almost screamed my friend.

I went on, regardless of M. de W.'s dangerous attitude: "Denmark at
that time was divided into several kingdoms, and Hamlet's father was
king in a part of Jutland, which, let us say, was as small as Rhode
Island--"

"What nonsense!" interrupted M. de W., indignantly.

"He probably went about in fur-covered legs and a sheepskin over his
shoulders, as was then the fashion. He was called Amleth; Shakespeare
simply transposed the h. He was a naughty little boy, vicious and
revengeful. He despised his mother and hated his uncle, who was his
stepfather."

[Illustration:
TWO YOUNG QUEENS
From a photograph, taken in 1878, of the two daughters of the King of
Denmark. They were then the Princess of Wales and the Grand Duchess
Dagmar. They are now the widows of two European sovereigns, Dowager
Queen Alexandra of England and the Dowager Empress of Russia. They
spend their summers together in a small cottage near Copenhagen.
Alexandra is on the right of the picture.]

"Why?" asked, in a milder tone, M. de W.

"Because his mother and the uncle, wishing to marry and mount the
throne, killed Hamlet's father. Hamlet passed his youth haunted by
thoughts of revenge and how he could punish the two sinners."

"It was clever of Shakespeare to let the father do the haunting and
leave to Hamlet the _role_ of a guileless and sentimental youth; the
authorities do not agree as to whether Hamlet was really a fool or only
pretended to be one."

"Fool he certainly was not," I replied. "He was clever enough to play
the part of one, and he played it so well that no one, even at that
time, could make out what he really was."

"Then," declared M. de W., "Shakespeare got that part of it
right--perhaps you will concede that much. How about Hamlet's grave?
Surely there is no humbug about that? I have seen it myself. Has it
been there since two hundred years B.C.?"

"Hamlet's grave at Helsingoer is an interesting bit of imagination. A
unique instance of inaccuracy on the part of the Danes! Hamlet lived to
be king in his little land and was buried where he died--if he ever
lived--as an Irishman would say."

"How confusing you are," said my opponent. "You destroy my dearest
illusions--I, who adore Shakespeare's Hamlet."

"I adore Shakespeare's Hamlet, too, but I do not adore Saxo's. Hamlet's
love for his father was the only redeeming point about him. Did you
know that he married the daughter of the King of England