68 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



" By 'r lady, 

 Your ladyship's nearer to heaven 

 Than when I saw you last, by 

 The altitude of a chopine." * 



An executive temperament would have needed no other incitement, 

 one would think, to action than the reproving adjuration of the 



ghostly visitant. 



" Duller than the fat weed 

 That rots itself at ease on Lethe's wharf" 



must that son have been who could passively subside after such a noc- 

 turnal interview ; yet Hamlet stops, considers, hesitates, questions, and 

 does nothing. Not from any thought that it was a crime to revenge 

 even a father's murder by killing another ; no, for he deliberately post- 

 pones the most favorable opportunity of revenge which occurs, that he 

 may at some future time insure the killing of his uncle's soul, as well 

 as his body, by taking him, if possible, while he was about some act 

 " that had no relish of salvation in't." 



To conceal from himself the evident pusillanimity of his course he 

 assumes the role of lunacy, which required no violent exertion and 

 afforded ample time for meditation, delay, and the use of other per- 

 sons to accomplish his ends. It seems also a cover for cowardice, in 

 that he expects the mantle of his assumed malady to cover him from 

 blame in the execution of that long-considered vengeance he is never 

 destined to take ; for, when at last he does stab the King, there is no 

 thought of his father in his mind ; it is but the reprisal for later 

 treacheries aimed at his own life. This role of madness, however, 

 only causes a stricter watch to be put upon him ; nor does it help him 

 forward one step toward the fulfillment of the Ghost's injunction. The 

 accidental arrival of the players is indeed seized upon and applied by 

 him to the purpose of testing the truth of the ghostly asseverations ; 

 but he had evidently never thought of sending for them, for the pur- 

 pose of questioning the King's conscience the opportunity was thrust 

 upon him. 



The moment of confusion which ensues at the denouement of that 

 plot, when the King arises in remorseful perturbation, would have 

 seemed to furnish the precise instant when vengeance would have 

 been commended by justice ; but the unequaled opportunity is al- 

 lowed to pass with merely a satirical jest. 



That Hamlet meant to slay the King, when he really killed Polonius, 

 is but cumulative evidence that the excitement of the interview with 

 his mother (sought by her, not him) was the immediate cause of his 

 rash and ill-directed act. It was not premeditated, and required no 

 courage, as the party behind the tapestry had no opportunity of de- 

 fense, and the act can scarcely be considered as part of his settled pur- 



* Chopine, a high-heeled shoe, or clog. 



