was founded on hereditary right. Dispossessed in the person of his father by the elder Hamlet, his claim hung over the head of the usurper. When the fratricidal monarch falls in penalty of his crimes, and with him the line of Hamlet becomes extinct, then we see prince Fortinbras entering upon the scene, to assert his just claim: For me, with sorrow I embrace my fortune; I have some rights of memory in this kingdom, By recognizing his claim, and more than once alluding to it, the Poet has already carefully prepared us for the final entrance of the Norwegian prince. Early in the drama, Horatio exposes how King Fortinbras was forced to yield the crown to the elder Hamlet; and later, we hear the complaint of Claudius against young Fortinbras, who was then intent upon invading Denmark to assert by force of arms his own hereditary right to the throne. The claim, moreover, is admitted by Hamlet in his last will and testament. It is made at the most solemn moment, when, by affirming with "dying voice" the right of the Norwegian prince, he makes a just and honorable amende for any act of injustice of which his father may have been guilty. Thus the avenging justice of an over-ruling Providence, is seen not only to strike down the criminal usurper, but also to prepare the way for the crowning of the just inheritor. Such is the complete solution of the complex drama. Looking back upon that scene of bloody havoc, we see a new dawn looming over the valley of the shadow of death; and, as the princely Fortinbras marches into view, that dawn ripens into a glad sunrise, the harbinger of a better day, when the reign of virtue and of justice shall bring to distracted Denmark, a new life blessed with the calm of innocence and peace. The tragedy aptly concludes with the eulogy of Fortinbras over the corpse of the fallen hero. If fortune had crowned Hamlet King, he would have proved himself a most royal ruler. The last and noblest scion of a warrior and kingly race, his shall be the honors of royal obsequies. Though fallen, he was yet victorious. Let war's shrill clarion trumpet the fact aloud! Let his corpse, decked in a warrior's full panoply, be borne away in triumphal march, with music's martial strains and all the rites of war. When, in fine, the curtain falls, as booming cannons cry aloud his mourning, one is apt to reflect that of all his sea-king forefathers, not one was more worthy, more gifted and heroic than this prince of Denmark, the last and noblest of a royal line. EPILOGUE Hamlet has been justly called a tragedy of thought or reflection. In the very opening scene it seems to throw upon us a spell, which induces a reflective mood in harmony with its action. As it unfolds itself, we continue to brood over its multiplying vicissitudes and awful enigmas of life, which action further deepens, and thought renders more perplexing. The spell still continues, even after the curtain falls on the appalling spectacle of horrors; for brooding over the unexpected fatal issues, our minds are troubled and confused by a thought which is irrepressible, the thought of the moral incongruities involved in the catastrophe. Oppressive indeed, and enigmatical must be the thought to the unbeliever. Recognizing no hereafter, he cannot even hope for future redress of the ills of life and the travesties of human justice. Different, however, is the effect upon the Christian; his mind, illumined by revealed religious truths, soars above and beyond his own narrow horizon. He knows that this life is not the "be all and the end all" of human existence; that man's transient days on earth are but a probation to prepare for better and eternal years; that in this probation, man in the exercise of his freedom, shapes his own eternal destiny in proportion as he uses his free will for good, or abuses it for evil; and that his reward or punishment is commonly delayed until the harvest, when the cockle shall be sifted from the wheat. The solution then lies in the religion of Hamlet, and as that religion was Shakespeare's own, its principles actuated his thoughts and sentiments, and gave the tragedy an out come in conformity therewith. Hence, the play, while not professedly religious, reveals, nevertheless, a deep, silent, and mysterious under-current, which suggests the presence some vaster and invisible power at work throughout the tragedy. That pervading religious idea originates from the first with the advent of the solemn and majestic visitor from the spirit world. The mandate which is imposed upon the here dominates him in thought and deed through the drama. That religious idea deepens with the progress of the action, as we see the tragic character often recognizing in incidents unforeseen and surprising, the secret hand of Providence, and resigning himself to His guidance. That same idea is, in fine, emphasized at the hero's death, when angels are supposed to bear away his soul to eternal rest. It was that same religious idea that enabled the Poet to abandon for this once, in favor of his own loved creation, the beaten path of tragedy, and so turn our crushed and rebellious feelings of dismay and protest into sentiments of gratitude and gladness. That idea empowered him to lift in part the veil of futurity, so as to allow us to perceive that Hamlet's harsh fate is not the ultimate truth concerning him; that, though fallen, he is in a manner untouched by the doom that overtakes him. The tragic world is but a partial view of a whole beyond our material vision. "The fury of its conflict with all its errors, woes, and waste is not half the truth, nor the final reality, but only a small fragment of a greater whole, where death counts for little, but greatness of soul for much. '' ́* Hamlet, as the Poet suggests, was not so much deprived of life as set free from mortal bondage. Death only ushered him into that vaster glorious sphere of immortal existence, where in spite of seeming failure, the brave and virtuous are 48 Cf. Bradley's "Shakespearean Tragedies", p. 174. 1 after heroic strife crowned with victory. To the Christian, therefore, the mystery, or enigma is solved by those divine revelations which partially reveal that undiscovered country, where reigns in "even-handed justice," the "Everlasting Judge, who renders to every man according to his works." Hence, for the moral incongruities displayed in the catastrophe, the Christian, with mind illumined by divine rays, finds a solution which, soothing the tumult of his heart, brings peace after the storm. These revealed truths give a moral scope and significance to the drama. That they were deeply graven on the Poet's Christian mind, appears from the frequent reference in his many dramas to the Last or General Judgment. Often in his youthful days, when at worship with his Christian parents, young Shakespeare must have studied the large mural paintings which adorned the Trinity Chapel at Stratford. Its largest and most distinctive fresco was in full view of the nave above the great chancel arch, and, rich in details, represented in allegory the Last Judgment, or Day of Doom. Impressions made in younger days last longest." It is this portrayal of the deep religious mystery, which over-shadows the protagonist, both in his meditative, solitary walks on the shores of the spirit world, as well as in his conscientious struggles for moral good against moral evil, that makes him reflect the immortal hopes and aspirations which have animated suffering humanity through all the ages. In this light the hero becomes but a type of myriads of mortals who in a sinful world bear the sorrows of mankind. In consequence, the tragedy, awe-inspiring, attractive, and instinct. with burning thoughts common to our race, has won a popularity which the flight of time, instead of diminishing, has only deepened and made universal. 44 The fresco, still visible and well preserved in 1802, was later, in a general renovation of the Chapel, covered with a coat of whitewash. As the painting was upon plaster, it is now probably lost to the world. ately, copies of the fresco had been made by Thomas Fisher, these survive bound in a rare volume. But, fortunF. S. A., and |