106 



his plays. The appearance of ignorance on the one hand, 

 and of consummate art on the other, are evidently iiTccon- 

 cilable. German criticism declares that like his anachron- 

 isms they are committed of set purpose and design, for 

 the furtherance of grander aims and principle. 



Such a consideration as this would necessarily disprove 

 haste or carelessness, but evidencetothepurpose also exists 

 of a more pertinent kind. In the quarto edition of " Ham- 

 let," of 1604, the speech of the King is pointed and changed 

 from that of 1603, being, Mr. Knight has remarked, too 

 refined, and not suflSciently marked to distinguish it, either 

 in diction or in thought, from the language in the body of 

 the play. This alteration is a purely literary one; and, 

 although it might be maintained that the entire altera- 

 tion and increase of this edition, by Avhich it was 

 " enlarged to almost as miich again," partook of this 

 character, it is certain and indisputable, that changes 

 were made purely from artistic and moral motives. In the 

 edition of 1603, Hamlet plots with the Queen the destruc- 

 tion of the King : this Avould act as well, but it violates 

 the metaphysical consistency of the play. Tracing back 

 the whole series of alterations and refinements on Belle- 

 forest's novel and the old story of 8axo Grammaticus, it 

 is not too much to say, that the hero of the Chronicles 

 with his two wives, would have been no less theatrically 

 interesting than the present melancholy, vacillating, 

 sceptical Hamlet. The wonder perhaps is, that a play, 

 with such a hero and such a catastrophe, could be or re- 

 main popular, for the mere purposes of theatrical repre- 

 sentation. The Ghost* or the variety of incident 

 offered, may have each contributed to this result ; but it 

 can scarcely be dotibted that the Prince, who goes mad 



» It is just worth while to remark, that in " Hamlet" the Gkost visibly appears 

 because he has a message to communicate; but in " Macbeth" he ought not to be 

 seen, for his action is entirely different. 



