Treachery! seek it out.

Laer. It is here, Hamlet: Hamlet, thou art slain;
No medicine in the world can do thee good,
In thee there is not half an hour's life;
The treacherous instrument is in thy hand,
Unbated, and envenom'd: the foul practice
Hath turn'd itself on me; lo, here I lie,
Never to rise again. Thy mother's poison'd;
I can no more; the king, the king's to blame.
Ham. The point

Bavenom'd too!-Then, venom to thy work.
(Stabs the King.)
Osr.&Lords. Treason, treason!
King. O, yet defend me, friends,. I am but hurt.
Ham. Here, thou incestuous, murd'rous, damned
Dane,

Drink off this potion :-Is the union here? Follow my mother.

Laer.

He is justly serv'd;
It is a poison temper'd by himself.-
Exchange forgiveness with me, noble Hamlet:
Mine and my father's death come not upon thee;
Nor thine on me!

(Dies.)
Ham. Heaven make thee free of it! I follow thee.
I am dead, Horatio:-Wretched queen, adieu :-
You that look pale and tremble at this chance,
That are but mutes or audience to this act,
Had I but time, (as this fell sergeant, death,
Is strict in his arrest,) O, I could tell you,-
But let it be :-Horatio, I am dead;

Thon liv'st; report me and my cause aright
To the unsatisfied.

Hor.
Never believe it;
I am more an antique Roman than a Dane.
Here's yet some liquor left.

Ham.
As thou'rt a man,-
Give me the cup; let go; by heaven I'll have it.
O God!-Horatio, what a wounded name,
Things standing thus unknown, shall live behind me?
If thou didst ever hold me in thy heart,
Absent thee from felicity awhile,

And in this harsh world draw thy breath in pain,
To tell my story.

(March afar off, and shot within.) What warlike noise is this?

Osr. Young Fortinbras, with conquest come from
Poland,

To the ambassadors of England gives
This warlike volley.

Ham.

O, I die, Horatio;

The potent poison quite o'er-crows my spirit;
I cannot live to hear the news from England:
But I do prophesy, the election lights

On Fortinbras; he has my dying voice;

30 tell him, with the concurrents, more or less,

Which have solicited,-The rest is silence. (Dies.) Hor. Now cracks a noble heart;-Good night, sweet prince

Hor.

Not from his mouth,
Had it the ability of life to thank you;
He never gave commandment for their death.
But since, so jump upon this bloody question,
You from the Polack wars, and you from England,
Are here arriv'd; give order, that these bodies
High on a stage be placed to the view;
And let me speak, to the yet unknowing world,
How these things come about: So shall you hear
Of carnal, bloody, aud unnatural acts;

Of accidental judgments, casual slaughters;
Of deaths put on by cunning, and forc'd cause;
And, in this upshot, purposes mistook

Fall'n on the inventors' heads: all this can I
Truly deliver.

Fort.

Let us haste to hear it,
And call the noblest to the audience.
For me, with sorrow I embrace my fortune;
I have some rights of memory in this kingdom,
Which now to claim my vantage doth invite me.

Hor. Of that I shall have also cause to speak,
And from his mouth whose voice will draw no more.
But let this same be presently perform'd,
Even while men's minds are wild; lest more mis-
chance,

On plots, and errors, happen.
Fort.

Let four captains
Bear Hamlet, like a soldier, to the stage;
For he was likely, had he been put on,
To have prov'd most royally: and, for his passage,
The soldier's music, and the rites of war,
Speak loudly for him.-

Take up the bodies:-Such a sight as this Becomes the field, but here shews much amiss. Go, bid the soldiers shoot. (A dead march) [Exeunt, bearing off the dead bodies; after which, a peal of ordnance is shot off.

P. 581. Persons Represented. Hamlet,] i. e. Amleth. The h transferred from the end to the beginning of the name. STEEVENS.

ACT I.

SCENE I.

