I ftand in paufe where I fhall first begin,
What if this curfed hand

And both neglect.

-Pray, I cannot

Were

Tho' inclination be as fharp as th'ill.

Amidst this multitude of conjectures, I must own myself not fatisfied. 1 think by one flight addition we may greatly clear up the difficulty. The king, confcious of his own guilt, is defirous, yet afraid, to repent and pray: is it not natural that be fhould fay;

A brother's murder-Pray, I [would, yet] cannot-

Now this flight addition will explain the next puzzling line: let us confider, what we may reasonably expect him to have said after this: "I wou'd pray, but I cannot, tho' my inclination, [my great defire] to do fo is no lefs powerful and perfuafive with me, than the already determined refolution of my mind fo to do: that is, I am no lefs defirous to do what I would (namely, pray) and cannot, than I am refolv'd to do fo:" the feeming want of difference between inclination and will, caufes all the obfcurity: if the reader attends to that, and obferves, that by inclination he means, a longing defire, a difpofition to do it with pleasure; and by will, the determination of the mind, the actual refolution, I think all will be clear: and the words I have added in the foregoing line, if not genuine, (tho' they feem to bid fair for it) at least add to the explaining the poet's thought. The lat ter fine lines,

Try what repentance can, what can it not?
Yet what can it, when one cannot repent?

throw fome light on these in question: he could not pray, for his guilt defeated his intent: here he would try the force of allpowerful repentance,yet again is check'd by his guilty confcience: for tho', fays he, repentance can do all things, yet what can it do when one cannot really and truly ufe it? when we are indeed defirous of repenting, but are by our guilt prevented from fo doing when we would fly to its aid, and be pardon'd for our offence, and yet retain the offence itself, and beg for forgiveness, while we still are guilty? the whole fpeech is a comment on it felf.

In Philafter, the king is praying to be forgiven, tho' still retaining his offence, as here:

But how can I

Look to be heard of gods, that must be juft,
Praying upon the ground hold by wrong?

Were thicker than itself with brother's blood?
Is there not rain enough in the sweet heavens
To wash it white as fnow? Whereto ferves mercy
But to confront the vifage of offence?

And what's in prayer, but this twofold force,
To be foreftalled ere we come to fall,

Or pardon'd being down? Then I'll look up;
My fault is paft; but oh! what form of prayer
Can ferve my turn? Forgive me my foul murder!
That cannot be, fince I am ftill poffefs'd

Of thofe effects for which I did the murder,
My crown, mine own ambition, and my queen.
May one be pardon'd, and retain th' offence?
In the corrupted currents of this world,
Offence's gilded hand may fhove by justice;
And oft 'tis feen the wicked prize itself,
Buys out the law but 'tis not fo above;
There is no fhuffling, there the action lies
In its true nature, we ourselves compell'd
Even to the teeth and forehead of our faults
To give in evidence. What then? what rests?
Try what repentance can; what can it not?
Yet what can it, when one cannot repent?
O, wretched state! O bofom black as death!
O, limed foul! that struggling to be free,
Art more engag'd! Help, angels, make affay,
Bow stubborn knees, and heart, with ftrings of steel,
Be foft as finews of the new-born babe ;

All may be well.

Enter Hamlet.

[The King kucels.

Ham. (29) Now might I do it pat, now he is pray

ing;

And now I'll do't, and fo he goes to heaven,

(29) It has been remarked, there is great want of refolution in Hamlet, for when he had fo good an opportunity to kill his uncle and revenge his father, as here, he fhuffles it off with a paltry excufe, and is afraid to do what he so ardently longs for:

the

And fo am I reveng'd ?-that would be feann'd-
A villain kills my father, and for that,

1, his fole fon, do this fame villain fend

To heav'n! O! this is hire and falary, not revenge.
He took my father grofly, full of bread,

With all his crimes broad blown, as flufh as May;
And how his audit stands, who knows, fave heaven?
But in our circumftance and courfe of thought,
'Tis heavy with him.-Am I then reveng'd,
To take him in the purging of his foul,
When he is fit and feafon'd for his paffage?
Up fword, and know thou a more horrid bent,
When he is drunk, afleep, or in his rage,
Or in th'incestuous pleafures of his bed;
At gaming, fwearing, or about fome act
That has no relifh of falvation in't :

Then trip him, that his heels may kick at heaven,
And that his foul may be as damn'd and black
As hell whereto it goes.

