Contains: pt. 1. The court of kings: Was Hamlet without will? -- The nature of will -- The will of kings -- The will of usurpers -- The unresolved historical argument -- The resolved theological argument -- The moral reason for misreading Hamlet -- The historical reason for misreading Hamlet -- pt. 2. The crowded court: The great optimist -- Optimism and compromise -- A nineteenth-century bureaucrat -- The convention of dissent -- pt. 3. The castle of God: Nonconformist assenters and independent introverts -- Loose metaphysician and strict moralist -- The dissolution of the court -- The twentieth-century bureaucrat.