But thou would'st not think, how ill all's here about my heart: but it is no matter. Hor. Nay, good my lord, Ham. It is but foolery; but it is fuch a kind of gaingiving, as would, perhaps, trouble a woman. Hor. If your mind diflike any thing, obey it: I will forestal their repair hither, and fay, you are not fit. Ham. Not a whit, we defy augury; there is a fpecial providence in the fall of a fparrow. If it be now, 'tis not to come; if it be not to come, it will be now; if it be not now, yet it will come the readiness is all: Since no man of aught he leaves, knows, what is't to leave betimes? Let be. Enter 4f gain-giving,] Gain-giving is the fame as mif-giving. STEEV. 5 If your mind diflike any thing, obey it :] With these prefages of future evils arifing in the mind, the poet has forerun many events which are to happen at the conclufions of his plays; and fometimes fo particularly, that even the circumftances of calamity are minutely hinted at, as in the inftance of Juliet, who tells her lover from the window, that he appears like one dead in the bottom of a tomb. The fuppofition that the genius of the mind gave the alarm before approaching diffolution, is a very ancient one, and perhaps can never be totally driven out: yet it must be allowed the merit of adding beauty to poetry, however iujurious it may fometimes prove to the weak and the fuperftitious. STEEVENS. Since no man, of aught be leaves, knows, what is't to leave betimes?] The old quarto reads, Since no man, of aught be leaves, knows, what is't to leave betimes? Let be. This is the true reading. Here the premifes conclude right, and the argument drawn out at length is to this effect: "It is true, that, by death, we lofe all the goods of life, "yet feeing this lofs is no otherwise an evil than as we are fenfible of "it; and fince death removes all fenfe of it, what matters it how "foon we lose them? Therefore come what will, I am prepared." WARBURTON. The reading of the quarto was right, but in fome other copy the harshness of the tranfpofition was foftened, and the paffage stood thus : Since no man knows aught of what be leaves. For knows was printed in the later copies bas, by a flight blunder in fuch typographers. I do not think Dr. Warburton's interpretation of the paffage the beft that it will admit. The meaning may be this: Since no man knows aught of the state of life which be leaves, fince he cannot judge what other years may produce, why should he be afraid of leaving life betimes? Why should he dread an early death, of which he cannot tell whether it is an exclufion of happiness, or an interception of calamity. I defpile the fuperftition of augury and omens, which has no ground Enter King, Queen, LAERTES, Lords, OSRICK, and Attendants with foils, &c. King. Come, Hamlet, come, and take this hand from me. [The King puts the hand of Laertes into that of Hamlet. Ham. Give me your pardon, fir7: I have done you wrong; But pardon it, as you are a gentleman. This prefence knows, and you must needs have heard, How I am punish'd with a fore distraction. What I have done, That might your nature, honour, and exception, And, when he's not himself, does wrong Laertes, Sir, in this audience, Let my disclaiming from a purpos'd evil Laer. I am fatisfy'd in nature, in reafon or piety; my comfort is, that I cannot fall but by the direction of providence. Hanmer has, Since no man owes aught, a conjecture not very reprehenfible. Since no man can call any poffeffion certain, what is it to leave? JOHNSON. Dr. Warburton has truly ftated the reading of the firft quarto, 1604. The folio reads-Since no man bas ought of what he leaves, what is't to leave betimes? In the late editions neither copy has been followed. MALONE. 7 Give me your pardon, fir:] I with Hamlet had made fome other defence; it is unfuitable to the character of a good or a brave man, to fhelter himself in falfehood. JOHNSON. Sir, &c.] This paffage I have restored from the folio. STEEV. 9 I am fatisfied in nature, &c.] This was a piece of fatire on fantaftical honour. Though nature is fatisfied, yet he will afk advice of older men of the fword, whether artificial bonour ought to be contented with Hamlet's fubmiffion. There is a paffage fomewhat fimilar in the Maid's Tragedy: "Evad. Will you forgive me then? "Mel. Stay, I must ask mine bonour first." STEEVENS. whofe Whose motive, in this cafe, should stir me most Ham. I embrace it freely; And will this brother's wager frankly play.- Laer. Come, one for me. Ham. I'll be your foil, Laertes; in mine ignorance Your skill shall, like a ftar i' the darkest night, Stick firy off indeed. Laer. You mock me, fir. Ham. No, by this hand. King. Give them the foils, young Ofrick.