This bodes some strange eruption to our State.11 Mar. Good now, sit down, and tell me, he that knows, Why such impress of shipwrights, whose sore task 13 Hor. At least, the whisper goes so. That can I; Our last King, 14 Did forfeit with his life all those his lands Had he been vanquisher; as, by the same cov'nant, 17 His fell to Hamlet. Now, sir, young Fortinbras, 11 Horatio means that, in a general interpretation of the matter, this foreshadows some great evil or disaster to the State; though he cannot conceive in what particular shape the evil is to come. 12 The Poet sometimes uses an adjective in the singular with the sense of the plural substantive; as here subject for subjects. See page 431, note 1. Toils is here a transitive verb. Mart, in the next line, is trade. 18 Impress here means pressing or forcing of men into the service. —. -Divide, next line, is distinguish. 14 Heraldry refers to the forms and rules of procedure observed in private duels; "the code of honour," as it is called. 15 This is the old legal phrase, still in use, for held possession of, or was the rightful owner of. On and of were used indifferently in such cases. 16 Moiety competent is equivalent portion. The proper meaning of moiety is half; so that the sense here is, half of the entire value put in pledge on both sides. Gaged is pledged. Observe that, in the text as here printed, (and it is so in the old copies) the ending ed, in verbs and participles, always makes a distinct syllable by itself, save when it is preceded by i, in such words as applied. When it should coalesce with the preceding syllable, it is uniformly printed with the apostrophe as in assur'd. 17 The folio has cov'nant; the quartos, co-mart, which may mean the same thing, but no other such use of the word is known. Carriage of the articles' design appears to mean performance or carrying-out of the design of the articles. Of unimproved mettle hot and full,18 Hath in the skirts of Norway, here and there, For food and diet, to some enterprise That hath a stomach in't: 19 which is no other Hor. A mote it is to trouble the mind's eye. The graves stood tenantless, and the sheeted dead As, stars with trains of fire and dews of blood, 25 18 Of unimpeached or unquestioned courage. To improve anciently signified to impeach, to impugn. Numerous instances of improve in this sense may be found in the writings of Shakespeare's time. Shark'd is snapped up or taken up hastily. "Scroccare is properly to do any thing at another man's cost, to shark or shift for any thing. Scroccolone, a cunning shifter or sharker for any thing in time of need, namely for victuals." 19 Stomach was often used in the sense of courage, or appetite for danger or for fighting. So, in Julius Cæsar, v. 1; "If you dare fight to-day, come to the field; if not, when you have stomachs." — The quartos have landless instead of lawless. 20 Romage, now spelt rummage, is used for ransacking, or making a thorough search. 21 Sort is fit, suit, or agree: often so used. 22 Palmy is victorious; the Palm being the emblem of victory. 23 This speech down to "Re-enter the Ghost," is wanting in the folio, and the quartos have some evident corruption here, which no editorial ingenuity seems likely to overcome. Probably the best way is to indicate the loss of a line by marking an hiatus in the text. 24 The "moist star" is the Moon; probably so called either from the dews that attend her shining, or from her influence over the waters of the sea.- - Doomsday is the old word for day of judgment. 25 Omen is here put for portentous event. The use of the word is classical. Have Hoven and Earth together demonstrated But, soft! behold! lo, where it comes again! Re-enter the Ghost. 26 I'll cross it, though it blast me.' - Stay, illusion! Speak to me: If there be any good thing to be done, If thou art privy to thy country's fate, Or, if thou hast uphoarded in thy life For which, they say, you spirits oft walk in death, [Cock crows Speak of it:- stay, and speak! - Stop it, Marcellus. Hor. Do, if it will not stand. Ber. Hor. Mar. "Tis gone! 'Tis here! 'Tis here! [Exit Ghost. We do it wrong, being so majestical, To offer it the show of violence; For it is, as the air, invulnerable, And our vain blows malicious mockery. Ber. It was about to speak when the cock crew. 26 It was believed that a person crossing the path of a spectre became subject to its malignant influence. Lodge's Illustrations of English History, speaking of Ferdinand, Earl of Derby, who died by witchcraft, as was supposed, in 1594, has the following: "On Friday there appeared a tall man, who twice crossed him swiftly; and when the earl came to the place where he saw this man, he fell sick." 27 Which happy or fortunate foreknowledge may avoid: a participle and adverb used with the sense of a substantive and adjective. - The structure of this solemn appeal is almost identical with that of a very different strain in As You Like It, ii. 4. 28 So the quartos; the folio has day instead of morn. 29 Extravagant is extra-vagans, wandering about, going beyond bounds Erring is erraticus, straying or roving up and down. This present object made probation. Mar. It faded on the crowing of the cock.80 Hor. So have I heard, and do in part believe it. Mar. Let's do't, I pray; and I this morning know [Exeunt. SCENE II. The Same. A room of State in the Castle. Enter the KING, the QUEEN, HAMLET, POLONIUS, LAERTES, VOLTIMAND, CORNELIUS, Lords, and Attendants. King. Though yet of Hamlet our dear brother's death The memory be green, and that it us befitted To bear our hearts in grief, and our whole kingdom To be contracted in one brow of woe; Yet so far hath discretion fought with nature, That we with wisest sorrow think on him, 80 This is a very ancient superstition. There is a Hymn of Prudentius, and another of St. Ambrose, in which it is mentioned; and there are some lines in the latter verv much resembling Horatio's speech. 81 Take was used for blast, infect, or smite with disease. So, in King Lear, ii. 4: "Strike her young bones, you taking airs, with lameness." Gracious, in Shakespeare, sometimes means full of grace or of the Divine favour. 82 These last three speeches are admirably conceived. The speakers are in a highly kindled state: when the Ghost vanishes, their terror presently subsides into an inspiration of the finest quality, and their intense excitement, as it passes off, blazes up in a subdued and pious rapture of poetry. 1 Jointress is the same as heiress. The Poet herein follows the history, which represents the former King to have come to the throne by marriage; so that whatever of hereditary claim Hamlet has to the crown is in right of his mother. Have we, as 'twere, with a defeated joy,- To our most valiant brother. So much for him. To business with the King, more than the scope Farewell; and let your haste commend your duty. Cor. Vol. In that and all things will we show our duty. King. We doubt it nothing: heartily farewell. [Exeunt VOLTIMAND and CORNELIUS. 2 The same thought occurs in The Winter's Tale, v. 2: "She had one eye declin'd for the loss of her husband, another elevated that the oracle was fulfill'd." There is an old proverbial phrase, “To laugh with one eye, and cry with the other." 8 Note the strained, elaborate, and antithetic style of the King's speech thus far. As he is there shamming and playing the hypocrite, he naturally tries how finely he can word it. In what follows, he speaks like a man, his mind moving with simplicity and earnestness as soon as he comes to plain matters of business. use. 4 Gait here signifies course, progress. Gait for road, way, path, is still in 5 The scope of these articles when dilated or explained in full. Such elliptical expressions are common with the Poet, from his having more thought than space. The rules of modern grammar would require allows instead of allow; but in old writers, when the noun and the verb have a genitive intervening, it is very common for the verb to take the number of the genitive. |