Whose image even but now appear'd to us, Dar'd to the combat; in which, our valiant Hamlet (For fo this fide of our known world esteem'd him,) Did flay this Fortinbras; who, by a feal'd compáct, Well ratified by law, and heraldry,^ Did forfeit, with his life, all thofe his lands, Had he been vanquisher; as, by the fame co-mart, fcene lies, infers from this paffage, that in the time even of Queen Elizabeth, fhipwrights as well as feamen were forced to serve. WHALLEY. Imprefs fignifies only the act of retaining fhipwrights by giving them what was called preft money (from pret, Fr.) for holding themfelves in readiness to be employed. See Mr. Douce's note on King Lear, Vol. XIV. p. 233, n. 4. STEEVENS. 4 by law, and heraldry,] Mr. Upton fays, that Shakspeare fometimes expreffes one thing by two fubftantives, and that law and heraldry means, by the herald law. So, in Antony and Cleopatra, A& IV: "Where rather I expect victorious life, "Than death and honour." i. e. honourable death. STEEVENS. Puttenham, in his Art of Poefte, fpeaks of the Figure of Twynnes, "borfes and barbes, for barbed horfes, venim & dartes, for venimous dartes," &c. FARMER. law, and heraldry,] That is, according to the forms of law heraldry. When the right of property was to be determined by combat, the rules of heraldry were to be attended to, as well as thofe of law. M. MASON. i. e. to be well ratified by the rules of law, and the forms prescribed jure feciali; fuch as proclamation, &c. MALONE. sas, by the fame co-mart, And carriage of the article defign'd,] Comart fignifies a bargain, His fell to Hamlet: Now, fir, young Fortinbras, Hath in the fkirts of Norway, here and there, And terms compulfatory, thofe forefaid lands and carrying of the article, the covenant entered into to confirm that bargain. Hence we fee the common reading [covenant] makes a tautology. WARBURTON. Thus the quarto, 1604. The folio reads-as by the fame cobenant: for which the late editions have given us-as by that covenant. Co-mart is, I fuppofe, a joint bargain, a word perhaps of our poet's coinage. A mart fignifying a great fair or market, he would not have fcrupled to have written to mart, in the sense of to make a bargain. In the preceding fpeech we find mart used for bargain or purchase. MALONE. He has not fcrupled fo to write in Cymbeline: "As in a Romish few," &c. See Vol. XIII. p. 58. STEEVENS. And carriage of the article defign'd,] Carriage, is import: defign'd, is formed, drawn up between them. JOHNSON. Cawdrey in his Alphabetical Table, 1604, defines the verb design thus: "To marke out or appoint for any purpose." See alfo Minfheu's Dict. 1617." To defigne or fhew by a token." Defigned is yet ufed in this fenfe in Scotland. The old copies have defeigne. The correction was made by the editor of the fecond folio. MALONE. 6 Of unimproved &c.] Full of unimproved mettle, is full of fpirit not regulated or guided by knowledge or experience. JOHNSON. 7 Shark'd up a lift &c.] I believe, to bark up means to pick up without diftinction, as the bark-fifh collects his prey. The quartos read lawless, instead of landless. STEEVENS. 8 That hath a stomach in't:] Stomach, in the time of our author, was used for conftancy, refolution. JOHNSON. 9 And terms compulfatory,] Thus the quarto, 1604. The foliocompulfative. STEEVENS, So by his father loft: And this, I take it, The fource of this our watch; and the chief head 2 — romage] Tumultuous hurry. JOHNSON. Commonly written-rummage. STEEVENS. 3 [I think, &c.] Thefe, and all other lines confined within crotchets throughout this play, are omitted in the folio edition of 1623. The omiffions leave the play fometimes better and fometimes worse, and seem made only for the fake of abbreviation. JOHNSON. It may be worth while to obferve, that the title-pages of the first quartos in 1604 and 1605, declare this play to be enlarged to almost as much againe as it was, according to the true and perfect copy. Perhaps therefore many of its abfurdities as well as beauties arofe from the quantity added after it was firft written. Our poet might have been more attentive to the amplification than the coherence of his fable. The degree of credit due to the title-page that ftyles the MS. from which the quartos, 1604 and 1605 were printed, the true and perfect copy, may also be difputable. I cannot help fuppofing this publication