Page 87 - Hamlet: The Cambridge Dover Wilson Shakespeare

hxx H A M L E T

them, saying, "By heaven, I'll make a ghost of him that
lets me." So much for them! Then he turns his sword
"
toward the Ghost: Go on, I'll follow thee"; and the
Ghost goes off. Hamlet remains standing still, with his
sword held out before him, so as to gain more distance,
and at last, when the Ghost is out of sight of the audience,
he begins to follow slowly, now stopping, now going on
again, but always with his sword held out before him, his
eyes fixed on the Ghost, his hair dishevelled, breathless
still, until he too passes out of sight behind the scenes.
You can easily imagine what loud applause this exit
wins. It begins as soon as the Ghost is gone, and lasts
until Hamlet likewise disappears'—lasts, as Davies would
add, until they both appeared again.
One of Johnson's many sneers at his beloved Davy
implied that he overacted this terror. 'Hie et Ubique'
complained of that long stretch of silent 'business' before
he began 'Angels and ministers of grace,'and found him
too violent with Horatio and Marcellus; and even the
devoted Lichtenberg blamed him for acting his feelings
too long in silence before he began to reveal them in
'O all you host of heaven.' But -his triumph seems to
have lain in first arousing terror and then softening it
with the filial love which he made the keynote of the
character. Further details have been preserved. When
'
he came on to speak To be or not to be,' he was already
feigning distraction, his hair hanging about his shoulders,
one black stocking down, with the red garter showing.
With his chin on his right hand and his left hand sup-
porting his right elbow, he stood looking sideways down
on the ground and began very quietly, the audience
listening as reverently as if it was in church. In the scene
with Ophelia, some held him to be too boisterous and
harsh, where Barry was much gentler and graver; and
again in the scene with his mother he was occasionally too
rough and loud, where both Wilks and Barry always
preserved 'the delicacy of address to a lady.' He is