Page:The Journal of English and Germanic Philology Volume 18.djvu/19

Rh Hamlet's main test, or will he keep his countenance, and Hamlet thus be led to conclude that he is innocent, the Ghost a devil, and the revelations on the midnight terrace false? If the audience are made to feel that Claudius has a good chance thus to escape self-betrayal, the dramatic tension is much increased. It is not absolutely necessary that they should feel this, but, like many other subtleties in Shakspere, this increases the total effect when it is realized. Stories in which things seem to be going against the hero until his final victory are always more exciting than those with a nicer balance of probabilities. The increasing suspense of this scene may be followed in Hamlet's own agitated action and words, culminating in his uncontrollable outburst at the end, when the King finally shows his guilt.

It thus becomes evident why the dumb-show involves a departure from the usual type, in providing a literal rather than a symbolical representation of the action of the play to follow. It is hard enough to keep an audience from being confused by a play within the play which they are witnessing, but if to that were added a symbolical reproduction of the inserted play, confusion would be worse confounded. On the other hand, if the inserted play and the dumb-show are similar in action, and this action is as similar as possible to the events of the murder which it is to expose, no misunderstanding can arise.

One thing must not be overlooked at this point. The Elizabethan audience were not as familar with the plot of 'Hamlet' as we are today, if indeed most of them knew it at all. The story had been earlier dramatized by Kyd, and some of Shakspere's auditors may have seen the older play, but Shakspere can hardly have assumed such acquaintance with the plot. He wrote for people who were seeing an absorbing story developing before their eyes, and who were not sure what turn events would take next. They did not know that they were assisting at the birth of one of the world's greatest tragedies. We must criticize the structure of 'Hamlet,' then, like that of any other stage piece, and not allow modern familiarity with the plot to cloud the issue.

The dramatic action following the dumb-show must now be studied in some detail. But it will be well first to look at the spoken play, or portion of a play, which follows, and consider the nature of the alterations which Hamlet may be supposed to have