The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1901-12-11
4 TALK ON HAMLET"
DR.. j. j. Walsh, of New York, Ad-
dressed the Catholic Historical
Society on the Tragedy.

DR.. J. j. Walsh, of New York city,
gave a most interesting talk on Shakes
peare's Hamlet last night before the
members OF the Catholic Historical
society. 1t was the second of the series
of talks which he was engaged to give
this season on Shakcspearian subjects.
The doctor did not attempt to go
deeply into his subject. because of the
limited time placed at his disposal. and
contented himself with selecting a few
of the incidents and characters in the
play and enlargins upon them.
In beginning his talk, he referred to
'Hamlet' as the greatest tragedy ever
written. and traced in an interesting
manner the development of tragedy
through all the ages. All sorts and con-
ditions of men, from the very begin
ming of literature. have had a deep and
abiding interest in tragedy. he said.
This, he thought, is largely due to the
fact that every human ben's life, taken
as Il whole, is a little tragedy in itself.
and that a certain air of mystery al
ways surrounds the telling of the story
of the SufferingS and trials of men and
women. the mystery of what someone
has aptly termed "the whyness of life"
In tracing the origin of the story of
Hamlet. which was taken from Il crude
ly written novel of the name, DR.. Walsh
took occasion to point out that one of
the most peculiar facts about Shake
speare's writings is that he never eXer-
cised, to any very great extent, the
faculty of invention. He never wasted
his time in constructing and devising
plots. but WAS content to take up the
stories of other writer's and infuse into
them the fire of his own matchless
genius.
The exercise Of the imaginative fac
ulty now seems to be about the only
thing necessary for success in liter
ature," said the doctor. I'VE have the
spectacle presented to us of a young
woman receiving the princely sum of
$l50,000 for Il novel which is simply the
stringing together in a clever manner
of a number of incidents in which sword
play is the dominating feature. l mean
the young woman who wrote The Hell
met of Navarro which has had such a
phenomenal success. There is nothing
enduring, and nothing which can be
called literature in it's truest sense in
the book
Perhaps the most interesting of DR..
Walsh's comments on the play was on
the character of the ghost of Hamlet's
murdered father, whose words spurred
him to take vengeance on his murder
ers. The ghost is pictured in an APP
parently straightforward manner by
the poet. as if he meant to really por-
tray a spirit returned to earth from the
other world, the doctor said, but when
"a ,.1n l1-cic nf ba it,, Ia I
will be found that the idea that the
ghost was but Il creature of the inn
aginations of the men who saw it.
seems to be just as apparent.
He pointed out that the spectre ap-
peared first to "A lone sentinel standing
in the cold on the ramparts of the
castle. The soldiers surroundings We're
such that he was in an almost ideally
perfect condition to imagine that he
saw something supernatural. The doc
tor said that in the intense cold, when
the blood is forced in from the surface
of the body, Il mans imagination is al
ways liveliest, and that it is more than
possible that Shakespeare meant to
represent the spectre as n spirit of
the mind" and to show that Hamlet
and the other characters imagined that
that he means Hamlet to show that
he seriously doubted the real existence
of the spirit the doctor said
Labor convention were also present.
HamletS later reference to that un-
discovered country from whose bourne
no traveller returns" in which Shake
speare is said by many critics to con-
tradict himself, is rather an indication
that he himself seriously doubted the
real existence of the spirit, the doctor
said.
He attempted no analysis whatever
of the character of the melancholy
Dane.