fore the minds of the speakers of these passages.[1]

[Footnote 1: See ante, sec. 55.]

The subsequent scene with the ghost convinces Hamlet that he is not the
victim of malign influences--as far as he is capable of conviction, for
his very first words when alone restate the doubt:

"O all you host of heaven! O earth! _What else?_ And shall I couple
hell?"[1]

and the enthusiasm with which he is inspired in consequence of this
interview is sufficient to support his certainty of conviction until the
time for decisive action again arrives. It is not until the idea of the
play-test occurs to him that his doubts are once more aroused; and then
they return with redoubled force:--

"The spirit that I have seen
May be the devil: and the devil hath power
To assume a pleasing shape; yea, and, perhaps,
Out of my weakness and my melancholy,
(As he is very potent with such spirits,)
Abuses me to damn me."[2]

And he again alludes to this in his speech to Horatio, just before the
entry of the king and his train to witness the performance of the
players.[3]

[Footnote 1: I. v. 92.]

[Footnote 2: II. ii. 627.]

[Footnote 3: III. ii. 87.]

59. This question was, in Shakspere's time, quite a legitimate element
of uncertainty in the complicated problem that presented itself for
solution to Hamlet's ever-analyzing mind; and this being so, an apparent
inconsistency in detail which has usually been charged upon Shakspere
with regard to this play, can be satisfactorily explained. Some critics
are never weary of exclaiming that Shakspere's genius was so vast and
uncontrollable that it must not be tested, or expected to be found
conformable to the rules of art that limit ordinary mortals; that there
are many discrepancies and errors in his plays that are to be condoned
upon that account; in fact, that he was a very careless and slovenly
workman. A favourite instance of this is taken from "Hamlet," where
Shakspere actually makes the chief character of the play talk of death
as "the bourne from whence no traveller returns" not long after he has
been engaged in a prolonged conversation with such a returned traveller.

Now, no artist, however distinguished or however transcendent his
genius, is to be pardoned for insincere workmanship, and the greater the
man, the less his excuse. Errors arising from want of information (and
Shakspere commits these often) may be pardoned if the means for