The Arkansaw traveler., 1882-11-19
Shakespeare on Death
The Spectator.

The Spectator.
 Oi the deaths by poisoning. two gre minutely described. One takes place of the stage. and is only named 10 us: two are sudden-the Queen in s' Hamlet. and Romeo. In these last cases the agent was clearly hydrocyanic acid in some form. vegetable extract. such as laurel- water. killing almost a; once. and pain lessly. leaving no time for thought, bu, only for the certainty of quick coming death. King John. on the other hand. Is poisoned by corrosive irriiant. probably mineral, comparatively slow in Is action. of which burning heat is the chlef Symp- tom:
 There >o tot ,1mnt.r n iu aoser
 ha, ali nis hove cvnrbl. g.r 10 d.
 against th.s ire
 Do shrink lp:
 None of you wtil htd the sli;rr coasp-
 To thrust his ley fingers u ny ma,
 Nor ie; my kinsdoni's Fi~ers take the e,r coEtse Through my burned bn>om, nor eHirs.; tie
 NortL
 To make his bleak nds ki>s m, parehed
 lips
 The elder Hamlet. again. dies by vege- table poisoning. There IS strong reason for thinking that the true reading of the drug IS not the usual hebenon.' but hebena. or yew juice. for the symptoms are precisely those caused b, this. and no other. Whether, in the then state of anatomy. Shakespeare really believed. con- trary to the truth. that such juice pour ed into the car would so course through the body. IS not clear. IL Is probable tha, he took the old stoDi. 50 far as he needed to do so. bu, having made t re- sponsible for the mode in which the for eign elemen; was introduced into Ham let's frame. used then his own observation and curious plant lore for the efforts which the body made to cast II out. The many cases of death b, steel are very closely studied from nature. Those who haze earefuil, examined the dead on ,s battle feld. or Tn the stree, after an eElute. are struck with the fact iha; while the expres- sion on the faee es of those who have died by gun sho; wounds Is one of agony and distress and the dead by ,he sword have calmer expression. though thelt wounds often seem more painful to the eye. \ very areful observer. who was through the Indian matiny. entirely oahr,n> ,his. After giving se. ef..l instance he says . . \ rapid death by steel !, almos, pam jess. Sabre edge oF point d., ides the nerves 50 gun Aiy as - { c little pan. \ Guile. lae crates. i'.5> l. n entire accord anee with Shakespeare d:asrosis. York in "HenfN N :. die, smiling SO youns Talbot in Henry Ii.. .poor boy he smiles.& In the sfea; maioFi;y of cases there appear, ,o have beeD no acute pain and such distressful sen a,ions f.ni, .k.1 .iar feel anything were those of cold. Death. therefore. resulted from hemorrhage of which an exceeding eh!liiness. without pain. k elway :he consequence. HetSpar and Warwick both speak of th:s chill the earthly and ,oi hand ei death" the "cold censealed blood. The only instances -sshiea-4Cutc- pan Wrun. grean> from the sufferer were those in which death was long delayed when as with Clifford. :" the ait has got into my deadly wounds. and Montague also groans from the delay There Is d most striking passage IT ierems Taylors ser mon. in which he speaks ot wounds to the same effect. bu, attributes the pain lessness of wound at hrst. wrongly as 1t would seem. only to the heat and rage of the fighter. who has no time to feel. .'I have known bold trooper hgh, in the hea, of battle. and, being warm with hea, and rage. receive from the swords of his enemy wounds open as a grave. but he felt them not. and when, by the streams of blood he found himself marked for pain. he refused to consider then what he was 10 feel tc-norrow but when his rage had cooled ;o the temper of a man. and clammy moisture had checked the ticy emission of spirits. he wonders d, his own boldness. and planes his fate. and needs mighty patience n bear his great ca lami,y. Shakespeare carefully discrimi- mates between the wounds tha, pierce the heart and are at once fatal. and those which allow few minutes or even months of life. \ stab which causes n- stan; death wrings from he dying person one sharp cry of momentary agony. or sometimes purely spasmodic and mechan ical and then all Is silent and with he cry there is a sharp cougulsive move meni of he limbs. oo toionius utters one lNue'. "oh. am slain. Aaron imi- iaies the stueal ef;he dyins nurse " Woke weke..' liaee Edward. in Richard ILL sprawl> after his irs, stab Those whn do not die ,t: once bu, bleed io death. or are ghoked n blood. speak a ht,le. know they are dying. bat are no; in pam. and have no coavu,>iNe move.aents