Macready as Hamlet at Drury Lane, 1834

“All the vicious peculiarities of Mr. Macready’s performance were exhibited in his acting of Hamlet, and his affectation of the familiar and colloquial, so constant in all his attempts, appeared most offensively prominent. Considering the station Mr. Macready decidedly holds at present on the stage, the present effort was very unworthy of it. Where he should have been deeply melancholy he was only sentimentally pathetic, and where he should have appeared caustically satirical he was merely declamatory.” Morning Post, Oct. 18, 1835: 19th C. British Library Newspapers. However, Macready performed Hamlet regularly at Drury Lane throughout this period.