Its vanishing at the crowing of the cock is another circumftance of the established superftition. Young Hamlet's indignation at his mòther's hafty and incestuous marriage, his forrow for his father's death, his character of that prince, prepare the spectator to fympathize with his wrongs and fufferings. The fon, as is natural, with much more vehement emotion than Horatio did, addreffes his father's fhade. Hamlet's terror, his aftonishment, his vehement defire to know the cause of this vifitation, are irrefiftibly communicated to the fpectator by the following speech. HAMLET. Angels and minifters of grace defend us! Be thou a fpirit of health, or goblin damn'd, Bring with thee airs from heav'n, or blafts from hell, Be thy intents wicked or charitable, Thou com'ft in fuch a questionable shape, That I will speak to thee. I'll call thee Hamlet, Let me not burst in ignorance; but tell, Why thy canonized bones, hearsed in death, Have burst their cearments? Why the fepulchre, Hath op'd his ponderous and marble jaws, To caft thee up again? What may this mean, That thou, dead corse, again, in compleat steel, Never did the Grecian muse of tragedy relate a tale fo full of pity and terror as is imparted by the ghost. Every circumstance melts us with compaffion; and with what horror do we hear him fay! GHOST. But that I am forbid To tell the fecrets of my prifon-house, I could a tale unfold; whose lightest word Would harrow up thy foul, freeze thy young blood, Make thy two eyes, like stars, ftart from their fpheres, But this eternal blazon must not be To ears of flesh and blood. All All that follows is folemn, fad, and deeply affecting. Whatever in Hamlet belongs to the præternatural is perfectly fine; the rest of the play does not come within the fubject of this chapter. The ingenious criticism on the play of the Tempest, published in the Adventurer, has made it unneceffary to enlarge on that admirable piece, which alone would prove our author to have had a fertile, a fublime, and original genius. THE |