a comic and fatirical turn, unbecoming the folemn character of the. fpeaker, and the fad exigency upon which he was called. The intervention of this præternatural being gives nothing of the marvellous or the fublime to the piece, nor adds to, or is connected with its intereft. The supernatural divested of the august and the terrible make but a poor figure in any fpecies of poetry; useless and unconnected with the fable, it wants propriety in dramatic poetry. Shakefpear had fo juft a taste that he never introduced any præternatural character on the ftage that did not affift in the conduct of the drama. Indeed he had fuch a prodigious force of talents he could make every being his fancy created fubfervient to his defigns. The uncouth, ungainly monster, Caliban, is fo fubject to his genius, as to affift in bringing things to the propofed end and perfection. And the flight fairies, weak mafters though they be, even in their wanton gambols, and idle sports, perform great tasks by his fo potent art.

But

But to return to the intended comparison between the Grecian fhade and the Danish

ghost. The first propriety in the conduct of this kind of machinery, feems to be, that the præternatural perfon be intimately connected with the fable; that he increase the interest, add to the folemnity of it, and that his efficiency, in bringing on the cataftrophe, be in fome measure adequate to the violence done to the ordinary course of things in his visible interpofition. These are points peculiarly important in dramatic poetry, as has been before obferved. Το these ends it is neceffary this being should be acknowledged and revered by the national superstition, and every operation that developes the attributes, which the vulgar opinion, or nurse's legend, taught us to ascribe to him, will augment our pleasure; whether we give the reins to imagination, and, as fpectators, willingly yield ourselves up to pleafing delufion, or, as critics, examine the merit of the compofition. I hope it is not difficult to fhew, that in all these capital points

L 2

points our author has excelled. At the folemn midnight hour, Horatio and Marcellus, the schoolfellows of young Hamlet, come to the centinels upon guard, excited by a report that the ghost of their late monarch had some preceding nights appeared to them. Horatio, not being of the credulous vulgar, gives little credit to the ftory, but bids Bernardo proceed in his relation.

BERNARDO.

Last night of all,

When yon fame ftar, that's weftward from the pole, Had made his courfe t'illume that part of heav'n, : Where now it burns, Marcellus and myself,

The bell then beating one

Here enters the ghoft, after you are thus prepared. There is fomething folemn and fublime in thus regulating the walking of the fpirit, by the courfe of the ftar: It intimates a connection and correspondence between things beyond our ken, and above the vifible diurnal Sphere. Horatio is affected with that kind of fear which fuch an appearance would naturally excite. He trembles,

and

and turns pale. When the violence of the emotion fubfides, he reflects, that probably this fupernatural event portends fome danger lurking in the state. This fuggestion gives importance to the phænomenon, and engages our attention. Horatio's relation of the king's combat with the Norwegian, and of the forces the young Fortinbras is affembling in order to attack Denmark, seems to point out from what quarter the apprehended peril is to arife. Such appearances, fays he, preceded the fall of mighty Julius, and the ruin of the great commonwealth; and he adds, fuch have often been the omens of difafters in our own ftate. There is great art in this conduct. The true cause of the royal Dane's difcontent could not be gueffed at it was a fecret which could be only revealed by himself. In the mean time, it was neceffary to captivate our attention, by demonftrating, that the poet was not going to exhibit such idle and frivolous gambols as ghofts are by the vulgar often represented to perform. The historical L 3 teftimony,

teftimony, that, antecedent to the death of Cæfar,

The graves flood tenantlefs, and the fheeted dead

Did fqueak and gibber in the Roman ftreets, gives credibility and importance to this phænomenon. Horatio's addrefs to the

ghoft is brief and pertinent, and the whole purport of it agreeable to the vulgar conceptions of these matters.

HORATIO,

Stay, illufion!

If thou haft any found, or ufe of voice,

Speak to me.

If there be any good thing to be done,

That may to thee do eafe, and grace to me,
Speak to me.

If thou art privy to thy country's fate,

Which happily foreknowing may avoid,
Oh speak!

Or, if thou haft uphoarded in thy life

Extorted treasure in the womb of earth,

For which, they fay, you fpirits oft walk in death,
Speak of it.

Its