Imatges de pàgina
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This world is not for aye; nor 'tis not ftrange
That even our loves thould with our fortunes change.
For 'tis a queftion left us yet to prove,

Whether love leads fortune, or elle fortune love?
The great man down, you mark, his fav'rite flies;
The poor advanced, makes friends of enemies.
And hitherto doth Love en Fortune tend,
For who not needs, fhall never lack a friend;
And who in want a hollow friend doth try,
Directly seasons him his enemy.

But orderly to end where I begun,

Our wills and fates do so contrary run,
That our devices ftill are overthrown;

Our thoughts are ours, their ends none of our own,
Think ftill thou wilt no fecond hufband wed;
But die thy thoughts when thy firft Lord is dead.
Duch. Nor earth to give me food, nor heaven
light.!

Sport and repofe lock from me day and night!
To defperation turn my trust and hope!
An anchor's cheer in prifon be my scope!
Each oppofite, that blanks the face of joy,
Meet what I would have well, and it destroy!
Both here, and hence, purfue me lafting ftrife!
If once a widow, ever I be a wife.

Ham. If the fhould break it now

Duke. 'Tis deeply fworn; fweet, leave me here
a while;

My fpirits grow dull, and fain I would beguile
The tedious day with fleep.

Duch. Sleep rock thy brain,

[Sleeps.

And never come mifchance between us twain !

[Exit.

Ham. Madam, how like you this play?
Queen. The lady protefts too much, methinks.

Ham. Oh, but fhe'll keep her word.

King. Have you heard the argument? is there no

offence in't?

Ham. No, no, they do but jeft, poison in jest, no offence i' the world.

King. What do you call the play?

Ham. The Moufe-Trap;-Marry, how? tro pically. This play is the image of a murder done in Vienna; Gonzago is the Duke's name. his wife's Baptifta; you fhall fee anon, 'tis a knavish piece of work; but what o' that? your Majesty, and we that have free fouls, it touches us not; let the galled jade winch, our withers are unrung.

Enter LUCIANUS.

This is one Lucianus, nephew to the Duke.
Oph. You are as good as a Chorus, my Lord.
Ham. I could interpret between you and your
love, if I could fee the puppets dallying.

Oph. You are keen, my Lord, you are keen.. Ham. It would coft you a groaning to take off my edge.

Oph. Still better and worse. (40)

(40) Still worfe and worse.

Ham. So you must take your husbands.] Surely, this is the moft uncomfortable leffon that ever was preached to the poor ladies; and I can't help wifhing, for our own fakes too, it mayn't be true. 'Tis too foul a blot upon our reputations, that every hufband that a woman takes muft be worse than her former. The Poet, I am pretty certain, intended no fuch fcandal upon the fex. But what a precious collator of copies is Mr Pope! All the old Quartos and Folios read; Ophel. Still better and worse.

Ham. So you mistake husbands.

Hamlet is talking to her in fuch grofs double entenders that fhe is forced to parry them by indirect answers; and remarks, that though his wit be finarter, yet his meaning is more blunt. This I think is the fenfe of her

-Still bet

Ham. So you mistake your husbands. Begin, murderer.--Leave thy damnable faces, and begin.

Come, the croaking raven doth bellow for revenge. Luc. Thoughts black, hands apt, drugs fit, and time agreeing:

Confederate feason, and no creature fecing:
Thou mixture rank, of midnight weeds collected,
With Hecate's ban thrice blafted, thrice infected, (41)
Thy natural magic, and dire property,

On wholfome life ufurp immediately.

[Pours the poifon into his ears. Ham. He poifons him i' th' garden for's eftate; his name's Gonzago; the story is extant, and writ in choice Italian. You fhall fee anon how the murderer gets the love of Gonzago's wife.

ter and worse. This puts Hamlet in mind of the words in the church service of matrimony, and he replies, fo you miflake husbands, i. e. fo you take hufbands and find yourfelves mistaken in them.

(41) With Hecate's bane thrice blafted,] Here again Mr Pope appoves himself a worthy collator; for the old Quartos and Folios concur in reading, as I have reformed the text; With Hecate's bann thrice blasted.

i. e. With her curfe, execration.

