I do repent: But heaven hath pleas'd it so,- The death I gave him. So, again, good night!- Thus bad begins, and worse remains behind.- Queen. ; do: What shall I do? But mad in craft.4 "Twere good, you let him know; Unpeg the basket on the house's top, Let the birds fly; and, like the famous ape, Queen. Be thou assur'd if words be made of breath, Ham. I must to England; you know that? Alack, I had forgot; 'tis so concluded on. Whom I will trust, as I will adders fang'd, ACT IV. SCENE I. The same. Enter Krg, Queen King. There's matter in these sighis; these pro You must translate: 'tis fit we understand them: Queen. Bestow this place on us a little while. 12– contend14 Which is the mightier: In his lawless fit, To you yourself, to us, to every one. Should have kept, short restrain'd,and out of haunt,' Queen. To draw apart the body he hath kill'd: They bear the mandate; they must sweep my way, Among a mineral1 of metals base, And marshal me to knavery: Let it work; 11 I'll lug the guts into the neighbour room :11 Shows itself pure; 9 This and the eight following verses are omitted in the folio. 10 Hoist with his own petur. Hoist for hoised. To [Exeunt severally; HAMLET dragging in hoyse was the old verb. A petar was a kind of mortar POLONIUS. Thus 1 To punish me by making me the instrument of this man's death, and to punish this man by my hand. 2 Mouse, a term of endearment formerly. Burton, in his Anatomy of Melancholy: Pleasant names may be invented, bird, mouse, lamb, puss, pigeon,' &c. 3 i. e. reeky or fumant; reekant, as Florio calls it. The King has been already called the bloat king, which hints at his intemperance. In Coriolanus we have the reechy neck of a kitchen wench. Reeky and reechy are the same word, and always applied to any vaporous exhalation, even to the fumes of a dunghill. 4 The hint for Hamlet's feigned madness is taken from the old Historie of Hamblett already mentioned. 5 For paddock, a toad, see Macbeth, Act i. Sc.1: and for gib, a cat, see King Henry IV. Part I. Act i. Sc. 2. used to blow up gates. 11 It must be confessed that this is coarse language for a prince under any circumstances, and such as is not called for by the occasion. But Hamlet has purposely chosen gross expressions and coarse metaphors, throughout the interview with his mother, perhaps to Something may be said in extenuation. The word make his appeal to her feelings the more forcible. guts was not anciently so offensive to delicacy as it is at present; the courtly Lyly has used it in his Mydas, 1592; Stanyhurst often in his translation of Virgil, and Chapman in his version of the sixth Iliad : in whose guts the king of men imprest His ashen lance.' In short, guts was used where we now use entrails. he was met e'en now, 15 Out of haunt means out of 6 To try conclusions is to put to proof, or try experi ments. See Merchant of Venice, Act ii. Sc. 2. Sir John Suckling possibly alludes to the same story in one of his letters: It is the story after all of the jacka-15 Out of haunt means out of company. Frequentia, napes and the partridges; thou starest after a beauty till it be lost to thee, and then let'st out another, and starest after that till it is gone too.' 7 The quarto of 1603 has here another remarkable variation: 'Hamlet, I vow by that Majesty That knows our thoughts and looks into our hearts, a great haunt or company of folk. Thus in Antony 'Dido and her Sichæus shall want troops, 'We talk here in the public haunt of men. 16 Shakspeare, with a licence not unusual among his contemporaries, uses ore for gold, and mineral for mine. Bullokar and Blount both define or or ore, gold; of a golden colour.' And the Cambridge Dic8 The manner in which Hamlet came to know that tionary, 1594, under the Latin word mineralia, will he was to be sent to England is not developed. He ex-show how the English mineral came to be used for a presses surprise when the king mentions it in a future scene, but his design of passing for a madman may account for this. mine. Thus also in The Golden Remaines of Hales of Eton, 1693: Controversies of the times, like spirits in the minerals, with all their labour thing is done.' And from his mother's closet hath he dragg'd him: Ham. -Safely stowed,-[Ros. &c. within. Hamlet! Lord Hamlet!] Hamlet! Lord Hamlet!] But soft!3-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 us where 'tis; that we may take it thence, And bear it to the chapel. Ham. Do not believe it. Ham. That I can keep your counsel, and not mine own. Besides, to be demanded of a sponge! -what replication should be made by the son of a king? Ros. Take you me for a sponge, my lord? Ham. Ay, sir; that soaks up the king's countenance, his rewards, his authorities.4 But such officers do the king best services in the end: He keeps them, like an ape doth nuts," in the corner of his jaw; first mouthed to be last swallowed: When he needs what you have gleaned, it is but squeezing you, and, sponge, you shall be dry again. 6 Ros. I understand you not, my iord. 