The San Francisco call., 1910-09-18

flcant passage, which has strangely
enough been but little commented
upon:
GhOst-"If ever thou didst thy dear father
Revenge his foul and most unnatural murther. -
Hamlet "Murtherl"
Murther most foul, as 1t is at best /;
now Hamlet, hear:
serpent stung me;--but know, my noble youth.
The serpent that did sting thy fathers life
Hamlet-oh my prophetic souli My unclep'
Commenting on this passage, the au-
thor says: Here is clear intimation
that the thought that his father had
been foully murdered by his uncle, had
already existed in his mind, but he was
loath to give 1t expression even to him.
self. But when he hears the ghost pro-
claim it then suddenly the rush of
memory crowds upon his mind and he
hears himself cry aloud. oh, knew IT.;
I felt it; my prophetic soul, thou
vert rightp This is manifestly the
force of the entire passage, and re-
veals the psychological purport OF
Hamlets mental vision"
Taking such speculations for what
they are worth, the author proves pret-
ty conclusively that Shakespeare either
deliberately or by chance described an
apparition which corresponds in every
detail with the only real apparition--
If there are any such
Upon the much mooted question of
Hamlet's sanity. Henry Frank has his
fling and examining the subject from
the standpoint OF the modern alienist
calls attention to the following facts:
The text undoubtedly shows that Ham
let, for his own reasons, pretended to
be insane. The passages wherein he is
assuming madness are quite plain But
in others, where it is equally plain that
he is not shamming, he gives way to
outbursts which could only come from
a real madman. Now, the author points
out what has never been mentioned
before, that these outbursts occur only
when the king, the object of his intense
hatred, is present, or when he mistak-
enly thinks he is present as in the
scene In his mothers closet where he
kills Polonius behind the arras, suppos-
ing him to be the king.
The conclusion is that Hamlet. per-
fectly sane and rational at most times.
was thrown into fits of madness by the
presence OF the king, whom he loathed
so heartily; hence he would be classed
as a. monomaniac, which class If In
sane. 1t is well known, are as rational
as any one else at ordinary times, and
Hamlet would be perfectly capable of
assuming madness when his real mad
ness was not upon him.
The book makes real addition to
the study of Hamlet and whether or not
the authors conclusions are tenable
the portions quoted from. as well as
many others not alluded to, are well
worth the time Of any one interested in
things Shakesparean.
A slim little booklet entitled The
City of Saint Anna is explained in a
subtitle as The Story OF The Man
Child" 1t is written and published by
Edward A. Merit, who with MANY
others nowadays is agitating the cues
tion of education on the subject of the
social evil" or as James Oppenhein1
puts IT. "The Great Black Plague"
This book purports to be sketch OF
the last IS years Of a mans life, living
here on the Pacific coast. Like most
reformers he makes the mistake OF
overshooting the mark. He selects the
most depraved conditions to write
about, and while they fill the reader
With horror he knows instinctiyely
that these cases must be exceptional
The book is much overdone and badly
written, but the honesty of purpose is
evident throughout. tSalt Lake City.)