P. 581, c. 1, 2.5. -me:] i. e. me who am already on the watch, and have a right to demand the watch-word.

Id. 1. 19. The rivals of my watch,] Rivals for partners.

Id c. 2.1.7.-approve our eyes,] He may make good the testimony of our eyes; be assured by his own experience of the truth of that which we have related, in consequence of having been eye-witnesses to it. To approve, in Shakspeare's age, siguified to make good,

or establish.

Id. l. 23 Thou art a scholar, speak to it, Horatio] It has always been a vulgar notion that spirits and supernatural beings can only be spoken to with propriety or effect by persons of learning.

Id. 1. 25.it harrows me, &c.] To harrow is to conquer, to subdue. The word is of Saxon origin.

P. 582, c. 1, 7. 11. sledded-] A sled, or sledge, is a carriage without wheels, made use of in the cold countries.

Id. 1. 11. He smote the sledded Polack on the ice.] He speaks of a prince of Poland whom he slew in battle. Polack was, in that age, the term for an inhabitant of Poland. Mr. Malone reads Polacks. Id. 1. 13. -jump at his death hour,] Jump and just were synonymous in the time of Shak

speare.

Id. 1. 15. In what particular thought to work.] i. e. what particular train of thinking to follow. Id. l. 17 -gross and scope-] General thoughts, and tendency at large.

Id. 1. 25. Why such impress of shipwrights.] Impress signifies here the act of retaining shipwrights by giving them what was called prest money (from pret, Fr.) for holding themselves in readiness to be employed. Id. L. 44.as, by the same co-mart,

And carriage of the article design'd,] Co-mart is supposed to mean a joint bargain, a word perhaps of our poet's coinage. Carriage is import: design'd, is formed, drawn up between them.

Id 47. Of unimproved, &c.] Full of unim

Id.

proved mettle, is full of spirit not regulated or guided by knowledge or experience.

1. 49. Shark'd up a list, &c.] Picked up without distinction, as the shark-fish collects. his prev.

Id. 1. 51. That hath a stomach in't:] Stomach, in the time of our author, was used for constancy, resolution.

Id. 1.58. romage-] Commonly written-rummage. It is not, however, certain that the word romage has been properly explained Romage, on shipboard, must have signified a scrupulous examination into the state of the vessel and its stores. Respecting land-service, the same term implied a strict inquiry into the kingdom, that means of defence might be supplied where they were wanted. Rummage, is properly explained by Johnson in his dictonary, as it is at present daily used,-to search for any thing.

Id.

Id.

l. 59. [I think, &c.] These lines, confined within crotchets, throughout this play, and some others which we have not noticed, are omitted in the folio edition of 1623. The omissions leave the play sometimes better, and sometimes worse, and seem made only for the sake of abbreviation. JOHNSON.

l. 60. Well may it sort,] The cause and effec are proportionate and suitable.

Id. l. 62. -the question of these wars.] The theme or subject.

Id. l. 64. · palmy state of Rome,] Palmy, for

victorious.

P. 582, c. 2. l. 30. Whether in sea, &c.] According to the pneumatology of that time, every element was inhabited by its peculiar order of spirits, who had dispositions different, according to their various places of abode. The meaning therefore is, that all spirits extravagant, wandering out of their element, whether aerial spirits visiting earth, or earthly| spirits ranging the air, return to their station, to their proper limits in which they are confined.

Id. 1. 31. -erring spirit,] Erring is here used in the sense of wandering.

This sense of take is

Id. 1. 40. No fairy takes,] No fairy strikes with lameness or diseases. frequent in this author.

Id. l. 16

A

more than the scope-] More is comprized in the general design of these articles, which you may explain in a more diffused and dilated style.

Id. 1 17. dilated articles, &c.] i. e. the articles when dilated.

Id. l. 49. Ham A little more than kin, and less than kind A little more than kin, is a little more than a common relation. The king was certainly something less than kind, by having betrayed the mother of Hamlet into an indecent and incestuous marriage, and obtained the crown by means which he suspects to be unjustifiable.

