Hor. Stay; speak; 1 charge thee, speak.

[Exit Ghoft. Mar. 'Tis gone, and will not answer. Ber. How now, Horatio ? you tremble and look

pale,
Is not this something more than phantasy?
What think you of it?

Hor. Before my God, I might not this believe,
Without the sensible 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, When he th' ambitious Norway combated; So frown'd he once, when, in an angry parle, s He smote the neaded Polack on the ice. 'Tis strange Mar. Thus twice before, and just at this dead

hour, With martial Italk, he hath gone by our Watch. Hor. In what particular thought to work, I know

not,

6

s He/mote the leadet Polack on This little pone a great king's

the ice.] Pole-ax in the com heart doth hold, mon editions. He speaks of a Who ruld the fickle French and Prince of Poland whom he slew in Polacks bold : battle. He uses the word Polack So frail are even the bigheft again, A& 2. Scene 4. Pope. carthly things.

Polack was, in that age, the Go, palenger, and wail the hap term for an inhabitant of Poland: of kings. Polaque, French. As in a tranf

-and just at this dead Jation of Pallerat us's epitaph on bour,] The old quarto reads Henry III. of Franci, published JUMPE : but the following ediby Camden:

tions discarded it for a more sa-
shionable word.

WARB. Whether thy chance or cho'ce The old reading is, jump at thee bither brings,

this fame hour ; san.e is a kind of S:ay, pasenger, and wail the correlative to jump; juft is in the bill of kings,

oldelt folio. The correction was
probably made by the authour.

But,

1

But, in the gross scope of my opinion,
This bodes fome strange eruption to our State.
Mar. Good now lit down, and tell me, he that

knows,
Why this same strict and most observant Watch
So nightly toils the Subjects of the Land ?
And why such daily cast of brazen Cannon,
And foreign mart for implements of war?
Why such impress of shipwrights, whose sore talk
Does not divide the Sunday from the week?
What might be toward, that this sweaty hafte
Doth make the night joint labourer with the day,
Who is't, that can inform me?

Hor. That can I ;
At least, the whisper goes so. Our last King,
Whose image but even now appear’d to us,
Was, as you know, by Fortinbras of Norway,
Thereto prickt on by a most emulate pride,
Dar'd to the fight: In which our valiant Hamlet
(For fo this side of our known world esteem'd him)
Did Nay this Fortinbras, ? who by seal'd compact,
Well ratified by law and heraldry,

Did

who by seald compat, author is made to express this Well ratified by law and be- sense. raldry,] The subject spoken

-a seal'd compact, of is a duel between two mo Well ratified by law and benarchs, who fought for a wager, raldry. and entered into articles for the Now law, as distinguished from just performance of the terms heraldry, fignifying the civil agreed upon. Two forts of law law; and this seal'd compact then were necessary to regulate being a civil law act, it is as the decision of the affair ; the much as to say, An att of law Civil Law, and the Law of well ratified by law, which is Arms; as, had there been a wa. absurd. For the nature of ratiger without a duel, it had been fication requires that which ratithe civil law only; or a duel fies, and that which is ratified, without a wager, the law of arms fhould not be one and the same, only, Let us see now how our but different. For these reasons

I con

K 3

3

Did forfeit, with his life, all those bis Lands,
Which he stood seiz'd of, to the Conqueror ;
Against the which, a moiety competent
Was gaged by our King; which had return'd
To the inheritance of Fortinbras,
Had he been vanquilher; 8 as by that covonans,
And carriage of the articles design'd,
His fell to Hamlet. Now young

Fortinbras,
Of uniinproved mettle hot and full,
Hath in the skirts of Norway, here and there,
Shark'd up a list of landless resolute's,
For food and diet, to some enterprize

That hath a stomach in't; which is no other,
As it doth well appear unto our State,
But to recover of us by strong hand,
3 And terms compulfative, those foresaid Lands
So by his father loft; and this, I take it,
Is the main motive of our preparations,
The source of this our watch, and the chief head
Of this post-haste and romage in the Land.

