The Ghost is really one of the play's failures, it is so trivial and
unspiritual and vulgar. And it was spoilt for me from the first. When I
was a child I went to the twopenny travelling theatre to see _Hamlet_.
The Ghost had on a helmet and a breastplate. I sat in pale transport.
''Amblet, 'Amblet, I _am_ thy father's ghost.'
Then came a voice from the dark, silent audience, like a cynical knife
to my fond soul:
'Why tha arena, I can tell thy voice.'
The peasants loved Ophelia: she was in white with her hair down her
back. Poor thing, she was pathetic, demented. And no wonder, after
Hamlet's 'O, that this too, too solid flesh would melt!' What then of
her young breasts and her womb? Hamlet with her was a very disagreeable
sight. The peasants loved her. There was a hoarse roar, half of
indignation, half of roused passion, at the end of her scene.
The graveyard scene, too, was a great success, but I could not bear
Hamlet. And the grave-digger in Italian was a mere buffoon. The whole
scene was farcical to me because of the Italian, '_Questo cranio,
Signore_--'And Enrico, dainty fellow, took the skull in a corner of his
black cloak.
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