A little ere the mightiest Julius fell, The graves stood tenantless, and the sheeted dead As, stars with trains of fire and dews of blood, 6 As, stars with trains of fire and dews of blood, Disasters in the sun;] Mr. Rowe altered these lines, because they have insufficient connection with the preceding ones, thus: Stars shone with trains of fire, dews of blood fell, Disasters veil'd the sun, This passage is not in the folio. By the quartos, therefore, our imperfect text is supplied; for an intermediate verse being evidently lost, it were idle to attempt a union that never was intended. I have therefore signified the supposed deficiency by a vacant space. When Shakspeare had told us that the grave stood tenantless, &c. which are wonders confined to the earth, he naturally proceeded to say (in the line now lost) that yet other prodigies appeared in the sky; and these phænomena he exemplified by adding, As [i. e. as for instance] Stars with trains of fire, &c. 66 So, in King Henry IV, P. II: to bear the inventory of thy shirts; as, one for superfluity,” &c. Again, in King Henry VI, P. III: "Two Cliffords, as the father and the son, "And two Northumberlands; Again, in The Comedy of Errors: 66 دو They say, this town is full of cozenage; As, nimble jugglers that deceive the eye" &c. Steevens. Disasters dimm'd the sun;] The quarto, 1604, reads: Disasters in the sun; -. For the emendation I am responsible. It is strongly supported not only by Plutarch's account in The Life of Casar, [" also the brightness of the sunne was darkened, the which, all that yeare through, rose very pale, and shined not out,"] but by various passages in our author's works. So, in The Tempest: I have be-dimm'd "The noon-tide sun." Again, in King Richard II: "As doth the blushing discontented sun, "When he perceives the envious clouds are bent Again, in our author's 18th Sonnet: "Sometimes too hot the eye of heaven shines, "And often is his gold complexion dimm'd." I suspect that the words As stars are a corruption, and have no doubt that either a line preceding or following the first of those quoted at the head of this note, has been lost; or that the be Upon whose influence Neptune's empire stands, ginning of one line has been joined to the end of another, the intervening words being omitted. That such conjectures are not merely chimerical, I have already proved. See Vol. VIII, p. 296, n. 2; and Vol. XI, p. 67, n. 5. The following lines in Julius Cæsar, in which the prodigies that are said to have preceded his death, are recounted, may throw some light on the passage before us: There is one within, "Besides the things that we have heard and seen, "And graves have yawn'd and yielded up their dead: "The noise of battle hurtled in the air, "Horses do neigh, and dying men did groan; "And ghosts did shriek and squeal about the streets." The lost words perhaps contained a description of fiery warriors fighting on the clouds, or of brands burning bright beneath the stars. The 15th Book of Ovid's Metamorphoses, translated by Golding, in which an account is given of the prodigies that preceded Cæsar's death, furnished Shakspeare with some of the images in both these passages: battels fighting in the clouds with crashing armour flew, "And dreadful trumpets sounded in the ayre, and hornes eke blew, "As warning men beforehand of the mischiefe that did brew; "And Phœbus also looking dim did cast a drowsie light, "Uppon the earth, which seemde likewise to be in sory plighte: "From underneath beneath the starres brandes oft seemde burning bright, "It often rain'd drops of blood. The morning star look'd blew, "And was bespotted here and there with specks of rustic hew, "The moone had also spots of blood. "Salt teares from ivorie-images in sundry places fell ;"The dogges did howle, and every where appeared ghastly sprights, "And with an earthquake shaken was the towne.". Plutarch only says, that "the sunne was darkened," that "diverse men were seen going up and down in fire;" there were "fires in the element; sprites were seene running up and downe in the night, and solitaire birds sitting in the great market-place." And even the like precurse of fierce events,-9 And prologue to the omen coming on,-1 Have heaven and earth together démonstrated The disagreeable recurrence of the word stars in the second line induces me to believe that As stars in that which precedes, is a corruption. Perhaps Shakspeare wrote: Astres with trains of fire, and dews of blood Disastrous dimm'd the sun. The word astre is used in an old collection of poems entitled Diana, addressed to the Earl of Oxenforde, a book of which I know not the date, but believe it was printed about 1580. In Othello we have antres, a word exactly of a similar formation. Malone. The word-astre, (which is no where else to be found) was affectedly taken from the French by John Southern, author of the poems cited by Mr. Malone. This wretched plagiarist stands indebted both for his verbiage and his imagery to Ronsard. See the European Magazine, for June, 1788, p. 389. Steevens. and the moist star, &c.] i. e. the moon. So, in Marlowe's Hero and Leander, 1598: "Not that night-wandering, pale, and watery star," &c. Malone. 