King. Take thy fair hour, Laertes, time be thine; (3) And thy best graces fpend it at thy will. But now, my coufin Hamlet, and my fon--- [Afide. King. How is it that the clouds ftill hang on you? Ham. Not fo, my Lord, I am too much i' th' fun. Queen. Good Hamlet, caft thy nighted colour off, And let thine eye look like a friend on Denmark. Do not, for ever, with thy veiled lids, Seek for thy noble father in the duft ; Thou knoweft 'tis common; all that live must die, Paffing through nature to eternity. Ham. Ay, Madam, it is common. Queen. If it be, Why feems it fo particular with thee? Ham. Seems, Madam? nay, it is; I know not 'Tis not alone my inky cloak, good mother, (3) Take thy fair hour, Laertes, time be thine, And thy fair graces; Spend it at thy will.] This is the pointing in both Mr Pope's editions; but the Poet's meaning is loft by it, and the clofe of the fentence miferably flattened. The pointing I have reftored, is that, of the beft copies, and the fenfe this; "You have my leave to go. Laertes; make the faireft ufe you pleafe of your time, and fpend it at your will with the faireft graces you are ma fter of." But I have that within which paffeth fhew: To give thefe mourning duties to your father: To do obfequious forrow. But to persevere As of a father: for let the world take note, (4) But you must know, your father loft a father; That father his. This fuppofed refinement is from Mr Pope; but all the editions elfe, that I have met with, old and modern, read; That father loft, loft his. The reduplication of which word here gives an energy and elegance, which is much eafer to be conceived than explained in terms. And every judicious reader of this Poet must have obferved how frequent it is with him to make this reduplication, where he intends either to affert or deny, augment or diminish, or add a degree of vehemence to his expreflion. And with't no lefs nobility of love, (5). And we beseech you, bead you to remain Queen. Let not thy mother lose her prayers, I pr'ythee, stay with us, go not to Wittenberg. (5) And with no less nobility of love Than that which dearest father bears his fon, Do I impart towards you. But what does the King im part? We want the fubftantive governed of the verb. The: King had declared Hamlet his immediate fucceffor, and with that declaration, he muft mean, he imparts to him as noblea love, as ever fond father tendered to his own fon. I have ventured to make the text conform with this fenfe. (6) For your intent 1 In going back to fchool to Wittenberg;] The Poet ufes a prolepfis here; for the univerfity at Wittenberg was opened by Frederick III..elector of Saxony, in the year 1502, feve ral ages later in time than the date of Hamlet. But 1 defign this remark for another purpofe. I would take notice, ' that a confiderable fpace of years is fpent in this tragedy; or Hamlet, as a Prince, fhould be too old to go to an univerfity. We here find him a fcholar refident at that univerfity; but, in act fifth, we find him plainly thirty years old; for the gravedigger had taken up that occupation the very day on which young Hamlet was born, and had followed it, as he fays, thirty years. And the King's rowfe the heaven fhall bruit again, Manet HAMLET. [Exeunt. Ham. Oh, that this too-too-folid flesh would melt, Thaw, and refolve itfelf into a dew! Or that the Everlasting had not fixed (7) (7) Or that the Everlafting had not fixed His cannon 'gainft felf-flaughter!] The generality of the editions read thus, as if the Poet's thoughts were, Or that the Almighty had not planted his artillery, his refentment, or arms of vengeance against felf-murder. But the word which I have reftored to the text, (and which was espoused by the accurate Mr Hughes, who gave an edition of this play) is the Poet's true reading. i. e. That he had not reftrained fuicide by his exprefs law, and peremptory prohibition. Mif takes are perpetually made in the old editions of our Poet, betwixt thofe two words, cannon and canon. I fhall now fubjoin my reafons why I think the Poet intended to fay Heaven had fixed its injunction rather than its artillery. In the first place, I much doubt the propriety of the phrafe, fixing cannon, in the meaning here fuppofed. The military expreffion, which imports what would be neecffary to the fenfe of the Poet's thought, is mounting or planting cannon; and whenever cannon is faid to be fixed, it is when the enemy become mafters of it and nail it down. In the next place, to fix a Canon, or law, is the term of the civilians peculiar to this bufinefs. This Virgil had in his mind when he wrote; Æneid. VI. Leges fixit pretio, atque refixit. So Cicero, in his Philippic orations; Num figentur rurfus he Tabula, quas vos decretis veftris refixijiis? And it was the conftant cuftom of the Romans to fay, upon this occafion, figere legem, as the Greeks before them ufed the fynonymous term νόμον παραπῆξαι, and called their fatues thence παρα Thy para. But my laft reafon, and which fways most with me, is from the Poet's own turn and caft of thought. For, as he has done in a great many more inftances, it is the very fentiment which he falls into in another of his plays, though he has clothed it in different expreflion; 'gainst felf-flaughter There is a prohibition fo divine, Cymbeline. Together with that fair and warlike form, In which the majesty of buried Denmark Did fometime march? by Heaven, I charge thee, Mar. It is offended. Ber. See! it stalks away. Hor. Stay; fpeak: I charge thee, speak. [fpeak. [Exit Ghoft. Mar. 'Tis gone, and will not answer. Ber. How now, Horatio? you tremble and look Is not this fomething more than fantasy? What think you of it? [pale. Hor. Before my God, I might not this believe, Without the fenfible and true avouch Of mine own eyes. Mar. Is it not like the King? Hor. As thou art to thyself. Such was the very armour he had on, 'Tis ftrange------ [hour, Mar. Thus twice before, and just at this dead With martial stalk, he has gone by our watch. Hor. In what particular thought to work, I know But, in the grofs and scope of my opinion, [not: This bodes fome strange eruption to our state. Mar. Good now fit down, and tell me, he that knows, Why this fame strict and most obfervant watch |