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 thingGuil. A thing, my lord? Ham. Of nothing: bring me to him. Hide fox, [Exeunt. Enter and all after.R King. I have sent to seek him, and to find the body. How dangerous is it, that this man goes loose! 1 The blank was the mark at which shots or arrows were directed. Thus in The Winter's Tale, Act Sc. 3: This sudden sending him away must seem Or not at all.-How now? what hath befallen? But where is he? Ros. Without, my lord; guarded, to know you pleasure. King. Bring him before us. Ros. Ho, Guildenstern! bring in my lord. Enter HAMLET and GUILDENSTERN King. Now, Hamlet, where's Polonius? King. At supper? Where? Ham. Not where he eats, but where he is eaten a certain convocation of politic worms are e'en at him. Your worm is your only emperor for diet: we fat all creatures else, to fat us; and we fat ourselves for magots; Your fat king, and your lean beggar, is but variable service; two dishes, but to one table; that's the end. [King. Alas, alas! Ham. A man may fish with the worm that 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. Go seek him there. [To some Attendants. Ham. He will stay till you come. [Exeunt Attendants. King. Hamlet, this deed, for thine especial safety, Which we do tender, as we dearly grieve hence ii.nothing. Johnson would have altered Of nothing' to Or nothing; but Steevens and Farmer, by their superior acquaintance with our elder writers, soon clearly show ed, by several examples, that the text was right. 'Out of the blank and level of my aim.' 2 The passage in brackets is not in the folio. The words 'So, haply, slander,' are also omitted in the quartos; they were supplied by Theobald. The addition is supported by a passage in Cymbeline : No, 'tis slander, Whose edge is sharper than the sword, whose tongue 3 'But soft,' these two words are not in the folio. 4 Here the quarto, 1603, inserts that makes his liberality your storehouse, but,' &c. 5 The omission of the words' doth nuts,' in the old copies, had obscured this passage. Dr. Farmer proposed to read like an ape an apple. The words are now supplied from the newly discovered quarto of 1603. 6 'He's but a spunge, and shortly needs must leese, His wrong got juice, when greatness' fist shall s Hide fox, and all after.' This was a juvenile sport, most probably what is now called hoop, or hide and seek; in which one child hides himself, and the rest run all after, seeking him. The words are not in the quarto. 9Alas, Alas! This speech and the following one of Hamlet, are omitted in the folio. 10 A progress is a journey. Steevens says 'it alludes to the royal journies of state, always styled progresses.' This was probably in Shakspeare's mind, for the word was certainly applied to those periodical journeys of the sovereign to visit their noble subjects, but by no means exclusively. Sir William Drury, in a Letter to Sir Nicholas Throckmorton, among the Conway papers, tells him he is going a little progresse to be merry with his neighbours.? And that popular book of John Bunyan's, The Pilgrim's Progress, is surely not the account of a regal 'predatory excursion' 11 i. e. in modern phrase 'the wind serves,' or is right to aid or help you on your way 12 i. e. attend. King. Follow him at foot; tempt him with speed That inward breaks, and shows no cause without Why the man dies.-I humbly thank you, sir, Cap. God be wi' you, sir. aboard; Delay it not, I'll have him hence to-night; The present death of Hamlet. Do it, England; [Exit. Cap. Truly to speak, sir, and with no addition, gain a little patch of ground, That hath in it no profit but the name. We go To pay five ducats, five, I would not farm it; 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: 1 To set formerly meant to estimate. There is no ellipsis, as Malone supposed. 'To sette, or tell the pryce; æstimare. To set much or little by a thing, is to estimate it much or little. 'Howe'er my haps, my joys were ne'er begun.” 4 The quarto reads craves. 5 Eye for presence. In the Regulations for the esta blishment of the Queen's Household, 1627 :—' All such as doe service in the queen's eye.' And in the Establishment of Prince Henry's Household, 1610:—' All such as doe service in the prince's eye. It was the formu.ary for the royal presence. 6 The remainder of this scene is omitted in the folio. 7 i. e. profit. 8 See note on Act i. Sc. 2. It is evident that discursive [Exit Captain. To fust in us unus'd. Now, whether it be A thought, which, quarter'd, hath but one part wisdom, And, ever, three parts coward,-I do not know To all that fortune, death, and danger, dare, [Exit. Spurns enviously13 at straws; speaks things in doubt; That carry but half sense: her speech is nothing, 'Or yelde the til us als creant.' And in Richard Cœur de Lion (Weber, vol. ii. p. 203), 'On knees he fel down, and cryde, "Creaunt." It then became cravant, cravent, and at length craven. It is superfluous to add that recreant is from the same source. 10 • Excitements of my reason and my blood.' Provocations which excite both my reason and my pas sions to vengeance. 