Page 71 - Hamlet: The Cambridge Dover Wilson Shakespeare

kiv H A M L E T

Claudius refers to it in his words about 'turbulent and
dangerous lunacy.' Hamlet himself admits it to his
father's spirit:
Do you not come your tardy son to chide,
That lapsed in time and passion lets go by
Th'important acting of your dread command ?—
a passage which has been overlooked because the italicised
words, which I interpret 'the prisoner of circumstance
and of passion,' have not been understood. He tacitly
admits it again in the pathetic address to Horatio at the
beginning of 3. 2. in which the lines—
and blest are those
Whose blood and judgement are so well co-medled,
That they are not a pipe for Fortune's finger
To sound what stop she please: give me that man
That is not passion's slave, and I will wear him
In my heart's core, ay in my heart of heart—
form a most revealing piece of self-criticism. Finally, he
admits it in the apology to Laertes before the fencing-
match, which has likewise been generally misappre-
1
hended . What then ? Was Hamlet mad ? To suppose
this might perhaps add pathos to his figure, but would
rob it of all respect: he would, as Dr Bradley says, 'cease
2
to be a tragic character .' Hamlet is one of the greatest
and most fascinating of all Shakespeare's creations; he is
a study of genius. To call him insane is absurd; but
when he tells us that he is 'punished with a sore dis-
traction' I think we are intended to believe his words,
since he is throughout the play obviously subject to
paroxysms of passion, which while they last are akin to
insanity. He struggles against them, as Othello struggles
with his jealousy and Macbeth with his moral instability;
and that struggle is in large measure the groundwork of
his tragedy. Robert Bridges, in his remarkable, if at

1
v. note 5. 2. 230.
2
p
Shakespearean Tragedy, . 14.