Page:The Psychology of Shakespeare.pdf/102

Rh That the apparition was not an hallucination, as accounted by the Queen, a bodiless creation caused by the diseased brain, is known to Hamlet and the reader of the play by its previous appearance, and by its reference to the disclosure then made. Its speech distinguishes it from the supposed ghost of Banquo. It is a stupid error to put the Ghost on the stage clad in armour on this second occasion. “My father, in his habit, as he lived " indicates that this time the design of the poet was to repre sent him in the weeds of peace. The quarto edition, indeed, gives as a stage direction, “Enter the Ghost, in his night gown.” The appearance is suited to the place, even as the cap-a-pie armament to the place of warlike guard. Unlike

the appearance on the battery, which is seen by all who were present, on this occasion it is only visible to Hamlet, and invisible to his mother. Ghosts were supposed to have the power to make themselves visible and invisible to whom they chose ; and the dramatic effect of the Queen's surprise at Hamlet's behaviour was well worth the poetic exercise of the privilege. The Queen, indeed, must have been thoroughly convinced of her son's madness, in despite of his own dis claimer, and of the remorseless energy with which he wrings her own remorseful heart. Her exclamation, “Alas, he's mad!” is thoroughly sincere; and though her assurance that she has “no life to breathe" the secret that he is “but mad in

craft,” seems to imply her assent to the fact, Hamlet's

language and demeanour are certainly not such as are calculated to convince her of the truth of this avowal.

She

is therefore likely to have spoken not falsely, but according to her convictions, when she immediately afterwards says that her son is

“Mad as the sea, and wind, when both contend

Which is the mightier.” The Queen in this ghost scene, and Lady Macbeth in the