"BAR. Who's there?

FRAN. Nay, answer me: stand, and unfold yourself." Act I., Scene 1. The striking and eminently dramatic opening of this great tragedy has been often praised; but never with more taste and congenial spirit, than by Mrs. Radcliffe.

"In nothing," says this very competent authority, "has Shakspere been more successful, than in selecting circumstances of manners and appearance for his supernatural beings, which, though wild and remote, in the highest degree, from common apprehension, never shock the understanding by incompatibility with themselves; never compel us, for an instant, to recollect that he has a license for extravagance.-Above every ideal being, is the ghost of Hamlet, with all its attendant incidents of time and place. The dark watch upon the remote platform; the dreary aspect of the night; the very expression of the officer on guard, 'The air bites shrewdly; it is very cold;' the recollection of a star, an unknown world, are all circumstances which excite forlorn, melancholy, and solemn feelings, and dispose us to welcome, with trembling curiosity, the awful being that draws near; and to indulge in that strange mixture of horror, pity, and indignation, produced by the tale it reveals. Every minute circumstance of the scene between those watching on the platform, and of that between them and Horatio, preceding the entrance of the apparition, contributes to excite some feeling of dreariness, or melancholy, or solemnity, or expectation, in unison with, and leading on toward, that high curiosity and thrilling awe with which we witness the conclusion of the scene. So the first question of Bernardo, and the words in reply, 'Stand, and unfold yourself.' But there is not a single circumstance in either dialogue, not even in this short one with which the play opens, that does not take its secret effect upon the imagination. It ends with Bernardo desiring his brother officer, after having asked whether he has had 'quiet watch,' to hasten the guard if he should chance to meet them; and we immediately feel ourselves alone on this dreary ground.

"When Horatio enters, the challenge-the dignified answers, 'Friends to this ground,' 'And liegemen to the Dane'the question of Horatio to Bernardo touching the apparition -the unfolding of the reason why 'Horatio has consented to watch with them the minutes of this night'-the sitting down together, while Bernardo relates the particulars of what they had seen for two nights-and, above all, the few lines with which he begins his story, 'Last night of all '-and the distinguishing, by the situation of 'yon same star,' the very point of time when the spirit had appeared-the abruptness with which he breaks off, the bell then beating one'-the instant appearance of the Ghost, as though ratifying the story for the very truth itself;-all these are circumstances which the deepest sensibility only could have suggested; and which, if you read them a thousand times, still continue to affect you almost as much as at first. I thrill with delightful awe, even while I recollect and mention them as instances of the exquisite art of the poet."

The preceding excellent remarks are extracted from a posthumous paper by Mrs. Radcliffe, on "THE SUPERNATURAL IN POETRY."

• This is a lapse of memory in the writer, The words here quoted are used by Hamlet at the commencement of Scene 4. The occasion, however, is similar.

"In the most high and palmy state of Rome, A little ere the mightiest Julius fell," &c. Act I., Scene 1. The whole of this fine passage is omitted in the first folio edition of Shakspere. The second quarto (1609) is stated to be "enlarged to almost as much againe as it was;" and it is on this edition that the received text is mainly founded. It contains the passage in question, and many others of great importance which are not found in the folio. The whole of the characteristic scene in the fourth act, between Hamlet and the Captain of Fortinbras, is not in that copy: in its turn, however, it contains some valuable matter which is wanting in the quarto. Indeed, it would be highly injudicious to follow either version implicitly, although upon the whole, the quarto affords, singly considered, the most full and satisfactory text. Malone's reasons for preferring the quarto editions of those plays which did not appear for the first time in the folio, are thus stated in the preface to his edition of 1790:-"Fifteen of Shakspere's plays were printed in quarto antecedent to the first complete collection of his works, which was published by his fellow-comedians, in 1623. These plays are: 'A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM,' 'LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST,' ROMEO AND JULIET,' 'HAMLET,' the Two Parts of HENRY IV.,' 'RICHARD II.,' RICHARD III.,' MERCHANT OF VENICE,' 'HENRY V., 'MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING. MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR,' TROILUS AND CRESSIDA,' KING LEAR,' 'OTHELLO.'

