252 An ESSJr on the 



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

 the ftrongeft pofTible attachment to him, had been about to 

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

 pofe, in order to explain to a " harm world," the ftory 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 fing thee to thy reft. 



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

 ticular part which Hamlet had acted, with refpect to the 

 ufurper, (which he calls Hamlet's caufe) 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 character, in all other refpects ', as not only he- 

 roic and fplendid, but perfectly confident, amiable and juft ; 

 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 character 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 conduct 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 witneffes 

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

 faid {he 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 (tabbing 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 



