To the Editor of the 81n,—Wilbyou allow me in sympathy with Mr. Hutchison and Mr. Ezra to express my horror at the ides of the Bandmaon Company iatendiog to pat Hamlet on the local stage As you are aware, Sir, this melancholic figare in history is understood to be s representative Dane, and the verdict of posterity still being in conflict as to whether the prince was madman or a genius it seems to me unfortunate that the Baodmaon Company should have chosen Shanghai to revive undesirable criticism.—The Company seems to forget that this is cosmopolitan community counting among its members many Danes who may take umbrage at having " royal prince thus held up to cut by other nations. This will become more apparent when we reflect how Dr. Cook of North Pole fame quite recently koepenicked the whole royal Danish family, and the present janctare seems to me therefore especially ill-chosen for staging the play in question.
How, under these circumstances, will my countrymen feel when Claudine bellows forth: " Here, thou incestuous, murderous, damned Dank It is such mild innuendos s the one quoted which cause unpleasantness among the members of a cosmopolitan community like ours, and I hope for the sake of peace and quiet the company will withdraw the tragedy from their repertoire, Personally I should not have meddled in this affair were it not for the fact that the King commands "Let the Kettle to the trampot speak.'
Lam, etc., Harte.
Our correspondent will, perhaps, be "relieved to hear that the Bandmann Company intends to sage "The Merchant of Venice" "without Prince."—Ep.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.