Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1875-02-17
THE MELANCHOLY DANE.
Shakspeare's Peculiar Types Of In:
sanity.

Shakspeare's Peculiar Types Of In:
sanity.
A Critical Analysis Of Hamlet's Mad
ness.
DIR. CallendeI's Reply to Rev. T. A.
HOyt
The announcement Of a lecture last
night by DR.. Calender, upon the "Insanity
OF Hamlet" was sufficient to fill McClure's
Hall with large and highly intelligent
audience. The interest that would natural
" be aroused to listen to the discussion { (
such a subject by one Of the most forcible
and elegant writers, and at the same time
one Of the greatest in the world in treating
aud detecting insanity, was in this instance
heightened BY the fact that a discussion
upon the same subject, and the conse-
quence thereof, is one of, the most interest
ing episodes in Charles Reade's novel Of
Hard Cash. 1t viii be remembered by the
readers Of that book that Alfred Hardie is
falsely imprisoned as insane by his father,
in order to prevent the disclosure Of his
fathers evil cOnduct, and his statements Of
his fathers misdoings, to which he had
been an eye witness, are made by his
father the evidence of his lunacy.
DR.. Wychsrly, one of the eustOdians of
Alfred in a private insane asylum, is de-
| sCribed as a collector Of mad people, who
accounted for the idiosyncracies of nearly
all the great dead by attributing to them
various phases Of insanity, but without in
tending any disrespeet to any Of these gen
tlemen, he assigned the golden crown Of
insanity to Hamlet. He offered proofs, but
Alfred declined the subject as too puerile.
"a man must exist before he can be in
sane" said the Oxford philosopher. The
rest Of the episode is hardly applicable TO
the lecture Of last night.
The proofs which DR.. Calender
adducet IN support of his theory were
too convincing; and IS to the idea advanced
by Alfred Hardie, that a man must
exist before he can be insane, as if TO
anticipate this objection, his opening SEN
fences were to the effect that the portrai-
lures Of character in Shakspeare's plays
were so real, so life-like and so true to
nature that they had as real and as i'm
moral an existence as though they had &C
tually lived. Of all these characters, Ham
let was the most remarkable, and had been
the subject Of volumes Of criticism. His
character could only be considered under
three heads.
First, was Hamlet, gifted by natu-e and
Of noble lineage, simply doubling and
bastard under pressure Of trying circum-
stances?
Second, did he, under the pressure Of
circumstances, feign insanity in order better
to accomplish his plans?
Third, was he so wrought upon and per-
picked BIZ his terrific Surroundings that he
actually became insane?
DR.. Calendar maintained that the last
proposition presented the only true solu-
ton Of his character. II is a curious fact
known only TO few that metaphysicians
have less knowledge of the mind than do
poets and writers Of fiction. To
study insanity one would not
look to the pages Of Locke or
Sir VIM. Hamilton so soon as to Shakespeare
or Sir Walter Scott. The reason is that
metaphysicians study mind in the abstract,
nOyelistS in the concrete. The one looks
at the general laws which control the opeT-
ations Of the mind, while the other. studies
with care the individual minds which come
under his observation.
Shakespeare had peculiar difficulties to
contend with. He had to Giyest himself
Of many popular delusiOns, which
existed then and still exist con-
cercerning insanity and he had few oppor-
tunities for observation. He did observe
some cases Of insanity, II is true, but he did
il as the comparative anatOmist OBJ
serves a single fossil bone from
which he can reconstruct the entire animal
as it lived in ages past. So, Shakespeare
was able 10 infer from the symptoms Of in
sanity, which he saw, the existence and
nature Of other symptoms which he had not
seen, approaching both the wildness and
disorder and the melancholy and detection,
which are its characteristics.
No other writer has succeeded like
Shakespeare in the delineatiOn of insanity,
although many have attempted il. Com
pare Shakespeare with Fletcher, Of Beau
mont & Fletcher. The Jailer's Daughter,
Of the latter, is but a feeble imitation of
Ophelia, showing in every respect an ex-
travagance of thought and a con-
slant dwelling upon the cause Of
her arrangement, far more character
istic Of simulated than real insanity. Lear,
in his calmer moments. oft n talks
Of the character Of his daughter, but never
when raving mad. To give individual
scenes is easy, but it requires genius TO
deliniate tie method in madness In the
hands Of inferior writers, madness is made
to appear too much like a continued eXiS-
tence Of arrangement. They omit to no
tIce and preserve the glimmerings Of in
tellect that manifest themselves. Thus,
when GlOster accosts Lear, asking, as
not that the king?' he answers proudly,
SAy, every inch King" and feels within
himself for the moment his royalty, but
soon falls to raving again. The jailOrs
daughter Of Fletcher is gross, and Of the
earth, earthly. She is only a poor mad
woman, whom the boys would pelt with
stones, and in the deliniatiOn Of her char
acter there are none Of those exquisite
touches with which Shakespeare has adOrn-
ed his conception Of Ophelia.
Hamlet, as the picture Of a disOrdered
intellect, attracts the attention Of all read
ers- 1t is singular that until within few
years his insanity was regarded by all the
critics as feigned. 1t is difficult TO see the
foundation for this opinion unless it be
that it has been handed down from one
to another like an heirloom.
In the second act his genuine insanity
can readily be detected in the impression |
it has made upon the King, who says to |
and Guildenstern:
Something have you heard OF Hamlet's |
so call IL since not the ex- |
terror, nor the inward man that II was.
And a little later in the same scene |
Polonius reports to the, Queen:
Your noble sonls mad:
Mad call it; for to define this madness,
What is't but to be nothing else than mad.
In his confidential interview with his old |
friends, ROnsencrantz and Guilderstern, |
whom, had he been feigning insanity, he /
would have been most anxious TO deceive, /
! true insanity is clearly manifested, while /
n POlOnius' description Of his symptoms
Is perfect picture Of real madness.
And he repulsed "a short tale to mskel
Till into a sadness; then into a fast;
Thence 70 q watch; thence into a weakness;
Thence 70 q lightuess; and, by this declenEicn,
Into the madness wherein now he raves,
And all we mourn for.
No medical work 50 accurately and WV
dly describes the symptoms of true insan-
ty as do these six lines. The lecturer said