I conclude Shi kespear wrote,

the articles, the covenants entered -who by seal'd compact into to confirm that bargain. Will ratified by law of he. Hence we see the common readraldry.

ing makes a tautology. WARB, i. e. the execution of the civil ? And carriage of the articles compact was ratiñed by the law defign'd.) Carriage, is imof arms; which in our author's port : designed, is formed, drawn time, was called the law of he. up between them, raldry. So the best and exactest ! Of unimproved metile ---] speaker of that age : In the third Unimproved, for unrefined, WAR. kind, [i. r. of the jus gentium] Full of unimproved metile, is full ibe LAW OF HERALDRY in war of spirit not regulated or guided is poflive, &c. Hooker's Ecclefia by knowledge or experience. ajtical Polity.

WARB. ? That bath aftomachin't :-) 8-as by That cov's: ANT, Stomach, in the time of our au. Ard carriage of the articles de- thour, was used for confiancy, refign'd,] The old quarto reads, solution.

as by the same COMART; 3 And terms compulsative,-) and this is right. Comart figni- The old quarto, better, compuls fies a bargain, and Carriage of fatory.

WARBURTON.

Ber.

Ber. * I think, it be no other ; but even so
Well may it sort, that this portentous figure
Comes armed through our watch so like the King,
That was, and is," the question of thefe wars,

Hor. A mote it is to trouble the mind's eye.
In the most high and * palmy State of Rome,
A little ere the mightiest Julius fell,
The Graves stood tenantless ; and the sheeted Dead
Did Squeak and gibber in the Roman streets ;
Stars shone with trains of fire, Dews of blood fell ;

Difafters veild the Sun ; and the moist Star,
Upon whose influence Neptune's Empire stands,
Was sick almost to dsoms-day with eclipse.
- And even the like o precurse of fierce events,

vi As harbingers preceding fill the fates,

E
1 And prologue to tbe omen'd coming on,
Have beav'n and earth together demonstrated
Unto our climatures and country.men.

Enter Ghost again. But soft, behold! lo, where it comes again! l'll cross it, though it blast me, Stay, illusion!

[Spreading bis Arms.

There, and all other lines 6 -prerurse of fierce events,] printed in the Italick letter, Fierce, for terrible.

WARB. throughout this play, are omitted 7 And prologue to the omen in the folio edition of 1623. coming on.) But prologue and The omissions leave the play omen are merely synonymous here. fometimes better and sometimes The Poet means, that these worse, and feem made only for ftrange Phænomena are prologues the sake of abbreviation.

and fore-runners of the events -palmy State of Rome,] prefag'd: And such sense the Palmy, for victorious; in the other fight alteration, which I have editions, flourishini. Pope, ventured to make, by changing

s Disasters weild the Sun ;-) omen to omen'd, very aptly gives. Disasters is here finely used in its

THEOBALD. original signification of evil con Omen, for fate.

WAR B. junction of stars,

WARB.
Hanmer follows Theobald.

4

8 If thou hast any found, or use of voice,
Speak to me.
If there be any good thing to be done,
That may to thee do ease, and grace to me,
Speak to me.
If thou art privy to thy Country's fate,
Which happily foreknowing may avoid,
Oh speak!
Or, if thou hast uphoarded in thy life
Extorted treasure in the womb of earth,
For which, they say, you Spirits oft walk in death,

[Cack crows. Speak of it. Stay, and speak-Stop it, Marcellus

Mar. Shall I strike it with my partizan ?
Hor. Do, if it will not stand.
Ber. 'Tis here
Hor. 'Tis here:
Mar. 'Tis gone.

[Exit Ghojt.
We do it wrong, being so majestica),
To offer it the thew of violence;
For it is as the air, invulnerable,
And our vain blows, malicious mockery.

Ber. It was about to speak when the cock crew.

Hor. And then it started like a guilty thing
Upon a fearful Summons. I have heard,
The cock, that is the trumpet to the morn,
Doth with his lofty and shrill-founding throat
Awake the God of day; and, at his warning,
9 Whether in sea or fire, in earth or air,

Thy

8 If thou bajt any found,] tology of that time, every eleThe speech of Horario to the ment was inhabited by its pecu. Spectre is very elegant and noble, liar order of spirits, who had and congruous to the common dispositions different, according traditions of the causes of appa. to their various places of abode. ritions.

The meaning therefore is, that 9 According to the pneuma- all

spirits extravagant, wandering

out