"The players, when they mention these copies, represent them all as mutilated and imperfect; but this was merely thrown out to give an additional value to their own edition, and is not strictly true of any but two of the whole number: "THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR,' and 'HENRY V.' With respect to the other thirteen copies, though undoubtedly they were all surreptitious-that is, stolen from the playhouse, and printed without the consent of the author or proprietors-they, in general, are preferable to the exhibition of the same plays in the folio, for this plain reason: because, instead of printing these plays from a manuscript, the editors of the folio, to save labour, or from some other motive, printed the greater part of them from the very copies which they represented as maimed and imperfect; and frequently from a late, instead of the earliest, edition; in some instances, with additions and alterations of their own. Thus, therefore, the first folio, as far as respects the plays above enumerated, labours under the disadvantage of being, at least, a second, and in some cases a third, edition of these quartos. I do not, however, mean to say, that many valuable corrections of passages, undoubtedly corrupt in the quartos, are not found in the folio copy; or that a single line of these plays should be printed by a careful editor, without a minute examination and collation of both copies; but those quartos were in general the basis on which the folio editors built, and are entitled to our particular attention and examination as first editions.

"It is well known to those who are conversant with the business of the press, that (unless when the author corrects and revises his own works) as editions of books are multiplied, their errors are multiplied also; and that, consequently, every such edition is more or less correct, as it approaches nearer to, or is more distant from, the first."

After these remarks, the writer proceeds to give, in support of his main position, "a few instances of the gradual

progress of corruption:" from these instances, we will extract two, as among the most striking:

"In the original copy of "HENRY IV.," Part I., printed in 1598 (act iv., scene 4), we find :

'And what with Owen Glendower's absence thence,
(Who with them was a rated sinew too),' &c.

"In the fourth quarto, printed in 1608, the article being omitted by the negligence of the compositor, and the line printed thus:

'Who with them was rated sinew too;'

the editor of the next quarto (which was copied by the folio), instead of examining the first edition, amended the error (leaving the metre still imperfect), by reading :

'Who with them was rated firmly too.'"

The instance of gradual perversion just cited, is simply curious that which follows has the additional value of drollery:Malone proceeds:

"Away to heaven, respective lenity,

And fire-eyed fury be my conduct now!'

says Romeo, when provoked by the appearance of his rival. Instead of this, which is the reading of the quarto (1597), the line in the quarto (1599) is thus corruptly exhibited :

'And fire end fury be my conduct now!'

In the subsequent quarto copy, and was substituted for end; and accordingly, in the folio, the poet's fine imagery is entirely lost, and Romeo exclaims:

'And fire and fury be my conduct now!'"

From these examples, it will appear that the patient plodding of Shakspere's editors has not been the useless and ridiculous thing it is often represented. In further justice to Malone (who has, it seems to us, been somewhat harshly censured), we subjoin his statement of the praiseworthy efforts he made to secure correctness in his own edition:

Having often experienced the fallaciousness of collation by the eye, I determined, after I had adjusted the text in the best manner in my power, to have every proof-sheet of my work read aloud to me, while I perused the first folio for those plays which first appeared in that edition; and for all those which had been previously printed, the first quarto copy, excepting only in the instances of 'THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR,' and 'HENRY V.,' which, being either sketches or imperfect copies, could not be wholly relied on. I had, at the same time, before me a table which I had formed of the variations between the quarto and the folio. By this laborious process, not a single innovation, made either by the editor of the second folio, or any of the modern editors, could escape me."

