Enter King, Queen, LAERTES, Lords, OSRICK, and Attendants with foils, &c.

KING. Come, Hamlet, come, and take this hand from me.

[The King puts the band of LAERTES into that of HAMLET.

HAM. Give me your pardon, fir: I have done you wrong;

But pardon it, as you are a gentleman.

This prefence knows, and you must needs have heard,

How I am punifh'd with a fore diftraction.
What I have done,

That might your nature, honour, and exception,
Roughly awake, I here proclaim was madness.
Was't Hamlet wrong'd Laertes? Never, Hamlet:
If Hamlet from himself be ta'en away,

And, when he's not himself, does wrong Laertes,
Then Hamlet does it not, Hamlet denies it.
Who does it then? His madness: If't be so,
Hamlet is of the faction that is wrong'd;
His madness is poor Hamlet's enemy.
Sir, in this audience,

Let my difclaiming from a purpos'd evil
Free me fo far in your most generous thoughts,
That I have fhot my arrow o'er the house,
And hurt my brother.

9 Give me your pardon, fir:] I wish Hamlet had made fome other defence; it is unfuitable to the character of a good or a brave man, to fhelter himself in falfehood. JOHNSON.

Sir, &c.] This paffage I have reftored from the folio.

STEEVENS.

I am fatisfied in nature,'

LAER.
Whofe motive, in this cafe, fhould ftir me most
To my revenge: but in my terms of honour,
I stand aloof; and will no reconcilement,
Till by fome elder masters, of known honour,“
I have a voice and precedent of peace,

To keep my name ungor'd: But till that time,
I do receive your offer'd love like love,
And will not wrong it.

HAM.

I embrace it freely; And will this brother's wager frankly play.Give us the foils; come on.

LAER.

Come, one for me.

HAM. I'll be your foil, Laertes; in mine igno

rance

s I am fatisfied in nature, &c.] This was a piece of fatire on fantastical honour. Though nature is fatisfied, yet he will ask advice of older men of the fword, whether artificial honour ought to be contented with Hamlet's fubmiffion.

There is a paffage fomewhat fimilar in The Maid's Tragedy:
"Evad. Will you forgive me then?
"Mel. Stay, I must ask mine honour first."

STEEVENS.

This is faid in

Till by fome elder masters, of known honour,] allufion to an English cuftom. I learn from an ancient MS. of which the reader will find a more particular account in a note to The Merry Wives of Windsor, Vol. III. p. 327, n. 3, that in Queen Eliza beth's time there were "four ancient mafters of defence," in the city of London. They appear to have been the referees in many affairs of honour, and exacted tribute from all inferior practitioners of the art of fencing, &c. STEEVENS.

Our poet frequently alludes to English customs, and may have done fo here, but I do not believe that gentlemen ever fubmitted points of honour to perfons who exhibited themfelves for money as prize-fighters on the publick ftage; though they might appeal in certain cafes to Raleigh, Eflex, or Southampton, who from their high rank, their courfe of life, and eftablished reputation, might with ftrict propriety be ftyled, "elder mafters, of known honour."

MALONE.

Your skill fhall, like a ftar i'the darkest night,
Stick fiery off indeed.

LAER.

You mock me, fir.

HAM. No, by this hand.

KING. Give them the foils, young Ofrick.-
Coufin Hamlet,

You know the wager?

Нам. Your grace

Very well, my lord; hath laid the odds o'the weaker fide. KING. I do not fear it; I have feen you both:But fince he's better'd, we have therefore odds." LAER. This is too heavy, let me fee another. HAM. This likes me well:

length?

OSR. Ay, my good lord.

Thefe foils have all a [They prepare to play.

When the

5 Your grace hath laid the odds o' the weaker fide.] odds were on the fide of Laertes, who was to hit Hamlet twelve times to nine, it was perhaps the author's flip. Sir T. Hanmer

reads

Your grace hath laid upon the weaker fide. JOHNSON.

I fee no reason for altering this paffage. Hamlet confiders the things impon'd by the King, as of more value than thofe impon'd by Laertes; and therefore fays, "that he had laid the odds on the weaker fide." M. MASON.

