madman to escape the tyranny of his uncle, and how he was tempted by a woman (through his uncle's procurement), who thereby thought to undermine the Prince, and by that mean to find out whether he counterfeited madness or not." In the third chapter we learn "how Fengon, uncle to Hamlet, a second time to entrap him in his politic madness, caused one of his counsellors to be secretly hidden in the Queen's chamber, behind the arras, to hear what speeches past between Hamlet and the Queen; and how Hamlet killed him, and escaped that danger, and what followed." It is in this part of the action that Shakspere's use of this book may be distinctly traced. In the fourth chapter, Hamlet is sent to England by Fengon, "with secret letters to have him put to death;" and, while his companions slept, Hamlet counterfeits the letters "willing the King of England to put the two messengers to death." Here ends the resemblance between the history and the play. The Hamlet of the history returns to Denmark, slays his uncle, burns his palace, makes an oration to the Danes, and is elected king.

It is scarcely necessary to point out how little these rude materials have assisted Shakspere in the composition of the great tragedy of 'Hamlet.' He found, in the records of a barbarous period, a tale of adultery, and murder, and revenge. Here, too, was a rude indication of the character of Hamlet. But what he has given us is so essentially a creation from first to last, that it would be only tedious to point out the lesser resemblances between the drama and the history. Out of this semi-barbaric story has been evolved the Hamlet who is "the darling of every country in which the literature of England has been fostered;"* the Hamlet who is "a concentration of all the interests that belong to humanity in whom there is a more intense conception of

our own thoughts. Their reality is in the reader's mind. It is we who are Hamlet."*

Without much acquaintance with the thoughts of others, many, we have no doubt, being earnest and diligent students of Shakspere, have arrived at a tolerably adequate comprehension of his idea in this wonderful play. In passing through the stage of admiration they have utterly rejected the trash which the commentators have heaped upon it, under the name of criticism,—the solemn common-places of Johnson, the flippant and insolent attacks of Steevens. When the one says "The apparition left the regions of the dead to little purpose," and the other talks of the “absurdities" which deform the piece, and “the immoral character of Hamlet," the love for Shakspere tells them, that remarks such as these belong to the same class of prejudices as Voltaire's “monstruosités et fossoyeurs." But after they have rejected all that belongs to criticism without love, the very depth of the reverence of another school of critics may tend to perplex them. The quantity alone that has been written in illustration of 'Hamlet' is embarrassing. We have only one word here to say to the anxious student of 'Hamlet:' "Read, and again, and again." These are the words which the Editors of the folio of 1623 addressed "to the great variety of readers" as to Shakspere generally: "Read him, therefore; and again, and again: and if then you do not like him, surely you are in some manifest danger not to understand him."

* Hazlitt.

Appears, Act I. sc. 1. Act II. sc. 1; sc. 2; sc. 4. Act III. sc. 5; sc. 7.

DUKE OF ALBANY.

Appears, Act I. sc. 1; sc. 4.

Act IV. sc. 2.

Act V. sc. 1; sc. 3.

EARL OF KEnt.

Appears, Act I. sc. 1; sc. 4; sc. 5. Act II. sc. 2; sc. 4. Act III. sc. 1; sc. 2; sc. 4; sc. 6. Act IV. sc. 3; sc. 7. Act V. sc. 3.

EARL OF GLOSTER.

Appears, Act I. sc. 2.

Act III. sc. 3; sc. 4; sc. 6; sc. 7.

Act II. sc. 1; sc. 2; sc. 4.

Act IV. sc. 1; sc. 6. Act V. sc. 2.

EDGAR, son to Gloster.

Appears, Act I. sc. 1; sc. 2. Act II. sc. 1; sc. 3. Act III. sc. 4; sc. 6. Act IV. sc. 1; sc. 6. Act V. sc. 1; sc. 2; sc. 3.

EDMUND, bastard son to Gloster.

Appears, Act I. sc. 1; sc. 2. Act II. sc. 1; sc. 2.

Act III. sc. 3; sc. 5; sc. 7. Act IV. sc. 2. Act V. sc. 1; sc. 3.