Page:The Journal of English and Germanic Philology Volume 18.djvu/18

12 choice of the 'Murder of Gonzago,' so strikingly reproducing the actual circumstances of his father's murder, and apparently fixed up in such a way as to heighten that resemblance, is unwise, since it reveals to the King that Hamlet possesses his guilty secret. A piece in which the victim was murdered by having his throat cut or his brains dashed out would have been almost as good a test of Claudius' guilt, and would have left him uncertain of Hamlet's knowledge. But it would have been less effective dramatically, and less revealing to the audience, than to have the details of the actual murder reproduced. The real question here, then, is not what Hamlet intended, but what Shakspere intended. In some cases Shakspere makes his characters act unwisely or even absurdly (just as human beings sometimes do), for the sake of the effectiveness of the drama. For example, there is logically little defence for Lear's casting off Cordelia on so slight a cause, and turning for comfort to Goneril and Regan. His children could not have concealed their real characters from him so many years. But his action is what makes the play. So it is not profitable to argue that Hamlet chose to have the 'Mouse-Trap' resemble the murder of his father so closely because he believed that the effectiveness of this close resemblance in testing the guilt of the king would outweigh the danger in the King's knowing that his secret was discovered; it is not possible to reject the dumb-show as a test on the ground that it was unwise; we must inquire rather why Shakspere chose to make Hamlet act thus, how it helps the effectiveness of the scene. We may call the presentation of the dumb-show illogical folly, if we choose—though a case may be made out for it, as we have seen—but we must remember that such folly often makes the stuff of tragedy. And it is obvious that the dumb-show, however we may regard it as strategy on Hamlet's part, serves to make the scene dramatically far more intense.

The dumb-show has revealed to the King that Hamlet knows the circumstances of his father's murder. Shakspere's audience, who have heard the Ghost's communication, now see that the King has discovered Hamlet's knowledge of the crime. The audience also know that Hamlet is going to try to entrap the king by a speech in the play to follow. It is to be a contest of two wills, and the king is on his guard. If the dumb-show were looked upon by Hamlet as a test, it has failed. Will the king "blench" at