The _constancy_ of Hamlet’s father is throughout opposed to the inconstancy of his mother. The Ghost on his first appearance dwells on the subject: From me, whose love was of that dignity That it went hand in hand even with the vow I made to her in marriage. And after all the wrongs he has suffered, whilst enjoining upon Hamlet to change his course, he charges him to contrive nothing against his mother; and when he afterward appears at the interview between Hamlet and the queen, he interposes in her behalf: But look! amazement on thy mother sits; O, step between her and her fighting soul. The queen also, with all her faults, remains constant in her affection for Hamlet, and “lives, almost, by his looks.” Ophelia is constant in her love,—to insanity and a watery grave; and Hamlet makes fine _speeches_ on constancy of purpose. His soliloquy in act first, scene fifth, is in a noble strain: “Remember thee!” Ay, thou poor ghost, while memory holds a seat, In this distracted globe. Remember thee? Yea, from the table of my memory I’ll wipe away all trivial, fond records, . . . . . . . . And thy commandment all alone shall live Within the book and volume of my brain, etc. But his “remembrance” is like that of a man who “beholdeth his natural face in a glass, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.” III. _Craft._ The word _craft_ properly signifies art, ability, dexterity, skill, as well as cunning and dissimulation—and all these qualities have a close relation to discretion. The _pretended_ madness of Hamlet is therefore illustrative of the theme; just as the _real_ madness of Lear is illustrative of the theme of that play. The dissimulation of Hamlet, however, is not such as to lessen our esteem for his character. Surrounded as he is with spies and enemies, we feel that it is a justifiable stratagem. It is worthy of remark that Edgar employs a similar means of defense in the Play of King Lear; and that as Shakspeare’s love of contrast has led him thus to oppose the assumed madness of Edgar to the real madness of Lear, so here we have the real madness of Ophelia opposed to the assumed madness of Hamlet.