stance, &c.; and even those attributes with which all men are invested, such as visible form, voice, &c. when they are imputed to spirits, it is always in such a degree of excellence as never was enjoyed by a human being. I speak of poetical creations. The Ghost in Hamlet, founded on a vulgar and even ludicrous basis, is beyond all doubt the noblest personification of the Spiritual essence afforded in any age or by any writer. The Gods of Homer are very ordinary mortals, most of them very wicked, and many of them very contemptible beings. The Angels in Paradise Lost are cold and characterless: Satan himself wants individuality; we have him not in our "mind's eye;" all we can collect of him is, that he was very bad, very bold, and very big. But in the character of the Ghost, all that is sublime, all that is noble, all that is terrific, unite to strike the imagination; his misfortunes, his injuries, and his sufferings, combine to throw an air of interest over his person; majestic yet melancholy, impassioned yet subdued, his human attributes are all grand and imposing, his supernatural those which inspire the most awful ideas. The noblest creation of sublunary fancy will, I acknowledge, relish of mortality; the poet was obliged to invest this imaginary being with some human qualities; but our notions are more refined and purified from earthly dregs in this, than in any other character I have ever met with. From these circumstances arises the superior difficulty of adequate personation; it is from hence I conclude that this character most transcends the powers of histrionic art. Of course, I am to be understood as speaking of characters representable all; Ariel, who lies in the bell of a cowslip, and flies on the back of a bat, together with the little people of Fairy-land, Oberon, Titania, Puck, &c. are out of the question. To re present the Ghost in Hamlet, with anything like an approach to effect, would demand far higher qualifications than are to be met with in Ghost-players in general; it would require all the slender majesty of the elder Kemble's figure, all his imperatorial dignity of movement and gesture, all the scrupulous attention to costume for which that judicious actor was so remarkable,-yet, after all, leave the greatest difficulties unsubdued. Where shall we find the unearthly, heart-thrilling voice, which the fancy imputes to these supernatural beings,-the aerial, tremulous, half-formed syllables, melting into the winds, and passing over the ear as if they were breathed, not spoken? Where shall we find the shrill sweetness and piercing melody of utterance, in which the Spirit of the unfortunate monarch must be supposed to pour forth his complaints, in tones at once melancholy and impressive? It is not to be attained by any human power of articulation; here, as well as in the outward visible form, the human attributes are refined to a degree of excellence, to which no actor could ever hope to arrive, however suaviloquent in voice and majestic in person. The elder Kemble was the only man who could have approached the character; had his voice been more harmonious, and his manner less artificial, less unpoetic (for the Ghost is essentially a poetic creation), he might have realized in a great measure the poet's conception. So that, independent of the superhuman attributes, power of evanescence and impassiveness of substance (displayed in the first scene), it is impossible for any actor so to discipline his actions and modulate his voice, as to personify with success our idea of the Ghost in Hamlet; no art can teach him to assume its surpassing majesty of form, its mild sublimity of manner, and above all its voice, in which the tones of earthly passion and the music of the spheres should mingle. There is nothing superhuman in the character of Hamlet himself, no "virtue" in him which might not be assumed by the actor; he is fat, cogitabund, and asthmatic.[1]
The difficulty of personating imaginary characters has been augmented tenfold since the age of Shakespeare, when the existence of Spirits was scarcely doubted and by no means disbelieved. Astrology, Demonology, and the doctrine of Apparitions, were popular and general. By the advance of knowledge, these visionary
- ↑ Queen. He's fat, and scant of breath.—Act 5, Sc. last.
