Similarly, Hamlet's incisive wit and honesty are brought into the
highest possible relief by the restoration to the feebly guileful
Polonius of the speeches of which he has long been deprived. Among the
reinstated scenes is that in which the meddlesome dotard teaches his
servant Reynaldo modes of espionage that shall detect the moral lapses
of his son Laertes in Paris. The recovered episode is not only
admirable comedy, but it gives new vividness to Polonius's maudlin
egotism which is responsible for many windings of the tragic plot.
The story is simplified at all points by such amplifications of the
contracted version which holds the stage. The events are evolved with
unsuspected naturalness. The hero's character gains by the expansion
of its setting. One downright error which infects the standard
abridgement is wholly avoided. Ophelia is dethroned. It is recognised
that she is not entitled to share with Hamlet the triumphal honours of
the action. Weak, insipid, destitute of all force of character, she
deserves an insignificant place in Shakespeare's gallery of heroines.
Hamlet's mother merits as much or more attention. At any rate, there
is no justification for reducing the Queen's part in order to increase
Ophelia's prominence.
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