Id. l. 55. vailed lids- With lowering eyes, cast-down eyes.

Id 1.79 obsequious sorrow :| Obsequious is here from obsequies, or funeral ceremonies. Id.1 80. In obstinate condolement,] Condolement, for sorrow.

Id c. 2, 1. 2. a will most incorrect-] i. e. ill-regulated, not sufficiently regulated by a sense of duty and submission to the dispen

sations of Providence.

Id. 1. 10. To reason most absurd;] Reason is here used in its common sense, for the faculty by which we form conclusions from arguments. Id. l. 17. And, with no less nobility of love, Eminence and distinction of love.

Id. 1. 22.

bend you to remain- i. e. subdue your inclination to go from hence, and remain, &e.

Id. 1. 33. No jocund health,] The king's intemperance is very strongly impressed; every thing that happens to him gives him occasion to drink.

Id. l. 35. the king's rouse-) i. e. the king's draught of jollity.

Id. l. 40.

resolve itself into a dew!] Resolve means the same as dissolve. Id. l. 47. - merely Is entirely, absolutely. Id. l. 50. Hyperion to a satyr:] Hyperion or Apollo is represented in all the ancient statues, &c. as exquisitely beautiful, the satyrs hideously ugly.

Id. l. 51. That he might not beteem-] i. e. permit, or suffer.

Id 1 77. -I'll change that namee-] I'll be your servant, you shall be my friend.

P. 584, c. 1, Z. 4. what make you—] A familiar phrase for what are you doing.

Id. l. 17. the funeral bak'd meats-] It was anciently the general custom to give a cold entertainment to mourners at a funeral. In distant counties this practice is continued among the yeomanry.

Id. l. 20. - dearest foe in heaven-] Dearest is most immediate, consequential, important. Id. 1.33. Season your admiration— that is, temper it.

Id. 1. 34. With an attent ear;] Attent for atten

Id.

tive.

l. 40. In the dead waist and middle of the night,] This strange phraseology seems to have been common in the time of Shakspeare. By waist is meant nothing more than middle Id 1.47. with the act of fear, Fear was the cause, the active cause that distill'd them by the force of operation which we strictly call act in voluntary, and power in involuntary agents, but popularly call act in both. Jons

SON.

Id. 79. wore his beaver up.] Though beaver properly signified that part of the helmet which was let down, to enable the wearer to drink, Shakspeare always uses the word as denoting that part of the helmet which, when raised up, exposed the face of the wearer and such was the popular signcation of the word in his time.

SCENE III.

Id. c. 2. l. 50. The perfume and suppliance of a minute; i. e. what was supplied to us for a minute; or, perhaps, an amusement to fill up a vacant moment, and render it agreeable. Id. 1. 55. In thews,] i. e. in sinews, muscular strength.

Id 1 58. And now no soil, nor cautel, deli

besmirch

The virtue of his will:] From cautela, which signifies only a prudent foresight, ot caution; but, passing through French hands. it lost its innocence, and now signifies fraud, deceit. The virtue of his will means, is virtuous intentions.

Id 1. 75. unmaster'd-] i. e. licentious
Id. 1. 77 -keep you in the rear, &c.] That is,
do not advance so far as your affection woud
lead you.

Id. l. 79. The chariest maid-] Chary is cautious
P. 585, c. 1, 1. 15 recks not his own read
That is, heeds not his own lessons.
Id. l. 23. the shoulder of your sail,] This is
common sea phrase.

Id. 1. 27.

Look thou charácter.] i. e. write,

taken his rouse,] A rouse is a large dose of liquor, a debauch."

Id 1 46. Keeps wassel,] i. e. devotes the night to jollity.

Id. I. 46. the swaggering up-spring-] The blustering upstart.

