"I will be brief. Your noble son is mad," states Polonius (II.ii.92). "O, what a noble mind is here o'erthrown," Ophelia exclaims (III.i.142). "Alas, he's mad," concludes Gertrude (III.iv.107). " I am but mad north-north-west; when the wind is southerly, I know a hawk from a handsaw," professes Hamlet (II.ii.331). Four hundred years later the debate still rages.

It seems odd Hamlet's sanity would be so widely debated for centuries when we need only to look at the background sources of this tragic play for explanation the character's feigned madness. Shakespeare's "Hamlet" was a remake of an already popular play, based in turn on historical fiction, based in turn on a episode from the Dark Ages. The Historical Hamlet was the son of a Danish "King of the Jutes," who lived during the lawless period that followed the collapse of Roman-era civilization. Saxo Grammaticus' "Historia Danica," written around 1200, presents a highly fictionalized version of his story.

Bloom, Harold., ed. Major Literary Characters: Hamlet. New York: Chelsea House, 1990.

Bradley, A. C. Shakespearean Tradgedy: Lectures on Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth. 1957. 3rd ed. New York: St. Martin's, 1992.

Montano, Rocco. Shakespeare's Concept of Tragedy: The Bard as Anti-Elizabethian. Chicago: Regnery-Gateway, 1985.

Sanders, Wilbur, and Howard Jacobson. Shakespeare's Magnanimity: Four Tragic Heroes, Their Friends and Families. NewYork: Oxford University, 1978.

If a 400-year-old plot basis is not enough to put the demons to rest, we need only to look to the author's characteristic writing style to further strengthen this argument. In all of Shakespeare's works, characters can be trusted to reveal their true selves, as indicated by Lily B. Campbell in her essays on his tragic heroes. Shakespeare never tried to fool his audience about the nature of his characters. In fact, he uses them to reveal to the audience exactly what he wants them to know (112). This being the case, we are well advised to

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