Devoid of interest itself, and entirely uncon-
nected with the drama, the remainder of the
Danish prince's history may well be spared;
while an attempt is made to extract from more
promising passages a clue to the interpretation
of one of the most debated, and perhaps, after
all, least understood, of Shakspeare's dramatic
portraits.
The character of Hamlet, complicated, and
apparently contradictory, will be divested of

B 3



D HAMLET.
much ambiguity by separating its natural from
its artificial qualities, and both from those features
which were induced by circumstances. The
innate goodness of his heart, and the glowing
warmth of his afiections speak in his reverence
to the memory of his father, his manly friend-
ship for Horatio, and his tender attachment to
Ophelia. What greater proof can be required
of the refinement and high-toned morality of
his mind, than the impassioned enforcement of
his admonitions on the queen to abjure her dis-
gusting association with his uncle ? Let Ham-
let's awful reverence of the Great Supreme, his
reflections on man, and his admiration of the
works of nature, testify the philosophic turn of
his mind ; let his mental accomplishments, his
excursive inquisitiveness, his acute penetration,
be estimated by his observations on an infinity of
unconnected and dissimilar subjects; and, in
glancing back on the whole, it will perhaps be
found, that in his natural disposition Hamlet
combined almost every quality that can elevate
man into dignity.
