Certain New Elucidations of Shakespeare 63 



the court would naturally be away from the capital, but hardly 

 imprisoned in a fortress. Kronberg would be safer against an 

 uprising than the Rosenberg palace in Copenhagen. But this, on 

 the other hand, would be more removed and secure from foreign 

 attack, as by Fortinbras from Norway. There would seem to 

 be some further reason why the court has removed to Elsinore, 

 and locks itself up o'nights behind parapets and cannon.^^ 



What then, more fully, was Shakespeare's thought? He will 

 use, from the Hystorie, under altered names, the ghost of Hor- 

 vendile, the murdered governor — made over into an elder Hamlet 

 and late king of Denmark — against Fengon, now Claudius, his 

 brother. Claudius, by manipulation of the older nobility, gets 

 himself elected to the throne. Hamlet, the late king's son, con- 

 veniently away from Denmark, is naturally preferred by many. 

 Hamlet's mother, seduced by Claudius as a part of his scheme 

 before the assassination, is thus withdrawn from support of 

 Hamlet's claims, and is advertised, for effect, as imperial joint- 

 ress — partner in the government or empire. The new king, partly 

 perhaps from prescience of future hostilities with Norway but 

 mainly for safety from disaffection, moves the court, after the 

 funeral of Hamlet's father, to the new fortress of Kronberg, the 

 chief stronghold of the kingdom. 



The ghost of the dead king seeks, after the manner of foster 

 brotherhood in the North, vengeance for the murder. Who shall 

 execute it? The king's son Hamlet. How shall the ghost be 



21 Editors generally seem not be clear upon this point. For example, 

 following Rowe (1709), they assign the first scene of Act II to 'an apart- 

 ment (or a ' room ') in Polonius's House.' But could Polonius have had 

 a 'house' in Elsinore, which, as should be realized, was somewhat distant 

 from the fortifications embracing Kronberg? The condition in which 

 Hamlet, hatless, with doublet unbraced, ungartered,' and down-gyved to 

 his ankles, appears before Ophelia, does not argue a ' trip ' over to Elsi- 

 nore from the castle. For Hamlet was unquestionably quartered within 

 the walls. Moreover, Polonius, as, taking Ophelia by the arm, he starts 

 forth to seek the king, does not appear to have stopped to get his hat. 



Of course, these matters are far from vital. And Shakespeare is some- 

 times inconsistent, especially in the comedies. But in the great tragedies 

 he thinks things out with surprising definiteness and detail. It pays always 

 to reconstruct, so far as possible, what was in his mind. 



165 



