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Rashness

(And prais'd be rashness for it) lets us know;
Or indiscretion sometimes serves us well,

When, &c.] i. e. Rashness acquaints us with what we cannot penetrate to by plots. WARB.

Both my copies read,

Rashly,

And prais'd be rashness for it, let us know;

Hamlet, delivering an account of his escape, begins with saying, That he rashly-and then is carried into a reflection upon the weakness of human wisdom. I rashly-praised be rashness for it-Let us not think these events casual, but let us know, that is, take notice and remember, that we sometimes succeed by indiscretion, when we fail by deep plots, and infer the perpetual superintendance and agency of the Divinity. The observation is just, and will be allowed by every human being who shall reflect on the course of his own life. Joux. This passage, I think, should be thus distributed.-Rashly (And prais'd be rashness, for it lets us know,

Our indiscretion sometimes serves us well,

When our deep plots do fail, and that should teach us,
There's a divinity that shapes our ends,

Rough hew them how we will ;

Hor. That is most certain.-)

Ham. Up from my cabin, &c.] So that rashly may be joined in construction with in the dark grop'd I to find out them. TYRW.

When our deep plots do fail: The folio reads-When our dear plots do paule. MAL.

-Rashly,

And prais'd be rashness for it,' &c.

'Paule' is undoubtedly Shakspeare's word. It stands for pall, a contraction of appal. We must likewise read, • Rashness,

(And prais'd be rashness for it) lets us know,

When our deur plots,' &c.

Hamlet is giving an account of his uneasy state of mind, and says, that "rashness prompted to that discovery which, had he pondered on it (had it been his dear plot) he might have been frightened or discouraged from." This reason

ing is better and closer than that which the reading of the modern editors presents to us. B.

Ham. An earnest conjuration from the king,As England was his faithful tributary;

As love between them like the palm might flourish, As peace should still her wheaten garland wear, And stand a comma 'tween their amities;

As peace should still her wheaten garland wear,

And stand a comma 'tween their amities.

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Peace is here properly and finely personalized as the goddess of good league and friendship; and very classically dressed out. Ovid says,

"Pax Cererem nutrit, pacis alumna Ceres."

And Tibullus,

"At nobis, pax alma, veni, spicamque teneto.” But the placing her as a comma, or stop, between the amities of two kingdoms, makes her rather stand like a cypher. The poet without doubt wrote:

And stand a commere 'tween our amities.

The term is taken from a trafficker in love, who brings people together, a procuress. And this idea is well appropriated to the satirical turn which the speaker gives to this wicked adjuration of the king, who would lay the foundation of the peace of the two kingdoms in the blood of the heir of one of them. Periers, in his novels, uses the word commere to signify a she-friend. "A tous ses gens chacun une commere." And Ben Jonson, in his Devil's an Ass, englishes the word by a middling gossip.

"Or what do you say to a middling gossip,

"To bring you together." WARB.

Hanmer reads,

And stand a cement

I am again inclined to vindicate the old reading. That the word commere is French, will not be denied; but when or where was it English?

The expression of our author is, like many of his phrases, sufficiently constrained and affected, but it is not incapable of explanation. The comma is the note of connection and continuity of sentences; the period is the note of abruption and disjunction. Shakspeare had it perhaps in his mind to write, That unless England complied with the mandate, war should put a period to their amity; he altered his mode of diction,

and thought that, in an opposite sense, he might put, that Peace should stand a comma between their amities. This is not an easy stile; but is it not the stile of Shakspeare? JoнN. "As peace, &c.

"And stand a comma," &c.

"Comma," if it does not absolutely mean stop, must yet be understood as making a pause, a sense which will not do here. There can be little question but that Shakspeare wrote-" be a co-mate 'tween their amities." "Co-mate," i. e. companion, The meaning of the passage is "that peace should be associate with them." B. Ham. I beseech you, remember

[Hamlet moves him to put on his hat. Osr. Nay, good my lord; for my ease, in good faith.

Nay, in good faith,-for mine ease.] This seems to have been the affected phrase of the time. Thus in Marston's Malecontent, "I beseech you, sir, be covered.-No, in good faith for my case." And in other places. FARM.

