Page:William Strunk Jr. - The Importance of The Ghost in Hamlet.djvu/17

Rh "nor" emphasizes the close connection between this part of the command and that which follows, for it is precisely this brooding upon his mother's conduct that might lead him to seek some means of involving her in her husband's punishment. The view which these words really support is not that of Werder, but that of Mr. Bradley. They also afford another test by which to appraise Hamlet's subsequent conduct.

The prohibition of any attempt to punish his mother affords another test of Hamlet's later action, one so easy to apply that nothing further need be said here. The ghost's description of himself as

indicates clearly that Hamlet's belief (. iii. 73 ff.) in the significance of the last occupation of a man suddenly killed is not meant by Shakespeare to pass as pure folly. More will be said of this later on. I agree also with Mr. Bradley (p. 126) that "the Ghost, in fact, had more