5 Jul 1921

5 July 1921

Chalet des Sapins, Montana-sur-Sierre, Switzerland

Shakespeare

Coleridge on Hamlet. ‘He plays that subtle trick of pretending to act only when he is very near being what he acts.'
. . . So do we all begin by acting & the nearer we are to what we would be, the more perfect our disguise. Finally there comes the moment when we are no longer acting; it may even catch us by surprise. We may look in amazement at our no longer borrowed plumage. The two have merged; that which we put on has joined that which was; acting has become action. The soul has accepted this livery for its own after a time of trying on and approving.
To act . . . to see ourselves in the part - to make a larger gesture than would be ours in life, to declaim, to pronounce, to even exaggerate, to persuade ourselves(?) or others(?) To put ourselves in heart? To do more than is necessary in order that we may accomplish ce qu'il faut.
And then Hamlet is lonely The solitary person always acts.
But I could write a thousand pages about Hamlets.

 [KM Notebooks.]