HAM. Angels and minifters of grace defend us!"—

bald.-Bafe is ufed fubftantively for bafenefs: a practice not uncommon in Shakspeare. So, in Meafure for Measure:

66

Say what thou canft, my falfe outweighs your true." Shakspeare, however, might have written-The dram of ill. This is nearer the corrupted word eale, but the paffage in Cymbeline is in favour of the other emendation.

The meaning of the paffage thus corrected is, The smallest particle of vice fo blemishes the whole mafs of virtue, as to erafe from the minds of mankind the recollection of the numerous good qualities poffeffed by him who is thus blemished by a fingle itain, and taints his general character.

To his own feandal, means, fo as to reduce the whole mass of worth to its own vicious and unfightly appearance; to translate his virtue to the likeness of vice.

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His for its, is fo common in Shakspeare, that every play furnishes us with examples. So, in a fubfequent fcene in this play :-" than the force of honefty can tranflate beauty into his likeness.”

Again, in Timon of Athens:

"When every feather fticks in his own wing,

Again, in A Midsummer Night's Dream:

"Whofe liquor hath this virtuous property,
"To take from thence all error with his might."

Again, in King Richard II:

"That it may fhew me what a face I have,
"Since it is bankrupt of his majesty."

So, in Grim, the Collier of Croydon :

"Contented life, that gives the heart his ease,—

We meet with a fentiment fomewhat fimilar to that before us, in King Henry IV. P. I:

oftentimes it doth prefent harsh rage,

"Defect of manners, want of government,
"Pride, haughtinefs, opinion, and difdain;
"The leaft of which, haunting a nobleman,
"Lofeth men's hearts, and leaves behind a ftain
Upon the beauty of all parts befides,

Beguiling them of commendation."

MALONE.

"Angels and minifters of grace defend us! &c.] Hamlet's speech to the apparition of his father feems to confift of three parts. When firft he fees the spectre, he fortifies himself with an invocation: Angels and minifters of grace defend us!

As the fpectre approaches, he deliberates with himfelf, and determines, that whatever it be he will venture to address it.

Be thou a spirit of health, or goblin damn'd,
Bring with thee airs from heaven, or blafts from

hell,

Be thy intents wicked, or charitable,
Thou com'ft in fuch a questionable shape,"

Be thou a fpirit of health, or goblin damn'd,
Bring with thee airs from heaven, or blafts from hell,
Be thy intents wicked, or charitable,

Thou com'ft in fuch a questionable shape,

That I will speak to thee. I'll call thee, &c.

This he fays while his father is advancing; he then, as he had determined, Speaks to him, and calls him-Hamlet, King, Father, Royal Dane: O! answer me. JOHNSON.

8 Be thou a fpirit of health, or goblin damn'd, &c.] So, in Acolaftus his After-wit, 1600:

"Art thou a god, a man, or elfe a ghoft?

"Com'ft thou from heaven, where bliss and folace dwell? "Or from the airie cold-engendring coaft?

"Or from the darkfome dungeon-hold of hell?

The first known edition of this play is in 1604.

The fame queftion occurs alfo in the MS. known by the title of William and the Werwolf, in the Library of King's College, Cambridge:

"Whether thou be a gode goft in goddis name that fpeakeft,

"Or any foul fiend fourmed in this wife,

"And if we schul of the hent harme or gode." p. 36.

Again, in Barnaby Googe's Fourth Eglog:

"What foever thou art yt thus doft com,

"Ghooft, hagge, or fende of hell,

"I the comaunde by hym that lyves

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Thy name and cafe to tell." STEEVENS. 9-questionable shape,] By questionable is meant provoking queftion. HANMER.

So, in Macbeth:

"Live you, or are you aught

"That man may question?" JOHNSON,

Questionable, I believe, means only propitious to converfation, eafy and willing to be converfed with. So, in As you like it: "An un queftionable fpirit, which you have not." Unquestionable in this laft inftance certainly fignifies unwilling to be talked with.

STEEVENS.

That I will speak to thee; I'll call thee, Hamlet, ·
King, father, royal Dane: O, answer me:
Let me not burft in ignorance! but tell,
Why thy canoniz'd bones, hearsed in death,
Have burft their cerements! why the fepulchre,

Questionable perhaps only means capable of being conversed with. To queftion, certainly in our author's time fignified to converfe. So, in his Rape of Lucrece, 1594:

For after fupper long he questioned

"With modeft Lucrece.

Again, in Antony and Cleopatra:

"Out of our question wipe him.”

See alfo Vol. XIV. p. 272, n. 5.

-tell,

MALONE.

