ROBERT ZIMMERMANN (1870)

(Sttidien und Kritiken zur Philosophie und jEsthetik, Wien, 1870, p, 96.) — Why
should not Hamlet have caught something, externally at least, from the persons
among whom he lived, while, in his inner character as a student, preserving his
superiority ? He is the Queen's own son, the King's own nephew; from childhood up
he has lived and moved in this family, receiving impressions in this court atmosphere
and making impressions, as we see in the case of Ophelia; it pannot be but the man»
ner of life of those around him should be his manner of life ; the views by which he
saw them act should be those by which he also should be actuated. Hitherto almost
all the commentators have committed the error of conceiving of Hamlet as isolated, as
apart from his surroundings. They have overlooked the fact, that while his talent was
trained in stillness, his character was formed in the current of the world, of coarse
the Danish world. But one usually takes his ways of life from the influences that
immediately act upon him, and these modes of living become unconsciously perma*
nent traits of character. Family relationship appears plainly recognizable here.
