Seek for thy noble father in the duft: Thou know'ft, 'tis common; all, that live, muft die, Ham. Ay, madam, it is common. Queen. If it be, Why feems it fo particular with thee? Ham. Seems, madam! nay, it is; I know not seems. 'Tis not alone my inky cloak, good mother, Nor cuftomary fuits of folemn black, Nor windy fufpiration of forc'd breath, Together with all forms, modes, fhews of grief, To give these mourning duties to your father: To do obfequious forrow: But to persever 1- fhews of grief,] Thus the folio. The first quarto reads chapes, I fuppofe for shapes. STEEVENS. 3 But I bave that within, which passeth fhew; Thefe but the trappings and the fuits of woe.] So, in K. Ricb. II: my grief lies all within; "And thefe external manners of lament "Are merely fhadows to the unfeen grief "That fwells with filence to the tortured foul." MALONE. -your father loft a father; That father loft, loft bis ;] The meaning of the paffage is no more than this. Your father loft a father, i. e. your grandfather, which Loft grandfather alfo loft his father. STEEVENS. 4-obfequious forrow:] Obfequious is here from obfequies or funeral ceremonies. JOHNSON. So, in Titus Andronicus: "To fhed obfequious tears upon his trunk." STEEVENS. See Vol. VI. p. 461, n. 5. MALONE. In obftinate condolement 5, is a course Than that which dearest father bears his fon, In 5 In obftinate condolement,] Condolement, for forrow. WARBURTON. a will most incorrect to heaven;] Not fufficiently regulated by a sense of duty and fubmiffion to the difpenfations of providence. MALONE. 7 To reafon moft abfurd;] Reafon is here ufed in its common fenfe, for the faculty by which we form conclufions from arguments. JOHNSON. 8 And with no lefs nobility of love,] Nobility, for magnitude. WARBURTON. Nobility is rather generofity. JOHNSON. By nobility of love Mr. Heath understands, eminence and distinction of love. MALONE. 9 Do I impart toward you.] I believe impart is, impart myself, communicate whatever I can beftow. JOHNSON. The crown of Denmark was elective. So, in Sir Clyomon Knight of the Golden Shield, &c. 1599: "And me poffefs for spoused wife, who in election am "To have the crown of Denmark here, as heir unto the fame." The king means, that as Hamlet ftands the fairest chance to be next elected, he will strive with as much love to enfure the crown to him, as a father would fhew in the continuance of heirdom to a fon. STEEV. I agree with Mr. Steevens, that the crown of Denmark (as in most of the Gothick kingdoms) was elective, and not hereditary; though In going back to school in Wittenberg', And, we beseech you, bend you to remain Queen. Let not thy mother lose her prayers, Hamlet; it might be cuftomary, in elections, to pay fome attention to the royal blood, which by degrees produced hereditary fucceffion. Why them do the rest of the commentators fo often treat Claudius as an ufurper, who had deprived young Hamlet of his right by beirship to his father's crown? Hamlet calls him drunkard, murderer, and villain: one who had carryed the election by low and mean practices; had had Popt in between the election and my hopes-" From a fhelf the precious diadem ftole, "And put it in his pocket:" but never hints at his being an ufurper. His difcontent arofe from his uncle's being preferred before him, not from any legal right which he pretended to fet up to the crown. Some regard was probably had to the recommendation of the preceding prince, in electing the fucceffor. And therefore young Hamlet had the voice of the king himself for his fucceflion in Denmark;" and he at his own death prophecies that "the election would light on Fortinbras, who had his dying voice," conceiving that by the death of his uncle, he himself had been king for an inftant, and had therefore a right to recommend. When, in the fourth act, the rabble wished to choose Laertes king, I understand that antiquity was forgot, and cuftom violated, by electing a new king in the lifetime of the old one, and perhaps alfo by the call. ing in a franger to the royal blood. BLACKSTONE. - to fchool in Wittenberg,] In Shakspeare's time there was an univerfity at Wittenberg, to which he has made Hamlet propofe to return. The university of Wittenberg was not founded till 1502, confequently did not exist in the time to which this play is referred. MALONE. 2 bend you to remain-] i. e. fubdue your inclination to go from hence, and remain, &c. STEEVENS. 