pirit appears; it was necessary, I
say, upon these Accounts, that this Incident should be treated in a
sublimer Manner than the Former. Accordingly we may take Notice, that
_Hamlet's_ Speech to his Father's Shade is as much superior to that of
_Horatio_ upon the same Occasion, as his is to any Thing of that kind
that I have ever met with in any other Dramatick Poet.

_Hamlet's_ Invocation of the heavenly Ministers, is extremely fine; and
the begging their Protection upon the Appearance of a Sight so shocking
to human Nature, is entirely conformable to the virtuous Character of
this Prince, and gives an Air of Probability to the whole Scene. He
accosts the Ghost with great Intrepidity; and his whole Speech is so
full of the Marks of his Filial Piety, that we may easily observe, that
his Tenderness for his Father gets the better of all Sentiments of
Terror which we could suppose to arise, even in the Breast of the most
undaunted Person, upon the seeing and conversing with so strange an
Apparition.

His breaking from his Friends with that Vehemency of Passion in an
Eagerness of Desire to hear what his Father could say to him, is another
Proof of his Filial Tenderness.

The Reader of himself must easily see why the Spectre would not speak to
the Prince, but a-part from those who were with him: For it was not a
Secret of a Nature fit to be divulg'd. Their earnest Intreaties, and
almost Force which they use to keep him from going, are much in Nature;
the Reasons they give him, and the Reflections they make after he is
gone, are poetically express'd, and very natural.

The Ghost's Account of the base Murther committed on him, is express'd
in the strongest and most nervous Diction that Poetry can make use of;
and he speaks with such Gravity and Weight of Language as well suits his
Condition. The Ideas he raises in the Audience by his short Hint
concerning the Secrets of his Prison-House, are such as must cause that
Terror which is the natural Effect of such Appearances, and must
occasion such Images as should always accompany such Incidents in
Tragedy.

The Ghost's bringing out the Account of his Murder by Degrees, and the
Prince's Exclamations as he becomes farther acquainted with the Affair,
are great Beauties in this Scene, because it is all entirely conformable
to Nature; that is, to those Ideas by which we naturally conceive, how a
Thing of this sort would be managed and treated, were it really to
happen.

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