With martial stalk hath he gone by our watch. HOR. In what particular thought to work,' I know not;

But, in the grofs and scope of mine opinion,
This bodes fome ftrange eruption to our state.
MAR. Good now, fit down, and tell me, he that
knows,

2

Why this fame ftrict and most observant watch
So nightly toils the subject of the land;
And why fuch daily caft of brazen cannon,
And foreign mart for implements of war;
Why fuch imprefs of fhipwrights,' whofe fore task
Does not divide the funday from the week:
What might be toward, that this sweaty haste
Doth make the night joint-labourer with the day;
Who is't, that can inform me?

That can I;

HOR.
At least, the whisper goes fo. Our last king,

In the folio we fometimes find a familiar word fubftituted for one more ancient.

MALONE.

Jump and juft were fynonymous in the time of Shakspeare. Ben Jonfon fpeaks of verfes made on jump names, i. e. names that fuit exactly. Nafh fays" and jumpe imitating a verfe in As in præfenti." So, in Chapman's May Day, 1611:

"Your appointment was jumpe at three, with me."

Again, in M. Kyffin's tranflation of the Andria of Terence, 1588: "Comes he this day fo jump in the very time of this marriage?" STEEVENS.

In what particular thought to work,] i. e. What particular train of thinking to follow. STEEVENS.

9

-grofs and fcope-] General thoughts, and tendency at large. JOHNSON.

2

daily caft-] The quartos read-coft. STEEVENS.

3 Why fuch impress of shipwrights,] Judge Barrington, Obfervations on the more ancient Statutes, p. 300, having obferved that Shakspeare gives English manners to every country where his

Whofe image even but now appear'd to us, Was, as you know, by Fortinbras of Norway, Thereto prick'd on by a most emulate pride, Dar'd to the combat; in which, our valiant Hamlet (For fo this fide of our known world esteem'd him,) Did flay this Fortinbras; who, by a seal'd compáct,

Well ratified by law, and heraldry,

Did forfeit, with his life, all thofe his lands,
Which he stood feiz'd of, to the conqueror:
Against the which, a moiety competent
Was gaged by our king; which had return'd
To the inheritance of Fortinbras,

Had he been vanquisher; as, by the fame co-mart,
And carriage of the article defign'd,'

fcene lies, infers from this paffage, that in the time even of Queen Elizabeth, fhipwrights as well as feamen were forced to ferve.

WHALLEY.

Imprefs fignifies only the act of retaining fhipwrights by giving them what was called preft money (from pret, Fr.) for holding themfelves in readiness to be employed. See Mr. Douce's note on King Lear, Vol. XIV. p. 233, n. 4. STEEVENS.

4 by law, and heraldry,] Mr. Upton fays, that Shakspeare fometimes expreffes one thing by two fubftantives, and that law and heraldry means, by the herald law. So, in Antony and Cleopatra, A&t IV:

"Where rather I expect victorious life,

"Than death and honour.”

i. e. honourable death. STEEVENS.

Puttenham, in his Art of Poefte, fpeaks of the Figure of Twynnes, "borfes and barbes, for barbed horfes, venim & dartes, for venimous dartes," &c. FARMER.

law, and heraldry,] That is, according to the forms of law beraldry. When the right of property was to be determined by combat, the rules of heraldry were to be attended to, as well as thofe of law. M. MASON.

i. e. to be well ratified by the rules of law, and the forms prescribed jure feciali; such as proclamation, &c. MALONE.

sas, by the fame co-mart,

And carriage of the article defign'd,] Comart fignifies a bargain,

His fell to Hamlet: Now, fir, young Fortinbras,
Of unimproved mettle hot and full,

Hath in the skirts of Norway, here and there,
Shark'd up a lift of landless refolutes,"
For food and diet, to fome enterprize
That hath a ftomach in't: which is no other
(As it doth well appear unto our state,)
But to recover of us, by strong hand,

And terms compulfatory," those forefaid lands

and carrying of the article, the covenant entered into to confirm that bargain. Hence we fee the common reading [covenant] makes a tautology. WARBURTON.

Thus the quarto, 1604. The folio reads-as by the fame covenant: for which the late editions have given us-as by that

covenant.

Co-mart is, I fuppofe, a joint bargain, a word perhaps of our poet's coinage. A mart fignifying a great fair or market, he would not have fcrupled to have written-to mart, in the fenfe of to make a bargain. In the preceding fpeech we find mart used for bargain or purchase. MALONE.

He has not fcrupled fo to write in Cymbeline :

"As in a Romish ftew," &c.

See Vol. XIII. p. 58. STEEVENS.

And carriage of the article defign'd,] Carriage, is import: defign'd, is formed, drawn up between them. JOHNSON.

