604-621+22 Coleridge (
apud v1877): “The unimportant conversation with which this scene opens is proof of Shakespeare’s minute knowledge of human nature. It is a well-established fact, that, on the brink of any serious enterprise, or event of moment, men almost invariably endeavor to elude the pressure of their own thgouths by turning aside to trivial objects and familiar circumstances; thus the dialogue on the platform begins with remarks on the coldness of the air, and inquiries obliquely connected, indeed, with the expected hour of the visitation, but thrown out in a seeming vacuity of topics, as to the striking of the clock, and so forth. The same desire to escape from the impending thought is carried on in
Hamlet’s account of, and moralising on, the Danish custom of wassailing; he runs from the particular to the universal, and in his repugnance to personal and individual concerns, escapes, as it were, from himself in generalisations, and smothers the impatience and uneasy feelings of the moment in abstract reasoning. Beside this, another purpose is answered;—for by thus entangling the attention of the audience in the nice distinctions and parenthetical sentences of this speech of
Hamlet’s, Sh. takes them completely by surprise on the appearance of the Ghost, which comes upon them in all the suddenness of its visionary character. Indeed, no modern writer would have dared, like Sh., to have preceded this last visitation by two distinct appearances,—or could have contrived that the third should rise upon the former two in impressiveness and solemnity of interest. But in addition to all the other excellences of
Hamlet’s speech concerning the wassail music,—so finely revealing the predominant idealism, the ratiocinative meditativeness of his character,—it has the advantage of giving nature and probability to the impassioned continuity of the speech instantly directed to the Ghost. The
momentum had been given to his mental activity; the full current of the thoughts and words had set in, and the very forgetfulness, in the fervor of his argumentation, of the purpose for which he was there, aided in preventing the appearance from benumbing the mind. Consequently, it acted as a new impulse,—a sudden stroke, which increased the velocity of the body already in motion, whilst it altered the direction. The co-presence of Hor., Mar., and Ber. is most judiciously contrived; for it renders the courage of Ham., and his impetuous eloquence, perfectly intelligible. The knowledge,—the unthought of consciousness,—the sensation,—of human auditors,—of flesh and blood sympathists,—acts as a support and a stimulation
a tergo, while the front of the mind, the whole consciousness of the speaker, is filled, yea, absorbed by the apparition. Add, too, that the apparition itself has by its previous appearances been brought nearer to a thing of this world. The accrescence of objectivity in a Ghost, that yet retains all its ghostly attributes and fearful subjectivity, is truly wonderful.”