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AN ESSAY

ON THE

TRAGEDY OF HAMLET.

EMBRACING A VIEW OF HAMLET'S CHARACTER HIS FEIGNED OR REAL
MADNESS-CONDUCT TO OPHELIA THE SOLILOQUY ON SUICIDE,
&c. &c., INTERSPERSED WITH REFLECTIONS ON THE

WRITINGS AND GENIUS OF SHAKSPERE.

WITH COPIOUS ORIGINAL NOTES AS AN APPENDIX.

BY

P. MACDONELL,

AUTHOR OF "AN ESSAY ON THE TEMPEST;"

AND

LATE PRESIDENT OF THE ROYAL PHYSICAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH.

London:

CUNNINGHAM AND MORTIMER, ADELAIDE STREET,

TRAFALGAR SQUARE.

1843.

LONDON:

C. ARMAND, PRINTER, 46, RATHBONE PLACE, OXFORD STREET.

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That Play of Shakspere's, which appears to have most affected English hearts, and has, perhaps, been oftenest acted of any that have come upon our stage, is almost one continued moral; a series of deep reflections drawn from one mouth, upon the subject of one single accident and calamity, naturally fitted to move horror and compassion.

SHAFTESBURY.

HAKSPERE, a few years before he died, left the busy scenes of life, to enjoy amidst the sylvan beauties of his native Avon, that ease and retirement which his well earned laurels had deservedly yielded to him; but unconscious of the splendour of his mighty genius, and regardless of future fame, he permitted his works to be carried down the stream of time, without an effort on his part to collect them, a circumstance which unhappily has led to many of those errors and blemishes that have obscured the pages of this illustrious poet. The first edition of Shakspere's plays was published in 1623, by Hemings and Condell, seven years after his death,

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