But wise and iuditial Censurers, before whom such complaints shall at any time hereafter come, wil not (I hope) impute these abuses to any transgression in vs, who haue euer been carefull and prouident to shun the like.' There is no evidence that the children were inhibited on account of these personalities, and still less that their offences were visited upon the heads of the older players. Indeed, Heywood's language implies the contrary.

So much has been written on the character of Hamlet and on the action of the play that it is impossible here to discuss the merits of such various criticisms. But we give one, which whether or not in all respects adequate, is at any rate most suggestive. Goethe, in the fourth book of Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship, chapter xiii. (Carlyle's translation), thus gives his estimate of the hero of the tragedy. To me it is clear that Shakespeare meant, in the present case, to represent the effects of a great action laid upon a soul unfit for the performance of it. In this view the whole piece seems to me composed. There is an oak-tree planted in a costly jar, which should have borne only pleasant flowers in its bosom; the roots expand, the jar is shivered. A lovely, pure, noble, and most moral nature, without the strength of nerve which forms a hero, sinks beneath a burden which it cannot bear, and must not cast away. All duties are holy for him; the present is too hard. Impossibilities have been required of him; not in themselves impossibilities, but such for him. He winds, and turns, and torments himself; he advances and recoils: is ever put in mind, ever puts himself in mind; at last does all but lose his purpose from his thoughts; yet still without recovering his peace of mind.' But Goethe does not recognise the reality of Hamlet's madness, which has formed the subject of special investigation by several writers, among others by Dr. Conolly and Sir Edward Strachey.

CAMBRIDGE, December, 1871.

W. G. C.
W.A. W.

SCENE I. Elsinore. A platform before the castle.

FRANCISCO at bis post. Enter to him BERNARDO.

Bernardo. Who's there?

Francisco. Nay, answer me: stand, and unfold yourself. Bernardo. Long live the king!

Francisco. Bernardo ?

Bernardo. He.

Francisco. You come most carefully upon your hour.

Ber. 'Tis now struck twelve; get thee to bed, Francisco. Francisco. For this relief much thanks: 'tis bitter cold,、 And I am sick at heart.

Bernardo. Have you had quiet guard?

Francisco.

Not a mouse stirring.

Bernardo. Well, good night.

If you do meet Horatio and Marcellus,

The rivals of my watch, bid them make haste.

Fran. I think I hear them. Stand, ho! Who is there?

Enter HORAtio and Marcellus.

Horatio. Friends to this ground.

Marcellus.

Francisco. Give you good night.
Marcellus.

Who hath relieved you?

Francisco.

And liegemen to the Dane.

O, farewell, honest soldier:

Bernardo hath my place.

Bernardo. Welcome, Horatio: welcome, good Marcellus.
Marcellus. What, has this thing appear'd again to-night?
Bernardo. I have seen nothing.

Marcellus. Horatio says 'tis butur 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.
Horatio. Tush, tush, 'twill not appear.
Bernardo.

And let us once again assail your ears,
That are so fortified against our story,
What we have two nights seen.

Horatio.

Sit down awhile;

Well, sit we down,

And let us hear Bernardo speak of this.
Bernardo. Last night of all,

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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.

3

Mar. Peace, break thee off; look, where it comes again! Bernardo. In the same figure, like the king that's dead. Marcellus. Thou art a scholar; speak to it, Horatio. 42 Bernardo. Looks it not like the king? mark it, Horatio. Horatio. Most like it harrows me with fear and wonder. Bernardo. It would be spoke to.

Marcellus.

Question it, Horatio.

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

In which the majesty of buried Denmark

Did sometimes march? by heaven I charge thee, speak!

Marcellus.

Bernardo.

It is offended.

See, it stalks away!

Horatio. Stay! speak, speak! I charge thee, speak!

Marcellus. 'Tis gone, and will not answer.

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[Exit Ghost.

Ber. How now, Horatio! you tremble and look pale:

Is not this something more than fantasy?

What think you on 't?

Horatio. Before my God, I might not this believe Without the sensible and true avouch

Of mine own eyes.

Marcellus.

Is it not like the king?

Horatio. As thou art to thyself:

Such was the very armour he had on
When he the ambitious Norway combated;
So frown'd he once, when, in an angry parle,
He smote the sledded Polacks on the ice.

'Tis strange.

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Mar. Thus twice before, and jump at this dead hour, With martial stalk hath he gone by our watch.

Hor. In what particular thought to work I know not; But, in the gross and scope of my opinion,

This bodes some strange eruption to our state.

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Mar. Good now, sit down, and tell me, he that knows, Why this same strict and most observant watch So nightly toils the subject of the land, And why such daily cast of brazen cannon, And foreign mart for implements of war; Why such impress of shipwrights, whose sore task Does not divide the Sunday from the week; What might be toward, that this sweaty haste Doth make the night joint-labourer with the day: Who is 't that can inform me?

Horatio.

That can I;

Our last king,

At least the whisper goes so.
Whose image even but now appear'd to us,
Was, as you know, by Fortinbras of Norway,
Thereto prick'd on by a most emulate pride,

Dared to the combat; in which our valiant Hamlet-
For so this side of our known world esteem'd him-
Did slay this Fortinbras; who, by a seal'd compact,
Well ratified by law and heraldry,

Did forfeit, with his life, all those his lands
Which he stood seized of, to the conqueror:
Against the which, a moiety competent
Was gaged by our king; which had return'd

To the inheritance of Fortinbras,

Had he been vanquisher; as, by the same covenant
And carriage of the article design'd,

His fell to Hamlet. Now, sir, young Fortinbras,

Of unimproved mettle hot and full,

Hath in the skirts of Norway here and there

Shark'd up a list of lawless resolutes,
For food and diet, to some enterprise

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