The Man Shakespeare by Frank Harris
page 53 of 447 (11%)
page 53 of 447 (11%)
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and soldiers," and Ophelia's praise of Hamlet as "courtier, soldier,
scholar." Lucio goes off, and the Duke "moralizes" the incident in Hamlet's very accent: "No might nor greatness in mortality Can censure 'scape; backwounding calumny The whitest virtue strikes. What king so strong Can tie the gall up in the slanderous tongue?" Hamlet says to Ophelia: "Be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as snow, thou shall not escape calumny." And Laertes says that "virtue itself" cannot escape calumny. The reflection is manifestly Shakespeare's own, and here the form, too, is characteristic. It may be as well to recall now that Shakespeare himself was calumniated in his lifetime; the fact is admitted in Sonnet 36, where he fears his "guilt" will "shame" his friend. In his talk with Escalus the Duke's speech becomes almost obscure from excessive condensation of thought--a habit which grew upon Shakespeare. Escalus asks: "What news abroad in the world?" The Duke answers: |
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