The
character is repulsive in its conception, based on self-dislike and a
spirit of disintegration.
There is, I think, this strain of cold dislike, or self-dislike, through
much of the Renaissance art, and through all the later Shakespeare. In
Shakespeare it is a kind of corruption in the flesh and a conscious
revolt from this. A sense of corruption in the flesh makes Hamlet
frenzied, for he will never admit that it is his own flesh. Leonardo da
Vinci is the same, but Leonardo loves the corruption maliciously.
Michelangelo rejects any feeling of corruption, he stands by the flesh,
the flesh only. It is the corresponding reaction, but in the opposite
direction. But that is all four hundred years ago. Enrico Persevalli has
just reached the position. He _is_ Hamlet, and evidently he has great
satisfaction in the part. He is the modern Italian, suspicious,
isolated, self-nauseated, labouring in a sense of physical corruption.
But he will not admit it is in himself. He creeps about in self-conceit,
transforming his own self-loathing. With what satisfaction did he reveal
corruption--corruption in his neighbours he gloated in--letting his
mother know he had discovered her incest, her uncleanness, gloated in
torturing the incestuous King.
Pages:
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122