SCENE X. Part of the Scene between Hamlet and his Mother.

Queen. What have I done that thou dar'st wag thy tongue In noise fo rude against me?

Ham. Such an act,

That blurs the grace and blush of modefty,
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

the obfervation may be confirmed from many other paffages: in the next page, he himself obferves, that all occafions do inform againf bim,and fpur his dull revenge: but 'tis not my design in this work, to enter into exact criticism on the characters.

The very foul, and fweet religion makes
A rhapfody of words.

Queen. Ah me, what act!

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,
(30) A ftation like the herald Mercury,
New lighted on a heaven-killing hill;
A combination, and a form indeed,
Where every god did feem to fet his feal,
To give the world affurance of a man:

This was your husband. Look you now what follows;
Here is your husband, like a (31) mildew'd ear,
Blafting his wholesome brother. Have you eyes?
Could you on this fair mountain leave to feed,
And batten on this moor?

Queen. O, Hamlet, speak no more;
Thou turn'ft mine eyes into my very foul,
And there I fee fuch black and grained fpots,
As will not leave their tinct.

Enter

1

(30) A Station, &c.] The poet employs this word in a fense different from what it is generally ufed to fignify: for it means here, an attitude, a filent pofture, fixt demeanor of perfon, in oppofition to an active behaviour. Theobald. 'Tis very probable Milton took the firft hint of the following fine lines from the prefent paffage :

Like Maia's fon he stood,
And fhook his plumes, that heavenly fragrance fill'd
The circuit wide.
Par. Loft, B. 5. 285.

(31) Mildew'd car.] Probably he alludes to Pharaoh's dream, Gen. xli.

And he dreamed and behold feven ears of corn came up on one stalk rank and good: and behold seven thin ears and blafed with the eaft wind, fprang up after them: and the thin ears de voured the rank and full ears. See v. 22.

Enter Ghoft.

Ham. Save me, and hover o'er me with your wings, You heavenly guards; what would your gracious figure? Queen. Alas! he's mad.

Ham. Do you not come your tardy fon to chide
That, laps'd 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 purpofe.
But, look! amazement on thy mother fits:
O ftep between her and her fighting foul!
Conceit in weakest bodies strongest works:
Speak to her, Hamlet.

Ham. How is it with you, madam?
Queen. Alas! how is't with you?

That thus you bend your eye on vacancy,
And with th'incorporeal air doth hold discourse?
Forth at your eyes your fpirits wildly peep;
And as the fleeping foldiers in th'alarm,

Your bedded hairs, like (32) life in excrements,

Start

(32) Like life in excrements.] Shakespear very frequently calls the hair an excrement, that is, without life or fenfation, and his meaning here is, Hamlet's furprize had fuch an effect on him,that his hairs, as if there was life in thofe excrementitious parts,ftarted up and stood on end. So, in Macbeth,

And my fell of hair

Wou'd at a difmal treatise rouse and stir

As life were in't.

My notes on this play have fo much fwelled under my hand, I am oblig'd to lay afide a defign I had of giving the reader a tranflation of the difcourfe between Hamlet and his mother, from Saxo Grammaticus, which is extremely fine, and will be no small amufement to the reader if he thinks proper to confult that hiftorian; from whom Shakespear has taken the whole of Hamlet's difguis'd madnefs; the scene before us; his friendship with Horatio; the death of Polonius; his banishment into England; his return from thence, and killing the ufurper.-The Ghoft feems to have been his own invention.