We thus see that in the original play the "tragedians of the city," by which are unquestionably meant certain players of Shakspere's own day, were not adequately rewarded, because the public audience “turned | to private plays, and to the humour of children." On the contrary, in the augmented play, published in the following year, they were not so followed-they were inhibited in consequence of a late innovation. The words "inhibition" and "innovation" point to some public proceeding; "novelty," on the other hand, "private plays," and "the humour of children," would seem to have reference to some popular caprice. "The humour of children,” in the first copy, points to a period when plays were acted by children; when the novelty of such performances, diminishing the attractions of the tragedians of the city, compelled them to travel. The children of Paul's represented plays in their singing school at a very early period. Several of Lyly's pieces were presented by them subsequent to 1584, according to Mr. Collier; but in 1591 we find these performances suppressed. In the address of the printer before Lyly's 'Endymion,' published in 1591, the suppression is mentioned as a recent event: -“Since the plays in Paul's were dissolved, there are certain comedies come to my hand." In 1596 the interdict was not taken off; for Nash, in his 'Have with You to Saffron Waldon,' printed in that year, wishes to see the "plays at Paul's up again." But in 1600 we find a private play, attributed to Lyly, "acted by the children of Powles." In 'Jack Drum's Entertainment,' 1601, we find the performances of these children described, with the observation,-"The apes in time will do it handsomely." The audience is mentioned as a "good gentle audience." Our belief, founded upon this passage, is, that the first copy of 1603 refers to the period before 1591, when "the humour of children" prevailed; and that the "innovation," mentioned in the second copy, refers to the removal of the interdict, which removal occasioned the revival of plays at Paul's, about 1600. In that year came the "inhibition." On the 22nd of June, 1600, an order of the Privy Council appeared, "for the restraint of the immoderate use of play-houses;" and it is here prescribed "that there shall be about the city two houses and no more allowed, to serve for the use of the common stage plays." No restraint was, however, laid upon the children of Paul's. It appears to us, therefore, that the inhibition and innovation are distinctly connected in Shakspere's mind. The passage is to us decisive, as fixing the date of the augmented play about 1600; as it is equally clear to us that the passage of the first copy has reference to an earlier period. The text, as we now have it,"There is, Sir, an ayrie of children," who "so berattle the common stages,"-belongs to a later period, when the children of Paul's acted the plays of Marston, Dekker, and other writers of repute, and the Blackfriars' Theatre was in the possession of a company of boys. In 1612, the performances of children had been made the vehicle for scurrility, and they were again suppressed. (See Mr. Collier's 'Annals of the Stage,' vol. i. pp. 279, 282; and Malone's Historical Account of the English Stage,' Boswell's edition, pp. 62 and 453.) The speech from the play that was "never acted, or not above once," that "pleased not the million,"-is found, with very slight alteration, in the quarto of 1603; and so is Hamlet's commendation of it. We agree with Coleridge, that "the fancy that a burlesque was intended sinks below criticism." Warburton expressed the same opinion, in oppo sition to Dryden and Pope. Coleridge very justly says, that the diction of these lines was authorized by the actual style of the tragedies before Shakspere's time. Ritson, we think, has hit the truth:-" It appears to me not only that Shakspere had the favourable opinion of these lines which he makes Hamlet express, but that they were extracted from some play which he, at a more early period, had either produced or projected upon the story of Dido and Eneas.' The verses recited are far superior to those of any coeval writer; the parallel passage in Marlowe and Nash's 'Dido' will not bear the comparison. Possibly, indeed, it might have been his first attempt, before the divinity that lodged within him had instructed him to despise the tumid and unnatural style so much and so unjustly admired in his predecessors or contemporaries." The introduction of these lines, we think, cannot be accounted for upon any other supposition but that they were written by Shakspere himself; and he is so thoroughly in earnest in his criticism upon the play, and his complaint of its want of success is so apparently sincere, that it is impossible to imagine that the passage had reference to something non-existent. But would Shakspere, then, have produced such a play, except in his very early career, before he understood his own peculiar powers? and would he have written so sensitively about it, except under the immediate influence of the disappointment occasioned by its failure? The dates of the first