DR. MACDONALD'S STUDY OF HAMLET.* HAIILET is the most profound,

and at the same time the most popular, of Shakespeare's dramas. Not one of them has given rise to so much criticism, not one contains so many familiar passages. The greatest thinkers of modern times, men, for instance, like Goethe and Coleridge, have found in the character

of Hamlet a psychological study, and the most lifelike of poetical creations. So lifelike, indeed, is the presentation, that the sayings of the Prince of Denmark seem, as Hazlitt says, "as real as our own thoughts." Dr. MacDonald's study of the play is more likely, we think, to surprise than to convince the reader ; but it deserves attention for its subtlety and novelty. Many of his remarks are full of suggestiveness, as, for instance, in his note on the attitude of the Ghost towards the Queen, in the estimate of Polonius and Laertes, and in his comment on Hamlet's self-accusation. Sometimes, however, the criticism is more curious than subtle, and will probably raise a smile. The "pale cast of thought" makes Dr. MacDonald suspect "an allusion to whitening with rough-cast ;" and the following elaborate explanation of Hamlet's letter to Ophelia, and of the

phrase "These in her excellent white bosom, these," strikes us as superfluous and almost ludicrous :—

"Ladies, we are informed, wore a small pocket in front of the bodice ; but to accept the fact as an explanation of this passage, is to cast the passage away. Hamlet addresses his letter, not to Ophelia's pocket, but to Ophelia herself at her house—that is, in the palace of her bosom, excellent in whiteness. In like manner, signing himself, he makes mention of his body as a machine of which be has the use for a time. So earnest is Hamlet that when he makes love he is the more a philosopher. But he is more than a philosopher ; he is a man of the Universe, not a man of the world only."

A still more mirth-stirring comment is to be found upon Hamlet's saying, "The readiness is all, since no man has ought of what he leaves." Dr. MacDonald makes some fine and thoughtful remarks on the difference between a man's real possessions and the things which are merely lent to him for a time ; but when he goes on to advise an actor how to recite the passage, it is to be feared that the actor will be wicked enough to laugh at his counsel :—

"Here the actor should show a marked calmness and elevation in Hamlet. He should have around him, as it were, a luminous cloud, the cloud of his coming end. A smile not all of this world should close the speech. Be has given himself up and is at peace."

We recommend this luminous cloud and the smile not all of this world to Mr. Irving's consideration.

In the famous soliloquy, "To be, or not to be P" Dr.

MacDonald doubts whether there is an allusion to suicide, and suggests that Hamlet's thought associates the king and the bare bodkin,—

" Neither in its first verse," he writes, "nor in it anywhere else, do I find even an allusion to suicide. What Hamlet is referring to in the said first verse it is not possible with certainty to determine, for it is but the vanishing ripple of a preceding ocean of thought from which he is just stepping out upon the shore of the articulate. He may have been plunged in some profound depth of the metaphysics of existence, or he may have been occupied with the one practical question, that of the slaying of his uncle, which has, now in one form, now in another, haunted his spirit for weeks."

And after some more conjectures as to the thoughts stirring in

Hamlet's mind,Dr. MacDonald adds, in reference to the passage, "For who would bear the whips and scorns of time P" that,— " Hen let alludes to his own wrongs, but mingles, in his generalising way, others of those most common to humanity, and refers to the special cure for some of his own which was close to his hand,—' who would bear these things if he could, as I can, make his quietus with a bare bodkin ?'—that is, by slaying his enemy—' who would then bear them, but that he fears the future, and the divine judgment upon his life and actions—that conscience makes a coward of him p'"

The main purpose of the author's criticism, however, is to throw an entirely new light en the character of the hero. Goethe thinks that in this play Shakespeare meant to represent the effects of a great action laid upon a soul unable to perform it. Coleridge maintains that the activity of thought was so powerful in Hamlet as to incapacitate him for carrying his resolutions into action. Even after the scene with Osrick in Act V.,—

" We see him," be writes, "still indulging in reflection and hardly thinking of the task he has just undertaken ; he is all despatch and resolution as far as words and present intentions aro concerned, but all hesitation and irresolution when called upon to carry his words and intentions into effect, so that resolving to do everything be does nothing. Bela full of purpose, but void cf that quality of mind which accomplishes purpose.'

And Coleridge adds elsewhere, what every reader knows, that Hamlet's purpose was at last accomplished by mere accident This may be called the popular view of the character, and it is not, we think, a false one. In Hamlet, the habit of brooding thought is opposed to decisive action. So accustomed is he to look before and after, and to weigh all possible contingencies, that when the moment of action comes he is unprepared and irresolute. We see this forcibly when he finds the king praying. Can any one doubt that his horrible excuses for delaying to strike then, were but the excuses of a noble mind so fearful of a rash action as to be incapable of any ? In a measure, Dr.

MacDonald admits this. He explains the excuse as most readers would explain it ; but thinks it shows the soundness of Hamlet's reason and the steadiness of his will, that on this, the first chance within the play of killing the king, "he refuses to be carried away by passion or the temptation of opportunity." But by the delay Hamlet learnt no more as to his father's murder than he had learnt already ; what be did learn was the king's treachery towards himself, and this, according to Dr. MacDonald, gave him right and power over the life of the traitor. Be it so ; but the exercise of this right was delayed until it was, as it were, forced upon him from without. The slaying of the king at last appears to have been less an exercise of will than a decree of fate. There was no longer time for irresolution when, at the last moment, the deed was accomplished. We confess that, after a reperusal of the play under Dr. Macdonald's guidance, we are quite unable to follow his frequent vindication of Hamlet as a man of action. When a thing has to he done and can be done, Hamlet, we are told, shows himself the very promptest of men ; and as one illustration of this promptitude the reader is referred to the instant resolve and execution, "without precipitancy," with which be stabs Polonius. On the contrary, despite the risk we run of incurring the critic's contempt for judging "according to appearance," that act seems to us the outcome, not of resolve, but of the impulsiveness of anger at discovering a spy.

"Thou wretched, rash intruding fool, farewell ; I took thee for thy betters,"

Hamlet says, regretting that the work to which he had

dedicated his life had not been accidentally accomplished; but it was precipitancy that brought Polonius to his end. And the sudden act is perfectly consistent with the hesitancy of character generally attributed to Hamlet. The most vacillating mind can be brought to a decision on the spur of the moment, but an unpremeditated action is surely no indication of a resolute, decided character.

It will be seen that we differ from Dr. MacDonald on the point he dwells upon most strongly in this study of Hamlet ; and we maintain that in keeping to the old paths of criticism with regard to this wonderful creation, and to the view which led Coleridge to exclaim that he had a smack of Hamlet in himself, we feel the exhaustless interest of the character as we cannot feel it if we accept the critic's judgment, that when a thing has to be done Hamlet "shows himself the very promptest of men," and "a man of action in every true sense of the word."