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Ber. Have you had quiet Guard ?

Fran. Not a mouse stirring.

Ber. Well, good night.

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If you do meet Horatio and Marcellus,

The rivals of my Watch, bid them make haste.

Enter Horatio and Marcellus.

Fran. I think, I hear them. Stand, ho! Who is

there?

Hor. Friends to this ground.

Mar. And liege-men to the Dane.

Fran. Give you good night...

Mar. Oh, farewel, honest foldier.

liev'd you ?

night.

Fran. Bernardo has my place.

Mar. Holla! Bernardo.

Ber. Say, what, is Horatio there?

Hor. A piece of him.

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Give you good

[Exit Francifco.

Ber. Welcome, Horatio; welcome, good Mar

cellus.

Mar. What, has this thing appeared again to

night?

Ber. I have feen nothing.

Mar. Horatio fays, 'tis but our phantafy,

And will not let belief take hold of him,
Touching this dreadful fight, twice seen of us;
Therefore I have intreated him along

With us, to watch the minutes of this night,

The rivals of my Watch,-] Rivals, for partners. WARB. By Rivals of the Watch are meant those who were to watch on the next adjoining ground. Riugls, in the original fenfe of the word, were proprietors of

neighbouring lands, parted only
by a brook, which belonged
equally to both. HANMER.

Hor. A piece of him] But
why a piece? He says this as he
gives his hand. Which direction
should be marked. WARB.
That

That if again this apparition come,
He may 3 approve our eyes, and speak to it.
Hor. Tush! tush! 'twill not appear.
Ber. Sit down a while,

And let us once again affail your ears,
That are so fortified against our story,
* What we two nights have seen.-
Hor. Well, fit we down,
And let us hear Bernardo speak of this.
Ber. Last night of all,

When yon same star, that's westward from the pole,
Had made his course t'illume that part of heav'n
Where now it burns, Marcellus and myself,
The bell then beating one,

Mar. Peace, break thee off;

Enter the Ghost.

Look, where it comes again.

Ber. In the fame figure; like the King that's dead.
Mar. Thou art a scholar; speak to it, Horatio.
Ber. Looks it not like the King? Mark it, Horatio.
Hor. Most like. It harrows me with fear and

wonder.

Ber. It would be spoke to.
Mar. Speak to it, Horatio.

Hor. What art thou, that ufurp'st this time of

night,

Together with that fair and warlike form,
In which the Majesty of buried Denmark

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Did fometime march? By Heav'n, I charge thee,

fpeak.

Mar. It is offended.

Ber. See! it stalks away.

:

4 What we two nights have Seen.) This line is by Hanmer given to Marcellus, but without neceffity,

3-approve our eyes,] Add a new teftimony to that of our eyes.

K 2

Hor.

:

1

Hor. Stay; speak; I charge thee, speak.

Mar. 'Tis gone, and will not answer.

[Exit Ghost.

Ber. How now, Horatio? you tremble and look

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pale,

Is not this fomething more than phantasy?

What think you of it?

Hor. Before my God, I might not this believe,

Without the sensible and true avouch

Of mine own eyes.

Mar. Is it not like the King?

Hor. As thou art to thyself.

Such was the very armour he had on,
When he th' ambitious Norway combated;
So frown'd he once, when, in an angry parle,
He smote the leaded Polack on the ice.

'Tis strange

Mar. Thus twice before, and just at this dead

hour,

With martial ftalk, he hath gone by our Watch.

Hor. In what particular thought to work, I know not,

5 He fmote the fleaded Polack on the ice.] Pole-ax in the common editions. He speaks of a Prince of Poland whom he flew in battle. He uses the word Polack again, Act 2. Scene 4. POPE.

Polack was, in that age, the term for an inhabitant of Poland: Polaque, French. As in a tranflation of Pafferatius's epitaph on Henry III. of France, published by Camden:

Whether thy chance or choice
thee hither brings,
Stay, passenger, und wail the
best of kings,

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But, in the gross scope of my opinion,
This bodes fome strange eruption to our State.

Mar. Good now fit down, and tell me, he that

knows,

Why this same strict and most observant Watch
So nightly toils the Subjects of the Land?
And why such daily caft of brazen Cannon,
And foreign mart for implements of war ?
Why such impress of shipwrights, whose fore task
Does not divide the Sunday 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?

Hor. That can I;

:

At least, the whisper goes fo. Our last King,
Whose image but even now appear'd to us,
Was, as you know, by Fortinbras of Norway,
Thereto prickt on by a most emulate pride,
Dar'd to the fight: In which our valiant Hamlet
(For so this fide of our known world esteem'd him)
Did slay this Fortinbras, who by seal'd compact,
Well ratified by law and heraldry,

7

who by seal'd compat, Well ratified by law AND beraldry,] The subject spoken of is a duel between two monarchs, who fought for a wager, and entered into articles for the just performance of the terms agreed upon. Two forts of law then were necessary to regulate the decifion of the affair; the Civil Law, and the Law of Arms; as, had there been a wager without a duel, it had been the civil law only; or a duel without a wager, the law of arms only. Let us fee now how our

-1

Did

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which is ratified, one and the fame, For these reasons I con

1

1

Did forfeit, with his life, all those his Lands,
Which he stood seiz'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 that cov'nant,
And carriage of the articles design'd,
His fell to Hamlet. Now young Fortinbras,
Of unimproved mettle hot and full,
Hath in the skirts of Norway, here and there,
Shark'd up a list of landless resolutes,
For food and dier, to some enterprize

That hath a stomach ist; which is no other,

As it doth well appear unto our State,

1

But to recover of us by strong hand,
3 And terms compulfative, those foresaid Lands
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-hafte and romage in the Land.

I conclude Shakespear wrote,

who by feal'd compact
Well ratified by law of be-
raldry.

i. e. the execution of the civil
compact was ratified by the law
of arms; which in our author's
time, was called the law of be
raldry. So the best and exactest
speaker of that age: In the third
kind, [i. e. of the Jus gentium]
the LAW OF HERALDRY in war
is positive, &c. Hooker's Ecclefi-
aftical Polity.
WARB.

the articles, the covenants entered into to confirm that bargain. Hence we see the common reading makes a tautology. WARB

9 And carriage of the articles design'd.] Carriage, is import: defigned, is formed, drawn up between them.

Of unimproved mettle--] Unimproved, for unrefined. WAR. Full of unimproved mettle, is full of fpirit not regulated or guided by knowledge or experience.

2 That bath a stomach in't :-] Stamach, in the time of our authour, was used for constancy, reSolution.

as by THAT COV'NANT, And carriage of the articles defign'd,] The old quarto reads, -as by the fame COMART; and this is right. Comart signifies a bargain, and Carriage of fatory.

3 And terms compulfative,-] The old quarto, better, compul

WARBURTON.
Ber.

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