The San Francisco call., 1910-09-18
"The Tragedy of Hamlet"


BY Henry Frank author of "Modern Light on
Immortality" Published by sherman,
French & Co., Boston. Price S1.50.
The literature relative to Hamlet"
has now reached such colossal proper
tions that 1t viii soon have room to
itself in great libraries 1t would seem
that in its infinite variety the subject
had been discussed from every i'm
aginable point of view, yet Henry
Frank offers a new solution and stu
dents Will be interested to study again
this greatest product OF the master
mind. 1t seems scarcely credible that
Shakespeare, when he introduced the
ghost as the chief moving character
in his drama, could have had anything
else in mind than one of the conven-
tional apparitions which were so firmly
believed to appear at critical moments
by the people of his time; and a casual
consideration of the ghost in Hamlet
bears out the idea; It is seen by three
people before Hamlet sees 1t; it talks
in the conventional way for ghosts, and
disappears promptly at midnight as
ghosts should. Still Henry Frank con-
tends, and certainly makes out a very
good case, that Shakespeare uncon-
sciously probably has described a
ghost which agrees IN every particular
with what the modern psychologists
call a projection of the subconscious
mind. The laws of psychic phenomena
as studied by Hudson and others seem
TO have been known intuitively to
Shakespeare 300 years before the
science was discovered.
Says Hudson In his Law Of Psychic
Phenomena: "A phantom or ghost is
nothing more or less than an intensi-
fled telepathic vision; its objectivity,
power, persistency and permanence be-
ing In exact proportion to the inten-
sity Of the emotion AMI desire which
called it into being. 1t Is the embodl-
ment of an idea, a thought. 1t is en-
dowed with the intelligence pertaining
10 that one thought and no more; and
1t is a well known fact that when a
ghost fulflls it's mission it never again
appears on this planet"
Henry Frank says: Now all these
features are well carried out in Shakes
peare's phases OF the ghosts appear
ance. and If they are to be accepted as
finally scientific then It Is manifest
that Shakespeare has antedated modern
science by many centuries"
The laws of telepathy as so far
worked out. say that a telepathic mes
sage may be sent by one person TO one
or more others unknown to the sender
himself, and that such a message, if
powerful enough, may appear to the
receivers as a visual object Also the
subject himself may have projected be-
fore him by his subconscious mind an
apparition which to him appears real.
Such an apparition, If 1t appears to
speak, can reveal, of course, nothing
which is not already in the mind of the
subject. Yet the whole mission Of the
ghost in Hamlet is to reveal the fact
OF the murder OF Hamlets father.
The authors ARGUMENT Is I'm brief
as follows: Hamlet's constant brood
ing over the Image OF his departed
father causes telepathic image to be
projected before his friends, Marcellus
and Bernardo. later before Horatfo
also; finally after having been informed
OF the apparition and thus having his
mind prepared, it appears to himself
and In more intense form, so that it
apparently speaks. In regard to the
message it delivers. the author con-
tends that the fact of the kings being
responsible for his fathers death was
already guessed at by Hamlet. and
calls attention TO the following signi-