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POL. He will come ftraight. Look, you lay home to him:

Tell him, his pranks have been too broad to bear

with;

And that your grace hath fcreen'd and ftood be

tween

Much heat and him. I'll filence me e'en here."
Pray you, be round with him.3

QUEEN.

I'll warrant you;

Fear me not-withdraw, I hear him coming.

7

[POLONIUS hides himself.

I'll filence me e'en here.] I'll filence me even here, is, I'll ufe no more words. JOHNSON.

8 be round with him.] Here the folio interpofes, improperly I think, the following fpeech:

"Ham. [Within.] Mother, mother, mother." STEEVENS. 9 Polonius hides himself.] The concealment of Polonius in the Queen's chamber, during the converfation between Hamlet and his mother, and the manner of his death, were fuggefted by the following paffage in The Hyftory of Hamblet, bl. let. fig. D1: "The counfellour entered fecretly into the queene's chamber, and there hid himselfe behinde the arras, and long before the queene and Hamlet came thither; who being craftie and pollitique, as foone as hee was within the chamber, doubting fome treafon, and fearing if he should speake feverely and wifely to his mother, touching his fecret practifes, hee fhould be understood, and by that means intercepted, ufed his ordinary manner of diffimulation, and began to come [r. crow] like a cocke, beating with his arms (in fuch manner as cockes ufe to ftrike with their wings) upon the hangings of the chamber; whereby feeling fomething ftirring under them, he cried, arat, a rat, and prefently drawing his fworde, thruft it into the

Enter HAMLET.

HAM. Now, mother; what's the matter? QUEEN. Hamlet, thou haft thy father much offended.

HAM. Mother, you have my father much offended.

QUEEN. Come, come, you answer with an idletongue.

HAM. Go, go, you queftion with a wicked tongue. QUEEN. Why, how now, Hamlet?

HAM.

What's the matter now?

No, by the rood, not so:

QUEEN. Have you forgot me?

HAM. You are the queen, your husband's brother's wife; And,-'would it were not fo!'-you are my mo

ther.

QUEEN. Nay, then I'll set those to you that can

fpeak.

HAM. Come, come, and fit

not budge;

you

down; you shall

You go not, till I fet you up a glass

Where you may fee the inmoft part of you. QUEEN. What wilt thou do? thou wilt not murder me?

Help, help, ho!

POL. [Bebind.] What, ho! help!

hangings; which done, pulled the counfellour (half-deade) out by the heeles, made an ende of killing him; and, being flaine, cut his body in pieces, which he caused to be boyled, and then caft it into an open vault or privie." MALONE.

* And 'would it were not fo!] The folio reads,

But would you were not fo. HENDERSON.

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QUEEN. O me, what hast thou done?

HAM.

Is it the king?

Nay, I know not:

[Lifts up the arras, and draws forth POLONIUS. QUEEN. O, what a rash and bloody deed is this! HAM. A bloody deed;-almost as bad, good mother,

As kill a king, and marry with his brother.
QUEEN. As kill a king! 4

3 How now! a rat?] This (as Dr. Farmer has obferved) is an expreffion borrowed from The Hiftory of Hamblet, a translation from the French of Belleforeft. STEEVENS.

4 Queen. As kill a king!] This exclamation may be confidered as fome hint that the queen had no hand in the murder of Hamlet's father. STEEVENS.

It has been doubted whether Shakspeare intended to reprefent the queen as acceffary to the murder of her husband. The furprize the here expreffes at the charge feems to tend to her exculpation. Where the variation is not particularly marked, we may prefume, I think, that the poet intended to tell his story as it had been told before. The following extract therefore from The Hyftory of Hamblet, bl. 1. relative to this point, will probably not be unacceptable to the reader: "Fengon [the king in the prefent play] boldened and encouraged by fuch impunitie, durft venture to couple himfelf in marriage with her, whom he used as his concubine during good Horvendille's life; in that fort fpotting his name with a double vice, inceftuous adulterie, and paracide murther. This adulterer and infamous murtherer flaundered his dead brother, that he would have flaine his wife, and that hee by chance finding him on the point ready to do it, in defence of the lady, had flaine him.-The unfortunate and wicked woman that had received the honour to be the wife of one of the valianteft and wifeft princes in the North, imbafed herfeife in fuch

HAM. Ay, lady, 'twas my word.Thou wretched, rash, intruding fool, farewell! [TO POLONIUS.

vile fort as to falfifie her faith unto him, and, which is worse, to marrie him that had bin the tyrannous murtherer of her lawful hufband; which made diverse men think that she had been the causer of the murther, thereby to live in her adulterie without controle." Hyft. of Hamb. fig. C 1. 2.

