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1. There were no fewer than five quarto editions of HAMLET printed before the copy of the play which appeared in the 1623 Folio; in 1603, 1604, 1605, 1611, and an undated one, believed to have been published in 1607, as it was entered at Stationers' Hall on November 19 of that year. There also exists an entry in the Register of the Stationers' Company, which seems to mark the period when this tragedy was first performed :-" 26 July, 1602. James Roberts.] A booke, The Revenge of Hamlett prince of Denmarke, as yt was latelie acted by the Lord Chamberlayne his servantes." The title-page of the 1604 Quarto describes the work as being "newly imprinted and enlarged to almost as much againe as it was;" showing that the play was originally written by its author in a very different form from the improved and augmented one in which he ultimately brought it forth. That he bestowed extreme pains upon the re-touching, polishing, and perfectioning of this wonderful drama is evident, and seems to prove that it was a favourite composition of his own. When he first imagined and sketched his "Hamlet" is untraceable, but it is believed that his perfected version was completed somewhere about the year 1600. The story of the plot is to be found in the "Chronicles of Saxo Drammaticus," the Danish historian; from whence it was taken by Belleforest, and given as one of his collection of novels; and from Belleforest it was translated into English, appearing in black letter prose as "The Hystorie of Hamblet." Of this latter work, the earliest edition that has yet been discovered is dated 1608; but it is probable that there were earlier impressions, one of which in all likelihood furnished Shakespeare with the materials for his plot. From the bare outline of original story-rude and gross to an excessive degree our poet has compiled one of the noblest, if not the noblest, drama that human brain has ever produced. None has had such admiring readers, none has had such multiform criticism and analysis, none has had such scrutiny of competent

Ber. 'Tis now struck twelve ;3 get thee to bed, Francisco.

Fran. For this relief much thanks: 'tis bitter

cold,

And I am sick at heart.

If

Ber. Have you had quiet guard ?

Fran.

Ber. Well, good night.

Not a mouse stirring.

you do meet Horatio and Marcellus, The rivals of my watch, bid them make haste. Fran. I think I hear them.—Stand, ho! Who's there?

judges, none has had such study of loving disciples. Men return again and again to the perusal of "Hamlet," not so much because of its poetical beauty, its dramatic excellence, its consummate portraiture of character; but they come to it again and again, because in it they find ever-new reflection of man's myriad varieties of nature, ever-new mirroring of life's mysteries and perplexities. Hamlet is not so much an exquisitely limned image of an individual human being, as he is a transcript of the thousand qualities, emotions, thoughts, and experiences that go to compound humanity generally. In him we all find ourselves depicted; our highest aspirations, our dearest hopes, our deepest griefs, our bitterest disappointments, our secret conflicts, our daily toil through the labyrinth of existence, all, in him, are set forth with a vividness and truth that supply us with endless interest and food for simultaneous introspection and speculation. Hamlet, in his brief career of a five-act play, goes through the cycle of trials-actual mental, and moral-that beset mankind; and mankind watch his career with the sympathy of brotherhood. 2. Nay, answer me. There is an emphasis on me;" Francisco meaning, 'Nay, it is for you to answer me, who am on guard here, and have the right to demand the watchword.' Bernardo's rejoinder shows that "Long live the king!" is the watchword for the night.

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3. 'Tis now struck twelve. It has been proposed to substitute new' for now "here; but "now" has the elliptical force of 'just now,' but now,' this moment since.'

4. The rivals of my watch. "Rivals" is, here used for 'sharers,' partners, 'associates.'

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5. Bid them make haste. The effect of these few words, coming upon the inquiry, "Have you had quiet guard ?" serves admirably to indicate the speaker's state of mind (Bernardo having before seen the apparition), and to prepare the audience for what is coming.

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Ber. Looks it not like the king? mark it, Horatio.

Hor. Most like:-it harrows13 me with fear and wonder.

Mar. What! has this thing appear'd again tonight 27

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:
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, 'twill not appear.9
Ber.
And let us once again assail your ears,
That are so fortified against our story,
What we two nights have seen. 10

Sit down awhile;

Hor. Well, sit we down, And let us hear Bernardo speak of this. Ber. Last night of all,

When yond' same star" that's westward from the pole

Had made his course to illume that part of heaven

6. A piece of him. Warburton explains this by observing, "He says this as he gives his hand." We think that Horatio rather says this as if implying the mortal part of him,' 'the substantial or material portion of him,' in all but sportive allusion to his having been summoned by Marcellus and Bernardo to behold a spiritual appearance which they believe to have seen, but in which he does not believe.

7. What! has this thing appear'd again to-night? The latter Quartos assign this speech to Horatio; but the first Quarto and the Folio give it to Marcellus. We think there is more probability that these are right, because the word "again" has (as Coleridge justly remarks) its credibilising effect; and as Horatio is sceptical on the subject of the apparition, he would hardly use the word "again," even in irony.

8. He may approve our eyes. Here" approve " is used in

the sense of 'confirm the witness of,' 'add proof to the testimony of,' the sentence meaning 'he may add the testimony of his eyes to that of ours.'

9. Tush, tush, 'twill not appear. Ineffably fine as the opening of this supreme drama is, with its chill midnight terrors clinging to every line that is uttered, there is nothing more artistically conceived in the whole conduct of the first scene than the incredulity of Horatio as to the dead king's spirit having appeared. It forestalls the want of belief that exists among us who read the play or witness its performance, and by the effect produced upon Horatio's mind when the

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,

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spectre actually comes is created the due impression that the author intends to make upon our senses. Horatio's previous light treatment of the men's assertion that they have seen the dread apparition, makes his subsequent words of acknowledged awe, his solemn admission of the truth of what he beholds, together with his trembling and turning pale (noticed by his companions), affect us as if they were the involuntary expression of our own awe-stricken imaginations.

10. Assail your cars. ... what we two nights have seen. 'With' is elliptically understood before "what."

11. When yond' same star. How poetically, and with what dramatic fitness, has Shakespeare introduced this touch to mark time and place! Nothing more natural than for a sentinel to watch the course of a particular star while on his lonely midnight watch; and what a radiance of poetry is shed upon the passage by the casual allusion! See Note 52, Act iii., "Midsummer Night's Dream."

12. Thou art a scholar; speak to it, Horatio. The popular belief that spirits and supernatural beings are most fitly addressed by persons of erudition probably arose from exorcisms having been usually spoken in Latin.

13. Harrows. 'Harasses,' 'tears, 'rends,' as a harrow breaks up the clods.

14. Sensible. Here used for that which pertains to the senses, not (as usually) for that which pertains to common sense or good sense.

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15. Parle. An abbreviated form of 'parley.'

16. The sledded Polack. "Sledded" is used to express 'borne in a sled,' or sledge; and "Polack" means ' Polander,' 'native of Poland.' The old copies spell the word 'Pollax,' which has led some to suppose that the author intended to give the word' Polacks.' Inasmuch, however, as twice elsewhere in the play Shakespeare employs "Polack," in the singular, to express the Polish people collectively, we think he probably wrote "Polack" here (see Note 34, Act ii.), even if he meant to

But, in the gross and scope of my 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
So nightly toils the subject of the land;
And why such daily cast of brazen cannon,
And foreign mart for implements of war;
Why such impress 17 of shipwrights, whose sore

task

Does not divide the Sunday from the week;

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VOL. III

214

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