HAMLET'S CASTLE.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 358, 19 March 1903, Page 6

HAMLET'S CASTLE.

Jompthln* Abont th« Horn* «f til* Ftmoni Dane at Elslaot•, Denmark,

Jacob A. Jliis, the New York poverty expert, lived as a child in the neighborhood of the castle pf Kronborg. Flsinore. Denmark. He has revisited the place in recent years, and his early and later reminiscences are embodied in an article eailed "Hamlet's Castle," which appeared in the Century.

Id l">Ta. as a first step toward makingl it fit for a king- to live in. Frederik 11. "swept it clean of all hurtful people nnd animals, meaning, by the latter, vagrant swine and dogs. How his broom worked on tne "people** is instanced by the treatment of outcast women under the edict. Theywere to be whipped and branded by th«» headsman, and turned out. If they came hack, both their ears were to be cut off. If after that they were again found within the.gates of the city, the order was to stirff them into sacks and throw them into the sound. Four years of this sort of thing was supposed to have cleared the ground, and the erection was begun of Kronborg—the "crown castle/' That was the name, said the -king,, and for miscalling it "Flounder" or "Hook" any man was to pay him the value of one fat steer. Long'before its gray walls had risen to half their height the new name stuck, and when it was finished, in 1585. the steer revenue had ceased to be of account. Of the revelries that attended the opening of the castle it may -well be that the echoes ring yet in Hamlet's description of "this heavy-headed revel." which to his mind is "more honour'd in the breach than the observance." For in that year there played at Klsinore a troupe of strolling English actors, which for all we know with certainty to the contrary, may have included young William Shakespeare himself, come fresh from poaching upon Sir Thomas Lucy's preserves to seek - his fortune among the playhouses in London. The old town records contain two reference! to them. One is a mere entry of the expenditure of four skilling "for the repair of the board fence between the house of Lanritz, town clerk, ths town hall and yard, which the people broke down the time the English played in the yard." That was in «S5, and may have been on the ooeuion of the opening festivities. The troupe came back later and stared some time. Little did tne clerk who entered into the municipal accounts ♦ho cost of its play and keep dream that he was making a notabla ««■». tribution to the history of the rreefe•at of all tragedies.