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decadence of royalty. And we read in the words of Hamlet a continuity, to which we have called attention throughout the play. We may say of Polonius or Ophelia, as Hamlet says of Alexander

"Ham. To what base uses we may return, Horatio! Why may not imagination trace the noble dust of Alexander, till he find it stopping a bung-hole?

Hor. 'Twere to consider too curiously, to consider so.

Ham. No, faith, not a jot; but to follow him thither with modesty enough, and likelihood to lead it: as thus: Alexander died, Alexander was buried, Alexander returneth into dust; the dust is earth; of earth we make loam: and why of that loam, whereto he was converted, might they not stop a beer-barrel?

Imperious Cæsar, dead and turn'd to clay,

Might stop a hole to keep the wind away :
O, that that earth, which kept the world in awe,
Should patch a wall to expel the winter's flaw!"

The depreciation and contrast of the possible destiny of two of the mightiest of rulers makes us inclined to believe we are nearer the truth than Mr. Buckle. As we have already hinted, Polonius and Ophelia died, Polonius and Ophelia were buried, Polonius and Ophelia returned to dust; and why should not that office so well summed up in an Alexander and a Cæsar go through the same process of decay? Is it not going through it now?

We have run over a great deal in a great hurry. We have hardly sketched a theory of Hamlet. But what we have done is rather in the hope of suggestion, of showing not what is true, but what a play like Hamlet may possibly be. The reader, of course, will reject much of our hypothesis. In the present state of Shakespearian criticism, this is only to be expected. But nevertheless in so doing, thoughts and suggestions will enter his head never conceived there before. And we feel our work will not be utterly cast upon sterile ground. For there is a growing appreciation in the public mind of the profundity and doublesidedness of Shakespeare's art. An art which will redeem him a second time from the grave. And an art which will form the study of future generations.

CHAPTER V.

WE now approach the end of this stupendous tragedy.

We are dramatically nearing the end of man's apprenticeship. But Hamlet concerns us alone at present. How far, in point of time, the dramatic situation is from its parallel in future times, we know not. Who can tell what to-morrow may bring but a Shakespeare? And now we have next on hand, in the order of the text, a retrospect by Hamlet. This review and explanation by Hamlet concerning his escape from the Pirate and discovery of the King's commission, seems to us to supply the missing links of the tragedy. It thoroughly explains the position of Hamlet at the time he was at sea, and had no decided plans of his own:

"Ham. Sir, in my heart there was a kind of fighting,
That would not let me sleep: methought I lay
Worse than the mutines in the bilboes. Rashly,

And praised be rashness for it, let us know,

Our indiscretion sometimes serves us well,

When our deep plots do pall: and that should teach us
There's a divinity that shapes our ends,

Rough-hew them how we will."

We must return to Hamlet's exile for an instant. That exile was one because he had no plans and no ends. After the death of Polonius, Hamlet was almost frightened at what he had done. He felt, as he himself says, worse than "mutineers who lie in fetters." This expresses the whole

case.

He had mutinied, and he was in fetters. His own

plans were even obscure to himself, but his very indiscretion serves him well. What do we mean? We mean that Hamlet, as represented in man's history, has had his doubts, his fears; he has not defined his ends even. Progress is but a recognition of to-day or yesterday. Parties with their different hopes and aims are the products of eminently modern history. Presently we find Hamlet groping "to find his ends".

"Ham. Up from my cabin,

My sea-gown scarf'd about me, in the dark
Groped I to find out them; had my desire,
Finger'd their packet, and in fine withdrew
To mine own room again."

Here

But

If anything would convince a reader of the nature of Hamlet, the above should be of a conclusive nature. is Hamlet "in the dark," trying "to find out them." what are these which he terms them? Clearly Hamlet's "ends." And, thanks to his rashness and perseverance, he succeeds in "fingering their packet." Nothing can be clearer than all this. Reviewing his own history, he sees the time when obscurity of vision made him feel like a mutineer. He dared not stand still, he dared not look back. And, praised be the rashness which casts the balance in favour of progress, Hamlet finds his ends. Those ends are the recognition that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern threaten the very life of naked truth. He labours doubly accordingly, escapes from them by means of a Pirate (whatever that may mean), whilst scientific proof slowly undermines evasion and sophistry. Hamlet and Horatio are gathering their forces together for the last struggle. Partly for the sake of clearing ambiguities; partly for the sake of showing how man in Hamlet reviews his own history and gathers additional strength from it, we have this scene.

