NOTES ON HAMLET. ACT FIRST. SCENE I. "The rivals of my watch :—i. e., the companions of my watch. The 4to. of 1603, in which this Scene corresponds to the text of the folio, with the exception of an omitted line or two, and which evidently represents the true and perfect" text, has, "the partners of my watch" a more obvious word, which a reporter would be likely to substitute for the authentic one. The “ Mar. What, has this thing appear'd," &c.: folio and the 4to. of 1603 give this speech to Marcellus; the other 4tos., to Horatio, who, as yet, does not believe that the Ghost has appeared at all. "The bell then beating one": - So the folio and the 4to. of 1604: the 4to. of 1603, "The bell then towling one," an error like that remarked upon in the first Note. There are several of the same kind in this very Scene; but they are not deserving of more particular mention. " "Thou art a scholar : The notion that ghosts, devils, and witches would notice only what was addressed to them in Latin was long a part of the superstition respecting their existence. It was a lingering reminiscence of the exorcismal formula of the Romish church. and jump at this dead hour": — So the 4tos., including that of 1603. The "just at this dead hour of the folio is doubtless a sophistication. It is also a gloss. as, by the same cov❜nant" : So the folio. The 4to. of 1604 has, "the same co-mart a singular phrase, which implies a trading purpose not well suited to a royal combat for a province. In the next line the folio (161) VOL. XI. K has, "And carriage of the Article designe," and so the 4to. of 1604, although the former was not printed from. the latter; in which reading there seems manifestly but the omission of the final s, so frequently mentioned in these Notes, although it is not noticed once in a score of instances. The meaning is, And the carrying out of the design of the articles between the two kings. But the second folio has, the article design'd," and has hitherto been followed, though the sense of this reading is far from clear. "[Ber. I think it be no other," &c.: This and the seventeen following lines are omitted from the folio. "A mote it is": - The old copies, "A moth." See the Notes on "Pease-blossom, Cobweb, Mote, and Mustardseed," Much Ado about Nothing, Act III. Sc. 1, and Enter... Moth," Love's Labour's Lost, Act I. Sc. 2. “As, stars with trains of fire":- This passage is sadly and hopelessly corrupt. A preceding line or more has manifestly been lost. The reader will find much fruitless conjecture with regard to it in the Variorum of 1821. "And prologue to the omen":- Here 'omen' is used, as Malone remarked, to mean an approaching, dreadful, and portentous event. . "Stay, illusion!"- Here the 4to. of 1604 has the stage direction, "It spreads his arms," which perhaps is a misprint for "He spreads," &c.; indicating Horatio's action in his attempt to stay the Ghost. His' might, of course, refer to the Ghost through it;' but there seems to be no occasion for the Ghost to make such a gesture. the trumpet to the morn : So the 4to. of 1604 that of 1603, "morning;" the folio, "to the day," where a word has crept up from the second line below. no spirit can walk abroad : So the folio; the 4to. of 1603, "dare walk; that of 1604, "dare sturre a much inferior reading. — Here 'spirit' is a monosyllable, and was pronounced spreet. "No fairy takes : -It is hardly worth while to notice the misprint, "No Faiery talkes," of the folio. SCENE II. The old copies, and one drooping eye": “dropping eye.” But, considering the sense required, the distinction made between 'drop' and 'droop' in Shakespeare's day as in our own, and remembering how common an error is the duplication of the wrong letter in both type-setting and chirography, I do not hesitate to read, drooping eye.' For bearers of this greeting": — - The folio misprints, "For bearing," &c. [wrung from me my slow leave" : These words and the following two lines are in the 4to. of 1604, but not in the folio. "A little more than kin, and less than kind": — Is it necessary to say that Hamlet means, In marrying my mother you have made yourself something more than my kinsman, and at the same time have shown yourself unworthy of our race, our kind? thy nightly colour off": The 4tos., "nighted all forms, modes, shews of grief": - The old copies, "moods," which might be either modes or moods; but, as Hamlet is speaking of the externals of grief, it is plain that the former is intended. obsequious sorrow :— i. e., formal sorrow, the sorrow shown at obsequies. "This unprevailing woe : i. e., unavailing woe. This use of the word obtained until the beginning of the last century. “In going back to school in Wittenberg":— i. e., to the University, where men of all ages passed indefinite periods, and sometimes their whole lives. See