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250 NOTES ON M. TECHTEU' S HAMLET AND OT...
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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.
and his passionate repulse of ner caress as she falters in her lanation of its absence . Most pathetic is .-the-scene in the
fourth exp act , when the wronged wife falls at his feet in tears , and he involuntarily folds her in his embrace , and then , suddenly
recollecting the stain upon her fame , lets fall his arms listlessly , and wildly weeping , motions her from him . The tragedy in the
moonlit chamber is relieved by the deep tenderness , that ever and anon combats the fate that awaits the sleeper—a tenderness
that robs the murder of half its horror . If we are called to adjudge the palm to either-of these two great
dramatic representations , it is due to tne Hamlet . It would seem that the essentially contemplative cast of the mind of the Danish
Prince is better suited to M . Feehter ' s idiosyncrasy , than the more active temperament of the warlike Moor ; and as the complex
character of Hamlet demands the severer study , so the triumph is proportionably greater . Brilliant and picturesque as the Othello
undoubtedly is , there is necessarily a lack of that profound depth of thought that gives weight and point to every word the Prince
utters . M . Fechter is so completely a man of intellect , that he must , we imagine , feel more sympathy with the secret mental
tribulation of the highly-wrought sensitive Dane , than with the more palpable , because more physical suffering of the simple
rsoldier-Moor . A contemporary has suggested that this great actor should
essay some of Shakespeare ' s noble Roman dramas , and in this opinion we lieartily coincide . The character of Coriolanus would
be eminently fitted to M . Fechter ; he would do ample justice to the mingled tenderness and dignity of the great general ,
greatest in adversity . The part of Prospero he would also grace well ; and should he- ever try comedy , Benedict , that beau-ideal
of a gentleman , but so constantly vulgarised on the stage , would be worthily represented by this most refined of actors .
We cannot close , this notice without paying a just tribute to the painstaking drill that this great artist has evidently bestowed
upon his subordinates . He has substituted natural action for the hitherto thoroughly conventional fashion of standing and
stalking about the boards . In place of that measured tread , which has been one of the most cherished institutions of the
English stage , and which , in the words of one of the keenest observers of the follies of mankind , " consists of a stride and a
stop alternately , " as well as the time-honoured practice of crossing overwhen the actor moves apparently in a groove like the
pasteboard , Miller and his Men in the toy theatre of our youth , M . Fechter ' s fellow-artists sit , or stand , or lean against articles
of furniture in a purely natural manner , which greatly enhances the reality of the scene ; while that bane of modern , acting so
detrimental to all illusion , viz ., playing * , to the audience , is never
suffered for a moment to appear .
250 Notes On M. Techteu' S Hamlet And Ot...
250 NOTES ON M . _TECHTEU ' S HAMLET AND OTHELLO .
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Dec. 1, 1862, page 250, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01121862/page/34/
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