Next morning the royal critic was careful to note down her impressions.

"It was Shakespeare's tragedy of Hamlet, and we came in at the beginning of it.

Mr.Charles Kean (son of old Kean) acted the part of Hamlet, and I must say beautifully.
His conception of this very difficult, and I may almost say incomprehensible, character is admirable; his delivery of all the fine long speeches quite beautiful; he is excessively graceful and all his actions and attitudes are good, though not at all good-looking in face...

I came away just as Hamlet was over." Later on, she went to see Macready in King Lear.

The story was new to her; she knew nothing about it, and at first she took very little interest in what was passing on the stage; she preferred to chatter and laugh with the Lord Chamberlain.
But, as the play went on, her mood changed; her attention was fixed, and then she laughed no more.