I do not myself recall it.

I should like, also, to risk the suggestion that to the author of _Some
Remarks_ should go the honor of the earliest adumbration of the "Hamlet
problem." For here, before Francis Gentleman or Steevens or Richardson,
Anonymous has raised the tantalising question of the why of Hamlet's
conduct, the problem of his delay in effecting his revenge, and has
glanced at an answer. Anonymous in no wise approves of Hamlet's madness:
it was, he thinks, the best possible way to thwart his design of revenge
and it was carried on with unseemly lack of dignity. Shakespeare has
followed his sources too closely, with bad results. There appears "no
Reason at all in Nature, why the young prince did not put the Usurper to
Death as soon as possible." To be sure this would have ended the play;
the poet must therefore delay the hero's revenge. But, insists
Anonymous, "then he should have contrived some good Reason for it." This
is clearly recognition of the vexing problem that has since occupied the
attention of unnumbered critics--if not in full statement, at least in
its essentials.

Such examples suggest the seminal quality of the best of this little
book. The writer was obviously a man who read closely and reflected to
good effect on what he read, with the result that he saw new things and
helped open new problems and point the way to a generally more fruitful
study of his author. Because of this and its prevailing sound critical
qualities the anonymous essay ranks with the more important
Shakespearian documents of the century. The editors of the _Augustan_
Reprints are to be commended for their decision to give it a place in
their valuable series. A critical work which is so viable, which has so
many points of contact with other good Shakespearian criticism, and
which is in itself so stimulating in approach and specific idea deserves