HAM. Angels and minifters of grace defend us !5— That worth (which was fupplied first by Mr. Theobald) was the word omitted originally in the hurry of tranfcription, may be fairly collected from a paffage in Cymbeline, which fully justifies the correction made: "From whose so many weights of lafenefs cannot "A dram of worth be drawn." This paffage alfo adds fupport to the correction of the word eale in the first of these lines, which was likewife made by Mr. Theobald.-Bafe is ufed fubftantively for bafenefs: a practice not uncommon in Shakspeare. So, in Meafure for Meafure: Say what thou canft, my falfe outweighs your true." Shakspeare, however, might have written the-dram of ill. This is nearer the corrupted word eale, but the paffage in Cymbeline is in favour of the other emendation. The meaning of the paffage thus corrected is, The smallest particle of vice fo blemishes the whole mass of virtue, as to erafe from the minds of mankind the recollection of the numerous good qualities poffeffed by him who is thus blemished by a fingle ftain, and taints his general character. To his own feandal, means, fo as to reduce the whole mass of worth to its own vicious and unfightly appearance; to tranflate his virtue to the likeness of vice. His for its, is fo common in Shakspeare, that every play furnishes us with examples. So, in a fubfequent fcene in this play: than the force of honefty can tranflate beauty into his likenefs." Again, in Timon of Athens: "When every feather sticks in his own wing,- -." Again, in A Midsummer Night's Dream: "Whofe liquor hath this virtuous property, "To take from thence all error with his might." Again, in King Richard II: "That it may fhow me what a face I have, So, in Grim, the Collier of Croydon : Contented life, that gives the heart his eafe, .” We meet with a fentiment fomewhat fimilar to that before us, in King Henry IV. P. I. oftentimes it doth present harth rage, "Defect of manners, want of government, Be thou a spirit of health, or goblin damn'd," Bring with thee airs from heaven, or blasts from hell, Be thy intents wicked, or charitable, "The leaft of which, haunting a nobleman, Beguiling them of commendation." MALONE. Angels and minifters of grace defend us! &c.] Hamlet's fpeech to the apparition of his father feems to confift of three parts. When first he sees the spectre, he fortifies himself with an invocation : Angels and minifters of grace defend us! As the spectre approaches, he deliberates with himself, and determines, that whatever it be he will venture to address it. Be thou a fpirit of health, or goblin damn'd, Bring with thee airs from heaven, or blafts from hell, Thou com ft in fuch a queftionable shape, That I will fpeak to thee. I'll call thee, &c. This he fays while his father is advancing; he then, as he had determined, Speaks to him, and calls him- Hamlet, King, Father, Royal Dane: 0! answer me. JOHNSON. Be thou a fpirit of health, or goblin damn'd, &c.]. So, in Acolafius his After-wit, 1600: "Art thou a god, a man, or else a ghost? "Com'ft thou from heaven, where blifs and folace dwell? "Or from the airie cold-engendering coast? "Or from the darkfome dungeon-hold of hell?" The first known edition of this play is in 1604. The fame queftion occurs alfo in the MS. known by the title of William and the Werwolf, in the Library of King's College, Cambridge: "Whether thou be a gode goft in goddis name that speakeft, "Or any foul fiend fourmed in this wife, "And if we fchul of the hent harme or gode," p. 36. Again, in Barnaby Googe's Fourth Eglog: "What foever thou art yt thus doft com, "I the comaunde by him that lyves 66 Thy name and cafe to tell." STEEVENS. Thou com'ft in fuch a questionable shape,7 7 ? questionable Shape,] By questionable is meant provoking queftion. HANMER. So, in Macbeth: "Live you, or are you aught "That man may queftion?" JOHNSON. Questionable, I believe, means only propitious to converfation, eafy and willing to be converfed with. So, in As you like it : "An unquestionable fpirit, which you have not." Unqueflionable in this laft inftance certainly fignifies unwilling to be talked with. STEEVENS. Questionable perhaps only means capable of being converfed with. To queftion, certainly in our author's time