> as lemmas

1775 Morning Post 21 Sept. Lee Lewes diverts them with the manner of their performing Hamlet in a company that he belonged to, when the hero who was to play the principal character had absconded with an inn-keeper's daughter; and that when he came forward to give out the play, he added, ‘the part of Hamlet to be left out, for that night.’]

1818 Ld. Byron Let. 26 Aug. (1976) VI. 63 My autobiographical Essay would resemble the tragedy of Hamlet.., recited ‘with the part of Hamlet left out by particular desire’.

1820 Countess Granville Let. 22 Aug. (1894) I. 161 I am not used to be news~monger and perhaps I leave out Hamlet.

1825 W. Scott Talisman (1883) 5 The title of a ‘Tale of the Crusaders’ would resemble the playbill, which is said to have announced the tragedy of Hamlet, the character of the Prince of Denmark being left out.

1859 G. Meredith Ordeal Richard Feverel I. vii. 109 ‘What have you been doing at home, Cousin Rady?’ ‘Playing Hamlet, in the absence of the Prince of Denmark.’

1902 Daily Chron. 22 Apr. 3/1 Of what avail is it to promise ‘entirely new scenery’ for ‘Die Meistersinger’, if the part of Hans Sachs is to be practically eliminated from the performance? And yet this ‘Hamlet-without-the-Prince’ method is consistently pursued season after season at Covent Garden.

1910 Times (Weekly ed.) 17 June 452 The army without Kitchener is like Hamlet without the Prince of Denmark.

1918 L. Strachey Eminent Victorians 86 The Catholic Church without the absolute dominion of the Pope might resemble the play of Hamlet without the Prince of Denmark.

1967 ‘J. Prescot’ Case Counterfeit viii. 96 Without Drax one can't do a thing. Hamlet without the Prince of Denmark, I guess.

1972 Publishers Weekly 3 Apr. 22/3 The article..in the March 6th PW was an attempt to stage Hamlet without the Dane.