11 A plot of ground. Thus in The Mirror for Magistrates: 'Of ground to win a plot, a while to dwell, We venture lives, and send our souls to hell.' 12 Continent means that which comprehends or e.. closes. Thus in Lear : 'Rive your concealing continents.' And in Chapman's version of the third Iliad :— did take Thy fair form for a continent of parts as fair.' powers of mind are meant; or, as Johnson explains it,If there be no fulnesse, then is the continent greater such atitude of comprehension, such power of review than the content."--Bacon's Advancement of Learning, ing the past, and anticipating the future. Since I wrote 1633, p. 7. the former note, I find that Bishop Wilkins makes ratiocination and discourse convertible terms. "You turn the good we offer into envy.' King Henry VIII. 13 Envy is often used by Shakspeare and his contem9 Craven is recreant, cowardly. It may be satisfac-poraries for malice, spite, or hatred :torily traced from crant, creant, the old French word for an act of submission. It is so written in the old metri- See Merchant of Venice, Act iv. Sc. 1. Indeed 'encal romance of Ywaine and Gawaine (Ritson, vol i. p. |viously, and spitefully,' are treated as synonymous by our old writers 1331 : are, but know not what we may be. God Se at your table! King. Conceit upon her father. Oph. 'Pray, let us have no words of this; but Then up he rose, and don'd his clothes, King. Pretty Ophelia ! Oph. Indeed, without an oath, I'll make an ena on't : By Gis, and by Saint Charity,15 Young men will do't, if they come to't; Quoth she, before you tumbled me, [He answers.] So would I ha' done, by yonder sun, King. How long hath she been thus? Oph. I hope, all will be well. We must be patient: but I cannot choose but weep, to think, they should lay him i' the cold ground: My brother shall know of it, and so I thank you for your good counsel. Come, my coach! Good night, ladies good night, sweet ladies: good night, good night. [Exit. 16 King. Follow her close! give her good watch, 1 pers, 1 To collection, that is, to gather or deduce conse-bly induced our Saviour to transform her into that bird quences from such premises. Thus in Cymbeline, Act v. Sc. 5:- whose containing Is so from sense to hardness, that I can Make no collection of it.' See note on that passage. 2 The quartos read-yawn. To aim, is to guess. 3 Folio-would. 4 Unhappily, that is, mischievously. for her wickedness.' The story is related to deter chil- 'To-morrow 'tis Saint Valentine's day.' The emendation was made by Dr. Farmer. The origin of the choosing of Valentines has not been clearly developed. Mr. Douce traces it to a Pagan custom of the same kind during the Lupercalia feasts in honour of Pan and Juno, celebrated in the month of February by the Romans. The anniversary of the good bishop, or Saint Valentine, happening in this month, the pious 6 Shakspeare is not singular in his use of amiss as a early promoters of Christianity placed this popular cussubstantive. Several instances are adduced by Stee-tom under the patronage of the saint, in order to eradivens, and more by Mr. Nares in his Glossary. Each toy,' is each trifle. 5 The three first lines of this speech are given to Horatio in the quarto. cate the notion of its pagan origin. In France the Valantin was a moveable feast, celebrated on the first 7There is no part of this play in its representation Sunday in Lent, which was called the jour des branon the stage more pathetic than this scene; which, I sup-dons, because the boys carried about lighted torches on pose, proceeds from the utter insensibility Ophelia has that day. It is very probable that the saint has nothing to her own misfortunes. A great sensibility, or none at to do with the custom; his legend gives no clue to any all, seem to produce the same effects. In the latter such supposition. The popular notion that the birds [case] the audience supply what is wanting, and with choose their mates about this period has its rise in the the former they sympathize.'-Sir J. Reynolds. poetical world of fiction. 8 These were the badges of pilgrims. The cockle shell was an emblem of their intention to go beyond sea. The habit being held sacred, was often assumed as a disguise in love adventures. In The Old Wive's Tale, by Peele, 1595:-'I will give thee a palmer's staff of ivory, and a scallop shell of beaten gold.' 9 Garnished. 10 Quarto-ground. 11 See Macbeth, Act i. Sc. 6. 12 This (says Mr. Douce) is a common tradition in Gloucestershire, and is thus related:-'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. Whereupon the baker's daughter cried out. Heugh, heugh, heugh, which owl-like noise proba 14To dup is to do up, as to don is to do on, to doff to do off,' &c. 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. See Harman's Caveat for Cursetors, 1575. 