Imatges de pàgina
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Fars not the flats with more impetuous hafte,
Tan young Laertes, in a riotous head,
C'er-bears your officers. The rabble call him Lord
And as the world were now but to begin,
Antiquity forgot, cuftom not known,

The ratifiers and props of every Ward;
They cry, "Chufe we Laertes for our King."
Caps, hands, and tongues, applaud it to the Clouds;
"Laertes fhall be King, Laertes King!"

Queen. How chearfully on the falfe trail they cry! 3 Ch, this is counter, you false Danish dogs.

[Noife within.

Enter Laertes, with a Party at the Door:

King. The doors are broke.

2 The ratifiers and props of every word;] The whole tenour of the context is fufficient to fhew, that this is a mistaken reading. What can antiquity and cutlom, being the props of words, have to do with the bufinefs in hand? Or what idea is conveyed by it? Certainly the poet wrote;

:

The ra:ifiers and props of ev'ry ward;

The meffenger is complaining that the riotous head had overborne the King's officers, and then fubjoins, that antiquity and cuftom were forgot, which were the ratifiers and props of every ward, i. e. of every one of those Jecurities that nature and law pace about the perfon of a King. All this is rational and confe. quential. WARBURTON,

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With his emendation, which was in Theobald's edition, Hanmer was not fatisfied. It is indeed harth. Hanmer tranfpofes the lines, and reads,

They cry, Chufe we Laertes for our King;

The ratifiers and props cf ev'ry word,

Caps, hands, and tongues, applaud it to the clouds.

I think the fault may be mended at lefs expence, by reading,

Antiquity forgot, cuftom not known,

The rarifiers and props of ev'ry
weal.

That is, of every government.
3 Oh, this is counter, you false

Danish dogs.] Hounds run counter when they trace the trail backwards.

Laer.

Laer. Where is this King? Sirs! stand you all without.

All. No, let's come in.

Laer. I pray you, give me leave.
All. We will, we will.

Laer. I thank you. Keep the door.

O thou vile King, give me my father.

[Exeunt.

Queen. Calmly, good Laertes. [Laying bold on him.
Laer. That drop of blood that's calm, proclaims
me bastard;

Cries cuckold to my father; brands the harlot
Ev'n here, between the chafte and unfmirch'd brows
Of my true mother.

King. What is the cause, Laertes,

That thy Rebellion looks fo giant-like?

-Let him go, Gertrude; do not fear our perfon.
There's fuch divinity doth hedge a King,

That treason can but peep to what it would,

Acts little of its will. Tell me, Laertes,

Why are you thus incens'd?-Let him go, Gertrude.
Speak, man.

Laer. Where is my father?
King. Dead.

Queen. But not by him.

King. Let him demand his fill.

Laer. How came he dead? I'll not be juggled with:

To hell, allegiance! vows, to the blackeft devil!
Confcience and grace, to the profoundest pit!
I dare damnation; to this point I stand,
That both the worlds I give to negligence,
Let come, what comes; only I'll be reveng'd
Moft throughly for my father.

King. Who fhall stay you?

Laer. My will, not all the world;

And for my means, I'll hufband them fo well,
They fhall
go far with little.

S 4

King,

If
f you

defire to know the certainty

King. Good Laertés,

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Of your dear father, is't writ in your revenge,

That, fweep-ftake, you will draw both friend and foe, Winner and lofer?

Laer. None but his enemies.

King. Will you know them then?

Laer. To his good friends thus wide I'll ope my

arms,

And, like the kind life-rend'ring pelican,
Repaft them with my blood,

King. Why, now you speak

Like a good child, and a true gentleman.
That I am guiltless of your father's death,
And am moft fenfible in grief for it,
It fhall as level to your judgment 'pear,
As day does to your eye.

4

Crowd within. Let her come in.
Laer. How now, what noise is that?

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Enter Ophelia, fantastically dreft with straws and flowers.

O heat, dry up my brains! Tears, feven times falt,
Burn out the fenfe and virtue of mine eye!
By heav'n, thy madness fhall be paid with weight,
Till our scale turn the beam. O rofe of May;
Dear maid, kind fifter, fweet Ophelia !
O heav'ns, is't poffible a young maid's wits
Should be as mortal as an old man's life?

