Oak Street UNCLASSIFIED 0 <3 ae ' Pai vivian oy ee F 7 THE TEXT CAREFULLY RESTORED ACCORDING TO i _ THE FIRST EDITIONS; WITH INTRODUCTIONS, i; NOTES ORIGINAI. AND SELECTED, AND _A LIFE OF THE POET; - am BY THE Rev, iH. N: HUDSON, A.M. - ia s IN ELEVEN VOLUMES. * VOL BOSTON: ae Onos bY AND ase? 117 WaAsHINGTON STREET. | : 1864. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1856, by JAMES MUNROE AND COMPANY, In the Clerk’s Office of the District Court for the District of Massachusetts, STEREOTYPED AT THE BOSTON STEREOTYPE FOUNDRY. Se Re de LO EEE ey ekg hd gee pon 1 y Xe to te > re ‘7 | , RAY eo A INTRODUCTION TO THE TRAGEDY OF ROMEO AND JULIET. THE story, which furnished the ground-work of THE TRAGEDY oF RomEo AND JULIET, was exceedingly popular in Shake- speare’s time ; it had been made so to his hand, and of course it became more so in his hand. Mr. Douce has shown, that in some of its main incidents it bears a strong resemblance to an old Greek romance by Xenophon of Ephesus, entitled «The Love-adven- tures of Abrocomas and Anthia.” The original author, however, of the story as received in the Poet’s time was Luigi da Porto, of Vincenza, who died in 1529. His novel, called La Giulietta, was first published in 1535, six years after his death. In an epis- tle prefixed to the work, the author says that the story was told by “an archer of mine, whose name was Peregrino, a man about fifty years old, well-practised in the military art, a pleasant companion, and, like almost all his countrymen of Verona, a great talker.” Luigi’s work was reprinted in 1539, and again in 1553. From bim the matter was borrowed and improved by Bandello, who pub- lished it in 1554, making it the ninth novel in the second part of his collection. Bandello represents the incidents to have occurred when Bartholomew Scaliger was lord of Verona. And it may be worth noting, that the Veronese, who believe the tale to be his- torically true, fix its date in 1303, at which time the family of Seala or Scaliger held the rule of the city. The story is next met with in the Histoires Tragiques of Belle- forest. It makes the third piece in that collection ; and, as the first six piece’ were rendered into French by Boisteau, it follows that this tale was translated by*him, and not by Belleforest. The ‘Histoires Tragiques were professedly taken from Bandello, but some of them vary considerably from the Italian ; as in this very piece, according to Bandello, Juliet awakes from her trance in time to hear Romeo speak and see him die, and then, instead of stabbing herself with his dagger, dies apparently of a broken 1* 6 ROMEO AND JULIET. heart ; whereas Boisteau has it the same in this respect as we find it in the play. The earliest English version of the story, that has come down to us, is a poem entitled « The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet,” written by Arthur Brooke, and published in 1562. This purports to be from the Italian of Bandello, but the French of | Boisteau was evidently made use of by Brooke, as his version agrees with the French in making the heroine’s trance continue til] after the death of her lover. In some respects, however, the poem is entitled to the rank of an original work ; the author not tying himself strictly to any known authority, but giving something of freedom to his own invention. We say known authority, because in his prose introduction Brooke informs us that the tale had al- ready been put to work on the English stage. His words are as follows: “'Though I saw the same argument lately set forth on the stage with more commendation than T can look for, yet the same matter, penned as it is, may serve to like good effect, if the readers do bring with them like good minds to consider it ; which hath the more encouraged me to publish it, such as it is.” The only ancient reprint of Brooke’s poem known to us was made in 1587; though it was entered a second time at the Sta- tioners’ in 1582. Malone set forth an edition of it in 1780; and in our own time Mr. Collier has given a very careful and accurate reprint of it in his Shakespeare’s Library. In sentiment, imagery, and versification, the poem has very considerable merit. It is written in rhyme, the lines consisting, alternately, of twelve and fourteen syllables. On the whole, it may rank among the best specimens we have of the popular English literature of that period ; being not so remarkable for reproducing the faults of the time, as for rising above them. Of Brooke himself very little is known. In a poetical address “to the Reader,” prefixed to the Tragical History, he speaks of this as “my youthful work,” and informs us that he had written other works “in divers kinds of style.”” We learn, also, from the hody of the poem, that he was unmarried ; and in 1563 there came out «An Agreement of sundry Places of Scripture,” by Arthur 3rooke, with some verses prefixed by ‘Thomas Brooke, informing us that the author had perished by shipwreck. George Turber= ville, also, in his Epitaphs and Epigrams, 1567, has one “On the Death of Master Arthur Brooke, drowned in passing to Newha- ven 3”? and mentions the story of Romeus and Juliet as proving that he “for, metre did excel.” In 1567, five years after the date of Brooke’s poem, a prose version of the same tale was published by William Paynter, in his Palace of Pleasure, a collection of stories made from divers sources, ancient and modern. Paynter calls it “ The goodly History of the true and constant Jove between Rhomeo and Julietta.” It is merely a literal translation from the French of Boisteau, and by ‘ ¥ INTRODUCTION. * no means skilfully done, at that; though even here the interest of the tale is such as to triumph over the bungling rudeness of the translator. This version, also, has been lately reprinted by Mr. Collier in the work mentioned above. These two are the only English forms, of an earlier date than the tragedy, in which the story ‘has reached us. But the contem- porury references to it are such and so many as to show that it must have stocd very bigh in popular favour. JV'or instance, a brief argument of the tale is given by Thomas Delapeend in his Pleasant Fable of Hermaphroditus and Salmacis, 1565; and Bar- nabe Rich, in his Dialogue between Mercury and a Soldier, 1574, says that the story was so well known as to he represented on tapestry. Allusions to it are also found in The Gorgeous Gallery of Gallant Inventions, 1578 ; in A Poor Knight's Palace of Pri- vate Pleasure, 1579; and in Austin Saker’s Narbonus, 1530. Af- ter this time, such notices become still more frequent and partic- ular ; and the Stationers’ books show an entry of “ A new Ballad of Romeo and Juliet,” by Edward White, in 1596 ; of which, how- ever, nothing has been discovered in modern times. This popularity was doubtless owing in a large measure to the use of the story in dramatic furm. We have already found that Brooke had seen it on the stage before 1562. That so great and general a favourite should have been suffered to leave the boards after having once tried its strength there, is nowise probable : so that we may presume it to have been kept at home ou the stage in one shape or another, till Shakespeare took it in hand, and so far eclipsed all who had touched it before, that their labours were left to perish. Whether Shakespeare availed himself of any preceding drama on the subject, we are of course without the means of knowing. Nor, in fact, can we trace a connection between the tragedy and any other work except Brooke’s poem. That he made consider- able use of this, is abundantly certain, as may be seen from divers verbal resemblances set forth in our notes. That he was aequaint- ed with Paynter’s version, is indeed more than probable ; but we ean discover no sign of his having resorted to it for the matter of his scenes. as the play has nothing in common with this, but what this also has in common with the poem. On the other hand, be- sides the verbal resemblances set forth iv our notes, the play agrees with Brooke in divers particulars where Brooke differs from Payn- ter. The strongest instance, perhaps, of this is in the part of the Nurse, which is considerably extended in the poem: especially, she there endeavours, as in the play, to persuade Juliet into the marriage with Paris; of which there is no trace in the prose ver- sion. Moreover, the claracter of the Nurse has in the poem a dash of original humour, approaching somewhat, though not mach, towards the Poet’s represeutation of her. As regards the inci- dents, the only differences worth noting between the poem and the. 8 . ROMEO AND JULIET. play are in the death of Mercutio, and in the meeting of Romeo and Paris, and the death of the latter, at the tomb of Juliet. The play was first printed in 1597, with a title-page reading as follows : “ An excellent-conceited Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet: As it hath been often, with great applause, played publicly, by the Right Honourable the Lord of Hunsdon his Servants. London: Printed by John Danter. 1597.” Here we have one point worth special noting. Until the accession of James, the company to which Shakespeare belonged were, as we have repeatedly seen, called «the Lord Chamberlain’s Servants.” Henry Lord Huns- don, Lord Chamberlain, died on the 22d of July, 1596. George, the successor to his title, did not immediately succeed to the office : this was conferred on Lord Cobham, who held it till his death, in March, 1597; and the new Lord Hunsdon did not become Lord Chamberlain till the 17th of April. It was only during this inter- ‘val that the company in question were known as the Lord Huns- don’s Servants. Malone hence concludes that the play was first performed between July, 1596, and April, 1597; but this 1s by no means certain; it merely proves that the play was printed during that period: for, however the company may have been designated at the first acting of the play, they would naturally have been spoken of in the title-page as the Lord Hunsdon’s Servants, if they were so known at the time of ‘the printing. Another question, that may as well be disposed of here, is, whether the first issue of Romeo and Juliet was authentic and complete, as the play then stood ; which question is best answered by Mr. Collier. “This edition,” says he, “is in two different types, and was probably executed in haste by two different printers. It has been generally treated as an authorised impression from an authentic manuseript. Such, afier the most careful examination, is not our opinion. We think that the manuscript used by the printer or printers was made up, partly from portions of the play as it was acted, but unduly obtained, and partly from notes taken at the theatre during representation. Our principal ground for this notion is, that there is such great inequality in different scenes and speeches, and in some places precisely that degree and kind of imperfectness, which would belong to manuscript prepared from defective short-hand notes. We do not of course go the length of contending that Shakespeare did not alter and improve the play, subsequent to its earliest production on the stage 5; but merely that the quarto of 1597 does not contain the tragedy as it was originally represented.”’ The next issue of the play was in a quarto pamphlet of 46 — leaves, the title-page reading thus : “The most excellent and Jam- entable Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, newly corrected, augment- ed, aud amended: As it hath been sundry times publicly aeted by the Right Honourable the Lord Chamberlain his Servants. J.on- don: Printed by Thomas Creede for Cuthbert Burby, and are to INTRODUCTION. 9 be sold at his shop near the Exchange. 1599.” There was a third quarto issue in 1609, which was merely. a reprint of the fore- going, save that in the title- -page we have, “acted by the King’s Majesty’s Servants at the Globe,” and, “ Printed for John Smeth- wick, and are to be sold at his shop in St. Dunstan’s Churchyard, in Fleet-street, under the Dial.’” There was also a fourth edition in quarto, undated, but probably issued between 1609 and 1623, The folio of 1623 gives it as the fourth in the division of Trage- dies, and without any marking of the acts and scenes, save that at the beginning we have, “Actus Primus. Sccna Prima.” The folio, though omitting several passages found in the quarto of 1609, is shown, by the repetition of certain typographical errors, to have been printed from that copy. In our text, as in that of most modern editions, the quarto of 1599 is taken as the basis, and the other old copies drawn upon for the correction of errors, and sometimes for a choice of readings ; in both which respects the quarto of 1597 is of great value, Our variations from the second quarto are duly specified in the notes. As may well be supposed, the second issue evinces a considers ably stronger and riper authorship than the first ; for of course the Poet would hardly proceed to rewrite the Bias until he thought that he could make important changes for the better. How aed the play was “augmented” may be judged from the*fact that in Steevens’ reprint of the editions of 1597 and 1609, both of which are in the same volume and the same type, the first occupies only 73 pages, the other 99. The augmentations are much more im- portant in quality than in quantity ; and both these and the cor- rections show a degree of judgment and tact hardly consistent with the old notion of the Poet having been a careless writer ; though it is indeed much to be regretted that he did not carry his older and severer hand into some parts of the play, which he left in their original state. In our notes will be found a few passages — especially Juliet’s speech on taking the sleeping-draught, in Act iv. sc. 3, and Romeo’s speech just before he swallows the poison, in Act v, se. 3,—as they stand in the quarto of 1597; from which the reader may form some judgment of hadifierenact between the original and amended copies in respect of quality. ‘The same may be said of Juliet’s soliloquies in Act ii. se. 5, and in Act iil. se. 23 which, particularly the latter, are comparatively nothing, as given in the first edition. The date more commonly assigned for the writing of this trage- dy is 1596. This is allowing only a space of about two years between the writing and rewriting of the play ; and we fully agree with Knight and Verplanck, that the second edition shows such a measure of progress in judgment, in the cast of thought, and in dramatic power, as would naturally infer a much longer interval. And the argument derived from this circumstance is strengthened 10 ROMEO AND JULIET. by another piece of internal evidence. The Nurse, in reckoning up the age of Juliet, has the following: “On Lammas-eve at night shall she be fourteen 5 That shall she, marry: I remember it well. ’Tis since the earthquake now eleven years 5 And she was wean’d, —I never shall forget it, — Of all the days of the year, upon that day. Shake, quoth the dove-house: ’twas no need, I trow, To bid me trudge. And since that time it is eleven years 5 For then she could stand alone; nay, by the rood, She could have run and waddled all about ; For even the day before she broke her brow.” This passage was first pointed out by Tyrwhitt as probably res ferring to a very memorable event thus spoken of by the Englisk chronicler of that period: «On the 6th of April, 1580, being Wednes- day in Easter week, about 6 o’clock toward evening, a sudden earthquake happening in London, and almost generally throughout all England, caused such amazedness among the people as was wonderful for the time.’””? There are indeed discrepancies in what the Nurse says, that more or Jess dash the certainty of the allusion. First, she says that Juliet was not weaned, then, proud of “bear- ing a brain,” gets entangled in her reminiscent garrulity, and at Jast ties up in the remembrance that she could talk and « waddle all about ;”’ but yet she sticks to the “eleven years.” It is not, so much, therefore, to what was in ber thoughts, as to what was in theirs for whom the speech was written, that we must look for the bearing of the allusion. Now, at the time of the event in question, the great clock at Westminster, and divers other clocks and bells struck of them- selves with the shaking of the earth: the lawyers supping in the Temple ran from their tables and out of the halls, with the knives in their hands: the people assembled at the theatres rushed forth into the fields, lest the galleries should fall: the roof of Christ church near Newgate-market was so shaken, that a stone dropped out of it, killing two persons, it being sermon time: chimneys were toppled down, and houses shattered. All which circumstances were well adapted to keep the event fresh in popular remembrance ; and it was with this remembrance, most likely, that the Poet main- ly concerned himself. We give the rest of the argument in the words of Knight: “Shakespeare knew the double world in which an excited audience lives; the half belief in the world of poetry amongst which they are placed during a theatrical representation, and the half consciousness of the external world of their ordinary life. The ready disposition of every audience to make a tran- sition from the scene before them to the scene in which they ordi« INTRODUCTION. 11 narily move, is perfectly well known to all who are acquainted with the machinery of the drama. In the case before us, even if Shakespeare had not this principle in view, the association of the English earthquake must have been strongly in his mind, when he made the Nurse date from an earthquake. Without reference to the circumstance of Juliet’s age, he would naturally, dating from the earthquake, have made the date refer to the period of his writ- ing the passage, instead of the period of Juliet’s being weaned. But, according to the Nurse’s chronology, Juliet had not arrived at that epoch in the lives of children, till she was three years old. The very contradiction shows that Shakespeare had another ob- ject in view than that of making the Nurse’s chronology tally with the age of her nursling.” This of course would throw the original writing of the play back to the year 1591, or thereabouts, and so give ample time for the growth of mind indicated by the additions and improvements of the second issue. However, we do not regard the argument from the Nurse’s speech as conclusive; for, even granting the Poet to have had his thoughts on the particular earthquake in question, it does not follow that he would have made the Nurse perfectly ac- eurate in her reckoning of time. It may be worth observing, in this connection, that there appears some little remembrance, one way or the other, between the play and Daniel’s Complaint of Rosamond, published in 1592. The passage from Daniel is given in Act v. sc. 3, note 7; so that it need not be quoted here. It will be seen, from the preceding note, that, except in one slight particular, the resemblances both of thought and expression are not found in the oldest copy of the play. Nor even in tbat par- ticular is the resemblance so close as to infer any more acquaint- ance than might well enough have been formed by the ear ; and Daniel was a man of theatrical tastes. So that this does not necessarily make against 1591 as Shakespeare’s true date ; though whether Daniel first improved upon him, and then he upon Daniel, or whether the original writing of the play was not till after the printing of the poem, cannot with certainty be affirmed. At all events, we are quite satisfied, from many, though for the most part undefinable, tricks of style, that the tragedy in its origi- nal state was produced somewhere between 1591 and 1595, ‘The east of thought and imagery, but especially the large infusion, not to say preponderance, of the lyrical element, naturally associates it to the same stage of art and authorship which gave us A Mid- summer-Night’s Dream. The resemblance of the two plays in ‘these respects is too strong and clear, we think, to escape any studious eye, well-practised in discerning the Poet’s different styles. Andta diligent comparison of Romeo and Juliet with, for example, the poetical scenes in the First Part of King Henry IV., which was published in 1598, will suffice for the conclusion that the former must have been written several years before the latter, 2 j2 ROMEO AND JULIET. We have seen that nearly all the incidents of the tragedy were borrowed, the Poet’s invention herein being confined to the duel of Mercutio and Tybalt, and the meeting of Romeo and Paris at the tomb. In the older English versions of the story, there is a general fight between the partizans of the two houses ; when, af- ter many have been killed and wounded on both sides, Romeo comes in,tries in vain to.appease with gentle words the fury of *Tybalt, and at last kills bim in self-defence. What a vast gain of dramatic life and spirit is made by Shakespeare’s change in this point, is too obvious to need insisting on. Much of a certain amiable grace, also, is reflected upon Paris from the circumstances that occasion his death; and the character of the heroine is pro- portionably raised by the beauty and pathos thus shed around her second lover; there being, in the older Versions, a cold and selfish policy in his love-making, which dishonours both himself and the object of it. The judicious bent of the Poet’s invention is the more apparent in these particulars, taat in the others he did but reproduce what he found in Brooke’s poem. Moreover, the inci- dents, throughout, are disposed and worked out with all imagi- nable skill for dramatic effect ; so that what was before a compar- atively lymphatic and lazy narrative is made redundant of ani- mation and interest. In respect of character, too, the play has little of formal origi- nality beyond Mercutio and the Nurse; though all are indeed set forth with a depth and vigour and clearness of delineation to -which the older versions of the tale can make no pretension. It scarce need be said, that the two characters named are, in the Poet’s workmanship, as different as can well be conceived from any thing that was done to his hand. But what is most worthy of remark, here, is, that he just inverts the relation between the incidents and the characterisation, using the former merely to sup- port the latter, instead of being supported by it. Before, the per- sons served but as a sort of frame-work for the story 3 here, the story is made to serve but as canvas for the portraiture of char- acter. So that, notwithstanding the large borrowings of incident and character, the play, as a whole, has eminently the stainp of an original work; and, which is more, an acquaintance with the sources drawn upon nowise diminishes our impression of its origi- nality. ; Before proceeding further, we must make some abatements from the indiscriminate praise which this drama has of late re- ceived. For criticism, in its natural and just reaction from the mechanical methods formerly in vogue, has run to thé opposite extreme of unreserved special-pleading, and of bunting out of nature after reasons for unqualified approval ; by which course it stultifies itself without really helping the subject. Now, we can- not deny, and care not to disguise, that in several places this play is sadly blemished with ingenious and elaborate affectations. We INTRODUCTION. 13 refer not now to the conceits which Romeo indulges in so freely before his meeting with Juliet ; for, in his then state of mind, such self centred and fantastical eddyings of thought may be not al- together without reason, as proceeding not from genuine passion, but rather from the want of it: he may be excused for playing with these little smoke-wreaths of fancy, forasmuch as the true flame is not yet kindled in his heart. But, surely, this excuse will not serve for those which are vented so profusely by the heroine even in her most impassioned moments; as, especially, in her dialogue with the Nurse in the second scene of Act iii. Yet Knight boldly justifies these, calling them “the results of strong emotion, seeking to relieve itself by a violent effort of the intel- lect, that the will may recover its balance.” Which is either a piece of forced and far-fetched attorneyship, or else it is too deep for our comprehension. No, no} these things are plain disfigure- ments and blemishes, and criticism will best serve its proper end by calling them so. And if there be any sufficient apology for them, donbiless it is this, — That they grew from the general cus- tom and conventional pressure of the time, and were written be-— fore the Poet .had by practice and experience worked himself above these into the original strength and rectitude of his genius. And we submit, that any unsophisticated criticism, however broad and liberal, will naturally regard them as the effects of imitation, not of mental character, because they are plainly out of keeping with the general style of the piece, and strike aguinst the grain of the sentiment which that style inspires. Bating certain considerable drawbacks on this score, — and the fault disappears after Act ili..—the play gives the impression of having been all conceived and struck out in the full heat aud glow of youthful passion; as if the Poet’s genius were for the time thoroughly possessed with the spirit and temper of the subject, so that every thing becomes touched with its efficacy ;— while al the same time the passion, though carried to the utmost intensity, is every where so pervaded with the light and grace of imagination, that it kindles but to ennoble and exalt. For richness of poetical colouring,— poured out with lavish hand indeed, but yet so man- aged as not to interfere either with the development of character or the proper dramatic effect, but rather to heighten them both, — it may challenge a comparison with any of the.Poet’s dramas. ‘It is this intense passion, acting through the imagination, that giyes to the play its remarkable unity of effect. On this point, Coleridge has spoken with such rare felicity that his words ought -always to go with the subject. “That law of unity,” says he, “ which has its foundations, not in the factitious necessity of cus- tom, but in nature itself, the unity of feeling, is everywhere and at all times observed by Shakespeare\im his plays. Read Romeo and Juliet : — all is youth and spring ; — youth with its follies, its Virtues, its precipitancies ;— spring with its odours, its flowers, VOL. X. 2 14 ROMEO AND JULIET. and its transiency;—it is one and the same feeling that com mences.goes through, and ends the play. The old men, the Capulets and the Montagucs, ate not common old men; they have an eager- ness, a heartiness, a vehemence, the effect of spring : with Romeo, his change of passion, his sudden marriage, and his rash death, are all the effects of youth ;— whilst in Juliet love has all that is tender and melancholy in the nightingale, all that is voluptuous in the rose, with whatever is sweet in the freshness of spring ; but it ends with a long deep sigh, like the last breeze of the Italian evening. This unity of feeling and character pervades every drama of Shakespeare.” In accordance with the principles here suggested, we find every thing on the run; all the passions of the drama are in the same fiery-footed and unmanageable excess : the impatient vehemence of old Capulet, the furious valour of Tybalt, the brilliant volubil- ity of Mercutio, the petulant loquacity of the Nurse, being all but so many symptoms of the reigning irritability and impetuosity. Amid this general stress of impassioned life, old animosities are rekindled, old feuds have broken out anew; while the efforts of. private friendship and public authority to quench the strife only go to prove it unquenchable, the same violent passions that have caused the tumults being brought to the suppression of them. The prevalence of extreme hate serves of course to generate the opposite extreme ; out of the most passionate and fatal enmities there naturally springs a love as passionate and fatal. With dis- positions too gentle and noble to share in the animositie: o rife about them, the hearts of the lovers are but rendered thereby the more alive and open to impressions of a contrary nature; the fierce rancour of their houses only swelling in them the emotions that prevent their sympathising with it. In this way, both the persons and the readers of the drama are prepared for the forthcoming issues: the leading passion, intense as it is, being so associated with others of equal intensity, that we receive it without any sense of disproportion to nature ; whereas, if cut out of the harmony in which it exists, it would seem over- wrought and incredible. ‘Thus the Poet secures continuity of im- pression, and carries us smocthly along through all the aching joys and giddy transports of the lovers, by his manner of dispos- ing the objects and persons about them. And he does this wit so much ease as not to betray his exertions ; his means are hidden in the skill with which he uses them ; and we forget the height to which he soars, because he has the strength of wing to, bear us along with him, or rather gives us wings to rise with him of our- selves. Not the least considerable feature of this drama is, how, by divers little showings, we are let into the general condition of life where the scene is laid, and how this again is made to throw light — on the main action. We see before us a most artificial and une INTRODUCTION. 15 healthy state of society, where all the safety-valves of nature are closed up by an oppressive conventionality, and where the better passions, being clogged down to their source, have turned their strength into the worse ; men’s antipathies being the more violent, because no free play is given to their sympathies. Principle and . impulse are often spoken of as opposed to each other; and, as men are, such is indeed too often the case: but in ingenuous na- tures and in well-ordered societies the two grow forth together, each serving to unfold and deepen the other, so that principle gets ‘warmed into impulse, and impulse fixed into principle. When such is the case, the state of man is at peace and unity ; other- wise, he is a house divided against itself, where principle and im- pulse strive each for the mastery, and sway by turns ; headloag and sensual in his passions, cunning and selfish in his reason. Now, this fatal divorce of reason and passion is strongly ap- parent in the condition of life here reflected. The gencrous int- pulses of nature are overborne and stifled by a discipline of self- ishness. Coldly calculative where they ought to be impassioned, people are of course blindly passionate where they ought to be deliberate and coo]. Even marriage is plainly stripped of its sacredness, made an affair of expediency, not of affection, inso- much that a previous anion of hearts is discouraged, lest it should interfere with a prudent union of hands. So that we have a state of society, where the hearts of the young are, if possible, kept sealed against all deep and strong impressions, and the develop- ment of the nobler impulses foreclosed by the icy considerations of interest and policy. Amidst this heart-withering refinement. the hero and the heroine stand out the unschooled and unspoiled creatures of native sense and sensibility. Art bas tried its utmost upon them, but nature has proved too strong for it: in the silent creativeness of youth their feelings have insensibly matured themselves ; and they come before us glowing with the warmth of natural sentiment, with sus- ceptibilities deep as life, and waiting only for the kindling touch of passion. So that they exemplify the simplicity of nature thriving amidst the most artificial manners: nay, they are the more natural for the excess of art around them; as if nature, driven from the hearts of others, had taken refuge in theirs. Principle, however, is as strong in them as passion; they have the purity as well.as the impulsiveness of uature; and because they are free from immodest desires, they therefore put forth no angelic pretensions. Idolizing each other, they would, however, make none but permitted offerings. Not being led by the con- ventionalities of life, they therefore are not to be misled by them; as their hearts are joined in mutual love, so their hands must be joined in mutual honour ; for, while loving’ each other with a love as boundless as the sea, they at the same time love in each other whatsoever is precious and heavenly in their unsoiled imaginations. / 16 ROMEO AND JULIET. Thus their fault Jies not in the nature of their passion, but in its excess, — that they love each other in a degree that is due only to their Maker ; but this is a natural reactica from that idolatry of interest and of self which pervades the rest of society, turning marriage into merchandise, and sacrificing the holiest instincts of nature to avarice, ambition, and pride. The lovers, it is true, are not much given to reflection, because this is a thing that cannot come to them legitimately but by ex- perience, which they are yet without. Life lies glittering with golden hopes before them, owing all its enchantment, perhaps, to distance: if their bliss seems perfect, it is only because their bounty is infinite; but such bounty and such bliss “ may not with mortal man abide.” Bereft of the new life they have found in each other, nothing remains for them but the bitter dregs from which the wine has all evaporated; and they dash to earth the stale and vapid draught, when it has lost all tbe spirit that caused it to foam and sparkle before them. Nevertheless, it is not their passion, but the enmity of their houses, that is punished in their death ; and the awful lesson read in their fate is against that bar- barism of civilization, which makes love excessive by trying to exclude it from its rightful place in life, and which subjects men to the just revenges of nature, because it puts them upon thwart- ing her noblest purposes. Were we deep in the ways of Prov- idence, we might doubtless anticipate from the first, that these two beings, the pride and hope of their respective friends, would, even because themselves most innocent, fall a sacrifice to the guilt of their families ; and that in and through their death would be pun- ished and healéd those fatal strifes and animosities which have made it at once so natural and so dangerous for them to love. It has been aptly remarked, that the hero and heroine of this play, though in love, are not love-sick. Romeo, however, is something love-sick before his meeting with Juliet. His seeming love for Rosaline is but a matter of fancy, with which the heart has little or nothing to do. That the Poet so meant it, is plain from what is said about it in the Chorus at the end of Acti. Ac- cordingly, it is airy, affected, and fantastical, causing him to think much of his feelings, to count over his sighs, and play with lan- guage, as a something rather generated from within than inspired from without: his thoughts are not so much on Rosaline or any thing he has found in her, as on a figment of his own mind, which he has baptised into her name and invested with her form. This is just the sort of love with which people often imagine them- selves about to die, but which they always manage to survive, and that, without any farther harm than the making them somewhat ridiculous. Romeo’s love is a thing infinitely different. A mere idolater, Juliet converts him into a true worshipper ; and the fire of his new passion burns up the old idol of his fancy. Love works a sort of regeneration upon him: his dreamy, sentimenta INTRODUCTION. The La - fancy giving place to a passion that interests him thoroughly in an external object, all his fine energies are forthwith tuned into ' harmony and eloquence, so that he becomes a true man, with every thing clear and healthy and earnest about him. As the Friar suggests, it was probably from an instinctive sense of his self-delusion, and that he made love by rote and not by heart, that Rosaline rejected his suit. The dream, though, has the effect of preparing him for the reality, while the contrast between them heightens our appreciation of the latter. Hazlitt pronounces Romeo to be Hamlet in love; than which he could not well have made a greater mistake. In all that most truly constitutes character, the two, it seems to us, have nothing incommon. ‘To go no further, Hamlet is all procrastination, Ro- ‘meo all precipitancy: the one reflects away the time of action, and loses the opportunity in getting ready for it; the other, pliant to impulse, and seizing the opportunity at once, or making it, acts first, and then reflects on what he has done, not on what he has to do. With Hamlet, it is a necessity of nature to think ; with Ro- meo, to love: the former, studious of consequences, gets entan- gled with a multitude of conflicting passions and purposes ; the Jatter, absorbed in one passion and one purpose, drives right ahead regardless of consequences. It is this necessity of loving that, until the proper object appears, creates in Romeo an object for itself: hence tte love-bewilderment in which he first comes before us. Which explains and justifies the suddenness and vehemence of his passion, while the difference between this and his fancy- sickness amply vindicates him from the reproach of inconstancy. Being of passion all compact, Romeo of course does not gen- _ eralize, nor give much heed to abstract truth : intelligent indeed of present objects and occasions, he does not, however, study to shape his feelings or conduct by any rules: he therefore sees no use of philosophy in his case, unless it can make a Juliet 3 nor does he care to hear others speak of what they do not feel. He has no life but passion, and passion lives altogether in and by its object: therefore it is that he dwells with such wild exaggeration on the sentence of banishment. Thus his love, by reason of its excess, exalling a subordinate into a sovereign good, defeats its own security aud peace. Yet there is a sort of instinctive rectitude in his passion, which makes us rather pity than blame its excess ; and we feel that death comes upon him through it, not for*it. We can scarce conceive any thing more full of manly sweetness and gentleness than his character. Love is the only thing wherein he seems to lack self- control, and this is the very thing wherein self-control is least a Virtue. He will risk his life for a friend, but he will not do a mean thing to save it; has no pride and revenge to which he would sac- rifice others, but has bigh and brave affections to which he will not shrink from sacrificing himself. Thus even in his resentments he Q* 2 Is ROMEO AND JULIET. is in noble contrast with those about him. His heart is so pré- occupied with generous thought as to afford no room for those furious transports which prove so fatal in others: where their swords jump in wild fury from their scabbards, his sleeps quietly by his side ; but then, as he is very hard to provoke, so is he very dangerous when provoked. Mr. Hallam —a man who weighs his words well before pro- nouncing them — gives as his opinion, that “it is impossible to place Juliet among the great female characters of Shakespeare’s creation.”’? Other critics of high esteem, especially Mrs. Jameson, take a different view ; but this may result, in part, from the rep- resentation being so cbaraedi not to say overcharged, with poetic’ warmth and brillianey, as to hinder a cool and steady judgment of the character. For the passion in which Juliet lives is most potently infectious ; one can scarce venture near enough to see what and whence it is, without falling under its influence; while in her case it is so fraught with purity and tenderness, and self- forgetting ardour and constancy, and has so much, withal, that challenges a respectful pity, that the moral sense does not easily find where to fix its notes of reproof. And if in her intoxication of soul and sense she loses whatsoever of reason her youth and inexperience can have gathered, the effect is breathed forth with an energy and elevation of spirit, and in a transporting affluence of thought and imagery, which none but the sterfiest readers can well resist, and which, after all, there may not be much virtue in resisting. We have to confess, however, that Juliet appears something better as a heroine than as a woman, the reverse of which com- monly holds in the Poet’s delineations. But she is a real heroine, in the best sense of the term; her womanhood being developed through her heroism, not eclipsed or obscured by it. Wherein she differs from the general run of tragie heroines, who act as if they knew not how to be beroic, without unsexing themselves, and becoming something mannish or viraginous: the trouble with them being, that they set out with a special purpose to be heroines, and study to approve themselves such; whereas Juliet is surprised into heroism, and acts the heroine without knowing it, simply be- cause it is in her to do so, and, when the occasion comes, she can- not do otherwise. 3 It is not till the marriage with Paris is forced upon her, that the proper heroism of her nature displays itself. All her feelings as a woman, a lover, and a wife, are then thoroughly engaged ; and because her heart is all truth, therefore she cannot but choose rather to die “an unstain’d wife to her sweet love,’ than to live on any other terms. To avert what is to her literally an infinite evil, she appeals imploringly to her father, her mother, and the Nurse, in succession ; nor is it till she is cast entirely on her own strength that she finds herself sufficient for herself. There is INTRODUCTION. 19 something truly fearful in the resolution and energy of her dis- course with the Friar; yet we feel that she is still the same soft, tender, gentle being whose breath was lately so rich and sweet with words of love. When told the desperate nature of the rem- edy, she rises to a yet higher pitch, her very terror of the deed inspiring her with fresh energy of purpose. And when she comes to the performance, she cannot indeed arrest the workings of her imagination, neither can those workings shake her resolution ; on the contrary, in their reciprocal action each adds vigour and in- tensity to the other, the terrific images which throng upon ber ex- cited fancy developing within her a strength and courage to face them. In all which there is certainly much of the heroine, but then the heroism is the free, spontaneous, unreflecting outcome of her native womanhood. Tt is well worth noting, with what truth to nature the different qualities of the female character are in this representation distrib- uted. Juliet has both the weakness and the strength of woman, and she has them in the right, that is, the natural places. For, if she appears as frail as the frailest of her sex in the process of becoming a lover, her frailty ends with that process: weak in yielding to the first touch of passion, all her strength of character comes out in courage and constancy afterwards. Thus it is in the cause of the wife that the greatness proper to her as a woman transpires. Moore, in his Life of Byron, speaks of this as a pe- culiarity of the Italian women ; but surely it is nowise peculiar to them, save that they may have it in a larger measure than others. For, if we mistake not, the general rule of women everywhere is, that the easiest to fall in love are the hardest to get out of it, and at the same time the most religiously tenacious of their honour ‘in it, It is very considerable that Juliet, though subject to the same necessity of loving as Romeo, is nevertheless quite exempt from the delusions of fancy, and therefore never gets bewildered with a love of her own making. The elements of passion in her do not, it is against her nature that they should, act in such a way as to send her in quest of an object: indeed they are a secret even to herself, she suspects not their existence, till the proper object appears, because it is the inspiration of that object that kindles them into effect. — Her modesty, too,-is much like Romeo’s hon- our ; that is, it is a living attribute of her character, and not merely a form impressed upon her manners from without. She therefore does not try to conceal or disguise from herself the impulses of her nature, because she justly regards them as sanctified by the re- _ligion of her heart. On this point, especially with reference to her famous soliloquy at the beginning of the second scene in Act iii., we leave her in the hands of Mrs. Jameson 3; who, with a rare gift to see what is right, joins an equal felicity in expressing what she sees, “Let it be remembered,” says she, “ that in this speech ah eg 20 ROMEO AND JULIET. Juliet is not supposed to be addressing an audience, nor even @ confidante ; and I confess I have been shocked at the utter want of taste and refinement in those who, with coarse derision, or in a spirit of prudery yet more gross and perverse, have dared to comment on this beautiful ‘Hymn to the Night,’ breathed out by Juliet in the silence and solitade of her chamber. She is think- ing aloud; it is the young heart ‘triamphing to itself in words.’ In the midst of all the vehemence with which she calls upon the night to bring Romeo to her arms, there is something so almost infantine in her perfect simplicity, so playful and fantastic in the imagery and language, that the charm of sentiment and innocence is thrown over the whole; and her impatience, to use her own ex- pression, is truly that of ‘a child before a festival, that hath new robes and may not wear them.’ ” The Nurse is in some respects another edition of Mrs. Quickly, though in a different binding. The character has a tone of reality that almost startles us on a first acquaintance. She gives the im- pression of a literal transcript from actual life ; which is doubtless owing in part to the predominance of memory in her mind, caus* ing her to think and speak of things just as they occurred ; as in her account of Juliet’s age, where she cannot go on without bring- ing in all the accidents and impertinences which stand associated with the subject. And she has a way of repeating the same thing in the same words, so that it strikes us as a fact cleaving to her thoughts, and exercising a sort of fascination over them: it seems scarce possible that any but a real person should be so enslaved to actual events. This general passiveness to what is going on about her natural- ly makes her whole character “smell of the shop.” And she has. a certain vulgarized air of rank and refinement, as if, priding her- self on the confidence of her superiors, she had caught and assim- ilated their manners to her own vulgar nature. In this mixture of refinement and vulgarity, both elements are made the worse for being together ; for, like all those who ape their betters, she ex- aggerates whatever she copies ; or, borrowing the proprieties of those above her, she turns them into their opposite, because she has no sense of propriety. Without a particle of truth, or honour, or delicacy ; one to whom life has no sacredness, virtue no beauty, love no holiness ; a woman, in short, without womanhood ; she abounds, however, in serviceable qualities ; has just that low ser- vile prudence which at once fits her to be an instrument, and makes her proud to be used as such. Yet she acts not so much from a positive disregard of right as from a Jethargy of conscience; or as if her soul had run itself into a sort of moral dry-rot through a Jeak at the mouth, Accordingly, in her basest acts she never dreams but that she is a pattern of virtue. And because she is thus unconscious and, as it were, innocent of her own vices, therefore Juliet thinks hes INTRODUCTION. ee; free from them, and suspects not but that beneath her petulant, vulgar loquacity she has a vein of womanly honour and sensibility. For she has, in her way, a real affection for Juliet; whatsoever would give pleasure to herself, that she will do any thing to com- pass for her young mistress 5 and, until Jove and marriage become _ the question, there has never been any thing to disclose the essen- tial oppugnancy of their natures. When, however, in her noble agony, Juliet appeals to the Nurse for counsel, and is met with the advice to marry Paris, she sees at once what her soul is made of; that her former praises of Romeo were but the offspring of a sen- sual pruriency easing itself with talk ; that in her long life she has gained only that sort of experience which works the debasement of its possessor; and that she knows less than nothing of love and marriage, because she has worn their prerogatives without any feeling of their sacredness. Mercutio is one of the instances which strikingly show the ex- cess of Shakespeare’s powers above his performances. Though giving us more than any other man, he still seems to have given ebut a small part of himself; for we see not but he could have gone ' on indefinitely revelling in the same “exquisite ebullience and over- flow” of life and wit which he has started in Mercutio. As seek- ing rather to instruct us with character than to entertain us with talk, he lets off just enough of the latter to disclose the former, and then stops, leaving the impression of an inexhaustible abun- dance withheld to give scope for something better. From the na- ture of the subject, he had to leave unsatisfied the desire which in Mercutio is excited. Delightful as Mercutio is, the Poet valued and makes us value his room more than his company. It has been said that he was obliged to kill Mercutio, lest Mercutio should kill him. And certainly it is not easy to see. how he could have kept Mercutio and Tybalt in the play without spoiling it, nor how he could have kept them out of it without killing them: for, so long as they live, they seem bound to have a chief hand in what- soever is going on about them ; and they cannot well have a hand in any thing without turning it, the one into a comedy, the other jnto a butchery. The Poet, however, so manages them and their fate as to aid rather than interrupt the proper interest of the piece 5 _ the impression of their death, strong as it is, being overcome by the sympathy awakened in us with the living. Mercutio is a perfect embodiment of animal spirits acting in and through the brain. So long as the life is in him his: blood mast dance, and so long as the blood dances the brain and tongue must ~ play. His veins seem filled with sparkling champagne. Always revelling in the conscious fulness of his resources, he pours out and pours out, heedless whether he speaks sense or nonsense 5 nay, his very stumblings seem designed as triumphs of agility; he studies, apparently, for failures, as giving occasion for further trials, and thus serving at once to provoke his skill and to set it pay 2 ROMEO AND JULIET. off. Full of the most companionable qualities, he often talks loosely indeed, but not profanely ; and even in his loosest talk there is a subtilty and refinement both of nature and of breeding, that mark him for the prince of good fellows. Nothing could more finely evince the essential frolicsomeness of his composition, than that, with his ruling passion strong in death, he should play the wag in the face of his grim enemy, as if to live and to jest were the same thing with him. Of Mercutio’s wit it were vain to attempt an analysis. From a fancy as quick and aerial as the Aurora Borealis, the most unique and graceful combinations come forth with almost inconceivable facility and felicity. If wit consists in a peculiar briskness, air- iness, and apprehensiveness of spirit, catching, as by instinct, the most remote and delicate affinities, and putting things together most unexpectedly and at the same time most appropriately, it can hardly be denied that Mercutio is the prince of wits, as well as of good fellows. We have always felt a special comfort in the part of Friar Lau- rence. How finely his tranquillity contrasts with the surroundings agitation! And how natural it seems that he should draw lessons of tranquillity from that very agitation! Calm, thoughtful, benev- olent, withdrawing from the world, that he may benefit society the more for being out of it, his presence and counsel in the play are as oil poured, yet poured in vain, on troubled waters. Sympa- thising quietly yet deeply with the very feelings in others which in the stillness of thought he has subdued in himself, the storms that waste society only kindle in him the sentiments that raise him above them; while his voice, issuing from the heart of humanity, speaks peace, but cannot give it, to the passions that are raging around him, Schlegel has remarked with his usual discernment on the skill with which the Poet manages to alleviate the miracle of the sleep- ing-potion ; and how, by throwing an air of mysterious wisdom round the Friar, he renders us the more apt to believe strange things concerning him}; representing him as so ecnjunctive and private with nature, that incredulity touching what he does is in a great measure forestalled by impressions of reverence for his char- acter. “How,” says he, “does the Poet dispose us to believe that Father Laurence possesses such a secret? He exhibits him at first in a garden, collecting herbs, and descanting on their won- derful virtues. ‘The discourse of the pious old man is full of deep meaning: he sees everywhere in nature emblems of the moral world ; the same wisdom with which he looks through her has also made him master of the human heart. In this way, what would else have an ungrateful appearance, becomes the source of a great beauty.” Much fault has been found with the winding-up of this play, that it does not stop with the death of Juliet. Looking merely to the TE roe um rede Fae re he! Pay as ai 4 Phe INTRODUCTION. 23 __uses of the stage, it might indeed be better so; but Shakespeare wrote for humanity as well as, yea, rather than, for the stage. And as dhe evil fate of the lovers springs from the bitter feud of their houses and from a general stifling of nature under a hard crust of artificial manners, he wisely represents it as reacting upon and removing the cause. We are thus given to see and feel that they have not suffered in vain; and the heart has something to mitigate and humanise its over-pressure of grief. The absorbing, devouring selfishness of society generates the fiercest rancour be- tween its }#iding families, and that rancour issues in the death of the very members through whom they had thought most to advance their rival pretensions; earth’s best and noblest creatures are snatched away, because, by reason of their virtue, they can best afford to die, and because, for the same reason, their death will be most bitterly deplored. The good old Friar indeed thought that by the marriage of the lovers the rancour of their houses would be healed. But a Wiser than he knew that the deepest touch of sorrow was required to awe and melt their proud, selfish hearts ; that nothing short of the most afflicting bereavement, together with the feeling that themselves had both caused it and deserved it, could teach them rightly to “prize the breath they share with hu- man kind,” and remand them to the impassioned attachments of nature. Accordingly, the hatred that seemed immortal is buried in the tomb of the faithful lovers; families are reconciled, society renovated, by the storm that has passed upon them ; the tyranny of selfish custom is rebuked and broken up by the insurrection of nature which itself has provoked ; tears flow, hearts are softened, hands joined, truth, tenderness, and piety inspired, by the noble example of devotion and self-sacrifice which stands before them. Such is the sad but wholesome lesson to be gathered from the heart-rending story of “Juliet and her Romeo.” PERSONS REPRESENTED. Escauuvs, Prince of Verona. Paris, a young Nobleman, his Kinsman. MonTaGuE, CAPULET, An old Man, Uncle to Capulet. RomEo, Son to Montague. MeERcurTI1O0, Kinsman to Escalus, } Friends to Rontes Brenvo tio, Nephew to Montague, TyBaLT, Nephew to Lady Capulet. Friar LAuRENCE, a Franciscan. Friar Joun, of the same Order. BALTHAZAR, Servant to Romeo. Sampson, GREGORY, PETER, another Servant to Capulet. ABRAM, Servant to Montague. An Apothecary. Three Musicians. Chorus. A Boy, Page to Paris. An Officer. Heads of two hostile Houses. Servants to Capulet. . Lavy MonraevuE, Wife to Montague. Lapy Capu et, Wife to Capulet. JuLIET, Daughter to Capulet. Nurse to Juliet. Citizens of Verona; male and female Relations’ to both Houses ; Maskers, Guards, Watchmen, and Attendauts. SCENE, during the greater Part of the Play, in Verona ; once, in the fifth Act, at Mantua. THE TRAGEDY OF ROMEO AND JULIET. PROLOGUE: Chorus. 'Two households, both alike in dignity, In fair Verona where we lay our scene, _ From ancient grudge break to new mutiny, Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean. From forth the fatal loins of these two foes A pair of star-cross’d lovers take their life ; Whose misadventur’d piteous overthrows .— Do, with their death, bury their parents’ strife. The fearful passage of their death-mark’d love, And the continuance of their parents’ rage, Which, but their children’s end, nought could re- move, Is now the two hours’ traffic of our stage ; The which if you with patient ears attend, What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend. 1 This Prologue is in all the quartos, though with considerable _ variations in that of 1597. It was omitted in the folio, for reasons unknown. The old copies represent it as spoken by Chorus ; ____ which means, no doubt, that it fell to the same performer as the Chorus at the end of Act i. H. VOL. X.. 3 - At 26 ROMEO AND JULIET. ACT I. AGHA SCENE I. A public Place. Enter Sampson and Grecory, armed with Swords and Bucklers. Sam. GREGORY, o’my word, we’ll not carry coals.! WN Gre. No, for then we should be colliers. Sam. I mean, an we be in choler, we’ll draw. Gre. Ay, while you live, draw your neck out o’the collar. Sam. I strike quickly, being mov’d. Gre. But thou art not quickly moy’d to strike. Sam. A dog of the house of Montague moves me. Gre. To move is to stir, and to be valiant is to stand; therefore, if thou art mov’d, thou runn’st away. Sam. A dog of that house shall move me to stand. I will take the wall of any man or maid of ‘Montague’s. Gre. That shows thee a weak slave; for the weakest goes to the wall. Sam. True; and therefore women, being the weaker vessels, are ever thrust to the wall :—there- ' To carry coals is to put up with insults. Anciently, in great families, the scullious, turnspits, and carriers of wood and coals were esteemed the very lowest of menials. Such attendants upon the royal household, in progresses, were called the bluck-guard ; and hence the origin of that term. Thus in May Day, a Comedy by Chapman, 1608: « You must swear by no man’s beard but your own; for that may-breed a quarrel: above all things, you must carry no coals.” And in Ben Jonson’s Every Man in his. Humour: “ Here comes one that will carry coals ; ergo will hold my dog.” See King Henry V., Act iii. se. 2, note 7. SC. I. ROMEO AND JULIET. o7 fore I will push Montague’s men from the wall, and thrust his maids to the wall. Gre. The quarrel is between our masters, and us their men. . Sam. *Tis all one; I will show myself a tyrant: when I have fought with the men, I will be cruel with the maids ;* I will cut off their heads. Gre. The heads of the maids? San. Ay, the heads of the maids, or their maid- enheads ; take it in what sense thou wilt. Gre. They must take it in sense, that feel it. Sam. Me they shall feel, while [am able to stand 5 and ’tis known I am a pretty piece of flesh. Gre. ’Tis well thou art not fish; if thou hadst, thou hadst been poor John.* Draw thy tool; here comes two of the house of the Montagues. * Enter ApraM and BALTHAZAR. Sam. My naked weapon is out: quarrel, I will back thee. Gre. How! “ thy back, and run? Sam. Fear me™not. , Gre. No, marry: I fear thee! _ Sam. Let us take the law of our sides; let them begin. Gre. I will frown as I pass by, and let them take it as they list. ‘ 2 Such is the reading of the undated quarto; all the other old copies have ciril instead of cruel. i: 3 Poor John is hake, dried and salted, 4 It should be observed that the partisans of the Montague fam- ily wore a token in their hats in order to distinguish them from their enemies the Capulets. Hence throughout this play they are known at a distance. Gascoigne adverts to this in a Masque writ- fen for Viscount Montacute, in 1575: “ And for a further proofe, he shewed in hys hat Thys token, which the Montacutes did beare always, for that They covet to be knowne from Capels.” ees ROMEO AND JULIET. ACT I. Sam. Nay, as they dare. I will bite my thumb at them; which is a. disgrace to them, if they bear it.° Abr. Do you bite your thumb at us, sir? Sam. I do bite my thumb, sir. Abr. Do you bite your thumb at us, sir? Sam. Is the law of our side, if I say, ay? Gre. No. Sam. No, sir, I do not bite my thumb at you, sir; but I bite my thumb, sir. Gre. Do you quarrel, sir? Abr. Quarrel, sir? no, sir. Sam. If you do, sir, I am for you: I serve as good a man as you. | Abr. No better. Sam. Well, sir. Enter BENVOLIO, at a distance. Gre. Say, better: here gomes one of my mas- ter’s kinsmen.°® Sam. Yes, better, sir. Abr. You lie. -* Sam. Draw, if you be men. — Gregory, remem- ber thy swashing blow.’ [ They fight. 5 This was a common mode of insult, in order to begin a quar- rel. Dekker, in his Dead Term, 1608, describing the various groups that daily frequented St. Paul’s, says, “ What swearing is there, what shouldering, what justling, what jeering, what byting of thumbs, to beget quarrels!” And Lodge, in his Wits Miserie, 1596 : « Behold, next I see Contempt marching forth, giving me the fico with his thumbe in his mouthe.” The mode in which this contemptuous action was performed is thus described by Cotgrave: « Faire la nique: to mocke by nodding or Jifting up of the chinne ; or, more properly, to threaten or defie, by putting the thumbe naile into the mouth, and with a jerke (from the upper teeth) make it to knacke.” 8 Gregory is a servant of the Capulets: he must therefore mean Tybalt, who enters immediately after Benvolio. 7 All the old copies except the undated quarto have washing Ry : ae ks, oe Re a ee ee re 2 NA Oe any | PT Neg eS re kL, oe ei ae ‘ ’ , et ceesc.b, ROMEO AND JULIET. 29 Ben. Part, fools! put up your swords; you know not what you do. [Beats down their swords. Enter TyBaurT. Tyb. What! art thou drawn among these heart- less hinds ? _ “Turn thee, Benvolio; look upon thy death. Ben. I do but keep the peace : put up thy sword, Or manage it to part these men with me. Tyb. What! drawn, and talk of peace? I hate the word, _ As I hate hell, all Montagues, and thee. Have at thee, coward. [ They fight. Enter several Partisans of both Houses, who join the Fray; then enter Citizens, with Clubs. 1 Cit. Clubs, bills, and partizans!* strike! beat them down! Down with the Capulets! down with the Monta- gues ! y instead of swashing. The latter is undoubtedly the right word. Ben Jonson, in his Staple of News, has the phrase swashing blow. -Baret, in his Alvearie, 1580, says that “to swash is to make a noise with swords against targets.” See As You Like It, Act i. sc. 3, note 8. H. 8 The old custom of crying out, Clubs, clubs! in case of any tumult occurring in the streets of London, has been made familiar to most readers by Scott in The Fortunes of Nigel. See As You Like It, Act v. sc. 2, note 3.— Bills and partizans were weapons used by watchmen and foresters. See As You Like It, Act i. se. 2, note 5.— This transferring of London customs to an Italian city is thus justified by Knight: «'The use by Shakespeare of home phrases, in the mouths of foreign characters, was a part of his art. It is the same thing as rendering Sancho’s Spanish prov- erbs into the corresponding English proverbs, instead of literally translating them. The cry of clubs by the citizens of Verona expressed an idea of popular movement, which could not have _ been conveyed half so emphatically in a foreign phrase.” =H. * .” "on 30 ROMEO AND JULIET. ACT I. Enter Capuuret, in his Gown ; and Lady CAPULET. Cap. What noise is this?— Give me my long sword, ho !® Lady C. A crutch, a crutch !— Why call you for a sword? Cap. My sword, I say !— Old Montague is come, And flourishes his blade in spite of me. Enter Montacue and Lady MONTAGUE. Mon. Thou villain Capulet!— Hold me not; let me go. Lady M. Thou shalt not stir one foot to seek a foe. Enter the Prince, with Attendants. Prin. Rebellious subjects, enemies to peace, Profaners of this neighbor-stained steel, — Will they not hear!— what ho! you men, you beasts, That quench the fire of your pernicious rage With purple fountains issuing from your veins, On pain of torture, from those bloody hands Throw your mistemper’d weapons to the ground, And hear the sentence of your moved prince.— Three civil brawls, bred of an airy word, By thee, old Capulet, and Montague, Have thrice disturb’d the quiet of our streets 5 And made Verona’s ancient citizens Cast by their grave beseeming ornaments, To wield old partizans, in hands as old, Canker’d with peace, to part your canker’d hate. 9 The long sword was used in active warfare ; a lighter, shorter. and less desperate weapon was worn for ornament. sc. L ROMEO AND JULIET. BY | If ever you disturb our streets again, Your lives shall pay the forfeit of the peace. For this time, all the rest depart away : You, Capulet, shall go along with me; And, Montague, come you this afternoon, To know our further pleasure in this case, “To old Free-town, our common judgment-place.” Once more, on pain of death, all men depart. [Exeunt all but Montacue, Lady Montacve, . and BENVOLIO. ‘Mon. Who set this ancient quarrel new abroach ? — Speak, nephew, were you by when it began. Ben. Here were the servants of your adversary, And yours, close fighting ere I did approach : I drew to part them ; in the instant came _ The fiery Tybalt, with his sword prepar’d ; Which, as he breath’d defiance to my ears, He swung about his head, and cut the winds, Who, nothing hurt withal, hiss’d him in scorn. While we were interchanging thrusts and blows, Came more and more, and fought on part and part, Till the prince came, who parted either part. 10 In Brooke’s poem Frree-town is the name of a castle belong- ing to Capulet.— Upon the foregoing part of this scene Coleridge has the following : “ With his accustomed judgment, Shakespeare has begun by placing before us a lively picture of all the impulses of the play ; and, as nature ever presents two sides, one for Her- aclitus, and one for Democritus, he bas, by way of prelude, shown the Jaugbable absurdity of the evil by the contagion of it reaching the servants, who have so little to do with it, but who are under the necessity of letting the superfluity of sensoreal power fly off through the escape-valve of wit-combats, and of quarrelling with weapons of sharper edge, all in bumble imitation of their masters. Yet there is a sort of unhired fidelity, an owrishness about all this, that makes it rest pleasant on one’s feelings. All the first scene, down to the conclusion of the Prince's speech, is a motley dance of all ranks and ages to one tune, as if the horn of Huon had been playing behind the scenes.” BH. Oe ROMEO AND JULIET. ACT I. Lady M. O! where is Romeo ?—saw you him to-day ? Right glad | am he was not at this fray. Ben. Madam, an hour before the worshipp’d sun Peer’d forth the golden window of the east, A troubled mind drave me to walk abroad ; Where, underneath the grove of sycamore That westward rooteth from the city’s side, So early walking did I see your son. ‘Towards him I made; but he was ’ware of me, And stole into the covert of the wood: I, measuring his affections by my own, — Which then most sought, where most might not be found, Being one too many by my weary self,’ — Pursued my humour, not pursuing his, And gladly shunn’d who gladly fled from me. Mon. Many a morning hath he there been seen, With tears augmenting the fresh morning’s dew, Adding to clouds more clouds with his deep sighs But all so soon as the all-cheering sun Should in the farthest east begin to draw The shady curtains from Aurora’s bed, Away from light steals home my heavy son, And private in his chamber pens himself; Shuts up his windows, locks fair daylight out, And makes himself an artificial night. Black and portentous must this humour prove, — Unless good counsel may the cause remove. Ben. My noble uncle, do you know the cause? 11 The meaning evidently is, that his disposition was, to be in solitude, as he could hardly endure even so much company as that of himself. Instead of this and the preceding line, the quaito of 1597 merely has one line, thus: “That most are busied when they’re most alone ;”” which reading has been strangely preferred by some modern editors. li. SC. I. ROMEO AND JULIET. 33 Mon. I neither know it, nor can learn of him. Ben. Have you importun’d him by any means? Mon. Both by myself, and many other friends: But he, his own affections’ counsellor, Is to himself —I will not say, how true— But to himself so secret and so close, So far from sounding and discovery, As is the bud bit with an envious worm, Ere he can spread his sweet leaves to the air, Or dedicate his beauty to the sun.'? Could we but learn from whence his sorrows grow, We would as willingly give cure, as know. Enter Romeo, at a distance. Ben. See, where he comes: So please you, step : aside 5 I'll know his grievance, or be much denied. Mon. 1 would, thou wert so happy by thy stay, To hear true shrift.— Come, madam, let’s away. [Exeunt Monracur and Lady. Ben. Good morrow, cousin. Rom. Is the day so young? Ben. But new struck nine. Rom, Ah me! sad hours seem long. Was that my father that went hence so fast ? Ben. It was. What sadness lengthens Romeo’s hours ? Rom. Not having that, which, having, makes them short. Ben. In love? 12 The old copies have same instead of sun, or sunne, as it was formerly written. The happy emendation was made by Theo- bald, and is sustained by a passage in Daiiel’s Sonnets, Lo¥4: “And whilst thou spread’st unto the rising sunne The fairest flower that ever saw the light.” H. 3 ft, y e ot ~ 304 ROMEO AND JULIET. ACT I. Rom. Out. Ben. Of love? Rom. Out of her favour, where I am in love. Ben. Alas, that love, so gentle in his view, Should be so tyrannous and rough in proof! Rom. Alas, that love, whose view is muffled still, Should, without eyes, see pathways to his will!” Where shall we dine? —O me! what fray was here? Yet tell me not, for I have heard it all. : Here’s much to do with hate, but more with love : —- Why then, O brawling love! O loving hate! O any thing, of nothing first create! O heavy lightness! serious vanity ! Misshapen chaos of well seeming forms! Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health! Still-waking sleep, that is not what it is!— . This love feel I, that feel no Jove in this. Dost thou not laugh ?™ Ben. No, coz, I rather weep. Rom. Good heart, at what? Ben. At thy good heart’s oppression. Rom. Why, such is love’s transgression. — Griefs of mine own lie heavy in my breast ; Which thou wilt propagate, to have it press’d 13 That is, should blindly and recklessly think he can surmount all obstacles to his will. ’ 14 This string of antithetical conceits seems absurd enough to us; but such was the most approved way of deseribing love in Shakespeare’s time, and for some ages before. Petrarch and Chaucer used it, and divers old English poets and ballad-makers abound init. Perhaps the best defence of the use here made of it is, that such wn affected way of speaking not unaptly shows the state of Romeo’s mind, that his love is rather self-generated than inspired by any object. At all events, as compared with his style of speech after meeting with Juliet, it serves to mark the differ ence between being love-sick and being in love. H. \ ar ts ROMEO AND JULIET. 35. With more of thine: this love that thou hast shown Doth add more grief to too much of mine own. Love is a smoke rais’d with the fume of sighs; Being purg’d,’’ a fire sparkling in lovers’ eyes ; Being vex’d, a sea nourish’d with lovers’ tears: What is it else? a madness most discreet, A choking gall, and a preserving sweet. Farewell, my coz. [ Going. Ben. Soft! I will go along: An if you leave me so, you do me wrong. Rom. Tut! I have lost myself; I am not here: This is not Romeo, he’s some other where. Ben. Tell me in sadness, who is that you love. Rom. What! shall I groan, and tell thee ? Ben. Groan! why, no; - But sadly tell me who. Rom. Bid a sick man in sadness make his will ; A word ill urg’d to one that is so ill! In sadness,’® cousin, I do love a woman. Ben. 1 aim’d so near, when I suppos’d you lov’d. Fiom. A right good marks-man ! — And she’s fair I love. Ben. A right fair mark, fair coz, is soonest hit. > 19 Such is the reading of the old copies. Divers modern editions, following Dr. Johnson, change purg’d to urg’d. The “change is a good one, if any change were needed. Of course, purg’d is purified. Mr. Collier’s celebrated second folio substi- tutes puff’d.— As Romeo here resumes his strain of conceits, it may be well to quote one or two precedents for it. Thus Wats son, in one of his canzonets : “ Love is a sowre delight, and sugred griefe, A living death, and ever-dying life.” And Turberville makes Reason harangue against love thus: “A fierie frost, a flame that frozen is with ise ; A heavie burden light to beare’; a vertue fraught with vice.” H. 16 In sadness is gravely, in seriqusness. { ees ee ° i * 36 ROMEO AND JULIET. ACT I. Rom. Well, in that hit, you miss: she'll not be hit With Cupid’s arrow: she hath Dian’s wit 3 And, in strong proof of chastity well arm’d, From love’s weak childish bow she lives encharm’d."7 She will not stay the siege of loving terms, Nor bide th’ encounter of assailing eyes, Nor ope her lap to saint-seducing gold: O! she is rich in beauty; only poor, That when she dies, with beauty dies her store.” Ben. 'Then she hath sworn that she will still live chaste ? Rom. She hath, and in that sparing makes huge waste 5 For beauty, starv’d with her severity, Cuts beauty off from all posterity. She is too fair, too wise; wisely too fair, To merit bliss by making me despair : She hath forsworn to love; and in that vow Do I live dead, that Jive to tell it now. Ben. Be rul’d by me; forget to think of her. Rom. O! teach me how I should forget to think. Ben. By giving liberty unto thine eyes: Examine other beauties. Rom. "Tis the way To call bers, exquisite, in question more.” These happy masks”? that kiss fair ladies’ brows, 17 The first quarto and the folio read uncharmed, which gives a sense just the opposiié of that required, Since the time of Rowe, the uniform reading has been unharmd. Encharm’d is taken from Mr, Collier’s second folio. For this use of charm see Cym- veline, Act v. se. 3, note 5. H. 18 She is poor only, because she leaves no part of her store behind her, as with her all beauty will die. 19 ‘That is, to call her exquisite beauty more into my mind, and make it more the subject of cgnversation. Question was often used in this sense. 20 This is probably an allusion to the masks worn by the female ee Se Pe or aie c yw i. rere. 5 Sc. Il. ROMEO AND JULIET. 37 Being black, put us in mind they hide the fair: He that is stricken blind cannot forget The pr ecious treasure of his eyesight lost. Show me a mistress that is passing fair, What doth her beauty serve, but as a note _ Where I may read who pass’d that passing fair ? Farewell: thou canst not teach me to forget. 4 Ben. Vl pay’that doctrine, or else die in debt. [ Exeunt. SCENE II. A Street. Enter Carutet, Parts, and a Servant. Cap. But Montague is bound as well as I, In penalty alike ; and ’tis not hard, I think, For men so old as we to keep the peace. Par. Of honourable reckoning are you both; And pity ’tis you liy’d at odds so long. But now, my lord, what say you to my suit ? Cap. But saying o’er what I have said before : ‘My child is yet a stranger in the world ; She hath not seen the change of fourteen years: spectators of the play; unless we suppose that these means no more than the. See Measure for Measure, Act iii. se. 4, note 11. 21 If we are right, from the internal evidence, in pronouncing this one of Shakespeare’s early dramas, it affords a strong instance of the fineness of his insight into the nature of the passions, that Romeo is introduced already love-bewildered. The necessity of loving ereates an object for itself in man and woman; and yet there is a difference in this respect between the sexes, though oaly to be known by a perception of it. It would have displeased us if Juliet had been represented as already in love, or as fancying herself so: but no one, I believe, ever experiences any shock at Romeo’s forgetting his Rosaline, who had been a mere name for the yearning of his youthful imagination, and rushing into bis pas- sion for Juliet. Rosaline was a mere creation of his fancy 5 and we should remark the boastful positiveness of Romeo in a love of his own making, which is never shown where love is really near the heart. — COLERIDGE. H. VOL. X. 4 38 ROMEO AND JULIET. ACT I. Let two more summers wither in their pride, Ere we may think her ripe to be a bride. Par. Younger than she are happy mothers made. Cap. And too soon marr’d are those so early married.’ Earth hath swallowed all my hopes but she, She is the hopeful lady of my earth:* But woo her, gentle Paris, get her heart, My will to her consent is but a part ; An she agree, within her scope of choice Lies my consent and fair according voice. This night I hold an old accustom’d feast, Whereto [ have invited many a guest, Such as I love, and you among the store 3 One more, most welcome, makes my number more. At my poor house, look.to behold this night Earth-treading stars, that make dark heaven light : Such comfort as do lusty young men feel? When well-apparell’d April on the heel Of limping winter treads, even such delight 1 So reads the quarto of 1597: all the other old copies have made instead of married. ‘There can be little doubt that married is right. Puttenham, in his Art of Poesy, quotes the expression as proverbial: “ The maid that soon married soon marred is.” H. 2 Fille de terre is the old French phrase for an heiress. Earth is put for /ands, or landed estute, in other old plays. 3 Johnson would read yeomen instead of young men. Others think young men to be here used for yeomen, as it sometimes is by old writers. The meaning in that case would be, such comfort as farmers have at the coming of spring. But there seems to be no cause for either supposition. What feelings the young are apt to have in the spring, can hardly need explaining, to those who re- member their youth. However, the Poet’s 98th Sonnet yields a good comment on the text: «From you have I been absent in the spring, When proud-pied April, dress’d in all his trim, Hath put a spirit of youth in every thing, That heavy Saturn laugh’d and leap’d with him.” 4. ‘SC. It ROMEO AND JULIET. 39 Among fresh female buds shall you this night Inherit at my house :* hear all, all see, And like her most, whose merit most shall be: Which, on more view of many, mine being one, May stand in number, though in reckoning none.