AND OBSERVANCES OP SHAKSPEARE. 26*9 



This " dependency of tiling on thing" is not only one of the most 

 incontestible evidences of mental sanity, but of a highly-educated 

 mind. It is this one faculty which distinguishes one mind from 

 another — which at once characterizes the scholar and the clown ; it 

 is the power to •' re-word/' as Hamlet says — knowing the depen- 

 dency, the relation must be the same. Madness gambols from me- 

 thod, so does the undisciplined mind of the uneducated, unthinking 

 boor : in both, the same aberrations occur, the difference is only in 

 degree — the effect is the same, the cause only is different. Our 

 " myriad minded" bard must himself have possessed an absolute 

 judgment ; his memory was the mere subservient virtue. Method 

 confers on the soul a sort of divine prescience, by which every result 

 is predetermined. Without method, a mind is either a gloomy wild, 

 or a wilderness of sweets ; either destitute and dark, or confused 

 amid the ungoverned exuberance of its fancy. The u fine phrenzy 

 of the poet," the ravings of madness, or the ill-dependent relations 

 of ignorance, illustrate the old proverb, that " extremes meet." 



I reluctantly leave this subject ; but it must be deferred until 

 considering the character of Hamlet — or rather the biography of 

 Hamlet, for the incidents of the play serve but to develop his mind ; 

 all centres in Hamlet, every line seems like a ray of light converg- 

 ing to one point. 



What a fine illustration of method is this speech of Isabella : — 



'* Isab.—I am the sister of one Claudio, 

 Condemn'd upon the act of fornication 

 To lose his head ; condemn'd by Angelo : 

 I, in probation of a sisterhood, 

 Was sent to by my brother : One Lucio 

 As then the messenger ; — 



* • * * 



In brief,— to set the needless process by, 



How I persuaded, how I pray'd, and kneel'd, 



How he refell'd me, and how I replied ; 



(For this was of much length,) the vile conclusion 



I now begin with grief and shame to utter : 



He would not, but by gift of my chaste body 



To his concupiscible intemperate lust, 



Release my brother ; and, after much debatement, 



My sisterly remorse confutes mine honour, 



And I did yield to him : But the next morn betimes, 



His purpose surfeiting, he sends a warrant 



For my poor brother's head." 



What a " dependency of thing on thing!" In a few lines is 



