3 A couch for luxury and damned incest. Taint not thy mind, nor let thy soul contrive Adieu, adieu, adieu*! remember me ". [Exit. HAM. O all you host of heaven! O earth! What else ? And shall I couple hell?-O fye!-Hold, hold, my heart; *First folio, Adieu, adieu, Hamlet. 3 -a couch for LUXURY] i. e. for lewdness. So, in K. Lear: "To't luxury, pell-mell, for I lack soldiers." STEEVENS. See Troilus and Cressida, Act V. Sc. II. MALONE. 4 - pale his uneffectual fire;] i. e. shining without heat. WARBURTON. To pale is a verb used by Lady Elizabeth Carew, in her Tragedy of Mariam, 1613: "Death can pale as well "A cheek of roses, as a cheek less bright." Again, in Urry's Chaucer, p. 368: "The sterre paleth her white cheres by the flambes of the sonne," &c. Uneffectual fire, I believe, rather means, fire that is no longer seen when the light of morning approaches. So, in Pericles, Prince of Tyre, 1609 : 66 like a glow-worm, "The which hath fire in darkness, none in light." 5 Adieu, adieu, adieu! &c.] The folio reads STEEVENS. "Adieu, adieu, Hamlet, remember me." STEEVENS. -O fye!] These words (which hurt the measure, and from that circumstance, and their almost ludicrous turn, may be suspected as an interpolation,) are found only in the two earliest quartos. "O fye!" however, might have been the marginal reprehension of some scrupulous reader, to whom the MS. had been communicated before it found its way to the press. STEEVENS. This line in Mr. Malone's first folio is thus : * And you, my sinews, grow not instant old, I'll wipe away all trivial fond records, 8 All saws of books, all forms, all pressures past, O villain, villain, smiling, damned villain! * Quarto, swiftly. + First folio, yes, yes. First folio, My tables, my tables. "And shall I couple hell? oh fie: hold my heart." The ludicrous words, as Mr. Steevens chooses to term them, are found in a subsequent speech of Hamlet, Act II. Sc. II. near the close: 66 Fye upon't! foh! about my brains." So also, p. 202: 7 66 Fye on't! oh fye! 'tis an unweeded garden." Boswell. Ay, thou poor ghost, WHILE MEMORY HOLDS A SEAT IN THIS DISTRACTED GLOBE.] So, in our poet's 122d Sonnet: "Which shall above that idle rank remain, 66 Beyond all dates, even to eternity; "Or at the least, so long as brain and heart "Have faculty by nature to subsist." MALONE. this distracted globe," i. e. in this head confused with thought. STEEVENS. 8 Yea, from THE TABLE OF MY MEMORY] This expression is used by Sir Philip Sidney in his Defence of Poesie. So, in Golding's Translation of Abraham's Sacrifice, by Beza: "Let not this trew and noble storie part 66 "Out of the mind and tables of your heart." MALONE. from the table of my memory I'll wipe away, &c." This phrase will remind the reader of Charia's exclamation in the Eunuch of Terence ;-" O faciem pulchram! deleo omnes dehinc ex animo mulieres." STEEVENS. 9 My TABLES,-meet it is, I set it down,] This is a ridicule on the practice of the time. Hall says, in his character of the That one may smile, and smile, and be a villain; At least, I am sure, it may be so in Denmark: [Writing. So, uncle, there you are. Now to my word '; It is, Adieu, adieu! remember me. Hypocrite, "He will ever sit where he may be seene best, and in the midst of the sermon pulles out his tables in haste, as if he feared to loose that note," &c. FARMER. No ridicule on the practice of the time could with propriety be introduced on this occasion. Hamlet avails himself of the same caution observed by the Doctor in the fifth Act of Macbeth: "I will set down whatever comes from her, to satisfy my remembrance the more strongly." Dr. Farmer's remark, however, as to the frequent use of table-books, may be supported by many instances. So, in the Induction to The Malcontent, 1604: "I tell you I am one that hath seen this play often, and give them intelligence for their action: I have most of the jests of it here in my table-book.” Again, in Love's Sacrifice, 1633: "You are one loves courtship: "You had some change of words; 'twere no lost labour "To stuff your table-books." Again, in Antonio's Revenge, 1602: Balurdo draws out his writing-tables and writes "Retort and obtuse, good words, very good words." Again, in Every Woman in her Humour, 1609: 66 Let your tables befriend your memory; write," &c. See also The Second Part of Henry IV.: "And therefore will he wipe his tables clean, STEEVENS. York is here speaking of the King. Table-books in the time of our author appear to have been used by all ranks of people. In the church they were filled with short notes of the sermon, and at the theatre with the sparkling sentences of the play. MALONE. I am in possession of three of these table-books: one printed in 1604, the date of the first edition of Hamlet: " Writing Tables, with a Kalendar for xxiiii. Yeares, &c. The Tables made by Robert Triplet. London. Imprinted for the Companie of Stationers, 1604." BOSWELL. I Now to my word;] Hamlet alludes to the watch-word given every day in military service, which at this time he says is, Adieu, adieu! remember me. So, in The Devil's Charter, a tragedy, 1607 : "Now to my watch-word -." STEEVENS. I have sworn't. HOR. [Within.] My lord, my lord, HAM. * Heaven secure him! So be it! MAR. [Within.] Illo, ho, ho, my lord! Enter HORATIO and MARCellus. MAR. How is't, my noble lord? HAM. How say you then; would heart of man once think it ? But you'll be secret, HOR. MAR. Ay, by heaven, my lord. HAM. There's ne'er a villain, dwelling in all Denmark, *First folio, Mar. + First folio, Hor. ‡ Quarto, never. 2 Hillo,-] This exclamation is of French origin. So, in the Venerie de Jacques Fouilloux, 1635, 4to. p. 12: “Ty a hillaut, &c. STEEVENS. 3 come, bird, come.] This is the call which falconers use to their hawk in the air, when they would have him come down to them. HANMER. This expression is used in Marston's Dutch Courtezan, and by many others among the old dramatick writers. It appears from these passages, that it was the falconer's call, as Sir T. Hanmer has observed. Again, in Tyro's Roaring Megge, planted against the Walls of Melancholy, &c. 4to. 1598: 66 Yet, ere I iournie, Ile go see the kyte : “Come, come bird, come: pox on you, can you mute ?" STEEVENS. But he's an arrant knave. HOR. There needs no ghost, my lord, come from the grave, To tell us this. HAM Why, right; you are in the right; And so, without more circumstance at all, I hold it fit, that we shake hands, and part: Such as it is, and, for my own poor part, Look you *, I will go pray. HOR. These are but wild and whirling words, my lord. HAM. I am sorry they offend you, heartily; yes, 'Faith, heartily. HOR. There's no offence, my lord. HAM. Yes, by Saint Patrick, but there is, Ho ratio, And much offence too. Touching this vision here,— HOR. What is't, my lord? we will. HAM. Never make known what you have seen tonight. * Quarto omits look you. ↑ First folio, hurling. by Saint PATRICK,] How the poet comes to make Hamlet swear by St. Patrick, I know not. However, at this time all the whole northern world had their learning from Ireland; to which place it had retired, and there flourished under the auspices of this saint. But it was, I suppose, only said at random; for he makes Hamlet a student at Wittenberg. WARBURTON. Dean Swift's "Verses on the sudden drying-up of St. Patrick's Well, 1726," contain many learned allusions to the early cultivation of literature in Ireland. NICHOLS. |