When Fanny Kemble came to this scene the future Hamlet began to listen more intently.
Gertrude: Let not thy mother lose her prayers, Ham—a—lette.
Hamlet: I shall in all respects obey you, madam (obviously with a fiery flashing eye of hate upon the King).
Gertrude: Let not thy mother lose her prayers, Ham—a—lette.
Hamlet: I shall in all respects obey you, madam (obviously with a fiery flashing eye of hate upon the King).
When he heard this and more like it, Henry Irving exercised his independence of opinion and refused to accept Fanny Kemble's view of the gentle, melancholy, and well-bred Prince of Denmark.
He was a stickler for tradition, and always studied it, followed it, sometimes to his own detriment, but he was not influenced by the Kemble Hamlet, except that for some time he wore the absurd John Philip feather, which he would have been much better without!
Let me pray that I, representing the old school, may never look on the new school with the patronizing airs of "Old Fitz"[3] and Fanny Kemble. I wish that I could see the new school of acting in Shakespeare. Shakespeare must be kept up, or we shall become a third-rate nation!
Henry told me this story of Fanny Kemble's reading without a spark of ill-nature, but with many a gleam of humor. He told me at the same time of the wonderful effect that [Adelaide Kemble] (Mrs. Sartoris) used to make when she recited Shelley's lines, beginning:
"Good-night—Ah, no, the hour is ill
Which severs those it should unite.
Let us remain together still—
Then it will be good-night!"
"Good-night—Ah, no, the hour is ill
Which severs those it should unite.
Let us remain together still—
Then it will be good-night!"
"Good-night—Ah, no, the hour is ill
Which severs those it should unite.
Let us remain together still—
Then it will be good-night!"