Queen. Alas, he's mad. Ham. Do you not come your tardy son to chide, Ghost. Do not forget: This visitation Is but to whet thy almost blunted purpose. How is it with you, lady? His form and cause conjoin'd, preaching to stones, 1 i. e. the low mimic, the counterfeit, a dizard, or common vice and jester, counterfeiting the gestures of any man.'-Fleming. Shakspeare afterwards calls him a king of shreds and patches, alluding to the party. coloured habit of the vice or fool in a play. 2 The first quarto adds, in his night-gown.' 3Laps'd in time and passion.' Johnson explains this- That having suffered time to slip and passion to cool, let's go by,' &c. This explanation is confirmed by the quarto of 1603: Do you not come your tardy son to chide, That I thus long have let revenge slip by.' 4 Conceit, for conception, imagination. This was the force of the word among our ancestors. Thus in The Rape of Lucrece : And the conceited painter was so nice." 5 The hair is excrementitious; that is, without life or sensation; yet those very hairs, as if they had life, start up,' &c. So Macbeth : my fell of hair Would at a dismal treatise rouse and stir 6 Capable for susceptible, intelligent, i. e. would excite in them capacity to understand. Thus in King Richard III. : Queen. No, nothing, but ourselves. My father, in his habit as he liv'd! Look, where he goes, even now, out at the portal! Ham. Ectasy! My pulse, as yours, doth temperately keep time, Ham. O, throw away the worser part of it, [Pointing to POLONIUS. alter things already effected, but might move Hamlet to a less stern mood of mind. 8 This speech of the queen has the following remarkable variation in the quarto of 1603 :— Alas, it is the weakness of thy brain Which makes thy tongue to blazon thy heart's grief: I never knew of this most horrid murder: And for my love forget these idle fits." 9 Do not by any new indulgence heighten your former offences." 10 i. e. bot. Courber, Fr. to bow, crook, or curb' Thus in Pierce Plowman: Then I courbid on my knees.' 11 That monster, custom, who all sense doth eat Of habit's devil, is angel yet in this,' &c. This passage, which is not in the folio, has been thought corrupt. Dr. Thirlby proposed to read, 'Of habits eril Steevens would read,Or habits' devil. It is evident that there is an intended opposition between angel and devil; but the passage will perhaps bear explaining as it stands:That monster custom, who devours all sense (feeling, or perception) of devilish hubits, is angel yet in this,' &c. This passage might perhaps have been as well omitted, after the example of the editors of the folio; but, I presume, it has been retained upon the principle which every where guide the editors, To lose no drop of that immortal man.' 12 Here the quarto of 1603 has two remarkable lines:And, mother, but assist ine in revenge, And in his death your infamy shall die." 13 The next more easy,' &c. This passage, as far as potency, is also omitted in the folio. In the line: And either quell the devil, or throw him out.” The word quell is wanting in the old copy. Malone in serted the word curb, because he found, in The Merchant of Venice, And earb this cruel devil of his will." But the occurrence of euch in so opposite a sense just before, is against his emendation. HAMLET, PRINCE OF DENMARK. I do repent: But heaven hath pleas'd it so,- Thus bad begins, and worse remains behind.- Queen. Ham. Not this, by no means, that I bid Queen. Be thou assur'd if words be made of breath, Ham. I must to England; you know that? Alack, I had forgot; 'tis so concluded on. fellows, Whom I will trust, as I will adders fang'd,- I'll lug the guts into the neighbour room :11 ACT IV. 497 SCENE I. The same. Enter King, Queen, King. There's matter in these sighs; these pro- You must translate: 'tis fit we understand them: Queen. Bestow this place on us a little while. 12- a rat! Whips out his rapier, cries, A rat King. It had been so with us, had we been there: Queen. To draw apart the body he hath kill'd: King. O, Gertrude, come away! The sun no sooner shall the mountains touch, 9 This and the eight following verses are omitted in the folio. Το [Exeunt severally; HAMLET dragging in hoyse was the old verb. A petar was a kind of mortar 10 Hoist with his own petar. Hoist for hoised. POLONIUS. Thus 1 To punish me by making me the instrument of this man's death, and to punish this man by my hand. 2 Mouse, a term of endearment formerly. Burton, in his Anatomy of Melancholy Pleasant names may be invented, bird, mouse, lamb, puss, pigeon,' &c. used to blow up gates. a prince under any circumstances, and such as is not 11 It must be confessed that this is coarse language for called for by the occasion. But Hamlet has purposely throughout the interview with his mother, perhaps to Something may be said in extenuation. The word chosen gross expressions and coarse metaphors, make his appeal to her feelings the more forcible. 