Burbage as Hamlet
Burbage as Hamlet
Takuo Yoneda
Introduction
Richard Burbage was the most famous actor in Shakespeare’s time. He played Hamlet throughout his acting career and, as this discussion demonstrates influenced Shakespeare’s writing Hamlet more than critics have been willing to admit. In the first section I will bring forward evidence on the production of Burbage’s Hamlet from extant documents and compare these documents with the three different early versions of the play. Because Hamlet’s age is different in each text, I will argue that Burbage’s age and his growth in playing the part of Hamlet influenced key revisions in these early versions.
In the second section I will compare the Second Quarto with the First Folio. And I will argue that Shakespeare intended to rewrite Hamlet.
In the third section I will discuss the relationship between Shakespeare’s Hamlet and the non-extant Ur-Hamlet that critics have forwarded as a possible source of the play. And I will examine the possibility that Burbage played the lead in Ur-Hamlet.
Section 1 Burbage in Hamlet
At the beginning of the 1623 First Folio of Shakespeare’s work, there is a list of ‘the principal actors in all these plays.’ (Campbell 229) William Shakespeare’s (1564-1616) name is at the head of the list. He acted in his own plays and other playwright’s plays. Legend goes that he played the ghost of Hamlet’s father and the old servant Adam in As You Like It (ca.1600). He was a playwright, an actor and, at the same time, a stockholder of the Globe theatre.
Richard Burbage’s name appears next to Shakespeare. He was a star actor of the Lord Chamberlain’s Men and the King’s Men. He also had stock in the Globe theatre. His father, James Burbage (1530 or 1531-1597), built the first public playhouse in London in 1576, the Curtain Theatre. And his brother, Cuthbert Burbage (1566-1636), moved the playhouse to the south bank of the Thames in 1599 and called it the Globe Theatre. Hamlet was written in ca.1600.[i] So the first production of Hamlet would have likely taken place in the Globe Theatre. At the time it appears that Shakespeare was 36 years old and Burbage was 29 years old.[ii]
It also appears that Burbage played Hamlet. Following is the quotation from an extant elegy for the death of Richard Burbage.
He’s gone and with him what a world are dead,
Which he revived, to be revived so.
No more young Hamlet, old Hieronimo,
Kind Lear, the grieved Moor, and more beside,
That lived in him, have now for ever died. 5
Oft have I seen him leap into the grave,
Suiting the person, which he seemed to have,
Of a sad lover, with so true an eye
That there I would have sworn he meant to die;
Oft have I seen him play this part in jest, 10
So lively that Spectators and the rest
Of his sad crew, whilst he but seemed to bleed,
Amazed, thought even then he died indeed. (emphasis added)
From A Funeral Elegy on the Death of Richard Burbage
March, 1618 (Farley-Hills 9)
This elegy points out clearly that he acted Hamlet, Hieronimo in The Spanish Tragedy (1582-92), King Lear and Othello. Moreover, this elegy also hints of a production of Burbage’s Hamlet.
Oft have I seen him leap into the grave,
Suiting the person, which he seemed to have,
Of a sad lover, with so true an eye
That there I would have sworn he meant to die; (6-9)
You may call these lines one excellent theatrical note. This elegy tells the most detailed report giving us a glimpse of what the play was like to its first audience. The ‘young’ Hamlet as the ‘sad lover’ leaped into the grave of Ophelia. The reference, also, to his “true eye” echoes Hamlet’s amazement at the ability of visiting players to feign sorrow.
The reference to ‘young’ Hamlet suggests that Elizabethan audience regarded Shakespeare’s Hamlet as a younger man than most current editions of the play indicate. David Scott Kastan says the description of Hamlet as ‘young Hamlet’, may have been “regular in use,” and it gives us “a valuable suggestion as to something vital in the tragedy that we have now largely lost” (Kastan 244).[iii]
[This point may not be necessary in the end, let’s see] Another then current description of the play offers us another clue about how the Hamlet was performed. Following is a quotation from Diaphantus (1604) by Anthony Scoloker.
