of Denmarke_, have it in them to please the wiser sort." This note was
first printed in 1766 by Steevens, who gives the year 1598 as the date of
its insertion in the volume, but, observed Dr. Ingleby, "we are unable to
verify Steevens' note or collate his copy, for the book which contained
Harvey's note passed into the collection of Bishop Percy, and his library
was burned in the fire at Northumberland House." Under these
circumstances one can only add the opinions of those who have had the
opportunity of inspecting the volume. Firstly, from the letter of Percy
to Malone, 1803: "In the passage which extols Shakespeare's tragedy,
Spenser is quoted by name among our flourishing metricians. Now this
edition of Chaucer was published in 1598, and Spenser's death is
ascertained to have been in January, 1598-1599, so that these passages
were all written in 1598, and prove that _Hamlet_ was written before that
year, as you have fixed it." Secondly, from a letter from Malone to
Percy, written also in 1803, in which he gives reasons for controverting
this opinion: "When I was in Dublin I remember you thought that, though
Harvey had written 1598 in his book, it did not follow from thence that
his remarks were then written; whilst, on the other hand, I contended
that, from the mention of Spenser, they should seem to have been written
in that year; so that, like the two Reynoldses, we have changed sides and
each converted the other; for I have now no doubt that these observations
were written in a subsequent year. The words that deceive are 'our now
flourishing metricians,' by which Harvey does not mean 'now living,' but
now admired or in vogue; and what proves this is that in his catalogue he
mixes the living and the dead, for Thomas Watson was dead before 1593.
With respect to Axio Philus, I think you will agree with me hereafter
that not Spenser, but another person, was meant. Having more than once
named Spenser, there could surely be no occasion to use any mysterious
appellation with respect to that poet. My theory is that Harvey bought
the book in 1598 on its publication, and then sat down to read it, and
that his observations were afterward inserted at various times. That
passage, which is at the very end, and subjoined to Lydgate's catalogue,
one may reasonably suppose was not written till after he had perused the
whole volume."

The tragedy of _Hamlet_ is familiarly alluded to more than once in the
play of _Eastward Hoe_, pr