8 And even-] Not only such prodigies have been seen in Rome, but the elements have shown our countrymen like forerunners and foretokens of violent events. Johnson. 9 - precurse of fierce events,] Fierce, for terrible. Warburton. I rather believe that fierce signifies conspicuous, glaring. It is used in a somewhat similar sense in Timon of Athens: "O the fierce wretchedness that glory brings!" Again, in King Henry VIII, we have "fierce vanities." Steevens. 1 And prologue to the omen coming on,] But prologue and omen are merely synonymous here. The poet means, that these strange phænomena are prologues and forerunners of the events presaged: and such sense the slight alteration, which I have ventured to make, by changing omen to omen'd, very aptly gives. Theobald. Omen, for fate. Warburton. Hanmer follows Theobald. A distich from the life of Merlin, by Heywood, however, will show that there is no occasion for correction : "Merlin well vers'd in many a hidden spell, "His countries omen did long since fortell." Farmer. Again, in The Vowbreaker : "And much I fear the weakness of her braine "Should draw her to some ominous exigent." Omen, I believe, is danger. Steevens. Unto our climatures and countrymen.-] Re-enter Ghost. But, soft; behold! lo, where it comes again! I'll cross it, though it blast me.-Stay, illusion! Speak to me: If there be any good thing to be done, That may to thee do ease, and grace to me, If thou art privy to thy country's fate, Or, if thou hast uphoarded3 in thy life For which, they say, you spirits oft walk in death, [Cock crows. Speak of it stay, and speak.--Stop it, Marcelius. And even the like precurse of fierce events, As harbingers preceding still the fates, And prologue to the omen coming on,] So, in one of our author's poems; "But thou shrieking harbinger "Foul precurser of the fiend, "Augur of the fever's end," &c. The omen coming on is, the approaching dreadful and porten. tous event. So, in King Richard III: "Thy name is ominous to children." i. e. (not boding ill fortune, but) destructive to children. Again, ibidem: "O Pomfret, Pomfret, O, thou bloody prison, "Fatal and ominous to noble peers." Malone. 2 If thou hast any sound,] The speech of Horatio to the spectre is very elegant and noble, and congruous to the common traditions of the causes of apparitions. Johnson. 3 Or, if thou hast uphoarded &c.] So, in Decker's Knight's Conjuring, &c. "— If any of them had bound the spirit of gold by any charmes in caves, or in iron fetters under the ground, they should for their own soules quiet (which questionlesse else would whine up and down) if not for the good of their children, release it." Steevens. 4 Stop it, Marcellus. Hor. Do, if it will not stand,] I am unwilling to suppose that Shakspeare could appropriate these absurd effusions to Horatio, who is a scholar, and has sufficiently proved his good under For it is, as the air, invulnerable, And our vain blows malicious mockery. 'Tis here! [Exit Ghost. Ber. It was about to speak, when the cock crew. Upon a fearful summons. I have heard, The cock, that is the trumpet to the morn,5 Doth with his lofty and shrill-sounding throat standing by the propriety of his addresses to the phantom. Such a man therefore must have known that "As easy might he the intrenchant air as commit any act of violence on the royal shadow. The words -Stop it, Marcellus,-and Do, if it will not stand-better suit the next speaker, Bernardo, who, in the true spirit of an unlettered officer, nihil non arroget armis. Perhaps the first idea that occurs to a man of this description, is to strike at what offends him. Nicholas Poussin, in his celebrated picture of the Crucifixion, has introduced a similar occurrence. While lots are casting for the sacred vesture, the graves are giving up their dead. This prodigy is perceived by one of the soldiers, who instantly grasps his sword, as if preparing to defend himself, or resent such an invasion from the other world. The two next speeches-'Tis here!-'Tis here!-may be allotted to Marcellus and Bernardo; and the third-'Tis gone! &c. to Horatio, whose superiority of character indeed seems to demand it. As the text now stands, Marcellus proposes to strike the Ghost with his partizan, and yet afterwards is made to descant on the indecorum and impotence of such an attempt. The names of speakers have so often been confounded by the first publishers of our author, that I suggest this change with less hesitation than I should express concerning any conjecture that could operate to the disadvantage of his words or meaning. Had the assignment of the old copies been such, would it have been thought liable to objection? Steevens. 5 The cock, that is the trumpet to the morn,] So, the quarto, 1604. Folio-to the day. In England's Parnassus, 8vo. 1600, I find the two following lines ascribed to Drayton, but know not in which of his poems they are found: "And now the cocke, the morning's trumpeter, "Play'd huntsup for the day-star to appear." Mr. Gray has imitated our poet: |