And with't no lefs nobility of love, (5)
Than that which dearest father bears his fon,
Do I impart tow'rd you. For your intent (6)
In going back to school to Wittenberg,
It is moft retrograde to our defire:
And we beseech you, bend you to remain
Here in the cheer and comfort of our eye,
Our chiefest courtier, coufin, and our fon.

Queen. Let not thy mother lofe her prayers, Hamlet :
I pr'ythee, ftay with us, go not to Wittenberg.
Ham. I fhall in all my best obey you, Madam.
King. Why, 'tis a loving, and a fair reply ;
Be as ourself in Denmark. Madam, come;
This gentle and unforc'd accord of Hamlet
Sits fmiling to my heart, in grace whereof
No jocund health, that Denmark drinks to-day,
But the great cannon to the clouds fhall tell;
And the King's rowfe the heav'n fhall bruit again,
Re-fpeaking carthly thunder. Come away. [Exeunt.

Manet Hamlet.

Ham. Oh, that this too-too-folid flesh would melt, Thaw, and refolve itself into a dew!

(5) And with no lefs nobility of love,

Than that which dearest father bears bis fon,

Do I impart towards you.] But what does the King impart? We want the fubftantive govern'd of the verb. The King had declar'd Hamle this immediate fucceffor; and with that declaration, he must mean, he imparts to him as noble a love, as ever fond father tender'd to his own fon. I have ventur'd to make the text conform with this fenfe.

(6)

-For your intent

In going back to school to Wittenberg;] The Poet ufes a prolepis here: for the univerfity at Wittenberg was open'd by Frederick the 3d elector of Saxony in the year 1502, feveral ages later in time than the date of Hamlet. But I defign'd this remark for another purpose. I would take notice, that a confiderable space of years is spent in this tragedy; or Hamlet, as a prince, fhould be too old to go to an univerfity. We here find him a scholar refident at that univerfity; but, in Aft 5th, we find him plainly 30 years old: for the gravedigger had taken up that occupation the very day on which young Hamlet was born, and had follow'd it, as he fays, thirty years.

Or

Or that the Everlasting had not fix'd (7)
His canon 'gainst felf-flaughter! O God! oh God!
How weary, ftale, flat, and unprofitable
Seem to me all the uses of this world!

Fie on't! oh fie! 'tis an unweeded garden,

That grows to feed; things rank, and grofs in nature,
Poffefs it merely. That it fhould come to this!
But two months dead! nay, not so much; not two;
So excellent a King, that was, to this,

Hyperion to a fatyr: fo loving to my mother, (8)

(7) Or that the everlasting had not fix'd

That

His cannon 'gainft jelf-flaughter! The generality of the editions read thus, as if the Poet's thought were, Or that the Almighty had not planted his artillery, bis refentment, or arms of vengeance against felf-murder. But the word, which I have reftor'd to the text, (and which was efpous'd by the accurate Mr. Hughes, who gave an edition of this play is the Poet's true reading. i. e. That be bad not refrain'd fuicide by his exprefs law, and peremptory prohibition. Miftakes are perpetually made in the old editions of our Poet, betwixt those two words, cannon and canon. I fhall now fubjoin my reafons why, I think, the Poet intended to fay, heaven had fix'd its injunction rather than its artillery. In the first place, I much doubt the propriety of the phrase, fixing cannon, in the meaning here fuppos'd. The military expreffion, which imports what would be necessary to the fenfe of the Poet's thought, is mounting or planting cannon ; and whenever cannon is faid to be fix'd, it is when the enemy become mafters of it and nail it down. In the next place, to fix a canon, or law, is the term of the civilians peculiar to this business. This Virgil had in his mind, when he wrote,

-Leges fixit pretio, atque refixit.

Æneid. VI.

So Cicero in his Philippic orations: Num figentur rursùs bæ Tabulæ, quas vos decretis veftris refixiftis? And it was the conftant cuftom of the Romans to fay, upon this occafion, figere legem; as the Greeks, before them, used the synonymous term voμev aparnai, and call'd their ftatutes thence ragamnyμara. But my laft reason, and which fways moft with me, is from the Poet's own turn and caft of thought. For, as he has done in a great many more inftances, it is the very fentiment which he falls into in another of his plays, tho' he has cloth'd it in different expreffions.

(8)

'gainst felf-flaughter There is a probibition fo divine,

That cravens my weak hand.

-fo loving to my mother,

That be permitted not the winds of beav'n

Cymbeline.

