CHAPTER X.

THE midsummer-night's DREAM.*
"Three problems are pat by nature to the mind: What ia matter? Whence is it ? and whereto ? The first of these questions only, the ideal theory answers. Idealism saith : matter is a phenomenon, not a substance. Idealism acquaints us with the total disparity between the evidence of our own being, and the evidence of the world's being. The one is perfect ; the other incapable of any assurance ; the mind is a part of the nature of things ; the world is a divine dream, from which we may presently awake to the glories and certainties of day." — (Essays, "Spirit^" p. 166, voL ii., Emerson.)
In the play of The Tempest, we have (in the speech of Prospero,
which he introduces in connection with the Masque) an epitome
of the poet's philosophical creed or way of looking at life, which
it is impossible to misconstrue. In the words^ " We are such
stuff as dreams are made on," and again, ''Our little life is
rounded with a sleep," we are face to face with the doctrines
taught in the Mysteries, and repeated in the Platonic philosophy.
With Plato, life is a dream, objects are phenomena, shadows, or
images, and we are nearest awakening from the sleep of life
when we dream that we are dreaming ! The Greeks called Sleep
the lesser Mystery, and Death the greater Mystery, the parallel
between Death and his twin brother Sleep, holding out as it
were the promise of immortality — another wakening in another
world! The entire doctrine of IdeaUsm is founded upon the
priority, and real character, of the Rational and Spiritual over
the Irrational and Phenomenal We must reverse common sense
if we would understand this philosophy. For it asserts sense to
be the Apparent and illusive — not a lie, but a half or false truth,
in fact symbolical, and as Emerson would say, representative.
1 This chapter is only a brief summary of what has been already discussed at greater length in " A New Study of Shakespeare."
MJDSUMMER-NIGHrS DREAM. 201
Let it be here noted, that this is a philosophy of Art It is ^r excellence the poet's philosophy. Because it asserts the entire world is a Divine poem — composed by a Divine Poet or Creator, who like an Artist conceives a beautiful archetypal Idea, and clothes it in the vehicle of Nature, and of Man. Tlie Drama of Existence is to God, what the plays are to the author. And we see at once that it is perfectly possible for Dramatic Art to embrace this philosophy and be god-like from this point of view. For the entire Drama may become a means of phenomenal repre- sentation, giving and withholding its meaning, concealing and revealing it, after the fashion of Nature itself. And this is what, we are very certain, the author of the plays has done, viz., em- braced the entire Platonic philosophy, or rather, we should say, its fountain head, in the Mysteries of Eleusis, with the origins of the Drama. Life is a dream, — the masque vanishes, — these our actors are melted into thin air. But is there not, perhaps, a lesson still waiting for us to learn 1 Is it not possible, nay, pro- bable, that the other actors in these plays are shadows, images, reflections also 1 But let us examine more closely this creed of Idealism as taught by the Ancients.
Now it is significant for a study of the Midsummer- Nighf 8 Dreamy that we have been finding the poet pronouncing in The Tempest, that life is a dream, and our life a sleep. This is word for word the teaching of the Eleusinian Mysteries and of Socrates. On the poet's monument we find that he had the art of Virgil and the genius of Socrates. Considering that up to date, neither Virgil's art nor Socrates' have been found in the plays, it is sufficiently noteworthy to remark that Virgil and Socrates join hands upon the subject of the Mysteries. The VI th Book of Virgil, ever since Warburton pointed it out, has been accepted as a description of the Mysteries, and we know from Porphyry that the Platonic philosophy was taught in the Mysteries. With regard to this, we have no need of authorities. Any student reading the Banquet, and Diotima's instructions to Socrates related by the latter, will at once perceive that the subject is
\ w
202 MIDSUMMER-NIGHTS DREAM.
sacred, solemn, guardedly veiled, and that these are Divine Creative Doctrines pertaining to the Mysteries. What resem- blance can there be otherwise between Epic poetry like Virgil's, and Dramatic plays like these? And where, indeed, do we find the Socratic philosophy ? We reply, it is behind, imbedded, the framework — the archetypal conception of this entire art. It crops up in this speech, united with the apocalyptic vision or masque of Juno and Ceres, wherein for a moment we behold the other or Heavenly side of this art, revealed symbolically in a play, where we already are represented in relation to this art, as its initiates through time !
We elsewhere see that this philosophy, that life is a dream, produced by the sleep of sense, is not only the Socratic philo- sophy, but Bacon's also, who describes Socrates as '* having drawn down philosophy from heaven." And we now propose to accept this statement seriously, and apply it to this play of the Midsummer-Nighfs Dream.
Dreams are the result of sleep — sleep of night. Moonlight is a dream of sunshine or daylight, as if the day were sick, and our earth-life a mere vision, by which we apprehend something more real, more lasting, and more sublime than the errors and cross purposes with which our mortal eyes are blinded. In The Tem- pest we have the Heaven of this art displayed or opened to us. Is there no antithesis to this in the Midsummer-Night's Dream f Can it be possible that we have in this play the night-side^ or reflected side, of the poet's art in relation to himself and to us, presented to us ) In The Tempest we have an apocalyptic vision — a recon- ciliation — a gradual revelation — the god in art, breaking his wand and disclaiming his magic ; deigning to be human and one of us. But in the Dream all is confined to Night and to Moon- light; all is reflected, all is shadow, image, illusive, phenomenal, and dream-like. How the parallel insists itself upon us that we are still gropers in the Moonlight of his Divine Theatre, at cross purposes with his secret meaning, confused by his phenomenal beauty, and taking this actual moonlight for daylight — the re-
MIDSUMMER-NIGHTS DREAM, 203
fleeted and phenomenal for the real and spiritual I Whilst many are questioning themselves, whether some of the plays have not an inner or deeper philosophic structure than is generally sur- mised, the plays are mockingly reflecting our relationship to them.
If, as we believe, the entire system of this art revolves around a spiritual sun, and is a complete solar system, we can quite understand the philosophical relationship obtaining between the plays and their creator, contemplating the moonlight of his art (or its night-side), whilst the great solar Truths, which are its logos, soul, archetypal source and centre, are unrevealed to us except by reflection, that is, by idols of the Theatre, by pheno- mena. Let us study the Dream with such a theory before us.
