I have seen on the stage several Hamlets, more or less successful in
that sublime dramatic creation of Shakspeare, to say nothing of
small-calfed personifications at private fancy balls. Young Booth, in
these days, is doubtless the most ideal and accurate interpreter of the
great Dane; although Mrs. Kemble's rendition is certainly beyond the
reach of hostile criticism.
In this paper I propose to consider Hamlet not as he is represented on
the stage, but as he is described in the original text. At the theatre,
he usually appears as a dark-complexioned, black-haired, beetle-browed,
and slender young man, wearing an intensely gloomy wig, eyebrows corked
into the blackness of preternatural bitterness, while on thin and
romantic legs, imprisoned in black silk tights, he struts across the
stage, the counterfeit presentment of the veritable prince.
I once read a brief line or two in a work by Goethe, alleging that
Hamlet was 'a fat man.' At first I was inclined to regard this as a joke
of the majestic German. Later reflection induced me to examine this
surmise in detail, and to conclude finally that the theory is true, and
that the enigma of Hamlet's character can be solved through calculations
of pinguitude.
Eurêka. Perfect tense, indicative mood, 'I have found it!' In fact, the
whole Hamlet problem must be regarded in an obese, or adipose point of
view. The Prince of Denmark is not the conventional Hamlet of the
theatre, nor the Hamlet of Shakspeare. He was a Northman, and like the
greater number of the inhabitants of Northern Europe, was, doubtless, a
blue-eyed and flaxen-haired blonde. My lord was far from appearing thin
or delicate; on the contrary, he carried on his belly a large
portmanteau well-rounded by the swell of the digesting nutriment.
That our honored prince was a fat man, is proved by his own confession,
as well as by the evidence of the queen. Tossed about in a hot desert of
doubt and despair, he exclaims in one of his incomparable soliloquies:
'_Oh! that this too, too solid flesh_ WOULD MELT!'
What thin man would melt away even in the hot solstice of June? In the
fencing scene, (Act IV.,) his flabby muscles are soon fatigued, and the
queen exclaims:
'_He's fat, and scant of breath:
Here, Hamlet, take my napkin, rub thy brows_.'
However, to be serious, it must be confessed that there are splendid
traits in the mental character of the prince; every grandeur or folly
can be found in him. From the lowest pit of despair, his soul debates
the question of suicide as a logical proposition, forgetting the divine
prohibition against 'self-slaughter.' Eloquence, genius, and brilliant
fancies, are constantly manifested, and also a gorgeous imagination.
It may be mentioned, incidentally, that Hamlet's character has been
contrasted with that of Orestes, the Greek, who, when he arrived at
years of manhood, avenged his father's death by assassinating his
mother, Clytemnestra, and her adulterer, OEgisthus. In other words, he
avenged a crime by a crime.
And now let us drop these serious comments, and return to the more
humorous side of our theory--the plumpness of the prince, overlooked as
a mere accident, by critics and actors. It is a physiological propriety
that he should be of a phlegmatic temperament--a temperament often
united to an acute intellect, but also, to a sluggish and heavy person.
A weak, wavering inactivity, fickleness of purpose, a keen sensibility,
or sensitiveness, are also noticeable; while the subtlety of his
theories is sharply penetrating, and forms the keystone to the arch of
his character.
Truly, Hamlet's intellect is that of a giant; his strength of will,
that of a child. He has, so to speak, no executive talent. He is the
doubting philosopher, the subtle metaphysician, the self-analyzer,
always 'thinking too precisely upon the event.' He sees so far into the
consequences of human action that he is fearful of taking decided steps.
He has the nerve to kill neither his uncle nor himself, although he
debates the latter question with great dexterity. He never _effected_
any one of the plans upon which he had deliberated. Any one who reads
_Hamlet_, under the influence of this theory, will see that it is
confirmed by every incident in the tragedy.
A series of accidents hurried the prince to the final catastrophe. His
was a lovely, great, and noble nature; but it lacked one element of
heroism--strength of will. It was an exquisite touch in the mighty poet
to make Hamlet gross in figure, as he was phlegmatic, inactive, and
irresolute in temperament. Had he been a thin, brown, choleric, and
nervous man, the tragedy would have ended in the first Act. Had he been
a fiery Italian, instead of a doubting, deliberating Dane; had he been
of a passionate, or yellow complexion, instead of a calm blonde; had he
possessed a wiry, high-strung, and nervous constitution; had he, in a
word, proved himself a man of action, and not a man of metaphysical
tendencies, his sword would have soon cut the perplexing meshes which
surrounded him, and he would have executed instant vengeance upon the
authors of his misfortune and disgrace. Else he would have put an end to
a life too wretched to be endured.
The conventional critic may smile at the conceit of a _fat_ Hamlet, but
I am satisfied that my theory is amply sustained by the text, as well as
by the true solution of the alleged knotty points of Shakspeare's mental
character, over which the ponderous but inflated brain of Dr. Johnson
stultified itself. He accuses the Avon bard of introducing spirits,
ghosts, myths, and fairies; of being guilty of exaggerations,
absurdities, vulgar expressions, and other naughtiness. (_Boswell's
Johnson_, Vol. IV. pp. 258, etc.) All of which proves that the Doctor
was sometimes prejudiced, ill-natured, jealous, and ponderously silly on
certain points.
But they who have cracked the kernel of this grand tragedy, and formed a
just conception of the real disposition and peculiarities of the true
hero, must admire and appreciate the marvelous skill of the great bard
who understands the relations between physiology and the passions, and
can analyze the temperament physical, as well as dissect the soul
immortal.
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