Once, I witnessed this play 'Richard III,' which we are now about to see, and it stirred me so I could scarce contain myself, though some do say that our Shakespeare has made the hunchback king blacker than he really was." Presently a little bell rang, the curtain rolled up, and Robert passed into an enchanted land.

To vivid and imaginative youth the great style and action of Shakespeare make an irresistible appeal.

Robert had never seen one of the mighty bard's plays before, and now he was in another world of romance and tragedy, suffused with poetry and he was held completely by the spell.

Shakespeare may have blackened the character of the hunchback, but Robert believed him absolutely.

To him Richard was exactly what the play made him.
Although the stage was but a temporary one, built in the hall of Rip Van Dam, it was large, the seating capacity was great and Hallam and his wife were among the best actors of their day, destined to a long career as stars in the colonies, and also afterward, when they ceased to be colonies.