The Bee-Hive. — 1872-12-07 (London, England)

CHARACTER OF HAMLET. 'Hamlet loved Ophelia in his happy youth, when all his thoughts were fair and sweet as she. But his father's death,t,his mother's frailty, have wrought sad alteration in his soul, and made the very form of woman fearful and suspected. His best affections are blighted, and Opholia's love, that young and tender flower, escapes not the general infection. Seemed not his mother kind, faithful, innocent? And was she not married to his uncle? But after the dread interview, the fatal *unction, he is a man among whose thoughts and purposes love cannot abide. He is a being severed from human hopes and joys—vowed and dedicated to other work than courtship and dalliance. The spirit that ordained him an avenger, forbade him to be a lover. Yet, with an inconstaney as natural as it is unreasonable he clings to what he has renounced, and sorely feels the reluctant repulse which Ophelia's obedience presents to his lingering addresses. Lovers, even if they have seen no ghosts, and have no uncles to slay, when circumstances oblige them to discontinue their suit, can ill endure to be anticipated in the breach. It is a sorrow that cannot bear the slightest show of unkindness. Hamlet, moreover, though a tardy, is an impatient nature, that would feel uneasy under the common process of maidenly delay. Thus perplexed and stung, he rushes into Opholia's chamber, and, in amazed silence, makes her the confident of his grief and distraction, the cause of which she must not know. No wonder she concludes that he is mad for her love, and enters readily into what to her appears an innocent scheme to induce him to lighten his overcharged bosom, and ask of her the peace which, unasked, she may not offer. She steals upon his solitude, while, weary of his unexecuted task, he argues with himself the expediency of suicide. Surprised as with a sudden light, his first words are courteous and tender, till he begins to suspect that she, too, is sent on to pluck out the heart of his mystery; and then, actually maddened by his self-imposed necessity of personating madness, he discharges upon her the bitterness of ' blasted love, the agony of a lover's anger, as if determined to extinguish in himself the last feeling that harmonized not with his fell purpose of revengeful justice. To me, this is the most terrifically affecting scene in Shakespeare. Neither Lear nor Othello are plunged so deep in the gulf of misery.—Coleridge. COURTESY AT lIOME. Almost any one can be courteous in a neighbour's house. If anything goes wrong, or is out of time, or is disagreeable there itis made the beat of, not the worst; even efforts are made to excuse it, and show it is not felt; it is attributed to accident, not to design; and this is not only easy but natural in the house of a friend. We will not, therefore, believe that what is so natural in the house of another is impossible at home, but maintain, with out four, that all the courtesies of social life may be upheld in domestic society. husband as  willing to be pleased at home as he is anxious to be plea-ed in a neighbour's house, and a wife as intent on making things comfortable every day to her family as on set days to her guests, cannot fail to make home happy.