MAR. Thus, twice before, and jump at this dead hour,7 With martial stalk hath he gone by our watch. 8 HOR. In what particular thought to work, I know not; But, in the gross and scope of mine opinion, MAR. Good now, sit down, and tell me, he that knows, Why this same strict and most observant watch So nightly toils the subject of the land? have no acquaintance; he therefore substituted pole-ax as the only word of like sound that was familiar to his ear. Unluckily, however, it happened that the singular of the latter has the same sound as the plural of the former. Hence it has been supposed that Shakspeare meant to write Polacks. We cannot well suppose that in a parley the King belaboured many, as it is not likely that provocation was given by more than one, or that on such an occasion he would have condescended to strike a meaner person than a prince. STEEVENS. 7 -jump at this dead hour,] So, the 4to. 1604. The folio -just. STEEVens. The correction was probably made by the author. JOHNSON. In the folio we sometimes find a familiar word substituted for one more ancient. MALOne. Jump and just were synonymous in the time of Shakspeare. Ben Jonson speaks of verses made on jump names, i. e. names that suit exactly. Nash says" and jumpe imitating a verse in As in præsenti." So, in Chapman's May Day, 1611: "Your appointment was jumpe at three, with me." Again, in M. Kyffin's translation of the Andria of Terence, 1588: "Comes he this day so jump in the very time of this marriage?" STEEVENS. In what particular thought to work,] i. e. What particular train of thinking to follow. STEevens. 9-gross and scope-] General thoughts, and tendency at large. JOHNSON. And why such daily cast' of brazen cannon, HOR. That can I; At least, the whisper goes so. Our last king, Whose image even but now appear'd to us, Was, as you know, by Fortinbras of Norway, Thereto prick'd on by a most emulate pride, Dar'd to the combat; in which our valiant Hamlet (For so this side of our known world esteem'd him,) Did slay this Fortinbras; who, by a seal'd compáct, Well ratified by law, and heraldry,3 1 2 -daily cast-] The quartos read-cost. STEEVENS. Why such impress of shipwrights,] Judge Barrington, Observations on the more ancient Statutes, p. 300, having observed that Shakspeare gives English manners to every country where his scene lies, infers from this passage, that in the time even of Queen Elizabeth, shipwrights as well as seamen were forced to serve. WHALLEY. Impress signifies only the act of retaining shipwrights by giving them what was called prest money (from pret, Fr.) for holding themselves in readiness to be employed. Thus, Chapman, in his version of the second Book of Homer's Odyssey: 3 "I, from the people straight, will press for you See Mr. Douce's note on King Lear, Act IV. sc. vi. STEEVENS. -by law, and heraldry,] Mr. Upton says, that Shakspeare sometimes expresses one thing by two substantives, and that law and heraldry means, by the herald law. So, in Antony and Cleopatra, Act IV: "Where rather I expect victorious life, "Than death and honour." i. e. honourable death. Steevens. Did forfeit, with his life, all those his lands, Had he been vanquisher; as, by the same co-mart, And carriage of the article design'd,* Puttenham, in his Art of Poesie, speaks of The Figure of Twynnes: "horses and barbes, for barbed horses, venim and dartes, for venimous dartes," &c. FARMER. -law, and heraldry] That is, according to the forms of 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. i. e. to be well ratified by the rules of law, and the forms prescribed jure feciali; such as proclamation, &c. MALONE. 4 as, by the same co-mart, And carriage of the article design'd,] Co-mart signifies a bargain, and carrying of the article, the covenant entered into to confirm that bargain. Hence we see the common reading [covenant] makes a tautology. WARBURTON. Thus the quarto, 1604. The folio reads as by the same covenant for which the late editions have given us as by that covenant. Co-mart is, I suppose, a joint bargain, a word perhaps of our poet's coinage. A mart signifying a great fair or market, he would not have scrupled to have written-to mart, in the sense of to make a bargain. In the preceding speech we find mart used for bargain or purchase. MALONE. He has not scrupled so to write in Cymbeline, Act I. sc. vii: to mart, 66 "As in a Romish stew," &c. STEEVENS. And carriage of the article design'd,] Carriage is import : design'd, is formed, drawn up between them. JOHNSON. Cawdrey in his Alphabetical Table, 1604, defines the verb design thus: "To marke out or appoint for any purpose." See also Minsheu's Dict. 1617: "To designe or shew by a token." Designed is yet used in this sense in Scotland. The old copies have deseigne. The correction was made by the editor of the second folio. MALONE. His fell to Hamlet: Now, sir, young Fortinbras, Hath in the skirts of Norway, here and there, 8 And terms compulsatory, 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. 3 Of unimproved &c.] Full of unimproved mettle, is full of spirit not regulated or guided by knowledge or experience. JOHNSON. 6 Shark'd up a list &c.] I believe, to shark up means to pick up without distinction, as the shark-fish collects his prey. The quartos read lawless instead of landless. 7 That hath a stomach in't :] STEEVENS. Stomach, in the time of our author, was used for constancy, resolution. JOHNSON. And terms compulsatory,] Thus the quarto, 1604. The folio-compulsative. STEEVENS. 9-romage-]-Tumultuous hurry. JOHNSON. Commonly written-rummage. I am not, however, certain that the word romage has been properly explained. The following passage in Hackluyt's Voyages, 1599, Vol. II. Ppp 3, seems indicative of a different meaning: the ships growne foule, unroomaged, and scarcely able to beare any saile" &c. 66 Again, Vol. III. 88: “ the mariners were romaging their shippes" &c. Romage, on shipboard, must have signified a scrupulous examination into the state of the vessel and its stores. Respecting land-service, the same term implied a strict enquiry into the kingdom, that means of defence might be supplied where they were wanted. STEEVENS. Rummage, is properly explained by Johnson himself in his Dictionary, as it is at present daily used,-to search for any thing. HARRIS. 2 [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.3 HOR. A mote it is, to trouble the mind's eye. In the most high and palmy state of Rome,5 [I think, &c.] These, and all other lines, confined within crotchets, throughout this play, 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. It may be worth while to observe, that the title pages of the first quartos in 1604 and 1605, declare this play to be enlarged to almost as much againe as it was, according to the true and perfect copy. Perhaps, therefore, many of its absurdities, as well as beauties, arose from the quantity added after it was first written. Our poet might have been more attentive to the amplification than the coherence of his fable. The degree of credit due to the title-page that styles the MS. from which the quartos 1604 and 1605 were printed, the true and perfect copy, may also be disputable. I cannot help supposing this publication to contain all Shakspeare rejected, as well as all he supplied. By restorations like the former, contending booksellers or theatres might have gained some temporary advantage over each other, which at this distance of time is not to be understood. The patience of our ancestors exceeded our own, could it have out-lasted the tragedy of Hamlet as it is now printed; for it must have occupied almost five hours in representation. If, however, it was too much dilated on the ancient stage, it is as injudiciously contracted on the modern one. 2 STEEVENS. Well may it sort,] The cause and effect are proportionate and suitable. JOHNSON. 3 the question of these wars.] The theme or subject. So, in Antony and Cleopatra: 66 You were the word of war.' MALONE. A mote it is,] The first quarto reads a moth. STEEVENS. A moth was only the old spelling of mote, as I suspected in revising a passage in King John, Vol. X. p. 466, n. 1, where we certainly should read mote. MALONE. -palmy state of Rome,] Palmy, for victorious. POPE. |