he
abandons himself to the guidance of a power which his firmer nature had
long resisted, the impression of the spectator is, that his mind has
yielded in the struggle, and that, in the desperate hope of obtaining
relief from present wretchedness, he is about to commit the most
horrible crimes, by obeying the suggestions of a spirit, which he more
than suspects to be employed only to tempt him on to perdition. No
description can possibly do justice to the manner in which this
situation of Hamlet is represented by Talma; indeed, on reading over the
play some time afterwards, it was very evident that the powers of the
actor had invested the character with much of the grandeur and terror
which seemed to belong to it, and that the imagination of the French
poet, which rises into excellence, even when compared with the
productions of that great master of the passions whom he has not
submitted to copy, has been surpassed by the fancy of the actor for whom
he wrote. The Hamlet of Talma is probably productive of more profound
emotion, than any representation of character on any stage ever excited.

One other alteration ought to be mentioned, as it renders the
circumstances of Hamlet's situation still more distressing, and affords
Talma an opportunity of displaying the effects of one of the gentler
passions of human nature, when its influence seemed irreconcileable with
the stern and fearful duties which fate had assigned to him. The Ophelia
of the French play, so unlike that beautiful and innocent being who
alone seems to connect the Hamlet of Shakespeare with the feelings and
nature of ordinary men, has been made the daughter of the man for whose
sake the king has been poisoned, and was engaged to marry Hamlet at that
happier period when he was the ornament of his father's court, and the
hope of his father's subjects. In the first part of the play, though no
hint of the terrible revenge which he was to execute on her father has
escaped, the looks and anxiety of Talma discover to her that her fate is
in some degree connected with the emotions which so visibly oppress him,
and she makes him at last confess the insurmountable barrier which
separates them for ever. Nothing can be greater than the acting of Talma
during this difficult scene, in which he has to resist the entreaties of
the woman whom he loves, when imploring for the life of her father, and
yet so overcome with his affection, as hardly to have strength left to
adhere