Benedix on "Hamlet"

The first entry in the book Hamlet:  Enter Critic is from Roderich Benedix, circa 1873.  The critical excerpt is rather pointed and, in places, laugh aloud funny.  Toward the end of the selection is a quote that is relevant to a discussion of performances of Hamlet.

"That it is not [the] piece itself particularly which impresses the public is evident from the fact, that for several decades the play has been given in different places in different shapes.  Every one who has undertaken to alter the piece has picked out such parts as he considered especially effective, and left out other portions....  The fact that a piece has admitted of so many alterations shows how very loosely it is constructed."

From Die Shakespearomanie (Stuttgart, 1873)