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A DRAMATIC CRITIC
romance, one returned to our great native
artists, and found them, by contrast, rather
cool and starchy.
Nature, which had definitely, though
not meanly, limited Mr. Fechter on the
higher side of the intellect, had endowed
him with a temperament of rare sensibility
and ardor. Even if he had conceived the
character of Hamlet aright, I doubt if he
would have found it possible to embody
his conception. Hamlet sometimes seems
to be doing, and, when he is only mark-
ing time, tries to make believe that he is
marching. I imagine that Fechter could
not have contrived to import into the part
of the prince that tentative, indecisive
quality which characterizes Hamlet's love
for talking and thinking, and his disinclina-
tion for persistent doing, which is made
only plainer by occasional unpremeditated
acts of violence. His Hamlet's feet were
planted firmly on the earth; and his head
was six feet above them, — not in the
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