3 No jocund bealth, The king's intemperance is very strongly impreffed; every thing that happens to him gives him occasion to drink. JOHNSON. But But the great cannon to the clouds fhall tell; [Exeunt King, Queen, Lords, &c. PoL. and LAERT, Ham. O, that this too too folid flesh would melt, Thaw, and refolve itself into a dew 4! Or that the Everlasting had not fix'd His canon 'gainst felt-laughter! O God! O God! Seem to me all the ufes of this world! Fie on't! O fie! 'tis an unweeded garden, That grows to feed; things rank, and grofs in nature, But two months dead!-nay, not fo much, not two: Hyperion to a fatyr: fo loving to my mother, That 4 -refolve itself into a dew!] Refolue means the fame as diffolve. Ben Jonfon ufes the word in his Volpone, and in the same sense: "Forth the refolved corners of his eyes." Again, in the Country Girl, 1647 : 66 my fwoln grief, refolved in thefe tears." STEEVENS. $ Or that the Everlasting bad not fix'd His canon 'gainfi felf-flaughter!] The generality of the editions read cannon, as if the poet's thought were, Or that the Almighty bad not planted bis artillery, or arms of vengeance, against felf-murder. But. the word which I reftored (and which was efpoufed by the accurate Mr. Hughes, who gave an edition of this play) is the true reading, i. e. that be bad not reftrained fuicide by bis exprefs law and peremptory prohibition. THEOBALD. There are yet thofe who fuppofe the old reading to be the true one, as they say the word fixed feems to decide very strongly in its favour. I would advise fuch to recollect Virgil's expreffion: - fixit leges pretio, atque efixit. STEEVENS. If the true reading wanted any fupport, it might be found in Cymbeline: "gainst felf-flaughter "There is a probibition fo divine, "That cravens my weak hand." In Shakspeare's time canon, (norma) was commonly fpelt cannon., MALONE. 6-merely] is entirely. See Vol. VII. p. 233, n. 4. MALONE. 7 So excellent a king; that was, to this, Hyperion to a faryr:] Hyperion or Apollo is represented in all. the ancient ftatues, &c. as exquifitely beautiful, the fatyrs hideously ugly.-Shakspeare may furely be pardoned for not attending to the quantity of Latin names, here and in Cymbeline; when we find Henry Parrot, That he might not beteem the winds of heaven Parrot,the authour of a collection of epigrams printed in 1613, to which a Latin preface is prefixed, writing thus: "Poftbúmus, not the laft of many more, "Afks why I write in fuch an idle vaine," &c. Laquei ridiculofi, or Springes for Woodcocks, 16mo. fign. c. 3. MALONE. All our English poets are guilty of the fame falfe quantity, and call Hyperion Hyperion; at least the only instance I have met with to the contrary, is in the old play of Fuimus Troes, 1633: Blow, gentle Africus, "Play on our poops, when Hyperion's fon 8 That he might not beteem the winds of beaven Vifit ber face too roughly.] This passage ought to be a perpetual memento to all future editors and commentators to proceed with the utmost caution in emendation, and never to discard a word from the text, merely because it is not the language of the present day. Mr. Hughes or Mr. Rowe, fuppofing the text to be unintelligible, for bereem boldly fubftituted permitted. Mr. Theobald, in order to favour his own emendation, ftated untruly that all the old copies which he had feen, read beteene, and with great plausibility proposed to read, That he might not let e'en the winds of heaven, &c. This emendation appearing uncommonly happy, was adopted by all the fubfequent editors. But without neceffity; for the reading of the first quarto, 1604, and indeed of all the subsequent quartos, beteeme, is no corruption, but a word of Shakspeare's age; and accordingly it is now once more reftored to the text. It is ufed by Golding in his tranflation of the tenth book of Ovid's Metamorphofes, 4to, 1587: "The king of Gods did burne ere while in love of Ganymede, "The Phrygian; and the thing was found which Jupiter, that fled, "Had rather be than what he was; yet could he not beteeme "The shape of any other bird than eagle for to feeme." Rex fuperum Phrygii quondam Ganymedis amore Arfit; et inventum eft aliquid quod Jupiter effe, Quam quod erat, mallet; nulla tamen alite verti Dignatur, nifi quæ poffit fua fulmina ferre. In the folio the word is corruptly printed beteene. The rhyme in Golding's veríes proves that the reading of the original quarto is the true one. Golding manifeftly ufes the word in the fenfe of endure. We find a fentiment fimilar to that before us, in Marfton's Infatiate Countefs, 1603: fhe had a lord, "Jealous that air fhould ravish her chafte looks." MALONE. So, in the Enterlude of the Lyfe and Repentance of Marie Magdalaine, &c. by Lewis Wager, 1567: "But evermore they were unto me very tender, "They would not fuffer the wynde on me to blowe." STEEV. Mult |