"The graves stood tenantless, and the sheeted dead Did squeak and gibber in the Roman streets. ** As stars with trains of fire and dews of blood," &c. Act I., Scene 1. After the word "streets," in the above quotation, a line is, with great probability, supposed to be lost, and a blank space, or a line of dashes, is usually left for it: we have, however, thought a minor mark of omission [* * *] sufficient for the purpose.-Something is evidently wanting to connect the passage commencing "As stars with trains of fire," &c., with that which immediately precedes it.

"I'll cross it, though it blast me."-Act I., Scene 1. It was an ancient superstition that the person who crossed the spot on which a spectre was seen, became thus subject to its malignant influence. Ferdinand, Earl of Derby, died young, in 1594; and among the reasons for supposing him to have been killed by witchcraft, was

the following:-"On Friday, there appeared a tall man, who twice crossed swiftly; and when the Earl of Derby came to the place where he saw this man, he fell sick."

"The glowworm shews the matin to be near,

And 'gins to pale his uneffectual fire."-Act I., Scene 4.

In the paper by Mrs. Radcliffe, to which we have before alluded, there are some further fine observations on the Ghost scenes of Hamlet, which we subjoin, as infinitely superior in interest to mere verbal criticism:—

"I should never be weary of dwelling on the perfection of Shakspere, in his management of every scene connected with that most solemn and mysterious being, which takes such entire possession of the imagination that we hardly seem conscious we are beings of this world while we contemplate the extravagant and erring spirit.' The spectre departs, accompanied by natural circumstances as touching as those by which he had approached. It is by the strange light of the glowworm, which 'gins to pale his uneffectual fire;' it is at the first scent of the morning air-the living breath-that the apparition retires.

"I have sometimes thought, as I walked in the deep shade of the North Terrace of Windsor Castle, when the moon shone on all beyond, that the scene must have been present in Shakspere's mind when he drew the night scenes in Hamlet and as I have stood on the platform, which there projects over the precipice, and have heard only the measured step of a sentinel, or the clink of his arms, and have seen his shadow passing by moonlight, at the foot of the high eastern tower, I have almost expected to see the royal shade, armed cap-à-pé, standing still on the lonely platform before me. The very star-'yon same star, that's westward from the pole'-seemed to watch over the western towers of the Terrace, whose high dark lines marked themselves upon the heavens. All has been so still and shadowy, so great and solemn, that the scene appeared fit for 'no mortal business, nor no sound that the earth owes.' Did you ever observe the fine effect of the eastern tower, when you stand near the western end of the North Terrace, and its tall profile rears itself upon the sky, from nearly the base to the battled top; the lowness of the parapet permitting this? It is most striking at night, when the stars appear at different heights, upon the tall dark line, and when the sentinel on watch moves a shadowy figure at its foot."

It is in this congenial spirit that Shakspere should be read. Such poetic associations give additional interest even to the time-honoured towers and terraces of royal Windsor.

My liege, and madam, to expostulate
What majesty should be, what duty is," &c.
Act II., Scene 2.

Johnson has discussed the conflicting qualities in the character of Polonius, in one of his best notes. "Polonius," 'he remarks, "is a man bred in courts; exercised in business; stored with observation; confident in his knowledge; proud of his eloquence; and declining into dotage. His mode of oratory is designed to ridicule the practice of those times, of prefaces that made no introduction, and of method that embarrassed rather than explained. This part of his character is accidental, the rest natural. Such a man is positive and confident, because he knows that his mind was once strong, and knows not that it is become weak. Such a man excels in general principles, but fails in particular application; he is knowing in retrospect, and ignorant in foresight. While he depends upon his memory, and can draw from his depositories of knowledge, he utters weighty sentences, and gives useful counsel; but as the mind in its enfeebled state cannot be kept long busy and intent, the old man is subject to the dereliction of his faculties; he loses the order of his ideas, and entangles himself in his own thoughts, till he recovers the leading principle and falls into his former train. The idea of dotage encroaching upon

wisdom, will solve all the phenomena of the character of Polonius."

