That I must be their scourge and minister. The death I gave him. So, again, good night!— Thus bad begins, and worse remains behind.— Queen. What shall I do? Ham. Not this, by no means, that I bid you do: I take leave to vindicate the last editor of the octavo Shakspeare from any just share in the foregoing accusation. Whoever looks into the edition 1785, will see the line before us printed exactly as in this and Mr. Malone's text.—In several preceding instances a similar censure on the same gentleman has been as undeservedly implied. Steevens. 3 I must be cruel, only to be kind:] This sentiment resembles the-facto pius, et sceleratus eodem, of Ovid's Metamorphoses, B. III. It is thus translated by Golding: "For which he might both justly kinde, and cruel called bee." Steevens. 4 But one word more, &c.] This passage I have restored from the quartos. For the of sake metre, however, I have supplied the conjunction-But. Steevens. 5 Let the bloat king -] i. e. the swollen king. Bloat is the reading of the quarto, 1604. Malone. This again hints at his intemperance. He had already drank himself into a dropsy. Blackstone. The folio reads-blunt king. Henderson. 6 his mouse;] Mouse was once a term of endearment. So, in Warner's Albion's England, 1602, B. II, ch. xvi: "God bless thee mouse, the bridegroom said," &c. Again, in the Menæchmi, 1595: "Shall I tell thee, sweet mouse? I never look upon thee, but I am quite out of love with my wife." Steevens. This term of endearment is very ancient, being found in A new and merry interlude, called the Trial of Treasure, 1567 : 7 "My mouse, my nobs, my cony sweete; 66 My hope and joye, my whole delight." Malone. reechy kisses,] Reechy is smoky. The author meant to convey a coarse idea, and was not very scrupulous in his choice of an epithet. The same, however, is applied with greater propriety to the neck of a cook-maid in Coriolanus. Again, in Hans Beer Pot's Invisible Comedy, 1618: Or padling in your neck with his damn'd fingers, That I essentially am not in madness, But mad in craft. 'Twere good, you let him know: 66 bade him go "And wash his face, he look'd so reechily, "Like bacon hanging on the chimney's roof." Steevens, Reechy properly means steaming with exsudation, and seems to have been selected, to convey, in this place, its grossest import. Henley. Reechy includes, I believe, heat as well as smoke. The verb to reech, which was once common, was certainly a corruption of -to reek. In a former passage Hamlet has remonstrated with his mother, on her living "In the rank sweat of an enseamed bed." Malone. Reeky most certainly was not designed by our author to convey the idea of heat, being employed by him in Romeo and Juliet, to signify the chill damp of human bones in a sepulchre : · reeky shanks, and yellow chapless sculls." Steevens. 8 That I essentially am not in madness, But mad in craft.] The reader will be pleased to see Dr. Farmer's extract from the old quarto Historie of Hamblett, of which he had a fragment only in his possession:- -"It was not without cause, and just occasion, that my gestures, countenances, and words, seeme to proceed from a madman, and that I desire to haue all men esteeme mee wholly depriued of sense and reasonable understanding, bycause I am well assured, that he that hath made no conscience to kill his owne brother, (accustomed to murthers, and allured with desire of gouernement without controll in his treasons) will not spare to saue himselfe with the like crueltie, in the blood and flesh of the loyns of his brother, by him massacred; and therefore it is better for me to fayne madnesse, then to use my right sences as nature hath bestowed them upon me. The bright shining clearnes thereof I am forced to hide vnder this shadow of dissimulation, as the sun doth hir beams under some great cloud, when the wether in summer-time ouercasteth the face of a madman serueth to couer my gallant countenance, and the gestures of a fool are fit for me, to the end that, guiding myself wisely therein, I may preserue my life for the Danes and the memory of my late deceased father; for that the desire of reuenging his death is so ingraven in my heart, that if I dye not shortly, I hope to take such and so great vengeance, that these countryes shall for euer speake thereof. Neuerthelesse I must stay the time, meanes, and occasion, lest by making ouergreat hast, I be now the cause of mine own sodaine ruine and ouerthrow, and by that meanes end, before I beginne to effect my hearts desire: hee that hath to doe with a wicked, disloyall, cruell, and discourteous man, must vse craft, and politike inuentions, such as a fine witte can best imagine, not to discover his interprise; for seeing that by force I cannot effect my desire, For who, that 's but a queen, fair, sober, wise, Unpeg the basket on the house's top, And break your own neck down. Queen. Be thou assur'd, if words be made of breatir, And breath of life, I have no life to breathe What thou hast said to me. Ham. I must to England;3 you know that? I had forgot; 'tis so concluded on. Alack, Ham. There 's letters seal'd:4 and my two school-fel lows, reason alloweth me by dissimulation, subtiltie, and secret practices to proceed therein." 