Then comes the climax of the oath-- yes, by heaven! After this there is a pause; first the baseness of his mother's conduct recurs to his agitated mind; then we have an outburst against the King, his uncle, which contains a key to the character of that villain—a key which no manager, or actor, or commentator ever seems to have seized-namely, the fact that the distinguishing feature of Claudius was his bland and amiable plausibility— O, villain, villain, smiling, damned villain! That one may smile, and smile, and be a villain; The stage direction (Writing), which follows here, shows that Hamlet was intended to record something of what preceded on his tablets, and the very fact of his doing so is a proof of the nervous agitation under which he laboured; his furious indignation against his uncle found vent in this mere act of writing him down a "smiling villain." The words So, uncle, there you are. are spoken as he puts the tablets up; then recovering, by a great effort, command over himself, he speaks with solemn emphasis the lines Now to my word; It is Adieu, adieu ! remember me.' I have sworn't. drawing his sword at the last words, and devoutly kissing the cross which forms the handle. APPENDIX D. ON THE CHARACTER OF OPHELIA. I SHOULD have thought that the slight allusion I have made in the text to the question of Ophelia's purity was more than sufficient, but I am astonished to find that persons, whose intellect at any rate entitles them to respect, have held, and do still hold, that she was Hamlet's mistress. I cannot imagine that they have studied the text of the play with any care or reverence; but it is the characteristic of our enlightened age to be sceptical of good and credulous of evil. In such an age it is an easier task to make men believe that Ophelia was unchaste, because in her distraction she sings some verses of an impure song, than to prove to them from a close study of what she says, and what is said about her, when in her right senses, that she was chaste. We shall be told that we know so many women are bad, but can only believe that many are good. Faith in anything, except our own wisdom, is one of those superstitions which it is the mission of philosophy, as nineteenth-century philosophers understand it, to crush. The views of Ophelia's character, adverse to her purity, vary from the uncompromising assertion of her having yielded to Hamlet's solicitations, to the sensuo-romantic portrait of her drawn by Goethe, and, to a certain extent, approved by Gervinus. As an instance of the first opinion I may mention the answer of a great French actor-the son of a greater, whose name is associated with one of the finest representations of Hamlet ever given in a foreign tongue-who, when asked if he believed that Ophelia had been seduced by Hamlet, replied, "Oui, je crois qu'il était heureux dans ses amours." This is so characteristic of the Parisian-in contradistinction to the Frenchman—who believes that the final cause of every woman's creation, whether single or married, is to sacrifice her honour to the fascinations of some 'cher garcon'—himself, of course, if he tries. It is only when the theory is practically illustrated by the wives of their own vanity that these irrepressible creatures object to the practice. The best way to treat this question will be to give, first, the passages from Gervinus and Goethe which bear upon it; secondly, the passages, in the play itself, on which I rely for the complete vindication of Ophelia's purity. This is the passage in Gervinus,* a very beautiful passage, with the latter part of which I thoroughly agree, but some of the conclusions in which I think quite unjustifiable : "Still more reproachable does Hamlet appear to us in his relation to his beloved one. Goethe said of Hamlet's feeling for Ophelia, that it was without conspicuous passion. The poet has at any rate not exhibited him to us in a position in which this passion appears pre-eminent. When he casts his love in the scale with that of forty thousand brothers, the exaggeration of the tone affords no standard. Beyond this passage, Shakespeare has only once allowed him a direct opportunity, in a few aside-spoken words, to give us the key to his feeling for Ophelia, in those words which precede his conver sation with her-'Nymph, in thy orisons be all my sins remembered!'— words which we have heard uttered by famous actors strangely enough in a tone of comical or facetious address. On the other hand, this very conversation affords the actor scope sufficient to intimate indirectly the nature of Hamlet's feelings for Ophelia. If the actor does not here 'tear the passion to tatters,' he will bring the spectator in this scene into a heavy and profound sadness, the very mood in which the conversation leaves Ophelia ; it is the farewell of an unhappy heart to a connection broken by fate; it is the serious advice of a self-interested lover, who sends his beloved to a nunnery because he grudges her to another, and sees the path of his own future lie in hopeless darkness. All that in his treatment of Ophelia's father, in his disregard of her brother, in his coldness and indifference * 66 'Shakespeare Commentaries." By Dr. G. G. Gervinus. Translated by F. E. Bunnett. New edition, revised by the translator. Smith and Elder. 1875. Pages 579-580. K towards Polonius, aye, even in her own death, may appear heartless and inconsiderate, is consistent even with a predominant passion for Ophelia in this strange-natured man. His mother regarded this connection as serious in spite of the inequality of station between the two lovers; his oaths to Ophelia we cannot indeed consider in Hamlet as incipient deception. As a son he loved his father with enthusiastic reverence, without being able to do anything for him for the sake of love, and his mother also, without being able to adhere to his father's exhortation not to torment the weak and deluded woman. Thus he may also have loved Ophelia with a warm heart, without contradicting the apparently most contradictory quality of his nature, that cold egotism with which he torments her first with his madness, then leaves her, and after the unhappy death of her father, devoid of sympathy and sensible to nothing but his own misery, abandons her to despair and insanity. We must seek the counterpart to these traits of character in the history of the affections of equally gifted beings, in whose unfortified souls we shall not unfrequently meet with this blending