"And he, repulséd (a short tale to make),

Fell into a sadness; then into a fast;" &c.
Act II., Scene 2.

It is observed by Warburton, that "the ridicule of the He character of Polonius is here admirably sustained. would not only be thought to have discovered this intrigue by his own sagacity, but to have remarked all the stages of Hamlet's disorder, from his sadness to his raving, as regularly as his physician could have done; when all the while the madness was only feigned. The humour of this is exquisite from a man who tells us, with a confidence peculiar to small politicians, that he could find

'Where truth is hid, though it were hid indeed
Within the centre.'"

"For if the sun breed maggots in a dead dog, being a god, kissing carrion-Have you a daughter ?"-Act II., Scene 2.

Hamlet, by breaking off abruptly in this sentence, has been the cause of an infinite deal of ink-shedding. The old copies read, "Being a good kissing carrion." The present reading was suggested by Warburton, and has been generally adopted, as the most plausible that has yet been proposed. His laboured comment on the passage, in which he endeavours to prove that Shakspere intended it as a vindication of the ways of Providence in permitting evil to abound in the world, has not been so well received. Malone has traced in a less exalted, though more probable strain, the train of thought in Hamlet's mind: "Hamlet has just remarked, 'that honesty is very rare in the world.' To this, Polonius assents. The prince then adds, 'that, since there is so little virtue in the world; since corruption abounds everywhere, and maggots are bred by the sun, even in a dead dog, Polonius ought to prevent his daughter from walking in the sun, lest she should prove a breeder of sinners.'

"Ros. Truly; and I hold ambition of so airy and light a quality, that it is but a shadow's shadow.

HAM. Then are our beggars, bodies; and our monarchs and outstretched heroes the beggars' shadows."-Act II., Scene 2.

Meaning, according to Johnson, "If ambition is such an unsubstantial thing, then are our beggars (who at least can dream of greatness) the only things of substance; and monarchs and heroes, though appearing to fill such mighty space with their ambition, but the shadows of the beggars' dreams."

"We coted them on the way."-Act II., Scene 2.

The term "coted" is derived from the french coté, the side. "In the laws of coursing," says Mr. Tollet, "a cote is when a greyhound goes endways by the side of his fellow, and gives the hare a turn." Instances are given of the use of the word in the sense of overtaking or passing by.

"The clown shall make those laugh whose lungs are tickled the sere."-Act II., Scene 2.

That is, those who are troubled with a huskiness, or dry cough.

"HAM. How chances it they travel? Their residence, both in reputation and profit, was better both ways.

Ros. I think their inhibition comes by the means of the late innovation.”—Act II., Scene 2.

The "innovation" here alluded to appears to have been the public performance of the "Children of the Revels," the "Children of St. Paul's," &c., which for a time attracted the town, and thereby in effect "inhibited" or prevented the performance of the regular players at their old stations, and compelled them to "travel." In "JACK DRUM'S ENTERTAINMENT" (1601), we find :

"I sawe the children of Powle's [Paul's] last night, And troth they pleased me prettie, prettie well; The apes in time will do it handsomely."

In the first quarto edition of the play (1603), the passage stands thus:

"Ham. How comes it that they travel? do they grow restie? Gil. No, my lord; their reputation holds as it was wont. Ham. How then?

Gil. I' faith, my lord, novelty carries it away; for the principal public audience that came to them, are turned to private plays, and to the humour of children."

There is still, however, some obscurity connected with this matter, since we cannot be certain that the passage in the present text refers to the same period of time as the corresponding one in the earliest quarto. In June, 1600, an order of council passed "for the restraint of the immoderate use of playhouses." It prescribes that "there shall be about the city two houses, and no more, allowed for the use of the common stage plays." This order may, with some probability, be deemed the origin of the "inhibition" and "innovation" referred to in the text.

