ceived a shock from the death of his father, the depravity of his mother, and the wreck of his own fortunes, which the tremulous sensitiveness of his nature was incapable of resisting. A morbid melancholy preyed upon his heart: his views of life were clouded. Doubts assailed him; and, in endeavouring to disentangle himself by the efforts of reason, he became perplexed in a maze of uncertainty, which deprived him of the power of action in a moment that demanded the most vigorous exertion. The operation of external causes modified, without essentially chang ing, Hamlet's character: he is still an amiable, reflecting, philosophic being, though the bril liancy of his virtues and the powers of his understanding are obscured. He yields himself a prey to unavailing sorrow, neglectful of his duties, unthankful for his existence, weary of the world, and disgusted with his fellow-creatures. Hence his regrets that his corporeal substance could not "resolve into a dew," that he was forbid by a canon of the Almighty to put a period at once to his sorrows and his life; and

fore prefer following his first idea, that of representing Hamlet a mere youth "going back to school in Wittenberg," Act I. sc. 2.