Within the center. King. How may we try it further? Pol. You know, fometimes he walks four hours together, Here in the lobby. Queen. So he does, indeed. Pol. At fuch a time I'll loofe my daughter to him; Be you and I behind an Arras then, SCENE V. Enter Hamlet reading. Queen. But, look, where, fadly the poor wretch comes reading. Pol. Away, I do befeech you, both away. I'll board him presently. Oh, give me leave. Hamlet? [Exeunt King and Queen! -How does my good Lord Ham. Well, God o' mercy. Pol. Do you know me, my Lord? Ham. Excellent well; you are a fishmonger. Pol. Not I, my Lord. Ham. Then I would you were so honest a man. Pol. Honeft, my Lord? Ham. Ay, Sir; to be honeft, as this world goes, is to be one man pick'd out of ten thousand. Pol. That's very true, my Lord. Ham. Ham. For if the fun breed maggots in a dead dog, Being a God, kiffing carrion Have you a daughter? 6 For if the Sun breed maggots in a dead dog,. Being a GOOD kiffing carrionHave you a daughter ?] The editors feeing Hamlet counterfeit madnefs, thought they might fafely put any nonfenfe into his mouth. But this ftrange paffage when fet right, will be feen to contain as great and fublime a reflexion as any the poet puts into his Hero's mouth throughout the whole play. We fhall firft give the true reading, which is this, For if the Sun breed maggots in a dead dog, Being a God, kiffing carrion As to the fenfe we may obferve, that the illative particle [for] thews the speaker to be reafoning from fomething he had faid be fore: What that was we learn in thefe words, to be honest, as this world goes, is to be one picked out of ten thousand. Having faid this, the chain of ideas led him to reflect upon the argument which libertines bring against Providence from the circumstance of abounding Evil. In the next fpeech therefore he endeavours to answer that objection, and vindicate Providence, even on a fuppofition of the fact, that almost all men were wicked. His argument in the two lines in quef tion is to this purpofe, But why need we wonder at this abounding of evil? for if the Sun breed Pol. maggots in dead dog, which tho' a God, yet bedding its beat and influence upon carrion--Here he ftops fhort, left talking too confequentially the hearer fhould fufpect his madnefs to be feigned; and fo turns him off from the fubject, by enquiring of his daughter. But the inference which he intended to make, was a very noble one, and to this purpose, If this (fays he) be the cafe, that the effect follows the thing operated upon [carrion] and not the thing operating [a God;] why need we wonder, that the fupreme caufe of all things diffufing its bleffings on mankind, who is, as it were, a dead carrion, dead in original fin, man, inftead of a proper return of duty, fhould breed only corruption and vices? This is the argument at length; and is as noble a one in behalf of providence as could come from the fchools of divinity. But this wonderful man had an art not only of acquainting the audience with what his actors fay, but with what they think. The fentiment too is altogether in character, for Hamlet is perpetually moralizing, and his circumftances make this reflexion very natural. The fame thought, fomething diverfified, as on a different occafion, he uses again in Meafure for Meafure, which will ferve to confirmthefe obfervations: The Pol. I have, my Lord. Ham. Let her not walk i' th' Sun; conception is a bleffing, but not as your daughter may conceive. Friend, look to't. Pol. How fay you by that? Still harping on my daughter? Yet he knew me not at firft; he faid, I was a fifh monger. He is far gone; and, truly, in my youth, Very near this.I'll speak to him again. Ham. Words, words, words. Pol. What is the matter, my Lord? [Afide. Pol. I mean the matter that you read, my Lord. Ham. Slanders, Sir: for the fatirical flave fays here, that old men have grey beards; that their faces are wrinkled; their eyes purging thick amber, and plum-tree gum; and that they have a plentiful lack of wit; together with most weak hams. All which, men, &c.] By the fatrical flave Da fpatium vitæ, multos da Hoc recto vultu, folum hoc & Plena malis! deformem, & tetrum ante omnia vultum, Diffimilemque fui, &c. Nothing could be finer imagined for Hamlet, in his circumflances, than the bringing him in reading a defcription of the evils of long life.. WARBURTON. Sir, tho' I most powerfully and potently believe, yet I hold it not honefty to have it thus fet down; for yourself, Sir, fhall be as old as I am, if, like a crab, you could go backward. Pol. Though this be madness, yet there's method in't. Will you walk out of the air, my Lord? Ham. Into my grave. Pol. Indeed, that is out o' th' air: My honourable Lord, I will most humbly [Afide. Ham. You cannot, Sir, take from me any thing that I will more willingly part withal, except my life. Pol. Fare you well, my Lord. Ham. These tedious old fools! Pol. You go to feek Lord Hamlet; there he is. [Exit SCENE VI. Enter Rofincrantz and Guildenstern, Rof. God fave you, Sir. Guil. Mine honour'd Lord! Rof. My most dear Lord! Ham. My excellent good friends! How doft thou, Oh, Rofincrantz, good lads! how do ye both? On On fortune's cap, we are not the very button. Rof. Neither, my Lord. Ham. Then you live about her waift, or in the middle of her favours? Guil. 'Faith, in privates we. Ham. In the fecret parts of fortune? oh, most true? fhe is a ftrumpet. What news? Rof. None, my Lord, but that the word's grown honest. Ham. Then is dooms day near; but your news is not true. Let me question more in particular: what have you, my good friends, deferved at the hands of fortune, that the fends you to prison hither? Guil. Prifon, my Lord! Ham. Denmark's a prifon. Rof. Then is the world one. Ham. A goodly one, in which there are many confines, wards, and dungeons; Denmark being one o'th' worst. Rof. We think not fo, my Lord. Ham. Why, then, 'tis none to you; for there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so. To me, it is a prison. Rof. Why, then your ambition makes it one: 'tis too narrow for your mind. Ham. Oh God, I could be bounded in a nut-fhell, and count myself a King of infinite space; were it not, that I have bad dreams. Guil. Which dreams, indeed, are Ambition; for the very substance of the ambitious it merely the fhadow of a dream. Ham. A dream itself is but a shadow. 8 The Shadow of a dream.] Shakespeare has accidentally inverted an expreffion of Pindar, that the fate of humanity is oxaç övaş, the dream of a fhadow. |