existed. The author of the pre-Shakespearian Hamlet, and Shakespeare too, may well have read the story in Belleforest's Histoires.* Few studies in literary origins are more instructive than to examine how the "rich barbarous tale" of the Danish historian has become transformed into the great soul-tragedy of modern literature. In Saxo's Amleth we have at least the framework of Shakespeare's Hamlet :-the murder of the father by a zealous uncle; the mother's incestuous marriage with the murderer; the son's feigned madness in order to execute revenge; these are the vague originals of Ophelia and Polonius; the meeting of mother and son; the voyage to England; all these familiar elements are found in the old tale. But the ghost, the play-scene, and the culmination of the play in the death of the hero as well as of the objects of his revenge, these are elements which belong essentially to the machinery of the Elizabethan Drama of vengeance. It is of course unnecessary to dwell on the subtler distinction between the easily understood Amleth and 'the eternal problem' of Hamlet.† Taine has said that the Elizabethan Renaissance was a Renaissance of the Saxon genius; from this point of view it is significant that its crowning glory should be the presentment of a typical Northern hero,—an embodiment of the Northern character;

"dark and true and tender is the Mortb.”

* To Mr Oliver Elton, Prof. York Powell, and the Folk-Lore Society, we owe the first English rendering of the mythical portion of Saxo's work, and a valuable study of Saxo's sources (published by David Nutt, 1894).

† A resumé of Hamlet criticism is given in Vol. II. of Furness' noble edition of the play (London and Philadelphia, 1877).

CLAUDIUS, king of Denmark.

HAMLET, son to the late, and nephew to the present king

POLONIUS, lord chamberlain.

HORATIO, friend to Hamlet.

LAERTES, son to Polonius.

VOLTIMAND,

GERTRUDE, queen of Denmark, and mother to Hamlet.

OPHELIA, daughter to Polonius.

Lords, Ladies, Officers, Soldiers, Sailors, Messengers, and other

Attendants.

Ghost of Hamlet's Father.

SCENE: Denmark,

The Tragedy of

Hamlet, Prince of Denmark.

Act First.

Scene I.

Elsinore. A platform before the castle.

Francisco at his post. Enter to him Bernardo.

Ber. Who's there?

Fran. Nay, answer me: stand, and unfold yourself.
Ber. Long live the king!

Fran. Bernardo ?

Ber. He.

Fran. You come most carefully upon your hour.

Ber. 'Tis now struck twelve; get thee to bed, Francisco.

Fran. For this relief much thanks: 'tis bitter cold,

If you do meet Horatio and Marcellus,

Hamlet,

The rivals of my watch, bid them make haste.
Stand, ho! Who is there?

Fran. I think I hear them.

Enter Horatio and Marcellus.

Hor. Friends to this ground.
Mar.
Fran. Give you good night.

Mar.

And liegemen to the Dane.

O, farewell, honest soldier :

Ber. Welcome, Horatio; welcome, good Marcellus. 20 Mar. What, has this thing appear'd again to-night?

Ber. I have seen nothing.

Mar. Horatio says 'tis but our fantasy,

And will not let belief take hold of him

Touching this dreaded sight, twice seen of us:
Therefore I have entreated him along

With us to watch the minutes of this night,
That if again this apparition come,

He may approve our eyes and speak to it. Hor. Tush, tush, 'twill not appear.

Ber.

Hor.

Sit down a while; 30

And let us once again assail your ears,

That are so fortified against our story,
What we have two nights seen.

Well, sit we down,
And let us hear Bernardo speak of this.

Ber. Last night of all,

When yond same star that's westward from the pole
Had made his course to illume that part of heaven
Where now it burns, Marcellus and myself,
The bell then beating one,—

Enter Ghost.

41

Mar. Peace, break thee off; look, where it comes again!
Ber. In the same figure, like the king that's dead.
Mar. Thou art a scholar; speak to it, Horatio.
Ber. Looks it not like the king? mark it, Horatio.
Hor. Most like: it harrows me with fear and wonder.
Ber. It would be spoke to.

Mar.

Question it, Horatio.

Hor. What art thou, that usurp'st this time of night,
Together with that fair and warlike form

In which the majesty of buried Denmark