Gielgud Soliloquizes Before English' 23b

John Gielgud, famed Hamlet and King Lear of the English-speaking world, took an enthralled New Lecture Hall audience by storm yesterday, as he whimpered, ejaculated, and sobbed his way through a series of Shakespearian soliloquies, in an unannounced visit to English 23b.

Pausing between his empassioned recitations, Gielgud took time to answer questions on the ways and means of an interpreter of the Bard, directed to him by course members and Theodore Spencer, Boylston Professor of Rhetoric and Oratory.

"God Will Tell You"

"The joy in acting Shakespeare," the English actor explained, "is in getting away from yourself, and pretending to be somebody you're not. You must live in the part and orchestrate it.... At times one gets stumped. But God will come down and tell you, if you're lucky, once or twice a week, how to play it."

Although claiming that it is "difficult to act in the morning, before dinner," Gielgud consented to entertain his audience with the "Oh, that this too, too solid flesh" soliloquy from "Hamlet."

Gielgud is currently appearing in Oscar Wilde's "The Importance of Being Ernest," at the Plymouth Theater in Boston. This is his first American season of comedy.