Ebook: The Literary History of Hamlet. I. The Early Tradition

The present work is an attempt to furnish a literary history of the hero Hamlet and the Hamlet saga... The first of these treats of the origin of hero and tale and their development in early tradition.

Obviously the earliest period, the period to which the present installment is devoted, makes great difficulties for the historian. The facts definitely ascertainable are few in number and hard to put together. Our general knowledge of the period is meager. Our sources of information are often defective and untrustworthy. In sum, the difficulties are so formidable that the present writer seems to be the first to brave them! He therefore craves of the reader that indulgence which is always, and with justice, given to the pioneer and the pathfinder. And this all the more since he has felt it his duty to advance a clear-cut theory on every question at issue, or at any rate to give his opinion, even when the evidence available was too scanty to permit of well-fortified conclusions. A scientific theory is to be looked upon, not as a formulation of absolute truth, but as a working basis for further investigation. If the theory plausibly explains the known facts, even though these be few, it can be used as such a working basis. And in the absence of theory, of synthesis, of generalization, research has little value and leads nowhere. Of the numerous hypotheses brought forward in the following pages, then, even those that may seem little more than speculation will serve at least to raise definite issues, and to stimulate intelligent discussion, and in a pioneer treatise, at least, such hypotheses are in place and have a value of their own.

It follows that the present writer does not anticipate that his reconstruction of the period will stand for ever unaltered. Nevertheless, he believes that he has established his main thesis, and that the future definitive history of the period will differ from his own only in details. In any case, if his work proves a useful basis, on which future investigators may build, he will be content.