ore subtlety, applies Hamlet's antithesis
of thought and resolution to the elucidation of his own character,
concluding that Hamlet "procrastinates from thought." Gervinus, while
following Schlegel as to "the bent of Hamlet's mind to reflect upon the
nature and consequences of his deed, and by this means to paralyze his
active powers," adds to this defect a deplorable conscientiousness,
which unfits Hamlet for the great duty of revenge. And Mr. Dowden, while
most ably collating these various kinds and degrees of irresolution,
concludes that Hamlet is "disqualified for action by his excess of the
reflective faculty." Mr. Swinburne alone resolutely protests against
this doctrine. He speaks of "the indomitable and ineradicable fallacy of
criticism which would find the key-note of Hamlet's character in the
quality of irresolution."[5] And he considers that Shakespeare purposely
introduces the episode of the expedition to England to exhibit "the
instant and almost unscrupulous resolution of Hamlet's character in time
of practical need." I gladly welcome this instructive remark, which,
although Mr. Swinburne calls it "the voice of one crying in the
wilderness," is more likely to gain me a patient hearing than any
arguments I can use. But before I propose my own reading, I will, as I
have given the genesis or natural history of this theory of
irresolution, compare it with the general features of Hamlet's mental
condition throughout the play.

If Hamlet "procrastinates from thought," if "the burden of the action is
too heavy for him to bear," if "by a calculating consideration he
exhausts all possible issues of the action," it should at least be
continually present to his mind. We should look for the delineation of a
soul harassed and haunted by one idea; torn by the conflict between
conscience and filial obedience; or balancing advantage and peril in an
agony of suspense and vacillation; forecasting consequence and result to
himself and others; and so absorbed in this terrible secret as to
exclude all other interests. We have two studies of such a state of
irresolution, in Macbeth and Brutus. Of Macbeth it may truly be said
that he has an action upon his mind the burden of which is too heavy for
him to bear. It is constantly before him; he is shaken with it,
possessed by it, to such a degree that

"function
Is smother'd in surmise; and nothing is
But what is not."

Now "he will proceed no