In September 1883, Mr. Hollingshead also wrote to the Daily News as follows:—
“It may interest those who are curious in theatrical history to learn that the last London performance of “The Enchanted Isle,” a burlesque upon Shakespeare’s “Tempest,” by William and Robert Brough, was played at Drury Lane Theatre on the 25th July, 1860, for the benefit of the widow and children of Robert Brough, one of the authors. The cast was as follows: Ariel, Miss Kate Terry, (then in the height of her popularity); Ferdinand, Mrs. Alfred Mellon (Miss Woolgar); Miranda, Miss Fanny Stirling (a daughter of Mrs. Stirling, her first appearance on the stage); Caliban, Mr. F. Talfourd; Alonzo, Mr. George Cruikshank; Prospero, Mr. Leicester Buckingham; and Trinculo, by the writer of this note.”
Mr. Moy Thomas followed up this letter by stating that:—
“Mr. Burnand and has unearthed in the British Museum library an acting copy of Davenant and Dryden’s version of the “Tempest; or the Enchanted Isle,” which he will probably expound for the benefit of readers in an early number of Punch. Sir Walter Scott’s account of this piece is perhaps worth transcribing here:—‘It seems probable that Dryden furnished the language, and Davenant the plan, of the new characters introduced. They do but little honour to his invention, although Dryden has highly extolled it in his preface. The idea of a counterpart to Shakspeare’s plot by introducing a man who had never seen a woman, as a contrast to a woman who had never seen a man, and by furnishing Caliban with a sister-monster, seems hardly worthy of the delight with which Dryden says he filled up the characters so sketched. In mixing his tints Dryden did not omit that peculiar colouring in which his age delighted. Miranda’s simplicity is converted into indelicacy…. The play seems to have succeeded to the utmost wish of the authors. It was brought out in the Duke’s house [Lincoln’s-inn-fields Theatre, November, 1667], of which Davenant was the manager, with all the splendour of scenic decoration of which he was the inventor. The opening scene was described as being particularly splendid, and the performance of the spirits with mops and mows excited general applause!’”
——:o:——
Hamlet’s Soliloquy.
No one passage from the plays of Shakespeare has been so frequently parodied, and imitated, as the celebrated Soliloquy commencing “To be, or not to be.” The following version of the original is taken from the famous Folio edition of Shakespeare’s works put forth in 1623. In addition to the quaint orthography, there are one or two verbal differences between this, and the version given in modern editions of the poet’s works; notably the expression “the poor man’s contumely,” which is now generally printed as “the proud man’s contumely:”—
Enter Hamlet.
Ham.—To be, or not to be, that is the Question:
Whether ’tis Nobler in the minde to suffer