But, orderly to end where I begun,— Our thoughts are ours, their ends none of our own: P. QUEEN. Nor earth to me give food, nor heaven light! Sport and repofe lock from me, day, and night! To defperation turn my truft and hope! An anchor's cheer in prifon be my scope!' 9 Nor earth to me give food,] Thus the quarto, 1604. The folio and the late editors read: Nor earth to give me food, An imperative or optative verb was evidently intended here, as in the following line: "Sport and repofe lock from me," &c. MALONE. A very fimilar imprecation, "Day, yield me not thy light; nor night, thy reft!" &c. occurs in King Richard III. See Vol. X. p. 650. STEEVENS. * To defperation &c.] This and the following line are omitted in the folio. STEEVENS. 3 An anchor's cheer in prifon be my feope!] May my whole liberty and enjoyment be to live on hermit's fare in a prifon. Anchor is for anchoret. JOHNSON. This abbreviation of the word anchoret is very ancient. I find it in the Romance of Robert the Devil, printed by Wynkyn de Worde: "We haue robbed and killed nonnes, holy aunkers, preeftes, clerkes," &c. Again," the foxe will be an aunker, for he begynneth to preche." Again, in The Vision of Pierce Plowman: "As ankers and hermits that hold them in her felles." This and the foregoing line are not in the folio. I believe we fhould read-anchor's chair. So, in the fecond Satire of Hall's fourth book, edit. 1602, p. 18: "Sit feven yeres pining in an anchore's cheyre, STEEVENS. The old copies read-And anchor's cheer. The correction was made by Mr. Theobald. MALONE. Each oppofite, that blanks the face of joy, HAM. If fhe fhould break it now, [To OPHELIA. P. KING. 'Tis deeply fworn. Sweet, leave me here a while; My fpirits grow dull, and fain I would beguile P. QUEEN. [Sleeps. Sleep rock thy brain; And never come mifchance between us twain! [Exit. HAM. Madam, how like you this play? QUEEN. The lady doth protest too much, methinks. HAM. O, but she'll keep her word. KING. Have you heard the argument? Is there no offence in't? HAM. No, no, they do but jeft, poison in jeft; no offence i'the world. KING. What do you call the play? HAM. The mouse-trap. Marry, how? Tropically. This play is the image of a murder done in Vienna: Gonzago is the duke's name; his wife, 4 The mouse-trap.] He calls it the mouse-trap, because it is 5 the thing "In which he'll catch the confcience of the king." STEEVENS. Gonzago is the duke's name;] Thus all the old copies: yet in the ftage-direction for the dumb fhow, and the fubfequent entrance, we have "Enter a king and queen," &c. and in the latter part of this fpeech both the quarto and folio read, Lucianus, nephew to the king." This feeming inconfiftency however may be reconciled. Though Baptifta: you fhall fee anon; 'tis a knavish piece of work: But what of that? your majefty, and we that have free fouls, it touches us not: Let the gall'd jade wince, our withers are unwrung. Enter LUCIANUS. This is one Lucianus, nephew to the king. the interlude is the image of the murder of a duke of Vienna, or in other words founded upon that ftory, the poet might make the principal perfon of his fable a king. MALONE. Baptifta:] Baptifta is, I think, in Italian, the name always of a man. JOHNSON. I believe Battifta is never ufed fingly by the Italians, being uniformly compounded with Giam (for Giovanni), and meaning, of course, John the Baptift. Nothing more was therefore neceffary to detect the forgery of Shebbeare's Letters on the English Nation, than his afcribing them to Battifta Angeloni. RITSON. Let the gall'd jade wince,] This is a proverbial faying. So, in Damon and Pythias, 1582: "I know the gall'd borse will foonest wince." STEEVENS. — nephew to the king.] i. e. to the king in the play then reprefented. The modern editors, following Mr. Theobald, readnephew to the duke,-though they have not followed that editor in fubftituting duke and dutchess, for king and queen, in the dumb fhow and fubfequent entrance. There is no need of departing from the old copies. See n. 5. MALONE. 9 You are as good as a chorus, &c.] The ufe to which Shakspeare converted the chorus, may be seen in King Henry V. HENLEY. Ham. I could interpret &c.] This refers to the interpreter, who formerly fat on the ftage at all motions or puppet-shows, and interpreted to the audience. So, in The Two Gentlemen of Verona: "O excellent motion! O exceeding puppet! "Now will he interpret for her." Again, in Greene's Groatsworth of Wit, 1621: " -It was I OPH. You are keen, my lord, you are keen. HAM. It would cost you a groaning, to take off my edge. OPH. Still better, and worse." HAM. So you mistake your husbands.3-Begin, murderer ;-leave thy damnable faces, and begin. that penn'd the moral of Man's wit, the dialogue of Dives, and for feven years' space was abfolute interpreter of the puppets.” STEEVENS. 2 Still better, and worse.] i. e. better in regard to the wit of your double entendre, but worfe in refpect to the groffness of your meaning. STEEVENS. 3 So you mistake your husbands.] Read-So you must take your bufbands; that is, for better, for worse. JOHNSON. Mr. Theobald propofed the fame reading in his Shakspeare Reftored, however he loft it afterwards. STEEVENS. So you mistake your husbands.] I believe this to be right: the word is fometimes ufed in this ludicrous manner. "Your true trick, rascal, (says Urfula in Bartholomew Fair,) must be to be ever bufie, and mistake away the bottles and cans, before they be half drunk off." FARMER. Again, in Ben Jonfon's Mafque of Augurs: fix torches from the chandry, and give them one." Again, in The Elder Brother of Fletcher: To miftake "I fear he will perfuade me to mistake him.” Again, in Chreftoleros; Seven bookes of Epigrams written by T. B. [Thomas Baftard] 1598. Lib. VII. Epig. xviii: "Caius hath brought from forraine landes She is his wife, not ftolne away. "He mought have fav'de, with small discretion, "For none that fee'th her face and making, " Again, in Questions of Profitable and Pleafant Concernings, &c. J594: "Better I were now and then to fuffer his remiffe mother to miftake a quarter or two of corne, to buy the knave a coat with," &c. STEEVENS. I believe the meaning is-you do amifs for yourselves to take hufbands for the worfe. You should take them only for the better. TULLET. Come: -The croaking raven Doth bellow for revenge. Luc. Thoughts black, hands apt, drugs fit, and time agreeing; Confederate feafon, elfe no creature seeing; [Pours the poifon into the fleeper's ears. HAM. He poisons him i'the garden for his estate. His name's Gonzago: the story is extant, and written in very choice Italian: You shall see anon, how the murderer gets the love of Gonzago's wife. OPH. The king rises. HAM. What! frighted with falfe fire! QUEEN. How fares my lord? POL. Give o'er the play. KING. Give me fome light :-away! POL. Lights, lights, lights!" [Exeunt all but HAMLET and HORATIO. Haм. Why, let the ftrucken deer go weep,' For fome must watch, while fome must sleep; midnight weeds-] The force of the epithet-midnight, will be best displayed by a correfponding paffage in Macbeth : "Root of hemlock, digg'd i'the dark." STEEVENS. 5 What! frighted with false fire!] This fpeech is omitted in the quartos. STEEVENS. 6 Lights, lights, lights!] The quartos give this speech to Polonius. STEEVENS. In the folio All is prefixed to this fpeech. MALONE. 7 - ftrucken deer go weep,] See Vol. VI. p. 40, n. 6. STEEVENS. |