Imatges de pàgina
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Ham. How purpos'd, fir, I pray you?
Cup. Against fome part of Poland.
Ham. Who commands them, fir?

Cap. The nephew to old Norway, Fortinbras.
Ham. Goes it against the main of Poland, fir,
Or for fome frontier ?

Cap. Truly to fpeak, and with no addition,
We go to gain a little patch of ground,
That hath in it no profit but the name.
Το pay five ducats, five, I would not farm it;
Nor will it yield to Norway, or the Pole,

A ranker rate, fhould it be fold in fee.

Ham. Why, then the Polack never will defend it.
Cap. Yes, 'tis already garrifon'd.

Ham. Two thousand fouls, and twenty thousand ducats,

Will not debate the question of this ftraw:

This is the impofthume of much wealth, and peace;
That inward breaks, and fhews no caufe without
Why the man dies.-I humbly thank you, fir.
Cap. God be wi'you, fir.

Rof. Will't please you go, my lord?
Ham. I will be with you straight.

[Exit Captain.

Go a little before. [Exeunt Rof. and the reft.

How all occafions do inform against me,
And fpur my dull revenge! What is a man,
If his chief good, and market of his time',
Be but to fleep, and feed? a beast, no more.
Sure, he, that made us with such large discourse 2,
Looking before, and after, gave us not
That capability and god-like reason

To fuft in us unus'd. Now, whether it be
Bestial oblivion, or fome craven scruple3

Of thinking too precifely on the event,

A thought, which, quarter'd, hath but one part wisdom,

1-chief good, and market of bis time, &c.] If his highest good, and that for which be fells his time, be to fleep and feed. JOHNSON. Market, I think, here means profit. MALONE.

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large difcourfe,] Such latitude of comprehenfion, such power of reviewing the paft, and anticipating the future. JOHNSON. 3-fome craven fcruple-] Some cowardly fcruple. See Vol.III. p. 287, n. 2. MALONE.

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And,

And, ever, three parts coward,-I do not know
Why yet I live to fay, This thing's to do;

Sith I have caufe, and will, and strength, and means,
To do't. Examples, grofs as earth, exhort me:
Witness, this army, of fuch mafs, and charge,
Led by a delicate and tender prince;
Whofe fpirit, with divine ambition puff'd,
Makes mouths at the invifible event;
Expofing what is mortal, and unfure,
To all that fortune, death, and danger, dare,
Even for an egg-fhell. Rightly to be great,
Is, not to ftir without great argument*;
But greatly to find quarrel in a ftraw,
When honour's at the ftake. How ftand I then,
That have a father kill'd, a mother ftain'd,
Excitements of my reason, and my blood,
And let all fleep? while, to my shame, I fee
The imminent death of twenty thousand men,
That, for a fantasy, and trick of fame,
Go to their graves like beds; fight for a plot
Whereon the numbers cannot try the cause,
Which is not tomb enough, and continent,
To hide the flain ?-O, from this time forth,
My thoughts be bloody, or be nothing worth!

4

Rightly to be great,

[Exit.

Is, not to stir without, &c.] The fentiment of Shakspeare is partly juft, and partly romantick.

Rightly to be great,

Is not to ftir without great argument;

is exactly philofophical.

But greatly to find quarrel in a straw,

When bonour's at the fake,

is the idea of a modern hero. But then, fays he, honour is an argu ment, or fubject of debate, fufficiently great, and when honour is at take, we must find caufe of quarrel in a fraw. JOHNSON.

5 Excitements of my reason, and my blood,] Provocations which excite both my reafon and my paffions to vengeance. JOHNSON. 6-continent,] Continent, in our author, means that which comprehends or encloses. So, in King Lear:

"Rive your concealing continents." STEEVENS.

SCENE

Queen.

SCENE V.

Elfinore. A Room in the Caftle.
Enter Queen, and HORATIO.

I will not speak with her.

Hor. She is importunate: indeed, distract; Her mood will needs be pity'd.

Queen. What would he have?

Hor. She speaks much of her father; fays, fhe hears, There's tricks i' the world; and hems, and beats her

heart;

Spurns enviously at ftraws7; fpeaks things in doubt, That carry but half fenfe: her fpeech is nothing,

Yet the unfhaped use of it doth move

The hearers to collection; they aim at it,
And botch the words up fit to their own thoughts;

Which, as her winks, and nods, and geftures yield them,
Indeed would make one think, there might be thought,
Though nothing fure, yet much unhappily '.

Queen.

7 Spurns enviously at straws;] Envy is much oftener put by our poet (and thofe of his time) for direct averfion, than for malignity conceived at the fight of another's excellence or happiness.

So, in King Henry VIII.

"You turn the good we offer into envy."

Again, in God's Revenge against Murder, 1621, Hift. VI.-"She loves the memory of Sypontus, and envies and detefts that of her two hulbands." STEEVENS.

