interrupted by pauses for entrances and exits.
In comparing the text, I find that lines 69 to 125 of the Globe edition are omitted in the acting-edition. But these lines explain to the audience why Marcellus, Bernardo, and Horatio are engaged in this same ”strict and most observant watch.” Marcellus and Bernardo are not common sentries.
They are gentlemen and scholars, who are on duty as soldiers for this particular occasion. Lines 140 to 142 I should also like to see inserted, because they are needed to explain the words which follow--
”We do it wrong, being so majestical, To offer it this show of violence.”
On the stage these words are spoken, but no violence is shown towards the Ghost. Besides, the business of striking at the Ghost is a fine invention of the author to a.s.sist the imagination to realize it is a spirit. I am sorry lines 157 to 165 are omitted, because not only are they beautiful in themselves, but also appropriate, for they help to give solemnity to the scene. The omission of the last four lines of the scene leaves it unfinished. Altogether seventy-one lines have been cut out of the first scene, but the first quarto retains most of them.
The stage-directions at the head of the second scene, both in the Globe edition and folio, place Hamlet's name after the Queen's, to indicate the order to be observed by the actors when they come on to the stage. In the second quarto, however, Hamlet's name comes last. As he has an antipathy to the King, and is displeased with his mother, it is not likely he would be much in the company of either, not even on State occasions, for Hamlet regards the King as a usurper. I would venture to suggest, then, that Hamlet should enter last of all, from another doorway to that used by the King and his train, having his hat and cloak in his hand, as if he had come to take leave of the Court before starting for Wittenberg.
Pa.s.sing on now to the fourth scene, I notice that in the acting-edition the last five lines of the scene have been cut out, including that expressive one--
”Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.”
I do not myself sympathize with this cutting out the end of scenes, as is done so persistently in every acted play of Shakespeare's. It is inartistic, because it is done to allow the princ.i.p.al actor to leave the stage with applause. Besides, it creates a habit, with actors, of trying to make points at the end of scenes, whether it is necessary or not, and this distorts the play and delays its progress.
In the fifth scene the line--
”O horrible, horrible, most horrible”--
spoken by the Ghost, is marked in the acting-edition to be spoken by Hamlet. Such an alteration is unwarranted by the text. The first quarto, by making Hamlet exclaim ”O G.o.d” after the Ghost has said ”O horrible,”
gives indication that the words ”O horrible” were spoken on the Elizabethan stage by the Ghost.
An alteration has also been made in the Ghost's last line, which to some may appear a trivial matter. The folio attaches the word ”Hamlet” to the ”Adieu,” and puts a colon between it and the words ”Remember me,” showing thereby that a slight pause should be made before these two last words are spoken, in order to make them more impressive; and the first quarto gives the same reading. French's acting-version, however, tacks the name on to the ”Remember me.” c.u.mberland's version gives the reading of the second quarto, which I think the best--
”Adieu, adieu, adieu, Remember me.”
The omission in all the stage-versions of Hamlet's lines addressed to the Ghost, beginning ”Ha, ha, boy!” ”Hic et ubique?” ”Well said, old Mole!”
is, I think, not judicious, because it causes some actors to misconceive Shakespeare's intention in this scene. One can hardly read the authorized text without feeling that Hamlet is here shown as a young man, or, perhaps, a ”boy,” as his mother calls him, in the first quarto, thrown into the intensest excitement. His delicate, nervous temperament has undergone a terrible shock from the interview with the Ghost, yet, owing to the absence of these lines, our Hamlets on the stage finish this scene with the most dignified composure. From the first act 217 lines have been omitted in French's acting-edition.
In the beginning of the second act the scene between Polonius and Reynaldo is left out in all the acting-versions. It is a very amusing scene, and in my opinion gives a better insight into the character of Polonius than any of the others. If it were inserted I believe it would become popular with the audience, and we find it retained in the first quarto. The second scene is called ”_A Room in the Castle_” both in the Globe and acting editions. Might it not be an exterior scene? It is true that Polonius remarks ”Here in the lobby,” but the line next to this in the first quarto suggests that he is pointing to some place off the scene, for he adds ”There let Ophelia walk,” and Ophelia is on the stage. An exterior scene would, in my opinion, give more meaning to the words ”Will you walk out of the air, my lord?” and to Hamlet's speech, ”This most excellent canopy the air,” etc. The scene of a palace garden or cloister could be well introduced in a play so full of interiors. It would add to the interest of the scene if Hamlet took advantage of the early entrance in the quarto and in the folio. For Hamlet to catch sight of Polonius hurrying the King and Queen off the scene would account for his suspicions and explain his rudeness to Polonius. Lines 374 to 378, Globe edition, are omitted in the acting-edition, but should surely be inserted, because they are needed to explain why Hamlet's reception of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern when they first enter, differs from that of the Players. I have always thought that the Hamlets of our stage, not being familiar with the context, mistake Shakespeare's intention. I gather from the omitted lines that Hamlet should warmly welcome the players, and take them by the hand.
At line 381, in the Globe edition, Polonius is marked to enter and speak on the stage the line ”Well be with you, gentlemen.” In the acting-edition he is marked to speak this ”_without_” (to whom? certainly not to the players; Polonius would not have addressed them in such terms), and to enter at a cue lower down the page. The alteration is an instance of what I consider the wrong principle adopted in making stage-versions. The actors have preferred thinking Shakespeare wrong to using a little ingenuity to meet his stage-directions. They have said: ”It will never do to have Polonius stand still saying nothing while Hamlet is making fun of him to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, so he must speak his line off the stage.” Would it not have shown more consideration for the author's text to make Polonius enter where directed, and then find something for him to do after he is on the stage? For instance, he might enter from a side entrance, as if summoned by the sound of the trumpet, move hastily towards the back of the stage, where the new-comers would arrive, and greet Hamlet, Rosencrantz, and Guildenstern, as he pa.s.ses them, with the words, ”Well be with you, gentlemen.”
The wording in the acting-version of the stage-direction, ”_Enter four or five_ Players _and two_ Actresses,” is questionable. Perhaps it is not a matter of great consequence, unless the period chosen for representation be the Elizabethan one, and I would suggest that this is the most appropriate period for the play, because to adopt an early Danish period is contradictory to the text, and overloads the piece with material foreign to the author's intentions. Shakespeare's thoughts were not in Denmark when he wrote this play.