434 LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC. 



Speculations on madness admit of great diversity of opinion, since few men 

 can be brought to agree on any definite idea of the term insanity : and so many, 

 even of those who could argue eloquently, and, even, astutely on the subject, 

 might be themselves obnoxious in some of the shadowings of their own thoughts 

 or conduct, to the unadmitted charge of being classed among the insane. "All 

 men are mad/' says Flaccus; and on the authority of this philosopher — not 

 certainly the least acute of the ancient observers of human nature — Mr. Walter 

 may claim from public judgment, a full assent to his commentaries on madness 

 in general, and the mental aberration of Hamlet in particular. 



Since, however, mankind have, at all times, been unwilling to admit the 

 validity of such an imputation, generally, against their race, or, individually, 

 against themselves,— as the intoxicated profess to distinguish their right hand from 

 their left, the illiberal make boast of generosity, and the designing of frank 

 integrity of heart — so we must lay aside the consciousness even of our own lapses 

 from the high road of right wisdom, and suppose that the sani and the insani, 

 form distinct and distinguishable classes in the mammalia of human life. 



According to such a supposition, therefore, we may enter upon a review of Mr. 

 Walter's speculations regarding the character of Hamlet; particularly that view 

 of the character which has already called forth the intellectual energies of critics 

 to define and illustrate it, according to the difference of opinion which has not 

 ceased to exist among them. 



Mr. Walter argues, and justly, too, that between the extravagance of any 

 passion, — such as love or animosity, and the reality of madness, there exists a 

 close affinity — that the gradation is almost imperceptible, and that, therefore, when 

 the poet desires to represent the ascendency of any passion, he is liable to depict 

 it as passing from the extreme of its natural intensity, to the unsettled violence 

 of madness. 



But do not the Ancients tell us that " Anger is a short madness." So, also, 

 with respect to every passion of the mind, if indulged beyond the narrow limits 

 that reason indicates. The lecturer argued that Shakspeare represented passions 

 in the extreme, in order that he might be in accordance with the spirit of the age 

 in which he lived ; which being less civilized than more modern times, demanded 

 to be operated upon by impressions more vivid and exciting than refinement of 

 feeling could receive and retain. Nor, according to the learned lecturer, was 

 Shakspeare the only poet who thus attempted to produce vehement emotions. 

 Dante's images are monstrous and terrific ; while the immortal artist, Michael 

 Angelo, affects a grandeur that borders on the extravagant. We confess that 

 this argument, so far as it regards Shakspeare, is new to us ; for till now we have 

 been led to consider that Shakspeare adhered most strictly to his own rule, con- 

 tained in his instructions to the players, "not to o'erstep the modesty of nature." 

 Violent passions, indeed, he has represented with characteristic intensity of feel- 

 ing ; but not to a greater extent than Nature herself would warrant. Mr. Walter, 

 it is true, may be guided in his commentaries on human passion, by his own expe- 

 rience of all that he has witnessed in human life ; while we, who thus assume to 

 sit in dictatorial judgment on the bearings of his admirable lecture, cannot agree 

 with him at all times, because our experience of the passions of mankind, as 

 exemplified in their conduct, may have been diff'erent from his. 



A Roman poet, indeed, tells us that "they who cross the seas change the 

 climate, not their mind." But though voyagers may not be conscious of any per- 

 ceptible change in their own intellectual operations, they will find that the inhabi- 

 tants of the globe are, more or less, susceptible of the influences that produce 

 strong and exciting effects upon the mind, according as climates change, customs 

 differ, and manners vary : so that what may pass for prudent reserve in one 

 country, may be looked upon as unmeaning insensibility in another; while the 

 license of thought and freedom of action, which may be united with spotless inno- 

 cence in a transparent atmosphere, may be denounced as licentiousness in a more 

 cloudy one. Thus, also, it may be, that one individual may attribute the extreme 

 susceptibility of feeling which distinguishes the character of Hamlet, to the natural 

 sensitiveness of his youth ; while another can see in the inconsistencies of his 

 conduct, undoubted manifestations of aberration of intellect. This, perhaps, is the 

 reason which induces us to receive, with some degree of hesitation, the proofs 

 advanced by the lecturer in support of his position, that Hamlet is really insane; 



