me beg to know your thoughts about Ophelia."

"Of her there cannot much be said," he answered; "for a few master
strokes complete her character. The whole being of Ophelia floats in
sweet and ripe sensation. Kindness for the Prince, to whose hand she may
aspire, flows so spontaneously, her tender heart obeys its impulses so
unresistingly, that both father and brother are afraid; both give her
warning harshly and directly. Decorum, like the thin lawn upon her
bosom, cannot hide the soft, still movements of her heart; it on the
contrary betrays them. Her fancy is smit; her silent modesty breathes
amiable desire; and if the friendly goddess Opportunity should shake the
tree, its fruit would fall."

"And then," said Aurelia, "when she beholds herself forsaken, cast away,
despised; when all is inverted in the soul of her crazed lover, and the
highest changes to the lowest, and instead of the sweet cup of love he
offers her the bitter cup of woe--"

"Her heart breaks," cried Wilhelm; "the whole structure of her being is
loosened from its joinings; her father's death strikes fiercely against
it; and the fair edifice altogether crumbles into fragments...."

Serlo, at this moment entering, inquired about his sister; and looking
in the book which our friend had hold of, cried, "So you are again at
'Hamlet'? Very good! Many doubts have arisen in me, which seem not a
little to impair the canonical aspect of the piece as you would have it
viewed. The English themselves have admitted that its chief interest
concludes with the third act; the last two lagging sorrily on, and
scarcely uniting with the rest: and certainly about the end it seems to
stand stock still."

"It is very possible," said Wilhelm, "that some individuals of a nation
which has so many masterpieces to feel proud of, may be led by prejudice
and narrowness of mind to form false judgments; but this cannot hinder
us from looking with our own eyes, and doing justice where we see it
due. I am very far from censuring the plan of 'Hamlet': on the other
hand, I believe there never was a grander one invented; nay, it is not
invented, it is real."

"How do you demonstrate that?" inquired Serlo.

"I will not demonstrate anything," said Wilhelm; "I will merely show you
what my own conceptions of it are."

Aurelia rose up from her cushion, leaned upon her hand, and looked at
Wilhelm; who, with the firmest assurance that he was in the right, went
on as follows:--

"It pl