Enter a Lord 37. Lord. My lord, his majesty commended him to you by young Osric, who brings back to him, that you attend him in the hall: He sends to know, if your pleasure hold to play with Laertes, or that you will take longer time. Ham. I am constant to my purposes, they follow the king's pleasure: if his fitness speaks, mine is ready; now, or whensoever, provided I be so able as now. Lord. The king, and queen, and all are coming down. Ham. In happy time. Lord. The queen desires you, to use some gentle entertainment to Laertes, before you fall to play. Ham. She well instructs me. [Exit Lord. Hor. You will lose this wager, my lord. Ham. I do not think so; since he went into France, I have been in continual practice; I shall win at the odds. But thou would'st not think, how ill all's here about my heart: but it is no matter. Hor. Nay, good my lord, Ham. It is but foolery; but it is such a kind of gain-giving 38, as would, perhaps, trouble a woman. that may be seen under those words in Baret's Alvearie. So Shakspeare himself in Troilus and Cressida : • Distinction with a broad and powerful fan, The meaning is, 'These men have got the cant of the day, a superficial readiness of slight and cursory conversation, a kind of frothy collection of fashionable prattle, which yet carries them through with the most light and inconsequential judgments; but if brought to the trial by the slightest breath of rational conversation, the bubbles burst; or, in other words, display their emptiness.' 37 All that passes between Hamlet and this Lord is omitted in the folio. 38 i. e. misgiving, a giving against, or an internal feeling and prognostic of evil. Hor. If your mind dislike any thing, obey it: I will forestal their repair hither, and say, you are not fit. Ham. Not a whit, we defy augury; there is a special providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be now, 'tis not to come; if it be not to come, it will be now; if it be not now, yet it will come: the readiness is all: Since no man, of aught he leaves, -—knows;—what is't to leave betimes 39. Let be. Enter King, Queen, LAERTES, Lords, OSRIC, and Attendants, with Foils, &c. King. Come, Hamlet, come, and take this hand from me. [The King puts the hand of LAERTES into that of HAMLET. Ham. Give me your pardon, sir: I have done you wrong; But pardon it, as you are a gentleman. This presence 40 knows, and you must needs have heard, How I am punish'd with a sore distraction. 39 [Since no man, of aught he leaves,-knows;-What is it to leave betimes?'] This is the reading of the folio; the quarto reads, 'Since no man has ought of what he leaves. What is't to leave betimes.' Has is evidently here a blunder for knows. Johnson thus interprets the passage:-'Since no man knows ought of the state which he leaves, since he cannot judge what other years may produce, why should we be afraid of leaving life betimes?' Warburton's explanation is very ingenious, but perhaps strains the poet's meaning farther than he intended. 'It is true that by death we lose all the goods of life; yet seeing this loss is no otherwise an evil than as we are sensible of it; and since death removes all sense of it, what matters it how soon we lose them.' This argument against the fear of death has been dilated and placed in a very striking light by the late Mr. Green.See Diary of a Lover of Literature, Ipswich, 1810, 4to. p. 230.Shakspeare himself has elsewhere said, 'the sense of death is most in apprehension.' 40 i, e. the king and queen. What I have done, That might your nature, honour, and exception, And, when he's not himself, does wrong Laertes, 41 Let my disclaiming from a purpos'd evil And hurt Laer. my brother. I am satisfied in nature, To keep my name ungor'd 42: But till that time, And will not wrong it. Ham. I embrace it freely; And will this brother's wager frankly play. Give us the foils; come on. Laer. Come, one for me. Ham. I'll be your foil, Laertes; in mine ignorance Your skill shall, like a star i̇' the darkest night, Stick fiery off indeed. 41 This line is not in the quarto. 42 i.e. unwounded. This is a piece of satire on fantastical ⚫ honour. Though nature is satisfied, yet he will ask advice of older men of the sword, whether artificial honour ought to be contented with Hamlet's apology. Laer. You mock me, sir. Ham. No, by this hand. King. Give them the foils, young Osric.-Cousin Hamlet, You know the wager? Ham. Very well, my lord; Your grace hath laid the odds 43 o'the weaker side. King. I do not fear it: I have seen you both:But since he's better'd, we have therefore odds. Laer. This is too heavy, let me see another. Ham. This likes me well: These foils have all a length? [They prepare to play. Osr. Ay, my good lord. King. Set me the stoups of wine upon that table:: If Hamlet give the first or second hit, Or quit in answer of the third exchange, 43 The king had wagered six Barbary horses to a few rapiers, poniards, &c.; that is, about twenty to one. These are the odds here meant. The odds the King means in the next speech were twelve to nine in favour of Hamlet, by Laertes giving him three. 44 Stoup is a common word in Scotland at this day, and denotes a pewter vessel resembling our wine measures; but of no determinate quantity; for there are gallon-stoups, pint-stoups, mutchkin-stoups, &c. The vessel in which water is fetched or kept is also called a water-stoup. A stoup of wine is therefore equivalent to a pitcher of wine. 45 An union is a precious pearl, remarkable for its size. And hereupon it is that our dainties and delicates here at Rome, &c. call them unions, as a man would say singular, and by themselves alone.' To swallow a pearl in a draught seems to have been common to royal and mercantile prodigality. Thus in the second part of 'If You Know Not Me You Know Nobody : : 'Here sixteen thousand pound at one clap goes Instead of sugar. Gresham drinks this pearl According to Rondeletus pearls were supposed to have an exhilarating quality. ‹ Uniones quæ a conchis, &c. valde cordiale Richer than that which four successive kings The trumpet to the cannoneer without, The cannons to the heavens, the heaven to earth, Now the king drinks to Hamlet.-Come, begin;And you, the judges, bear a wary eye. Ham. Come on, sir. Laer. Come, my lord. Ham. Laer. Ham. [They play. One. No. Judgment. Well,-again. Osr. A hit, a very palpable hit. Laer. King. Stay, give me drink: Hamlet, this pearl is thine; Here's to thy health.-Give him the cup. [Trumpets sound; and Cannons shot off within. Ham. I'll play this bout first, set it by awhile. Come. Another hit; What say you? [They play. Laer. A touch, a touch, I do confess. King. Our son shall win. Queen. He's fat, and scant of breath.Here, Hamlet, take my napkin, rub thy brows: The queen carouses 46 to thy fortune, Hamlet. Ham. Good madam, King. Gertrude, do not drink. Queen. I will, my lord;—I pray you, pardon me. [Aside. Ham. I dare not drink yet, madam; by and by. Queen. Come, let me wipe thy face. sunt.' Under pretence of throwing a pearl into the cup, the King may be supposed to drop some poisonous drug into the wine. Hamlet subsequently asks him tauntingly, 'Is the union here?' 46 i. e. the queen drinks to thy good success. |