this drama, to promote the cause of Essex and his party. The usurper, in the eyes of Shakespeare's friends, was Cecil, who by his ascendency over the mind of Elizabeth, ruled as virtual sovereign, whose word was law, whose favorites enjoyed the great monopolies that oppressed the people, and in whose hands were their lives, their fortunes, and their liberties. By picturing the hated and ambitious Cecil in his supremacy, insolent, autocratic, and susceptible of the grossest flattery, the drama at once familiarized the popular mind with the odiousness of tyranny. This idea is inculcated in many passages, only a few of which are culled at random: "Upon what meat doth this our Caesar feed Lecip "Why, man, he doth bestride the narrow world Walk under his huge legs and peep about "Age, thou art ashamed! Rome, thou hast lost the breed of noble bloods! "Ye gods, it doth amaze me! A man of such a feeble temper should So get the start of the majestic world Brutus, on the other hand, the hero of the tragedy and chief conspirator, the Poet so ennobles and glorifies as to win for him our sympathy and admiration. But in the eyes of the conspirators of 1601, Essex was the noble Brutus, who preferred death to loss of liberty. "The noblest Roman," one of the grandest of Shakespeare's creations, is incapable of self-seeking, and, stirred by the loftiest patriotism, is the reflex of every virtue. To emphasize his own high appreciation of the chief conspirator, the prototype of Essex, his noble patron, the Poet closes the drama with Marc Anthony's transcendent praise of Brutus in words that reach the limits of laudation: "This was the noblest Roman of them all. So mixed in him that Nature might stand up, To elude suspicion, the principals in the conspiracy were accustomed to assemble at Drury House, the residence of the Earl of Southampton." Here Shakespeare and his friends were likewise wont to gather. During this period, arrangements were made with his company to present Richard II, for the purpose of enkindling the patriotism of the conspirators.12 The attempted insurrection was, however, crushed by the iron hand of Cecil. Several of Shakespeare's most intimate associates were involved in its fateful consequences. In addition, the circle of young nobles whose friendship he had fondly prized was shattered. The Earl of Pembroke, his younger patron, was banished from the court; the Earl of Essex was adjudged a traitor, and died upon the scaffold; and the Earl of Southampton, his long trusted friend and idol, was sent a prisoner to the Tower, where in daily danger of execution, he languished until the succession of James the First in 1603. These misfortunes, so personal to Shakespeare, caused thick gloom to settle upon his mind. Truly, "the times were out of joint." The world had grown dark around him. His nature, so sensitive to the touch of evil and of good, and so susceptible of the strongest friendship, was acutely stirred by the sufferings and loss of his cherished friends; and, in consequence, his mind and feelings underwent a phase of bitter anguish and unrest. This fact is evidenced by the sudden change in the character of his dramas. His 11 Of. Lingard: "History of England", Vol. VI, c. IX, p. 607. 12 Camden's Annals" Lord Bacon's official papers concerning "The Treason of Robert Earl of Essex'. fresh joyousness, his keen delight in life and in friendship, and his frank trust in beauty and in goodness, which breathe throughout his earlier works, now yield to disappointment, to disillusion, to a new sense of evil, and the foulness that underlies so much of human life. The misfortune of his friends and patrons engulfs him in gloom; and his afflicted mind turns to the contemplation of the mournful world of tragedy. From his mighty dramas we may learn something of his own unrest and anguish of mind at the sight of his cherished friends falling around him one by one amid the turbulence of political and religious persecution." Shakespeare, moreover, had other troubles and anxieties of mind. He must have trembled at the time of the Essex conspiracy, not only for Southampton's life, but even for his own; for Philips, the manager of his company, was called before the Privy Council to account for the performance of the obnoxious tragedy of Richard II. It was declared treasonable, and was prohibited from further exhibition. His company lost favor with the Government, and were "inhibited" from playing more in London. In the interim, Shakespeare travelled with his company through the "Provinces," and, as stated in the title page of the First Quarto, played Hamlet at the universities of Oxford and Cambridge. This production was the first copy of the drama, which in the meanwhile, as is affirmed in the reprint of the play of 1604, he elaborated "and enlarged to almost as much again." With mind overclouded with deep melancholy, he had turned to his Tragedy of Hamlet; therein at least he could freely and fittingly give expression to his grief of mind and heart. This is clear from the fact that his "enlargement" of the play does not materially affect the plot and the important incidents of the first copy, but rather the subjective elements of Hamlet's character. Hence, the Prince's overpowering grief and oppressive melancholy; his sense 12 Cf. Greene: "History of the English People', Bk. VI, C. VII. А tedium; his heartache and weariness of life; his distrust of fellowmen who seem the slaves of passion, self-interest and duplicity; his disgust for a world which appears "a sterile promontory" whose very atmosphere is rife with pestilential vapors; all these are feelings more insisted on, and repeatedly expressed in varied forms in the new soliloquies of the Second Quarto: "The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune," "The heartache and the thousand natural shocks "The whips and scorns of time, The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely, That patient merit of the unworthy takes." "I have of late lost all my mirth, and indeed it goes so heavily with my disposition, that this goodly frame, the earth, seems to me a sterile promontory; this o'erhanging firmament, this majestical roof fretted with golden fire, appears no other thing to me than a foul and pestilent congregation of vapors." "How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable, That grows to seed; things rank and gross in nature "But break my heart, for I must hold my tongue." The development of the contemplative side of Hamlet's character, was necessarily tempered by the Poet's own mental grief and gloom and, therefore, must have been a task not only easy, because a mere reflection, or a bodying forth of his own heated mind; but also pleasing because affording a relief in the utterance of the pent-up griefs and sorrows of his overburdened heart. As a consequence, the drama seems to reflect the gloomy thoughts and feelings which at this time afflicted the Poet's own life. CHAPTER II The Religion of Denmark in From various references in the play, it is evident that Hamlet's existence is ascribed to a period of time when, in the early part of the eleventh century, England acknowledged the suzerainty of Denmark. The first Danish invasion of England in the year 994 was led by Swengen, king of Denmark. After ravaging Kent, Essex and Sussex with impunity, he was bought off by king Aethelred on the condition. of paying an annual tribute tax, known as Danegelt. But, when Aethelred in 1002 had by secret letters to every city and town ordered the slaughter on St. Brice's day of all the Danes resident in England, his treachery aroused the Danes to vengeance. Swengen swore a solemn oath to conquer the kingdom. Landing again with a powerful force in 1003, the Danish king began devastating the land anew; and only after every means of defence had been exhausted, and the spirit of the nation was crushed, did Aethelred agree to an increased annual Danegelt tax of 40,000 pounds. But distrustful of Aethelred and mindful of his solemn oath, he determined upon the complete conquest of England, and in the year 1013 returned with a more powerful fleet for the third invasion. After his death in the following year, his son, Cnute the Great, continued the war of conquest, and in 1016 was crowned king of a vast Northern empire, which included England, Wales, Norway and Denmark. Of no less interest is the question of the religion of Denmark in the days of Hamlet. When Harold, driven from his kingdom in the year 826, found refuge with the German emperor at Metz, he was with his queen converted |