though quite vague, anticipation. The silent transit of the Ghost,
desiring to speak, yet tongue-tied, is certainly one of Shakespeare's
unrivalled masterpieces of dramatic craftsmanship. One could pretty
safely wager that if the _Ur-Hamlet_, on which Shakespeare worked, were
to come to light to-morrow, this particular trait would not be found in
it. But, oddly enough, into the middle of this admirable opening
tableau, Shakespeare inserts a formal exposition, introduced in the most
conventional way. Marcellus, for some unexplained reason, is ignorant of
what is evidently common knowledge as to the affairs of the realm, and
asks to be informed; whereupon Horatio, in a speech of some twenty-five
lines, sets forth the past relations between Norway and Denmark, and
prepares us for the appearance of Fortinbras in the fourth act. In
modern stage versions all this falls away, and nobody who has not
studied the printed text is conscious of its absence. The commentators,
indeed, have proved that Fortinbras is an immensely valuable element in
the moral scheme of the play; but from the point of view of pure drama,
there is not the slightest necessity for this Norwegian-Danish
embroilment or its consequences.[4] The real exposition--for _Hamlet_
differs from the other tragedies in requiring an exposition--comes in
the great speech of the Ghost in Scene V. The contrast between this
speech and Horatio's lecture in the first scene, exemplifies the
difference between a dramatized and an undramatized exposition. The
crisis, as we now learn, began months or years before the rise of the
curtain. It began when Claudius inveigled the affections of Gertrude;
and it would have been possible for the poet to have started from this
point, and shown us in action all that he in fact conveys to us by way
of narration. His reason for choosing the latter course is abundantly
obvious.[5] Hamlet the Younger was to be the protagonist: the interest
of the play was to centre in his mental processes. To have awakened our
interest in Hamlet the Elder would, therefore, have been a superfluity