The whole of the first part of this scene between Hamlet and Horatio is a review of their own position, of the history of that position, of the thought of Divine law ruling social action, and of the great evil of compromise, hypocrisy, sophistry, and casuistry, which science is slowly killing.

Hamlet expresses this science so beautifully that we must quote again:

“Ham. Being thus be-netted round with villanies,—

Ere I could make a prologue to my brains,
They had begun the play-I sat me down,
Devised a new commission, wrote it fair;
I once did hold it, as our statists do,

A baseness to write fair, and labour'd much
How to forget that learning, but, sir, now
It did me yeoman's service."

Hamlet writes fair. This is a naked Hamlet who writes fair. This very fairness kills Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Who are the statists who refuse to write fair, and consider it a baseness to do so? They are those who are for standing still. They are the statics of society, in contradiction to the dynamical principle represented by Hamlet. The word "statists" is perhaps related to the word statics.1 This writing fair does Hamlet "yeoman's service." Nothing kills like truth. Errors are obliged to assume the garb of truth even to pass muster; but like all false coin, they get exposed sooner or later. England takes up the cue Hamlet devises. England, as science, is prompted by a spirit of truth. And this truth invades every domain of thought, until it gives Hamlet power to return, with ever-gaining strength, to kill and exterminate the King and all his myrmidons. What does Hamlet devise? Nothing more nor less than a rigorous logic, which is beautifully expressed by an imitation of syllogistic reasoning―

"Ham. As England was his faithful tributary, As love between them like the palm might flourish, As peace should still her wheaten garland wear,

And stand a comma 2 'tween their amities,

And many such-like 'As'es of great charge,
That, on the view and knowing of these contents,
Without debatement further, more or less,

He should the bearers put to sudden death,
Not shriving-time allow'd."

1 We are aware that the word statist signifies sometimes a legislator or lawmaker. But we suggest the word may signify even more.

2 The word comma seems to suggest pause, not full stop.

Hamlet writes this, and in writing this our Poet shows us how the spirit of truth inspires England to deal with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. That method is one in which close reasoning and trenchant logic (like the logic our hero indulged in when first in conversation with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern), allowing of no equivocation, infects the thoughts of man, and slowly brings about an increasing desire for rationalism in all things. This we see at the present day, and the thirst for clear answers to plain questions will ever be on the increase, in proportion as men think, and thus in the ratio of their knowledge, liberty and love of truth-things which go hand in hand.

Hamlet knows the news will soon arrive from England. Our Poet here signifies the influence of England upon human thought. He sees, as we may at the present -moment, the foreshadowing of the universality of science. Hamlet foresees its widespread influence. He foresees the unlimited sway it will have in the future destiny of man. And foreseeing this, he is determined to hasten it, to do all he can to bring things to that pass. He is acted upon by this knowledge, and it stirs him up to fresh resolution :

"Hor. It must be shortly known to him from England

What is the issue of the business there.

Ham. It will be short: the interim is mine;

And a man's life 's no more than to say 'One.'
But I am very sorry, good Horatio,

That to Laertes I forgot myself;

For, by the image of my cause, I see

The portraiture of his: I'll court his favours:
But, sure, the bravery of his grief did put me
Into a towering passion."

How admirable is the above!

Hamlet sees in the cause
Both grieve and fight

of Laertes the portraiture of his! for the sake of their fathers. Both believe in those fathers. Hamlet is always spurred on by doubt, to redress wrongs and kill error. Laertes is always spurred on by a fatal but useful bias of certainty to defend the King and uphold the past. Both are in earnest. One is liberalism, the other conservatism. Their mutual death

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