to contain all Shakspeare rejected, as well as all he fupplied. By reftorations like the former, contending book fellers or theatres might have gained fome temporary advantage over each other, which at this diftance of time is not to be understood. patience of our ancestors exceeded our own, could it have outlafted the tragedy of Hamlet as it is now printed; for it must have occupied almoft five hours in reprefentation. If, however, it was too much dilated on the ancient stage, it is as injudiciously contracted on the modern one. STEEVENS. The 4 Well may it fort,] The caufe and effect are proportionate and fuitable. JOHNSON. the question of thefe wars.] The theme or fubject. So, in Antony and Cleopatra: HOR. A mote it is, to trouble the mind's eye. In the most high and palmy state of Rome,' A little ere the mightieft Julius fell, The graves food tenantless, and the sheeted dead Did squeak and gibber in the Roman streets. As, ftars with trains of fire and dews of blood, A mote it is,] The first quarto reads-a mub. STEEVENS. A math was only the cld fpelling of mite, as I fufpected in revifing a paffage in King John, Vol. VIII. p. 122, n. 6, where we certainly should read me. MALONE. palmy fate of Rome,] Palmy, for viderius. POPE. • As, fars with trains of fre and dews of bind, Difafters in the jun;] Mr. Rowe altered thefe lines, because they have infufficient connection with the preceding ones, thus: Stars thone swith trains of fire, dewis of blood fell, Diaters veil'd ibe jun, This pailage is not in the folio. By the quartos therefore our imperfect text is supplied; for an intermediate verfe being evidently loft, it were idle to attempt a union that never was intended. I have therefore fignified the fuppofed deficiency by a vacant space. When Shakspeare had told us that the grave fluid temantless, &c. which are wonders confined to the earth, he naturally proceeded to fay (in the line now loft) that yet ether prodigies appeared in the sky; and thefe phænomena he exemplified by adding,—As [i. e. as for inftance] Stars with trains of fire, &c. STEEVENS. Difafters dimm'd the fun;] The quarto, 1604, pads: Difafters in the fun z— For the emendation I am refponfible. It is ftrongly fupported not only by Plutarch's account in the life of Cæfar, ["alfo the brightnefs of the funne was darkened, the which, all that yeare through, rofe very pale, and fined mot cut,"] but by various patfages in our author's works. So, in The Tempeft: I have be-diam'd "The noon-tide sun.” Again, in King Richard 11: “As doth the blushing difcontented fan,— "When he perceives the envious clouds are bent Upon whofe influence Neptune's empire ftands, Was fick almost to doomfday with eclipfe. Again, in our author's 18th Sonnet: "Sometimes too hot the eye of heaven shines, "And often is his gold complexion dimm'd." I fufpect that the words As ftars are a corruption, and have no doubt that either a line preceding or following the first of those quoted at the head of this note, has been loft; or that the beginning of one line has been joined to the end of another, the intervening words being omitted. That fuch conjectures are not merely chimerical, I have already proved. See Vol. VIII. p. 543, &c. n. 7; and Vol. X. p. 535, n. 7. The following lines in Julius Cæfar, in which the prodigies that are faid to have preceded his death, are recounted, may throw fome light on the paffage before us : 66 There is one within, "Befides the things that we have heard and seen, "And graves have yawn'd and yielded up their dead: "The noife of battle hurtled in the air, "And ghofts did fhriek and fqueal about the streets." The loft words perhaps contained a defcription of fiery warriors fighting on the clouds, or of brands burning bright beneath the stars. The 15th book of Ovid's Metamorphofes, tranflated by Golding, in which an account is given of the prodigies that preceded Cæfar's death, furnished Shakspeare with fome of the images in both these paffages: battels fighting in the clouds with crashing armour flew, "And dreadful trumpets founded in the ayre, and hornes eke blew, "As warning men beforehand of the mischiefe that did brew; "And Phoebus alfo looking dim did caft a drowfie light, Uppon the earth, which feemde likewife to be in fory plighte: "From underneath beneath the ftarres brandes oft feemde burning bright, VOL. XV. C |