ABSTRACT
Hamlet's celebrated expression has long been a locus classicus for the 'philosophical' interpretation of Renaissance humanism which is so often associated with Marlowe's Faustus. Polonius, then, seems disposed to regard dramatic performance as an extension of rhetoric, and the delivery of dramatic speeches of one kind and another had been used as exercises in formal rhetorical instruction since the days of Cicero. According to the usual Renaissance definitions, tragedy dealt with miserable slaughters. In other words, it dealt with 'man's inhumanity to man'. Nashe had represented the Dane as a tiresome but drunken and pusillanimous martialist. Hamlet regards vengeful murder not so much as a 'crime against humanity' but an offence against humanitas. To play the part of the avenger is too much like taking on the role of a ham actor in a vulgar revenge-tragedy.
