I went on, regardless of M. de W.'s dangerous attitude: "Denmark at that time was divided into several kingdoms, and Hamlet's father was king in a part of Jutland, which, let us say, was as small as Rhode Island—"
"What nonsense!" interrupted M. de W., indignantly.
"He probably went about in fur-covered legs and a sheepskin over his shoulders, as was then the fashion. He was called Amleth; Shakespeare simply transposed the h. He was a naughty little boy, vicious and revengeful. He despised his mother and hated his uncle, who was his stepfather."
TWO YOUNG QUEENS
From a photograph, taken in 1878, of the two daughters of the King of Denmark. They were then the Princess of Wales and the Grand Duchess Dagmar. They are now the widows of two European sovereigns, Dowager Queen Alexandra of England and the Dowager Empress of Russia. They spend their summers together in a small cottage near Copenhagen. Alexandra is on the right of the picture.
"Why?" asked, in a milder tone, M. de W.
"Because his mother and the uncle, wishing to marry and mount the throne, killed Hamlet's father. Hamlet passed his youth haunted by thoughts of revenge and how he could punish the two sinners."
"It was clever of Shakespeare to let the father do the haunting and leave to Hamlet the rôle of a guileless and sentimental youth; the authorities do not agree as to whether Hamlet was really a fool or only pretended to be one."
"Fool he certainly was not," I replied. "He was clever enough to play the part of one, and he played it so well that no one, even at that time, could make out what he really was."
"Then," declared M. de W., "Shakespeare got that part of it right—perhaps you will concede that much. How about Hamlet's grave? Surely there is no humbug about that? I have seen it myself. Has it been there since two hundred years B.C.?"