In 1827, at the Odéon Theatre in Paris, an English Shakespeare troupe performs six plays, including Hamlet, starring Charles Kemble as Hamlet and Harriet Smithson as Ophelia.

Critic Ferrard de Pontmartin recalls later the following people in attendance at this performance: Alfred de Vigny, Alphonse Karr, Alfred de Musset, Barye, Emile Deschamps, Sainte-Beuve, Chenavard, Borye, the two Johannot, Préault, Paul Huet, Louis Boulanger, Philarète Chasles, the brothers Devéria, Eugene Delacroix, Théophile Gautier, Alexander Dumas, and Victor Hugo. The brothers Devéria and Eugene Delacroix are moved to publish lithographs of the performance in a souvenir program, Souvenirs du Théâtre Anglais à Paris. Years later Delacroix renders three of his lithographs in paint. Gautier later writes a libretto for Giselle, a ballet that echoes Hamlet. Victor Hugo writes Cromwell, and Alexander Dumas writes Christine, both of which use plays of Shakespeare as sources.

Pontmartin doesn't mention that composer Hector Berlioz is also in attendance and instantly falls in love with Shakespeare and the Irish actress Harriet Smithson. Inspired by the performance and the bard himself, Berlioz writes Symphony Fantastique, King Lear, Romeo and Juliet, The Death of Ophelia, The Funeral Scene from Hamlet, and Beatrice and Benedict. Not to mention that he later marries fair Ophelia herself, Harriet Smithson.

The circumstances surrounding this particular performance of Hamlet raise some interesting questions. How did this one performance of Hamlet move the romantic greats of France so deeply, when five years earlier Shakespeare was booed off of the stage? What about the performance in particular inspired those in attendance? To answer these questions and more, we will focus on individual audience members of the Odéon performance--and Hector Berlioz in particular-- in an attempt to view Shakespeare through their eyes.