15 Saint Charity is found in the Martyrology on the first of August. Romæ passio sanctarum virginum Fidei, Spei, et Charitas, quæ sub Hadriano principe martyriæ coronam adeptæ sunt.' Spenser mentions her in Eclog. v. 225 By gis and by cock are only corrup tions, or rather substitutions, for different forms o imprecation by the sacred name. 16 In the quarto 1603 the King says:— 'Ah, pretty wretch! this is a change indeed : For good Polonius' death; and we have done but greenly,' in hugger-mugger2 to inter him: Poor Ophelia A noise within. 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! Queen. How cheerfully on the false trail they cry! O, this is counter. you false Danish dogs. King. The doors are broke. [Noise within. Enter LAERTES, armed; Danes following. Laer. Where is this king?-Sirs, stand you all without. Danes. No, let's come in. [They retire without the Door. Laer. I thank you :-keep the door.-O, thou vile king, Give me my father. Queen. Calmly, good Laertes. 1 Greenly is unskilfully, with inexperience 2 i. e. secretly. Clandestinare, to hide or conceal by stealth, or in hugger mugger.-Florio. Thus in North's translation of Plutarch :- Antonius, thinking that his body should be honourably buried, and not in hugger mugger.' Pope, offended at this strange phrase, changed it to private, and was followed by others. Upon which Johnson remarks:- If phraseology is to be changed as words grow uncouth by disuse, or gross by vulgarity, the history of every language will be lost : we shall no longer have the words of any author: and as these alterations will be often unskilfully made, we shall in time have very little of his meaning.' 3 The quarto reads:- Keeps on his wonder. The folio-Feeds on this wonder." 4 A murdering-piece, or murderer, was a small piece of artillery; in French meurtriere. It took its name from the loop-holes and embrasures in towers and fortifications, which were so called. The port-holes in the forecastle of a ship were also thus denominated. • Meurtriere, c'est un petit canonniere, comme celles des tours et murailles, ainsi appelle, parceque tirant par icelle a desceu, ceux auquels on tire sont facilement meurtri.'-Ficot. Visiere meurtriere, a port-hole for a murthering-piece in the forecastle of a ship.-Cot. grave. Case shot, filled with small bullets, nails, old fron, &c. was often used in these murderers. This accounts for the raking fire attributed to them in the text, and in Beaumont and Fletcher's Double Marriage :' like a murdering-piece, aims not at me, But all that stand within the dangerous level." 5 The speech of the queen is omitted in the quartos. 6 Switzers, for royal guards. The Swiss were then, as since, mercenary soldiers of any nation that could afford to pay them. 7 The meaning of this contested passage appears to me this: The rabble call him lord; and (as if the world were now but to begin, as if antiquity were forgot, and custom were unknown) this rabble, the ratifiers and props of every idle word, cry Choose we,' &c. Laer. That drop of blood that's calm, proclaims me bastard: Cries, cuckold, to my father; brands the harlot Speak, man. Laer. Where is my father? If you desire to know the certainty Laer. None but his enemies. And like the kind life-rendering pelican, Like a good child, and a true gentleman. 8 Hounds are said to run counter when they are upon a false scent, or hunt it by the heel, running backward Errors, Act iv. Sc. 2. and mistaking the course of the game. See Comedy of Errors, Act iv. Sc. 2. 9 Unsmirched is unsullied, spotless. See Act i. Sc. 3. following anecdote of Queen Elizabeth as an apposite 10 Quarto 1603-wall. Mr. Boswell has adduced the illustration of this passage :-'While her majesty was on the Thames, near Greenwich, a shot was fired by accident, which struck the royal barge, and hurt a amazed, and all crying Treason, Treason! yet she, waterman near her. The French ambassador being with an undaunted spirit, came to the open place of the barge, and bade them never fear, for if the shot were had her presence, and such boldness her heart, that she made at her, they durst not shoot again: such majesty despised fear, and was, as all princes are, or should be, so full of divine fullness, that guiltie mortalitie durst not behold her but with dazzled eyes.'-Henry Chettle's England's Mourning Garment. 11 But let the frame of things disjoint, both the worlds suffer.'-Macbeth. 12 The folio reads politician instead of pelican. This fabulous bird is not unfrequently made use of for purposes of poetical illustration by our elder poets: Shakspeare has again referred to it in King Richard II. and in King Lear: Twas this flesh begot these pelican daughters.' In the old play of King Leir, 1605, it is also used, but in a different sense : 'I am as kind as is the pelican, That kills itself to save her young ones' lives.' 13 Folio-sensible. 14 Pierce is the reading of the folio. The quarto has. 'pear, an awkward contraction of appear. I do not see why appear is more intelligible. Indeed as levc. is here used for direct, Shakspeare's usual meaning o the word, the reading of the quarto, preferred by Johnson and Steevens, is less proper |