It will be granted that things in this universe exist and live through opposition and conflict. We see this in the two great laws of Attraction and Repulsion, which might be termed cold and heat We call them Centripetal and Centrifugal — sometimes but rarely. Love and Hate, though this is no strained or fanciful parallel. We may boldly declare (for our own belief) that these two laws govern the universe, the planets being kept in their spheres by them. It is the balance, or rather the play of these mutually self-controlling forces which governs the entire solar system. When we study the ancient Orphic Hymns and find Love playing a great creative part, we need not be surprised, for it is only a name for Gravity or Attraction. In the senses, we find Love or desire to be another term again for attraction, — ^an attraction that is quite at war or conflict with our rational faculties. And to such an extent is this accepted, that Love han, in consideration of his irrationality^ been considered blind. We shall find that the cross purposes and errors produced by Puck in the Dream are caused by a double conflict of two principles, which are Love and Hate. We are going to propose that these are creative art principles, at once rational and irrational — ^rational in the undoing, irrational in the making or synthesis.
We desire to propose to the philosophical student of this play the following theory : — ^First, that the play is a reflection of the
204 MIDSUMMER NIGHTS DREAM.
Night side of Nature (or of the poet's art), dealing with its phe- nomenal side as at cross purposes with its Hermetic and Spiritual side. Directly we open the play we find Hermia at cross pur- poses with her father, in love with Lysander, but forced to marry with Demetrius. We find her name strangely supporting the theory we are about to propound. For the name of Hermia immediately suggests the Hermetic, the interpretation of things or ideas requiring interpretation. Plato compares the imprint- ing of ideas upon matter as the stamp of a die upon wax. We find the text actually employing this comparison. Nor does the parallel stop here. Her father is compared to a god — a signifi- cant fact, when we are proposing to deal with Creation Divine and poetic It is in the choice of names, in the etymology of the plays, that we shall find their solution : —
" Theseus. What say you, Hermia ? be advised, fair maid : To you your father should he as a god; One that composed your beauties ; yea and one To whom you are as a form in wax By him imprinted**
The student of Plato will immediately recognize the source of the imagery. Everywhere Plato conceives the creative power as imprintiog his archetypal ideas on matter, as a form on wax. Let us then assume that Hermia is a personified embodiment of the archetypal ideas, concealed hermetically in Nature or this art. Grant this for the sake of what is to follow. Now all ideas, whether (philosophical) as unity or separate, require interpretation, a setting free. Marriage is synthesis, that is, identification, harmony. Love is attraction. As Dante says, Lovers are those who in the rational world identify by harmony or marriage what they find in themselves, and in objects. It will be granted that all things in these plays, if resembling at all Nature, are symbolical. That is, there is an objective and a subjective side to everything, either separately or universally. The entire universe is both irrational (and sensual), and rational (or spiritual) at the same time— both are at conflict, as concealing
MIDSUMMER-NIGHTS DREAM. 205
and revealing powers. The mind is always at work interpreting, discovering philosophically, or scientifically, the rational side of things— (the Hermetic secrets of Nature), — ^which may be rightly called the symbolical or subjective side of existence, as ideas. Now the Subject is never separate, but always existing in dual unity with the Object World. This Object World, whether phenomena (or the plays as they stand unrevealed), we beg leave to term- Helena — a name which suggests beauty, and Matter, as we abundantly find. If Hermia and Helena are the two sides of this medal of Jove, they ought to be one, though really two, according as we take them subjectively or objectively. To make a somewhat abstruse subject clear, let us take any myth, fable, or story which contains a meaning to it, or an allegorical picture.
Every fellow of Freemasonry knows that the signs he is shown have a meaning. The square, the compasses are to him em- blematic of more than they are to a carpenter. So with things and so with Nature. For everything speaks a double language of art and revelation, of ideas and sense at once. Yet these separate two (sign and meaning) are one, until separated by thought — the sign only carries the idea, the idea gives birth to the sign, according to Plato. For that is the Divine Art. Now to apply this to the play and to Nature. In ourselves we find also this double power, — ability to interpret, to analyze or set free, or reveal what we understand, and in default of this — perception of the object) as existing to the senses. Thus in Objective Nature (and Art) there are two identical (seemingly) yet separate sides, one appealing to s^thetic, the other to the rational faculties. On the other hand, the perceiver, Man, is irrationally drawn towards objects through attraction or Love, sometimes sensuously, some- times rationally. We have thus four protagonists of the purely irrational and rational faculties. Two art tmt o/usin the outside world. Ttco are tcithin us. The whole of our relationship to Nature is a conflict and confusion arising from this antinomy. For existence is of this nature, that they are at cross purposes with each other. Philosophy has been termed the undoing or
2o6 MIDSUMMER-NIGHTS DREAM.
reversal of common sense. To think deeply or profoundly we must veil the outward sight — ignore it, and undo what our outward senses assert as true.
The sun rises apparently in the east (so say our eyes) and sets in the west, moves across the heavens, yet it is an illusion of the senses produced by the diurnal movement of the earth. And so on. We would all marry Hermia, if we were not crossed by Demetrius. For the earth-life (called Demetrians) is at war with our rational interpreting faculties — ^Lysander. The senses are the rivals of the soul. But let us summon the text. We assert that Hermia is a form imprinted on wax — Helena, as archetypal ideas (and therefore concealed or Hermetic) are stamped on a vehicle, as art or beauty of Nature — ^plays otherwise. Now this relationship of Helena to Hermia is insisted upon in the text in unmistakable fashion. This identity yet separation is a union in partition.^
** We, Hermia, like two artificial gods. Have with our needles created both one flower. Both on one sampler, sitting on one cushion, Both warbliog of one song, both in one key, As if our hands, our sides, voices, and minds Had been incorporate ; so we grew together Like to a double cherry, seeming parted, But yet an union in partition."
This is creation divine or poetic, which we find again in the Phamix and the Turtle. It is the keynote of the entire art of these plays, which are as profound as Nature itsell These two, Helena and Hermia, are incorporate, ''a union in partition," the plays exierius or interius, accordingly as we take them.
