Chap. XIII.
TRANSLATION.
235
"The law's delay, the insolence of office———
"The spurns—that patient merit from th' unworthy takes———
"That undiscover'd country, from whose bourn
"No traveller returns———?"
"The spurns—that patient merit from th' unworthy takes———
"That undiscover'd country, from whose bourn
"No traveller returns———?"
Can Voltaire, who has omitted in this short passage all the above striking peculiarities of thought and expression, be said to have given a translation from Shakespeare?
But in return for what he has retrenched from his author, he has made a liberal addition of several new and original ideas of his own. Hamlet, whose character in Shakespeare exhibits the strongest impressions of religion, who feels these impressions even to a degree of superstition, which influences his conduct in the most important exigences,and
