(_Courtiers_) { Mr. G. EVERETT.
OSRICK } { Mr. DAVID FISHER.

PRIEST Mr. TERRY.

MARCELLUS Mr. PAULO.

BERNARDO Mr. DALY.

FRANCISCO Mr. COLLETT.

GHOST OF HAMLET'S FATHER Mr. WALTER LACY.

FIRST GRAVEDIGGER Mr. FRANK MATTHEWS.

SECOND GRAVEDIGGER Mr. H. SAKER.

FIRST PLAYER Mr. F. COOKE.

SECOND PLAYER Mr. ROLLESTON.

GERTRUDE (_Queen of Denmark, and_
_mother of Hamlet_) Mrs. CHARLES KEAN.

OPHELIA (_daughter of Polonius_) Miss HEATH.

ACTRESS Miss DALY.

STAGE DIRECTIONS.

R. H. means Right Hand; L. H. Left Hand; U. E. Upper Entrance; R. H.
C. Enters through the Centre from the Right Hand; L. H. C. Enters
through the Centre from the Left Hand.

RELATIVE POSITIONS OF THE PERFORMERS WHEN ON THE STAGE.

R. means on the Right side of the Stage; L. on the Left side of the
Stage; C. Centre of the Stage; R. C. Right Centre of the Stage; L. C.
Left Centre of the Stage.

The reader is supposed _to be on the Stage_, facing the audience.

PREFACE.

The play of _Hamlet_ is above all others the most stupendous monument
of Shakespeare's genius, standing as a beacon to command the wonder
and admiration of the world, and as a memorial to future generations,
that the mind of its author was moved by little less than inspiration.
_Lear_, with its sublime picture of human misery;--_Othello_, with its
harrowing overthrow of a nature great and amiable;--_Macbeth_, with
its fearful murder of a monarch, whose "virtues plead like angels
trumpet-tongued against the deep damnation of his taking
off,"--severally exhibit, in the most pre-eminent degree, all those
mighty elements which constitute the perfection of tragic art--the
grand, the pitiful, and the terrible. _Hamlet_ is a history of mind--a
tragedy of thought. It contains the deepest philosophy, and most
profound wisdom; yet speaks the language of the heart, touching the
secret spring of every sense and feeling. Here we have no ideal
exaltation of character, but life with its blended faults and
virtues,--a gentle nature unstrung by passing events, and thus
rendered "out of tune and harsh."

The original story of Hamlet is