Editing Hamlet (section)

===19th century===
[[File:Thos. W. Keene in Hamlet.png|thumb|upright|A poster, {{circa|1884}}, for an American production of ''Hamlet'' (starring [[Thomas W. Keene]]), showing several of the key scenes]]

From around 1810 to 1840, the best-known Shakespearean performances in the United States were tours by leading London actors—including [[George Frederick Cooke]], [[Junius Brutus Booth]], [[Edmund Kean]], [[William Charles Macready]], and [[Charles Kemble]]. Of these, Booth remained to make his career in the States, fathering the nation's most notorious actor, [[John Wilkes Booth]] (who later assassinated [[Abraham Lincoln]]), and its most famous Hamlet, [[Edwin Booth]].{{sfn|Morrison|2002|pp=235–237}} Edwin Booth's ''Hamlet'' at the [[Fifth Avenue Theatre]] in 1875 was described as "... the dark, sad, dreamy, mysterious hero of a poem. [... acted] in an ideal manner, as far removed as possible from the plane of actual life".{{sfn|Winter|1875}}{{sfn|Morrison|2002|p=241}} Booth played Hamlet for 100 nights in the 1864/5 season at the [[Winter Garden Theatre (1850)|Winter Garden Theatre]], inaugurating the era of long-run Shakespeare in America.{{sfn|Morrison|2002|p=241}}

In the United Kingdom, the actor-managers of the [[Victorian era]] (including Kean, [[Samuel Phelps]], Macready, and [[Henry Irving]]) staged Shakespeare in a grand manner, with elaborate scenery and costumes.{{sfn|Schoch|2002|pp=58–75}} The tendency of actor-managers to emphasise the importance of their own central character did not always meet with the critics' approval. [[George Bernard Shaw]]'s praise for [[Johnston Forbes-Robertson]]'s performance contains a sideswipe at Irving: "The story of the play was perfectly intelligible, and quite took the attention of the audience off the principal actor at moments. What is the [[Lyceum Theatre, London|Lyceum]] coming to?"{{efn|[[George Bernard Shaw]] in ''[[Saturday Review (London)|The Saturday Review]]'' on 2 October 1897.{{sfn|Shaw|1961|p=81}}}}

In London, Edmund Kean was the first Hamlet to abandon the regal finery usually associated with the role in favour of a plain costume, and he is said to have surprised his audience by playing Hamlet as serious and introspective.{{sfn|Moody|2002|p=54}} In stark contrast to earlier opulence, [[William Poel]]'s 1881 production of the Q1 text was an early attempt at reconstructing the Elizabethan theatre's austerity; his only backdrop was a set of red curtains.{{sfn|Halliday|1964|p=204}}{{sfn|O'Connor|2002|p=77}} [[Sarah Bernhardt]] played the prince in her popular 1899 London production. In contrast to the "effeminate" view of the central character that usually accompanied a female casting, she described her character as "manly and resolute, but nonetheless thoughtful ... [he] thinks before he acts, a trait indicative of great strength and great spiritual power".{{efn|[[Sarah Bernhardt]], in a letter to the London ''[[The Daily Telegraph|Daily Telegraph]]''.{{sfn|Gay|2002|p=164}}}}

In France, Charles Kemble initiated an enthusiasm for Shakespeare; and leading members of the Romantic movement such as [[Victor Hugo]] and [[Alexandre Dumas]] saw his 1827 Paris performance of ''Hamlet'', particularly admiring the madness of [[Harriet Smithson]]'s Ophelia.{{sfn|Holland|2002|pp=203–205}} In Germany, ''Hamlet'' had become so assimilated by the mid-19th century that [[Ferdinand Freiligrath]] declared that "Germany is Hamlet".{{sfn|Dawson|2002|p=184}} From the 1850s, the [[Parsi theatre]] tradition in India transformed ''Hamlet'' into folk performances, with dozens of songs added.{{sfn|Dawson|2002|p=188}}