This was the
readiest as well as the most picturesque method of begetting in him that
condition of doubt, real or affected, which was necessary to account for
his behaviour. But to have shown us in action the matter of the Ghost's
revelation would have been hopelessly to ruin its effect. A repetition
in narrative of matters already seen in action is the grossest of
technical blunders.[6] Hamlet senior, in other words, being
indispensable in the spirit, was superfluous in the flesh. But there was
another and equally cogent reason for beginning the play after the
commission of the initial crime or crimes. To have done otherwise would
have been to discount, not only the Ghost, but the play-scene. By a
piece of consummate ingenuity, which may, of course, have been conceived
by the earlier playwright, the initial incidents of the story are in
fact presented to us, in the guise of a play within the play, and as a
means to the achievement of one of the greatest dramatic effects in all
literature.
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