Imatges de pàgina
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That he is open to incontinency,

[quaintly

That's not my meaning; but breathe his faults fo That they may feem the taints of liberty;

The flash and outbreak of a fiery mind,

A favagenefs in unreclaimed blood

Of general affault.

Rey. But, my good Lord-----

Pol. Wherefore fhould you do this?
Rey. Ay, my Lord, I would know that.
Pol. Marry, Sir, here's my drift;

And I believe it is a fetch of wit.

You, laying thefe flight fullies on my son, (24)

Mr Pope, I obferve, feems to admit the emendation; but I retract is as an idle, unweighed conjecture. The reafoning on which it is built is fallacious; and our Author's licentious manner of exprefling himself elfewhere, convinces me. that any change is altogether unnecessary.

So, in King Richard II.

Tendering the precious fafety of my prince,
And free from other mifbegotten hare,

Come I appellant to this princely prefence.

Now, ftrictly speaking, here, tendering his prince's fafety is his first mishegotten hate; which nobody will ever believe was the Poet's intention.

And fo, in Macbeth;

Ail thefe are portable,

With other graces weighed.

Malcolm had been enumerating the secret enormities he was guilty of; no graces are mentiened or fuppofed; to that in grammatical ftrictnefs, thefe enormities ftand in the place of first graces, though the Poet means no more than this, that Malcolm's vices would be fupportable, if his graces on the other hand were to be weighed against them.

(24) Your laying these flight fallies on my fon,

As 'twere a thing a little foiled 'th working, 'Tis true, fallies and flights of youth are very frequent phrases; but what agreement in the metaphors is there betwixt fallies and filed? All the old copies which I have seen, read as I have reformed the text.

So Beaumont and Fletcher, in their Two Noble Kinsmen ;

As 'twere a thing a little foiled i' th' working, Mark you, your party in converse, he you would found,

Having ever feen, in the prenominate crimes,
The youth you breathe of guilty, be affured
He clofes with you in this confequence;
Good Sir, or fo, or friend, or gentleman,
(According to the phrafe or the addition
Of man and country.)

Rey. Very good, my Lord.

Pol. And then, Sir, does he this; He does---what was I about to fay?

1 was about to fay fomething--where did I leave? Rey. At clofes in the confequence.

Pol. At, clofes in the confequence---Ay, marry.
He clofes thus ; know the gentleman,
I faw him yesterday, or t' other day,

Or then, with fuch and fuch; and, as you fay,
There was he gaining, there o'ertook in's rowse,
There falling out at tennis; or, perchance,
I faw him enter fuch a house of fale,
Videlicet, a brothel, or fo forth.---See you now;
Your bait of falfehood takes this carp of truth;
And thus do we of wisdom and of reach,
With windlaces, and with effays of bias,
By indirections find directions out:
So by my former lecture and advice

Shall you my fon; you have me, have you not?
Rey. My Lord, I have.

Pol. God b' w' you; fare you well.

Rey. Good my Lord----

Pol. Obferve his inclination in yourself.

Rey. I fhall, my Lord.

Let us leave the city

Thebes, and the temptings in't, before we further
Sully our glofs of youth.

Pol. And let him ply his mufic.

Rey. Well, my Lord.

Enter OPHELIA.

[Exit.

Pol. Farewel. How now, Ophelia, what's the matter?

Oph. Alas, my Lord, I have been fo affrighted!
Pol. With what, in the name of Heaven?

