They clepe us, drunkards, and with fwinish phrase Soil our addition; and, indeed, it takes From our atchievements, though perform'd at height, That, for fome vicious mole of nature in them, By the o'ergrowth of fome 6 complexion, Oft breaking down the pales and forts of reason; 5 The pith and marrow of our attribute.] The best and most valuable part of the praise that would be otherwife attributed JOHNSON to us. 6 -complexion,] i. e. humour; as fanguine, melancholy, phlegmatic, &c. WARBURTON. 7-fortune's fear,] In the old quarto of 1637, it is -fortune's ftar: But I think fear is proper. JoHNSON. As infinite as man may undergo,] As large as can be accumulated upon man. JOHNSON. 9 The dram of ease Doth all the noble fubftance of a doubt, To his own jeandal.] I do not remember a paffage throughout all our poet's works, more intricate and depraved in the text, of lefs meaning to outward appearance, or more likely to baffle the attempts of criticism in its aid. It is certain, there is neither fenfe nor grammar as it now ftands yet with a flight alteration, I'll endeavour to cure thofe defects, and give a fentiment too, that fhall make the poet's thought clofe nobly. The dram of baje (as I have corrected the text) means the leaft alloy of bafenefs or vice. It is very frequent with our poet to use the adjective of quality infead of the fubftantive fignifying the thing. Befides, I have obferved, that elfe where, Doth all the noble fubftance of worth out, Enter Ghoft. Hor. Look, my lord, it comes! grace defend us ! where, fpeaking of worth, he delights to confider it as quality that adds weight to a perfon, and connects the word with that idea. THEOBALD. 1 Doth all the noble fubftance of worth out,] Various conjeures have been employed about this pallage. The author of The Revifal reads, "Doth all the noble fubftance oft eat out." Or, "Doth all the noble substance foil with doubt." Mr. HOLT reads, "Doth all the noble substance oft adopt." And Mr. Johnson thinks, that Theobald's reading may ftand. I would read, Doth all the noble fubftance (i. e. the fum of good qualities) oft do out. Perhaps we fhould fay, To its own fcandal.” His and its are perpetually confounded in the old copies. As I understand the paffage, there is little difficulty in it. This is one of the low colloquial expreffions, which at prefent are neither employed in writing, nor perhaps are reconcileable to the propriety of language. To do a thing out, is to efface or obliterate any thing in drawing. STEEVENS. Hamlet's speech to the apparition of his father feems to me to confift of three parts. When firft he fees the spectre, he fortifies himself with an invocation. Angels and minifters of grace defend us! As the spectre approaches, he deliberates with himfelf, and determines, that whatever it be he will venture to address it. Be thou a fpirit of health, or goblin damn'd, Bring with thee airs from heaven, or blafts from hell, Thou com'ft in fuch a questionable shape, That I will speak to thee. I'll call thee, &c. This he fays while his father is advancing; he then, as he had determined, speaks to him, and calls him-Hamlet, King, Father, Royal Dane: ob! answer me. JOHNSON. Be thou a spirit of health, or goblin damn'd 3, Thou com'ft in fuch a 4 queftionable shape, Wherein Be thou a spirit of health, or goblin damn'd, &c.] Acolaftus his After-awit, 1600. So in Art thou a God, a man, or else a ghoft? "Com't thou from heaven, where blifs and folace dwell? "Or from the airie cold-engendring coaft? "Or from the dark fome dungeon-hold of hell ?" The first known edition of this play is in 1605. STEEVENS. 4 questionable shape,] By questionable is meant provoking queftion. HANMER. So in Macbeth, Live you, or are you aught That man may queftion? JOHNSON. Questionable, I believe means only willing to be queftioned. So in As you like it. "An unquestionable fpirit, which you have not." Unquefiionable in this last instance certainly means unwilling to be converfed with. STEEVENS. 