Puts off his clothes, his shirt he only wears,
Much like mad Hamlet; (Wilson 1935, 97)
These lines tell us about Hamlet’s appearance. This costume style clearly remains for us as a stage-effect of our time.
Then, what kind of appearance did Burbage have? A key to solve the question is in the text of Hamlet. There are notorious lines [in which version?] that may mention the appearance of Hamlet.
Queen. He’s fat and scant of breath.
Here, Hamlet, take my napkin rub thy brows.
The Queen carouses to thy fortune, Hamlet. (5.2.290)
John Dover Wilson writes as follows.
The notion that “fat” refers to the hypothetical corpulence of Burbage is absurd on the face of it; for, if the player was actually growing over-stout for the part of “young Hamlet” in 1601, the last thing Shakespeare would do would be to draw attention to the fact. (Wilson 1935, 284)
On the other hand, Shouichirou Kawai argues that ‘fat’ was used as good epithet. According to Kawai, ‘fat’ stood for French ‘embonpoint,’ in other words, lusty plumness (Takahashi 379). So he insists that this ‘fat’ implied Burbage’s good physique. Harold Jenkins also mentions this ‘fat’ in his longer notes for the Arden Edition.
The precise meaning of this word is difficult to establish. But few now see in it an allusion to the actor’s corpulence, any more than in the ‘thirty years’ since Hamlet’s birth a reflection of Burbage’s age. (Jenkins 568)
Jenkins denies the possibility that the ‘fat’ reflected Burbage’s fatness, but he accepts that it related with his age. If these hypotheses had been true, Shakespeare might change the lines according to each actor.
Hamlet has three substantive texts: the First Quarto (Q1) (1603), the Second Quarto (Q2) (1604) and the First Folio (F) (1623). George Ian Duthie argues Q1 was based on some actors’ ‘memorial reconstruction’ (Takahashi 18). One or more actors who appeared in Hamlet likely reconstructed the text by memory. Q2 published as ‘the true and perfect Coppie’ (Jenkins 36) within 5 years after in the first performance of Hamlet. This text probably represents foul papers. And after Shakespeare’s death F was published. Presumably, it represents the play as it was performed during his lifetime, perhaps with his own cuts and alterations. F is also based on foul papers and earlier quartos. Though there are many differences between these three texts, it should be noted that the settings of Hamlet’s age are different in each text. Followings are the lines in the Gravedigger’s Scene. Hamlet asks gravedigger.
How long hast thou been grave-maker?
Grave. Of all the days i’th year I came to’t that day that
our last King Hamlet o’ercame Fortinbras.
Ham. How long is that since?
Grave. Cannot you tell that? Every fool can tell that. It was that very day that young Hamlet was bourn (5.1.138-43)
And a little farther on the gravedigger says ‘I have been sexton here, man and boy, thirty years’ (156-7). Judging from these lines, Hamlet should be 30 years old in F. In Q2 Hamlet should be 19 years old.[iv] And in Q1 Hamlet should be more than 12 years old because there is no reference to the sexton’s thirty years at his job. The gravedigger says that Yorick who took care of Hamlet in early boyhood had been in the grave for a ‘dozen’ years.
Today, Shakespeare’s texts have been treated canonized. Shakespearean actors and directors are bounded by the text. You can cut and move lines and scenes but cannot rewrite a line by Shakespeare. But when Shakespeare was alive, his texts were not treated with such reverence. Shakespeare himself apparently flexibly rewrote his own text. There existed interaction between Shakespeare and his actors and audience. So it is certainly likely possible that Shakespeare rewrote and revised his texts frequently using feedback from actors and audience . These revisions, moreover, may have occurred to suit the practical needs of the commercial stage rather than as a self-conscious attempt to pen immortal verse.