the Note on My brother Jacques he keeps at school,” As You Like It, Act I. Sc. 1. There is even more occasion for a Note here than there; for, upon a comparison of this passage with that (Act V. Sc. 1) in which the Grave-digger makes Hamlet thirty years old, Blackstone could charge Shakespeare with a slip of memory. "And the King's rouse":- A deep draught upon a convivial occasion was called a rouse; and it appears, from a passage quoted by Steevens from Decker's Gull's Horn Book, to have been a Danish term. "Teach me, thou soveraigne skinker, how to take the German's upsy freeze, the Danish rousa, the Switzer's stoop of rhenish," &c. Its signification is preserved in 'rouser' and 'rousing.' "O, that this too, too solid flesh would melt : That 'too too' was used absolutely for very well, or good, Ray remarked in his English Words not Generally Used, (London, 1674;) and Mr. Hunter and Mr. Halliwell p. 36. have recently brought forward many instances of its unmistakable use as a compound epithet. I refrain from adding to the instances which they cite the score of others at my hand. But that the phrase was also used with intensifying iteration, I think is clear from instances like that which is the occasion of this Note, and from the similar iteration of other adverbs and adjectives in the literature of Shakespeare's day. For instance, "Alas what fals are falne unto thy minde? That there where thou confest thy mischief lyes, Fy schoole of Patience, Fy, your lesson is Astrophel and Stella, St. 56, Ibid. p. 537. "Then since (deare life) you faine would have me peace And I mad with delight, want wit to cease, Stop you my mouth with still still kissing me." Idem, St. 81, Ibid. p. 547. "Then give me welcome, next my heaven the best, Shakespeare's Sonnet CX. "She wept aye too and too, and said, alas! Browne's Shepheard's Pipe, Works, "Yet in this Propagation great, great Crosses understand." In any case the compound epithet must have originated in the frequent iterative use of the word. "Fie on't! O fie! Thus the 4tos. The folio has, "Fie ont. O fie, fie" —a corruption by repetition notably recurrent in that text of this tragedy. Hyperion to a satyr": i. e., Apollo to his brother Pan. The third, not the second, syllable of Hyperion' is properly long; but to this pronunciation hardly any of the English poets have conformed. • Be "That he might not beteem the winds," &c. : teem' means to allow, permit, as its use by other writers shows; but its etymology is still, I think, uncertain. That adopted by Richardson (See his Dictionary in v.) from Steevens seems to me to have only the most fanciful support. p. 36. p. 37. that wants discourse of reason :— i. e., discursive reason, reason which draws conclusions, as opposed to intuitive perception. The phrase was common in Shakespeare's day, and before it. "Good even, sir" : — It was not what we now call evening. Two or three hundred years ago, any time after midday was called evening. Thus the // "I would not have your enemy say so": folio; avoiding the repetition of sound and sense in the two lines consequent upon the reading of the 4tos. :— "I would not heare your enemie say so Nor shall you do my eare that violence; giving also a more natural and easy expression to Hamlet's friendly protest. my dearest foe in Heaven":—i. e., my greatest foe, he who is most my foe 6 - a common use of dearest' in Shakespeare's day. For God's love : The folio, "For Heaven's love." This conformity to the statute 3 Jac. I., often alluded to in these Notes, is so common in this play that hereafter it will not be noticed. "In the dead vast and middle of the night" : - Thus the 4to. of 1603; the 4to. of 1604, and subsequent old copies, "the dead wast," &c.; and perhaps we should read, "the dead waste." But in either case the sense would be the same- the dead void; and vast' seems to have been used substantively in this sense by Shakespeare, if not by his contemporaries. See "that vast of night,' The Tempest, Act I. Sc. 2. "Arm'd at all points": - Thus the folio: the 4tos., "Armed to poynt" and "Armed at poynt." whilst they, distill'd":— Thus the 4tos: the folio, doubtless by mere misprint, "bestild.” "It lifted up it head": Thus both the 4to. of 1604 and the folio; the 4to. of 1603, "his head; " and yet all modern editions hitherto have," its head." See the Note on "it's folly," &c., The Winter's Tale, Act I. Sc. 2. 'It' in a possessive sense also occurs in Act V. Sc. 1, p. 142, of this play "Fordo it own life," where hitherto the modern text has been, "Fordo its," &c. he wore his beaver up":- Strictly speaking, the beaver was that movable part of the helmet which was pressed down so that the wearer might drink. But it could be and frequently was united to the visor, and both were raised together; and so both came to be called |