The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-03-29

in beguiling an otherwise tedious hour
| l cannot promise to disentangle tn
skein of this intricate web, woven OF
the loom of poetic fancy.
| THE contradictory versions of man.
OF the commentators, falling short IL
their grasp of the true theme of Ham
| let, is readily discovered by cas-
ual appeal to the multiplicity of TIL
| commentaries with which our librarie
abound. Like the school men of thu
middle ages, who undertook to prov
| every and all things by the Bible, ant
| did not hesitate, as many theolOg ian
| do to-day, in committing violation o
truth fand propriety, and would distor
| the text to suit their own ideas, so d.
| most of those learned commentator:
endeavor to speak into the lines o.
Hamlet their own peculiar and ia
Vored opinions
You will hardly find two writer:
agreeing in their conclusions: one main
| tains that Hamlet was hopelessly in
| sane and his philosophical observations
| on man and society, these they claim
| to be the lucid moments, characters.
| tic of the insane. Another maintains
| that he is quite sane, only irresolute
ETC. Here the speaker ran through the
samut of the critics. He denominated
Hamlet the philosophy of thought
Hamlet is the greatest of all psy-
Geological studies, worthy the profound
est attention of the most thoughtful
student. 1t is like a crystal stream,
which reflects with minute and per-
spicuous clearness every object that
fringes its borders or floats above it.
Hamlet must not act, he
must be, he must remain moody, re-
Elective and undecided to the very last
a fact overlooked by most critics.
The speaker recognized concise his
tory, a true biography, in that play of
Shakespeare himself 1t is the pro-
duction of the genius upon whose SEN
sitively susceptible nature observation
and experience. rebuff and reward, sor-
row and joy. love and hate, happiness
and disappointment have left their
strong and their feeble marks.
We are introduced in this play to all,
to all the passions. to all the ailments.
to all the struggles, to all the shocks
and anguishing sorrows that human
flesh is heir to. Aye, to all the doubts,
beliefs and skepticisms that assault the
mind in its intellectual evolution.
Hamlet" is universal life in mini
allure. His experience is the experience
of the whole world. Hardly any phase
worthy the consideration of man eS-
capes his penetrating glance.
Shakespeare doubtless intended to
present character in whom are COM
bined all the gifts and endowments that
are possible to grace the brow of NOR
tal-birth, station, learning, culture,
physical beauty and strength--these
possessed superabundantly, but lacking
the elementary essentials-resolution
decisiOn-these co-Ordinating the men,
tai equipoise, missing unbalanced the
ship of state and sent it adrift amidst
the shoals and reefs of a tempestuous
sea.
And it is we'll that Hamlet missed
reSoluteneSS or we would have missed
this great phiIosophic work of our uni
Nersal genius.
The tragic ending of most of the
personages figuring in the play is mere
~ mcldental-a natural sequence. But
the main purpose of the dramatist is to
present character also types in thought
the very nohest and Hottest of ideal
thinkers. Life to him, to Hamlet, spells
thought, not action. He is a philos-
opher engrossed with the mysterious
enismas, riddles that perplex the
soul on all sides, from the moment
ii is ushered into life. until kissed by
the divine breath of the Creator, it
wings itself to the regions beyond.
Hamlet is not Richard Ill. neither
is he a Macbeth. Richard covets a
crown he dreams it, he thinks it and
suitins the action to the thought he
i'N't' N''iS b''SloNlc III MS way 10
the throne.
Macbeth-he, too. thinks; he, too.
soliloquizes; he, too. dreams, but his
dream, unlike Hamlet's. is wakeful
energy. Duncan must die, ere the
crown encircles his head. and so in
tent is he upon this acquisition that his
over-heated brain actually sees the
phantom dagger. rs this a dagger
which l see before me, the handle to-
ward my hand? Let me clutch thee.
I have thee not Yet. I see thee still"
This weapon conjured up by his fer
vid imagination, becomes tangible to
him and leads him to Duncan's cham
Der, to Duncan's death. for to him
thought means action. The burden of
his philosophy he expresses in these
words: IF it were done, when It's
done. 'tWere well it We're done quickly"
Richard III from his first loud think
ing Now is the winter of our dis
content made glorious summer by this
son of York;" until we meet him, for
the last time, on the field of battle
and hear his memorable shout: "A
horse. horse, kingdom for HORSE
we are in presence of the man of in
tense activity. Hamlet. on the con-
trary, is all thought, wherein lies his
greatest strength, and in that he pos
sesses a never failing charm for us,
and his philosophy is a bubbling well.
with ever increasing freshness, whose
limpid waters. like the Olympian wells
possess magic and seductive fascina
ton for us. DR.. Eisenberg then pre-
scented in telling language the
various speeches which portray
the ingenuity of the philosophy and
genius Of thought scattered through
out the pages of this unique tragedy
The passion soliloquies. the
speech on the Life After Death
''To Be or Not to Be" the other dia
logues and monoogues that hold So
much interest and attractive fascina-
ton for the reader and scholar, were
all we'll rendered and prefaced with
timely words.
1t was truly an intellectually eniova-
Bile production and all expressed them
selves more than delighted with the
time spent.
Dr. Dogge, specialist for diseases of