Imatges de pàgina
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anticipated the very objection which Hazlitt combats. It was on this account, perhaps, that he has made Iago express a suspicion that both the Moor and Cassio had dishonored him as a husband. The thing seems improbable in itself, and is so awkwardly introduced and has so little effect, that it looks very like an afterthought or interpolation. It is forgotten as soon as mentioned. The desire of obtaining Cassio's place, and of revenging himself on the Moor for his selection of that officer in preference to himself, does not seem a sufficient motive for his fiendish Machiavelism. Besides, it seems unlikely that such a cautious and clear-minded observer of human nature as Iago should not have reflected, that to succeed in proving Desdemona faithless would be to make Othello fancy himself

"A fixéd figure for the hand of scorn

To point his slowly moving finger at—”

and to deprive him of that precious charm in which he had "garnered up his heart,"

"Where either he must live, or bear no life."

He must have known that he could not have long continued an agreeable object to Othello's eye. "The first bringer of unwelcome news hath but a losing office." It must be remembered, however, that Iago did not himself see his own way with perfect clearness and precision. His plans were at first confused and undefined, and the course of events became more fearful than he had expected. Crime after crime entailed the necessity of deeper and deeper guilt, and he became himself involved in a hideous labyrinth of his own creating. The total destruction of his victims was at first as little contemplated as his own. Had a pause in his horrible career been consistent with his own safety and success, there is no reason to suppose that he would have desired so dreadful a consummation of his revenge.

Othello is perhaps the most thoroughly dramatic of all Shakespeare's Plays, and is certainly one of the very noblest productions

of his genius. In none of the works of this matchless writer is there a more powerful display of human passion; in none of them is the heart more entirely laid open. It is not, however, in every respect his best performance. I cannot help saying a word or two in this place (however awkwardly introduced) respecting a play of a very opposite character. I allude to that of Hamlet, a production which seems to have been an especial favourite with the author himself, if we may judge from his careful revision of it, and the internal evidence it affords of great care and study.

The elements of passion in Othello are more simple, and are more easily painted and more readily comprehended and sympathized with than the ethereal movements of Hamlet's mind.

Hamlet is a purely intellectual character. His actions and even his feelings have little interest, but as they indicate the metaphysical movements of his spirit. Never was there a being clothed in the attributes of humanity more nearly allied to a superior nature. He is in the world, but not of it; and all the apparent inconsistencies of his conduct seem but the necessary consequence of a being of a purely spiritual nature endeavouring to act in an element which is altogether strange and uncongenial to him. When he gets into the busy world, he is He very naturally exclaims,

quite out of his sphere.

"The time is out of joint

O cursed spite that ever I was born to set it right."

He is a mere thinker. He thinks when he ought to act. qualities are not duly balanced. He is a child in action.

His

It might be thought by a superficial critic that he has a better head than heart. It has been said that his treatment of Ophelia is not merely rude and harsh, but absolutely brutal, and the cool way in which he plans the death of his two school-fellows, shows that he is quite devoid of any natural tenderness of disposition. That in fact he is lacadaisical, cowardly, and cold-hearted; a truly unmanly character; and that he sinks into utter insignificance when

contrasted with the generous Moor who "loved not wisely, but too well." When Othello is about to kill Desdemona, he gives her time to prepare herself for the awful change.

"Othello.-I would not kill thy unprepared spirit;

No,-heaven forefeud! I would not kill thy soul.
Desdemona.-Talk you
of killing?

Oth.-Ay, I do.

Des.-Then heaven

Have mercy on me!

Oth.-Amen with all my heart!"

He

There will at first appear much in favor of Othello and against Hamlet, if we compare the above passage with the dreadful soliloquy of the latter when he beholds his uncle at his prayers. is half tempted to kill him at that moment, but reflecting that a man is never better prepared for death than in the hour of prayer, "in the purging of his soul, when he is fit and seasoned for his passage," he exclaims.

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Up, sword; and know thou a more horrid hent;
When he is drunk, asleep, or in his rage;
Or in the incestuous pleasures of his bed :
At gaming, swearing, or about some act,
That has no relish of salvation in't:

Then trip him, that his heels may kick at heaven;
And that his soul may be as damned and black,

As hell, whereto he goes."

Dr. Johnson observes that this speech in the mouth of a character intended to be a virtuous one, is too horrible to be read or uttered. Monk Mason, Steevens and Malone all comment on it in a similar spirit of indignation.

That so many commentators should have failed to enter thoroughly into the character of Hamlet, is no argument against the skill and truth with which it is delineated. We must very carefully refer to human nature, before we can judge with accuracy and precision of Shakespeare's imitations. We are not to look upon Hamlet as a perfect character. We must leave it to such a writer as

the author of Sir Charles Grandison to paint suns without a spot. Neither has Shakespeare, in this instance, intended to represent a character having such a share of virtue as the best specimens of humanity may be supposed to possess. Still, however, he is not quite so wicked a personage as some commentators have imagined. In fact to be as Hamlet is, as this world goes, is to be as one man picked out of ten thousand. I speak in a moral point of view. As an intellectual being, he is raised in a still higher degree above the great mass of mankind. The alleged brutality of Hamlet's conduct to Ophelia is to be attributed partly to his assumed, and partly to his actual distraction of mind; his behaviour to pretended friends, but real spies and traitors, was occasioned by his sense of the danger of his own position, and his disgust and indignation at the part which they had volunteered to act against him; and with respect to his speech concerning the king at his prayers, nothing could be more characteristic of the amiability of his disposition, and the tendency of his mind to adopt any plausible excuse for postponing to some future period an act of so terrible a character as that of depriving a fellow-creature of the life God has given him. He satisfies his conscience, in the postponement of a harsh but imperative duty, with the thought that he may perform it more effectually under different circumstances. He promises the ghost of his father, that he will haste to his revenge with wings as swift as thought; but his natural gentleness, his delicate moral sensibility, and his disposition to canvass the propriety of every action before he ventures upon it, lead him into endless procrastination; and when he does act at all, it is from some sudden impulse, and a kind of uneasy consciousness that he must not give himself time to deliberate, or he would want the will to act. That he was not a coward, in the vulgar sense of the word, his coolness in the engagement with Laertes is a sufficient proof.

MYSTERIES.

AH! this were but a weary world
Without its hopes and fears ;-

A pool by no light breezes curled
A cheerless sight appears:
A smooth interminable plain
Is sadder than the stormy main;

Yet these similitudes would be

Of life's long, dull monotony,

If human sighs and human tears

Ne'er stirred, nor stained the stream of years.

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