copy of 'Hamlet,' and of the play which contained the description of "Priam's slaughter," are certainly not far removed. Lastly, we are of opinion that the directions to the players, especially as given in the first copy, point to a state of the stage anterior to the period when Shakspere had himself reformed it. The mention of "Termagant" and "Herod" has reference to the time when these characters possessed the stage in pageants and mysteries. Again, the reproof of the extemporal clowns-the injunction that they should speak no more than is set down for them-applied to the infancy of the stage. Shakspere had reformed the clowns before the date usually assigned to Hamlet.' In a book, called 'Tarleton's Jeast's,' published in 1611, we have some specimens of the licence which this prince of clowns was wont to take. The author, however, adds-" "But would I see our clowns in these days do the like? No, I warrant ye." In the original copy of 'Hamlet,' the reproof of the clowns is more diffuse than in the augmented copy; and the following passage distinctly shows one of the evils which Shakspere had to contend with, and which he probably had overcome before the end of the sixteenth century:-"And then you have some again that keeps one suit of jests, as a man is known by one suit of apparel; and gentlemen quote his jests down in their tables before they come to the play, as thus: Cannot you stay till I eat my porridge? and, you owe me a quarter's wages; and, my coat wants a cullison; and, your beer is sour; and blabbering with his lips, and thus keeping in his cinkapase of jests, when, God knows, the warm clown cannot make a jest unless by chance, as the blind man catcheth a hare: Masters, tell him of it." The additions to these directions to the players, in the augmented copy, are, on the other hand, such as bespeak a consciousness of the elevation which the stage had attained in its "high and palmy state," a little before the death of Elizabeth, when its purpose, as realised by Shakspere and Jonson especially, was hold, as 'twere, the mirror up to nature: to show virtue her own feature, scorn her own image, and the very age and body of the time, his form and pressure.” 6 to The history of Hamlet, or Hamleth, is found in the Danish historian, Saxo Grammaticus, who died about 1204. The works of Saxo Grammaticus are in Latin, and in Shakspere's time had not been translated into any modern language. It was inferred, therefore, by Dr. Grey and Mr. Whalley that Shakspere must have read the original. The story, however, is to be found in Belleforest's collection of novels, begun in 1564; and an English translation of this particular story was published as a quarto tract, entitled 'The Hystorie of Hamblet, Prince of Denmarke.' Capell, in his 'School of Shakspere,' has given some extracts letters to have him put to death;" and, while his companions slept, Hamlet counterfeits the letters "willing the King of England to put the two messengers to death." Here ends the resemblance between the history and the play. The Hamlet of the history returns to Denmark, slays his uncle, burns his palace, makes an oration to the Danes, and is elected king. His subsequent adventures are rather extravagant. He goes back to England, kills the | king of that country, returns to Denmark with two English wives, and, finally, falls himself through the treachery of one of these ladies. from an edition of this very rare book, dated | is sent to England by Fengon, "with secret 1608; but he conjectures that it first appeared about 1570. He has also printed the heads of chapters as they are given in this 'History. Mr. Collier has since reprinted this tract from the only copy known, which is preserved amongst Capell's collection at Cambridge. Horvendile, in the novel, is the name of Hamlet's father, Fengon that of his uncle, and Geruth that of his mother. Fengon traitorously slays Horvendile, and marries his brother's wife. In the second chapter we are informed, "how Hamlet counterfeited the madman, to escape the tyrrany of his uncle, and how he was tempted by a woman (through his uncle's procurement), who thereby thought to undermine the Prince, and by that means to find out whether he counterfeited madness or not." In the third chapter we learn "how Fengon, uncle to Hamlet, a second time to entrap him in his politic madness, caused one of his counsellors to be secretly hidden in the Queen's chamber, behind the arras, to hear what speeches past between Hamlet and the Queen; and how Hamlet killed him, and escaped that danger, and what followed." It is in this part of the action that Shakspere's use of this book may be distinctly traced. Capell says,—"Amidst this resemblance of persons and circumstances, it is rather strange that none of the relater's expressions have got into the play: and yet not one of them is to be found, except the following, in Chapter III., where Hamlet kills the counsellor (who is described as of a greater reach than the rest, and is the Poet's Polonius) behind the arras: here, beating the hangings, and perceiving something to stir-under them, he is made to