Oxford Local Examinations of 1865. SHAKSPEARE'S TRAGEDY OF HAMLET WITH NOTES, EXTRACTS FROM THE OLD 'HISTORIE OF HAMBLET,' SELECTED CRITICISMS ON THE PLAY, ETC. ETC. ADAPTED FOR USE IN SCHOOLS AND FOR PRIVATE STUDY. BY THE REV. JOHN HUNTER, M.A. Instructor of Candidates for the Civil Service and other Public Examinations LONDON: LONGMAN, GREEN, LONGMAN, ROBERTS, & GREEN. PREFACE. THE legend of Amleth, or Hamlet, is first met wi in the Third and Fourth Books of the History Denmark,' written in Latin by Saxo Grammaticus native of Elsinore, about the end of the twelf century, but not printed till 1514. About fi years after the publication of Saxo's history, Bell forest, in a French collection of stories, call 'Histoires Tragiques,' introduced that of Amleth, a form pretty nearly corresponding to the Dani historian's account, leaving out a few gross a absurd details, and considerably amplifying some the sentimental portions; but presenting, like t original, a very poor treasury of incident and thoug for the purposes of dramatic adaptation. From t 'Histoires Tragiques,' an English translation, call the Historie of Hamblet,' was made before t close of the sixteenth century; but the only perf copy of it known to exist is a black-letter quar bearing the date of 1608, and now in the library Trinity College, Cambridge. A modern reprint of (1841) will be found in J. P. Collier's 'Shakspear Library.' If this 'Historie' was the only source from which akspeare derived materials for the framework of 'Hamlet,' all the excellence of that wonderful ama is his own. As Capel observes, 'None of the ater's expressions have got into the play, except en Hamlet kills the counsellor behind the arras: ce, beating the hangings, he cries out, "A rat! a !" But from some allusions by old writers, it ms tolerably certain that the story of Hamlet had en dramatised, with the introduction of a ghost ne, before Shakspeare had reached his 24th year; d therefore our poet may have taken the outline of = plot from a previous play, rather than from the nish historian's legend, which makes no mention a ghost. But, as Collier, in his edition of Shakeare, says, 'How far that lost play might be an provement upon the old translated Historie we ve no means of deciding, nor to what extent akspeare availed himself of such improvement.' The following extract from Sir Thomas Overbury's Characters erves to be read by the student of Shakspeare's Hamlet. I cannot ? thinking that it was seen in manuscript, if not in print, by our matist before the Hamlet was written: A Melancholy Man is a strayer from the drove: one that nature le sociable, because she made him man, and a crazed disposition h altered. Impleasing to all, as all to him, straggling thoughts his content; they make him dream waking, there's his pleasure. imagination is never idle, it keeps his mind in a continual tion, as the poise the clock: he winds up his thoughts often, and often unwinds them; Penelope's web thrives faster. He'll seldom found without the shade of some grove, in whose bottom a river ells. He carries a cloud in his face, never fair weather; his out PREFACE. The first production of Shakspeare's 'Hamlet,' the original form (for he afterwards altered i was certainly not later than 1602, and probably n later than 1589, when he was only twenty-five yea of age. small quarto of 1603, of which one copy is in t library of the Duke of Devonshire, and anothe discovered in 1856, is deposited in the Briti Museum. In the year 1604, another edition can forth, under the title of 'The Tragical Historie Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke. By William Shak speare. Newly imprinted and enlarged to almost much againe as it was, according to the true a perfect Coppie. At London, printed by I. R. f N. L. and are to be sold at his shoppe vnder Sai Dunston's Church in Fleetstreet. 1604.' Only thr copies of this second quarto are known, one of the The earliest edition of it known is t side is framed to his inside, in that he keeps a decorum, both unseem Speak to him; he hears with his eyes, ears follow his mind, a that's not at leisure. He thinks business, but never does any he all contemplation, no action. He hews and fashions his though as if he meant them to some purpose, but they prove unprofitable a piece of wrought timber to no use. His spirit and the sun enemies; the sun bright and warm, his humour black and cold.' That Shakspeare had read some of Overbury's Characters bef the production of the Hamlet may appear somewhat probable fr a comparison of the following passages :— 'Do not believe his vows, for they are brokers, Not of the dye which their investments show.'—Hamlet, i. 3. ◄ He dyeth his means and his meaning into two colours; he ba craft with humility, and his countenance is the picture of the prese disposition. He allures, is not allured, by his affections, for they the brokers of his observation.'-OVERBURY's Dissembler. |