See Vol. VII. p. 42, n. 1, and Vol. VI. p. 75, n. 6. MALONE. 8 -to collection;] i. e. to deduce confequences from fuch premises. So, in Cymbeline, Scene the laft:

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whofe containing

"Is fo from fenfe to hardness, that I can

"Make no collection of it."

See the note on this paffage. STEEVENS.

9- they aim at it,] The quartos read-they yawn at it. To aim is to guefs. STEVENS.

Though nothing fure, yet much unhappily.] i. e. though her meaning cannot be certainly collected, yet there is enough to put a mischievous interpretation to it. WARBURTON.

See Vol. II. p. 234, n. 2; Vol. III. p. 456, n. 6; and Vol. VII. P. 37, n. 2. MALONE.

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That

Queen. 'Twere good, fhe were spoken with 2; for the may ftrew

Dangerous conjectures in ill-breeding minds:

Let her come in.

To my fick foul, as fin's true nature is,

[Exit Horatio.

Each toy feems prologue to fome great amifs 3:
So full of artlefs jealoufy is guilt,

It fpills itself, in fearing to be spilt.

Re-enter HORATIO, with OPHELIA.

Opb. Where is the beauteous majesty of Denmark? Queen. How now, Ophelia ?

Oph. Hoc fhould I your true love know

From another one?

By his cockle bat, aud ftaff,

And his fandal fheon 5.

[Singing. Queen.

That unhappy once fignified mifchievous, may be known from P. Holland's tranflation of Pliny's Nat. Hift. b. 19. ch. 7. " the fhrewd and unhappie foules, which lie upon the lands, and eat up the feed new-fowne. "We ftill ufe unlucky in the fame fenfe. STEEVENS. 2 'Twere good, he were spoken with;-] Thefe lines are given to the Queen in the folio, and to Horatio in the quarto.. JOHNSON. I think the two first lines of Horatio's speech, ['Twere good, &c.] belong to him; the reft to the queen. BLACKSTONE.

In the quarto, the Queen, Horatio, and a Gentleman, enter at the beginning of this fcene. The two fpeeches, " She is importunate," &c. and She fpeaks much of her father," &c. are there given to the Gentleman, and the line now before us, as well as the two following, to Horatio: the remainder of this fpeech to the queen. I think it probable that the regulation propofed by Sir W. Blackstone was that intended by Shakspeare. MALONE.

3-to fome great amifs;] Shakspeare is not fingular in his use of this word as a fubftantive. So, in the Arraignment of Paris, 1584: "Gracious forbearers of this world's amifs."

Again, in Lilly's Woman in the Moon, 1597:

"Pale be my looks, to witnefs my amifs." STEEVENS. See Vol. X. p. 315. Each toy is, each trifle. MALONE.

4 How should I your true love, &c.] There is no part of this play, in its reprefentation on the ftage, more pathetick than this fcene; which, I fuppofe, proceeds from the utter infenfibility Ophelia has to her own misfortunes.

A great

Queen. Alas, fweet lady, what imports this fong?
Opb. Say you? nay, pray you, mark.
He is dead and gone, lady,

He is dead and

gone;

At his head a grass-green turf,

At his heels a ftone.

O, ho!

Queen. Nay, but Ophelia,

Oph. Pray you, mark.

[fings.

White his froud as the mountain Snow,
Enter King.

Queen. Alas, look here, my lord.

Oph. Larded all with fweet flowers;

Which bewept to the grave did not go,
With true-love showers.

King. How do you, pretty lady?

[fings.

Oph. Well, God 'ield you?! They fay, the owl was a

baker's

A great fenfibility, or none at all, feems to produce the fame effect. In the latter the audience fupply what he wants, and with the former they fympathize. Sir J. REYNOLDS.

5 By bis cockle bat, and ftaff,

And bis fandal fhoon.] This is the defcription of a pilgrim. While this kind of devotion was in favour, love-intrigues were carried on under that mask. Hence the old ballads and novels made pilgrimages the fubjects of their plots. The cockle-fhell hat was one of the effential badges of this vocation: for the chief places of devotion being beyond fea, or on the coafts, the pilgrims were accustomed to put cockle-fhells upon their hats, to denote the intention or performance of their devotion. WARBURTON.

So, in Greene's Never too late, 1616:
"A hat of straw like to a fwain,

Shelter for the fun and rain,

"With a scallop-fhell before," &c.

Again, in The Old Wives Tale, by George Peele, 1595: "I will give thee a Palmer's faffe of yvorie, and a scallop-shell of beaten gold." STEEVENS.

6 Larded all with fweet flowers;] The expreffion is taken from cookery. JOHNSON.

7 Well, God'ield you !] i. e. Heaven reward you! So, in Antony and Cleopatra:

Tend me to-night two hours, I ask no more,
"And the Gods yield you
for't!"

A a 4

So,

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