Imatges de pàgina
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Mar. You shall not go, my Lord.

Ham. Hold off your hands.
Mar. Be rul'd, you shall not go.
Ham. My fate cries out,

And makes each petty artery in this body
As hardy as the Nemean lion's nerve :
Still am 1 call'd: unhand me, gentlemen-

[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.

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[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)
'Till the foul crimes, done in my days of nature,
Are burnt and purg'd away. But that I am forbid
To tell the fecrets of my prifon-house,

I could a tale unfold, whofe lightest word
Would harrow up thy foul, freeze thy young blood,
Make thy two eyes, like ftars, ftart from their spheres,
Thy knotty and combined locks to part,
And each particular hair to ftand on end
Like quills upon the fretful porcupine:
But this eternal blazon muft not be

To ears of flesh and blood; lift, lit, oh list!
If thou didst ever thy dear father love-

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
That roots itself in eafe on Lethe's wharf,

Wouldst thou not ftir in this. Now, Hamlet, hear ;
"Tis given out, that, fleeping in my orchard,
A ferpent ftung me.

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,

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Is by a forged procefs of my death

Rankly abus'd: but know, thou noble youth,
The ferpent, that did fting thy father's life,
Now wears his crown.

Ham. Oh, my prophetick foul! my uncle?

Ghoft. Ay, that incestuous, that adulterate beaft,
With witchcraft of his wit, with trait'rous gifts,
(O wicked wit, and gifts, that have the power
So to feduce!) won to his fhameful luft
The will of my most seeming-virtuous Queen.
Oh Hamlet, what a falling off was there!.
From me whofe love was of that dignity,
That it went hand in hand ev'n with the vow
I made to her in marriage; and to decline
Upon a wretch, whofe natural gifts were poor
To thofe of mine!

But virtue, as it never will be mov'd,

Though lewdness court it in a fhape of heav'n;
So luft, though to a radiant angel link'd,
Will fate itself in a celeftial bed,

And prey on garbage.

But, foft! methinks, I fcent the morning air-
Brief let me be: Sleeping within mine orchard,
My cuftom always of the afternoon,
Upon my fecure hour thy uncle ftole
With juice of curfed hebenon in a phial,
And in the porches of mine ears did pour
The leperous diftilment; whofe effect
Holds fuch an enmity with blood of man,
That fwift as quick filver it courfes through
The natʼral gates and allies of the body;
And, with a fudden vigour, it doth poffet
And curd, like eager droppings into milk,
The thin and wholfome blood: fo did it mine,
And a moft inftant tetter bark'd about,
Moft lazar-like, with vile and loathfome crust
All my fmooth body.-

Thus was I, fleeping, by a brother's hand,

Of life, of crown, of Queen, at once dispatcht;
Cut off ev'n in the bloffoms of my fin,

Unhoufel'd,

Unhoufel'd, unappointed, unaneal'd: (19)
No reck'ning made, but fent to my account

(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.
Oh, horrible! oh, horrible! most horrible!
If thou haft nature in thee, bear it not;
Let not the royal bed of Denmark be
A couch for luxury and damned inceft.
But howsoever thou purfu'ft this act,

Taint not thy mind, nor let thy foul contrive
Against thy mother aught; leave her to heav'n,
And to thofe thorns that in her bofom lodge,
To prick and fting her. Fare thee well at once!
The glow-worm fhews the matin to be near,
And 'gins to pale his uneffectual fire.

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-
And you, my finews, grow not inftant old;
But bear me ftiffly up. Remember thee-
Ay, thou poor ghoft, while memory holds a feat
In this distracted globe; remember thee-
Yea, from the table of my memory (20)
I'll wipe away all trivial fond records,
All faws of books, all forms, all preffures paft,
That youth and obfervation copied there;
And thy commandment all alone shall live
Within the book and volume of my brain,
Unmix'd with bafer matter. Yes, by heav'n:
Oh moft pernicious woman!

Oh villain, villain, fmiling damned villain !
My tables, meet it is, I fet it down,

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.
Δελτογράφῳ δὲ πάλ ̓ ἐπωπά φρενί. Eumenid.

Enter

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