cry out-‘a rat, a rat,' and presently drawing his sword, thrust it into the hangings, which done, pulled the counsellor (half dead) out by the heels, made an end of killing him." In the fourth chapter Hamlet It is scarcely necessary to point out how little these rude materials have assisted Shakspere in the composition of the great tragedy of 'Hamlet.' He found, in the records of a barbarous period, a tale of adultery, and murder, and revenge. Here, too, was a rude indication of the character of Hamlet. But what he has given us is so essentially a creation from first to last, that it would be only tedious to point out the lesser resemblances between the drama and the history. That Shakspere adopted the period of the action as related by Saxo Grammaticus, there can be no doubt. The following passage is decisive:— "And, England, if my love thou hold'st at aught (As my great power thereof may give thee sense; Since yet thy cicatrice looks raw and red We have here a distinct indication of the CHAPTER IV. TIMON OF ATHENS. 'THE Life of Tymon of Athens' was first | The text which is ordinarily printed, that of Steevens, has undergone, in an almost unequalled extent, what the editors call "regulation." Steevens was a great master in this art of "regulation "—a process by which what was originally printed as prose is sometimes transformed into verse, with the aid of transposition, omission, and substitution; and what, on the contrary, stood in the original as verse is changed into prose, because the ingenuity of the editor has been unable to render it strictly metrical. There are various other modes of "regulation," which have been most extensively employed in 'Timon of Athens;' and the consequence is that some very important characteristics have been utterly destroyed in the modern copies the record has been obliterated. The task, however, which Steevens undertook was in some cases too difficult a one I have, therefore, made no attempt at 're- The original presents to us in particular scenes a very considerable number of short lines, occurring in the most rapid succession. We have no parallel example in Shakspere of the frequency of their use. The hemistich is introduced with great effect in some of the finest passages in 'Lear.' But, in 'Timon of Athens,' its perpetual recurrence in some scenes is certainly not always a beauty. The "regulation," however, has not only concealed this peculiar feature, but has necessarily altered the structure of the verses preceding or following the hemistich. We print a few such passages in consecutive order : ANCIENT COPIES. ACT I. SCENE I. "Tim. What trumpet's that? Mess. "T is Alcibiades, and some twenty horse, All of companionship. SCENE II. Ven. Most honoured Timon, age, And call him to long peace. ACT III. SCENE IV. to be carried through consistently; and he It hath pleas'd the gods to remember my father's has been compelled, therefore, to leave several passages, that invited his ambition to "regulate," even as he found them. For example, in that part of the first scene where Apemantus appears, we have a dialogue, of which Steevens thus speaks:-"The very imperfect state in which the ancient copy of this play has reached us leaves a doubt whether several short speeches in the present scene were designed for verse or prose; Stew. Ay, if money were as certain as your "T were sure enough. And take down th' interest into their glutt'nous are those in which the prose of the original has been turned into verse: maws. You do yourselves but wrong, to stir me up; Let me pass quietly. ACT IV. SCENE III. Tim. Had I a steward, So true, so just, and now so comfortable? MODERN COPIES. ACT I. SCENE I. "Tim. What trumpet's that? Serv. "T is Alcibiades, and Some twenty horse, all of companionship. SCENE II. ANCIENT COPIES. ACT I. SCENE II. "Tim. Now, Apemantus, if thou wert not sullen, I would be good to thee. Apem. No. I'll nothing; for, if I should be brib'd too, there would be none left to rail upon thee, and then thou wouldst sin the faster. Thou giv'st so long, Timon, I fear me thou wilt give away thyself in paper shortly. ACT II. SCENE II. Tim. I will dispatch you severally. You to Lord Lucius, to Lord Lucullus you. I hunted with his honour to-day; you to Sempronius; commend me to their loves; and I am proud, say, that my occasions have found time Ven. Most honour'd Timon, 't hath pleas'd to use 'em toward a supply of money: let the the gods remember faster. Thou giv'st so long, Timon, I fear me, thou No one, we believe, having the passages To rail upon thee; and thou wouldst sin the thus exhibited, will consider that Steevens has improved the poet by his "regulation." But, even if there should be differences of taste in this particular with reference to the passages before us, we maintain that in those passages, and in the examples we are about to give, the integrity of the text ought to have been preserved, upon a principle. ACT II. SCENE II. Tim. I will despatch you severally.-You to lord Lucius, To lord Lucullus you; I hunted with his The next examples which we shall take | Honour to day;-you, to Sempronius; ! |