The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1886-10-30
HAMLETS ELSINORE.

Here is Denmark, and here is Elsip ore,
and here it pleased the poet to locate in
time and space the circumstances of his
master plot. Look around! A score of
rambling, ill-paved streets, leading in
dolently nowhere; a few hundred quaint,
clean old houses, with spy glassed win
dows and star-gabled, red-tiled roofs,
which descend near to the earth, then
mount backward into the air; come thou
sands OF human beipgs, mostly invisible,
and, it would seem, asleep within; va
grant, scattering city village, with Or
chards and gardens in its interstices and
groves and orchards in its rear, that sits
half DOING in the sun, and gaZes idly
from a lands end Oh two sides at the sea
such, when you have come to view it, is
the city of Hamlet. In all Europe there
is not, perhaps, another spot yielding so
perfect "reminiscences of the olden time
Even Nuremburg does not surpass it in
quaiutness of aspect, and the Bavarian
city is not half 30 drowsy in fact. Vivify
the place with the aid Of fancy, recall the
ancient dignity OF the Danish kinge, re-
membeling that here was the seat OF
their feudal power and eplendor, and its
features fail marvelously into keeping
with the scenes OF Shakespeare's drama.
But the castle in which is centered the
chief action Of the plsy is the piece of re-
sistauce at Elsinore. Amid its ponder
GUS feudal incumbrance of double moat.
bastions and ramparts, it towers solidarity
from the very verge of its tiny peninsula,
guarding the strait ont of the Kattegat,
and dominating the whole northern re-
gion for many a league Of land and sea.
Kronborg is just 300 years old, dating
it's foundation from the last quarter Of
the sixteenth century, and has been cor
rectly described to be zone of the most
perfect specimens of its era-unspoiled,
untouched, unrepaired-to be met with
in Europe" In dimension and archi-
tectural finish it would be difficult, in
deed, to find it's peer on the continent
unless in the ruined Schioss at Heidel-
berg. The building of the castle was the
pet scheme of the Danish monarch,
Frederick III. At its completion, in 1886,
the poets of all the North we're invited to
sing it's praises, and Rubens was sum-
moned to decorate its interior. Gigan-
tic, quadrangular and four-towered, the
structure stands to-day as fresh and per-
feet as on that day 300 years ago when
artist and architect withdrew brush and
chisel.
The entrance into the interior court of
the fortress is through a spacious gate
way, guarded by statues, and overhung
by an oriel window adorned with the
arms and cipher of the founder, Fred,
erick ii. Directly from the castles
arehed entrance, across its central court,
lies the way to the ancient royal apart
mente, the largest of them all facing
Sweden and the round. This spacious
room probably served OF old both as a
reception and banqueting hall, 1t is
here almost in the sombre heart of the
building, diully lighted from the seward
windowe, that ones fancy readily fixes
the familiar play -ecene in the drama
Hamlet lying at Ophelia's feet, the play
ers entering and performing by his direc-
ton, the guilty king and queen aghast
and fleeing, at length, from the mimicry
of their crime. 1t is certain that this |
part of the castle has Witnessed many
cerenonious scenes enacted by Danish |
royalty. 1t was in the nearly completed |
Kronborg that its builder, Frederick IT.,
received the Ambassador extraordinary of J