In the conference however with her fon, on which the present fcene is founded, fhe ftrongly afferts her innocence with respect to this fact:

in

"I know well, my fonne, that I have done thee great wrong marrying with Fengon, the cruel tyrant and murtherer of thy father, and my loyal fpoufe; but when thou fhalt confider the fmall means of refiftance, and the treafon of the palace, with the little cause of confidence we are to expect, or hope for, of the courtiers, all wrought to his will; as alfo the power he made ready if I fhould have refufed to like him; thou wouldft rather excufe, than accuse me of lasciviousness or inconftancy, much lefs offer me that wrong to fufpect that ever thy mother Geruth once confented to the death and murther of her husband: swearing unto thee by the majestie of the gods, that if it had layne in me to have refifted the tyrant, although it had beene with the loffe of my blood, yea and of my life, I would furely have faved the life of my lord and husband.” Ibid. fig. D 4.

It is obfervable, that in the drama neither the king or queen make fo good a defence. Shakspeare wished to render them as odious as he could, and therefore has not in any part of the play furnished them with even the semblance of an excufe for their conduct.

Though the inference already mentioned may be drawn from the furprize which our poet has here made the queen exprefs at being charged with the murder of her husband, it is obfervable that when the player-queen in the preceding scene fays,

"In fecond husband let me be accurft!

"None wed the second, but who kill'd the first,” he has made Hamlet exclaim—“ that's wormwood." The prince, therefore, both from the expreffion and the words addreffed to his mother in the present scene, must be supposed to think her guilty. -Perhaps after all this investigation, the truth is, that Shakspeare himself meant to leave the matter in doubt. MALONE.

I know not in what part of this tragedy the king and queen could have been expected to enter into a vindication of their mutual conduct. The former indeed is rendered contemptible as well as

+

I took thee for thy better; take thy fortune:
Thou find'ft, to be too busy, is fome danger.-
Leave wringing of your hands: Peace; fit you
down,

And let me wring your heart: for fo I fhall,

guilty; but for the latter our poet feems to have felt all that tenderness which the Ghoft recommends to the imitation of her fon. STEEVENS.

Had Shakspeare thought fit to have introduced the topicks I have fuggested, can there be a doubt concerning his ability to introduce them? The king's juftification, if to juftify him had been the poet's object, (which it certainly was not,) might have been made. in a foliloquy; the queen's, in the prefent interview with her fon. MALONE.

It might not unappofitely be obferved, that every new commentator, like Sir T. Hanmer's Othello, must often "make the meat he feeds on." Some flight objection to every opinion already offered, may be found; and, if in doubtful cafes we are to prefume that "the poet tells his ftories as they have been told before," we muft put new conftructions on many of his fcenes, as well as new comments on their verbal obfcurities.

For inftance-touching the manner in which Hamlet difpofed of Polonius's body. The black-letter hiftory tells us he "cut it in pieces, which he caused to be boiled, and then caft it into an open vault or privie." Are we to conclude therefore that he did fo in the play before us, because our author has left the matter doubtful? Hamlet is only made to tell us that this dead counsellor was "fafely ftowed." He afterwards adds " you shall ne him" &c.; all which might have been the cafe, had the direction of the aforefaid hiftory been exactly followed. In this tranfaction then (which I call a doubtful one, because the remains of Polonius might have been refcued from the forica, and afterwards have received their hugger-mugger" funeral) am I at liberty to fuppofe he had had the fate of Heliogabalus, in cloacam miffus?

That the Queen (who may ftill be regarded as innocent of murder) might have offered fome apology for her "over-hafty marriage," can easily be fuppofed; but Mr. Malone has not fuggefted what defence could have been fet up by the royal fratricide. My acute predeceffor, as well as the novellift, must have been aware that though female weakness, and an offence against the forms of the world, will admit of extenuation, fuch guilt as that of the ufurper, could not have been palliated by the dramatick art of Shakspeare; even if the father of Hamlet had been represented as a wicked instead of a virtuous character. STEEVENS.

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