His fell to Hamlet: Now, fir, young Fortinbras, Hath in the fkirts of Norway, here and there, That hath a ftomach in't :7 which is no other The fource of this our watch; and the chief head Of unimproved &c.] Full of unimproved mettle, is full of fpirit not regulated or guided by knowledge or experience. JOHNSON. Shark'd up a lift &c.] I believe, to fhark up means to pick up without diftinction, as the Shark-fifh collects his prey. The quartos read lawless inftead of landless. STEEVENS. That hath a ftomach in't:] Stomach, in the time of our author, was used for conftancy, refolution. JOHNSON. 8 And terms compulfatory,] Thus the quarto, 1604. The folio-compulfative. STEEVENS. 9 romage-] Tumultuous hurry. JOHNSON. Commonly written-rummage. I am not, however, certain that the word romage has been properly explained. The following paffage in Hackluyt's Voyages, 1599, Vol. II. Ppp 3, feems indicative of a different meaning: "the fhips growne foule, unroomaged, and scarcely able to beare any faile" &c. Again, Vol. III. 88: "the mariners were romaging their fhippes" &c. Romage, on fhipboard, muft have fignified a fcrupulous examination into the state of the veffel and its ftores. Refpecting landfervice, the fame term implied a ftrict inquiry into the kingdom, that means of defence might be supplied where they were wanted. STEEVENS. Rummage, is properly explained by Johnfon himself in his Dictionary, as it is at prefent daily used,-to search for any thing. HARRIS. 1 BER. I think, it be no other, but even fo! Well may it fort, that this portentous figure Comes armed through our watch; fo 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.] Thefe, and all other lines, confined within crotchets, throughout this play, are omitted in the folio edition of 1623. The omiffions leave the play fometimes better and fometimes worfe, and feem made only for the fake of abbreviation. JOHNSON. It may be worth while to obferve, 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 abfurdities, as well as beauties, arofe from the quantity added after it was firft 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 ftyles the MS. from which the quartos, 1604 and 1605 were printed, the true and perfect copy, may alfo be difputable. I cannot help fuppofing this publication to contain all Shakspeare rejected, as well as all he fupplied. By reftorations like the former, contending bookfellers or theatres might have gained fome temporary advantage over each other, which at this diftance of time is not be understood. The patience of our ancestors exceeded our own, could it have out-lafted the tragedy of Hamlet as it is now 'printed; for it must have occupied almost five hours in reprefentation. If, however, it was too much dilated on the ancient ftage, it is as injudiciously contracted on the modern one. STEEVENS. 2 Well may it fort,] The caufe and effect are proportionate and fuitable. JOHNSON. 3 the question of these wars.] The theme or fubject. So, in Antony and Cleopatra: You were the word of war." MALONE. 4 A mote it is,] The first quarto reads--a moth. STEEVENS. A moth was only the old fpelling of mote, as I fufpected in revifing a paffage in King John, Vol. X. p. 466, n. 1, where we certainly fhould read mote. MALONE. palmy State of Rome,] Palmy, for victorious. POPE. A little ere the mightiest Julius fell, The graves flood tenantlefs, and the fheeted dead Did fqueak and gibber in the Roman streets. -- As, ftars with trains of fire and dews of blood, As, ftars with trains of fire and dews of blood, Difafters in the fun ;] Mr. Rowe altered thefe lines, because they have infufficient connection with the preceding ones, thus: Stars fhone with trains of fire, dews of blood fell, This paffage is not in the folio. By the quartos therefore our imperfect text is fupplied; for an intermediate verse being evidently loft, it were idle to attempt a union that never was intended. I have therefore fignified the supposed deficiency by a vacant space. When Shakspeare had told us that the grave stood tenantless, &c. which are wonders confined to the earth, he naturally proceeded to say (in the line now loft) that yet other prodigies appeared in the sky; and these phoenomena he exemplified by adding, As [i. e. as for inftance] Stars with trains of fire, &c. So, in King Henry IV. P. II: "to bear the inventory of thy fhirts; as, one for fuperfluity," &c. Again, in King Henry VI. P. III: "Two Cliffords, as the father and the fon, Again, in The Comedy of Errors: They fay, this town is full of cozenage; "As, nimble jugglers that deceive the eye" &c, Difafters dimm'd the fun;] The quarto, 1604, reads: Difafters in the fun ; For the emendation I am refponfible. It is ftrongly supported not only by Plutarch's account in The Life of Cæfar, [" alfo the brightness of the funne was darkened, the which, all that yeare through, rofe very pale, and shined not out,"] but by various paffages in our author's works. So, in The Tempeft: I have be-dimm'd, 66 "The noon-tide fun," Again, in King Richard II: "As doth the blushing difcontented fun, "When he perceives the envious clouds are bent Upon whofe influence Neptune's empire ftands, Again, in our author's 18th Sonnet : "Sometimes too hot the eye of heaven hines, "And often is his gold complexion dimm'd.” I fufpect that the words As ftars are a corruption, and have no doubt that either a line preceding or following the firft of thofe quoted at the head of this note, has been loft; or that the beginning of one line has been joined to the end of another, the intervening words being omitted. That fuch conjectures are not merely chimerical, I have already proved. See Vol. XI. p. 376, &c. n. 3; and Vol. XIV. p. 351, n. 8. The following lines in Julius Cæfar, in which the prodigies that are faid to have préceded his death, are recounted, may throw fome light on the paffage before us : There is one within, "Befides the things that we have heard and feen, And graves have yawn'd and yielded up their dead: "The noife of battle hurtled in the air, "Horfes do neigh, and dying men did groan; "And ghofts did fhriek and fqueal about the streets." The loft words perhaps contained a defcription of fiery warriors fighting on the clouds, or of brands burning bright beneath the ftars. The 15th Book of Ovid's Metamorphofes, tranflated by Golding, in which an account is given of the prodigies that preceded Cæfar's death, furnished Shakspeare with fome of the images in both these paffages: 66 battels fighting in the clouds with crafhing armour flew, "And dreadful trumpets founded in the ayre, and hornes eke blew, "As warning men beforehand of the mischiefe that did brew ; 66 "And Phoebus alfo looking dim did caft a drowfie light, Uppon the earth, which seemde likewife to be in fory plighte: "From underneath beneath the ftarres brandes oft feemde burning bright, And even the like precurse of fierce events,9— "It often rain'd drops of blood. The morning star look'd blew, "And was befpotted here and there with specks of ruftic hew. "The moone had also spots of blood.— "Salt teares from ivorie-images in fundry places fell ;— "The dogges did howle, and every where appeared ghaftly fprights, "And with an earthquake fhaken was the towne.' Plutarch only fays, that the funne was darkened," that "diverse men were feen going up and down in fire;" there were "fires in the element; fprites were feene running up and downe in the night, and solitarie birds fitting in the great marketplace." The difagreeable recurrence of the word ftars in the fecond line induces me to believe that As Stars in that which precedes, is a corruption. Perhaps Shakspeare wrote: Aftres with trains of fire, and dews of blood Difafterous dimm'd the fun. The word aftre is used in an old collection of poems entitled Diana, addreffed to the Earl of Oxenforde, a book of which I know not the date, but believe it was printed about 1580. In Othello we have antres, word exactly of a fimilar formation. MALONE. The word-aftre, (which is no where else to be found) was affectedly taken from the French by John Southern, author of the poems cited by Mr. Malone. This wretched plagiarist stands indebted both for his verbiage and his imagery to Ronfard. See the European Magazine, for June, 1788, p. 389. STEEVENS. 7 - and the moist ftar, &c.] i. e. the moon. So, in Marlowe's Hero and Leander, 1598: "Not that night-wand'ring, pale, and watry far," &c. MALONE. And even] Not only fuch prodigies have been seen in Rome, but the elements have shown our countrymen like fore'runners and foretokens of violent events. JOHNSON. -precurfe of fierce events,] Fierce, for terrible. WARBURTON. |