Than that which dearest father bears his son, I pray thee, stay with us; go not to Wittenberg. HAM. O, that this too too solid flesh would | melt, Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew! Or that the Everlasting had not fix'd How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable nature Possess it merely. That it should come to this! But two months dead!-nay, not so much, not two; So excellent a king; that was, to this, Hyperion to a satyr: so loving to my mother, By what it fed on: and yet, within a month,-- woman! a O, that this too too solid flesh would melt,-] Mr. Halliwell has proved by numberless examples, culled from our early writers, that where too too occurred, in the generality of cases it formed a compound word, too-too, and when thus connected bore the meaning of exceeding. The present instance, however, must be regarded as an exception to the rule. Here the repetition of too is not only strikingly beautiful, rhetorically, but it admirably expresses that morbid condition of the mind which makes the unhappy prince deem all the uses of the world but "weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable." was b beteem-] That is, vouchsafe, allow, suffer, and the like. c discourse of reason,-] By "discourse of reason" meant the comprehensive range, or discursiveness of reason, the retrospective and foreseeing faculties; thus in Act IV. Sc. 4, Hamlet remarks, "Sure he that made us with such large discourse, That capability and godlike reason To fust in us unus'd." d Had left the flushing-] The quarto, 1603, reads, "their flushing." MAR. My good lord,— HAM. I am very glad to see you.-Good even But what, in faith, make you from Wittenberg? HAM. I pr'ythee, do not mock me, fellowstudent; I think it was to see my mother's wedding. Did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables. g Horatio. HAM. I shall not look upon his like again. HOR. My lord, I think I saw him yesternight. HAM. Saw who? HOR. My lord, the king your father. HAM. The king my father! HOR. Season your admiration for a while With an attentive" ear; till I may deliver, e And what make you-] We should now ask,-"What do you?" but the above was a household form of speech in Shakespeare's day; in the same manner, Hamlet subsequently demands of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern,-"What make you at Elsinore?' in "Othello," Act I. Sc. 2, Cassio inquires of Iago,ancient, what makes he here?" and in "Love's Labour's Lost," Act IV. Sc. 3, the king questions Costard, 11 "what makes treason here?" f We'll teach you to drink deep ere you depart.] The reading of the 1603 quarto and of the folio 1623: the other old copies have,"We'll teach you for to drink ere you depart." g In my mind's eye, Horatio.] The expression was not unusual: "Ah why were the Eyes of my Mynde so dymned wyth the myste of fonde zeal, that I could not consyder the common Malyce of men now a dayes."-FENTON's Tragicall Discourses, 4to. 1567. Again,-"Let us consider and behold with the eyes of our soul his long suffering will."-1 Epistle of St. Clement, cap. 19. han attentive ear;] The folio and one of the quartos have, -"an attent ear." Upon the witness of these gentlemen, This marvel to you. НАМ. For God's love, let me hear. HOR. Two nights together had these gentlemen, Marcellus and Bernardo, on their watch, In the dead vast" and middle of the night, Almost to jelly with the act of fear, Stand dumb, and speak not to him. This to me b Armed at point, exactly, cap-à-pé,-] So all the quartos but, that of 1603; which has," Armed to poynt," &c.: the folio reads, -"Arm'd at all points." e-distill'd-] The reading of the quartos. The folio gives -"bestil'd;" and Mr. Collier's annotator substitutes bechill'd. d It lifted up his head,-] From the quarto of 1603. The other quartos and the folio have," - it head." HAM. HOR. O, yes, my lord; he wore his beaver up. HOR. A countenance more in sorrow than in anger. HAM. Pale or red? HOR. Nay, very pale. SCENE III.-A Room in Polonius' House. Enter LAERTES and OPHELIA. LAER. My necessaries are embark'd; farewell: HOR. Most constantly. And fix'd his eyes upon you? But let me hear from you. MAR., BER. Longer, longer. HAM. НАМ. So, c ALL. Our duty to your honour. My father's spirit in arms! all is not well; I doubt some foul play: would the night were come! Till then sit still, my soul: foul deeds will rise, Though all the earth o'erwhelm them to men's eyes! Hold it a fashion, and a toy in blood; Орн. No more but so ? Think it no more: For nature, crescent, does not grow alone It fits your wisdom so far to believe it, Or lose your heart; or your chaste treasure open Fear it, Ophelia, fear it, my dear sister; (*) First folio, grisly. (t) First folio, wake. (*) First folio, Froward. (1) First folio, treble. How look'd he,-] Thus the earliest quarto; the subsequent editions read, "What, look't he," &c. (+) First folio omits, perfume and. (§) First folio, feare. () First folio, peculiar Sect and force. "All. Our duties to your honor. Ham. O your loves, your loves, as mine to you." And the hurried repetition, "your loves, your loves," well expresses the perturbation of Hamlet at the moment, and that feverish impatience to be alone and commune with himself which he evinces whenever he is particularly moved. d- cautel-] Crafty circumspection. e The virtue of his will:] Virtue here seems to import essential goodness; as we speak of the virtues of herbs, &c. f The safety and the health of the whole state;] In the quarto of 1604, we get," The safety and health," &c.; "safety "being pronounced as a trisyllable. In the folio the line stands, "The sanctity and health of the weole State." And keep you in* the rear of your affection, OPH. I shall the effect of this good lesson keep, As watchman to my heart. But, good my brother, Do not, as some ungracious pastors do, Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven; Whilst, like a puff'd and reckless libertine, Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads, And recks not his own rede." LAER. I stay too long;-but here Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy, For loan oft loses both itself and friend, lord. POL. The time invites you; go, your servants O, fear me not. my Enter POLONIUS. A double blessing is a double grace; POL. Yet here, Laertes! aboard, aboard, for shame! The wind sits in the shoulder of your sail, And you are stay'd for. There, my blessing with you! [Laying his hand on LAERTES' head. And these few precepts in thy memory See thou charácter. Give thy thoughts no tongue, Nor any unproportion'd thought his act. Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar. The friends thou hast, and their adoption tried, Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel;" But do not dull thy palm with entertainment Of each new-hatch'd,§ unfledg'd comrade. Beware Of entrance to a quarrel; but being in, Bear't, that the opposed may beware of thee. Give every man thine ear, but few thy voice: "Are of a most select and generous cheff in that." Rowe, the first modern editor, endeavoured to render the sense intelligible by altering the old text to, Орн. 'Tis in my memory lock'd, And you yourself shall keep the key of it. [Exit. LAER. Farewell. lord Hamlet. POL. Marry, well bethought: 'Tis told me, he hath very oft of late Given private time to you; and you yourself Have of your audience been most free and bounteous: If it be so, (as so 't is put on me, And that in way of caution) I must tell you, tenders Of his affection to me. POL. Affection! pooh! you speak like a green girl, Unsifted in such perilous circumstance. "Are most select and generous, chief in that;" and his emendation has been generally adopted: Steevens proposed,"Select and generous, are most choice in that," while Mr. Collier's annotator has, "Are of a most select and generous choice in that." The slight change of "sheaf" for chiefe or cheff, a change for which we alone are answerable, seems to impart a better and more poetic meaning to the passage than any variation yet suggested; and it is supported, if not established, by the following extracts from Ben Jonson, "Ay, and with assurance, That it is found in noblemen and gentlemen Of the best sheaf." The Magnetic Lady, Act III. Sc. 4. "I am so haunted at the court and at my lodging with your refined choice spirits, that it makes me clean of another garb, another sheaf."-Every Man out of his Humour, Act II. Sc. 1. |