of
the tragedy.

In respect to this drama, as to many others by the same author, the
prophetic words of Leonard Digges may be usefully remembered--"Some
second Shakespeare must of Shakespeare write." Until this miracle occurs,
it is not likely that any aesthetic criticism on the tragedy will be
successful; and certainly at present, notwithstanding the numbers of
persons of high talent and genius who have discussed the subject, nothing
has been, nor is likely to be, produced which is altogether satisfactory.
The cause of this may perhaps to some extent arise from the latitude of
interpretation the dramatic form of composition allows, to the
appreciation of the minor details of a character, and the various
plausible reasons that can often be assigned for the same line of action;
something also may be due to the unconscious influence exercised by
individual temperament upon the exposition of that character, and again
much to the defective state of the text; but the reason of the general
failure in _Hamlet_ criticism is no doubt chiefly to be traced to the
want of ability to enter fully into the inspiration of the poet's genius.

It may, however, be safely asserted that the simpler explanations are,
and the less they are biassed by the subtleties of the philosophical
critics, the more likely they are to be in unison with the intentions of
the author. Take, for instance, the well-established fact that immodesty
of expression, the recollection derived, it may often be, accidentally
and unwillingly from oral sources during the previous life, is one of the
numerous phases of insanity; and not only are the song-fragments chanted
by Ophelia, but even the ribaldry addressed to her by Hamlet, in the
play-scene, vindicated, there being little doubt that Shakespeare
intended the simulated madness of the latter through his intellectual
supremacy to be equally true to nature, the manners of his age permitting
the delineation in a form which is now repulsive and inadmissible.

The present favorite idea is that in Hamlet the great dramatist intended
to delineate an irresolute mind depressed by the weight of a mission
which it is unable to accomplish. This is the opinion of Goethe
following, if I have noted rightly, an English writer in the _Mirror_ of
1780. A careful examination of the tragedy will hardly sustain this
hypothesis. So far from Hamlet being indecisive, although the active
principle in his character is strongly influenced