great tragic passions of Othello, Antony or Macbeth.”[149:1]
Before we leave Hamlet, it should be emphasised that the state of mind of the hero is quite a subordinate question in the play itself. “It would be absurdly unjust to call ‘Hamlet’ a study of melancholy, but it contains such a study,” is Dr. Bradley’s way of putting it.[149:2] The significance of this is that we must not expect the indications of Hamlet’s disease to be developed to any degree, nor refuse to claim for it a place among our examples of “Melancholy True,” just because the author fails to introduce the hero to a physician![149:3]
FOOTNOTES:
[127:1] As Pate says in Brome’s “Northern Lass” (v., 1).
[127:2] “Cymbeline,” iv., 2, 203.
[128:1] Induction, ii., 135.
[128:2] “Twelfth Night,” ii., 4, 113, etc.
[128:3] “King John,” iii., 3, 42.
[129:1] “The Maid’s Tragedy,” ii., 1.