It seems to have been the common language of ceremony in our author's time. "Why do you stand bareheaded?" (says one of the speakers in Florio's Second Frutes, 1591) “you do yourself wrong." "Pardon me, good sir" (replies his friend); 'I do it for my ease."

Again, in A New Way to pay old Debts, by Massinger, 1633:

66

-Is't for your ease,

"You keep your hat off?" MAL.

"For my ease." The commentators do not seem to know the meaning of this expression. For my ease does not here signify to be relieved from any bodily pain, but simply: It is my pleasure: it is agreeable to me.

Indeed, to speak feelingly of him, he is tlie card or calendar of gentry.

-speak feelingly.] The first quarto reads, sellingly.

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"Speak feelingly." Feelingly," has no sort of meaning in this place. The quarto is nearly right. We must read seclingly. Seel in Spenser and other early writers is happy. Shakspeare uses happy in the sense of proper, handsome. He therefore makes Osrick say— "to speak properly or handsomely of him," &c. B.

Osr. Your lordship speaks most infallibly of him.

Ham. The concernancy, sir? why do we wrap the gentleman in our more rawer breath?

Osr. Sir?

Hor. Is't not possible to understand in another tongue? You will do't, sir, really.

Is't not possible to understand in another tongue? you will do't, sir, really.] Of this interrogatory remark the sense is very obscure. The question may mean, Might not all this be understood in plainer language. But then, you will do it, sir, really, seems to have no use, for who could doubt but plain language would be intelligible? I would therefore read, is't possible not to be understood in a mother tongue. You will do it, sir, really. JOHN.

Suppose we were to point the passage thus: Is't not possible to understand? In another tongue you will do it, sir, really.

The specch seems to be addressed to Osrick, who is puzzled by Hamlet's imitation of his own affected language. STEEV.

"Is't not possible to understand," &c. The latter part of Horatio's speech certainly belongs to Osrick. Hamlet puts a question in which, by the way, wrap" should be "warp." "Why do we turn or twist the gentleman thus? Why thus be giving our opinions of him, and which after all, perhaps, are but crude?" To this Osrick replies: "Sir ?—You will do it, Sir, really." i. e. "It is wholly owing to yourself." B.

Osr. I mean, sir, for his weapon; but in the

imputation laid on him by them, in his meed he's unfellow'd.

-in his meed-] In his excellence. JOHN.

"in his meed." "Meed" is not excellence. It signifies reward, recompense. We must read meet, and change the punctuation. "I mean, Sir, for his weapon; but in the imputation laid on him by them in his meet. He's unfellow'd!" "I merely. speak of his exercise, of the weapon, Sir, only in regard of his uptness, his skilfulness in it. In short he's unequalled." B.

Ham. A kind of yesty collection, which carries them through and through the most fond and winnowed opinions.

-a kind of yesty collection, which carries them through and through the most fond and winnowed opinions; and do but blow them to their trials, the bubbles are out.] The metaphor is strangely mangled by the intrusion of the word fond, which undoubtedly should be read fann'd; the allusion being to corn separated by the fan from chaff and dust. But the editors seeing from the character of this yesty collection, that the opinions, through which they were so currently carried, were false opinions; and fann'd and winnow'd opinions, in the most obvious sense, signifying tried and purified opinions; they thought fann'd must needs be wrong, and therefore made it fond, which word signified, in our author's time, foolish, weak, or childish. They did not consider that fann'd and winnow'd opinions had also a different signification: for it may mean the opinions of great men and courtiers, men separated by their quality from the vulgar, as corn is separated from chaff. This yesty collection, says Hamlet, insinuates itself into people of the highest quality, as yest into the finest flour. The courtiers admire him, when he comes to the trial, &c. WARB.

This is a very happy emendation; but I know not why the critic should suppose that fond was printed for fann'd in consequence of any reason or reflection. Such errors, to which there is no temptation but idleness, and of which there was no cause but ignorance, are in every page of the old editions. This passage in the quarto stands thus: "They have got out of the habit of encounter, a kind of misty col

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