4 -to your judgment 'pear,] So

to your judgement pierce,

the quarto; the folio, and all the lefs intelligibly. latter editions, read,

"Nature

Nature is fine in love; and, where 'tis fine,
"It fends fome precious inftance of itself
"After the thing it loves.

Oph. They bore him bare fac'd on the bier,
And on his Grave rain'd many a tear;
Fare you well, my dove!

Laer. Hadft thou thy wits, and didst persuade Re

venge,

5 Nature is FINE in love; and

where 'tis FINE,

It fends fome precious inftance of itfelf

After the thing it loves.] This is unquestionably corrupt. I fuppofe Shakespear wrote,

Nature is fal'n in love, and where 'tis fal'n.

The caufe of Ophelia's madness was grief, occafioned by the violence of her natural affection for her murder'd father; her brother, therefore, with great force of expreffion, fays,

Nature is fal'n in love,To diftinguish the paffion of natural affection from the paffion of love between the two fexes, i. e. Nature, or natural affection is fal'n in love. And as a perfon in love is accustomed to fend the moft precious of his jewels to the perfon beloved (for the lovetokens which young wenches in love fend to their fweethearts, is here alluded to) fo when Nature (fays Laertes) falls in love, the likewife fends her love-token to the object beloved. But her moft precious jewel is reafon; fhe therefore fends that: And this he gives as the caufe of Ophelia's madness, which he is here endeavouring to account for. This

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mity.

Nay Death, a very unlikely fubject one would think, is put into a love fit;

I will believe
That unfubftantial death is amo-
rous, &c.
WARB

Thefe lines are not in the quarto, and might have been omitted in the folio without great lofs, for they are obfcure and affected; but, I think, they require no emendation. Love, fays Laertes, is the paffion by which nature is most exalted and refined, and as fubftances refined and subtilifed, eafily obey any impulfe, or follow any attraction, fome part of nature, fo purified and refined, flies off after the attracting object, after the thing it loves. As into air the purer Spirits flow,

And Jeparate from their kindred
dregs below,
So flew ber foul.-

It could not move thus.

6

Oph. You must fing, down-a-down, and you call bim a down-a.

"O how the wheel becomes it! it is the falfe fteward that ftole his master's daughter.

Laer. This nothing's more than matter.

Oph. 7 There's rosemary, that's for remembrance. Pray, love, remember. And there's panfies, that's for thoughts.

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Laer. A document in madness, thoughts and remembrance fitted.

Oph. There's fennel for you, and columbines, There's rue for you, and here's fome for me. We

6 O how the WHEEL becomes it] We thould read wEAL. She is now rambling on the ballad of the fteward and his lord's daughter. And in thefe words fpeaks of the ftate he affumed.

WARBURTON.

I do not fee why weal is better than wheel. The ftory alluded to I do not know; but perhaps the lady ftolen by the fteward was reduced to Spin.

7 There's rosemary, that's for remembrance; and there's panfies, that's for thoughts.] There is probably fome mythology in the choice of thefe herbs, but I cannot explain it. Panfies is for thoughts, becaufe of its name, Penfees; but why rosemary indicates remembrance, except that it is an ever-green, and carried at funerals, I have not difcovered. 8 There's rue for you, and here's fome for me. W'e may call it herb of grace o' Sundays:] Herb of grace is the name the country people give to Rue. And the reafon i, because that herb was a principal ingredient in the po

tion which the Romish priests ufed to force the poffeffed to fwallow down when they exorcised them. Now thefe exorcifms being performed generally on a Sunday, in the church before the whole congregation, is the reason why the fays, we call it herb of grace 'Sundays. Sandys tells us that at Grand Cairo there is a fpecies of rue much in requeft, with which the inhabitants perfume themfelves, not only as a prefervative againft infection, but as very powerful against evil fpirits. And the cabalistic Gaffarel pretends to have difcovered the reafon of its virtue, La femence de Rue eft fuile comme une Croix, & c'eft paraventure la caufe qu'elle a tant de vertu contre les poffedez, & que l'Eglife s'en fert en les exorcifant. It was on the fame principle that the Greeks called fulphur, or, because of its use in their fuperftitious purgations by fire. Which too the Romish priests employ to fumigate in their exorcifms; and on that account hallow or confecrate it. WARB.

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