be" soliloquy. If we accept the reasonable theory that
that piece of music preserves something of the cadences of Betterton's
enunciation, it is no extravagance to suggest that a note here or
there enshrines the modulation of the voice of Shakespeare himself.
For there is the likelihood that the dramatist was Betterton's
instructor at no more than two removes. Only the lips of D'Avenant,
Shakespeare's godson, and of Taylor, Shakespeare's acting colleague,
intervened between the dramatist and the Hamlet of Pepys's diary.
Those alone, who have heard the musical setting of "To be or not to
be" adequately rendered, are in a position to reject this hypothesis
altogether.

Among seventeenth century critics there was unanimous agreement--a
rare thing among dramatic critics of any period--as to the merits of
Betterton's performance. In regard to his supreme excellence, men of
the different mental calibre of Sir Richard Steele, Colley Cibber, and
Nicholas Rowe, knew no difference of opinion. According to Cibber,
Betterton invariably preserved the happy "medium between mouthing and
meaning too little"; he held the attention of the audience by "a
tempered spirit," not by mere vehemence of voice. His solemn,
trembling voice made the Ghost equally terrible to the spectator and
to himself. Another critic relates that when Betterton's Hamlet saw
the Ghost in his mother's chamber, the actor turned as pale as his
neckcloth; every joint of his body seemed to be affected with a tremor
inexpressible, and the audience shared his astonishment and horror.
Nicholas Rowe declared that "Betterton performed the part as if it had
been written on purpose for him, as if the author had conceived it as
he played it." It is difficult to imagine any loftier commendation of
a Shakespearean player.

V

There is little reason to doubt that the plays of Shakespeare which I
have enumerated were all seen by Pepys in authentic shapes. Betterton
acted Lear, we are positively informed, "exactly as Shakespeare wrote
it"; and at the dates when Pepys saw _Hamlet_, _Twelfth Night_, and
the rest, there is no evidence that the old texts had been tampered
with. The rage for adapting Shakespeare to current theatrical
requirements reached its full tide after the period of Pepys's diary.
Pepys witnessed only the first-fruits of that fantastic movement. It
acquired its greatest luxuriance later. The pioneer of the great
scheme of adaptation was Sir William D'Avenant