OBSERVANCES OF SHAKSPBARE. 261 



graphy of an unique character ; it was the highest creation of the 

 poet's genius. Superior to sympathy, his misery was too agonizing 

 to be participative or communicable ; there is no amiable imbecility 

 in his complaints, no lachrymose sentimentalism : wrapt in the awful 

 originality of his genius, the majesty of Hamlet is unapproachable ; 

 every character, like rays of light converging to a point, exalt his 

 genius and give to him a striking distinctiveness. Othello, Lear, 

 Macbeth, Romeo, display particular passions — -jealousy, despair, 

 ambition, love ; they are single throughout : but in Hamlet, the 

 man, the complexion of his thoughts, the structure of his soul, the 

 biography of Hamlet is before us ; a thousand feelings and disposi- 

 tions, disanalogous in their individual tint, like precious gems, are 

 skilfully arranged in their multitudinous varieties and degrees of 

 light and shade, forming altogether the most homogeneous and 

 sublime portraiture of man. 



Of all the actors* who have ever conceived the character 

 and personated Hamlet, Macready is the only man. To be- 

 hold his pale, solemn, classical face, abstracted from all around 

 him ; his quiet, graceful movements ; his features answerable to 

 every complexion of his varied thoughts ; altogether prepare the 

 beholder, from his first appearance, for the exhibition of a character 

 peculiar, metaphysical, and spontaneous. His first reply to the 

 King — " a little more than kin and less than kind" — and to the 

 Queen, is searching, sarcastic, and sorrowful. Through the whole 

 of the play, Macready is no longer himself ; he is Hamlet, he pos- 

 sesses you with his own passions, and does more to elucidate the 

 sublime character of Hamlet than any actor, living or dead. So 

 self-elevated was my mind after seeing Macready in Hamlet, that I 

 was Hamlet in soul for a month after. 1 he barking criticism of 

 mannerism is at least a compliment to Macready in his personation 

 of Hamlet ; for no one, however great the genius, could represent 

 the scholar and the gentleman, but he whose education and intellect 

 were of the highest order. 



May I never belong to those " sophisticated mighty wise," who 



know too much to know anything. As for the million, Hamlet, 



under all forms, must be " caviare to the general." Sits apage 



haud tibi spiro. 



W. 



* Like the inimitable Mrs. Martha Bethmie Baliol, who always express- 

 ed her gratitude to any author whose works she had read, as one to whom 

 she was personally indebted, so I feel the sincerest pleasure in mentioning 

 the name of Macready as an actor whom I have never beheld but with ad- 

 miration and delight. 



