Over
minds of almost every calibre, that hero of the stage has always
exerted a pathetic fascination, which natural antipathy to poetry
seems unable to extinguish. Pepys's testimony to his respect for the
piece is abundant. The whole of one Sunday afternoon (November 13,
1664), he spent at home with his wife, "getting a speech out of
_Hamlet_, 'To be or not to be,' without book." He proved, indeed, his
singular admiration for those familiar lines in a manner which I
believe to be unique. He set them to music, and the notes are extant
in a book of manuscript music in his library at Magdalene College,
Cambridge. The piece is a finely-elaborated recitative fully equal to
the requirements of grand opera. The composer gives intelligent and
dignified expression to every word of the soliloquy. Very impressive
is the modulation of the musical accompaniment to the lines--
To die, to sleep!
To sleep, perchance to dream! ay, there's the rub.
It is possible that the cadences of this musical rendering of Hamlet's
speech preserve some echo of the intonation of the great actor,
Betterton, whose performance evoked in Pepys lasting adoration.
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