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worin man weder Ende noch Anfang findet.)

The ideas of Gervinus have been lately reproduced in a translation, to which we would refer those of our readers interested in this subject, taking, however, the liberty of stating that, in spite of his great reputation, we can only consider Gervinus in the light of a "guide," and not infallible; the political theory which he considers foremost being a thoroughly German idea.

According to Kreissig, Hamlet lacks will and strength to determine, though he has courage and insight. Instead of his sword he draws out his tables; instead of calling out"Death to the murderer!" he writes down "Remember me;" and, in fact, we can distinctly affirm from Herr Kreissig's criticism that he would never have written such a play.

The Ghost would have been immediately avenged without expressions of thought or sentiment, and the murder of Claudius would have compensated Hamlet for the death of his father and the temporary inconvenience of having been deprived for four months of the throne. It is evidently not considered worth while by this critic to remember that this would have been

time, and that even after death the sense of this injury is ever prominent. As proofs, we may adduce,

"Ay, that incestuous, that adulterate beast,

With witchcraft of his wit, with traitorous gifts,

(O wicked wit, and gifts, that have the power

So to seduce!) won to his shameful lust The will of my most seeming virtuous queen."

And again, lower down in the same speech:

"But virtue, as it never will be mov'd, Though lewdness court it in the shape of heaven;

So lust, though to a radiant angel link'd,

Will sate itself in a celestial bed,
And prey on garbage."

And the last lines of his address to Hamlet testify to the existence of his love for the Queen being yet foremost in his heart :

"If thou hast nature in thee, bear it not;

Let not the royal bed of Denmark be A couch for luxury and damned incest, But howsoever thou pursu'st this act, Taint not thy mind, nor let thy soul contrive

looked upon as a mere act of jealous Against thy mother aught; leave her

revenge, and that the morale of the play, which constitutes its strong point, the building up of the evidence of Claudius' guilt, which shines out clearly to all the spectators at his death, would thus have been lost.

What is the task imposed on Hamlet? First, to avenge the "foul and most unnatural murder" of his father; and, secondly, to punish Claudius for an adulterous connection with the Queen previous to the murder. If we look closely into this disagreeable subject, we will find that the Ghost has always present before him the injury done to his honour during bis life

to heaven,

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A little month; or ere those shoes were old

With which she follow'd my poor father's body,

Like Niobe, all tears;-why she, even she,

(O God! a beast, that wants discourse of reason

Would have mourn'd longer,) married with my uncle,

My father's brother; but no more like my father,

Than I to Hercules."

This soliloquy, which seems to be a foreshadowing of a thought to be confirmed later by the Ghost, we may consider as being a preparation for what is to be disclosed. The mind of Hamlet is filled with

a presentiment; his father's spirit hovers round him; the marriage which is now to him "incestuous he has yet to learn has been preceded by the greater crimes of adultery and murder. Thus, being in this mood, "æger corde ingentibus curis," he prepares himself unwittingly for the meeting which is soon to follow. There is a feeling of unknown danger surrounding Hamlet, whose thoughts recur to the subject of suicide

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expresses a deep misery-a mental suffering which it is hard to overcome; it is not the death of his father, nor his own exclusion from the throne, but the incestuous marriage of his mother, which has cast the deep gloom over his mind; and he already becomes conscious that something will be required of him; his" prophetic soul" acknowledges that there hovers around him a spirit. Shakspeare, in preparing thus his own sketch of the character, gives us a clue of what he intended to bring before his audience, the moral lesson to be learnt the struggling of good

against evil. It is not madness, nor weakness, but a strong sense of conscience and duty, which guides Hamlet on through the play. He knows his own mental power, for, instead of flying to his sword for revenge, he considers, with an almost unnatural though judicial calmness, how far he can trust that spirit which has appeared; and, repudiating all charges of cowardice, he calls to action his mental powers in the short sentence, "About, my brain!" He will not use violence till he is satisfied; and, remembering the effects which have occurred through the skilful representation of a play, determines to make the actions:King prove his own guilt by his own