Hamlet either means, that what the king had laid was more valuable than what Laertes ftaked; or that the king hath made his bet, an advantage being given to the weaker party. I believe the firft is the true interpretation. In the next line but one the word odds certainly means an advantage given to the party, but here it may have a different fenfe. This is not an uncommon practice with our poet. MALONE.

Thefe are

The king had wagered, on Hamlet, fix Barbary borfes, against a few rapiers, poniards, &c. that is, about twenty to one. the odds here meant. RITSON.

But fince he's better'd, we have therefore odds.] were twelve to nine in favour of Hamlet, by Laertes three. RITSON,

Thefe odds

giving him

KING. Set me the ftoups of wine' upon that table:

If Hamlet give the firft or fecond hit,
Or quit in answer of the third exchange,
Let all the battlements their ordnance fire;
The king fhall drink to Hamlet's better breath;
And in the cup an union fhall he throw,&

7 the ftoups of wine—] A ftoup is a kind of flaggon. See Vol. IV. p. 51, n. 2. STEEVENS.

Containing fomewhat more than two quarts. MALONE.

Stoup is a common word in Scotland at this day, and denotes a pewter veffel, refembling our wine measure; but of no determi nate quantity, that being afcertained by an adjunct, as gallon-fioup, pint-ftoup, mutchkin-floup, &c. The veffel in which they fetch or keep water is alfo called the water-floup. A floup of wine is therefore equivalent to a pitcher of wine. RITSON.

8 And in the cup an union shall he throw,] In fome editions, And in the cup an onyx fall he throw.

This is a various reading in feveral of the old copies; but union feems to me to be the true word. If I am not mistaken, neither the onyx, nor fardonyx, are jewels which ever found place in an imperial crown. An union is the finest fort of pearl, and has its place in all crowns, and coronets. Befides, let us confider what the King fays on Hamlet's giving Laertes the first hit:

"Stay, give me drink. Hamlet, this pearl is thine;
"Here's to thy health."

Therefore, if an union be a pearl, and an onyx a gem, or ftone, quite differing in its nature from pearls; the king faying, that Hamlet has earn'd the pearl, I think, amounts to a demonftration that it was an union pearl, which he meant to throw into the cup. THEOBALD.

And in the cup an union fhall he throw,] Thus the folio rightly. In the first quarto by the careleffnefs of the printer, for union, we have unice, which in the fubfequent quarto copies was made onyx. An union is a very precious pearl. See Bullokar's English Expofitor, 1616, and Florio's Italian Dictionary, 1598, in v. MALONE. So, in Soliman and Perfeda :

"Ay, were it Cleopatra's union."

The union is thus mentioned in P. Holland's tranflation of Pliny's Natural Hiftory: "And hereupon it is that our dainties and delicates here at Rome, &c. call them unions, as a man would fay fingular and by themselves alone."

Richer than that which four fucceffive kings
In Denmark's crown have worn; Give me the cups;
And let the kettle to the trumpet speak,
The trumpet to the cannoneer without,

The cannons to the heavens, the heaven to earth,
Now the king drinks to Hamlet.-Come, begin;—
And you, the judges, bear a wary eye.

HAM. Come on, fir.

KING. Stay, give me drink: Hamlet, this pearl

is thine;"

Here's to thy health.-Give him the cup.

[Trumpets found; and cannon shot off within. HAM. I'll play this bout firft, fet it by awhile. Come.-Another hit; What fay you? [They play.

To fwallow a pearl in a draught feems to have been equally common to royal and mercantile prodigality. So, in the Second Part of If you know not Me, you know Nobody, 1606, Sir Thomas Gresham fays:

"Here 16,000 pound at one clap goes.

"Instead of sugar, Gresham drinks this pearle
"Unto his queen and mistress."

It may

be obferved, however, that pearls were fuppofed to poffefs an exhilarating quality. Thus, Rondelet, Lib. I. de Teftac. c. xv: "Uniones quæ à conchis &c. valde cordiales funt.”

STEEVENS.

9 this pearl is thine;] Under pretence of throwing a pearl into the cup, the king may be fuppofed to drop fome poisonous drug into the wine. Hamlet feems to fufpect this, when he afterwards difcovers the effects of the poifon, and tauntingly asks him,"Is the union here?" STEEVENS.