The Man Shakespeare | Page 9

Hamlet does; the problems of life
do not as yet lie heavy on his soul; he is too young to have felt their
mystery and terror; he is only just within the shadow of that
melancholy which to Hamlet discolours the world.

Seven or eight years after writing "Romeo and Juliet," Shakespeare
growing conscious of these changes in his own temperament embodied
them in another character, the melancholy "Jaques" in "As You Like
It." Every one knows that Jaques is Shakespeare's creation; he is not to
be found in Lodge's "Rosalynde," whence Shakespeare took the story
and most of the characters of his play. Jaques is only sketched in with
light strokes, but all his traits are peculiarly Hamlet's traits. For Jaques
is a melancholy student of life as Hamlet is, with lightning-quick
intelligence and heavy heart, and these are the Hamlet qualities which
were not brought into prominence in the youthful Romeo. Passages
taken at haphazard will suffice to establish my contention. "Motley's
the only wear," says Jaques, as if longing to assume the cap and bells,
and Hamlet plays the fool's part with little better reason. Jaques
exclaims:
"Give me leave To speak my mind, and I will through and through
Cleanse the foul body of the infected world, If they will patiently
receive my medicine."
And Hamlet cries:
"The Time is out of joint; O cursèd spite That ever I was born to set it
right."
The famous speech of Jaques, "All the world's a stage," might have
been said by Hamlet, indeed belongs of right to the person who gave
the exquisite counsel to the players. Jaques' confession of melancholy,
too, both in manner and matter is characteristic of Hamlet. How often
Shakespeare must have thought it over before he was able to bring the
peculiar nature of his own malady into such relief:
"I have neither the scholar's melancholy, which is emulation; nor the
musician's, which is fantastical; nor the courtier's, which is proud; nor
the soldier's, which is ambitious; nor the lawyer's, which is politic; nor
the lady's, which is nice; nor the lover's, which is all these; but it is a
melancholy of mine own, compounded of many simples, extracted
from many objects, and, indeed, the sundry contemplation of my
travels; which, by often rumination, wraps me in, a most humourous

sadness."
This "humourous sadness," the child of contemplation, was indeed
Shakespeare's most constant mood. Jaques, too, loves solitude and the
country as Hamlet loved them--and above all the last trait recorded of
Jaques, his eagerness to see the reformed Duke and learn from the
convert, is a perfect example of that intellectual curiosity which is one
of Hamlet's most attaching characteristics. Yet another trait is attributed
to Jaques, which we must on no account forget. The Duke accuses him
of lewdness though lewdness seems out of place in Jaques's character,
and is certainly not shown in the course of the action. If we combine
the characters of Romeo, the poet-lover, and Jaques, the pensive-sad
philosopher, we have almost the complete Hamlet.
It is conceivable that even a fair-minded reader of the plays will admit
all I have urged about the likeness of Romeo and Jaques to Hamlet
without concluding that these preliminary studies, so to speak, for the
great portrait render it at all certain that the masterpiece of portraiture is
a likeness of Shakespeare himself. The impartial critic will probably
say, "You have raised a suspicion in my mind; a strong suspicion it
may be, but still a suspicion that is far from certitude." Fortunately the
evidence still to be offered is a thousand times more convincing than
any inferences that can properly be drawn from Romeo or from Jaques,
or even from both together.
CHAPTER II
HAMLET--MACBETH
There is a later drama of Shakespeare's, a drama which comes between
"Othello" and "Lear," and belongs, therefore, to the topmost height of
the poet's achievement, whose principal character is Hamlet, Hamlet
over again, with every peculiarity and every fault; a Hamlet, too,
entangled in an action which is utterly unsuited to his nature. Surely if
this statement can be proved, it will be admitted by all competent
judges that the identity of Hamlet and his creator has been established.
For Shakespeare must have painted this second Hamlet unconsciously.

Think of it. In totally new circumstances the poet speaks with Hamlet's
voice in Hamlet's words. The only possible explanation is that he is
speaking from his own heart, and for that reason is unaware of the
mistake. The drama I refer to is "Macbeth." No one, so far as I know,
has yet thought of showing that there is any likeness between the
character of Hamlet and that of Macbeth, much less identity;
nevertheless, it seems to me easy to prove that Macbeth, "the rugged
Macbeth,"