Vifit ber face too roughly.] This is a sophisticated reading, copied

from

That he might not let e'en the winds of heav'n
Vifit her face too roughly. Heav'n and earth!
Muft I remember?-why, fhe would hang on him,
As if increase of appetite had grown

By what it fed on ; yet, within a month,

Let me not think-Frailty, thy name is woman! (9)
A little month! or ere thofe fhoes were old,
With which the follow'd my poor father's body,
Like Niobe, all tears Why the, ev'n fhe,
(O heav'n! beast, that wants discourse of reason,
Would have mourn'd longer-) married with mine uncle,
My father's brother; but no more like my father,
Than I to Hercules. Within a month!-

Ere yet the falt of moft unrighteous tears
Had left the flufhing in her gauled eyes,
She married. Oh, moft wicked speed to poft
With fuch dexterity to incestuous sheets!

from the players in fome of the modern editions, for want of under-
ftanding the Poet, whofe text is corrupt in the old impreffions: all
of which that I have had the fortune to fee, concur in reading:
-fo loving to my mother,

That be might not beteene the winds of heav'n
Vifit ber face too roughly.

Beteene is a corruption, without doubt, but not fo inveterate a one, but that, by the change of a fingle letter, and the feparation of two words mistakenly jumbled together, I am verily perfwaded, I have retriev'd the Poet's reading.- -That he might not let e'en the winds of beav'n, &c,

(6)

Frailty, thy name is woman!] But that it would difpleafe Mr. Pope to have it fuppos'd, that fatire can have any place in tragedy, (of which I fhall have occafion to speak farther anon) I fhould make no fcruple to pronounce this reflection a fine laconic farcafin. It is as concife in the terms, and, perhaps, more fprightly in the thought and image, than that fling of Virgil upon the sex, in his fourth Eneid.

Famina.

varium & mutabile fempèr

Mr. Dryden has remark'd, that this is the fharpeft fatire in the feweft words, that ever was made on womankind; for both the adjectives are neuter, and animal must be understood to make them grammar. 'Tis certain, the defign'd contempt is heighten'd by this change of the gender: but, I prefume, Mr. Dryden had forgot this paffage of Sbakespeare, when he declar'd on the side of Virgil's hemistich, as the harpeft fatire he had met with.

It is not, nor it cannot come to good.

But break, my heart, for I must hold my tongue.

Enter Horatio, Bernardo, and Marcellus.

Hor. Hail to your lordship!

Ham. I am glad to fee you well;

Horatio,- -or I do forget myself?

Hor. The fame, my lord, and your poor fervant ever. Ham. Sir, my good friend; I'll change that name with you:

And what make you from Wittenberg, Horatio?
Marcellus!

Mar. My good lord

Ham. I am very glad to fee you; good even, Sir.
But what, in faith, make you from Wittenberg?
Hor. A truant difpofition, good my lord.
Ham. I would not hear your enemy fay fo;
Nor fhall
you do mine ear that violence,
To make it truster of your own report
Against yourself. I know, you are no truant;
But what is your affair in Elfinoor ?

We'll teach you to drink deep, ere you depart,
Hor. My lord, I came to fee your father's funeral.
Ham. I pr'ythee, do not mock me, fellow-ftudent;
I think, it was to fee my mother's wedding.

Hor. Indeed, my lord, it follow'd hard upon.
Ham. Thrift, thrift, Horatio; the funeral bak'd meats
Did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables.
'Would, I had met my deareft foe in heav'n,
Or ever I had feen that day, Horatio!

My father methinks, I fee my father.
Hor. Oh where, my Lord ?

Ham. In my mind's eye, Horatio.

Hor. I faw him once, he was a goodly King.
Ham. He was a man, take him for all in all,

I shall not look upon his like again.

Her. My lord, I think, I faw him yesternight.
Ham. Saw! who?.

Hor. My lord, the King your father.

Ham. The King my father!

Hor

Hor. Seafon your admiration but a while,
With an attentive ear; 'till I deliver
Upon the witness of these gentlemen,
This marvel to you.

Ham. For heaven's love, let me hear.

Hor. Two nights together had these gentlemen,
Marcellus and Bernardo, on their watch,
In the dead waste and middle of the night,
Been thus encountred: A figure like your father,
Arm'd at all points exactly, Cap-à-pe,
Appears before them, and with folemn march
Goes flow and stately by them; thrice he walk'd,
By their oppreft and fear-furprized eyes,
Within his truncheon's length; whilft they (diftill'd
Almoft to jelly with the act of fear)

Stand dumb, and speak not to him. This to me
In dreadful fecrecy impart they did,

And I with them the third night kept the watch;
Where, as they had deliver'd both in time,

Form of the thing, each word made true and good,
The apparation comes. I knew your father:
Thefe hands are not more like.

Ham. But where was this?

Mar. My lord, upon the platform where we watcht. Ham. Did you not speak to it?

Hor. My lord, I did;

But anfwer made it none; yet once, methought,
It lifted up its head, and did addrefs

Itself to motion, like as it would speak:
But even then the morning cock crew loud;
And at the found it fhrunk in haste away,
And vanish'd from our fight.

Ham. 'Tis very strange.

Hor. As I do live, my honour'd lord, 'tis true; And we did think it writ down in our duty

To let you know of it.

Ham. Indeed, indeed, Sirs, but this troubles me. Hold you the watch to-night?

Both. We do, my lord.

Ham. Arm'd, fay you? ·

Both.