passage, and to show that he meant Hamlet to have a suspicion of Claudius's feint.

102. He's fat, and scant of breath. By some commentators it has been proposed to substitute 'faint' for "fat;" by others, who retain the original word, the passage has been explained as referring apologetically to the obesity of the first actor who played the part-Burbage. We believe, however, that the expression in the text refers to Hamlet himself; who, as a sedentary student, a man of contemplative habits, one given rather to reflection than to action, might naturally be supposed to be of somewhat plethoric constitution. This accords well with his not daring to "drink" while he is heated with the fencing bout; with his being of a "complexion" that makes him feel the weather "sultry and hot ;" with his custom of walking "four hours together in the lobby" with his having a special "breathing time of the day ;" and with his telling Horatio that he has "been in continual practice" of fencing-as though he took set exercise for the purpose of counteracting his constitutional tendency to that full habit of body which is apt to be the result of sedentary occupation and a too sedulous addiction to scholarly pursuits.

103. Napkin. 'Handkerchief.'

See Note 69, Act iii.,

104. And yet 'tis almost 'gainst my conscience. This symptom of relenting is not only a redeeming touch in the character of Laertes (and Shakespeare, in his large tolerance

Laer. It is here, Hamlet: Hamlet, thou art slain;

No medicine in the world can do thee good,
In thee there is not half an hour of life;
The treacherous instrument is in thy hand,
Unbated 106 and envenom'd: the foul practice
Hath turn'd itself on me; lo, here I lie,
Never to rise again: thy mother's poison'd :-
I can no more :—the king, the king's to blame.
Ham. The point,-envenom'd too! 107 —
Then, venom, to thy work.
All. Treason! treason!
King. Oh, yet defend me, friends; I am but
hurt.

[Stabs the KING.

and true knowledge of human nature, is fond of giving these redeeming touches to even his worst characters), but it forms a judiciously interposed link between the young man's previous determination to treacherously take the prince's life and his subsequent revealment of the treachery. From the deliberate malice of becoming the agent in such a plot, to the remorseful candour which confesses it, would have been too violent and too abrupt a moral change, had not the dramatist, with his usual skill, introduced this connecting point of half compunction.

105. You make a wanton of me. 'You treat me as if I were an effeminate creature.' In King John," Act v., sc. 1, the term, a cocker'd silken wanton," is used to express an effeminate stripling.

་

106. Unbated. Unblunted." See Note 88, Act iv. of this play.

107. The point,-envenom'd too! We agree with Mr. Staunton in thinking that instead of printing this, as in most cditions, 'The point envenom'd too!' there should be a break put after the word "point," to indicate that Hamlet, recurring to what Laertes has just said ("unbated and envenom'd". examines the foil, and finding it without the customary button, exclaims, "The point,"-and then, without completing his sentence by "unbated," hurries on to "envenom'd too!" Finding he has a sharp-pointed and poisoned weapon in his hand, he suddenly resolves to make it the instrument of his long-deferred vengeance.

To tell my story.

[March afar off, and shot within. What warlike noise is this?

Osr. Young Fortinbras, with conquest come from Poland,

To the embassadors of England gives
This warlike volley.

Ham. [Falls.] Oh, I die, Horatio ;

The potent poison quite o'er-crows 109 my spirit:

I cannot live to hear the news from England;

But I do prophesy the election lights
On Fortinbras: he has my dying voice;
So tell him, with the occurrents, more and less,
Which have solicited, 110_The rest is silence.

[Dies.

Enter FORTINBRAS, the English Embassadors, an.l
others.
Fort. Where is this sight?
Hor.

What is it ye would see?
If aught of woe or wonder, cease your search.
Fort. This quarry cries on havoc.111-Oh,
proud death,

What feast is toward 112 in thine eternal cell,
That thou so many princes at a shot
So bloodily hast struck ?
First Emb.

The sight is dismal ;
And our affairs from England come too late :
The ears are senseless that should give us hear-

ing,

To tell him his commandment is fulfill'd,

That Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead: Where should we have our thanks?

Hor.

Not from his mouth, Had it the ability of life to thank you : He never gave commandment for their death. But since, so jump 113 upon this bloody question, You from the Polack wars, and you from Eng

land,

Are here arriv'd, give order that these bodies
High on a stage be placed to the view;
And let me speak to the yet unknowing world
How these things came about: so shall you

108. More an antique Roman than a Dane. Act v., "Julius Cæsar."

109. O'er-crows. 'Overcomes,' 'subdues.'

See Note 25,

110. Solicited. 'Urged this decision,' 'prompted this decree.' See Note 50, Act i., "Macbeth."

111. This quarry cries on havoc. "Quarry" was the term for a heap of slaughtered game. See Note 84, Act iv., "Macbeth." "Cries on" is 'exclaims against' or 'proclaims,' 6 announces." See passage referred to in Note 74, Act ii., "As You Like It," and Note 37, Act v., "Richard III." "Havoc "

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