It may, however, be safely asserted that the simpler explanations are,
and the less they are biassed by the subtleties of the philosophical
critics, the more likely they are to be in unison with the intentions of
the author. Take, for instance, the well-established fact that immodesty
of expression, the recollection derived, it may often be, accidentally
and unwillingly from oral sources during the previous life, is one of the
numerous phases of insanity; and not only are the song-fragments chanted
by Ophelia, but even the ribaldry addressed to her by Hamlet, in the
play-scene, vindicated, there being little doubt that Shakespeare
intended the simulated madness of the latter through his intellectual
supremacy to be equally true to nature, the manners of his age permitting
the delineation in a form which is now repulsive and inadmissible.
The present favorite idea is that in Hamlet the great dramatist intended
to delineate an irresolute mind depressed by the weight of a mission
which it is unable to accomplish. This is the opinion of Goethe
following, if I have noted rightly, an English writer in the _Mirror_ of
1780. A careful examination of the tragedy will hardly sustain this
hypothesis. So far from Hamlet being indecisive, although the active
principle in his character is strongly influenced by the meditative, he
is really a man of singular determination, and, excepting in occasional
paroxsyms, one of powerful self-control.
Pages:
486
487
488
489
490
491
492
493
494
495
496
497
498
499
500
501
502
503
504
505
506
507
508
509
510