-Coufin Hamlet, You know the wager? Ham. Very well, my lord; Your grace hath laid the odds o' the weaker fide 2. length? Thefe foils have all a [They prepare to play. 1 Till by fome elder mafters, of known bonour,] Mr. Steevens thinks that "this is faid in allufion to the ancient mafters of defence," of Shakspeare's time. See Vol. I. p. 204, n. 9. Our poet frequently alludes to English customs, and may have done fo here, but I do not believe that gentlemen ever fubmitted points of honour to perfons who exhibited themfelves for money as prize-fighters on the publick stage; though they might appeal in certain cafes to Raleigh, Effex, or Southampton, who from their high rank, their courfe of life, and eftablished reputation, might with strict propriety be ftyled, "elder mafters, of known bonour." MALONE. 2 Your grace bath laid the odds o' the weaker fide.] Hamlet either means, that what the king had laid was more valuable than what Laertes ftaked; or that the king bath made bis bet, an advantage being given to the weaker party. I believe the first is the true interpretation. In the next line but one the word odds certainly means an advantage given to the party, but here it may have a different fenfe. This is not an uncommon practice with our poet. MALONE. VOL. IX. E e Ofr. Ofr. Ay, my good lord. King. Set me the ftoups of wine upon that table Or quit in answer of the third exchange, In Denmark's crown have worn: Give me the cups ; The trumpet to the cannoneer without, The cannons to the heavens, the heaven to earth, Ham. Come on, fir. Laer. Come, my lord. Ham. One. Laer. No. Ham. Judgment. Ofr. A hit, a very palpable hit. Laer. Well,-again. [They play King. Stay, give me drink: Hamlet, this pearl is thine "; Here's 3 the froups of wine-] A foup is a flaggon, or bowl. STEEVENS Containing fomewhat more than two quarts. See Vol. IV. p. 33, n. I. MALONE. 4 And in the cup an union shall be throw,] Thus the folio rightly. In the first quarto by the carelefinefs of the printer, for union, we have unice, which in the fubfequent quarto copies was made onyx. union is a very precious pearl. See Bullokar's English Expofitor, 1616, and Florio's Italian Dictionary, 1598, in v. MALONE. Ад The anion is thus mentioned in P. Holland's tranflation of Pling's Nat. Hift. "And hereupon it is that our dainties and delicates here at Rome, &c. call them unions, as a man would fay fingular and by themfelves alone." To fwallow a pearl in a draught feems to have been equally common to royal and mercantile prodigality. So, in the fecond part of If you know not me, you know No Body, 1606, Sir Thomas Gresham fays: "Here 16,000 pound at one clap goes. "Instead of fugar, Grefham drinks this pearle 5this pearl is tbine;] Under pretence of throwing a pearl into the cup, the king may be fuppofed to drop fome poifonous drug into the Here's to thy health.-Give him the cup. [Trumpets found; and cannon shot off within. Ham. I'll play this bout first, fet it by a while. Come. Another hit; What say you? Laer. A touch, a touch, I do confefs. King. Our fon fhall win. Queen. He's fat, and fcant of breath 6. [They play. Here, Hamlet, take my napkin, rub thy brows: King. Gertrude, do not drink. Queen. I will, my lord ;-I pray you, pardon me. Ham. I dare not drink yet, madam; by and by. Laer. My lord, I'll hit him now. King. I do not think it. [Afide. Laer. And yet it is almoft against my confcience. [Afide. Ham. Come, for the third, Laertes: You do but dally; I pray you, pass with your beft violence; I am afeard, you make a wanton of me 7. the wine. Hamlet feems to fufpect this, when he afterwards difcovers the effects of the poison, and tauntingly asks him,-Is the union bere? STEEVENS, 6 Queen. He's fat, and fcant of breath.] It feems that John Lowin, who was the original Falstaff, was no lefs celebrated for his performance of Henry VIII. and Hamlet. See the Hiftoria Hiftrionica, &c. If he was adapted, by the corpulence of his figure, to appear with propriety in the two former of thefe characters, Shakspeare might have put this obfervation into the mouth of her majefty, to apologize for the want of fuch elegance of perfon as an audience might expect to meet with in the reprefentative of the youthful Prince of Denmark, whom Ophelia fpeaks of "as the glafs of fashion and the mould of form." This, however, is mere conjecture, as Jofeph Taylor likewife acted Hamlet during the life of Shakspeare. STEEVENS. The authour of Hiftoria Hiftrionica, and Downes the prompter, concur in faying that Taylor was the performer of Hamlet. Roberts the player alone has afferted, (apparently without any authority,) that this part was performed by Lowin. MALONE. 7-you make a wanton of me.] A wanton was a man feeble and effeminate. In Cymbeline, Imogen says, I am not "-fo citizen a wanton, as "To feem to die, ere fick." JoHNSON. Laer. |