literally), prompted by Hamlet, is pointing out artistically what the King has committed. And Luther, studying the Bible, pointed out how the Romish Church had poured corruption into the ears of a once pure and holy union. The whole Player-scene, we repeat, is the act of the Reformation. As Hamlet remarks: "His name's Gonzago: the story is extant, and writ in choice Italian.” Shakespeare has taken actors as the type of true action in the world. A hint which Goethe hastily seized, and reproduced in the Wilhelm Meister. And we see actually in the play what consternation and what mighty results spring from this small interlude. The reader not seizing our stand-point, may ask why Lucianus poisons Gonzago in the piece? We reply, Lucianus is only acting, and thus imitating the King's crime. He is thus exposing the King. Baptista is an image of the Queen, who, as Belief, has proved false to her first love, and married the King. This is the history of Christianity, as regards its Roman Catholic corruption. It has allied itself to error. After the death of Gonzago, or Long-ago, Luther pointed this out, and in boldly doing this he effected and consummated the Protestant Reformation. But Luther, or Lucianus, and the rest of the players are prompted by Hamlet. Hamlet is therefore the real cause of all this. And our hero is according to us the Spirit of Truth, prompted by the Ghost (Doubt), and aided by those who are part of him. The whole scene is introduced "tropically," or figuratively. And the murder was done in Vienna, which is another way of cleverly expressing Vie, or life. No wonder Ophelia says to Hamlet "You are as good as a chorus, my lord." Now we can understand why Hamlet takes up his position. at Ophelia's feet. It is the Church he is most interested with. Religious reform is his business. And Polonius at last has grown alarmed. "Pol. [To the King] 0, oh! do you mark that? We can now understand why Hamlet calls himself the The introduction of the "only jig-maker" to Ophelia. word Baptista speaks for itself. And Lucianus represents not only an approximation to Luther, but in its translation, his very essence—the break of day. Luther was indeed the break of day, or rather we should say, the Reformation. CHAPTER II. HA AVING got so far in advance of our subject as regards the text, we may return to that part of the drama which precedes the Interlude. And we will take the passage of passages-the most beautiful as well as the best known of all Shakespeare's profound soliloquies. That is, "To be, or not to be." What does it mean? To us it signifies a determination on the part of man to act. And it is a recognition of how theology has always crippled action. "Ham. Thus conscience does make cowards of us all; Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought, Immediately after this monologue, Hamlet repudiates and insults Ophelia. The last time we have him with her, he simply criticizes, sighs, and leaves her. Now he abuses, and tells her to "get to a nunnery." The whole of this great soliloquy is the change of a passive policy to an active one. It is the determination of persecuted and oppressed humanity to have no more of it-to rise, to rebel, and to free themselves. It is the gathering thunder of the Reformation. It is indeed a question of "To be, or not to be." All the burthens of this world are summed up in it. Every calamity which man tyranically heaps upon his fellow-man is touched upon. "The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely, . the law's delay, the insolence of office, and the spurns that patient merit of the unworthy takes." And what is Hamlet's conclusion to all these ills? Nothing less than that they are borne because man will not take arms against them; and is hampered by those doubts which concern the future life, and are expressed by religion. The whole soliloquy is a review of two worlds: a passive one, and an active one; and it recognizes the grounds upon which the passiveness rests. Every ill of man is thus put down to a want of resolution. It is the dread of "something after death" that "makes us rather bear those ills we have, than fly to others that we know not of." "It is conscience which makes cowards of us all." Our Poet knew how plastic a thing conscience is, and he knew how much of it lay in the hands of the Church. It is this which prevents "enterprises of great pith and moment" from becoming action. And let us ask ourselves if this great masterpiece of thought uttered by Hamlet has not a deep and profound meaning, with regard to the unity of the whole drama? If it has not, what is its meaning? Why is it introduced in such an odd way, and at such a moment? Hamlet, as man, at a certain historical period and crisis, is deliberating upon action and inaction: "Whether it is nobler to take arms against a sea of troubles, and by opposing end them ?" The whole piece is in exquisite harmony with the esoteric and exoteric sides of the play. It is not too developed on either side of art. We may take it as merely a beautiful summing up of the miseries of life, and of the doubts which perplex us as to an hereafter; and thus place us on the horns of a dilemma. Or, again, we may recognize through its outer garb the profound identification of the ills of the period, and the oppressive intolerance of the Church of the age. Immediately after this soliloquy, Hamlet meets Ophelia. And we notice how changed his manners are to her. His letter to her was simply one of reproach. Now he wantonly insults her. Are we to conclude that he has decided in his mind that it is "to be," and looks firmly forwards to combat with his "arms against a sea of troubles?" It is difficult to escape such a conclusion; particularly when we take into consideration the correlation of the parts of the play. At the end of the second act Hamlet has decided to catch the conscience of the King. This decision would only be in keeping with a gradual estrangement from Ophelia. And, finally, he must arrive at a point of determination and action in this respect. This is the realization, in our opinion, of the necessity of immediate action; and it is the first determined step of the Reformers themselves. But although we have endeavoured to parallel, step by step, the play with actual history, we only do so, of course (on hypothesis), for the sake of clearer exposition. Shakespeare was far too catholic not to express rather the philosophy of history than the detail of history. We recognize (ourselves), under the mask of the Reformation, far wider principles than the mere reform of a religion. In it we see the first direct recognition by men of their own ignorance, of their own error, and of the delusions of the past. Thus do we read, so far, the tragedy of Hamlet. Let us now take a review of the first two acts. The first is a summary of the gathering scepticism and the causes of that scepticism, which, like the break of a dawn, dispels the darkness of the midnight of past ages. The soldier in ignorance is relieved by the officer with less ignorance, and he brings another in necessarily with him, and they together see a Ghost. That Ghost, however, is at first very uncertain—almost an which is contrasted with the reality of the noisy cock. The cock is, by his comparison with Christmas, identified with certainty. "Mar. It faded on the crowing of the cock. |