uch a Conduct.
I must confess, I have turn'd this Matter on every Side, and all that
can be said for it (as far as I am able to penetrate), is that he makes
the Prince put on this Levity of Behaviour, that the Gentlemen who were
with him, might not imagine that the Ghost had reveal'd some Matter of
great Consequence to him, and that he might not therefore be suspected
of any deep Designs. This appears plausible enough; but let it be as it
will, the whole, I think, is too lightly managed, and such a Design as I
have mention'd might, in my Opinion, have been answered by some other
Method more correspondent to the Dignity and Majesty of the preceeding
Part of the Scene. I must observe once more, that the Prince's Soliloquy
is exquisitely beautiful.

I shall conclude what I have to say on this Scene, with observing, that
I do not know any Tragedy, ancient or modern, in any Nation, where the
Whole is made to turn so naturally and so justly upon such a
supernatural Appearance as this is; nor do I know of any Piece whatever,
where a Spectre introduced with so much Majesty, such an Air of
Probability, and where such an Apparition is manag'd with so much
Dignity and Art; in short, which so little revolts the Judgment and
Belief of the Spectators. Nor have I ever met in all my Reading, with a
Scene in any Tragedy, which creates so much Awe, and serious Attention
as this does, and which raises such a Multiplicity of the most exalted
Sentiments. It is certain, our Author excell'd in this kind of Writing,
as has been more than once observed by several Writers, and none ever
before or since his Time, could ever bring Inhabitants of another World
upon the Stage, without making them ridiculous or too horrible, and the
Whole too improbable and too shocking to Men's Understandings.

ACT II.

_Polonius_ and _Reynoldo_, and afterwards _Ophelia_.

_Polonius's_ Discourse to _Reynoldo_ is of a good moral Tenour, and thus
far it is useful to the Audience. His forgetting what he was saying, (p.
260) as is usual with old Men, is extremely natural, and much in
Character for him.

_Ophelia's_ Description of _Hamlet's_ Madness, does as much Honour to
our Poet as any Passage in the whole Play, (p. 261, and 262.) It is
excellently good in the _Pictoresque_ Part of Poetry, and renders the
Thing almost present to us.

Now I am come to mention _Hamlet's_ Madness, I must speak my Opinion of
our Poet's Conduct in this Particular. To conform to