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The feigned madness has been considered by some to have turned into a monomania, produced by intense mental suffering; and, if we look into the almost frivolous expressions applied to the Ghost by Hamlet-to the Ghost of what he now knows to be his own fatherwe must see here another intended aid. Calling on Horatio and Marcellus to swear, he hears from whatever place he moves the voice issuing in solemn warning from the ground beneath, calling on them also to "Swear." At first he starts and jests in a hysterical manner, devoid of sense or feeling; his nerves, braced up for the previous encounter, are now so unstrung that he is not himself. "True-penny and "Old Mole" are applied as epithets to one whom he has just sworn to revenge; but at the last it suddenly comes over him that now he is no longer his own master, but is a tool for revenge, and he breaks down suddenly; and, with a pitying sorrow, accompanied, perhaps, with

some sense of fear, we hear the words, "Rest, rest, perturbed spirit!"-the spirit which is now round him, hovering about him, and in whose hands he now feels himself to be :

"The time is out of joint;-O cursed spite !

That ever I was born to set it right!"

To him the man of literary attainments, whose mind, perhaps, more thirsted for the quiet excitement of struggling with other

minds, this enforced action appears to be too much; and yet he must about with it-he has sworn, and will carry it through. There is also a deep religious feeling running all through the character, not unmixed with the taint of the superstitions rife in Skakspeare's age, though

"And for my own poor part, Look you, I'll go pray,"

shows the strong force of the habit of his mind.

The conduct of Ophelia towards Hamlet is in some degree inexplicable. Much has been written about Ophelia, and much maudlin sentiment wasted over her character. During the last season many who had an opportunity of watching Mr. Irving's interpretation of Hamlet must have been struck with the utter "vapidness" and utter want of force, mental or moral, in the róle played by Miss Bateman, who, however, could not be considered in any way equal to the part. English writers, artists, and poets have been so carried away by their own ideal as not to have perhaps studied Shakspeare's original with the accuracy of Goethe, who, full of romantic, poetical, and chivalrous, though perhaps selfish, love for women, has examined the part of Ophelia with an acumen worthy of his great mind, though thoroughly

contrary to the preconceived English notions. But, happily for analytical criticism, he has the "courage of his opinions," and expresses his own feelings and views. Ophelia is to him a character finished in a few strokes by the master's pencil. She is a being ripe and full of sweet "sensitivity" (Sinnlichkeit) — a word which may be taken in both its physical and mental aspect. She so exhibits her love for the Prince that both her brother and father warn her against being considered immodest. Laertes says,

"Fear it, Ophelia, fear it, my dear sister;

And keep within the rear of your affection,

Out of the shot and danger of desire. The chariest maid is prodigal enough If she unmask her beauty to the moon."

And Polonius, after a characteristic speech,

"From this time, Be somewhat scanter of your maiden presence,

Set your entreatments at a higher rate, Than a command to parley."

Goethe adds, with poetic license, in allusion to the songs sung by her before the King and Queen, "Wie oft mag sie versucht haben, gleich einer unvorsichtigen Wärterin, ihre Sinnlichkeit zur Ruhe zu singen mit Liedchen die sie nur mehr wach halten musste." Anxiously yet passionately waiting for the love which is not returned, she sings to herself songs which must have driven away sleep; at last, when the mind no longer controls the tongue, in the full "innocence of insanity (Unschuld des Wahnsinns), when nature will assert itself, she bursts forth in words full of a meaning which she has long suppressed, or,

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the German poet expresses, revels in the echo of her loved

though lewd songs (und in der Unschuld des Wahnsinns ergötzt sie sich vor König und Königin an dem Nachklange ihrer geliebten losen Lieder). The above are naturally to be taken but as bases on the which we may found our own constructions, and among the most important aids given to us of her character, we have the deception wilfully practised by her on the Prince, whom she loves, who had loved her. Hamlet, when seeing her holding her book of prayers in her hand, sighs forth,

