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UNDERS TANDING "HA MLET" I3
eradicated, we may now see how the questionif, deep inside, he did not harbor
events of the play fall readily into place. a doubt, an uncertainty. Thus Hamlet's
We no longer have to ask, "What hap- delays are clearly explained by the con-
pens in Hamlet?"Above all, we no longer flict between the apparent facts, which
have to puzzle over Hamlet'sbehavioror are not facts at all, and the promptingsof
to wrestle with Freudian and other his instincts or soul or subconscious,
theories, for the Prince's delays and in- which are right. And the simplicityof the
consistencies are now easily explicable. explanationis the measureof its superiori-
He seemsto have utter proofof Claudius' ty to the ingenious and fanciful theories
guilt, but it is from sourcesthat will not hitherto proffered.
stand up in any court. For example,you A final word:Although the play seems
cannot hail a Ghost before the judge. most depressingif read in this way-the
Hamlet quite justifiably becomes sus- hero dead because he operated under a
picious of the Ghost's story. Very well, delusion, the villain triumphant and
he will test it-and does so in the ready to take the spoils of triumph-we
play-within-a-play. But even after that must shun the compulsive desire for a
"proof"he is still, at least subconscious- happy ending, or at least an ending in
ly, in doubt: even when Claudius,in self- which evil is roundly punished. The
defense, is trying to do away with him, Hollywood movies, of which we have all
Hamlet is not wholly sure. He asks seen too many, invariably punish the
Horatio, in the very last scene of the villain at the end. In life, unfortunately,
play, if it is not now "perfectconscience" it is not always so. Shakespearewas too
to kill the king. He could not ask this great an artist to pretend that it is.
IN HIS valuable book on Keats' Crafts- incline to look upon Romantic poetry as
manship, M. R. Ridley has cited Kubla a kind of moonlit mist, which dissolves
Khan along with the "magic casements" at the touch of reality and reason.
passage of Keats's "Nightingale"ode as The fascinating but uncritical study
the very essence of "the distilled sorcer- of Lowes, with its emphasis upon the
ies of Romanticism,"and his statement irrational and the unconscious, and its
is more or less typical. This concept of untiring quest for sources, has had an
"romanticmagic" has its sanction and equally unfortunateand discouragingin-
is by no means to be discardedas point- fluence. Only recently, with the work of
less. In practice, however, it has had the Elisabeth Schneider and others who
unfortunateeffectof discouragingcritical have pointed the way, has it becomepos-
analysis; and it likewise plays into the sible to think of Kubla Khan as other
handsof those of our con'temporaries who than a kind of magnificentfreak and to
1Tulane University. Author of The treat it as an intelligible poem which
Imagery of lies open to critical examination. And
Keats and Shelley (University of North Carolina
Press, I949). the influenceof Lowes still imposesupon
14 COLLEGE ENGLISH
the student the tyranny of source study. cery" of which we have spoken. This
He has opened so wide a field for specu- pleasure, as Pope says of Nature, is "the
lation that scholars are still inclined source, and end, and test" of poetic art.
rather to revise or enlarge his conclu- It is not necessary, of course, to claim
sions than to proceed to the task of the that Coleridgehas found the only means
critic. of attaining it. Second,this pleasureis in
The study of possible sources for no way incompatiblewith even the pro-
Coleridge's imagery is valuable. What- foundest meaning; is in fact inseparable
ever we can get, in fact, in the way of in- from meaning. The basic criterion for
formationon the genesis and the circum- poetry is in the broadest sense human
stances of a poem is useful. Such infor- interest: a poem should deal with a hu-
mation, however, can be dangerousif we man situation of universal interest
exaggerateits function and substitute it treated with sympathy, judgment, and
for the poem itself. It is background,not insight. This human significanceis not
foreground. To discover, for instance, to be regarded as a monopoly of the
a parallelbetween a passagein Plato and classicalor neoclassicalhumanistbut be-
a poem of Coleridgeis valuable when it longs to the Romantic poet as well.
adds to the poem's potential meaning; Third, Kubla Khan embodies the Cole-
but the discovery is misused if Plato is ridgean doctrine of "the reconciliation
permitted to determine what Coleridge of opposites." On this point be it added
is talking about. The proper place to that the authority of the poem is at least
study Coleridge's poetry is ultimately equal to prose definitions of these doc-
The Poetical Works of Samuel Taylor trines; it is the living word, as opposed
Coleridge. to the skeleton of abstract definition.
