SOURCE: "The Context: Literary, Theatrical, Cultural," in The Bernhardt Hamlet: Culture and Context, Peter Lang Publishers, Inc., 1996, pp. 67-111.

In the following essay, Taranow provides a critical overview of the literary and theatrical influences and historical background of Bernhardt's Hamlet.

Following the première of May 20, 1899, at the Théâtre Sarah Bernhardt, a number of comments appeared in the press affirming the originality of the Bernhardt Hamlet. To Catulle Mendés, the evening represented the first production of Hamlet ever to have taken place in France; to Robert de Flers, it seemed like the first production of Hamlet anywhere; and to A.-Ferdinand Herold, it became the initial performance in Paris, not merely of Hamlet, but of any Shakespearean play. The originality of Bernhardt's approach explains the critical euphoria for, according to Herold, Sarah Bernhardt recognized that "Shakespeare was not a writer from the 1830's and that the...