"Nymph, in thy orisons Be all my sins remember'd;"

a sigh which comes like a soft zephyr after the outburst of passion contained in the soliloquy which precedes it; for a brief space the old influence comes over him, and believing her to be in the moments of prayer, it is himself that he examines. "Get thee to a nunnery," because I am so sinful as to be utterly unworthy of thy love; I am a sinful man, and would thus have thee protected from all the wiles of this world; dedicate thyself entirely to God, to whom thou hast been praying. But, saying so, he looks. round; for a moment he sees the face of the aged Polonius peering from behind the arras, and the full reaction comes upon him. Ophelia, whom he loved as his father loved his mother, would betray him; his mad wrath bursts forth against her who would delude him with the semblance of prayer. That Hamlet is deeply affected by her supposed treachery is evident in the way he treats her at the play. He throws himself at her feet, calls her "metal more attractive," and jokes in a manner devoid of courtesy, wit, or feeling. Much as Hamlet loves Ophelia, it is evident that he does not consider her mental calibre to be such as to permit him to confide to her the

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Horatio, a man of no particular force but that of blunt honesty, seems gradually to take the place of Ophelia in the heart of Hamlet. This suspicion of her whom he loves is not curious when we consider as outsiders the position and character of Polonius, who seems to be so rooted to the Court, remaining courtier under either king; he is the first to call for lights, and hasten after Claudius. The songs to which we have alluded are also evidences to us that Shakspeare did not intend Ophelia to create more than a secondary-rather sentimental-interest. If the innocence of madness proves the natural bent of the mind, Ophelia certainly cannot be other

wise considered than as the maiden counterpart of the Queen. She rushes off with the Court, King, and Queen, leaving Hamlet alone with Horatio, though she must have felt by his manner that the excitement was not natural. We cannot believe that the great mind and heart of Shakspeare knew not the intense joys of real love, and we cannot believe that Ophelia could ever be intended as a representative of his ideal of woman. At her death Hamlet forgets all but his passion for her,

"What is he, whose grief Bears such an emphasis? whose phrase of sorrow

Conjures the wand'ring stars, and makes them stand

Like wonder-wounded hearers? This is I,

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That he loved her is as evident as that her character was totally inferior to his, and that her mind was of the commonest type of mediocrity. Perhaps, in thus speaking of one whom it has been the habit to quote as among the fairest characters of Shakspeare's creation, we may hurt the sentimentality with which Ophelia has ever been clothed; but, leaving aside such a question, we cannot but feel how impossible it is to view Hamlet and Ophelia as beings equal in intellect or character. Brought up at Court, with such a father as Polonius, whose highest aim is to remain a model courtier, we trace in the sentiment which induced Ophelia to acquiesce in her father's commands the force of early associations, that court intrigue which looks no farther than personal ambition. The character of Polonius has but one redeeming point,-in spite of the shrewd remarks he is ever ready to make, we cannot admire him, the redeeming point being his affection for his children, an affection fully reciprocated, and forming one of the many hinges on which turns this wonderful play. In all that is said or done by Polonius there appears to be an utter want of reality, though in many cases apparent wisdom and full knowledge of the world. He appears "never to say a foolish thing, yet never to do a wise one,' except in so far as regards his own personal welfare.

Hazlitt, in his remarks on this character, looks upon Polonius " as a perfect character of its kind; nor is there any foundation for the objections which have been made to the consistency of this part. It is said that he acts very foolishly and talks very sensibly. There is no inconsistency in that. Again, that he talks very wisely at one time and very foolishly at another; that his advice to Laertes is very sensible and his advice to the King and

Queen on the subject of Hamlet's madness very ridiculous. But be gives the one as a father, and is sincere in it; he gives the other as a mere courtier, a busy-body, and is accordingly officious, garrulous, and impertinent. In short, Shakspeare has been accused of inconsistency in this and other characters, only because he has kept up the distinction which there is in nature between the understanding and moral habits of men, between the absurdity of their ideas and the absurdity of their motives. Polonius is not a fool, but he makes himself appear one. His follies, whether in his actions or speeches, come under the head of impropriety of intention."

Maginn, speaking of this same character, remarks: "The ten precepts of Lord Burleigh, addressed to his son Robert, on which it is generally supposed the apophthegms of Polonius are based, are perhaps equal in shrewdness, but they want the pithiness and condensation of verse. His Lordship's ninth precept is this:

Trust not any man with thy life, credit, or estate; for it is mere folly for a man to enthral himself to a friend as though, occasion being offered, he should not care to become thine enemy.' It is good advice, but how much better done by Polonius,

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