Cawdrey in his Alphabetical Table, 1604, defines the verb design thus: "To marke out or appoint for any purpose." See alfo Minfheu's Dict. 1617. "To defigne or fhew by a token." Defigned is yet used in this fenfe in Scotland. The old copies have defeigne. The correction was made by the editor of the fecond folio.

MALONE.

6 Of unimproved &c.] Full of unimproved mettle, is full of fpirit not regulated or guided by knowledge or experience. JOHNSON.

Shark'd up a lift &c.] I believe, to shark up means to pick up without distinction, as the bark-fifh collects his prey. The quartos read lawless, instead of landless. STEEVENS.

8 That hath a ftomach in't:] Stomach, in the time of our author, was used for conftancy, refolution. JOHNSON.

9 And terms compulfatory,] Thus the quarto, 1604. The foliocompulfative. STEEVENS.

So by his father loft: And this, I take it,
Is the main motive of our preparations;

The fource of this our watch; and the chief head Of this poft-haste and romage in the land.

2

[BER. I think,' it be no other, but even so: Well may it fort, that this portentous figure Comes armed through our watch; fo like the king That was, and is, the queftion of these wars."

2

-romage-] Tumultuous hurry. JoHNSON.

Commonly written rummage. STEEVENS.

3 [I think, &c.] These, and all other lines confined within crotchets throughout this play, are omitted in the folio edition of 1623. The omiffions leave the play fometimes better and fometimes worse, and seem made only for the fake of abbreviation.

JOHNSON.

It may be worth while to obferve, that the title-pages of the first quartos in 1604 and 1605, declare this play to be enlarged to almost as much againe as it was, according to the true and perfect copy.

Perhaps therefore many of its abfurdities as well as beauties arofe from the quantity added after it was firft written. Our poet might have been more attentive to the amplification than the coherence of his fable.

The degree of credit due to the title-page that ftyles the MS. from which the quartos, 1604 and 1605 were printed, the true and perfect copy, may also be difputable. I cannot help fuppofing this publication to contain all Shakspeare rejected, as well as all he fupplied. By restorations like the former, contending book fellers or theatres might have gained fome temporary advantage over each other, which at this distance of time is not to be understood. The patience of our ancestors exceeded our own, could it have outlafted the tragedy of Hamlet as it is now printed; for it must have occupied almost five hours in reprefentation. If, however, it was too much dilated on the ancient stage, it is as injudiciously contracted on the modern one. STEEVENS.

4 Well may it fort,] The caufe and effect are proportionate and fuitable. JOHNSON.

the question of thefe wars.] The theme or fubject. So, in Antony and Cleopatra:

66

You were the word of war." MALONE.

HOR. A mote it is," to trouble the mind's eye. In the most high and palmy state of Rome," A little ere the mightieft Julius fell,

The graves flood tenantlefs, and the fheeted dead Did fqueak and gibber in the Roman ftreets.

As, ftars with trains of fire and dews of blood,
Difafters in the fun; and the moist star,"

A mote it is,] The first quarto readssa moth. STEEVENS. A moth was only the old fpelling of mote, as I suspected in revifing a paffage in King John, Vol. VIII. p. 122, n. 6, where we certainly should read mote. MALONE.

7-palmy ftate of Rome,] Palmy, for victorious. POPE. As, ftars with trains of fire and dews of blood,

Difafters in the fun;] Mr. Rowe altered thefe lines, because they have infufficient connection with the preceding ones, thus: Stars fhone with trains of fire, dews of blood fell,

Difafters veil'd the fun,

This paffage is not in the folio. By the quartos therefore our imperfect text is fupplied; for an intermediate verfe being evidently loft, it were idle to attempt a union that never was intended. I have therefore fignified the fuppofed deficiency by a vacant space.

When Shakspeare had told us that the grave ftood tenantlefs, &c. which are wonders confined to the earth, he naturally proceeded to fay (in the line now loft) that yet other prodigies appeared in the sky; and thefe phænomena he exemplified by adding,-As [i. e. as for inftance] Stars with trains of fire, &c. STEEVENS.

Difafters dimm'd the fun ;] The quarto, 1604, reads:

Difafters in the fun ;

For the emendation I am refponfible. It is ftrongly supported not only by Plutarch's account in the life of Cæfar, [" alfo the brightnefs of the funne was darkened, the which, all that yeare through, rofe very pale, and shined not out,"] but by various paffages in our author's works. So, in The Tempeft:

66

I have be-dimm'd

"The noon-tide fun."

Again, in King Richard 11:

"As doth the blushing difcontented fun,

"When he perceives the envious clouds are bent
"To dim his glory."