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One of the results of this conversation was my father's elaborate paper, read before one of his societies, in which he maintained that Shakespeare's Hamlet was a metaphysical poem, the great central idea of which was involved in the name Hamlet, Amleth, or Hamalet the idea that the universe, suspended in the wide region of Nowhere, lies, an amulet, upon the breast of the Great Latona, a paper that was the basis of his reputation in 'the higher criticism.
To apply his principles to Art, sir to give artistic rendering to the profound idea hinted at in the marvellous vignette on the title-page of his third edition has been, for some time past, the proud task of my life. And you are the great man's son! Astonishing! 'Including the paper on "Hamlet and Hamalet, and the wide region of Nowhere"? 'Including that and everything. 'Did you know him, Mr.
Yet, in a certain deep sense, it may be said of Philip Aylwin's name that since his lamented death it has even become famous. 'Philip Aylwin! I said. 'Why, that was my father. He famous! The recollection of the essay upon 'Hamalet and Hamlet, the thought of the brass-rubbings, the kneecaps and mittens, came before me in an irresistibly humorous light, and I could not repress a smile.
He looked straight before him at the bust of Shakespeare on the bookshelves as he always looked when his rudderless imagination was once well launched, and I heard him mutter, 'Hamlet the Amleth of Saxo-Grammaticus, hamalet, "that which is suspended." The world, to Hamlet's metaphysical mind, was "suspended" in the wide region of Nowhere in an infinite ocean of Nothing.
On his telling me that the Arabic word for amulet was hamalet, and that the word meant 'that which is suspended, I said in a perfectly thoughtless way that very likely one of the learned societies to which he belonged might be able to trace some connection between 'hamalet' and the 'Hamlet' of Shakespeare. These idle and ignorant words of mine fell, as I found, upon a mind ripe to receive them.
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