Contes d'aprés Shakespeare [antikvár]

Hamlet Prince of Denmark GERTRUDE, Queen of Denmark, becoming a widow by the sudden death of King Hamiet, in less than two months after his death married his brother Claudius, which was noted by all people at the tim for a strange act of indiscretion, or unfeelingness, or worse; for this Claudius did no way resemble her late husband in the qualities of his person or his mind, but was as contemptible in otirward appearance as he was base and unworthy in disposition; and suspicions did not fail to arise in the minds of some that he had privately made away with his brother, the late king, with the view of marrying his widow and ascending the throne of Denmark, to the exclusion of young Hamlet, the son of the buried king and lawful successor to the throne. But upon no one did this unadvised action of the queen make such impression as upon this young prince, who loved and venerated tlie memory of his dead father almost to idolatry,