Section 2[v] Young Hamlet and Adult Hamlet
Hamlet’s age is different in each version of the play: Q1, Q2 and F. Given a bit of cross-referencing, it seems likely that Shakespeare could have rewritten the character of Hamlet to accommodate Burbage as he began to age. It is also likely that Shakespeare rewrote certain elements of Hamlet’s behavior and deeds to fit his age of his actor rather than his fictional character. I will compare Q2 with F because both of them were thought to be based on foul papers. The character of Hamlet in F is more mature than the Hamlet of Q2. For example, before the fencing match with Laertes Hamlet apologizes to Laertes after Gertrude asks him to do so (through the character of the ‘Lord’) in Q2.
Lord. The Queen desires you to use some gentle entertainment to Laertes before you fall to play.
Ham. She well instructs me. (5.2.202-4)
On the contrary, the Lord doesn’t enter in F. And Hamlet apologizes to Laertes on without being prompted by his mother.
But I am very sorry, good Horatio,
That to Laertes I forgot myself;
For by the image of my cause I see
The portraiture of his. I’ll court his favours. (5.1.75-78)
{need to comment briefly on the meaning of this quotation. This suggests Hamlet’s maturity.
The following is another example. As soon as Rosencrantz and Guildenstern meet Hamlet, he demands the cause of their coming to Elsinore in Q2. However, only in F, Hamlet talks comfortably with them for a while (2.2.239-69) before he demands their cause in coming. This sequence also suggests Hamlet’s maturity.[vi] In the following passage Hamlet [from which versions?] speak to Guildenstern.
What have you,
my good friends, deserved at the hands of Fortune that she sends you to prison hither?
Guild. Prison, my lord?
Ham. Denmark’s a prison.
Ros. Then is the world one.
Ham. A goodly one, in which there are many confines, wards, and dungeons, Denmark being one o’th’ worst. (2.2.240-247)
Hamlet says ‘I will not sort you with the rest of my servants,’ moreover, he even uses the word ‘friendship’ in F.
Ham. No such matter. I will not sort you with the rest of my servants; for, to speak to you like an honest man, I am most dreadfully attended. But in the beaten way of friendship, what make you at Elsinore? (2.2.239-70)
The next example also suggests Hamlet’s maturity. Hamlet represents his hostility toward Rosencrantz and Guildenstern straight in Q2. （3.4.204-12）
Let it work;
For ’tis the sport to have the enginer
Hoist with his own petard, and’t shall go hard
But I will delve one yard below their mines
And blow them at the moon. (3.4.207-11)
However these lines are omitted in F. [I’m not sure I understand, here] Similarly, Hamlet’s reaction toward Rosencrantz and Guildenstern’s death is different between Q2 and F. In the following lines Horatio, speaking to Hamlet, confirms Rosencrantz and Guildenstern’s death.
Hor. So Guildenstern and Rosencrantz to to’t.
Ham. Why, man, they did make love to this employment.
They are not near my conscience, their defeat
Does by their own insinuation grow. (emphasis added) (5.2.56-9)
The line 57 is omitted in Q2. F’s Hamlet seems more rational. Shakespeare also omitted the whole of the seventh soliloquy.
The imminent death of twenty thousand men
That, for a fantasy and trick of fame,
Go to their graves like beds, fight for a plot
Whereon the numbers cannot try the cause,
Which is not tomb enough and continent
To hide the slain? O, from this time forth
My thoughts be bloody or be nothing worth. (4.4.60-66)
In this soliloquy Hamlet sees the march of Fortinbras’ army and determines to revenge his father’s death. These lines fit a short-tempered youth. This omission answers the intention to mature Hamlet’s character. The following is the last example.
But I am very sorry, good Horatio,
That to Laertes I forgot myself;
For by the image of my cause I see
The portraiture of his. I’ll court his favours.
But sure the bravery of his grief did put me
Into a tow’ring passion. (5.2.75-80)
In these lines Hamlet repents of his rude attitude toward Laertes. These lines are only in F. Though Harold Jenkins wrote that ‘The absence of these lines from Q2 is difficult to explain except as an accidental omission’ (Jenkins 398), this omission is also fit for the effect of creating a Hamlet who is more mature.