Now comes our explanation to those who may deem it worth particular study. It is this. The confusion, errors, and cross purposes in the play are due to the identity yet separation of Hermia from Helena; both are confounded. First we love Helena, then Hermia, for they can only be separated in thought. Let us be clear. This art, according to our theory, is equally
1 We repeat this qnotatioii, because, in our opinion, it is one of the keys to the entire nature of this art, and cannot be too mnch stadied.
MIDSUMMER-NIGHTS DREAM. 207
applicable to Nature or to itself. For this is its exhaustive miracle, that whatever applies to itself applies to Nature also, for it is a complete parallel, with an external side as embodiment of its spiritual side. Laugh as the world may, it will be found so ; not because we say so, but because it is so. And could we by our pen get others to see what we know and see, the world would and must see it is so. For three hundred years we have been Demetrians seeking Hermia in Hdena (m^y— though unknow- ingly to us the features of Hermia are imprinted on the features of Helena. What we mean is this in plain language : The real power, fascination, depth and charm of the plays, hitherto known under the false name of Shakespeare, is derived from the spiritual side, which we are as yet unable to recognise, except as a name- less attraction to the external side Helena. Whilst we are wooing Helena, we are in reality in love with Hermia. We feel the Hermetic in this art ; for it is the real force which lifts it above all other art, and places it on a pedestal inscribed to Nature, who, as the monumental inscription states, died when it was bom, but which means in this case, that until the summer of its rebirth returns, it is in the Winter signs, and like its protagonist Ceres, awaiting (like Hermione) its lost child — the Spring of its revelation or new birth I
The errors and cross purposes of our study of this art are as much the result of our own natures as of the perplexing dual character of the plays or Nature. Our intellectual faculties and our earth life (which we owe to Dem6ter, and which makes us Demetrians), are always at cross purposes, for the creative love in these plays has made us blind to the rational and spiritual in it. It is Puck (who like Ariel, is a creative instrument), who as Love, blindness, has with his creative tricks of the poet's imagination, squeezed the love juice of his art on our eyes, so that we are for the night of the misinterpretation of these plays blind to the Hermetic in this art
Directly we hear the name of Theseus we recall the picture of Virgil, where we see him seated in the infernal regions : —
2o8 MIDSUMMER-NIGHTS DREAM.
" Sedet, seternumque sedebit, iQfelix Theseus.*'
Now, there is a curious passage in the Dream which pictures Theseus as suffering torture. Theseus says : —
" Is there no play To ease the anguish of a torturing hour ) "
Theseus and Pirithous we know were placed by Pluto upon an enchanted rock at the gate of Hell or Tartarus. Theseus is con- nected with the labyrinth and the Minotaur, both of which are well known to have represented the labyrinth of existence, and of the soul immersed in matter. By the labyrinth we have sugges- tion of the tortuous and crooked ways, cross purposes and errors, of the soul ; and, indeed, we know that some of these underground labyrinths were places of initiation, of symbolical death, and thus of the other side, or night side of the soul, as related to the other world. The descent of Theseus into Hell is on a level with that of ^neas, or of Orpheus, who is said to have instituted the Mysteries. When we study the play of the Dream closely, we find not only distinct resemblances to YirgiPs sixth book, but something more than a startling resemblance of the transforma- tion of Bottom into an Ass, to the like transformation of Apuleuis, from which it is undoubtedly taken, in the " Golden Ass."
Moordight,
We find the ancients contemplating and holding the Moon (and Moonlight, of course) as the self-reflecting image of Nature. At first sight this may seem a little strange and extravagant, but a very little study reveals the sublimity of the idea. In the first ^lace, Moonlight is boirowed or false light The light of the moon is the reflected light of the sun, while the sun is quiie invisible to us. And to the philosophical mind there is a like parallel obtaining between phenomena and their real signification or ideas, inasmuch as the former are but reflections of the latter,^ whilst
1 We find Bacon terming this relationship as " the direct beam " and ** the reflected beam."
MIDSUMMER-NIGHTS DREAM. 209
invisible to us. This, of course, is the Platonic philosophy, which is best presented to us in the allegory of the subterranean cavern in the seventh book of the " Eepublic." In this world we dwell on the night side of existence. All that we see are but symbols (produced by the senses) of things spiritual and invisible to us except by inference or conjecture. As different as daylight is to moonlight, as different is the night side of the senses to the sunlight of internal vision and truth. Everything in this world exists by contrast, by opposition, by dual unity, for everything has a meaning, and everything has an appearance, which is at war with it to obscure and hide it at once.
This is Nature's great art, — illusion of the senses; and the ancients were profoundly right when they made the veiling of the sight or outward eye the preliminary process towards in- ward vision. The mind's eye is not the outward eye, but the soul's eye — the eye of the invisible and spiritual
To those who deny a subjective, philosophical side (or any justi- fication for the construction of the plays at all), we would ask why the poet has introduced a mythical classical element into the Dream, side by side with the rude mechanicals and their modem names ) Such plays as these plays are half divine, and are not made in sport, as worlds without meaning, but are as philosophi- cal as the universe itself, as profound as existence, full of the minutest symbolic meaning, planned and constructed to teach divine truths of the highest order, and not mere playthings for the theatre. But the World will not take the trouble to think, and must have opinions. Nor will the World consent to any instruc- tion upon the matter, inasmuch as they know all about it. And are as positive and conceited as Bottom to hold up their lantern and bush of thorns in self-sufficient reflection of all that this art contains. Now, will any one propose seriously that it was "heads or tails" whether the poet introduced Theseus or any other mythical hero ) This being the case, we beg to call atten- tion to the fact that Theseus is presented to us by Virgil as seated
in the infernal regions.
o
2 1 o MTDSUMMER'NIGHTS DREAM.