° Come, go with me. —Go, sirrah, trudge about Through fair Verona; find those persons out, Whose names are written there, [Gives a Paper.] and to them say, My house and welcome on their pleasure stay. [Exeunt CapuLet and Paris. Serv. Find them out, whose names are written here?°® It is written, that the shoemaker should meddle with his yard, and the tailor with his last ; _the fisher with his pencil, and the painter with his nets: but I am sent to find those persons, whose names are here writ, and can never find what names the writing person hath here writ. I must to the learned :—In good time. Enter Benvo.io and Romeo. Ben. Tut, man! one fire burns out another’s burn- ing, 4 To inherit, in the language of Shakespeare, is to possess. 5 Which is here used for who, referring to her. The usage was common, as the Bible will show. — By a perverse adherence to the quarto of 1597, which reads, « Such amongst view of many,” this passage has been made unintelligible. The quarto of 1599 reads as in the text; evidently meaning, ‘“ Hear all, see all, and like her most who has the most merit; her, which, after regarding attentively the many, my daughter being one, may stand wnique in merit, though she may be reckoned nothing, or held in no esti- mation.” The allusion, as Malone has shown, is to the old pro- verbial expression, “ One is no number.” ‘Thus in Shakespeare’s 136th Sonnet : . « Among a number one is reckon’d none ; Then, in the number let me pass untold.” 6 The quarto of 1597 adds, “And yet I know not who are writ- ten here; I must to the learned to learn of them : that’s as much as to say, the tailor,” &c. \ 40 ROMEO AND JULIET. ACT I. One pain is lessen’d by another’s anguish ; Turn giddy, and be holp by backward turning 5 One desperate grief cures with another’s languish: Take thou some new infection to thy eye, And the rank poison of the old will die. Kom. Your plantain leaf is excellent for that.” Ben. For what, I pray thee 2 Rom. For your broken shin. Ben. Why, Romeo, art thou mad 2 Rom. Not mad, but bound more than a mad- man is: Shut up in prison, kept without my food, Whipp’d, and tormented, and — Good-den, good fellow. Serv. God gi’? good den. —I pray, sir, can you read ? ; Rom. Ay, mine own fortune in my misery. Serv. Perhaps you have learn’d it without book: but, I pray, can you read any thing you see? Rom. Ay, if I know the letters, and the language. Serv. Ye say honestly: Rest you merry ! fiom. Stay, fellow; I can read. [Reads.] Signior Martino, and his wife and daughters ; County Anselme, and his beauteous sisters; The lady widow of Vitruvio; Signior Placentio, and his lovely nieces; Mercutio, and his brother Valentine ; Mine uncle Capulet, his wife and daughters ; My fair niece Rosaline ; Livia; Signior Valentio, and his cousin Tybalt; Lucio, and the lively Helena. A fair assembly ! whither should they come ? 7 The plantain leaf is a blood-stancher, and was formerly ap. plied to green wounds. See Love’s Labour’s Lost, Act iii. se. L note 10. Soin Albumazar: “ Help, Armellina, help! I'm fallen i’the cellar: Bring a fresh plantuin-leaf, I’ve broke my shin.” SC. IT. ROMEO AND JULIET. Al Serv. Up. Rom. Whither ? to supper? Serv. 'To our house. Rom. Whose house ? Serv. My master’s. Rom. Indeed, I should have ask’d you that before. Serv. Now [Il tell you without asking: My mas- ter is the great rich Capulet ; and if you be not of the house of Montagues, I pray, come and crush a cup of wine.” Rest you merry. [ Exit. Ben. At this same ancient feast of Capulet’s Sups the fair Rosaline, whom thou so lov’st, With all the admired beauties of Verona: Go thither ; and, with unattainted eye, Compare her face with some that I shall show, And I will make thee think thy swan a crow. ‘Rom. When the devout religion of mine eye Maintains such falsehood, then turn tears to fires! And these, — who, often drown’d, could never die, — Transparent heretics, be burnt for lars ! One fairer than my Jove! the all-seeing sun Ne’er saw her match, since first the world begun. Ben. Tut! you saw her fair, none else being by, Herself pois’d with herself in either eye : But, in that crystal scales,’ Jet there be weigh’d Your lady’s love ° against some other maid That I will show you, shining at this feast, And she shall scant show well, that now shows best. 8 This expression often occurs in old plays. We have one still in ose of similar import: “To crack a bottle.” 8 So in all the old copies. Rowe changed that to those, and is followed in modern editions, except Knight’s. Scales is here used in the singular number ; that’s all. \\ ¢@ H. 10 Heath says, “ Your lady’s love is the love you bear to your lady, which, in our language, is commonly used for the lady her- self.” Perhaps we should read, ‘ Your ludy-love.” 4* 42 ROMEO AND JULIET. ACT Ik Roum. Tl go along, no such sight to be shown, But to rejoice in splendour of mine own. [Exeunt. SCENE III. A Room in Caputet’s House. Enter Lady Carver and the Nurse. Lady C. Nurse, where’s my daughter? call her forth to me. Nurse. Now, by my maidenhead at twelve year old, I bade her come. — What, lamb! what, lady-bird ! — God forbid !—where’s this girl ?— what, Juliet ! Enter Juuiet. Jul. How now! who. calls? Nurse. Your mother. Jul. Madam, f am here: What is your will ? Lady C.. This is the matter.— Nurse, give leave awhile ; We must talk in secret. — Nurse, come back again: I have remember’d me, thou shalt hear our counsel. Thou know’st my daughter’s of .a pretty age. Nurse. ’Faith, I can tell her age unto an hour. Lady C. She’s not fourteen. Nurse. I'll lay fourteen of my teeth, And yet, to my teen’ be it spoken, I have but four, 1 Teen is an old word, for sorrow, and is here used as a sort of play upon four and fourteen. —In the old copies the speeches of the Nurse in this scene are printed as prose. Capel! has the great merit of arranging them into verse. —« The character of the Nurse,” says Coleridge, “is the nearest of any thing in Shakespeare to a direct borrowing from mere observation ; aud the reason is, that as in infaney and chitdhood the individual in nature is a represent- ative of a class, — just as in describing one Jarch tree you gen- eralise a grove of them,—so it is nearly as much so in old age. The generalisation is done to the Poet’s hand. Here you have: SC. III. ROMEO AND JULIET. 43 She is not fourteen. How long is it now To Lammas-tide? Lady C. A fortnight, and odd days. Nurse. Even or odd, of all days in the year, Come Lammas-eve at night shall she be fourteen. Susan and she —God rest all Christian souls !— Were of an age. — Well, Susan is with God ; She was too good for me. But, as I said, On Lammas-eve at night shall she be fourteen ; That shall she, marry: I remember it well. "Tis since the earthquake now eleven years; And she was wean’d, —I never shall forget it, — Of all the days of the year, upon that day ; For I had then laid wormwood to my dug, Sitting in the sun under the dove-house wall: My lord and you were then at Mantua. — Nay, I do bear a brain: ?— but, as I said, When it did taste the wormwood on the nipple Of my dug, and felt it bitter, pretty fool, To see it tetchy, and fall out with the dug! Shake, quoth the dove-house: twas no need, I trow, To bid me trudge. And since that time it is eleven years ; For then she could stand alone; nay, by the rood, She could have run and waddled all about ; For, even the day before, she broke her brow: the garrulity of age strengthened by the feelings of a long-trusted servant, whose sympathy with the mother’s affections gives her privileges and rank in the household. And observe the mode of connection by accident of time and place, and the childlike fond- ness of repetition in a second childhood, and also that happy, bum- ble ducking under, yet constant resurgence against, the check of her superiors.” H. 2 The nurse means to boast of her retentive faculty. To bear a brain was to possess much mental capacity. Thus in Marston’s Datech Courtezan: “ My silly husband, alas! knows nothing of it; ’tis I that must beare a braine for all.” Bt og a 44 ROMEO AND JULIET. ACT. T: And then my husband— God be with his soul! "A was a merry man—took up the child: “Yea,” quoth he, «dost thou fall upon thy face ? Thou wilt fall backward, when thou hast more wit; Wilt thou not, Jule?” and, by my holy-dam, The pretty wretch left crying, and said, « Ay.” To see, now, how a jest shall come about ! I warrant, an I should live a thousand years, I never should forget it: «Wilt thou not, Jule?” quoth he ; And, pretty fool, it stinted,’ and said, « Ay.” Lady C. Enough of this: I pray thee, hold thy peace. Nurse. Yes, madam: Yet I cannot choose but laugh, To think it should leave-crying, and say, «Ay:” And yet, I warrant, it had upon its brow A bump as big as a young cockrel’s stone, A perilous knock ; and it cried bitterly. “Yea,” quoth my husband, « fall’st upon thy face ? Thou wilt fall backward, when thou com’st to age ; Wilt thou not, Jule?” it stinted, and said, g¢ Ay.” Jul. And stint thou too, I pray thee, nurse, say I. Nurse. Peace, I have done. God mark thee to his grace ! Thou wast the prettiest babe that e’er I nurs’d: An I might live to see thee married once, I have my wish. Ladu C. Marry, that marry is the very theme T came to talk of.— Tell me, daughter Juliet, How stands your disposition to be married ? 3 To stint is to stop. Baret translates “Lachrymas suppri- mere, to stinte weeping ;” and “to stinte talke,” by ‘sermones restinguere.”” So Ben Jonson in Cynthia’s Revels: “ Stint thy babbling tongue, fond Echo.” SC. III. ROMEO AND JULIET. 45 Jul. It is an honour that I dream not of. Nurse. An honour! were not I thine only nurse, T would say thou hadst suck’d wisdom from thy teat. Lady C. Well, think of marriage now; younger than you, Here in Verona, ladies of esteem, Are made already mothers: by my count, I was your mother much upon these years That you are now a maid. Thus, then, in brief: The valiant Paris seeks you for his love. Nurse. A man, young lady! lady, such a man, As all the world — Why, he’s a man of wax.’ Lady C. Verona’s summer hath not such a flower. Nurse. Nay, he’s a flower; in faith, a very flower. Lady C. What say you? can you love the gen- tleman ? This night you shall behold him at our feast: Read o’er the volume of young Paris’ face, And find delight writ there with beauty’s pen; Examine every married lineament,° And see how one another lends content ; And what obscur’d in this fair volume lies, Find written in the margin of his eyes.” 4 That is, as well made as if he had been modelled in wax. So in Wily Beguiled: « Why, he is a man as one should picture him in wax.” So Horace uses “ Cerea brachia,”’ waxen arms, for arms well shaped. 5 Thus the quarto of 1599. The quarto ‘of 1609 and the folio read, “every several lineament.” We have, “ The unity and maz- ried calm of states,” in Troilus and Cressida. And in his eighth Sonnet: «If the true concord of well-tuned sounds, By unions married, do offend thine ear.” 6 ‘The comments on ancient books Were generally printed in the margin. Horatio says, in Hamlet, “1 knew you must be edified by the margent.’”’ So in the Rape of Lucrece: «« But she that never cop’d with stranger eyes Could vick no meaning from their parling looks, 46 ROMEO AND JULIET. ACT L This precious book of love, this unbound lover, To beautify him, only lacks a cover. The fish lives in the sea ;7 and ’tis much pride, For fair without the fair within to hide: That book in many’s eyes doth share the glory, That in gold clasps locks in the golden story ; So shall you share all that he doth possess, By having him, making yourself no less. Nurse. No less? nay, bigger: women grow by men. Lady C. Speak briefly, can you like of Paris’ love ? Jul. Vl look to like, if looking liking move: But no more deep will I endart mine eye,® Than your consent gives strength to make it fly. Enter a Servant. Serv. Madam, the guests are come, supper serv’d up, you'call’d, my young lady ask’d for, the nurse curs’d in the pantry, and every thing in extremity. I must hence to wait ; I beseech you, follow straight. Nor read the subtle shining secrecies Writ in the glassy margent of such books.” This speech is full of quibbles. The unbound lover js a quibble on the binding of a book, and the binding in marriage; and the word cover is a quibble on the Jaw phrase for a married woman, JSemme couverte. 7 It is not quite clear what is meant by this. Dr. Farmer ex- plains it, « The fish is not yet caught ;’’ and thinks there is a ref- erence to the ancient use of fish-skins for book-covers. It does not well appear what this meaning can have to do with the con- text. The sense apparently required is, that the fish is hidden, within the sea, as a thing of beauty within a beautiful thing. Ma- lone thinks we should read, “ The fish lives in the shell ;” and he adds that “the sea cannot be said to be a beautiful cover toa fish, though a shell may.”” — This whole speech and the next are wanting in the quarto of 1597. 4 $ The quarto of 1597 reads, « engage mine eye,” SC. 1V. ROMEO AND JULIET. 47 Lady C. We follow thee. — Juliet, the county stays. Nurse. Go, girl, seek happy nights to happy days. ; [ Exeunt. SCENE IV. A Street. Enter Romeo, Mercutio, BENvoutio, with five or siz Maskers, Torch-Bearers, and Others. Rom. What! shall this speech be spoke for our excuse ! Or shall we on without apology ? Ben. The date is out of such prolixity.’ We'll have no Cupid hood-wink’d with a scarf, Bearing a Tartar’s painted bow of lath, Scaring the ladies like a crow-keeper ;* Nor no without-book prologue, faintly spoke After the prompter, for our entrance :* In King Henry VIII., where the king introduces himself at the entertainment given by Wolsey, he appears, like Romeo and his companions, | in a mask, and sends a messenger before with an apology for his intrusion. This was a custom observ ed by those who came uninvited, with a desire to conceal themselves, for the sake of intrigue, or to enjoy the greater freedom of conversation. Their entry on these occasions was always prefaced by,some speech in praise of ihe beauty of the ladies, or the generosity of the en- tertainer ; and to the prolixity of such introductions it is probable Romeo is made to allude. In Histriomastix, 1610, a man exe presses his wonder that the maskers enter without any compliment : « What, come they in so blunt, without device?” Of this kind of masquerading there is a specimen in Timon, where Cupid pre- cedes a troop of ladies with a speech. 2 The Tartarian bows resemble in their form the old Roman or Cupid’s bow, such as we see on medals and bas-relief. Shake- speare uses the epithet to distinguish it from the English bow, whose shape is the segment of a circle. — A crow-keeper was simply a scare-crow. See King Lear, Act iv. s¢.6, note 11. 3 This and the preceding lines are found only in the quarto of 1597. Of course there is an allusion to some of the stage prace tices of the Poet’s time. H. 48 ROMEO AND JULIET. ACT 1s But, let them measure us by what they will, We’ll measure them a measure, and be gone. Rom. Give me a torch:* I am not for this am bling 5 . Being but heavy, I will bear the light. Mcr. Nay, gentle Romeo, we must have you dance. — Rom. Not I, believe me: You have dancing shoes, With nimble soles; I have a soul of ijead, So stakes me to the ground, I cannot move. Mer. You are a lover: borrow Cupid’s wings, And soar with them above a common. bound. Rom. I am too sore enpierced with his shaft, To soar with his light feathers ; and so bound, I cannot bound a pitch above dull woe:? Under love’s heavy burden do I sink. Mer. And, to sink in it, should you burden love ; Too great oppression for a tender thing. Rom. Is love a tender thing? it is too rough, Too rude, too boisterous; and it pricks like thorn. Mer. If love be rough with you, be rough with love ; Prick love for pricking, and you beat love down. — Give me a case to put my visage in: [Putting on a Mask. A visor for a visor !— what care I, What curious eye doth quote deformities 1° Here are the beetle-brows, shall blush for me. - 4 A torch-hearer was a constant appendage to every troop of maskers. T'o hold a torch was anciently no degrading office. Queen Elizabeth’s gentlemen pensioners attended her to Cam- oridge, and held torches while a play was acted before her in the Chapel of King’s College on a Sunday evening. 5 Milton thought it not beneath the diguity ae his task fo use a similar quibble in Paradise Lost, Book iv.: «At one slight yound he overleap’d all Lownd.”” H. 6 Quote was often used for observe or notice. — Brooke’s poem Sc. IV. ~ ROMEO AND JULIET. 49 Ben. Come, knock, and enter; and no sooner in, But every man betake him to his legs. Rom. A torch for me: let wantons, light of heart, Tickle the senseless rushes with their heels ;7 For I am prov-rb’d with a grandsire phrase, — Pll be a candle-holder, and look on :8 The game was ne’er so fair, and I am done. Mer. Tut! dun’s the mouse, the constable’s own word.® furnished the following hint towards the Mercutio of the play 3 otherwise the character is wholly original : “ At thone syde of her chayre her lover Romeo, And on the other syde there sat one cald Mercutio 3 A courtier that eche where was highly had in pryce, For he was coorteous of hjs speche, and pleasant of devise. F.ven as a lyon would emong the lambs be bolde, Such was emong the bashfull maydes Mercutio to beholde. With frendly gripe he ceasd fayre Juliets snowish hand : A gyft he had that Nature gave him in bis swathing band, That frosen mountayn yse was never halfe so cold, As were his hands, thopgh nere so neer the fire he did them holde.” H. 7 It has been before observed that the apartments of our an- cestors were strewed with rushes, and so was the ancient stage. 8 To hold the candle is a common proverbial expression for be ing an idle spectator. Among Ray’s proverbial sentences we have «“ A good candle-holder proves a good gamester.” This is th «“ grandsire phrase’ with which Romeo is proverbed. There ° another old maxim alluded to, which advises to give over wher the game is at the fairest. 9 Dun is the mouse is a proverbial saying of vague signification, alluding to the colour of the mouse; but frequently employed with no other intent than that of quibbling on the word done. Why it is attributed to a constable we know not. So in The Two Merry M.lkmaids, 1620: « Why, then, ’tis done, and dun’s the mouse, and utdone all the courtiers.” To draw dun out of the mire was a rural pastime, in which dum meant a dun horse, supposed to be stuck in the mire, and sometimes represented by one of the per- sons who played, at others by a log of wood. Mr. Gifford has described the game, at which he remembers often to have played, in ai note to Ben Jonson’s Masque of Christmas: “A log of wood is brought into the midst of the room; this is dun (the cart horse) and a ery is raised that he is stuck in the mire. ‘I'wo of the com- VOL. X. 5 4 50: ROMEO AND JULIET. ACT I. If thou art dun, we’ll draw thee from the mire Of this save-reverence love,’ wherein thou stick’st Up to the ears. — Come, we burn day-light, ho!” Rom. Nay, that’s not so. Mer. I mean, sir, in delay We waste our lights in vain, like lamps by day. Take our good meaning; for our judgment sits Five times.in that, ere once in our five wits.” Rom. And we mean well in going to this mask, But tis no wit to go. Mer. Why, may one ask ? Rom. I dreamt a dream to-night. Mer. And so did I. Rom. Well, what was yours ? Mer. That dreamers often lie. Rom. In bed, asleep, while they do dream things true. Mer. O! then, I see, queen Mab hath been with you. 13 She is the fairies’ midwife ;*° and she comes pany advance, either with or without ropes, to draw him out. After repeated attempts, they find themselves unable to do it, and call for more assistance. The game continues till all the company take part in it, when dwn is extricated of course ; and the merri- ment arises from the awkward and affected efforts of the rusties to lift the log, and sundry arch contrivances to let the ends of it fall on one another’s toes.” 10 The quartos of 1599 and 1609 have, “ Or save you reverence love ;” the folio, « Or save your reverence love.” The correc- tion is derived from the quarto of 1597, H. 11 That is, use a candle when the sun shines; an old proverbial phrase for superfluous actions in general. See The Merry Wives of Windsor, Act ii. sc. 1, note 3. H. 1< The quartos of 1599 and 1609 read «fine wits.” Malone made the correction. — In the second line before, the folio has, “lights, lights, by day,” instead of, «like lamps by day.” 4H. “13: The fairies’ midwife does not mean the midwife fo the fairies, but that she was the person among the fairies whose department it was ta delive: the fancies of sleeping men of their dreams, those SC. IV. ROMEO AND JULIET. 51 In shape no bigger than an agate-stone On the fore-finger of an alderman, Drawn with a team of little atomies Over men’s noses as they lie asleep: ' Her wagon-spokes made of long spinners’ legs ; The cover, of the wings of grasshoppers ; The traces, of the smallest spider’s web ; The collars, of the moonshine’s watery beams: Her whip, of cricket’s bone; the lash, of film: Her wagoner, a small gray-coated gnat, Not half so big as a round little worm Prick’d from the lazy finger of a maid:'* Her chariot is an empty hazel-nut, Made by the joiner squirrel, or old grub, Time out of mind the fairies’ coach-makers. And in this state she gallops night by night Through lovers’ brains, and then they dream of love : On courtiers’ knees, that dream on courtesies straight : O’er lawyer’ s fingers, who straight dream on fees :' O’er ladies’ lips, who straight on kisses dream ; Which oft the angry Mab with blisters plagues, Because their breaths with sweet-meats tainted are. Sometime she gallops o’er a courtier’s nose, And then dreams he of smelling out a suit: children of an idle brain. When we say the king’s judges, we a0 not mean persons who judge the king, but persons appointed py him to judge his subjects. —STEEVENS. 14 So all the old copies except the first quarto, which has Athwart instead of Over. The metrical arrangement of this speech is found only in the quarto of 1597; the other old copies printing it all as prose except the last four lines. H. 19 Maid is from the first quarto; the other old copies reading man. The next three lines are not in the first quarto. H. 16 This line also is wanting in the quarto of 1597, which has lawyer’s lap instead of courtier’ s nose in the fourth line below. H. 52 ROMEO AND JULIET. ACT I. And sometime comes she with a tithe-pig’s tail, Tickling a parson’s nose as ’a lies asleep ; Then dreams he of another benefice: Sometime she driveth o’er a soldier’s neck, And then dreams he of cutting foreign throats, Of breaches, ambuscadoes, Spanish blades, Of healths five fathom deep; and then anon Drums in his ear, at which he starts and wakes, And, being thus frighted, swears a prayer or two, And sleeps again. This is that very Mab, That plats the manes of horses in the night ;*7 And bakes the elf-locks in foul sluttish hairs, Which, once untangled, much misfortune bodes. This is the hag, when maids lie on their backs, That presses them, and learns them first to bear, Making them women of good carriage. This, this is she — Rom. Peace, peace! Mercutio, peace! Thou talk’st of nothing. 17 This alludes to a singular superstition, not yet forgotten in some parts of the continent. It was believed that certain malig- nant spirits assumed occasionally the likenesses of women clothed in white ; that in this character they sometimes haunted stables in the night, carrying in their hands tapers of. wax, which they dropped on the horses’ manes, thereby plaiting them into inextri- cable kuots, to the great annoyance of the poor animals, and the vexation of their masters. ‘There is a very ancommon old print, by Hans Burgmair, relating to this subject. A witch enters the stable with a lighted torch; and, previously to the operation of entangling the horse’s mane, practises her enchantments on the groom, who is lying asleep on his back, and apparently influenced by the night-mare. ‘The belamites or elf-stones were regarded as charms against the last-mentioned disease, and against evil spirits of all kinds.— The next line, “ And bakes the elf-locks in foul sluttish hairs,” seems to be unconnected with the preceding, and to mark a superstition which, as Dr. Warburton has observed, may have originated from the plica Polonica, which was supposed to be the operation of the wicked elves ; whence the clotted hair was called elf-locks, or elf-knots. ‘Thus Edgar talks of “ elfing all his hair in knots.” — Douce. H. eS ee se SC. IV. ROMEO AND JULIET. 53 Mer. ° True, I talk of dreams, Which are the children of an idle brain, Begot of nothing but vain fantasy ; Which is as thin of substance as the air; And more inconstant than the wind, who wooes Even now the frozen bosom of the north, And, being anger’d, puffs away from thence, Turning his face to the dew-dropping south.’® Ben. This wind, you talk of, blows us from our- selves: Supper is done, and we shall. come too late. Rom. I fear, too early; for my mind misgives, Some consequence, yet hanging in the stars, Shall bitterly begin his fearful date With this night’s revels; and expire the term Of a despised life,’’ clos’d in my breast, By some vile forfeit of untimely death : 18 Face, in this line, is from the quarto of 1597; the other old copies having side, which Mr. Collier’s second folio changes to tide. — Coleridge has the following on Mercutio: ««O! how shall I describe that exquisite ebullience and overflow of youthful life, wafted on over the laughing waves of pleasure and prosperity, as a wanton beauty that distorts the face on which she knows her lover is gazing enraptured, and wrinkles ber forehead in the tri- umph of its smoothness? Wit ever wakeful, fancy busy and pro- creative as an insect, courage, an easy mind that, without cares of its own, is at once disposed to laugh away those of others, and yet to be interested in them,—these and all congenial qualities, melting into the common copula of them all, the man of rank and the gentleman, with all its excellences and all its weaknesses, cons stitute the character of Mercutio!” H. 19 This way of using expire was not uncommon in the Poet’s time. So in Daniel’s Complaint of Rosamond : “ Thou must not think thy flow’r can always flourish, And that thy beauty will be still admir’d ; But that those rays which all these flames do nourish, Cancell’d with time, will have their date expir’d.” H. ‘ 5* Orewa “S - 54 ROMEO AND JULIET. ACTH. ” But He, that hath the steerage of my course, Direct my sail !?° —On, lusty ¢ gentlemen. Ben. Strike, drum.”' [ Exeunt. SCENE V.' A Hall in Capu.tet’s House. Musicians waiting. Enter Servants. 1 Serv. Where’s Potpan, that he helps not to take away? he shift a trencher!* he scrape a trencher ! 2 Serv. When good manners shall lie all in one or two men’s hands, and they unwash’d too, ’tis a foul thing. 1 Serv. Away with the joint-stools, remove the court-cupboard,*® look to the plate. — Good thou, save me a piece of marchpane ;* and, as thou lovest me, let the porter let in Susan Grindstone, and Nell. — Antony! and Potpan! , 2 Serv. Ay, boy; ready. 20 So in the first quarto; the other old copies have suit instead of sail. H. 21 Here the folio adds: “ They march about the stage, and serving men come forth with their napkins.” 1 The opening of this scene, down to the entrance of Capulet, is not in the quarto of 1597. H. 2 To shift a trencher was technical, ‘Trenchers were used in Shakespeare’s time and long after by persons of good fashion and quality. 3 The court cupboard was the ancient sideboard: it was a cum brous piece of furniture, with stages or shelves gradually receding, like stairs, to the top, whereon the plate was displayed at festivals. They are ‘mentioned in many old comedies. 4 Marchpane was a constant article in the desserts of our ances- tors.. It was a sweet cake, composed of filberts, almonds, pista- chios, pine kernels, and sugar of roses, with a anal portion of flour. ‘They were often made i in fantastic forms, ~* BC. V. ROMEO AND JULIET. oD 1 Serv. You are look’d for and call’d for, ask’d for and sought for, in the great chamber. 2 Serv. We cannot be here and there too. — Cheerly, boys! be brisk awhile, and the longer liver take all. [ They retire behind. Enter CaPutet, §c., with the Guests and the Maskers. Cap. Welcome, gentlemen! ladies, that have their toes Unplagued with corns, will have a bout with you :° — Ah ha, my mistresses! which of you all Will now deny to dance? she that makes dainty, she, Vl swear, hath corns: Am I come near you now? You are welcome, gentlemen! I have seen the day, That I have worn a visor, and could tell A whispering tale in a fair lady’s ear, Such as would please ;—’tis gone, ’tis gone, ’tis gone. You are welcome, gentlemen !— Come, musicians, play. A hall! a hall!® give room, and foot it, girls. — [Music plays, and they dance. More lights, ye knaves! and turn the tables up,’ And quench the fire, the room is grown too hot.— Ah, sirrah! this unlook’d-for sport comes well. Nay, sit, nay, sit, good cousin Capulet ; ° 5 So the first quarto; the other old copies, “will walk about with you.” H. 6 An.exclamation to make room in a crowd for any particular purpose, as we now say a ring! a ring! 7 The ancient tables were flat leaves or boards joined by hinges and placed on trestles; when’ they were to be removed they were therefore turned up. 8 Cousin was a common expression for kinsman. 56 ROMEO AND JULIET. ACT ‘I. For you and I are past our dancing days: How long is’t now, siice last yourself and I Were in a mask? 2 Cap. By’r lady, thirty years. 1 Cap. What, man! ’tis not so much, ’tis not se much: °Tis since the nuptial of Lucentio, Come pentecost as quickly as it will, Some five-and-twenty years; and then we mask’d. 2 Cap. ’Tis more, ’tis more: his son is elder, sir ; His son is thirty. 1 Cap. Will you tell me that? | His son was but a ward two years ago. Rom. What lady’s that, which doth enrich the hand Of yonder knight ? Serv. I know not, sir. Rom. O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright! It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night Like a rich jewel in an Ethiop’s ear ;° Beauty too rich for use, for earth too dear! So shows a snowy dove trooping with crows, As yonder lady o’er her fellows shows., The measure done, ll watch her place of stand, And, touching hers, make blessed my rude hand.'® Did my heart love till now ? forswear it, sight! I never saw true beauty till this night. Tyb. This, by his voice, should bea Montague. — 8 So read all the old copies till the second folio, which has, “ Her beauty hangs upon the cheek of night.” The Poet has a similar passage in his 27th Sonnet: “ Which, like a jewel hung in ghastly night, Makes black night beauteous, and her old face new.” H. 10 So all the old copies except the first quarto, which has happy instead of blessed. H. SC. Vv. ROMEO AND JULIET. ah Fetch me my rapier, boy. — What! dares the slave ; Come hither, cover’d with an antic face, To fleer and scorn at our solemnity ? Now, by the stock and honour of my kin, To strike him dead I hold it not a sin. 1 Cap. Why, hownow, kinsman! wherefore storm ! you so? Tyb. Uncle, this is a Montague, our foe ; A villain, that is hither come in spite, To scorn at our solemnity this night. 1 Cap. Young Romeo is it? Tyb. Tis he, that villain Romeo. 1 Cap. Content thee, gentle coz, let him alone, He bears him like a portly gentleman ; And, to say truth, Verona brags of him, To be a virtuous and well-govern’d youth. I would not for the wealth of all this town, Here, in my house, do him disparagement ; Therefore be patient, take no note of him: It is my will; the which if thou respect, Show a fair presence, and put off these frowns, An ill-beseeming semblance for a feast. Tyb. It fits, when such a villain is a guest: Tl not endure him. 1 Cap. He shall be endur’d : What, goodman boy! —I say, he shall ; — go to: Am I the master here, or you? go to. You'll not endure him !— God shall mend my soul,— You’ll make a mutiny among my guests! You will set cock-a-hoop! you'll be the man! Tyb. Why, uncle, ’tis a shame. 1 Cap. ‘Go to, go to; You are a saucy boy.—Is’t so, indeed ?— This trick may chance to scath you;'’—I know what. x Nt That is, do you an injury. 58 ROMEO AND JULIET. ACT I. You must contrary me! marry, ’tis time, — Well said, my hearts! — You are a princox; 1? goi— . Be quiet, or — More light ! more light, for shame ! — Pil'make you quiet: What !— Cheerly, my hearts ! Tyb. Patience perforce with wilful choler meet- ing, | Makes my flesh tremble in their different greeting. I will withdraw ; but this intrusion shall, Now seeming sweet, convert to bitter gall. [Ezit. Rom. If I profane with my unworthiest hand This holy shrine, the gentle fine is this,!?— 12 Minshew calls a princox “a ripe-headed young boy,” and derives the word from the Latin precox. The more probable » derivation is from prime cock ; that is, a cock of prime courage or spirit ; hence applied to a pert, conceited, forward person. So in the Return from Parnassus : “Your proud university princox thinkes he is a man of such merit, the world cannot sufficiently en- dow him with preferment.” And in Phaer’s Virgil: « Fyne prin- cox, fresh of face, furst uttring youth by buds unshorne.” — Cole- ridge remarks upon this dialogue thus: “ How admirable is the old man’s impetuosity, at once contrasting, yet harmonized, with young Tybalt’s quarrelsome violence! But it would be endless to repeat observations of this sort. Every leaf is different on an oak tree ; but still we can only say, — our tongues defrauding our eyes, — This is another oak-leaf! ” Aggie "8 The old copies have sinne instead of fine; an easy misprint when sinne was written with a long s; corrected by Warburton, — In the preceding line, the first quarto has unworthy instead of unworthiest.— The temper of this first interview is very happily suggested by the corresponding passage in Brooke’s poem: “ As soone as had the knight the vyrgins right hand raugh-, Within his trembling hand her left hath Romeus caught. Then she with slender band his tender palm hath prest : What joy, trow you, was graffied so in Romeus brest ? At last, with trembling voyce and shamefast chere, the mayde Unto her Romeus tournde, and thus to him she sayde : “O, blessed be the time of thy arrivall here.’ ‘What chaunce (q’ he) unware to me, O lady mine, is hapt, That geves you worthy cause my cumming here to blisse 1? Fyrst ruthfully she lookd, then sayd with smyling chere, — ‘ Mervayle no whit, my heartes delight, my only knight and fere; SC. V. ROMEO AND JULIET. 59. My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss. Jul. Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much, Which mannerly devotion shows in this’; For saints have hands that pilgrims’ hands do touch, And palm to palm is holy palmers’ kiss. Rom. Have not saints lips, and holy palmers, too? Jul. Ay, pilgrim, lips that they must use —in prayer. Rom. O then! dear saint, let lips do what hands do: They pray; grant thou, lest faith turn to despair. Jul. Saints do not move, though grant for prayers’ sake. Rom. Then move not, while my prayer’s effect I take. [ Kissing her." Thus from my lips, by yours, my sin is purg’d. Mercutious ysy hande had all to-frozen myne, And of thy goodness thou agayne hast warmed it with thyne.’ ” : H. 14 In Shakespeare’s time, the kissing of a lady at a social gathering seems not to have been thought indecorous. So, in King Henry VIII., we have Lord Sands kissing Anne Boleyn, at the supper given by Wolsey.— Mr. R. G. White, in his Shake- speare’s Scholar, has the following happy remarks on this bit of dialogue : «I have never seen a Juliet upon the stage, who ap- peared to appreciate the archness of the dialogue with Romeo in this scene. ‘They go through it solemnly, or, at best, with staid propriety. They reply literally to all Romeo’s speeches about saints and palmers. But it should be noticed that, though this is the first interview of the lovers, we do not hear them speak until the close of their dialogue, in which they have arrived at a prety thorough understanding of their mutual feelings. Juliet makes a feint of parrying Romeo’s advances; but, does it archly, and knows that he is to have the kiss he sues for. He asks, —‘ Have not saints lips, and holy palmers, too?’ The stage Juliet an- swers with literal solemnity. But it was not a conventicle at old Capulet’s: Juliet was not holding forth. How demure was her 60 ROMEO AND JULIET. ACT I. Jul. Then have my lips the sin that they have took. Flom. Sin from my lips? O, trespass sweetly urg’d! Give me my sin again. Jul. You kiss by th’ book. Nurse. Madam, your mother craves a word with ‘ you. Rom. What is her mother ? Nurse. Marry, bachelor, Her mother is the lady of the house, And a good lady, and a wise and virtuous. I nurs’d her daughter, that you talk’d withal: I tell you, he that can lay hold of her Shall have the chinks. Rom. ‘Is she a Capulet ? O, dear account! my life is my foe’s debt. Ben. Away, begone: the sport is at the best. Rom. Ay, so I fear; the more is my unrest. 1 Cap. Nay, gentlemen, prepare not to be gone; We have a trifling foolish banquet towards.’? — Is it e’en so?. Why, then I thank you all; I thank you, honest gentlemen ;'° good night : — More torches here !— Come on, then, Jet’s to bed. real answer: ‘ Ay, pilgrim, lips that they must use —in prayer.’ And when Romeo fairly gets her into the corner, towards which she has been contriving to be driven; and says,—‘'Thus from my lips, by thine, my sin is purg’d,’ and does put them to that purgation ; how slyly the pretty puss gives him an opportunity to repeat the penance, by replying, —‘ Then have my lips the sin that they have took,’ ” H. 18 Towards is ready, at hand. A banquet, or rere-supper, as it was sometimes called, was similar to our dessert. 16 Here the quarto of 1597 adds the following : “T promise you, but for your company, I would have been in bed an hour ago’ Light to my chamber, ho!” Oe ee Wee ee, ek i SC. V. ROMEO AND JULIET. 61 Ah, sirrah! by my fay, it waxes late ; Vl to my rest. [Exeunt all but JuLiet and Nurse. Jul. Come hither, nurse: What is yond’ gentle- man ? Nurse. The son and heir of old Tiberio. Jul. What’s he, that now is going out of door? Nurse. Marry, that, I think, be young Petruchio. Jul. What’s he, that follows there, that would not dance? Nurse. I know not. Jul. Go, ask his name. —If he be married, My grave is like to be my wedding bed. Nurse. His name is Romeo, and a Montague ; The only son of your great enemy. Jui. My only love sprung from my only hate! Too early seen unknown, and known too late ! Prodigious birth of love it is to me, That I must love a loathed enemy. Nurse. What’s this? what’s this? Jul. ‘ A rhyme I learn’d even now Of one I dane’d withal. [One calls within, Juuiet! Nurse. Anon, anon :— Come, let’s away; the strangers all are gone. [ Exeunt. Enter Cuorus."” Now old desire doth in his deathbed lie, And young affection gapes to be his heir : That fair, for which love groan’d for,’* and would die, 17 This Chorus is not in the quarto of 1597, but is in al] the other old copies. 18 This doubling of a preposition was common with toe old writers, and occurs “divers times in these plays. See As You Like It, Act ii. se. 7, note 10. — Fuir, in this line, is used as a substan- tive, and in the sense of beauty. The usage was common. H. VOL. X. 6 62 ROMEO AND JULIET. ACT II: With tender Juliet match’d is now not fair. Now Romeo is belov’d, and loves again, Alike bewitched by the charm of looks ; But to his foe suppos’d he must complain, And she steal love’s sweet bait from fearful hooks: Being held a foe, he may not have access To breathe such vows as lovers use to swear 5 And she as much in love, her means much less To meet her new-beloved any where: But passion lends them power, time means, to meet, Tempering extremities with extreme sweet. — [ Ezit. ACT AIM SCENE I. An open Place, adjoining CaPULET’s Garden. Enter Romeo. Rom. Can I go forward, when my heart is here? Turn back, dull earth, and find thy centre out. [He climbs the Wall, and leaps down within tt. Enter Benvo.tio and MERCUTIO. ‘Ben. Romeo! my cousin Romeo! Romeo! Mer. He is wise ; And, on my life, hath stolen him home to bed. Ben. He ran this way, and leap’d this orchard’ wail. Call, good Mercutio. 1 Orchard, from hort-yard, was formerly used for a garden. See Julius Cesar, Act ii. se. 1, note 1. H. sc. I. ROMEO AND JULIET. 63 Mer. Nay, [ll conjure too. — Romeo! humours! madman! passion! lover! Appear thou in the likeness of a sigh; Speak but one rhyme, and I am satisfied ; Cry but — Ah me! pronounce * but —love and dove; Speak to my gossip Venus one fair word, One nickname for her purblind son and heir, Young auburn Cupid, he that shot so trim,’ When king Cophetua lov’d the beggar-maid. — He heareth not, he stirreth not, he moveth not 3 The ape* is dead, and I must conjure him. — I conjure thee by Rosaline’s bright eyes, By her high forehead and her scarlet lip, By her fine foot, straight leg, and quivering thigh, 2 This is the reading of the quarto of 1597. Those of 1599 and 1609 and the folio read provant, an evident corruption. The folio of 1632 has couply, meaning couple, which has been the read- ing of many modern editions. ' 3 The old copies have “ Abraham Cupid,” which Upton changed to “ Adam Cupid,” supposing it to refer to Adam Bell the famous archer of the old ballad. The change is adopted in al] modern editions excepting Knight’s, who retains Abraham, explaining it to mean “the cheat — the ¢‘ Abrabam man’ — of our old statutes.” Auburn is proposed by Mr. Dyce, who shows that it was a com- mon epithet of Cupid, and was often misprinted abraham and Abram. Thus, in Soliman and Perseda,-we have “ abraham- colour’d Troion” for Trojan with auwburn-colour’d hair; and in Coriolanus, Act ii. sc. 3, “not that our heads are some brown, ‘some black, some Abram,” where Abram is changed to auburn in modern editions, — T'rim is from the first quarto, the other old copies having true. That trim-is the right word, is shown by the old ballad of “ King Cophetua and the Beggar Maid,” which the Poet had in his mind. One stanza is as follows: “ The blinded boy, that shoots so trim, From heaven down did hie 3 He drew a dart, and shot at him In place where he did lie.’”’, . H. 4 This phrase in Shakespeare’s time was used as an expression of tenderness, like poor fool. 64 ROMEO AND JULIET. ACT It. And the demesnes that there adjacent lie, That in thy likeness thou appear to us. Ben. An if he hear thee, thou wilt anger him. Mer. This cannot anger him: ’twould anger him To raise a spirit in his mistress’ circle Of some strange nature, letting it there stand Till she had laid it, and conjur’d it down ; That were some spite : my invocation Is fair and honest, and, in his mistress’ name, I conjure only but to raise up him. Ben. Come, he hath hid himself among these trees, : To be consorted with the humorous night :° Blind is his love, and best befits the dark. Mer. If love be blind, love cannot hit the mark. Now will he sit under a medlar tree, And wish his mistress, were that kind of fruit,. As maids call medlars, when they laugh alone. — O Romeo! that she were, O, that she were An open ef cetera, thou a poprin pear ! — Romeo, good night: —T’ll to my truckle-bed 3; This field-bed is too cold for me to sleep.° Come, shall we go? Ben. Go, then; for ’tis in vain To seek him here, that means not to be found. [ Exeunt. 5 That is, the hamid, the moist dewy night. | 6 The truckle-bed or trundle-bed was a bed for the servant or page, and was so made as to run under the “ standing-bed,” which was for the master. See The Merry Wives of Windsor, Act iv. se. 5, note 1.— We are not to suppose that Mercutio slept in the servant's bed: he merely speaks of his truckle-bed in con- trast with the field-bed, that is, the ground. BK. oe @ } ts ROMEO AND JULIET. 65 SCENE II. Caputer’s Garden. Enter Romeo. Rom. We jests at scars, that never felt a wound. — [JuLier appears above, at a Window. But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Juliet is the sun !— Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon, Who is already sick and pale with grief, That thou her maid art far more fair than she: Be not her maid,’ since she is envious ; Her vestal livery is but sick and green, And none but fools do wear it; cast it off. — It is my lady ; O! it is my love: O, that she knew she were ! — She speaks, yet she says nothing: What of that? Her eye discourses, I will answer it. — I am too bold, ’tis not to me she speaks: Two of the fairest stars in all the heaven, Having some business, do entreat her eyes To twinkle in their spheres till they return. What if her eyes were there, they in her head ? The brightness of her cheek would shame those stars, As daylight doth a lamp: her eyes in heaven” Would through the airy region stream so bright, That birds would sing, and think it were not night. See, how she leans her cheek upon her hand ! Q, that I were a glove upon that hand, That I might touch that cheek ! Tul. Ah me! Rom. She speaks : — 1 That is, be not a votary to the moon, to Diana. 2 So the first quarto: the other old copies have eye instead of eyes. H. 6* 5 “ by ie eee 66 ROMEO AND JULIET. ACT 11. O, speak again, bright angel! for thou art As glorious to this night, being o’er my head, As is a winged messenger of hemes ‘Unto the white-upturned wondering eyes Of mortals, that fall back to gaze on him, When he bestrides the lazy-pacing clouds,° And sails upon the bosom of the air. Jul. O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo? Deny thy father, and refuse thy name: Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love, And ll no longer be a Capulet. Rom. Shall I hear more, or shall I speak at this? Jul. "Tis but thy name, that is my enemy ;— Thou art thyself though, not a Montague. What’s Montague? it is nor hand, nor foot, Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part Belonging to a man.‘ O, be some other name! What’s in'a nhme? that which we call a rose, By any other name would smell as sweet : So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call’d, Retain that dear perfection which he owes, Without that title. — Romeo, doff thy name ; And for that name, which is no part of thee, Take all myself. | 3 So the quarto of 1597; the other old copies, “ lazy-pz-fing clouds.” Mr. Collier’s second folio changes pufing to passing, which may be right, the long s, as it was then written, being easily. mistaken for fi « Take noflees says Coleridge, «in this en- — chanting. scene of the contrast of Romeo’s love Swith his former — fancy 5 fand weigh the skill shown in justifying him from) his in- constancy by making us feel the difference of his passion. . xk this, too, is a love in, although not merely of, the imagination.” H. 4 The words, “nor any other part,’ are found only in the first quarto. In the second line below, also, name is from the first quarto ; the other old copies reading, “ By any other word.” H. pion 7h AE 4 «= jt! SC. II. ROMEO AND JULIET. 67 Rom. [ take thee at thy word: Call me but love, and I’ll be new baptiz’d ; Henceforth I never will be Romeo. Jul. What man art thou, that, thus bescreen’d in night, ° So stumblest on my counsel ? Rom. By a name I know not how to tell thee who I am: My name, dear saint, is hateful to myself, Because it is an enemy to thee: Had I it written, I would tear the word. Jul. My ears have not yet drunk a hundred words Of that tongue’s utterance,’ yet I know the sound. Art thou not Romeo, and a Montague ? Rom. Neither, fair saint, if either thee displease. Jul. How cam’st thou hither, tell me? and where- fore? The orchard walls are high, and hard to climb; And the place death, considering who thou art, If any of my kinsmen find thee here. Rom. With love’s light wings did I o’erperch these walls; For stony limits cannot hold love out: And what love can do, that dares love attempt ; Therefore thy kinsmen are no let to me.° Jul. If they do see thee, they will murder thee. Rom. Alack ! there lies more peril in thine eye, Than twenty of their swords: look thou but sweet, And | am proof against their enmity. Jul. I would not for the world they saw thee here. ® So the quarto of 1597; the other old copies, “thy tongue’s uitering.”’ In the next speech, also, all the old copies but the first quarto have maid and dislike instead of saint and displeuse. H. 6 That is, no stop, no hinderance. Thus the quarto of 1597. The later copies read, “no stop to me.” eT eee a 68 ROMEO AND JULIET. ACT II. Rom. Ihave night’s cloak to hide me from their eyes ; And, but thou love me,’ Jet them find me here : My life were better ended by their hate, Than death prorogued,® wanting of thy love. Jul. By whose direction found’st thou out this place ? Rom. By love, who first did prompt me to inquire He lent me counsel, and I lent him eyes. I am no pilot; yet, wert thou as far As that vast shore wash’d with the farthest sea, I would adventure for such merchandise. Jul. Thou know’st the mask of night is on my face 3 Else would a maiden blush bepaint my cheek, For that which thou hast heard me speak to-night. Fain would I dwell on form, fain, fain deny What I have spoke: but farewell compliment !® Dost thou love me? JT know thou wilt say, ay ; And I will take thy word; yet, if thou swear’st, Thou mayst prove false : at lovers’ perjuries, They say, Jove laughs.’ O, gentle Romeo! If thou dost love, pronounce it faithfully: Or if thou think’st I am too quickly won, I'll frown, and be perverse, and say thee nay, 7 But is here used in its exceptive sense, without or unless. 8 That is, postponed, delayed or deferred to a more distant pes riod. The whole passage has the following construction: “I have night to screen me :— yet unless thou love me, let them find me here. It were better that they ended my life at once, than to have death delayed, and to want thy love.” 8 That is, farewell attention to forms. 10 This Shakespeare found in Ovid’s Art of Love; perhaps in Marlowe’s translation : «‘ For Jove himself sits in the azure skies, And laughs below at lovers’ perjuries.” | sc. II. © ROMEO AND JULIET. 69 So thou wilt woo; but, else, not for the world. In truth, fair Montague, I am too fond ; And therefore thou may’st think my haviour light : But trust me, gentleman, I'll prove more true Than those that have more cunning to be strange.” I should have been more strange, I must confess, But that thou over-heard’st, ere I was ware, My true love’s passion: therefore, pardon me ; And not impute this yielding to light love, Which the dark night hath so discovered. Rom. Lady, by yonder blessed moon I swear, That tips with silver all these fruit-tree tops, — Jul. O! swear not by the moon, th’ inconstant moon That monthly changes in her circled orb, Lest that thy love prove likewise variable. Rom. What shall I swear by? Jul. Do not swear at all; Or, if thou wilt, swear by thy gracious self, Which is the god of my idolatry, And I'll believe thee. Rom. If my heart’s dear love — Jul. Well, do not swear. Although I joy in thee, I have no joy of this contract to-night : It is too rash, too unadvis’d, too sudden ; Too like the lightning, which doth cease to be, Ere one can say it lightens.’ Sweet, good night! 1 So the first quarto: the later editions have coying instead of more cunning. Also, in the first line of the next speech, all the old copies but the first have vow instead of swear. H. 12 With love, pure love, there is always an anxiety for the safe- ty of the object, a disinterestedness, by which it is distinguished from the counterfeits of its name. Compare this scene with Act iii. sc. 1, of The Tempest. I do not know a more wonderful in- stance of Shakespeare’s mastery in playing a distinctly remem- berable variety on the same remembered air, than in the trans- porting love-confessions of Romeo and Juliet, and Ferdinand and 70 ROMEO AND JULIET. ACT Il This bud of love, by summer’s ripening breath, May prove a beauteous flower when next we meet. Good night, good night! as sweet repose and rest Come to thy heart, as that within my breast! Rom. O! wilt thou leave me so unsatisfied 2 Jul. What satisfaction canst thou have to-night ? Rom. Th’ exchange of thy love’s faithful vow for mine. Jul. I gave thee mine before thou didst request it ; And yet I would it were to give again. Rom. Would’st thou withdraw it? for what pur- pose, love ? Jul. But to be frank, and give it thee again. And yet I wish but for the thing I have: My bounty is as boundless as the sea, My love as deep; the more I give to thee, The more I have, for both are infinite. [Nurse calls within. I hear some noise within: dear love, adieu ! — Anon, good nurse !— Sweet Montague, be true. . Stay but a little, I will come again. [ Exit. Rom. O blessed, blessed night! I am afeard, Being in night, all this is but a dream, Too flattering-sweet to be substantial. Re-enter JuLietT, above. Jul. Three words, dear Romeo, and good night, indeed. If that thy bent of love be honourable, Thy purpose marriage, send me word to-morrow Miranda. There seems more passion in the one, and more dig- nity in the other; yet you feel that the sweet girlish lingering and busy movement of Juliet, and the calmer and more: maidenly fondness of Miranda, might easily pass into each other. —CoLE- RIDGE. H. Sc. Il. ROMEO AND JULIET. 71 By one that [ll procure to come to thee, Where, and what time, thou wilt perform the rite ; And all my fortunes at thy foot Ill lay, And follow thee my lord throughout the world." Nurse. [ Within.| Madam. Jul. I come anon. — But, if thou mean’st not well, I do beseech thee, — Nurse. [ Within.] Madam. Jul. By and by; I come.— To cease thy suit,’ and leave me to my grief: To-morrow will I send. Rom. So thrive my soul, — Jul. A thousand times good night ! [ Exit. Rom. A thousand times the worse, to want thy light. — Love goes toward love, as school-boys from their books ; But love from love, toward school with heavy looks. [ Retiring slowly. 13 In Brooke’s poem Juliet uses nearly the same expréssions : « But if your thought be chaste, and have on vertue ground ; If wedlocke be the marke, which your desire hath found ; Obedience set aside, unto my parentes dewe, The quarrell eke that long agoe betweene our householdes grewe ; Both me and myne I will all whole to you betake, And, following you whereso you goe, my fathers house forsake. But if by wanton love and by unlawfull sate You thinke to plucke my maydehood’s dainty frate, You are begy/de; and now your Juliet you beseekes T> cease your sute, and suffer her to live emong her likes.” 14 This passage is not in the first quarto, and the other old copies have strife instead of suit. Suit agrees much better with the context, is the word commonly given in modern editions, and is found in Mr. Collier’s second folio. H. OS eee 72 ROMEO AND JULIET. ACT It. Re-enter JuiyEet, above. Jul. Hist! Romeo, hist !—O, for a falconer’s voice, To lure this tercel-gentle back again ! Bondage is hoarse, and may not speak aloud : Else would I tear the cave where echo lies, And make her diry voice more hoarse than mine With repetition of my Romeo’s name. Kom. It is my soul, that calls upon my name: How silver-sweet sound lovers’ tongues by night, Like softest music to attending ears! Jul. Romeo ! Rom. My dear !?° Jul. At what o’clock to-morrow Shall I send to thee ? Rom. At the hour of nine. Jul. T will not fail: ’tis twenty years till then. I have forgot why I did call thee back. Rom. Let me stand here till thou remember it. Jul. I shalt forget, to have thee still stand there, Remembering how I love thy company. Rom. And VlI still stay, to have thee still forget, Forgetting any other home but this. Jul. "Tis almost morning, Ewould have thee gone 3 © The tercel is the male of the zosshawk, and had the epithet genile annexed to it, from the ease with which it was tamed, and its attachment to man. Tardif,in his book of Falconry, says that the tiercel has its name from being one of three birds usually found iz the aerie.of a faleon, two of which are females, and the third a male ; hence called tierce/et, or the third. According to the old books of sport the falcon gentle and tierce} gentle are birds for a prinee. — For voice, third line after, all the old copies but the first quarto have tongue. OGY 36 So the undated quarto. The quarto of 1597 has Madam; those of 1599 and 1609 and the first folio have niece instead of dear The second folio changes niece to sweet, which is commonly adopt« ed in modern editions. H. SC. III. _ ROMEO AND JULIET. io And yet no further than a wanton’s bird 5 Who lets it hop a little from her hand, Like a poor prisoner in his twisted gyves, And with a silk thread plucks it back again, So loving-jealous of his liberty. Rom. I would I were thy bird. Jul. Sweet, so would [3 Yet I should kill thee with much cherishing. Good night, good night! parting is such sweet sor- row, That I shall say good night, till it be morrow. [ Exit. Rom. Sleep dwell upon thine eyes, peace in thy _ breast ! — Would I were sleep and peace, so sweet to rest! Hence will I to my ghostly father’s cell,’’ His help to crave, and my dear hap to tell. [Emt. SCENE III. Friar Laurence’s Cell. Enter Friar LAURENCE, with a Basket. Fri. The gray-ey’d morn smiles on the frowning night," Checkering the eastern clouds with streaks of light ; And flecked® darkness like a drunkard reels 17 So the quarto of 1597; the later copies, “my ghostly friars close cell.’ — The quartos of 1599 and 1609 and the folio of 1623 assign the first line of this speech to Juliet. H. 1 The reverend character of the Friar, like all Shakespeare’s representations of the great professions, is very delightful and tranquillizing, yet it is no digression, but immediately necessary to the carrying on of the plot.— CoLERIDGE, H. 2 Flecked is dappled, streaked, or variegated. Lord Surrey uses the word in his translation of the fourth Auneid: “ Her quiv ering cheekes flecked with deadly stain.” So in the old play of VOL. X. 7 eS ~ 74 | ROMEO AND JULIET. ACT I. From forth day’s path and Titan’s fiery wheels :? Now, ere the sun advance his burning eye, The day to cheer, and night’s dank dew to dry, I must fill up this osier cage of ours, With baleful weeds, and precious-juiced flowers.‘ The earth, that’s nature’s mother, is her tomb;° What is her burying grave, that is her womb ; And from her womb children of divers kind We sucking on her natural bosom find: Many for many virtues excellent, None but for some, and yet all different. O! mickle is the powerful grace that lies In herbs, plants, stones, and their true qualities : For nought so vile that on the earth doth live, - But to the earth some special good doth give 3 Nor aught so good, but, strain’d from that fair use, Revolts from true birth, stumbling on abuse: Virtue itself turns vice, being misapplied ; And vice sometime’s by action dignified. The Four Prentices : « We'll fleck our white steeds in your Chris- tian blood.” So the first quarto ; the later copies have burning instead of Jjiery. Fiery is preferred here, as burning occurs in the next line. H. * So Drayton, in the eighteenth Song of his Poly-Olbion, speak- ing of a hermit: “‘His happy time he spends the works of God to see, In those so sundry herbs which there in plenty grow, Whose sundry strange effects he only seeks to know. And in a little maund, being made of oziers small, Which serveth him to do full many a thing withal, He very choicely sorts his simples got abroad.” Shakespeare has very artificially prepared us for the, part Friar Laurence is afterwards to sustain. Having thus early discovered him to be a chemist, we are not surprised when we find him fur- nishing the draught which. produces the catastrophe of the piece. ° Lucretius has the same thought : “ Omniparens, eadem rerum commune sepulcrum.”’ Likewise, Milton, in Paradise Lost, Book ii.: “ The womb of nature, and perhaps her grave.” H. sc. IIL ROMEO AND JULIET. 75 Within the infant rind of this weak flower Poison hath residence, and medicine power : For this, being smelt, with that part® cheers each part 5 Being tasted, slays all senses with the heart. Two such opposed kings encamp them still” In man as well as herbs, grace and rude will; And, where the worser is predominant, Full soon the canker death eats up that plant. Enter Romeo. Rom. Good morrow, father ! Fri. Benedicite ! What early tongue so sweet saluteth me ?— Young son, it argues a distemper’d head, So soon to bid good morrow to thy bed: Care keeps his watch in every old man’s eye, And where care lodges, sleep will never lie ; But where unbruised youth, with unstuff’d brain, Doth couch his limbs, there golden sleep doth reign. Therefore thy earliness doth me assure, Thou' art uprous’d by some distemperature : Or, if not so, then here I hit it right, — Our Romeo hath not been in bed to-night. Rom. That last is true; the sweeter rest was mine. Fri. God pardon sin! wert thou with Rosaline ? Rom. With Rosaline, my ghostly father? no; I have forgot that name, and that name’s woe. Fri. That’s my good son: But where hast thou been, then ? Rom. I'll tell thee, ere thou ask it me again. I have been feasting with mine enemy ; 6 That is, with its odour. 7 The first quarto, alone, has foes instead of kings. Also, 12 the fourth line above, it has smal instead of weak. H. Y wo | | ow DS we ) Pee eee Por 76 ROMEO AND JULIET. ACT II. _ Where, on a sudden, one hath wounded me, That’s by me wounded: both our remedies Within thy help and holy physic lies. I bear no hatred, blessed man; for, lo! My intercession likewise steads my foe. fri. Be plain, good son, and homely in thy drift: Riddling confession finds but riddling shrift. Rom. Then,’plainly know, my heart’s dear love is set On the fair daughter of rich Capulet : As mine on hers, so hers is set on mine ‘ And all combin’d, save what thou must combine’ By holy marriage. When, and where, and how, We met, we woo’d, and made exchange of vow, I'll tell thee as we pass; but this I pray, That thou consent to marry us this day. Fri. Holy St. Francis! what a change is here! Is Rosaline, whom thou didst love so dear, So soon forsaken? young men’s love, then, lies Not truly in their hearts, but in their eyes. Jesu Maria! what a deal of brine Hath wash’d thy sallow cheeks for Rosaline! How much salt water thrown away in waste, To season love, that of it doth not taste ! The sun not yet thy sighs from heaven clears, Thy old groans ring yet in my ancient ears: Lo! here upon thy cheek the stain doth sit Of an old tear that is not wash’d off yet. If e’er thou wast thyself, and these woes thine, Thou and these woes were all for Rosaline: And art thou chang’d? pronounce this senterce then, — Women may fall, when there’s no strength in men. Rom. Thou chid’st me oft for loving Rosaline. fri. For doting, not for loving, pupil mine. eee he SC. IV. ROMEO AND JULIET. th Rom. And bad’st me bury love. Fri. : To lay one in, another out to have. Rom. I pray thee, chide not: she whom I love now Doth grace for grace, and love for love allow: The other did not so. Fri. O! she knew well, Thy love did read by rote, and could not spell. But come, young waverer, come, go with me, In one respect I'll thy assistant be ; For this alliance may so happy prove, To turn your households’ rancour to pure love. Rom. QO! let us hence; I stand on sudden haste. Fri. Wisely, and slow: they stumble, that run fast. [ Exeunt. Not in a grave, SCENE IV. A Street. Enter Bexvouio and MEeRcurIO. Mer. Where the devil should this Romeo be?— Came he not home to-night? Ben. Not to his father’s: I spoke with his man. Mer: Why, that same pale hard-hearted wench, that Rosaline, Torments him so, that he will sure run mad. Ben. Tybalt, the kinsman of old Capulet, Hath sent a letter to his father’s house. Mer. A challenge, on my life. Ben. Romeo will answer it. Mer. Any man, that can write, may answer a letter. Ben. Nay, he will answer the letter’s master, how he dares, being dared. . _ oats 78 ROMEO AND JULIET. ACT 11. Mer. Alas, poor Romeo! he is already dead; stabb’d with a white wench’s black eye; shot thorough the ear with a love-song; the very pin of his heart cleft with the blind bow-boy’s butt-shaft :? And is he a man to encounter Tybalt ? Ben. Why, what is Tybalt ? Mer. More than prince of cats,’ I can tell you. O! he is the courageous captain of compliments. He fights as you sing prick-song, keeps time, dis- tance, and proportion; rests me his minim rest, one, two, and the third in your bosom: the very butcher of a silk button; a duellist, a duellist ; a gentleman of the very first house, — of the first and second cause.” Ah, the immortal passado! the punto reverso ! the hay !* Ben. The what? Mer. 'The pox of such antic, lisping, affecting fantasticoes, these new tuners of accents ! —*« By Jesu, a very good blade !—a very tall man!—a very good whore !” — Why, is not this a lamentable 1 The allusion is to archery. The clout, or white mark at which the arrows were directed, was fastened by a black pin, placed in the centre of it. To hit this was the highest ambition of every marksman. ? Tybert, the name given to a cat in the old story book of Rey- nard the Fox. So in Dekker’s Satiromastix: “ Tho’ you were Tybert, prince of Jong-tail’d cats.” Again, in Have With You to Saffron Walden, by Nash: « Not T%balt prince of cats.’ —The words, “JT can tell you,” are from the first quarto. — Prick-song music was music pricked or written down, and so sung by note, not gy memory, or as learnt by the ear. H. 3 That is, a gentleman of the first rank among these duellists ; and one who understands the whole science of “quarrelling, and will tell you of the first cause, and the second cause for which a man is to fight. The clown, in As You Like It, talks of the serenth cause in the same sense, * All the terms of the fencing school were originally Italian ; the rapier, or small thrusting sword , being first neds in Italy. The hay is the word hai, you hitue it, used when a thrust reaches the antagonist. Our fencers on the same occasion sry out ha / ee SC. IV. ROMEO AND JULIET. 79 thing, grandsire,’ that we should be thus afflicted with these strange flies, these fashion-mongers, these pardonnez-mois, who stand so much on the new form, that they cannot sit at ease on the old bench?° O, their bons, their bons ! Enter Romeo. Ben. Here comes Romeo, here comes Romeo. - Mer. Without his roe, like a dried herring. — O, flesh, flesh, how art thou fishified !— Now is he for the numbers that Petrarch flowed in: Laura, to his lady, was but a kitchen-wench ;— marry, she had a better love to be-rhyme her: Dido, a dowdy; Cleo- patra, a gipsy; Helen and Hero, hildings and har- lots; Thisbe, a grey eye or so,’ but not to the pur- pose. —Signior Romeo, bon jour! there’s a French salutation to your French slop.* You gave us the counterfeit fairly last night. Rom. Good morrow to you both. What coun- terfeit did I give you? Mer. The slip, sir, the slip:° Can you not con- ceive 2 Rom. Pardon, good Mercutio, my business was great; and in such a case as mine a man may strain courtesy. 5 Humorously apostrophising bis ancestors, whose sober times were unacquainted with the fopperies here complained of. 6 During the ridiculous fashion which prevailed of great “ boul- stered breeches,” it is said to have been necessary to cut away hollow places in the benches of the House of Commons, without which those who stood on the new FORM could not sit at ease on the old bench. 7 A grey eye appears to have meant what we now call a blue eve He means to admit that Thisbe hada tolerably fine eye. 8 The slop was a kind of wide-kneed breeches, or rather trow- sers. See Much Ado about Nothing, Act iti. se. 2, note 5. 9 In the Poet’s time, there was a counterfeit coin called a slip. See Troilus and Cressida, Act ii. sc. 3, note 4. H. 80 ROMEO AND JULIET. ACT Il Mer. That’s as much as to say, such a case as yours constrains a man to bow in the hams. Rtom. Meaning, to courtesy. Mer. Thou hast most kindly hit it. Rom. A most courteous exposition. Mer. Nay, I am the very pink of courtesy. Rom. Pink for flower. Mer. Right. Rom. Why, then is my pxmp well flower’d.”® Mer. Well said:*' Follow me this jest now, till thou hast worn out thy pump ; that, when the single sole of it is worn, the jest may remain, after the wearing, solely singular. Rom. O single-sol’d jest,’’ solely singular for the singleness. Mer. Come between -us, good Benvolio, for m wits fail.’® Rom. Switch and spurs, switch and spurs; or Ill cry a match. Mer. Nay, if our wits run the wild-goose chase, 10 Romeo wore pinked pumps, that is, punched with holes in figures. It was the custom to wear ribbons in the shoes formed in the shape of roses or other flowers. Thus in The Masque of Gray’s Inn, 1614: “Every masker’s pump was fastened with a flower suitable to his cap.” 11 So the quarto of 1597; the other old copies, Sure wit. H. 12 Single was often used for simple or silly. Single-souled had also the same meaning: “ He is a good sengyll soule, and can do no harm; est doli nescius non simplex.” — Horman’s Vulgaria. It sometimes was synonymous with threadbare, coarse-spun, and this is its meaning here. Cotgrave explains «« Monsieur de trois au boisseau et de trois Aun épée: a threadbare, coarse-spun, sin- gle-soled gentleman.” See Macbeth, Act i. se. 3,note 14; and 2 Henry IV., Act i. se. 2, note 20. 13 So the first quarto ; other old copies, “my wits faints.” H. 14 One kind of horserace which resembled the flight of wild geese, was formerly known by this name. ‘I'wo horses were started to- SC. IV. ROMEO AND JULIET. ; 81 I have done; for thou hast more of the wild-goose in one of thy wits, than, I am sure, I have in my whole five. Was I with you there for the goose ? Rom. Thou wast never with me for any thing, when thou wast not there for the goose. Mer. I will bite thee by the ear for that jest. Rom. Nay, good goose, bite not. Mer. Thy wit is a very bitter sweeting ; most sharp sauce. Rom. And is it not well serv’d in to a sweet goose? Mer. O! here’s a wit of cheverel,’® that stretches from an inch narrow to an ell broad. Rom. I stretch it out for that word — broad ; which added to the goose, proves thee far and wide a broad goose. Mer. Why, is not this better now than groaning for love? now art thou sociable, now art thou Romeo; now art thou what thou art, by art as well as by nature: for this drivelling love is like a great natural, that runs lolling up and down to hide his bauble in a hole.’’ Ben. Stop there, stop there. itis a gether, and whichever rider could get the lead, the other rider was obliged to follow him wherever he chose to go. This explains the pleasantry kept up here. « My wits fail,” says Mercutio. Romeo exclaims briskly, “Switch and spurs, switch and spurs.” To which Mercutio rejoins, “ Nay, if our wits run the wild goose chase,” &c. : 15 The allusion is to an apple of that name. 16 Soft stretching leather, kid-skin. See King Henry VIIL., Act ii. se. 3, note 2. 17 Natural was ofien used, as it still is, fora fool. The bau- ble was the professional fool’s “staff of office.” See All’s Well that Ends Well, Act iv. sc. 5, note 3; and Titus Andronicus, Act v. sc. 1, note 4. . H. 6 82 ROMEO AND JULIET. ACT Ai. Mer. Thou desirest me stop in my tale against the hair.’® Ben. Thou would’st else have made thy tale large. Mer. O, thou art deceiv’d! I would have made it short; for I was come to the whole depth of my tale, and meant, indeed, to occupy the argument no longer. Rom. Here’s goodly gear! Enter the Nurse and PETER. Mer. A sail, a sail! ‘ Ben. Two, two; a shirt, and a smock. Nurse. Peter, pr’ythee, give me my fan.” Mer. ’Pr’ythee, do, good Peter, to hide her face ; - for her fan’s the fairer of the two.” Nurse. God ye good morrow, gentlemen. Mer. God ye good den,” fair gentlewoman. Nurse. Is it good den? Mer. ’Tis no less, I tell you; for the bawdy hand of the dial is now upon the prick of noon.” 18 This phrase, of French extraction, @ contre poil, occurs again in Troilus and Cressida: «Merry against the hair.” 19 In The Serving Man’s Comfort, 1598, we are informed, “The mistresse must have one to earry her cloake and hood, another her fanne.” So in Love’s Labour’s Lost: “ To see him walk be- fore a lady, and to bear her fan.” 20 We here follow the quarto of 1597. In the other old: copies we have the passage thus: «“ Nurse. Peter. — Peter, Anon. — Nurse. My fan, Peter. — Mer. Good Peter, to hide her face ; for her fan’s' the fairer face.”” Divers modern editions have com- pounded a third reading out of the two; which is hardly allow- able anywhere, and something worse than useless here, even if it were allowable. H. 21 That is, “God give you a good even.” The first of these contractions is common in our old dramas. 22 That 1s, the point of noon. So in Bright’s Charactery, or Arte of Short Writing, 1588: « If the worde end in ed, as I loved, SC. IV. ROMEO AND JULIET. 83 Nurse. Out upon you! what a man are you? Rom. One, gentlewoman, that God hath made for himself to mar.”® Nurse. By my troth, it is well said :— For him- self to mar, quoth’a?— Gentlemen, can any of you tell me where I may find the young Romeo? Rom. I can tell you; but young Romeo will be older when you have found him, than he was when you sought him. I am the youngest of that name, for “fault of a worse. Nurse. You say well. Mer. Yea! is the worst well? very well took, i’faith ; wisely, wisely. een If you be hes sir, I desire some confidence with you. Ben. She will indite him to some supper. Mer. A bawd, a bawd, a bawd! So ho! Rom. What hast thou found ? Mer. No hare, sir; unless a hare, sir, in a lenten pie, that is something stale and hoar ere it be spent. An old hare hoar, and an old hare hoar.*4 Is very good meat in lent: But a hare that is hoar, is too much for a score, When it hoars ere it be spent. — Romeo, will you come to your father’s? we’ll to dinner thither. Rom. I will follow you. then make a pricke in the character of the word on the left side.” See 3 Henry VI., Act i. sc. 4, note 3. 23 The preposition for is from the first quarto. The repetition of it by the Nurse shows that it was not rightly left out of the other old copies. H. 24 Hoar, or hoary, is often used for mouldy, as things grow white from moulding. These lines seem to have been part of an old song. In the quarto of 1597, we have this stage direction: “ He walks by them and sings.” 84 ROMEO AND JULIET. ACT II. Mer. Farewell, ancient lady; farewell, lady, lady, lady.”° [Exeunt Mercu. and BENvO. Nurse. Marry, farewell! —I pray you, sir, what saucy merchant was this, that was so full of his q 26 ropery ? Rom. A gentleman, nurse, that loves to hear him-_ self talk ; and will speak more ina minute, than he will net to in a month. Nurse. An ’a speak any thing against me, [ll take him down, an ’a were lustier than he is, and twenty such Jacks; and if I cannot, I'll find those that shall. Scurvy knave! I am none of his flirt- gills; I am none of his skains-mates.”’ — And thou must stand by, too, and suffer every knave to use me at his pleasure? Pet. I saw no man use you at his pleasure: if I had, my weapon should quickly have been out, I warrant you. I dare draw as soon as another man, if I see occasion in a good quarrel, and the law on my side. Nurse. Now, afore God, I am so vex’d, that 25 The burthen of an old song. See Twelth Night, Act ii. sc. 3. 26 Ropery appears to have been sometimes used in the sense of roguery; perhaps meaning tricks deserving the rope, that is, the gallows ; as rope-tricks, in The Taming of the Shrew, Act i. se. 2, note 10. So in The Three Ladies of London, 1584: “Thou art very pleasant, and full of thy roperye.” — Merchant was ofien used as a term of abuse. See 1 Henry VI., Act il. se. 3, note & — The words, Marry, farewell, are from the quarto of 1597. H. 27 By skains-mates the Nurse probably means swaggering companions. A skain, or skean, was an Irish knife or dagger, a weapon suitable to the purpose of ruffling fellows. Green, in kis * Quip for an Upstart Courtier, describes “an ill-favoured knave, who wore by his side a skeine, like a brewer’s bung knife.” Mr Dyce thinks this explanation “ cannot be right, because the Nurse is evidently speaking of Mercutio’s female companions.” We do not quite see how this should be decisive. H. SC. IV. ROMEO AND JULIET. R45 every part about me quivers. —Scurvy knave ! — *Pray you, sir, a word ; and, as [ told you, my young lady bade me inquire you out: what she bade me say, I will keep to myself. But first let me tell ye, if ye should lead her into a fool’s paradise, as they say, it were a very gross kind of behaviour, as they say: for the gentlewoman is young; and therefore, if you should deal double with her, truly, it were an ill thing to be offered to any gentlewoman, and very weak dealing. Rom. Nurse, commend me to thy lady and mis- tress. I protest unto thee, — Nurse. Good heart! and, i’faith, I will tell her as much. Lord, Lord! she will be a joyful woman. Rom. What wilt thou tell her, nurse? thou dost not mark me. Nurse. I will tell her, sir, that you do protest; which, as I take it, is a gentleman-like offer. Rom. Bid her devise some means to come to shrift This afternoon ; And there she shall at friar Laurence’ cell Be shriv’d, and married. Here is for thy pains. Nurse. No, truly, sir; not a penny. Rom. Go to; I say you shall. Nurse. 'This afternoon, sir? well, she shall be there. Rom. And stay, good nurse, behind the abbey- wall: Within this hour my man shall be with thee, And bring thee cords made like a tackled stair,”* Which to the high top-gallant of my joy Must be my convoy in the secret night. 23 'That is, like stairs of rope in the tackle of a ship. A stat? for a flight of stairs was once common. VOL. X. 8 * . 8 86 ROMEO AND JULIET. ACT I. Farewell! — Be trusty, and I’ll ’quite thy pains. Farewell!— Commend me to thy mistress. } Nurse. Now, God in heaven bless thee ! — Hark you, sir. Rom. What say’st thou, my dear nurse 2 Nurse. Is your man secret? Did you ne’er hear say, Two may keep counsel, putting one away? Rom. I warrant thee; my man’s as true as steel. Nurse. Well, sir; my mistress is the sweetest Jady —Lord, Lord! — when ’twas a little prating thing, —O!— There’s a nobleman in town, one Paris, that would fain lay knife aboard; but she, good soul, had as lieve see a toad, a very toad, as see him. I anger her sometimes, and tell her that Paris is the properer man; but, I’ll warrant you, when I say so she looks as pale as any clout in the varsal world. Doth not rosemary and Romeo be- gin both with a letter ? Rom. Ay, nurse; what of that? both with an R. Nurse. Ah, mocker! that’s the dog’s name. R is for the dog.*® No; I know it begins with some other letter; and she hath the prettiest sententious of it, of you and rosemary, that it would do you good to hear it. *9 The old copies read, “ R is for the no ;” dog having prob- ably dropped out of the text. Tyrwhitt suggested the correction. — Ben Jonson, in his English Grammar, says “ R is the dog’s let- ter, and hirreth in the sound.” And Nashe, in Summer’s Last Will and Testament, 1600, speaking of dogs: « They arre and barke at night against the moone.” And Barclay, in his Ship of Fooles, pleasantly exemplifies it : “This man malicious which troubled is with wrath, Nought els soundeth but the hoorse letter R, Though all be well, yet he none aunswere hath, Save the dogges letter glowming with nur, nar.” SC. V. ROMEO AND JULIET. &7 Rom. Commend me to thy lady. [ Exit. Nurse. Ay, a thousand times. — Peter ! Pet. Anon. Nurse. Peter, take my fan, and go before.