Burbage probably played Hamlet all his life.[vii] If this is true, he played Hamlet until he was 48 years old. F was published in 1623 after Shakespeare’s death. Burbage was 45 years old when Shakespeare died in 1616. There is a possibility that Shakespeare continued to rewrite Hamlet until his death. I think that Shakespeare rewrote Hamlet because Burbage’s actual age [became not to fit the setting of Hamlet’s age.] He is also regarded as the first actor who played King Lear. He was 35 years old in 1606, the year of the first appearance of the play. Indeed, Burbage must have been a great actor. But it seems to me that it’s more difficult to play a younger character than an older character especially in tragedy. This may make the actor susceptible to ridicule.
There is some evidence that suggests F reflects a production of the time. In the Gravedigger’s Scene Hamlet receives the skull of Yorick.
Ham. Alas, poor Yorick. I knew him, Horatio, a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy. (5.1.178)
In F there is an additional line ‘Let me see’ before ‘Alas.’ This addition seems to reflect an actual production. The next example is in the last scene of Hamlet. Hamlet dies right after the line ‘the rest is silence’ in Q2. But F also has an additional line in this part. F’s Hamlet dies with the groan ‘O, o, o, o’ after the line ‘rest is silence.’ These additional lines ought to reflect the actual production. These alterations might have been the parts of Burbage’s ad libs. So all these things considered, it is not an exaggeration to say that the difference of Hamlet’s age in each version reflects Burbage’s actual age.
Section 3 Burbage in Ur-Hamlet
I mentioned that Hamlet’s age is different in Q1, Q2 and F in the last chapter. And I assumed that Shakespeare revised Hamlet’s age in relationship to Burbage’s actual age. Nevertheless, there remains a mystery. In the First Folio, Hamlet is 30 years old. However, there are many descriptions “as being young,” including the reference to “young Hamlet” (1.1.170; 5.1.142), Hamlet’s “youth” (1.3.7; 1.5.38; 3.1.159) or Hamlet being “young” (1.3.124; 1.5.16; 4.1.19). Why did Shakespeare retain Hamlet as a university student? If Shakespeare changed Hamlet’s age in relationship to Burbage’s age, he could also change other settings of Hamlet. I think there is a gap between the setting of Hamlet’s age and his image.[viii]
The image of ‘young Hamlet’ might have been inherited from Ur-Hamlet. Ur-Hamlet is the name given to the lost play believed to have been the direct source of Hamlet. Shakespeare’s Hamlet was first performed circa 1600. But there is some evidence that proves Hamlet existed before 1600. Q1 was published in 1603. The more Shakespeare’s Hamlet was editionalized, the wider the gap between the setting of Hamlet’s age and his image became. So Q1 provided the narrowest gap. Some critics suggest that there are some remnants of Ur-Hamlet in Q1.[ix] Q1’s Hamlet was more than 12 years old. Consequently, Hamlet in Ur-Hamlet also might have been young.
There are three extant records that suggest Hamlet was staged before 1600. References to Ur-Hamlet first appeared in 1589. Thomas Nashe (1567-1601) wrote about Hamlet in the preface of Robert Greene’s (ca. 1558-92) prose poem Menaphon (1589). This poem contains an allusion that Hamlet had “handfulls of tragical speaches.” Harold Jenkins argues that judging from the description of “kiddle in Aesop,” the Hamlet was written by Thomas Kyd. (Jenkins 83)
The second appearance of Ur-Hamlet was in 1594. Philip Henslowe’s (?-1616) diary records 10 days of performances in 1594 by Shakespeare’s company, the Chamberlain’s Men, in combination with Alleyn and the Admiral’s Men, the rival company to the Chamberlain’s Men, at the Newington Butts theatre. The theatre at Newington was probably at least partly under the control of Henslowe. He was a theatre owner and manager of the Admiral’s Men that mainly performed at the Rose. Below is the list from his diary.
In the name of god Amen begininge at Newington my Lord Admeralle men & my Lorde Chamberlen men As ffolowethe 1594.
June 3[5?] Heaster & Asheweros viijs.
4[6?] the Jewe of Malta xs.
5[7?] Andronicous xijs.
