How a Monarch Died.

Waikato Times, Volume XXIV, Issue 1976, 7 March 1885, Page 2 (Supplement)

How a Monarch Died.

Or the many strange stories told of the oldest actors — in those days when scenery was bat an adjunct to the stage (and a wretched one at that) — perhaps none is more grotesquely fanny than the old one of Macready in " Hamlet," says the Hooaier. In the last act of "Hamlet," when, as all lovers of Shake* speare know, a general slaughter takes place, Uamlet soliloquises for & iex brief moments, uttering his sentences slowly before he himself feels the death pangs from Laertes' poisoned blade. On the occAHion in question the person who enacted the part of Claudius, (the King) had an enmity against Hamlet; and when the latter came near the end of hit soliloquy, he noticed that should he drop where he stood, the curtain would not hid* him from when it fell. He therefore gare • kick to the prostrate King, and muttered t» him angrily through a totto voce the appall* ing direction : " Die further back." Of this his enemy took no notice, and the unhappy Hamlet was compelled again to interrupt hit ante-mortem statement (if so it may be called) by again admonishing hn uncle to die a little further from the footlights. To this appeal the king paid no attention, and at last,goadt4 to desperation by the knowledge of the fact that his lines would permit of no further delay, Hamlet administered his admonition : " Die further baok, ncoompanied by a kick of great strength and vigor. To the astonish* menfc of the doleful Dane, but to the delight of the audience (more especia'ly to that portion commonly known as the gods), the defunct king rose to a sitting posture, and with a stentorian voice said : "I'm king here, and I'll die where I please." Tableau !