Ber. Welcome, Horatio; welcome, good Marcellus.

Mar. What, has this thing appear'd again to-night ?

Ber. I have seen nothing.

Mar. Horatio says, 't is but our fantasy; And will not let belief take hold of him, Touching this dreaded sight, twice seen of us : Therefore I have entreated 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. Hor. Tush! tush! 't will not appear. Ber. Sit down awhile;

b

Together with that fair and warlike form
In which the majesty of buried Denmark

a This line has been ordinarily given to Horatio, as in the quarto (B). In the folio, and the first quarto of 1603 (4), it belongs to Marcellus.

b Confirm what we have seen.

e Exorcisms were usually performed in Latin-the language of the church-service.

d Harrows, in the folio. In quarto (4), horrors; in (B), horrows. Mr Caldecott states that the word harrow is here used in the metaphorical sense which it takes from the operations of the harrow, in tearing asunder clods of earth. On the other hand some etymologists assert that to harrow and to harry (to vex, to disturb,) are the same, and that the implement of husbandry derived its name from the verb. Mr. Caldecott has a curious note on the harou-the cry for help-of the Normans, with which harrow and harry seem to have some connexion. (See his Specimen of an Edition of Shakespeare,' 1832.)

e In quarto (B), speak to; Question, in the folio, and quarto (4).

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

a Polacks-Poles. In the old copies the word is spelt Pollar, according probably with the pronunciation. Steevens reads Polack, "as it is not likely that provocation was given by more than one."

b Just, in the folio; in quarto (B), jump. Malone properly observes, that "in the folio we sometimes find a familiar word substituted for one more ancient." In this play, however, the more ancient word occurs--" so jump upon this bloody question." (Act v. Sc. 11.)

c What might be in preparation. To-weard, to-ward, is the Anglo-Saxon participle, equivalent to coming, about to

come.

(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,"

Did forfeit, with his life, all those his lands,
Which he stood seiz'd on, 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 cov❜nant b

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 enterprize

That hath a stomach in't which is no other
(And 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;
The source of this our watch; and the chief head
Of this post-haste and romaged in the land.

[Ber. I think it be no other, but even so : Well may it sort, that this portentous figure Comes armed through our watch so like the king

That was, and is, the question of these wars.
Hor. A moth 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 solemn agreement for this trial at arms was recog nized by the courts of law and of chivalry. They were distinct ratifications; and therefore "law and heraldry" does not mean "the herald law," as Upton says.

b Cor'nant, in the folio; in quarto (B), co-mart.

e Unimproved, in folio; in quarto (A), inapproved. Johnson says, "unimproved mettle" is full of spirit, not regulated or guided by knowledge and experience." Gifford affirms that the word "unimproved," here means "just the contrary." Improve was originally used for reprove.

d Romage. The stowing of a ship is the roomage; the stower is the romager. Thus, the hurried search attending lading and unlading gave us rummage, or romage, in the sense of tumbling over and tossing about things in confusion.

* The eighteen lines in brackets are found in quarto (B), but are omitted in the folio. It is probable that Shakspere suppressed this magnificent description of the omens which preceded the fall of "the mightiest Julius," after he had written Julius Cæsar.' In that noble play we have a description greatly resembling this, especially in the lines which we print in italics :

"There is one within,

Besides the things that we have heard and seen,
Recounts most horrid sights seen by the watch.
A lioness hath whelped in the streets;

And graves have yawn'd and yielded up their dead:
Fierce fiery warriors fight upon the clouds,
In ranks, and squadrons, and right form of war,
Which drizzled blood upon the Capitol:
The noise of battle hurtled in the air;
Horses do neigh, and dying men did groan;

And ghosts did shriek and squeal about the streets."

But, soft; behold! lo, where it comes again!
I'll cross it, though it blast me.-Stay, illusion!
If thou hast any sound, or use of voice,
Speak to me:

If there be any good thing to be done,
That may to thee do case, 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 stay, and speak.-Stop it, Mar-
cellus.

