68 L. A. Sherman 



The king calls out for help, but Hamlet, no one stirring, gags 

 him with the last dregs of the cup. No audience could have 

 endured the sight of vengeance exacted — as when the king was 

 praying — under less permissive conditions. The commentators 

 to a man, and many actors, seem not to recognize the tremendous 

 moral force, and terrible power of will that here palsy all protest 

 and opposition. 



No. Hamlet is not alone, and has not been alone, in his inac- 

 tivity. It was not in Shakespeare's mind that he should assay a 

 ' bluff.' He did not shout to the king's servants to lock the doors 

 or seek out treachery. Shakespeare's thought is, rather, When 

 a king comes to a throne in Claudius's way, there is always a 

 Macdufif or Hamlet that will be the protagonist of waiting. Is 

 there not an undertow of implication throughout the play that 

 the rule of Claudius is an experiment, that the strength of the 

 kingdom rests in unseen hands? Horatio talks of duty (I. i. 

 173; ii. 222), prompting report of the ghost to Hamlet, and the 

 officers with him convince us that the same sentiment governs 

 them. These men are evidently not solitary figures in the army 

 and at court. Real ' duty ' should have led them, with their 

 story, to the king, who is naturally the first personage in all Den- 

 mark to be told of any disturbing facts or forces. ^^ 



33 Is it worth the time to follow the line of suggestion farther? When 

 Hamlet proposes to rid the court of his insolent and defiant presence, the 

 king insists on keeping him (I. ii. 116) 'in the cheer and comfort of his 

 eye ' ; signifying to us almost pointedly that Cladius does not dare have 

 him out of sight. When it is determined that Hamlet shall be sent to 

 England, he learns of the order, of the sealed letters, and of the com- 

 panions chosen, from within the royal circle. He will dig one yard, he 

 says, below their mines — he will meet their secret plotting with secret 

 plotting. But how? Of course by proxy. The summary action of the 

 king — fearing perhaps that the daring exposure of his crime was the pre- 

 lude to some coup — in ' shipping ' Hamlet forth at dawn, is baldly sug- 

 gestive. It at least delays the counter explosion. As to the matter of 

 the pirate rescue, Shakespeare needs but to get Hamlet back to Kronberg, 

 and avoids confusing his audience with details. But again, there is little 

 question what was in his mind. Pirates do not turn outlaws to get pris- 

 oners — they do not take any — but treasure. They cut throats, to obtain 

 it, and scuttle ships, and avoid appearing with their loot at open moorings. 

 But these ' sailors,' these ' good fellows,' land at Elsinore, and indeed come 



170 



