26 



THE IMPORTANCE OF SHAKSPEARE'S WRI- 



TINGS CONSIDERED AS TO THEIR INFLUENCE 



ON THE MORALS OF MEN. 



Continued and concluded from page 263 of volume iv. 



Lear, Othello, Hamlet, and Macbeth are the four 

 characters on which Shakspeare's fan)e seems to be 

 more particularly founded. By different persons the 

 supreme excellency of each is maintained — as if they 

 were mere literary efforts — and with no regard to the 

 individuahty of each. All are highly impassioned ; 

 but Macbeth and Hamlet are metaphysically distin- 

 guished. Lear and Othello are remarkable ibr inten- 

 sity, and as exhibiting a heedless and overwhelming 

 violence of purpose. Macbeth and Hamlet are 

 marked with more varied feeling — they hesitate in 

 the fulfilment of their purposes, which are checked 

 by moral and speculative interruptions. Thus the 

 four are divided — two and two : they may be subdi- 

 vided, as thus : — 



Macbeth is distinguished from Hamlet — not so 

 much by any native quality of the villain, as by 

 superstitious weakness, and an ignoble attachment 

 to the pomps and glories of a world which Hamlet 

 regarded as a " sterile promontory " — " an unweeded 

 t^arden.'' Hamlet remained moral, because he was 

 philosophical in his estimate of human men and 

 things. He had never murdered a king for his crown, 

 because he did not care to have one. Macbeth was 

 the weaker man, but by no means possessed with a 

 spirit of active vice and wanton cruelty. It seems 

 strange to couple such characters as these ; for they 

 are very distinct; but their distinction, however 

 great, appears to me of a quality widely different 

 from that which at first sight seems to be the case. 

 Of Lear and Othello I have already spoken. Let us 

 go more closely into Hamlet's character, which 

 stands so conspicuously alone, that it may be termed 

 a class of itself. Yet, there is no distinct feature 

 about it that we cannot more or less comprehend. 



