This parody of Hamlet's famous soliloquy is an ironical reflection on DGR's affair with Buchanan (see “The Stealthy School of Criticism”, DGR's rejoinder to Buchanan's abusive review of his 1870 volume of poems. The attack rankled with DGR for a long time, even beyond 1874, when this satiric squib was written.
This text is an expansion of one he had written in 1871 and that was titled “Hamlet's Soliloquy, by the Laureate”. The latter runs only to three couplets.
This collection contains 2 texts and images, including:
British Library Text
Scholarly Commentary
Introduction
This parody of Hamlet's famous soliloquy is an ironical reflection on DGR's affair with Buchanan (see “The Stealthy School of Criticism”, DGR's rejoinder to Buchanan's abusive review of his 1870 volume of poems. The attack rankled with DGR for a long time, even beyond 1874, when this satiric squib was written.
Textual History: Composition
Two manuscripts survive, the earlier corrected draft at Texas, and the fair copy in the British Library.
This text is an expansion of one he had written in 1871 and that was titled “Hamlet's Soliloquy, by the Laureate”. The latter runs only to three couplets.