Page:The Journal of English and Germanic Philology Volume 18.djvu/23

 Lawrence 17 death through it. There may be influence of the Soliman and Perseda situation, which Kyd seems to have derived from Henry Wotton's 'Courtly Controversy of Cupid's Cautels,' upon the main plot of the 'Spanish Tragedy,' 12 but in criticising the dramatic action we are not at liberty to take this into account. We must look at the story as it presents itself to the audience, not at its literary antecedents. It is equally futile, in discussing the dramatic significance of 'Hamlet,' to point to historical analogs of the poison hi the ears, however interesting these may be in themselves. 11 The historical fact may have influenced Shakspere or Kyd hi the earlier play in the conception of the elder Hamlet's death, and at the same time have suggested the name Gonzago, but we must not make the mistake of criticising the dramatic structure on this basis. The avowed object of Hamlet in staging the 'Mouse-Trap* is to "catch the conscience of the King. " But he has a secondary purpose, which reveals itself very clearly as the piece proceeds. He is consumed with a desire to know the extent of his mother's guilt. Was she cognizant of the murder of her husband when she married Claudius? Is she perhaps equally guilty with him? This horrid suspicion is not quieted until the scene in her closet, when Hamlet directly taxes her with the murder. A bloody deed! almost as bad, good mother, As kill a king, and marry with his brother. Her response satisfies him that the accusation is groundless, and he never repeats it. But all through the play-scene his mind is tor- tured with this suspicion, and the Queen's behavior serves on the whole to confirm it. When the Player Queen exclaims, In second husband let me be accurst! None wed the second but who kill'd the first- Gertrude, though in no wise guilty of the murder of the elder Ham- let, as we have seen, 14 cowers before the attack upon women who marry a second time, and Hamlet, watching her narrowly, and prob- ably mistaking her agitation for deeper guilt, mutters "Worm- 12 See Boas, 'Works of Thomas Kyd,' Oxford, 1901, pp. xxiii; Ivi. The view of Boas seems more plausible than that of Sarrazin, that Kyd had written an earlier piece upon the Soliman and Perseda theme. See Dowden's note, loc. ciL, p. 122: "In 1538, the Duke of Urbano, m ried to a Gonzaga, was murdered by Luigi Gonzaga, who dropped pou his ear, " etc. 14 See above, p. 9.