ORIGIN OF THE PLOTS OF TWO FAMOUS PLAYS.
Dr. Goldsmith took the plot of She Stoops to Conquer from a joke played by a Lincolnshire gentleman named Grummit. Late one night a commercial traveller met Grummit on the road, and asked him where he might find the nearest inn. Grummit said he would gladly "show him the way to a quiet respectable house of public entertainment for man and horse." The stranger was thereupon conducted to Grummit's private residence. Everything he ordered was promptly brought him, and in the morning he asked for his bill, and was very pleasantly surprised to find he had been a private guest. Other odd deeds of kindness are related of Grummit.
Hamlet is taken from the Danish history of Amleth, by Saxo Germanicus. It may be but a coincidence that the word "Hamlet" may be formed from "Amleth" by placing the last letter of the latter word before the former one. The story of Amleth is said to be very improbable, and that only a genius like Shakespeare would have founded a play on it. The famous "ghost" of the Shakespearian version is the bard's own invention. Amleth, having made the nobility drunk, sets fire to the palace, kills the usurping king, and is himself proclaimed ruler.