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Hor. Friends to this ground.

And liegemen to

O, farewell, honest soldier:

Fran. Give you good night.b
Mar.

Who hath reliev'd you?
Fran.

Give you good night.

Mar. Ber.

Bernardo hath my place. [Exit FRANCISCO. Holla! Bernardo ! Say.

What, is Horatio there? Hor.

A piece of him.

having made use of him in the wars 'gainst Pompey, presently denied him rivality,-would not let him partake in the glory of the action." The derivation of rival takes us into an early state of society. The rivalis was a common occupier of a river, rivus; and this sort of occupation being a fruitful source of strife, the partners became contenders. Hence the more commonly received meaning of rival.

In the quarto of 1604 (B). Stand, ho!

b This form of expression is an abbreviation of "may God give you good night;" and our "good night" is an abbreviation abbreviated. The French idiom has gone through the same process. In L'Avare of Molière, it is said of Harpagon, "donner est un mot pour qui'il a tant d'avorsion, qu'il ne dit jamais, je vous donne, mais, je vous prête l bonjour." (Acte 11. Sc. v.)

Ber. Welcome, Horatio; welcome, good Marcellus.

Mar. What, has this thing appear'd again to-night?

Ber. I have seen nothing.

Mas. Horatio says, 't is but our fantasy; And will not let belief take hold of him, Touching this dreaded sight, twice secn of us: Therefore I have entreated him along With us to watch the minutes of this night; That, if again this apparition come, He may approve our eyes, and speak to it. Hor. Tush! tush! 't will not appear. Ber. Sit down awhile; And let us once again assail your ears, That are so fortified against our story, What we two nights have seen.

Hor.

Well, sit we down And let us hear Bernardo speak of this.

Ber. Last night of all,

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This line has been ordinarily given to Horatio, as fin the quarto (B). In the folio, and the first quarto of 1603 (4), it belongs to Marcellus.

D Confirm what we have seen.

e Exorcisms were usually performed in Latin-the language of the church-service.

d Harrows, in the folio. In quarto (A), horrors; in (B), horrows. Mr. Caldecott states that the word harrow is here used in the metaphorical sense which it takes from the operations of the harrow, in tearing asunder clods of earth. On the other hand some etymologists assert that to harrow and to harry (to vex, to disturb,) are the same, and that the implement of husbandry derived its name from the verb. Mr. Caldecott has a curious note on the harou-the cry for help of the Normans, with which harrow and harry seem to have some connexion, (See his Specimen of an Edition of Shakespeare,' 1832.)

e In quarto (B), speak to; Question, in the folio, and quarto (A).

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Polacks-Poles. In the old copies the word is spelt Pollar, according probably with the pronunciation. Steevens reads Polack," as it is not likely that provocation was given by more than one."

b Just, in the folio; in quarto (B), jump. Malone properly observes, that "in the folio we sometimes find a familiar word substituted for one more ancient." In this play, however, the more ancient word occurs-" so jump upon this bloody question." (Act v. Sc. 11.)

c What might be in preparation. To-weard, to-ward, is the Anglo-Saxon participle, equivalent to coming, about to

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(For so this side of our known world esteem'd him)

Did slay this Fortinbras; who, by a seal'd compact,

Well ratified by law, and heraldry,"

Did forfeit, with his life, all those his lands,
Which he stood seiz'd on, to the conqueror :
Against the which, a moiety competent
Was gaged by our king; which had return'd
To the inheritance of Fortinbras,

Had he been vanquisher; as, by the same cov'nant b

And carriage of the article design'd,
His fell to Hamlet: Now, sir, young Fortinbras,
Of unimproved mettle hot and full,

Hath in the skirts of Norway, here and there,
Shark'd up a list of landless resolutes,
For food and diet, to some enterprize

That hath a stomach in 't: which is no other
(And it doth well appear unto our state,)
But to recover of us, by strong hand,
And terms compulsative, those 'foresaid lands
So by his father lost: And this, I take it,
Is the main motive of our preparations;
The source of this our watch; and the chief head
Of this post-haste and romage in the land.

[Ber. I think it be no other, but even so: Well may it sort, that this portentous figure Comes armed through our watch so like the king

That was, and is, the question of these wars.
Hor. A moth it is to trouble the mind's eye.
In the most high and paimy state of Rome,
A little ere the mightiest Julius fell,

The solemn agreement for this trial at arms was recognized by the courts of law and of chivalry. They were distinct ratifications; and therefore "law and heraldry" does not mean the herald law," as Upton says.

b Cov'nant, in the folio; in quarto (B), co-art.

e Unimproved, in folio; in quarto (4), inapproved. Johnson says, "unimproved mettle" is full of spirit, not regulated or guided by knowledge and experience." Gifford affirms that the word "unimproved," here means "just the contrary." Improve was originally used for reprove.

d Romage. The stowing of a ship is the roomage; the stower is the romager. Thus, the hurried search attending lading and unlading gave us rummage, or romage, in the sense of tumbling over and tossing about things in confusion.

• The eighteen lines in brackets are found in quarto (B), but are omitted in the folio. It is probable that Shakspere suppressed this magnificent description of the omens which preceded the fail of the mightiest Julius," atter he had written Julius Cæsar.' In that noble play we have a description greatly resembling this, especially in the lines which we print in italics :

"There is one within,

Besides the things that we have heard and seen,
Recounts most horrid sights seen by the watch.
A lioness hath whelped in the streets;

And graves have yawn'd and yielded up their dead:
Fierce fiery warriors fight upon the clouds,
In ranks, and squadrons, and right form of war,
Which drizzled blood upon the Capitol:
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 graves stood tenantless, and the sheeted lead
Did squeak and gibber in the Roman streets :"
As stars with trains of fire and dews of blood,
Disasters in the sun; and the moist star,b
Upon whose influence Neptune's empire stands,
Was sick almost to dooms-day with eclipse.
And even the like precurse of fierce events,
As harbingers preceding still the fates,
And prologue to the omen coming on,
Have heaven and earth together démonstrated
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!
If thou hast any sound, or use of voice,
Speak to me:

If there be any good thing to be done,
That may to thee do ease, and grace to me,
Speak to me:

If thou art privy to thy country's fate,
Which, happily, forcknowing may avoid,
O, speak!

