As we have warrantry; her death was doubtful; Shards, flints, and pebbles, fhould be thrown on her; Her maiden-ftrewments, and the bringing home 2 Of bell and burial. Laer. Muft no more be done? Prieft. No more be done! We should profane the fervice of the dead, Laer. Lay her i' th' earth; And from her fair and unpolluted flesh May violets fpring? I tell thee, churlish priest, When thou lieft howling. Ham. What, the fair Ophelia ! Queen. Sweets to the sweet, farewel! [Scattering flowers. I hop'd, thou shouldst have been my Hamlet's wife; allow'd her virgin RITES,] The old quarto reads virgin CRANTS, evidently corrupted from CHANTS, which is the true word. A specific rather than a generic term being here required, to anfwer to maidenfrewments. WARBURTON. I have been informed by an anonymous correfpondent, that crants is the German word for garlands, and I fuppofe it was retained by us from the Saxons. To carry garlands before the bier of a maiden, and to hang them over her grave, is ftill the practice in rural parishes. Crants therefore was the original word, which the authour, difcovering it to be provincial, and perhaps not understood, changed to a term more intelligible, but lefs proper. Maiden rites give no certain or definite image. He might have put ma den wreaths, or maiden garlands, but he perhaps beftowed no thought upon it, and neither genius nor practice will always fupply a hafty writer with the most proper diction. 2 Of bell and burial.] Burial, here fignifies interment in confecrated ground. WARBURTON. I thought I thought thy bride-bed to have deck'd, sweet maid, And not have ftrew'd thy Grave. Laer. O treble woe Fall ten times treble on that curfed head, [Laertes leaps into the Grave. Now pile pour duft upon the quick and dead, Ham [difcovering himself.] What is he, whofe griefs Bear fuch an emphasis? whofe phrase of forrow Conjures the wandring ftars, and makes them stand Like wonder-wounded hearers? This is I, Hamlet the Dane. [Hamlet leaps into the Grave. Laer. The devil take thy foul! [Grappling with him. I pr'ythee, take thy fingers from my throat- Which let thy wifdom fear. Hold off thy hand. Queen. Hamlet, Hamlet. Hor. Good my Lord, be quiet. [The attendants part them. Ham. Why, I will fight with him upon this theme, Until my eye-lids will no longer wag. Queen. Oh my fon! what theme? Ham. I lov'd Ophelia; forty thoufand brothers Could not with all their quantity of love fum. What wilt thou do for her? Make up my fum. King. O, he is mad, Laertes. Queen. For love of God, forbear him. Woo't weep? woo't fight? woo't faft? woo't tear thyfelf? 3 Woo't drink up Eifel, eat a Crocodile ? I'll do't.-Do'st thou come hither but to whine? Queen. This is meer madness; And thus a while the Fit will work on him: 4 Ere that her golden couplets are difclos'd, 3 Woo't, drink up Efill, eat a crocodile ?] This word has thro' all the editions been diftinguifhed by Italick characters, as if it were the proper name of fome river; and fo, I dare fay, all the editors have from time to time understood it to be. But then this must be fome river in Denmark; and there is none there fo called; nor is there any near it in name, that I know of, but rel, from which the province of Overyfel derives its title in the German Flanders. Befides, Hamlet is not proposing any impoffibilities to Laertes, as the drinking up a river would be: but he rather feems to mean, Wilt thou refolve to do things the most shocking and diftateful to human nature? and, behold, I am as refolute. I am perfuaded, the poet wrote; Wilt drink up Eifel, eat a cro- VOL. VIII. His filence will fit drooping. Ham. Hear you, Sir What is the reason that you use me thus ? [Exit Hor. Strengthen your patience in our last night's fpeech. [To Laertes. We'll put the matter to the present push. Good Gertrude, fet fome watch over your fon. 'Till then, in patience our proceeding be. [Exeunt. Ham. SCENE III. Changes to a HALL, in the Palace. Enter Hamlet and Horatio. O much for this, Sir. Now shall you the other. You do remember all the circumstance? Hor. Remember it, my Lord? fee Ham. Sir, in my heart there was a kind of fighting, That would not let me fleep; methought, I lay Worfe than the mutines in the Bilboes. Rafhly, 5-mutines in the Bilboes ] Mutines, the French word for feditious or difobedient fellows in the army or fleet. Bilbo's, the Ship's prison. 6 Raftnefs And (And prais'd be ruflene's for it) lets us know; [us well, Our indiferetion fometimes ferves When, &c.] The fenfe in this reading And prais'd be rafhness for it-Let us know, When our deep plots do fail; and that fhould teach us, There's a Divinity that shapes our ends, My fea-gown scarft about me, in the dark That he rafhly and then is carried into a reflection upon the weakness of human wisdom. I rafhly-praised be rafhness for it-Let us not think thefe events cafual, but let us know, that is, take notice and remember, that we fometimes fucceed by indiferetion, when we fail by deep plots, and infer the perpetual fuperintendence and agency of the Divinity. The obfervation is juft, and will be allowed by every human being who shall reflect on the courfe of his own life. 7 With bo! Such buggs and goblins in my life;] With fuch caufes of terrour, arifing from my character and designs. |