Page images
PDF
EPUB
[graphic][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][merged small]

PRINCE OF DENMARK;

A TRAGEDY,

IN FIVE ACTS;
ACTS;

BY WILLIAM SHAKSPEARE.

AS PERFORMED AT THE THEATRES ROYAL

DRURY LANE AND COVENT GARDEN.

PRINTED UNDER THE AUTHORITY OF THE MANAGERS FROM THE PROMPT BOOK.

WITH REMARKS

BY MRS. INCHBALD.

LONDON:

PRINTED FOR LONGMAN, HURST, REES, ÖRME, AND

BROWN, PATERNOSTER ROW.

LONDON:

PRINTED BY THOMAS DAVISON, WHITEFRIARS.

REMARKS.

THIS tragedy is a work of such intellectual magnitude, that every comment which has been written upon it is too well known to be quoted, either for amusement or instruction; and as the celebrity of a work naturally excites contemplation on its author, this, one of the most popular amongst Shakspeare's plays, leads to a few remarks on the great poet himself.

Though Shakspeare was the son of an alderman, and lived in the little dull town of Stratford upon Avon, it appears he was never one of its inanimate residents. He was married at the age of seventeen; was the father of a family in his minority; and, before he arrived at twenty-two, was compelled to fly his native place for a trespass on his neighbour's property, and a libel against the man whom he had wronged. The first offence, however, did not amount in criminality much beyond the robbing of an orchard; and his libel came in the shape of a merry ballad.

But, with all just lenity for the nature of those misdeeds, Shakspeare was idle, in his youth, to a degree of depravity, by associating with a party of deer-stealers, and then lampooning the owner of the park where he had committed his depredations,

« PreviousContinue »