The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-12-25
THE ABSURD TRADITIONS OF THE
STAGE.

Booth accepted the stage tradition which
makes Hamlet dark, spare and melan-
choly, while the play clearly says that he
was fat and scant of breath, and as Sean
dinavian was doubtless blonde with yell
low hair, like the Morse Vikings. The
race of actors is largely responsible for the
continuous life of the questions put by
professors of English literature" to their
students, as to whether Hamlet was really
insane or only playing the part of an in
sane man. The lines of the play do not
leave any doubt on the subject. In the
start he is clearly not insane, for the
ghost he sees has already been seen by
number Of his friends and is not an hallu-
cination. The lines of the play leave no
doubt that he played insanity as a part for
time. for he warns his friends of his in
tenton, but under the dreadful stress of
conflicting emotions and most oppressive
events his mind yields. and he seems to
see the ghost at will, when others do not
see it. Just as Macbeth sees Banquo's ghost
when his equally guilty but constituencies,
non-inaginativc wife cannot see it.
ne DOlUL where i1dmleG 3 TllilU
begins to yield under the accommodating
horrors of the situation is clearly marked
by the fact that in that tremendous scene
with his mother Hamlet is frightfully con-
vulsed by the sight of the ghost that his
mother cannot see. 1t is also clear from
the play that the insane mood is but tran
sient, for the mind of the hero regains Its
health so completely that in the closing
scenes of the play he is as absolutely sane
as Horatio, into whose agonized ear he
murmurs that most eloquent and affecting
farewell: absent thee from felicity
awhile and in this harsh world draw thy
breath in pain"
There is no touch of insanity about
Hamlet after he returns from England.
He is sane in the start he resolves to play
the lunatic, but under the pressure Of hor-
rors becomes temporarily insane; he re-
gains his reason so completely that his dy-
ing scene is as absolutely sane as that of
Richard, Hotspur. Antony, Romeo or
Othello. The so-called mystery of Ham
let's insanity is born of the superficial chat
of actors who get their apprehension of
great par. rot so much by study of the
play az bv mastery of traditions of the
stage Fechter was alone in his ability to
defy the traditions of the stage and play
Hamlet for what he was, a prince, a gen.
tlemas, a soldier and n scholar. instead of
dressing him so that he looked like an
ultrabilious Italian and walked with the
stride OF King Powhatan or Metamora
The same ludicrous mystery is made
about the madness of Lear. The play
makes il perfectly clear that Lear in the
start was suffering from what doctors call
today seni!e dementia, second childhood,
and calamity easily makes him q raving
maniac. The insanity OF Macbeth was
evidently transient alteration, for he
soon ceases 10 see Banquo's ghost and
bears himself like a stout villain. His
wiie's insanity comes later and is evil
IDENTIFY the result of incurable insomnia.
She is not sleepless because of her crime.
hut she was sleerless because her husband.
whom she so deeply loved that she
damned herself for his advancement. was
in situation of great difficulty and dam
ger She did not lose her sleep and her
health and die because of Duncan's death.
but because Of Macbeth's danger.