[215]: Hamlet, III, scène iv.
The single and peculiar life is bound,
With all the strength and armour of the mind,
To keep itself from 'noyance; but much more
That spirit, upon whose weal depend and rest
The lives of many. The cease of majesty
Dies not alone, but, like a gulf, doth draw
What's near it, with it: it is a massy wheel,
Fix'd on the summit of the highest mount,
To whose huge spokes ten thousand lesser things
Are mortis'd and adjoin'd, which, when it falls,
Each small annexment, petty consequence,
Attends the boist'rous ruin. Never alone
Did the king sigh, but with a general groan.
A station like the herald Mercury
New lighted on a heaven-kissing hill.
Such an act, that blurs the grace and blush of modesty;
Calls virtue, hypocrite; takes off the rose
From the fair forehead of an innocent love,
And sets a blister there; makes marriage vows
As false as dicers' oaths: O such a deed
As from the body of contraction plucks
The very soul; and sweet religion makes
A rhapsody of words: Heaven's face doth glow;
Yea, this solidity and compound mass,
With tristful visage, as against the doom,
Is thought sick at the act.
[219]: C'est pourquoi, aux yeux d'un écrivain du dix-septième siècle, le style de Shakspeare est le plus obscur, le plus prétentieux, le plus pénible, le plus barbare et le plus absurde qui fut jamais.
[220]: Le Dictionnaire de Shakspeare est le plus abondant de tous. Il comprend environ 15000 mots, et celui de Milton 8000.
[221]: Voy. dans Hamlet le discours de Laërtes à sa sœur, et de Polonius à Laërtes. Le style est hors de la situation, et on voit là à nu le procédé naturel et obligé de Shakspeare.