fignified to converfe. So, in his Rape of Lucrece, 1594: "For after fupper long he queftioned "With modeft Lucrece-." Again, in Antony and Cleopatra: "Out of our question wipe him." See alfo King Lear, A& V. fc. iii. MALONE. tell, Why thy canoniz'd bones, hearfed in death, Have burft their cerements!] Hamlet, amazed at an apparition, which, though in all ages credited, has in all ages been confidered as the most wonderful and moft dreadful operation of supernatural agency, enquires of the spectre, in the most emphatick terms, why he breaks the order of nature, by returning from the dead; this he atks in a very confufed circumlocution, confounding in his fright the foul and body. Why, fays he, have thy bones, which with due ceremonies have been entombed in death, in the common state of departed mortals, burfi the folds in which they were embalmed? Why has the tomb, in which we faw thee quietly laid, opened his mouth, that mouth which, by its weight and ftability, feemed clofed for ever? The whole fentence is this: Why dost thou appear, whom we know to be dead? JOHNSON. To caft thee up again! Wherein we faw thee quietly in-urn'd,' By the expreffion hearfed in death is meant, fhut up and fecured with all thofe precautions which are ufually practifed in preparing dead bodies for fepulture, fuch as the winding-sheet, throwd, coffin, &c. perhaps embalming into the bargain. So that death is here ufed, by a metonymy of the antecedent for the confequents, for the rites of death, fuch as are generally esteemed due, and practifed with regard to dead bodies. Confequently, I understand by cerements, the waxed winding-fheet or winding-fheets, in which the corpfe was enclosed and fown up, in order to preferve it the longer from external impreffions from the humidity of the fepulchre, as embalming was intended to preferve it from internal corruption. HEATH. By hearfed death, the poet feems to mean, repofited and confined in the place of the deud. In his Rape of Lucrece he has again used this uncommon participle in nearly the fame fenfe: "Thy fea within a puddle's womb is hearfed, "And not the puddle in thy fea difperfed." MALOne. quietly in-urn'd,] The quartos read—interr'd. 9 STEEVENS. That thou, dead corfe, again, in complete fteel,] Thus alfo is the adjective complete accented by Chapman in his verfion of the fifth Iliad: "And made his complete armour caft a far more complete light." Again, in the nineteenth Iliad : "Grave filence ftrook the complete court." It is probable, that Shakspeare introduced his Ghost in armour, that it might appear more folemn by fuch a difcrimination from the other characters; though it was really the custom of the Danish kings to be buried in that manner. Vide Olaus Wor mius, cap. vii: "Struem regi nec veftibus, nec odoribus cumulant, fua cuique arma, quorundam igni et equus adjicitur." -fed poftquam magnanimus ille Danorum rex collem fibi magnitudinis confpicua extruxiffet, (cui poft obitum regio diademate exornatum, armis indutum, inferendum effet cadaver," &c, STEEVENS. Making night hideous; and we fools of nature,* With thoughts beyond the reaches of our fouls? As if it fome impartinent did defire To you alone. MAR. Look, with what courteous action It waves you to a more removed ground:4 HOR. No, no means. HAM. It will not speak; then I will follow it. HAM. Why, what should be the fear? I do not fet my life at a pin's fee ;5 It waves me forth again;-I'll follow it. 2 —we fools of nature,] The expreffion is fine, as intimating we were only kept (as formerly, fools in a great family,) to make fport for nature, who lay hid only to mock and laugh at us, for our vain searches into her myfteries. WARBURTON. — we fools of nature,] i. e. making us, who are the sport of nature, whofe myfterious operations are beyond the reaches of our fouls, &c. So, in Romeo and Juliet: "O, I am fortune's fool." MALONE. fools of nature,] This phrafe is ufed by Davenant, in the Cruel Brother, 1630, A& V. fc. i. REED. 3 to shake our difpofition,] Difpofition for frame. WARBURTON. a more removed ground :] i. e. remote. So, in A Midfummer-Night's Dream : "From Athens is her house remov'd seven leagues." The firft folio reads remote. STEEVENS. pin's fee] The value of a pin. JOHNSON. |