Why thy canoniz'd bones, hearfed in death,

Have burft their cerements!] Hamlet, amazed at an apparition, which, though in all ages credited, has in all ages been confidered as the most wonderful and moft dreadful operation of fupernatural agency, enquires of the spectre, in the most emphatick terms, why he breaks the order of nature, by returning from the dead; this he afks in a very confused circumlocution, confounding in his fright the foul and body. Why, fays he, have thy bones, which with due ceremonies have been entombed in death, in the common state of departed mortals, burft the folds in which they were embalmed? Why has the tomb, in which we saw thee quietly laid, opened his mouth, that mouth which, by its weight and ftability, feemed clofed for ever? The whole fentence is this: Why doft thou appear, whom we know to be dead? JOHNSON.

By the expreffion hearfed in death is meant, fhut up and fecured with all thofe precautions which are ufually practifed in preparing dead bodies for fepulture, fuch as the winding-fheet, fhrowd, coffin, &c. perhaps embalming into the bargain. So that death is here ufed, by a metonymy of the antecedent for the confequents, for the rites of death, fuch as are generally esteemed due, and practifed with regard to dead bodies. Conféquently, I understand by cere ments, the waxed winding-fheet or winding-fheets, in which the corpfe was enclosed and fown up, in order to preferve it the longer from external impreffions from the humidity of the fepulchre, as embalming was intended to preferve it from internal corruption.

HEATH.

By hearfed in death, the poet seems to mean, repofited and confined

Wherein we faw thee quietly in-urn'd,3
Hath op'd his ponderous and marble jaws,
To caft thee up again! What may this mean,
That thou, dead corfe, again, in cómplete steel,*
Revifit'ft thus the glimpses of the moon,
Making night hideous; and we fools of nature,"
So horridly to fhake our difpofition,"

With thoughts beyond the reaches of our fouls?
Say, why is this? wherefore? what fhould we do?
HOR. It beckons you to go away with it,
As if it fome impartment did defire

To you alone.

MAR.

Look, with what courteous action

in the place of the dead. In his Rape of Lucrece he has again used this uncommon participle in nearly the fame fenfe :

"Thy fea within a puddle's womb is hearfed,

"And not the puddle in thy fea difperfed." MALONE. 3-quietly in-urn'd,] The quartos read-interr'd.

STEEVENS.

4 That thou, dead corfe, again, in complete fteel,] It is probable that Shakspeare introduced his ghoft in armour, that it might appear more folemn by fuch a difcrimination from the other characters; though it was really the custom of the Danish kings to be buried in that manner. Vide Olaus Wormius, cap. vii:

"Struem regi nec veftibus, nec odoribus cumulant, fua cuique arma, quorundam igni et equus adjicitur."

fed poftquam magnanimus ille Danorum rex collem fibi magnitudinis confpicua extruxiffet, (cui poft obitum regio diademate exornatum, armis indutum, inferendum effet cadaver," &c.

5

STEEVENS.

we fools of nature,] The expreffion is fine, as intimating we were only kept (as formerly, fools in a great family,) to make sport for nature, who lay hid only to mock and laugh at us, for our vain fearches into her myfteries. WARBURTON.

—we fools of nature-] i. e. making us, who are the sport of nature, whofe myfterious operations are beyond the reaches of our fouls, &c. So, in Romeo and Juliet:

"O, I am fortune's fool." MALONE.
Difpofition for frame.

• to flake our difpofition,]

WARBURTON,

It waves you to a more removed ground: '
But do not go with it.

HOR.

No, by no means.

HAM. It will not fpeak; then I will follow it. HOR. Do not, my lord.

HAM.

Why, what should be the fear?

8

I do not fet my life at a pin's fee;
And, for my foul, what can it do to that,
Being a thing immortal as itself?

It waves me forth again;-I'll follow it.

HOR. What, if it tempt you toward the flood, my lord,

Or to the dreadful fummit of the cliff,
That beetles o'er his bafe into the fea?

And there affume fome other horrible form,

Which might deprive your fovereignty of reason,"

7 a more removed ground:] i. e. remote. So, in A Midfummer Night's Dream:

"From Athens is her house remov'd feven leagues."

The firft folio reads-remote. STEEVENS.

8

pin's fee ;] The value of a pin. JOHNSON.

9 That beetles o'er his bafe-] So, in Sidney's Arcadia, B. I: "Hills lifted up their beetle brows, as if they would overlooke the pleafantneffe of their under profpect." STEEVENS.

That beetles o'er his bafe-] That hangs o'er his bafe, like what is called a beetle-brow. This verb is, I believe, of our author's coinage. MALONE.

2

deprive your fovereignty of reafon,] i. e. your ruling power of reason. When poets with to inveft any quality or virtue with uncommon fplendor, they do it by fome allufion to regal eminence. Thus, among the excellencies of Banquo's character, our author diftinguishes his royalty of nature," i. e. his natural fuperiority over others, his independent dignity of mind. I have felected this inftance to explain the former, because I am told that "royalty of nature" has been idly supposed to bear some allufion to Banquo's distant profpect of the crown.