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NOTES ON M. PECHTER' S HAMLET AND OTHEIX...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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» - By Ms. F. P. Fellows.
Hamlet's tangled web of thought , and has presented a higher conception of the characterthan any of Shakspere ' s interpreters
, among his fellow-countrymen , mighty as some have been . M . Feehter ' s personation of the Danish prince has marked a new
era in the history of the drama . Like his ancestors , the Norman invaders , he disregards entirely the traditions of his new territory ,
over-steps its boundaries , sweeps away its landmarks , and imposes a new code of manners and customs . Less stubborn than the
conquered people of yore , we receive the bold pioneer with admiration for his daring , witness his innovations with wondering delightand
, hasten to offer the homage that his genius so truly deserves . Yet M . Fechter , in common with all reformers , shares the fate of
being occasionally misunderstood by the public for whom he labours . Some misconception of his idea of Hamlet has arisen in
consequence , and he has been charged with tinging his interpretation with too much of the princely coldness of the man of the world
, and keeping in the background the dreaminess and tendency to reverie which so essentially distinguishes the character of the
Prince of Denmark . But this is an error . Hamlet , as rendered hy M . Fechteris a prince of extreme sensitiveness of mind , and of
, almost feminine tenderness of heart , who is placed in a most painful position by his mother ' s hasty and unholy marriage with the
very man whom he more than surmises is his father ' s murderer . Eminently of a meditative temperament , slow to action , too prone
to speculation , he loses the golden _noio while indulging in vague reveries on the chances of success , and lets the pregnant opportunity
glide hy unheeded . Knowing this besetting sin of procrastination , there is a constant struggle against it , but his constitutional inertia
gets the better of him , and he sinks again into the prince of vacillators . Not the dire disclosures of his father ' s spirit , nor the
reiterated command to avenge the assassination , nor the consciousness of the murderous intent of the usurper towards himself , can
avail to sting him into action , ( with the exception of the spasmodic thrust with the rapier in the closet-scene ) until the ghastly climax
of horror at the end . Then , and not till , then , when the confederate treachery of the King and of Laertes has slain his motherand
, left but little life in his sinking frame , does he arouse himself to make one last expiring effort , and dedicate his fast ebbing moments
to the fulfilment of the terrible mission of executing vengeance on his father ' s destroyer .
The exceeding tenderness of Hamlet's disposition , albeit sadly jarred , by the untoward events which prey on the noble youth , is
nowhere more ably illustrated by M . Fechter than in the scene with Ophelia . In ordinary hands , Hamlet ' s conduct would bear
the stamp of brutality . Under this great artist's treatment , it assumes the aspect of a stern necessity enforced by cruel
circumstances . We should premise that M . Fechter adopts the hypothesis
that the insanity of Hamlet is entirely feigned . This , as our
Notes On M. Pechter' S Hamlet And Otheix...
NOTES ON M . PECHTER ' S HAMLET AND _OTHEIXO . 245
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Dec. 1, 1862, page 245, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01121862/page/29/
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