Its likeness to the late king, in person, in frown, in armour worn in some victorious anger; and this its third appearance in the same spot, at the same hour, for some reason all undeclared and unknown-bewilder Horatio's unprepared mind. He knows not in what particular thought to work; and can only imagine that some strange eruption is threatened to the state.

Their watch not yet being at an end, Marcellus and Bernardo and Horatio fall again, by degrees, into ordinary discourse. Marcellus asks the reason of the strict and observant watch in which they take a toilsome part, and of the active preparations making, as if for war, in the ship-yards and cannon-foundries; and Horatio relates the defeat of Fortinbras of Norway, and of his death by the hand of the late king, whose figure even but now had appeared to them ; and how young Fortinbras "hath in the skirts of Norway, here and there, sharked up a list of landless resolutes" with the intent to recover, by strong hand, the lands forfeited to Denmark by his father. Bernardo remarks, that

at such a time, it may well be that the portentous

figure of the late king should come armed through their watch.

Horatio's thoughts still dwell on the appearance they have witnessed as a portent," the prologue to the omen coming on," and recalls illustrative facts from history; how that

In the most high and palmy state of Rome,

A little ere the mightiest Julius fell,

The graves stood tenantless, and the sheeted dead
Did squeak and gibber in the Roman streets.

Whilst thus discoursing, and pre-occupied with fearful images, naturally suggested by what they have so lately witnessed, the ghost re-appears; and although producing less wonder, stirs them to more excitement, and especially Horatio, whose speech is thus suddenly interrupted. His state of mind is vividly expressed in his words.

But, soft; behold! lo, where it comes again!
I'll cross it, though it blast me.-Stay, illusion!
If thou hast any sound, or use of voice,
Speak to me:

If there be any good thing to be done,

That may to thee do ease, and grace to me,
Speak to me:

If thou art privy to thy country's fate,
Which, happily, foreknowing may avoid,
O, speak!

Or, if thou hast uphoarded in thy life

Extorted treasure in the womb of earth,

For which, they say, you spirits oft walk in death,
Speak of it :-stay, and speak.

But the cock crows. The ghost, which had seemed about to speak, starts "like a guilty thing upon a fearful summons," and moves away. Horatio, more roused, still exhorts it to stay and speak, and calls to Marcellus to stop it; and even, in answer to his question, to strike it with his partizan if it will not stand. All is in vain; it moves hither and thither rapidly, and then "'tis gone;" and Marcellus, recollecting himself, atones for his rude haste.

MAR. 'Tis gone!

We do it wrong, being so majestical,

To offer it the show of violence;

For it is, as the air, invulnerable,

And our vain blows malicious mockery.

Their conversation now turns on the laws which

ghosts obey; and, with reference to the disappearance of that which they have seen on the crowing of the cock, on the warning always given thus to every wandering ghost, every “extravagant and erring spirit," to hie, ere morning break, to his confine. They talk of the belief that ever against the season when our Saviour's birth is celebrated "the bird of dawning singeth all night long ;" so that no spirits walk abroad, and no planetary influence affects the wholesome nights,

no fairy takes, no witch hath power to charm." At length their watch is ended by the daylight, and they separate with the resolve to tell what they have seen to Hamlet. By my advice Horatio says—

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.

And thus ends the first scene.

In the course of the day that follows, we are first introduced to Hamlet. We find him with his uncle the King, his mother the Queen, and Polonius the Lord Chamberlain, and Laertes the son of Polonius, and

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Voltimand, and Cornelius, and lords attendant, in "a room of state." It is here, I think, that we should carefully examine the first tracings of his character. We see him moody and unsocial, not yet reconciled to his mother's second marriage, grieving heavily indeed for his late father's death; and hating his successor, whose great crime is still unknown to him, as are also the events on the platform in the night just passed. That marvellous scene, and the more subduing sorrow which awaits him, are not yet among the troubles of his brain. No suspicion of the manner of his father's death has yet entered his mind. His bereavement, and his mother's indecorous marriage, make him fancy that his cup of sorrow is full but it does not yet overflow, as it must soon do.

The king, meanwhile, bears his own fortunes comfortably; makes a fair speech to the courtiers, announcing his having taken his sometime sister to wife ; and still, with a decent show of mingled feelings—

With one auspicious and one dropping eye;
With mirth in funeral, and with dirge in marriage,
In equal scale, weighing delight and dole.