may be useful for his next play--if you ever read your "Shakespeare," it
is possible that you have come across this passage:

"_Enter_ Hamlet.

_Ham._ To be, or not to be--"

And, so on in the same vein for some thirty lines.

These few remarks are called a soliloquy, being addressed rather to the
world in general than to any particular person on the stage. Now the
object of this soliloquy is plain. The dramatist wished us to know the
thoughts which were passing through Hamlet's mind, and it was the only
way he could think of in which to do it. Of course, a really good actor
can often give a clue to the feelings of a character simply by facial
expression. There are ways of shifting the eyebrows, distending the
nostrils, and exploring the lower molars with the tongue by which it is
possible to denote respectively Surprise, Defiance and Doubt. Indeed,
irresolution being the keynote of Hamlet's soliloquy, a clever player
could to some extent indicate the whole thirty lines by a silent working
of the jaw. But at the same time it would be idle to deny that he would
miss the finer shades of the dramatist's meaning. "The insolence of
office, and the spurns"--to take only one line--would tax the most
elastic face.

So the soliloquy came into being. We moderns, however, see the
absurdity of it. In real life no one thinks aloud or in an empty room.
The up-to-date dramatist must certainly avoid this hallmark of the
old-fashioned play.