I hop'd thou should'st have been my Hamlet's wife:
I thought thy bride-bed to have deck'd, sweet maid,
And not have strew'd thy grave.
Shakespeare was thoroughly a master of the mixed motives of human
character, and he here shows us the Queen, who was so criminal in
some respects, not without sensibility and affection in other
relations of life.--Ophelia is a character almost too exquisitely
touching to be dwelt upon. Oh rose of May, oh flower too soon faded!
Her love, her madness, her death, are described with the truest
touches of tenderness and pathos. It is a character which nobody but
Shakespeare could have drawn in the way that he has done, and to the
conception of which there is not even the smallest approach, except
in some of the old romantic ballads. Her brother, Laertes, is a
character we do not like so well; he is too hot and choleric, and
somewhat rodomontade. Polonius is a perfect character in its kind;
nor is there any foundation for the objections which have been made
to the consistency of this part. It is said that he acts very
foolishly and talks very sensibly. There is no inconsistency in
that. Again, that he talks wisely at one time and foolishly at
another; that his advice to Laertes is very sensible, and his advice
to the King and Queen on the subject of Hamlet's madness very
ridiculous.
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