“Very Little Hamlet,” by W. Yardley, was produced at the Gaiety Theatre, London, in November, 1884, and Mr. Wilson Barrett’s absurd speech about his early ambition to play Hamlet was made the leading idea in the prologue, the scene representing the exterior of the Princess’s twenty-five years ago, with costumes, &c., archæologically correct. The future proprietor appears as a ragged street boy, and takes his solemn oath, to mysterious music, that he will, one day, play Hamlet in that theatre, while his companions of the gutter, being called upon to swear, exclaim in a hoarse whisper, “D——n!” and a ghostly actor undertakes to see the scheme carried out. Miss Nelly Farren appeared as the hero, and Miss Phyllis Broughton as Ophelia, with a tow-like wig. The treatment of the play scene was novel and amusing. It was announced that the principal player was ill and could not perform, whereupon King Claudius kindly volunteered to go on and read the part, which he did, until he discovered the meaning of the show.
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Quotations have already been made from The Hamlet Travestie, in three acts, by John Poole (London, Samuel French); Hamlet Travestie, by Mr. F. Talfourd (Oxford, J. Vincent, 1849); and from Hamlet; or not such a Fool as he looks (Cambridge, W. Metcalfe and Son, 1882); in addition to these there are many parodies of detached passages from Hamlet.
The following is founded upon the advice given by Polonius to his son, Laertes:—
A Parent’s Counsel.
You are about to go away my son,
So take away with you the wise advice of one
Who knows the world, boy, and don’t think much of it,
“Neither a borrower, nor a lender be,”
Of course from choice, the former certainlee.