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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![functions, I hold to be established, although it is more than doubtful if we have yet ascertained what particular portions of the brain are appropriated to those functions. But I accept, as established, that analysis of the mental faculties which Phrenology has worked out and for which Psycho- logical Science owes to it a debt of gratitude. I employ this division of the mental faculties, not only because it is in my judgment correct, but also because it is generally intelligible. Hamlet is manifestly of melancholic temperament. He lacks the faculty of Hope. It is the characteristic of such a disposition to nurse griefs—to look on the dark side of things. His first appearance on the stage introduces us at once to this marked feature. We see the son sighing for his dead father and who would not be comforted. He wears the deepest mourning while all the Court is robed in wedding garments. To his mother’s exhortation that he should cease from seeking his noble father in the dust, and her hint that his sorrow was more in seeming than in substance, he answers : ’Tis not alone my inky cloak, good mother, Nor customary suits of solemn black That can decide me truly; these indeed “ seem,” For they are actions that a man might play; But I have that within which passeth show. These but the trappings and the suits of woe. The second in prominence of his mental features is irresolution—a character by no means uncommon. It is, in fact, a deficiency of the faculty of firmness and is most conspicuous in minds possessing large capacities for reasoning and reflecting. Such minds habitually hesitate. They have their doubts. They look upon both sides of every question and balance the pros and cons. They perceive prospective difficulties and objections not apparent to those [266]](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22443988_0006.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