3 i. e. reeky or fumant; reekant, as Florio calls it. The guts was not anciently so offensive to delicacy as it is at King has been already called the bloat king, which hints present; the courtly Lyly has used it in his Mydas, at his intemperance. In Coriolanus we have the reechy1592; Stanyhurst often in his translation of Virgil, and neck of a kitchen wench. Reeky and reechy are the Chapman in his version of the sixth Iliad :same word, and always applied to any vaporous exha lation, even to the fumes of a dunghill. in whose guts the king of men imprest In short, guts was used where we now use entrails. His ashen lance.' 12 This line does not appear in the folio, in which i.stage at all. Guildenstern and Rosencrantz are not brought on the 13 Quarto-Ah, mine own lord. 14 Thus in Lear : 4 The hint for Hamlet's feigned madness is taken from the old Historie of Hamblett already mentioned. 5 For paddock, a toad, see Macbeth, Act i. Sc. 1: and for gib, a cat, see King Henry IV. Part I. Act Sc. 2. Sir 6 To try conclusions is to put to proof, or try experi ments. See Merchant of Venice, Act ii. Sc. 2. John Suckling possibly alludes to the same story in one of his letters:It is the story after all of the jackanapes and the partridges; thon starest after a beauty till it be lost to thee, and then let'st out another, and starest after that till it is gone too." 7 The quarto of 1603 has here another remarkable variation: 'Hamlet, I vow by that Majesty That knows our thoughts and looks into our hearts, Dido and her Sichæus shall want troops, And in Romico and Juliet: We talk here in the public haunt of men. 16 Shakspeare, with a licence not unusual among his contemporaries, uses ore for gold, and mineral for mine. Bullokar and Blount both define or or ore, 8 The manner in which Hamlet came to know that tionary, 1594, under the Latin word mineralia, will he was to be sent to England is not developed. He ex-show how the English mineral came to be used for a gold; of a golden colour.' And the Cambridge Dicpresses surprise when the king mentions it in a future scene; but his design of passing for a madman may account for this. 3 N mine. Thus also in The Golden Remaines of Hales of And from his mother's closet hath he dragg'd him: HAMLET. [Exeunt. Ham. Enter ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN. Ham. Compounded it with dust, whereto 'tis kin. Rs. Tell us where 'tis; that we may take it thence, And bear it to the chapel. Ham. Do not believe it. Ham. That I can keep your counsel, and not mine own. Besides, to be demanded of a sponge! --what replication should be made by the son of a king? Ros. Take you me for a sponge, my lord? Ham. Ay, sir; that soaks up the king's countenance, his rewards, his authorities. But such officers do the king best services in the end: He keeps them, like an ape doth nuts, in the corner of his jaw first mouthed to be last swallowed: When he needs what you have gleaned, it is but squeezing you, and, sponge, you shall be dry again. Ros. I understand you not, my lord. Ham. I am glad of it: A knavish speech sleeps in a foolish ar. Ros. My lord, you must tell us where the body is, and go with us to the king. Ham. The body is with the king, but the king is not with the body. The king is a thingGuil. A thing, my lord? Ham. Of nothing: bring me to him. This sudden sending him away must seem Or not at all.-How now? what hath befallen? King. King. Bring him before us. Ros. Ho, Guildenstern! bring in my lord. Enter HAMLET and GUILDENSTERN. King. Now, Hamlet, where's Polonius? King. At supper? Where? Ham. Not where he eats, but where he is eaten : a certain convocation of politic worms are e'en at him. Your worm is your only emperor for diet: we fat all creatures else, to fat us; and we fat ourselves for magots; Your fat king, and your lean beggar, is but variable service; two dishes, but to one table; that's the end. [King. Alas, alas! Ham. A man may fish with the worm that hathe eat of a king; and eat of the fish that hath fed of that worm."] King. What dost thou mean by this? Ham. In heaven; send thither to see: if your messenger find him not there, seek him i' the other place yourself. But, indeed, if you find him not within this month, you shall nose him as you go up the stairs into the lobby. King. Go seek him there. [To some Attendants. [Exeunt Attendants. King. Hamlet, this deed, for thine especial safety, Which we do tender, as we dearly grieve hence With fiery quickness: Therefore prepare thyself; Hide fox, The bark is ready, and the wind at help,11 and all after. [Exeunt. The associates tend,12 and every thing is bent SCENE III. Another Room in the same. Enter For England. King, attended. For England? King. I have sent to seek him, and to find the body. How dangerous is it, that this man goes loose! 