And even the like precurfe of fierce events,3- "It often rain'd drops of blood. The morning ftar look'd blew, "And was befpotted here and there with specks of ruftie hew. "The moone had alfo fpots of blood. "Salt teares from ivorie-images in fundry places fell;"The dogges did howle, and every where appeared ghaftly ་་ fprights, "And with an earthquake shaken was the towne." Plutarch only fays, that "the funne was darkened," that " diverse men were feen going up and down in fire;" there were "fires in the element; fprites were feene running up and downe in the night, and folitarie birds fitting in the great market-place." The difagreeable recurrence of the word ftars in the second line induces me to believe that As ftars in that which precedes, is a corruption. Perhaps Shakspeare wrote: Aftres with trains of fire, and dews of blood Difaftrous dimm'd the fun. The word aftre is used in an old collection of poems entitled Diana, addreffed to the Earl of Oxenforde, a book of which I know not the date, but believe it was printed about 1580. In Othello we have antres, a word exactly of a fimilar formation. MALONE. The word-aftre (which is no where else to be found) was affectedly taken from the French by John Southern, author of the poems cited by Mr. Malone. This wretched plagiarift ftands indebted both for his verbiage and his imagery to Ronfard. See the European Magazine, for June, 1788, p. 389. STEEVENS. 9 and the moift ftar, &c.] i. e. the moon. So, in Marlowe's Hero and Leander, 1598: "Not that night-wand'ring, pale, and watry ftar," &c. MALONE. And even-1 Not only fuch prodigies have been seen in Rome, but the elements have shown our countrymen like forerunners and foretokens of violent events. JOHNSON. 3 precurfe of fierce events,] Fierce, for terrible. WARBURTON. 'I rather believe that fierce fignifies confpicuous, glaring. It is ufed in a fomewhat fimilar fenfe in Timon of Athens: "O the fierce wretchedness that glory brings!" Again, in King Henry VIII, we have fierce vanities." STEEVENS. And prologue to the omen coming on,^- Re-enter Ghost. But, foft; behold! lo, where it comes again! I'll cross it, though it blast me.-Stay, illufion! If thou haft any found," or ufe of voice, 4 And prologue to the omen coming on,] But prologue and omen are merely fynonymous here. The poet means, that these strange phenomena are prologues and forerunners of the events prefag'd: and such sense the flight alteration, which I have ventured to make, by changing omen to omen'd, very aptly gives. THEOBALD. Omen, for fate. WARBURTON. Hanmer follows Theobald. A diftich from the life of Merlin, by Heywood, however, will fhow that there is no occafion for correction: "Merlin well vers'd in many a hidden spell, "His countries omen did long fince foretell." FARMER. Again, in The Vowbreaker: "And much I fear the weakness of her braine "Should draw her to fome ominous exigent." Omen, I believe, is danger. STEEVENS. And even the like precurfe of fierce events, As harbingers preceding till the fates, And prologue to the omen coming on,] So, in one of our author's Augur of the fever's end," &c. The omen coming on is, the approaching dreadful and portentous So, in King Richard III: event. "Thy name is ominous to children." i. e. (not boding ill fortune, but) deftructive to children. Again, ibidem: 66 "O Pomfret, Pomfret, O, thou bloody prifon, 6 If thou haft any found,] The fpeech of Horatio to the fpeare is very elegant and noble, and congruous to the common traditions of the caufes of apparitions. JOHNSON. Speak to me: If there be any good thing to be done, If thou art privy to thy country's fate, Or, if thou haft uphoarded' in thy life For which, they fay, you spirits oft walk in death, BER. HOR. 'Tis here! 'Tis here! Or, if thou haft uphoarded &c.] So, in Decker's Knight's Conjuring, &c. " If any of them had bound the fpirit of gold by any charmes in caves, or in iron fetters under the ground, they fhould for their own foules quiet (which questionleffe else would whine up and down) if not for the good of their children, release it." STEEVENS. 8 Stop it, Marcellus. Hor. Do, if it will not ftand.] I am unwilling to fuppose that Shakspeare could appropriate these abfurd effufions to Horatio, who is a fcholar, and has fufficiently proved his good understanding by the propriety of his addreffes to the phantom. Such a man therefore must have known that "As cafy might he the intrenchant air as commit any act of violence on the royal fhadow. The wordsStop it, Marcellus,—and Do, if it will not ftand-better fuit the next fpeaker, Bernardo, who, in the true fpirit of an unlettered officer, nihil non arroget armis. Perhaps the firft idea that occurs to a man of this defcription, is to ftrike at what offends him. Nicholas Pouffin, in his celebrated picture of the Crucifixion, has introduced a fimilar occurrence. While lots are cafting for the facred vefture, the graves are giving up their dead. This prodigy is perceived by one of the foldiers, who inftantly grafps his fword, as if preparing to defend himself, or refent fuch an invafion from the other world. MAR. 