The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1875-04-08
Written for the Journal.
Sermons from Various Texts.

And he, repulsed, "a short tale to make,)
Fell into sadness; then into a fast;
| Thence to watch thence into weakness;
| Thence to lightness; and, by this declension
| Into the madness wherein lie raves,
| And all we mourn tor. Hamlel' Act :. oec :.
Here is the case of two young persons, Ham
let and Ophelia, both mad for love. 1t is an
exceeding rare case; so unusual and so nearly
surprising the possibilities even of Eye ancient
days" of which Shakespeare wrote, that, had l
not the word of the critics that in the express
| sion of human passions he never errs, and my
own failure to detect any error in his dealing
with the sweet passions elsewhere, l should
incline to the belief that here he has over-taXed
the credulity of his hearers.
AS it respects Opheia, there can be no doubt
that the tragic events which surround her, first
| the death Of the king, then the death Of her
father slain by her lover, he1 love for Hamlet
and his harsh treatment of her during the aber
ration Of his own intellect, serve to unhinge
| the reason of this gentle and affectionate char
acter. She was so modest in her sanity that
| she never confcsses her love for Hamlet even
! to her father, yet when she becomes insane
| she sings snatches of obscene songs. 1t has
| been we'll suggested that in madness people
| frequently manifest disposition the very OPP
| posite of that which they possessed while in
state of sanity-the tnd become bold, the
tender cruel-;,nd that Ophelia, in like manner,
| torsook her modesty of demeanor, and became
the reverse of her natural character.
| As to IIamet's madness the commentators
have never been able to agree whetAer it was
| feigned real. His original character is that
| of IN irlcsoute dreamer. and when the ghost
| of his father enioins him to ayenge his death,
| he becomes like man who has some task TO
| do greater than he can perform. undoubtedly
| his miEd does at times tremble OH the brink of
insanity, shaken but not overthroWn. He eN-
| aggerates his mental defects and knowing his
mind to be unbalanced, feigns downright mad
| ness But DR.. johnson says-''of the feigned
madness of Hamlet there appears no adequate
| cause, for he does nothing which he might not
| have done with the reputation of sanity. lie
| plays the mailman most when he treats Ophelia
with so much rudencss, which seems to be use
less and WantOn cruelty" This absence of a
| sufficient cause for pretending madness implies
that some seeds Of absolute insanity We're the
origin of it.
But, however we may settle it in our minds
as to the intention Of the great dramatlst re-
gardng the madness of these lovers, we feel
| certain that there were lovers in those days in
| which he wrote; some who loved madly, and
some who loved mot wisely, but too Wel.' He
who has shown lis the course Of true love be-
| tween so many pairs Of ardent lovers must
| have been able to look upon the signs Of the
genuine passion in his contemporaries at pleas
ure, must have seen lovers, must have been a
| lover himself. Were it convenient to have an
| interview with the materalized spirit of Anne
| Hathaway, we should doubtless be able to win
from her the confession that when he was
eighteen and she tWentysX years. at which
ages they We're married, he was, and had been,
Il warm and earnest lover. Romeo and Juliet
may be considered to have been pretty far gone
in the sweet delirum. There We're some strong
love passages between Anthony and Cleopatra. |
No doubt exists that Othello and Desdemona
made love-match. There were lively eX-
changes of loves complimentary coin between |
Ferdinand and Miranda Valentine and Sylvia, |
Orlando and Rosalind, Lysander and Hernia, |
and even Master Slender came near falling into |
Il consuming passion for sweet Anne Page. |
And wall OF masonry was necessary to keep |
Pyramus and Thisbe apart. From which we
conclude that i'll Shakespeare day, and during |
the time he was writing for his audiences of
Backfriars Theatre, the latter part Of the six |
teenth and early part Of the seventeenth cen |
turtles, the blind god was at large in the land |
and fruitful examples of real, downright, and |
to us old-fashioned love making were not want |
ing 10 the hand Of the poet. 1t was about this |
time, and later, that gentlemen of ardent tenn |
permanent in England, and particularly in Ire |
land. found il so difficult to wait for tie usual
forms of Wooing prescribed by the rules of good
society, that they obtained their wives by seiz-
ing the ladies from their attendants on the way
from church or places of amusement Whlsklng |
them into carriages attended by a force of out
riders, conveying them at gallop to the Gretna
Green of the time, and marrying them off hand. !
Love was then a little boy unburdened with
| clothing, having a bow and arrows and the ru-
diments of wings. He was lively and active,
was willing to live in cottage with honey
suckles over the porch, and dine sometimes
on herbs.
But now this is all changed. Love, instead
of living in a cottage, inhabits Il house with
brown stone front, and has grown pursy. His
roasting pieces are cut from the stalled OK.
He is no longer troubled with ophthamlc al
| fectionS but sees as clearly as the most sharp
| sighted. The scales have fallen from his eyes,
| and instead of shooting his arrows at random
| or trying to reach the heart, he aims at the
| largest package of greenbacks; and the feath-
| cred messengers which he discharges, although
not so generally fatal Us in the old days, are
/ still sharp enough to perforate bank note
paper. The prudent young men and maidens
| of the present time, with an eye single to the
main chance, do not commit the folly of going
mad for love. 1t is no longer necessary for the
wise father to advise his daughter to
| Lock herself from his resort,
| Admit no messengers, receive no tokens.
She is complete mistress of herself and the sit
uation. She requires no instruction as to who
is, or is not, a desirable partt Her instinct is
| infallbe. She will ''receiye no tokens unless
she be assured they come from Ball, Black, 4
Co.'S, Titfany's, or Shreve, Crump, and Lows,
and can see for herself that they contain dia-
monds of a satisfactory size, when she is ready
to be the recipient of any number Of them.
There is no young man now of whom it can be
said that for love he
''Fell into sadness; then into fast;
| Thence 10 Watch; tllence llto weakness.
He would consider it weakness of which to
be much ashamed. One of the results of this
change is that marriages are few and becoming
fewer in each succeeding year. The ranks of
the ineal descendants of the original settlers
of the Massachusetts, and Virginia colonies are
growing thin, because they are not replenished
so fast as they are diminished We have
always assured ourselves that this is the best
stock of the country. Whether or not it be the
BEST it seems to be on the way to extinction.
Truly, we are fallen on prosaic age Pas
sion is left to us in common with the other
is out of fashion, When it has ceased to be the
inspiring theme of the poets, they will have
lapsed into mere rhymers, and the time will
have come for us to fully sympathize with the
poet who Sings