Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1906-02-17
TUE PUZZLE or HAMLET.

That Hamlet was not insane, but only
seemingly so, as the mood or occasion
suited him, was the principal assertion
of DR.. Maurice +. Egan in his lecture,
''The Puzzle Of Hamlet" before the Cath
olic Reading Circle Mt the New-Century
Club. last night The soliloquies hold
the solution of the problem of llamlet's
madness; they are the test. The solilo-
quy is used by the dramatist to reveal
inmost thoughts to an audience and all
of Hanlets show him TO be perfectly
sane 1t is as absurd 10 consider the 'Io
be or not TO be" the speech of an insane
man, as TO say Hamlets purpose was to
commit suicide. IT is q phase OF thought
passing through his mind, which is over
bnrdened with the necessity of perform
ing the great act of killing the king,
which he believes is his duty. Later, the
players arrive as an instrument for his
purpose His queer, almost tlippant, talk
after the disappearance of the ghost DR..
Egan said, is the result of an over
wrought, hysterical condition, brought on
by the revelations of his mothers and
the kings guilt. The ghost gone, he is
brought back to earth; he grasps any
thing tangible to take him out of the
dream 1t is a like situation to the
knocking of the gate in Macbeth"
Hamlet's conversation with Horatio
shows that he was not mad, but used
tricks to deceive his associates as to his
intentions
Hamlet's words to Ophelia, before the
play. are not those of an insane man, but
of one brutalized by the loss of his faith
in woman AS boy he was petted and
loved by father, mother and the little
Ophelia. Returning from Wittenbug,
the first free thinking university, intro
spective and analytical, his ideals are
overthrown by the mysterious death of
his father and the revelations OF the
guilt of the king and the degradation of
his mother. Loss of faith in his hitherto
loved and respected mother embitters
him to all women. Ophelia's affection
for him was not great or comprehensive
enough to help him and he turned from
her also. He trusted no one but Horatio.
Hamlet is an epic Of doubt; distrust-
ing the power 2t good is the secret Of
his failure. It Is only in moments of
great passion that he acts; at other
times he doubts "He is a real man, as
real as any of us" said DR.. Egan, "and
not a figment of the brain. Shakespeare
is the greatest psychologist that ever ap-
peared in any literature; no one ever ap-
preached him in knowledge of the human
soul"
DR.. Egan spoke Of the play from the
point of view of an Elizabethan. It was
written to be acted, not read; was not
published during Shakespeare's life, and
tradition has it that this practical dra-
matist played the ghost that he might
have opportunity to visit the box Office.
| The text which we read is from the folio
of 1923, written by Heminge and Condel.
| Shakespeare never meant it to be aca-
demically read and dissected. The play
was taken from an old pagan chronicle
or borrowed from a play founded on the
1 chronicle. Shakespeare put it in Chris
tian setting and gave IL the fundamental
idea of the freedom of the WILL which al
ways was at the root of the Catholic
church, which, despite the reformation,
still held a great majority Of the English
people. Hamlet reflects the point of view
of its audiences. No literature is so re-
fiectable as the drama. Elizabethan au-
diences did not ask if Hamlet was in
sane. They fully understood IL all and
would not have spent their time seeing a
drama with madman for its principal
The personae are Elizabethans, not
Danes.
The lack of stage setting made the
beauty of the blank verse project THEN
imaginations. Instead OF beautiful poetry
spoken about the moon in our day, the
moon is on the stage A modern dram.
atist would have his audience sec
Ophelia fall into the spring and hear the
splash, rather than have At told in The
>exquisite poetry OF the queens speech
DIR. Egan accused modern actors OF
throwing the calcium lights ON them
selves as Hamlet and forgetting the
beauty of the ensemble.
Before the lecture a quartet from st
paul's X G. Church choir sang "ln This
Hour of Softened Splendor," by Pinsutti
Mr.. and Mrs Preston, Miss Cora Taggar
and Mr.. Joseph de Luca composed thu
quartet. At TIE conclusion, Mr.. Harry
Stausebach played two violin solos, "Ai
Narie," and "Polonaise," by Dancla
"Annie Laurie" sung by the quartet, wa
heartily applauded.
viii NJ. s. Brown was accompanist fol
the musical numbers. Father Temple in
troduced DIR. Egan, whose lecture wa
the second of his course of four befor
the Catholic Reading Circle in the New
Century Club. Tho third Of these inter
esting lectures viii be given next Frida,
evening on "The Ghost in Hamlet"