In "Hamlet" the stage-book plays an important part. Says
Polonius to Ophelia, when he and Claudius would be "lawful espials" of
her meeting with Hamlet:
Read on this book,
That show of such an exercise may colour
Your loneliness.
The book is now usually a missal which the lady employs at her
orisons. But it is oftentimes--for so stage-management will have
it--the identical volume with which Hamlet had entered reading in an
earlier act, and which he describes, upon being interrogated by
Polonius, as containing, "words, words, words!" and "slanders, sir!"
It was John Kemble's way, we are told, to tear out a leaf from the
book at this period of the performance, by way of conveying the
"stronger impression of Hamlet's wildness." The actor's method of
rendering this scene has not been adopted by later representatives of
the character. Indeed, a long run of the tragedy, such as happens in
these times, would involve serious outlay for stage-books, if so
destructive a system were persisted in. Moreover, there is no sort of
warrant in the text for tearing a leaf out of the "satirical rogue's"
work.
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