Daily independent. [volume] (Elko, Nev.) 188?-1915, 1913-04-12
MODERN HAMLETS

Shakespeare was born seventy-two
years after America was discovered.
Galileo was born the same year. He
read the stars of the sky, but Shake
speare told the secrets of the human
heart, and rang warning bells OH every
shoal of hate and passion.
The plays of Shakespeare are his best
biography. Henry vi, Tanning of the
Shrew, Loves Labor Lost. The Comedy
of Errors, Two Gentlemen of Verona,
A Midsummer Nights Dream, belong
to his early manhood and are charac-
terized by gay buoyancy. The man
deepens, and ten years later come
Julius Caesar, Henry V, and The Mer-
chantof Venice.
These plays show intellectual life on
the highest level, to be followed by
plays of tempestuous passion. His joys
had eliminated and he had hidden
farewell to mirth. See this in Macbeth,
Lear, Othello, Measure for Measure
and Hamlet.
Hamlet bewilders us. 1t has us
many meanings as readers. Hamlet
holds up mirror to all nature. Ham
let reminds US of Brutus in julius Gaze.
sar. Both are idealists, and events
forced both into the world of action
Both are high-minded, generous, brave.
To US Shakespeare in this play sets
forth the vice of the inactive will. He
shows how nonaction atrophies the
lection. honor are all present, but he
lacks the achieving will. He is ready
to weep, to love, to jest, to delay but
he cannot act.
At mignight when the ghosts did
squeak and gibber in the Roman
streets, the messenger from the other
world warns and instructs the procras-
tinating Hamlet. He feigns madness
to gain time, yet all the while his VEN
gence is unaccomplished.
From Hamlet, the man who cannot,
we turn to Fortinbras, the man who
CAN. All through this play the man
of action is set over against the man of
reflection. Then Hamlet dies, and
-four captains bear Hamlet like a
soldier"-captains, the men who CAN
bear the man of inaction, with soldier
music, and rites of war. The King
who CAN has come to the throne.
Hamlet is pathetic. All Hamlets are
Surely man without capacity for &C
ton is an awful ruin. About us this
tragedy of inaction is set on many q
stage. 1t is played when the emotions
never become acts. Such people are
Hamlets-human aspen leaves tiutter
ing all during lifes brief day. Till the
sun is old, and the stars are cold, and
the leaves of the judgement book un
fold"
Nations as we'll as individuals play
Hamlet. Lord Salisbury once called
Spain degenerate" among nations
Mexico had the same ghost be
speak her that called and beckoned tc
Spain. ''Once to every man and ma
ton comes the moment to decide,
and Mexico decided. She pulled dowr
Macmillan, and set up Diaz. France
too, is in the mill of the gods. In tina
hdSlobIOh Cdll6u Ill uiSbOiJJ bDe NcNO
luton, the underworld and the over
world cried to her. Like Hamlet. sh
said, II follow" go on; I'll follow,
till she was left like painted doll il
the hands of Won Moltke, Bismark, an,
William. The world watches her, an,
wonders whether she will play Spain
OF Mexico; Hamlet or Fortinbras.
Ghosts still walk the earth and war
mon; and point them to duty. Sha]
we play Spain or Mexico-Ham
let I: or Fortinbras2 As Burke ono
said 1.-THE smoothness of fattery cannc
now avail to save us in this rugge
and awful crisis" Society must pur
ish it's corporation looters; execute il
Stanford Whites; wave back it's mob.
and keep its hands on the threats {
protected infant industries. Mediat
val times could not do this work, an
the world went into anarchy. plumber
cd the poor, worshipped for fear, noel
ed at equality, and preferred life wit
decline, degradation to death, rattle
than grapple with it's own ravishel
and murderers.
The great noun of life is DUTY; tn
great verb n DO.