1 The blank was the mark at which shots or arrows were directed. Thus in The Winter's Tale, Act ii. Sc. 3: "Out of the blank and level of my aim." 2 The passage in brackets is not in the folio. The wordsSo, haply, slander,' are also omitted in the quartos; they were supplied by Theobald. The addition is supported by a passage in Cymbeline : No, is slander, Whose edge is sharper than the sword, whose tongue 3 But soft,' these two words are not in the folio. 5 The omission of the words ' doth nuts,' in the old copies, had obscured this passage. Dr. Farmer proposed to read like an ape an apple. The words are how supplied from the newly discovered quarto of 1603. 6 He's but a spunge, and shortly needs must leese, His wrong got juice, when greatness' fist shall Ham. Ay, Hamlet. Good. King. So is it, if thou know'st our purposes. Ham. I see a cherub, that sees them.-But, come; for England!-Farewell, dear mother. King. Thy loving father, Hamlet. and wife; man and wife is one flesh; and so, my Ham. My mother; Father and mother is man mother. Come, for England. nothing. Johnson would have altered Of nothing' to Or nothing; but Steevens and Farmer, by their superior acquaintance with our elder writers, soon clearly showed, by several examples, that the text was right 8Hide fox, and all after.' This was a juvenile sport, most probably what is now called hoop, or hide and seek; in which one child hides himself, and the rest run all after, seeking him. The words are not in the quarto. 9 Alas, Alas! This speech and the following one of Hamlet, are omitted in the folio. 10 A progress is a journey. Steevens says it alludes to the royal journies of state, always styled progresses This was probably in Shakspeare's mind, for the worl was certainly applied to those periodical journeys of the sovereign to visit their noble subjects, but by no means exclusively. Sir William Drury, in a Letter to Sir Nicholas Throckmorton, among the Conway papers, tells him he is going a little progresse to be merry with his neighbours. And that popular book of John Bunyan's, The Pilgrim's Progress, is surely not the account of a regal predatory excursion.' 11 i. e. in modern phrase the wind serves,' or is right to aid or help you on your way. 12 i. c. attend. aboard; King. Follow him at foot; tempt him with speed That inward breaks, and shows no cause without Delay it not, I'll have him hence to-night; [Exit. SCENE IV. A Plain in Denmark. Enter FORTINBRAS, and Forces, marching. For. Go, captain, from me greet the Danish Tell him, that, by his licence, Fortinbras Commands them, sir? Who Cap. The nephew to old Norway, Fortinbras. Cap. Truly to speak, sir, and with no addition, Ham. Why, then the Polack never will defend it. Ham. Two thousand souls, and twenty thousand Will not debate the question of this straw: peace; Howe'er my haps, my joys were ne'er begun. 4 The quarto reads-craves. 5 Eye for presence. In the Regulations for the esta blishment of the Queen's Household, 1627:- All such as doe service in the queen's eye. And in the Establishment of Prince Henry's Household, 1610:—' All such as doe service in the prince's eye.' It was the formulary for the royal presence, 6 The remainder of this scene is omitted in the folio. 7 i. e. profit. before. Ham. I will be with you straight. Go a little To fust in us unus'd. Now, whether it be A thought, which, quarter'd, hath but one part And, ever, three parts coward,-I do not know To all that for une, death, and danger, dare, [Exit. trates Of ground to win a plot, a while to dwell, We venture lives, and send our souls to hell.” 12 Continent means that which comprehends or en closes. Thus in Lear :- Rive your concealing continents, And in Chapman's version of the third Iliad : did take Thy fair form for a continent of parts as fair." 8 See note on Act i. Sc. 2. It is evident that discursive powers of mind are meant; or, as Jobuson explains it, If there be no fulnesse, then is the continent greater such latitude of comprehension, such power of review-than the content.'--Bacon's Advancement of Learning, ing the past, and anticipating the future. Since I wrote the former note, I find that Bishop Wilkins makes ratiocinution and discourse convertible terms. 1633, p. 7. 