pular esteem, should take fuch a round-about method to dispose of a nephew he seems to fear, and full as strange is it, that Hamlet, who has so much cause to suspect his uncle's intention, and who has fuch powerful motives for staying at home, should tamely, without objection, go upon the voyage.

On returning, we do not find him taking any step towards punishing the murderer; nay, most politely undertakes to win a wager for him; how unworthy for him then does the catastrophe come about! when wounded with a poisoned weapon himfelf, when he hears of his mother's being poisoned, then and not before, urged by defperation, not just revenge, he demolishes the king of shreds and patches, as he properly stiles his uncle in the third act.

From this view, it is, with all deference, apprehended, that, after his detection at the play, if his majesty, upon the principle of self-defence, had formed a design of taking the prince off by instruments at home; if that design had been made known to the Queen; had she, through maternal affection, put Hamlet on his guard; and had that prince taken measures worthy the motives of stimulation, a tyrant of fome consequence and uniformity would have been shewn in Claudius; a tender mother in the Queen, and a hero in Hamlet; the innocent characters, Polonius and Ophelia, might have been faved; and death prevented from stalkking without limitation at the catastrophe: as it stands, no less than eight of the characters are difposed

posed of that way, four in view at one time upon the stage.

In respect of characters, we are to lament that the hero, who is intended as amiable, should be such an apparent heap of inconsistency; impetuous, tho philofophical; sensible of injury, yet timid of resentment; shrewd, yet void of policy; full of filial piety, yet tame under oppression; boastful in expression, undetermined in action: and yet from being pregnant with great variety, from affording many opportunities to exert sound judgment and extensive powers, he is as agreeable and striking an object as any in the English drama.

In the performance of this character, we must, as in RICHARD, place Mr. GARRICK far before any other competitor; his reception of, and address to the Ghost; his natural, picturesque attitude, terror-ftruck features, low, tremulous expression, rifing in harmonious gradation, with the climax of his speech and feelings, all give us the most pleafing, I had almost said, astonishing sensibility; in all the pointed parts of the dialogue his matchless eyes, anticipate his tongue, and impress the meaning upon us with double force; no man ever did, nor poffibly, ever will, speak hemistics, broken sentences, and make transitions with fuch penetrating effect; in this lies the indisputable superiority of our modern Rofcius; that, where other performers, and good ones too, pass unnoticed, he is frequently great; where an author is languid, he gives him spirit; where powerful, due support; out of many instances, I shall select only two. First, where VOL. I. Ham

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Hamlet says to his interposing friends-I say, away-then turning to the Ghost-Go on-I'll follow. His variation from extreme passion to reverential awe, is so forceably expressed in eyes, features, attitude and voice, that every heart must feel; the second is in the third act, where the Queen says, the Ghost is but the coinage of bis brain; his turning short from looking after the apparition with wildness of terror, and viewing his mother with pathetic concern is most happily executed.

Mr. BARRY gave considerable pleasure in Hamlet, which was, however, chiefly derived from a fine figure and musical voice; but declamation and originality were wanting.

Mr. SHERIDAN, under the disadvantage of a moderate person, and still more moderate voice, by the effects of found judgment, undoubtedly stands second; in the lighter scenes, he wants, 'tis true, ease and levity; but in the soliloquies, and the third act closet scene, he is, or has been, truly excellent.

Mr. Ross has the ease of a gentleman and dignity of a prince; but wants weight for the declamation; poignancy of expreffion for the spirited parts, and variation of countenance for the vehement passions; however, he might justly gain more critical applause, if he wouid forget the audience; glow with his character, and be more affiduous in the support of every scene, not drop some, as if unworthy his notice.

The whole part of the King, except his foliloquy, is truly wretched for an actor: and, to say truth,

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truth, I never saw one who did not make a very infipid figure in it, the late Mr. SPARKS excepted; he was great in the forementioned foliloquy, respectable in every passage of the least regard, and so peculiarly happy in falling, when stabbed, from the throne, that we may truly say, a good end apologized for a very bad character.

Polonius is drawn with some tint of the whimfical, yet I cannot suppose him meant for that laughing-stock, that buffoon of Tragedy, he is gene rally represented; wherefore I must be bold to affert, that Mr. MACKLIN, who, while his capabilities lasted, should never have been feparated from the stage, was far the best of many I have seen; he shewed oddity, grafted upon the man of sense, and, as I remember, retained most of that scene at the beginning of the second act, which good sense and Shakespeare's friends must lament the general omiffion of. -Mr. SHUTER, whom nature conceived and brought forth in a fit of laughter, may mean ex. tremely well, but, in this character, his literally happy contenance plays rather against him. Mr. TASWELL and Mr. ARTHUR steered a medium course, which, if it did not reach capital propriety, yet deserved confiderable praise.

Laertes is a character no way remarkable, unless as contributing to the catastrophe; unless by joining in, and executing a villainous device for the destruction of Hamlet; Mr. LEE, whose abilities strengthened many fecond and third parts, while they marred principals, made more of Laertes confiderably than any other performer has done for several years.

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The Ghost is most admirably written; and ac cording to the idea I form of supernatural utterance, adapted to fupernatural appearance. Mr. QUIN has never been excelled, nor by many degrees equalled; folemnity of expression was his excellence in tragedy, and, if I may be allowed the remark, his fault. Tho' not directly to my purpose at present, I cannot help observing that Shakespeare's fame as an actor, was disputed only because he wrote, as plainly appears, for the mode of speaking, Mr. GARRICK, by most excellent example, has established; he certainly, as a judge and lover of nature, despised the titum-ti, mono tonous sing-fong then fashionable, and indeed equally admired, till within less than these last thirty years; for this reason, he was judged to be but a middling performer, except in the Ghost; and there, with propriety, no doubt, he affumed pomposity, which, on other occasions, less commendable, would have rendered him a very popular actor. Want of action in the Ghost throws a damp on the narration; if a spirit can assume corporeal appearance, there can be no reason to suppose imaginary arms motionless, no more than imaginary legs; however, fome peculiarity in this point, as well as the tones of expreffion, should be observed.

Horatio is the only amiable man in the piece, yet except his first scene, is very inconfiderable: what could be made of fuch a character, Mr. HAVARD shewed in full; and it would be wronging Mr. HULL's sensibility, for fuch feelings as actuate Ham