Pictorial Shakespeare, 1880-1890 - eTheses Repository - University ...

172
including, in ,the first act, the Ghost's ck:; ;crlption of the
unpleasant effects of the poison on his "smooth body" (1.5.
68-73).
It seems deer that Victorian readerc and audiences
regarded the scene, not as t:io display of subconscious
obsessions and complexes which poot-Preudions find in its
imagery, but an example of moral o^rnostnecc. Prank Marshall
emphasised this in his >f .:;udy of llf.mlot (1875):
Never was a nobler sermon preached thr>n ir,
embodied in these speeches; they are instinct •..1th
the truest and rarest mo --.lity that knows of no
compromise v;ith r>vil.
lie ; drrarcc the uncompromir ing simplicity of the sentin^nts,
comparable to "those sacred '.vords, 'Go, and sin no more 1 ." (p53)
As an example of ths lengths to \/hich this stern moral
attitude mi^ht be to/cen in performance, Fechter's business
may serve:
"hen, at the close of their interview, Gertrude
out;:-oretched her arm, and would embrace h