Advising the actors in Hamlet and The Antipodes: Richard Brome, Shakespeare’s Contemporary?

Shakespeare composes Hamlet in c. 1601 and Richard Brome The Antipodes in c. 1636. Both dramatists resort to the device of the play within the play: the interior play in Hamlet portraying tragedy-within-tragedy, and the one in The Antipodes, comedy-within-comedy. Before the inset piece commences, however, Shakespeare’s learned prince and Brome’s Letoy, who manages his own company of professional actors, counsel the players on the art of acting. Through a comparative analysis of Act III Scene 2 in Hamlet, and Act II Scene 2 in The Antipodes, four primary components of acting will be examined from which we can consider the instructions addressed to the actors within the scope of fiction: voice, words and actions, body and gesture and textual deference. Even though almost forty years divide both plays, and despite a difference in genre, whether the actors be tragedians or comedians, their profession is ultimately one and the same