March 18 Sunday – Joe Goodman wrote to Sam.

Dear Mark—Here is your “Hamlet Brother,” roughly blocked out. I thought you would never get about it in earnest and did it to amuse myself. The arrangement, you will see, is an improvement upon the original, and the introduction of the new character clears up much that is obscure in “Hamlet” as it now stands. I am not a funny man and have only put words into Bill’s mouth provisionally. You will have to re-write his part throughout.… I was speaking to Barrett once about your idea and he thought it would be a sort of sacrilege. That might be the opinion of the goody-goodies who are howling about the “Passion Play” (the most impressive presentation of Christianity ever witnessed); but you and I know such talk is all fudge. Anything is legitimate sport and game—and especially Shakespeare, who cribbed right and left, and ridiculed nearly everybody and everything by turns [MTP]. Note: Sam’s 1873 idea of adding a humorous character to Hamlet had percolated in Joe’s brain and he continued to encourage Sam by showing him the possibilities. It may be that Sam feared Lawrence Barrett’s sort of reaction. Edwin Booth, however, thought the idea had value (see Nov. 3, 1873 entry).