SOURCE: Srigley, Michael. “Hamlet's Prophetic Soul.” Studia Neophilologica 58, no. 2 (1986): 205-14.

In the following essay, Srigley analyzes Hamlet's melancholy in light of Saxo's description of his powers of divination.

For over two hundred years the nature and extent of Hamlet's madness has been discussed. It has been suggested that he was mad but pretending to be sane or, at the other extreme, that he was sane but feigning madness. In between there are various permutations on T. S. Eliot's statement that Hamlet was “less than mad, and more than feigning”. It now seems to be generally agreed that Hamlet's state lies somewhere in this no-man's-land between sanity and madness. Dover Wilson gives one account of this state:

Shakespeare wishes us to feel that Hamlet assumes madness because he cannot help it. The tragic burden has done its work, and he is conscious that he no longer retains control over...