HAM. Upon my sword. MAR. We have sworn, my lord, already. HAM. Indeed, upon my sword, indeed. HAM. Ha, ha, boy! say'st thou so? art thou there, true-penny'? Come on,-you hear this fellow in the cellarage,Consent to swear. HOR. Propose the oath, my lord. HAM. Never to speak of this that you have seen, Swear by my sword. 5 true-penny ?] This word, as well as some of Hamlet's former exclamations, we find in The Malcontent, 1604 : Illo, ho, ho, ho; art thou there old True-penny?" 66 STEEVENS. Swear by my sword.] Here the poet has preserved the manners of the ancient Danes, with whom it was religion to swear upon their swords. See Bartholinus, De causis contempt. mort. apud Dan. WARBURTON. I was once inclinable to this opinion, which is likewise well defended by Mr. Upton; but Mr. Garrick produced me a passage, I think, in Brantome, from which it appeared that it was common to swear upon the sword, that is, upon the cross, which the old swords always had upon the hilt. JOHNSON. Shakspeare, it is more than probable, knew nothing of the ancient Danes, or their manners. Every extract from Dr. Farmer's pamphlet must prove as instructive to the reader as the following: "In the Passus Primus of Pierce Plowman, 'David in his daies dubbed knightes, 'And did them swere on her sword to serve truth ever.' "And in Hieronymo, the common butt of our author, and the wits of the time, says Lorenzo to Pedringano: 'Swear on this cross, that what thou say'st is true: 'But if I prove thee perjur'd and unjust, 'This very sword, whereon thou took'st thine oath, 'Shall be a worker of thy tragedy.'" To the authorities produced by Dr. Farmer, the following may GHOST. [Beneath.] Swear. HAM. Hic et ubique? then we'll shift our ground: Come hither, gentlemen, And lay your hands again upon my sword: Never to speak of this that you have heard. * First folio omits by his sword. First folio, ground. be added from Holinshed, p. 664 : "Warwick kissed the cross of King Edward's sword, as it were a vow to his promise." Again, p. 1038, it is said—" that Warwick drew out his sword, which other of the honourable and worshipful that were then present likewise did, when he commanded that each one should kiss other's sword, according to an ancient custom amongst men of war in time of great danger; and herewith they made a solemn vow," &c. Again, in Decker's comedy of Old Fortunatus, 1600 : 66 He has sworn to me on the cross of his pure Toledo." Again, in his Satiromastix: "By the cross of this sword and dagger, captain, you shall take it." 66 In the soliloquy of Roland addressed to his sword, the cross on it is not forgotten: capulo eburneo candidissime, cruce aurea splendidissime," &c. Turpini Hist. de Gestis Caroli Mag. cap. 22. Again, in an ancient MS. of which some account is given in a note on the first scene of the first Act of The Merry Wives of Windsor, the oath taken by a master of defence when his degree was conferred on him, is preserved, and runs as follows: "First you shall sweare (so help you God and halidome, and by all the christendome which God gave you at the fount-stone, and by the crosse of this sword which doth represent unto you the crosse which our Saviour suffered his most payneful deathe upon,) that you shall upholde, maynteyne, and kepe to your power all soch articles as shall be heare declared unto you, and receve in the presence of me your maister, and these the rest of the maisters my brethren heare with me at this tyme." STEEVENS. Spenser observes that the Irish in his time used commonly to swear by their sword. See his View of the State of Ireland, written in 1596. This custom, indeed, is of the highest antiquity; having prevailed, as we learn from Lucian, among the Scythians. MALONE. A worthy pioneer!-Once more remove, good friends. HOR. O day and night, but this is wondrous strange! HAM. And therefore as a stranger give it welcome". There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy. But come; Here, as before, never, so help you mercy! That you, at such times seeing me, never shall, 8 Or such ambiguous giving out, to note That you know aught of me :-This not to do, swear; So grace and mercy at your most need help you?! GHOST. [Beneath.] Swear. *First folio, our. First folio, time. 7 And therefore as a stranger give it welcome.] i. e. receive it to yourself; take it under your own roof; as much as to say, Keep it secret. Alluding to the laws of hospitality. WARBURTON. Warburton refines too much on this passage. Hamlet means merely to request that they would seem not to know it-to be unacquainted with it. M. MASON. an if THEY might ;] Thus the quarto. The folio reads -an if there might. MALONE. 9 That you know aught of me:-This not to do, swear; "That you know aught of me :-This do swear, HAM: Rest, rest, perturbed spirit 2! So, gentle men, With all my love I do commend me to you: May do, to express his love and friending to you, The time is out of joint;-O cursed spite! [Exeunt. 2 Rest, rest, perturbed spirit!] The skill displayed in Shakspeare's management of his Ghost, is too considerable to be overlooked. He has rivetted our attention to it by a succession of forcible circumstances:-by the previous report of the terrified centinels, by the solemnity of the hour at which the phantom walks, by its martial stride and discriminating armour, visible only per incertam lunam, by the glimpses of the moon,-by its long taciturnity,-by its preparation to speak, when interrupted by the morning cock,-by its mysterious reserve throughout its first scene with Hamlet,-by his resolute departure with it, and the subsequent anxiety of his attendants,-by its conducting him to a solitary angle of the platform,-by its voice from beneath the earth, and by its unexpected burst on us in the closet. Hamlet's late interview with the spectre, must in particular be regarded as a stroke of dramatick artifice. The phantom might have told his story in the presence of the Officers and Horatio, and yet have rendered itself as inaudible to them, as afterwards to the Queen. But suspense was our poet's object; and never was it more effectually created, than in the present instance. Six times has the royal semblance appeared, but till now has been withheld from speaking. For this event we have waited with impatient curiosity, unaccompanied by lassitude, or remitted at tention. The Ghost in this tragedy, is allowed to be the genuine product of Shakspeare's strong imagination. When he afterwards avails himself of traditional phantoms, as in Julius Cæsar, and King Richard III. they are but inefficacious pageants; nay, the apparition of Banquo is a mute exhibitor. Perhaps our poet despaired to equal the vigour of his early conceptions on the subject of preter-natural beings, and therefore allotted them no further eminence in his dramas; or was unwilling to diminish the power of his principal shade, by an injudicious repetition of congenial images. STEEVENS. ACT II. SCENE I. A Room in POLONIUS'S House. Enter POLONIUS and REYNALDO3. POL. Give him this money, and these notes, Reynaldo. REY. I will, my lord. POL. You shall do marvellous wisely, good Rey naldo, Before you visit him, to make inquiry† Of his behaviour. REY. My lord, I did intend it. POL. Marry, well said: very well said *., Look you, sir, 5 Inquire me first what Danskers are in Paris; And how, and who, what means, and where they keep, What company, at what expence; and finding, That they do know my son, come you more nearer *First folio, you. † Quarto, inquire. Enter Polonius and Reynaldo.] The quartos read-" Enter old Polonius with his man or two." STEEVENS. - well said: very well said.] Thus also, the weak and tedious Shallow says to Bardolph, in The Second Part of King Henry IV. Act III. Sc. II. : "It is well said, sir; and it is well said indeed too." STEEVENS, 5 Danskers] Danske (in Warner's Albion's England) is the ancient name of Denmark. STEEVENS. 6 come you more nearer Than your particular demands will touch it :] The late editions read, and point, thus: 66 come you more nearer; "Then your particular demands will touch it : Throughout the old copies the word which we now writethan, is frequently written-then. I have printed-than, which VOL. VII. |