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quently happens too, if anger or refentment have taken poffeffion of the foul, and have excited a defire of vengeance; and if there is yet fome uncertainty concerning the reality or groffiefs of the injury we have received, that, till reflection operates, we are better pleased to have our fufpicions confirmed and our refentment gratified, than to be convicted of an error, and fo be delivered from a painful paffion. Hamlet, pleased with the fuccefs of his project, though its iffue juftified his refentment, discovers gaiety, the natural expreffion and fign of joy.

Why, let the ftrucken deer go weep,

The hart ungalled play:

For fome must watch, while fome must sleep;
So runs the world away.

No scene was ever better imagined than that where Rofincrantz and Guildenftern accoft the prince. The creatures of Claudius, and, inftigated by the queen, they are employed as fpies upon Hamlet. He perceives

perceives it, and treats them with deferved contempt: In fuch a manner, however, as to conceal, as much as poffible, the real ftate of his mind. Yet he is teazed with their importunity: The tranfient gaiety of his humour, as it proceeded from a tranfient caufe, is foon diffipated, and is fucceeded by reflections on his condition. His anger and refentment are inflamed; and, indignant that the unworthy engines of a vile ufurper fhould be thought capable of infnaring him, he confounds them, by fhewing them he had penetrated their defign, and overwhelms them with the fupercilious dignity of his displeasure.

Ham. Will you play upon this pipe?
Guil. My Lord, I cannot.

Ham. I pray you.

Guil. Believe me, I cannot.

Ham. I do beseech you.

Guil. I know no touch of it, my Lord.

Ham. 'Tis as eafy as lying. Govern thefe ventages with your fingers and thumb, give it breath with your

mouth, and it will discourse most eloquent mufic. Look you, these are the stops,

Guil. But thefe cannot I command to any utterance of harmony; I have not the fkill.

Ham. Why, look you now, how unworthy a thing you make of me? you would play upon me; you would feem to know my ftops; you would pluck out the heart of my mystery; you would found me from my lowest note to the top of my compass: and there is much mufic, excellent voice, in this little organ, yet cannot you make it fpeak. Why, do you think, that I am easier to be play'd on than a pipe?

The king, alarmed by the confcioufnefs of his guilt, and rendered wary by the fufpicions naturally accompanying the dread of punishment, becomes exceedingly apprehenfive of the defigns of Hamlet. Accordingly, he engages his mother to question him, to fift his foul, and detect him. Rofincrantz and Guildenftern invite him to the conference. They are followed by another engine, who, with all the fawning and felf-fufficiency of a courtier, grown grey in adulation and paltry cunning, endeavours, by affentation, to secure his confidence, and fo elicit his fecret pur

pofe.

pofe.

Hamlet, fretted and exasperated with a treatment fo ill-fuited to his fentiments and understanding, receives him with contempt; he endeavours to impose on him the belief of his madness, but can hardly bridle his indignation.

Pol. My Lord, the Queen would speak with you, and prefently.

Ham. Do you fee yonder cloud, that's almost in shape of a camel?

Pol. By the mafs, and its like a camel, indeed, &c.

The perfidy and guilt of Claudius are now unquestioned. All the circumftances. of the murder are ftamped indelibly on the imagination of Hamlet. Yet, though vehemently incenfed, the gentle and affectionate principles of his nature preferve their influence, and to the unhappy Gertrude he will not be inhuman. His character, in this particular, is finely distinguifhed from the Oreftes either of Sophocles or of Euripides. His gentleness is far more natural, and renders him more ami

able

able and more efteemed *. His violent refentment against his uncle is contrafted in a very striking manner, with the warnings of his moral faculty, and the tendernefs of his affection.

"Tis now the very witching time of night,

When church-yards yawn, and hell itself breathes out Contagion to this world. Now could I drink hot

blood,

And do fuch bitter business as the day

Would quake to look on.

Soft; now to my mother

O heart, lofe not thy nature; let not ever
The foul of Nero enter this firm bofom i

Let me be cruel, not unnatural:

I will fpeak daggers to her, but use none.

The scene between the Queen and Hamlet has been highly celebrated, and

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* In favour of Oreftes, it may, however, be argued, that he was compelled to put Clytemnestra to death by religious motives and the voice of an oracle: Hamlet, on the contrary, was deterred by a fimilar authority from conceiving vengeance against the Queen, and was warned by the ghoft,

Not to contrive against his mother aught,

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