THE IMPEDIMENT OF ADIPOSE. 6 7 



burdens." In Hamlet's description of himself to Guildenstern, where 

 he says he " has lost all his mirth," and so forth, it is still the dejection 

 of his mind which he puts forward : he does not pretend to excite 

 sympathy by pointing to his failing body. So in his complimentary 

 address to Horatio, who appears to him to be so fortunately endowed, 

 physically and mentally, he recognizes in his friend that favorable 

 constitution where the blood and will power are so equably adjusted 

 that they " are not a pipe for Fortune's finger to sound what stop she 

 please." In other words, Horatio was seen to possess what the speaker 

 was conscious of lacking, a constitution in which the body is subor- 

 dinate to the will, a temperament which Hamlet had not, but quite the 

 reverse in which the will was dominated by the body. This he 

 vaguely feels but can not explain, and so he soliloquizes : 



"I do not know why yet I live to say 

 This thing's to do " 



except that he was a " muddy-metalled rascal " ; but we perceive 

 clearly enough that it was not his brain but his body which was 

 muddy-metalled. 



Again, he evidently feels the drag-anchor of his heavy mold, and 

 the consequent ill-cooperation of his bodily frame with his discerning 

 spirit, when even under great excitement he stops to explain that he 

 " is not splenetic and rash," though yet there is a sort of ground-swell 

 of " something dangerous " in him. Yes, dangerous if sufficiently 

 aroused ; but his was a kind of nature which could endure a great 

 deal of arousing before it culminated in action. When he takes his 

 leisurely walk in the hall this quiet exercise goes under no other name 

 with him than a " breathing-time " ; and, once familiarized with his 

 true physical picture, how apt appears his reply to Osric : " Sir, I will 

 walk here in the hall ; if it please his Majesty, this is the breathing- 

 time of day with me." 



When he apologizes to Laertes, he says, "You must needs have 

 heard how I am punished with a sore distraction." He says " heard," 

 because he is conscious that there is nothing in his appearance to 

 indicate failing health, and this under the circumstances he would 

 scarcely have omitted had he lost any of his superfluous flesh. He 

 was himself a keen observer of physiological peculiarities, was ready 

 enough to detect changes in the personal appearance of others, and 

 therefore would have been thoroughly conscious of his own had any 

 marked falling away taken place. Notice his reception of the players. 

 One he addresses thus : 



" old friend, why thy face 

 Is valanced [wrinkled] since I saw thee last." 



And to her who is to play the Queen 



