The king is barbarously murdered. In
_Hamlet_ the graceless usurping uncle declares that "such divinity
doth hedge a king," that treason cannot endanger his life. But the
speaker is run through the body very soon after the brag escapes his
lips.
Shakespeare is no comfortable theorist, no respecter of orthodox
doctrine, no smooth-tongued approver of fashionable dogma. His acute
intellect cuts away all the cobwebs, all the illusions, all the
delusions, of formulae. His untutored insight goes down to the root of
things; his king is not Philosopher Bacon's "mortal god on earth"; his
king is "but a man as I am," doomed to drag out a large part of his
existence in the galling chains of "tradition, form and ceremonious
duty," of unreality and self-deception.
Shakespeare's intuitive power of seeing things as they are, affects
his attitude to all social conventions. Not merely royal rulers of men
are in a false position, ethically and logically. "Beware of
appearances," is Shakespeare's repeated warning to men and women of
all ranks in the political or social hierarchy. "Put not your trust in
ornament, be it of gold or of silver." In the spheres of law and
religion, the dramatist warns against pretence, against shows of
virtue, honesty, or courage which have no solid backing.
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