he says, with evident allusion to a
diabolic power before referred to--

"What man dare, I dare:
Approach thou like the rugged Russian bear,
The armed rhinoceros, or the Hyrcan tiger,
Take any shape but that."[3]

[Footnote 1: Julius Caesar, V. v. 17.]

[Footnote 2: Ibid. IV. iii. 279.]

[Footnote 3: Macbeth, III. iv. 100.]

58. But it is in "Hamlet" that the undecided state of opinion upon this
subject is most clearly reflected; and hardly enough influence has been
allowed to the doubts arising from this conflict of belief, as urgent or
deterrent motives in the play, because this temporary condition of
thought has been lost sight of. It is exceedingly interesting to note
how frequently the characters who have to do with the apparition of the
late King Hamlet alternate between the theories that it is a ghost and
that it is a devil which they have seen. The whole subject has such an
important bearing upon any attempt to estimate the character of Hamlet,
that no excuse need be offered for once again traversing such
well-trodden ground.

Horatio, it is true, is introduced to us in a state of determined
scepticism; but this lasts for a few seconds only, vanishing upon the
first entrance of the spectre, and never again appearing. His first
inclination seems to be to the belief that he is the victim of a
diabolical illusion; for he says--

"What art thou, that _usurp'st_ this time of night,
Together with that fair and warlike form
In which the majesty of buried Denmark
Did sometimes march?"[1]

And Marcellus seems to be of the same opinion, for immediately before,
he exclaims--

"Thou art a scholar, speak to it, Horatio;"

having apparently the same idea as had Coachman Toby, in "The
Night-Walker," when he exclaims--

"Let's call the butler up, for he speaks Latin,
And that will daunt the devil."[2]

On the second appearance of the illusion, however, Horatio leans to the
opinion that it is really the ghost of the late king that he sees,
probably in consequence of the conversation that has taken place since
the former visitation; and he now appeals to the ghost for information
that may enable him to procure rest for his wandering soul. Again,
during his interview with Hamlet, when he discloses the secret of the
spectre's appearance, though very guarded in his language, Horatio
clearly intimates his conviction that he has seen the spirit of the late
ki