The introduction of the interlude in this play immediately finds its parallel in Eandet. And it is well worthy attention that in the last-named play, the intention of the poet is to hold up the mirror of reflection to the King's conscience — ^in short, that the introduction of the play within the play is to reflect the crime upon which the lai^r play revolves, and thus to play the part of conscience on one side and reflection on the other. It is, there- fore, probable that the interlude in the Midsummer-Nighfs Dream has a similar relationship to the entire play, as a miniature copy has to its original in the sense of caricature of incapacity. And this (perhaps to some strange theory) is borne out by certain parodied resemblances obtaining between the play itself and the interlude, which we shall point out.
In the first place, the most significant fact in the Dream is that it is laid entirely by night. There is even in the title something to enforce our particular attention to this point, inasmuch as the play deals with confusion, error, cross-purposes, and blindness, which are companions of darkness and dreams. All this confusion could not have found a fitting framework or background by daylight ; so that we perceive a sort of harmony obtains between the title as a Dream, and the action as one of errors and confusion. Night is the producer and causer of these cross-purposes.
The most prominent feature in the setting of the play is the background of Moonlight and Woods (or Nature), which seem to serve as framework and main philosophical idea in the construc- tion of it. And it is still more significant that, in the ridiculous interlude, we have the introduction of a lantern and a bush of thorns to present Moonshine and Woods, showing that this play within the play is, as in the case of Hamlet, a reflection of the larger play or action ; though, of course, in this case, only as a parody or caricature of infinite, immeasurable incapacity and distance. The transformation of Bottom into an Ass presents us with the ne plus ultra point of this caricature. So that we seem to have here a portrait, perhaps, of Man in relation to Nature, if not also to the plays themselves.
MIDSUMMER-NIGHTS DREAM, 2 1 1
Bacon writes : — " But in the mean while let him remember that I am in pursuit, as I said at first, not of beauty but of utility and truth : and let him withal call to mind the ancient parable of the two gates of sleep : —
* Sunt geminse Somni portse, qoarum altera fertur Cornea, qua veris facilis datur exitus umbris ; Altera candenti perfecta nitena elephanto, Sed falsa ad coelum mittunt insomnia Manes.' ^
** Great no doubt is the magnificence of the ivory gate, but the true dreams pass through the gate of horn."
Now, it is very interesting to study Bacon's profound know- ledge and thorough apprehension of Virgil's recondite meaning connected with the Mysteries. We see that horn is a transparent suhsiance, and it is not through this gate that ^neas is ushered out of the lower regions into the real world again, but through the gate of ivory. iEneas has been initiated, and he returns to the world again.
" His ubi tum natum Anckises unaque, Sibyllam Prosequitur-dictis, portaque emittit ebuma.*'
This shows very clearly that the false dreams were connected in the Mysteries with life — that is, with phenomenal and material nature or the senses. The real dreams have been seen in the initiation below, because the whole end and aim of the Mysteries was to teach man the reality of the(future life, and of Idealism. The spiritual was taught to be the only true, and this could only be apprehended by those who could penetrate the opaque masque of delusion called matter, and see beyond to the other side, as through hom.^ But this is proved by Sleep being called the lesser mysteries of Death. Euripides expresses it : —
1 Virg. iEn. vi. 894 :—
'* Two gates the entrance of Sleep's house adorn : Of ivory one, the other simple horn ; Through horn a crowd of real visions streams, Through ivory portals pass delusive dreams.''
'"^ In the words of Lysander to Helena (.n the Dream), when he exclaims, '* Transpartnt Helena," we find this horn alluded to as affording real vision.
2 1 2 MIDSUMMER-NIGHTS DREAM,
"rnXOS rii MIKPA rov eoparov MTSTHPIA " Sleep * is the lesser mystery of Death."
Whereby we see that what was meant was — that as Dreams seem to be real whilst they last^ and inasmuch as we only discover their false nature with awakening (being thoroughly under their delusive influence), so life compared to the awakening after death, would prove but a dream also. This is proved by the greater Mysteries always embracing a symbolical death for the initiated. With the rebirth were taught heavenly things. The candidate had died figuratively, and had awakened from the sleep of life to realize that all he saw in life was but a dream. What sleep is to the morning's awakening (with which we realize the emptiness and unreality of all we have dreamt), Death is to the spiritual reawakening, whereby we see the unreality of existence and its shadowy nature. Sleep was thus the lesser or small analogy (Mystery) which illustrated the (greater) sleep of death. The ancients took their analogies from nature. They saw that things repeat themselves on a lesser and larger scale. The analogy between sleep and death is striking — (these twin brothers) — and from the one they concluded another awakening of the souL Thus idealism was taught in these initiations. They taught that life was a dream and the earth life a species of sleep, which we find repeated in the speech of Prospero in The Tempest, for what he delivers there is only the teaching of the Mysteries : —
" We are such stuff as dreams are made of, And our little life is rounded with a sleep.''
These doctrines were taught in the Temple of Geres. And Prospero sums up his speech in connection with the masque where Ceres is introduced. Prospero is no doubt a representa- tive Jupiter, and his speech we have quoted is but the summing up of Idealism. What do we mean by Idealism 1 We mean the philosophy that taught that life is a sleep, and phenomena
i Warbnrton translates 'TIIXOZ as a dream — provmg that he only half apprehended the allusion.
MIDSUMMER'NIGHTS DREAM. 213
dreams or shadows of the spiritual, which is the only real and true, and which pervades all things.
" Musaeus, therefore, who had been hierophani at Athens, takes the place of the sibyl (as it was the custom to have different guides in different parts of the celebration) and is made to conduct him to the recess, where his father's shade opens to him the doctrine of truth, in these sublime words : —
* Principio coelum, ac terras, campoBque liquentes, Lucentemque globum lunse, Titaniaque astra Spiritus iNTUS ALiT, totamque infusa per artus Mens agitat molem, et magno se corpora miscet. Inde hominum pecudumque genus, vitseque volantum, Et quse marmoreo fert monstra sub sequore pontus.'
This was no other than the doctrine of the old Eg3rptians, as we are assured by Plato; who says they taught that Jupiter was the spirit which pervadeth all things." ("Divine Legation," Warburton.)
