Her neck was tinged with a delicate rose.... Her locks were bound about her temples with gold and purple bands. Her dress was looped up with ruby clasps. Her coronet and her purple robes gave her an air of surpassing majesty.—L’Epine, Croquemitaine, iii.
Hamlet, prince of Denmark, a man of mind, but not of action; nephew of Claudius, the reigning king, who had married the widowed queen. Hamlet loved Ophelia, daughter of Polo´nius, the lord chamberlain; but feeling it to be his duty to revenge his father’s murder, he abandoned the idea of marriage and treated Ophelia so strangely that she went mad, and, gathering flowers from a brook, fell into the water and was drowned. While wasting his energy in speculation, Hamlet accepted a challenge from Laertês of a friendly contest with foils; but Laertês used a poisoned rapier, with which he stabbed the young prince. A scuffle ensued, in which the combatants changed weapons, and Laertês being stabbed, both died.—Shakespeare, Hamlet (1596).
“The whole play,” says Schlegel, “is intended to show that calculating consideration which exhausts ... the power of action.” Goethe is of the same opinion, and says that “Hamlet is a noble nature, without the strength of nerve which forms a hero. He sinks beneath a burden which he cannot bear, and cannot [make up his mind to] cast aside.”
⁂ In the History of Hamblet, Hamlet’s father is called “Horvendille.”
Hammer (The ),Judas Asamonæus, surnamed Maccabæus, “the hammer” (B.C. 166-136).
Charles Martel (689-741).[(689-741).]
On prétend qu’on lui donna le surnom de Martel parcequ’il avait écrasé comme avec un marteau les Sarrasins qui, sous la conduite d’Abdérame, avaient envahi la France.—Bouillet.
Hammer and Scourge of England, Sir William Wallace (1270-1305).
Hammer of Heretics.
1. Pierre D’Ailly, president of the council which condemned John Huss (1350-1425).