ABSTRACT
Shakespeare places him in the most stimulating circumstances that a human being can be placed in: he is the heir apparent of the throne; his father dies suspiciously; his mother excludes him from the throne by marrying his uncle. Here Shakespeare adapts himself to the situation so admirably, and as it were puts himself into the situation, that through poetry, his language is the language of nature: no words, associated with such feelings, can occur to us. But those which he has employed, especially the highest, the most august, and the most awful subject that can interest a human being in this sentient world. This, as Coleridge repeated, was merely the excuse Hamlet made to himself for not taking advantage of this particular moment to accomplish his revenge. Dr. Johnson further states that, in the voyage to England, Shakespeare merely followed the novel as he found it, as if he had no other motive for adhering to his original.
