CHARACTER of HAMLET. 265 



the one principle, fometimes to the other, taken feparately, in 

 order to explain Hamlet. It is the JlruggU between the two, 

 upon which his condudt hinges. This appears in the very open- 

 ing of the tragedy. 



The time is out of joint ; Oh curfed fpight ! 

 That ever / was born to fet it right. 



Here, fenfibility and gentlenefs may be faid to fpeak in one and 

 the fame breath ; a proof that their operations were not fuccef- 

 five, but co-exiftent ; and reigned nearly equal in power in 

 Hamlet's bread. 



Elevation feems to have been nearly as much overlooked 

 as gentlenefs. Yetbet\v^een thefe two was Hamlet almoft always 

 moving. For his fublimity of foul feems to have been the very 

 fpring which prompted and whetted his fenfibility to the quick. 

 Shakespeare in one phrafe, " a noble heart," meant to ex- 

 prefs both ; as they were in fadl intimately conjoined, and aded 

 at once, together. 



There is an impreffion which great accomplifhments and 

 fplendid talents, independent of every thing elfe, efpecially in 

 a tragic caufe, never fails to make upon mankind. Thefe fliine 

 moil powerfully in the charafler before us ; and probably have 

 contributed much to the charm which has made audiences hang 

 upon Hamlet. The world, for the firft time, faw a inaii of 

 genius upon the flage ; and the interefl which the fpedtators 

 have taken, and perhaps for ever will take, receiving an ad- 

 dition from this caufe, arifes thus upon the whole, from the 

 many different fources which the poet, by a fuperlative effort 

 of talents and of fkill, has combined together. 



The fault (if any) of the play feems to lie in this, that 

 there is not the ufual interefl excited in it, for the final event. 

 What Shakespeare's purpofe in this refpedl originally was, 



Vol. II. L 1 cannot 



