unique copy is 1608, and in certain points shows the influence of the play. There is no evidence that an earlier English version existed. The author of the pre-Shakespearean Hamlet, and Shakespeare too, may well have read the story in Belleforest's Histoires.1 Few studies in literary origins are more instructive than to examine how the "rich barbarous tale" of the Danish historian has become transformed into the great soul-tragedy of modern literature. In Saxo's Amleth we have at least the frame-work of Shakespeare's Hamlet:-the murder of the father by a jealous uncle; the mother's incestuous marriage with the murderer; the son's feigned madness in order to execute revenge; there are the vague originals of Ophelia and Polonius; the meeting of mother and son; the voyage to England; all these familiar elements are found in the old tale. But the ghost, the play-scene, and the culmination of the play in the death of the hero as well as of the objects of his revenge, these are elements which belong essentially to the machinery of the Elizabethan Drama of vengeance. It is of course unnecessary to dwell on the subtler distinction between the easily understood Amleth and "the eternal problem" of Hamlet.2 Taine has said that the Elizabethan Renaissance was a Renaissance of the Saxon genius; from the point of view it is significant that its crowning glory should be the presentment of a typical Northern hero,-an embodiment of the Northern character;

'dark and true and tender is the Nortb.”

1 To Mr. Oliver Elton, Prof. York Powell, and the Folk-Lore Society, we owe the first English rendering of the mythical portion of Saxo's work, and a valuable study of Saxo's sources (published by David Nutt, 1894).

2 A résumé of Hamlet criticism is given in Vol. II. of Furness' noble edition of the play (London and Philadelphia, 1877).

THE TRAGEDY OF

HAMLET, PRINCE OF DENMARK

DRAMATIS PERSONÆ

CLAUDIUS, king of Denmark

HAMLET, son to the late, and nephew to the present king

POLONIUS, lord chamberlain

HORATIO, friend to Hamlet

LAERTES, son to Polonius

GERTRUDE, queen of Denmark, and mother to Hamlet
OPHELIA, daughter to Polonius

Lords, Ladies, Officers, Soldiers, Sailors, Messengers, and other

Attendants

Ghost of Hamlet's Father

SCENE: Denmark

SYNOPSIS

By J. ELLIS BURDICK

ACT I

The ghost of Hamlet, King of Denmark, walks on the battlements of the castle of Kronberg at Elsinore and is seen by the sentinels, who decide to tell young Hamlet about it, believing that the ghost, though dumb to them, will speak to him. Hamlet resolves to see it and to speak to it "though hell itself should gape and bid" him "hold his peace." The ghost tells how the king's brother Claudius had murdered him that he might obtain the throne and marry the king's wife. Hamlet promises to avenge his father and the ghost vanishes. The sentinels, who are good friends to the prince, are pledged to silence.

ACT II

From this time on, Hamlet feigns madness, that no one may suspect him of serious plans. The king and queen, not believing the death of his father sufficient cause for such madness, search for another reason for it. He writes an incoherent, passionate letter to Ophelia, daughter of a courtier named Polonius, and this letter they believe proves that the cause of his madness is love. A company of strolling players come to the court and Hamlet asks them to present "The Murder of Gonzago," a play similar in incidents to the murder of his father.

ACT III

During the play, the prince closely watches the king and queen. As Hamlet expected, his uncle is much moved

The

and hastily eaves the room, followed by the queen. latter sends for her son, in order that she may reason with him over his conduct. Polonius is hidden behind a curtain, and Hamlet, hearing him call out and believing it to be the king, slays him. Hamlet reproaches his mother with her past life and she is over-whelmed with shame and remorse. Their interview is interrupted by the dead king's ghost, who is invisible and inaudible to the queen.

ACT IV

The king and queen and their counselors agree that Hamlet must be banished. He is sent to England under guard of two schoolmates. Sealed orders for his death await his arrival in that country. But when they were two days at sea a pirate ship gives chase to their vessel and Hamlet is taken prisoner. The pirates deal gently with him, for they hope that he will get them some favor from the court if they do so. Hamlet returns home and a sad sight is the first thing to greet his eyes. This is the funeral of Ophelia. She had become insane from fretting over her father's sudden death at her lover's hands, over Hamlet's madness, and over her brother's prolonged absence from home. She had wandered about the court for days singing and strewing flowers, and at last, having strayed to the banks of a stream, had been drowned.

ACT V

Hamlet's grief is intense, and he leaps into the open grave and there contests with Laertes, Ophelia's brother, for the place of chief mourner. They are separated by attendants, and later at the king's instigation they engage in a supposedly friendly fencing match. But Laertes' rapier is sharp and poisoned. To make certain of the prince's death the king prepares a poisoned drink and places the cup where Hamlet will be likely to pick it up should he be thirsty. At first Hamlet gains some advantages, but suddenly he receives a mortal blow from his