That Shakspeare possessed vast knowledge of the human mind, is a general and undisputed opinion; by which is to be understood, that he had not merely an acquaintance with its power or faculties in a metaphysical scope, but a profound intimacy with the passions by which it is moved, and the emotions of which it is susceptible, in its various states of cultivation and excitement. Assuming, therefore, that he had accurately and minutely surveyed the human intellect in its sound state, it still remains to be seen how far he has succeeded in painting its morbid condition, and this will be best elucidated by the characters he has drawn in a state of mental derangement, of which it is contended Ham let is one.

In collecting the evidence which this play affords of the insanity of Hamlet, it is not intended to prove that his mind was uniformly deranged, or that his malady disqualified him altogether for the exercise of reason. The draught of such a character would have defeated the object of the poet, which was to represent a noble mind, richly endowed and highly polished-a Being of lofty nature and important destinies,visited by paroxysms of mental disorder.

The question under consideration is, Whether Hamlet was really mad, or only assumed madness?

The Prince of Denmark has generally been portrayed on the stage as a melancholy being, who, in his happiest moments, was but a misanthrope, and who, when roused into action by a favourite design, merely. feigned madness to cover a purpose, which, in the end, he had not courage to execute. **

SHAKSPEARE'S Hamlet appears to
APRIL, 1824.

have been by nature a volatile and ardent Prince, whose temper and disposition had suffered deep impressions by the death of his father, the speedy marriage of his mother, and the suspension of his own right consequent on that marriage. These circumstances, operating suddenly on a mind predisposed to gaiety, and to the follies which spring from youthful effervescence, give a tinge of melancholy to his train of thought, which speedily, but imperceptibly, produces an instability of intellect. Whilst thus suffering from mental depression, the suspicion of his father's murder induces him to put on an antic disposition, that, under colour of madness, his actions may be less liable to scrutiny, and more free scope be thereby afforded for the measures he shall take to arrive at full conviction. From this period he strives to wipe from the table of his memory all trivial fond records that youth and observation copied there, except as those pressures may tend to the accomplishment of his object; and thus in cherishing a favourite design and permitting the Ghost's

Commandment all alone to live Within the book and volume of his brain, Unmix'd with baser matter,

he gives growth and maturity to à malady, the seeds of which had germinated in his mind, until, in the end, he actually labours under the infirmity which his previous declaration shows he but intended to feign.

That Hamlet was not constitutionally subject to melancholic depression, but could, before the death of his father, have derived gratification from those pursuits and follies which usually distinguish the career of young men of uncontrolled passions, may be collected from the early parts of the play. The king speaks of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, as men who

Being of so young days brought up with him,

And since so neighbour'd to his youth and

humour,

Might by their presence draw him on to pleasures. 2 B

That he preferred Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, who were mere popinjays, to the sober Horatio, is clear, as he receives the former as his "excellent good friends," and says, "Good lads, how do you both? whereas he scarcely remembers the latter, and coldly observes

-I am glad to see you well: Horatio or I do forget myself. It is true, he afterwards holds Horatio to his heart as a just man, but the habits and manners of Hamlet have, in the interval, completely changed from what they had been. The Queen likewise says to the fops:

Good Gentlemen, he hath much talk'd of

you;

And sure I am two men there are not living, To whom he more adheres.

His first sally to these court-flies is grossly indecent-when speaking of their being Fortune's favourites; and shows at once their intimacy and their habits. In the same scene he says to them,

By the rights of our fellowship, by the consonancy of our youth, by the obligation of our ever-preserved love, and by what more dear a better proposer cou'd charge you withal, be even and direct with me whether you were sent for or no.

Ros. (to Guildenstern.) What say you?
Hamlet (aside.) Nay, then, I have an eye

of you.

Up to this time Hamlet deals frankly with the fops, regarding them as his friends and familiar associates -their reluctance to answer his question first puts him on suspicion of their being spies on his conduct. It is a common and universal remark, that men of gay disposition feel more acutely a sudden visitation of affliction than those of less buoyant mind. How Hamlet" lost all his mirth' will be shown by the evidence adduced of his insanity.

Soon after the second marriage of his mother, his feelings assume a morbid character; and in his first soliloquy, in the second scene of the play, he debates on suicide:

Oh that this too, too solid flesh would melt,
Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew!
Or that the everlasting had not fixt

His canon 'gainst self-slaughter. O God, O God!

How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable,

Seem to me all the uses of this world!

The supernatural agency of the Ghost is introduced, for the purpose of communicating an important secret. When Hamlet receives the intelligence, his surprise is natural, and not devoid of tenderness: his examination of the persons who had seen the figure of the late King, minute and pertinent; and he properly resolves to watch in person, in order to be convinced of the reality of the vision. Although he had not hitherto let fall any hint or conjecture respecting the death of his father, yet when alone he displays an apprehension:

My father's spirit in arms! All is not well: I doubt some foul play: would the night

were come.

Hamlet's interview with the spirit of his father, is on his part a solemn display of duty and affection.

In his soliloquy after the exit of the Ghost, which, for a time, forcibly records the reflections and feelings that ought to impress him, he suddenly starts off, his thoughts are abruptly diverted, and he produces his tablet for memoranda, to set downnot the horrible contrivance of his father's murder, as divulged by his spirit, but a common remark:

That one may smile-and smile-and be a villain !

At least, I'm sure it may be so in Denmark:

So, Uncle, there you are.

When Hamlet is joined by Horatio and Marcellus, after the awful disclosure, he displays a levity wholly unbefitting the solemnity of the occasion. This is so glaring, that Horatio is compelled to remark―

These are but wild and hurling words, my

Lord.

