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Untitled Article
at . Most certainly its title ought to be not Hamlet , but the Ghost The Ghost is an active , energetic ,
straightforward sort of personage , who knows what he wants , and sets about getting it in the best way he can . As to Hamlet , he never forwards the matter a
single inch . He makes , it is true , the most desperate resolutions , but nothing comes of them . So little does he even feel that anything important is
to be done , that almost the first words he utters , after hearing the poor Ghost ' s pitiful story , are , " Hillo ho , boy ! come bird , come ! " and soon after he calls the Ghost ( his father too )
an " old mole ! " Then , whether he is meant to be mad or in his senses , is quite doubtful ; this , however , is certain , that whether one or the other his
behaviour is equally inconsistent . He never does anything to get his revenge . He absolutely suffers himself to be shipped off for England , and it is by mere accident that he ever returns ; and at the end
the stage is strewed with dead bodies , more through a sort of game at cross-purposes than anything else ! Meantime he has behaved most dishonourably to a very sweet ,
though rather a milk-andwater sert of girl , called Ophelia , whom he had pretended once to be in love with , and stabbed her father , a very respectable , gentlemanly man , for no reason that we can see , except that he made a noise like a rat * His dragging the
Untitled Article
dead body by the foot , and thee disgusting way in which hee talks about it , would , we are convinced , revolt the wellregulated minds of a British audience , and we shall notf pollute our pages by quoting ; any of it .
" We have anxiously searched for beauties , but they are few and far , between . The King certainly makes some good remarks on remorse , and ! the Queen's appeal to the filial , affections of Hamlet have a .
moral effect . Laertes , too , shows proper spirit about his father ' s murder , and is altogether the best-sustained and most dramatic character of the piece . As to Hamlet ' s long-winded soliloquies , they are full of quaint conceits , and are often perfectly
unintelligible . What , for example , can be said to a speech commencing — " To be , or not to be ; that is the question ?" How can any one decide such a question as what it would be , not to be ? If Mr Shakspeare can inform us , we at least should be much indebted to
him . Then what can be said for the introduction of a set of clowns digging a grave ; or the scene of ranting grief from Hamlet about the death of the poor girl , of which , besides , he was the sole cause , and for which he cares so little that he
goes directly afterwards to a fencing match ! But—criticism is wasted on this tissue of absurdities . 46 We take our leave of Mr Shakspeare , heartily recommending him to seek some
Untitled Article
Cosmo de Medici . 1911
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 1, 1837, page 1911, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1835/page/47/
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