The age-herald., 1901-02-24
THE ONLY DAILY NEWSPAPER IN AlABAm
Hamlet, Prince of Denmark.

in this country Hamlet that, robbed of all poetry, is irresponsible-a crazy Hamlet, thus taking away for the mo ment the kernel and leaving but an empty shell. There is no excuse for this in even the uncomprehensive French mind, for Hamlet himself says to Horatio in the first act, when he wished him to keep secret the ap- pearance of his fathers ghost,
 How strange or odd soe'er I bear myself As I perchance, hereafter shall think
 meet
 To put an antic disposition on,-
 thus making him swear that he would not know aught of him, no matter what his course might be. He did put an antic dispogition on at times, feigning where feigning would serve, but ever wholly responsible, ever more philosophical and sentient than those about him. The text is plain clear and unmistakable, and if the French" even of Shakespeare's tongue, would cease to bring out of their own imperfect selves readings that do not exist in that text, there would soon be but one Hamlet.
 This prince of the poets imagina- tion was the idol of his father, chief courtier-in Ophelia's loving words, the expectancy and rose of the fair state, the glass of fashion and the mould of form. He was an idealist given to speculation, to reverie, to philosophy, whether the problem re- lated to ills here or hereafter, or to poor Yorick's skull, or to the snares with which he was surrounded in a corrupt court.
 Such man is never man of pow CT, fitted for fierce struggle with the brute forces of this world. If Hamlet had been full of energy, trained to combat as he had been, and beloved by the people, he would have met the crime of the King and the lust of the Queen in an appeal to the kingdom and to arms. He would have organ ized revolution that would have driven the royal couple, enveloped in guilt. from the throne-that would have set things right, to use his own definition of his sad mission. But he was born to dream, and not to act. He describes himself when he says the native hue of resolution is sicklied OCT with the pale cast of thought, and enterprises of great pith and mo- ment thus lose the name of action.
 His life, 1t should be remembered, was changed by the appearance of his fathers ghost. The key to the great tragedy is, Remember me-" Suspic- ions had found Judgment in his mind before that fateful meeting, and when those suspicious were more than con firmed by the dread story from the shades Hamlet's entire life was changed. He lived thenceforth man with single purpose, but still with out definite plan. Upon hls con science lay the task of revenging his fathers death, of undoing his moth er's second marriage, of setting things right. His soul revolted from blood shed, but he saw no other way. The deed must be brought home to the doer, but the manner of bringing it home was not plainly foreseen.
 In the chronicles of early Danish tradition Hamlet appears a veritable man. But in those chronicles he kills the usurper,. explains his deed to the people and is made King. The net works of circumstances in Danish tra- dition and in the pages of the drama tist are not dissimilar; but the art of the dramatist would not permit so deep tragedy to end, land they lived happily ever after" The dramatist saw that it should have a tragical end ing, and thus we have the story as it is slowly unfolded in the familiar liEes.
 A task all too heavy had been laid supernaturally laid-upon the man of genius and of fancies, this prince so lovabie and noble. He shrank from it only to be recalled to it again and again by his conscience. He did question the verity of the ghost, al- though it was an age that readily ac- cepted such appearances. Even talk ing ghosts were not considered alto gether irregular in those days. Cir