Hamlet, Prince of Denmark • Paragraph 142
Stage 1 of 6

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The Sequel of this Scene by no Means answers the Dignity of what we have hitherto been treating of. _Hamlet's_ Soliloquy, after the Ghost has disappeared, is such as it should be. The Impatience of _Horatio_, &c. to know the Result of his Conference with the Phantom, and his putting them off from knowing it, with his Caution concerning his future Conduct, and his intreating them to be silent in Relation to this whole Affair; all this, I say, is natural and right; but his light and even ludicrous Expressions to them; his making them swear by his Sword, and shift their Ground, with the Ghost's Crying under the Stage, and _Hamlet's_ Reflection thereupon, are all Circumstances certainly inferiour to the preceeding Part.