The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1898-03-28

INK nttrlikdtlOH Ol the lutfikutE "a tft
Danish court. to prove or dlsprove the
murder Of the king.
"Hamlet's ambiuons made HIM eau
tious. He often toe counsel OF his
fears, and even in The belief that he
was delegated to revenge the murder
of his father by the spirit of his sire
himself. he time after time shrank from
the purposes Of his heart. Nothing less
han "A supernatural appeal would have
maintained the fixity of his resolution.
and non knew this better than the
ghost.
"Horatio. Hamlet's best friend. and
his associates. did not doubt the genu-
ineness of the apparition. especially as
its disappearance was Immediately pre-
coded by the growing OF a rooster in the
imperial hen house. You are familiar
with the superb language In which Ho-
ratio explains to Marcellus the intimate
relationship that always exists
ghosts and the clarion notes OF the
chanticleer. Marcellus had observed the
same supernatural symptoms, and lit
tie wonder that Hamlet. worried by a
half-formed suspicion Of oul play. and
overwhelmed with disgust at the re-
marriage OF his mother, the queen,
should readily listen to an alleged spec
tire which he confronted In the darkness
of the night and which pretended to be
the spirit of his departed sire. Hamlet's
supreme Idltn III tnt ufNl1t TlknlS oI u
king made him still more receptive
OF the tale that his father had returned
to revenge the deep damnation Of his
taking off,
1T may be urged against my theory
that Shakespeare intended the ghost to
represent a Danish subject in disguise.
working for the contamination of an
n that could in no other way be
safely undertaken: that the spirit APP
peared a second time to Hamlet when
I'm conversation with his mother, al
though invisible to the queen.
1t seems quite irrational for a judi
cious ghost To appear night after night
before the officers at Elsinore, looking
for Hamlet, when IL ought to have
known that Hamlet was not there. and
yet to appear before him in the presence
of the queen, making himself invisible
to the latter n thus permitting her to
acquire the idea that her son was In
sane, destroying the force of the lesson
which the spirit wished tn impart and
defeating its own purposes. In this
scene the great playwright evidently
intends to emphasize the mental excite
ment under which Hamlet labored by
creating a vision of the ghost he a i'm
his mind and which was influencing him
In the difficult task OF administering "A
reproof to the queen. The reply Of the
ghost in this scene was the mental con-
ception of the man fitted to the part he
was playing in the grand drama that
involved the happiness of himself and
the visitation of justice upon the reign
ing king.
IF the ghost actually appeared to
Hamlet the second time, why did he
subsequently express the doubt whether
IL was really the spirit of his departed
sire or the devil In disguise? He was
not satisfied as to its identity until he
N arn m aa1 xxTffh tho f.a sraIf ,n - sIA aixxy
to present a play hat touched he con
science of the king and convinced him
that the story of the murder was true.
The Shakespearean student cannot
overlook the singular fact that Hamlet
did not recognize his father's voice
when addressed by the alleged spook,
but finally accepted its identity because
1t verified his W suspicious. The al
legged ghost found IL necessary to ex-
plain who IL was, Notwithstanding its
familiar apparel, and IL did SO In a voice
that struck terror to the young mans
soul.
N conspirator with a purpose could
have chosen more wisely the method OF
approach. But S~hakespeare's logic
would have been Door. indeed, had be
brought into the play what purposed to
be a genuine spirit fresh from the popu-
lar hell of the day To confess that Il was
suffering the horrors of the damned. too
terrible for mortal ears, yet emphasiz-
ing its punishment by returning to earth
ON n mission of revenge and to inspire
in its own son the instinct of hate and
the purpose of murder that would i'm
turn drag him into the vortex of those
unspoken horrors. As a real ghost l can
conceive of no character more diaboli-
cal han that of Hamlet's sire: as a
conspirator. urging the young prince to
the commission of a crime in line with
the numberless intrigues of the time. the
ghost plays a natural but no important
part in the play.
1T may be asked. IL Shakespeare did
not intend to idealize the play-to ac-
centuate the interest by the Vocalized
testimony of the tomb-why did he give
no tangible hint to the m~ateriality of
the ghost? In turn, may l ask why did
he not tell us whether Hamlet a in
san or ~feigning il? Why has he sur
rounded all his great characters with
unexplained conditions? Why did he
not make the S~hakespearean scholar an
impoSsibility by leaving no enigmas
swaddled i'm elegant English and buried
I'm the poetry Of thought? The great
author had no premonition that his
matchless creations would survive the
ages. for philosophers to dream over
n sages to wonde at. and hence he
did not diagram his characters. They
speak for themselves from the silent
past.
IF l provoke your criticism by as
cribing flesh and blod to S~hakespeare's
eloquent but revengeful ghost. ! may
tempt your disapproval by investing
Hamlet. prince of Denmark. with the
full possession of his faculties. In the
of the melancholy Dane. the
great oct reflected both the strength
n weakness of human nature, it's lib
and It's prejudices. its heights
and depths. and herein lies the grandeur
of the conception and the vitality OF the
character.
The belief so common among Shake
scholars that Hamlet was suf-
fering from mental disorder grows out
of an unconscious desire TO apologize In
IA for the inherent weaknesses
OF n character so strong in the natural
OF the soul 1t pains me to
say of a character so grand that he was
revengeful. as well as ambitious. and
he suffered from egotism as well as
from environment. He lacked the cour-
- - .lA A. l.s.l. @-l 49, Is,.AI