Horace – Immaculate Character in HamletPerhaps even more innocent than Ophelia in Shakespeare's Hamlet is Horatio. This essay will cover his character in depth, including many literary critical assessments. Who is the historian of the work? None other than Horace. In the first scene Horatio gives a detailed history of what came before concerning King Hamlet: Our last king, whose image has appeared to us even now, was, as you know, by Fortinbras of Norway, then stung by a more emulated pride , dared to fight; in which our brave Hamlet - for so esteemed this part of the world we knew - slew this Fortinbras; who by a sealed compact, well ratified by law and heraldry, lost, with his life, all those lands which he had seized, to the conqueror: against which, a competent half was put in security by our king; that he would return as an inheritance to Fortinbras, if he were the victor; as, by the same agreement and for the transportation of the agreed article, his fell to Hamlet. Now, sir, young Fortinbras, of unimproved courage, warm and full, has here and there on the slopes of Norway drawn up a list of lawless stalwarts, for food and diet, for some enterprise that has stomach in it; which is nothing else - as appears evident from our state - other than to take back, with a strong hand and obligatory terms, those aforesaid lands lost by his father: and this, I suppose, is the main motive of our preparations. ,The source of this our watch and the chief chief...... middle of paper...... Press, 1992.Shakespeare, William. The tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 1995. http://www.chemicool.com/Shakespeare/hamlet/full.htmlWest, Rebecca. “A Court and a world infected by the disease of corruption”. Readings on Hamlet. Ed. Don Nardò. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1999. Rpt. from The Court and the Castle. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1957. Wilkie, Brian, and James Hurt. “Shakespeare”. Literature of the Western world. Ed. Brian Wilkie and James Hurt. New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., 1992. Wright, Louis B., and Virginia A. LaMar. "Hamlet: a man who thinks before he acts." Readings on Hamlet. Ed. Don Nardò. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1999. Rpt. from The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Ed. Louis B. Wright and Virginia A. LaMar. Np: Paperback books, 1958.