And when he proposes that they should swear to secrecy upon his sword-and the Ghost, from his subterranean confine, urges them to the oath-he descends to coarse jest and ridiculous buffoonery :

Ah, ha, boy! say'st thou so? Art thou

there, true-penny? Come on! you hear this fellow in the cellarage: Consent to swear.

And again:

And with a look, so piteous in purport,

ground so fast?

A worthy pioneer !

To put an antic disposition on).

Up to this period Hamlet has expressed no purpose for which he could feign madness; and, consequently, all his previous actions and words may be considered as proceeding from a perfectly free agent: and he is subject to or freed from the charge of insanity, as those words and actions shall, or shall not, afford evidence of a rational mind.

Here it may fairly be asked, whether Hamlet's determination to assume madness, considering the circumstances in which he was placed, does not of itself furnish the strongest evidence of his insanity. He wishes to throw the King completely off his guard and to scrutinize his conduct, without exciting observation or provoking restraint on his own behaviour. To accomplish this, he proposes to act the madman. None but a madman could have conceived such a project, as, so far from a belief in his madness being favourable to his purpose, it would completely counteract it, by causing him to be closely watched and properly restrained. The King says:

To speak of horrors, he comes before me. With this connect the remainder of her description and the letter sent to her by Hamlet, which is shown to the King and Queen by Polonius. Some of these are sufficient indications of an insane mind, of a state that cannot be assumed; nor can they be attributed to intensity of feeling, or the extremity of natural passion— they pass the boundaries of both, and must be viewed as mental distortions from a morbid cause.

In the

Hamlet's letter to Ophelia concludes with "Thine evermore, most dear lady, whilst this machine is to him-Hamlet."-On which Mr. Steevens remarks, "These words will not be ill explained by the conclusion of one of the letters of the Paston family, vol. ii. p. 43; for your pleasure whyle my wytts be my owne.' interview with Polonius, where Hamlet calls him a fishmonger, it may be granted that he assumes a crazy vein; but even then he was found reading a description of the evils of long life. "The satirical rogue says here (alluding to the book he holds) that old men have grey beards." By the satirical rogue, he means Juvenal, in his tenth satire.

Da spatium vitæ, multos da, Jupiter, annos ; Hoc recto vultu, solum hoc et pallidus op

tas.

Plena malis? deformem et tetrum ante omnia vultum, Dissimilemque sui, deformem pro cute pellem,

Pendentesque genas, et tales aspice rugas,

go.

The next act of the play exhibits Hamlet fully invested with his antic disposition; and if it had been assumed, it is certain he would have had power to control it. Let us now hear the relation of Ophelia, who is a competent witness. Speaking to her father, she says:

My Lord, as I was sewing in my chamber, Lord Hamlet, with his doublet all unbraced,

No hat upon his head, his stockings foul'd, Ungarter'd, and down-gyved to his ancle, Pale as his shirt, his knees knocking each

other,

In vetulâ scalpit jam mater simia buccâ.

In the subsequent scene with Ro sencrantz and Guildenstern, which commences with quaint jest and indelicate levity, he furnishes, without affectation or reserve, a lamentable but natural picture of gloom and despondency." I have of late, but wherefore I know not, lost all my and indeed it goes so heavily with mirth, forgone all custom of exercise: my disposition, that this goodly frame, the earth, seems to me a sterile promontory; this most excellent canopy, the air, look you, this brave o'erhanging, this majestical roof, fretted

might be tolerated on an indifferent occasion: but after the commission of such a flagrant outrage to resort to contumelious sarcasm, and hurl the language of defiance, must force the conclusion that he was a senseless

and abandoned miscreant, if charity and a nicer estimate did not urge us to the commiseration of a masterless infirmity.

King. Where is Polonius ?

Hamlet. In Heaven: send thither to see; if your messenger find him not there, seek him in the other place yourself. But indeed, if you find him not within this month, you shall nose him as you go up the stairs into the lobby.

King. Go seek him there (To some attendants).

Hamlet. He will stay till you come. Although excited by the Ghost, the sole purpose of whose second visitation is to goad him to revenge, the admonition is disregarded; and without repining at his banishment, he cheerfully departs for England.

The last instance that will be adduced of the uncontrollable sallies that constituted his mental calamity, is his conduct at the grave of Ophelia. After a season of fastidious mo ralising with Horatio, and an interchange of gross repartee with the Grave-Digger, during the funeral procession, the Prince recognises Laertes, whom he points out to Ho

ratio:

That is Laertes, a very noble youth: mark!

When Hamlet understands that his lamentations bewail a chaste and hapless sister, he exclaims

What, the fair Ophelia ? but there is no sentiment or reflexion annexed to the expression. Laertes, in a transport of grief, leaps into her grave, and, frantic with affliction, calls out

Now, pile your dust upon the quick and dead,

Till of this flat a mountain you have made, T'o'ertop old Pelion, or the skyish head Of blue Olympus.

When these words, the desponding effusions of a brother's love, reach the ear of Humlet, unconscious of the solemnity of the scene, wholly forgetful of his former unkindness, insensible that he had slain the father

Like wonder-wounded hearers? This is I, Hamlet the Dane.

It is only necessary to peruse the remainder of the scene to stamp this violent explosion with the character of madness. After his mind has been seriously occupied on another subject, and reflection returns, he expresses to Horatio his extreme regret; and, as is usual in such cases, assigns an unsatisfactory reason :—

That to Laertes I forgot myself;
But I am very sorry, good Horatio,
For by the image of my cause I see
The portraiture of his.

vour:

I'll court his fa