*° [ Exeunt. SCENE V. Capu.et’s Garden. Enter JULIET. Jul. The clock struck nine, when I did send the nurse 5 In half an hour she promis’d to return. Perchance, she cannot meet him: that’s not so.— O, she is lame! love’s heralds should be thoughts," Which ten times faster glide than the sun’s beams, Driving back shadows over lowering hills: Therefore do nimble-pinion’d doves draw love, And therefore hath the wind-swift Cupid wings. Now is the sun upon the highmost hill Of this day’s journey; and from nine till twelve Is three long hours, — yet she is not come. Had she affections and warm youthful blood, She’d be as swift in motion as a ball ; My words would bandy her to my sweet love, And his to me: But old folks, many feign as they were dead ; Unwieldy, slow, heavy and pale as lead. 3 So the first quarto; the later copies have merely, “ Before, and apace,” instead of “ Peter, take my fan, and go before.” H. 1 The speech is thus continued in the quarto of 1597: « And run more swift than hasty powder fir’d Doth hurry from the fearful cannon’s mouth. O, now she comes! Tell me, gentle nurse, What says my love?” 8 ROMEO AND JULIET. ACT Il. Enter the Nurse and PETER. O God, she comes !—O, honey nurse! what news? Hast thou met with him? Send thy man away. Nurse. Peter, stay at the gate. [Evit Perer. Jul. Now, good sweet nurse,—O Lord! why look’st thou sad ? Though news be sad, yet tell them merrily ; If good, thou sham’st the music of sweet news By playing it to me with so sour a face. Nurse. I am aweary, give me leave awhile. — Fie, how ny bones ache! What a jaunt have I had! Jul. 1 would thou hadst my bones, and I thy news: Nay, come, I pray thee, speak ; — good, good nurse, speak. Nurse. Jesu, what haste! can you not stay awhile ? Do you not see, that I am out of breath? Jul. How art thou out of breath, when thou hast breath To say to me, that thou art out of breath? The excuse that thou dost make in this delay Is longer than the tale thou dost excuse. Is thy news good, or bad? answer to that ; Say either, and I’ll stay the circumstance: Let me be satisfied, is’t good or bad? Nurse. Well, you have made a simple choice: you know not how to choose a man: Romeo! no, not he; though his face be better than any man’s, yet his leg excels all men’s; and for a hand, and a foot, ai.d a body, — though they be not to be talk’d’ on, yet they are past compare. He is not the flower of courtesy, — but I’ll warrant him as gentle SC. V. ROMEO AND JULIET. &9 as a lamb.—Go thy ways, wench: serve God.— What! have you dined at home ? Jul. No, no: But all this did I know before ; What says he of our marriage? what of that? Nurse. Lord, how my head aches! what a head have I! It beats as it would fall in twenty pieces. My back ! 0’ t’other side, —O, my back, my back !— Beshrew your heart, for sending me about, To catch my death with jaunting up and down! Jul. Vfaith, I am sorry that thou art not well: Sweet, sweet, sweet nurse, tell me, what says my love ? Nurse. Your love says like an honest gentleman, And a courteous, and a kind, and a handsome, And, I warrant, a virtuous. — Where is your mother ? Jul. Where is my mother ?— why, she is within, Where should she be? How oddly thou repli’st ! «¢ Your love says like an honest gentleman, — Where is your mother ?” Nurse. O, God’s lady dear! Are you so hot?’ Marry, come up, I trow: Is this the poultice for my aching bones ? Henceforward do your messages yourself. Jul. Here’s such a coil! — Come, what says Ro- meo 1 Nurse. Have you got leave to go to shrift to-day ? Jul. I have. Nurse. Then hie you hence to friar Laurence cell ; There stays a husband to make you a wife Now comes the wanton blood up in your cheeks 3 They’ll be in scarlet straight at any news. Hie you to church; I must another way, To fetch a ladder, by the which your love Q* 90 ROMEO AND JULIET. ACT II Must climb a bird’s nest soon, when it is dark: I am the drudge, and toil in your delight ; But you shall bear the burden soon at night. Go; I'll to dinner: hie you to the cell. Jul. Hie to high fortune !—honest nurse, fares well. [ Exeunt SCENE VI. Friar Laurencer’s Cell. Enter’ Friar LaurENcE and Romeo. Fri. So smile the heavens upon this holy act, That after-hours with sorrow chide us not! Rom. Amen, amen! but, come what sorrow can, It cannot countervail the exchange of joy That one short minute .gives me in her sight : Do thou but close our hands with holy words, Then love-devouring death do what he dare ; It is enough I may but call her mine. Fri. These violent delights have violent ends, And in their triumph die ; like fire and powder, Which, as they kiss, consume. 'The sweetest honey Ts loathsome in his own deliciousness, And in the taste confounds the appetite : Therefore, love moderately ; long love doth so; Too swift arrives as tardy as too slow. Enter JULIET. Here comes the lady:—O! so light a foot Will ne’er wear out the everlasting flint :! 1 This scene was entirely rewritten after the first quarto, and ig this place not improved. The passage originally stood thus : “Youth’s love is quick, swifter than swiftest speed, See where she comes ! — So light a foot ne’er hurts the trodden flower: Of love and joy, see, see, the sovereign power!” SC. VI. ROMEO AND JULIET. 91 A lover may bestride the gossamers That idle in the wanton summer air, And yet not fall; so light is vanity. Jul. Good even to my ghostly confessor. Fri. Romeo shall thank thee, daughter, for us both. Jul. As much to him, else are his thanks too much. Rom. Ah, Juliet! if the measure of thy joy Be heap’d like mine, and that thy skill be more To blazon it, then sweeten with thy breath This neighbour air, and let rich music’s tongue Unfold the imagin’d happiness that both Receive in either by this dear encounter. Jul. Conceit, more rich in matter than in words, Brags of his substance, not of ornament: They are but beggars that can count their worth ; But my true love is grown to such excess, I cannot sum up half my sum of wealth.’ Fri. Come, come with me, and we will make short work ; For, by your leaves, you shall not stay alone, Till holy Church incorporate two in one. [Exeunt. The hyperbole of nerer wearing out the everlasting flint, appears Jess beautiful than the lines as they were originally written, where the lightness of Juliet’s motion is accounted for from the cheerful effects the passion of love produced in her mind. H. 2 The old copies read, “I cannot sum up sum of half my wealth,” save that in the folio the second sum is printed some, Stee:vzns made the transposition, which is doubtless right. H. 92 ROMEO AND JULIET. ACT Ut ACT: ie SCENE I. A public Place. Enter Mercutio, BeENvotio, Page, and Servants. Ben. I pray thee, good Mercutio, let’s retire: The day is hot, the Capulets abroad, And, if we meet, we shall not ’scape a brawl ; For now, these hot days, is the mad blood stirring. Mer. Thou art like one of those fellows that, when he enters the confines of a tavern, claps me his sword upon the table, and says, “God send me no need of thee !” and, by the operation of the second cup, draws him on the drawer, when, indeed, there is no need. Ben. Am I like such a fellow ? Mer. Come, come; thou art as hot a Jack in thy mood as any in Italy; and as soon mov’d to he moody, and as soon moody to be moy’d. Ben. And what to ? Mer. Nay, an there were two such, we should have none shortly, for one would kill the other. Thou! why thou wilt quarrel with a man that hath a hair more, or a hair less, in his beard, than thou hast. Thou wilt quarrel with a man for cracking nuts, having no other reason but because thou hast hazel eyes: What eye, but such an eye, would spy out such a quarrel? Thy head is as full of quar- rels, as an egg is full of meat; and yet thy head hath been beaten as addle as an egg, for quarrelling Thou hast quarrell’d with a man for coughing in the street, because he hath wakened thy dog that hath lain asleep in the sun. Didst thou not fall out with SC. I. ROMEO AND JULIET. 93 a tailor for wearing his new doublet before Easter? with another, for tying his new shoes with old rib- and? and yet thou wilt tutor me from quarrel- ling ! Ben. An I were so apt to.quarrel as thou art, any man should buy the fee simple of my life for an hour and a quarter. Mer. The fee simple? O simple ! Ben. By my head, here come the Capulets. Enter Typaut, and Others: Mer. By my heel, I care not. Tyb. Follow me close, for I will speak to them. — Gentlemen, good den! a word with one of you. Mer. And but one word with one of us? Couple it with something; make it a word and a blow. Tyb. You will find me apt enough to that, sir, if you will give me occasion. Mer. Could you not take some occasion without giving 7 Tyb. Mercutio, thou consort’st with Romeo, — Mer. Consort! what! dost thou make us min- strels ? an thou make minstrels of us, look to hear nothing but discords: here’s my fiddlestick ; here’s that shall make you dance. ”Zounds, consort Re Ben. We talk here in the public haunt of men: Either withdraw into some private place, Or reason coldly of your grievances, Or else depart ; here all eyes gaze on us. Mer. Men’s eyes were made to look, and let them gaAZe : I will not budge for no man’s pleasure, I. 1 It should be remembered that a consort was the old term for a set or company of musicians. ae 94 ROMEO AND JULIET. ACT III. Enter Romeo. Lyb. Well, peace be with you, sir! here comes my man. Mer. But Dll be hang’d, sir, if he wear your livery : Marry, go before to field, he’ll be your follower ; Your worship, in that sense, may call him —man. Tyb. Romeo, the hate I bear thee can afford No better term than this, —Thou art a villain. Rom. Tybalt, the reason that I have to love thee Doth much excuse the appertaining rage To such a greeting :—Villain am I none; Therefore farewell ; I see thou know’st me not. Lyb. Boy, this shall not excuse the injuries That thou hast done me; therefore, turn and draw. fiom. I do protest, I never injur’d thee ; But love thee better than thou canst devise, Till thou shalt know the reason of my love: And so, good Capulet, — which name I tendér As dearly as mine own, — be satisfied. Mer. QO calm, dishonourable, vile submission ! A la stoccata® carries it away. — [ Draws. Tybalt, you rat-catcher, will you walk ? | T'yb. What would’st thou have with me? Mer. Good king of cats,’ nothing, but one of your nine lives; that I mean to make bold withal, and, as you shall use me hereafter, dry-beat the rest of the eight. Will you pluck your sword out of his pilcher * by the ears? make haste, lest mine be about your ears ere it be out. ? The Italian term for a thrust or stab with a rapier. 3 Alluding to his name. See Act ii. sc. 4, note 2. 4 Warburton says that we should read pilche, which signifies a coat or covering of skin or leather ; meaning the scabbard. The first quarto has scabbard. SC. I. ROMEO AND JULIET. 95 Tyb. Yam for you. [ Drawing. Rom. Gentle Mercutio, put thy rapier up. Mer. Come, sir, your passado. [They fight. Rom. Draw, Benvolio: Beat down their weapons. —Gentlemen, for shame Forbear this outrage !— Tybalt, — Mercutio, — The prince expressly hath forbid this bandying In Verona streets. — Hold, Tybalt ! — good Mer- cutio! [Exzeunt TyBaut and his Partizans. Mer. I am hurt ;— A plague o’ both the houses !—-I am sped :— Is he gone, and hath nothing ? Ben. What ! art thou hurt? Mer. Ay, ay, a scratch, a scratch; marry, ‘tis enough. — Where is my page ? —go, villain, fetch a surgeon. [Exit Page. Rom. Courage, man! the hurt cannot be much. Mer. No, ’tis not so deep as a well, nor so wide as a church-door; but ’tis enough, ’twill serve: ask for me to-morrow, and you shall find me a grave man.® I am pepper’d, I warrant, for this world : — A plague o’ both your houses !_.’Zounds, a dog, a rat, a mouse, a Cat, to scratch a man to death! a braggart, a rogue, a villain, that fights by the book of arithmetic! Why the devil came you between us? I was hurt under your arm. 5 After this the quarto of 1597 continues Mercutio’s speech as follows: “ A pox of your houses! I shall be fairly mounted upon four men’s shoulders, for your house of the Montagues and the Capulets ; and then some peasantly rogue, some sexton, some base slave, shall write my epitaph, that Tybalt came and broke the prince’s laws, and Mercutio was slain for the first and second cause. Where’s the surgeon ? « Boy. He’s come, sir. «¢ Mer. Now will be keep a mumbling in my guts on the other side. — Come, Benvolio; lend me thy hand. A pox of your houses +” 96 ROMEO AND JULIET. ACT IIT. Rom. I thought all for the best. Mer. Help me into some house, Benvolio, Or I shall faint.— A plague o’ both your houses ! They have made worms’ meat of me: Ihave it, and soundly too :— Your houses! [Exeunt Mercutio and BENVOLIO. Rom. 'This gentleman, the prince’s near ally, My very friend, hath got his mortal hurt In my behalf; my reputation stain’d With Tybalt’s slander, Tybalt, that an hour Hath been my cousin ;°—O, sweet Juliet! Thy beauty hath made me effeminate, And in my temper soften’d valour’s steel. Re-enter BENVOLIO. Ben. O Romeo, Romeo! brave Mercutio’s dead . That gallant spirit hath aspir’d the clouds, Which too untimely here did scorn the earth. fom. This day’s black fate on more days doth depend ; 7 iV This but begins the woe, others must end. Re-enter TYBaut. Ben. Here comes the furious Tybalt back again. Rom. Alive! in triumph!® and Mercutio slain! Away to heaven, respective lenity, And fire-cy’d fury be my conduct now !— Now, Tybalt, take the “villain” back again, - That late thou gav’st me; for Mercutio’s soul § We have already had cousin in the sense of kinsman. The first quarto has kinsman here. H. 7 This day’s unhappy destiny hangs over the days yet to come. There will yet be more mischief. § So the first quarto ; the later copies, « He gone in triumph.” — The later copies also have « fire and fury ” instead of « fire-ey’d fury.” — Respective is considerative. Conduct for conductor. sc. I. ROMEO AND JULIET. 97 Is but a little way above our heads, Staying for thine to keep him company : Hither thou, or I, or both, must go with him. Tyb. Thou, wretched boy, that didst consort him here, Shalt with him hence. Rom. This shall determine that. [They fight ; Typaut falls. Ben. Romeo, away! be gone! . The citizens are up, and Tybalt slain : Stand not amaz’d:—the prince will doom thee death, If thou art taken. — Hence !—be gone !—away ! Rom. O! I am fortune’s fool. Ben. Why dost thou stay ? | Exit Romeo. Enter Citizens, §c. 1 Cit. Which way ran he, that kill’d Mercutio? Tybalt, that murderer, which way ran he! Ben. There lies that: 'Tybalt. 1 Cit. Up, sir; go with me: I charge thee in the prince’s name, obey. Enter the Prince, attended ; MonTAGUE, CAPULET, their Wives, and Others. Prin. Where are the vile beginners of this fray ? Ben. O, noble prince! I can discover all The unlucky manage of this fatal brawl : There lies the man, slain by young Romeo, That slew thy kinsman, brave Mercutio. Lady C. Yybalt, my cousin! —O, my brother’s child ! » O prince! O cousin! husband! O, the blood is spill’d ; VOL. x. 9 7 98 ROMEO AND JULIET. ACT III. Of my dear kinsman ! — Prince, as thou art true, For blood of ours, shed blood of Montague. O cousin, cousin ! Prin. Benvolio, who began this bloody fray ? Ben. Tybalt, here slain, whom Romeo’s hand did slay ; Romeo, that spoke him fair, bade him bethink How nice the quarrel was,’ and urg’d withal Your high displeasure : — all this, uttered With gentle breath, calm look, knees humbly bow’d, Uould not take truce with the unruly spleen Of Tybalt, deaf to peace, but that he tilts With piercing steel at bold Mercutio’s breast ;?° Who, all as hot, turns deadly point to point, And, with a martial scorn, with one hand beats Cold death aside, and with the other sends It back to Tybalt, whose dexterity Retorts it. Romeo he cries aloud, ‘Hold, friends! friends, part!” and, owes than his tongue, His agile arm beats down their fatal points," And ’twixt them rushes; underneath whose arm, An envious thrust from Tybalt hit the life Of stout Mercutio, and then. Tybalt fled ; But by and by comes back to Romeo, Who had but newly entertain’d revenge, And to’t they go like lightning ; for, ere I Could draw to part them, was stout Tybalt slain ; And, as he fell, did Romeo turn and fly: This is the truth, or let Benvolio die. eaee here means silly, tr ifling. This smal] portion of untruth in Benvolio’s narrativeis finely ea — COLERIDGE. H. 1! So the first quarto ; the other old copies having aged instead of agile. H. « epee SC. I. ROMEO AND JULIET. 99 Lady C. He is a kinsman to the Montague ; Affection makes him false, he speaks not true: Some twenty of them fought in this black strife, And all those twenty could but kill one life. I beg for justice, which thou, prince, must give: Romeo slew Tybalt, Romeo must not live. Prin. Romeo slew him, he slew Mercutio: Who now the price of his dear blood doth owe? Mon. Not Romeo, prince; he was Mercutio’s friend ; His fault concludes but what the law should end, The life of Tybalt. Prin. y And, for that offence, Immediately we do exile him hence: I have an interest in your hate’s proceeding 3 My blood for your rude brawls doth lie a bleeding: But I’ll amerce you with so strong a fine, That you shall all repent the loss of mine. I will be deaf to pleading and excuses 5 Nor tears nor prayers shall purchase out abuses, Therefore use none: let Romeo hence in haste 3 Else, when he’s found, that hour is his last. Bear hence this body, and attend our will: Mercy but murders, pardoning those that kill.” [ Exeunt. 12 Dryden mentions a tradition, which might easily reach his time, of a declaration made by Shakespeare, that he was obliged to kill Mercutio in the third Act, lest he should have been killed by him. Yet he thinks him no such formidable person, but that he might have lived through the play, and died in his bed, without danger to the Poet. Dryden well knew, had he been in quest of truth, that in a pointed sentence, more regard is commonly had t+ the words than the thought, and that it is very seldom to be rigor- ously understood. Mercutio’s wit, gaiety, and courage, will al- ways procure him friends that wish him a longer life ; but his death is not precipitated, he has lived out the time allotted him in the construction of the play; nor do I doubt the ability of Shake- speare to have continued his existence, though some of his sallies 100 ROMEO AND JULIET. ACT IIT SCENE IL A Room it CavounvislHiaiee: Enter Juutret. Jul. Gallop apace, you fiery-footed steeds, ‘Towards Phcebus’ mansion ;* such a wagoner As Phaeton would whip you to the west, And bring in cloudy night immediately. — Spread thy close curtain, love-performing night ! ‘That Rumour’s eyes may wink,” and Romeo are perhaps out of the reach of Dryden; whose genius was not very fertile of merriment, nor ductile to humour, but acute, argu- mentative, comprehensive, and sublime. — Jounson. 1 So the oldest copy; the later copies having lodging instead of mansion. Only the first four lines of this speech are in the quarto of 1597. H. 2 Few passages in Shakespeare, perhaps none, have caused more editorial comment than this. The old copies have runawayes instead of Rumour’s, or Rumoures, as the word would then have heen printed. Several corrections have been proposed, but Ru- mour’s seems the most satisfactory. Heath was the first to sug- gest it. Singer, also, without any knowledge, as he assures us, of Heath’s thought, recently hit upon rumourers’, The two are so nearly alike, that they may well enough pass for a coincidence of thought. Finally, Mr. White, of New York, tells us he had pitched upon Rumour’s, before he was aware that any one else had thought of the word. He discusses the point at much length, in his Shakespeare’s Scholar, and, we think, justifies the change as fully, perhaps, as the nature of the case can well admit. The Poet has personified Rumour in the Induction to 2 Henry IV.; and in his time she was supposed, like Virgil’s Fama, to have eyes as well as tongues. In support of the change, Mr. White aptly quotes the following, from an Entertainment given to King James, March 15th, 1603, by Dekker: « Directly under her, in a cart by herselfe, Fame stood upright ; a woman in a watchet roabe, thickly set ‘with open eyes and tongues, a payre of large golden winges at her backe, a trumpet in ber hand, a mantle of sundry cullours traversing her body: all these ensigns displaying but the propertie of her swiftnesse and aptnesse to disperse Rumoure.” Collier’s second folio has “ enemies’ eyes ;”’ the objection to which is, that from the nature of the case all eyes, as well of friends as of enemies, are required to be closed, so that Romeo’s visit may be absolutely unknown, save to those already privy to it. Of , ee ey a. Ore Sti Tek ROMEO AND JULIET. 101 Leap to these arms, untalk’d-of and unseen !— Lovers can see to do their amorous rites By their own beauties ; or, if love be blind, It best agrees with night. — Come, civil night,° Thou sober-suited matron, all in black, And learn me how to lose a winning match, Play’d for a pair of stainless maidenhoods : Hood my unmann’d blood bating in my cheeks,* With thy black mantle ; till strange love, grown bold, Think true love acted, simple modesty. Come, night; come, Romeo; come, thou day in night ; For thou wilt lie upon the wings of night Whiter than new snow on a raven’s back.’ — Come, gentle night; come, loving; black-brow’d night, Give me my Romeo: and, when he shall die,® course the theory of the reading in the text is, that Rumour, per- sonified, represents the power of human observation ; and that Juliet Jongs to have night come, when the eyes of Rumour shall be shut in sleep, so as to take in nothing for her tongues to work with ; because, as things now stand, the lovers can meet and know each other as man and wife, only when the eye of observation is closed or withdrawn. It may be well to add, as lending some support to Rumour’s, that Brooke’s poem has a similar personi- fication of Report. It is where Juliet is questioning with herself as to whether Romeo’s “bent of love be honourable, bis purpose - marriage :” «So, I defylde, Report shall take her trompe of blacke defame, Whence she with puffed cheeke shall blowe a blast so shrill Of my disprayse, that with the noyse Verona shall she fill.” H. 3 Civil is grave, solemn. 4 These are terms of falconry. An unmanned hawk is one that . is not brought to endure company. ating is fluttering or beat- ing the wings as striving to fly away. : 5 The old copies till the second folio have upon instead of on. Upon overfills the measure ; and the undated quarto remedies this by omitting new. H. 6 So the undated quarto; the other old copies, “when J shall die.” li. Q * 102 ROMEC AND JULIET. “ACT IIL Take him and cut him out in little stars, And he will make the face of heaven so fine, That all the world will be in love with piaae st And pay no worship to the garish sun.7— O! I have bought the aan of a love, But not possess’d it ; and, though I am sold, Not yet enjoy’d. So tedious is this day, As is the night before some festival To an impatient child, that hath new robes, And may not wear them. O! here comes my nurse, Enter the Nurse, with Cords. And she brings news; and every tongue, that speaks But Romeo’s name, speaks heavenly eloquence. — Now, nurse, what news? What hast thou there? the cords, That Romeo bade thee fetch ? Nurse. | Throwing them down.] Ay, ay, the cords. Jul. Ah me! what news? why dost thou wring thy bands? Nurse. Ah well-a-day! he’s dead, he’s dead, he’s dead ! We are undone, lady, we are undone ! — Alack the day !—he’s gone, he’s kill’d, he’s dead! Jul. Can Heaven be so envious ? Nurse. Romeo can, Though Heaven cannot.—O Romeo, Romeo !— Who ever would have thought it? — Romeo! Jul. What devil art thou, that dost torment me thus ? This torture should be roar’d in dismal hell. Hath Romeo slain himself? say thou but Z,8 7 Garish is gaudy, glittering. 8 In Shakespeare's time the affirmative particle ay was usually written J, and here it is necessary to retain the old spelling. Sc. Il. ROMEO AND JULIET. 103 And that bare vowel J shall poison more Than the death-darting eye of cockatrice :° I am not I, if there be such an J; Or those eyes shut, that make thee answer, I. If he be slain, say, 2; or, if not, no: Brief sounds determine of my weal, or woe. Nurse. I saw the wound, I saw it with mine eyes, — God save the mark ! —here on his manly breast: A piteous corse, a bloody piteous corse ; Pale, pale as ashes, all bedaub’d in blood, All in gore blood ;—I swoonded at the sight. Jul. O break, my heart !— poor bankrupt, break at once ! To prison, eyes! ne’er look on liberty! , Vile earth, to earth resign ; end motion here 3 And thou, and Romeo, press one heavy bier ! Nurse. O, Tybalt, Tybalt! the best friend I had: O, courteous Tybalt! honest gentleman ! That ever I should live to see thee dead ! Jul. What storm is this that blows so contrary ? Is Romeo slaughter’d ? and is Tybalt dead? My dear-lov’d cousin,’® and my dearer lord 1— Then, dreadful trumpet, sound the general doom ! > For who is living, if those two are gone? Nurse. Tybalt is gone, and Romeo banished : Romeo, that kill’d him, he is banished. Jul. O God! — did Romeo’s hand shed. Tybalt’s blood 2 Nurse. It did, it did; alas the day! it did. ® The cockatrice is the same as the basilisk, We have already met with the “beast” under the latter name. See 2 Henry VEE Act iii. se. 2, note 2; and King Richard III., Activ. se. 1, note 5. 10 So the first quarto; the later copies have dearest instead of dear-lov’d. H. -— ™* Oe ere = @i®= edie, | ahs hy a, ; - 5 BS. ‘ . : ; 104 ROMEO AND JULIET.. ACT III. Jul. O, serpent heart, hid with a flowering face! Did ever dragon keep so fair a cave? Beautiful tyrant! fiend angelical ! Dove-feather’d raven ! wolvish-ravening lamb! Despised substance of divinest show ! Just opposite to what thou justly seem’st ; A damned saint," an honourable villain !— O, nature! what hadst thou to do in hell, When thou didst bower the spirit of a fiend In mortal paradise of such sweet flesh 2 Was ever book, containing such vile matter, So fairly bound? O, that deceit should dwell In such a gorgeous palace ! Nurse. There’s no trust, No faith, no honesty in men ; all perjur’d, All forsworn, all naught, all dissemblers. — : Ah! where’s my man? give me some aqua vite :— These griefs, these woes, these sorrows make me old. Shame come to Romeo! | Jul. Blister’d be thy tongue, For such a wish!?? he was not born to shame: Upon his brow shame is asham’d to sit : For ’tis a throne where honour may be crown’d Sole monarch of the universal earth. O, what a beast was I to chide at him! Nurse. Will you speak well of him that kill’d your cousin ? Jul. Shall I speak ill of him that is my husband ? Ah, poor my lord! what tongue shall smooth thy name,’ 11 So the undated quarto: the other old copies have dim insteaa of damned. H, * Note the Nurse’s mistake of the mind’s audible struggles with itself for its decision in toto. —CoLERIDGE. hy 8 To smooth is to speak fair; it is here metaphorically used for to mitigate or assuage the asperity of censure with which Ro- meo’s name would be now mentioned, SC. Il. ROMEO AND JULIET. 105 When f, thy three-hours wife, have mangled it ?—~ But wherefore, villain, didst thou kill my cousin ? That villain cousin would have kill’d my husband: Back, foolish tears, back to your native spring ; Your tributary drops belong to woe, Which you, mistaking, offer up to joy. My husband lives, that Tybalt would have slain ; And Tybalt’s dead, that would have slain my hus- band : All this is comfort; wherefore weep I, then? Some word there was, worser than Tybalt’s death, That murder’d me: I would forget it fain But, O! it presses to my memory, Like damned guilty deeds to sinners’ minds : «Tybalt is dead, and Romeo.— banished !” That — “banished,” that one word — “banished,” Hath slain ten thousand Tybalts."* Tybalt’s death Was woe enough, if it had ended there: Or, —if sour woe delights in fellowship, And needly will be rank’d with other griefs, — Why follow’d not, when she said, 'Tybalt’s dead, Thy father, or thy mother, nay, or both, Which modern lamentation might have mov’d ?'° But, with a rear-ward following Tybalt’s death, «Romeo is banished !”»—to speak that word, Is father, mother, Tybalt, Romeo, Juliet, All slain, all dead :— «Romeo is banished !” — There is no end, no limit, measure, bound, In that word’s death; no words can that woe sound. — Where is my father, and my mother, nurse ? 14 That is, is worse than the loss of ten thousand Tybalts. 18 Modern is trite, common. Soin As You Like It: “ Full of wise saws and modern instances.” pia a 106 ROMEO AND JULIET. ACT III. Nurse. Weeping and wailing over Tybalt’s corse : Will you go to them? I will bring you thither. Jul. Wash they his wounds with tears? mine shall be spent, When theirs are dry, for Romeo’s banishment. Take up those cords. — Poor ropes, you are beguil’d, Both you and I, for Romeo is exil’d: He made you for a highway to my bed, But I, a maid, die maiden-widowed. Come, cords; come, nurse: I’ll to my wedding bed; And death, not Romeo, take my maidenhead ! Nurse. Hie to your chamber; I’ll find Romeo To comfort you: —I wot well where he is. Hark ye, your Romeo will be here at night : V’ll to him; he is hid at Laurence’ cell. Jul. O, find him! give this ring to my true knignt, And bid him come to take his last farewell. . [ Exeunt. SCENE JI. Friar Lavrencer’s Cell. Enter Friar LAuRENCE and Romeo. Fri. Romeo, come forth; come forth, thou fearful man: Affliction is enamour’d of thy parts, And thou art wedded to calamity. Rom. Father, what news? what is the prince’s doom ? . What sorrow craves acquaintance at my hand, That [ yet know not? Fri. Too familiar Is my dear son with such sour company : I bring thee tidings of the prince’s doom. Rom. What less than dooms-day is the prince’s doom ? sc. Ill. ROMEO AND JULIET. 107 Fri. A gentler judgment yanish’d from his lips ; Not body’s death, but body’s banishment. Rom. Ha! banishment? be merciful, say, death; For exile hath more terror in his look, Much more than death: do not say, banishment. Fri. Hence from Verona art thou banished : Be patient, for the world is broad and wide. Rom. There is no world without Verona walls, But purgatory, torture, hell itself. Hence-banished is banish’d from the world, And world’s exile is death : —then, banished Is death misterm’d: calling death banishment,’ Thou cut’st my head off with a golden axe, And smil’st upon the stroke that murders me. Fri. O, deadly sin! O, rude unthank fulness ! Thy fault our law calls death; but the kind prince, Taking thy part, hath rush’d aside the law, And turn’d that black word death to banishment : This is dear mercy, and thou seest it not. Rom. ’Tis torture, and not mercy: heaven is here Where Juliet lives; and every cat and dog And little mouse, every unworthy thing, Live here in heaven, and may look on her, But Romeo may not. — More validity,” More honourable state, more courtship lives In carrion flies, than Romeo: they may seize 1 So the first quarto ; the later copies, banished instead of ban- tshment. H. 2 Validity is often employed to signify worth, value. See King Lear, Acti. sc. 1, note 13. . By courtship, courtesy, courtly beha- viour is meant. Bullokar defines “compliment to be ceremony, court-ship, fine behaviour.” So in Ford’s Fancies Chaste and Noble: \ « Whilst the young lord of Telamon, her husband, Was packeted to France, to study courtship, Under, forsooth, a colour of employment.” 188 ROMEO AND JULIET. ACT III. On the white wonder of dear Juliet’s hand, And steal immortal blessing from her lips 3 Who, even in pure and vyestal modesty, Still blush, as thinking their own kisses sin; But Romeo may not, he is banished. This may flies do, when I from this must fly : And say’st thou yet, that exile is not death 7° Hadst thou no poison mix’d, no sharp-ground knife, No sudden mean of death, though ne’er so mean, But — banished — to kill me? Banished! O friar! the damned use that word in hell ; Howlings attend it: How hast thou the heart, Being a divine, a ghostly confessor, A sin-absolver, and my friend profess’d, To mangle me with that word, banished 2 Fri. Thou fond mad man, hear me but speak a word.* Rom. O! thou wilt speak again of banishment. Fri. Vil give thee armour to keep off that word ; Adversity’s sweet milk, philosophy, To comfort thee, though thou art banished. — Rom. Yet banished ?— Hang up philosophy ! Unless philosophy can make a Juliet, 3 We here follow the arrangement of the first folio, except that we transpose the line, “ But Romeo may not, he is banished $v which is there evidently misplaced after the line, « This may flies do, when I from this must fly.” The quartos of 1599 and 1609 jumble various: readings together thus: “This may flies do, when I from this must fly: And say’st thou yet, that exile is not death 2 But Romeo may not, he is banished. Flies may do this, but I from this must fly : They are free men, but I am banished.” H, * So the oldest copy: the later copies have Then instead of Thou, and “hear me a little speak,” instead of “hear me but speak a word.” — Fond here means foolish: often so used. H. - Sc. III. ROMEO AND JULIET. 109 Displant a town, reverse.a prince’s doom, It helps not, it prevails not: talk no more. ‘Fri. O! then I see that madmen have no ears. Rom. How should they, when that wise men have no eyes? Fri. Let me dispute with thee of thy estate. Rom. Thou canst not speak of what thou dost not feel : Wert thou as young as I, Juliet thy love, An hour but married, Tybalt murdered, Doting like me, and like me banished ; Then might’st thou speak, then might’st thou tear thy hair, : And fall upon the ground, as I do now, Taking the measure of an unmade grave. Fri. Arise; one knocks: good Romeo, hide thy- self. [ Knocking within. Rom. Not I; unless the breath of heart-sick groans, Mist-like, infold me from the search of eyes. [ Knocking. Fri. Hark, how they knock !_- Who’s there ?— Romeo, arise ; Thou wilt be taken. —Stay awhile. — Stand up ; [ Knocking. Run to my study. — By and by: — God’s will ! What wilfulness is this !—I come, I come. [ Knocking. Who knocks so hard? whence come you? what’s your will? Nurse. [Within.] Let me come in, and you shall know my errand: { come from Lady Juliet. Fri. Welcome, then. VOL. X. 10 110 ROMEO AND JULIET. ACT III. Enter the Nurse. Nurse. O, holy friar! O, tell me! holy friar, Where is my lady’s lord, where’s Romeo? Fri. There on the ground, with his own tears made drunk. Nurse. O, he is even in my mistress’ case ; Just in her case! Fri. O, woful sympathy ! Piteous predicament! ° Nurse. Even so lies she, Blubbering and weeping, weeping and blubbering. — Starid up, stand up; stand, an you be a man: For Juliet’s sake, for her sake, rise and stand; Why should you fall into so deep an O12 Rom. Nurse! Nurse. Ah sir! ah sir i — Death is the end of all. Rom. Spak’st thou of Juliet ? how is it with her? Doth she not think me an old murderer, Now I have stain’d the childhood of our joy With blood remov’d but little from her own? Where is she? and how doth she? and what says My conceal’d lady ° to our cancell’d love 2 Nurse. O! she says nothing, sir, but WOrBe and weeps ; And now falls on her bed; and then starts up, And Tybalt calls; and then on Romeo cries, And then falls down again. Rom. As if that name, Shot from the deadly level of a gun, 5 The old copies make these words a part of the Nurse’s speech. They were assigned to the Friar, at Farmer’s sugges- tion. ui. 6 The epithet concealed is to be understood, not of the person, but of the condition of the lady. ~~ wine ia , SC. IIL ROMEO AND JULIET. — *<] EE Did murder her; as that name’s cursed hand Murder’d-her kinsman.—O! tell me, friar, tell me, In what vile part of this anatomy Doth my name lodge? tell me, that I may sack The hateful mansion. [Drawing his Sword. Fri. Hold thy desperate hand! Art thou a man? thy form cries out, thou art ; Thy tears are womanish; thy wild acts denote The unreasonable fury of a beast : Unseemly woman, in a seeming man! Or ill-beseeming beast, in seeming both!” Thou hast amaz’d me: by my holy order, I thought thy disposition better temper’d. Hast thou slain Tybalt? wilt thou slay thyself? And slay thy lady too that lives in thee, By doing damned hate upon thyself ? Why rail’st thou on thy birth, the heaven, and earth? Since birth and heaven and earth all three do meet In thee at once; which thou at once would’st lose. Fie, fie! thou sham’st thy shape, thy love, thy wit; Which, like an usurer, abound’st in all, And usest none in that true use indeed Which should bedeck thy shape, thy love, thy wit. Thy noble shape is but a form of wax, Digressing from the valour of a man; Thy dear love, sworn, but hollow perjury, Killing that love which thou hast vow’d to cherish ; Thy wit, that ornament to shape and love, 7 Shakespeare has here followed Brooke’s poem: « Art thou, quoth he, a man? thy shape saith, so thou art, Thy crying and thy weping eyes denote a womans hart: For manly reason is quite from of thy mynd outchased, And in her stead affections lewd, and fancies highly placed 5 So that I stoode in doute this howre at the least, If thou o man or woman wert, or else a brutish beast.” 5 . Se er ae 112 “ ROMEO AND JULIET. ACT III. Misshapen in the conduct of them both, Like powder in a skill-less soldier’s flask, Ts set a-fire by thine own ignorance,® And thou dismember’d with thine own defence.® What! rouse thee, man! thy Juliet is alive, For whose dear sake thou wast but lately dead ; There art thou happy: Tybalt would kill thee, But thou slew’st Tybalt ; there art thou happy too: The law, that threaten’d death, becomes thy friend, And turns it to exile; there art thou happy: A pack of blessings lights upon thy back ; Happiness courts thee in her best array ; But, like a misbehav’d and sullen wench, Thou pout’st upon thy fortune and thy love: Take heed, take heed, for such die miserable. Go, get thee to thy love, as was decreed, Ascend her chamber, hence and comfort her 3 But look, thou stay not till the watch be set, For then thou canst not pass to Mantua ; Where thou shalt live, till we can find a time To blaze your marriage, reconcile your friends, Beg pardon of the prince, and call thee back With twenty hundred thousand times more joy Than thou went’st forth in lamentation. — Go before, nurse : commend me to thy lady ; And bid her hasten all the house to bed, 8 To understand the force of this allusion, it should be remem- bered that the ancient English soldiers, using match locks, instead * of locks with flints, as at present, were obliged to carry a lighted match hanging at their belts, very near to the wooden flask in which they carried their powder. The same allusion occurs in Humor’s Ordinary, an old collection of English Uipigrams: “When she his fask and touch-box set on fire, And till this hour the burning is not out.” ® And thou torn to pieces with thine own weapons. SC. IV. ROMEO AND JULIET. 113 Which heavy sorrow makes them apt unto: Romeo is coming. Nurse. O Lord! I could have stay’d here all the night, To hear good counsel: O, what learning is ! — My lord, ll tell my lady you will come. Fiom. Do so, and bid my sweet prepare to chide. Nurse. Here, sir, a ring she bid me give you, sir. Hie you, make haste, for it grows very late. [Evit. Rom. How well my comfort is reviv’d by this! Fri. Go hence: Good night; and here stands all your state :"° Either be gone before the watch be set, Or by the break of day disguis’d from hence. Sojourn in Mantua; [’ll find out your man, And he shall signify from time to time Every good hap to you, that chances here. Give me thy hand; ’tis late: farewell; good night. Rom. But that a joy past joy calls out on me, It were a grief, so brief to part with thee: Farewell. [ Exeunt. SCENE IV. , Act iii. sc. 2, note 29. Shakespeare has glorified the subject w.th special power, in Venus and Adonis : “Lo! here the gentle lark, weary of rest, From his moist cabinet mounts up on high, And wakes the morning, from whose silver breast The sun ariseth in his majesty ; , Who doth the world so gloriously behold, The cedar-tops and hills seem burnish’d gold.” H. 116 ROMEO AND JULIET. ACT IIL No nightingale: look, love, what envious streaks Do lace the severing clouds in yonder east. Night’s candles are burnt out, and jocund day Stands tiptoe on the misty mountain tops: I must be gone and live, or stay and die. Jul. Yond’ light is not daylight ; I know it, I: It is some meteor that the sun exhales, To be to thee this night a torch-bearer,* And light thee on thy way to Mantua: Therefore stay yet; thou need’st not to be gone. Rom. Let me be ta’en, let me be put to death 5 { am content, so thou wilt have it so. I'll say, yon gray is not the morning’s eye, Tis but the pale reflex of Cynthia’s bow ;° Nor that is not the lark, whose notes do beat The vaulty heaven so high above our heads: I have more care to stay, than will to go: — Come, death, and welcome! Juliet wills it so.— How is’t, my soul? let’s talk, it is not day.® 4 So in Sidney’s Arcadia: «The moon, then full (not thinking scorn to be a torch-hearer to such beauty) guided her steps.” And Sir John Davies’s Orchestra, speaking of the Sun: « When the great torch-hearer of heaven was gone Downe in a maske unto the ocean’s court.” 5 All the old copies have brow instead of bow. The happy change is made in Mr. Collier’s second folio; and Mr. Singer says ne. same is done in his second folio. H. 6 The quarto of 1597 gives this speech in a form which the Poet will hardly be thought to have improved ; thus: « Let me stay here, let me be ta’en, and die; If thoa wilt have it so, [ am content. I’ll say yon gray is not the morning's eye, It is the pale reflex of Cynthia’s brow ; I’ll say it is the nightingale that beats The vaulty heaven so far above our heads, And not the lark, the messenger of morn: Come, death, and welcome! Juliet wills it so, — What says my love ? let’s talk, ’tis not yet day.” SC. V. ROMEO AND JULIET. 117 Jul. It is, it is; hie hence, be gone, away ! It is the lark that sings so out of tune, Straining harsh discords, and unpleasing sharps. Some say, the lark makes sweet division ;7 This doth not so, for she divideth us: Some say, the lark and loathed toad chang’d eyes ;° O! now I would they had chang’d voices too, Since arm from arm that voice doth us affray, Hunting thee hence with hunts-up to the day.® O! now be gone: more light and light it grows. Rom. More light and light !— more dark and dark our woes. Enter the Nurse. Nurse. Madam ! Jul. Nurse. Nurse. Your lady mother’s coming to your cham- ber: The day is broke ; be wary, look about. [ Exit. Jul. ‘Then, window, let day in, and let life out. Rom. Farewell, farewell! one kiss, and Vll de- scend. [Romxo descends. — 7 A division, in music, is a variation upon some fundamental air. 8 The toad having very fine cyes and the lark very ugly ones, was the occasion of a common saying that the toad and the lark had changed eyes. The croak of the toad would have been no indication of the appearance of day, and consequently no signal for her lover’s departure. ; 8 The hunt’s up was originally a tune played to wake sports- men, and call them together. It was a common burthen of hunt- ing ballads. Puttenham says that one Gray grew into good esti- mation with the Duke of Somerset for making certain merry bal- lads, whereof one chiefly was the hunte is,up, the hunte is up. According to Cotgrave the Reveille, or morning song to a new married woman, was called the hunt’s up. So Drayton, in his Poly-Olbion: “ But hunt’s up to the morn the feather’d sylvans sing.”’ And in his third Eclogue: “Time plays the hunt’s up to hy sleepy head.” 11 ey ss 118 ROMEO AND JULIET. ACT III. Jul. Art thou gone so? love! lord! ay, husband, friend ! I must hear from thee every day in the hour, For-in a minute there are many days: O! by this count I shall be much in years, Ere I again behold my Romeo. Rom. Farewell! I will omit no opportunity That may convey my greetings, love, to thee. Jul. O! think’st thou we shall ever meet again ? Rom. 1 doubt it not; and all these woes shall serve For sweet discourses in our time to come. Jul. O-God! I have an ill-divining soul ;*° Methinks, I see thee, now thou art so low, As one dead in the bottom of a tomb: Either my eyesight fails, or thou Jook’st pale. Rom. And trust me, love, in my eye so do you: Dry sorrow drinks our blood. Adieu! adieu! | [ Exit. Jul. O, fortune, fortune! all men call thee fickle: If thou art fickle, what dost thou with him _ That is renown’d for faith? Be fickle, fortune ; For then, I hope, thou wilt not keep him long, But send him back. Lady C. [Within.] Ho, daughter! are you up? Jul. Who is’t that calls? is it my lady mother ? Is she not down so late, or up so early ? What unaccustom’d cause procures her hither ? 10 This miserable prescience of futurity I have always regard ed as a circumstance peculiarly beautiful. The same kind of warning from the mind, Romeo seems to have been conscious of on his going to the entertainment at the house of Capulet: “My mind misgives me, Some consequence, yet hanging in the stars, Shall bitterly begin his fearful date From this night’s revels.” STEEVENS, a ; SC. V. ROMEO AND JULIET. 119 Enter Lady CaPuuet. _ Lady C. Why, how now, Juliet? Jul. Madam, I am not well. Lady C. Evermore weeping for your cousin’s death 2 What! wilt thou wash him from his grave with tears? An if thou could’st, thou could’st not make him live ; Therefore have done. Some grief shows much of love ; But much of grief shows still some want of wit. Jul. Yet let me weep for such a feeling loss. Lady C. So shall you feel the loss, but not the friend Which you weep for. Jul. Feeling so the loss, I cannot choose but ever weep the friend. Lady C. Well, girl, thou weep’st not so much for his death, As that the villain lives which slaughter’d him. Jul. What villain, madam ? Lady C. That same villain, Romeo. Jul. Villain and he are many miles asunder. God pardon him! I do with all my beart ; And yet no man, like he, doth grieve my heart. Lady C. That is, because the traitor murderer lives. Jul. Ay, madam, from the reach of these my hands. Would none but I might venge my cousin’s death ! Lady C. We will have vengeance for it, fear thou not : Then, weep no more. I'll send to one in Mantua, — Where that same banish’d runagate doth live,— | 120 ROMEO AND JULIET. ACT III. Shall give him such an unaccustom’d dram,” That he shall soon keep Tybalt company ; And then, I hope, thou wilt be satisfied. Jul. Indeed, I never shall be satisfied With Romeo, till I behold him — dead — Is my poor heart so for a kinsman vex’d. — Madam, if you could find out but a man To bear a poison, I would temper it ; That Romeo should, upon receipt thereof, Soon sleep in quiet.— O! how my heart abhors To hear him nam’d, — and cannot come to him, — To wreak the love I bore my cousin Tybalt’? Upon his body that hath slaughter’d him ! Lady C. Find thou the means, and UII find such a man. But now I'll tell thee joyful tidings, girl. Jul. And joy comes well in such a needful time: What are they, I beseech your ladyship? Lady C. Well, well, thou hast a careful father, child ; One who, to put thee from thy heaviness, Hath sorted out a sudden day of joy, That thou expect’st not, nor I look’d not for. Jul. Madam, in happy time,’® what day is that ? Lady C. Marry, my child, early next Thursday morn, The gallant, young, and noble gentleman, 11 So all the old copies but the first quarto, which reads thus: ‘That should bestow on him so sure a draught.” This reading, with should changed to shall, has been commonly adopted in the modern text. H. 12 In this line, Tybalt was first-supplied in the folio of 1632, It improves the metre, though nowise necessary to the sense. H. 13 A la bonne heure. This phrase was interjected when the hearer was not so well pleased as the speaker. —JOHNSON. SC. V. ROMEO AND JULIET. 12] The county Paris,'* at St. Peter’s church, Shall happily make thee there a joyful bride. Jul. Now, by St. Peter’s church, and Peter too, He shall not make me there a joyful bride. I wonder at this haste; that I must wed Ere he that should be husband comes to woo. I pray you, tell my lord and father, madam, I will not marry yet; and, when I do, I swear It shall be Romeo, whom you know I hate, Rather than Paris. — These are news indeéd !*° Lady C. Here comes your father; tell him so yourself, And see how he will take it at your hands. Enter CAPputet and the Nurse. Cap. When the sun sets, the earth doth drizzle dew ;*° But, for the sunset of my brother’s son, It rains downright. — How now! a conduit,!” girl? what! still in tears ? Evermore showering? In one little body Thou counterfeit’st a bark, a sea, a wind ; For still thy eyes, which I may call the sea, 14 County, or countie,,was the usual term for an earl in Shake- speare’s time. Paris is in this play first styled a young earle. 15 In Mr. Collier’s second folio, the words, “ These are news indeed!” are transferred to Lady Capulet, and made a part of the next speech. The change, though not necessary to the sense, seems well worthy of being considered. H. 16 This is scientifically true ; though, poetically, it would seem better to read air instead of earth. And, in fact, some modern editions do read air, alleging the undated quarto as authority for it; but such, it seems, is not the case. A line has been justly quoted from The Rape of Lucrece as supporting earth: “ But as the earth doth weep, the sun being set.” H. 17 The same image, which was in frequent use with Shake- speare’s contemporaries, occurs in Brooke’s poem: “ His sighs are stopt, and stopped in the conduit of his tears.” VOL. X. {22 ROMEO AND JULIET. ACT III. Do ebb and flow with tears; the bark thy body is, Sailing in this salt flood; the winds, thy sighs ; Who, — raging with thy tears, and they with them, — Without a sudden calm, will overset Thy tempest-tossed body. — How now, wife ! Have you deliver’d to her our decree ? Lady C. Ay, sir; but she will none, ‘she gives you thanks. I would the fool were married to her grave ! Cap. Soft! take me with you, take me with you, wife."® How! will she none? doth she not give us thanks 2 Is she not proud? doth she not count her bless’d, Unworthy as she is, that we have wrought So worthy a gentleman to be her bridegroom ? Jul. Not proud you have, but thankful. that you have : Proud can I never be of what I hate ; . But thankful even for hate, that is meant love. Cap. How now! how now, chop-logic!!® What is this ? Proud, —and, I thank you,—and, I thank you not ;— And yet not proud :— Mistress minion, you ! Thank me no thankings, nor proud me no prouds, But settle your fine joints ’gainst Thursday next, 18 That is, let me understand you ; like the Greek phrase, “ Let me go along with you.” — Coleridge here exclaims, —“ A noble scene! Don’t I see it with my own eyes ?— Yes! but not with Juliet’s, And observe in Capulet’s Jast speech in this scene his mistake, as if love’s causes were capable of being generalized.” H. 19 Capulet uses this as-a nickname. « Choplogyk is he that whan his mayster rebuketh his servaunt for his defawtes, he will give him xx wordes for one, or elles he will bydde the devylles vaternoster in scylence.” — The xxiiii Orders of Knaves. SC. V. - ROMERO AND JULIET. 123 To go with Paris to St. Peter’s church, Or I will drag thee on a hurdle thither. Out, you green-sickness carrion ! out, you baggage! You tallow face !*° Lady C. Fie, fie! what! are you mad? Jul. Good father, I beseech you on my knees, Hear me with patience but to speak a word. Cap. Hang thee, young baggage! disobedient wretch ! I tell thee what, — get thee to church o’ Thursday, Or never after look me in the face. Speak not, reply not, do not answer me 5 My fingers itch. — Wife, we scarce thought us , bless’d, That God had sent us but this only child ; But now I see this one is one too much, And that we have a curse in having her. Out on her, hilding !** Nurse. God in heaven bless her !— You are to blame, my lord, to rate her so. Cap. And why, my lady wisdom? hold your . tongue, Good prudence: smatter with your gossips; go. Nurse. I speak no treason. Cap. O, God ye good den ! Nurse. May not one speak ? Cap. Peace, you mumbling fool ! Utter your gravity o’er a gossip’s bowl, For here we need it not. 20 In the age of Shakespeare, authors not only employed these terms of abuse in their original performances, but even in their versions of the most chaste and elegant of the Greek or Roman poets. Stanyhurst, the translator of Virgil, in 1582, makes Dido call ASneas hedge-brat, cullion, and tar-breech, in the course of one speech. ‘ 21 Hilding was a common term of reproach ; meaning somes thing vile. See The Taming of the Shrew, Act ii. se. 1, note 1 R- 124 ROMEO AND JULIET. ACT Ti Lady Cor" You are too hot. Cap. God’s bread! it makes me mad. Day, night, hour, tide, time, work, play, Alone, in company, still my care hath been To have her match’d ;* and having now provided A gentleman of noble parentage, Of fair demesnes, youthful, and nobly-train’d,”* Stuff’d (as they say) with honourable parts, - Proportion’d as one’s thought would wish a man, — And then to have a wretched puling fool, A whining mammet,” in her fortune’s tender, To answer, “I'll not wed, —I cannot love, I am too young, —I pray you, pardon me.” — But, an you will not wed, I’ll pardon you: , Graze where you will, you shall not house with me; Look to’t, think on’t, I do not use to jest. Thursday is near; lay hand on heart, advise: An you be mine, [’ll give you to my friend ; An you be not, hang, beg, starve, die i’the streets, For, by my soul, I’ll ne’er acknowledge thee, Nor what is: mine shall never do thee good. Trust to’t, bethink you; I'll not be forsworn. [ Ezit. Jul. Is there no pity sitting in the clouds, "22 Such is the reading of all the old copies except the first, by the help of which a third reading has been manufactured in divers modern editions. We subjoin the passage as there given: «“ God’s blessed mother, wife, it mads me: Day, night, early, late, at home, abroad, Alone, in company, waking or sleeping, ' Still my care hath been to see her match’d. a H. 23 Train’d is from the quarto of 1597: that of 1599 has liand ; the other old copies, ul/ied. — In the second line after, the first quarto has heart could instead of thought would, which is the read- ing of all the other old copies. H. 24 Mummet has been explained i in 1] Henry IV., Act ii. se. 3, note 9. The explanation there given has been disputed, but is confirmed by the use of the word in this place. He Sc. V. ROMEO AND JULIET. 125 That sees into the bottom of my grief? — O, sweet my mother, cast me not away! Delay this marriage for a month, a week ; Or, if you do not, make the bridal bed In that dim monument where Tybalt lies. Lady C. Talk not to me, for Pll not speak a word. Do as thou wilt, for I have done with thee. [Ezit. Jul. O God! —O nurse! how shall this be pre- vented 2 My husband is on earth, my faith in heaven ; How shall that faith return again to earth, Unless that husband send it me from heaven By leaving earth ?— comfort me, counsel me. — Alack, alack! that Heaven should practise strat- agems Upon so soft a subject as myself !— What say’st thou? hast thou not a word of joy? Some comfort, nurse. Nurse. Faith, here ’tis: Romeo Is banished ; and all the world to nothing, That he dares ne’er come-back to challenge you 5 Or, if he do, it needs must be by stealth. Then, since the case so stands as now it doth, I think it best you married with the county. O, he’s a lovely gentleman !*° Romeo’s a dishclout to him: an eagle, madam, 25 The character of the Nurse exhibits a just picture of those whose actions have no principles for their foundation. She has been unfaithful to the trust reposed in her by Capulet, and is ready to embrace any expedient that offers, to avert the conse- quences of her first infidelity. The picture is not, however, an original ; the nurse in the poem exhibits the same readiness to ac- commedate herself to the present conjuncture. Sir John Van- brugh, in The Relapse, has copied, in this respect, the character of his nurse from Shakespeare. 11* 126 ROMEO AND JULIET. ACT III. Hath not so green,*® so quick, so fair an eye, As Paris hath. Beshrew my very heart, I think you are happy in this second match, For it excels your first; or, if it did not, Your first is dead; or ’twere as good he were, As living here, and you no use of him. Jul. Speakest thou from thy heart? Nurse. And from my soul too; or else beshrew them both. ! Jul. Amen ! Nurse. What? Jul. Well, thou hast comforted me marvellous much. Go in; and tell my lady I am gone, Having displeas’d my father, to Laurence’ cell, To make confession, and to be absolv’d. - Nurse. Marry, I will; and this is wisely done. [ Exit. Jul. Ancient damnation! O, most wicked fiend ! Is it more sin to wish me thus forsworn, Or to dispraise my lord with that same tongue Which she hath prais’d him with above compare So many thousand times ?— Go, counsellor ; Thou and my bosom henceforth shall be twain. — Pll to the friar, to know his remedy 5. _ If all else fail, myself have power to die. _—_[ Exit. 76 Chaucer, in The Knightes Tale, says of Emetrius, —“ His nose was high, his eyew bright citrin ;”’? which probably means that his eyes had the colour of an unripe Jemon or citron. So, Fletcher, in The Two Noble Kinsmen: « O! vouchsafe with that thy rare green eye.” And Lord Bacon says that “eyes some- what large, and the circles of them inclined to greenness, are signs of long life.” H, ROMEO AND JULIET. 127 ACT IV. SCENE I. Friar Laurencer’s Cell. Enter Friar LAURENCE and Paris. Fri. On Thursday, sir? the time is very short. Par. My father Capulet will have it so; And I am nothing slow, to slack his haste.’ Fri. You say you do not know the lady’s mind: Uneven is the course; I like it not. Par. Immoderately she weeps for Tybalt’s death, And therefore have I little talk’d of love ; For Venus smiles not in a house of tears. Now, sir, her father counts it dangerous, That she doth give her sorrow so much sway 3 And in his wisdom hastes our marriage, To stop the inundation of her tears ; Which, too much minded by herself alone, May be put from her by society. Now do you know the reason of this haste. Fri. [Aside.] I would I knew not why it should. be slow’d.? — Look, sir, here comes the lady towards my cell. Enter JuutetT. Par. Happily met, my lady, and my wife ! Jul. That may be, sir, when I may be a wife. 1 The meaning of Paris is clear; he does not wish to restrain Capulet, or to delay bis own marriagé ; there is nothing of slow- ness in me, to induce me to slacken his haste: but the words given him seem rather to mean I am not backward in restraining his haste. In the first edition the line ran: “ And I am nothing slack to slow his haste.” 2 To slow and to foreslow were anciently in common use. 128 ROMEO AND JULIET. . ACT sty, Par. 'That may be, must be, love, on Thursday next. Jul. What must be shall be. Fri. That’s a certain text. Par. Come you to make confession to this father ? Jul. 'To answer that, I should confess to you. Par. Do not deny to him that you love me. Jul. I will confess to you that I love him. Par. So will you, I am sure, that you love me. Jul. If I do so, it will be of more price Being spoke behind your back, than to your face. Par. Poor soul, thy face is much abus’d with tears. Jul. The tears have got small victory by that ; Ior it was bad enough before their spite. Par. Thou wrong’st it, more than tears, with that report. Jul. That is no slander, sir, that is a truth; And what I spake, I spake it to my face. Par. Thy face is mine, and thou hast slander’d it. Jul. It may be so, for it is not mine own. — Are you at leisure, holy father, now, Or shall I come to you at evening mass 7° Fri. My leisure serves me, pensive daughter, now. — My lord, we must intreat the time alone. Par. God shield, I should disturb devotion |! — Juliet, on Thursday early will I rouse you: Till then, adieu! and keep this holy kiss. — [ Ezz. Jul. O, shut the door! and when thou hast done SO, Come weép with me; past hope, past cure, past help! | Fri. Ah, Juliet! I already know thy grief ; 3 Juliet means vespers ; there is no such thing as evening mass. SC. I. ROMEO AND JULIET. 129 It strains me past the compass of my wits: I hear thou must, and nothing must prorogue it, On Thursday next be married to this county. Jul. Tell me not, friar, that thou hear’st of this, Unless thou tell me how I may prevent it: Tf in thy wisdom thou canst give no help, Do thou but call my resolution wise, And with this knife Pll help it presently. God join’d my heart and Romeo’s, thou our hands ; And ere this hand, by thee to Romeo seal’d, Shall be the label to another deed,* Or my true heart with treacherous revolt Turn to another, this shall slay them both. Therefore, out of thy long-experienc’d time, ° Give me some present counsel ; or, behold, *T wixt my extremes and me this bloody knife Shall play the umpire, arbitrating that Which the commission of thy years and art Could to no issue of true honour bring. Be not so long to speak ; I long to die, If what thou speak’st speak not of remedy. Fri. Hold, daughter! | do spy a kind of hope, Which craves as desperate an execution As that is desperate which we would prevent. If, rather than to marry county Paris, Thou hast the strength of will to slay thyself, Then is it likely thou wilt undertake A thing like death to chide away this shame, That cop’st with death himself to ’scape from it; And, if thou dar’st, Ill give thee remedy. Jul. O! bid me leap, rather than marry Paris, 4 The seals of deeds formerly were appended on distinct slips or labels affixed to the deed. Hence in King Richard II. the Duke of York discovers a covenant, which his son the Duke of Aumerle had entered into, by the depending seal. 9 tt 130 ROMEO AND JULIET. ACT IV. From off the battlements of yonder tower ;° Or walk in thievish ways; or bid me lurk Where serpents are; chain me with roaring bears 3 Or hide me nightly in a charnel-house, O’er-cover’d quite with dead men’s rattling bones, With reeky shanks, and yellow chapless skulls ; Or bid me go into a new-made grave, And hide me with a dead man in his shrond ;° Things that, to hear them told, have made me tremble ; And I will do it without fear or doubt, To live an unstain’d wife to my sweet love. fri. Hold, then: go home, be merry, give con- sent To marry Paris. Wednesday is to-morrow ; To-morrow night look that thou lie alone, ’ Let not thy nurse lie with thee in thy chamber : Take thou this phial, being then in bed, And this distilled liquor drink thou off ; When, presently, through all thy veins shall run A cold and drowsy humour; for no pulse Shall keep his native progress, but surcease : 7 5 So the first quarto ; the other old copies, “ any tower.” —In the second line below, the first quarto reads thus ; «Or chain me to some steepy mountain’s top, Where roaring bears and savage lions are.” H. 6 So the undated quarto: the folio of 1623 has grave instead of shroud: the quartos'of 1599 and 1609 have nothing after his, thus leaving the sense incomplete. The first quarto gives the line thus: “Or lay me in a tomb with one new dead.’’— Instead of the last line in this speech, the quarto of 1597 has the following : “To keep myself a faithful unstain’d wife To my dear lord, my dearest Romeo.” H. 7 In the first quarto, where this whole speech extends only to fourteen lines, we have the following, which is in some respects better than the reading of the other old copies: Sc. I. ROMEO AND JULIET. 131 No warmth, no breath, shall testify thou liv’st 5 The roses in thy lips and cheeks shall fade To paly ashes;* thy eyes’ windows fall, Like death, when he shuts up the day of life ; Each part, depriv’d of supple government, Shall, stiff and stark and cold, appear like death: And in this borrow’d likeness of shrunk death Thou shalt remain full two-and-forty hours, And then awake as from a pleasant sleep. Now, when the bridegroom in the morning comes To rouse thee from thy bed, there art thou dead : Then, as the manner of our country is, In thy best robes uncover’d on the bier,® Thou shalt be borne to that same ancient vault, Where all the kindred of the Capulets lie. In the mean time, against thou shalt awake, Shall Romeo by my letters know our drift 5 And hither shall he come, and he and I Will watch thy waking, and that very.night Shall Romeo bear thee hence to Mantua. And this shall free thee from this present shame, If no unconstant toy nor womanish fear Abate thy valour in the acting it. Jul. Give me, give me! O, tell me not of fear ! Fri. Hold; get you gone; be strong and pros- perous ® «A dull and heavy slumber, which shall seize Each vital spirit; for no palse shall keep His natural progress, but surcease to beat.” H. 8 So the undated quarto: the other old copies have many in- stead of puly; except the second folio, which bas mealy. H. 9 The Italian custom here alluded to, of carrying the dead body to the grave richly dressed, and with the face uncovered, Shake- speare found particularly described in Brooke’s poem: « An other use there is, that whosoever dyes, Borne to their church, with open face upon the beere he lyes, In wonted weed attyrde, not wrapt in winding sheete.” 132 ROMEO AND JULIET. ACT IV. In this resolve: I'll send a friar with speed To Mantua, with my letters to thy lord. Jul. Love, give me strength! and strength shall help afford. Farewell, dear father ! [ Exeunt. SCENE II. A Room in Capu.et’s House. Enter CapuLtet, Lady CarPu.et, the Nurse, and Servants. Cap. So many guests invite as here are writ. — [Exit Servant. Sirrah, go hire me twenty cunning cooks.’ 2 Serv. You shall have none ill, sir; for I’ll try if they can lick their fingers. 1 Cooking was an art of great esteem in Shakespeare’s time, as indeed it is likely to be, so long as men keep up the habit of eating. Ben Jonson’s description of “a master cook,” too long to be quoted here, is a specimen of the humourous sublime not apt to be forgotten by any one that has feasted upon it. The Poet has been suspected of an oversight or something worse, in making Capulet give order here for so many “cunning cooks ;” where- upon the pictorial edition defends him thus: «“ Old Capulet, in his exuberant spirits at his daughter’s approaching marriage, calls for ‘twenty’ of these artists. The critics think this too large a num- ber. Ritson says, with wonderful simplicity, —*‘ Either Capulet had altered his mind strangely, or our author forgot what he had just made him tell us.’ This is indeed to understand the Poet with admirable exactness. The passage is entirely in keeping with Shakespeare’s habit of hitting off a character almost by a word. Capulet is evidently a man of ostentation ; but his osten- tation, as is most generally the case, is covered with a thin veil of affected indifference. In the first Act he says to his. guests, — «We have a trifling foolish banquet toward.’ In the third Act, wien he settles the day of Paris’ marriage, he just hints, —‘ We'll keep no great ado 3; —a friend, or two.’ But Shakespeare knew that these indications of ‘the pride which apes humility’ were not inconsistent with the ‘twenty cooks,’ — the regret that ‘we shall be much unfurnish’d for this time,’ and the solicitude expressed in, ‘Look to the bak’d meats, good Angelica.’ ” H. — sc. IL ROMEO AND JULIET. : 133 Cap. How canst thou try them so? 2 Serv. Marry, sir, ’tis an ill cook that cannot lick his own fingers: ° therefore, he that cannot lick his fingers goes not with me. Cap. Go, begone.— [Exit Servant. We shall be much unfurnish’d for this time. — What! is my daughter gone to friar Laurence? Nurse. Ay, forsooth. Cap. Well, he may chance to do some good on her: A peevish self-will’d harlotry it is. Enter JUvIetT. Nurse. See, where she comes from shrift with merry look. Cap. How now, my headstrong! where have you been gadding ? _Jul. Where I have learn’d me to repent the sin Of disobedient opposition To you and your behests; and am enjoin’d By holy Laurence to fall prostrate here, And beg your pardon. — Pardon, I beseech you ! Henceforward I am ever rul’d by you. Cap. Send for the county: go tell him of this. Vl have this knot knit up to-morrow morning. Jul. I met the youthful lord at Laurence’ cell ; And gave him what becomed Jove I might,’ Not stepping o’er the bounds of modesty. 2 This adage is in Puttenham’s Arte of English Poesie, 1589: « As the olde cocke crowes so doeth the chicke: A bad cooke that cannot his owne\fingers lick.” 3 Becomed for becoming. The old writers furnish many such instances of the active and passive forms used interchangeably. H. Ol. X> 12 ae. 134 ROMEO AND JULIET. ACT IV. Cap. Why, I am glad on’t; this is well, —stand up: This is as’t should be. — Let me see the county: Ay, marry, go, I say, and fetch him hither. — Now, afore God, this reverend holy friar, All our whole city is much bound to him. Jul. Nurse, will you go with me into my closet, To help me sort such needful ornaments As you think fit, to furnish me to-morrow 2? Lady C. No, not till Thursday: there is time enough. Cap. Go, nurse, go with her.— We’ll to church to-morrow. [Exeunt Juuiet and Nurse. Lady C. We shall be short in our provision : "Tis now near night. Cap. Tush! I will stir about, And all things shall be well, I warrant thee, wife. Go thou to Juliet; help to deck up her: I’ll not to bed to-night ;—let me alone ; V’ll play the housewife for this once. — What, ho !— They are all forth: weil, I will walk myself To county Paris, to prepare up him Against to-morrow. My heart is wondrous light, © Since this same wayward girl is so reclaim’d. [ Exeunt. SCENE III. Juurer’s Chamber. Enter Juuret and the Nurse. Jul. Ay, those attires are best: — But, gentle nurse, { pray thee, leave me to myself to-night ; For I have need of many orisons To move the heavens to smile upon my state, Which, well thou know’st, is cross and full of sin. Sc. III. ROMEO AND JULIET. 135 Enter Lady CaPuLet. Lady C. What! are you busy, ho? need you my help? Jul. No, madam; we have cull’d such necessaries As are behoveful for our state to-morrow : So please you, let me now be left alone, And let the nurse this night sit up with you ; For, I am sure, you have your hands full all, In this so sudden business. Lady C. Good night : Get thee to bed, and rest ; for thou hast need. [Exeunt Lady CapuLet and Nurse. Jul. Farewell ! —God knows when we shall meet again. I have a faint cold fear thrills through my veins, That almost freezes up the heat of life: Vll call them back again to comfort me. — Nurse ! — What should she do here? My dismal scene I needs must act alone. — Come, phial. — What if this mixture do not work at all? Shall I be married, then, to-morrow morning ?— No, no ;—this shall forbid it: —lie thou there. — [Laying down a Dagger. What if it be a poison, which the friar — Subtly hath minister’d, to have me dead, Lest in this marriage he should be dishonour’d, Because he married me before to Romeo? I fear, it is; and yet, methinks, it should not, Daggers,” says Gifford, “or, as they are commonly called, et were worn at all times by every woman in England ; whether they were so in a Shakespeare, I believe, never in quired, and I cannot tell.” H. 136 ROMEO AND JULIET For he hath still been tried a holy man: I will not entertain so bad a thought.2— How if, when I am laid into the tomb, I wake before the time that Romeo Come to redeem me? there’s a fearful point! Shall I not then be stifled in the vault, ‘l'o whose foul mouth no healthsome air breathes in, And there die strangled ere my Romeo comes? Or, if I live, is it not very like, The horrible conceit of death and night, Together with the terror of the place, — As in a vault, an ancient receptacle, Where, for these many hundred years, the bones Of all my buried ancestors are pack’d =F: ? This line, found only in the quarto of 1597, is retained, as making the sense more complete. — We subjoin the whole of this speech as it stands in the first quarto, that the reader may observe with what growth of power it was afterwards worked out by the Poet: “ Farewell: God knows when we shall meet again. Ab! I do take a fearful thing in hand. What if this potion should not work at all, Must I of force be married to the county ? This shall forbid it: knife, lie thou there. What if the friar should give me this drink To poison me, for fear I should disclose Our former marriage 2? Ab! I wrong him much; He is a holy and religious man: I will not entertain so bad a thought. What if I should be stifled in the tomb? Awake an hour before the appointed time? Ah! then IT fear I shall be lunatic ; And,-playing with my dead forefathers’ bones, - Dash out my frantic brains. Methinks, I see My cousin Tybalt weltering in his blood, Seeking for Romeo! Stay, Tybalt, stay ! Romeo, I come; this do I drink to thee.” H. 3 This idea was probably suggested to the Poet by his native place. The charnel at Stratford-upon-Avon is a very arge one, sc. III. ROMEO AND JULIET. 137- Where bloody Tybalt, yet but green in earth, Lies festering in his shroud; where, as they say, At some hours in the night spirits resort 5 — Alack, alack ! is it not like, that I, So early waking, — what with loathsome smells, And shrieks like mandrakes’ torn out of the earth, That living mortals, hearing them, run mad ;*— O! if I wake, shall I not be distraught, Environed with all these hideous fears, And madly play with my forefathers’ joints, And pluck the mangled Tybalt from his shroud? And, in this rage,‘with some great kinsman’s bone, As with a club, dash out my desperate brains ? O, look! methinks, I see my cousin’s ghost Seeking out Romeo, that did spit his body Upon a rapier’s point. — Stay, Tybalt, stay !— Romeo, I come !. this do I drink to thee.° [She throws herself on the Bed. and perhaps contains a greater number of bones than are to be found in any other repository of the same kind in England. 4 «The mandrake,” says Thomas Newton in bis Herbal, “ has been idly represented as a creature having life, and engendered under the earth of the seed of some dead person that hath beene convicted and put to death for some felonie or murther, and that they had the same in such dampish and funerall places where the saide convicted persons were buried.” So in Webster’s Duchess of Malfy, 1623: «1 have this night digg’d up a mandrake, and am grown mad with it.” See 2 Henry VI, Act iii. se. 2, note 14. 5 Such is the closing line of this speech in the quarto of 1597. The other old copies give it thus : “ Romeo, Romeo, Romeo, here’s drink : I drink to thee ;” where a stage-direction “ [ Here drink.]” has evidently got misprinted as a part of the text. The oldest reading is retained by all modern editors except Knight, Collier, and Verplanck.— Coleridge remarks upon the passage thus: «Shakespeare provides for the finest decencies. It would have been too bold a thing for a girl of fifteen ;— but she swallows the draught in a fit of fright.” Schlegel has the same thought : “ Her imagination falls into an uproar, —so many terrors bewilder the tender brain of the maiden, — and she drinks off the cup in a 12* - 138 ROMEO AND JULIET. ACT IV. SCENE IV. Caputer’s Hall. Enter Lady Caruuer and the Nurse. Eady C. Hold, take these keys, and fetch more spices, nurse. Nurse. They call for dates and quinces in the pastry.’ [ Exit. Enter Capu.et. Cap. Come, stir, stir, stir! the second cock hath crow’d, . The curfew bell hath rung, ’tis three o’clock. — Look to the bak’d meats, good Angelica : Spare not for cost. Lady C. Go, go, you cot-quean, go; Get you to bed: "faith, you’ll be sick to-morrow For this night’s watching.’ Cap. No, not a whit: What! I have watch’d ere now All night for lesser cause, and ne’er been sick. Lady C. Ay, you have been a mouse-hunt® in your time ; But I will watch you from such watching now. [Exit Lady CaPpuuer. tumult, to drain which with composure would have evinced a too masculine resolvedness.” H. 1 The room where the pastry was made. _® The old copies assign this speech to the Nurse. Jt was trans- ferred to Lady Capulet at the suggestion of Z. Jackson, who per- tinently asks, — « Can we imagine that a nurse would take so great a liberty with her master, as to call him a cot-quean, and order him to bed?” Besides, the Nurse bas just been sent forth by her mis- tress to “ fetch more spices.””— Cot-quean was a term for a man who busied himself overmuch in women’s affairs : so used down to the time of Addison, as appears from the Spectator, No. 482. H. 3 The animal called the mouse-hunt is the martin, which, being —— SC. V. ROMEO AND JULIET. 139 Cap. A jealous-hood, a jealous-hood ! — Now, fellow, What’s there ? Enter Servants, with Spits, Logs, and Baskets. 1 Serv. Things for the cook, sir; but I know not what. Cap. Make haste, make haste. [E2it 1 Serv.] — Sirrah, fetch drier logs: Call Peter, he will show thee where they are. 2 Serv. L have a head, sir, that will find out logs, And never trouble Peter for the matter. [ Exit. Cap. ’Mass, and well said ; a merry whoreson, ha! Thou shalt be logger-head. — Good Father ! ’tis day: The county will be here with music straight, [ Music within. For so he said be would. —I hear him near : — Nurse! — Wife !— what, ho !— what, nurse, I say ! Re-enter the Nurse. Go, waken Juliet; go, and trim her up: I'll go and chat with Paris. — Hie, make haste, Make haste! the bridegroom he is come already: Make haste, I say! [ Exeunt. SCENE V. Juurer’s Chamber; JunieT on the Bed. Enter the Nurse. Nurse. Mistress! — what, mistress! — Juliet ! — fast, I warrant her, she :— of the weasel tribe, prowls about in the night for its prey. Cat afier kinde, good mouse-hunt,” is one of Heywood’s proverbs. 140 ROMEO AND JULIET. ACT IV. Why, lamb! why, lady !—fie, you slug-a-bed ! — Why, love, I say! — madam! sweet-heart ! — why, bride ! What! not a word ?— you take your pennyworths now : ) Sleep for a week; for the next.night, I warrant, The county Paris hath set up his rest,! That you shall rest but little. — God forgive me (Marry and amen !) how sound is she asleep ! I needs must wake her. — Madam, madam, madam ! Ay, let the county take you in your bed: He'll fright you up, i’faith. — Will it not be? What, drest! and in your clothes! and down again! I must needs wake you. Lady! lady, lady ! Alas! alas! — Help! help! my lady’s dead !— O, well-a-day, that ever I was born !— Some aqua-vite, ho! ——my lord! my lady! Enter Lady Capruer. Lady C. What noise is here? Nurse. O, lamentable day ! Lady C. What is the matter? Nurse. Look, look! O, heavy day! Lady C. Ome! Ome '—my child, my only life, Revive, look up, or I will die with thee |! — Help, help !—call help. Enter Caputet. Cap. For shame! bring Juliet forth ; her lord ig come. 1 To set up one’s rest was the Same as to make up one’s mind. In The Merchant of Venice, Act ii. se. 2, Launcelot has a similar quibble: «As I have set up my rest torun away, so I will not rest till I have run some ground.” See, also, The Comedy of Errors, Act iv. sc. 3, note 2. H, SC. V. ROMEO AND JULIET. 141 Nurse. She’s dead, deceas’d, she’s dead ; alack the day! Lady C. Alack the day! she’s dead, she’s dead, she’s dead. Cap. Ha! let me see her. — Out, alas! she’s cold ; Her blood is settled ; and her joints are stiff ; Life and these lips have long been separated : Death lies on her, like an untimely frost Upon the sweetest flower of all the field.’ Nurse. O, lamentable day ! Lady C. O, woful time ! Cap. Death, that hath ta’en her hence to make me wail, Ties up my tongue, and will not let me speak. Enter Friar Laurence and Paris, with Musicians. Fri. Come, is the bride ready to go to church? Cap. Ready to go, but never to return. — O son! the night before thy wedding-day Hath death lain with thy wife: there she lies, Flower as she was, deflowered by him. Death is my son-in-law, death is my heir 5 My daughter he hath wedded! I will die, And leave him all ; life, living, all is death’s.® Par. Have I thought long to see this morning’s face,* And doth it give me such a sight as this ? 2 In the first quarto, this speech stands thus : ~ “Stay! let me see: all pale and wan. Accursed time! unfortunate old man!” H. 3 So in the old copies, but commonly changed in modern edi- tions to, “life leaving, all is death’s.”’ : Il. 4 The quarto of 1597 continues the speech of Paris thus: « And doth it now present such prodigies 1 Accurst, unhappy, miserable man, Forlorn, forsaken, destitute I am 5 142 ROMEO AND JULIET. ACT IV Lady C. Accurs’d, unhappy, wretched, hateful day ! Most miserable hour, that e’er time saw In lasting labour of his pilgrimage ! But one, poor one, one poor and loving child, But one thing to rejoice and solace in, And cruel death hath catch’d it from my sight. Nurse. O woe! O woeful, woeful, woeful day ! Most lamentable day! most woeful day, That ever, ever, I did yet behold ! O day! O day! O day! O hateful day ! Never was seen so black a day as this: O woeful day, O woeful day ! Par. Beguil’d, divorced, wronged, spited, slain! Most detestable death, by thee beguil’d, By cruel, cruel thee quite overthrown ! — O love! O life! —not life, but love in death! Cap. Despis’d, distressed, hated, martyr’d, kill’d! Uncomfortable time! why cam’st thou now To murder, murder our solemnity ?— O child! O child!—my soul, and not my child! — Dead art thou !—alack! my child is dead : And with my child my joys are buried! Fri. Peace, ho, for shame! confusion’s cur lives not In these confusions. Heaven and yourself Had part in this fair maid; now Heaven hath all, And all the better is it for the maid: Your part in her you could not keep from death 3 But Heaven keeps His part in eternal life. The most you sought was her promotion ; Born to the world to bea slave in it: ' Distrest. remediless, and unfortunate. e* Oh heavens! Oh nature! wherefore did you make me To live so vile, so wretched as I shall 2” SC. V. ROMEO AND JULIET. 143 For ’twas your heaven she should be advanc’d: And weep ye now, seeing she is advanc’d Above the clouds, as high as heaven itself ? O! in this love you love your child so ill, That you run mad, seeing that she is well : She’s not well married that lives n*farried long, But she’s best married that dies married young. Dry up your tears, and stick your rosemary On this fair corse ; and, as the custom is, In all her best array bear her to church ; For though fond nature bids us all lament,’ Yet nature’s tears are reason’s merriment. Cap. All things, that we ordained festival, Turn from their office to black funeral: Our instruments, to melancholy bells ; Our wedding cheer, to a sad burial feast ; Our solemn hymns to sullen dirges change ; Our bridal flowers serve for a buried corse, And all things change them to the contrary. Fri. Sir, go you in, —and, madam, go with him ; — And go, sir Paris: —every one prepare To follow this fair corse unto her grave. The heavens do lower upon you, for some ill ; Move them no more, by crossing their high will. [Exeunt Cap., Lady Cap., Paris, and Friar. 1 Mus. ’Faith, we may put up our pipes, and be gone. Nurse. Honest good fellows, ah! put up, put up; For, well you know, this is a pitiful case. [ Batt. 1 Mus. Ay, by my troth, the case may be amended. 5 All the old copies except the folio of 1632 have some instead of fond. — In all, of the preceding line, is from the first quarto 5 the later copies having And in. H. 144 ROMEO AND JULIET. Enter PetEr.® Pet. Musicians, O, musicians! «Heart’s Ease, Heart’s Ease ;” O! an you will have me live, play *‘Heart’s Ease.” 1 Mus. Why «Heart’s Ease?” Pet. O, musicians! because my heart itself plays ‘¢My heart is full of woe.”7 OQ! play me some merry dump, to comfort me. 2 Mus. Not a dump we: ’tis no time to play now. Pct. You will not, then? 2 Mus. No. Pet. I will, then, give it you soundly. 1 Mus. What will-you give us? Pet. No money, on my faith; but the gleek: I will give you the minstrel.® 1 Mus. Then will I give you the serving-creature. § Such is the stage-direction of the undated quarto and the fo- lio of 1623. The quartos of 1599 and 1609 have, « Enter Will Kemp ;” which shows that Kemp was the original performer of Peter’s part. It seems not unlikely that this part of the scene was written on purpose for Kemp to display his talents in, as there could hardly be any other reason for such a piece of buffoonery. Cole- ridge has the following upon it : “ As the audience know that Juliet is not dead, this scene is, perhaps, excusable. But it is a strong warning to minor dramatists not to introduce at one time many separate characters agitated by one and the same circumstance. It'is difficult to understand what effect, whether that of pity or of laughter, Shakespeare meant to produce 3-—— the occasion and the characteristic speeches are so little in harmony! For example, what the Nurse says is excellently suited to the Nurse’s character, but grotesquely unsuited to the occasion.” H. 7 This is the burthen of the first stanza of A Pleasant New Bal- Jad of Two Lovers: « Hey hoe! my heart is full of woe.?—A dump was formerly the term for a grave or melancholy strain in music, vocal or instrumental. It also signified a kind of poetical elegy. A merry dump is no doubt a purposed absurdity put into the mouth of Master Peter. ° A pun is here intended. A gleekman, or gligman, is a min- strel. To give the gleek meant also to pass a jest upon a person, to make him appear ridiculous ; a gleek being a jest or scoff. SC. V. ' ROMEO AND JULIET. 1455 Pet. Then will I lay the serving-creature’s dag- ger on your pate. I will carry no crotchets: Vil re you, I'll fa you: Do you note me? 1 Mus. An you re us, and fa us, you note us. 2 Mus. ‘Pray you, put up your dagger, and put out your wit. Pet. Then have at you with my wit: I will dry- beat you with an iron wit, and put up my iron dag- ger.— Answer me like men: When griping grief the heart doth wound, And doleful dumps the mind oppress, Then music, with her silver sound,? — Why, “silver sound?” why, “ music, with her silver sound ?”” What say you, Simon Catling ?”° 1 Mus. Marry, sir, because silver hath a sweet sound. Pet. Pretty!!! What say you, Hugh Rebeck ? 2 Mus. I say —* silver sound,” because musicians sound for silver. Pet. Pretty too !— What say you, James Sound- post ? 3 Mus ’Faith, I know not what to say. Pet. 0, Lcry you mercy! you are the singer: 9 This is part of a song by Richard Edwards, to be found in the Paradice of Dainty Devices. Another copy of this song is to be found in Percy’s Reliques of Ancient English Poetry. — The second line of Peter’s quotation is wanting in all the old copies except the first quarto ; and in all the old copies the words, «Then have at you with my wit,” are made a part of the preceding speech. H. 10 This worthy takes his name from a small Jutestring made of catgut ; his companion the fiddler, from an instrument of the same name mentioned by many of our old writers, and recorded by Mil- ton as an instrument of mirth: > « When the merry bells ring round, And the joyfal rebecks sound.” 11 So the first quarto; the other old copies, Prates, or Pratest. VOL. X. 13 10 H. 146 ROMEO AND JULIET. ACT V I will say for you. It is— ‘music, with her silver sound,” because such fellows as you have seldom gold for sounding : Then music, with her silver sound, With speedy help doth lend redress. [ Exit, singing. 1 Mus. What a pestilent knave is this same ! 2 Mus. Hang him, Jack! Come, we'll in here ; tarry for the mourners, and stay dinner. [| Ezeunt. ACT VY. SCENE I. Mantua. A Street. Enter Romeo. Rom. If I may trust the flattering eye of sleep,! My dreams presage some joyful news at hand: My bosom’s lord sits lightly in his throne ; And, all this day, an unaccustom’d spirit Lifts me above the ground with cheerful thoughts.” I dreamt, my lady came and found me dead, (Strange dream! that gives a dead man leave to think,) And breath’d such life with kisses in my lips, - Thus the first quarto. The later copies read, “If I may trust ine flattering truth of sleep.” The sense appears to be, If I may trust the visions with which my eye flattered me in sleep. * These three last lines are very gay and pleasing. But why does Shakespeare give Romeo this involuntary cheerfulness just before the extremity of unhappiness? Perhaps to show the vanity of trusting to those uncertain and casual exaltations or depressions, which many consider as certain foretokens of good and evil. — JOHNSON. SC. I. ROMEO AND JULIET. 147 That I reviv’d, and was an emperor. Ah me! how sweet is love itself possess’d, When but love’s shadows are so rich in joy !— Enter BALTHASAR. News from Verona ! — How now, Balthasar ! Dost thou not bring ime letters from the friar? How doth my lady? Is my father well ? How fares my Juliet ?* That I ask again ; For nothing can be ill, if she be well. Bal. Then she is well, and nothing can be ill: Her body sleeps in Capels’ monument, And her immortal part with angels lives. I saw her laid low in her kindred’s vault, And presently took post to tell it you: O! pardon me for bringing these ill news, Since you did leave it for my office, sir. Rom. Is it e’en so? then I defy you, stars ! — Thou know’st my lodging: get me ink and paper, And hire post-horses; I will hence to-night. Bal. I do beseech you, sir, have patience : * Your looks are pale and wild, and do import Some misadventure. Rom. Tush! thou art deceiv’d 5 Leave me, and do the thing I bid thee do. Hast thou no letters to me from the friar? Bal. No, my good lord. Rom. No matter; get thee gone, And hire those horses: I'll be with thee straight. — [Ezit BALTHASAR. 3 So the first quarto ; the later copies, “ How doth my lady Juliet 2” thus repeating a part of the foregoing line. H. 4 So all the old editions except the first, which reads, —“ Par- don me, sir, I will not leave you thus.” — Defy, in the first line of the preceding speech, is from the earliest copy ; the others having deny. B 148 ROMEO AND JULIET. ACT V. Well, Juliet, I will lie with thee to-night. Let’s see for means :— O, mischief ! thou art swift To enter in the thoughts of desperate men ! I do remember an apothecary, — And hereabouts he dwells, — whom late I noted In tatter’d weeds, with overwhelming brows, Culling of simples: meagre were his looks ; Sharp misery had worn him to the bones: And in his needy shop a tortoise hung, -An alligator stuff’d,’ and other skins Of ill-shap’d fishes; and about his shelves A beggarly account of empty boxes, Green earthen pots, bladders, and musty seeds, Remnants of packthread, and old cakes of roses, Were thinly scatter’d, to make up a show. Noting this penury, to myself I said, — An if a man did need a poison now, Whose sale is present death in Mantua, Here lives a caitiff wretch would sell it. him. O! this same thought did but forerun my need 3 And this same needy man must sell it me. As I remember, this should be the house: Being holiday, the beggar’s shop is shut. — What, ho! apothecary ! Enter the Apothecary. . Ap. Who calls so loud ? Rom. Come hither, man.—TI see that thou art poor ; Hold, there is forty ducats: let me have 5 We learn from Nashe’s Have with You to Saffron Walden, 1596, that a stuffed alligator then made part of the furniture of an apothecary’s shop: “ He made an anatomie of a rat, and after hanged her over his head, instead of an apothecary’s crocodile or dried allig xtor.”’ sc. I. ROMEO AND JULIET. * 149 A dram of poison ; such soon-speeding gear As will disperse itself through all the veins, That the life-weary taker may fall dead ; And that the trunk may be discharg’d of breath As violently, as hasty powder fir’d Doth hurry from the fatal cannon’s womb. Ap. Such mortal drugs I have; but Mantua’s law Is death to any he that utters them. Rom. Art thou so bare, and full of wretchedness, And fear’st to die? famine is in thy cheeks, Need and oppression starveth in thy eyes,° Contempt and beggary hang upon thy back, The world is not thy friend, nor the world’s law: The world affords no law to make thee rich ; Then, be not poor, but break it, and take this. Ap. My poverty, but not my will, consents. Rom. I pay thy poverty, and not thy will. Ap. Put this in any liquid thing you will, And drink it off; and, if you had the strength Of twenty men, it would despatch you straight. Rom. There is thy gold; worse poison to men’s . souls, Doing more murders in this loathsome world, Than these poor compounds that thou may’st not sell : I sell thee poison, thou hast sold me none. Farewell; buy food, and get thyself in flesh. — 6 Thus the old copies. Otway copied the line in his Caius Marius, only-changing starveth to stareth, which has been adopted into the text by Singer, and may be right. Pope changed « starv- eth in thy eyes” to “stare within thy eyes.” As it stands, the expression conveys a strong sense, thouglt it will hardly bear an- alysing. The two nouns with a verb in the singular was not ungrammatical according to old usage.—In the next line, the first quarto has, “ Upon thy back hangs ragged misery,” which is strangely preferred by some editors. H. 13 * 150 ROMEO AND JULIET. ACT V. Come, cordial, and not poison, go with me To Juliet’s grave, for there must I use thee. [Exeunt SCENE II. Friar Lavrence’s Cell. Enter Friar Joun. John. Holy Franciscan friar! brother, hot! Enter Friar LAURENCE Lau. This same should be the voice of friar John. — Welcome from Mantua: What says Romeo? Or, if his mind be writ, give me his letter. John. Going to find a barefoot brother out, One of our order, to associate me,! Here in this city visiting the sick, And finding him, the searchers of the town, Suspecting that we both were in a house Where the infectious pestilence did reign, Seal’d up the doors, and would not let us forth ; So that my speed to Mantua there was stay’d. ! Each friar had always a companion assigned him by the su- perior, when he asked leave to go out. In the Visitatio Notabilis de Seleborne, a curious record printed in White’s Natural History of Selborne, Wykeham enjoins the canons not to go abroad with- out leave from the prior, who is ordered on such occasions to as- sign the brother a companion, “ne suspicio sinistra vel seandalum oriatur.”” There is a similar regulation in the statutes of Trinity College, Cambridge. So in the poem: “ Apace our frier John to Mantua him hyes, And, for because in Italy it is a wonted gyse That friers in the towne should seldome walke alone, But of theyr covent ay should be accompanide with one Of his profession, straight a house he fyndeth out, In mynde to take some frier to walke the town about.” Shakespeare has departed from the poem, in supposing the pesti lence to rage at Verona instead of Mantua. sc. III. ROMEO AND JULIET. 15l Lau. Who bare my letter, then, to Romeo? John. I could not send it, —here it is again, — Nor get a messenger to bring it thee, So fearful were they of infection. Lau. Unhappy fortune! by my brotherhood, The letter was not nice,” but full of charge, Of dear import ; and the neglecting it May do much danger. Friar John, go hence 5 Get me an iron crow, and bring it straight Unto my cell. John. Brother, I'll go and bring it thee. [Ezzit. Lau. Now must I to the monument alone. Within this three hours will fair Juliet wake ; She will beshrew me much, that Romeo Hath had no notice of these accidents 5 But I will write again to Mantua, And keep her at my cell till Romeo come: Poor living corse, clos’d in a dead man’s tomb ! [ Exit. SCENE III. A Church-Yard: in it a Monument belonging to the Capulets. Enter Paris, and his Page, bearing Flowers and a Torch. Par. Give me thy torch, boy: hence, and stand aloof ;— Yet put it out, for I would not be seen. Under yond’ yew-trees lay thee all along,’ 2 That is, was not on a frivial or idle matter, but on a subject of importance. See Act iii. sc. 1, note 9. 1 All the old copies except the first quarto have “young trees” instead of “yew-trees.”’ H. 152 ROMEO AND JULIET. ACT V- Holding thine ear close to the hollow ground ; So shall no foot upon the church-yard tread, (Being loose, unfirm, with digging up of graves,) But thou shalt hear it: whistle then to me, As signal that thou hear’st something approach. Give me those flowers. Do as I bid thee; go. Page. I am almost afraid to stand alone Here in the church-yard ; yet I will adventure. , [ Retires. Par, Sweet flower, with flowers thy bridal bed I strew. O woe! thy canopy is dust and stones, Which with sweet water nightly I will dew; Or, wanting that, with tears distill’d by moans: The obsequies, that I for thee will keep, Nightly shall be, to strew thy grave and weep.” [The Boy whistles. The boy gives warning, something doth approach. What cursed foot wanders this way to-night, To cross my obsequies, and true-love’s rite? What! with a torch ?—mufile me, night, awhile. [ Retires. Enter Romro and BautHasar, with a Torch, Mat- tock, &c. Kom. Give me that mattock, and the wrenching iron. * Instead of these six lines, the quarto of 1597 has the follow- ing seven, which are preferred by some editors : “Sweet flower, with flowers I strew thy bridal bed: Sweet tomb, that in thy circuit dost contain The perfect model of eternity, Fair Juliet, that with angels dost remain, Accept this latest favour at my hands, That living honour’d thee, and, being dead, With funeral praises do adorn thy tomb.” E. SC. [1I. ROMEO AND JULIET. 153 Hold, take this letter: early in the morning See thou deliver it to my lord and father. Give me the light: Upon thy life I charge thee, Whate’er thou bear’st or seest, stand all aloof, And do not interrupt me in my course. Why I descend into this bed of death, Is, partly, to behold my lady’s face ; But, chiefly, to take thence from her dead finger A precious ring, a ring that I must use In dear employment. ‘Therefore hence, begone: But if thou, jealous, dost return to pry In what I further shall intend to do, By Heaven, I will tear thee joint by joint, And strew this hungry church-yard with thy limbs. The time and my intents are savage-wild ; More fierce, and more inexorable far, Than empty tigers, or the roaring sea. Bal. I will be gone, sir, and not trouble you. Rom. So shalt thou show me friendship. —Take thou that : Live, and be prosperous; and farewell, good fellow. Bal. For all this same, I’ll hide me hereabout : His looks I fear, and his intents I doubt. [Retzres. Rom. Thou detestable maw, thou womb of death, Gorg’d with the dearest morsel of the earth, Thus I enforce thy rotten jaws to open, [Breaking open the Door of the Monument. And, in despite, I’ll cram thee with more food! Par. This is that banish’d haughty Montague, That murder’d my love’s cousin ;— with which grief, It is supposed, the fair creature died ; — And here is come to do some villainous shame To the dead bodies: I will apprehend him. — [ Advancing Stop thy unhallow’d toil, vile Montague : 154 ROMEO AND JULIET. ACT V. Can vengeance be pursued further than death ? Condemned villain, I do apprehend thee : Obey, and go with me; for thou must die. Kom. I must, indeed; and therefore came I hither. — Good gentle youth, tempt not a desperate man; Fly hence and leave me :—think upon these gone; Let them affright thee. —I beseech thee, youth, Heap not another sin upon my head, By urging me to fury :—O, begone ! By Heaven, I love thee better than myself ; For I come hither arm’d against myself : Stay not, begone ;— live, and hereafter say, A madman’s mercy bade thee run away. Par. I do defy thy conjurations,° And apprehend thee for a felon here. Rom. Wilt thou provoke me? then, have at thee, boy. ; [ They fight. Page. O Lord! they fight: I will go call the watch. [Exit Page. Par. O, I am slain! [Falls.] —If thou be mer- ciful, ; Open the tomb, lay me with Juliet. [ Dies. . Rom. In faith, I will.— Let me peruse this face :— Mercutio’s kinsman, noble county Paris. — What said my man, when my betossed soul Did not attend him as we rode? I think He told me, Paris should have married Juliet ; * So the quarto of 1597: that of 1599 has commiration; the later copies, commiseration. Conjurations are earnest requests or entreaties: the verb conjure is still much used in the same sense, Mr. Collier, however, retains the later reading, alleging that «the sense of commiseration is clear ; not so of conjurations.”’ What can the man mean? Conjurations is just the word wanted fot the place, H. SC. Tit. ROMEO AND JULIET. 155 Said he not so? or did I dream it so?- Or am I mad, hearing him talk of Juliet, To think it was so? —O! give me thy hand, One writ with me in sour misfortune’s book ! Tl bury thee in a triumphant grave, — A grave? O, no! a lantern, slaughter’d youth :* For here lies Juliet, and her beauty makes This vault a feasting presence full of light. Death, lie thou there, by a dead man interr’d. — [Laying Paris in the Monument. How oft, when men are at the point of death, Have they been merry ? ‘which their keepers call A lightning before death:° O! how may I Call this a lightning ?—O, my love! my wife! Death, that hath suck’d the honey of thy breath, Hath had no power yet upon thy beauty :° 4 A lantern does not here signify an enclosure for a lighted can- dle, but a louvre, or what in ancient records is styled lanternium ; that is, a spacious round or octagonal turret full of windows, by means of which cathedrals and sometimes balls are illuminated 5 such as the beautiful lantern at Ely Minster. The same word, with the same sense, occurs in Churchyard’s Siege of Edinborough Castle: « This lofty seat and /antern of that land like lodestarre stode, and lokte o’er ev’ry streete.” © And in Holland’s translation of Pliny: « Hence came the louvers and lanternes reared over the roofes of temples.” A presence is a public room, which is at times the presence-chumber of a sovereign. 5 This idea frequently occurs in old dramas. So in The Down- fa.l of Robert Earl of Huntingdon, 1601: “J thought it was a lightning before death, Too sudden to’be certain.” 6 So in Sidney’s Arcadia: “ Death being able to divide the soule, but not the beauty, from her body.” — This speech yields another apt instance of the care and skill with which the “ cor- rected, augmented, and amended” copy of this play was elabo- rated. The quarto of 1597 gives merely ihe following: « Ah, dear Juliet! How well thy beauty doth become this grave i O! I believe that unsubstantial death Is amorous, and doth court my love: 156 ROMEO AND JULIET. ACT VY. Thou art not conquer’d ; beauty’s ensign yet Is crimson in thy lips and in thy cheeks, And death’s pale flag is not advanced there. — Tybalt, liest thou there in thy bloody sheet ? O! what more favour can I do to thee, Than with that hand that cut thy youth in twain, To sunder his that was thine enemy ? Forgive me, cousin! — Ah, dear Juliet ! Why art thou yet so fair? Shall I believe That unsubstantial death is amorous 37 And that the lean abhorred monster keeps ‘Thee here in dark to be his paramour? For fear of that, I will still stay with thee, Therefore will I, O here, O ever here! Set up my everlasting rest, With worms, that are thy chamber-maids. Come, desperate pilot, now at once run on The dashing rocks thy sea-sick weary barge: Here’s to my love. — O, true apothecary ! Thy drugs are swift: thus with a kiss I die.” H. 7 The old copies, except the first quarto, read thus: «I will bee lieve, shall I believe that unsubstantial death is amorous.” Where “T will believe” is obviously but another reading for «shall I be- lieve.” Collier, however, retains both! — A connection is trace- able between parts of this speech and some lines in Daniel’s Com- plaint of Rosamond, published in 1592, In the first five lines the ghost of Rosamond is speaking of her death, and in the others is reporting what her royal lover spoke when he came and found her dead: “ But now, the poison, spread through all my veins, ’Gan dispossess my living senses quite ; And nought-respecting death, the last of pains, Plac’d his pale colours, th’ ensign of his might, Upon his new-got spoil before his right.” “Ah! now, methinks, I see, death, dallying, seeks Lo entertain itself in love’s sweet place: Decayed roses of discolour’d cheeks Do yet retain dear notes of former grace, And ugly death sits fair within her face ; Sweet remnants resting of vermilion red, That death itself doubts whether she be dead.” H. SOSTIE ROMEO AND JULIET. 157 And never from this palace of dim night Depart again :* here, here will I remain With worms that are thy chambermaids ; O! here Will I set up my everlasting rest, And shake the yoke of inauspicious stars From this world-wearied flesh.— Eyes, look your last ! Arms, take your last embrace! and lips, O, you. The doors of breath, seal with a righteous kiss A dateless bargain to engrossing death !— Come, bitter conduct,? come, unsavoury guide ! Thou desperate pilot, now at once run on The dashing rocks thy sea-sick weary bark ! Here’s to my love! [Drinks.] —O, true apothecary ! Thy drugs are quick.— Thus with a kiss I die. [ Dies. Enter, at the other end of the Church-yard, Friar LaurENCcE, with a Lantern, Crow, and Spade. Fri. St. Francis be my speed! how oft to-night Have my old feet stumbled at graves !'* —Who’s there ? 8 All the old copies except the first quarto have a remarkable corruption here which is not easy to be accounted for. Whether the matter were a various reading by the Poet, or an interpolation by the players, is uncertain ; but the confusion it makes shows that it could not have been meant by Shakespeare as a part of the text. It may also be cited as proving that the folic must have been printed from one of the quarto copies. After the words, «« Depart again,” are added the following lines : « Come, lie thou in my arms. Here’s to thy health, where’er thou tumblest in. O, true apothecary! thy drugs are quick. Thus with a kiss I die. Depart again.” H. 9 Conduct for conductor. So in a former scene: “ And fire- eyed fury be my conduct now.” 10 This accident was reckoned ominous. So in King Richard III., Hastings, going to execution,-says, — “ Three times to-day VOL. X. 14 » Se oo ee 158 ROMEO AND JULIET. ACT V Bal. Here’s one, a friend, and one that knows you well. Fri. Bliss be upon you! Tell me, good my friend, What torch is yond’ that vainly lends his light To grubs and eyeless skulls? as I discern, It burneth in the Capels’ monument. Bal. It doth so, holy sir; and there’s my master, One that you love. Fri. Who is it? Bal. Romeo. Fri. How long hath he been there ? Bal. Full half an hour. Fri. Go with me to the vault. Bal. I dare not, sir: My master knows not but I am gone hence, And fearfully did menace me with death, If I did stay to look on his intents. Fri. Stay, then, Pil go alone. Fear comes upon me ; O! much I fear some ill unthrifty thing.” Bal. As I did sleep under this yew-tree here, I dreamt my master and another fought, And that my master slew him.’” my foot-cloth horse did stuwmble.’”” — After this line, some editors have added another from the first quarto, thus: “Who is it that consorts so Jate the dead ?”’ H. 11 So the quarto of 1599 ; that of 1609 and the folio have “un- lucky thing.” i. 12 This is one of the touches of nature that would have escaped the hand of any painter less attentive to it than Shakespeare. What happens to a person while he is under the manifest influence of fear, will seem to him, when he is recovered from it, like a dream. Homer represents Rhesus dying, fast asleep, and, as it were, be- holding his enemy in a dream, plunging a sword into his bosom. Eustathius and Dacier both applaud this image as very natural ; for a man in such a condition, says Mr. Pope, awakes no further than to see confusedly what environs him, and to think it not a reality, but a vision. — STEEVENs, SC. II. ROMEO AND JULIET. 159 Fri. [Advancing.] Romeo! Alack, alack! what blood is this, which stains The stony entrance of this sepulchre 1— What mean these masterless and gory swords To lie discolour’d by this place of peace ?— | Entering the Monument. Romeo! O, pale!— Who else? what! Paris too? And steep’d in blood ?— Ah! what an unkind hour Is guilty of this lamentable chance ! — The lady stirs. [JuLIET wakes. Jul. O, comfortable friar! where is my lord ? I do remember well where I should be, And there I am. — Where is my Romeo? [Noise within. Fri. I hear some noise.— Lady, come from that nest Of death, contagion, and unnatural sleep. A greater Power than we can contradict Hath thwarted our intents; come, come away : Thy husband in thy bosom there lies dead ; And Paris too:, come, I'll dispose of thee Among a sisterhood of holy nuns. Stay not to question, for the watch is coming ; Come, go, good Juliet, —[Voise again.| I dare no longer stay. | [ Exit. Jul. Go, get thee hence, for I will not away.— What’s here? a cup, clos’d in my true love’s hand? Poison, I see, hath been his timeless end. — O churl! drink all, and leave no friendly drop, To help me after ?—TI will kiss thy lips ; Haply, some poison yet doth hang on them, To make me die with a restorative. [Kisses him. Thy lips are warm !** 13 Shakespeare has been arraigned for making Romeo die be 160 ROMEO AND JULIET. ACT V 1 Watch. [Within.] Lead, boy: — Which way? Jul.. Yea, noise ?—then I’ll be brief. — O, happy dagger ! [ Snatching. Romro’s Dagger. This is thy sheath; [Stabs herself.] there rest, and let me die.“ © [Falls on Romeo, and dies. — Enter Watch, with the Page of Paris. Page. This is the place; there, where the torch doth burn. 1 Watch. The ground is bloody: Search about the church-yard. ‘Go, some of you, whoe’er you find, attach. — [ Exeunt some. fore Juliet awakes from her trance, and thus losing a happy op- portunity of introducing an affeeting scene between these unfor- tunate lovers. Schlegel remarks, that “the Poet seems to have hit upon what was best. There is a measure of agitation, beyond which all that is superadded becomes torture, or glides off inef- fectually from the already-saturated mind. In case of the cruel reunion of the lovers for an instant, Romeo’s remorse for his over- hasty self-murder, Juliet’s despair over her deceitful hope, at first cherished, then annihilated, that she was at the goal of her wishes, must have deviated into caricatures. Nobody surely doubts that Shakespeare was able to represent these with suitable force ; but bere every thing soothing was welcome, in order that we may not be frightened out of the melancholy, to which we willingly resign ourselves, by too painful discords. Why should we heap still more upon accident, that is already so guilty ? Wherefore shall not the tortured Romeo quietly ‘Shake the yoke of inauspicious stars From his world-wearied flesh 7’ He holds his beloved in his arms, and, dying, cheers himself with a vision of everlasting marriage. She also seeks death, in a kiss, upon his lips. These Jast moments must belong unparticipated to tenderness, that we may hold fast to the thought, that love lives, although the lovers perish.” 14 All the old copies except the first quarto have rust instead of rest. Mr. Dyce surely is right in saying that, “at such a mo- ment, the thoughts of Juliet were not likely to wander away to the future rusting of the dagger; she only wishes it, by resting in her bosom as in its sheath, to give her instant death,’ H. Na ha 4 aa " ‘ ; SC. IIT. ROMEO AND JULIET. 161 Pitiful sight! here lies the county slain 5 And Juliet bleeding ; warm, and newly dead, Who here hath lain these two days buried. — Go, tell the prince, —run to the Capulets, — Raise up the Montagues, — some others search : — [Exeunt other Watchmen. We see the ground whereon these woes do lie 5 But the true ground of all these piteous woes We cannot without circumstance descry. Enter some of the Watch, with BALTHASAR. 2 Watch. Here’s Romeo’s man ; we found him in the church-yard. 1 Watch. Hold him in safety, till the prince come hither. Enter another Watchman, with Friar LAURENCE. 3 Watch. Here is a friar, that trembles, sighs, and weeps : We took this mattock and this spade from him, As he was coming from this church-yard side. 1 Watch. A great suspicion: stay the friar too. Enter the Prince and Attendants. Prince. What misadventure is so early up, That calls our person from our morning’s rest ! Enter Carutet, Lady Capuier, and Others. Cap. What should it be, that they so shrieX abroad ? : Lady C. The people in the street cry — Romeo, Some — Juliet, and some — Paris; and all run With open outcry toward our monument. 14* 11 = sO 4 cis te 162 ROMEO AND. JULIET. ACT V. Prince. What fear is this, which startles in our ears 77° 1 Watch. Sovereign, here lies the county Paris slain ; And Romeo dead; and Juliet, dead before, Warm and new-kill’d. Prince. Search, seek, and know how this foul murder comes. 1 Watch. Here isa friar, and slaughter’d Romeo’s man, ; With instruments upon them, fit to open These dead men’s tombs. Cap. O, Heaven! — O, wife ! look how our daugh- ter bleeds ! This dagger hath mista’en, —for lo! his house Js empty on the back of Montague, — And is mis-sheathed in my daughter’s bosom.'® Lady C. O me! this sight of death is as a bell, That warns my old age to a sepulchre. Enter MontaGue and Others. Prince. Come, Montague ; for thou art early up, To see thy son and heir more early down. Mon. Alas, my liege! my wife is dead to-night ; 17 © The old copies have your instead of our. Johnson made the change, which, though perhaps not necessary to the sense, helps it a good deal. . H. 6 The words « for lo!’ his house is empty on the back of Mon- tague,” are parenthetical. It appears that the dagger was an- ciently worn’ behind the back. So in Humor’s Ordinarie: “See you yon huge bum dagger at his back?’ And in The Longer Thou Livest the More Fool Thou Art, 1570: “Thou must wear thy sword by thy side, And thy dagger handsumly at thy backe.” 17 After this line the quarto of 1597 adds: “ And young Ben volio is deceased too.” s Sc. III. ROMEO AND JULIET. 163 Grief of my son’s exile hath stopp’d her breath : What further woe conspires against mine age? Prince. Look, and thou shalt see. Mon. O, thou untaught! what manners is in this, To press before thy father to a grave? Prince. Seal up the mouth of outcry for a while,*® Till we can clear these ambiguities, And know their spring, their head, their true descent 5 And then will I be general of your woes, And lead you even to death. Meantime forbear, And let mischance be slave to patience. — Bring forth the parties of suspicion. Fri. I am the greatest, able to do least, Yet most suspected, as the time and place Doth make against me, of this direful murder ; And here I stand, both to impeach and purge Myself condemned, and myself excus’d. Prince. Then say at once what thou dost know in this. Fri. I will be brief, for my short date of breath Is not so long as is a tedious tale. Romeo, there dead, was husband to that Juliet ; And she, there dead, that Romeo’s faithful wife : I married them ; and their stolen marriage-day Was Tybalt’s dooms-day, whose untimely death Banish’d the new-made bridegroom from this city 5 For whom, and not for Tybalt, Juliet pin’d. You, to remove that siege of grief from her, Betroth’d, and would have married her perforce, To county Paris: then comes she to me, 18 The old copies have outrage instead of owtcry. It is not easy to see what business outrage can have in such a place. The change is taken from Mr. Collier’s second folio. It is sup- ported by the preceding passage, — “ All run with open outery toward our monument.” H. 164 ROMEO AND JULIET. ACT V. And, with wild looks, bid me devise some means To rid her from this second marriage, Or in my cell there would she kill herself. Then gave I her, so tutor’d by my art, A sleeping potion; which so took effect As I intended, for it wrought on her The form of death: meautime I writ to Romeo, That he should hither come, as this dire night, To help to take her from her borrow’d grave, Being the time the potion’s force should cease. But he which bore my letter, friar John, Was stay’d by accident; and yesternight Return’d my letter back. Then, all alone, At the prefixed hour of her waking, Came I to take her from her kindred’s vault; Meaning to keep her closely at my cell, Till I conveniently could send to Romeo: But, when I came, (some minute ere the time Of her awakening,) here untimely lay The noble Paris and true Romeo dead. She wakes ; and I entreated her come forth, And bear this work of Heaven with patience : But then a noise did scare me from the tomb; And she, too desperate, would not go with me, But, as it seems, did violence on herself. All this T know; and to the marriage Her nurse is privy; and, if aught in this Miscarried by my fault, let my old life Be sacrific’d, some hour before his time, Unto the rigour of severest law. . Prince. We still have known thee for a holy man. — ; Where’s Romeo’s man? what can he say in this? Bal. 1 brought my master news of Juliet’s death ; Sc. Ill. ROMEO AND JULIET. 165, And then in post he came from Mantua, To this same place, to this same monument. This letter he early bid me give his father ; And threaten’d me with death, going in the vault, If I departed not, and left him there. Prince. Give me the letter, I will look on it. — Where is the county’s page, that rais’d the watch ? Sirrah, what made your master in this place? Page. He came with flowers to strew his lady’s grave, And bid me stand aloof, and so I did: Anon, comes one with light to ope the tomb, And, by and by, my master drew on him ; And then I ran away to call the watch. Prince. This letter doth make good the friar’s words, Their course of love, the tidings of her death; And here he writes, that he did buy a poison Of a poor ’pothecary, and therewithal Came to this Wault to die, and lie with Juliet. — Where be these enemies 1— Capulet ! Montague! See, what a scourge is laid upon your hate, That Heaven find means to kill your joys with love! And I, for winking at your discords, too, Have lost a brace of kinsmen:'* —all are punish’d. Cap. O, brother Montague! give me thy hand : This is my daughter’s jointure ; for no more Can I demand. Mon. But I can give thee more 5 For I will raise her statue in pure gold ; That, while Verona by that name is known, 19 Mercutio and Paris. Mercutio is expressly called the Prince’s kinsman in Act ili. sc. 43 and that Paris was also the Prince’s kinsman, may be inferred from what Romeo says: “ Let me pe- ruse this face ; Mercutio’s kinsman, noble county Paris.” 166 ROMEO AND JULIET. ACT V_ There shall no figure at such rate be set, As that of true and faithful Juliet. Cap. As rich shall Romeo by his lady lie; Poor sacrifices of our enmity ! Prince. A glooming peace this morning with it brings ti The sun for sorrow will not show his head. Go hence, to have more talk of these sad things ; Some shall be pardon’d, and some punished :*! For never was a story of more woe, Than this of Juliet and her Romeo. [ Exeunt. 20 The quarto of 1597 reads, “A gloomy peace.”’ To gloom is an ancient verb, used by Spenser and other old writers. 21 This line has reference to the poem from which the fable is taken ; in which the Nurse is banished for concealing the mar- riage ; Romeo’s servant set at liberty, because he had only acted in obedience to his master’s orders ; the Apothecary is hanged ; while Friar Laurence was permitted to retire to a hermitage near Verona, where he ended his life in penitence and tranquillity. ae ‘tr ON Abe & . Bee Ai INTRODUCTION * TO THE TRAGEDY OF HAMLET. * “TE story on which Shakespeare founded THE TRAGEDY oF HIAMLET, Prince oF Denmark, was told by Saxo Grammat- icus, the Danish historian, whose work was first printed in 1514, though written as early as 1204, The incidents as related by him were borrowed by Beileforest, and set forth in his Histoires T'rra- giques, 1564, It was probably through the French version of Belle- forest that the tale first found its way to the English stage. The only English translation that has come down to us was printed in 1608 ; and of this only a single copy is known to have survived. he edition of 1608 was most likely a reprint ; but, if so, we have no means of ascertaining when it was first printed: Mr, Collier thinks there can be no doubt that it originally came from the press considerably before 1600. The only known copy is preserved among Capell’s books in the library of ‘Trinity College, Cam- bridge, and has been lately republished by Collier in his Shake- speare’s Library. It is entitled «The History of Hambiet.” As there told, the story is, both in matter and style, uncouth and barbarous in the last degree ; a savage, shocking tale of Just and murder, unredeemed by a single touch of art or fancy in the nar- rator. Perhaps there is nothing of the Poet’s achieving more won- derful than that he should have reared so superb a dramatic struct- ure out of materials so scanty and so revolting. The scene of the jacidents is laid before the introduction of Christianity into Den- mark, and when the Danish power held sway in England : further than this, the time is not specified. So much of the story as was made use of for the drama is soon told. ' Roderick, king of Denmark, divided his kingdom into proves inces, and placed governors in them. Among these were two val- ijant and warlike brothers, Horvendile and Fengon. The greatest honour that men of noble birth could at that time win, was by ex- ercising the art of piracy on the seas; wherein Horvendile sur- passed all others. Collere, king of Norway, was so wrought upon VOL. -X. 15 170 HAMLET, PRINCE OF DENMARK. by his fame, that he challenged him to fight body to body; and the challenge was accepted on condition that the vanquished should lose all the riches he had in his ship, and the vanquisher should cause his body to be honourably buried. Collere was slain; and Horwendile, after making great havoc in Norway, returned home with a mass of treasure, most of which he sent to King Roderick, who thereupon gave him his daughter Geruth in marriage. Of this marriage proceeded Hamblet, the hero of the tale. All this so provoked the envy of Fengon, that he determined to kill his brother. So, baving secretly assembled certain men, when Horvendile was at a banquet with his friends, he suddenly set upon him and slew him; but managed his treachery with so much cun- ning that no man suspected him. Before doing this, he had cor rupted his brother’s wife, and was afterwards married to her. Young Hamblet, thinking that he was likely to fare no better than his father had done, went to feigning himself mad, and made as if he had utterly lost his wits ; wherein he used such craft that he became an object of ridicule to the satellites of the court. Many of his actions, however, were so shrewd, and his answers were often so fit, that men of a deeper reach began to suspect some- what, thinking that beneath his folly there lay hid a sharp and pregnant spirit. So they counselled the king to try measures for discovering his meaning. The plan hit upon for entrapping him was, to leave him with some beautiful woman in a secret place, where she could use her art upon him. ‘To this end they Jed him out into the woods, and arranged that the woman should there meet with him. One of the men, however, who was a friend of the Prince, warned him, by certain signs, of the danger that was threatening him: so he escaped that treachery. Among the king’s friends there was one who more than all the rest suspected Hamblet’s madness to be feigned 5 and he counsel- led the king to use some more subtle and crafty means for dis- covering his purpose. His device was, that the king should make as though he were going out on a long hunting excursion; and that, meanwhile, Hamblet should be shut up alone im’a chamber with his mother, some one being hidden behind the hangings to hear their speeches. It was thought that, if there were any craft in the Prince, he would easily discover it to his mother, not fear- ing that she would make known his secret intent. So, the plot being duly arranged, the counsellor went into the chamber secretly and hid himself behind the arras, not long before the queen and Hamblet came thither. But the Prince, suspecting some treach- erous practice, kept up his counterfeit of madness, and went to beating with his arms, as cocks use to strike with their wings, upon the hangings: feeling something stir under them, he eried, « A rat, a rat!’ and thrust his sword into them; which done, he pulled the counsellor out half dead, and made an end of him. Hamblet then has a long interview with his mother, who weeps laa tai INTRODUCTION. W711 and torments herself, being sore grieved to see her only child made a mere mockery. He lays before her the wickedness of her life and the crimes of her husband, and also lets her into the secret of his madness being feigned. “Behold,” says he, «into what dis- tress I am fallen, and to what mischief your over-great lightness and want of wisdom have induced me, that I am constrained to play the madman to save my life, instead of practising arms, fol- lowing adventures, and seeking to make myself known as tbe true heir of the valiant and virtuous Horvendile. The gestures of a fool are fit for me, to the end that, guiding myself wisely therein, { may preserve my life for the Danes, and the memory of my de- ceased father ; for the desire of revenging his death is so engraven in my heart, that, if I die not shortly, I hope to take so great ven- geance that these countries shall forever speak thereof. Never- theless, I must stay my time and occasion, lest by making over- great haste I be the cause of mine own ruin and overthrow. To conclude, weep not, madam, to see my folly, but rather sigh and lament your own offence ; for we are not to sorrow and grieve at other men’s vices, but for our own misdeeds and great follies.”’ The interview ends in an agreement of mutual confidence be- tween Hamblet and his mother; all her anger at his sharp re- proofs being forgotten in the joy she conceives, to behold the gallant spirit of her son, and to think what she might hope from his policy and wisdom. She promises to keep his secret faithful- ly, and to aid him all she can in his purpose of revenge ; swear- ing to him that she had often hindered the shortening of his life, and that she had never consented to the murder of his father. Fengon’s next device was, to send Hamblet into England, with secret letters to have him there put to death. Hamblet, again suspecting mischief, comes to some speech with his mother, and desires her not to make any show of grief at his departure, but rather to counterfeit gladness at being rid of his presence. He also counsels her to celebrate his funeral at the end of a year, and assures her that she shall then see him return from his voyage. Two of Fengon’s ministers being sent along with him with secret letters to the king of England, when they were at sea, the Prince, his companions being asleep, read their commission, and substi- tuted for it one requiring the messengers to be hung. After this was done, he returned to Denmark, and arrived the very day when the Danes were celebrating his funeral, supposing him to be dead. Fengon and his courtiers were then at their banquet, and Hamb- Jet’s arrival provoked them the more to drink and carouse 3 where- in Hamblet encouraged them, himself acting as butler, and keep- ing them supplied with liquor, until they were all laid drunk on the floor. When they were all fast asleep, he caused the hangings of the room to fall down and cover them; then, having nailed the edges fast to the floor so that none could escape, he set fire to the hall, and all were burnt to ceath. Fengen having previously | Wp HAMLET, PRINCE OF DENMARK. withdrawn to his chamber, Hamblet then went to him, and, after telling him what he had done, cut off his head with a sword. The next day, Hamblet makes an oration to the Danes, laying open to them his uncle’s treachery, and what*himself has dene in revenge of his father’s death ; whereupon he is unanimously elect- ed king. After his coronation, he goes to England again. Find- ing that the king of England has a plot for putting him to death, he manages to kill him, and returns to Denmark with two wives. He is afterwards assailed by his uncle Wiglerus, and finally be- trayed to death by one of his English wives named Hermetrude, who then marries Wigleras. There is, besides, an episodical passage in the tale, from which the Poet probably took some hints towards the part of his hero, especially his melancholy mood, and his suspicion that “ the spirit — he has seen may be a devil:” « In those days, the north parts of the world, living then under Satan’s Jaws, were full of enchanters, so that there was not any young gentleman that knew not some- thing therein sufficient to serve his turn, if need required; and so Hamblet, while his father lived, had been instructed in that devlish art, whereby the wicked spirit abuseth mankind, and advertiseth them, as he can, of things past. ° It toucheth not the matter herein to discover the parts of divination in man, and whether this Prince, by reason of his over-great melancholy, bad received those im- pressions, divining that which never any had before declared ; like such as are saturnists by complexion, who oftentimes speak of things which, their fury ceasing, they can hardly anderstand.” It is hardly needful to add, that Shakespeare makes his persons Christians, giving them the sentiments and manners of a mach later period than they have in the tale ; though he still places the scene at a time when England paid some sort of homage to the Danish crown, which was before the Norman conquest. The earliest edition of the tragedy, in its finished state, was a quarto pamphlet of fifty-one leaves, the title-page reading thus; “The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark : By Wil- liam Shakespeare. Newly imprinted and enlarged to almost as much again as it was, according to the true and perfect copy. At London: Printed by J. R. for N. L., and are to be sold at his shop under St. Danstan’s Church, in Fleet-street. 1604.” The same text was reissued in the same form in 1605, and again in 1611; besides an undated edition, which is commonly referred to 1607, as it was entered at the Stationers’ in the fall of that year. In the folio of 1623, it stands the eighth of the tragedies, and is without any marking of the Acts and scenes save in the first two Acts, The folio also omits several passages that are among the best in the play, and some of them highly important to the right understanding of the hero’s character. All these are duly attend- ed to in our notes, so that they need not be specified here. On the other hand, the folio has a few short passages, and here and eS ee INTRODUCTION. 173 there a line or two, that are not in the quartos. These, also, are duly noted as they occur.’ On the whole, the quartos give the play considerably longer than the folio; the latter having been most likely printed from a play-house copy, which bad heen short- ened, in some cases not very judiciously, for the greater conve- nience of representation. From the words, “ enlarged to almost as much again as it was,” in the title-page of 1604, it was for a long time conjectured that the play had been printed before. At length, in 1825, a single copy of an earlier edition was discovered, and the text accurately reprinted, with the following title-page : «'The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark: By William Shakespeare. As it hath been divers times acted by his Highness Servants, in the city of London ; as also in the two Universities of Cambridge and Oxford, and elsewhere. At London: Printed for N. L. and John Trandell. 1603.” There is no doubt that this edition was pis. ratical ; it gives the play but about half as long as the later quar- tos; and carries in its face abundant evidence of having been greatly marred and disfigured in the making-up. As to the methods used in getting up the edition of 1603, a eare- ful examination of the text has satisfied us that they were much the same as appear to have been made use of in the quarto issues of King Henry V., and The Merry Wives of Windsor; of which some account is given in our Introductions to those plays. From divers minute particulars which cannot be specified without over- much of detail, it seems very evident that the printing was done, for the most part, from rude reports taken at the theatre daring representation, with, perbaps.some subsequent eking out and patch- ing up from memory. There are indeed a few passages that seem to be given with mach purity and completeness ; they bave an in- tegrity of sense and Janguage. that argues a faithful transcript ; as, for instance, the speech of Voltimand in Aet ii. se. 2, which searcely differs at all from the speech as we have it: but there is barely enough of this to serve as an exception to the rule. As to the other parts, the garbled and dislocated state of the text, where we often have the first of a sentence without the last, or the last without the first, or the first and Jast without the middle ; the con- stant lameness of the verse where verse was meant, and the bun- gling attempts to print prose so as to look like verse ;— all this proves beyond question, that the quarto of 1603 was by no means a faithful transcript of the play as it then stood; and the imper- fectness is of just that kind and degree which would naturally ad- here to the work of a slovenly or incompetent reporter. On the other band, it is equally clear, that at the time that copy was taken the play must have been very @fereut from what it afierwards became. Polonius is there called Corambis, and his servant, Montano. Divers scenes and passages,’ some of them such as a reporter would have been least likely to omit, are there 15* 174 HAMLET, PRINCE OF DENMARK. wanting altogether. The Queen is there represented as concert- ing and actively co-operating with Hamlet against the King’s life; and she has an interview of considerable length with Horatio, who informs her of Hamlet’s escape from the ship bound for England, and of-his safe arrival in Denmark ; of which scene the later issues have no traces whatsoever. All this fully ascertains that the play must have undergone a thorough revisal after the making up of the copy from which the first quarto was printed. But, what is not a little remarkable, some of the passages met with in the folio, but not in the enlarged quartos, are found in the quarto of 1603 ; which shows that they were omitted in the later quartos, and not added afterwards. With such and so many copies before us, it may well be asked, where the true text of Hamlet is to be found. The quarto of 1603, though furnishing valuable aid in divers cases, is not of any real authority: this is clear enough from what has already been said about it. On the other hand, it can hardly be questioned that the issue of 1604 was as authentic and as well authorised, as any that were made of Shakespeare’s plays while he was living. We therefore take this as our main standard of the text, retaining, however, all the additional passages found in the folio of 1623. Moreover, the folio has many important changes and corrections which no reasonable editor would make any question of adopting. Mr. Knight indeed, who, after the true style of Knight-errantry, everywhere gives himself up to an almost unreserved champion- ship of the folio, takes that as the supreme authority. But in this case, as usual, his zeal betrays him into something of unfairness : for wherever he prefers a folio reading, (and some of his prefer- ences are odd enough,) he carefully notes it; but in divers cases, where. the quarto readings are so clearly preferable that he dare not reject them, we have caught him adopting them without mak- ing any note of them. ‘Taking the quarto of 1604 as our stand- ard, whenever we adopt any variation of much importance from this, it will be found specified in our notes. And in many other cases, where the folio readings can plead any fair title to prefer ence, we give them in the margin, though not ourselves preferring them; so that the reader can exercise his own choice in the matter. The next question to be considered is, at what time was the tragedy of Hamlet originally written? On this point we find it extremely difficult to form a clear judgment. Thus mach, how- ever, is quite certain, that either this play was one of the Poet’s very earliest productions, or else there was another play on the same subject. This certainty rests on a passage in an Epistle by Thomas Nash, prefixed to Greene’s Arcadia: “It is a common practice now-a-days, among a sort of shifting companions that ran through every art and thrive by none, to leave the trade of Noverint whereto they were born, and busy themselves with the INTRODUCTION. 175 endeavours of art, that could scarcely latinise their neck-verse, if they should have need ; yet English Seneca, read by candle-light, yields many good sentences, as ‘ Blood is a beggar,’ and so forth; and, if you entreat him fair in a frosty morning, be will afford you whole Hamlets, I should say handfuls, of tragical speeches.” The words, “trade of Noverint,’”’ show that this squib was pointed at some writer of Hamlet, who had been known as an apprentice in the law ; and Shakespeare’s remarkable fondness for legal terms and allusions naturally suggests him as the person referred to, On the other hand, Nash’s Epistle was written certainly as early as 1589, probably two years earlier, though this has been disputed. In 1589 Shakespeare was in his twenty-sixth year, and his name _ stood the twelfth in a list of sixteen, as a sharer in the Blackfriars play-house. The chief difficulty lies in believing that be could have been known so early as the author of a tragedy having Ham- Jet for its hero; but this difficulty is much reduced by the cireum- stance, that we have no knowledge how often or how much he may have improved a piece of that kind even before the copy of 1603 Was made up. Again: It appears from Henslowe’s accounts that a play of Hamlet was performed in the theatre at Newington Butts on the 9th of June, 1594. At this time, “my lord admirell men and my lord chamberlen men” were playing together at that theatre ; the Jatter of whom was the company to which Shakespeare belonged. At the performance of Hamlet, Henslowe sets down nine shillings as his share of the receipts; whereas in case of new plays he commonly received a much larger sum. Besides, the item in question is without the mark which the manager usually prefixed in case of a new play; so that we may conclude the Hamlet of 1594. had at that time lost the feature of novelty. The question is, whether the Hamlet thus performed was Shakespeare’s ? That it was so, might naturally be inferred from the fact that the Lord Chamberlain’s men were then playing there ; besides, it has at least some probability, in that on the 11th of the same month Henslowe notes “The Taming of a Shrew” as having been per- formed at the same place. Whether this latter were Shake- speare’s play, has been sufficiently considered in our Introduction to The Taming of the Shrew. The next particular, bearing upon the subject, is from a tract by Thomas Lodge, printed in 1596, and entitled “ Wit’s Misery, or The World’s Madness, discovering the incarnate Devils of the Age ;”’ where one of the devils is said to be “a foul lubber, and looks as pale as the vizard of the Ghost, who cried so miserably at the theatre, Hamlet, revenge.” All these three notices are re- garded by Malone and some others as referring to another play of Hamlet, which they suppose to have been written by Thomas Kyd; though their only reason for thinking there was such an- other play, is the alleged improbability of the Poet’s having so early written on that subject. 176 HAMLET, PRINCE OF DENMARK. It is to be observed, further, that a copy of Speight’s Chaucer once owned by Gabriel Harvey, and having his name written in it, together with the date of 1598, has, amoug others, the follow- ing manuseript note: “The younger sort take much delight in Shakespeare’s Venus and Adonis; but his Lucrece, and his trage- dy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, have it in them to please the wiser sort.” ‘This, however,dloes not seem to infer any thing with certainty as to time; since the name and date may have been written when Harvey purchased the book, and the note at some Jater period. The only other contemporary notice to be quoted of the play, is an entry at the Stationers’ by James Roberts, on the 26th of July, 1602: « A Book, — The Revenge of Hamlet, Prince of Den- mark, as it was lately acted by the Lord Chamberlain his Ser- vants.” As the quarto of 1604 was printed by James Roberts, we may reasonably conclude that this entry refers to the «en- Jarged”’ form of the play. Why the publication was not made till two years later, is beyond our reach: perhaps it was because no copy could be obtained for the press, until the maimed and ‘stolen issue of 1603 had rendered it necessary to put forth an edition in self-defence, “ according to the true and perfect copy.” We have repeatedly seen that in the spring of 1603 «the Lord Chamberlain’s Servants” became ‘His Majesty’s Servants ;” or, as they are called in the title-page of 1603, « His Highness’ Servants.” A piece of internal. evidence fixes the date of the enlarged Hamlet soon after the 22d of June, 1600. It is the reason as- signed by Rosencrantz, in Act ii, sc. 2, why the players have left the city and gone to travelling : “J think their inhibition comes by means of the late innovation.’””?’ What this « inhibition’? was, has been set forth in our Introduction to Twelfth Night; so that it need not be repeated here. The passage just quoted is not in the copy of 1603: a different reason is there assigned why the players travel: « Novelty carries it away; for the principal public audi- ence that came to them are turned to private plays, and the humour of children.” Plays were acted in private by the choir-boys of the Chapel Royal and of St. Paul’s before 1590, several of Lyly’s pieces be- ing used in that way. It appears that in 1591 these juvenile per- formances had been suppressed ; as in the printer’s address pre- fixed to Lyly’s Endymion, which was published that year, we are told that, «since the plays in Paul’s were dissolved, there are cer- tain comedies come to my hand.’ Nash, in his « Have with You to Saffron Waldon,” published in 1596, expresses a wish to see the “plays at Paul’s up again ;” which infers that at that time the interdict was still in force. In 1600, however, we find that the - interdict had been taken off, a play attributed to Lyly being that year “acted by the children of Paul’s.” From this time forward these juvenile performances appear to have been kept up, both in private and in public, until 1612, when, on account of the abuses attending them, they were again suppressed. It would seem, then, that the reason assigned in the text of 1603 refers to a period when the acting of children was only in private, and was regarded as a novelty ; whereas at the time of the later text the qualities of novelty and privacy had been removed. And it appears not improbable, that the taking-off of the interdict be- fore 1600, and the consequent revival of plays by children, was “the late innovation” by means of which the “inhibition” bad been brought about. Howbeit, so far as regards the date of the older text, the argument is by no means conclusive, and we are not for laying any very marked stress upon it; but it seems, at all events, worth considering. Its bearing as to the time of the Jater text is obvious enough, and will hardly be questioneds Knight justly remarks, that the mention of Termagant and Herod, which occurs in the quarto of 1603, refers to a time when those personages trod the Stage in pageants and mysteries ; and that the directions to the players, as given in the older text, point to the customs and conduct of the stage, as it was before Shake- speare had, by his example and influence, raised and reformed it. The following passage from the first copy will show what we mean: “And then you have some again, that keeps one suit of jests, as a man is known by one suit of apparel ; and gentlemen quote his jests down in their tables before they come to the play, as thus: ‘Cannot you stay till I eat my porridge ?’ and, « You owe me a quarter’s wages ;’ and, «My coat wants a cullison ;’ and, « Your beer is sour ;’ and, blabbering with his lips, and thus keeping in his cinque-a-pace of jests, when, God knows, the warm clown cannot make a jest unless by chance, as the blind man catcheth a hare.” From the absence of all this in the enlarged copy, we should naturally conclude that the evil referred to had at that time been done away, or at least much diminished, And in- deed a comparison of the two texts in this part of the play will satisfy any one, we think, that, daring the interval between them, the stage had been greatly elevated and improved : divers bad customs, no doubt, had been «reformed indifferently ;”” so that the point still remaining was, to “reform them altogether.” As to the general character of the additions in. the enlarged Hamlet, it is to be noted that these are mostly in the coutempla- tive and imaginative parts ; very little being added in the way of action and incident. And in respect of the former there is indeed no comparison between the two copies: thé difference is literally immense, and of such a kind as evinces a most astonishing growth of intellectual power and resource. In the earlier text, we have little more than a naked, though, in the main, well-ordered and firm-knit skeleton, which, in the later, is everywhere replenished and glorified with large, rich volumes of thought and poetry ; —_— yy a yy ~~. z boda eS sab one” Fe eT ee Tee! em INTRODUCTION. [PR 178 HAMLET, PRINCE OF DENMARK. where all that is incidental or circumstantial is made subordinate to the living energies of mind and soul. The difference is like that of a lusty grove of hickory or maple brethren in December with the winds whistling through them, and in June with the birds singing in them. So that the enlarged Hamlet probably marks the germination of that “thoughtful philosophy,” as Hallam ealls it, which never afterwards deserted the Poet; though time did indeed abate its excess, and reduce it under his control ; whereas it here overflows all bounds, and sweeps onward uncheeked, so as to form the very character of the piece. Moreover, this play, in common with several others, though in a greater degree, bears symptoms of a mach saddened and aggrieved, not to say embittered temper of mind: it is fraught, more than any other, with a spirit of profound and melancholy cogitation ; as if written under the influence of some stroke that had shaken the Poet’s disposition with thoaghts beyond the reaches of his soul; or as if he were casting about in the darker and sterner regions of meditation in quest of an anti- dote for some deep distress that had touched him. For there can be little doubt, that the birth and first stages of “ the philosophic mind” were in his case, for some cause unknown to us, hung about with clouds and gloom, which, however, were afterwards blown off, and replaced by an atmosphere of unblemished clear- ness and serenity. Hallam has remarked upon this introversive and darkly-brooding season of the Poet’s mind, in a superb strain of criticism, which has been quoted in our Introduction to Meas- ure for Measure. From all which may be gathered how appropriately this play has been described as a tragedy of thought. Such is indeed its character. And in this character it stands alone, and that, not only of Shakespeare’s dramas, but of all the dramas in being. As for action, the play has little that can be properly so called. The scenes are indeed richly diversified with incident; but the inci- dents, for the most part, engage our attention only as serving to start and shape the hero’s far-reaching trains of reflection ; them- selves being Jost sight of in the wealth of thought and sentiment which they call forth. In no other of Shakespeare’s plays does ihe interest turn so entirely on the hero; and that, not because he overrides the other persons and crushes their individuality under; as Richard II. does ; but because his life is all centered in the mind, and the effluence of his mind and character is around all the others and within them; so that they are little interesting to us, but for his sake, for the effects they have upon him, and the thoughts he has of them. Observe, too, that of all dramatic personages, «out of sight, out of mind,” can least be said of him: on the contrary, be is never more in mind, than when out of sight; and whenever others come in sight, the effect still is, to remind us of him, and deepen our interest in him. >a” ee a ee ae ‘ INTRODUCTION. 179 The character of Hamlet has caused more of perplexity and discussion -than any other in the whole range of art. He has a wonderful interest for all, yet none can explain him ; and perhaps he is therefore the more interesting because inexplicable. We have found by experience, that one seems to understand him bet- ter after a little study than after a great deal. and that the Jess one sees info him, the more apt one is to think he sees through him 5 in which respect he is indeed like nature herself. We shall not presume to make clear what so many better eyes have found and left dark. The most we can hope to do is, to start a few thoughts, not towards explaining him, but towards showing why he cannot be explained; nor to reduce the variety of opinions touching him, but rather to suggest whence that variety proceeds, and why. One man considers Hamlet great, but wicked 3 another, good, but weak ; a third, that he lacks courage, and dare not act; a fourth, that he has too much intellect for his will. and so thinks away the time of action: some conclude him honestly mad ; others, that his madness is wholly feigned. Yet, notwithstanding this di- versity of conclusions, all agree in thinking and speaking of him as an actual person. It is easy to invest with plausibility almost any theory regarding him, but very hard to make any theory com- prebend the whole subject ; and, while all are impressed with the trath of the character, no one is satisfied with another’s view of it. The question is, why such unanimity as to his being a man, and at the same time such diversity as to what sort of a man he is? Now, in reasoning about facts, we are apt to forget what com- plex and many-sided things they are. We often speak of them as very simple and intelligible; and in some respects they are so ; but, in others, they are inscrutably mysterious. For they present manifold elements and qualities in unity and consistency, and so carry a manifoldness of meaning which cannot be gathered up into logical expression. Even if we seize and draw out severally all the properties of a fact, still we are as far as ever from pro- ducing the effect of their combination. ‘Thus there is somewhat in facts that still eludes the cunningest analysis; like the vital principle, which no subtlety of dissection can grasp or overtake. It is this mysteriousness of facts that begets our respect for them: could we master them, we should naturally lose our regard for them. For, to see round and through a thing, implies a sort of conquest over it; and when we seem to have conquered a thing, we are apt to put off that humility towards it, which is both the better part of wisdom, and also our key to the remainder. This complexity of facts supposes the material of innumerable theories : for, in such a multitude of properties belonging to one and the same thing, every man’s mind may take hold of some special consideration above the rest ; and when we look at facts through a given theory they naturally seem to prove but that one, 180 HAMLET, PRINCE OF DENMARK. though they would really afford equal proof of fifty others. Hence there come to be divers opinions respecting the same thing ; and men arrive at opposite conclusions, forgetting, that of a given fact many things may be true in their place and degree, yet none of them true in such sort as to impair the truth of others. Now, Hamlet is all varieties of character in one; be is cons tinvally turning ap a new side, appearing under a new phase, un- dergoing some new development; so that he touches us at all points, and, as it were, surrounds us. This complexity and ver- satility of character are ofien mistaken for inconsistency : hence the contradictory opinions respecting him, different minds taking very different impressions of him, and even the same mind, at different times. In short, like other facts, he is many-sided, so that many men of many minds may see themselves in different sides of him; but, when they compare notes, and find him agree- ing with them all, they are perplexed, and are apt to think him inconsistent,: in so great a diversity of elements, they lose the per- ception of identity, and cannot see how he can be so many, and still be but one. Doubtless he seems the more real for this very eause; our inability to see through him, or to discern the source and manner of his impression upon us, brings bim closer to nature, makes him appear the more like a fact, and so strengthens his bold on our thoughts. For, where there is life, there must needs be more or less of change, the very law of life being identity in mutability ; and in Hamlet the variety and rapidity of changes are so managed as only to infer the more intense, active, and pro- lific vitality ; though, in so great a multitude of changes, it is ex- tremely difficult to seize the constant principle. Coleridge’s view of Hamlet is much celebrated, and the cur- rency it has attained shows there must be something’ of truth in it. «In the healthy processes of the mind,” says he, “a balance is constantly maintained between the impressions from outward ob- jects and the inward operations of the intellect: for, if there be an overbalance in the contemplative faculty, man thereby becomes the creature of mere meditation, and loses his natural power of action. Now, one of Shakespeare’s modes of creating characters is, to conceive any one intellectual or moral faculty in morbid ex- ecss, and then to place himself, Shakespeare, thas mutilated or diseased, under given circumstances. In Hamlet he seems to have wished to exemplify the moral necessity of a due balance between our attention to the objects of our senses, and our med- itation on the workings of our minds, — an equilibrium between the real and the imaginary worlds. In Hamlet this balance 1s disturbed: his thoughts and the images of his fancy are far more vivid than his actual perceptions ; and his very perceptions, in- stantly passing through the medium of his contemplations, acquire, as they pass, a form and colour not naturally their own. Hence we see a great, an almost enormous, intellectual activity, and a INTRODUCTION. Isl proportionate aversion to real action, consequent upon it, with al] its symptoms and accompanying qualities. This character Shake- Speare places in circumstances, under which it is obliged to act on the spur of the moment :— Hamlet is brave and careless of death ; but he vacillates from sensibility, and procrastinates from thought and loses the power of action in the energy of resolve. “The effect of this overbalance of the imaginative power is beautifully illustrated in the everlasting broodings and superfluous activities of Hamlet’s mind, which, unseated from its healthy re- lation, is constantly occupied with the world within, and abstracted from the world without ; giving substance to shadows, and throw- ing a mist over all common-place actualities. It is the nature of ? , thought to be indefinite ;— definitencss belongs to external imagery alone. Hence it is that the sense of sublimity arises, not from the sight of an outward object, but from the beholder’s reflection upon it; not from the sensuous impression, but from the imaginative re- flex. Few have seen a celebrated waterfall without feeling some- thing akin to disappointment: it is only subsequently that the im- age comes back full into the mind, and brings with it a train of grand or beautiful associations. Hamlet feels this ; his senses are in a trance, and he looks upon external things as hieroglyphics.” This is certainly very noble criticism 3 and our main ground of doubt as to the view thus given is, that Hamlet seems bold, en- ergetic, and prompt enough in action, when his course is free of moral impediments ; as, for instance, in his conduct on shipboard, touching the commission, where his powers of thought all range themselves under the leading of a most vigorous and steady will. Our own belief is, though we are far from absolute in it, that the Poet’s design was, to conceive a man great, perhaps equally so, in all the elements of character, mental, moral, and practical; and then to place him in such circumstances, bring such motives to bear upon him, and open to him such sources of influence and reflec- tion, that all his greatness should be morally forced to display it- self in the form of thought, even his strength of will having no practicable outlet but through the energies of the intellect. A brief review of the delineation will, if we mistake not, disccr er some reason for this belief. : Up to the time of his father’s death, Hamlet’s mind, busied in developing its innate riches, had found room for no sentiments to- wards others but generous trust and confidence. Delighted with the appearances of good, and shielded by his rank from the naked approaches of evil, he had no motive to pry through the semblance into the reality of surrounding characters. ‘\’The ideas of princely elevation and moral rectitude, springing up simultaneously in bis mind, had intertwisted their fibres closely together. While the chaste forms of young imagination had kept his own heart pure, he had framed his conceptions of others according to the model within himself. To the feelings of the son, the prince, the gentle- VOL. xX. 16 182 HAMLET, PRINCE OF DENMARK. man, the friend. the scholar, had lately been joined those of the lover ; and his heart, oppressed with its own hopes and joys, had breathed forth its fulness in “almost all the holy vows of heaven.” In his father he had realized the ideal of character which he as- pired to exemplify. Whatsoever noble images and ideas he had githered from the fields of poetry and philosophy, he had learned to associate with that venerated name. To the throne he looked forward with hope and fear, as an elevation for diffusing the bless- ings of a wise sovereignty, and receiving the homage of a grateful submission. As the crown was elective, he regarded his prospects of attaining it as suspended on the continuance of his father’s life, till he could discover in himself such virtues as would secure him the succession. In his father’s death, therefore, he lost the main stay of both his affections and his pretensions. Notwithstanding, the foundatious of his peace and happiness were yet unshaken. The prospects of the man were perhaps all the brighter, that those of the prince had faded. he fireside and the student’s bower were still open to him; trath and beauty, thought and affection, bad not hidden their faces from him: with a mind saddened, but not diseased, his bereavement served to deepen and chasten his sensibilities, without untuning their music. Cun- ning and quick of jheart to discover and appropriate the remuner- ations of life, he could compensate the loss of some objects with a more free and tranquil enjoyment of such as remained. In the absence of his father, he could concentrate upon his mother the feelings hitherto shared between them ; and, in cases like this, religion towards the dead comes in to heighten and sanctify an affection for the living. Even if his mother too had died, the loss, however bitter, would not have been baleful to him ; for, though separated from the chief objects of love and trust and reverence, he would still have retained those sentiments themselves unim- paired. It is not his mother, however, but his faith in her, that he has to part with. T'o his prophetic soul, the hasty and incestuous marriage brings at once conviction of his mother’s infidelity, and suspicion of his uncle’s treachery, to his father. Where he has most loved and trusted, there he has been most deceived. The sadness of bereavement now settles into the deep gloom of a wounded spirit, and life seems rather a burden to be borne than a blessing to.be cherished. In this condition, the appearance of the Ghost, its awful disclosures, and more awful injunctions, confirm- ing the suspicion of his uncle’s treachery, and implicating his mother in the crime, complete his desolation of mind. Nevertheless, he still retains all his integrity and uprightness of soul. In the depths of his being, even below the reach of con- sciousness, there lives the instinct and impulse of a moral law with which the injunction of the Ghost stands in direct conflict. What is the quality of the act required of him? Nothing less, indeed, than to kill at once his uncle, his mother’s husband, and his king 5 INTRODUCTION. 