HOW THE LAST ACT OF HAMLET WAS WRITTEN:

4. TALE OF MANAGERIAL SORROWS.

(From an ExizaneTHan CHRONICLE RECENTLY DISCOVERED. )

 

CHAPTER I.

The utmost consternation reigned in the Globe Theatre.*
The company was assembled, and the stage cleared for morning

rehearsal. Business, however, was at a standstill. The stage-keeper

* Nore (for the preservation of order in the Shakspeare Society).—The writer of the
following narration is fully aware that Hamlet is supposed to have been originally pro-
duced at the Blackfriars Theatre, instead of at the Globe, as represented in the text. He
doesn’t care. As it suits his purpose to make it the Globe—and as any objections to his
historical accuracy can only be founded on the merest supposition—he takes upon him-
self the responsibility of saying,—“ suppose it wasn’t,”