Oph. My Lord, as I was fewing in my closet,
Lord Hamlet with his doublet all unbraced,
No hat upon his head, his stockings loose, (25)
Ungartered, and down-gyred to his ancle;

(25)

-his flockings fouled,

Ungartered, and down gyved to his ancle;] I have restored the reading of the elder Quartos,- -his ftockings loofe.The change, I fufpect, was firft from the players, who faw a contradiction in his ftockings being loofe, and yet hackled down at ancle. But they, in their ignorance, blundered away our Author's word, because they did not underfland it;

Ungartered, and down-gyred.

i. e. turned down. So the oldeft copies; and so his stockings were properly loofe, as they were ungartered and rowled down to the ancle. rupos among the Greeks fignified a circle; and yupów, to roul round; and the word yupos alfo meant crooked. Therefore the Gyræan rocks, amidst which Ajax of Locri was loft, were called fo, because they lay, as it were, in a ring. Hefychius, by the by, wants a flight cor reftion upon this word. † Γυρῆσι πέτρησιν, ὕτω καλῶνται, † Γυραὶ πέτραι ἐν τῷ ἰκαρίω πελάγει, πρὸς μυκώνη τῇ νήσω. In the first place we must take away the note of diftinction, and reduce the two articles into one, thus: † rupños TÉTρYTIV ἔτω καλῶνται Γυραὶ πέτραι, &c. Then, inftead of μυκων», we mutt read μυκώνω, οι μυκόνω; for it is written both ways. But to return to my theme. The Latins borrowed gyrus from the Greeks to fignify a circle; as we may find in their beft poets and profe writers; and the Spaniards and Italians have from thence adopted both the verb and fubftantive into their tongues fo that Shakespeare could not be at a lofs for the ufe of the term.

Pale as his fhirt; his knees knocking each other, And with a look fo piteous in purport,

As if he had been loofed out of hell,

To speak of horrors; thus he comes before me.
Pol. Mad for thy love?

Oph. My Lord, I do not know:
Bat truly I do fear it.

Pol. What faid he?

Oph. He took me by the wrist, and held me hard;
Then goes he to the length of all his arm:
And with his other hand, thus o'er his brow,
He falls to fuch perufal of my face,

As he would draw it. Long time staid he so;
At laft, a little fhaking of mine arm,

And thrice his head thus waving up and down,
He raised a figh, fo piteous and profound,
That it did feem to fhatter all his bulk,
And end his being. Then he lets me go,
And with his head over his fhoulder turned,
He feemed to find his way without his eyes;
For out of doors he went without their help,
And to the last bended their light on me.

Pol. Come, go with me, I will go feek the King. This is the very ecftacy of love;

Whofe violent property foredoes itself,

And leads the will to defperate undertakings,
As oft as any paffion under Heaven,

That does afflict our natures. I am forry.

What, have you given him any hard words of late? Oph. No, my good Lord; but as you did comI thd repel his letters, and denied

His accefs to me.

Pol. That hath made him mad.

[mand,

I'm forry that with better speed and judgment (26)

(26) I'm ferry, that with better heed and judgment,

I had not quoted him.] I have restored with the generality VOL. XII.

E

I had not quoted him. I feared he trifled,

And meant to wreck thee; but befhrew my jealousy;
It feems it is as proper to our age

To caft beyond ourselves in our opinions,
As it is common for the younger fort

To lack difcretion. 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.

SCENE changes to the Palace.

[Exeunt.

Enter King, Queen, ROSINCRANTZ, GUILDENSTERN, Lords, and other Attendants.

King. Welcome, dear Rofincrantz and Guildenftern!

of the older copies (peed; and every knowing reader of our Author muft have obferved, that he oftner ufes speed in the fignification of fuccess than of celerity. To be content with a few inftances;

Launc. There,-and St Nicholas be thy Speed!
Two Gent. of Verona.
Rof. Now Hercules be thy Speed, young man! As You Like it.
(Let me fee; what then?- -St Dennis by my (pred!
King Henry V.

Winter's Tale.

Bapt. Well mayeft thou wooe, and happy be thy Speed! Taming the Shrew. The prince your fon, with mere conceit and fear Of the Queen's Speed, is gone. Or if we were to take Speed. in its native fenfe of quickness, celerity, Polonius might very properly ufe it; meaning that he is forry he had not fooner, and with better judgment, fifted into Hamlet's indifpofition.

So Neftor fays, in Troilus;

And in the publication, make no strain,
But that Achilles-

-will with great speed of judgment,
Ay, with celerity, find Hector's purpose
Pointing on him.

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