Etc. etc. etc.
Chorus:
Oh! I thank my God for this at the least,
I was born in the west and not in the east!
And he made me a human instead of a beast:
Whose Hide is Covered with Hair.”
Then came a city letter, an account of a debate in the House of Lords, and some book reviews.
This was the review of Hamlet:
“The number of writers who aspire to poetic drama is becoming legion; Mr. William Shakespeare’s effort—not his first attempt in that kind—is better in some ways than some others which we recently noticed. We regret, therefore, all the more that the dominant motive of his drama makes it impossible for us to deal with it.
“Mr. Shakespeare has taken his subject from the history of Denmark, and in his play King Claudius is represented as murdering his brother and marrying Queen Gertrude, his deceased brother’s wife. There was a King Claude (whether there has been an intentional change of name we do not know) who succeeded his brother Olaf II. We hear a good deal about him, his parentage, and life at court. That he was intemperate and hasty—he was known to exceed at meals, and on one occasion he boxed the Lord Chamberlain’s ears—need hardly be said. But there is nowhere we can discover a hint of the monstrous wickedness Mr. Shakespeare has attributed to him. Were this vile relationship (i.e. the King’s marriage with his murdered brother’s wife) a fact, it might fairly be a theme for the dramatist to deal with; but we repeat we certainly do not care to criticise the drama in which it is treated.