Saturday, November 9, 2013

Quote of the Day (‘Hamlet,’ on Acting As the 'Mirror Up to Nature')



"Suit the action to the word, the word to the action, with this special observance, that you o'erstep not the modesty of nature: for any thing so o'erdone is from the purpose of playing, whose end, both at the first and now, was and is, to hold as 'twere the mirror up to nature: to show virtue her feature, scorn her own image, and the very age and body of the time his form and pressure."—Hamlet, in William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act 3, scene 2, 17–24

The photo accompanying this post shows one of the great Hamlets of all time: John Barrymore, in the 1922 production.

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