9 Steevens. a gib,] So, in Drayton's Epistle from Elinor Cobham to Duke Humphrey : "And call me beldam, gib, witch, night-mare, trot." Gib was a common name for a cat. So, in Chaucer's Romaunt of the Rose, ver. 6204: gibbe our cat, "That waiteth mice and rats to killen." Steevens. 1 Unpeg the basket on the house's top, Let the birds fly;] Sir John Suckling, in one of his letters, may possibly allude to the same story: "It is the story of the jackanapes 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." Warner. n. 3. 2 To try conclusions,] i. e. experiments. See Vol. IV, p. 336, Steevens. 3 I must to England;] Shakspeare does not inform us how Hamlet came to know that he was to be sent to England. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern were made acquainted with the King's intentions for the first time in the very last scene; and they do not appear to have had any communication with the Prince since that time. Add to this, that in subsequent scene, when the King, after the death of Polonius, informs Hamlet he was to go to England, he expresses great surprize, as if he had not heard. any thing of it before.-This last, however, may, perhaps, be accounted for, as contributing to his design of passing for a madman. Malone. 4 There's letters seal'd: &c.] The nine following verses are added out of the old edition. Pope. Whom I will trust, as I will adders fang'd,5-- Hoist with his own petar: and it shall go hard, I'll lug the guts into the neighbour room:o- Come, sir, to draw toward an end with you:1- 5 [Exeunt severally; HAM. dragging in POL. adders fang'd,] That is, adders with their fangs or poisonous teeth, undrawn. It has been the practice of mountebanks to boast the efficacy of their antidotes by playing with vipers, but they first disabled their fangs. Johnson. 6 ― they must sweep my way, &c.] This phrase occurs again in Antony and Cleopatra: some friends, that will "Sweep your way for you." Steevens. * Hoist &c.] Hoist, for hoised; as past, for passed. Steevens. 8 When in one line two crafts directly meet.] Still alluding to a countermine. Malone. The same expression has already occurred in K. John, Act IV, speech ult: "Now powers from home, and discontents at home, "Meet in one line." Steevens. 9 I'll lug the guts into the neighbour room:] A line somewhat similar occurs in King Henry VI, P. III: "I'll throw thy body in another room, The word guts was not anciently so offensive to delicacy as it is at present; but was used by Lyly (who made the first attempt to polish our language) in his serious compositions. So, in his Mydas, 1592: "Could not the treasure of Phrygia, nor the tributes of Greece, nor mountains in the East, whose guts are gold, satisfy thy mind?" In short, guts was used where we now use entrails. Stanyhurst often has it in his translation of Virgil, 1582 : Pectoribus inhians spirantia consulit exta. "She weenes her fortune by guts hoate smoakye to conster.” Again, in Chapman's version of the sixth Iliad: in whose guts the king of men imprest "His ashen lance; Steevens. ACT IV2..... SCENE I. The same. Enter King, Queen, ROSENCRANTZ, and GUILDENSTERN. King. There's matter in these sighs; these profound heaves; You must translate: 'tis fit we understand them: Where is your son? Queen. Bestow this place on us a little while.3-- [To Ros. and GUIL. who go out." Ah, my good lord, what have I seen to-night! Queen. Mad as the sea, and wind, when both contends 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? 1 Come, sir, to draw toward an end with you:] Shakspeare has been unfortunate in his management of the story of this play, the most striking circumstances of which arise so early in its formation, as not to leave him room for a conclusion suitable to the importance of its beginning. After this last interview with the Ghost, the character of Hamlet has lost all its consequence Steevens. 2 Act IV.] This play is printed in the old editions without any separation of the acts. The division is modern and arbitrary i and is here not very happy, for the pause is made at a time when there is more continuity of action than in almost any other of the scenes. Johnson. 3 Bestow this place on us a little while.] This line is wanting in the folio. Steevens. my good lord,] The quartos read-mine own lord. Steevens. 5 Mad as the sea, and wind, when both contend &c.] We have precisely the same image in King Lear, expressed with more brevity: 66 - he was met even now, "As mad as the VEX'D sea." Malent. |