Imatges de pàgina
PDF
EPUB

E T,
Ham. Mother, you have my father much offended.
Queen. Come, come, you answer with an idle
tongue.

Ham. Go, go, you question with a wicked tongue.
Queen. Why, how now, Hamlet?
Ham. What's the matter now?
Queen. Have you forgot me?

Ham. No, by the rood, not fo;

You are the Queen, your husband's brother's wife, But, 'would you were not fo !-You are my mother. Queen. Nay, then I'll fet those to you that can fpeak.

Ham. Come, come, and fit you down; you shall You go not, 'till I fet you up a glafs [not budge: Where you may fee the inmost part of you.

Queen. What wilt thou do? thou wilt not murder Help, ho.

Pol. What ho, help.

[me?

[Behind the Arras.

Ham. How now, a rat? dead for a ducat, dead.

Pul. Oh, I am flain.

[Hamlet kills Polonius.

Queen. Oh me, what hast thou done?

Ham. Nay, I know not: is it the King?

Queen. Oh, what a rafh 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.
Thou wretched, rash, intruding fool, farewel,

[To Polonius.
I took thee for thy betters; take thy fortune;
Thou findeft, to be too bufy, is fome danger.
Leave wringing of your hands; peace, fit you down,
And let me wring your heart, for fo I fhall,
If it be made of penetrable ftuff:

If damned cuftom have not brazed it fo,
That it is proof and bulwark against sense.

Queen. What have I done, that thou dareft wag In noife fo rude against me? [thy tongue

Ham. Such an act,

That blurs the grace and blush of modesty ;
Calls virtue hypocrite; takes off the rofe
From the fair forehead of an innocent love,
And fets a blifter there; makes marriage-vows
As falfe as dicers' oaths. Oh, fuch a deed,
As from the body of contraction plucks
The very foul, and sweet religion makes
A rhapfody of words. Heaven's face doth glow;
Yea, this folidity and compound mass,
With triftful vifage, as against the doom,
Is thought fick at the act.

Queen. Ay me! what act,

That roars fo loud, and thunders in the index?
Ham. Look here upon this picture, and on this,
The counterfeit prefentment of two brothers:
See, what a grace was feated on this brow;
Hyperion's curls; the front of Jove himself;
An eye like Mars, to threaten or command;
A ftation, like the herald Mercury (49)

(49) 4 ftation, 'ke the herald Mercury,] The Poet employs this word in a fenfe different from what it is generally ufed to fignify; for it means here an attitude, a filent pofture, fixt demeanour of perfon, in oppofition to an active behaviour. So our Poet before, defcribing Octavia;

Cleo. What majefty is in her gate? Remember,
If e'er thou lookedst on majesty?

Me. She creeps:

Her motion and her ftation are as one. Anto. and Cleop. And I ought to obferve, (which feems no bad proof of our Author's learning and knowledge) that among the Latins, the word ftatio, in its firft and natural fignification, implied ftantis acis, i. e. a posture, or attitude. This Monf. Fresnoy, in his Art of Painting, has chose to exprefs by pofitura:

New-lighted on a heaven-kiffing hill;

A combination, and a form indeed,
Where every God did feem to set his feal,

То

To give the world affurance of a man.

This was your husband,---Look you now, what fol-
Here is your husband, like a mildewed ear, [lows;
Blafting 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 ftep from this to this? Senfe, fure, you
have, (50)

Querendafque inter pofituras, luminis, umbra,
Atque futurorum jam præfentire colorum

Par erit harmoniam

Which our Dryden has thus tranflated; "'Tis the business of a painter, in his choice of attitudes, to foresee the effect and harmony of the lights and fhadows, with the colours which are to enter into the whole." And again, afterwards; Mutorumque filens pofitura imitabitur actus.

Which I think may be thus rendered;

Still let the filent attitude betray

What the mute figure should in gefture fay.

(50)-fenfe, fure you have, &c.] Mr Pope has left out the quantity of about eight verfes here, which I have taken care to replace. They are not, indeed, to be found in the two elder Folios, but they carry the ftile, expreffion, and caft of thought, peculiar to our Author; and that they were not an interpolation from another hand needs no better proof than that they are in all the oldeft Quartos. The first motive of their being left out, I am perfuaded, was to fhorten Hemlet's fpeech, and confult the cafe of the actor: and the reafon why they find no place in the Folio impreffions is, that they were printed from the playhouse caftrated copies. But, furely, this can be no authority for a modern editor to confpire in mutilating his author; fuch omillions either must betray a want of diligence in collating, or a want of justice in the voluntary ftifling.

[fenfe

Elfe could you not have motion: but, fure, that
Is apoplexed: for madness would not err;
Nor fenfe to ecitafy was ne'er fo thralled,

But it referved fome quantity of choice

To ferve in fuch a difference.What devil was't
That thus had cozened you at hoodman blind?
Eyes without feeling, feeling without fight,
Ears without hands or eyes, fmelling fans all,
Or but a fickly part of one true fenfe

Could not fo mope.

O fhame! where is thy blufh? rebellious hell,
If thou canst mutiny in a matron's bones,
To flaming youth let virtue be as wax,

And melt in her own fire. Proclaim no fhame, (51)
When the compulfive ardour gives the charge;
Since froft itself as actively doth burn,

And Reafon panders Will.

Queen. O Hamlet, fpeak no more.

Thou turneft mine eyes into my very foul,
And there I fee fuch black and grained spots,
As will not leave their tinct.

Ham. Nay, but to live

In the rank fweat of an incestuous bed,

(51).

-Proclaim no fuame,

When the compulfive ardour gives the charge;
Since froft itself as a&ively does burn,

And reafon pardons will] This is, indeed, the reading of fome of the older copies; and Mr Pope has a ftrange fatality, whenever there is a various reading, of efpouting the wrong one. The whole tenour of the context demands the word degraded by that judicious editor;

And reafon panders will.

This is the reflection which Hamlet is making, "Let us not call it thame when heat of blood compels young people to indulge their appetites; fince froft too can burn; and age, at that feafon when judgment fhould predominate, yet feels the ftings of inclination, and fuffers reafon to be the bawd to appetite."

VOL. XII.

K

Stewed in corruption, honeying and making love Over the nafty fy.

Queen. Oh, fpeak no more;

These words like daggers enter in mine ears.
No more, fweet Hamlet.

Ham. A murderer, and a villain !---------
A flave, that is not twentieth part the tythe
Of your precedent Lord; a vice of kings;----(52)
A cutpurfe of the empire and the rule,
That from a fhelf the precious diadem stole
And put it in his pocket.

Queen. No more.

Enter Ghoft.

Ham. A king of fhreds and patches----Save me! and hover o'er me with your wings,

[Starting up.

You heavenly guards! what would your gracious Queen. Alas! he's mad----

[figure?
Ham. Do you not come your tardy fon to chide,
That, lapfed in time and paffion, lets go by
Th' important acting of your dread command?
O fay!

Ghoft. Do not forget: this vifitation
Is but to whet thy almost blunted purpose.
But, look! amazement on thy mother fits;
Oftep between her and her fighting foul:

(52) ——— A Vice of Kings;] This does not mean, a very vicious king; as on the other hand, in King Henry V. this grace of Kings, means this gracious King, this honour to royalty. But here I take it, a perfon, and not a quality, is to be understood. By a vice (as I have explained the word in feveral preceding notes) is meant that buffoon character which used to play the fool in old plays; fo that Hamlet is here defigned to call his uncle, a ridiculous ape of majesty, but the mimiery of a king.

« AnteriorContinua »