Horatio – Intact Character in HamletHoratio is perhaps even more innocent than Ophelia in Shakespeare's Hamlet. This essay will treat his character in depth, including numerous literary critical assessments. Who is the historian of the play? None other than Horatio. In the first scene, Horatio gives a detailed history of what happened before concerning King Hamlet: Our last king, whose image appeared to us even now, was, as you know, by Fortinbras of Norway, for whom he was stung by a most imitated pride, daring in battle; in which our valiant Hamlet (for so this side of our known world esteemed him) slew this Fortinbras; who, by a sealed contract, well ratified by law and heraldry, renounced, with his life, all his lands which he had seized, for the benefit of the conqueror: against which, a competent half was judged by our king; who had reverted to the inheritance of Fortinbras, if he had been victorious; for, by the same alliance, and the transport of the designated article, it reverted to Hamlet. Now, sir, young Fortinbras, of unimproved courage, burning and full, has, here and there, in the confines of Norway, drawn up a list of anarchic resolutions, for food and diet, for some enterprise which has stomach; which is no other, as seems well to our state, but to recover for us, by strong hand and on obligatory conditions, these aforesaid lands thus lost by his father: and this, I suppose, is the main reason for our preparations. ,The source of our watch and the chief leader...... middle of paper...... Press, 1992.Shakespeare, William. The tragedy of Hamlet, prince of Denmark. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 1995. http://www.chemicool.com/Shakespeare/hamlet/full.htmlWest, Rebecca. “A Court and a world infected by the disease of corruption.” Readings on Hamlet. Ed. Don Nardo. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1999. Rpt. of The Court and the Castle. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1957. Wilkie, Brian and James Hurt. “Shakespeare.” Literature of the Western world. Ed. Brian Wilkie and James Hurt. New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., 1992. Wright, Louis B. and Virginia A. LaMar. “Hamlet: a man who thinks before he acts.” Readings on Hamlet. Ed. Don Nardo. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1999. Rpt. from The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Ed. Louis B. Wright and Virginia A. LaMar. N.p. : Paperbacks, 1958.