Show WHEN HAMLET WAS I FAR FROM MELANCHOLY Chicago Int r Ocean The theatrical th chroniclers are rich In anecdotes relating how the tragedy of Hamlet was vas turned Into a farce by some untoward untoward event or how It was presented In some freakish fashion On one occasion the th whole balance of ot the last act of ot the tragedy com corn completely completely upset by a wag in the gallery Claudius had just declaimed the words And let the kettle to the trumpet speak the trumpet trump t to tIre life I without when an ardent god gave ga gaa a startling imitation of a blast upon a comet which not only sent the audi audience audience ence once into convulsions but upset the kingly gravity of ot the Danish court Probably the most amazing presenta presentation tion of Hamlet Is that which took place in the reign of George III at the tha Kilkenny theatre Mr Kearnes the manager a man evidently indisposed to allow his patrons to suffer suITer under any sense of ot national grievance announced the tragedy as written and composed by the celebrated Dan Hayes of Lim Limerick Limerick erick crick and inserted in works With A fine perception of ot the need of ot comic relief Mr Kearnes earnes who played the Dane performed between the acts several solos on the patent bagpipes which play two tunes at the tho same time and the Ophelia Mrs CUrs Prior wove Into her Impersonation such emi eminently Danish ditties as The Lass of Richmond Hill and Lets Be Unhappy py fly Together from the Oddities of Mr Dibbin was advertised as a com corn comical comIcal ical teal politician and was represented by b a young gentleman The charac characters characters at the Kilkenny Royal were dressed in Roman shapes but the parts of ot the king and queen were omit omitted omitted ted tad by direction of the Rev Father as being too immoral for any stage Mr Kearnes politely announced that tickets could be taken out In candles bacon soap butter cheese and potatoes Mr Gilbert In his and travesty has declared Hamlet to be idiotically sane with lucid Intervals of at lunacy The latter quality occasionally pervades the audi audience audience audience ence George Weir a comedian of the Benson company related that in his early days he was appearing as the Dane in an Improvised theatre at Stroud In and suffered much embarrassment from the demon demonstrative demonstrative demonstrative attentions of ot an enthusiastic former schoolfellow who sat in the front of the tent and k kept pt up a running comment on the tle t e performance That be Weir VeIl exclaimed the admirer I knows I used to togo togo togo go to school along wi he heAtter After Atter many expostulations the inter interrupter Interrupter Interrupter was turned out and all went well until the audience was hushed to deadly silence while Hamlet was going through his soliloquy Then suddenly a still small sinaI voice came cheerfully from the back row rov of seats seals Garge I 1 be in again I Over half hall a century ago Miss Percy Knowlt Knowles s made Jade an effort to play Ham let and was so bad that a country manager issued a notice warning his patrons against seeing the perform performance ance Young Hengler a member of the famous circus family in 1851 performed the character to the Ophelia Opelia Op ella of Mrs Ills Charles Boyce and the th First Grave digger of Mr Doel oel oela a veteran v teran who died in 1902 19 at the age of ot 39 99 He afterward danced the tight rope This was an announced announced announced as ag an evening of contrastive talent and the circumstances certain ly iy Justified it The tragedy has been made dent upon canine attractions as its pre dominant features and at the Dead Hole otherwise the queens in Tot street afterward the home of the and now the place where the handsome La Scala stands the great Jack Matthews was at one time timea a strong attraction This gentleman was proud of the distinction of being the only Dog Hamlet and his faith ful hound which distinguished Itself in such works as The Forest of ot Bon dy and Footpad Joe the Terror of Charing Cross or The Dog of the Ab bey bayed the moon from the battle battlements battlements battlements ments of ot Elsinore and subsequently throttled King Claudius in the final finals stene s ene amid thunders of applause Only 30 years ago at Drury Lane a similar Incident was enacted in Andrew Halli Halll days Richard Coeur de Lion where a dog found himself the guardian of the honor of England being placed In possession posse slon of the national flag The dastardly Marquis of Montserrat played by Mr Sinclair was pinned to the ground by the worthy animal the instant he strove to seize the emblem An English provincial company be ing short of ot members has been known to play Hamlet in an arrangement by which Laertes did not appear until was killed and it was the easiest thing tiring in the world for the First Gravedigger to add to his responsibilities ties those of ot tho the Ghost It is said that Sothern in his young oung days at Jersey once appeared appear d as Laertes the Ghost ad the Second Actor He also aleo played Hamlet and Osric In fact the state statement statement ment has been made that to this lat ter character is to be attributed the world wide Vide success of Lord which originally a small part became a highly colored development of the inanities of ot the silly courtier In Ham let The funniest of all however must have been that performance at Silvers theatre Dublin which Kipling de describes describes describes scribes where the drunken soldier broke up the show by shouting Fer For th luv of pull up yr socks |