183 and this, not as an act of justice, and in a judicial manner, but as an act of revenge, and by assassination! How shall he justify such a deed to the world? How vindicate himself from the very crime thus revenged? For, as he cannot subpeena the Ghost, the evidence on which he must act is in its nature available only in the court of his own conscience. To serve any good end either for hiiuself or for others, the deed must so stand in the publie eye, as it does_in his own ; else he will, in effect, be setting an example and precedent of murder, not of justice. Thus Hamlet’s conscience is divided, not merely against his inclination, but against itself. However he multiplies to himself reasons and motives for the deed, there yet springs up, from a depth in his nature which reflection has not fathomed, an over- ruling impulse against it. So that we have the triumph of a pure moral nature over temptation in its most imposing form, — the form of a sacred call from heaven, or what is such to him. He thinks he ought to do the thing, resolves that he will do it, blames himself for not doing it; but there is a power within him which still outwrestles his purpose. In brief, the trouble lies not in bim- self, but in his situation; it arises from the impossibility of trans- lating the outward call of duty into a free moral impulse 3 and until so translated he cannot perform it; for in such an undertak- ing he must act from himself. not from another. This strife of incompatible duties seems the trae source of Hamlet’s practical indecision. His moral sensitiveness, shrinking from the dreadful mandate of revenge, throws him back upon his reflective powers, aud sends him through the abysses of thought in quest of a reconciliation between his conflicting duties, that so he may shelter either the performance of the deed from the re- proach of irreligion, or the non-performance from that of filial impiety. Moreover, on reflection he discerns something in the mandate that makes him question its source: even his filial rev- erence leads him first to regret, then to doubt, and finally to dis- believe, that his futher has laid on him such an injunction. It seems more likely that the Ghost should he a counterfeit, than that his father should call him to such a deed. Thus his mind is set in quest of other proofs. But when, by the stratagem of the play, he has made the King’s guilt unkennel itself, this demon- stration again arrests his hand, because his own conscience is startled into motion by the revelations made from that of another. Seeking grounds of action in the workings of remorse, the very proofs, which to his mind would justify the inflicting of death, themselves spring from something worse than death. And it should be remarked, withal, that by the very process of the case he is put in immediate contact with supernatural in- fluences. The same voice that calls him to the undertaking also unfolds to him the retributions of faturity. The thought of that eternal blazon, which must not be to ears of flesh and blood, 184 HAMLET, PRINCE OF DENMARK. entrances him in meditation on the awful realities of the invisible world ; so that, while nerved by a sense of the duty, he is at the same time shaken by a dread of the responsibility. Thus the Ghost works in Hamlet a sort of preternatural development : its disclo- sures: bring forth into clear apprehension some moral ideas which before were but dim presentiments in him. It is as if be were born into the other world before dying out of this. And what is thus developed in him is at strife with the injunction laid upon bim. Thus it appears, that Hamlet is distracted with a purp6se which he is at once too good a son to dismiss, and too good a man to perform. Under an injunction with which he knows not what to do, he casts about, now for excuses, now for censures, of his non- performance; and religion still prevents him from doing what filial piety reproves him for Jeaving undone. Not daring to abandon the design of killing the King, he is yet morally incapable of form- ing any plan for doing it: he can only go through the work, as indeed he does at last, under a sudden frenzy of excitement, caused by some immediate provocation; not so much acting, as being acted upon; rather as an instrument of Providence, than as a self- determining agent. Properly speaking, then, Hamlet, we think, does not lack force of will. In him, will is strictly subject to reason and conscience 5 and it rather shows strength than otherwise in refusing to move in conflict with them. We are apt to measure men’s force of will only by what they do, whereas the true measure thereof often lies rather in what they do not do. On this point, Mr. E. P. Whipple suggests, that “will is a relative term ; and, even admitting that Hamlet possessed more will than many who act with decision, the fact that his other powers were larger in proportion justifies the common belief, that he was deficient in energy of purpose.” But this, it strikes us, does not exactly meet the position ; which is, that force of will is shown rather in holding still, than in moving, where the moral understanding is not satisfied ; and that Hamlet seems to lack rather the power of seeing what he ought to do, than of doing what he sees to be right. The question is, whether they peculiarity of this representation is not meant to consist in the hero being so placed, that strength of will has its proper outcome rather in thinking than in acting; the working of his whole mind being thus rendered as anomalous as his situation; which is just what the subject requires. Will it be said, that Hamlet’s moral scruples are born of an innate reluctance to act? that from defect of will he wishes to hold back, and so hunts after motives for doing so? We should ourselves be much inclined to say so, but that those scruples seem to be the native and legitimate offspring of reason There being, as we think, sufficient grounds for them out of him we cannot refer them to any infirmity of his as their source. It is true, Hamlet takes to himself all the blame of his indi cision. This, we think, is one of the finest points in the delinea Pe: INTRODUCTION. 185 tion. For true virtue does not publish itself: radiating from the heart through the functions of life, its transpirations are so free and smooth and deep as to be scarce heard even by the subject of them. Moreover, in his conflict of duties, Hamlet naturally thinks he is taking the wrong one ; the calls of the claim he meets being hushed by satisfaction, while those of the other are increased by disappointment. The current that we go with is naturally un- noticed by us ; but that which we go against compels our notice by the struggle it puts us to. In this way Hamlet comes to mis- take his clearness of conscience for moral insensibility. For even so a good man is apt to think he has not consience enough, be cause it is quiet; a bad man, that he has too much, because it troubles him; which accounts for the readiness of bad men to sup ply their neighbours with conscience. But perhaps the greatest perplexity of all in Hamlet’s charac- ter turns on the point of his “antie disposition.”” Whether his madness be real or feigned, or sometimes the one, sometimes the other, or partly real, partly feigned, are questions which, like many that arise on similar points in actual life, perhaps can never be finally settled either way. Aside from the common impossibility of deciding precisely where sanity ends and insanity begins, there are peculiarities in Hamlet’s conduct,— resulting from the min- glings of the supernatural in his situation, — which, as they tran- scend the reach of our ordinary experience, can hardly be reduced to any thing more than probable conjecture. If sanity consists in a certain harmony between a man’s actions and his circumstances, it must be hard indeed to say what would be insanity in a man so circumstanced as Hamlet. That his mind is thrown from its propriety, shaken from its due forms and measures of working, excited into irregular, fevered ac- tion, is evident, enough: from the deeply-agitating experiences he has undergone, the horrors of guilt preternaturally laid open to him, and the terrible ministry enjoined upon him, he could not be otherwise. His mind is indeed full of unbealthy perturbation, being necessarily made so by the overwhelming thoughts that press upon him from without ; but it nowhere appears enthralled by il- lusions spun from itself; there are no symptoms of its being torn from its proper holdings, or paralyzed in its power of steady thought and coherent reasoning. Once only, at the grave of Ophelia, does he lose his self-possession; and the result in this case only goes to prove bow firmly he retains it everywhere else. It is matter of common observation, that extreme emotions nat- urally express themselves by their opposites ; as extreme sorrow, in laughter, extreme joy, in tears; utter despair, in a voice of mirth; a wounded spirit, in gushes of humour. Hence Shake- speare heightens the effect of some of his awfulest scenes by mak- ing the persons indulge. in flashes of merriment ; for what so ap- palling as to see a person laughing and playing from excess of 16* 186 HAMLET, PRINCE OF DENMARK. anguish or terror? Now, the expressions of mirth, in such cases are plainly neither the reality nor the affectation of mirth. Peo ple, when overwhelmed with distress, certainly are not in a con- dition either to feel merry or to feign mirth; yet they do some- times express it. The truth is, such extremes naturally and spon- taneously express themselves by their opposites. In like manner, Hamlet’s madness, it seems to us, is neither real nor affected, but a sort of natural and spontaneous imitation of madness ; the tri- umph of his reason over his passion naturally expressing itself in the tokens of insanity, just as the agonies of despair naturally vent themselves in flashes of mirth. Accordingly, Coleridge re- marks, that “ Hamlet’s wildness is but half false; be plays that subtle trick of pretending to act, only when he is very near really being what he acts.” Again: It is not uncommon for men, in times of great depres- sion, to fly off into prodigious humours and eccentricities. We have known people under such extreme pressure to throw their most intimate friends into consternation by their extravagant play- ings and frolickings. Such symptoms of wildness are sometimes the natural, though perhaps spasmodic, reaction of the mind against the weight that oppresses it. The mind thus spontaneous- ly becomes eccentric in order to recover or preserve its centre. Even so Hamlet’s aberrations seem the conscious, half-voluntary bending of his faculties beneath an overload of thought,*to keep them from breaking. His mind being deeply disturbed, agitated to its centre, but not disorganized, those irregularities are rather a throwing-off of that disturbance than a giving-way to it. On the whole, therefore, Goethe’s celebrated criticism seems quite beside the mark: nevertheless, as it is the calm judgment of a great mind, besides being almost too beautiful in itself not to be true, we gladly subjoin it. «It is clear to me,” says he, «that Shakespeare’s intention was, to exhibit the effects of a great action imposed as a duty upon a mind too feeble for its accom- plishment. In this sense I find the character consistent through out. Here is an oak planted in a china vase, proper to receive only the most delicate flowers : the roots strike out, and the ves- sel flies to pieces, A pure, noble, highly moral disposition, but without that energy of soul which constitutes the hero, sinks under a load which it can neither support nor resolve to abandon alto- gether: Adi his obligations are sacred to him; but this alone is above his powers. An impossibility is required at bis hands; not an impossibility in itself, but that which is so to him,” Still we have. to confess, as stated before, that there is a mys- tery about Hamlet, which baffles all our resources of criticism 5 and our remarks should be taken as expressing rather what we have thought on the subject than any settled judgment. We will dismiss the theme by quoting what seems to us a very admirable passage from a paper in Blackwood’s Magazine, vol. ii., signed : 7 : ; 1 : INTRODUCTION. 187 «“T. C.” The writer is speaking of Hamlet: “In him, his char- acter, and his situation, there is a concentration of all the interests that belong to humanity. There is scarcely a trait of frailty or of grandeur, which may have endeared to us our most beloved friends in real life, that is not found in Hamlet. Undoubtedly Shakespeare loved him beyond all his other creations. Soon as he appears on the stage, we are satisfied : when absent, we long for his return. This is the only play which exists almost alto- gether in the character of one single person. Who ever knew a Hamlet in real life? yet who, ideal as the character is, feels ‘not its reality? This is the wonder. We love him not, we think of him not, because he was witty, because he was melancholy, be- cause he was filial; but we love him because he existed, and was himself. This is the grand sum-total of the impression. I be- lieve that of every other character, either in tragic or epic poetry, the story makes a part of the conception ; but, of Hamlet, the deep and permanent interest is the conception of himself. This seems to belong, not to the character being more perfectly drawn, bat to there being a more intense conception of individual human life than perhaps in any other human composition 3 that is, abeing . with springs of thought, and feeling, and action, deeper than we can search. These springs rise up from an unknown depth, and in that depth there seems to be a oneness of being which we can- not distinctly behold, but which we believe to be there; and thus irreconcileable circumstances, floating on the surface of his actions, have not~the effect of making us doubt the truth of the general picture.” From the same eloquent paper we must make another extract touching the apparition of “that fair and warlike form, in which the majesty of buried Denmark did sometimes march:” « With all the mighty power which this tragedy possesses over us, arising from qualities now very generally described ; yet, without that kingly shadow, who throws over it such preternatural grandeur, it could never have gained so universal an ascendancy over the minds of men. Now, the reality of a ghost is measured to that stale of imagination in which we ought to be held for the fullest powers of tragedy. The appearance of such a phantom at once throws open those recesses of the inner spirit over which flesh was closing. Magicians, thunder-storms, and demons produce upon me something of the same effect. I feel myself brought instan- taneously back to the creed of childhood. Imagination then seems not a power which I exert, but an impulse which I obey. Thus does the Ghost in Hamlet carry us into the presence of eternity. “Never was a more majestic spirit more majestically revealed. The shadow of his kingly grandeur and his warlike might rests massily upon him. He passes before us sad, silent, and stately. He brings the whole weight of the tragedy in his disclosures. His speech is ghost-like, and blends with ghost conceptions. The 2 au i . : ad t 188 HAMLET, PRINCE OF DENMARK. popular memory of his words proves how profoundly they sink into our souls, The preparation for his first appearance is most sol- emn. The night-watch,—the more common effect on the two soldiers, — the deeper effect on the next party, and their specula tions, — Horatio’s communication with the shadow, that seems as it were half-way between theirs and Hamlet’s, — his adjurations, — the degree of impression which they produce on the Ghost’s mind, who is about to speak but for the due ghost-like interruption of the hird of morning ;—all these things lead our minds up to the last pitch of breathless expectation ; and while yet the whole weight of mystery is left hanging over the play, we fee] that some dread disclosure is reserved for Hamlet’s ear, and that an apparition from the world unknown is still a partaker of the noblest of all earthly affections.” Horatio is a very noble character ; but he moves so quietly in the drama, that his modest worth and solid manliness have not had justice done them. Should we undertake to go through the play without him, we should then feel how much of the best spirit and impression of the scenes is owing to his presence and character. - For he is the medium through which many of the hero’s finest and noblest traits are conveyed to us; yet himself so clear and trans- parent that he scarcely catches the attention. Mr. Verplanck, we believe, was the first to give him his due. “ While,” says he, «every other character in this play, Ophelia, Polonius, and even Osrick, has been analyzed and discussed, it is remarkable that no critic has stept forward to notice the great beauty of Horatio’s character, and its exquisite adaptation to the effect of the piece. His is a character of great excellence and accomplishment ; but while this is distinctly shown, it is but sketched, not elaborately painted. His qualities are brought out only by single and seem- ingly-accidental touches 3 the whole being toned down to a quiet and unobtrusive beauty that does not tempt the mind to wander from the main interest, which rests alone upon Hannlet 5 while it is yet distinct enough to increase that interest, by showing him worthy to be Hamlet’s trusted friend in life, and the chosen dew fender of his honour after death. Such a character, in the hands of another author, would have been made the centre of some sec- ondary plot. But here, while he commands our respect and es- teem, he never for a moment divides a passing interest with the Prince. He does not break in upon the main current of our feel- ings. He contributes only to the general effect; so that it re- quires an effort of the mind to separate him for critical admira- tion.” The main features of Polonius have been seized and set forth by Dr. Johnson with the band of a master. It is one of the best pieces of personal criticism ever penned. « Polonius,” says he, «is a man bred in courts, exercised in business, stored with obser- vation, confident in his knowledge, proud of his eloquence, and INTRODUCTION. 189 declining into dotage. His mode of oratory is designed to rid- icule the practice of these times, of prefaces that made no intro- duction, and of method that embarrassed rather than explained. This part of his character is accidental, the rest natural. Such a man is positive and confident, because he knows that his mind was once strong, and knows not that it has become weak. Such aman excels in general principles, but fails in particular application. He is knowing in retrospect, and ignorant in foresight. While he de- pends upon his memory, and can draw from his depositaries of knowledge, he utters weighty sentences, and gives useful counsel ; but, as the mind in its enfeebled state cannot be kept long busy and intent, the old man is subject to the dereliction of his facul- ties ; he loses the order of his ideas, and entangles himself in his own thoughts, till he recover the leading principle, and fall into his former train. The idea of dotage encroaching upon wisdom will solve all the phenomena of the character of Polonius.” In all this Polonius is the exact antithesis of Hamlet, though Hamlet doubtless includes him, as the heavens do the earth. A man of but one method, that of intrigue 5 with his fingers ever itching to pull the wires of some intricate plot ; and without any sense or perception of times and occasions; he is called to act in a matter where such arts and methods are peculiarly unfitting, and therefore only succeeds in over-reaching himself. Thus in him we have the type of a superannuated politician, and all his follies and blunders spring from undertaking to act the politician where he is most especially required to be a man. From books, too, he has gleaned maxims, but not gained development; sought to equip, not feed, his mind out of them: he has therefore made books his idols, and books have made him pedantic. To such a mind, or rather half-mind, the character of Hamlet must needs bea profound enigma. It takes a whole man to know such a being as Hamlet; and Polonius is but the attic story of a man! As in his mind the calculative faculties have eaten out the perceptive, of course his inferences are seldom wrong, his prem- ises seldom right. Assuming Hamlet to be thus and so, he rea- sons and acts most admirably in regard to him; but the fact is, he cannot see Hamlet; has no eye for the true premises of the case ; and, being wrong in. these, his very correctness of logic makes him but the more ridiculous. His method of coming at the mean- ing of men, is by reading them backwards; and this method, used upon such a character as Hamlet, can but betray the user’s infirmity. Shakespeare’s skill in revealing a character through its most characteristic transpirations is finely displayed in the directions Polonius gives his servant, for detecting the habits and practices of his absent son. Here the old politician is perfectly at home ; his mind seems to revel in the mysteries of wire-pulling and trap- setting. In the Prince, however, he finds an impracticable sub« 199 HAMLET, PRINCE OF DENMARK. ject; here all his strategy is nonplussed, and himself caught in the trap he sets to catch the truth. ‘Che mere torch of policy, nature, or Hamlet, who is an embodiment of nature, blows him out; so that, in attempting to throw light on the Prince, he just rays out nothing but smoke. ‘The sport of circumstances, it was only by a change of circumstances that Hamlet came to know him. Once the honoured minister of his royal father, now the despised tool of that father’s murderer, Hamlet sees in him only the crooked, sup- ple time-server ; and the ease with which he bafiles and plagues the old fox shows how much craftier one can be who scorns craft, than one who courts it. Habits of intrigue having extinguished in Polonius’ the powers of honest insight and special discernment, he therefore perceives not the unfitness of his old methods to the new exigency ; while at the same time his faith in the craft, hitherto found so successful, stuffs him with overweening assurance. Hence, also, that singular but most characteristic specimen of grannyism, namely, his pe- dantic and impertinent dallying with artful turns of thought and speech amidst serious business ; where he appears not unlike a certain person who “could speak no sense in several languages.” Superannuated politicians, indeed, like him, seldom have any strength but as they fall back upon the resources of memory: out of these, the ashes, so to speak, of extinct faculties, they may seem wise after the fountains of wisdom are dried up within them; as a man who has lost his sight may seem to distinguish colours, so long as he refrains from speaking of the colours that are before him. Of all Shakespeare’s heroines, the impression of Ophelia is perhaps the most difficult of analysis, partly because she is so real, partly because so undeveloped. Like Cordelia, she is brought forward but little in the play, yet the whole play seems fall of her. Her very silence utters her: unseen, she is missed, and so thought of the more: when absent in person, she is still present in effect, by what others bring from her. Whatsoever grace comes from Polonius and the Queen is of her inspiring: Laertes is scaree re- garded but as he loves his sister: of Hamlet’s soul, too, she is the sunrise and morning hymn. The soul of innocence and gentle- ness, wisdom seems to radiate from her insensibly, as fragrance is exhaled from flowers. It is in such forms that heaven most fre- quently visits us! Ophelia’s situation much resembles Imogen’s 5 their characters are in marked contrast. Both appear amid the corruptions of a wicked court ; Ophelia escapes them by insensibility of their pres- ence, Imogen, by determined resistance: The former is unassail- able in her innocence; the latter, unconquerable in her strength : Ignorance protects Ophelia, knowledge, Imogen: The conception of vice has scarce found its way into Ophelia’s mind ; in Imogen the daily perception of vice has but called for a power to repel it. INTRODUCTION. 91 Tn Ophelia, again, as in Desdemona, the comparative want of in- telligence, or rather intellectuality, is never felt as a defect. She fills up the idea of excellence just as completely as if she had the intellect of Shakespeare himself. In the rounded equipoise of her character we miss not the absent element, because there is no va- cancy to he supplied; and high intellect would strike us rather as a superfluity than a supplement ; its voice would rather drown than complete the harmony of the other tones. Ophelia is exhibited in the utmost ripeness and mellowness, both of soul and sense, to impressions from without. With her sus- ceptibilities just opening to external objects, her thoughts are so engaged on these as to leave no room for self-contemplation. This exceeding impressibility is the source at once of her beauty and her danger. From the lips and eyes of Hamlet she has drunk in pledges of his love, but has never heard the voice of her own ; and knows not how full ber heart is of Hamlct, because sive has not a single thought or feeling there at strife with him. Mrs. Jame- son rightly says, “she is far more conscious of being loved than of loving ; and yet loving in the silent depths of her young heart far more than she is loved.”” For it is a singular fact that, thoneh from Hamlet we have many disclosures, and from Ophelia only concealments, there has been much doubt of his love, but never any of hers. Opbelia’s silence as to her own passion has been sometimes misderived from a wish to hide it from others 3 but, in truth, she seems not to be aware of it herself; and she uneon- sciously betrays it in the modest reluctance with which she yields up the secret of Hamlet’s courtship. The extorted confession of what she has received reveals how much she has given ; the soft tremblings of her bosom being made the plainer by the delicate lawn of silence thrown over it. Even when despair is wringing her innocent young soul into an utter wreck, she seems not to know the source of her affliction; and the truth comes out only when her sweet mind, which once breathed such enchanting masie, lies broken in fragments before us, and the secrets of her maiden heart are hovering on her demented tongue. One of the bitterest ingredients in poor Ophelia’s cup is the belief that by her repulse of Hamlet she has dismantled his fair and stately house of reason; and when, forgetting the wounds with which her own pure spirit is bleeding, over the spectacle of that “ unmatch’d form and feature of blown youth blasted with ecstacy,” she meets his, “I loved you not,’’ with the despairing sigh, «I was the more deceived,” we see that she feels not the sundering of the ties that bind her sweetly-tempered faculties in harmony. Yet we blame not Hamlet, for he is himself but a victim of an in- exorable power which is spreading its ravages through nim over another life as pure and heayenly as his own. Standing on the verge of an abyss whichis yawning to engulph himself, his very effort to frighten her back from it only hurries her in before him. 192 HAMLET, PRINCE OF DENMARK. To snatch another jewel from Mrs. Jameson’s casket. — “ He has no thought to link his terrible destiny with hers: he cannot marry her: he cannot reveal to her, young, gentle, innocent as she 1s, the terrific influences which have changed the whole current of his life and purposes. In his distraction he overacts the painful part to which he has tasked himself; like that judge of the Areopagus who, being occupied with graver matters, flung from him the little bird which had sought refuge in his bosom, and with such angry violence, that he unwittingly killed it.” ; Ophelia’s insanity exhausts the fountains of human pity. It is one of those mysterious visitings over which we can only brood in silent sympathy and awe; which Heaven alone has a heart ad- equately to pity, and a hand effectually to heal. Its pathos were too much to be borne, but for the sweet incense that rises from her crushed spirit, as “she turns thought and affliction, passion, hell itself, to favour and to prettiness.”” Of her death what shall be said? The victim of crimes in which she has no share but as a sufferer, we hail with joy the event that snatches her from the rack of this world. The “snatches of old lauds,” with which she chaunts, as it were, her own burial service, are like smiles gusb- ing from the very heart of woe. We must leave her, with the words of Hazlitt: «O, rose of May! O, flower too soon faded! Her love, her madness, her death, are described with the truest touches of tenderness and pathos. It is a character which nobody but Shakespeare could have drawn in the way that he bas done 5 and to the ‘conception of which there is not the smallest approach, except in some of the old romantic ballads.” The Queen’s affection for this lovely being is one of those un- expected strokes, so frequent in Shakespeare, which surprise us into reflection by their naturalness. That Ophelia should disclose a vein of goodness in the Queen, was necessary perhaps to keep us both from underrating the influence of the one, and from. ex- aggerating the wickedness of the other. The love which she thus awakens tells us that her helplessness springs from innocence, not from weakness; and so serves to prevent the pity which her con-. dition moves from lessening the respect due to her character. Almost any other aathor would have depicted Gertrude without a single alleviating trait in her character. Beaumont and Fletcher would probably have made her simply frightful or loathsome, and capable only of exciting abhorrence or disgust; if, indeed, in her monstrous depravity she had not rather failed to excite any feel-. ing. Shakespeare, with far more effect as well as far more truth, exhibits her with such a mixture of good and bad, as neither dis- arms censure nor precludes pity. Herself dragged along in the terrible train of consequences which her own guilt bad a band in starting, she is hurried away into the same dreadful abyss along with those whom she loves, and against*whom she has sinned. In her tenderness towards Hamlet and Ophelia, we recognise the vir- " INTRODUCTION. 193 tues of the mother without in the least palliating the guilt of the wife ; while the crimes in which she is an accomplice almost dis- appear in those of which she is the victim. The plan of this drama seems to consist in the persons being represented as without plans; for, as Goethe happily remarks, ‘the hero is without any plan, but the play itself is full of plan.” As the action, so far as there is any, is shaped and determined rather for the characters than from them, all their energies could the better be translated into thought. Hence of all the Poet's dramas this probably combines the greatest strength and diversity of faculties. Sweeping round the whole circle of human thought and passion, its alternations of amazement and terror; of lust, ambition, and remorse } of hope; love, friendship, anguish, mad- ness, and despair ; of wit, humour, pathos, poetry, and philosophy ; now congealing the blood with horror, now melting the heart with pity, now launching the mind into eternity, now startling con- science from her lonely seat with supernatural visitings ;— it un- folds indeed a world of truth, and beauty, and sublimity. Of its varied excellences, only a few of the Jess obvious need be specified. The platform scenes are singularly charged with picturesque effect. The chills of a northern winter midnight seem creeping on us, as the heart-sick sentinels pass in view, and, steeped in moonlight and drowsiness, exchange their meeting and parting © salutations. ‘The thoughts and images that rise in their minds are just such as the anticipation of preternatural visions would be likely to inspire. As the bitter cold stupefies their senses, an indescrib- able feeling of dread and awe stealsgover them, preparing the mind to realise its own superstitious imaginings. And the feeling one has in reading these scenes is not unlike that of a child pass- ing a grave-yard by moonlight. Out of the dim and drowsy moonbeams apprehension creates its own objects ; his fancies em- body themselves in surrounding facts ; his fears give shape to out- ward things, while those things give outwardness to his fears. — The heterogeneous elements that are brought together in the grave- digging scene, with its strange mixture of songs and witticisms and dead men’s bones, and its still stranger transitions of the grave, the sprightly, the meditative, the solemn, the playful, and the gro- tesque, make it one of the most wonderful yet most natural scenes in the drama.— In view of the terrible catastrophe, Goethe has the following weighty sentence: “It is the tendency of crime to spread its evils over innocence, as it is of virtue to diffuse its blessings over many who deserve them not; while, frequently, the author of the one or of the other is not, so far as we can see, pun- ished or rewarded.” VOL. X. 17 13 PERSONS REPRESENTED. Criavupivs, King of Denmark. Hamer, his Nephew; Son of the former King. Potonivus, Lord Chamberlain. Horatio, Friend to Hamlet. LarErTES, Son of Polonius. VoLTIMAND, a Ay aT he \ Courtiers. OSENCRANTZ, GUILDENSTERN, } Osrick,.a Courtier. Another Courtier. A Priest. siti me We Offiders. ERNARDO, Francisco, a Soldier. ; REYNALDO, Servant to Polonius. A Captain. Ambassadors. The Ghost of Hamlet’s Father. ForTinBras, Prince of Norway. Two Grave-diggers. ‘ GERTRUDE, Mother of Hamlet, and Queen. OPHELIA, Daughter of Polonius. Lords, Ladies, Officers, Soldiers, Players, Sailors, Messen gers, and Attendants. La SCENE, Elsinore. THE TRAGEDY OF HAMLET. ACT I. SCENE I. Elsinore. A Platform before the Castle. Francisco on his Post. Enter to him BERNARDO. Ber. Wuo’s there? Fran. Nay, answer me :* stand, and unfold your- self. Ber. Long live the king! Fran. Bernardo ? Ber. He. 1 That is, answer me, as I have the right to challenge you, Bernardo then gives in answer the watch-word, « Long live the kipg! ”” — “ Compare,” says Coleridge, “the easy language of common life, in which this drama commences, with the direful mu« sic and wild wayward rhythm and abrupt lyries of the opening of ‘Macbeth. The tone is quite familiar: there is no poetic descrip- tion of night, no elaborate information conveyed by one speaker to another of what both had immediately before their senses ; and yet nothing bordering on the comic on the one hand, nor any striving of the intellect on the other. It is precisely the language of sensation among men who feared no charge of effeminacy for feeling what they had no want of resolution to bear. Yet the ar- mour, the dead silence, the watchfulness that first interrupts it, the welcome relief of the guard, the cold, the broken expressions of compelled attention to bodily feelings still under control, —all ex- cellently accord with, and prepare for, the after gradual rise into ‘tragedy ; but, above all, into a tragedy, the interest of which is as eminently ad et apud intra, as that of Macbeth is directly ad extra.” H. 7 ae 196 «HAMLET, ACT T. Fran. You come most carefully upon your hour. Ber. ’Tis now struck twelve: get thee to bed, Francisco. Fran. For this relief, much thanks: ’tis bitter cold, And I am sick at heart. Ber. Have you had quiet guard? Fran. Not a mouse stirring. Ber. Well, good night. If you do meet Horatio and Marcellus, The rivals of my watch,’ bid them make haste. Enter Horatio and MAaRrcEeLuus. Fran. Y think I hear them. —Stand, ho! Who is there ? Hor. Friends to this ground. Mar. And liegemen to the Dane. Fran. Give you good night. Mar. O, farewell, honest soldier ! Who hath reliev’d you ? Fran. Bernardo has my place. Give you good night.’ [ Exit. Mar. Holla! Bernardo! Ber. Say. ‘What! is Horatio there ? * Ffor. A piece of him. Ber. Welcome, Horatio: welcome, good Mar- cellus. 2 Rivals are associates or partners. A brook, rivulet, or river, rivus, being a natural boundary between different proprietors, was owned by Anse in common ; that is, they were partners in the right and use of it. From the strifes thus engendered, the part- ners came to be contenders: hence the ordinary sense of rival. See Antony and Cleopatra, Act iii. se. 5, note 1. H. 3 This salutation is an abbreviated form of, “ May God give you a good night;”’ which has been still further abbrevinied in the phrase, « Good night.” H. ee ee ee eee eS eS eee ee “ P SC. L. PRINCE OF DENMARK. 197° Hor What! has this thing appear’d again to- night ?* Ber. I have seen nothing. Mar. Horatio says ’tis but our fantasy, And will not let belief take hold of him, Touching this dreaded sight twice seen of us Therefore, I have intreated him along With us to watch the minutes of this night ; That, if again this apparition come, He may approve our eyes,° and speak to it. 4 The folio assigns this speech to Marcellus. The quartos are probably right, as Horatio comes on purpose to try his own eyes on the Ghost.— We quote from Coleridge again: « Bernardo’s inquiry after Horatio, and the repetition of his name in bis own presence indicate a respect or an eagerness that implies him as one of the persons who are in the foreground ; and the scepticism attributed to him prepares us for Hamlet’s afier eulogy on him as one whose blood and judgment were happily commingled. Now, observe the admirable indefiniteness of the first opening out of the occasion of all this anxiety. The preparative information of the audience is just as much as was precisely necessary, and no more ; —it begins with the uncertainty appertaining to a question: ‘What! has this thing appear’d again to-night?’ Even the word again has its credibilizing effect. Then Horatio, the representa- tive of the ignorance of the audience, not himself, but by Marcel- lus to Bernardo, anticipates the common solution, —¢’Tis but our fantasy 3’ apon which Marcellus rises into, —‘ This dreaded sight twice seen of us;’ which immediately afterwards becomes ¢ this apparition,’ and that, too, an intelligent spirit that is to be spoken to)?’ H. ® That is, make good our vision, or prove our eyes to be true. Approve was ofien thus used in the sense of confirm. — Coleridge continues his comments on the scene thus: «“ Then comes the con- firmation of Horatio’s disbelief, —‘Tush, tush! ’twill not appear ;’ — and the silence with which the scene opened is again restored in the shivering feeling of Horatio sitting down, at such a time, and with the two eye-wilnesses, to hear a story. of a ghost, and that, too, of a ghost which had appeared twice before at the very same hour. In the deep feeling which Bernardo has of the solemn nature of what he is about to relate, he makes an effort to master his own imaginative terrors by an elevation of style, — itself a continuation of the effort, — and by turning off from the apparition, as from something which would force him too deeply into himself, LG 198 HAMLET, ACT I.. Hor. Tush, tush! twill not appear. Ber. Sit down awhile ; And let us once again assail your ears, That are so fortified against our story, What we two nights have seen. Hor. Well, sit we down, And let us hear Bernardo speak of «this. Ber. Last night of all, When yond’ same star, that’s westward from the pole, Had made his course t’ illume that part of heaven Where now it burns, Marcellus and myself, The bell then beating one,® — Mar. Peace! break thee off: look, where it comes again ! Enter the Ghost. Ber. In the same figure, like the king that’s dead. Mar. Thou art a scholar; speak to it, Horatio.’ to the outward objects, the realities of nature, which had accom- panied it.” H. 6 This passage seems to contradict the critical law, that what is told makes a faint impression compared with what is beholden ; for it does indeed convey to the mind more than the eye can see 3 whilst the interruption of the narrative at the very moment when we are most intensely listening for the sequel, and have our thoughts diverted from the dreaded sight in expectation of the desired, yet almost dreaded, tale, — this gives all the suddenness and surprise of the original appearance : “ Peace! break thee off: look, where it comes again!’’ Note the judgment displayed in having the two persons present, who, as having seen the Ghost before, are natu- rally eager in confirming their former opinions ; whilst the seeptic is silent, and, after having been twice addressed by his friends, answers with two’hasty syllables, — “ Most like,” —and a confes- sion of horror: “ It harrows me with fear and wonder.” —CoLE- RIDGE. H. 7 It was believed that a supernatural being could only be spoken to with effect by persons of learning ; exorcisms being usually prac- tised by the clergy in Latin. So in The Night Walker of Beau mont and Fletcher : PRINCE OF DENMARK. 199 Ber. Looks it not like the king? mark it, Horatio. Hor. Most like: —it harrows me with fear® and wonder. Ber. It wouid be spoke to. Mar. Question it, Horatio. Hor. What art thou, that usurp’st this time of night, Together with that fair and warlike form In which the majesty of buried Denmark Did sometimes march? by Heayen I charge thee, speak ! Mar. It is offended. Ber. See! it stalks away. Hor. Stay! speak, speak! I charge thee, speak! [Exit Ghost. Mar. ’Tis gone, and will not answer. Ber. How now, Horatio! you tremble and look pale. Is not this something more than fantasy ? 2 What think you on’t? Hor. Before my God, I might not this believe, Without the sensible and true avouch Of mine own eyes. Mar. Is it not like the king ? for. As thou art to thyself. Such was the very armour he had on, When he th’ ambitious Norway combated: So frown’d he once, when, in an angry parle, “ Let’s call the butler up, for he speaks Latin, And that will daunt the devil.” 8 The first quarto reads, “it horrors me.” To harrow is to distress, to vex, to disturb. To harry and to harass have the Same origin. Milton has the word in Comus: “ Amaz’d I stood, harrow’d with grief and fear.’’ —“ Question it,’”’ in the next line, is the reading of the folio; other old copies have “ Speak to it.” H. 200 HAMLET, ACT I. He smote the sledded Polacks on the ice.® "Tis strange. Mar. Thus, twice before, and jump”° at this dead hour, With martial stalk hath he gone by our watch. ' Hor. Yn what particular thought to work, I know not 5 But, in the gross and scope of mine opinion, This bodes some strange eruption to our state. Mar. Good now; sit down, and tell me, he that knows, Why this same strict and most observant watch So nightly toils the subject of the land ? And why such daily cast of brazen cannon, And foreign mart for implements of war? Why such impress of shipwrights, whose sore task Does not divide the Sunday from the week? What might be toward, that this sweaty haste Doth make the night joint-labourer with the day ? Who is’t, that can inform me? Flor. That can I; At least, the whisper goes so. Our last king, Whose image even but now appear’d to us, Was, as you know, by Fortinbras of Norway, Thereto prick’d on by a most emulate pride, Dar’d to the combat; in which our valiant Hamlet (For’so this side of our known world esteem’d him) Did slay this Fortinbras ; who, by a seal’d compact, Well ratified by law and heraldry, ® Polacks was used for Polanders in Shakespeare’s time. Sledded is sledged ; on a sled or sleigh. — Parle, in the presen line, is the same as parley. 10 So all the quartos. The folio reads just. Jump and “ait were synonymous in the time of Shakespeare. So in Chapman’s May Day, 1611: “ Your appointment was jwmpe at three with me.” Pe = PRINCE OF DENMARK. 201 Did forfeit with his life all those his lands, Which he stood seiz’d of,"! to the conqueror: Against the which, a moiety competent Was gaged by our king ; which had return’d To the inheritance of Fortinbras, Had he been vanquisher; as, by the same co-mart, And carriage of the article design’d,! His fell to Hamlet. Now, sir, young Fortinbras, Of unimproved mettle hot and full,!® Hath in the skirts of Norway, here and there, Shark’d up a list of landless resolutes, For food and diet, to some enterprise That hath a stomach in’t :'4 which is no other (As it doth well appear unto our state) But to recover of us, by strong hand And terms compulsative,!® those ’foresaid lands So by his father lost. And this, I take it, Is the main motive of our preparations, 11 This is the old legal phrase, still in use, for held possession of, or was the rightful owner of. H. Co-mart is the reading of the quartos ; the folio reads, cov’- nant. Co-mart, it is presumed, means a joint bargain. No other instance of the word is known. Design’d is here used in the sense of the Latin designatus ; carriage in the sense of import: that is, the import of the article marked out for that purpose. 13 That is, of unimpeached or unquestioned courage. To im- prove ancienily signified to impeach, to impugn. Thus Florio: “Improbare, to improove, to impugn.”” The French have still im- prouver, with the same meaning ; from improbare, Lat. Numer- ous instances of improve in this sense may be found in the writings of Shakespeare’s time. — Shark’d is snapped up or taken up hasti- ly. “ Seroccare 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 ; a tall trencher-man, shifting up and down for belly cheer.’ The quar- tos have lawless instead of landless, of the folio. Lawless may be right. 14 Stomach is used for determined purpose. 15 So the folio; the quartos, compulsatory, which carries the sume meaning, but overfills the measure. x. 202 - , HAMLET, — * ACT, Li The source of this our watch, and the chief head Of this post-haste and romage in the land.” ‘Ber. Uthink it be no other but e’en so: Well may it sort,’’ that this portentous figure Comésarmed through our watch; so like the king ~ That was, and is, the question of these wars. Hor. A mote it is, to trouble the mind’s eye. In the most high and palmy’® state of Rome, A little ere the mightiest Julius fell, The graves stood tenantless, and the sheeted dead Did squeak and gibber in the Roman streets: As, stars with trains of fire and dews of blood, Disasters in the sun; and the moist star,”® Upon whose influence Neptune’s empire stands, Was sick almost to.doomsday with eclipse. And even the like precurse of fierce events— As harbingers preceding still the fates, And prologue to. the omen*® coming on — Have heaven and earth together demonstrated Unto our climatures and countrymen. — 16 Romage, now spelt rummage, is used for ransacking, or mak- ing a thorough search. — What follows, after this line down to the re-entrance of the Ghost, is wanting in the folio of 1623 and in the. quarto of 1603. H. 17 That is, fit, suit, or agree: often so used. 18 That is, victorious ; the Palm being the emblem of victory. 19 There is evidently some corruption here, but it has hitherto baffled remedy, and seems to be given up as hopeless. Both the general structure of the sentence and the exigencies of the sense clearly favour the belief that as stars is a misprint for some word of two syllables, and disasters for some verb, For the first, Ma- Jone would read astres ; to which Steevens objects that there is no authority for such a word. The passage in North’s translation of Plutarch, Life of Julius Caesar, which the Poet probably had in his eye, yields no certain help. See, however, Julius Caesar, Act j. sc. 3, note 2, and Act ii. se. 2, note 2.— “The moist star”? is the moon. So in Marlowe’s Hero and Leander: “ Not that night- wand’ring pale and watery star.” H. 20 Omen is here put for portentous event. The use of the word is classical. H. — PRINCE OF DENMARK. - 203 Re-enter the Ghost. But, soft! behold! lo, where i comes again ! I'll cross it, though it blast me.*' — Stay, ‘illusion ! If thou hast any sound, or use of voice, Speak to me: Y If there be any good thing to be done, That may to thee do ease, and grace to me, Speak to me: If thou art privy to thy country’s fate, Which, happily, foreknowing, may avoid, O, speak ! Or, if thou hast uphoarded in thy life Extorted treasure in the womb of earth, For which, they say, you spirits oft walk in death, [Cock crows. Speak of it:—vstay, and speak!—Stop it, Mar cellus. Mar. Shall I strike at it with my partisan ? Hor. Do, if it will not stand. Ber. "Tis here! Hor. Tis here! Mar. ’Tis gone. [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. 21 It was believed that a person crossing the path of a spectre became subject to its malignant influence. Lodge’s lustrations 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.’”? — Johnson remarks that this speech of Horatio is very elegant and noble, and congruous to the common traditions touching apparitions. H q eee -" mL) om aes. “Aare * ie ee Ly 4/ “at ss 2 we Ay 7 . \ 204 HAMLET, ACT I Ber. It was about to speak, when the cock crew. Hfor. And then it started like a guilty thing Upon a fearful summons. I have heard, The cock, that is the trumpet to the morn,” Doth with his lofty and shrill-sounding throat Awake the god of day; and at his warning, Whether in sea or fire, in earth or air, Tl’ extravagant and erring spirit hies ‘T’o his confine :** and of the truth herein ‘This present object made probation. Mar. It faded on the crowing of the cock.* Some say, that ever ’gainst that season comes Wherein our Saviour’s birth is celebrated, This bird of dawning singeth all night long: And then, they say, no spirit dares stir abroad ;*° The nights are wholesome; then no planets strike, No fairy takes,*° nor witch hath power to charm, So hallow’d and so gracious is the time. 22 So the quartos ; the folio has day instead of morn. Drayton gives the cock the same office: “ And now. the cocke, the morning’s trumpeter, Play’d hunts-up for the day-star to appear.” H. 23 Extravagant is extra-vagans, wandering about, going be- yond bounds. Lrring is erruticus, straying or roving up and down. Mr. Douce has justly observed that « the epithets eaxtrav- agant and erring are highly poetical and appropriate, and seem to prove that Shakespeare was not altogether ignorant of the Latin language.” *4 This is a very ancient superstition. Philostratus, giving an account of the apparition of Achilles’ shade to Apollonius of Ty- anna, says, “it vanished with a little gleam as soon as the cock . crowed.” There is a Hymn of Prudentius, and another of St. Aimbrose, in which it.is mentioned ; and there are some lines in the Jatter very much resembling Horatio’s speech. 29 So read all the quartos but the first; the folio has, “no spirit can walk abroad.” It is difficult which to prefer, both readings being so good. H. 76 That is, no fairy blasts, or infects. See The Merry Wives of Windsor, Act iv. sc. 4, note 2. — Gracious is sometimes used ~~ Be i SC. Il. PRINCE OF DENMARK. 205 For. So have I heard, and do in part believe it. But, look, the morn, in russet mantle clad, Walks o’er the dew of yond’ high eastern hill. Break we our watch up; and, by my advice, Let us impart what we have seen to-night Unto young Hamlet ; for, upon my life, This spirit, dumb to us, will speak to him. Do you consent we shall acquaint him with it, As needful in our loves, fitting our duty ?°7 / Mar. Let’s do’t, I pray; and I this morning know Where we shall find him most convenient. [ Exeunt. SCENE II. The Same. A Room of State. Enter the King, the Queen, Hamuet, Powonws, Laertes, VotTimanp, Cornexius, 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 contractetl in one brow of woe; Yet so far hath discretion fought with nature, That we with wisest sorrow think on him, Together with remembrance of ourselves. Therefore, our sometime sister, now our queen, ny Shakespeare for graced, favoured. See As You Like It, Act i, sc. 2, note 11.— The quartos have “that time,” and further on, eastward for eastern. 27 Note the inobtrusive and yet fully adequate mode of intro- ducing the main character, “ young Hamlet,” upon whom is trans- feried all the interest excited for the acts and concerns of the king his father. — CoLERIDGE. H. Kye Xe 18 — 206 HAMLET, ACT L. Th’ imperial jointress of this warlike state, Have we, as ’twere, with a defeated joy, — With one auspicious, and one dropping eye 3} With mirth in funeral, and with dirge in marriage, In equal scale weighing delight and dole, — Taken to wife: nor have we herein barr’d Your better wisdoms, which have freely gone With this affair along: For all, our thanks. | Now follows, that you know, young Fortinbras, Holding a weak supposal of our worth, ¥ Or thinking, by our late dear brother’s death, — Our state to be disjoint and out of frame, Colleagued with this dream of his advantage, He hath not fail’d to pester us with message, Importing the surrender of those lands Lost by his father, with all bonds of law, To our most valiant brother. — So much for him. Now for ourself, and for this time of meeting. Thus much the business is: We have here writ To Norway, uncle of young Fortinbras, — Who, impotent and bed-rid, scarcely hears Of this his nephew’s purpose, — to suppress His further gait herein ;” in that the levies, The lists, and full proportions, are all made Out of his subject. And we heré despatch You, good Cornelius, and you, Voltimand, For bearers of this greeting to old Norway ; Giving to you no further personal power To business with the king, more than the scope 1 The same thought occurs in The Winter's Tale: “She had one eye deelin’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 ery with the other.” 2 Gait here signifies course, progress. (rait for road, way, path, is still in use. — Subject, next line but one, is used for subs jects, or those subject to him. H. sc. Il. PRINCE OF DENMARK. 207 Of these dilated articles allow.* 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. And now, Laertes, what’s the news with you? You told us of some suit: what is’t, Laertes ? You cannot speak of reason to the Dane, And lose your voice: What would’st thou beg, Laertes, That shall not be my offer, not thy asking ? The head is not more native to the heart, The hand more instrumental to the mouth, Than is the throne of Denmark to thy father.‘ What would’st thou have, Laertes ? Laer. My dread lord, Your leave and favour to return to France; From whence though willingly I came to Denmark, To show my duty in your coronation ; Yet now, I must confess, that duty done, My thoughts ahd wishes bend again toward France, And bow them to your gracious leave and pardon. King. Have you your father’s leave ? What says Polonius ? 3 That is, 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 adlows instead of allow ; but in old writers, when the noun and the verb have a genitive intervening, nothing is more common than for the verb to take the number of the gen- itive. — “In the king’s speech,” says Coleridge, “observe the set and pedantically antithetic form of the sentences when touching that which galled the heels of conscience, — the strain of undig- nified rhetoric ; and yet in what follows concerning the public weal, a certain appropriate majesty.” H. 4 The various parts of the body enumerated are not more allied, more necessary to each other, than the king of Denmark is bound to your father to do him service. 208 HAMLET, | Keres Pol. He hath, my lord, wrung from me my slow leave, By laboursome petition ; and, at last, Upon his will I seal’d my hard consent: I do beseech you, give him leave to go.” King. Take thy fair hour, Laertes; time be thine, And thy best graces spend it at thy will.°— But now, my cousin Hamlet, and my son, — Ham. [Aside.] A little more than kin, and less ~ than kind.’ King. How 1s it that the clouds still hang on you? Ham. Not so, my lord; I am too much i’the sun.® Queen. Good Hamlet, cast thy nighted colour off, And let thine eye look like a friend on Denmark. Do not, for ever, with thy vailed lids® 5 The first three lines of this speech, all but “He hath, my lord,’ are wanting in the folio. H. 6 The king’s speech may be thus explained : “ Take an auspi- cious hour, Laertes; be your time your own, and thy best virtues guide thee in spending of it at thy will.” Johnson thought that we should read, “And my best graces.” The editors had rendered this passage obscure by placing a colon at graces. 7 A little more than kin has been rightly said to allude to the double relationship of the king to Hamlet, as uncle and step-father, his kindred by blood and kindred by marriage. By less than kind Hamlet means degenerate and base. “Going out of kinde,” says Baret, “which goeth out of kinde, which dothe or worketh dishon- our to his kinred. Wegener; forlignant.’”” “ Forligner,” says Cotgrave, “to degenerate, to grow out of kind, to differ in con- ditions with his ancestors.” That less than kind and out of kind have the same meaning who can doubt? 8 This is commonly thought’to be a sarcastic play upon the words sun and son; as the being called son by his uncle naturally reminds Hamlet of his mother’s incest. Perhaps, however, the true meaning is best explained by the following, from Grindal’s Profitable Discourse, 1555: «In very deed they were brought from the good to the bad, and from God's blessing, as the proverbe is, into a warme sonne.”” See King Lear, Act il. sc. 2, note 27.— In the next line, the folio has nightly instead of nighted. H. ® That is, with downcast eyes. We have repeatedly seen, that to vail was to lower or let fall. See The Merchant of Veuice, - Acti sc.1, note 3. H. 74) SC. IL. PRINCE OF DENMARK. 209 Seek for thy noble father in the dust: Thou know’st ’tis common; all that live must die, Passing through nature to eternity. Ham. Ay, madam, it is common.’° Queen. If it be, Why seems it so particular with thee ? ® Ham. Seems, madam! nay, it is; I know not seems. *Tis not alone my inky cloak, good mother, Nor customary suits of solemn black, Nor windy suspiration of fore’d breath, No, nor the fruitful river in the eye, Nor the dejected haviour of the visage, Together with all forms, moods, shows of grief, That can denote me truly : these, indeed, seem, For they are actions that a man might play ; But I have that within, which passeth show ; These, but the trappings and the suits of woe. King. "Tis sweet and commendable in your na- ture, Hamlet, To give these mourning duties to your father : But, you must know, your father lost a father ; That father lost, lost his; and the survivor bound In filial obligation, for some term, To do obsequious sorrow.'' But to persever 10 Here observe Hamlet’s delicacy to his mother, and how the suppression prepares him for the overflow in the next speech, in which his character is more developed by bringing forward his aversion to externals, and which betrays his habit of brooding over the world within him, coupled with a prodigality of beautiful words, which are the half-embodyings of thought, and are more than thought, and have an outness, a reality swi generis, and yet retain their correspondence and shadowy affinity to the images and move- ments within. Note, also, Hamlet’s silence to the long speech of the King, which follows, and his respectful, but general, answer to his mother. —CoLERIDGE, H. 11 The Poet sometimes uses obsequious as having the sense of obsequies. So in his 3ist Sonnet: 18 * 7 210 HAMLET, , ACT I In obstinate condolement, is a course Of impious stubbornness; ’tis unmanly grief: It shows a will most incorrect to Heaven ;}” A heart unfortified, a mind impatient, An understanding simple and unschool’d : For what, we know, must be, and is as common As any the most vulgar thing to sense, ' Why should we, in our peevish opposition, Take it to heart? Fie! ’tis a fault to Heaven, A fault against the dead, a fault to nature, To reason most absurd; whose common theme Is death of fathers, and who still hath cried, From the first corse till he that died to-day, «This must be so.” We pray you, throw to earth This unprevailing woe,’*:and think of us As of a father ; for, let the world take note, You are the most immediate to our throne ; And, with no less nobility of love Than that which dearest father bears his son, Do I impart** toward you. For your intent In going back to school in Wittenberg, It is most retrograde to our desire; And, we beseech you, bend you to remain Here, in the cheer and comfort of our eye, Our chiefest courtier, cousin, and our son. Queen. Let not thy mother lose her prayers, Hamlet : I pray thee, stay with us; go not to Wittenberg. “ How meny a holy and obsequious tear Hath dear religious love stol’n from mine eye, As interest of the dead!” a. *8 Incorrect is here used, apparently, in the sense of incorrigi- bue. H. 13 Unprevailing was used in the sense of unavailing as late as Dryden’s time. 14 That is, dispense, bestow. Sc. II PRINCE OF DENMARK. 211 FfTam. J shall in all my best obey you, madam. King. Why, ’tis a loving and a fair reply: Be as ourself in Denmark. — Madam, come ; This gentle and unfore’d accord of Hamlet Sits smiling to my heart; in grace whereof, No jocund health that Denmark drinks to-day, But the great cannon to the clouds shall tell, And the king’s rouse’ the heaven shall bruit again, Re-speaking earthly thunder. Come away. [EVourish. Exeunt all but HAMLET. Ham. O, that this too, too solid flesh would melt, Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew!'® Or that the Everlasting had not fix’d His canon ’gainst self-slaughter! O God! O God! How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable Seem to me all the uses of this world! Fie on’t! O fie! ’tis an unweeded garden That grows to seed ; things rank and gross in nature Possess it merely.’7 That it should come to this! But two months dead !— nay, not so much, not two: So excellent a king; that was, to this, Hyperion to a satyr:'* so loving to my mother, That he might not beteem the winds of heaven Visit her face too roughly. Heaven and earth! Must I remember? why, she would hang on him, 15 A rouse was a deep draught to one’s health, wherein it was the custem to empty the cup or goblet. Its meaning, and prob- ably its origin, was the same as carouse, still in use. H. 16 To resolve had anciently the same meaning as to dissolve. “ To thaw or resolve that which is frozen 3 regelo. — The snow is resolved and melted. To till the ground, and resolve it into dust.” — CooPER. \ 17 That is, absolutely, solely, wholly. Mere, Lat. 18 Hyperion, or Apollo, always represented as a model of beau- ty. — Beteem is permit or suffer. The word, being uncommon was changed to permitted by Rowe, and to let ¢ en by Theobald. See A Midsummer-Night’s Dream, Act i, sc. 1, note 5 O18 HAMLET, ACT L As if increase of appetite had grown By what it fed on: and yet, within a month, — Let me not think on’t ;—Frailty, thy name is wo- man ! — A little month; or ere those shoes were old, With which she follow’d my poor father’s body, Like Niobe, all tears; — why she, even she, — O God! a beast, that wants discourse of reason,’® Would have mourn’d longer, — married with mine uncle, . My father’s brother ; but no more like my father, Than I to Hercules: within a month; Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears Had left the flushing in her galled eyes, She married. —O, most: wicked speed, to post ‘With such dexterity to incestuous sheets ! It is not, nor it cannot come to, good ; But break, my heart, for I must hold my tongue !* 19 Discourse of reason, in old philosophical Janguage, is rational — discourse, or discursive reason; the faculty of pursuing a train of thought, or of passing from thought to thought in the way of inference or conclusion. Readers of Milton will remember the fine lines in Paradise Lost, Book v.: «“ Whence the soul Reason receives, and reason is her being, Discursive or intuitive : discourse Is oftest yours, the Jatter most is ours, Differing but in degree, in kind the same.” H. 20 This tedium vite is a common oppression on minds cast ip the Hamlet mould, and is caused by disproportionate mental ex ertion, which necessitates exhaustion of bodily feeling. Where _ there is a just coincidence of external and internal action, pleas- - ure is always the result; but where the former is deficient, and the mind’s appetency of the ideal is unchecked, realities will seem cold and unmoving. In such cases, passion combines itself with the indefinite alone. In this mood of his mind, the relation of the ap- pearance of his father’s spirit in arms is made all at once to Ham- let : — it is— Horatio’s speech, in particular — a perfect model of he true style of dramatic narrative ; the purest poetry, and yet = SC. IL PRINCE OF DENMARK. 213 Enter Horatio, BerRNaRvDo, and Marceuuus. Ffor. Hail to your lordship ! Ham. I am glad to see you well: Horatio, — or I do forget myself. Hor. 'The same, my lord, and your poor servant ever. _Ham. Sir, my good friend; I'll change that name with you.” And what make you from Wittenberg, Horatio 1 — Marcellus ? Mar. My good lord, — Ham. 1 am very glad to see you. — Good even, sir.?? — But what, in faith, make you from Wittenberg ? Hor. A truant disposition, good my lord. Ham. I would not hear your enemy say so; Nor shall you do mine ear that violence, To make it truster of your own report Against yourself: I know you are no truant. But what is your affair in Elsinore ? We'll teach you to drink deep, ere you depart. Hor. My lord, I came to see your father’s funeral. ’ in the most natural language, equally remote from the ink-horn and the plough. — CoLERIDGE. H. 21 As if he had said, — No, you are not my poor servant: we are friends ; that is the style I will exchange with you. Kemble gave the true sense by laying the Epa thas: “ Sir, my good Sriend ; Vl change that name with you.’ H. 22 The words, Good even, sir, are evidently addressed to Ber- nardo, whom Hainlet has not pera known ; but as he now meets him in company with old acquaintances, like a true gentleman, as he is, he gives him a salutation of kindness. Some editors have changed even to morning, because Marcellus has said before of Hamlet, — “I this morning know where we shall find him.” It needs but be remembered that good even was the common saluta- tion after noon. —“ What make you?” in the preceding speech, is the old language for, “ What do you?” H. 214 HAMLET, ACT I. Ham. J pray thee, do not mock me, fellow student; I think it was to see my mother’s wedding. for. Indeed, my lord, it follow’d hard upon. Ham. feed ike thrift, Horatio! the ss bak’d meats ” Did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables. Would I had met my dearest foe in heaven,”* Or ever I had seen that day, Horatio ! — My father,— methinks, I see my father. Hor. O! where, my lord? Ham. In my mind’s eye, Horatio. Hor. I saw him once; he was a goodly king. Ham. He was a man, take him for all in all,”® I shall not look upon his like again. Hor. My lord, I think I saw him yesternight. Ham. Saw who ?”° Hor. My lord, the king your father. Ham. Vhe king my father ? Hor. Season your admiration for a while With an attent ear, till I may deliver, Ypon the witness of these gentlemen, ‘This marvel to you. 23 Scott, in The Bride of Lammermoor, has made the readers of romance familiar with the old custom of “ funeral bak’d meats,” which was kept up in Scotland till a recent period. H. 24 Caldecott has shown that in Shakespeare’s time dearest was applied to any person or thing that excites the liveliest interest whether of love or hate., See Twelfth Night, Act vy. sc. 1, note 3. H. 25 Some would read this as if it were pointed thus: “ He was a man: take him for all in all,” &c.; laying marked stress on man, as if it were meant to intimate a correction of Horatio’s * goodly king.” There is, we suspect, no likelihood that the Poet had any such thought, as there is no reason why he should have had. H.. 26 In colloquial !anguage, it was common, as indeed it still is, thus to use the nominative where strict grammar would require the objective. Modern editions embellish the two words with various pointing; as thus: “Saw! who?” or thus; “Saw? who?” ; H. — SC. IL. PRINCE OF DENMARK. 215 Ham. For God’s love, let me hear. Hor. Two nights together had these gentlemen, Marcellus and Bernardo, on their watch, P In the dead vast and middle of the night,’ Been thus encounter’d. A figure like your father, Arm’d at all points, exactly, cap-a-pé,”* Appears before them, and with solemn march Goes slow and stately by them: thrice he walk’d By their oppress’d and fear-surprised eyes, Within his truncheon’s length; whilst they, distill’d Almost to jelly with the act of fear,” Stand dumb, and speak not to him. This to me In dreadful secrecy impart they did ; And I with them the third night kept the watch ; Where, as they had deliver’d, both in time, Form of the thing, each word made true and good, The apparition comes: I knew your father ; These hands are not more like. Ham. But where was this ? Hor. My lord, upon the platform where we watch’d. Ham. Did you not speak to it? For. My lord, I did; 27 So the quarto of 1603; the other old copies have wast and waste instead of vast. Modern editions have differed whether it should be waste or waist, the latter meaning middle. We have no doubt that rust is the right word. Of course it means void or vacancy. See The Tempest, Act i. se. 2, note 32; also, The Winter’s Tale, Act i. sc. 1, note 1; and Pericles, Act iil. se. id note |. H. 28 So the folio; the first quarto, “ Armed ¢o point ;” the other quartos, “ Armed at point.” H 29 So all the quartos ; the folio has bestill’d instead of distill’d. Of course to distill is to fall in drops, to melt; so that distill’d is a very natural and fit expression for the cold sweat caused by in- tense fear. Mr. Collier finds bechill’d in his famous second folio, and is greatly delighted with it, as usual. The idea of human podies being chilled or frozen to a jelly is rather queer. H. Ld . Ai. hd aC) a is: A a ms ‘ ns Th ¢ 4 nt ri" ‘Sy E , J 216 . eae ACT I. But answer made it none: yet once, methought, It lifted up its head, and did address Itself, to motion, like as it would speak ; But even then the morning cock crew loud, And.-at the sound it shrunk in haste away, And vanish’d from our sight.?? woe Ham. "Tis very strange. flor. As I do live, my honour’d lord, ’tis true ; And we did think it writ down in our duty, To let you know of it. Ham. Indeed, indeed, sirs, but this troubles me. Hold you the watch to-night ? Ail. We do, my lord. Ham. Arm’d, say you? All. Arm’d, my lord. . fam. From top to toe? All. My lord, from head to foot. Ham. Then, saw you not his face? Hor. O, yes, my lord! he wore his beaver up.” Ham. What! look’d he frowningly ? Hor. A countenance more In sorrow than in anger. | Ham. Pale, or red? , Hor. Nay, very pale. Tam. And fix’d his eyes upon you 1? 30 It is a most inimitable circumstance in Shakespeare so to have managed this popular idea, as to make the Ghost, which has’ been so long obstinately silent, and of course must be dismissed by the morning, begin or pattie prepare to speak, and to be inter- rupted at the very critical time of the crowing of a cock. An- other poet, according to custom, would have “suitor his ghost tamely to vanish, without contriving this start, which is like a start of guilt: to say notbing of the aggrav ation of the futare suspense occasioned by this preparation to speak, and to impart some mys- terious secret. Less would have been expected if nothing had been promised. —T. Warton. 31 That part of the helmet which may be lifted up. * A ee : ‘ a oer ere} 4 a , : ; SC. IL. PRINCE OF DENMARK. > 217 Hor. Most constantly. | Ham. — I would I had been there. Hor. Wt would have much amaz’d you. Ham. Very like, very like. Stay’d it long? Hor. While one with moderate haste might tell a hundred. Mar. Ber. Wonger, longer. - Hor. Not when I saw’t. Ham. His beard was grizzl’d? no? Hor. It was, as I have seen it in his life, A sable: silver’d. Ham. I will watch to-night : Perchance, ‘twill walk again. For. I warrant it will. _ Ham. If it assume my noble father’s person, I'll speak to it, though hell itself should gape, And bid me hold my peace. I pray you all, If you have hitherto conceal’d this sight, Let it be tenable in your silence still ; *° And whatsoever else shall hap to-night, Give it an understanding, but no tongue: I will requite your loves. So, fare you well: Upon the platform, ’twixt eleven and twelve, [Jl visit you. All. Our duty to your honour. Ham. Your loves, as mine to you: Farewell. — [Exeunt all but HamMurr. My father’s spirit in arms! all is not well; I doubt some foul play: would the night were come ! Till then sit still, my soul. Foul deeds will rise, Though all the earth o’erwhelm them, to men’s eyes. [ Exit. 32 The quarto of 1603 reads tenible. The other quartos tenable. The folio of 1623 treble. VOL. X. 19 218 HAMLET, ACT I. SCENE III. A Room in Pouonws’ House. . Enter LAERTES and OPHELIA. Laer. My necessaries are embark’d; farewell: And, sister, as the winds give benefit, And convoy is assistant, do not sleep, But let me hear from you. Oph. Do you doubt that ? Laer, For Hamlet, and the trifling of his favour, Hold it a fashion, and a toy in blood; A violet in the youth of primy nature, Forward, not permanent, sweet, not lasting? The perfume and Supa Ree of a minute ;' No more. Oph. No more but so? Laer. Think it no more: For nature, crescent, does not grow alone In thews,” and bulk ; but, as this temple waxes, The inward service of the mind and soul Grows wide withal. | Perhaps he loves you now; And now no soil nor cautel doth besmirch® The virtue of his will: but you must fear ; His greatness weigh’d, his will is not his own; For he himself is subject to his birth :4 1 This is the reading of the quartos. The folio omits perfume and. It is plain that mecha is necessary to exemplify the idea of sweet, not lasting. ‘The suppliance of a minute” should seem to mean supplying or enduring only that short space of time; as transitory and evanescent. The simile is eminently beautiful. *? That is, sinews and muscular strength. See the Second Part of King Henry IV., Act iii. sc. 2, note 12. 3 Cautel is cautious cireumspection, subtlety, or deceit. Min- sheu explains it, “a crafty way to deceive.” See Coriolanus, Act v. sc. 1, note 3. — Besmirch is besmear, or sully. 4 This line is found only in the folio. —«“This scene,” says Coleridge, “must be regarded as ¢ie of Shakespeare’s lyric SC. TII. PRINCE OF DENMARK. Q19 He may not, as unvalued persons do, Carve for himself; for on his choice depends The safety and health of the whole state ;° And therefore must his choice be circumscrib’d Unto the voice and yielding of that body, Whereof he is the head. Then, if he says he loves you, | It fits your wisdom so far to believe it, As he in his particular act and place ° May give his saying deed; which is no further Than the main voice of Denmark goes withal. Then, weigh what loss your honour may sustain, If with too credent ear you list his songs,’ Or lose your heart, or your chaste treasure open To his unmaster’d importunity. Fear it, Ophelia, fear it, my dear sister 5 And keep you in the rear of your affection, Out of the shot and danger of desire. The chariest maid is prodigal enough, If she unmask her beauty to the moon. Virtue itself ’scapes not calumnious strokes : The canker galls, the infants of the spring, movements in tne play, and the skill with which it is interwoven with the dramatic parts is peculiarly an excellence with our Poet. You experience the sensation of a pause, without the sense of a stop. You will observe, in Ophelia’s short and general answer to the long speech of Laertes, the natural carelessness of innocence, which cannot think such a code of cautions and prudences neces- sary to its own preservation.” H. 5 Thus the quartos ; the folio has sanctity instead of safety, supposing the metre defective. But safety is used as a trisyllable by Spenser and others. Thus Hall in his first Satire : « Nor fish can dive so deep in yielding sea, Though Thetis self should swear her safety.” 6 The folio has “peculiar sect and force” instead of “ partice ular act and place.” H. 7 If with too credulous ear you listen to his songs. 92) HAMLET, ACT I. Too oft before their buttons be disclos’d ; And in the morn and liquid dew of youth Contagious blastments are most imminent. Be wary, then; best safety lies in fear: Youth to itself rebels, though none else near. Oph. I shall th’ effect of this good lesson keep, As watchman to my heart. But, good my brother Do not, as some ungracious pastors do, — Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven, Whilst, like a puff’d and reckless libertine, Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads, And recks not his own read. Laer. O! fear me not. I stay too long ;—but here my father comes. Enter Poutontius. A double blessing is a double grace ; Occasion smiles upon a second leave. Pol. Yet here, Laertes? aboard, aboard, for shame ! The wind sits in the shoulder of your sail, And you are stay’d for. There;.my blessing with you ; [Laying his Hand on Larrtes’ Head. And these few precepts in thy memory Look thou character? Give thy thoughts no tongue, Nor any unproportion’d thought his act. Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar :° 8 That is, rezards not his own lesson. Read was often thus used as a pabatentive: for the thing read. H. 9. That is, mark, imprint, strongly infix, 10 Vulgar is Ars used in its old sense of common. —In the second fie below, divers modern editions have hooks instead of hoops, the reading on all the old copies. It is not easy to see what is gained by the unauthorized change. H. a amie nad eal | sc. III. PRINCE OF DENMARK. 221 The friends thou hast, and their adoption tried, Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel ; But do not dull thy palm" with entertainment Of each new-hatch’d, unfledg’d comrade. Beware Of entrance to a quarrel; but, being in, Bear ’t, that th’ opposed may beware of thee. Give every man thine ear, but few thy voice: Take each man’s censure,’* but reserve thy judg- ment. Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy, But not express’d in fancy ; rich, not gaudy: For the apparel oft proclaims the man ; And they in France, of the best rank and station, Are most select and generous, chief in that.'* Neither a borrower nor a lender be: For loan oft loses both itself and friend 3; And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry. This above all,—to thine ownself be true ; And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man. Farewell: my blessing season this in thee!" Laer. Most humbly do I take my leave, my lord. Pol. 'The time invites you: go; your servants tend. Laer. Farewell, Ophelia; and remember well What I have said to you. 11 «Do not blunt thy feeling by taking every new acquaintance by the hand, or by admitting ara to the intimacy of a friend.” Aa Censure was continually used for opinion. H. 13 "Ihe old copies read, « Are of a most select,” &c., to the destruction of boih measure and sense. H. M4 « To season, for to infuse,” says Warburton. ‘It is more than to infuse, it is to infix in such a manner that it may never wear out,” says Johnson. But hear one of the Poet’s contempo- _raries : “ J'o season, to temper wisely, to make more pleasant and acceptable.’ — BarrrT. This is the sense required, and is a bet ter commentary than the conjectures of the learned critics, 19 * \ 2:22 HAMLET, ACT I. Oph. ‘ "Tis in my memory lock’d, And you yourself shall keep the key of it. Laer. Farewell. [Exit LaErRTEs, Pol. What is’t, Ophelia, he hath said to you? Oph. So please you, something touching the lord Hamlet. Pol. Marry, well bethought : "Tis told me, he hath yery oft of late Given private time to you; and you yourself Have of your audience been most free and boun- teous. If it be so, (as so ’tis put on me, And that in way of caution, ) I must tell you, You do not understand yourself so clearly, As it behoves my daughter, and your honour. What is between you? give me up the truth. Oph. He hath, my lord, of late, made many tenders Of his affection to me. Pol. Affection? pooh! you speak like a green girl, Unsifted in such perilous circumstance. Do you believe his tenders, as you call them? Oph. I do not know, my lord, what I should think. Pol. Marry, Pll teach you: think yourself a baby ; That you have ta’en these tenders for true pay, Which are not sterling. Tender yourself more dearly ; Or (not to crack the wind ef the poor phrase, Wronging it thus) you'll tender me a fool.’® 15 Instead of Wronging. the folio has Roaming ; an evident roam- ing from sense. Mr. Collier some years ago conjectured running to be the right word, and has since found running in his second folio; a coincidence that may be read ruuning. ‘The quartos have Wrong, which has been changed rightly, we doubt not, to Wrong- ing. It should be noted that thus refers to what goes before, not what follows ; as if he had said, « and so wrong it,” or, “thereby eS "= at ie Ge a » _— me t he ¥ - if rt ag , | a. SC. III. PRINCE OF DENMARK. 293 Oph. My lord, he hath importun’d me with love, In honourable fashion. : Pol. Ay, fashion you may call it: go to, go to. Oph. And hath given countenance to his speech, my lord, With almost all the holy vows of heaven."® Pol. Ay, springes to catch woodcocks.'7 I do know, When the blood burns, how prodigal the soul Lends the tongue vows: these blazes, daughter, Giving more light than heat, — extinct in both, Even in their promise, as it is a-making, — You must not take for fire. From this time, daugh- ter;/° Be somewhat scanter of your maiden presence ; Set your entreatments at a higher rate, Than a command to parley.’® For lord Hamlet, Believe so much in him, that he is young ; And with a larger tether may he walk,” Than may be given you. In few, Ophelia, Do not believe his vows; for they are brokers, Not of that dye which their investments show, doing it wrong.” Of course he is comparing the phrase to a poor nag, which, if put to too hard a strain, will be wind-broken. H. 16 The folio gives this line thus: “ With all the vows of heav- en.” H. 17 This was a proverbial phrase. There is a collection of epi- grams under that title: the woodcock being accounted a witless bird, from a vulgar notion that it had no brains. “Springes to catch woodcocks” means ‘arts to entrap simplicity.” 18 Duughter is found only in the folio, which misprints for in- stead of from. Daughter helps both the measure and the sense 5 and as fire was then going out of use as a dissyllable, we have no doubt the Poet supplied the word. H. 19 « Be more difficult of access, and Jet the swits to you for that purpose be of higher respect, than a command to parley.” 20 That is, with a longer line ; a horse, fastened by a string to a stake, is tethered. a: 2 a ee 994 HAMLET, ACT Ie But mere implorators of unholy suits, Breathing like sanctified and pious bawds,”! The better to beguile. This is for all, — I would not, in plain terms, from this time forth, Have you so slander any moment’s leisure, As to give words or talk with the lord Hamlet. Look to’t, I charge you; come your ways.” Oph. I shall obey, my lord. [ Exeunt. SCENE IV. The Platform. . Enter Hamuet, Horatio, and Marce.wvs. Ham. The air bites shrewdly ; it is very cold. . Hor. It is a nipping and an eager air.! 21 The old copies have bonds instead of bawds. Theobald conjectured the latter to be the right word. The use of broker's, which formerly meant the same as bawd or pander, favours the change. It is not easy to see what bonds can have to do with the passage. See Troilus and Cressida, Act v. se. 11, note 3. H. *2 I do not believe that in this or any other of the foregoing speeches of Polonius, Shakespeare meant to bring out the senility or weakness of that personage’s mind. In the great ever-recur- ring dangers and duties of life, where to distinguish the fit objects for the application of the maxims collected by the experience of a long life, requires no fineness of tact, as in the admonitions to his son and daughter, Polonius is uniformly made respectable. It is to Hamlet that Polonius is, and is meant to be, contemptible, because, in inwardness and uncontrollable activity of movement, Hamlet’s mind is the logical contrary to that of Polonius; and besides, Hamlet dislikes the man as false to his true allegiance in the matter of the succession to the crown. —CoLERIDGE. H. 1 Eager was used in the sense of the French aigre, sharp, biting. — “The unimportant conversation,” says Coleridge, “ with which this scene opens, is a proof of Shakespeare’s minute knowledge of human nature. It is a well-established fact, that on the brink of any serious enterprise, or event of moment, men almost inva- riably endeavour to elude the pressure of their own thoughts by turning aside to trivial objects and familiar cireumstanees. Thus the dialogue on the platform begins with remarks on the coldness “a Pa’ y, ww SC. IV. _ PRINCE OF DENMARK. 225 Ham. What hour now ? Hor. I think it lacks of twelve. Mar. No, it is struck. HIor. Indeed? I heard it not: it then draws near the season, Wherein the spirit held his wont to walk. [A Flourish of Trumpets, and Ordnance shot . off, within. What does this mean, my lord? _ “ Ham. The king doth wake to-night, and takes his rouse,” Keeps wassel, and the swaggering up-spring reels ; And, as he drains his draughts of Rhenish down, The kettle-drum and trumpet thus bray out The triumph of his pledge. Hor. Is it a custom ? of the air, and inquiries, obliquely connected indeed with the ex- pected hour of visitation, but thrown out in a seeming vacuity of topics, as to the striking of the clock and so forth. The same desire to escape from the impending thought is earried on in Ham- let’s account of, and moralizing on, the Danish custom of wassail- ing : he runs off from the particular to the universal, and, in his repugnance to personal and individual concerns, escapes, as it were, from himself in generalisations, and smothers the impatience and uneasy féelings of the moment in abstract reasoning. Besides this, another purpose is answered ; — for, by thus entangling the + attention of the audience in the nice distinctions and parenthetical sentences of this speech of Hamlet, Shakespeare takes them com- pletely by surprisé on the appearance of the Ghost, which comes upon them in all the suddenness of its visionary character. In- deed, no modern writer would have dared, like Shakespeare, to have preceded this last visitation by two distinet appearances ; or could have contrived that the third should rise upon the former two _11 impressiveness and solemnity of interest.’ H. * ? To wake is to hold a late revel or debauch. — Rouse is the same as curouse. See sc. 2, note 15. — Wassel originally meant a drinking to one’s health; from wes heel, health be to you: hence it came to be used for any festivity of the bottle and the bowl. See Love’s Labour’s Lost, Act v. se. 2, note 19; and Macbeth, Act i. sc. 7, note 10. — Up-spring probably means the same as upstart, , H. 15 226 HAMLET, | van ACT I: Flam. Ay, marry, is’t: But to. my mind —though I am native here, And to the manner born —it is a custom: More honour’d in the breach, than the observance. ° : This heavy-headed revel, east and west,° ‘Makes us traduc’d and tax’d of other nations: — 1 They clepe us drunkards,* and with swinish phrase Soil our addition ;° and, indeed, it takes : From our achievements, though perform’d at height, The pith and marrow of our attribute. So, oft it chances in particular men, That, for some vicious mole of nature in them, As, in their birth, (wherein they are not culty, Since nature#cannot choose his origin 3) By their o’ergrowth of some complexion," Oft breaking down the pales and forts of reason ; Or by some habit, that too much o’er-leavens The form of plausive manners ; —.that these men, — Carrying, I say, the stamp of one defect, Being nature’s livery, or fortune’s star,’ — Their virtues else, be they as pure as grace, 3 This and the following twenty-one lines are wanting in the folio. They had probably been omitted in representation, lest they should give offence to Anne of Denmark. 4 Clepe is call; from the Saxon clypian. The Danes were in- deed proverbial as drunkards, and well they might be, according to the accounts of the time. Heywood, in his Philocothonista, or The Drunkard Opened, 1635, speaking of what he calls the vi- nosity of nations, says of the Danes, that they have made a pro- fession thereof from antiquity, and are the first upon record « that brought their wassel bowls and elbowe deepe healthes into this Jand.” Roger Ascham, in one of his Letters, says, «The Em peror of Germany, who had his head in the glass five times as long as any of us, never drank Jess than a good quart at once of Rhen‘sh wine.” 8 That is, characterize us by a swinish epithet. 6 By complexion was meant the affections of the body. 7 hat is, the influence of the planet supposed to govern our birth. SC. IV. PRINCE OF DENMARK. 227 As infinite as man may undergo, Shall in the general censure take corruption From that particular fault: the dram of base T¥eth all the noble substance often dout,® To his own scandal.° 7 Enter the Ghost. Hor. Look, my lord! it comes: Ham. Angels and ministers of grace, defend us! Be thou a spirit of health, or goblin damn’d; Bring with thee airs from heaven, or blasts from hell; Be thy intents wicked or charitable ; 8 To dout is todo out, destroy, or extinguish. The word is still so used in some partsof England. As already stated, the passage is found only in the quartos, which have “dram of eale” for “dram of base,” and of a doubt instead of often dout. Ill is preferred by some, and baleby others, as corrections of eale ; we prefer base as being the proper antithesis of noble. Doubt is also preferred by some, as meauing to bring into doubt, or throw doubt upon; but no instance is produced of the word so used. H. ® In addition to all the other excellences of Hamlet’s speech concerning the wassel-music,—so finely revealing the predom- inant idealism, the ratiocinative meditativeness of his character, — it has the advantage of giving nature and probability to the im- passioned continuity of the speech instantly directed to the Ghost. The momentum had been given to his mental activity; the full current of the thoughts and words had set in; and the very for- getfulness, in the fervour of his argumentation, of the purpose for which he was there, aided in preventing the appearance from be- numbing the mind. Consequently, it acted as a new impulse, — a sudden stroke which increased the velocity of the body already in motion, whilst it altered the direction. The co-presence of Ho- ratio and Marcellus is most judiciously contrived ; for it renders the courage of Hamlet, and his impetuous eloquence, perfectly intelligible. The knowledge — the sensation — of human auditors acts as a support and a stimulation a tergo,.while the front of the mind, the Whole consciousness of the speaker, is filled, yea, ab- sorbed, by the apparition. Add, too, that the apparition itself has, by its previous appearances, been brought nearer to a thing of this world. This accrescence of objectivity in a ghost that yet retains all its ghostly attributes and fearful subjectivity, is truly wonderful. — CoLERIDGE. H, 298 HAMLET, ACT I Thou com’st in such a questionable shape,” That I will speak to thee. T’ll call thee, Hamlet, King, father, royal Dane: O, answer me! Let me not burst in ignorance; but tell, Why thy canoniz’d bones, hearsed in death, Have burst their cerements! why the sepulchre, Wherein we saw thee quietly in-urn’d,” Hath op’d his ponderous and marble jaws, To cast thee up again! What may this mean, That thou, dead corse, again, in complete steel, . Revisit’st thus the glimpses of the moon, Making night hideous; and we fools of nature, So horridly to shake our disposition, With thoughts beyond the reaches of our souls 1 Say, why i is this? wherefore? what should we do? [The Ghost beckons HAMLET. * Hor. It beckons you to go,away with it, - As if it some impartment did desire To you alone. Mar. Look, with what courteous action It waves you to a more removed ground: But do not go with it. ; | Hor. No, by no means. gy - Ham. It will not speak; then, will I follow it. Hor. Do not, my lord. Ham. Why, what should be the fear? I do not set my life at a pin’s fee ; And, for my soul, what can it do to that, ’ 10 That is, a shape to be questioned or talked with, a shape i in- viting conversation. Such was the more common meaning of questionable i in the Poet’s time. ‘ H. 11 So the folio ; all the quartos have interr’d instead of in-urn’d. H. 12 Tt appears from Olaus Wormius that it was the custom to bury the Danish kings in their armour. SC. IV. PRINCE OF DENMARK. 229 Being a thing immortal as itself 2 It waves me forth again: —T'll follow it. Hor. What if it tempt you toward the flood, my lord, Or to the dreadful summit of the cliff, That beetles** o’er his base into the sea, And there assume some other horrible form, Which might deprive your sovereignty of rea- son,'* And draw you into madness? think of it: The very place puts toys of desperation, Without more motive, into every brain, That looks so many fathoms to the sea, And hears it roar beneath. Ham. It waves me still. —Go on, I’ll follow thee. Mar. You shall not go, my lord. | Ham. Hold off your hands. for. Be rul’d: you shall not go. Ham. My fate cries out, And makes each petty artery in this body As hardy as the Nemean lion’s nerve. — | Ms [ Ghost beckons. Still am I call’d.—Unhand me, gentlemen ; — | [Breaking from them. 13 That is, overhangs his base. Thus in Sidney’s Arcadia: “Hills lift up their beetle*brows, as if they would overlooke the pleasantnesse of their under prospect.” The verb to beetle is ap- parently of Shakespeare’s creation, 14To “deprive your sovereignty of reason,” signifies to take from you the command of reason. We have similar instances of raising the idea of virtues or qualities by giving them rank, in Ban- quo’s “royalty of nature ;” and even in this play we have “no- bility of loye,” and “dignity of love.” Deprive was ofien thus used in the sense of take away. — Toys, second line after, means whims. — The last four lines of this speech are not in the folio. H. VOL. X. 20 230 HAMLET, | - ACT L By Heaven, I'll make a ghost of him that lets ‘me: 158% I say, away !— Go on, I'll follow thee. [Exeunt Ghost and HAMLET. Hor. He waxes desperate with imagination. Mar. Let’s follow; ’tis not fit thus to obey him. Hor. Have after. — To what issue will this come ? Mar. Something is rotten in the state of Den- mark. Hor. Heaven will direct it.’ Mar. Nay, let’s follow him. [ Exeunt. SCENE V. A more remote Part of the Platform. Enter the Ghost and HamuEt. Ham. Whither wilt thou lead me? speak, I'll go no further. Ghost. Mark me.~ fam. T will. Ghost. My hour is almost come, When I to sulphurous and tormenting flames Must render up myself. Ham. Alas, poor pee Ghost. Pity me not ; but lend thy serious hearing To what I shall unfold. | Ham. - Speak ; I am bound to hear. Ghost. So art thou to revenge, when thou shalt hear. 5 To let, in old language, is to hinder, or oneal 16 ‘Marcellis ‘answers Horatio’s question, “To what issue will this come?” and Horatio also answers it himself with pious resig- nation, “ Heaven will direct it.” SC. V. PRINCE UF DENMARK. 231 Han... What ? Ghost. I am thy father’s spirit 5 Doom’d for a certain term to walk the night, And for the day confin’d to fast in fires,’ ‘Till the foul crimes, done in my days of nature, Are burnt and purg’d away.” But that I am forbid To tell the secrets of my prison house, I could a tale unfold, whose lightest word Would harrow up thy soul, freeze thy young blood, Make thy two eyes, like stars, start from their spheres, Thy knotted and combined locks to part, And each particular hair to stand on end, Like quills upon the fretful porcupine :° But this eternal blazon must not be | To ears of flesh and blood. — List, list, O list !— If thou didst ever thy dear father love,— _ Ham. O God! Ghost. Revenge his foul.and most unnatural murder. Ham. Murder ? r Ghost. Murder most foul, as in the best it is 5 But this most foul, strange, and unnatural. ' Ham. Haste me to know’t; that I, with wings as swift 1 The spirit being supposed to feel the same desires and appe- tites as when clothed in the flesh, the pains and punishments prom- ised by the ancient moral teachers are often of a sensual nature Chaucer in the Persones Tale says, “ The misese of hell shall be in defaute of mete and drinke.” So, too, in The Wyll of the Devyll: “Thou shalt lye in frost and fire, with sicknes and hun- ger.” — Heath proposed “ lasting fires,’ and such is the change in Collier’s second folio. H. 2 Gawin Douglas really changes the Platonic hell into “the punytion of the saulis in purgatory.” “Itis a nedeful thyng to suffer paines and torment;—sum in the wyndis, sum under the wat- ter, and in the fire uther sum: thus the mony vices contrakkit in the corpis be done away and purgit.” 3 Fretful is the reading of the folio; the quartos read fearful. 1 Met eee Roe. HAMLET, ACT I. As meditation or the thoughts of love, _May sweep to my revenge. Ghost. I find thee ‘apt ; And duller should’st thou be than the fat weed That rots itself in ease on Lethe wharf,’ Would’st thou not stir in this. Now, Hamlet, hear: "Tis given out, that sleeping in mine orchard, A serpent stung me; so the whole ear of Denmark Is by a forged process of my death Rankly abus’d: but know, thou noble youth, The serpent that did sting thy father’s life Now wears his crown. fam. O, my prophetic soul! my uncle! Ghost. Ay, that incestuous, that adulterate ‘beast, With witchcraft of his wit, with traitorous gifts, (O, wicked wit and gifts, that have the power So to seduce !) won to his shameful lust The will of my most seeming-virtuous queen. O, Hamlet! what a falling-off was there ! From me, whose love was of that dignity, That it went hand in hand even with the vow I made to her in marriage; and to decline Upon a wretch, whose natural gifts were poor To those of mine ! But virtue, as it never will be mov’d, Though: lewdness court it in a shape of heaven 3 So lust, though to a radiant angel link’d, Will sate itself in a celestial bed, 4 So reads the folio; the quartos all have roots instead of rots. Most editors prefer roots ; but, surely, rots is much more conso- nant to the sense of the passage. To speak of a thing as rotting itse/f' is not indeed common ; but we have it in Antony and Cleo- patra, thus: “Like a vagabond flag upon the stream, - Go to and back, lackeying the varying ‘de, To rot itself with motion.” H. a SC. V. PRINCE OF DENMARK. 233 And prey on garbage. But, soft! methinks, I scent the morning air: Brief let me be.—Sleeping within mine orchard, My custom always in the afternoon,’ Wpon'my secure hour thy uncle stole, With juice of cursed hebenon in a phial, And in the porches of mine ears did pour The leperous distilment ;° whose effect Holds such an enmity with blood of man, That, swift as quicksilver, it courses through The‘natural gates and alleys of the body ; And with a sudden vigour it doth posset And curd, like eager droppings into milk,’ The thin and wholesome blood: so did it mine 3 And a most instant tetter bark’d about,°® _ Most lazar-like, with vile and loathsome crust, All my smooth body. Thus was I, sleeping, by a brother’s hand, 5 So the folio and the quarto of 1603; the other quartos, “of the afternoon.”’ — Secure, in the next line, is a Latinism, securus, quiet, unguarded. H. 6 Hebenon is probably derived from henbane, the oil of which, according to Pliny, dropped into the ears, disturbs the brain. and there is sufficient evidence that it was beld poisonous. So in An- ton’s Satires, 1606 : “The poison’d henbane,-whose cold juice doth kill.” And Drayton, in his Barons’ Wars: « The poisoning hen- bane and the mandrake dread.”’_ It is, however, possible that poi- sonous qualities may have been ascribed to ebony ;* called ebene, and ebeno, by old English writers. So Marlow, in his Jew of Malta, speaking of noxious things: “The blood of Hydra, Ler- na’s bane, the juyce of hebon, and cocytus breath.”?” The French word hebenin, which would be applied to any thing made from ebony, comes indeed very close to the hebenon of Shakespeare. 7 In the preceding scene, note 1, we have had eager in the sense of sharp, biting. Baret explains, “« Eger, sower, sharp, acidus, oigre.” « Eager droppings”’ are drops of acid. H. 8 So all the quartos ; the folio has buk’d instead of bark’d; a misprint, probably, but preferred by some editors. — Instant seems to be here used in its Latin sense; pressing, urgent, harass ing. H. 20 * 234 HAMLET, ACT If. Of life, of crown, of queen, at once despatch’d ; ® Cut off even.in the blossoms of my sin, ~ Unhousel’d, disappointed, unanel’d ;?° No reckoning made, but sent to my account _ With all my imperfections on my head. . Ham. O, horrible! O, horrible! most horrible !? Ghost. If thou hast nature in thee, bear it not; Let not the royal bed of Denmark be A couch for luxury and damned incest. P But, howsoever thou pursuest this act, Taint not thy mind, nor let thy soul contrive ¢ Against thy ‘mother aught: leave her to Heaven, And to those thorns that in her bosom lodge, To prick and sting her. Fare thee well at once! The glow-worm shows the matin to be near, And ’gins to pale his uneffectual fire :!? Adieu, adieu! Hamlet, remember me. [ Evit. ® The first quarto has depriv’d, and Mr. Collier’s second folio, despoil’d. Despatch’d is better than either, because to the sense of deprivation it adds that of suddenness. ‘See King Richard IL., Act v. sc. 4, note 2. H. 10 -Unhousel’d is without having received the sacrament. Thus in Hormanni Vulgaria, 1519: « He is departed without shryfie and housyll.” Disappointed is unappointed, unprepared. A man well- furnished for an enterprise is said to be well-appointed. Unanel’d is without extreme unction. Thus in Cavendish’s Life of Wolsey: “Then we began to put him in mind of Christ’s passion ; and sent for the abbot of the place to anneal him.” 1! The old copies print this line as part of the Ghost’s speech. Johnson thought it should be transferred to Hamlet, and Garrick delivered it as belonging to the Prince, according to the tradition of the stage. These authorities and the example of Mr. Verplanck have determined us to the change. H. ? Uneffectual is shining without heat. In the next line, the quartos, instead of Hamlet, have adieu repeated the third time. — The paper of Blackwood, quoted in our Introduction, bas the fol- lowing excellent remarks on the Ghost: “The effect at first pro- duced by the apparition is ever afierwards wonderfully sustained I do not merely allude to the touches of realization which, in the poetry of the scenes, pass away from no memory ;—such as —— aw ee ; J aoauee “ SC. V. ~ PRINCE OF DENMARK. Doe Ham. O, all you host of heaven! O earth! What else 1 . And shall I couple hell 1 — O fie !— Hold, hold, my heart ! And you, my sinews, grow not instant old, But bear me stiffly up ! — Remember. thee 2 Ay, thou poor ghost, while memory holds a seat In this distracted globe.'* Remember thee? Yea, from the tables of my memory Til wipe away all trivial fond records, All saws of books, all forms, all pressures past, That youth and observation copied there ;"* And thy commandment all alone shall live Within the book and volume of my brain, Unmix’d with a baser matter: yes, by Heaven. O, most pernicious woman ! O, villain, villain, smiling, damned villain! My tables, — meet it is, I set it down, That one may smile, and smile, and be a villain ; +e «The star,’ —‘ Where now it burns,’ — ‘The sepulchre,’ —‘ The complete steel,’ —‘ The glimpses of the moon,’ —‘ Making night hideous,’ —‘ Look, how pale he glares,’ — and other wild expres- sions, that are like fastenings by which the mind clings to its terror. I rather allude to the whole conduct of the Ghost. We ever be- hold in it a troubled spirit leaving its place of suffering to revisit the life it had left, to direct and command a retribution that must be accomplished. He speaks of the pain to which he is gone, but that fades away in the purpose of his mission. ‘Pity me not:’ He bids Hamlet revenge, though there is not the passion of re- venge in his discourse. The penal fires have purified the grosser : man. ‘The spectre utters but a moral declaration of guilt, and swears its living son to the fulfilment of a righteous vengeance.” H. 13 That is, in this head confused with thought. 14 « Tubles or books, or registers for mémorie of things,” were then used by all ranks, and contained prepared leaves from which what was written with a silver style could easily be effaced. 15 T remember nothing equal to this burst, unless it be the first speech of Prometheus, in the Greek drama, after the exit of Vul- can and the two Afrites. But Shakespeare alone could have pro * e 236 HAMLET, ACT I At least, I am sure it may be so in Denmark: [ Writing. So, uncle, there you are. Now to my word ; “ It is, «Adieu, adieu ! remember me.” I have sworn’t. : Hor. [| Within.] My lord, my lord! Mar. [Within.] Lord Hamlet ! Hor. [ Within.| Heaven secure him! Mar. | Within.] So be it! Hor. [ Within.] Ilo, ho, ho, my lord! Ham. Hillo, ho, ho, boy! come, bird, come.'® Enter Horatio and MARCELLUS. Mar. How is’t, my noble lord ! Hor. What news, my lord? Ham. O, wonderful ! Hor. Good my lord, tell it. Ham. No; you'll reveal it. Hor. Not I, my lord, by Heaven. Mar. Nor I, my lord. fam. How say you, then; would heart of man once think it ?— But you'll be secret ? for. Mar. Ay, by Heaven, my lord. Ham. 'There’s ne’er a villain dwelling in all Den- mark, But he’s an arrant knave. duced the vow of Hamlet to make his memory a blank of all maxims and generalized truths that “observation had copied there,” — followed immediately by the speaker noting down the generalized fact, “'That one may smile, and smile, and be a vil- lain.” — COLERIDGE, H. "© This is the call which falconers use to their-hawk in the air when they would have him come down to them. — The quartos assign some of these speeches differently, and have boy instead of bird. We follow the folio here. H. Das. 46, allel SC. V. PRINCE OF DENMARK. 237 Hor. There needs no ghost, my lord, come from the grave. To tell us this. : Ham. Why, right; you are i’the right ; And so, without more circumstance at all, I hold it fit that we shake hands, and part: You, as your business and desire shall point you, — For every man hath business and desire, Such as it is; — and, for mine own poor part, Look you, I’ll go pray.” Hor. These are but wild and whirling words, my lord. Ham. \'m sorry they offend you, heartily; yes, Faith, heartily. Hor. There’s no offence, my lord. Ham. Yes, by St. Patrick,'* but there is, Horatio, And much offence too. Touching this vision here, It is an honest ghost, that let me tell you: _ For your desire to know what is between us, O’ermaster ’t as you may. And now, good friends, As you are friends, scholars, and soldiers, Give me one poor request. Hor. What is’t, my lord? we will. Ham. Never make known what you have seen to-night. | Hor. Mar. My lord, we will not. Ham. Nay, but swear’t. Hor. In faith, my lord, not I. Mar. Nor I, my lord, in faith. Ham. Upon my sword. Mar. We have sworn, my lord, already. 17 The words, Look. you, are found only in the folio. H. 18 Warburton has ingeniously defended Shakespeare for making the Danish prince swear by St. Patrick, by observing that the whole northern world had their learning from Ireland. 238 HAMLET, ACT I. Ham. Indeed, upon my sword, indeed. Ghost. [Beneath.] Swear. Ham. Ha, ha, boy! say’st thou so? art thou there, true-penny ? Come on, — you hear this fellow in the cellarage, — Consent to swear. ‘i For. Propose the oath, my lord., Ham. Never to speak of this that you have seen, Swear by my sword.’® Ghost. [Beneath.] Swear. | Ham. Hic et ubique! then, we'll shift our ground. — . Come hither, gentlemen, And lay your hands again upon my sword: Never to speak of this that you have heard, Swear by my sword. Ghost. | Beneath.| Swear.” Ham. Well said, old mole! canst work i’the earth . so fast? A worthy pioneer!— Once more remove, good friends. Hor. O, day and night! but this is wondrous strange. Ham. And therefore as a stranger give it wel- come. There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.*! 1° The custom of swearing by the sword, ar rather by the cross at the upper end of it, is very ancient. ‘The name of Jesus was net unfrequently inscribed on-the handle. The allusions to this custom are very numerous in our old writers. *° Here again we follow the folio, with which the first quarto agrees. In the other quartos, this speech reads, «Swear by his sword ;’’ and the last two lines of the preceding speech are trans- posed. In the next line, the folio has ground instead of earth. H. #1 So read all the quartos ; the folio, “ our philosophy.” The sc. V. PRINCE OF DENMARK. 239 But come ; — Here, as before, never, so help you mercy, How strange or odd soe’er I bear myself; — As I, perchance, hereafter shall think meet To put an antic disposition on ;— That you, at such times seeing me, never shall, With arms encumber’d thus, or this head-shake, Or by pronouncing of some doubtful phrase, As, “Well, well, we know ;” — or, «We could, an if we would;”—or, “If we list to speak ;”’ — or «There be, an if they might ;” — Or such ambiguous giving-out, to note That you know aught of me :—this not to do, So grace and mercy at your most need help you. Swear. Ghost. [Beneath.] Swear. Ham. Rest, rest, perturbed spirit! — So, gentle men, - With all my love I do commend me to you: And what so poor a man as Hamlet is May do, t’ express his love and friending to you, God willing, shall not lack. Let us go in together And still your fingers on your lips, I pray. The time is out of joint ;—O, cursed spite ! That ever I was born to set it right. Nay, come; let’s go together.” [ Exeun passage has had so long a lease of familiarity, as it stands in the text, that it seems best not to change it. Besides, your gives a nice characteristic shade of meaning that is lost inour. Of course it is not Horatio’s philosophy, but your philosophy, that Hamlet is speaking of. H. 22 This part of the scene after Hamlet’s interview with the Ghos* has been ebarged with an improbable eccentricity; But the truth is, that after the mind has been stretched beyond its usual pitch and tone, it must either sink into exhaustion and inanity, or seek relief by change. It is thus well known, that persons conversant in deeds of cruelty contrive to escape from conscience by con- 240 HAMLET, ACT II ACT II. SCENE I. And leads the will to desperate undertakings, As oft as any passion under heaven, That does afflict our natures. I am sorry, — What! have you given him any hard words of late? 9 Hanging down like the loose cincture which confines the fet- ters or gyves round the ankles. 10 That uF his breast. “The bulke or breast of a man, Thorax la poitrine.”” — BARET. 11 'To fordo and to undo were synonymous. sc. IL PRINCE OF DENMARK. 245 Oph. No, my good lord ;.but, as you did com- mand, I did repel his letters, and denied “« His access to me. Pol. That hath made him mad. I am sorry, that with better heed and judgment, I had not quoted him:’? I fear’d he did but trifle, And meant to wreck thee ; but, beshrew my jeai ousy | ! It seems it is as proper to our age! To cast beyond ourselves in our opinions, As it is common for the younger sort To lack discretion. Come, go we to the king: This must be known; which, being kept close, might _ move | More grief to hide, than hate to utter love.’* [ Exeunt. “SCENE IL. A Room in the Castle. Enter the King, the Queen, RosENCRANTZ, GUIL- DENSTERN, and Attendants. King. Welcome, dear Rosencrantz, and Guilden- stern ! 12 To quote is to note, to mark, or observe. 13 The folio substitutes It seems for By Heaven, of the quartos. Coleridge here makes the following remark: “In this admirable scene, Polonius, who is throughout the skeleton of his own former skill in state-craft, hunts the trail of policy at a dead scent, sup- plied by the weak fever-smell in his own nostrils.” H. 14 « This must be made known to the king, for the hiding Ham- let’s love might occasion more mischief to us from him and the queen, than the uttering or revealing it will occasion hate and re- sentment from Hamlet.” Johnson, whose explanation this is, at- tributes the obscurity to the Poet’s «affectation of concluding the scene with a couplet.”” There would surely have been more af- fectation in deviating from the universally established custom, — "The quartos add Come, after the closing couplet. 21* 246 HAMLET, ACT IT Moreover that we much did long to see you,’ The need we had to use you did provoke Our hasty sending. Something have you heard Of Hamlet’s transformation ; so I call it, Since nor th’ exterior nor the inward man Resembles that it was. What it should be, More than his father’s death, that thus hath put him So much from th’ understanding of himself, I cannot dream of:* I entreat you both, That, — being of so young days brought up with him, And, since, so neighbour’d to his youth and hu- mour, — oF That you vouchsafe your rest here in our court Some little time ; so by your companies To draw him on to pleasures ; and to gather, So much as from occasion you may glean, Whether aught, to us unknown, afflicts him thus, That, open’d, lies within our remedy. @. Queen. Good gentlemen, he hath much talk’d of you ; . And, sure I am, two men there are not living, To whom he more adheres. [If it will please you To show us so much gentry *® and good will, As to expend your time with us awhile, For the supply and profit of our hope,‘ Your visitation shall receive such thanks As fits a king’s remembrance. Ros. . Both your majesties 1 We do not recollect another instance of moreover that used in this way. Of course, the sense is the same as besides that, ot “ over and above ‘the fact that,” &c. H. 2 So the quartos; the folio, «deem of.” In the next line but one, the quartos have haviour ‘instead of humour. H. 3 Gentry for gentle courtesy. —'T he last line but one, in the pre- ; ceding speech, is not in the folio. H. 4 Supply and profit is aid and advantage. ay i sc. Il. PRINCE OF DENMARK. Q47 Might, by the sovereign power you-have of us, Put-your dread pleasures more into command Than. to entreaty. | Guil. ' But we both obey ; And here give up ourselves, in the full bent, To lay our service freely at your feet, To be commanded. King. Thanks, Rosencrantz, and gentle Guilden- stern: .. Queen. Thanks, Guildenstern, and gentle Rosen- crantz : And I beseech you instantly to visit My too-much-changed son.— Go, some of you, And bring these gentlemen where Hamlet is. Guil. Heavens make our presence, and our prac- tices, Pleasant and helpful to him! Queen. Ay, amen! [Exeunt Ros. Guin. and some Attendants. Enter Po.ontus. Pol. Th’ ambassadors from Norway, my good lord, Are joyfully return’d. King. Thou still hast been the father of good news. Pol. Have I, my lord? Assure you, my good liege,. I hold my duty, as I hold my soul, Both to my God, and to my gracious king; And I do think (or else this brain of mine Hunts not the trail of policy so sure As it hath us’d to do) that I have found The very cause of Hamlet’s lunacy. King. O! speak of that; that do I long to hear. ,) “ne cL Ane 248 HAMLET, ACT IL Pol. Give, first, admittance to th’ ambassadors ; My news shall be the fruit to that great feast.- _ King. Thyself do grace to them, and bring them in. — [ Exit PoLontus. He tells me, my dear Gertrude, he hath found The head and source of all your son’s distemper. Queen. I doubt, it is no other but the main 3 His father’s death, and our o’erhasty marriage.’ Re-enter PoLonivus, with VoLTIMAND and Cor- NELIUS. King. Well, we shall sift him.— Welcome, my good friends! | Say, Voltimand, what from our brother Norway ? Vol. Most fair return of greetings and desires. Upon our first, he sent out to suppress His nephew’s levies ; which to him appear’d > To be a preparation ’gainst the Polack ; But, better look’d into, he truly found It was against your highness: whereat griev’d, — That so his sickness, age, and impotence, Was falsely borne in hand,° — sends out arrests — On Fortinbras ; which he in brief obeys, Receives rebuke from Norway, and; in fine, Makes vow before his uncle never more To give th’ assay of arms against your majesty. Whereon old Norway, overcome with joy, Gives him three thousand crowns in annual fee ;7 And.his commission, to employ those soldiers, So levied as before, against the Polack : 5 So the folio; the quartos have hasty instead of o’erhasty. H. 6 To bear in hand is to lead along by assurances or expecta: tions. See Measure for Measure, Act i. sc. 5, note 6. H. 7 That is, the king gave his nephew a few or fee in land of that annual value. Ye sc. A PRINCE OF DENMARK. 249 With an intreaty, herein further shown, [Giving a Paper. That it might please you to give quiet pass | Through your dominions for this enterprise ; On such regards of safety and allowance, As thereM are set down. King. It likes us well ; And, at our more consider’d time, we’ll read, Answer, and think upon this business : ‘Meantime, we thank you for your well-took labour. Go to your rest; at night we’ll feast together : Most welcome home ! A: [Exeunt VoLTIMAND and CoRNELIUS. Pol. This business is well ended. My liege, and madam, to expostulate ® What majesty should be, what duty is, Why day is day, night, night, and time is time, Were nothing but to waste night, day, and time. Therefore, since brevity is the soul of wit, And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes, I will be brief. Your noble son is mad: Mad call I it; for, to define true madness, What is’t, but to be nothing else but mad: But let that go. Queen. More matter, with less art. Pol. Madam, I swear I use no art at all. ‘That he is mad, ’tis true: ’tis true ’tis pity, And pity ’tis, ’tis true: a foolish figure ; But farewell it, for I will use no art. Mad let us grant him, then ; and now remains, That we find out the cause of this effect ; Or rather say, the cause of this defect ; lor this effect defective comes by cause : 8 That is, to inquire; another Latinism. 250 HAMLET, ACT II Thus it remains, and the remainder thus. Perpend: ; , I have a daughter ; have, while she is mine 3 Who, in her duty and obedience, mark, Hath given me this: Now gather and surmise. «To the celestial, and my soul’s idol, *the most beautified Ophelia,” ? — That’s an ill phrase, a vile phrase; ‘ beautified” 1s a vile phrase; but you shall hear. — Thus: «In her excellent white bosom, these,’ &c."° Queen. Came this from Hamlet to her? Pol. Good madam, stay awhile; I will be faith- ful. — [Reads.] Doubt thou the stars are fire, Doubt that the sun doth move; Doubt truth to be a liar; . _ But never doubt I love. UO, dear Ophelia, I am ill at these numbers: I have not art to reckon my groans; but that I love thee best, O most best! believe it. Adieu. Thine evermore, most dear lady, whilst this machine is to him, HAMLET. This in obedience hath my daughter shown me; And, more above, hath his solicitings, As they fell out by time, by means, and place, All given to mine ear. King. But how hath she Receiv’d his love? Pol. What do you think of me? King. As of a man faithful and honourable. 9 Beautified is not uncommon in dedications and encomiastic verses of the Poet’s age. 10 The word these was usually added at the end of the super- scription of letters. See The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act iii. sc. 1, note 10. SC. II. PRINCE OF DENMARK. 251 Pol. I would fain prove so. But what might *; you think, — When I had seen this hot love on the wing, (As I perceiv’d it, I must tell you that, Before my daughter told me,) what might you, Or my dear majesty your queen here, think, If I had play’d the desk, or table-book ; Or given my heart a winking, mute and dumb ;" Or look’d upon this love with idle sight ; What might you think ? no, I went round”? to work, - And my young mistress thus did I bespeak : “Lord Hamlet is a prince, out of thy star;7° This must not be:” and then I precepts gave her, That she should lock herself from his resort, Admit no messengers, receive no tokens. | Which done, she took the fruits of my advice 3 And he, repulsed, (a short tale to make, ) Fell into a sadness ; then into a fast ; Thence to a watch; thence into a weakness ; Thence to a lightness; and, by this declension, Into the madness wherein now he raves, And all we wail for.’ King. Do you think ’tis this? Queen. It may be, very likely. Pol. Hath there been such a time (I'd fain know that) | That I have positively said, « Tis so,” When it prov’d otherwise ? King, ~ Not that I know. 1 That is, if I had given my heart a hint to be mute about their passion. “ Conniventia, awinking at; a sufferance ; a feign- ing not to see or know.”” The quartos have working instead of winking. 12 Plainly, roundly, without reserve. 8 That is, not within thy destiny ; alluding to the supposed ins fluence of the stars on the fortune of life. H. 14 So the folio; the quartos have mourn instead of wail. a Hi: her ek wor ia Eee le >. 252 HAMLET, ACT If. Pol. Take this from this, if this be otherwise : [Pointing to his Head and Shoulder. If circumstances lead me, I will find - Where truth is hid, though it were hid indeed Within the centre. - King. ~ How may we try it further ? Pol. You know, sometimes he walks four hours together, Here in the lobby. Queen. So he does, indeed. Pol. At such a time I’ll loose my daughter to him : Be you and I behind an arras then: Mark the encounter ; if he love her not, And be not from his reason fallen thereon, Let me be no assistant for a state, But keep a farm, and carters. nee : We will try it. Einter HAMLET, reading. Queen. But, look, where sadly the poor wretch comes reading. Pol. Away! I do beseech you, both away. I’ll board’* him presently: —O! give me leave. — [{Exeunt King, Queen, and Attendants. How does my good lord Hamlet ? Ham. Well, god-’a-mercy. Pol. Do you kuow me, ms lord ? Ham.. Excellent well; you’re a fishmonger.”® Pol. Not I, my lord. Ham. Then, I wouldfou were so honest a man. Pol. Honest, my lord? "15 That is, accost, address him. So in Twelfth Night, Act i, sc. 3; “ Accost i is, front her, board her, woo her, assail her.” H. 16 « That is,” says Coleridge, “you are sent to fish ont this secret. This is Hamlet’s own meaning.” H. SC. II. PRINCE OF DENMARK. 253 Ham. Ay, sir; to be honest, as this world goes, is to be one man pick’d out of ten thousand. Pol. That’s very true, my lord. Ham. For if the sun breed | maggots in a dead dog; being a good kissing oe 7_Have you a daughter ? Pol. I have, my lord. Ham. Let her not walk i’the sun: conception is a blessing; but not as your daughter may con- ceive :'* —friend, look to’t. 17 Such is the reading of all the old copies. Warburton changed it to, “being a god, kissing carrion,” and supported the change with a long comment which, in the opinion of Dr. Johnson, “ almost sets the critic on a level with the author!”’ The critic re- marks that Shakespeare “bad an art not only of acquaintiug the audience with what bis actors say, but what they think ;” and he regards the passage as intended to “ vindicate the ways of Prov- idence in permitting evil to‘abound in the world.” He sums up his argument thus : “ If the effect follows the thing operated upon, barrton; and not the thing operating, a God, why need we wonder that, the supreme Cause of all things diffusing blessings on man, who is a dead carrion, be. instead of a proper retorn, should breed corruption and vices 7”? The comment is certainly most ingenious 3 too much so indeed, as it looks as if the critic were attributing his own thoughts to the Poet. Shakespeare, it is true, elsewhere calls the sun “common-kissing Titan ;”’ but if, in this case, good had been a misprint for god, it would most likely have begun with a capital, Good. Either way, the passage is very obscure ; Cole- ridge thinks it is purposely so. We are unable to decide whether good kissing should mean good to kiss, or good at kissing, that is, at returning a kiss. Mr. Verplanck explains it thas: “If even a dead dog can be kissed by the sun, how much more is youthful beau- ty in danger of corruption, unless it seek the shade.” This is, on the whole, the best we have seen, but we must add Coleridge's explanation: “ Why, fool as he is, he is some degrees in rank above a dead dog’s carcass ; and if the sun can raise life out of | a dead dog, why 1 may not good fortune, that favours fools, have raised a lovely girl out of rite dead- alive) old fool?” In eluci- dation of the passage, Malone aptly quotes the following from the play of King Edward III., 1596: “ The freshest summer’s day doth soonest taint The loathed carrion that it seems to kiss.” H. 48 So the folio; mot is wanting in the quartos. The sense of VOL. X. 22 254 HAMLET, ACT IL: Pol. [Aside.] How say you by that? Still harp- ing on my daughter: — yet he knew me not at first 5 he -said, I was a fishmonger. He is far gone, far gone: and, truly in my youth I suffer’d much ex- tremity for love; very near this. I'll speak to -him again. — What do you read, my lord? Ham. Words, words, words ! Pol. What is the matter, my lord? Ham. Between whom? Pol. I mean, the matter that you read, my lord Ham. Slanders, sir: for the satirical rogue say: here, that old men have gray beards; that thei faces are wrinkled; their eyes purging thick amber, and plum-tree gum; and_ that they have a plentifu lack of wit, together with most weak hams: all ot which, sir, though I nrost powerfully and potently believe, yet I hold it not honesty to have it thus sev down; for yourself, sir, should be as old as I am,’ if, like a crab, you could go backward. Pol. [Aside.] Though this be madness, yet there’s method in’t.— Will you walk out of the air, my lord? Ham. Into my grave ? Pol. Indeed, that is out o’the air.— How preg- nant sometimes his replies are! a happiness that often madness hits on, which reason and sanity could not so prosperously be deliver’d of. I will Jeave him, and suddenly contrive the means of meeting between him and my daughter. — My hon- , the passage is much the same either way, and needs no explana- tion. Of course Hamlet’s language is a part of his “antic dis- position,” and meant to favour the notion of his being insane. H. 19 So the folio ; the quartos have shall grow instead of should be. H. oO sc. fi. PRINCE OF DENMARK. 255 ourable lord, I will most humbly take my leave of * you.” Ham. You cannot, sir, take from me any thing that I will more willingly part withal ; except my life, except my life, except. my life. Pol. Fare you well, my lord. Ham. These tedious old fools! Enter Rosencrantz and GUILDENSTERN. Pol. You go to seek the lord Hamlet; there he is. Ros. [ To Potontus.] God save you, sir. [ Brit Potontius. Guil. My honour’d lord !— Ros. My most dear lord! — Ham. My excellent goud friends! How dost ‘ thou, Guildenstern? Ah, Rosencrantz! Good lads, how do ye both? Ros. As the indifferent children of the earth. Guil. Happy, in that we af€ not overhappy 5 On fortune’s cap we are not the very button. Ham. Nor the soles of her shoe? Ros. Neither, my lord. Ham. Then you live about her waist, or in the middle of her favours? Guil. ’Faith, her privates we. Ham. In the secret parts of fortune? O, most true! she is a strumpet. What news? Ros. None, my lord, but that the world’s grown honest. 20 Such is the folio reading ; the quartos give the latter part of the speech thus; “I will leave him and my daughter. — My lord, I will take my leave of you.”” —In the next speech, the folio has, “except my life, my life.” Coleridge says of the quarto reading, — “This repetition strikes me as most admirable.” H. 256 - HAMLET, AOW Il. Ham. Then is dooms-day near. But your news is not true. Let me question more in particular What have you, my good friends, deserved at the hands of fortune, that she sends you to prison hither ? Guil. Prison, my lord! Ham. Denmark’s a prison. Ros. Then is the world one. Ham. A goodly one; in which there are many confines, wards, and dungeons, Denmark being one o’the worst. Ros. We think not so, my lord. Ham. Why, then ’tis none to you; for there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it s0: to me it is a prison. Ros. Why, then your ambition makes it one: “tis too narrow for your mind. Ham. O God! I could be bounded in a nutshell, and count myself a king of infinite space, were it not that I have bad @teams. Guil. Which ‘dreams, indeed, are ambition ; for the very substance of the ambitious is merely the shadow of a dream. Ham. A dream itself is but a shadow. Ros. Truly; and I hold ambition of so airy and light a quality, that it is but a shadow’s shadow. Ham. Then are our beggars bodies, and our monarchs and outstretch’d heroes the beggars’ shadows.2! Shall we to the court? for, by my fay, I cannot reason.” 21 If ambition is such an unsubstantial thing, then are our beg- gars (who at least can dream of greatness) the only things of sub- stance, and monarchs and heroes, though appearing to fill such mighty space with their ambition, but the shadows of the beggars’ dreams. — JOHNSON. 22 Fay is merely a diminutive of faith. See The Taming of the Shrew, Induction, se. 2, note 6. H. sc. Il. PRINCE OF DENMARK. 257 Ros. Guil. We'll wait upon you. » Ham. No such matter: I will not sort you with the rest of my servants; for, to speak to you like an honest man, I am most dreadfully attended.*? But, in the beaten way of friendship, what make you at Elsinore ? Ros. Yo visit you, my lord; no other occasion. Ham. Beggar that I am, I am even poor in thanks, but I thank you; and sure, dear friends, my thanks are too dear, a half-penny. Were you not sent for? Is it your own inclining ? is it a free visitation? Come, come ; deal justly with me: come, come; nay, speak. Guil. What should we say, my lord? fam. Any thing, but to the purpose. You were sent for; and there is a kind of confession in your looks, which your modesties have not craft enough to colour: I know the good king and queen have sent for you. Ros. To what end, my lord? Ham. That you must teach me. But let me con- jure you by the rights of our fellowship, by the con- sonancy of our youth, by the obligation of our ever- preserved love, and by what more dear a better proposer could charge you withal, be even and di- rect with me, whether you were sent for, or no? . Ros. [ To GUILDEN.] What say you? Ham. { Aside.] Nay, then I have an eye of you.*4 -—If you love me, hold not off. Guil. My lord, we were sent for. *3 The foregoing part of the scene, beginning with, «Let me question more in particular,” is found only in the folio. —« What make you,” in the next line, is, «« What do you.” The usage was common. Ul. *4 That is, I will watch you sharply ; of for on, a common usage, Hai 22% 17 258 0 YAMLET;, ry ACT Il. Ham. I will tell you why; so shall my anticipa- tion prevent your discovery, and your secrecy to the -king and queen moult no feather.” I have of late (but wherefore [ know not) lost all my mirth, foregone all custom of exercises; and, indeed, it goes so heavily with my disposition, that this goodly frame, the earth, seems to me to be a sterile promon- tory; this most excellent canopy, the air, look you, this brave o’erhanging firmament,”® this majestical roof fretted with golden fire, why, it appeareth nothing to me but a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours. What a piece of work isa man! How noble in reason! how infinite in faculties! in form and moving, how express and admirable! in action, how like an angel! in apprehension, how like a god! the beauty of the world! the paragon of anl-. mals! And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust ?:man delights not me; no, nor woman nei- ther, though by your smiling you seem to say so. Ros. My lord, there is no such stuff in my thoughts. Ham. Why did you laugh, then, when I said, «Man delights not me?” 25 That is, not change a feather; moult being an old word for change ; applied especially to birds when putting on a new suit of clothes. So in Bacon’s Naturall Historie: “Some birds jhere be, that upon their mouliing do turn colour ; as robin-redbreasts, after their moulting, grow red again by degrees.” — The whole passage seems to mean, “ my anticipation shall prevent your discovering to me the purpose of your visit, and so your promise of secrecy will be perfectly kept.” i. 26 So the quartos ; the folio omits firmament, and so of course turns o’erhunging into a substantive. Jt may well be thought, that by the omission the language becomes more Shakespearian, without any loss of eloquence. But the passage, as it stands, is so much a household word, that it seems best not to change it. — The folio also has, “appears no other thing to me than,” instead of, “‘appeareth nothing to me but.” _H. SC. I. ' PRINCE OF DENMARK. Pass! De le Ros. To think, my lord, if you delight not in man, what lenten entertainment the players shall receive from you:*’ we coted them on the way, and hither are they coming to offer you service. Han. He that plays the king shall be welcome ; his majesty shall have tribute of me: the adven- turous knight shall use his foil and target; the lover shall not sigh gratis; the humorous man shall _end his part in peace ; the clown shall make those Jaugh, whose lungs are tickled o’the sere; ** and the lady shall say her mind freely, or the blank verse shall halt for’t. — What players are they? Ros. Even those you were wont to take such de- light in, the tragedians of the city. Ham. How chances it, they travel? their resi- dence, both in reputation and profit, was better both ways. . Ros. I think, their inhibition comes by the means of the late innovation.*® *7 « Lenten entertainment” is entertainment for the season of Lent, when players were not allowed to perform in public. See Twelfth Night, Act i. sc. 5, note 1.— To cote is to pass alongside, to pass by, or overtake. So in The Return from Parnassus: “Marry, presently coted and outstript them.” H. *3 ‘The meaning appears to be, the clown shall make even those laugh whose lungs are tickled with a dry cough, or huskiness ; by his merriment shall convert even their coughing into Jaughter. The same expression occurs in Howard’s Defensative against the Poyson of supposed Prophecies, 1620: « Discovering the moods and humours of the vulgar sort to be so loose and tickle of the seare.” ‘The words are found only in the folio. ‘The first quarto has, “make them laugh that are tickled in the lungs.” *9 Referring, no doubt, to the order of the Privy Council, June, 1600, quoted in our Introduction to Twelfth Night, Vol i., page 337. By this order, the players were inhibited from acting in or near the city during the season of Lent, besides being very much re- stricted at all other seasons, and hence “chances it they travel,” or stroll into the country. — As the matter involves some curious points as to the time or times. when this play was written, it may be well to adc the corresponding passage from the quarto of. 16034 260 HAMLET, ACT Il. Ham. Do they hold the same estimation they did when I was in the city? Are they so follow’d ? Ros. No, indeed, they are not. Ham. How comes it? Do they grow rusty? Ros. Nay, their endeavour keeps in the wonted pace: but there is, sir, an aiery of children} little eyases, that cry out on the top of question,” and are most tyrannically clapp’d for’t: these are now the fashion ; and so berattle the common stages, (so they call them,) that many, wearing rapiers, are afraid of goose quills, and dare scarce come thither. Ham. What! are they children? who maintains them? how are they escoted?*' Will they pursue “ Ham. Players? what players be they ? «* Ros. My lord, the tragedians of the city; those that you took delight to see so often. «“ Ham. How comes it that they travel? Do they grow restie ? “ Guil. No, my lord ; their reputation holds as it was wont. “ Ham. How then? «“ Guil. I ’faith, my Jord, novelty carries it away ; for the prin- cipal public audience that came to them are turned to private plays, and the humour of children.” H. 30 Aiery, from eyren, eggs, properly means a brood, but some- times a nest. See King Richard IIL., Act i. sc. 3, note 20. — Eyas is a name for an unfledged hawk. See The Merry Wives of Windsor, Act iil. se. 3, note 2.—<“ Top of question”’ probably means, top of their voice ; question being often used for speech. — The allusion is to the children of St. Paul's and of the Revels, whose performing of plays was much in fashion at the time this play was written. From an early date, the choir-boys of St. Paul’s, West- minster, Windsor, and the Chapel Royal, were engaged in such performances, and sometimes played at Court. The complaint here is, that these juveniles so abuse « the common stages,”’ that is, the theatres, as to deter many from visiting them. In Jack Drum’s Entertainment, 1601, one of the speakers says they were heard « with much applause ;” and another speaks thus: “I sawe the children of Powles last night, and, troth, they pleas’d me pret- tie, prettie well: the apes in time will do it handsomely.” 1. 31 Escoted is paid ; from the French escot, a shot or reckoning, — Quality is profession or calling ; often so used. —“ No longer than they can sing,’’ means, no longer than they keep the voices of boys. , a ~ SC. II. PRINCE OF DENMARK. 261 the quality no longer than they can sing? will they not say afterwards, if they should grow themselves to common players, (as it is most like, if their means are no better,) their writers do them wrong, to make them exclaim against their own succession ? Ros. ’Faith, there has been much to do on both sides; and the nation holds it no sin, to tarre*? them on to controversy: there was, for a while no money bid for argument, unless the poet and the player went to cuffs in the question. Ham. Is it possible? Guil. O! there has been much throwing about of brains. Ham. Do the boys carry it away? Ros. Ay, that they do, my lord; Hercules and his load too.** Ham. It is not very strange: for my uncle is king of Denmark, and those, that would make mowes** at him while my father lived, give twenty, forty, fifty, an hundred ducats a-piece, for his pic- ture in little. ’Sblood, there is something in this more than natural, if philosophy could find it out. [Flourish of Trumpets within. Guil. 'There are the players. Ham. Gentlemen, you are welcome to Elsinore. Your hands. Come, then; the appurtenance of welcome is fashion and ceremony; let me comply 82 That is, set them on; a phrase borrowed from the setting on a dog. See King John, Act iv. sc. 1, note 6. 383 That is, carry all the world before thems there is perhaps an allusion to the Globe theatre, the sign of which is said to have been Hercules carrying the globe. — This speech and what precedes, begiuning at, “ Nay, their endeavour keeps,” &c., are found only in the folio. H. 34 So the folio; the quartos, mouths; all but the first, which has mops and moes. , H. 20207 * | HAMLET, ACT Tl. with you in this garb ;*° lest my extent to the play- ers (which, I tell you, must show fairly outward) should more appear like entertainment than yours. You are welcome; but my uncle-father and a int- mother are deceiv’d. Guil. In what, my dear lord? HTam. 1 am -but mad _ north-north-west ; when the wind is southerly, I know a hawk from a hand- saw.°° . Re-enter POLONIvs. Pol. Well be with you, gentlemen! Ham. Hark you, Guildenstern ;—and you too ; —at each ear a hearer :. that great baby, you see there, is not yet out of his swathing-clouts. tos. Haply, he’s the second time come to them $ for, they say, an old man is twice a child. Ham. 1 will prophesy, he comes to tell me of the players; mark it. — You say right, sir: o’Monday morning ; ’twas then, indeed. Pol. My lord, I have news to tell you. Ham. My lord, I have news to tell you: When Roscius was an actor in Rome, — Pol. The actors are come hither, my lord. Ham. Buz, buz! 35 That is, let me embrace you in this fashion; lest I should seem to give you a less courteous reception than I give the play- ers, to whom I must behave with at least exterior politeness. ‘That comply with was sometimes used in the sense of embrace appears by the following from Herrick : «“ Witty Ovid, by Whom fair Corinna sits, and doth comply, With iv’ry wrists, his laureat head, and steeps His eye in dew of kisses, while he sleeps.” 36 « To know a hawk from a handsaw,” was a proverb in Shakes speare’s time. Handsaw is merely a corruption of hernshaw, which means a heron. a. sc. IL. PRINCE OF DENMARK. : 263 Pol. Upon my honour, — Ham. Then came each actor on his ass, — Pol. The best’ actors in the world, either for tragedy, comedy, history, pastoral, pastoral-comical, historical-pastoral, tragical-historical, tragical-comi- cal-historical-pastoral,*’ scene individable, or poem unlimited: Seneca cannot be too heavy, nor Plautus too light. For the ay of writ, th the liberty, | these are the only men.” Ham. O, Sephthah, judge of Israel, what a treas- ure hadst thou ! ’ Pol. What a treasure had he, my lord? Ham. Why — One fair daughter, and no more, The which he loved passing well.” 37 The words, “ tragical-historical, tragical-comical-historical- pastoral,” are found only in the first quarto and the folio. H, 38 « The meaning,” says Collier, « probably is, that the players were good, whether at written productions or at exlemporal plays, where. liberty was allowed to the performers to Joga the dialogue, in imitation of the Htalian commedie al improviso.” In Elizabeth’s time, it was the custom of the students in the Universities to act Latin plays ; and, as Warton remarks, it may have been this that suggested the names of Seneca and Plautus to the Poet. In the next Act, Hamlet says to Relamings zs My lord, you play’d once in the university, you say.’ H. 39 These lines are from an old ballad, entitled “ Jephtha, Judge of Israel.’’ It was first printed in Percy’s Reliques, having been “retrieved from utter oblivion by a lady, w ho wrote it down from memory, as she had formerly heard it sung by her father.” A more correct copy has since been decal and reprinted in Evans’ Old Ballads, 1810; where the first stanza runs thus ; “T have read that™ many years agoe, When Jephtha, judge of Israel, Had one fair daughter and no moe, Whom he loved passing well ; As by lot, God wot, It came to passe, most like it was, Great warrs there should be, And who should be the chiefe but he, but he.” H. 2645 * HAMLET, ACT Il. Pol. [Aside.] Still on my daughter. Ham. Am I not ithe right, old Jepbthah ? Pol. If you call me Jephthah, my lord, I have a daughter that I love passing well. Ham. Nay, that follows not. Pol. What follows, then, my lord? Ham. Why, . As by lot, God wot, And then, you know, ‘ It came to pass, as most like it was, — The first row of the pious chanson will show you more; for look, where my abridgment comes.*® Enter Four or Five Players. Ye’re welcome, masters ; welcome, all.—I am glad to see thee well: — welcome, good friends. — QO, old friend! Why, thy face is ralencl d*’ since I saw thee last: com’st thou to beard me in Denmark ? — What! my young lady and mistress! By-’r-lady, your ladyship is nearer to heaven, than when I saw you last, by the altitude of a chopine.*” ’Pray God, 40 That is, probably, those who will abridge my talk.—«“ The pious chanson” is something to be sung or chanted ; in the first quarto it is called “ the godly ballud.”* — “The first row,’ seems to mean “ the first column.” H. 41 That is, fringed with a beard. 42 A chopine was a kind of high shoe, worn by the Spanish and Italian ladies, and adopted at one time as a fashion by the Eng- lish. Cerials describes those worn by the Venetians as some of them “half a yard high.” Bulwer, in his Artificial Changeling, complains of this fashion, as a monstrous affectation, “whercin our ladies imitate the Venetian and Persian ladies.” Chapin is the Spanish name; and Cobarruvias countenances honest Tom Coriate’s account of the preposterous height to which some Jadieg carried them. He tells an old tale of their being invented to pre- vent women’s gadding, being first made of wood, and very heavy; and that the ingenuity of the women overcame this inconvenience SC. IL PRINCE OF DENMARK. 265 your voice, like a piece of uncurrent gold, be not erack’d within the ring.*?— Masters, you are all welcome. We'll e’en to’t like French falconers,“* fly at any thing we see: We'll have a speech straight. Come, give us a taste of your quality ; come, a passionate speech. 1 Play. What speech, my good lord? Flam. I heard thee speak me a speech once, — but it was never acted; or, if it was, not above once: for the play, I remember, pleas’d not the million; “twas caviare to the general:** but it. was (as I receiv’d it, and others, whose judgments in such matters cried in the top of mine) an excel- lent play ; well digested in the scenes, set down with as much modesty as cunning. I remember, one said there were no sallets in the lines *® to make the matter savoury, nor no matter in the phrase, by substituting cork. Though they are mentioned under the name of cioppini by those who saw them in use in Venice, the diction- aries record them under the title of zoccoli. 43 The old gold coin was thin and liable to crack. There was a ring or circle on it, within which the sovereign’s head, &c., was placed ; ; if the crack extended beyond this ring,it was rendered uncurrent: it was therefore a simile applied to any other debased or injured object. There is some humour in applying it to a cracked voice. 44 So the folio and the first quarto; the other quartos have friendly instead of French. Hi. 43 Cuviare was the pickled roes of certain fish of the sturgeon kind, ealled in Italy eaviale, and much used there and in other countries. Great quantities were prepared on the river Volga for- merly. As.a dish of high seasoning and peculiar flavour, it was not relished by the many, that is, the general. A fantastic fellow, described in Jonson’s Cynthia’s Revels, is said to be learning to eat macaroni, periwinkles, French beans, and caviare, and pre- tending to like them. 46 The force of this phrase will appear by the following from A Banquet of Jests, 1665:—“ For junkets joci, and for sallets sales.” «Sal. Sulte, a pleasante and mery word, that maketh folke to Jaugh, and sometimes pricketh.” — Barer. VOL. xX. 23 266 HAMLET, ACT It. that might indict the author of affectation ;*7 but eall’d it an honest method, as wholesome as sweet, and by very much more handsome than fine. One speech in it I chiefly lov’d: ’twas ASneas’ tale to Dido; and thereabout of it especially, where he speaks: of Priam’s slaughter. If it live in your memory, begin at this line: let me see, let me see 5 — The rugged Pyrrhus, like th’ Hyrcanian beast, — *tis not so}; it begins with Pyrrhus. The rugged Pyrrhus, — he, whose sable arms,4® Black as his purpose, did the night resemble When he lay couched in the ominous horse, Hath now his dread and black complexion smear’d With heraldry more dismal; head to foot Now he is total gules; *° horridly trick’d With blood of fathers, mothers, daughters, sons ; Bak’d and impasted with the parching streets, That lend a tyrannous and a damned light To their lord’s murder: Roasted in wrath and fire, And thus o’er-sized with coagulate gore, With eyes like carbuncles, the hellish Pyrrhus Old grandsire Priam seeks : — So proceed you. 47 So the folio; the quartos, affection, which was sometimes used for affectation. — Indic is impeach or convict. H. 48 Schlegel observes, that “this speech must not be judged by itself, but in connexion with the place where it is introduced. To distinguish it as dramatic poetry in the play itself, it was necessary that it should rise above the dignified poetry of that in the same proportion that the theatrical elevation does above simple nature. Hence Shakespeare has composed the play in Hamlet altogether in sententious rhymes, full of antithesis. But this solemn and measured tone did not suit a speech in which violent emotion ought to prevail; and the Poet had no other expedient than the - one of which be made use, overcharging the pathos.” 49 Gules is red, in the language of heraldry: to trick is to colour.— The folio has to take instead of total. — SC. Th PRINCE OF DENMARK. 267 Pol. "Fore God, my lord, well spoken; abe good accent, and good discretion. a 1 Play. Anon he finds him Striking too short at Greeks; his antique sword, Rebellious to his arm, lies where-it falls, Repugnant tocommand. Unequal match’d, Pyrrhus at Priam drives ; in rage, strikes wide; But with the whiff and wind of his fell sword Th’ unnerved father falls. Then senseless Ilium, Seeming to feel this blow, with flaming top Stoops to his base ; and with a hideous crash Takes prisoner Pyrrhus’ ear: for, lo! his sword, Which was declining on the milky head Of reverend Priam, seem’d i’the air to stick: So, as a painted tyrant, Pyrrhus stood ; And, like a neutral to his will and matter, Did nothing. But, as we often see, against some storm, A silence in the heavens, the rack stand still,5° The bold winds speechless, and the orb below As hush as death; anon the dreadful thunder Doth rend the region: so, after Pyrrhus’ pause, A roused vengeance sets him new a-work ; And never did the Cyclops’ hammers fall On Mars’s armour, forg’d for proof eterne, With less remorse than Pyrrbus’ bleeding sword Now falls on Priam. — Out, out, thou strumpet, Fortune! All you gods, In general synod, take away her power; Break all the spokes and fellies from her wheel, And bow] the round nave down the hill of heaven, As low as to the fiends! * 50 For the meaning of rack see The Tempest, Act iv. se. 1, note 16; also, 3 Hanry. VI., Act ii. se. 1, note 4. H. 51 To the remarks of Schlegel on this speech should be added those of Coleridge, as the two appear to have been a coincidence of thought, and not a borrowing either way: “This admirable substitution of the epic for the dramatic, giving such reality to the 268 Oe HAMLET, ACT If, Pol. This is too long. Ham. It shall to the barber’s, with your beard. — ’Pr’ythee, say on: —He’s for a jig,’ or a tale of bawdry, or he sleeps. — Say on: come to Hecuba. 1 Play. But who, O! who had seen the mobled queen — Ham. The mobled queen? | Pol. That’s good; mobled queen is good. 1 Play. Run barefoot up and down, threatening the flames With bisson rheum ;*4 a clout upon that head, Where late the diadem stood ; and, for a robe, About her lank and all o’er-teemed loins, A blanket, in th’ alarm of fear caught up;— Who this had seen, with tongue in venom steep’d ’Gainst fortune’s state would treason have pronounc’d: dramatic diction of Shakespeare’s own dialogue, and authorized, too, by the actual style of the tragedies before his time, is well worthy of notice. The fancy, that a burlesque was intended, sinks below criticism: the lines, as epic narrative, are superb. — In the thoughts, and even in the separate parts of the diction, this description is highly poetical : in truth, taken by itself, that is its fault, that it is too poetical !— the language of lyric vehemence and epic pomp, and not of the drama. But if Shakespeare had made the diction truly dramatic, where would have been the con- trast between Hamlet and the play in Hamlet?” H. 52 Giga, in Italian, was a fiddle, or crowd; gigaro, a fiddler, or minstrel. Hence a jig was a ballad, or ditty, sung to the fid- dle. “Frottola, a countrie gigge, or round, or country song or wanton verse.”’ As the itinerant minstrels proceeded they made it a kind of farcical dialogue ; and at length it came to signify a: short merry interlude: « Farce, the jigg at the end of an enter- Jude, wherein some pretie knaverie is acted.” °3 Thus the first quarto; the other quartos have a woe instead of O! who. The folio agrees with the first quarto, except that it misprints inobled for mobled.— Mobled is hastily or carelessly dressed. To mob or mab is still used in the north of England for to dress in a slatternly manner ; and Coleridge says « mob-eap is still a word in common use for a morning cap.” H. °4 Bisson is blind. Bisson rheum is therefore blinding tears See Coriolanus, Act ii. sc. 1, note 5; and Act iii. se. 1, note 11. SC. IL. - PRINCE OF DENMARK... ~~. 209 But if the gods themselves did see her then, When she saw Pyrrhus make malicious sport In mincing with his sword her husband’s limbs ; The instant burst of clamour that she made (Unless things mortal move them not at all) Would have made milch the burning eye of heaven,” And passion in the gods. Pol. Look, whether he has not turn’d his colour, and has tears in’s eyes. — Pr’ythee, no more. Ham. "Tis well; Vl have thee speak out the rest of this soon. — Good my lord, will you see the play- ers well bestow’d? Do youhear? let them be well us’d; for they are the abstracts and brief chronicles of the time: after your death you were better have a bad epitaph, than their ill report while you live. Pol. My lord, I will use them according to their desert. Ham. Odd’s bodikin, man! much better: Use every man after his desert, and who shall ’scape whipping? . Use them after your own honour’and dignity: the less they deserve, the more merit is in your bounty. Take them in. Pol. Come, sirs. [Exit, with some of the Players. Ham. Follow him, friends: we’ll hear a play to- morrow.— Dost thou hear me, old friend? can you play the murder of Gonzago? 1 Play. Ay, my lord. Ham. We'll have’t to-morrow night. You could, for a need, study a speech of some dozen or sixteen Jines, which I would set down, and insert in’t, could you not? 55 By a hardy poetical licence this expression means, “ Would have filled with tears the burning eye of heaven.” We have « Lemosus, milch-hearted,” in Huloet’s and Lyttleton’s Diction- aries. It is remarkable that, in old Italian, lattuoso is used fot luttuoso, in the same metaphorical manner. 23 * a alias 210 an HAMLET, ACT II. a Play. “Ay, my lord. Ham. Very well. — Follow that lord ; and look -you mock him not. [Ext Player.|— My good friends [ To Ros. and Guit.] I'll leave you till night: you are welcome to Elsinore. Ros. Good my lord! [Exeunt RosencRANTzZ and GUILDENSTERN. Ham. Ay,so, God be wi’ you. — Now I am alone. O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I! Is it not monstrous, that this player here, But in a fiction, in a dream of passion, Could force his soul so to his own conceit, That, from her working, all his visage wann’d 3 Tears in his eyes, distraction in’s aspect, A broken voice, and his whole function suiting With forms to his conceit? And all for nothing! For Hecuba! What’s Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba,*® That he should weep for her? What would he do, Had he the motive and the cue®*’ for passion, That I have? He would drown the stage with tears, And cleave the general ear with horrid speech; Make mad the guilty, and appal the free, Confound the ignorant, and amaze, indeed, The very faculties of eyes and ears. Yet I, A dull and muddy-mettled rascal, peak, Like John a-dreams,°** unpregnant of my cause, 58 So the folio. and first quarto; the other quartos, “or he to her,” instead of, “or he to Hecuba.” H. 37 That is, the hint or prompt-word, a technical phrase among players. “ A prompter,” says Florio, « one who keepes the booke for the plaiers, and teacheth them, or ‘scholars their kue.”’ 88 This John was probably distinguished as a sleepy, apathetic fellow, a sort of dreaming or droning simpleton or flunkey. The only other mention of Him that has reached us, is in Armin’s Nest of Ninnies, 1608: « His name is John, indeed, says the cinnick, but peither John a-nods nor John a-dreams, yet either, as you take it.” H, ee << SC. IL. PRINCE OF DENMARK. 271 And can say nothing; no, not for a king, Upon whose property, and most dear life, A damn’d defeat was made.