iii. commences is merely matter of modern conjecture. Some large portions of the play appear to have been omitted for the sake of shortening the performance; and any editor who should content himself with reprinting the folio, without large additions from the quartos, would present but an imperfect notion of the drama as it came from the hand of the poet. The text of "Hamlet" is, in fact, only to be obtained from a comparison of the editions in quarto and folio, but the misprints in the latter are quite as numerous and glaring as in the former. In various instances we have been able to correct the one by the other, and it is in this respect chiefly that the quarto of 1603 is of intrinsic value. Coleridge, after vindicating himself from the accusation that he had derived his ideas of Hamlet from Schlegel, (and we heard him broach them some years before the Lectures Ueber Dramatische Kunst und Litteratur were published) thus, in a few sentences, sums up the character of Hamlet. "In Hamlet Shakespeare seems to have wished to exemplify the moral necessity of a due balance between our attention to the objects of our senses, and our meditation on the workings of our minds,—an equilibrium between the real and the imaginary worlds. In Hamlet this balance is disturbed his thoughts and the images of his fancy are far more vivid than his actual perceptions, and his very perceptions, instantly passing through the medium of his contemplations, acquire, as they pass, a form and a colour not naturally their own. Hence we see a great, an almost enormous, intellectual activity, and a proportionate aversion to real action consequent upon it, with all its symptoms and accompanying qualities. This character Shakespeare places in circumstances under which it is obliged to act on the spur of the moment. Hamlet is brave, and careless of death; but he vacillates from sensibility, and procrastinates from thought, and loses the power of action in the energy of resolve." (Lit. Rem. vol. ii. p. 205.) It has generally been supposed that Joseph Taylor was the original actor of Hamlet, and Wright, in his "Historia Histrionica," 1699, certainly speaks of him as having performed the part. This, however, must have been after the death of Richard Burbage, which happened precisely eighty years before Wright published his tract: we know from the manuscript Elegy upon Burbage, sold among Heber's books, that he was the earliest representative of Hamlet; and there the circumstance of his being "fat and scant of breath," in the fencing scene, is noticed in the very words of Shakespeare. Taylor did not belong to the company for which Shakespeare wrote at the date when "Hamlet" was produced. VOL. VII. DRAMATIS PERSONE'. CLAUDIUS, King of Denmark. HAMLET, Son to the former, and Nephew to the present GERTRUDE, Queen of Denmark, and Mother to Hamlet. Lords, Ladies, Officers, Soldiers, Players, Sailors, Messen- SCENE, Elsinore. 1 No copy of the tragedy, before the time of Rowe, has a list of the cha racters. HAMLET, PRINCE OF DENMARK, ACT I. SCENE I. Elsinore. A Platform before the Castle. FRANCISCO on his Post. Enter to him Bernardo. Fran. You come most carefully upon your hour. cisco. Fran. For this relief much thanks. "Tis bitter cold, And I am sick at heart. If Ber. Have you had quiet guard? Fran. Ber. Well, good night. you Not a mouse stirring. do meet Horatio and Marcellus, The rivals of my watch, bid them make haste. 1 Long live the king!] This sentence appears to have been the watch-word given in answer to the demand of Francisco, "Nay, answer me," he being already on the watch. Enter HORATIO and MARCELLUS. Fran. I think I hear them.-Stand, ho! Who is Ber. Welcome, Horatio: welcome, good Marcellus. Hor. What, has this thing appear'd again to-night'? Ber. I have seen nothing. Mar. Horatio says, 'tis but our fantasy, And will not let belief take hold of him, Touching this dreaded sight twice seen of us: Therefore, I have entreated him along With us, to watch the minutes of this night; Sit down awhile; He may approve our eyes, and speak to it. 2 I think, I hear them.-Stand, ho! Who is there?] In all the quartos, that of 1603 excepted, this is a complete line: the folio of 1623 gives the latter part of it," Stand: who's there?" 3 - honest SOLDIER :] The quarto, 1604, has soldiers; but only one was departing. It is followed by the later quartos, but the error is corrected in the folio, 1623. to-night?] In all the quartos, that of 1603 excepted, this line is assigned to Horatio, who had come purposely to inquire about the ghost. The folio, 1623, gives it to Marcellus. Hor. Well, sit we down, And let us hear Bernardo speak of this. Ber. Last night of all, When yond' same star, that's westward from the pole, Had made his course t' illume that part of heaven Where now it burns, Marcellus, and myself, The bell then beating one, Mar. Peace! break thee off: look, where it comes again! Enter Ghost. Ber. In the same figure, like the king that's dead. wonder. Ber. It would be spoke to. Mar. Question it, Horatio. Hor. What art thou, that usurp'st this time of night, Together with that fair and warlike form, In which the majesty of buried Denmark Did sometimes march? by heaven I charge thee, speak! Mar. It is offended. Ber. See! it stalks away. Hor. Stay! speak, speak! I charge thee, speak! Mar. 'Tis gone, and will not answer. [Exit GHOST. Ber. How now, Horatio! you tremble, and look pale. Is not this something more than fantasy? What think you on't? Hor. Before my God, I might not this believe, Without the sensible and true avouch Of mine own eyes. 5 it HARROWS me- -] One of the senses of " to harrow" is to overthrow or subdue, and some lexicographers have contended that it is more properly spelt harry. The verb occurs with a different meaning afterwards. The quarto, 1603, reads, "it horrors me," &c. |