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378. "So tell him, with the occurrents, more or less."

Occurrents, I find in the translation of Tacitus, by Greenway, 1622-" Whereupon I entend to deliuer some few things done in Augustus' later times, then Neroe's Raigne, and other occurrents, as they fell out."

379. "And flights of angels sing thee to thy

rest."

I believe there are few readers in the closet, or spectators in a theatre, who do not cordially subscribe to this pious ejaculation of Horatio upon Hamlet's death; but Mr. Steevens is much displeased with it; and, by a long note, in which, with a fervour of reprehension that would do credit to the Society for the Suppression of Vice, he prefers a bill of religious and moral indictment against the deceased prince, in order to arrest the spirit on its passage, and prevent for ever its approach to the heavenly mansions.

This critic, whose zeal and industry in the illustration of Shakspeare cannot be too much applauded, appears, in the present instance, to have mistaken the author's design in the composition of Hamlet's character, as well as to exaggerate the facts on which he condemns it. Shakspeare never meant to display in Hamlet a pattern of purity or insipid perfection, in which no one would be found to feel an interest; but rather, on the contrary, a striking example of human frailty; a young man with noble propensities and estimable habits, contemplative, learned, and wise, but at the same time passionate, irresolute, and capricious. Profound sorrow at his father's death, succeeding horror on his learning the manner of

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that death, resentment at his wrongs, indignation at his mother's conduct, contempt and hatred of the murderous usurper, and indigested schemes of vengeance, alternately agitate and distract his mind, and leave him scarcely amenable to the ordinary laws of decorum.

It must be confessed, the poet has left this drama very imperfect: of the assumed madness he has neglected to make any effectual use, but while it appeared expedient for Hamlet

"To put an antic disposition on,"

it certainly was very proper to wear it before the daughter of Polonius; and I cannot acknowledge that brutal conduct ascribed by Mr. Steevens to Hamlet, in this scene, howsoever it may be overacted on the stage: his satire is general; beauty, he tells Ophelia, is a dangerous quality, which will sooner corrupt honesty to vice, than honesty can change beauty, so as to make it resemble honesty. He says the world is full of wickedness, and recommends her to withdraw from it to a nunnery, that she may avoid adding to that mass of wickedness, by giving birth to more sinners. What is said of painting, lisping, ambling, &c. refers to the common practice or fashion of the times; and as to the disavowal of his love, if madness must be scrutinized like truth and reason, Hamlet put on the madman to little purpose indeed. But this, as well as his having procured the deaths of Rosencrantz and Guilderstern, whatever Mr. Steevens may pronounce, will, I believe, be deemed excusable, for the reasons I have given in the several places; and I must further deny the assertion, that he is answerable for the distraction and death of Ophelia, until I can discover that he had any intention or thought of

such a lamentable consequence, when he mistakingly killed Polonius. For the outrage at the funeral of Ophelia, indeed, and for the unprincely falshood uttered in the last scene to Laertes, I can find no excuse, and suppose that Shakspeare, if he had taken the trouble to correct and finish his work, would have expunged them both.

This play appears to have been, from Shakspeare's time to our own, inclusive, the most popular of his productions; and yet there are few among them more clouded by impurities, and disfigured by interpolation, in which the plot is so indeterminate, the conduct so inconsistent, and the principal and favourite person of the story, in morals, action, and behaviour, so irregular and censurable. How, then, are we to account for this predilection towards a drama and a character so anomalous as Hamlet is? I believe our gratification will be found to result chiefly from the inherent and overbearing energies of the writing; from sentiments naturally introduced, and happily expressed; from that kind of fascinating eloquence which charms us in the Eloisa of Rousseau, notwithstanding the egregious improprieties that are attached to that composition.

It is pretty evident, I think, that the structure or design of this tragedy was altered, and at last left incomplete, by the author. The Ghost appears not to have been originally in the poet's contemplation; for if it were, having adopted so sublime and potent an agent, he would never have enfeebled or defeated its effect, by resorting to the stratagem of the episode play, or any col

lateral circumstance to confirm the thorough reli. ance the prince should have entertained on the truth of what the spectre had imparted to him; but Shakspeare had proceeded too far with his former plan, and would not now be at the pains to obviate its inconsistency with the new expedient, or reconcile one to the other.

The estimation in which Hamlet was held induced the early publishers to boast that it had been "enlarged to almost as much again as it was ;" and to serve their purpose, they have given us all that either the author or the players had from time to time been adding to the mass, without rejecting a line of what, doubtless, the poet. himself had superseded in this prolix tragedy.

CYMBELINE.

405.

ACT I. SCENE I.

I think, the king

"Be touch'd.".

This ungrammatical use of the subjunctive, instead of the indicative form of the verb, occurs pretty often in these works.

406. "That most desir'd the match:".

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"So fair an outward, and such stuff within,

"Endows a man but he."

"He" should be changed to him.

"I do extend him, sir, within himself."

This expression, which Dr. Warburton condemned as insufferable nonsense, has been defended, by explaining "extend” in a legal sense -to estimate or value. This is plausible and ingenious; yet I cannot help thinking that the phraseology is merely the offspring of that inveterate fondness for antithesis and paradox so often displayed in these works. Mr. Malone adduced, in confirmation of the legal meaning, the recurrence of the word in a subsequent scene

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