HAM. I am glad of it: A knavish speech fleeps in a foolish ear." Ros. My lord, you must tell us where the body is, and go with us to the king. HAM. The body is with the king,' but the king is not with the body. The king is a thing GUIL. A thing, my lord? HAM. Of nothing: bring me to him. Hide fox, and all after.3 [Exeunt. 8 A knavish Speech fleeps in a foolish ear.] This, if I mistake not, is a proverbial fentence. MALONE. Since the appearance of our author's play, these words have become proverbial; but no earlier inftance of the idea conveyed by them, has occurred within the compafs of my reading. STEEVENS. 9 The body is with the king,] This anfwer I do not comprehend. Perhaps it should be,-The body is not with the king, for the king is not with the body. JOHNSON. Perhaps it may mean this,-The body is in the king's house, (i. e. the prefent king's,) yet the king (i. e. he who should have been king,) is not with the body. Intimating that the ufurper is here, the true king in a better place. Or it may mean-the guilt of the murder lies with the king, but the king is not where the body lies. The affected obfcurity of Hamlet muft excufe fo many attempts to procure fomething like a meaning. STEEVENS. 2 Of nothing:] Should it not be read-Or nothing? When the courtiers remark that Hamlet has contemptuously called the king a thing, Hamlet defends himself by obferving, that the king must be a thing, or nothing. JOHNSON. The text is right. So, in The Spanish Tragedy: "In troth, my lord, it is a thing of nothing." And, in one of Harvey's letters " a filly bug-beare, a forry puffe of winde, a thing of nothing." FARMER. So, in Decker's Match me in London, 1631: "At what doft thou laugh? "At a thing of nothing, at thee. Again, in Look about you, 1600: "A very little thing, a thing of nothing." STEEVENS. Mr. Steevens has given [i. e. edit. 1778] many parallelifms: but the origin of all is to be look'd for, I believe, in the 144th Pfalm, ver. 5: "Man is like a thing of nought." Mr. Steevens must have SCENE III. Another Room in the fame. Enter King, attended. KING. I have fent to feek him, and to find the body. How dangerous is it, that this man goes loose? Who like not in their judgement, but their eyes ; even, This fudden fending him away must seem Enter ROSENCRANTZ. Or not at all.-How now? what hath befallen? Ros. Where the dead body is beftow'd, my lord, We cannot get from him. KING. But where is he? obferved, that the book of Common Prayer, and the translation of the Bible into English, furnished our old writers with many forms of expreffion, fome of which are ftill in ufe. WHALLEY. 3 - Hide fox, &c.] There is a play among children called, Hide fox, and all after. HANMER. 66 -our The fame fport is alluded to in Decker's Satiromaftix: unhand fome-faced poet does play at bo-peep with your grace, and cries-All bid, as boys do.” This paffage is not in the quarto. STEEVENS. Ros. Without, my lord; guarded, to know your pleasure. KING. Bring him before us. Ros. Ho, Guildenstern! bring in my lord. Enter HAMLET and GUILDENSTERN. KING. NOW, Hamlet, where's Polonius? KING. At fupper? Where? HAM. Not where he eats, but where he is eaten: a certain convocation of politick worms are e'en at him. Your worm is your only emperor for diet: we fat all creatures elfe, to fat us; and we fat ourfelves for maggots: Your fat king, and your lean beggar, is but variable service; two dishes, but to one table; that's the end. KING. Alas, alas! 3 HAM. A man may fish with the worm that hath eat of a king; and eat of the fish that hath fed of that worm. KING. What doft thou mean by this? 4 HAM. Nothing, but to fhow you how a king may go a progrefs through the guts of a beggar. KING. Where is Polonius? HAM. In heaven; fend thither to fee: if your meffenger find him not there, feek him i'the other place yourself. But, indeed, if you find him not 3 Alas, alas!] This fpeech, and the following, are omitted in the folio. STEEVENS. 4go a progrefs-] Alluding to the royal journeys of ftate, always ftyled progreffes; a familiar idea to thofe who, like our author, lived during the reigns of Queen Elizabeth and King James I. STEEVENS. within this month, you fhall nofe him as you go up the stairs into the lobby. KING. Go feek him there. HAM. He will stay till you [To fome Attendants. come. [Exeunt Attendants. KING. Hamlet, this deed, for thine especial fafety, Which we do tender, as we dearly grieve For that which thou hast done,-must send thee hence With fiery quickness: Therefore, prepare thyfelf; For England. KING. So is it, if thou knew'ft our purposes. HAM. I see a cherub, that fees them.-But, come; for England!-Farewell, dear mother. KING. Thy loving father, Hamlet. HAM. My mother: Father and mother is man and wife; man and wife is one flesh; and fo, my mother. Come, for England. [Exit. KING. Follow him at foot; tempt him with speed aboard; 5 With fiery quickness:] Thefe words are not in the quartos. We meet with fiery expedition in King Richard III. STEEVENS. 6 - the wind at help,] I suppose it should be read, The bark is ready, and the wind at helm. JOHNSON. at help,] i. e. at hand, ready,—ready to help or affift you. Similar phrafeology occurs in Pericles, Prince of Tyre: “ — I'll Ïeave it "At careful nurfing." STEEVENS. RITSON. Delay it not, I'll have him hence to-night: 8 7 thou may'ft not coldly fet Our fovereign process;] I adhere to the reading of the quarte and folio. Mr. M. Mafon obferves, that "one of the common acceptations of the verb fet, is to value or estimate; as we say to fet at nought; and in that sense it is ufed here." STEEVENS. Our poet has here, I think, as in many other places, used an elliptical expreffion: "thou may'ft not coldly fet by our fovereign procefs;" thou may't not fet little by it, or estimate it lightly. To fet by," Cole renders in his Dict. 1679, by æftimo. "To fet little by," he interprets parvi-facio. See many other inftances of fimilar ellipfes, in Vol. XIII. p. 235, n. 5. MALONE. 8 By letters conjuring-] Thus the folio. By letters congruing. STEEVENS. The quarto reads, The reading of the folio may derive fome fupport from the following paffage in The Hyftory of Hamblet, bl. let. " — making the king of England minifter of his maffacring refolution; to whom he purpofed to fend him, [Hamlet,] and by letters defire him to put him to death." So alfo, by a fubfequent line: "Ham. Wilt thou know the effect of what I wrote? "Ham. An earneft conjuration from the king," &c. The circumstances mentioned as inducing the king to fend the prince to England, rather than elsewhere, are likewife found in The Hyftory of Hamblet. Effect was formerly used for act or deed, fimply, and is so used in the line before us. So, in Leo's Hiftorie of Africa, tranflated by Pory, folio, 1600, p. 253: "Three daies after this effect, there came to us a Zuum, that is, a captaine," &c. See alfo fupra, P. 234, n. 2. |