It is needless to fill these pages with quotations, which we could ad nauseam. The thing is so simple. Sleep the lesser Mystery, Death the greater ! The one standing as the prototype to the other. Whatever therefore we see as awake is a dream, for we are (relatively to the spiritual) in a land of dreams, and thoroughly immersed in those dreams which seem true. But when we wake after the sleep of death, their true nature and unreality will appear, and does appear to the philosopher who is nearest awakening when he dreams that he dreams, as Novalis puts it. Warburton apprehends the matter in a very lame and indistinct fashion ; and by a great many writers it is not apprehended at all. It is a thing which explains itself, and all the scholarship in the world will not shake the truth of what we have briefly summed up.
CHAPTEE XL
HAMLET.
Let it be noted that the purpose of the poet seems to have been to present us, in the characters of Polonius, Guildensteni, Rosencrantz, and Laertes (if not Osric also), a succession of defences of the usurping King, who mvst he, and are all killed, or made away with, before the King himself can be arrived at with the end of the play. This, it seems to us, is a most significant hint. Be- cause in each of these we see represented certain historical and, indeed, worldly characteristics, which are worth particular study in each case. Hamlet has often been criticised severely by writers upon his want of action. He broods, he reflects, but he is apparently lacking in character. But does he not act through- out the play ? Does he not first hold up the image of truth to the conscience of usurping falsehood by means of the play intro- duced within the play) Does he not kill Polonius, outwit Guildenstem and Bosencrantz, and see through Osric 1 Let us, then, ponder over the philosophical genius of Hamlet's character. For this character is one we see reflected in every man whose mental faculties outweigh his physical ones or his will. Nay, more, we see that it is an universal truth that can be applied collectively. For History, past and present, is full of parallels where thought, discovery, and, therefore, Bight and Truth, are at war, but always in a minority, against established error, custom, and infallibility. The entire history of the human race might be writ large. King Falsewood, who has usurped the rightful heir, the Prince of Truth. This is the nature, indeed, of human existence. If we now take Polonius, Guildenstem, Bosencrantz, and
HAMLET. 215
Xaertes, we shall find that they, each of them, represent respec- tively much that we can everywhere find in History and man- kind, as bulwarks, supports, or buttresses of Infallibility, £rrors, — in short, the vested interests and ignorance that shut out Truth and light, and keep the Prince of Truth in a prison, though he is rightful heir and apparently free. We must remember that when Hamlet was written, Europe was a species of world prison. Struggles of religion, strangling of free thought, speech, or writ- ing, were things of common evil then, we cannot imagine now. But in dealing with a subject of this kind, it is impossible to enter into particulars or details. The student who requires proof on such a subject would comprehend nothing of our argument. It is the nature of existence that Ignorance shall usurp Truth first, and Darkness precede Light. That being acknowledged, we have rather to study the particular touches of art, with which the poet has invested such characters as Polonius, Eosencrantz, and Guildenstem, all of whom are directly opposed and in conflict with Hamlet. Their part is to hedge the King, from Hamlet's revenge or (so-called) madness. Let us therefore take old Polonius first, as he stands next the Ring in authority, with his infallibility, empty words, and assurance that he knows everything, and I think it will be easy to show what he repre* sents.
Polonius^
It requires very little adduced from the text to sum up Polonius. He is old, he is doting — he is not true, but although sure of finding Truth, " though it were hid indeed within the centre" — he is worldly wise, cunning, and full of bias. His speech to Reynaldo savours of Popish instructions to ensnare truth, rather than to unveil it
(C
Pol. See you now ;
Your bait of falsehood, takes this carp of truth ; And thus do we of wisdom and of reacli, With wind laces and with assay of bias. By indirections find directioDS ouf
2i6 HAMLET.
How cautious, how cunniug, how worldly wise this is ! Tlie '' bait of falsehood takes this carp of truth." Poor truth being a sort of siUy fish, that is to be angled for, and asphyxiated by falsehood ! Then what a vast sum of meaning is contained in the word hias^ which means, force, violence, and against the will, and, in our reduced rendering of the term, prejudice ! But that the Author means, force or violence, is plain by the associa- tion of the word with '' windlaces," which seems a sly hint for the rack, which really was a frame with \^dndlaces attached to draw the truth, or tortured truth, out of the unhappy victim ! It is by *' indirection," that is, by false ways and indirect ways, that the carp of truth is caught or stifled. And lo, five or six lines after this speech we have a fresh scene presented to us with Ophelia, who gives us the following portrait of Hamlet : —
'* Oph, My Lord, as I was sewing in my cloBet
Lord Hamlet — with his doublet all unbraced ;
No hat upon his head ; his stockings fouPd,
Ungarter'd and down-gyved to his ancle ;
Pale as his shirt ; hia knees knocking each other ;
And with a look so piteous in purport,
A» if he had been loosed otU of heU,
To speak of horrors — he comes before me."
This is indeed a striking picture, of a man who has been put to the torture or question. We may depend upon it that the " windlaces " and " assays of bias " or violence, of which Polonius has been giving instructions a few lines before, have been applied to Hamlet. Do we not see in this portrait, 'a man with " gyvts " on (even on his ancles), — " pale as his shirt," with knees trembling from the agonies of Hell of the windlaces— the Rack) But who is Ophelia ? Is she not the daughter of Polonius — the child of Tradition— of repetition of infallible dogmas — of certainty — of a dotard past? We must not confound her with Polonius. It is for the love of the beautiful and true, for the truth's sake that man has been tortured, has suffered, and has died. But as the daughter of Polonius, as the Boman Catholic Church was three
HAMLET, 217
and four centaries ago, it was the rack and torture to inspect her too closely — it was madness to do so — Hamlet's madness !
" Ofih, He took me by the wrist and held me hard ; Then goes he to the length of all his arm ; And with his other hand, thus o'er his brow, He falls to such perusal of my face, As he would draw it."