13 Enry is often used by Shakspeare and his contem poraries for malice, spite, or hatred :"You turn the good we offer into enry.' King Henry VIII 9 Craven is recreant, cowardly. It may be satisfactorily traced from erant, creant, the old French word for an act of submission. It is so written in the old metri- See Merchant of Venice, Act iv. Sc. 1. Indeed 'en cal romance of Ywaine and Gawaine (Ritson, vol i. p.viously, and spitefully,' are treated as synonymous by our old writers 133): Though nothing sure, yet much unhappily.4 Dangerous conjectures in ill-breeding minds: To my sick soul, as sin's true nature is, Each toy seems prologue to some great amiss : It spills itself in fearing to be spilt. Re-enter HORATIO, with OPHELIA." Oph. Where is the beauteous majesty of Denmark? Queen. How now, Ophelia ? Oph. How should I your true love know, From another one? By his cockle hat and staff, And his sandal shoon." [Singing. You promis'd me to wed: [He answers.] So would I ha' done, by yonder sun, An thou hadst not come to my bed. King. How long hath she been thus? Oph. I hope, all will be well. We must be patient: but I cannot choose but weep, to think, they should lay him i' the cold ground: My brother shall know of it, and so I thank you for your good counsel. Come, my coach! Good night, ladies; good night, sweet ladies: good night, good night. (Ext. When sorrows come, they come not single spies, pers, 1 To collection, that is, to gather or deduce conse-bly induced our Saviour to transform her into that tard quences from such premises. Thus in Cymbeline, Act v. Sc. 5:- whose containing Is so from sense to hardness, that I can See note on that passage. 2 The quartos read-yawn. To aim, 3 Folio-ould. 4 Unhappily, that is, mischievously. is to guess. for her wickedness.' The story is related to deter chil To-morrow 'tis Saint Valentine's day." The emendation was made by Dr. Farmer. The ori of the choosing of Valentines has not been clearly developed. Mr. Douce traces it to a Pagan custom of the same kind during the Lupercalia feasts in hocent of Pan and Juno, celebrated in the month of February by the Romans. The anniversary of the good bishef, or Saint Valentine, happening in this month, the picom 6 Shakspeare is not singular in his use of amiss as a early promoters of Christianity placed this popular cos substantive. Several instances are adduced by Stee-tom under the patronage of the saint, in order to era vens, and more by Mr. Nares in his Glossary. Each toy,' is each trifle. 5 The three first lines of this speech are given to Horatio in the quarto. cate the notion of its pagan origin. In France the Falantin was a moveable feast, celebrated on the first 7 There is no part of this play in its representation Sunday in Lent, which was called the jour des brenon the stage more pathetic than this scene; which, I sup-dons, because the boy's carried about lighted torches my pose, proceeds from the utter insensibility Ophelia has that day. It is very probable that the saint has nothing to her own misfortunes. A great sensibility, or none at to do with the custom; his legend gives no clue to s all, seem to produce the same effects. In the latter such supposition. The popular notion that the birds [case] the audience supply what is wanting, and with choose their mates about this period has its rise in the the former they sympathize.-Sir J. Reynolds. poetical world of fiction. 8 These were the badges of pilgrims. The cockle shell was an emblem of their intention to go beyond sea. The habit being held sacred, was often assumed as a disguise in love adventmes. In The Old Wive's Tale, by Peele, 1595:-I will give thee a paimer's staff of ivory, and a scallop shell of beaten gold." 9 Garnished. 10 Quarto-ground. 11 See Macbeth. Act i. Sc. 6. 14 To up is to do up, as to đơn is to do on, to daß in do off, &c. Thus in Damon and Pythias, 1582:— The porters are drunk will they not dip the gate to-day? The phrase probably had its origin from doing up or lifting the latch. In the old cant language to up the gyger was to open the door. See Harman's Caveat for Cursetors, 1575. 15 Saint Charity is found in the Martyrology on the 12 This (says Mr. Douce) is a common tradition in first of August. Romæ passio sanctarum virginum Gloucestershire, and is thus related:-* Our Saviour Fidei, Spei, et Charitas, qua sub Hadriano principe went into a baker's shop where they were baking, and martyrie coronam adeptæ sunt. Spenser mentions ser asked for some bread to eat. The mistress of the shop in Eclog. v. 225. By gis and by cock are only corrip. immediately put a piece of dough in the oven to baketions, or rather substitutions, for different forms of for him; but was reprimanded by her daughter, who, insisting that the piece of dough was too large, reduced it to a very small size. The dough, however, immediately began to swell, and presently became of a most enormous size. Whereupon the baker's daughter cried out, Heugh, heugh, heugh, which owl-like noise proba imprecation by the sacred name, is in the quarto 1603 the King says: Ah pretty wretch! this is a change indeed: |