Explore "The Yiddish 'Hamlet'" by Israel Zangwill on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
On the very verge of Passover, Pinchas, lying in bed at noon with a / cigarette in his mouth, was reading his morning paper by candle-light; / for he tenanted one of those innumerable dark rooms which should make / New York the photographer's paradise. The yellow glow illumined his / prophetic and unshaven countenance, agitated by grimaces and sniffs, / as he critically perused the paragraphs whose Hebrew letters served as / the channel for the mongrel Yiddish and American dialect, in which / 'congressman,' 'sweater,' and such-like crudities of to-day had all / the outer Oriental robing of the Old Testament. Suddenly a strange / gurgle spluttered through the cigarette smoke. He read the / announcement again.
The Yiddish 'Hamlet' was to be the Passover production at Goldwater's / Theatre. The author was the world-renowned poet Melchitsedek Pinchas, / and the music was by Ignatz Levitsky, the world-famous composer.