Page:The Psychology of Shakespeare.pdf/62

Rh bearing the evils which God permits, and refusing to break His law to escape from them, whatever their pressure may be. A bold man may “jump the life to come,” in the very spirit of courage; but a true servant and soldier of God will feel

that there is unfaithfulness and cowardice in throwing off, by voluntary death, whatever burden of sorrows may freight the frail vessel of his life.

The concluding line equally marks profound sorrow, and the position of dependence and constraint in which Hamlet feels himself:

“But break, my heart, for I must hold my tongue.” And yet what rapid recovery to the quick-witted complaisance of social intercourse, when his friends break in upon these

gloomy thoughts; and, again, mark the natural contiguity, in || a mind equally sensitive and melancholic, of bantering sarcasm and profound emotion. “Thrift

thrift

Horatio.

The funeral-baked meats

Did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables. Would I had met my dearest foe in heaven,

Or ever I had seen that day.” This early passage seems to give the key-note of Hamlet's temper, namely, soul-crushing grief in close alliance with an ironical, often a broad humour, which can mock at despair.

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Profound life-weariness and suicidal desire indicate that from

the first his emotions were morbid, and that the accusation

the King that he had “A heart unfortified, a mind impatient, An understanding simple and unschooled,”

of

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! f

was as true of the heart as it was false of the intellect. Yet his

rapid recovery from brooding thoughts, and his entire self possession when circumstances call upon him for action trivial

or important, prove that his mind was not permanently off its : poise. Profoundly reflective, capable of calling up thoughts and sº ideas of sense at will, of seeing his father “in his mind's eye,”