ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on dramatic literature and theatrical performance of Shakespearian play. The Forbes Robertson Hamlet at the Lyceum is, very unexpectedly at that address, really not at all unlike Shakespeare's play of the same name. Hamlet is not a man in whom common humanity is raised by great vital energy to a heroic pitch, like Coriolanus or Othello. The lines help Mr. Forbes Robertson instead of getting in his way at every turn, because he wants to play Hamlet, and not to slip into his inky cloak a changeling of quite another race. It is in fact not possible for any actor to represent Hamlet as mad. He beckons Hamlet away like a beadle summoning a timid candidate for the post of junior footman to the presence of the Lord Mayor. It is a pity; for the Ghost's part is one of the wonders of the play.
