"Groats-worth of Wit," &c. 1593, applied to Shakespeare, and "the trade of Noverint" so well tallies with the received tradition of his having passed some time in the office of an attorney, that, primâ facie, the allusion to Hamlet would seem directly levelled at our author's tragedy. But, then, interposes a difficulty on the score of dates. Shakespeare, in 1589, was only twenty-three years of age,-too young, it may be well objected, to have earned the distinction of being satirized by Nash as having "run through every art." It is asserted, too, on good authority, that an edition of the "Menaphon." was published in 1587; and if that earlier copy contained Nash's Epistle, the probability of his referring to Shakespeare is considerably weakened. Again, in "Wits Miserie, and the Worlds Madnesse," &c. 1596, Lodge, describing a particular fiend, says, "he walks for the most part in black under colour of gravity, and looks as pale as the vizard of y ghost which cried so miserally at y° theator like an oisterwife, Hamlet, revenge." After duly weighing the evidence on either side, we incline to agree with Mr. Dyce, that the play alluded to by Lodge and Nash was an earlier production on the same subject; though we find no cause to conclude that the first sketch of Shakespeare's " Hamlet," as published in 1603, was not the piece to which Henslowe refers in the entry connected with the performances at Newington Butts,— The original story of "Hamlet," or "Amleth," is related by the Danish historian Saxo Grammaticus, and was adopted by Belleforest in his collection of novels, 1564. From the French of the novelist, it was rendered into English at an early date, and printed under the title of "The Hystorie of Hamblet." If there were really a tragedy of "Hamlet" anterior to the immortal drama by Shakespeare, we may reasonably assume that he derived the outline of his plot from that source. If no such play existed, he probably constructed it entirely from the rude materials furnished by "The Historie of Hamblet." HOR. Stay! speak! speak! I charge thee, speak! [Exit Ghost. MAR. 'Tis gone, and will not answer. With martial stalk he passed through our watch. HOR. In what particular thought to work, I know not; But in the gross and scope of mine† opinion, MAR. Good now, sit down, and tell me, he that knows, Why this same strict and most observant watch Why such impress of shipwrights, whose sore task Who is't that can inform me ? HOR. That can I; At least, the whisper goes so. Our last king, Whose image even but now appear'd to us, Was, as you know, by Fortinbras of Norway, Thereto prick'd on by a most emulate pride, Dar'd to the combat; in which our valiant Hamlet (For so this side of our known world esteem'd him) Did slay this Fortinbras; who, by a seal'd compact, Did forfeit, with his life, all those his lands, BER. How now, Horatio! you tremble, and Against the which, a moiety competent look pale: which, perhaps, imparts additional solemnity to this impressive preparation for the appearance of the spectre. e Thou art a scholar, speak to it, Horatio.] As exorcisms were usually pronounced by the clergy in Latin, the notion became current, that supernatural beings regarded only the addresses of the learned. In proof of this belief, Reed quotes the following from "The Night Walker" of Beaumont and Fletcher, Act II. Sc. 2, where Toby is scared by a supposed ghost, and exclaims,"Let's call the butler up, for he speaks Latin, And that will daunt the devil." Was gaged by our king; which had return'd bring him jump when he may Cassio find." f With martial stalk he passed through our watch.] The reading of the earliest quarto, and presenting a finer image than that of the subsequent editions, which have, HOR. A mote it is to trouble the mind's eye. The graves stood tenantless, and the sheeted dead romage-] Commotion, turmoil. b I think it be no other, but e'en so:] This and the seventeen succeeding lines are not in the folio. e I'll cross it, though it blast me.-] It was an ancient superstition, that any one who crossed the spot on which a spectre was seen, became subjected to its malignant influence. See Blakeway's note ad l. in the Variorum edition. Stay, illusion!] Attached to these words in the 1604 quarto, is a stage direction," It spreads his arms." Doth with his lofty and shrill-sounding throat-] This is the text of the folio and all the quartos, except the first, which reads, perhaps preferably, HOR. And then it started like a guilty thing Upon a fearful summons. I have heard, The cock, that is the trumpet to the morn,* Doth with his lofty and shrill-sounding throat Awake the god of day; and, at his warning, Whether in sea or fire, in earth or air, The extravagant and erring spirit hies To his confine and of the truth herein, This present object made probation. MAR. It faded on the crowing of the cock.(2) Some say, that ever 'gainst that season comes Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated, The bird of dawning singeth all night long: And then, they say, no spirit dare stir† abroad; The nights are wholesome; then no planets strike, No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm, So hallow'd and so gracious is the time. HOR. So have I heard, and do in part believe it. But, look, the morn, in russet mantle clad, Walks o'er the dew of yon high eastern hill:1 Break we our watch up; and, by my advice, Let us impart what we have seen to-night Unto young Hamlet: for, upon my life, This spirit, dumb to us, will speak to him: Do you consent we shall acquaint him with it, As needful in our loves, fitting our duty? MAR. Let's do 't, I pray and I this morning know Where we shall find him most conveniently. the later quartos, We adopt the lection of the folio, as more in accordance with the poetical phraseology of the period. Thus, in Chapman's translation of the Thirteenth Book of Homer's Odyssey,- Ulysses still An eye directed to the eastern hill." And Spenser charmingly ushers in the morn by telling us that |