Was Shakspeare lame? “A question to be asked;” and there is nothing in the inquiry repugnant to poetic justice, for he has made Julius Cæsar deaf in his left ear. Where did he get his authority?
HAMLET’S AGE.
Shakspeare’s Hamlet was thirty years old, as is indicated by the text in Act. V. Sc. 1:—
Ham. How long hast thou been a grave-maker?
1 Clo. Of all the days i’ the year, I came to’t that day that our last King Hamlet o’ercame Fortinbras.
Ham. How long is that since?
1 Clo. Cannot you tell that? Every fool can tell that: it was the very day that young Hamlet was born: he that is mad and sent into England.
Ham. Upon what ground?
1 Clo. Why, here in Denmark. I have been sexton here, man and boy thirty years.