The Quiet Corner
THE QUIET CORNER / counsel thee, shut not thy heart nor thy library.—C. Lamb* "Do you like my new clothes, Doctor?" asked Tittivillus, apprehensively pulling at his new olive-green velveteen...
...Finally as style (see Newman) is inseparable from thought, ought not the thought of the play also be adapted...
...Doctor Angelicus removed his spectacles deliberately, polished them with his silk handkerchief, and replaced them...
...Whereupon the Doctor read— " 'How are you having your Hamlet these days,' inquired Uncle Fogie of his niece Vogue, 'fried, scrambled, cloaked, hard-boiled, high-hatted, plus-foured, or sack-suited?' " 'Don't be silly,' said Vogue, looking up from her perusal of the latest dramatic notices...
...Thereupon, he unconsciously seized a plate of hot rolls and passed it around...
...prove the complex...
...Hum, why this sudden change from your customary blue serge and neat black cravat...
...If I am dining at the Ritz, I never really desire bread and butter with my dinner...
...Angelicus...
...My eggs shall be saved for the soft-hurling!' " "I'm glad Uncle Fogie did not come to our private theatricals," declared Miss Anonymoncule...
...However, it ought not to be hard to change the speech...
...I'm sure it was the influence of his cap that impelled him towards the rolls...
...why shouldn't the Hamlet of today be precisely that—the Hamlet of today?' "Uncle Fogie gave a vigorous nod...
...I am not using slang, Doctor...
...Well, you have hopes of my future as a poet," replied Tittivillus defensively, "and I notice that Byron wore this sort of collar and tie...
...demanded the Doctor...
...Make Hamlet into a kind of Freudian villain...
...The Byronesque collar may help to infuse him with the Byronesque spirit...
...The snappy-suited Dane might begin thus— " ' Tis not alone my inky knickerbockers, Nor custom-tailored suit of solemn black, Nor natty tie and sombre black cravat, Nor mourning band around my derby hat . . .' " 'And so on till he comes to the bitterly reproachful end— 'But I have that within that pa9seth show— These but the haberdasheries, the cloakings and Suitings, the hattings and bootings of woe!' " 'Go on,' softly said Vogue with an un-niecely glance of disdain at the parodist, 'make yourself ridiculous.' " 'Ridiculum ad absurdum, is my point,' continued Uncle Fogie...
...Now, boy, let me look at you...
...Oh, but Doctor," interrupted Miss Anonymoncule, "don't you think that there is a great deal in the influencing of achievement by the amosphere of clothes and surroundings...
...Clothes, I believe, are even more important than environment...
...Hold," said Dr...
...Whereas, if at Childs, I feel that I must have it...
...Styles change—The Dane of Shakespeare was up to the mode...
...Despite your far-fetched objection, my dear uncle, our modern dramatic chefs will continue to cook up the classics in whatever style they please.' " 'Let them cook 'em,' said Fogie cheerfully, 'let 'em scramble 'em, poach 'em, par-boil and hard-fry 'em...
...I agree with you, thoroughly...
...I'm afraid your flowing silk tie will be likely to drop in the inkwell, and your velveteen jacket be too prone to collect the dust...
...It's only common sense that if we are to have Hamlet in plus fours, we shall have to have a language to fit the fours...
...We unconsciously react to our environment...
...My mother always says," went on Miss Anonymoncule, " 'live up to the clothes you are wearing/ I thought of this admonition at the Hallowe'en dance the other evening...
...If I am to be a poet, I must dress like one...
...Oh, yes," declared Tittivillus and Miss Anonymoncule in one breath...
...How can Hamlet say—'Tis not alone my inky cloak, good mother,' if he's wearing a double-breasted Norfolk jacket...
...Tittivillus shambled self-consciously toward the window, nervously fingering a flowing polka-dot silk tie...
...I see here where a learned professor protests the original Hamlet to have been played, not in the costume of Hamlet's time, but in that of Shakespeare's day...
...Angelicus, "I don't think I foresaw that necessity when I encouraged your verse-making...
...and end with Hammie on his way to an English sanitarium for the cure of the neuroses!' "Miss Vogue pouted...
...asked Tittivillus, apprehensively pulling at his new olive-green velveteen jacket...
...let them addle their Hamlets to their art's content...
...Tittivillus has been, up to date, a model youth...
...Style is as much a mode of language as it is of dress...
...Heaven forbid," said Angelicus...
...Stand over there in the light...
...Why not, then, pep the classic up with a little modern slang, judiciously injected into a brand-new adaptation done over either in polite pollyanna-meter or Sandburgian sockdolagers?' " 'Now don't/ begged Miss Vogue, 'don't be'— " Tm not being...
...Why not lay these clothes aside in your Hope Chest, their donning to be contingent on the realization of your hope for the publication of your first book of poems...
...but let us have no half-hearted attuning of the drama to the times...
...have the king accuse him of an Oedipus complex...
...Would you like to hear it...
...Let Tittivillus emulate the dress of the great poet...
...At supper, crackers with paper caps inside of them, were pulled...
...This discussion of clothes reminds me of a contribution to the subject I have just received from Cyril B. Egan," said Dr...
...It is in the nature of a cracker to be pulled...
...Besides, I am personally all for the movement of the drama in the direction of Jeffersonian simplicity.' " 'Ah, then perhaps 'tis you who are behind the latest project to present Richard the Third in the prosaic pantaloons of democracy?' " 'No, but I have seen a snappy Hamlet produced by Hart, Schaffner, and Marx...
...The Librarian...
...One guest found in his cracker a white chef's cap, which he donned...
...and I must say I liked the cut of him...
Vol. 3 • November 1925 • No. 1