Id.1.55. This heavy-headed revel, east and west,] This heavy-headed revel makes us traduced east and west, and taxed of other nations.

* Id. 1.60. The pith and marrow of our attribute.]

soul and body. Why, says he, have thy bones, which with due ceremonies have been entombed in death, in the common state of departed mortals, burst the folds in which they were enbalmed? Why has the tomb, in which we saw thee quietly laid, opened his mouth, that mouth which, by its weight and stability, seemed closed for ever? The whole sentence is this: Why dost thou appear, whom we know to be dead? JOHNSON.

Id. l. 14. in complete steel,] It is probable, that Shakspeare introduced his ghost in armour, that it might appear more solemn by such a discrimination from the other characters; though it was really the custom of the Danish kings to be buried in that manner.

Id. l. 17.- to shake our disposition,] Disposition, for frame.

Id. l. 24. — a more removed ground;] i. e.

remote.

be otherwise attributed to us.

Id. l. 65 complexion,] i. e. humour; as sanguine, melancholy, phlegmatic, &c.

Id. I. 67. - that too much o'er-leavens

The form of plausive manners;] That intermingles too much with their manners; infects and corrupts them. Plausive, in our poet's age, siguified gracious, pleasing, popular. Id. L. 70. fortune's star.] The word star in the text signifies a scar of that appearance. It is a term of farriery: the white star or mark so common on the forehead of a dark coloured horse, is usually produced by making a scar on the place. RITSON. Id. l. 72. As infinite as man may undergo,)] As large as can be accumulated upon man. Id 1 75.—often dout,] To dout, signified in Shakspeare's time, and yet signifies in Devonshire and other western counties, to do out, to efface, to extinguish. The commentators, however, have not made sense of this passage, which Malone gives thus, equally unintelligibly: "The dram of eale

Doth all the noble substance of a doubt,
To his own scandal."

P. 586, c. 1, l. 5. — questionable shape,] Questionable means here propitious to conversation, easy and willing to be conversed with. Id 1.8.

tell,

Why thy canoniz'd bones, hearsed in death, Have burst their cerements!] Hamlet, amazed at an apparition, which, though in all ages credited, has in all ages been considered as the most wonderful and most dreadful operation of supernatural agency, enquires of the spectre, in the most emphatic terms, why he breaks the order of nature, by returning from the dead; this he asks in a very confused eircumlocution, confounding in his fright the

the fat weed

That rots itself in ease on Lethe wharf,] Shakspeare, apparently through ignorance, makes Roman Catholics of these Pagan Danes; and here gives a description of purgatory; but yet mixes it with the Pagan fable of Lethe's wharf. Mr. Malone reads "roots itself." Id. 1. 31. - mine orchard,] Orchard, for garden. Id. 1 58. With juice of cursed hebenon in a vial,] The word here used was more probably designed by a metathesis, either of the poet or transcriber, for henebon, that is, henbane; of which the most common kind (hyoscyamus niger) is certainly narcotic, and perhaps, if taken in a considerable quantity, might prove poisonous. at once despatch'd:] Despatch'd,

Id. t. 71.

Id.

P.

for bereft.
1. 73. Unhousel'd, disappointed, unanel'd;]
Unhousel'd is without having received the
sacrament. Disappointed, as Dr. Johnson ob-
serves, "is the same as unappointed, and may
be properly explained unprepared A mau
well furnished with things necessary for an en-
terprize, was said to be well appointed." Un-
anel'd is without extreme unction.

587, c. 1, l. 6. ——pale his uneffectual fire :)
Fire that is no longer seen when the light of
morning approaches.

Id. l. 14. -this distracted globe.] i. e. in this head confused with thought.

Id. 1. 15. My tables,- Table-books in the time

of our author appear to have been used by all ranks of people. In the church they were filled with short notes of the sermon, and at the theatre with the sparkling sentences of the play. 28. Id. Now to my word;] Hamlet alludes to the watch-word given every day in military