°* Am I a coward ? Who-ealls me villain? breaks my pate across? Plucks off my beard, and blows it in my face? Tweaks me by th’ nose? gives me the lie i’the throat, As deep as to the lungs? Who does me this? Ha! *Zounds! I should take it; for it cannot be, But [ am pigeon-liver’d, and lack gall To make oppression bitter ;°° or, ere this, I should have fatted all the region kites With this slave’s offal. Bloody, bawdy villain! Remorseless, treacherous, lecherous, kindless® yil- lain! O, vengeance ! Why, what an ass am I? This is most brave ; That I, the son of the dear murdered,*® Prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell, 59 Defeat was frequently used fn the sense of undo or take away by our old writers. Thus Chapman in his Revenge for Honour: «“ That he might meantime make a sure defeat on our good aged father’s life.’ 60 Of course the meaning is, “lack gall to make me feel the bitterness of oppression.” There were no need of saying this, but that Collier, on the strength of his second folio, would read transgression, and Singer, on the strength of nothing, aggression. Dyce justly pronounces the alteration “ nothing less than villain- ous.” Hu. 61 Kindless is unnatural. See The Merchant of Venice, Act i. se. 3, note 7. 62 Thus the folio; some copies of the undated quarto, and the quarto of 1611, read, « the son of a dear futher murder’d.” ‘The quartos of 1604 and 1605 are without father; and that of 1603 reads, “the son of my dear father.’ There can be no question that the reading we have adopted, besides having the most au- thority, is much the more beautiful and expressive, though modern editors commonly take the other. — The words, “ O, vengeance!” are found only in the folio. . H. 272 HAMLET, ACT IL. Must, like a whore, unpack my heart with words, And fall a-cursing like a very drab, : A scullion! Fie upon’t! foh! About, my brain!** Humph! I have heard, That guilty creatures, sitting at a play, Have by the very cunning of the scene Been struck so to the soul, that presently They have proclaim’d their malefactions ; For murder, though it have no tongue, will speak With most miraculous organ. T’ll have these players Play something like the murder of my father, Before mine uncle: Ill observe his looks; Ill tent him to the quick: if he do blench,® I know my course. The spirit that I have seen May be a devil: and the devil hath power I” assume a pleasing shape ;.yea, and, perhaps, Out of my weakness, and my melancholy, As he is very potent with such spirits, Abuses me to damn me. I'll have grounds More relative than this: °° the play’s the thing, Wherein I’ll catch the congcience of the king. | [ Exit. 63 « About, my brain,” is nothing more than “to work, my brain.” The phrase, to go about a thing, is still common. 64 Several instances of the kind are collected by Thomas Hey- wood in his Apology for Actors. > 'To tent was to probe, to search a wound. ‘To bdlench is to shrink or start. 86 « More relative” is more correspondent, more conjunctive with the cause ; that is, more certain. 'The sense is well explained by the reading of the first quarto: «I will have sounder proofs.” — That Hamlet was not alone in the suspicion here started, ap- pears from Sir Thomas Browne’s Religio Medici: «1 believe that. those apparitions and ghosts of departed persons are not the wan- dering souls of men, but the unquiet walks of devils, prompting and suggesting us unto mischief, blood, and villainy 3 instilling and stealing into our hearts that the blessed spirits are not at rest in their graves, but wander, solicitous of the affairs of the world, PRINCE OF DENMARK. 273 ACT? IIT. SCENE I. A Room in the Castle. Enter the King, the Queen, PoLontus, OPHELIA, ROSENCRANTZ, and GUILDENSTERN. King. And can you, by no drift of conference,’ Get from him why he puts on this confusion ; Grating so harshly all his days of quiet With turbulent and dangerous lunacy ? Ros. He does confess, he feels himself distracted ; But from what cause he will by no means speak. Guil. Nor do we find him forward to be sounded; But with a crafty madness keeps aloof, When we would bring him on to some confession Of his true state. Queen. Did he receive you well ? Ros. Most like a gentleman. Guil. But with much forcing of his disposition. Ros. Niggard of question ; but, of our demands, Most free in his reply. Qucen. Did you assay him to any pastime? Ros. Madam, it so fell out, that certain players We o’er-raught on the way :* of these we told him ; And there did seem in him a kind of joy To hear of it. They are about the court ;° But, that those phantasms appear often, and do frequent ceme- teries, charnel-houses, and churches, it is because those are the dormitories of the dead, where the devil, like an insolent cham- pion, beholds with pride the spoils and trophies of his victory in Adam.” H. 1 So the quartos ; the folio, circumstance. 2 Ocr-raught is overtook. 3 Thus the folio; the quartos, «They are here.” H. 18 Q74 i HAMLET, ACT Ul And, as I think, they have already order This.night to play before him. Pol. . "Tis most true: And he beseech’d me to entreat your majesties To hear and see the matter. . King. With all my heart ; and it doth much con- tent me To hear him so inclin’d. — Good gentlemen, give him a further edge, . And drive his purpose on to these delights. Ros. We shall, my lord. [Exeunt Rosencrantz and GUILDENSTERN. ting. Sweet Gertrude, leave us too: For we have closely sent for Hamlet hither ; That he, as ’twere by accident, may here. Affront Ophelia :* Her father and myself, lawful espials,° Will so bestow ourselves, that, seeing, unseen, We may of their encounter frankly judge ; And gather by him, as he is behavy’d, If’t be th’ affliction of his love, or no, That thus he suffers for. Queen. I shall obey you.— And, for your part, Ophelia, I do wish That your good beauties be the happy cause Of Hamlet’s wildaess: so shall I hope your virtues Will bring him to his wonted way again, To both your honours. , Oph. _ Madam, I wish it may. [Exit Queen. 4 That is, meet her, encounter her; affrontare, Ital. See The Winter’s Tale, Act v. sc. 1, note 5. ® That is, lawful spies. « An espiall in warres, a scoutwatche, a beholder, a viewer.” — BarET. — The two words are fc und only in the folio. 8C.1 ~~ ~=- PRINCE OF DENMARK. O75 Pol. Ophelia, walk you here. ean so please you, We will bestow our selves. — [To Opue.] Read on this book ; That show of stich an exercise may colour Your loneliness. — We are oft to blame in this, — ’Tis too much prov’d, —that; with devotion’s visage, And pious action, we do sugar o’er The devil himself. King. O, ’tis too true! — [Aszde.] How smart a lash that speech doth give my conscience ! ‘The harlot’s cheek, beautied with plastering art, Is not more ugly to the thing that helps it, Than is my deed to my most painted word: O, heavy burden! Pol. I hear him coming: Jet’s withdraw, my lord. [Exeunt King and Powontvs. Enter HAMLET. Ham. To be, or not to be, that is the question: Whether ’tis nobler in the mind, to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune ; Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, And, by opposing, end them? — To die, — to sleep, — No more ;— and, by a sleep, to say we end The heart-ache, and the thousand natural shocks That flesh is heir to, — ’tis a consummation Devoutly to be wish’d. To die, —to sleep;— To sleep! perchance, to dream ;— ay, there’s the rub 3 For in that sleep of death what dreams may come, When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,°® 6 That is, the tumult and bustle of this life. It:is remarkable 276 HAMLET, ACT III - Must give us pause. There’s the respect’ That. makes calamity of so long life: For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,® The oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s contumely, The pangs of dispriz’d love,’ the law’s delay, The insolence of office, and the spurns That patient merit of the unworthy takes, When he himself might his quietus make With a bare bodkin ?’° who would fardels bear, To grunt and sweat under a weary life, But that the dread of something after death — The undiscover’d country, from whose bourn No traveller returns — puzzles the will, And makes us rather bear those ills we have, Than fly to others that we know not of ? Thus conscience does make cowards of us all; And thus the native hue of resolution Is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought ; that under garbuglio, which has the same meaning in Italian as. our coil, Florio has “a pecke of troubles ;” of which Shake- speare’s “sea of troubles” is only an aggrandized idea. 7 That is, the consideration. 'This is Shakespeare’s most usual sense of the word. 8 Time, for the time, is a very usual expression with our old writers. In Cardanus Comfort, by Thomas Bedingfield, 1599, is a description of the miseries of life strongly resembling that in the text : “ Hunger, thirste, sleape, not plentiful or quiet as deade men have, heate in somer, colde in winter, disorder of tyme, terroure of warres, controlment of parents, cares of wedlocke, studye for children, slouthe of servaunts, contention of sutes, and that which is most of all, the condycyon of tyme wherein honestye is disduyned as folye, and crafle is honoured as wisdome.” ® Thus the folio; the quartos have despis’d instead of dispriz’d. H. *9 The allusion is to the term quietus est, used in settling ac- eounts at exchequer audits. Thus in Sir Thomas Overbury’s character of a Franklin: « Lastly, to end him, he cares not when his end comes ; he needs not feare his audit, for his quietus is in heaven.” Bodkin was the ancient term for a small dagger. BCS: PRINCE OF DENMARK. Vit And enterprises of great pith and moment,” With this regard, their currents turn awry, __ And‘lose: the name of action, — Soft you, now! ~The fair : Ophelia. — Nymph, i in thy orisons Be all my sins remember’d.”” Oph. Good my lord, How does your honour for this many a day? Ham. \ humbly thank you; well, well, well.'? Oph. My lord, I have remembrances of yours, That I have longed Jong to re-deliver ; I pray you, now receive them. Ham. No, not I; ] never gave you aught. Oph. My ride lord, I now right well you did ;’ And, with them, words of so sweet breath compos’d As made the things more rich: their perfume lost, Take these again; for, to the noble mind, Rich gifts wax poor when givers prove unkind. There, my lord. Ham. Ha, ha! are you honest? Oph. My lord! Ham. Are you fair ?"° ’ 1 The quartos have pitch instead of pith. The folio misprints away for awry, in the next line. In the third line before, the words, “of us all,” are from the folio. H. 12 This is a touch of nature. Hamlet, at the sight of Ophelia, does not immediately recollect that he is to personate madness, but makes an address grave and solemn, such as the foregoing meditation excited in his thoughts. — JouNson. 13 Thus the folio ; the quartos have well but once. The repe- tition seems very apt and forcible, as suggesting the opposite of what the word means. H. 14 The quartos have “ you Mhows ” instead of «I know.” We scarce know which to prefer; but, on the whole, the folio reading seems to have more of delicacy; and at least equal feeling. H. 18 Here it is evident that the penetrating Hamlet perceives, from VOL. X. PC ul ite le P PNG | see 278 oe HAMLET, . . . ACT ITI. Oph. What means your lordship ? Ham. That if you be honest and fair, your hone esty should admit no discourse to your beauty.?® Oph. Could beauty, my lord, have better com- merce than with honesty ? Ham. Ay, truly; for the power of beauty will sooner transform honesty from what it is to a bawd, than the force of honesty can translate beauty into his likeness: this was sometime a paradox, but now the time gives it proof. I did love you once. Oph. Indeed, my lord, you made me believe so, Ham. You should not have believed me ; for vir- tue cannot so inoculate: our old stock, but we shall relish of it. I loved you not. Oph. I was the more deceived."” Ham. Get thee to a nunnery: why would’st the strange and forced manner of Ophelia, that the sweet girl was not acting a part of ber own, but was a decoy; and his after speeches are not so much directed to her as to the listeners and spies. Such a discovery in a mood so anxious and irritable ae- counts for a certain harshness in him ;— and yet a wild up-work- ing of love, sporting with opposites in a wilful self-tormenting strain of irony, is perceptible throughout. “TI did love you once,” — “T Joved you not :””—and particularly in his enumeration of the faults of the sex from which Ophelia is so free, that the mere free- dom therefrom constitutes her character. Note Shakespeare’s charm of composing the female character by absence of charac- ters, that is, marks and out-juttings.—CoLERIDGE, H. 16 That is, “ your honesty should not admit your beauty to any discourse with it.’’ — The quartos have merely you instead of your — honestys— In the next speech, the folio substitutes your for with. — It should be noted, that in these speeches Hamlet refers, not to Ophelia personally, but to the sex in general. So, especially, when he says, “I have heard of your paintings too,” he does not mean that Ophelia paints, but that the use of paintings is common with her sex. H. 17 Mrs. Jameson, speaking of this and the preceding speech of Ophelia, says, — “ Those who have ever heard Mrs. Siddons reaa he play of Hamlet cannot forget the world of meaning, of love, of sorrow, of despair, conveyed in these two simple phrases.” H.- SC.I. - , PRINCE OF DENMARK. 279 thou be a breeder of sinners? I am myself indif- ferent honest; but yet I could accuse me of such things, that it were better my mother had not borne me: I am very proud, revengeful, ambitious 5 with more offences at my beck, than I have thoughts to put them in, imagination to give them shape, or time to act them in. What should such fellows as I do crawling between heaven and earth! We are arrant knaves, all; believe noné of us: Go thy ways to a nunnery. Where’s your father? Oph. At home, my lord. Ham. Let the doors be shut upon him ; that he may play the fool no where but in’s own house. Farewell. Oph. O, help him, you sweet heavens! Ham. Vf thou dost marry, V’ll give thee this plague for thy dowry: Be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as snow, thou shalt not escape calumny. Get thee to a nunnery; farewell: Or, if thou wilt needs marry, marry a fool; for wise men know well enough what monsters you make of them. To a nunnery, go; and quickly too. Farewell. Oph. Heavenly powers, restore him ! Ham. J have heard of your paintings too, well enough; God hath given you one face,’* and you make yourselves another: you jig, you amble, and you lisp, and nickname God’s creatures, and make your wantonness your ignorance.” Go to; Pll no more on’t: it hath made me mad. I say, we will have no more marriages: those that are married 18 The folio, for paintings, has pratlings ; and for face has pace. . Too is from the folio. 19 « You mistake by wanton affectation, and pretend to mistake by ignorance.” 289 - HAMLET, - ACT IIL already, all but one, shall live; the rest shall keep as they are. To a nunnery, go.” [ Exit Oph. O, what a noble mind is here o’erthrown ! The courtier’s, soldier’s, scholar’s eye, tongue, sword. Th’ expectancy and rose of the fair state, The glass of fashion, and the mould of form,*? Th’ observ’d of all observers, quite, quite down ! And I, of ladies most deject and wretched, That suck’d the honey of his music vows, Now see that noble and most sovereign reason, Like sweet bells jangled, out of tune and harsh; That unmatch’d form and feature of blown youth, Blasted with ecstacy.*? -O, woe is me! To have seen what I have seen, see what I.see ! Re-enter the King and Povontvs. King. Love! his affections do not that way tend ; Nor what he spake, though it lack’d form a little, Was not like madness. There’s something in his soul, O’er which his melancholy sits on brood ; And, I do doubt, the hatch and the disclose Will be some danger: which for to prevent, I have, in quick determination, Thus set it down: He shall with speed to England, For the demand of our neglected tribute: 20 Observe this dallying with the inward purpose, characteristic of one who had not brought his mind to the steady acting-point. He would fain sting the uncle’s mind ; — but to stab his body! — The soliloquy of Ophelia, which follows, is the perfection of love, — so exquisitely unselfish ! — CoLERIDGE. *1 The model by whom all endeavoured to form themselves. The quartos have expectation instead of expectancy. 22 Ecstacy was ofien used for insanity or any alienation of mind. See The Tempest, Act iii. sc. 3, note 12. — The quartos have stature instead of feature, and “what noble” for “that noble ” H. a SOD Ira. PRINCE OF DENMARK. 281 Haply, the seas, and countries different, With variable objects, shall expel This something-settled matter in his heart ; Whereon his brains still beating, puts him thus From fashion of himself. What think you on’t? Pol. It shall do well: but yet do I believe, The origin and commencement of his grief Sprung from neglected love.— How now, Ophelia ! You need not tell us what lord Hamlet said; We heard it all.— My lord, do as you please ; But, if you hold it fit, after the play Let his. queen mother all alone intreat him To show his griefs ; let her be round with him ;* And I'll be plac’d, so please you, in the ear Of all their conference. If she find him not, To England send him; or confine him where Your wisdom best shall think. King. It shall be so: Madness in great ones must not unwatch’d go. [ Exeunt. SCENE II. A Hall in the Same. Enter Hamurt, and certain Players. Ham. Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pro- : nounc’d it to you, trippingly on the tongue; but if you mouth it, as many of your players do,’ I had as lief the town crier spoke my lines. Nor do not 23 To be round with any one, is to be plain-spoken, downright ; often so used. H. 1 Thus the folio and first quarto; the other quartos have our instead of your. — For, “I had as lief the town crier spoke,” the first quarto reads, “I had rather hear a town bull bellow.” — “This dialogue of Hamlet with the players,” says Coleridge, “ is one of the happiest instances of Shakespeare’s power of diversi- fying the scene while he is carrying on the plot.” H. ca QR2 HAMLET, . ACT Ill. saw the air too much with your hand, thus; but use all gently: for in the very torrent, tempest, and, as I may say, whirlwind of your passion, you must acquire and beget a temperance, that may give it smoothness. O! it offends me to the soul, to hear a robustious periwig-pated fellow tear a passion to tatters, to very rags, to split the ears of the ground- lings;” who, for the most part, are capable of nothing but inexplicable dumb shows, and noise: I would have such a fellow whipp’d for o’er-doing Termagant ; it out-herods Herod:* pray you, avoid it. 1 Play. I warrant your honour. Ham. Be not too tame neither, but let your own discretion be your tutor: suit the action to the word, the word to the action; with this special observance, that you o’erstep not the modesty of nature: for any thing so overdone is from the pur- pose of playing, whose end, both at the first and now, was and is, to hold, as ’twere, the mirrour up * Our ancient theatres were far from the commodious, elegant structures which later times have seen. ‘The pit was, truly, what its name denotes, an unfloored space in the area of the house, sunk considerably beneath the level of the stage. Hence this part of the audience were called groundlings. Jonson, in the Induc- tion to Bartholomew Fair, calls them “the wnderstanding gentle- men of the ground ; ” and Shirley, ““ grave unilerstanders. 7 3 Termagaunt is the name given in old romances to the tem- pestuous g god of the Saracens. He is usually joined with Mahound or Mahomet. Davenant derives the name from ter magnus. And resolute Jobn Florio calls him « Termigisto, a great boaster, quarreller, killer, tamer or ruler of the universe; the child of the earthquake and of the thunder, the brother of death.” Hence this personage was introduced into the old mysteries and morali- ties as a demon of outrageous and violent demeanour ; or, as Bale says, “ Termagauntes altogether; and very devils incarnate.” — The murder of the innocents was a favourite subject for a mys- tery ; and wherever Herod is introduced, he plays the part of a vaunting braggart, a tyrant of tyrants, and does indeed outdo Ter- nagan. sc. IL. PRINCE OF DENMARK. » 283 to nature ; to show virtue her own feature, scorn her own image, and the very age and body of the time, his form and pressure.* Now, this overdone, or come tardy off, though it make the unskilful laugh, cannot but make the judicious grieve; the censure of which one must, in your allowance,° o’erweigh a whole theatre of others. O! there be players, that I have seen play, —and heard others praise, and that highly, —not to speak it profanely, that, neither having the accent of Christians, nor the gait of Christian, pagan, nor man, have so strutted and bellowed, that I have thought some of nature’s journeymen had made men,°® and not made them well, they imitated humanity so abomi- nably. 1 Play. [hope we have reform’d that indifferently with us. Ham. O! reform it altogether. And let those that play your clowns speak no more than is set down for them: for there be of them, that will themselves laugh, to set on some quantity of barren spectators to laugh too; though in the mean time some necessary question of the play be then to be considered: that’s villainous, and shows a most pitiful ambition in the fool that uses it. Go, make you ready. — [Exeunt Players. > 4 Pressure is impression, resemblance. 5 That is, approval, estimation. 6 A friend suggests whether men should. not have the before it, or else be them. This would give a very different sense, limiting it from men in general to the particular players in question. Per- haps it may be doubted whether Hamlet means that he had thought the players themselves to be the second-hand workmanship of na- ture, from their imitating humanity so falsely, or whether he had taken their imitation as true, and so extended his thought of second- hand workmanship over al] mankind. However, our best road to what he means, is by what he says, probably. Malone would read them H. 284 ° HAMLET, ACT Iil. Enter Potontus, Rosencrantz, and GUILDEN- STERN. How now, my lord! will the king hear this piece of work? ‘ Pol. And the queen too, and that presently. Ham. Bid the players make haste. — [ Ext PoLontus. Will you two help to hasten them 1? Both. We will, my lord.’ [Exeunt RosENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN. Ham. What, ho! Horatio! Enter Horatio. Hor. Here, sweet lord, at your service. Ham. Horatio, thou art e’en as just a man As e’er my conversation cop’d withal. Flor. O! my dear lord, — Ham. Nay, do not think I flatter ; For what advancement may I hope from thee, That no revenue hast, but thy good spirits, To feed and clothe thee? Why should the poor be flatter’d ? No; let the candied tongue lick absurd pomp, And crook the pregnant hinges of the knee,° Where thrift may follow fawning. Dost thou hear? Since my dear soul was mistress of her choice, And could of men distinguish, her election Hath seal’d thee for herself :° for thou hast been As one, in suffering all, that suffers nothing ; 7 So the folio; the quartos, « Ros. Ay, my lord.” . H. 8 Pregnant is quick, ready. ® Thus the folio; the quartos make election the object of dis- tinguish, and use She as the subject of hath seal’d. — In the fourth .ine after, the quartos have co-meddled instead of co-mingled. H. iT ——— > > < , t. hee een SOy Tat PRINCE OF DENMARK. 285 A man, that fortune’s buffets and rewards Hast ta’en with equal thanks: and blest are those, Whose blood and judgment are.so well co-mingled, That they are not a pipe for fortune’s finger To sound what stop she please. Give me that man * That is not passion’s slave, and I will wear him In my heart’s core, ay, in my heart of heart, As I do thee. — Something too much of this. — There is a play to-night before the king ; One scene of it comes near the circumstance, Which I have told thee, of my father’s death. I pr’ythee, when thou seest that act a-foot, Even with the very comment of thy soul’? Observe my uncle: if his occulted guilt Do not itself unkennel in one speech, It is a damned ghost that we have seen 5 And my imaginations are as foul As Vulcan’s stithy."’ Give him heedful note: For I mine eyes will rivet to his face ; And, after, we will both our judgments join In censure of his seeming. Hor. Well, my lord: If he steal aught the whilst this play is playing, And scape detecting, I will pay the theft. Ham. They are coming to the play: I must be idle ; Get you a place. 10 That is, with the most intense direction of every faculty. The folio has “ my soul,” which Knight and Collier strangely pre- fer, on the ground that “ Hamlet is putting Horatio in his place, for the purpose of watching the king.’”’ One would think that Ham- let, though he “must be idle,” that is, appear so, means to stand in his own place, for that purpose ; else why should he say, —“1 mine eyes will rivet to his face 7” H. 11 ‘That is, Vulean’s workshop or smithy ; stith being an anvil. 286 HAMLET, ACT Ill Danish March. A Flourish. Enter the King, the Queen, Pouonius, OPHELIA, ROSENCRANTZ, GUILDENSTERN, .and Others. King. How fares our cousin Hamlet ? Ham. Excellent, i’faith; of the chameleon’s dish. I eat the air, promise-cramm’d. You cannot feed capons so. King. 1 have nothing with this answer, Hamlet ; these words are not mine. Ham. No, nor mine now. —[ To Poton.]| My lord, you play’d once i’the university, you say? Pol. That did I, my lord ; and was accounted a good actor. Ham. And what did you enact ? Pol. 1 did enact Julius Cesar: I was kill’d 1’the Capitol ; Brutus kill’d me.” Ham. \t was a brute part of him, to kill so cap- ital a calf there. — Be the players ready 1 - Ros. Ay, my lord; they stay upon your patience.) Queen. Come hither, my dear Hamlet, sit by me. Ham. No, good mother, here’s metal more at- tractive. Pol. [To the King.] O ho! do you mark that? Ham. Uady, shall I lie in your lap? [Lying down at OpHELIA’s Feet. Oph. No, my lord. 12 A Latin play on Cesar’s death was performed at Christ Choreh, Oxford, in 1582. Malone thinks that there was an Eng lish play on the same subject previous to Shakespeare’s. Cesar was killed in Pompey’s portico, and not in the Capitol: but the error is at least as old as Chaucer’s time. 13 That is, they wait upon your sufferance or will. Johnson would have changed the word to pleasure; but Shakespeare has jt in a similar sense in The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act ili. se. 1: « And think my patience more than thy desert is privilege for thy departure hence.” r ; ] i Sc. Il. PRINCE OF DENMARK. 287 Ham. 1 mean, my head upon your lap?"* Oph. Ay, my lord. Ham. Do you think, I meant country matters ? Oph. I think nothing, my lord. Ham. That’s a fair Bor aaa to lie between maids’ legs. Oph. What is, my lord ? Ham. Nothing. Oph. You are merry, my lord. Ham. Who, 12 Oph. Ay, my lord. Ham. O God! your only jig-maker.’® What should a man do, but be merry? for, look you, how cheerfully my mother looks, and my father died within these two hours. Oph. Nay, ’tis twice two months, my lord. , Ham. So long? Nay, then let the devil wear black, for I'll have a suit of sables.’° O heavens ! die two months ago, and not forgotten yet?) Then there’s hope, a great man’s memory may outlive his life. half a year: But, by’r-lady, he must build churches then, or else shall he suffer not thinking on, with the hobby-horse ; whose epitaph is, ‘For, O! for, O! the hobby-horse is forgot.” "7 « 14 This question and the answer to it are only in the folio. H. 15 See Act ii. sc. 2, note 51. 16 Hanmer would read ermine, on the ground that sable is itself a mourning colour. But sables were among the most rich and costly articles of dress ; and a statute of the reign of Henry VIII. made it unlawful for any one under the rank of an earl to wear them. The meaning is well explained by Knight, thus: «If Ham- Jet had said, ‘ Nay, then let the devil wear black, for I’ll have a suit of ermine,’ he would merely have said, ‘ Let the devil be in mourning, for I’ll be fine.’ But, as it is, he says, ‘Let the devil wear the real colours of grief, but I'll be magnificent in a garb that only has a facing of something like grief.’ ” H. 17 Alluding to the “expulsion of the hobby-horse from the Mays 288 HAMLET, ACT III. Trumpets sound. The Dumb Show enters. Enter a King and a Queen, very lovingly ; the Queen em- bracing him. She kneels, and makes show of protestation unto him. He takes her wp, and declines his head upon her neck ; lays him down upon a bank of flowers: she, seeing him asleep, leaves him. Anon comes in a Fellow, takes off his crown, kisses it, and pours poison in the King’s ears, and exit. The Queen returns, finds the King dead, and makes passionate action. ‘T'he Poisoner, with some two or three Mutes, comes in again, seeming fo lament with her. The dead body is carried away. The Poisoner woos the Queen with gifts: she seems loth and unwilling awhile, but: in. the end accepts his love. [Exeunt. Oph. What means this, my lord? Ham. Marry, this is miching mallecho; it means mischief.’® ‘ Oph. Belike, this show imports the argument of the play. Enter Prologue. Ham. We shall know by this fellow: the players cannot keep counsel ; they’il tell all. Oph. Will he tell us what this show meant ? Ham. Ay, or any show that you’ll show him: Be not you asham’d to show, he’ll not shame to tell you what it means. Oph. You are naught, you are naught: I'll mark the play. games, where he had long been a favourite. See Love’s Labour’s Lost, Act iii. sc. 1, note 6. H. 18 Miching mallecho is lurking mischief, or evil doing. To mich for to skulk, to lurk, was an old English verb in common use in Shakespeare’s time ; and muallecho or malhecho, misdeed, he has borrowed from the Spanish. SC.1l 8 PRINCE OF DENMARK. 289 Pro. For us, and for our tragedy, Here stooping to your clemency, We beg your hearing patiently. Ham. Is this a prologue, or the posy of a ring? Oph. ’Tis brief, my lord, Ham. As woman’s love. Enter a King and a Queen. King. Full thirty times hath Phebus’ cart gone round ® Neptune’s salt wash, and Tellus’ orbed ground; And thirty dozen moons, with borrow’d sheen, About the world have times twelve thirties been; Since love our hearts, and Hymen did our hands, Unite commutual in most sacred bands. ‘Queen. So many journeys may the sun and moon Make us again count o’er, ere love be done! But, woe is me! you are so sick of late, So far from cheer, and from your fornier state, That I distrust you. Yet, though I distrust, Discomfort you, my lord, it nothing must: For women’s fear and love hold quantity ; °° In neither aught, or in extremity. Now, what my love is, proof hath made you know; And as my love is siz’d, my fear is so. Where love is great, the littlest doubts are fear ; Where little fears grow great, great love grows there.”! King. ’Faith, I must leave thee, love, and shortly too; My operant powers their functions leave to do: 19 Cart, car, and chariot were used indiscriminately. — “ The stye,”’ says Coleridge, « of the interlude here is distinguished from the real dialogue by rhyme, as in the first interview with the play- ers by epic verse.” H, 20 So the folio; the quartos have a different reading, giving two lines for one: “ For women fear too much, even as they lore ; And women’s fear and love hold quantity.” H. 21 The last two lines of this speech are not in the folio, # | 19 290 HAMLET, ACT IIL And thou shalt live in this fair world behind, Honour’d, belov’d; and, haply, one as kind For husband shalt thou — Queen. O, confound the rest! Such love must needs be treason in my breast: In second husband let me be accurst! None wed the second, but who kill’d the first. Ham. [Aside.] That’s wormwood. Queen. The instances, that second marriage move, Are base respects of thrift, but none of love: A second time I kill my husband dead, When second husband kisses me in bed. King. I do believe you think what now you speak ; But what we do determine ‘oft we break. Purpose is but the slave to memory, Of violent birth, but poor validity ; Which now, like fruit unripe, sticks on the tree, But fall, unshaken, when they mellow be. Most necessary ’tis, that we forget To pay ourselves what to ourselves is debt: What to ourselves in passion we propose, The passion ending, doth the purpose lose. The violence of either grief or joy Their own enactures * with themselves destroy : Where joy most revels, grief doth most lament; _ Grief joys, joy grieves, on slender accident. This world is not for aye; nor ’tis not strange, That even our loves should with our fortunes change ; For ’tis.a question left us yet to prove, Whether love lead fortune, or else fortune love. The great man down, you mark, his favourite flies ; The poor advanc’d makes friends of enemies : And hitherto doth love on fortune tend ; For who not needs, shall never lack a friend ; And who in want a hollow friend doth try, Directly seasons him his enemy.” 22 That is, their own determinations, what they enact. 23 Season was very commonly used in the sense of to temper SCE TR... * PRINCE OF DENMARK. 291 But, orderly to end where I begun, — Our wills and fates do so contrary run, That our devices still are overthrown; Our thoughts are ours, their ends none of our own: So think thou wilt no second husband wed ; But die thy thoughts, when thy first Jord is dead. Queen. Nor earth to me give food, nor heaven light! Sport and repose lock from me, day and night ! To desperation turn my trust and hope ! An anchor’s cheer in prison be my scope! *4 Each opposite, that blanks the face of joy, Meet what [ would have well, and it destroy ! Both here, and hence, pursue me lasting strife, If, once a widow, ever I be wife! Ham. [To Orue.| If she should break it now, — King. *Tis deeply sworn. Sweet, leave me here awhile My spirits grow dull, and fain I would beguile The tedious day with sleep. [ Sleeps. Queen. Sleep rock thy brain ; And never come mischance between us twain! [ Exit. Ham. Madam, how like you this play ? Queen. The lady doth protest too much, me- thinks. Ham. O! but she’ll keep her word. King. Have you heard the argument? Is there no offence in’t ? Ham. No, no; they: do but jest, poison in jest: no offence i’the world. King. What do you call the play ? Ham. The mouse-trap. Marry, how? Tropical- ly. This play is the image of a murder done in as before in this play : “ Season your admiration for a while.” See, also, Act i. sc. 3, note 14. H. 24 Anchor’s for anchoret’s. Thus in Hall’s second Satire: «« Sit seven years pining in an anchor’s cheyre, ‘To win some patched shreds of minivere.” 292 HAMLET, ACT IIt. Vienna: Gonzago is the duke’s name ;”° his wife, Baptista. You shall see anon: ’tis a knavish piece of work; but what of that? your majesty, and we that have free souls, it touches us not: Let the gall’d jade wince, our withers are unwrung. — Enter LuCIANUS. This is one Lucianus, nephew to the king. Oph. You are as good as a chorus, my lord.” Ham. 1 could interpret between you and your love, if I could see the puppets dallying. Oph. You are keen, my lord, you are keen. Ham. It would cost you a groaning, to take off my edge. Oph. Still better, and worse. Ham. So you must take your husbands.’ — Be- gin, murderer: leave thy damnable faces, and begin. Come: — The croaking raven both bellow for re-— venge. Luc. Thoughts black, hands apt, drugs fit, and time agreeing ; Confederate season, else no creature seeing ; 25 All the old copies read thus. Yet in the dumb show we have, «“ Enter a King and Queen;” and at the end of this speech, « Lu- cianus, nephew to the king.” This seeming inconsistency, how- ever, mav be reconciled. Though the interlude is the image of the murder of the duke of Vienna, or in other words founded upon that story, the Poet might make the principal person in his fable aking. Baptista is always the name of a man. °6 The use to which Shakespeare put the chorus may be seen in King Henry V. Every motion or puppet-show was accompa- nied by an interpreter or showman. 27 Alluding, most likely, to the language of the Marriage ser- vice: “To have and to hold from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer,’ &c.— All the old copies, but the first quarto, have mistake ; which Theobald conjectured should be must take, before any authority for it was known. i. See i SC. II. : PRINCE OF DENMARK. 203 Thou mixture rank, of midnight weeds collected,” With Hecate’s ban thrice blasted, thrice infected, Thy natural magic and dire property, On wholesome life usurp immediately. [Pours the Poison into the Sleeper’s Ears. Ham. He poisons him i’the garden for his estate. His name’s Gonzago : the story is extant, and writ- ten in very choice Italian. You shall see anon, how the murderer gets the love of Gonzago’s wife. Oph. The king rises. _ Ham. What! frighted with false fire 2 ?° Queen. How fares my lord? Pol. Give o’er the play. King. Give me some light !— away ! All. Lights, lights, lights ! *° [Exeunt all but Hamuer and Horatio. Ham. Why, let the stricken deer go weep, The hart ungalled play ; For some must watch, while some must sleep: Thus runs the world away. — Would not this, sir, and a forest of feathers, (if the rest of my fortunes turn Turk *' with me,) with two Provincial roses on my rac’d shoes, get me a fellow- ship in a cry of players, sir ?** *8 That is, weeds collected at midnight ; asin Macbeth: «Root of hemlock, dige’d the dark.” H. #9 This speech is found only in the folio and the quarto of 1603. H. 39 In the quartos, this speech is given to Polonius. H. 31 To turn Turk was a familiar phrase for any violent change of condition or character. 32 Mr.’ Douce has shown that the Provincial roses took their name from Prowins,in Lower Brie, and not from Provence. Rac’d shoes are most probably embroidered shoes. The quartos read, raz’d. To race, or rase, was to stripe. So in Markham’s County Farm, speaking of wafer cakes: « Baking all together between two irons, having within them many raced and checkered draughts after the inanner of small squares.” —It was usual to call a pack ; 25 * 294 HAMLET, ACT IIL Hor. Half a share.** ' Ham. A whole one, I. For thou dost know, O Damon dear! This realm dismantled was Of Jove himself; and now reigns here: A very, very — peacock.” Hor. You might have rhym’d. Ham. O, good Horatio! Dll take the ghost’s wora for a thousand pound. Didst perceive ? Hor. Very well, my lord. Ham. Upon the talk of the poisoning, — Hor. I did very well note him. Ham. Ah, ha! — Come; some music! come; the recorders ! °° — For if the king like not the comedy, Why then, belike, — he likes it not, perdy.** — of hounds a cry; from the French meute de chiens ; it is here hu- mourously applied to a troop or company of players. It is used again in Coriolanus: Menenius says to the citizens, “ You have made good work, you and your cry.” 33 The players were paid not by salaries, but by shares or por- tions of the profit, according to merit. 34 The old copies have paiock and paiocke, There being no such word known, Pope changed it to peacock ; which is probably right, the allusion being, perhaps, to the fable of the crow that decked itself with peacock’s feathers. Or the meaning may be the same as explained by Florio, thus: “ Pavoneggiare, to court it, to brave it, to peacockise it, to wantonise it, to get up and down fondly, gazing upon himself as a peacock does.” Mr. Blakeway, however, suggests puttock, a base degenerate hawk, which is con- trasted with the eagle in Cymbeline, Act i. se.2: “I chose an eag/le, and did ayoid a puttock.” H 35 See A Midsummer-Night’s Dream, Act v. se. 1, note 11. It is difficult to settle exactly the form of this instrament: old writers in general make no distinction between a flute, a pipe, and a re- corder; bat Hawkins has shown clearly, from a passage in Lord Bacon’s Natural History, that the flute and the recorder were diss tinct instruments. 36 Perdy is a corruption of the French par Dieu. $C. 1. - PRINCE OF DENMARK. 295 Enter RosENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN. Come’; some music ! Guil. Good my lord, vouchsafe me a word with you. Ham. Sir, a whole history. Guil. The king, sir, — Ham. Ay, sir, what of him? Guil. —is in his retirement marvellous distem- per’d. Ham. With drink, sir? Guil. No, my lord, with choler. Ham. Your wisdom should show itself more richer, to signify this to his doctor; for, for me to put him to his purgation, would, perhaps, plunge him into more choler. Guil. Good my lord, put your discourse into some frame, and start not so wildly from my affair. Ham. 1 am tame, sir :— pronounce. Guil. The queen your mother, in most great af- fliction of spirit, hath sent me to you. Ham. You are welcome. Guil. Nay, good my lord, this courtesy is not of the right breed. If it shall please you to make me a wholesome answer, I will do your mother’s com- é mandment ; if not, your pardon, and my return shall be the end of my business. Ham. Sir, I cannot. , ) g Guil. What, my lord? Ham. Make you a wholesome answer 3 my wit’s diseas’d: But, sir, such answer as I can make, you shall command; or, rather, as you say, my mother; therefore no more, but to the matter: My mother, you say, — 296 HAMLET, ACT IIL Ros. Then, thus she says: Your behaviour hath struck her into amazement and admiration. Ham. O, wonderful son, that can so astonish a mother !— But is there no sequel at the heels of this mother’s admiration? impart. Kos. She desires to speak with you in her closet, ere you go to bed. Ham. We shall obey, were she ten times our mother. Have you any further trade with us? Ros. My lord, you once did love me. Ham. So I do still, by these pickers and stealers.?7 Ros. Good my lord, what is your cause of dis- temper? you do, surely, but bar the door upon your own liberty, if you deny your griefs to your friend. | Ham. Sir, I lack advancement. Ros. How can that be, when you have the voice of the king himself for your succession in Den- mark ? Ham. Ay, sir, but, «* While ihe grass grows,” — The proverb is something musty. — Enter the Players, with Recorders. O, the recorders !— let me see one.— To withdraw with you:°*—why do you go about to recover the wind of me, as if you would drive me into a toil ?7* 87 This is explained by a clause in the Church Catechism: «Ts keep my hands from pickine and stealing.’ — The quartos have Pam) bm PP S “ And do still.” instead of « So Ido still.” The latter reading gives a very different sense, and one of our reasons for preferring it is thus stated by Coleridge: «I never heard an actor give this : J Bone ibys word «so’ its proper emphasis. Shakespeare’s meaning is, — ‘Lov’d you? Ham! so I do still.’ There has been no change ir my opinion: I think as ill of you as I did.” H. 33 To withdraw, it is said, is sometimes used as a hunting term, meaning to draw back, to leave the scent or trail, H. 39 « To recover the wind of me” is a term borrowed from hunt: Ate Tweet ie SG. 1. PRINCE GF DENMARK. 297 Guil. O, my lord! if my duty be too bold, my love is too unmannerly.*° Ham. | do not well understand that. Will you play upon this pipe? Guil. My lord, I cannot. Hfam. 1 pray you. Guil. Believe me, I cannot. Ham. 1 do beseech you. Guil. I know no touch of it, my lord. Ham. *Tis as easy as lying: govern these vent- ages with your finger and thumb,*’ give it breath with your mouth, and it will discourse most elo- quent music. Look you, these are the stops. Guil. But these cannot I command to any utter- ance of harmony: I have not the skill. Ham. Why, look you now, how unworthy a thing you make of me. You would play upon me; you would seem to know my stops; you would pluck out the heart of my mystery; you would sound me from my lowest note to the top of my compass : and there is much music, excellent voice, in this little organ ; yet cannot you make it speak. ’*Sblood! do you think I am easier to be play’d on than a pipe? Call me what instrument you ing, and means, to take advantage of the animal pursued, by get- ting to the windward of it, that it may not scent its pursuers. « Observe how the wind is, that you may set the net so as the hare and wind may come together ; if the wind be sideways it may do well enough, but never if it blow over the net into the hare’s face, for he will scent both it and you at a distance.” — Gentleman's Recreution. 40 Hamlet may say with propriety, “I do not well understand that.” Perhaps Guildenstern means, “If my duty to the king makes me too bold, my love to you makes me importunate even to rudeness.” 41 The ventages are the holes of the pipe. The stops means the mode of stopping those ventages to produce notes. 298 HAMLET, ACT III. will, though you can fret me,*? you cannot play upon me. — Enter PoLontius. ‘ God bless you, sir! Pol. My lord, the queen would speak with you, and presently. Ham. Do you see, yonder cloud, that’s almost in shape of a camel? Pol. By the mass, and ’tis like a camel, indeed. Ham. Methinks, it is like a weasel. Pol. It is back’d like a weasel. Ham. Or, like a whale ? Pol. Very like a whale. Ham. Then, will I come to my mother by and by.— They fool me to the top of my bent.—I will come by and by. Pol. I will say so. [ Exit. Ham. By and by is easily said. — Leave me, friends. — [ Exeunt all but HaMvLet. "Tis now the very witching time of night, When church-yards yawn, and hell itself breathes out Contagion to this world: now could I drink hot blood, And do such bitter business as the day *° Would quake to look on. Soft! now to my mother. — O, heart! lose not thy nature ; let not ever 42 Hamlet keeps up the allusion to a musical instrament. The frets of a lute or guitar are the ridges crossing the finger-board, upon which the strings are pressed or stopped. Of course a oil P Pp PE q ble is intended on fret. H. 43 Thus the folio ; the quartos read, “such business as the bit- ter day.’ In the second line before, the quartos have breaks ine stead of breathes. H. a atl - ees ™ ae “. —~— i a” a SC. Ik - PRINCE OF DENMARK. 299 The soul of Nero enter this firm bosom: Let me be cruel, not unnatural. I will speak daggers to her, but use none; My tongue and soul in this be hypocrites : How in my words soever she be shent,** To give them seals never, my soul, consent ! [ Exit. SCENE IIL. A Room in the Same. Enter the King, Rosencrantz, and GUILDEN- STERN. King. 1 like him not ; nor stands it safe with us, To let his madness range. Therefore, prepare you: I your commission will forthwith despatch, And he to England shall along with you. The terms of our estate may not endure Hazard so dangerous, as doth hourly grow Out of his lunacies.’ Guil. We will ourselves provide. Most holy and religious fear it Is, To keep those many many bodies safe, That live, and feed, upon your majesty. Ros. The single and peculiar life is bound, With all the strength and armour of the mind, To keep itself from ’noyance ; but much more That spirit, upon whose weal depend and rest The lives of many. The cease df majesty Dies not alone; but like a gulf, doth draw 44 To shend is to injure, whether by reproof, blows, or other- wise. Shakespeare generally uses shent for reproved, threatened with angry words. “To give bis words seals” is therefore to carry his punishment beyond reproof. The allusion is the sealing a deed to render it effective. 1 So the folio; the quartos read “so near us” instead of “so dangerous,” aud brows instead of lunacies. H. Shit, igus Wee Cee ae) ryt 300 . HAMLET, ACT IIL What’s near it with it: it is a massy wheel, Fix’d-on the summit of the highest mount, To whose huge spokes ten thousand lesser things Are mortis’d and adjoin’d; which when it falls, Each small annexment, petty consequence, Attends the boisterous ruin. Never alone Did the king sigh, but with a general groan. king. Arm you, I pray you, to this speedy voy- age 5 For we will fetters put upon this fear, Which now goes too free-footed. Ros. Guil. We will haste us. [Ezeunt. Enter Povontus. Pol. My lord, he’s going to his mother’s closet. Behind the arras I’ll convey myself, To hear the process: I’ll warrant, she’ll tax him home ; And, as you said, and wisely was it said, "Tis meet that some more audience than a mother, Since nature makes them partial, should o’erhear The speech of vantage? Fare you well, my liege: V'}l call upon you ere you go to bed, And tell you what I know. King. Thanks, dear my lord. — [Exit Pouontus. O! my offence is rank, it smells to heaven ; It hath the primal eldest curse upon’t, A brother’s murder ! — Pray can I not, Though inclination be as sharp as will :? My stronger guilt defeats my strong intent ; * «Speech of vantage” probably means “speech having the advantage of a mother’s partiality.” H. 3 That is, «though I were not only willing, but strongly inclined to pray, my guilt would prevent me.” i ee ee Paver yy: Sten. PRINCE OF DENMARK. 301 And, like a man to double business bound, I stand in pause where [I shall first begin, And both neglect. What if this cursed hand Were thicker than itself with brother’s blood? Is there not rain enough in the sweet heavens, To wash it white as snow? Whereto serves mercy, But to confront the visage of offence ? And what’s in prayer, but this two-fold force, — To be forestalled, ere we come to fall, Or pardon’d, being down? Then, I'll look up ; My fault is past. But, O! what form of prayer Can serve my turn? Forgive me my foul murder ! — That cannot be ; since I am still possess’d Of those effects for which I did the murder, My crown, mine own ambition, and my queen. May one be pardon’d, and retain th’ offence ? In the corrupted currents of this world, Offence’s gilded hand may shove by justice 3 And oft ’tis seen, the wicked prize itself Buys out the law: but ’tis not so above ; There is no shuffling, there the action lies In his true nature ; and we ourselves compell’d, Even to the teeth and forehead of our faults, To give in evidence. What then? what Tests ? Try what repentance can: What can it not? Yet what can it, when one can not repent ? O, wretched state! O bosom, black as death ! O, limed soul !* that, struggling to be free, Art more engag’d. Help, angels! make assay : Bow, stubborn knees; and, heart, with strings of steel, Be soft as sinews of the new-born babe: All may be well !° [Retires and kneels. 4 That is, caught as with birdlime. See 2 Henry VI., Act is sc. 3, note 6. ; 6 This speech well marks the difference between crime sal VOL. xX. 26 302 HAMLET, ACT IIL. Enter HAamMurt. Ham. Now might I do it, pat, now he is praying And now Ill do’t: —and so he goes to heaven ; ‘And so am I reveng’d? That would be scann’d :° A villain kills my father ; and, for that, I, his sole son, do this same villain send To heaven. Why, this is hire and salary, not revenge.” He took my father grossly, full of bread ; With all his crimes broad-blown, as flush as May ; And how his audit stands, who knows, save Heaven 2 But, in our circumstance and course of thought, *Tis heavy with him: and am I, then, reveng’d, To take him in the purging of his soul, When he is fit and season’d for his passage 1 No. Up, sword; and know thou a more horrid hent :® guilt of habit. The conscience here is still admitted to audience, Nay, even as an audible soliloquy, it is far less improbable than is supposed by such as have watched men only in the beaten road of their feelings. But the final —« All may be well!” is remark- able ; — the degree of merit attributed by the self-flattering soul to its own struggles, though baffled, and to the indefinite half prom- ise, half command, to persevere in religious duties. —CoLE- RIDGE. H. 6 That requires consideration. —In the first line of this speech, the quartos read «but now ’a is a praying,” instead of “pat, now he is praying.” And in the fifth line, the folio has foul instead of sole. H. 7 Thus the folio; the quartos have «base and silly” instead of * “hire and salary.” H 8 That is, more horrid seizure, grasp, or hold. Hent was often used as a verb in the same sense. See The Winter’s Tale, Act 2 iv. se. 2, note 19. — Dr. Johnson and others have exclaimed against . what Hamlet here says, as showing a thorough-paced and unmit- igable fiendishness of spirit. Coleridge much more justly regards the motives assigned for sparing the king, as “the marks of re- luctance and procrastination.” At all events, that they are not Hamlet’s real motives, is evident from their very extravagance. SC. III. PRINCE OF DENMARK. 303 When he is drunk, asleep, or in his rage ; Or in th’ incestuous pleasures of his bed ; At gaming, swearing ; or about some act. That has no relish of salvation in’t: Then trip him, that his heels may kick at heaven; And that his soul may be as damn’d, and black As hell, whereto it goes. My mother stays: This physic but prolongs thy sickly days. — [ Exzit. The King rises and advances. King. My words fly up, my thoughts remain below: Words, without thoughts, never to heaven go. » [Bxit. SCENE IV. Another Room in the Same. Enter the Queen and Po.vontus. Pol. He willcome straight. Look, you lay home to him 3 Tell him, his pranks have been too broad to bear with ; And that your grace hath screen’d and stood be- tween Much heat and him. [I'll’silence me e’en here. *Pray you, be round with him. Ham. [ Within.] Mother, mother, mother !' With the full conviction that he ought to kill the king, he joins a deep instinctive moral repugnance to the deed: and he here flies off to an ideal revenge, in order to quiet his filial feelings without violating his conscience ; effecting a compromise between them, by adiourning a purpose which, as a man, he dare not execute, nor, as a son, abandon. He afterwards asks Horatio, —“ Is’t not perfect conscience, to quit him with this arm ?’* which confirms the view here taken, as it shows that even then his mind was not at rest on that score. H. 1 This speech is found only in the folio. He ter ie ae 304 HAMLET, ACT III Queen. I'll warrant you ; Fear me not :— withdraw ; I hear him coming. [PoLonius hides himself. Enter HAMLET. Ilam. Now, mother! what’s the matter? Queen. Hamlet, thou hast thy father much of- fended. " Ham. Mother, you have my father much offended. Quecn. Come, come ; you answer with an idle tongue. Ham. Go, go; you question with a wicked tongue. . Queene Why, how now, Hamlet ! Ham. What’s the matter now ? Queen. Have you forgot me ? Ham. No, by the rood, not so: You are the queen, your husband’s brother’s wife ; And — would it were not so! —you are my mother. Queen. Nay, then I'll set those to you that can speak. Ham. Come, come, and sit you down; you shall not budge: You go not, till I set you up a glass Where you may see the inmost part of you. Queen. What wilt thou do? thou wilt not mur- der me? Help, help, ho! Pol. [Behind.] What, ho! Help help! help! Ham. [ Drawing.| How now! a rat? Dead, for a ducat, dead. . [HamLet makes a pass through the Arras. Pol. [Behind.| O! Tam slain. [Falls, and dies. Queen. O me! what hast thou done ? Sc. IV. PRINCE OF DENMARK. 305 Ham. Nay, I know not: Is it the king? [He lifts up the Arras, and draws forth Po.onius. Queen. O, what a rash and bloody deed is this! Ham. A bloody deed; almost as bad, good mother, As kill a king, and marry with his brother. Queen. As kill a king? Ham. Ay, lady, ’twas my word. — [To Poton.] Thou wretched, rash, intruding fool, farewell ! I took thee for thy better ; take thy fortune: Thou find’st, to be too busy is some danger. — Leave wringing of your hands: Peace! sit you down, And let me wring your heart: for so I shall, If it be made of penetrable stuff ; If damned custom have not braz’d it so, That it is proof and bulwark against sense. Queen. What have I done, that thou dar’st wag thy tongue In noise so rude against me ? Ham. Such an act, That blurs the grace and blush of modesty ; Calls virtue, hypocrite ; takes off the rose From the fair forehead of an innocent love, And sets a blister there ; makes marriage vows As false as dicers’ oaths: O! such’a deed As from the body of contraction plucks The very soul,’ and sweet religion makes A rhapsody of words: Heaven’s face doth glow, ‘Yea, this solidity and compound mass, With tristful visage, as against the doom, Is thought-sick at the act.” 2 Contraction here means the marriage contract. H. 3 So the folio: the quartos read thus: QG * 20 306 HAMLET, ACT Ill. Queen. — Ah me! what act, That roars so loud, and thunders in the index ?4 Ham. Look here upon this picture, and on this; The counterfeit presentment of two brothers. See, what a grace was seated on this brow: Hyperion’s curls; the front of Jove himself ; An eye like Mars, to threaten and command ; A station like the herald Mercury,’ New-lighted on a heaven-kissing hill ; A combination and a form, indeed, Where every god did seem to set his seal, To give the world assurance of a man: This was your husband.’ Look you now, what fol lows: Here is your husband; like a mildew’d ear, Blasting his wholesome brother. Have you eyes? Could you on this fair mountain leave to feed, And batten’ on this moor? Ha! have you eyes? You cannot call it love ; for, at your age, The hey-day in the blood is tame, it’s humble, And waits upon the judgment: and what judgment Would step from this to this? Sense, sure, you have, Else could you not have motion ; but, sure, that sense Is apoplex’d ; for madness woud not err, «« Heaven’s face does glow O’er this solidity and compound mass, With heated visage,” &c. H. 4 The index, or table of contents, was formerly placed at the beginning of books. In Othello, Act ii. se. 2, we have, “an in- dex and obscure prologue to the history of lust and foul thoughts.” 5 Station does not mean the spot where any. one is placed, but the act of standing, the attitude. So in Antony and Cleopatra, Act iii. se. 3: “Her motion and her station are as one.” 6 Here the allusion is to Pharaoh’s dream; Genesis xli. 7 That is, to feed rankly or grossly: it.is usually applied to the fattening of animals. Marlowe has it for “to grow fat.” Bat is the old word for increase; whence we have battle, batten, batful. SG.:IVet 1 - PRINCE OF DENMARK 307 Nor sense to ecstasy was ne’er so thrall’d, But it reserv’d some quantity of choice, To serve in such a difference. What devil was’t, That thus hath cozen’d you at hoodman-blind 2° Eyes without feeling, feeling without sight, Ears without hands or eyes, smelling sans all, Or but a sickly part of one true sense Could not so mope.”® O shame! where is thy blush? Rebellious hell, If thou canst mutine-in a matron’s bones," To flaming youth let virtue be as wax, And melt in her own fire: proclaim no shame, When the compulsive ardour gives the charge ; Since frost itself as actively doth burn, And reason panders will.”* Queen. O, Hamlet! speak no more: Thou turn’st mine eyes into my very soul ; And there I see such black and grained spots'* As will not leave their tinct. Ham. Nay, but to live In the rank sweat of an enseamed bed ; ** Stew’d in corruption ; honeying, and making love Over the nasty sty ;— 8 This passage, beginning at “ Sense, sure, you have,” is want- ing in the folio. Likewise, that just afier, beginning, “Eyes without feeling,” and ending, “Could not so mope.” H. 9 « The hoodwinke play, or hoodman blind, in some place called blindmanbuf.” — BARET. 10 That is, could not be so dull and stupid. 11 Mutine for mutiny. This is the old’ form of the verb. Shake- speare calls mutineers mutines in a subsequent scene. 12 The quartos have pardons instead of panders. H. 13 « Grained spots” are spots ingrained, or dyed in the grain. H. 14 Enseamed is a term borrowed from falconry. It is well known that the seam of any animal was the fat or tallow ; and a hawk was said to be enseamed when she was too fat or gross for flight. —The undated quarto and that of 1611 read incestuous. 308 HAMLET, : ACT IIe Queen. O, speak to me no more! These words like daggers enter in mine ears: No more, sweet Hamlet. Ham. A murderer, and a villain, A slave, that is not twentieth part the tithe Of your precedent lord: —a vice of kings!” A cutpurse of the empire and the rule, That from a shelf the precious diadem stole, And put it in his pocket ! Queen. No more! Enter the Ghost.'® Ham. A king of shreds and patches. — Save me, and hover o’er me with your wings, You heavenly guards ! — What would your gracious figure ? Queen. Alas! he’s mad. Ham. Do you not come your tardy son to chide, That, laps’d in time and passion,”’ lets go by Th’ important acting of your dread command? O, say! Ghost. Do not forget. This visitation Is but to whet thy almost-blunted purpose. But, look! amazement on thy mother sits : O! step between her and her fighting soul ; 15 That is, “the low mimic, the counterfeit, a dizard, or com- mon rice and jester, counterfeiting the gestures of any man.” — FLEMING. Shakespeare afterwards calls him a king of shreds and patches, alluding to the party-coloured habit of the vice or fool in a play. 16 When the Ghost goes out, Hamlet says, — “ Look, how it steals away! my father, in his habit as he liv'd.” I has been much argued what is meant by this; that is, whether the Ghost should wear armour here, as in former scenes, or appear in a dif- erent dress. ‘The question is set at rest by the stage-direction in the first quarto: “Enter the Ghost, in his night-gown.” H. 17 Johnson explains this— “That having suffered time to ap and passion to cool,” &c. SC. IV. PRINCE OF DENMARK. 309 Conceit in weakest bodies strongest works.’® Speak to her, Hamlet. Ham. How is it with you, lady? Queen. Alas! how is’t with you, That you do bend your eye on vacancy, And with th’ incorporal air do hold discourse 1? Forth at your eyes your spirits wildly peep ; And, as the sleeping soldiers in th’ alarm, Your bedded hair, like life in excrements,’® Statts up, and stands on-end. O, gentle son! Upon the heat and flame of thy distemper Sprinkle cool patience. Whereon do you look? Ham. On him! on him!— Look you, how pale he glares ! His form and cause conjoin’d, preachigg to stones, Would make them capable.*° — Do not look upon me 5 Lest with this piteous action you convert My stern affects:*' then what I have to do Will want true colour; tears, perchance, for blood. Queen. To whom do you speak this? Ham. Do you see nothing there? Queen. Nothing at all; yet all that is I see. Ham. Nor did you nothing hear ? 18 Conceit for conception, imagination. This was the common force of the word in the Poet’s time. 19 That is, like excrements alive, or having life in them. Hair, nails, feathers, &c., were called excrements, as being without life. See The Winter’s Tale, Act iv. sc. 3, note 47. H. 20 That is, would put sense and understanding into them. The use of capable for susceptible, intelligent, is not peculiar to Shake- speare. H. 21 Affects was often used for affections ; as in Othello, «the young affects in me defunct.” The old copies read effects, which was a frequent misprint for affects. Singer justly remarks, that “the ‘piteous action’ of the Ghost could not alter things already effected, but might move Hamlet to a less stern mood of mind.” " , ~ , y- Jf 27S eee nm” . , 310 HAMLET, ACT Itt Queen. No, nothing, but ourselves. Ham. Why, loox you there! look, how it steals away ! My father, in his habit as he liv’d! Look, where he goes, even now,.out at the portal ! [Exit Ghost. Queen. This is the very coinage of your brain: This bodiless creation ecstasy ” | Is very cunning in. Ham. Ecstacy ! My pulse, as yours, doth temperately keep time, And makes as healthful music. It is not madness, That I have utter’d: bring me to the test, And I the matter will re-word ; which madness Would gamhol from.** Mother, for love of grace, Lay not that flattering unction.to your soul, That not your trespass, but my madness speaks: It will but skin and film the ulcerous place, Whiles rank corruption, mining all within, Infects unseen. Confess yourself to Heaven 5 Repent what’s past ; avoid what is to come ; And do not spread the compost on the weeds, To make them ranker.** Forgive me this my virtue: For in the fatness of these pursy times, Virtue itself of vice must pardon beg 3 Yea, curb®° and woo, for leave to do him good. - 22 'This word has occurred in the same sense before. See scene 1, of this Act, note 22, H. 23 Science has found the Poet’s test a correct one. Dr. Ray, of Providence, in his work on the Jurisprudence of Insanity, thus states the point: “In simulated mania, the impostor, when request- ed to repeat. his disordered idea, will generally do it correctly ; while the genuine patient will be apt to wander from the track, or introduce ideas that had not presented themselves before.” H. 24 That is, do not by any new indulgence heighten your former offences. % That is, bow. «“Courber, Fr., to bow, crook, or curb.” i Too Sc. IV. PRINCE OF DENMARK. 311 Queen. O, Hamlet! thou hast cleft my heart in twain. Ham. O! throw away the worser part of it, And live the purer with the other half. Good night: but go not to my uncle’s bed ; Assume a virtue, if you have it not. That monster, custom, who all sense doth eat, Of habits devil, is angel yet in this,** That to the use of actions fair and good He likewise gives a frock, or livery, That aptly is put on. Refrain to-night ; And that shall lend a kind of easiness To the next abstinence: the next more easy , For use almost can change the stamp of nature, And master the devil or throw him out”? With wondrous potency. Once more, good night! And when you are desirous to be bless’d, 26 A very obscure and elliptical passage, if indeed it be not corrupt. We have adopted Caldecott’s pointing, which gives the meaning somewhat thus: “ That monster, custom, who devours or eats out all sensibility or feeling as to what we do, though he be the devil or evil genius of our habits, is yet our good angel in this.” Collier and Verplanck order the pointing thus: “ Who all sense doth eat of habits, devil, is angel yet in this.” Where the meaning is, —“ That monster, custom, who takes away all sense of habits, devil though he be, is still an angel in this respect.” This also pleads a fair title to preference, and we find it not easy to choose between the two. Dr. Thirlby proposed to read, “ Of habits evil ;”? which would give the clear and natural sense, that by custom we lose all feeling or perception of bad habits, and be- come reconciled to them as if they were nature. The probability, however, that an antithesis was meant between devil and angel, is against this reading ; otherwise, we should incline to think it right. — The whole sentence is omitted in the folio; as is also the pass- age beginning with “ the next more easy,” and ending with “ won- drous potency.” H. 27 So the undated quarto and that of 1611; the others have cither instead of muster. Some editors, probably not knowing of not consulting the copies first mentioned, have supplied curb or quell after either. . 312 HAMLET, ACT Il’ I'll blessing beg of you. — For this same lord, | Pointing to PoLontus. I do repent: but heaven hath pleas’d it so, To punish me with this, and this with me, That I must be their scourge and minister.”* I will bestow him, and will answer well The death I gave him. So, again, good night ! — I must be cruel, only to be kind: Thus bad begins, and worse remains behind. — But one word more, good lady.” Queen. What shall I do? Ham. Not this, by no means, that I bid you do: Let the bloat king tempt you again to bed; Pinch wanton on your cheek; call you his mouse ; And let him, for a pair of reechy kisses,” Or paddling in your neck with his damn’d fingers, Make you to ravel all this matter out, That I essentially am not in madness, But mad in craft. "IT'were good, you let him know ; For who, that’s but a queen, fair, sober, wise, Would from a paddock, from a bat, a gib,” Such dear concernings hide? who would do so? No, in despite of sense and secrecy, Unpeg the basket on the house’s top, Let the birds fly, and, like the famous ape, 28 The pronoun their refers, apparently, to heaven, which is here a collective noun, put for the heavenly powers. H. 29 The words « But one word more, good lady,” are not in the folio. And in the next line but one, the folio has blunt instead of dloat. H. 30 Mouse was a term of endearment. ‘Thus Burton, in his Anatomy of Melancholy : “ Pleasant names may be invented, bird, mouse, lamb, puss, pigeon.” 31 Reeky and reechy are the same word, and always applied to any vapourous exhalation, even to the fumes of a dunghill. See Coriolanus, Act ii. se. 1, note 18. 32 A paddock is a toad ; a gib,a cat. See Macbeth, Act i. sc 1, note3; and 1 Henry IV., Act i. sc. 2, note 6. H. SC.{T¥. i - PRINCE OF DENMARK. 313 To try conclusions in the basket creep,*° And break your own neck down. Queen. Be thou assur’d, if words be made of breath, And breath of life, I have no life to breathe What thou hast said to me.** Ham. I must to England; you know that, Queen. Alack ! I had forgot: tis so concluded on. Ham. There’s letters seal’d ; and my two school fellows, — . Whom I will trust, as I will adders fang’d, — They bear the mandate; they must sweep my way, And marshal me to knavery. Let it work ; For ’tis the sport, to have the engineer Hoist with his own petar ; °° and it shall go hard, 33 To try conclusions is to put to proof, or try experiments. ’ See Antony and Cleopatra, Act v. sc. 2, note 33. Sir John Suck- ling possibly alludes to the same story in one of his letters: «It is the story after all of the jackanapes and the partridges ; thou starest after a beauty till it be lost to thee, and then Jet’st out an- other, and starest after that till it is gone too.’ 34 «TI confess,” says Coleridge, “ that Shakespeare has left the character of the Queen in an unpleasant perplexity. Was she, or was she not, conscious of the fratricide?”” This “ perplexity,” whatever it be, was doubtless designed by the Poet; for in the original form of the play she stood perfectly clear on this score; as appears from several passages in the quarto of 1603, which were afterwards disciplined out of the text. Thus, in one place of this scene, she says to Hamlet, — 4 «But, as I have a soul, I swear to Heaven, I never knew of this most horrid murder.” And in this place she speaks thus: “ Hamlet, I vow by that Majesty, That knows our thoughts and looks into our hearts, I will conceal, consent, and do my best, What stratagem soe’er thou shalt devise.” H. 3* Hoist for hoised. 'To hoyse was the old verb. A petar was a kind of mortar used to blow up gates. VOL. X. yj 314 WAMLET, ACT IV. But I will delve one yard below their mines, And blow them at the moon. OQ, ’tis most sweet, When in one line two crafts directly meet.°° — This man shall set me packing: Tl lug the guts into the neighbour room. — Mother, good night. — Indeed, this counsellor Is now most still, most secret, and most grave, Who was in life a foolish prating knave. Come, sir, to draw toward an end with you. — Good night, mother. [zeunt severally; HAMLET dragging in POLONIUSs. AGL Eye SCENE I. The Same. Enter the King, the Queen, RosENCRANTZ, and GUILDENSTERN. King. There’s matter in these act these pro- found heaves : You must translate ; ’tis fit we understand them. Where is your son? Queen. Bestow this place on us a little while." — [Exeunt Rosen. and GUILDEN. Ah, my good lord, what have I seen to-night! , eae What, Gertrude? How does Hamlet ? 36 The foregoing part of this speech is wanting in the folio. H. 1 This line is omitted in the folio; Rosencrantz and Guilden- stern not being there introduced till the King calls them, at the place of their re-entrance. — In the next line, the quartos kave, ¢ mine own lord,” instead of “my good lord.” ~< SC. I. PRINCE OF DENMARK. 315 Queen. Mad as the sea, and wind, when both contend Which is the mightier. In his lawless fit, Behind the arras hearing something stir, He whips his rapier out, and cries, «A rat! a rat !”?? And in his brainish apprehension kills The unseen good old man. King. O, heavy deed! It had been so with us, had we been there: His liberty is full of threats to all; To you yourself, to us, to every one. Alas! how shall this bloody deed be answer’d ? It will be laid to us, whose providence Should have kept short, restrain’d, and out of haunt,’ This mad young man: but, so much was our love, We would not understand what was most fit ; But, like the owner of a foul disease, To keep it from divulging, let it feed Even on the pith of life. Where is he gone? Queen. To draw apart the body he hath kill’d; O’er whom bis very madness, like some ore Among a mineral of metals base,‘ Shows itself pure: he weeps for what is done. King. O, Gertrude! come away. _ The sun no sooner shall the mountains touch, ? So reads the folio; the quartos give the line thus: “ Whips out his rapier, cries, ‘a rat! arat!’” In the next line, also, the quartos have this instead of his. H. 3 Out of haunt means out of company. * Shakespeare, with a license not unusual among his contem- poraries, uses ore for gold, and mineral for mine. Bullokar and Blount both define “or or ore, gold; of a golden colour.” And the Cambridge Dictionary, 1594, under the Latin word mineralia, will show how the English mineral came to be used for a mine. Thus also in The Golden Remaines of Hales of Eton, 1693; “ Con- troversies of the times, like spirits in the minerals, with all their labour nothing is done.” 316 HAMLET, ACT IVe But we will ship him hence; and this vile deed We must, with all our majesty and skill, Both countenance and excuse. —Ho! Guilden- stern ! Re-enter ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN. Friends both, go join you with some further aid. Hamlet in madness hath Polonius slain, And from his mother’s closet hath he dragg’d him: Go, seek him out; speak fair, and bring the body Into the chapel. I pray you, haste in this. — [Exeunt Rosen. and GUILDEN. Come, Gertrude, we’ll call up our wisest friends And let them know both what we mean to do, And what’s untimely dune: so, haply, slander — Whose whisper o’er the world’s diameter, As level as the cannon to his blank,” Transports his poison’d shot—may miss our name, And hit the woundless air..—O, come away ! My soul is full of discord, and dismay. _—[Ezeunt. SCENE II. Another Room in the Same. Enter HAMLET. Ham. Safely stowed. Ros. and Guil. [ Within.] Hamlet! lord Hamlet! 5 The blank was the mark at which shots or arrows were di- rected. 6 All this passage, after “untimely done,” is wanting in the folio. The words, “so, kaply, slander,” are not in any old copy, but were supplied by Theobald as necessary to the sense. The well-known passage in Cymbeline, Act iii. se. 4, beginning, — «No; ’tis slander,” — will readily occur to any student of Shake- speare, as favouring the insertion. H. $6. 1th. + - PRINCE OF DENMARK. 317 | Ham. But soft !— what ‘noise? who calls on Hamlet? O! here they come. Enter ROSENCRANTz and GUILDENSTERN. Ros. What have you done, my lord, with the dead body ? Ham. Compounded it with dust, whereto ’tis kin. Ros. Tell me where ’tis; that we may take it thence, And bear it to the chapel. Ham. Do not believe it. Ros. Believe what? 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 ? Kos. Take you me for a sponge, my lord? Ham. Ay, sit; that soaks up the king’s counten- ance, his rewards, his authorities. But sucli officers do the king best service in the end: he keeps them, as an ape doth nuts,' in the corner of his jaw; first mouth’d, to be last swallowed: When he needs what you have glean’d, 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 ear. 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 thing — 1 The words, “as an ape doth nuts,” are from the quarto of _ 1603. The other quartos merely have, “like an apple ;” which Farmer and Ritson conjectured should be, “like an ape an apple.” The tolio has, “ like an ape,” only. H. 2 Hamlet is purposely talking riddles, in order to tease an* PT hg OS a 318 HAMLET, | ACT IV. Guil. A thing, my lord? Ham. — of nothing: bring me to him. Hide fox, and all after.” | Exeunt. SCENE III. Another Room in the Same. Enter the King, attended. King. I have sent to seek him, and to find the body. How dangerous is it, that this man goes loose ! Yet must not we put the strong law on him: He’s lov’d of the distracted multitude, Who like not in their judgment, but their eyes 5 And, where ’tis so, th’ offender’s scourge 1s weigh’d, But never the offence. To bear all smooth and even, This sudden sending him away must seem Deliberate pause: Diseases, desperate grown, By desperate appliance are reliev’d, Enter ROSENCRANTZ. Or not at all.— How now! what hath befallen ? Ros. Where the dead body is bestow’d, my lord, We cannot get from him. King. But where is he? Ros. Without, my lord ; guarded, to know your pleasure. King. Bring him before us. Ros. Ho, Guildenstern! bring in my lord. puzzle his questioners. ‘The meaning of this riddle, to the best of our guessing, is, that the king’s body is with the king, but not the king’s soul: he’s a king without kingliness ; “a king of shreds and patches.” H. 3 « Hide fox, and all after”? was a juvenile sport, most prob- ably what is now called hoop, or hide and seek ; in which one chilé hides himself, and the rest run all after, seeking him. SG. Iie i - PRINCE OF DENMARK. 319 Enter HAMLET and GUILDENSTERN. King. Now, Hamlet, where’s Polonius ? ITam. At supper. 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 maggots: 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 hath eat of a king; and eat of the fish that hath fed of that worm. King. What dost thou mean by this? Ham. Nothing, but to show you how a king may go a progress through the guts of a beggar.® King. Where is Polonius? 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. [To Attendants.| Go seek him there. Ham. We will stay till you come. [Exeunt Attendants. 1 Alluding, no doubt, to the Diet of Worms, which Protestants of course regarded as a convocation of politicians. There wera little need of saying this, but that Mr. Collier’s second folio sup plies palated for politic, the word being omitted in the folios 3; and Mr. Collier thinks palated is «certainly more Brews in tha Pare where it occurs.” More applicable! H 2 This speech and the following one are omitted in the folio. * Alluding to the royal journeys of state, styled progresses. # Lg ‘ i 2) Se ‘ rus ‘sf 320 HAMLET, ACT IV. King. Hamlet, this deed, for thine especial safe- ty, Which we do tender, as we dearly grieve For that which thou hast done, — must send thee hence With fiery quickness; therefore prepare thyself : The bark is ready, and the wind at help, 4h’ associates tend,’ and every thing is bent For England. Ham. For England ? King. Ay, Hamlet. ! Ham. Good. King. So is it, if thou knew’st our purposes. Ham. I see a cherub that Sees them. — But, come; for England !— Farewell, dear mother. King. Thy loving father, Hamlet. : | Ham. My mother: father and mother is man and wife; man and wife is one flesh; and so, my mother. Come, for England. [ Exit. King. Follow him at foot; tempt him with speed aboard : Delay it not; I’ll have him hence to-night : Away ; for every thing is seal’d and done, That else leans on th’ affair: "Pray you, make haste. [Exeunt Rosen. and GUILDEN. And, England, if my love thou hold’st at aught, (As my great power thereof may give thee sense ; Since yet thy cicatrice looks raw and red After the Danish sword, and thy free awe Pays homage to us,) thou may’st not coldly set ° 4 That is, the associates of your voyage are waiting. — “ The * wind at help” means, the wind serves, or is right, to forward you. — The words, “ With fiery quickness,” are not in the quartos. ; ; ay 5 To set formerly meant to estimate. “ To sette, or tell the pryce; @stimare.” To set much or little by a thing, is to estimate it much or little. SC. IV PRINCE OF DENMARK. 321 Our sovereign process; which imports at full, By letters conjuring to that effect,® . The present death of Hamlet. Do it, England ; For like the hectic in my blood he rages, And thou must cure me: Till I know ’tis done, Howe’er my haps, my joys were ne’er begun.’ [ Exit. SCENE IV. A Plain in Denmark. Enter Fortinpras, and Forces, marching. For. Go, captain; from me greet the Danish king: Tell him, that by his license Fortinbras Claims the conveyance of a promis’d march Over his kingdom.’ You know the rendezvous. If that his majesty would aught with us, We shall express our duty in his eye.’ And let him know so. Cap. I will do’t, my lord. For. Go softly on.*° [Exeunt Fortinsras and Forces. § The folio has conjuring ; the quartos, congruing, which may be right, in the sense of concurring or agreeing. Conjuring is earnestly requesting. See Romeo and Juliet, Act v. se. 3, note 3. H. 7 Thus the folio; the quartos, “my joys will ne’er begin.” The folio reading is preferred on account of the rhyme; with which the scenes in this play are commonly closed. H. ‘ The quartos have craves instead of claims, the reading of the folio. H 2 In the Regulations for the Establishment 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.” 3 These words are probably spoken to the troops. The folio has safely instead of softly.— What follows of this scene is want- ing in the folio. H. 21 ; wD ea Pas ‘4. db el JT io op ee emp AR ea 322 HAMLET, ACT IV. Enter HaMuLetT, ROSENCRANTZ, GUILDENSTERN, &¢ Ham. Good sir, whose powers are these ? Cap. They are of Norway, sir. Ham. How purpos’d, sir, I pray you? Cap. Against some part of Poland. Ham. Who commands them, sir? Cap. The nephew to old Norway, Fortinbras. Ham. Goes it against the main of Poland, sir, Or for some frontier ? Cap. Truly to speak, sir, and with no addition, We go to gain a little patch of ground, That hath in it no profit but the name. To pay five ducats, five, | would not farm it; Nor will it yield to Norway, or the Pole, A ranker rate, should it be sold in fee. Ham. Why, then the Polack never will defend it. Cap. Yes, ‘tis already garrison’d. Ham. Two thousand souls, and twenty thousand ducats, Will not debate the question of this straw: This is th’ imposthume of much wealth and peace, hat inward breaks, and shows no cause without Why the man dies. —I humbly thank you, sir. Cap. God be wi’ you, sir. [Exit Captain. Ros. Will’t please you go, my lord? Ham. Vil be with you straight. Go a little be- fore. — [Exeunt Rosen. and GUILDEN How all occasions do inform against me, And spur my dull revenge! What is a man,, If his chief good, and market of his time, Be but to sleep and feed? a beast, no more. Sure, He, that made us with such large discourse Looking before and after, gave us not That capability and godlike reason, w SC. IV. _ PRINCE OF DENMARK. 323 To fust in us unus’d. Now, whether it be Bestial oblivion, or some craven scruple Of thinking too precisely on th’ event, — A thought which, quarter’d, hath but one part wis- *” dom, And ever three parts coward, —I do not know Why yet I live to say, “This thing’s to do ;” Sith I have cause, and will, and strength, and means, To do’t. Examples, gross as earth, exhort me: Witness, this army of such mass and charge, Led by a delicate and tender prince, Whose spirit, with divine ambition puff ’d, Makes mouths at the invisible event ; Exposing what is mortal and unsure, To all that fortune, death, and danger dare, Even for an egg-shell. Rightly to be great, Is not to stir without great argument ; But greatly to find quarrel in a straw, When honour’s at the stake. How stand I, then, That have a father kill’d, a mother stain’d, _Excitements of my reason and my blood,* And let all sleep? while, to my shame, I see The imminent death of twenty thousand men, That for a fantasy, and trick of fame, | Go to their graves like beds ; fight for a plot Whereon the numbers cannot try the cause ; Which is not tomb enough, and continent,’ T'o hide the slain ?—O!. from this time forth, My thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth! “ [ Exit. 4 Provocations which excite both my reason and my passions to vengeance. 5 Continent means that which contains or encloses. ‘If there be no fulnesse, then is the continent greater than the content.” — Bacon’s Advancement of Learning. ” 324 HAMLET, ACT IV SCENE V. Elsinore. A Room in the Castle. Enter the Queen, and Horatio.’ Queen. I will not speak with her. * Hor. She is importunate ; indeed, distract : Her mood will needs be pitied. Queen. What would she have 7 Hor. She speaks much of her father; says, she hears There’s tricks i’the world; and hems, and beats her heart 5 Spurns enviously at straws ; ? speaks things in doubt, That carry but half sense: her speech is nothing, Yet the unshaped use of it doth move | The hearers to collection ;* they aim at it, And botch the words up fit to their own thoughts ; Which, as her winks and nods and gestures yiela them, Indeed would make one think, there might. be thought, Though nothing sure, yet much unhappily.’ Queen. "Twere good, she were spoken with; for she may strew Dangerous conjectures 1n ill-breeding minds. Let her come in. — [Exit Horatio. To my sick soul, as sin’s true nature is, 1 In this stage-direction, and in the assigning of the speeches in this scene, we follogy the folio. The quartos add “and a Gen- tleman,” and assign Horatio’s first two speeches to him. H, 2 Envy was continually used for malice, spite, or hatred. See The Merchant of Venice, Act iv. sc. 1, note 1. 3 That is, to gather or deduce consequences, To aim is to guess. The quartos have yawn ; the folio, aim. 4 Unhappily is here used in the sense of mischievously. See Much Ado about Nothing, Act ii. sc. 1, note 21. H. a eee trate 4 es oe ee a 5 hike ue OS ae — 4 SC. Vs ‘PRINCE OF DENMARK. . ‘305 Each toy seems prologue to some great amiss :° So full of artless jealousy is guilt, It spills itself in fearing to be spilt. Re-enter Horatio, with OPHELIA.® Oph. Where is the beauteous majesty of Dene mark 27 Queen. How now, Ophelia ! Boer [Sings.] How should I your true love know From another one ? By his cockle hat and staff, And his sandal shoon.® Queen. Alas, sweet lady ! what imports thissong ? Oph. Say you? nay,-pray you, mark. {Sings.] He is dead and gone, lady, He is dead and gone; At his head a grass-green turf, At his heels a stone. O, ho! Queen. Nay, but, Ophelia, — 5 Shakespeare is not singular in the use of amiss as a substan- tive. Several instances are adduced by Mr, Nares in his Glossary. « Each toy’’ is each trifle. 6 In the quarto of 1603, this stage-direction is curious as show- ing that Ophelia was originally made to play an accompaniment to her singing. It reads thus: “ Enter Ophelia, playing on a lute, and her hair down, singing.” H. 7 There is no part of this play in its representation on the stage more pathetic than this scene; which, I suppose, proceeds from the utter insensibility Ophelia has to her own misfortunes. A great sensibility, or none at all, seems to produce the same effects. - In the latter case the audience supply what is wanting, and with the former they sympathize. — Sir J. REYNoLDs. 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-adventures. In The Old Wive’s Tale, by Peele, 1595: « T will give thee a palmer’s staff of ivory, and a scallop shell of beaten gold.” VOL. X. 28 326 HAMLET, ACT IV. Oph. Pray you, mark. [Sings.] White his shroud as the mountain snow, Enter the King. Queen. Alas! look here, my lord. Oph. Larded with sweet flowers ;° Which bewept to the grave did not go, With true-love showers. King. How do you, pretty lady ? Oph. Well, God’ield you!’° They say, the owl was a baker’s daughter."' Lord! we know what we are, but know not what we may be. God be at your table ! King. Conceit upon her father. Oph. Pray you, let’s have no words of this ; but when they ask you what it means, say you this: To-morrow is St. Valentine’s day, All in the morning betime, And I a maid at your window, T'o be your Valentine: ” 9 Larded is garnished. The quartos have all after larded. — In the next line, the quartos, all but the first, have ground instead of grave; and all the old copies read, “did not go;’’ which is against both sense and metre, and was therefore considered an error by Pope; but it seems that Ophelia purposely alters the song, to suit the “obscure funeral” of her father. H. 10 That is, God yield, or reward you. 11 This is said to be a common tradition in Gloucestershire. Mr. Douce relates it thus: “Our Saviour went into a baker’s shop where they were baking, and asked for some bread to eat. The mistress of the shop immediately put a piece of dough in the oven to bake 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. Where- upon the baker’s daughter cried out, ‘Heugh, heugh, heugh’, which owl-like noise probably induced our Saviour to transform ber into that bird for her wickedness.” The story is told to deter ehildren from illiberal behaviour to the poor. 12 The origin of the choosing of Valentines has not been clearly SC.V.=S-=«.-~——«&PRRNCE. OF’ DENMARK. > SOR Then up he rose, and don’d his clothes, And dupp’d the chamber deor ; . Let in the maid, that out a maid Never departed more. King. Pretty Ophelia ! oe Indeed, la! without an oath, I'll make an end on’t: By Gis, and by St. Charity, Alack, and fie for shame ! Young men will do’t, if they come to’t ; By cock, they are to blame."* Quoth she, before you tumbled me, 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. 1 hope all will be well: We must be patient ; but I cannot choose but weep, to think developed. Mr. Douce traces it to a Pagan custom of the same kind during the Lupercalia feasts in honour of Pan and Juno, cele- brated in the month of February by the Romans. The anniver- sary of the good bishop, or Saint Valentine, happening in this month, the pious early promoters of Christianity placed this pop- ular custom under the patronage of the saint, in order to eradicate the notion of its pagan origin. In France the Valantin was a moveable feast, celebrated on the first Sunday in Lent, which was called the jour des brandons, because the boys carried about light- ed torches on that day. It is very probable that the saint has nothing to do with the custom ; his legend gives no clue to any such supposition. ‘The popular notion that the birds choose their mates about this period has its rise in the poetical world of fiction. 13 To dup is to do up, as to don is to do on. Thus in Damon and Pythias, 1582: «The porters are drunk ; will they not dup the gate to-day?” The phrase probably had its origin from doing: up or lifting the latch. In the old cant language to dup the gyger was to open the door. 14 For an explanation of the phrase, “ By cock,” see The Merry Wives of Windsor, Act i. se. 1, note 32. H. 328 HAMLET, ACT IV. / they would 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. [ Exit. King. Follow her close; give her good watch, I pray you. — [Eat Horatio. O.! this is the poison of deep grief; it springs All from her father’s death. And now, behold, O Gertrude, Gertrude ! When sorrows come, they come not single spies, But in battalions. First, her father slain ; Next, your son gone; and he most violent author Of his own just remove: the people muddied, Thick and unwholesome in their thoughts and whis- pers, For good Polonius’ death; and we have done but greenly, In hugger-mugger to inter him:’* poor Ophelia Divided from herself and her fair judgment, Without the which we are pictures, or mere beasts: Last, and as much containing as all these, Her brother is in secret come from France ; Feeds on his wonder, keeps himself in clouds, And wants not buzzers to infect his ear With pestilent speeches of his father’s death ; Wherein necessity, of matter beggar’d, 15 Hugger-mugeer occurs in the same sense in North’s Platareh, Life of Brutus: «“ When this was done, they came to talke of Ceesars will and testament, and of his funerals and tombe. Then, Antonius thinking good his testament should be read openly, and that his bodie should be honourably buried, and not tz hugeger- mugger, lest the people might thereby take occasion to be worse offended ; Cassius stoutly spake against it, bat Brutus went in with the motion.” ‘The phrase is thus explained by Florio : “Clan- destinare, to hide or conceal by stealth, or in hugger-mugger.” H. ee $C. Vi. PRINCE OF DENMARK. 329 Will nothing stick our person to arraign In ear and ear. O, my dear Gertrude! this, Like to a murdering-piece,’® in many places Gives me superfluous death ! [A Noise within. Queen. Alack! what noise is this 2°’ Enter a Gentleman. King. Attend! ; Where are my Switzers?’® Let them guard the door. What is the matter? ‘Gent. Save yourself, my lord! The ocean, overpeering of his list,’° Eats not the flats with more impetuous haste, Than young Laertes, in a riotous head, O’erbears your officers. The rabble call him lord ; And—as the world were now but to begin,”° Antiquity forgot, custom not known, The ratifiers and props of every word — They cry, ‘Choose we; Laertes shall be king!” Caps, hands, and tongues applaud it to the clouds,. «‘ Laertes shall be king, Laertes king!” 16 A murdering-piece, or murderer, was a small piece of artil- lery. “Visiere meurtriere, a port-hole for a murthering-piece in the forecastle of a ship.’—CoTGRAVE. Case shot, filled with small bullets, nails, old iron, &c., was often used in these murder- ers. This accounts for the raking fire attributed to them in the text. 17 This speech is found only in the folio. 18 Switzers, for royal guards. ‘The Swiss, were then, as since, mercenary soldiers of any nation that could afford to pay them. 19 That is, swelling beyond his bounds. 20 As has here the force of as if. The explanation sometimes given of the passage is, that the rabble are the ratifiers and props ot every id/e word. The plain sense is, that antiquity and custom are the ratifiers and props of every sound word touching the mate ter in hand, the ordering of human society and the State. =H. 28 * 3 ws 330 HAMLET, ACT IV. Queen. How cheerfully on the false trail they cry O! this is counter, you false Danish dogs.”* y Ss King. The doors are broke. [ Noise within, Enter Larates, armed; Danes following. Laer. Where is this king ?— Sirs, stand you all without. Danes. No, let’s come in. Laer. I pray you, give me leave. Danes. We will, we will. [ They retire without the Door. Laer. I thank you: keep the door. —O, thou vile king! ' Give me my father. Queen. Calmly, good Laertes. Laer. That drop of blood that’s calm proclaims me bastard ; Cries, cuekold, to my father; brands the harlot Even here, between the chaste unsmirched brow Of my true mother.” « King. What is the cause, Laertes, That thy rebellion looks so giant-like ? — Let him go, Gertrude ; do not fear our person: There’s such divinity doth hedge a king, That treason can but peep to what it would, Acts little of his will.2*— Tell me, Laertes, Why thou art thus incens’d. —Let him go, Ger- trude. — Speak, man. 21 Hounds are said to run counter when they are upon a false scent, or hunt it by the heel, running backward and mistaking the course of the game. * 22 Unsmirched is unsullied, spotless. 23 « Proofs,” says Coleridge, «as indeed all else is, that Shake- speare never intended us to see the King with Hamlet’s eyes ; thougl , I suspect, the managers have long done so,” H. sc. V PRINCE OF DENMARK. Bel Laer. Where is my father ? King. Dead. Queen. But not by him. King. Let him demand his fill. Laer. How came he dead? I'll not be juggled with : To hell, allegiance! vows, to the blackest devil ! Conscience, and grace, to the profoundest pit ! I dare damnation. To this point I stand, — That both the worlds I give to negligence, Let come what comes, only I’ll be reveng’d Most throughly for my father. King. Who shall stay you ? Laer. My will, not all the world’s: And, for my means, I’ll husband them so well, They shall go far with little. King. Good Laertes, If you desire to know the certainty Of your dear father’s death, is’t writ in your re- venge, That, sweepstake, you will draw both friend and foe, Winner and loser ? Laer. None but his enemies. King. Will you know them, then? Laer. To his good friends thus wide I'll ope my arms ; And Itke the kind life-rendering pelican, Repast them with my blood.” 4 24 The pelican is a fabulous bird, often referred to by the old poets for illustration. It Was also much used as a significant or- nament in Medieval church architecture, the pelican being repre- senied as an eagle. An old book, entitled « A Choice of Emblems and other Devices, by Geffrey Whitney, 1586,” contains a picture of an eagle on her nest, tearing open her breas* to feed her young: beneath, are the following lines: 332 HAMLET, » CR King. Why, now you speak Like a good child, and a true gentleman. That I am guiltless of your father’s death, And am most sensibly in grief for it, It shall as level to your judgment pierce * As day does to your eye. Danes. { Within. | Let her come in. Laer. How now! what noise is that ? Re-enter OPHELIA.”° O heat, dry up my brains! tears seven times salt, Burn out the sense and virtue of mine eye !— By Heaven, thy madness shall be paid with weight, Till our scale turn the beam. O, rose of May! Dear maid, kind sister, sweet Ophelia ! — O heavens! is’t possible, a young maid’s wits Should be as mortal as an old man’s life ? Nature is fine in love; and, where ’tis fine, It sends some precious instance of itself After the thing it loves.”” Oph. They bore him barefac’d on the bier; Hey non nonny, nonny, hey nonny: " And in his grave rain’d many a tear ;— Fare you well, my dove! “The pellican, for to revive her younge, Doth pierce her brest, and geve them of her blood: Then searche your rest, arid; as you have with tongue, With penne proceede to doe our countrie good.” H. 5 The folio has pierce ; the quartos, pear, meaning, of course, appear. The latter is both awkward in language and tame in sense. Understanding /evel in the sensg of direct pierce gives an apt and clear enough meaning. H. 26 Modern éditions commonly add here, “ fantastically dressed with Straws and Flowers.” There is no authority, and not much occasion, for any such stage-direction. H. 27 This and the two preceding lines are found only in the folio 5 as is also the second line of the next speech. H. SG. Wier, +: PRINCE OF DENMARK. * 333 Laer. Hadst thou thy wits, and didst persuade revenge, It could not move thus. Oph. You must sing, — Down a-down, an you call him a-down-a. O, how the wheel becomes it!** It is the false steward, that stole his master’s daughter.”° er. This nothing’s more than matter. Oph. There’s rosemary, that’s for remembrance ; pray you, love, remember: and there is pansies, that’s for thoughts.” 28 The wheel is the burthen of a ballad, from the Latin rota, a round, which is usually accompanied with a burthen frequently re~ peated. Thus also, in old French, roterie signified such a round or catch. Steevens forgot to note from whence he made the fol- lowing extract, though he knew it was fronr the preface to some black letter collection of songs or sonnets: “The song was ac- counted a good one, though it was not moche graced with the wheele, which in no wise accorded with the subject matter there- of.’ It should be remembered that the old musical instrument called a rote, from its wheel, was also termed vielle, quasi wheel. 29 Meaning, probably, some old ballad, of which no traces have survived. H. 30 Our ancestors gave to almost every flower and plant its em- blematic meaning, and, like the ladies of the east, made them al- most as expressive as written language. Perdita, in The Winter’s Tale, distributes her flowers in the same manner as Ophelia, and some of them with the same meaning. The Handfull of Pleasant Delites, 1584, has a ballad called « A Nosegaie alwaies sweet for Lovers to send for Tokens,’”’ where we find, — « Rosemarie is for remembrance Betweene us day and night.” Rosemarie had this attribute because it was said to strengthen the memory, and was therefore used as a token of remembrance and affection between lovers. Why pansies (pensées) are emblems of thoughts is obvious. ~ Fennel was emblematic of flattery Browne, in his Britannia’s Pastorals, says, — “ The columbine, in tawny often taken, Is then ascrib’d to such as are forsaken.” Rue was for ruth ot repentance. It was also commonly called 304 ™ HAMLET, . ACT IV. Laer. A document in madness; thoughts and remembrance fitted. Oph. There’s fennel for you, and columbines :— there’s rue for you, and here’s:some for me: we may call it herb of grace o’Sundays: — you may wear your rue with a difference. — There’s a daisy: I would give you some violets, but they wither’d all, when my father died.— They say, he made a good end, — [Sings.] For bonny sweet Robin is all my joy, — Laer. Thought and affliction,*’ passion, hell it- self, She turns to favour, and to prettiness. Oph. [Sing's.] And will he not come again ? And will he not come again ? No, no, he is dead; Go to thy death-bed ; He never will come again. His beard was as white as snow, All flaxen was his poll : : He is gone, he is gone, And we cast away moan: God ha’ mercy on his soul ! *? herb grace, probably from being accounted “a present remedy against all poison, and a potent auxiliary in exorcisms, all evil things fleeing from it.” Wearing it with a difference was an her- aldic term for a mark of distinction. The daisy was emblematic of a dissembler. The violet is for faithfulness, and is thus char- acterised in The Lover’s Nosegaie. 31 Thought was used for grief, care, pensiveness. “ Curarum volvere in pectore. He will die for sorrow and thought.” — Ba- RET. ; 32 Poor Ophelia in her madness remembers the ends of many old popular ballads. “Bonny Robin” appears to have been a favourite, for there were many others written to that tune. This last stanza is quoted with some variation in Eastward Ho! 1605, by Jonson, Marston, and Chapman. : eine aati N pak SC. V. PRINCE OF DENMARK. - 330 And of all Christian souls! I pray God. God be wi’ you!*° [ Exit. Lger. Do you see this, O God? King. Laertes, I must common with your grief,** Or you deny me right. Go but apart; Make choice of whom your wisest friends you will, And they shall hear and judge ’twixt you and me. If by direct or by collateral hand They find us touch’d, we will our kingdom give, Our crown, our life, and all that we call ours, To you in satisfaction ; but, if not, Be you content to lend your patience to us, And we shall jointly labour with your soul To give it due content. Laer. Let this be so: His means of death, his obscure funeral, — No trophy, sword, nor hatchment, o’er his bones, No noble rite, nor formal ostentation, — Cry to be heard, as ’twere from heaven to earth, That I must call’t in question.*° King. So you shall ; And where th’ offence is, let the great axe fall. I pray you, go with me. [ Exeunt. 33 The words, “I pray God,” are not in the quartos. H, 34 The use of common asa verb, in the sense of making com- mon, or of having or feeling in common, is very frequent in the old writers. In this place, as in many others, it is usually changed to commune, with which it is nearly synonymous. We retain the old form, as giving a somewhat stronger sense, and also as suiting the measure better. H. 35 The funerals of knights and persons of rank were made with great ceremony and ostentation formerly. Sir Jobn Hawkins ob- serves that «the sword, the helmet, the gauntlet, spurs, and tabard are still hung over the grave of every knight,” . 300 HAMLET, ACT IV SGENE VI. Another Room in the Same. Enter Horatio and a Servant. * Hor. What are they that would speak with me? Serv. Sailors, sir:’ they say they have letters for you. Hor. Let them come in.— [Exit Servant. I do not know from what part of the world I should be greeted, if not from lord Hamlet. Enter Sailors. 1 Sail. God bless you, sir. Hor. Let Him bless thee too. 1 Sail. He shall, sir, an’t please Him. There’s a letter for you, sir: it comes from th’ ambassador that was bound for England ; if your name be Ho- ritio, as I am let to know it is. Hor. [Reads.] Horatio, when thou shalt have overlook’d this, give these fellows some means to the king: they have letters for him. Ere we were two days old at sea, a pirate of very warlike appointment gave us chase. Finding our- selves too slow of sail, we put on a compelled valour ; and in the grapple I boarded them: on the instant, they got clear of our ship; so I alone became their prisoner. They have dealt with me like thieves of mercy ; but they knew what they did; I am to do a good turn for them. Let the king have the letters I have sent; and repair thou to me with as much haste as thou would’st fly death. I have words to speak in thine ear, will make thee dumb ; yet are they much too light for the bore of the matter.” These good fellows will bring thee where I am. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern hold their course for England: of them I have much to tell thee. Farewell: He that thou knowest thine, HAMLET. 1 The quartos read Sea-faring men instead of Sailors. H. 2 The bore is the caliber of a gun. re a SC. VII. = PRINCE OF DENMARK. 307 Come, I will give you way for these your letters ; And do’t the speedier, that you may direct me To him from whom you brought them. [ Exeunt. SCENE VII. Another Room in the Same. Enter the King and LAERTES. | King. Now must your conscience my acquittance seal, And you must put me in your heart for friend ; Sith you have heard, and with a knowing ear, That he which hath your noble father slain Pursued my life. Laer. It well appears :— But tell me, Why you proceeded not against these feats, So crimeful’ and so capital in nature, As by your safety, greatness, wisdom, all things else, You mainly were stirr’d up. King. O! for two special reasons ; Which may to you, perhaps, seem much unsinew’d, But yet to me they are strong. The queen, his mother, Lives almost by his looks ; and, for myself, (My virtue, or my plague, be it either which,) She’s so conjunctive to my life and soul, That, as the star moves not but in his sphere, I could not but by her. The other motive, Why to a public count I might not go, Is the great love the general gender” bear him ; Who, dipping all his faults in their affection, Would, like the spring that turneth wood to stone, 1 So the folio; the quartos, eriminal. 2-That is, the common race of the people. We have the gen- eral and the million in other places in the same sense. VOL. X. 29 32 338 HAMLET, ACT TVs Convert his gyves to graces. So that my arrows, Too slightly timber’d for so loud a wind,” Would have reverted to my bow again, And not where I had aim’d them. Laer. And so have I a noble father lost ; A sister driven into desperate terms 5 Whose worth, if praises may go back again,” Stood challenger on mount of all the age For her perfections. But my revenge will come. King. Break not your sleeps for that: you must not think That we are made of stuff so flat and dull, That we can let our beard be shook with danger, And think it pastime. You shortly shall hear more: I lov’d your father, and we love ourself ; And that, I hope, will teach you to imagine, — How now! what news?* Enter a Messenger. Mess. Letters, my lord, from Hamlet : This to your majesty ; this to the queen. King. From Hamlet! who brought them ? Mess. Sailors, my lord, they say; I saw them not: They were given me by Claudio; he receiv’d them Of him that brought them. King. Laertes, you shall hear them. — Leave us. [ Exit Messenger. [Reads.] High and mighty, you shall know, I am set na- ked on your kingdom. ‘T'o-morrow shall I beg leave to see your kingly eyes; when I shall, first asking your pardon 3 « Lighte shaftes cannot stand in a rowgh wind.” — AscHAM, 4 «If IT may praise what has been, but is now no more.” 5 The words, “ How now! what news?” and also a part of the answer, “Letters, my lord, from Hamlet,’ are not in the quartos. H. SC. Vit .- PRINCE OF DENMARK. . ooo thereunto, recount th’ occasions of my sudden and more strange return.® HAMuer. What should this mean! Are all the rest come ‘ back ? Or is it some abuse, and no such thing? Laer. Know you the hand ? King. Tis Hamlet’s character. « Naked,” — And, in a postscript here, he says, “alone:” Can you advise me ? Laer. 1m lost in it, my lord. But let him come: It warms the very sickness in my heart, ‘Vhat I shall live and tell him to his teeth, «Thus diddest thou.” King. If it be so, Laertes, — As how should it be so, how otherwise ? — Will you be rul’d by me? Laer. Ay, my lord; So you will not o’errule me to a peace. King. 'To thine own peace. If he be now re- turn’d, As checking at his voyage,’ and that he means No more to undertake it, I will work him To an exploit, now ripe in my device, | Under the which he shall not choose but fall; And for his death no wind of blame shall breathe, But even his mother shall uncharge the practice, And eall it accident. Laer. My lord, I will be rul’d; The rather, if you could devise it,so, That I might be the organ. 6 The words, “and more strange,” are in the folio only. H. 7 Thus the folio: the undated quarto and that of 1611 read “ As liking not” for “As checking at ;” the other quartos, “As the king at.” To check at is a term in falconry, meaning to start away or fly off from the lure. See Twelfih Night, Act ii. se. 5, note 10, u ie 340. HAMLET, ACT IV- King. Tt falls right. You have been talk’d of since your travel much, And that in Hamlet’s hearing, for a quality Wherein they say you shine: your sum of parts Did not together pluck such envy from him, As did that one; and that, in my regard, Of the unworthiest siege.® Laer. What part is that, my lord? King. A very riband in the cap of youth,” Yet needful too; for youth no less becomes The light and careless livery that it wears, Than settled age his sables and ne weeds, Importing health and graveness.’ °__T'wo months since, Here was a gentleman of Normandy, — I have seen, myself, and serv’d against the French, And they can well on horseback ; but this gallant Had witchcraft in’t ; he grew unto his seat; And to such wondrous doing brought his horse, As he had been incorps’d and demi-natur’d With the brave beast: so far he topp’d oy eum: That I, in forgery of shapes and tricks,” Come short of what he did. Laer. A Norman was’t? King. A Norman. Laer. Upon my life, Lamord. King. The very same. 8 The Poet again uses siege for seat, that is, place or rank, in Einello, Act i. se. 2: “I fetch my life and being from men of royal Fees The usage was not uncommon. H. 9 We have elsewhere found very used in the sense of mere. H. 10 Thus far of this speech, and all the three preceding speeches are wanting in the folio. H. 11 That is, in the imagination of shapes and tricks, or feats. This use of forge and forgery was not unfrequent.— To top is to surpass. See King Lear, Acti. sc. 2, note 3. A. sc. VII. PRINCE OF DENMARK. 341 Laer. I know him well: he is the brooch, indeed, And gem of all the nation. King. He made confession of you ; And gave you such a masterly report, For art and exercise in your defence,'” And for your rapier most especially, That he cried out, ’twould be a sight indeed, If one-could match you: the scrimers of their na- . tion,’® He swore, had neither motion, guard, nor eye, If you oppos’d them. Sir, this report of his Did Hamlet so envenom with his envy, That he could nothing do, but wish and beg Your sudden coming o’er, to play with you. Now, out of this, — Laer. What out of this, my lord? King. Laertes, was your father dear to you? Or are you like the painting of a sorrow, A face without a heart? Laer. Why ask you this? King. Not that I think you did not love your father, But that I know love is begun by time ; " And that I see, in passages of proof, Time qualifies the spark and fire of it. There lives within the very flame of love’® A kind of wick, or snuff, that will abate it: And nothing is at a like goodness still ; 12 Science of defence, that is, fencing, 13 Scrimers, fencers, from escrimeur, Fr. This unfavourable description of French swordsmen is not in the folio, 14 As love is begun by time, and has its gradual increase, so time qualifies and abates it. Passuges of proof are transactions of daily experience. , ; 15 This and the nine following lines are not in the folio. #. Pe ¢ 342 HAMLET, ACT IV For goodness, growing to a plurisy,’° Dies in his own too-much. That we would do, We should do when we would ; for this ‘“* would” changes, And hath abatements and delays as many As there are tongues, are hands, are accidents ; And then this “should” is like a spendthrift’s sigh, That hurts by easing.’” But, to the quick othe ulcer. Hamlet comes back: What would you undertake, To show yourself your father’s son, in deed More than in words? Laer. To cut his throat i’the church. King. No place, indeed, should murder sane- tuarize 3 Revenge should have no bounds. But, good Laer- tes, Will you do this, keep close within your chamber. Hamlet, return’d, shall know you are come home: We’ll put on those shall praise your excellence, And set a double varnish on the fame The Frenchman gave you; bring you, in fine, to- gether, And wager o’er your heads: he, being remiss, Most generous, and, free from all contriving,. Will not peruse the foils; so that with ease, Or with a little shuffling, you may choose 16 Plurisy is superabundance ; the word was used in this sense, as if it came from plus, pluris. So in Massinger’s Unnatural Combat: “Thy plurisy-of goodness is thy ill;”” which Gifford explains “thy swperabundance of goodness.” i. "17 Mr. Blakeway justly observes, that “Sorrow for neglected opportunities and time abused seems most aptly compared to the sigh of a spendthrift ; — good resolutions not carried into effect are deeply injurious to the moral character. Like sighs, they hurt by easing ; they unburden the mind and satisfy the conscience, without producing any effect upon the conduct.” SC. VI. | PRINCE OF DENMARK. 343 A sword unbated,'® and in a pass of practice Requite him for your father. Laer. I will. do’t ; And, for that purpose, I'll anoint my sword.” I bought an unction of a mountebank, So mortal, that but dip a knife in it, Where it draws blood no cataplasm so rare, Collected from all simples that have virtue Under the moon, can save the thing from death, That is but scratch’d withal: I'll touch my point With this contagion, that if I gall him slightly, It may be death.” King. Let’s further think of this 5 Weigh, what convenience, both of time and means, May fit us to our shape. If this should fail, And that our drift look through our bad performance, ’T were better not assay’d: therefore this project Should have a back, or second, that might hold, 18 That is, unblunted. To date, or rather to rebate, was to make dull. ‘Thus in Love’s Labour’s Lost: “ That honour which shall bate his scythe’s keen edge.” — Pass of practice is an insidious thrust. 19 Warburton having pronounced Laertes “a good character,” Coleridge thereupon makes the following note: « Mercy on War- -burton’s notion of goodness! Please to refer to the seventh scene of this Act ; — ‘I will do’t; and, for this purpose, I'll anoint my sword,’ — uttered by Laertes after the King’s description of Ham- Jet: ‘He, being remiss, most generous, and free from all contriv- ing, will not peruse the foils.’ Yet I acknowledge that Shake- speare evidently wishes, as much as possible, to spare the character of Laertes, —to break the extreme turpitude of his consent to be- come an agent and accomplice of the King’s treachery 3;— and to this a: 1 he re-introduces Ophelia at the close of this scene, to af- ford a probable stimulus of passion in her brother.” ni. 20 Ritson has exclaimed against the villanous treachery of Laer tes in this horrid plot: he observes “there is more occasion that he should be pointed out for an object of abhorrence, as he is a character we are led to respect and admire in some preceding scenes.” In the quarto of 1603 this contrivance originates with the king. 344. HAMLET, If this should blast in proof.’ Soft!—Jet me see :— We'll make a solemn wager on your cunnings,””» — arhats When in your motion you are hot and dry, (As make your bouts more violent to that end,) And that he calls for drink, Pll have prepar’d him A chalice for the nonce ; whereon but sipping, If he by chance escape your venom’d stuck,”* Our purpose may hold there. But stay! whatnoise? Enter the Queen. How, sweet queen ! ** Queen. One woe doth tread upon another’s heel, So fast they follow. — Your sister’s drown’d, Laertes. Laer. Drown’d! O, where ? Queen. There is a willow grows aslant a brook,” That shows his hoar leaves in the glassy stream : There with fantastic garlands did she come, Of crow-flowers, nettles, daisies, and long purples, 21 That is, as fire-arms sometimes burst in proving their strength. 22 Cunning is skill. 23 A stuck is a thrust. Stoccata, Ital. Sometimes called a staccado in Finglish. 24 These words occur only in the folio. —“ That Laertes,’” says Coleridge, “ might be excused in some degree for not cooling, the Act concludes with the affecting death of Ophelia ; who in the be- ginning Jay like a little projection of land into a lake or stream, covered with spray-flowers, quietly reflected in the quiet waters 5 but at Jength is undermined or Joosened, and becomes a faery isle, and after a brief vagrancy sinks almost without an eddy.” HH. ~* 29 Thus the folio; the quartos, all but the first, read “ ascawnt the brook.” Also, in the next line but one, the quartos have make instead of come. — This exquisite passage is deservedly celebrated. Nothing could better illustrate the Poet’s power to make the des- cription of a thing better than the thing itself, by giving us his eyes to see it with. H. TS St. VIL" PRINCE OF DENMARK. 345 That liberal shepherds give a grosser name,”® But our cold maids do dead men’s fingers call them: ‘There, on the pendent boughs her coronet weeds Clambering to hang, an envious sliver broke ; When down her weedy trophies, and herself, Fell in the weeping brook. Her clothes spread wide, And, mermaid-like, awhile they bore her up ; Which time, she chanted snatches of old lauds 3 *” As one incapable of her own distress, Or like a creature native and indued Unto that element: but long it could not be, Till that her garments, heavy with their drink, Pull’d the poor wretch from her melodious lay To muddy death. Laer. Alas! then, she is drown’d? Queen. Drown’d, drown’d. Laer. Too much of water hast thou, poor Ophelia, And therefore I forbid my tears: but yet It is our trick ; nature her custom holds, Let shame say what it will: when these are gone, The woman will be out.— Adieu, my lord! I have a speech of fire, that fain would blaze, But that this folly drowns it. [ Exit. King. Let’s follow, Gertrude ; How much I had to do to calm his rage! Now fear I, this will give it start again ; Therefore, let’s follow. [ Exeunt. 26 The ancient botanical name of the long purples was testiculis morionis, or orchis priapiscus. The grosser name to which the queen alludes is sufficiently known in many parts of England. It had kindred appellations in other languages. In Sussex it is said to be called dead men’s hands. Liberal here means free-spoken, licentious. 27 That is, old hymns or songs of praise. The folio has tunes instead of lauds ; which, besides that it loses a fine touch of pa- thos, does not agree so well with chanting. — Incapable is evidently used in the sense of unconscious. H. 346 HAMLET, ACT V. ACT V. SCENE I. PeHAMLET, (ee ACT V. 1 Priest. Her obsequies have been as far en- larg’d +: fan . . As we have warranty: her death was doubtful ; And, but that great command o’ersways the order, » She should in ground unsanetified have lodg’d Till 'the last trumpet; for charitable prayers, Shards,” flints, and pebbles should ‘be thrown on rs her 3 | eee i . : Yet here she is allow’d her virgin crants,”” Her maiden strewments, and the bringing home ~ Of bell and burial.”* Laer. Must there no more be done? l Priest: nine No more be done. We should profane the service of the dead, To sing a requiem,”” and such rest to her As to peace-parted souls. | Laer. Lay her i’the earth ; Aud from her fair and unpolluted flesh - May violets spring !—I tell thee, churlish priest, A ministering angel shall my sister be, When thou liest howling. | Ham. What ! the fair Ophelia ? 24 Shards not only means fragments of pots and tiles, but rub- bish of any kind. Baret has “ shardes of stones, fragmentum lapidis ;” and « shardes, or pieces of stones broken and shattred, rubbel or rubbish of old houses.” Our version of the Bible has preserved to us pot-sherds ; and bricklayers, in Surrey and Sussex, use the compounds tile-sherds, slate-sherds. The word is not in the quartos.— For, in the preceding line, has the force of in- stead of. 2 That is, garlands. Still used in most northern languages, but no other example of its use among us has yet offered itself. Jt is thought that Shakespeare may have met with the word in some old history of Hamlet, which furnished him with his fable. The folio changed this unusual word for rites, a less appropriate word. 26 Of has here the force of with. 27 A requiem is a mass sung for the rest of the soul. So called from the words, “ Requiem eternam dona eis, Domine.” ' = a = a Sc. I. - PRINCE OF DENMARK. 307” Queen. Sweets to the sweet: farewell ! [Scattering Flowers. IT hop’d thou oul det have den my Hamlet’s wife ; I thought thy bride-bed to have deck’d, sweet maid, And not to have strew’d thy grave. Laer. , O! treble woe Fall ten times treble on that cursed head, Whose wicked deed thy most ingenious sense Depriv’d thee off !— Hold off the earth awhile, Till I have caught her once more in mine arms. [Leaps into the Grave. Now pile your dust upon the quick and dead ; Till of this flat a mountain you have made To o’ertop old Pelion, or the skyish head Of blue Olympus. Ham. | Advancing.| What is he, whose grief Bears such an emphasis? whose phrase of sorrow Conjures the wandering stars, and makes them stand Like wonder-wounded sheetery ? this is I, Hamlet the Dane. [Leaps into the Grave. Laer. | The devil take thy soul ! | Grappling with him. Alam. 'Thou pray’st not well. I pr’ythee, take thy fingers from my throat ; For, though I am not splenetive and rash, Yet have I in me something dangerous, Which let thy wisdom fear. Hold off thy hand. King. Pluck them asunder. ; Queen. . Hamlet, Hamlet! . All. Gentlemen, — Hor. Good my lord, be quiet. [The Attendants part them, and they come out of the Grave. Ham. Why, I will fight with him upon this theme, Until my eyelids will no longer wag. - Queen. Y my son ! what theme 2 a Fe ee es ee ee +308 HAMLET, . ACT V Ham. \ lov’d Ophelia: forty thousand brothers Could not, with all their quantity of love, | Make up my sum. — What wilt thou do for her? King. O! he is mad, Laertes. Queen. For love of God, forbear him. Ham. ’Zounds, show me what thou’lt do: Woo't weep? woo’t fight? woo’t fast? woo't tear | thyself ? Woo't drink up Esill,”* eat a crocodile? T'll do’t.—Dost thou come here to whine? To outface me with leaping in her grave ? Be buried quick with her, and so will I: And, if thou prate of mountains, let them throw Millions of acres on us; till our ground, Singeing his pate against the burning zone, Make Ossa like a wart! Nay, an thou’lt mouth, I'l] rant as well as thou. 28 So this name is spelt in the quartos, all but that of 1603, which has vessels. The folio spells it Eséle. What particular lake, river, firth, or gulf was meant by the Poet, is something un- certain. ‘The more common opinion is, that he had in mind the river Yesel which, of the larger branches of the Rhine, is the one nearest to Denmark. In the maps of our time, Isef is the name of a gulf almost surrounded by land, in the island of Zealand, not many miles west of Elsinore. Either of these names might naturally enough have been spelt and pronounced Esill or Isell by an Englishman in Shakespeare’s time. As for the notion held by some, that the Poet meant eysel or eisel, an old word for vinegar, it seems pretty thoroughly absurd, In strains of hyperbole, such figures of speech were often used by the old poets. Thus in King Richard II.: «The task he undertakes is numbering sands, and drinking oceans dry.” And in Chaucer’s Romaunt of the Rose : «“ He underfongeth a great paine, that undertaketh to drinke up Suine”’ Also, in Eastward Hoe: “Come, drink up Rhine, Thames, and Meander dry.” And in Greene’s Orlando Furioso: 7 «Else would I set my mouth to Tygris streams, and drink up overflowing Eupbrates.” And in Marlowe’s Jew of Malta: « Sooner shalt thou drink the ocean dry than conquer Malta.” — Woo't is a contraction of wouldst thuu, said to be common in the northern counties of England. As it is spelt woo’t in the old copies, we know not why certain editors read wool’t. H. SC. IT PRINCE OF DENMARK. 309, Queen. This is mere madness ; And thus awhile the fit will work on him; Anon, as patient as the female dove, When that her golden couplets are disclosed, His silence will sit drooping.” Ham. Hear you, sir: What is the reason that you use me thus? I lov’d you ever: But it is no matter ; Let Hercules himself do what he may, The cat will mew, and dog will have his day. [ Ezit. King. 1 pray you, good Horatio, wait upon . him. — [Exit Horatio. [Zo Laertes.] Strengthen your patience in our last night’s speech ; We'll put the matter to the present push. — Good Gertrude, set some watch over your son. — This grave shall have a living monument: An hour of quiet shortly we shall see ; Till then, in patience our proceeding be. [Evzeunt. SCENE II. A Hall in the Castle. Enter HaMuLET and Horatio. Ham. So much for this, sir: now shall you see the other. — You do remember all the circumstance 7? 29 The folio gives this speech to the King, in whose mouth it is about as proper as a diamond in a swine’s| snout.— The golden couplets are the two eggs of the dove; the nestlings, when first ° hatched, being covered with a yellow down; and in her patient tenderness the mother rarely leaves the nest, till her little-ones at- tain to some degree of dove-discretion. — Disclose was often used for hatch. Thus in the Boke of St. Albans, 1496: « For to speke of hawkes: Fyrst, they ben egges, and afterwarde they ben dis- closyd hawkys.” Again: “Comynly goshawkes ben disclosyd assoone as the choughs.” . H. oun, Cae ee OO ge _—! ne Se, gS eS) 5 Pee ee ee Se ee yet NAS ee eg a 3 eid, \ ae = 369 HAMLET, ACT Vi? Hor. Remember it, my lord! Ham. Sir, in my heart there was a kind of fight- ing, } Gh That would not let me sleep: methought, I lay Worse than the mutines in the bilboes.’ Rashly, — And prais’d be rashness for it: let us know,’ Our indiscretion sometimes serves us well, . When our deep plots do pall;* and that should teach us, There’s a divinity that shapes our ends, Rough-hew them how we will, — Hor. That is most certain. Ham. —Up from my cabin, My sea-gown scarf’d about me,’ in the dark Grop’d I to find out them ; had my desire 5 Finger’d their packet ; and, in fine, withdrew To mine own room again: making so bold, My fears forgetting manners, to unseal * Their grand commission ; where I found, Horatio, O royal knavery! an exact coimand, — 1 The bilboes were bars of iron with fetters annexed to them, by which mutinous or disorderly sailors were anciently linked to- gether. The word is derived from Bilboa, in Spain, where the things were made, T'o understand the allusion, it should be known that as these fetters connected the legs of the offenders very close- ly together, their attempts to rest must be as fruitless as those of Hamlet, in whose mind there was a kind of fighting that would not let him sleep. The bilboes are still shown in the Tower, among | the other spoils of the Armada. — Mutines is for mutineers. See King Jobn, Act ii. se. 2, note 10. . 2 To pall was to fade or fall away 3 to become, as it were, dead, _or without spirit: from the old French pasler, Tbus in Antony and Cleopatra : “ I'll never follow thy padl’d jortunes moge.” — The quartos have learn instead of teuch. 3 « Eselavine,” says Cotgrave, “a sea-gowne, ascoarse, high- collar’d and short-sleeved gowne, reaching to the mid-leg, and used mosily by seamen and sailors.” 4 4 Thus the folio; the quartos, wnfold. Unseal is Shown to be right by his resealing the packet.—In the second. line after, the quartos read “A royal knavery.” H. Es sc. Il. PRINCE OF DENMARK. 361 Larded with many several sorts of reasons, — Importing Denmark’s health, and England’s too, With, ho! such bugs and goblins in my life,°— That on the supervise, no leisure bated, ° No, not to stay the grinding of the axe, My head should be struck off. Hor. Is’t possible ? Ham. Here’s the commission: read it at more leisure. But wilt thou hear me how I did proceed 27 Hor. I beseech you. Ham. Being thus benetted round with villains, — Ere I could make a prologue to my brains, They bad begun the play, —I sat me down, Devis’d a new commission ; wrote it fair. I once did hold it, as our statists do,® A baseness to write fair, and labour’d much How to forget that learning; but, sir, now It did me yeoman’s service.” Wilt thou know The effect of what I wrote ? Hor. Ay, good my lord. Ham. An earnest conjuration from the king, — 5 The Poet several times uses bugs for bughears. See 3 Henry VI., Act v. sc. 2, note 1. H. 6 The supervise isthe looking over; no leisure bated means without any abatement or intermission of time. 7 The quartos have now instead of mee. om, 8 Statists are statesmen. Blackstone says, that “most of our great men of Shakespeare’s time wrote very bad hands ; their sec- retaries very neat ones.” This must be taken with some qualifi- cation ; for Elizabeth’s two most powerful ministers, Leicester and Burleigh, both wrote good hands. It is certain that there were’ some who did write most wretched scrawls, but probably not from affectation ; though it was accounted a mechanical and vulgar ac- complishment to write a fair hand. 9 Sir Thomas Smyth says of the yeoman soldiers, that they’ were “the stable troop of footmen that affraide all France.” | i. VOL. X. 31 362 HAMLET, ACT Y.) As England was his faithful tributary ; As love between them like the palm might flourish ; As peace should still her wheaten garland wear, And stand a comma ’tween their amities ;*° And many such like ases of great charge, — That, on the view and knowing of these contents, Without debatement further, more or less, He should the bearers put to sudden death, Not shriving-time allow’d. Hor. How was this seal’d ? Ham. Why, even in that was Heaven ordinant : I had my father’s signet in my purse, Which was the model of ‘that Danish seal ; Folded the writ up in form of the other ; Subscrib’d it; gave’t th’ impression ; plac’d it safely, The changeling never known. Now, the next day Was our sea-fight ; and what to this was sequent Thou know’st already. Hor. So Guildenstern and Rosencrantz go to’t. Ham. Why, man, they did make love to this em- ployment :" They are not near my conscience; their defeat Does by their own insinuation grow. "Tis dangerous, when the baser nature comes Between the pass and fell-incensed points Of mighty opposites. Hor. Why, what a king is this! Ham. Does it not, think thee, stand me now upon? He that hath kill’d my king, and whor’d my mother ; Popp’d in between th’ election and my hopes; Thrown out his angle for my proper life, 10 This is oddly expressed, as Johnson observes ; but the mean- ing appears to be, “ Stand as a note of connexion between their amities, to prevent them from being brought to a period.” 11 This line is met with only in the folio, H. SCral, |. PRINCE OF DENMARK. 363 And with such cozenage ; is’t not perfect conscience, To quit him with this arm ? and is’t not to be damn‘d, To let this canker of our nature come In further evil ?** Hor. \t must be shortly known to him from Eng- land, What is the issue of the business there. Ham. It will be short: the interim is mine 5 And a man’s life no more than to say, one. But I am very sorry, good Horatio, That to Laertes I forgot myself; For by the image of my cause I see The portraiture of his: Vl count his favours: '* But, sure, the bravery of his grief did put me Into a towering passion. For. Peace! who comes here? Enter Osrick. Osr. Your lordship is right welcome back to Denmark. . Ham. I humbly thank you, sir.— Dost know this water-fly ? ** Hor. No, my good lord. Ham. Thy state is the more gracious; for ’tis a vice to know him. He bath much land, and fertile: let a beast be lord of beasts, and his crib shall stand at the king’s mess: ’tisa chough; but, as I say, spa- cious in the possession of dirt. 12 The last two lines of this speech, and what follows, down to the entrance of Osrick, is not in the quartos. H. 13 Rowe changed this to “I'll court his favour ;’’ but there is no necessity for change. Hamlet means, “I'll make account of his favours,” that is, of bis good will ; the general meaning of fu- vours in the Poet’s time. om 14 In Troilus and Cressida, Thersites says, “‘ How the poor world is pestered with such water-flies ; diminutives of nature.” The gnats and such like insects are not inapt emblems of such busy triflers as Osrick. ~ ae Rene! Bg ee ern ee ee Te ey ee ee hoy 4 i wht 364 . HAMLET, ACT Vi Osr. Sweet lord, if your lordship were at leisure, I should impart a thing to you from his majesty. Ham. 1 will receive it, sir, with all diligence of spirit. Your bonnet to its right use; ‘tis for the © head. Osr. I thank your lordship, ’tis very hot. Ham. No, believe me, ’tis le cold: the wind © is northerly. Osr. It is indifferent cold my lord, indeed. Ham. But yet, Sage it is very sultry and hot for my complexion.’® Osr. Exceedingly, my lord ; it is very sultry, — as "twere, —I cannot tell how. — But, my lord, his majesty bade me signify to you, that he has laid a great wager on your head. Sir, this is the matter, — Ham. I beseech you, remember — [Moving him to put on his Hat. Osr. Nay, good my lord; for mine ease, in good faith. Sir, here is, newly come to court, Laertes ; believe me, an absolute gentleman, full of most ex- cellent differences,’’ of very soft society, and great showing: Indeed, to speak feelingly of him, he is the card or calendar of gentry; for you shall find in him the continent of what part a gentleman would see. Ham. Sir, his definement suffers no perdition in you ; though, I know, to divide him inventorially, would dizzy the arithmetic of memory ; and it but yaw neither,’® in respect of his quick sail. But, in 15 The quartos read or instead of for, thus leaving a break af- ter complexion. H. 16 After this, the folio adds, “Sir, you are not ignorant of what excellence Laertes i is at his weapon,” and then omits what follows, down to the question, “ What’s his weapon ?” H. 17 That is, distinguishing excellencies. : 18 Thus the quarto of 1604; the others have raw instead of (SC. 1. . PRINCE OF DENMARK. 365 the verity of extolment, I take him to be a soul of great article; and his infusion of such dearth and rareness, as, to make'true diction of him, his sem- blable is his mirror; and who else would trace him, his umbrage, nothing more. » Osr. Your lordship.speaks most infallibly of him. Ham. The concernancy, sir? why do we wrap the gentleman in our more rawer breath ? Osr. Sir? | Hor. \s’t not possible to understand in another tongue?’ You will do’t, sir, really. - Ham. What imports the nomination of this gen- tleman ? Osr. Of Laertes ? Hor. His purse is empty already; all his golden words are spent. ' Ham. Of him, sir. Osr. I know, you are not ignorant — Ham. I would, you did, sir ; yet, in faith, if you did, it would not much approve me. — Well, sir. yaw. The word is thus defined in Cole’s. Dictionary: “To yaw, (as of a ship,) hue illue vacillare, capite nutare.” It occurs as a substantive in Massinger’s Very Woman: “ O, the yaws that she will make! Look to your stern, dear mistress, and steer right.” Where Gifford notes, — “ A yaw is that unsteady motion which a ship makes in a great swell, when, in steering, she inclines to the right or left of her course.” Scott also has the word in The An- tiquary: “ Thus escorted, the Antiquary moved along full of his learning, like a lordly man-of-war, and every now and then yaw- ing to starboard and larboard to discharge a broadside upon his followers.”” — The old copies have yet instead of it ; which, says Mr. Dyce, “was often mistaken by our early printers for yet, per- haps because it was written yt.” His is for its, referring to mem- ory. See 2 Henry IV., Act i. sc. 2, note 16. H. 19 Malone suspected this should be ‘in a mother tongue.” Ho- ratio means to imply, that what with Osrick’s euphuism, and what with Hamlet’s catching of Osrick’s style, they are not speaking in a tongue that can be understood ; and he hints that they try an- other tongue, that is, the common one. H. ol* 366 HAMLET, ACT V. Osr. You are not ignorant of what excellence Laertes is — Ham. I dare not confess that, lest I should com- pare with him in excellence ; but to know a man well, were to know himself.” Qsr. I mean, sir, for his weapon; but in the imputation laid on him by them, in his meed*’ he’s unfellow’d. ° Ham. What’s his weapon ? Osr. Rapier and dagger. Ham. That’s two of his weapons: but, well. Osr. The king, sir, hath wager’d with him six Barbary horses ; against the which he has impon’d,”* as I take it, six French rapiers and poniards, with their assigns, as girdle, hangers, and so. Three of the carriages, in faith, are very dear to fancy, very responsive to the hilts, most delicate carriages, and of very liberal conceit. Ham. What call you the carriages ? Hor. I knew you must be edified by the margent ere you had done.” Osr. The carriages, sir, are the hangers. Ham. The phrase would be more german to the matter, if we could carry a cannon by our sides: I would it might be hangers till then. But, on: Six Barbary horses against six French swords, their assigns, and three liberal-conceited carriages ; that’s 20 | dare not pretend to know him, lest I should pretend to an equality : no man can completely know another, but by knowing himself, which is the utmost of human wisdom. 21 Meed is merit. See 3 Henry VI., Act ii. se. 1, note 6. 22 The quartos have inpawn’d. Impon’d is probably meant as ar Osrickian form of the same word. To impawn is to put im pledge, that is, to wager. ; H. 23 The gloss or commentary in old books was usually on the margin of the leaf. See Romeo and Juliet, Act i. se. 3, note 6. sc. Il. PRINCE OF DENMARK. 367 the French bet against the Danish. Why is this impon’d, as you call it? Osr. The king, sir, hath laid, that in a dozen passes between yourself and him he shall not ex- ceed you three hits: he hath laid, on twelve for nine; and it would come to immediate trig) if your lordship would vouchsafe the answer. Ham. How, if I answer, no? Osr. I mean, my lord, the opposition of your per- son in trial. Ham. Sir, I will walk here in the hall: If it please his majesty, it is the breathing time of day with me:** let the foils be brought, the gentleman willing, and the king hold his purpose, I will win for him, if I can; if not, I will gain nothing but my shame, and the odd hits. Osr. Shall I deliver you so? Ham. To this effect, sir; after what flourish your nature will. Osr. I commend my duty to your lordship. [ Exit. Ham. Yours, yours. — He does well to commend it himself; there are no tongues else for’s turn. Hor. This lapwing runs away with the shell on his head.”° Ham. He did comply with his dug,”* before he 24 «The breathing time” is the time for exercise. Thus in All’s Well that Ends Well, Act i. sc. 2: “ A nursery to our gentry, who are sick for breathing and exploit.” H. 25 Meaning that Osrick is a raw, unfledged, foolish fellow. It was a common comparison for a forward fool. Thus in Meres’s Wits Treasury, 1598: « As the lapwing runneth away with the shell on her head, as soon as she is hatched.” 26 Comply is used in the same sense here as in Act ii. se. 2. note 35. In Fulwel’s Art of Flatterie, 1579, the same idea occurs? « The very sucking babes hath a kind of adulation towards their nurses for the dug.” H. 368 HAMLET, ACT V. suck’d it. Thus has he (and many more of the same bevy,” that, I know, the drossy age dotes on) only got the tune of the time, and outward habit of encounter 32° a kind of yesty collection, which car- ries them through and through the most fond and winnowed opinions ;*° and do but blow them to their trial, the bubbles are out. Enter a Lord.*° Lord. My lord, his majesty commended him to you by young Osrick, 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. 1 am constant to my purposes ; they follow the king’s pleasure: if his fitness speaks, mine 1s ready ; now, or whensoever, provided I be so able as now. Lord. The king and queen and all are coming down. Ham. Yn 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. 27 Thus the folio, misprinting, however, mine for many: the quartos have breed instead of bevy. H. *28 That is, exterior politeness of address, 29 The quarto of 1604 has “most prophane and trennowed opinions ; in the other quartos trennowed is changed to trennowned : the folio reads asin the text. It may seem strange that this read- ing should have been thought unsatisfactory, but such is the case: Warburton changed fond to fann’d, and has been followed by di- vers editors. “Fond and winnowed opinions” are opinions con- ceitedly fine and winnowed clean of the dust of common sense 5 such opinions as are affected by the amateur exquisites of all times. H. 30 All that passes between Hamlet and this lord is omitted in the folio. Lo 2 SC. IT. -PRINCE OF DENMARK. 369 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. 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, as would, perhaps, trouble a woman.*’ Hor. If your mind dislike any thing, obey it: I will forestall 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 itebe not now, yet it will come: the readiness is all. Since no man of aught he leaves knows, what is’t to leave betimes?** Let be. 31 The words, “this wager,” are wanting in the quartos. H. 32 The folio has gain-giving ; the quartos, gam-giving and game-giving. Gain-giving i is misgiving or giving-against ; here meaning a dim prognostic or presentiment of evil. —« Shake- speare,” says Coleridge, “seems to mean al} Hamlet’s character to be brought together before his final disappearance from the scene 3 — his meditative excess in the grave-digging, his yielding to passion with Laertes, his love for Ophelia blazing out, his ten- dency to generalize on all occasions in the dialogue with Horatio, his fine gentlemanly manners with Osrick, and his and Shake- speare’s own fondness for presentiment.” H. 33 This is the reading of the qWartos: the folio reads, “ Since no man he aught of what he leaves, what is’t to leave betimes ?” Johnson thus interprets the passage : “ Since no man knows aught of the state which he leaves ; since he cannot judge what other years may produce; why should we be afraid of leaving life be- times ?”’ Warburton’s exmgnation is very ingenious, but perhaps strains the Poet’s meaning ™* 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 ?” H. 2% 370 HAMLET, ACT V. Enter the King, the Queen, LarrtTes, Lords, Os- RICK, and Attendants, with Foils, &c. King. Come, Hamlet, come, and take this hand from me. [He puts the hand of LaeRTES into that of HaMLeT. Ham. Give me your pardon, sir: Pve done you wrong ; But pardon ’t, as you are a gentleman. This presence knows, And you must needs have heard, how I am punish’d With sore distraction. What I have done, That might your nature, honour, and exception Roughly awake, I here proclaim was madness. Was’t Hamlet wrong’d Laertes % Never, Hamlet: If Hamlet! from himself be ta’en away, And when he’s not himself does wrong Laertes, Then Hamlet does it not; Hamlet denies it. Who does it then? His madness. If’t be so, Hamlet is of the faction that is wrong’d ; His madness is poor Hamlet’s enemy. Sir, in his audience,** Let my disclaiming from a purpos’d evil Free me so far in your most generous thoughts, That I have shot my arrow o’er the house, And hurt my brother. Laer. I am satisfied in nature, Whose motive, in this case, should stir me most To my revenge: but in my terms of dona I stand aloof, and will no reconcilement, Till by some elder masters, of known honour, I have a voice and precedent#f peace, To keep my name ungor’d. But till that time 34 This hemstitch is in the folio only. In what follows, the folie misprints mother for brother, and ungorg’d for ungor’d. H. Ra SC. II. PRINCE OF DENMARK. 371 I do receive your offer’d love like love, 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. Pll be your foil, Laertes: in mine igno- rance Your skill shall, like a star i’the darkest night, Stick fiery off indeed. Laer. You mock me, sir. Ham. No, by this hand. King. Give them the foils, young Osrick. — Cous- in Hamlet, You know the wager ? Ham. Very well, my lord: Your grace hath laid the odds 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 alla length ? [They prepare to play. Osr. Ay, my good lord. King. Set me the stoops of wine upon that table. — If Hamlet give the first or second hit, Or quit in answer of the third exchange, Let all the battlements their ordnance fire: The king shall drink to Hamlet’s better breath ; And in the cup an union shall he throw,*” 35 The words, “come on,” are not in the quartos, H. 36 The King had wagered six Barbary horses to a few rapiers, poniards, &c.; that is, about ¢wenty 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. 37 The folio has union; the quartos, unice and onix. Union 4,” ne ae TS, 372 HAMLET, ACT VY. Richer than that which four successive kings In Denmark’s crown have worn. Give me the cups; And let the kettle to the trumpet speak, The trumpet to the cannoneer without, The cannons to the heavens, the heaven to earth, «Now the king drinks to Hamlet.”— Come, be- gin 5 — And you, the judges, bear a wary eye. Ham. Come on, sir. . . Laer. Come, my lord. [ They play. Ham. One. | Laer. No. Ham. Judgment. Osr. A hit, a very palpable hit. Laer. Well, — again. 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. Vl play this bout first; set it by awhile. Come. —[ They play.] Another hit; what say you? Laer. A touch, a touch; I do confess.** King. Our son shall win. Queen. He’s fat, and scant of breath.** — is a name for Jarge and precious pearls. Afterwards, on finding out what the King’s wnion was, Hamlet tauntingly asks, “ Is thy union here 1”? According to Rondeletus, pearls were thought to have an exhilarating quality. To swallow them in a draught, was esteemed a high strain of magnificence. Thus in If You know not Me You know Nobody : «Here sixteen thousand pound at one clap goes, Instead of sugar: Gresham drinks this pearl Unto the queen his mistress.” H. 38 The words, “A touch, a touch,” are not in the quartos. H. - 39 This speaking of Hamlet as “fat and scant of breath” is ) greatly at odds with the idea we are apt to form of him; though . SC. IT. PRINCE OF DENMARK. Site Here, Hamlet, take my napkin, rub thy brows: The queen carouses to thy fortune, Hamlet. Ham. Good madam, — King. Gertrude, do not drink. Queen. Iwill, my lord: I pray you, pardon me. King. [Aside.] It is the poison’d cup! it is too late. Ham. I dare not drink yet, madam ; by and by. Queen. Come, let me wipe thy face. Laer. My lord, Vil hit him now. King. I do not think it. Laer. [| Aside.| And yet ’t is almost ’gainst my conscience. Ham. Come, for the third, Laertes. You but dally : I pray you, pass with your best violence: J am,afeard you make a wanton of me.” Laer. Say you so? come on. [ They play. Osr. Nothing, neither way. Laer. Have at you now. [LaeRTES wounds HaMLeT; then, in scuf- fling, they change Rapiers, and HaMLetT wounds LAERTES. there is no good reason why the being somewhat fat should in any point take off from his excellences as a man or a prince. It is thought by some, however, and seems indeed likely enough to have been true, that the expression was used with special reference to Burbage, the original actor of Hamlet’s part. Burbage died in 1619; and in a manuscript elegy upon his death, sold, not many years since, among Heber’s books, are the following lines, which both ascertain his original performance of the part, and also ren- der it probable that the words in question had reference to him: «No more young Hamlet, though but scant of breath, Shall cry ‘ Revenge!’ for his dear father’s death.” —_H. 40 That is, that you trifle with me as if I were a child, or om not worth “ your best violence.’’ — The quartos have sure insteac of afeard. H. VOL. X. 82 374 HAMLET, ACT V, King. Part them! they are incens’d. Ham. Nay, come again. [The Queen falls. Osr. Look to the queen there, ho! Hor. They bleed on both sides. — How is’t, my lord? Osr. How is’t, Laertes? Laer. Why, as a woodcock to mine own springe, Osrick 3 I am justly kill’d with mine own treachery. Ham. How does the queen? King. She swoons to see them bleed. Queen. No, no, the drink, the drink !— O, my dear Hamlet! | The drink, the drink !—TI am poison’d'! [ Dies. Ham. O villainy !—Ho! let the door be lock’d: Treachery ! seek it out. [Larrtes falls. Laer. It is here, Hamlet. Hamlet, thou art slain 5 No medicine in the world can do thee’ good: In thee there is not half an hour of life ;“ The treacherous instrument is in thy hand, Unbated, and envenom’d.** The foul practice Hath turn’d itself on me: lo! here I lie, Never to rise again. Thy mother’s poison’d: I can no more; the king, the king’s to blame. Ham. The point Envenom’d too !— Then, venom, to thy work! [Stabs the King. All. Treason ! ‘treason ! King. O! yet defend me, friends; I am but hurt. Ham. Here, thou incestuous, murderous, damned Dane, Drink off this potion: —is thy union here ? % ollow my mother. [ King dies 41 So the folio; the quartos, “half an hour’s life.” H. 42 Unbated is unblunted, as in Act iv. sc. 7, note 18. H. oo Ps) sc. II. _ PRINCE OF DENMARK. 375 Laer. He is justly serv’d; It is a poison temper’d by himself. — Exchange forgiveness with me, noble Hamlet : Mine and my father’s death come not upon thee, Nor thine on me! [ Dies. Ham. Heaven make thee free of it! I follow thee. I am dead, Horatio. — Wretched queen, adieu ! — You that look pale and tremble at this chance, That are but mutes or audience to this act, Had I but time, (as this fell sergeant, death, Is strict in his arrest,) O! I could tell you — But let it be. — Horatio, I am dead ; Thou liv’st : report me and my cause aright To the unsatisfied. For. Never believe it : I am more an antique Roman than a Dane. Here’s yet some liquor left. Ham. As thou ’rt a man, Give me the cup: let go; by Heaven, I’ll have’t.— O God ! — Horatio, what a wounded name, Things standing thus unknown, shall live behind me ! If thou didst ever hold me in thy heart, Absent thee from felicity awhile, And in this harsh world draw thy breath in pain, To tell my story. — [March afar off, and Shot within. What warlike noise is this ? Osr. Young Fortinbras, with conquest come from Poland, To the ambassadors of England gives This warlike volley. Ham. O, I die, Horatio ! The potent poison quite o’ercrows my spirit: ** 43 To overcrow is to overcome, to subdue. “These noblemen 376 HAMLET, ACT V- I cannot live to hear the news from England ; But I do prophesy th’ election lights On Fortinbras: he has my dying voice 5 So tell him, with the occurrents, more and less, Which have solicited ‘‘— The rest is silence. [Dies. Hor. Now cracks a noble heart !— Good night, sweet prince 3 And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest ! — Why does the drum comé hither. — [March within. Enter Fortixpras, the English Ambassadors, and Others. Fort. Where is this sight ? Hor. What is it ye would see? If aught of woe or wonder, cease your search. Fort. This quarry cries on havoc !** —O, proud death ! What feast is toward in thine eternal cell, That thou so many princes, at a shot, So bloodily hast struck ? 1 Amb. The sight is dismal, And our affairs from England come too late: The ears are senseless that should give us hearing, To tell him his commandment is fulfill’d 5 That Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead. Where should we have our thanks? Jaboured with tooth and naile to overcrow, and consequently to overthrow one another.” — Holinshed’s History of Ireland. 44 Occurrents was much used in the Poet’s time for events or occurrences. — Solicited is prompted or excited ; as “this super- natural soliciting” in Macbeth. —< More and less” is greater and smaller ; a common usage with the old writers. — The folio adds, after silence, “O, 0, 0, 0.” H. 43 To cry on was to exclaim against. I suppose, when unfair sportsmen destroyed more game than was reasonable, the censure was to call it havoc. — Jounson.— Quarry was the term used for a heap of slaughtered game. See Macbeth, Act i. sc. 2, note 3. SC. IT. PRINCE OF DENMARK. 377 Hor. Not from his mouth, Had it th’ ability of life to thank you: He never gave commandment for their death. But since, so jump upon this bloody question,*® You from the Polack wars, and you from England, Are here arriv’d, give order that these bodies High on a stage be placed to the view ; And let me speak to th’ yet unknowing world, How these things came about: so shall you hear Of carnal, bloody, and unnatural acts ; Of accidental judgments, casual slaughters ; Of deaths put on by cunning, and fore’d cause ; *” And, in this upshot, purposes mistook Fall’n on the inventors’ heads: all this can I Truly deliver. — Fort. Let us haste to hear it, And call the noblest to the audience. For me, with sorrow I embrace my fortune : I have some rights of memory in this kingdom,* Which now to claim my vantage doth invite me. Hor. Of that I shall have also cause to speak, And from his mouth whose voice will draw on more: But let this same be presently perform’d, Even while men’s minds are wild; lest more mis- chance, On plots and errors, happen. Fort. Let four captains Bear Hamlet, like a soldier, to the stage ; 46 Tt has been already observed that jump and just, or exactly, are synonymous. See Acti. sc. 1, note 10. 47 The quartos have “and for no cause.’ The phrase put on here means instigated or set on foot, Cunning refers, apparent- ly, to Hamlet’s action touching “the packet,” and forc’d cause, to the “compelling occasion,’ which moved him to that piece of practice. H. 48 That is, some rights which are remembered in this kingdom, a2 * For he was likely, had he been put on, To have prov’d most royally : and, for his passage, The soldier’s music, and the rights of war, ee ae Speak loudly for him. — hi ec a Take up the bodies. — Such a sight as this ae Becomes the field, but here shows much amiss. — Plat 3 Go, bid the soldiers shoot. _ [A dead March, a [Exzeunt, marching ; after which, a Peal fs. e Ordnance is shot off. INTRODUCTION TO THE TRAGEDY OF OTHELLO. It Moro pr VeEneEz1a is the title of one of the novels in Gi- raldi Cinthio’s Hecatommithi. The material for THE TRAGEDY OF OTHELLO, THE Moor oF VENICE, was partly derived from this source. Whether the story was accessible to Shakespeare in Englisn, we have no certain knowledge. No translation of so _ early%a date has been seen or heard of in modern times 3 and we have already in several cases. found reason to think he knew enough of Italian to take the matter directly from the original. We proceed, as usual, to give such an abstract of the tale as may fully discover the nature and extent of the Poet’s obligations : There lived in Venice a valiant Moor who was held in high es- teem for his military genius and services. Desdemona, a lady of great virtue and beauty, won by his noble qualities, fell in love with him. He also became equally enamoured of her, and, notwith- standing the opposition of her friends, married her. They were altogether happy in each other until the Moor was chosen to the military command of Cyprus. Though much pleased with this honour, he was troubled to think that he must either part from his wife or else expose her to the dangers of the voyage. She, see- ing him troubled and not knowing the cause, asked him one day how he could be so melancholy afier being thus honoured by the Senate ; and, on being told the reason, begged him to dismiss @such idle thoughts, as she was resolved to follow him wherever he should go, and, if there were any dangers in the way, to share them with him. So, the necessary preparations being made, he soon afterwards embarked with his wife, and sailed for Cyprus. In his company he had an ensign, of a fine-looking person, but exceedingly depraved in heart, a boaster and a coward, who by his crafliness and pretension had imposed on the Moor’s simplicity, and gained his friendship. This rascal also took his wife along, a handsome and discreet woman, who, being an Italian, was much cherished by Desdemona. In the same company was also a 382 OTHELLO, THE MOOR OF VENICE. lieutenant to whom the Moor was much attached, and often had him to dine with him and his wife ; Desdemona showing him great attention and civility for her husband’s sake. The ensign, falling passionately in love with Desdemona, and not daring to avow it lest the Moor should kill him, sought by private means to make her aware of his passion. But when he saw that all his efforts came to nothing, and that she was too much wrapped up in her husband to think of him or any one else, he at last took it into his head that she was in love with the lieutenant, and determined to work the ruin of them both by accusing them to the Moor of adultery. But he saw that he would have to be very artful in his treachery, else the Moor would not believe him, so great was his affection for his wife, and his friendship for the lieutenant. He therefore watched for an opportunity of putting his design into act ; and it was not long before he found one, For, the lieutenant having drawn his sword and wounded a soldier upon guard, the Moor cashiered him. Desdemona tried very hard to get him pardoned, and received again to favour. When the Moor told his ensign how earnest she was in this cause, the villain saw it was the proper time for opening bis scheme: so, he suggested that she might be fond of the lieutenant’s company ; and, the Moor asking him why, he replied, — “Nay, I do not choose to meddle between man and wife ; but watch her properly, and you will then understand me.”? The Moor could get no further explanation from him, and, being stung to the quick by his words, kept brooding upon them, and trying to make out their meaning ; and when his wife, some time after, again begged him to forgive the lieutenant, and not to let one slight fault cancel a friendship of so many years, ° he at last grew angry, and wondered why she should trouble herself so much about the fellow, as he was no relation of hers. She replied with much sweetness, that her only motive in speaking was the pain she felt in seeing ber husband deprived of so good a friend. Upon this solicitation, he began to suspect that the ensign’s words meant that she was in love with the lieutenant. So, being full of melancholy thoughts, he went to the ensign, and tried to make him speak more intelligibly ; who, feigning great reluctance to say more, and making as though he yielded to his pressing en- treaties, at last replied, —“ You must know, then, that Desdemona is grieved for the lieutenant only because, when he comes to your house, she consoles herself with him for the disgust she now has at your blackness.” At this, the Moor was more deeply stung than ever ; but, wishing to be informed further, he put on a threatening look, and said, —