Or, if thou hast uphoarded in thy life
Extorted treasure in the womb of earth,
For which, they say, you spirits oft walk in
death,
[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.

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The commentators assume that a line is here omitted. Rowe alters the construction of the next two lines, and reads,

"Stars shone with trains of fire, dews of blood fell,
Disasters veil'd the sun."

Malone, instead of "As stars" would read astres. This appears to get rid of the difficulty, for we then have the recital of other prodigies, in connexion with the appearance of the sheeted dead." Steevens, however, says that there is no authority for the use of the word astre. But astral was not uncommon; and asterisk was used for a little star, and asterism for a constellation. We leave the passage as we find it in the quarto.

b The moist star is the moon. So, in the Winter's Tale "Nine changes of the watery star have been The shepherd's note."

c Omen is here put for "portentous event." The word is

used in the sense of fate by Heywood:

"Merlin, well vers'd in many a hidden spell, His country's omen did long since foretell." Upton points out that Shakspere uses "omen" here in the very same manner as Virgil does, n. 1. 349.

Hor. And then it started like a guilty thing Upon a fearful summons. I have heard, The cock, that is the trumpet to the morn,* Doth with his lofty and shrill-sounding throat Awake the god of day; and, at his warning, Whether in sea or fire, in earth or air, The extravagant and erring spirit hies To his confine: and of the truth herein This present object made probation.

Mar. It faded on the crowing of the cock. Some say, that ever 'gainst that season comes Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated, The bird of dawning singeth all night long: And then, they say, no spirit can walk abroad; The nights are wholesome; then no planets strike, No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm, So hallow'd and so gracious is the time.

Hor. So have I heard, and do in part believe it.

But, look, the morn, in russet mantle clad,
Walks o'er the dew of yon high eastern hill:
Break we our watch up; and, by my advice,
Let us impart what we have seen to-night
Cubo young Hamlet: for, upon my life,
This spirit, dumb to us, will speak to him:
Do you consent we shall acquaint him with it,
As needful in our loves, fitting our duty?

Mar. Let's do 't, I pray and I this morning know

Where we shall find him most conveniently.

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Enter the KING, QUEEN, HAMLET, POLONIUS, LAERTES, VOLTIMAND, CORNELIUS, and Lords Attendant.

King. Though yet of Hamlet our dear brother's death

The memory be green; and that it us befitted
To bear our hearts in grief, and our whole
kingdom

To be contracted in one brow of woe;
Yet so far hath discretion fought with nature,
That we with wisest sorrow think on him,
Together with remembrance of ourselves.
Therefore our sometime sister, now our queen,
The imperial jointress of this warlike state,
Have we, as 't were, with a defeated joy,
With one auspicious and one dropping eye;

a Morn, in quarto (B); in folio, day. The reading of the quarto avoids the repetition of day in the next line but one. b Can walk, in folio. In quarto (B), " dare stir." Takes-seizes with disease. As in the Merry Wives of

Windsor,

And there he blasts the tree, and takes the cattle."

With mirth in funeral, and with dirge in marriage
In equal scale, weighing delight and dole,
Taken to wife: nor have we herein barr'd
Your better wisdoms, which have freely gone
With this affair along :-For all, our thanks.

Now follows, that you know, young Fortinbras,
Holding a weak supposal of our worth;
Or thinking, by our late dear brother's death,
Our state to be disjoint and out of frame,
Colleagued with the dream of his advantage,
He hath not fail'd to pester us with message,
Importing the surrender of those lands
Lost by his father, with all bonds of law,
To our most valiant brother.-So much for him.
Now for ourself, and for this time of meeting.
Thus much the business is: We have here writ
To Norway, uncle of young Fortinbras,
Who, impotent and bed-rid, scarcely hears
Of this his nephew's purpose, to suppress
Ilis further gait herein; in that the levies,
The lists, and full proportions, are all made
Out of his subject and we here despatch
You, good Cornelius, and you, Voltimand,
For bearing of this greeting to old Norway;
Giving to you no further personal power
To business with the king, more than the scope
Of these dilated articles allow.3
Farewell; and let your haste commend your duty.
Cor. Vol. In that, and all things, will we
show our duty.

:

King. We doubt it nothing; heartily farewell.
[Exeunt VOLTIMAND and CORNELIUS.
And now, Laertes, what's the news with you?
You told us of some suit? What is 't, Laertes ?
You cannot speak of reason to the Dane,
And lose your voice: What would'st thou beg,
Lacrtes,

That shall not be my offer, not thy asking?
The head is not more native to the heart,
The hand more instrumental to the mouth,
Than is the throne of Denmark to thy father.
What would'st thou have, Laertes ?

Laer.
Dread my lord,
Your leave and favour to return to France;
From whence though willingly I came to Den-
mark,

To show my duty in your coronation;
Yet now, I must confess, that duty done,
My thoughts and wishes bend again towards
France,

And bow them to your gracious leave and pardon.

Gait-progress, the act of going. Thus, in Midsummer Night's Dream,

"Every fairy take his gait."
Out of his subject-out of those subject to him.

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