This picture is a portrait of inspection, scrutiny, criticism. It was such a searching examination that Luther gave the Church, and that led to the Keformation. Hamlet is thinking, reflecting, doubtingy examining Ophelia critically. He is supposed to be mad. But madness is the term of reproach which is ever hurled at those who dare to examine old and established truths, and we need not dwell upon it. History is full of it ; " his madness is poor Hamlet's^ enemy." But what has led Hamlet to this scrutiny (allied to the rashness of madness) of Ophelia 1 It is his father's ghost (the spiritual in him), which tells him that Truth has been supplanted by Falsehood, that a corrupt Church has become the usurper of a true religion, by pouring falsehood into the ears' of a sleeping and unawakened world, until that poison of false- hood triumphs and reigns in the stead of the murdered man. We find Hamlet writing to Ophelia :
*' To the celestial and my sovTs tdoly the most beautified Ophelia."
Let us study the expressions here used. Why " celestial^'* why
" beautified " ? Have we not in these terms a hint of heaven, of the
soul (" my soul's idol"); and mark, in a beautified Ophelia, not a
beautiful one, but one who is got up, or made so by art alone ?
Polonius objects to the phrase —
" P Beautified is a vile phrase/'
^ In identifylDg his madness with his enemies, Hamlet is clearly alluding to the universal insanity which Bacon deplores.
' '* PorcJies of Life and Death," by Bacon. Compare (Ghost's account of his death) —
" And in the porches of mine ears did pour The leperous distilment."
2i8 HAMLET,
Why does he object to this phrase ) It seems to us he is object- ing to the term as implying " iMt true" in the sense of false, for a '' heauiified" object implies art and not naiure. And it is indeed curious that the context preceding this speech is as follows : —
*' Pol, My liege, aud madam, to expostulate
What majesty should be, what duty is.
Why day is day, night, night, and time is time,
Were nothing bat to waste night, day, and time.
Therefore, since brevity is the soul of wit.
And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes,
I will be brief : Your noble son is mad :
Mad call I it : for, to define true madness,
What is 't, but to be nothing else but mad.
But let that go. Queen, More matter, with less art
PoL Madam, I swear, I use no art at all.
That he is mad, 't is true : 't is true, 't is pity ;
Aud pity 't is, 't is true : a foolish figure ;
But farewell it, for I will use no art.
Mad let us grant him then : and now remains.
That we find out the cause of this effect ;
Or, rather say, the cause of this defect ;
For this effect, defective, comes by cause :
Thus it remains, and the remainder thus.
Perpend.
I have a daughter ; have, whilst she is mine ;
Who, in her duty and obedience, mark.
Hath given me this : Now gather, and surmise.
— ' To the celestial, and my souPs idol, the most beautified Ophelia,' —
That's an ill phrase, a vile phrase ; beautified is a vile phrase ; but you shall hear.
* These. In her excellent white bosom, these.'
Qveen. Came this from Hamlet to her ?
Pol. Good madam, stay awhile ; I will be faithful.
' Doubt thou, the stars are fire ;^ Doubt, that the sun doth move ;
^ Bacon held that the sun and stars are true fires (Works, v. 533-8), which we find repeated elsewhere {Cor, i. 4, 39 ; v. 4, 46 ; Jul, Com, iii. 7, 64, kc). It is exactly a doubt upon this matter which Hamlet at- tributes to Ophelia, and for which Bmno and others were pat to the stake, or tortured.
HAMLET, 219
Doubt truth to be a liar ; But never doubt, I love.
O dear Ophelia^ I am ill at these numbers ; I have not art to reckon my groans : but that I love thee best, O most best, believe it. Adieu.
Thine evermore, most dear lady, whilst this machine \& to him, Hamlet.' "
In this speech, where the Queen says to Polonius, '' more matter Mo\ih, less art" we have a pretty epitome of the CathoUc Church in those days j that is, very '' little matter" as regards Truth, and a very great deal of art ! Polonius sums himself up as a Wind- bag, one who gives reasons for nothing, but repeats his words, his dogmas, his creeds or beliefs, without giving explanation or satisfaction. Whilst denying that he uses art, he employs it to evade and burk the question of Hamlet's madness. And mark, he has a daughter, but she is only his whilst she is his, — that is, obedient and docile.
If we study Hamlet's letter to Ophelia, we find that his love for her is conditional on the " machine " or rack, and that whilst upon it he has no art to " reckon his groans." And we find that Ophelia has betrayed Hamlet, given his letter to her father — that is, to the Inquisition. Take the following passage, and we find how Ophelia is beauliJUd by the art of Polonius — ^that is, by his infallibility : —
^ Ham, 1 have heard of your paintings too, well enough. God hath given you one face, and yon make yourselves another ; you jig, you amble, and you lisp, and nick-name God's creatures, and make your wantonness yoiu* ignorance : Go to, I'll no more on't ; it hath made me mad. I say, we will have no more marriages : those that are married already, all but one, shall live ; the rest shall keep as they are. To a nunnery, go. [Exit Hamlet."
And what can be more significant than the lines Hamlet addresses
Ophelia : —
" Doubt thou the stars are fire. Doubt that the sun doth move, Doubt truth to be a liar. But never doubt, I love."
220 HAMLET,
It was Oalileo and Bruno who were teaching these very doc- trines which Hamlet tells Ophelia to doubt. " D(aM that the sun doth move "/ Why, recall the well-known story of Galileo's pitiful recantation, or the persecution of Bruno and his burning in 1600 for asserting that the stars were worlds! But Hamlet's signature as Ophelia's is conditional only whilst the rack enforces his obedience and love : —
" Thine evermore, most dear lady, whilst this ffiachine is to Aim, Hamlet."
Whilst the machine (or windlace) " is to him," or applied to him with violence, no doubt he will, like Galileo, recant or pretend love.
But we by no means say that Ophelia represents the Roman Catholic Church. She is religion in its highest sense, the spiritual aspirations of Man as the Soul, Love, (or affection) — all that is most beautiful in the mind, all that we aspire to through immortality. It is her relation to her father that makes her the helpless abject cypher she really is. We can see in the way the poet has pourtrayed her, the entire Passive Obedience of the Church. Study her character of submissiveness and entire obedience, her surrender of Hamlet's letter to her father, her real madness com- pared with Hamlet's feigned or apparent madness, and one can kee that in her we have a character entirely dependent upon her Father's Authority and Infallibility. With his death she be- comes incoherent, meaningless, foolish, and that this is the his- tory of the Church there is much about its modem history to confirm. Nothing is more striking than the aberration of Ophelia's reason, her annihilation we may say, with her Father's Death. Without Polonius, without that "certainty" which would find truth within the centre, — without, in short, doctrinal infallibility or authority, what is the Church 1 Madness is simply incohcrency ; it is a state which the Church has for a long time presented to many j and we fear not only the Church, but some- thing more precious than a Church, the faiUi which constitutes
HAMLET. 221
all religion has become, like Ophelia, in many cases incoherent — a quiet, beautiful, dying Church, beautifying the stream of time and change with the withered flowers of memory.
