What majefty fhould be, what duty is, Why day is day, night, night, and time is time, beginning of the second a&t. But I will venture to fay, these criticks have not entered into the poet's art and address in this particular. He had a mind to ornament his fcenes with thofe fine leffons of focial life; but his Polonius was too weak to be author of them, though he was pedant enough to have met with them in his reading, and fep enough to get them by heart, and retail them for his own. And this the poet has finely fhewn us was the cafe, where, in the middle of Polonius's inftructions to his fervant, he makes him, though without having received any interruption, forget his leffon, and fay, "And then, fir, does he this; "He does-What was I about to say? "I was about to fay fomething-where did I leave?" The fervant replies, At, clofes in the confequence. This fets Polonius right, and he goes on, "At closes in the consequence. Ay marry, "He clofes thus :- -I know the gentleman," &c. which fhews the very words got by heart which he was repeating. Otherwife clofes in the confequence, which conveys no particular idea of the fubject he was upon, could never have made him recollect where he broke off. This is an extraordinary inftance of the poet's art, and attention to the prefervation of character. WARBURTON. This account of the character of Polonius, though it fufficiently reconciles the feeming inconfiftency of fo much wifdom with fo much folly, does not perhaps correfpond exactly to the ideas of our author. The commentator makes the character of Polonius, a character only of manners, difcriminated by properties fuperficial, accidental, and acquired. The poet intended a nobler delineation of a mixed character of manners and of nature. Polonius is a man bred in courts, exercised in bufinefs, ftored with obfervation, confident in his knowledge, proud of his eloquence, and declining into dotage. His mode of oratory is truly reprefented as defigned to ridicule the practice of thofe times, of prefaces that made no introduction, and of method that embarrassed rather than explained. This part of his character is accidental, the reft is natural. Such a man is pofitive and confident, because he knows that his mind was once ftrong, and knows not that it is become weak. Such a man excels in general principles, but fails in the particular application. He is knowing in retrofpect, and ignorant in forefight. Were nothing but to wafte night, day, and time, QUEEN. More matter, with lefs art, POL. Madam, I fwear, I ufe no art at all. Mad let us grant him then: and now remains, I have a daughter; have, while fhe is mine; While he depends upon his memory, and can draw from his repofitories of knowledge, he utters weighty fentences, and gives ufeful counfel; but as the mind in its enfeebled ftate cannot be kept long bufy and intent, the old man is fubject to fudden dereliction of his faculties, he lofes the order of his ideas and entangles himfelf in his own thoughts, till he recovers the leading principle, and falls again into his former train. This idea of dotage encroaching upon wifdom, will folve all the phænomena of the character of Polonius. JOHNSON. Nothing can be more juft, judicious, and mafterly, than Johnfon's delineation of the character of Polonius; and I cannot read it without heartily regretting that he did not exert his great abilities and difcriminating powers, in delineating the ftrange, inconfiftent, and indecifive character of Hamlet, to which I confefs myfelf unequal. M. MASON. -To the celestial, and my foul's idol, the most beautified In her excellent white bofom, thefe,+ &c.- 3-To the celestial, and my foul's idol, the most beautified Ophelia,] Mr. Theobald for beautified fubftituted beatified. MALONE. Dr. Warburton has followed Mr. Theobald; but I am in doubt whether beautified, though, as Polonius calls it, a vile phrase, be not the proper word, Beautified seems to be a vile phrafe, for the ambiguity of its meaning. JOHNSON. Heywood, in his Hiftory of Edward VI. fays" Katherine Parre, queen dowager to king Henry VIII, was a woman beautified with many excellent virtues." FARMER. So, in The Hog bath left his Pearl, 1614: "A maid of rich endowments, beautified "With all the virtues nature could bestow." Again, Nash dedicates his Chriff's Tears over Jerufalem, 1594: "to the most beautified lady, the lady Elizabeth Carey." Again, in Greene's Mamillia, 1593: 66 although thy perfon is fo bravely beautified with the dowries of nature." Ill and vile as the phrafe may be, our author has used it again in The Two Gentlemen of Verona : feeing you are beautified "With goodly fhape," &c. STEEVENS. By beautified Hamlet means beautiful. But Polonius, taking the word in the more strictly grammatical fenfe of being made beautiful, calls it a vile phrafe, as implying that his daughter's beauty was the effect of art. M. MASON. 4 In her excellent white bofom, thefe,] So, in The Two Gentlemen of Verona: "Thy letters "Which, being writ to me, fhall be deliver'd Sce Vol. III. p. 236, n. 2. STEEVENS. I have followed the quarto. The folio reads: Thefe in her excellent white bofom, these, &c. In our poet's time the word Thefe was ufually added at the end of the fuperfcription of letters, but I have never met with it both at the beginning and end. MALONE, POL. Good madam, stay awhile; I will be faith ful. Doubt thou, the ftars are fire; Doubt, that the fun doth move: Doubt truth to be a liar; But never doubt, I love. [Reads. O dear Ophelia, I am ill at these numbers; I have not art to reckon my groans: but that I love thee best, O most beft, believe it. Adieu. Thine evermore, most dear lady, whilst this machine is to him, Hamlet. This, in obedience, hath my daughter fhown me: As they fell out by time, by means, and place, KING. Receiv'd his love? POL. But how hath fhe What do you think of me? KING. As of a man faithful and honourable. POL. I would fain prove fo. But what might you think, When I had feen this hot love on the wing, " 5 O most best,] So, in Acolaftus, a comedy, 1540: that fame moft beft redreffer or reformer, is God." STEEVENS. whilft this machine is to him, Hamlet.] Thefe words will not be ill explained by the conclufion of one of the Letters of the Pafton Family, Vol. II. p. 43: "—for your pleasure, whyle my wytts be my owne." The phrafe employed by Hamlet feems to have a French conftruction. Pendant que cette machine eft a lui. To be one's own man is a vulgar expreffion, but means much the fame as Virgil's Dum memor ipfe mei, dum fpiritus hos regit artus. STEEVENS. more above,] is, moreover, befides. JOHNSON. (As I perceiv'd it, I must tell you that, Or given my heart a working, mute and dumb; 8 What might you think? no, I went round to work, And my young mistress thus did I bespeak; If I bad play'd the desk, or table-book; Or given my heart a working, mute and dumb; What might you think?] i. e. If either I had conveyed intelligence between them, and been the confident of their amours [play'd the defk or table-book,] or had connived at it, only observed them in fecret, without acquainting my daughter with my difcovery [given my heart a mute and dumb working;] or laftly, had been negligent in obferving the intrigue, and overlooked it [looked upon this love with idle fight;] what would you have thought of me? WARBURTON. I doubt whether the first line is rightly explained. It may mean, if I had lock'd up this fecret in my own breaft, as closely as if it were confined in a desk or table-book, MALONE. Or given my heart a working, mute and dumb;] The folio reads-a winking. STEEVENS. The fame pleonafm [mute and dumb] is found in our author's Rape of Lucrece: "And in my hearing be you mute and dumb." MALONE. 9 — round- i. e. roundly, without referve. So Polonius fays in the third act: " be round with him." STEEVENS. 2 Lord Hamlet is a prince out of thy sphere;] The quarto, 1604, and the first folio, for sphere, have ftar. The correction was made by the editor of the fecond folio. MALONE. 3 — precepts gave her,] Thus the folio. The two elder quartos read-prefcripts. I have chofen the moft familiar of the two readings. Polonius has already faid to his fon: "And thefe few precepts in thy memory "Look thou character." STEEVENS. |
