The Mystery of Hamlet King of Denmark or What We Will; A Tetralogy in Prologue to The Tragical Historie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark by William Shakespeare: First Play: The Ghost of Elsinore; Second Play: The Fool in Eden Garden; Third Play: Odin against Christus; Fourth Play: The Serpent in the Orchard
New York: The Bond Wheelwright Company, 1950. Presumed First Trade Edition, First printing. Hardcover. xiii,, [1], 675, [1] pages. Key to Marginal Symbols. Publisher's Foreword. Musical notes/score. Commentary An Interpretation of the Hamlet Tetralogy by Erlo van Waveren. Reference Notes (two column format). Note on Music. Index of Songs and Music (two column format). Inscribed by the author on the fep To John and Nancie Naumann----The friendly regard of Percy Mackaye January 51. Percy Mackaye (1875–1956) was an American dramatist and poet. After graduating from Harvard in 1897, he traveled in Europe for three years, residing in Rome, Switzerland and London, studying at the University of Leipzig in 1899–1900. He returned to New York City to teach at a private school until 1904, when he joined a colony of artists and writers in Cornish, New Hampshire, and devoted himself entirely to dramatic work. He wrote the plays The Canterbury Pilgrims in 1903, Sappho and Phaon in 1907, Jeanne D'Arc in 1907, The Scarecrow in 1908, Anti-Matrimony in 1910, and the poetry collection The Far Familiar in 1937. In 1950, MacKaye published The Mystery of Hamlet King of Denmark, or What We Will, a series of four plays written as prequels to William Shakespeare's Hamlet. He was made a member of the National Institute of Arts and Letters in 1914. In the 1920s, MacKaye was poet in residence at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. He lectured on the theatre at Harvard, Yale and other universities in the United States. Percy MacKaye is considered to be the first poet of the Atomic Era because of his sonnet "The Atomic Law," which was published in the Christmas 1945 issue of The Churchman. According to the author p.655 , the four plays are to be understood as parts III-VI of a "hepatology" related to Hamlet themes. Plays are in blank verse with a few musical interpolations words and music by author. Four verse plays by the award-winning poet-dramatist, treating the events leading up to the beginning of Shakespeare's tragedy: the early years of the marriage of King Hamlet and Gertrude, the jealousy of Claudius and his love for Gertrude, Prince Hamlet's childhood (with Yorick brought back to play the fool), the murder of the King, and Claudius' succession. Mackaye's magnum opus was originally produced at the Pasadena playhouse in 1949. There was a signed limited edition produced before this First Trade Edition. Few copies of the Trade Edition appear to have been signed. Condition: Very good.
Keywords: Hamlet, Shakespeare, Tetralogy, Erlo van Waveren, Elsinore, Denmark, Gertrude, Yorick, Murder, Succession, Plays
[Book #81935]
Price: $150.00