The psychology of Hamlet : read at the meeting of the Psychological Society of Great Britain, May 1, 1879 / by Mr. Serjeant Cox.
- Edward William Cox
- Date:
- [1878]
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The psychology of Hamlet : read at the meeting of the Psychological Society of Great Britain, May 1, 1879 / by Mr. Serjeant Cox. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.
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![o creations with, which. Genius has so largely supplied the world; better, inasmuch as they are more open to inspection, more familiar, and therefore substantially more real to us, than any actual personage can ever be. So much of every living man is carefully concealed from view—is, in fact, known only to himself—that he who has most opened his life and thoughts to the inspection of his fellow creatures has doubtless repressed a great deal more than he has revealed. Of all the writers who have produced studies for the Psychologist, Shakespeare is beyond measure the greatest, and of all the characters Shakespeare has created, there is none so much the subject of controversy as Hamlet. Libraries have been written upon him and yet the theme is unexhausted. It is debated as eagerly and hotly as ever. But it is not as a literary controversy that I ask your attention to it. It is as a Psychological study. The combatants are about equally divided in number and weight. The question over which they contend is contained in three words : cc Was Hamlet mad ? ” “ Yes, decidedly,” says one party; “ Certainly not,” shouts the other party. “ But he acts the madman,” returns the first. “ He only shams madness,” retorts the other. Proofs are adduced by both parties strongly supporting the contention of each. It seems to me that the continuance of this dispute indicates, as in all debatable questions of science, that somehow the inquirers are upon the wrong path and that to discovei’ the truth we must turn into some other path than that which has been pursued so long without decisive results. My purpose in this paper is to suggest another view of the question based, not upon the old but upon the new mental physiology. We have emancipated ourselves from the Metaphysicians for the study of mind generally. We have lately taken to deal with mind as we deal with the [264]](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22443988_0004.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
