252 An ESSAf on the 



friend, who could not be impofed upon j a friend who, from 

 the ftrongeft poflible attachment to him, had been about to 

 put an end to his own Ufe, but was reftrained from his pur- 

 pofe, in order to explain to a " harfli world," the flory of 

 Hamlet, after he was no more. 



And when Hamlet dies, Horatio pronounces this eu- 

 logium : 



Now cracks a noble heart! good night, fiveet prince j 

 And flights of angels fmg thee to thy i-eft. 



Shakespeare, in thefe paDTages, not only refers to the par- 

 ticular part which Hamlet had aded, with refpedl to the 

 ufurper, (which he calls Hamlet's caiife') and which, upon 

 being explained, would vindicate what he had done. He 

 plainly intimates by the mouth of Horatio, his own idea of 

 Hamlet's chara(5ler, in all other refpeds ; as not only he- 

 roic and fplendid, but perfedly confifl:ent, amiable and jufl j 

 and further, from the danger that Hamlet himfelf, as well as 

 his caufe, might be expofed to the cenfure of the unfatisfied, he 

 feems ftrongly to infinuate, that the chara<5ter could not be com- 

 prehended, unlefs an enlarged view were taken of it, and of 

 the different fituations in which it had been placed. 



Hamlet's condud in having put the king to death, was, in 

 a great meafure, already juftified, in the very hearing of the 

 lords, and other attendants upon the court, who were witnefTes 

 to it. The queen, who had juft expired in their fight, had 

 faid fhe was " poifoned." Hamlet had called out " villany !" 

 Even Laertes, the treacherous opponent of Hamlet, had 

 declared, " the king, the king's to blame — It is a poifon tem- 

 " pered by himfelf.'' And Hamlet, upon dabbing the king, 

 had exprefsly charged him with " murder." All this pafTed in 

 the prefence of the court, who would hence be led to view the 

 king as guilty of having poifoned the queen, and therefore as 



juftly 