6[8?] Cutlacke xjs.
8[10?] ne Bellendon xvijs.
9[11?] Hamlet viijs.
10[12?] Heaster vs.
11[13?] the Tamyne of A Shrowe ixs.
12[14?] Andronicous vijs.
13[15?] the Jewe iiijs.
(Campbell 583)
There is the title of Hamlet with an account of ‘viijs’. This means that the receipts for this performance were ‘mere’ 8 shillings. This ‘suggests that the play had been on the boards for some time and was no longer popular.’ (Campbell 925)
The third appearance of Ur-Hamlet was in 1596. Thomas Lodge (1558?-1625) wrote that he saw Hamlet at the Theatre in Wit’s Misery and the World’s Madness (1596). He alludes to ‘what seems to have been a notorious feature, the pale-vizarded ‘ghost who cried so miserably at the Theatre, like an oysterwife, Hamlet, revenge’.’ (Jenkins 82-3)
What theatre company did give a performance of Ur-Hamlet? From Henslowe’s diary we can know the Lord Chamberlain’s Men or the Admiral’s Men performed Ur-Hamlet. Lodge mentioned that Ur-Hamlet was performed at the Theatre. It was the home of the Chamberlain’s Men up to 1596. (Campbell 925-6) These facts indicate that Ur-Hamlet was the property of the Lord Chamberlain’s Men. Moreover, Richard Burbage was star actor of the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, and he organized the company himself. Though we don’t know for certain who wrote the Ur-Hamlet, it is possible that Burbage played the leading character of the play.
The following is the first record that suggests Burbage belonged to the Lord Chamberlain’s Men.
He and his colleagues, now the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, resumed acting in 1594, and performed twice at court in the Christmas season. Three of their leaders signed a receipt for £20 – Richard Burbage, William Kempe, and Shakespeare. . . . The receipt proves that by 1594 he had won a prominent place in his company. (Grazia 5)
Burbage was roughly 23 years old at this time. Burbage’s father, James Burbage, was an actor and builder of the Theatre. He was a person of influence in the theatrical circle. So Richard Burbage might have played major part from the beginning of his career. The following is the other example that suggests Burbage’s earliest career.
He [Richard Burbage] is first officially mentioned in extant records of the 1590 dispute over the Theatre. A direction in the “plot” of the anonymous Dead Man’s Fortune, given by the Admiral’s men about 1590/1, reads “Burbage a messenger.” The plot of Richard Tarlton’s Seven Deadly Sins (1590/1) casts “R Burbadg” in the two important roles of Gorbuduc and Terens, (Campbell 88)
It seems that Burbage already played major role when he was 19 years old. If this hypothesis is true, Richard Burbage was 25 years old in 1596, the year of the third Ur-Hamlet appearance, and was 23 years old when Ur-Hamlet secondarily appeared in 1594. And in 1589, the year of the first appearance of Ur-Hamlet, He was 18 years old. The age corresponds with the image of “young Hamlet.”
Conclusion
In Section 1 extant documents were presented as examples of production during Shakespeare’s time. An example suggested that Burbage’s Hamlet was more energetic than he is in most current productions. Hamlet’s age is different in each text: Q1, Q2 and F. I suggested the possibility that Shakespeare rewrote the character of Hamlet according to Burbage’s actual age. In Section 2 Q2 is compared with F with the conclusion that F’s Hamlet was more mature in F than in Q2. In Section 3 I pointed out the gap between the setting of Hamlet’s age and his image. And I forwarded the probability that the image of ‘young Hamlet’ was derived from Ur-Hamlet. Then I investigated the possibility that Burbage played the leading character of Ur-Hamlet.
If all these hypotheses were true, Hamlet might have been a synonym for Richard Burbage. Shakespeare might have written Hamlet for Burbage and Burbage alone. In the shadow of the historical monument of literature there was the most talented actor of the age.
Works Cited
Campbell, Oscar James, ed. The Reader’s Encyclopedia of
Shakespeare. New York: Thomas Y, Crowell Company,
1966.