"O Jephthah, judge of Israel, what a treasure hadst thou!" Act II., Scene 2.

In Percy's "RELIQUES," there is an imperfect copy of the old ballad to which Hamlet here refers. It has been since entirely recovered, and is printed entire in Mr. Evans's "COLLECTION OF OLD BALLADS" (1810). The first stanza comprises the various quotations in the text:

"I have heard that many years agoe,
When Jepha, judge of Israel,

Had one fair daughter, and no more;
Whom he loved passing well.

As by lot, God wot,

It came to passe most like as it was,
Great warrs there should be,

And who should be the chiefe, but he, but he."

"When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin?"-Act III., Scene 1.

The word "quietus" signifies discharge or acquittance. Every sheriff receives his "quietus" on settling his accounts at the Exchequer. "Bodkin" was the term in use to signify a small dagger.

"To grunt and sweat under a weary life."-Act III., Scene 1. This is the true reading, according to all the old copies; "although," as Johnson observes, "it can scarcely be borne by modern ears." On this point, Malone remarks, "I apprehend that it is the duty of an editor to exhibit what his author wrote; and not to substitute what may appear to the present age preferable. I have, therefore, though with some reluctance, adhered to the old copies, however unpleasing this word may be to the ear. On the stage, without doubt, an actor is at liberty to substitute a less offensive word. To the ears of our ancestors, it probably conveyed no unpleasing sound; for we find it used by Chaucer and others."

"To split the ears of the groundlings; who, for the most part, are capable of nothing but inexplicable dumb shows and noise."-Act III., Scene 2.

The pit, in the early theatres, had neither floor nor benches, and was frequented by the poorer classes. Ben Jonson speaks with equal contempt of the "understanding gentlemen of the ground." Of the "dumb shows," we have a specimen in the play scene of this tragedy. "The meaner people," says Dr. Johnson, "then seem to have sat [stood] below, as they now sit in the upper gallery; who, not well

201

understanding poetical language, were sometimes gratified by a mimical and mute representation of the drama, previous to the dialogue."

"I would have such a fellow whipped for o'er-doing Termagant; it out-herods Herod."-Act III., Scene 2.

Termagant, according to Percy, was a Saracen deity, very clamorous and violent in the Old Moralities. Herod, also, was a constant character in these entertainments, and his outrageous boasting is sometimes highly amusing. Subjoined are two short specimens. The first is from the "CHESTER WHITSUN PLAYS: "—

"For I am kinge of all mankinde,

I byd, I beate, I lose, I bynde;

I master the moone;-take this in mynde,

That I am most of mighte.

I am the greatest above degree,

That is, that was, or ever shall be;

The sonne it dare not shine on me,
And I bid him go downe."

It appears that this amiable personage had no less conceit of his "bewte" than of his "boldness." In one of his "COVENTRY PLAYS," he exclaims:

"Of bewte and of boldness I ber evermor the belle,
Of mayn and of myght I master every man ;

I dynge with my dowtiness the devil down to helle,
For both of hevyn and of earth I am kynge certayn."

"My lord, you played once in the university, you say." Act III., Scene 2. The practice of acting Latin plays in the universities of Oxford and Cambridge is very ancient, and continued to near the middle of the seventeenth century. They were performed occasionally for the entertainment of princes, and other great personages; and regularly at Christmas, at which time a "Lord of Misrule" was appointed at Oxford, to regulate the exhibitions, and a similar officer, with the title of "Imperator," at Cambridge. A Latin play, on the subject of Cæsar's death, was performed at Christ Church, Oxford, in 1582.

"HAM. Lady, shall I lie in your lap?

ОPH. No, my lord."-Act III., Scene 2.

