be treated as they ought, nor work’d up to that Height which they are here, and were formerly at Athens, &c. and Love, for that Reason among others is made to be the Basis of almost all their Tragedies.  Nay, the Education of the People under such a Government, prevents their delighting in such Performances as pleased an Athenian or a Roman, and now delight us Britons.  Thus every Thing conduces to debase Tragedy among them, as every Thing here contributes to form good Tragick Writers; yet how few have we!  And what is very remarkable, each Nation takes Delight in that, which, in the Main, they the least excel in, and are the least fit for.  The Audience in England is generally more crowded at a Comedy, and in France at a Tragedy; yet I will venture to affirm, (and I shall be ready upon Occasion to support my Assertion by good Reasons) that no Comick Writer has ever equal’d Moliere, nor no Tragick Writer ever came up to Shakespeare, Rowe, and Mr. Addison.  Besides the many Reasons I have already given in Relation to the French, I might add, that their Language is less fit for Tragedy, and the Servitude of their Rhime enervates the Force of the Diction.  And as for Our Comedies, they are so full of Lewdness, Impiety and Immorality, and of such complicated perplexed Plots, so stuffed with Comparisons and Similies, so replenished with Endeavours at Wit and Smartness, that I cannot forbear saying, that whoever sees or reads them for Improvement (I make some Exceptions in this Censure) will find a contrary Effect; and whatever Man of a True Taste expects to see Nature, either in the Sentiments or Characters, will (in general) find himself very much mistaken.

FINIS.

The Remarks was printed anonymously, in 1736, with the following title page: 

Some / Remarks / on the / Tragedy / of / Hamlet Prince of Denmark, / Written by / Mr. William Shakespeare. / [double rule enclosing a printer’s device] / London:  / Printed for W. Wilkins, in Lombard-/ Street.  M,DCC,XXXVI. price 1s.

The edition of 1736 was reprinted in London, 1864, for sale by John Russell Smith, with an identical title page.  The reprint bore the following cover: 

   Reprints of Scarce Pieces of Shakespeare
   Criticism.  No. 1.  Remarks on Hamlet,
   1736.

The usual ascription of the essay heretofore to Sir Thomas Hanmer derives from the statement by Sir Henry Bunbury, on page 80 of his The Correspondence of Sir Thomas Hanmer, Bart, London, 1838, that he had “reason to believe that he was the author ...”

—­Wallace A. Bacon Northwestern University

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