The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1878-04-24


scholar into a conversation with the
players, and q critical enjoyment OF their
speeches.
When looking a. beautiful face we
forget the diversity OF the linesments IN
admiring the happy result of their
combination, and we are apt TO lose
sight of the elements OF Hsmlet's chsrsc-
ter in our contemplation of the singular
beauty and symmetry of the whole.
Every trait is developed just enough to
make it distinct without giving it undue
prominence, and all are blended with an
srt which is the perfect reflection of ns-
ture. The diverse elements of the char
scter do not depend for their delines-
ton solely on the changing incidents Of
the plot. Almost every person in the
play has his part in their development,
and 10 every person is entrusted the de-
velopment Of different trait. The
many sides of his own character appear
successlvely as he is confronted with one
OF them after another.
So, throughout the play, person after
person sheds upon Hamlet the peculiar
light of his own character, and IN every
light Hamlet wears different hue.
Phase after phase IS developed gradu-
ally, until the wonderful man is before
US in his symmetrical completeness. And
will 1t be said that single one Of the
many phases Is Unnecessary to the whole,
or that any single parsonage could be
omitted without msrrlng the beauty OF
the character which they all help to de-
velop?
Rosencrantz and Gwldenstern were
school-fellows of Hamlet, to whom, as to
his school at WItten burg, his though ats
had often turned before they had become
filed with the engrossing subject of his
fathers murder.
hamlet greets them warmly. There
is no sign Of restraint in his frank cor
dialty, but he has witnessed strange
changes OF lste,-"his uncle is King of
Denmark, and those that would make
moves at him while his father lived, give
twenty, forty, fifty, an hundred duCsts
apiece Tor hls picture in little"-snd he
hastens TO assure himself that the gen.
crosIty Of their youthful friendship had
preserved his schooI-fellows from the
common corruption. With the sincerity
OF his friendship for Horstio before our
eyes, we may imagine the surprise with
which he saw them evade his first honest
enquiry, What have you, my good
friends, deserved at the hands OF Fortune,
that she sends you to prison hither?'
He expects them at once to clear them
selves from any danger of misconstruc-
tion by explaining the whole reason of
their visit, and instead he finds them con-
fused at his question. His suspicion is
aroused, and he presses them home to
know If they were sent for. Again they
are confused, again they resort to sub
teTfIge, and again their looks betrsy
them. Still Hamlet is unwilling to be-
lieve that two men to whom he so sd-
hercd, had forgotten the rights Of friend
ship, had fallen IN at once with the pre-
vailng tune Of the age, and had come
thither TO use his affection for them as a
means for his betrayal. He gives them
s.ill another opportunity to redeem their
place in his regard by tardy frankness.
HuHlIet-But let me conjure you, by the
rights OF our fellowship, By the conson-
ancy OF our youth, by the obligations OF
our ever-preserved love, and by what
more dear better proposer could charge
youth (?) withal, be even and direct with
me, whether you were sent tor or no?
RCs aside to GuildensternI What say
you?
OF you.
And from that time he casts them of.
He has set them face to face with
the ties which bound them to him,
be has placed their friendship
tor him on the one side, and
their interested servllity to the King on
the other, and they have made their
choice. He judges them by what they
are, not by what they have done against
him. He comprehends at once the whsIe
OF their hypocrltical nature, and already
hates them as heartily and despises them
IS thoroughly as he does when their sc-
tiUns have verified his conclusion. From
that moment his irsnkness is gone. He
treats them ceurteously but coldlY, and
soon lets them understand that their for
mer intimacy with him is thing OF the
past. How different the warmth Of his
first greeting from the frigid formality Of
his second. The first:
"Ham.-My excellent good friends! How
dOst thou, GuiidensJern? An, hOsen-
Crantz. Good lads, how do ye both? :"
Then, after be has had long talk
with his excellent good friends, be affects
to forget his former welcome as though
ashamed that 1t was so hearty, and, when
Polenius tells him OF the players, del
icately repulses them with q second
Ham. m.-Gentlemen, you are welcome to
ElSinore. Your hands, come. The APP
puTteuauCe of welcome Is fashion and
ceremony: let me comply with you in
this garb, lest my CXteut.tO the players,
(which. / must tell you, must show fairly
OuJwsrd.D should more appear like enter
taiument than yours. You are welcOmei
but my uucle-iathcr and aunt-mother are
deceived.
GuL-In what, my dear lord'
Hdm.-I am but mal north north
west: when the wiud is southerly, know
hawk from a hand-saw."
For some time after this, RosenCrsntz
and Guildenstern are either not upon the
stage, or only appear in the royal suite
NE pay lIOSSSl-. 4lHuIiSs sbAAAs u pOu
the verge of suicide and reasons about
the meditsted &C. as though it were some
other persons death and not his own
which he il thinking OF; he has his sin
gular and affecting meeting With Ophells,
the most inexplcsble passage in the play
he turns from this 10 deliver q critical
lecture TO the players; he watches the
success Of his trap, aud his eye CLEANS,
lis frame dlates with exUltation, when
the king rises, frighted vita false FIRE,
and hurries swsy. While he is
vt aglow with excitement, re-
i5icing in the certainty Of his uLcle's
-ult, fairly mad with wild thoughts Of
wha. he still must do, Rosenkrautz and
GuIldeustein come before him. They
dRind.e into pygnies beside the gran
dsur OF the wrsth,ul young giant. He
ls in no humor for triarng. At another
time his courtesy would have restrained
t.m, bu! now he pours upon them slL the
bitterness Of his contempt. He Is not
tempted to use upon such hsres the sword
wits which he means 10 rouse the lion.
They sre too insignificant even to be re-
preached. He s.sughters them with mis-
sarcastic courtesy, and takes his Eli Of
~ h. III ~