On the publication of the original edition of this play, which had been previously unknown to the commentators or the public, some remarks upon it appeared in a morning journal, from which we select the following, as well worthy of attention, in reference to this scene, and to some other parts of Shakspere's text which the reader, without being affectedly delicate, may be pardoned for wishing away:

"Many striking peculiarities in this edition of Hamlet tend strongly to confirm our opinion, that no small portion of the ribaldry to be found in the plays of our great poet, is to be assigned to the actors of his time, who flattered the vulgar taste with the constant repetition of many indecent, and not a few stupid jokes, till they came to be considered, and then printed, as part of the genuine text. Of these, the two or three brief but offensive speeches of Hamlet to Ophelia, in the play scene (act iii.), are not to be found in the copy of 1603; and so far are we borne out in our opinion; for it is not to be supposed that Shakspere would insert them upon cool reflection, three years after the success of his piece had been determined. Still less likely is it that a piratical printer would reject anything actually belonging to the play, which would prove pleasing to the vulgar bulk of those who were to be the purchasers of his publication."

We have no desire to be numbered among those who are in the habit of visiting the sins of Shakspere, real or imaginary, on the heads of the actors; but there is certainly something in the fact here stated that deserves consideration. In

justice both to poet and players, we subjoin Mr. Campbell's judicious comment on the remarks just cited :

"I am inclined, upon the whole, to agree with these remarks, although the subject leaves us beset with uncertainties. This copy of the play was apparently pirated; but the pirate's omission of the improper passages alluded to, is not a perfect proof that they were absent in the first representation of the piece; yet it leads to such a presumption; for, looking at the morality of Shakspere's theatre in the main, he is none of your poetical artists who resort to an impure influence over the fancy. Little sallies of indecorum he may have now and then committed; but they are few, and are eccentricities from his general character, partially pardonable on account of the bad taste of his age. What a frightful contrast to his purity is displayed among his nearest dramatic successors-love in relations of life where Nature forbids passion! Shakspere scorns to interest us in any love that is not purely natural."

"Your only jig-maker."-Act III., Scene 2.

A "jig" signified not only a dance, but also a ludicrous prose or metrical composition. Many of these jigs are entered in the books of the Stationers' Company.

"Let the devil wear black, for I'll have a suit of sables." Act III., Scene 2.

Meaning, probably, a suit that shall be expressive of the reverse feeling to sorrow or humiliation. "A suit of sables (says Malone) was, in Shakspere's time, the richest dress worn by men in England. Wherever his scene might happen to be, the customs of his own country were still in his thoughts." By the statute of apparel (24 HEN. VIII.), it is ordained that none under the degree of an earl may use sables.

"For O, for 0, the hobby-horse is forgot!"-Act III. Scene 2.

The

The banishment of the hobby-horse from the May games is frequently lamented in the old dramas. The line quoted by Hamlet appears to have been part of a ballad on the subject of poor Hobby. He was driven from his station by the Puritans, as an impious and pagan superstition; but restored on the promulgation of the "BOOK OF SPORTS." hobby-horse was formed of a pasteboard horse's head, and probably a light frame made of wicker-work, to form the hinder parts; this was fastened round the body of a man, and covered with a footcloth which nearly reached the ground, and concealed the legs of the performer. Similar contrivances, in burlesque pieces, are not unusual at this day, in the London minor theatres.

"HOR. Half a share.

HAM. A whole one, I."-Act III., Scene 2.

Actors, in Shakspere's time, had not annual salaries, as at present. The whole receipts of each theatre were divided into shares, of which the proprietors of the theatre, or "house-keepers," as they were called, had some; and each actor had one or more shares, or parts of a share, according to his merit.

"Hide fox, and all after."-Act IV., Scene 2. This, no doubt, was the name of a juvenile sport of the poet's age; it is supposed to be the same as is now called "hide and seek."

"Where is the beauteous majesty of Denmark?"

Act IV., Scene 5.

It is remarked by Sir Joshua Reynolds, that there is no part of this play, in its representation on the stage, more pathetic than this scene; which he supposes to arise from the utter insensibility of Ophelia to her own misfortunes. "A