So, in Timon;

Take thou that too, with multiplying banns. 2. Henry VI.

Ay, every joint fhould feem to curfe and bann. And again;

Ibid.

You bade me bann, and will you bid me leave? &c. &c. &c. Befides, words of execreation have been always practised in magical operations. So Horace, to give a single instance; Canidia, parce vocibus tandem facris.

Upon which words Parphyrion has given us this fort com. ment. Dialogus nunc de facris, quia facrum religiofum et execrabile fignificatHermannus Figulus thus explains it; Vocibus facris.] Malts cantibus, et verbis magicis. And Badius Afcentius fill nearer to our purpofe; facris] id eft, diris et imprecationitus in me abfline.

Opb. The King rifes.

Ham. What, frighted with falfe fire!
Queen. How fares my Lord?

Pol. Give o'er the play.

King. Give me fome light. Away!

All. Lights, lights, lights!

Manent HAMLET and HORATIO.

[Exeunt

Ham. Why, let the ftrucken deer go weep,

The hart ungalled play;

For fome must watch, whilst some must fleep;

So runs the world away.

Would not this, Sir, and a forest of feathers, (if the rest of my fortunes turn Turk with me) (42)

(42) With two provincial rofes on my rayed shoes,

Get me a fellowship in a city of players, Sir?] I once fufpected that we ought to read raifed fhoes. By a foreì of feathers, he certainly alludes to the plumes worn by the stage heroes; as, by rafed fhoes he would to their bufkins; the cothurni, as they were called by the Romans, which were as much higher in the heel than other common flocs, as the chioppines worn by the Venetians are. It was the know cuftom of the tragedians of old, that they might the nearer refemble the heroes they perfonated, to make themselves as tall in ftature, and by an artificial help to found, to fpeak as big as they poffibly could. To both thefe Horace has alluded;

magnumque loquio nitique cothurne. And Lucian, defcribing a tragedian, calls him reputos ἐμβάταις ὑψηλοῖς ἐποχύμενος, a fellow carried upon high thors: and thefe were raised to fuch a degree, that the fame author calls one, who had pulled them off, nalabas årò twr iμsador, defcending from this buskins. But, perhaps, rayed thoes may have been our Author's expreffion, i. c. ftriped, fpangled, enriched with fome fhining ornaments; tra&eaticales, fhoes variegated with rayes of gold. Brafica, are of gold, or any other metal. Littleton. A ray of gold, fueille d'or. Cotgrave.- In a city of players.] Thus Mr Pope, with fome of the worfer editions; but we muft read, cry with the better copies, i. e. in the vote and fuffrage of a company of players.

with two provincial rofes on my rayed fhoes, get me a fellowship in a cry of players, Sir?

Hor. Half a share.

Ham. A whole one, I.

"For thou doft know, oh Damon dear, "This realm difmantled was

"Of Jove himself, and now reigns here "A very, very,---(43) paddock."

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For all the country in a general voice
Cried hate upon him.

Ibid.

(43) A very very peacock.] The old copies have it paicok, paiacke, and pajacke. I fubftituted paddock, as nearest to the traces of the corrupted reading. I have, as Mr Pope fays, been willing to fubftitute any thing in the place of his pracock. He thinks a fable alluded to of the birds chufing a king; instead of the cagic a peacock. I fuppofe, he must meanthe fable of Barlar dus in which it is faid the birds, being weary of their ftate of anarchy, moved for the fetting up of a king; and the peacock was elected on account of his gay feathers. But, with fubmiffion, in this paffage of Shakefpeare, there is not the leaft mention made of the ea le in antithefis to the peacock; and it must be by a very uncommon figure that Jove himself stands in the place of his bird. I think Hamlet is setting his father's and uncle's characters in contrast to each other, and means to fay, that by his father's death the state was stripped of a godlike monarch, and that now in his stead reigned the most despicable poisonous animal that could be: a mere paddock or toaa. Pad, bufo, rubeta majer, a toad. Belis, padde. Vid. Semnerum, Minshew, &c. Our Author was very well acquainted with the word, and has used it more than once.

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