Ber. Welcome, Horatio; welcome, good Marcellus. Hor. What, has this thing appear'd again to-night? Ber. I have seen nothing. Mar. Horatio says, 'tis but our fantasy; And will not let belief take hold of him, Touching this dreaded sight, twice seen of us: With us to watch the minutes of this night; Sit down awhile; He may approve our eyes, and speak to it. Hor. Well, sit we down, And let us hear Bernardo speak of this. Ber. Last night of all, When yon same star, that's westward from the pole, The bell then beating one,— Mar. Peace, break thee off; look, where it comes again! Enter Ghost. Ber. In the same figure, like the king that's dead. capprove our eyes,] i. e. Add a new testimony to that of our eyes. To approve, in Shakspeare's time, signified to make good, or establish.—JOHNSON and MALONE. d Thou art a scholar, speak to it, Horatio.] Exorcisms were usually performed in Latin.-DOUCE. Hor. Most like:-it harrows me with fear, and wonder. Ber. It would be spoke to. Mar. Speak to it, Horatio. Hor. What art thou, that usurp'st this time of night, Together with that fair and warlike form In which the majesty of buried Denmark Did sometimes march? by heaven I charge thee, speak.. Mar. It is offended. Ber. See! it stalks away. Hor. Stay; speak: speak I charge thee, speak. Mar. 'Tis gone, and will not answer. [Exit Ghost. Ber. How now, Horatio? you tremble, and look pale: Is not this something more than fantasy? What think you of it? Hor. Before my God, I might not this believe, Without the sensible and true avouch Of mine own eyes. Mar. Is it not like the king? Hor. As thou art to thyself: Such was the very armour he had on, 'Tis strange. Mar. Thus, twice before, and jump at this dead hour, With martial stalk hath he gone by our watch. Hor. In what particular thought to work, I know not; But, in the gross and scope of mine opinion, This bodes some strange eruption to our state. Mar. Good now, sit down, and tell me, he that knows, Why this same strict and most observant watch it harrows me, &c.] To harrow is to conquer, to subdue. The word is of Saxon origin.-STEEVENS. f —sledded-] i. e. Borne on a sledge, or sled. He smote the sledded Polack on the ice.] He speaks of a prince of Poland whom he slew in battle. Polack was, in that age, the term for an inhabitant of Poland. Polaque, Fr.-POPE and JOHNSON. b —jump at this dead hour,] i. e. Just at this dead hour: jump and just were synonymous. In what particular thought to work,] i. e. What particular train of thinking to follow.-STEEVENS. — gross and scope-] General thoughts, and tendency at large.-JOHNSON. So nightly toils the subject of the land? Hor. That can I; At least, the whisper goes so. Our last king, Did forfeit, with his life, all those his lands, Had he been vanquisher; as, by the same co-mart, His fell to Hamlet: Now, sir, young Fortinbras, Of unimproved mettle hot and full, Hath in the skirts of Norway, here and there, That hath a stomach in't:s which is no other law, and heraldry,] When the right of property was to be determined by combat, the rules of heraldry were to be attended to as well as those of law. M. MASON. gaged-] i. e. Laid as a wager.-NARES. co-mart,] i. e. Joint bargain. The word does not occur in any other carriage-] i. e. Import, tendency. design'd,] i. e. Drawn up. - unimproved-] i. e. Uncensured, unimpeached. See GIFFORD's Ben Jonson, vol. i. 88. Shark'd up a list, &c.] i. e. Collected in a banditti-like manner, a set of rogues and vagabonds; to shark is nearly equivalent to the modern word to swindle.-NARES. That hath a stomach in't :] i. e. That hath a spirit, or excitement in it: an uncommon use of the word. (As it doth well appear unto our state,) The source of this our watch; and the chief head The graves stood tenantless, and the sheeted dead -romage]—or rummage, i. e. Tumultuous movement.-JOHNSON. "[I think, &c.] These, and all other lines, confined within crotchets, throughout this play, and some others which we have not noticed, are omitted in the folio edition of 1623. The omissions leave the play sometimes better and sometimes worse, and seem made only for the sake of abbreviation.-JOHNSON. × Well may it sort,] The cause and effect are proportionate and suitable.— JOHNSON. 21 the question-] i. e. The theme or subject. a As, stars with trains of fire shed dews of blood, Disasters dimm'd the sun; &c.] The original reading of these lines is, Disasters in the sun; &c.] These corrupted lines the commentators have attempted to put right: the reading I have adopted is the one which departs least from the letter of the text; disasters are the blasts or strokes of unfavourable planets. c —the moist star, &c.] i. e. The moon. omen coming on,]i. e. Portentous event at hand. Omen was anciently used in the sense of fate.-FARMER. Re-enter Ghost. But, soft; behold! lo, where it comes again! Speak to me: If there be any good thing to be done, Speak to me: and grace to me, If thou art privy to thy country's fate, Or, if thou hast uphoarded in thy life [Cock crows. Speak of it :-stay, and speak.-Stop it, Marcellus. Mar. Shall I strike at it with my partizan? Hor. Do, if it will not stand. We do it wrong, being so majestical, To offer it the show of violence; For it is, as the air, invulnerable, And our vain blows malicious mockery. Ber. It was about to speak, when the cock crew. Upon a fearful summons. I have heard, Exit Ghost.] The moment of the evanescence of spirits was supposed to be limited to the crowing of the cock. This belief is mentioned as early as Prudentius, Cathem. Hymn. i. v. 40. But some of his commentators prove it to be of much higher antiquity.-T. WARTON. e Whether in sea, &c.] According to the pneumatology of that time, every element was inhabited by its peculiar order of spirits, who had dispositions different, according to their various places of abode. The meaning therefore is, that all spirits extravagant, wandering out of their element, whether aërial spirits visiting earth, or earthly spirits ranging the air, return to their station, to their proper limits in which they are confined.--JOHNSON. |