By implication the foregoing incau- Neither, however, is fully intelligible
tious remarksbind this essay to a twofold without the other. Finally, Kubla Khan
effort: first, to give such an account of is in the most essential sense a com-
Kubla Khan's "distilled sorceries" and pleted work, in that it symbolizes and
"romanticmagic" as will reconcilethem comprehends the basic Romantic di-
with the rationaland discursiveprocesses lemma, a crucialproblemof art.
of criticism;and, second, to account for To avoid misunderstanding, let us
them within the bounds of the poem. As prefaceinterpretationof the poem with a
to the first, no one need fear that our self-evident but necessary distinction.
"romanticmagic" will be dispelled, such Kubla Khan is "fanciful" rather than
a Pyrrhic victory as that lying quite "realistic"; the simplest, most basic
beyond either the powers or the wishes pleasure it provides stems rather from
of the present writer. As to the second, I its distancefromactuality than from any
hope for a generouslyloose construction versimilitude or skilful imitation of
as to what the bounds of the poem in- matter of fact. It belongsin the category
clude. of what Dryden called "the fairy way of
A number of contentions must pre- poetry," and considerationof its mean-
cede the specific examination of Kubla ing must be controlled by our under-
Khan. First, the immediate literary ef- standing of this limitation. With this
fect intended and obtained in it by conceded, however, we can still demon-
Coleridgeis pleasure-a pleasure which strate the immensely important fact of
derives from that very "Romantic sor- its basic humanity and significance.The
THE ROMANTIC UNITY OF "KUBL K HAN" I5
Puritanism." One feels inclined to re- extent Keats. His attempt, however, co-
new the old question, "Dost thou think, exists with his consciousness that he
because thou art virtuous, there shall be seeks the unattainable; the ideal can
no more cakes and ale?" But in Kubla never be fully actualized. Thus in good
Khan, as probably in all good Romantic Romantic poetry there is a continuous
poetry, the pleasure which draws us tension, compacted of the sense of the
within the poem is also inseparablefrom immense potentialities of his theme set
its full meaning. Imaginative delight in off against the knowledge that they can
the wondersof the pleasure-groundis in- only partially be realized. This tension
dispensable to the sense of their oppo- and conflict can be reconciled and ren-
site. Fully to appreciate the theme's dered valuable partly by the poet's own
potentialities, we must be beguiled into belief in the value of the attempt itself.
believing momentarily in the perma- The poet excels himself as it were by
nency of the impermanent,the possibil- force; he is stimulated to creation rather
ity of the impossible. The fullest mean- than falling into despair. Above all, he
ing, a synthesis of antitheses, calls for benefitsby understandingand accepting
feeling and imagination at full stretch, his dilemma even while trying to rise
reconciled with intellectual scope and above it nonetheless.
understanding. And pleasure, one may And this is eminently the case with
claim, is the basis and beginning of the Kubla Khan. Coleridgeprovides a scene
process. and experiencetoo fine for common na-
Our final contention re-emphasizes ture's daily food. With exquisite judg-
the depth and significance of Kubla ment he forbearsthe attempt to explain
Khan. It is in the truest sense a com- what can only be hinted and dramatizes
pleted work, in that it symbolizes and instead what is lost in the very act of
comprehends the crucial Romantic di- relinquishingit. But amid the master-
lemma. In a more obvious sense it is artist's skilful manipulation of interest
clearly unfinished:as a narrativeit bare- and suspense, his suggestions of "more
ly commences, and it shifts abruptly than meets the eye," is the human inter-
with the Abyssinianmaid from objective est, the complexity and spacious grasp,
to subjective. Consideredas lyric, how- without which the rest would be nothing,
ever, it is self-containedand whole. The could not separately exist. Properly
Romantic poet as idealist and monist understood, Romantic poetry is never a
strives to includewithin his cosmos both cheat, although it often labors under the
actual and ideal, as in Coleridge,Words- disadvantage of being extremely agree-
worth, Shelley, even Byron, and to some able.