Mar. You shall not go, my Lord. Ham. Hold off your hands. And makes each petty artery in this body [Breaking from them. By heav'n, I'll make a ghost of him that lets me -go on- -I'll follow thee 1 fay, away, [Exeunt Ghoft and Hamlet. Hor. He waxes defp'rate with imagination. Mar. Let's follow! 'tis not fit thus to obey him. Hor. Have after.- -To what iffue will this come? Mar. Something is rotten in the ftate of Denmark. Hor. Heav'n will direct it. Mar. Nay, let's follow him. [Exeunt. SCENE changes to a more remote Part of the Platform. Re-enter Ghoft and Hamlet. Ham. WHERE wilt thou lead me? speak, I'll go Ghoft. Mark me. Ham. I will, Ghoft. My hour is almoft come, When I to fulphurous and tormenting flames Muft render up myself. Ham. Alas, poor Ghost! Ghoft. Pity me not, but lend thy ferious hearing To what I fhall unfold. Ham. Speak, I am bound to hear. Ghoft. So art thou to revenge, when thou shalt hear. Ham. What? Ghaft. I am thy father's Spirit ; Doom'd for a certain term to walk the night, And, And, for the day, confin'd to faft in fires; (18) I could a tale unfold, whofe lightest word To ears of flesh and blood; lift, lit, oh list! Ham. Óh heav'n! Ghost. Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder. Ham Murder? Ghoft. Murder most foul, as in the best it is; But this moft foul, ftrange, and unnatural. Ham. Hafte me to know it, that!, with wings as fwift As meditation or the thoughts of love, May fweep to my revenge. Ghost. I find thee apt; And duller fhouldst thou be than the fat weed Wouldst thou not ftir in this. Now, Hamlet, hear ; So the whole ear of Denmark (18) And, for the day, canfin'd to faft in fires.] I once fufpected this expreffion to faft in fires: becaufe tho' fafting is often a part of penance injoin'd us by the church-difcipline here on earth, yet, I conceiv'd, it could be no great punishment for a spirit, a being which requires no fuftenance, to faft. Mr. Warburton has fince perfectly convinced me that the text is not to be difturb'd, but that the expref fion is purely metaphorical. For it is the opinion of the religion here reprefented, (i. e. the Roman catholic) that fafting purifies the foul here, as the fire does in the purgatory here alluded to: and that the foul must be purged either by faßting here, or by burning hereafter. This opinion Shakespeare again hints at, where he makes Hamlet fay ; He took my father grofsly, full of bread. And we are to obferve, that it is a common faying of the Romish prieka to their people, If you won't fast bere, you must fast in fire, Is by a forged procefs of my death Rankly abus'd: but know, thou noble youth, Ham. Oh, my prophetick foul! my uncle? Ghoft. Ay, that incestuous, that adulterate beaft, But virtue, as it never will be mov'd, Though lewdness court it in a fhape of heav'n; And prey on garbage. But, foft! methinks, I fcent the morning air- Thus was I, fleeping, by a brother's hand, Of life, of crown, of Queen, at once dispatcht; Unhoufel'd, Unhoufel'd, unappointed, unaneal'd: (19) (19) Unbouzzled, unanointed, unaneal'd;] The ghoft, having recounted the process of his murder, proceeds to exaggerate the inhumanity and unnaturalness of the fact, from the circumstances in which he was furpriz'd. But thefe, I find, have been ftumbling blocks to our editors; and therefore I must amend and explain these three com.. pound adjectives in their order. Inftead of unbouzzel'd, we must reftore, unboufel'd, i. e. without the facrament taken; from the old Saxon word for the facrament, boufel. So our etymologifts, and Chaucer write it; and Spencer, accordingly, calls the facramental fire, boufling fire. In the next place, unanointed is a fophiftication of the text: the old copies concur in reading, disappointed. I correct, Unboufel'd, unappointed, i. e. no confeffion of fins made, no reconciliation to heav'n, no ap. pointment of penance by the church. To this purpose Othello speaka to his wife, when he is upon the point of killing her; If you bethink yourself of any crime, Unreconcil'd as yet to Heav'n and Grace, Sollicit for it ftrait. So in Measure for Measure, when Isabella brings word to Claudio that he is to be inftantly executed, fhe urges him to this neceffary duty; Therefore your best appointment make with speed, To-morrow you set out. Unaneal'd, I agree to be the Poet's genuine word; but I must take the liberty to difpute Mr. Pope's explication of it, viz. No knell rung. I don't pretend to know what gloffaries Mr. Pope may have confulted and trufts to; but whofoever they are, I am fure, their comment is very fingularin the word alledg'd. The adjective form'd from knell, must have been unknell'd or unknoll'd. Soin Macbeth; Had I as many fons, as I have hairs, I would not with them to a fairer death; And fo his knell is knoll'd. There is no rule in orthography for finking the k in the deflexion of any verb or compound form'd from knell, and melting it into a vowel. What fenfe does unaneal'd then bear? SKINNER, in his Lexicon of old and obfolete English terms, tells us, that aneal'd is unctus; from the Teutonick prepofition an, and ole, i. e. oil fo that unaneal'd muft confequently fignify, unanointed, not having the extream unction. So that the Poet's reading and explication being ascertained, he very finely makes his gheft complain of these four dreadful hardships; that he had been dispatched out of life without receiving the bofte,. or facrament; without being reconciled to heaven and abfolv'd; withaut the benefit of extream unction; or without so much as a confeffion made of his fins. The having no knell rung, I think is not a point of equal confequence to any of thefe; efpecially, if we confider, that the Romish church admits the efficacy of praying for the dead. F 6 With With all my imperfections on my head. Taint not thy mind, nor let thy foul contrive Adieu, adieu, adieu; remember me. [Exit. Ham. Oh, all you hoft of heav'n! oh earth! what else? And fhall I couple hell? oh, hold my heart- Oh villain, villain, fmiling damned villain ! That one may fmile, and fmile, and be a villain; At least, I'm fure, it may be fo in Denmark. [Writing, So, uncle, there you are; now to my word; It is; Adieu, adieu, remember me: I've fworn it (20) Yea, from the table of my memory I'll wipe away all trivial fund records.] Æfchylus, I remember, twice ufes this very metaphor; confidering the mind of memory, as a tablet, or writing-book, on which we are to engrave things worthy of remembrance. * ἣν ἐγγράφε Σύ μνήμασιν Δέλτοις φρενών. Prometh. Enter |