Page 68 - Hamlet: The Cambridge Dover Wilson Shakespeare

INTRODUCTIO N Ixi

dence of the soliloquies by any means stands alone.
Hamlet's sense of frustration, of infirmity of purpose,
of character inhibited from meeting the demands of
destiny, of the futility of life in general and action in
particular, finds utterance in nearly every word he says.
His melancholy and his procrastination are all of a piece,
and cannot be disentangled. Moreover, his feelings are
shared and expressed by other characters also. The
note of 'heart-sickness'is struck by the sentry Francisco
nine lines from the beginning of the play 5 the Player
King holds up the Play-scene for several minutes with
an elaborate disquisition upon human instability; Clau-
dius himself embroiders the same topic in conversation
1
with Laertes . In short, that
the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,
is not merely the constant burden of Hamlet's meditation
but the key-note of the whole dramatic symphony.
I refrain from dwelling upon the use which Shakespeare
makes of Fortinbras and Laertes as foils to Hamlet; for
that is critical commonplace, though ignored by Professor
Stoll. But one last piece of evidence, at which he shies
in a footnote, must be mentioned, because I think its
relevance and force have escaped notice; for, though
Dr Bradley with his usual perspicacity has seen it
2
clearly enough , his successors have not.
Do not forget I this visitation
Is but to whet thy almost blunted purpose
says the Ghost to Hamlet in the Bedroom-scene. And
what the Ghost says is true, whatever else be dramatic
convention, since, as every Elizabethan who believed in
the 'honesty' of ghosts would acknowledge, the Ghost
sees Hamlet sub specie eternitatis and follows the secret
motions of his heart.*
1
v. note 4. 7. 117-22.
2
Bradley, op. cit. p. 139.