your looks, which your modesties have not craft enough to colour..." (II ii 282-285). If Hamlet considers his life as a play (as he well might) then there is nothing to say that he is continuously acting a part, even the part of the madman. He is essentially costumed in grief. His actions cannot represent the workings of his mind nor demonstrate what he feels. Later, Hamlet reminds the audience that he is an actor in both senses, and a poor one at that. If Hamlet the pretender were really talented, would there be any question as to his sanity? His "O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I!?" (II ii) soliloquy finds the tragic prince suffering for a character who hasn't been well played, and he compares himself to the impassioned Player of the visiting troupe. If this were not sufficient and immediate evidence of sanity, Hamlet informs Horatio and the others that " I perchance hereafter shall think meet to put an antic disposition on." (I v 171-72) The Prince of Denmark is revealing his plan, one of pretentious madness, suggested by Horatio himself;What if it tempt you toward the flood, my lord,Or to the dreaded summit of the cliffThat beetles o'er his base into the sea,And there assume some other horrible form,Which might deprive your sovereignty of reason,And draw you into madness? (I iv 68-72)Horatio could well be the spark of Hamlet's scheme for artificial madness. Seeing the ghost privately against Horatio's advisement gives him a greater argument for insanity. Even though he has told Horatio and the guards that he will play the madman, Hamlet's first manipulation begins here, with those who know the design for deception. Therefore, both the audience and his fellow actors have been produced to the character as just that- a character, an actor, a deceiver.Hamlet....my uncle-father and aunt-mother are deceived.Guildenstern.In what, my dear lord?Hamlet.I am but mad north-noth-west: when thewind is southerly I know a hawk from a hand-sa...
