madness as an essential part of the old story on which the drama is founded. -
The old history of Hamlet relates how he counterfeited the madman to escape the tyranny of his uncle Fengon, and the expedients resembling those in the drama, which were resorted to by the King to ascertain whether his madness was counter feited or not. The feigned madness, therefore, of the Prince was so leading a feature in the original history, that Shakespeare
could by no means have omitted it, even if by doing so he would not have deprived himself of a magnificent canvass on which to display his psychological knowledge. As it stands in the drama, the counterfeit madness would seem to bring Hamlet into more danger than security. What if the King had accepted his madness from the first, and shut him up, as he might have justified himself in doing, in some strong castle. After the death of Polonious, the King says: “His liberty is full of threats to all; To you yourself, to us, to every one.
Alas ! how shall this bloody deed be answer'd : It will be laid to us, whose providence Should have kept short, restrain'd, and out of haunt,
This mad young man.” And again— “How dangerous is it that this man goes loose.” He puts not the strong law upon him indeed, as he says, because “he's loved of the distracted multitude,” and because
“the Queen lives but in his eyes.” These motives may ex plain the King's conduct, but they do not shew that, in assuming the guise of madness, Hamlet was not incurring the probable limitation of his own freedom. The first demonstration of the antic disposition he actually does put on, is made before his mistress, the fair Ophelia. -
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“Pol.
How now, Ophelia
what's the matter
Oph. O, my lord, my lord, I have been so affrighted
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