of his neckcloth.--"Garrick, you know, was none
so tall; and yet I fancy he was considered a tolerably good actor in his
day. But you remember the lines of Charles Churchill,

'There are, who think the stature all in all,
Nor like a hero if he is not tall.
The feeling sense all other wants supplies--
I rate no actor's merit from his size.
Superior height requires superior grace,
And what's a giant with a vacant face?'"

"Very true," answered McCrab, "and, to follow up your theory, were I
asked, what is an actor? I should answer,

''Tis he who gives my breast a thousand pains:
Can make me _feel_ each passion that he _feigns_;
Enrage, compose with more than magic art,--
With pity and with horror tear my heart.'

But, come; let me hear your reasons for believing that Hamlet ought to be
a portly gentleman. I see you are ready with them."

"I am," said Stubbs, "and I'll bet the receipts of the house, on my first
appearance, against those of your next comedy, that I convince you I am
right before I have done. Now, mark,--or, as Horatio says,

'Season your admiration for awhile,
With an attent ear, till I may deliver,
Upon the witness of these same pages,
This marvel to you.'

Ha! ha! that is apt," continued Mr. Stubbs, with a simper.

"For God's love, let me hear," added McCrab--"I hope that's apt too."

"If," said Mr. Stubbs, looking exceedingly grave, "if, I say, we take the
first soliloquy of Hamlet--almost the first words he utters--we shall
find a striking allusion to his habit of body; and not only shall we be
struck by the allusion, but, I contend, the whole force and meaning of
the passage are lost, unless the speaker can lay his hands upon a goodly
paunch, as he exclaims,

'Oh! that this _too too solid flesh_ would melt.
Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew.'

We are not to suppose Hamlet speaks metaphorically, but physically; and
his corporeal appearance should be an illustration of his words. He is
already weary of the world--he wishes to die--but 'the Everlasting has
fixed his canon against _self_-slaughter,' and, therefore, he prays for
natural dissolution, by any wasting disease, which may 'thaw' and
dissolve his 'too too solid flesh.' This, perhaps, you will consider
merely conjectural criticism: plausible, but not demonstrative. I own it
has a higher character in my eyes; and, unless I am greatly mistaken,
even the ghost of his own father glances at his adipose te