of the most sensitive feeling and cold hard-heartedness. These very traits will afford us moreover the key-note for Hamlet's intercourse with Ophelia. At his first approach, inexperienced and unsuspicious, she has given him her heart ; she has been free in her audience with him, so that neighbours perceiving it have warned the family, and the family have warned herself; his conversation with her is equivocal, and not as Romeo, Bassanio, or even Proteus have spoken with their beloved ones. This has infected her imagination with sensual images, and inspired her in her quiet modesty with amorous passions; this is apparent in the songs she sings in her delirium, and in the significant flowers she distributes, as clearly as anything so hidden in its nature can and may be unveiled. Further than this we would not venture to go with Goethe's apprehension of this character. Far less can we accept those other views, which returned to the rude legend in 'Saxo Grammaticus,' regarding Ophelia as a fallen innocent. It would not have been in accordance with the fine feeling of Shakespeare to have made the brother utter those sublime words over the corpse of such a fallen one, when the priest would fain refuse her 'sanctified ground A ministering angel shall my sister be, It would not have been like the poet to say expressly over her grave :~ From her fair and unpolluted flesh May violets spring! It would indeed have been a frivolous insult to innocence in the most solemn place and moment." Goethe's theory of the character of Ophelia and of her relations to Hamlet is found in the following passages of "Wilhelm Meister,"* which I give in their entirety : * Goethe's "Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship." Translated by R. Dillon Boylau, Esq. 1872. Bohn's Standard Library. I have quoted from this translation as being more generally accessible than Carlyle's, though the latter undoubtedly more faithfully represents the original. Where there is any important difference between the two I have given Carlyle's version in the footnotes. Aurelia exclaimed, "You owe us the conclusion of Hamlet. I do not wish to press you, for I am anxious that my brother should hear you as well as myself, but pray let me hear your thoughts about Ophelia." "There is not much to be said about her," replied Wilhelm, "for her character is drawn by a few master-strokes. Her whole existence flows in sweet and ripe sensation. Her attachment to the prince, to whose hand she may aspire, flows so spontaneously, her affectionate heart yields so completely to its impulse, that both her father and brother are afraid, and both give her plain and direct warning of her danger. Decorum, like the thin crape upon her bosom, cannot conceal the motions of her heart, but on the contrary it betrays them. Her imagination is engaged, her silent modesty breathes a sweet desire, and if the convenient goddess Opportunity should shake the tree, the fruit would quickly fall.” * "And then," said Aurelia, "when she sees herself forsaken, rejected and despised, when everything is overturned in the soul of her distracted lover, and he offers her the bitter goblet of sorrow in place of the sweet of affection cup "Her heart breaks,"-Wilhelm, "the entire edifice of her being is loosened from its hold, the death of her father knocks fearfully against it, and the whole structure is overturned." (Book IV., Chapter XIV.) And “Permit me to ask you a question," said Aurelia. "I have again examined Ophelia's part, and I am pleased with it, and feel sure that upon certain conditions I should be able to act it. But tell me, is it not your opinion that the poet ought to have written songs of a different kind for the insane maiden? And might we not for this purpose even select a few fragments from some of our own melancholy ballads? Expressions of double meaning and indelicate allusionst do not become the pure lips of a noble-minded girl." 66 'My good friend," said Wilhelm, "even upon this point, I cannot coincide with you. A deep meaning is concealed in these peculiarities and in this impropriety. Have we not an intimation from the very beginning of the play of the subject with which the thoughts of the maiden are engaged? She pursues her course in silent secrecy, but without being able wholly to conceal her wishes and her longing. The voice of desire has echoed within her soul,‡ and she has often tried like an unskilful nurse to lull her senses to repose with ballads, which have only kept her more awake. But at length when all self-control is at an end, and the secrets of her heart appear upon her tongue, that tongue betrays her, and in the innocence of her madness, even in the presence of royalty she takes delight in the echo of her loose but dearly-loved songs of 'The maiden whose heart * Carlyle thus renders this passage: "Her fancy is smit; a silent modesty breathes amiable desire; and if the friendly goddess Opportunity should shake the tree, its fruit would fall. +"Lascivious insipidities" (Carlyle). "The tones of desire were in secret ringing through her soul" (Carlylė). was won,' 'The maid who stole to meet the youth,' and so forth." (Book IV., Chapter XVI.) Now let us see what Shakespeare makes the various characters in the play say to, and of, Ophelia. This is how her brother speaks to her. (Act I, Scene 3, lines 5-10): LAER For Hamlet, and the trifling of his favour, ОРН. Hold it a fashion, and a toy in blood, A violet in the youth of primy nature, No more but so? Mark here the sweet simplicity of her words. She does not fly into a passion with her brother for the low estimate he takes of her lover's constancy and of her own worthiness. There is a quiet confidence in her own belief, a gentle rebuke to his worldly scepticism, which Laertes does not perceive, in this truly virginal remonstrance. LAER. Think it no more : The virtue of his will: but you must fear, His greatness weigh'd, his will is not his own; He may not, as unvalued persons do, Carve for himself, for on his choice depends The safety and health of this whole state, And therefore must his choice be circumscribed Unto the voice and yielding of that body Whereof he is the head. Then if he says he loves you, It fits your wisdom so far to believe it As he in his particular act and place May give his saying deed; which is no further Or lose your heart, or your chaste treasure open Fear it, Ophelia, fear it, my dear sister, Now the whole of this speech is accepted by Gervinus and |