'Tis gone! We do it wrong, being fo majeftical, For it is, as the air, invulnerable,3 [Exit Ghost. And our vain blows malicious mockery. BER. It was about to speak, when the cock crew. HOR. And then it started, like a guilty thing Upon a fearful fummons. I have heard, The cock, that is the trumpet to the morn,' Doth with his lofty and fhrill-founding throat Awake the god of day; and, at his warning, Whether in fea or fire, in earth or air,2 The two next speeches—'Tis here !—'Tis here!—may be allotted to Marcellus and Bernardo; and the third-'Tis gone! &c. to Horatio, whofe fuperiority of character indeed feems to demand it.As the text now ftands, Marcellus propofes to ftrike the Ghost with his partizan, and yet afterwards is made to defcant on the indecorum and impotence of fuch an attempt. The names of fpeakers have fo often been confounded by the first publishers of our author, that I fuggeft this change with lefs hesitation than I fhould exprefs concerning any conjecture that could operate to the difadvantage of his words or meaning.-Had the affignment of the old copies been fuch, would it have been thought liable to objection? STEEVENS. - it is, as the air, invulnerable,] So, in Macbeth: "As easy may'st thou the intrenchant air "With thy keen fword imprefs." Again, in King John: 66 Against the invulnerable clouds of heaven." MALONE. 9 The cock, that is the trumpet to the morn,] So, the quarto, 1604. Folio-to the day. In England's Parnaffus, 8vo. 1600, I find the two following lines afcribed to Drayton, but know not in which of his poems they are found: "And now the cocke, the morning's trumpeter, Play'd huntfup for the day-ftar to appear." Mr. Gray has imitated our poet : "The cock's fhrill clarion, or the echoing horn, Whether in fea &c.] MALONE. According to the pneumatology of The extravagant and erring fpirit hies that time, every element was inhabited by its peculiar order of fpirits, who had difpofitions different, according to their various places of abode. The meaning therefore is, that all Spirits extraagant, wandering out of their element, whether aerial fpirits vifiting earth, or earthly fpirits ranging the air, return to their fation, to their proper limits in which they are confined. We might read: 66 And at his warning "Th' extravagant and erring fpirit hies But this change, though it would fmooth the conftruction, is not neceffary, and, being unneceffary, fhould not be made against authority. JOHNSON. A Chorus in Andreini's drama, called Adamo, written in 1613, confifts of fpirits of fire, air, water, and hell, or fubterraneous, being the exiled angels. "Choro di Spiriti ignei, aerei, acquatici, ed infernali," &c. Thefe are the demons to which Shakspeare alludes. Thefe fpirits were fuppofed to controul the elements in which they refpectively refided; and when formally invoked or commanded by a magician, to produce tempefts, conflagrations, floods, and earthquakes. For thus fays The Spanish Mandevile of Miracles, &c. 1600: "Those which are in the middle region of the ayre, and thofe that are under them nearer the earth, are those, which fometimes out of the ordinary operation of nature doe moove the windes with greater fury than they are accuftomed; and do, out of feafon, congeele the cloudes, caufing it to thunder, lighten, hayle, and to destroy the graffe, corne, &c. &c.-Witches and negromancers worke many fuch like things by the help of thofe fpirits," &c. Ibid. Of this fchoole therefore was Shakspeare's Profpero in The Tempeft. T. WARTON. Bourne of Newcastle, in his Antiquities of the common People, informs us, "It is a received tradition among the vulgar, that at the time of cock-crowing, the midnight fpirits forfake these lower regions, and, go to their proper places.-Hence it is, (fays he) that in country places, where the way of life requires more early labour, they always go chearfully to work at that time; whereas if they are called abroad fooner, they imagine every thing they fee, a wandering ghoft." And he quotes on this occafion, as all his predeceffors had done, the well-known lines from the first hymn of Prudentius. I know not whofe tranflation he gives us, but there is an old one by Heywood. The pious chansons, the hymns and carrols, which Shakspeare mentions prefently, were ufually copied from the elder Chriftian poets. FARMER. |