By the kind permission of Messrs Macmillan Ego Go

and W. Aldis Wright, Esq., the text here
used is that of the "s Cambridge" Edition.

.

First Edition of this issue of “Hamlet, Prince of Denmark" printed August 1895.

Second Edition, July 1896.

OTHERS abide our question. Thou art free,
We ask and ask -- Thou smilest and art still,
Out-topping knowledge. For the loftiest hill,
Who to the stars uncrowns his majesty,

Planting his steadfast footsteps in the sea,
Making the heaven of heavens his dwelling-place,
Spares but the cloudy border of his base
To the foild searching of mortality :

And thou, who didst the stars and sunbeams know, Self-school'd, self-scanned, self-honour'd, self-secure, Didst tread on earth ungnessed-at.-Better so!

All pains the immortal spirit must endure,
All weakness which impairs, all griefs which bow,
Find their sole speech in that victorious brow.

MATTHEW ARNOLD.