Mar. Shall I strike at it with my partizan? Hor. Do, if it will not stand.

Ber.

Hor.

Mar. 'Tis gone!

"T is here!

'Tis here! [Exit GHOST.

We do it wrong, being so majestical,
To offer it the show of violence;
For it is, as the air, invulnerable,
And our vain blows malicious mockery.
Ber. It was about to speak, when the cock

crew.

a The commentators assume that a line is here omitted. Rowe alters the construction of the next two lines, and reads,

"Stars shone with trains of fire, dews of blood fell,
Disasters veil'd the sun."

Malone, instead of "As stars" would read astres. This appears to get rid of the difficulty, for we then have the recital of other prodigies, in connexion with the appearance of the sheeted dead." Steevens, however, says that there is no authority for the use of the word astre. But astral was not uncommon; and asterisk was used for a little star, and asterism for a constellation. We leave the passage as we find it in the quarto.

b The moist star is the moon. So, in the Winter's Tale :"Nine changes of the watery star have been The shepherd's note."

c Omen is here put for "portentous event." The word is used in the sense of fate by Heywood:

"Merlin, well vers'd in many a hidden spell, His country's omen did long since foretell.' Upton points out that Shakspere uses "omen" here in the very same manner as Virgil does, n. I. 349.

a

Hor. 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, The extravagant and erring spirit hies To 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,

The bird of dawning singeth all night long : And then, they say, no spirit can walk b 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.

Hor. So have I heard, and do in part believe it.

But, look, the morn, in russet mantle clad,
Walks o'er the dew of yon high eastern hill :2
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?

Mar. Let's do 't, I pray and I this morning know

Where we shall find him most conveniently.

SCENE II.-The same.

[Exeunt.

A Room of State in the same.

Enter the KING, QUEEN, HAMLET, POLONIUS, LAERTES, VOLTIMAND, CORNELIUS, and Lords Attendant.

King. Though yet of Hamlet our dear brother's death

The memory be green; and that it us befitted
To bear our hearts in grief, and our whole
kingdom

To be contracted in one brow of woe;
Yet so far hath discretion fought with nature,
That we with wisest sorrow think on him,
Together with remembrance of ourselves.
Therefore our sometime sister, now our queen,
The imperial jointress of this warlike state,
Have we, as 't were, with a defeated joy,
With one auspicious and one dropping eye;

a Morn, in quarto (B); in folio, day. The reading of the quarto avoids the repetition of day in the next line but one. b Can walk, in folio. In quarto (B), " dare stir."

e Takes-seizes with disease. As in the Merry Wives of Windsor,

"And there he blasts the tree, and takes the cattle."

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 the 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 here despatch
You, good Cornelius, and you, Voltimand,
For bearing of this greeting to old Norway;
Giving to you no further personal power
To business with the king, more than the scope
Of these dilated articles allow.3
Farewell; and let your haste commend your duty.
Cor. Vol. In that, and all things, will we
show our duty.

a

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.
Dread my lord,
Your leave and favour to return to France;
From whence though willingly I came to Den-
mark,

To show my duty in your coronation;
Yet now, I must confess, that duty done,
My thoughts and wishes bend again towards
France,

And bow them to your gracious leave and pardou.

King. Have you your father's leave? What says Polonius?

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. A little more than kin, and less than
kind.b

Aside.

King. How is it that the clouds still hang on you?

Ha. Not so, my lord, I am too much i' the

sun.

Queen. Good Hamlet, cast thy nightly colour off,

And let thine eye look like a friend on Denmark.
Do not, for ever, with thy vailed lids
Seek for thy noble father in the dust:

Thou know'st, 't is common; all that lives 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, madaan! 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 forc'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, scem,

The passage in brackets is found in quarto (B), but not in the folio.

