ts on once more the moment he has to appear before the
king. Its poetry and dignity belong to Hamlet's feeling; its
extravagance to his assumed insanity. It must be remembered that death
is a small affair to Hamlet beside his mother's life, and that the death
of Ophelia may even be some consolation to him.

In the _Folio_, a few lines back, Laertes leaps into the grave. There is
no such direction in the _Q_. In neither is Hamlet said to leap into the
grave; only the _1st Q._ so directs. It is a stage-business that must
please the _common_ actor of Hamlet; but there is nothing in the text
any more than in the margin of _Folio_ or _Quarto_ to justify it, and it
would but for the horror of it be ludicrous. The coffin is supposed to
be in the grave: must Laertes jump down upon it, followed by Hamlet, and
the two fight and trample over the body?

Yet I take the '_Leaps in the grave_' to be an action intended for
Laertes by the Poet. His 'Hold off the earth a while,' does not
necessarily imply that the body is already in the grave. He has before
said, 'Lay her i'th' earth': then it was not in the grave. It is just
about to be lowered, when, with that cry of 'Hold off the earth a
while,' he jumps into the grave, and taking the corpse, on a bier at the
side of it, in his arms, calls to the spectators to pile a mountain on
them--in the wild speech that brings out Hamlet. The quiet dignity of
Hamlet's speech does not comport with his jumping into the grave:
Laertes comes out of the grave, and flies at Hamlet's throat. So, at
least, I would have the thing acted.

There is, however, nothing in the text to show that Laertes comes out of
the grave, and if the manager insist on the traditional mode, I would
suggest that the grave be represented much larger. In Mr. Jewitt's book
on Grave-Mounds, I read of a 'female skeleton in a grave six feet deep,
ten feet long, and eight feet wide.' Such a grave would give room for
both beside the body, and dismiss the hideousness of the common
representation.]

[Footnote 2: --_springing out of the grave and flying at Hamlet_.]

[Footnote 3: Note the temper, self-knowledge, self-government, and
self-distrust of Hamlet.]

[Footnote 4: The eyelids last of all become incapable of motion.]

[Footnote 5: That he loved her is the only thing to explain the
harshness of his behaviour to her. Had he not loved her and not been
miserable about her, he would have been as polite to her as well bred
peopl