Farley-Hills, David, ed. Critical Responses to Hamlet 1600-
1790. New York: AMS Press, 1997.
Grazia, Margreta de, and Stanley Wells, eds. The Cambridge
Companion to Shakespeare. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 2001.
Ingram, William. The Business of Playing: The Beginnings of the
Adult Professional Theater in Elizabethan London. New
York: Cornell University Press, 1992.
Kastan, David Scott. ed. Critical Essays on Shakespeare’s
Hamlet. New York: G. K. Hall and Co., 1995.
Prosser, Eleanor. Hamlet and Revenge. London: Oxford Press,
1967.
Shakespeare, William. The Arden Shakespeare: Hamlet.
Ed. Harold Jenkins. London: Thomson Learning, 2001.
Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. Eds. Yasunari Takahashi and
Shoichiro Kawai. Tokyo: Taishukanshoten, 2001.
Skakespeare, William. Hamlet. Ed. J. Dover Wison. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1978.
Wilson, J. Dover. What Happens in Hamlet. London: The Syndics
of the Cambridge University Press, 1935.
Notes
[i] Harold Jenkins concluded that ‘the date of Hamlet is that as it has come down to us it belongs to 1601; but that nevertheless the essential Hamlet, minus the passage on the troubles of the actors, it is true, but otherwise differing little if at all from it, was being acted on the stage just possibly even before the end of 1599 and certainly in the course of 1600’ (Jenkins 13).
[ii] There are many descriptions about Richard Burbage’s date of birth. I found a reliable piece of evidence. William Ingram says ‘In a series of lawsuits in 1590 and 1591 concerning the Theatre, published over half a century ago by C. W. Wallace, we learn from the depositions of John Alleyn and others that Richard Burbage was James Burbage’s youngest son, perhaps nineteen or so in 1590, and that Cuthbert, by his own testimony, was twenty-four in 1591’ (Ingram 102). I hypothesize Burbage was born in 1571 in this thesis.
[iii] Eleanor Prosser says ‘I join with those who doubt that Shakespeare intended Hamlet to leap into the grave, even though Burbage probably did so. As Granville-Barker suggests, Burbage must have been carried away, for the action is contradicted by the lines (Prosser 224). She also suggests “oft have I seene him, leap into the Grave” is ‘indicating that the direction in Q1 accurately reflects contemporary stage’ (Prosser 224n).
[iv] Yasunari Takahashi argues that Hamlet should be 19 years old in the Second Quarto (Takahashi 9). But I couldn’t find the specific fact.
[v] This chapter’s discussion about comparison Q2 with F is mainly based on Takahashi 7-15. I want to improve this chapter more originally.
[vi] There is another explanation for this omission. Harold Jenkins argues that ‘This passage must therefore have been part of the original text and is usually thought to have been suppressed, on account of the derogatory references to Denmark, out of deference to Anne of Denmark, James ・’s queen’. (Jenkins 467)
[vii] After Burbage’s death Joseph Taylor took over his part. He was 33 years old at the time. Harold Child argues ‘Richard Burbage . . . died on March 13, 1619; and someone else must have played the part when the tragedy was performed at Court in the winter of 1619-20; almost certainly Joseph Taylor, who joined the company in May, 1619, and acted Hamlet ‘incomparably well.’ It was probably he also who acted the part at Hampton Court on January 24,1637; and his influence seems to have lasted on into the succeeding era’. (Wilson 1978, lxxi)
[viii] Wilson argues that ‘Elizabethan audiences saw Shakespeare’ Hamlet as a younger man than the text strictly allows (as most later audiences have)[?], for the thirty years indicated by the text would have been old by Elizabethan standards. The elegy on Burbage seems to support this in its reference to ‘young Hamlet’.’ (Wilson xvi)
[ix] ‘Numerous attempts have been made to reconstruct the old play [Ur-Hamlet] and to establish its relationship not only to the Shakespearean play as it is now known but to the “bad quarto” (Q1) of Hamlet and to the German version, Der Bestrafte Bruder-mord’. (Campbell 926)
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