> Caldecott interprets this passage thus:-"More than a common relation; having a confessedly accumulated title of relationship, you have less than benevolent, or less than even natural feeling." But surely Hamlet applies these words to himself. The king has called him, "my cousin Hamlet.' He says, in a suppressed tone, "A little more than kin"--a little more than cousin. The king adds, "and my son." Hamlet says, "less than kind; "I am little of the same mature with you. Kind is constantly used in the sense of nature by Ben Jonson and other contemporaries of Shakspere.

Farmer thinks that a quibble was intended between sun and son. Surely not. Hamlet says he is too much in the sun for clouds to hang over him; and his meaning is at once explained by an old proverb. In Grindal's Profitable Discourse, 1555, we find this proverb; and the context clearly gives its meaning: "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." Raleigh has the same expression In his History of the World.

Moods. So the folio and quartos. The modern reading is mode. Mood was sometimes used in the sense of mode; but it is, perhaps, here meant to signify something beyond the mere manner of grief-the manner as exhibited in the outward sadness, The forms are the ceremonials of grief,the moods its prevailing sullenness;-the show's (shapes in the quartos) its fits of passion.

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
nature, 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
In obstinate condolement, is a course
Of impious stubbornness; 't is 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? Fye! 't is 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 bath 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 towards 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.

I

Queen. Let not thy mother lose her prayers,

Hamlet;

pray thee, stay with us; go not to Wittenberg. Ham. I shall in all my best obey you, madam. King. Why, 't is a loving and a fair reply; Be as ourself in Denmark.-Madam, come; This gentle and unforc'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.

[Exeunt KING, QUEEN, Lords, &c., POLONIUS, and LAERTES. Ham. O, that this too too solid flesh would melt,

Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew!

a Obsequious sorrow-funereal sorrow,-from obsequies.

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!
Fye on 't! O fye! 't is an unweeded garden,
That grows to seed; things rank, and gross in
nature,

Possess it merely. 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,

Would have mourn'd longer,-married with mine uncle,

a Canon. In the old editions this word is spelt cannon; and thus the commentators think it necessary to prove that the levelling of a piece of artillery is not here meant. By a curious analogy ordnance in the old writers is spelt ordinance. A canon and an ordinance have the same sense; and yet, according to the received etymologies, the words have no common source. A canon and a cannon are each, it is said, derived from canna, a cane ;-its straightness applied as a measure, rule, giving us canon; its length and hollownes:, cannon. Ordinance, of course, is derived from ordinare; and the first French cannoneers being named Gendarmes des Ordonnances, the guns which they used came, it is affirmed. to be called ordnance. We are inclined to think that these etymologies, as applied to artillery, are somewhat fanciful. We have canon direct from the Anglo-Saxon, while in that language a cane is bune. Looking at the precision with which our greatest ordinance" are described by Harrison, --their various names, weight of the shot, weight of powder used, &c., we are inclined to think that cannon and ordinance denoted such pieces of artillery as were made according to a strict technical rule, canon, or ordinance. In Harrison, cannon is spelt canon, showing the French derivation of the word.

b Beteem. Steevens brought back this word, which had been modernised into let e'en; the sentence was afterwards changed to "that he permitted not." To beteem, in this passage, means to vouchsafe, to allow, to suffer. In Heywood's Britaine's Troy,' 1636, we have these lines:"They call'd him God on earth, and much esteem'd him; Much honour he receiv'd, which they beteem'd him." e Discourse of reason. In Massinger we have:-"It adds to my calamity that I have Discourse and reason.

Gifford thinks that this passage in Shakspere should also be discourse and reason." But a subsequent passage in this play explains the phrase, and shows that by discourse is not meant language:

"Sure he that made us with such large discourse,
Looking before and after."

The discourse of reason is the discursion of reason-the faculty of pursuing a train of thought, or of passing from one thought to another;" the discoursing thought," as Sir John Davies expresses it.

But what, in faith, make you from Wittenberg?
Hor. A truant disposition, good my lord.
Ham. I would not have 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.

Ham. I pray thee, do not mock me, fellow