Page 70 - Hamlet: The Cambridge Dover Wilson Shakespeare

I N T R O D U C T I O N kin

or extreme dejection. Thus the ill-timed, not to say
profane, merriment of I. 5. follows immediately upon
the most solemn moment of the play, the talk with the
Ghost and the oath of consecration, while it is succeeded
by that ominous and despondent couplet
The time is out of joint, O cursed spite,
That ever I was born to set it right I
Or take the interview with Gertrude. The first hundred
lines compose a crescendo of excitement, which is inter-
rupted by the apparition of the Ghost. This restores
Hamlet's pulse to its 'healthful music,' and after the
Ghost disappears we get forty lines of exquisite tender-
ness, a tenderness that even embraces Polonius. The
episode ends with a couplet which suggests an exit, and
had the scene finished there, it would have made a perfect
close. But, as in the Nunnery-scene, Hamlet only goes
to the door to turn back again, and the whole eiFect is
destroyed by the hysterical violence and cynicism of
what comes after.
This convulsive oscillation between extremes of frenzy
and tranquillity is so marked a feature of the Prince's
behaviour and provides so large an element of the rhythm
of the whole play, that to miss it is to miss one of the
1
principal clues to the understanding of Hamlet . It is
obviously of great importance theatrically, since Hamlet's
excitement in its various forms adds much to the excite-
ment of the audience. But it is no mere theatrical trick
or device; it is meant to be part of the nature of the man.
His mother is made to describe it for us after the
'towering passion' of the Funeral-scene:
And thus awhile the fit will work on him.
Anon as patient as the female dove
When that her golden couplets are disclosed
His silence will sit drooping.
1
Dr Bradley {pp. cit. p. 124) notices it but fails, I
think, to appreciate its true importance.