Theatre Design & Technology - Summer 2014 - 48

Hamlet in 1912 (fig. 4). These figures were re-cut as wood
blocks for the Cranach Press Hamlet once the book project
began. The remaining twelve figures were created directly as
woodblock prints when Craig and Kessler resumed their collaboration after World War I.
As with the Moscow production, Craig conceived the Cranach Press Hamlet as a monodrama, in which the viewer observes the action of the play through the eyes of the protagonist.
There are, however, a number of fascinating illustrations of the
main character himself. Figure 12 is an image of Hamlet with a
shadow figure or daemon, which accompanies the text for Act II,
Sc. I, the beginning of Hamlet's "lunacy." The idea of the character's daemon had been conceived by Craig early in his career and
became an important component of the Moscow Hamlet. We
see a brooding Hamlet, shadowed by a mysterious doppelganger
who is both a physical extension of the character and a haunting
manifestation of Hamlet's tortured soul.
Another illustration of the protagonist accompanies Hamlet's "To be, or not to be" soliloquy at the end of Act III, scene
1, in which he expresses his profound indecision about his
course of action in avenging his father's death. Entitled Doubt,
the illustration (fig. 13) reveals Hamlet dynamically posed with
his back to the viewer, in resolute opposition to a turbulent
"sea of troubles." Rich in literal and figurative meaning, Craig's
image elegantly captures the spirit of this critical moment of
the play.
The ghost of Hamlet's father is the subject of another
group of independent figures (fig. 14). The presence of the supernatural in a number of Shakespeare's plays had long held
Craig's interest, and he writes eloquently on the subject in his
first book, On the Art of the Theatre in 1911: "for that ghost .
. . who moves aside the veils at the beginning of the great play,
is not a joke; he is not a theatrical gentleman in amour, (nor is
he) a farce of a figure. He is as a momentary visualization of the
unseen forces which dominate the action and a clear command
from Shakespeare that the men of the theatre shall rouse their
imagination and let their reasonable logic slumber."(Craig
1911, 265-266)
Craig ultimately created five independent images of the
ghost. The ghost is also present in appearances to Hamlet,
Horatio, and the guards in a number of other scenes. As he
is depicted in the Closet Scene (Act III, Sc. 4), the ghost is an
emaciated figure, wrapped in his burial shroud, summoning
Hamlet back to his "almost blunted purpose."
Craig was also greatly interested in the play-within-theplay that is such an important part of the plot of Hamlet. He
was enthralled by the meta-theatricality of this scene and gave
it a great deal of his artistic attention both in his early thinking
about the play and in the Moscow production. This is evident
in the Cranach Press Hamlet, where a large number of illustrations are devoted to key moments.
The illustrations of the Players are among the most elegant of the Cranach Press Hamlet. Richly imaginative and
highly decorative, these figures stand out in sharp relief from

n Figure 14. Edward Gordon Craig. "Ghost with Bone." The
Cranach Press Hamlet, page 110.

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