'' Enter Bosencrantz arkd Gttildensterk.
Pol. Yon go to seek my lord Hamlet ; there he is.
Ro9. God save you, sir ! \To Polonius.
\Exit Polonius.
Quil. Mine honoured lord ! —
Rjos, My most dear lord !
Earn, My excellent good friends! How dost thou. Guild enstem] Ah, Rosencrantz ! Good lads, how do ye both ?
Ros, As the indifferent children of the earth.
Guil, Happy, in .that we are not overhappy ; On fortune's cap we are not the very button.
Ham. Nor the soles of her shoe ?
Rob. Neither, my lord.
Ham. Then you live about her waist, or in the middle of her favour ?
OuU. 'Faith her privates we.
Ham, In the secret parts of fortune ? O, most true ; she is a strum- pet. What's the news ?
Ro9. None, my lord ; but that the world's grown honest.
Ham. Then is dooms-day near : But your news is not true. Let me question more in particular: What have you, my good friends, de- served at the hands of fortune, that she sends you to prison hither ?
Guil. Prison, my lord \
Ham. Denmark's a prison.
Rob. Then is the world one.
Ham^ A goodly one ; in which there are many confines, wards, and dungeons ; Denmark being one of the worst
Ro9. We think not so, my lord.
Ham. Why, then 't is none to you : for there is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so : to me it is a prison."
What a complete revelation we have of the characters of Eosen- crantz and Guildenstern in this passage ! They live in the secret parts of Fortune, who Hamlet declares is a Strumpet, that is, who prostitutes and sells all that is sacred or true, even honour, for gain — advancement. Elsewhere we have a notable character of one of the plays, Doll Tearsheet, termed some " common road." Rosencrantz and Guildenstern live in the very centre of Fortune's Favours, which are bought and sold to the highest bidder. And
222 HAMLET.
therefore they are indiffererU to Hamlet's ways of thinking, for he lacks advancement. We see this brought out in the most strik- ing way in the above passage. He finds the world a prison which he identifies with Denmark. But they find the world honest ! And to his assertion that Denmark is one of the worst of prisons, they reply : —
" We think not so, my lord."
Their way of thinking is not Hamlet's.
But there can be no mistake as to the characters of Guilden- stern and Rosencrantz; their names betray the favoured, un- scrupulous throng, who prostitute themselves for power, pleasure, gain, and who are the " mighty opposites " and " adders fanged,** whose business is to entrap, entangle, and sophisticate with Truth, professing it with lip-service, its spies and traitors withal, — the great vested interests of the world, the courtiers of profit and power, who find the world no prison, but a very good place indeed for their traffic. In Bosencrantz we find a name suggestive of the garlands or wreaths (roses?) of folly and pleasure. In Ouildenstem, (a name of Teutonic origin,) the idea of guilders, money, gold, (star of wealth,) is suggested. Whether these are fanciful derivations or no, their characters speak loudly enough for them. They go about to recover the wind of Hamlet, to steal his mystery, his truth from him, in order to play upon him, in order finally to betray him to the King, and pluck out the heart of his mystery. They are those who sell what is most dear — ^honour — ^for gain. They are the privates of that Strumpet Fortune, who sells Virtue for gold. Therefore their " thinking " is not Hamlet's " thinking." They are sponges. They soak up the King's countenance, his rewards, his authorities. And their defeat does by their own insinuation grow. They are the baser natures which come between Hamlet and his work of revenge.
" IJor, So Guildenstern and Rosencrantz go to 't. I/am. Why, man, th^y did make love to this employment ;
HAMLET. 223
They are not near my conscience ; their defeat Does bj their own insinuation grow : T is dangerous, when the baser nature comes Between the pass and fell incensed points Of mighty opposites."
There can be no possibility of escaping or mistaking the poet's intention in these characters. For we recognise them everywhere in life.
" llam. Do not believe it.
Ros, Believe what ?
Ham. That I can keep your counsel, and not mine own. Besides, to be demanded of a sponge ! — what replication should be made by the son of a king ?
Ros. Take you me for a sponge, my lord ?
Ham. Ay, sir ; that soaks up the king's countenance, his rewards, his authorities. But such officers do the king best service in the end : He keeps them, like an ape, in the corner of his jaw ; first mouthed, to be last swallowed : When he needs what you have gleaned, it is but squeezing you, and, sponge, you shall be dry again."
We find in Bacon's time a great deal of the squeezing opera- tion going on. Favourites elevated to be disgraced, — an everlasting process of advancement, promotion, and very much squeezing. Hamlet is most dreadfully attended with such utterly indifferent and really antagonistic courtiers whom, it may be seen, whilst having no way of thinking like him, pretend to flatter him, in order to stifle or betray him. For this is the character of a great part of human nature, that where gain, power, or pleasure is concerned, the love of Truth for Truth's sake is a pretended courtship, that is in reality veiled hostility. For to such people the continuance of abuses and evil is a source of revenue and advancement. The history of the play is a history of society. The ridding of them by Hamlet is a gradual reforming process. A process which Dickens immortalised in many of his works. Upon a subject like this, which is so universal, so written large in human nature and in all history, it is easy to be impertinent or foolish.
224 HAMLET,
'' P6L Hath there been such a time (I'd fain know that,) That I have positively said ^Tiz «o, When it prov'd otherwise ? King, Not that I know.
Pol, Take this from this, if this be otherwise :
\Poxnt\ng to his head and shoulder. If circumstances lead me, I will find Where truth is hid, though it were hid indeed Within the centre."
