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addressed. But there is none of the Enphuistic spirit of 

 such poetry and of the age, manifested in these stanzas — 

 even were it probable, which it is not, that the writer 

 would profess a vaunting self conlidence, ambition, or 

 egotism which he did not feel. The emotions delineated 

 are just those which men ordinarily conceal, or make no 

 boast of. They have the variety in great part of confes- 

 sions wrung from a man against his will and in spite of 

 himself. Again their identity in feeling Avith many of the 

 sentiments and expressions in " Hamlet," I accept as an 

 additional proof of their personality. It may be urged that 

 lagos sujDer-subtle Venetian hypocrisy and double dyed 

 villany are as much the poet's as Hamlet's metaphysical 

 speculations. The microcosm includes both good and 

 ill, the entire extremes, and where those extremes merge 

 into each other. But this is true of all men with this 

 difference ; that the noblest good inclvides the worst ill ; 

 the worst ill includes only itself. The speculations or 

 doubts of Hamlet were not possible to lago. In all 

 cases what is requisite to be known in an analysis of 

 character, is not what a man contains, or what is possible 

 to his mind, but which side of him (to use a by no means 

 elegant phrase) lies uppermost. Without pronouncing 

 positively, on a point, which I am not qualified to decide, 

 I am inclined to believe that the loftiest intellectual 

 aspect of the poet is shewn in " Hamlet," indeed that 

 it is the most elevated in its purely intellectual fea- 

 tures of any character, ancient or modern, projected in 

 literature, or in universal history. With this belief, and 

 with this key in my hand, real or imaginary, I am to sup- 

 pose that those expressions in the sonnets which assimi- 

 late in feeling and thought with those of " Hamlet " are 

 fair exponents of the prevailing aspect of the poet's mind. 

 Had the sonnets expressed an exaggerated scepticism or 

 infidelity, I should have doubted their authenticity, not 



