The Sun.
London, England, 1864-01-23 00:00:00

Was the Earl of Essex---Hamlet 3

Shakspere being known to have been acquainted
—freshly acquainted—with Southampton at the
time when " Hamlet" was first planned and pro-
duced, may have conceived his character of Hamlet
from Essex, and that of Horatio from Southampton !
The indications which would point to such a con-
clusion are not few. The common people regarded
Essex as a prince, descended through his father
from Edward the Third, and through his mother
the imme Bate kinsman of Elizabeth; and some
persons, like Sir John Hayward, imagined that his
title to the throne was better than the Queen's. In
person, for he had his father's beauty, he was all
that Shakspere has described in the Prince of
Denmark—the glass of fashion and the mould of
form ; the observed of all observers. Then,
again, in his family relations, as in his personal
position and appearance, he resembled very
closely the ideal prince. His mother had been
tempted from her duty while her gracious and noble
husband was alive. That handsome and generous
husband was supposed to have been poisoned by the
guilty pair who had done him such cruel wrong.
After the father's murder, the seducer had married
the consenting mother. That father had not
perished in his prime without feeling and expressing
some doubt that foul play had been used against
him; he had sent from his deathbed his forgiveness
to the guilty woman who had sacrificed his honour,
and perhaps taken away his life. All these parti-
culars in the real life of Essex, and in the imaginary

life of Hamlet are pointed out. There certainly is an
exceeding singularity of agreement in the facts of
the case and the incidents of the play. The re-
Latiuu TT nmiPt 1B Vei elav
same as that of Leicester to Essex. Under the pre-
tence of fatherly friendship, Leicester was suspicious
of his nephew's motives and jealous of his actions;
he kept the young man much in the country and at
college; he let him see but little of his mother, and
clouded his prospects in the world by an appear-
ance of benignant favour. Fear was probably at
the root of all his conduct to the ardent, volatile
youth. Gertrude's relations to her son were much
like those of Lettice to Robert Devereux. She
loved him much, but she feared him more. She
could never quite reconcile him to his stepfather : a
little more than kin and less than kind. Then,
again, " in his moodiness, in his college learning.
in his love for the theatre and the players, in his
desire for the fiery action for which his nature
was most unfit, there are many kinds of hints
calling up au image of the Danish prince."

HER MAJESTY S STAGIIOUNDS.—The meet yes-
terday was at Frog-green, Wokinghatn, whence there was
a fast and capital run in the direction Reading, and the take
was at Calcot, a few miles westward of that town. It was
generally admitted by the field that this was one of the best
days sport of the season.
DEATH OF A COLUMBINE FROM FlRE.—Yestorday
morning Madame Maria Charles, aged 27 years, a
Columbine lately engaged in the pantomime at the Pavilion
Theatre, WhitechaPel-road, expired in the accident ward of
the London Hospital, from the mortal effects of burns re-
ceived by her dress taking fire while engaged in her duties
on the stage about a fortnight ego. The unfortunate woman
had been employed since Christmas-eve, and on the night
of the accident, towards the termination of the pantomime,
she retired to the back portion of the stage to adjust her
dress, which by some means came in contact with the gas
jets arranged behind a set piece of scenery. Sho was at once
enveloped in flames, but the scene shifters and the managers
, procured wet blankets, which were kept on the side of the
stage, and speedily subdued the remnants of the burning
dress. She was shockingly burnt over the back, and was
at once removed to the above-named institution, but the
shock to her system ultimately caused death. An inquest
will be held on the body this day.