There seems to us in these words of Polonias, the very essence of his character, which is belief in his own infallibility upon all things. He will find truth out " though it were hid indeed within the centre ! " Kay, his very life and breath depends upon this infallibility of dogma and authority. But here let it be noted that he is not honest, as we have had already sufficient proofs. We see that Hamlet throws doubts upon his honesty in the scene where he tells Polonius he ''would he were as honest a man as a fishmonger." Every reply of Hamlet's is a hit at Polonius. When Hamlet is asked what he is reading, he replies, ''words, words, words;" and when further cross-examined as to the subject-matter of the words, he immediately identifies the " words, words, words," by presenting Polonius with his own satirical portrait, as an in- direct way of telling us he is studying Polonius, and finds him only " words " I Then note that Polonius asks Hamlet to "walk out of the air," and Hamlet replies, " into my grave 1 " whidi is, we think, one of the most unmistakable hints of the play. Mark the clever and cunning of Hamlet's hits at Polonius, which are all side, or indirect hits, for "he cannot walk out of the air." There is, indeed, a species of challenge in the words of Polonius asking Hamlet to leave dreaming, to give o'er his iheories^ to step out of his philosophic cell and retreat !
" Ham, Well, god-*a-mercy. Pol, Do you know me, my lord ? Ham, Excellent well ; you are a fishmonger. Pol, Not I, my lord.
HAMLET. 225
//am. Then I would you were so honest a man.
P6L, Honest, my lord ?
Ham. Ay, sir ; to be honest, as this world goes, is to be one man picked out of ten thousand.
P6L, That 's very true, my lord.
Ham. For if the sun breed maggots in a dead dog, being a god kissing carrion, — Have you a daughter ?
Pol. I have, my lord.
Ham^ Let her not walk i' the sun : conception is a blessing ; but not as your daughter may conceive, — friend, look to 't.
P6L. How say you by that ? [Aside. Still harping on my daughter : — yet he knew me not at first ; he said I was a fishmonger : He is far gone, far gone : and truly in my youth I sufiTered much extremity for love ; very near this. I'll speak to him again.] What do you read, my lord 1
Ham. "Words, words, words !
Pol. What is the matter, my lord 1
Ham. Between who 7
Pol. I mean the matter that you read, my lord.
Ham. Slanders, sir : for the satirical slave says here, that old men have grey beards ; that their faces are wrinkled ; their eyes purging thick amber, or plum-tree gum ; and that they have a plentiful lack of wit, together with weak hams : All of which, sir, though I most powerfully and potently believe, yet I hold it not honesty to have it thus set down ; for you yourself, sir, should be old as I am, if^ like a crab, you could go backward.
Pol. Though this be madness, yet there is method in it. [Aside."] Will you walk out of the air, my lord ?
Ham. Into my grave ?
Pol. Indeed, that is out o' the air. — How pregnant sometimes his replies are ! a happiness that often madness hits on, which reason and sanity could not so prosperously be delivered of."
" And it may be you shall do posterity good, if, out of the car- case of dead and rotten greatness (as out of Samson's lion), there may be honey gathered for the use of future times. ** (Bacon.)
What is carrion ) It is corruption — a corrupted and decayed Church needs light let in upon it to give it new life, and this is what Luther effected at the Reformation, but not to the liking of Authority, Dogma, and Infallibility like old Polonius. Hamlet tells Polonius that he dare not let his daughter " walk i' the sun." But this is exactly what the entire Reformation effected, viz.,
p
226 HAMLET,
threw the pure light of reason and truth upon the decayed car- case of a rotten and thoroughly currupt Church. Luther, whom we take as the protagonist of the Reformation (for the sake of example only), scrutinised the Church with that searching inward criticism, which we have already found Hamlet bestowing upon Ophelia. The result of that look was to doubt the honesty of the Papal Infallibility, Authority, and Dogma, already in its dotage. And we find Hamlet doubting the honesty of FolonioB. He compares him to a fishmonger — one who barters souls (soles I) for money, which immediately recalls to us the shameful sale of indulgences. Nor is Polonius even as honest as a fishmonger. But what is it Hamlet tells Polonius % He dares and challenges him to let his daughter walk in the sun. How are we to inter- pret this 1 The Beformation may truly be compared to a birth of new light. It was the offspring of the Eenaissance, a word which sufficiently explains itself. Nothing is more true than the fact that this movement was one of light — flight producing out of the Womb of the Dark Ages a new birth or rebirth, to which we owe modem progress. And so with the Church, which truly conceived in the sense Hamlet hints at, and brought forth the child of criticism, inquiry, learning — ^in short, all we term Light But this very Light was the enemy of the old Infallible Church. No wonder Hamlet exclaims : —
^ Let her not walk i' the sun : conception is a blessing ; but not as your daughter may conceive, — friend, look to 't"
To sum up the play of Eamkt, we should describe it as a gigantic philosophical tragedy of man's relationship to man, historically prefigured with an undercurrent of action bespeaking progress. The Eling seems an abstraction of enthroned Wrong or Evil, who can only be gradually killed through his representa- tives. We find the King saying : —
" O my dear Gertrude, this, Like to a murdering-piece, in many places Gives me superfluous death."
HAMLET. 227
It seems to us that the keynote of the play is given in Hamlet's words : —
^ The time is ont of joint: O cursed spite, That ever I was born to set it right ! "
We have here an exclamation that applies universally and not particularly. Hamlet is a personified abstract of the very oppo- sites of the King. As the philosophic genius of mankind warring against all the powers that be in possession, Hamlet is no indi- vidual, but a philosophic personification of the spiritual in man, fighting for the right, for truth's sake, dying at the stake, tortured on the rack, epitomised in the lives of such men as Luther, Bruno, Galileo, Campanella, Telesius, and all those who, like Hamlet, have assisted to free man from the trammels of State, Church, and Ring. That the play scene is an epitome of the Reforma- tion we believe by the reference to Wittemberg. It is plain this place is dragged in as a hint. For from the moment Luther burnt the papal bull at that town, the Reformation had begun, and we see in like manner in the play that the death of Polonius soon follows the interlude. The Reformation was a complete and final blow at the infallibility of a dotard Church, and from that blow it never recovered.