From A Bibliography of Alexandre Dumas père by Frank Wild Reed: One four-line stanza, rhyming a, b, a, b ; followed by another of six lines, rhyming in couplets.
These are found in the version of "Hamlet, Prince de Danemark," a drama in five acts, in verse, by Alexandre Dumas and Paul Meurice, Act II., Scene iii., first performed at the Théâtre Historique on the 15th of December, 1847, and published by Michel Lévy in 1848.
M. Glinel found these inscribed in a copy of the second edition of "Stockholm, Fontainebleau et Rome."
Madame Mathilde Shaw wrote an article on "Alexandre Dumas Père" for the "Nouvelle Revue," August 1st, 1899, in which she quotes these lines, followed by a further stanza of six lines, addressed to herself, which Dumas sent her in 1867 (May 22nd). The order of the first four lines in Mme. Shaw's version is different, so that in this case the rhyming of the whole ten lines is by couplets, which, very probably, is how they were first arranged. M. Glinel quotes Mme. Shaw's article in the following extract: "Upon a sheet of that large blue paper which he used for his MSS. he (Dumas) wrote beside the translation made by him of the lines from Hamlet to Ophelia (by Alfieri), some lines which he himself composed for me. I copy them because all which comes from him is interesting." (See the "Vers à Mathilde Shaw," 1867.)
The first four lines of the above quotation from "Hamlet" were published in "L'Autographe" for November 23rd, 1864, page 195. They were then taken from the Arnault Album, according to page 51 of "L'Autographe," Second Series, published by "Le Figaro," in 1872. These four lines were there entitled: "Billet d'Hamlet à Ophélie."
In 1906 Madame Shaw's work "Illustres et Inconnus" also printed them, on page 200.
