phelia's melancholy Reflections upon Hamlet's having lost his Sovereignty of Reafon, is natural and very beautiful. As to the King's fending him to England, See Mr. Theobald's Note. I purposely omit taking Notice of the famous Speech, To be, or not to be, &c. every English Reader knows its Beauties.

THE Prince's Directions to the Players are exceeding good, and are evidently brought in as Lessons for the Players, who were ShakeSpeare's Companions, and he thought this a very proper Occasion to animadveft upon those Faults which were disagreeable to him. Whoever reads these Observations of his, if one may prove a Thing by a negative Argument, must believe Shakespeare to have been an excellent Actor himself; for we can hardly imagine him to have been guilty of the Mistakes he is pointing out to his Brethren.

NOTWITHSTANDING all this, and that the Opportunity feems natural enough to introduce these Remarks, yet I cannot think them agreeable in fuch a Piece as this; they are not fuitable to the Dignity of the Whole, and would be better plac'd in a Comedy.

Page 292, Act 3d. HAMLET'S Expression of his Friendship for Horatio, has great Beauties; it is with Simplicity and Strength, and the Diction has all the Graces of Poetry. It was well imagin'd, that he should let his Friend know the Secret of his

Father's Murder, because, thus his Request to

him, to observe the King's Behaviour at the Play, is very naturally introduc'd as a prudent Defire of the Prince's. The Friendship of Eneas for Achates in the Eneid, is found Fault with much for the fame Reasons that some Criticks might carp at this of Hamlet's for Horatio, viz. that neither of them are found to perform any great Acts of Friendship to their respective Friends. But, I think, that the Friendship of Hamlet and Horatio is far fuperior to that of Eneas and Achates, as appears in the last Scene, where Horatio's Behaviour is exceeding Tender, and his Af fection for the Prince likely to prove very useful to his Memory.

HAMLET'S whole Conduct, during the Play which is acted before the King, has, in my Opinion, too much Levity in it. His Madness is of too light a Kind, although I know he says, he must be idle; but among other Things, his Pun to Polonius is not tolerable. I might also justly find Fault with the want of Decency in his Difcourses to Ophelia, without being thought too severe. The Scene represented by the Players is in wretched Verse. This we may, without incurring the. Denomination of an ill-natur'd Critick, venture to pronounce, that in almost every Place where Shakespeare has attempted Rhime, either in the Body of his Plays, or at the Ends of Acts or Scenes, he falls far short of the Beauty and Force of his Blank Verse: One would think they were written by two dif

ferent Persons. I believe we may justly take Notice, that Rhime never arrived at its true Beauty, never came to its Perfection in England, until long since Shakespeare's Time.

THE King's rifing with fuch Precipitation, and quitting the Play upon feeing the Refemblance of his own foul Crime, is very much in Nature, and confirms the Penetration of our Author's Hero.

Page 302.

HAMLET'S Pleasantry upon his being certified that his Uncle is Guilty, is not a-propos in my Opinion. We are to take Notice that the Poet has mix'd a Vein of Humour in the Prince's Character, which is to be seen in many Places of this Play. What was his Reason for so doing, I cannot say, unless it was to follow his Favourite Foible, viz. that of raising a Laugh.

Page 306.

THE Prince's Resolution upon his going to his Mother, is beautifully express'd, and fuitable to his Character.

Page 306, 307.

WHAT Rofincrantz fays of the Importance of the King's Life, is express'd by a very just Image.

Page 307.

THE King's feeming so very much touch'd with a Senfe of his Crime, is supposed to be owing to the Representation he had been prefent at; but I do not well fee how Hamlet is introduced so as to find him at Prayers. It is not natural, that a King's Privacy should be so intruded on, not even by any of his Family, especially, that it should be done without his perceiving it.

Page 309.

HAMLET'S Speech upon feeing the King at Prayers, has always given me great Offence. There is fomething so very Bloody in it, so inhuman, so unworthy of a Hero, that I wish our Poet had omitted it. To defire to destroy a Man's Soul, to make him eternally miferable; by cutting him off from all hopes of Repentance; this surely, in a Christian Prince, is fuch a Piece of Revenge, as no Tenderness for any Parent can justify. To put the Ufurper to Death, to deprive him of the Fruits of his vile Crime, and to rescue the Throne of Denmark from Pollution, was highly requifite: But there our young Prince's Defires should have stop'd, nor should he have wished to pursue the Criminal in the other World, but rather have hoped for his Conversion, before his putting him to Death; for even with his Repentance, there was at least Purgatory for him to pass through, as we find even in a virtuous Prince, the Father of Hamlet.

Page 310.

Enter the Queen and Polonius, and after. wards Hamlet,

We are now come to a Scene, which I have always much admired. I cannot think

G

it

it possible, that such an Incident could have been managed better, nor more conformably to Reason and Nature. The Prince, confcious of his own good Intentions, and the Justness of the Cause he undertakes to plead, speaks with that Force and Assurance which Virtue always gives; and yet manages his Expreffions so as not to treat his Mother in a difrespectful Manner. What can be expressed with more Beauty and more Dignity, than the Difference between his Uncle and Father! The Contrast in the Description of them both, is exquifitely fine: And his inforcing the Heinousness of his Mother's Crime with so much Vehemence, and her guilty half Confessions of her Wickedness, and at last her thorough Remorse, are all Strokes from the Hand of a great Master in the Imitation of Nature.

His being obliged to break off his Difcourse by the coming in of his Father's Ghost once more, adds a certain Weight and Gravity to this Scene, which works up in the Minds of the Audience all the Passions which do the greatest Honour to human Nature. Add to this, the august and folemn Manner with which the Prince addresses the Spectre after his Invocation of the Celestial Ministers.

THE Ghost's not being seen by the Queen, was very proper; for we could hardly fuppose, that a Woman, and a guilty one efpecially, could be able to bear so terrible a Sight without the Loss of her Reafon. Besides that, I believe, the Poet had also some Eye to a vulgar