62 L. A. Sherman 



Hamhlet^ in which Fengon slays prince Horvendile his brother, 

 Hamblet's father, and succeeds him. But Shakespeare did not 

 write in ignorance of Danish matters, regal, geographical, or 

 other. In ancient Scandinavia, according to the sagas, kings 

 were chosen by thanes and warriors in open Thing, and the prac- 

 tice continued in later times. The rule indeed was followed in 

 a case connected with our own Anglo-Saxon history : 



When the Danish king Svend, or Sweyn, died at Gainsborough in the 

 year 1014, he left another son, Harald, who was younger than Knud 

 Canute, and was chosen to be king by the Danes as soon as they heard of 

 Svend's death. Knud wanted his brother to give him some share in the 

 government of the kingdom of Denmark ; but Harald refused, telling him 

 if he wished to be a king he must go back and gain England for himself, 

 in which case, he should have a few ships and men to help him. . . . 

 Harald died in 1018, and then the Danes chose Knud for their king, 

 which proved of great importance to Denmark. — E. C. Otte : Scandinavian 

 History, p. 51.29 



But we are not through with this business of the succession. 

 It leads us deeply and directly into the * workmanship ' of the 

 play. The first question which the prepared student of Hamlet 

 is likely to ask himself concerns the place of action. Why, if the 

 scene is to be laid at Elsinore, is it not set at the Marienlyst 

 palace, instead of Kronberg castle? The time is summer,^" when 



29 Other examples occur in later chapters of this work. As is well 

 established, the "Lombards in Italy, following the tribal custom, were per- 

 mitted to choose their kings. At the coronation of Justin, in the Eastern 

 Empire, after the death of Justinian, ' four robust youths (Gibbon, II. 

 xlv) exalted him on a shield,' after the Northern manner. Also, in the 

 last words of Hamlet himself, in (V. ii. 366, 367) the present play, he 

 speaks of the election that is to be had to determine who shall rule, 



30 Quiller-Couch says (p. 145) of the opening situation, 'It is night — 

 midnight — and freezing hard.' But', two months earlier, the late king was 

 murdered while sleeping in his orchard. Two months later, Ophelia brings 

 in pansies and rosemary to the Queen, and speaks of violets as ' with- 

 ered' — out of season. If we suspect the flowers she proffers are only 

 imaginary, we know from the circumstances (IV. vii. 167-170) of her 

 death that it is still summer. The time of the opening scene, two months 

 after the murder, could not have been much earlier than mid-June. The 

 temperature at that season, in northern Denmark, might fall as low as 40° 

 Fahrenheit. 



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