5 -tell, Why thy canoniz'd bones, hearsed in DEATH, Have burft their cearments ?] Hamlet here fpeaks with wonder, that he who was dead fhould rife again and walk. But this, according to the vulgar fuperftition here followed, was no wonder. Their only wonder was, that one, who had the rites of fepulture performed to him, fhould walk; the want of which was fupposed to be the reafon of walking ghofts. Hamlet's wonder then fhould have been placed here: and fo Shakespeare placed it, as we fall fee prefently. For bearjed is ufed figuratively to fignify repofited, therefore the place where fhould be defigned: but death being no place, but a privation only, bearjed in death is nonfenfe. We thould read, tell, Why thy canoniz'd bones, hearfed in EARTH, Have burst their cearments? It appears, for the two reafons given above, that earth is the true reading. It will further appear for thefe two other reafons. First, From the words, canoniz'd bones; by which is not meant (as Wherein we saw thee quietly in-urn'd, To caft thee up again? What may this mean That For (as one would imagine) a compliment for, made holy or fainted; but for bones to which the rites of fepulture have been performed; or which were buried according to the canon. we are told he was murdered with all his fins fresh upon him, and therefore in no way to be fainted. But if this licentious ufe of the word canoniz'd be allowed, then earth must be the true reading, for inhuming bodies was one of the effential parts of fepulchral rites. Secondly, From the words, Have burst their cearments, which imply the preceding mention of inhuming, but no mention is made of it in the common reading. This enabled the Oxford editor to improve upon the emendation; fo he reads, Why thy bones hears'd in canonized carth. I fuppofe for the fake of harmony, not of sense. For though the rites of fepulture performed canonizes the body buried; yet it does not canonize the earth in which it is laid, unless every funeral fervice be a new confecration. WARBURTON. It were too long to examine this note period by period, though almost every period feems to me to contain fomething reprehenfible. The critic, in his zeal for change, writes with fo little confideration, as to say, that Hamlet cannot call his father canonized, because we are told he was murdered with all his fins fresh upon him. He was not then told it, and had fo little the power of knowing it, that he was to be told it by an apparition. The long fucceffion of reafons upon reasons prove nothing, but what every reader difcovers, that the king had been buried, which is implied by fo many adjuncts of burial, that the direct mention of earth is not neceflary. Hamlet, amazed at an apparition, which, though in all ages credited, has in all ages been confidered as the most wonderful and moft dreadful operation of fupernatural agency, enquires of the fpectre, in the most emphatic terms, why he breaks the order of nature, by returning from the dead; this he asks in a very confufed circumlocution, confounding in his fright the foul and body. Why, fays he, have thy bones, which with due ceremonies have been intombed in death, in the common ftate of departed mortals, burft the folds in which they were embalmed? Why has the tomb, in which we faw thee quietly laid, opened his mouth, that mouth which, by its weight and ftability, feemed clofed for ever? The whole fentence is this: Why dost thou appear, whom we know to be Head? M 3 Had 6 That thou, dead corfe, again, in complete steel, Making night hideous; and 7 we fools of nature 8 With thoughts beyond the reaches of our fouls? As if it fome impartment did desire To you alone. Mar. Look, with what courteous action It waves you to a more removed ground: But do not go with it. ་ Hor. No, by no means. Ham. It will not speak; then I will follow it. Had the change of the word removed any obfcurity, or added any beauty, it might have been worth a struggle; but either reading leaves the fenfe the fame. If there be any afperity in this controverfial note, it must be imputed to the contagion of peevishnefs, or fome refentment of the incivility fhewn to the Oxford editor, who is reprefented as fuppofing the ground canonized by a funeral, when he only meant to fay, that the body was depofited in holy ground, in ground confecrated according to the canon. JOHNSON. That thou, dead corfe, again, in complete fteel,] It is probable that Shakespeare introduced his ghost in armour, that it might appear more folemn by fuch a difcrimination from the other characters; though it was really the cuftom of the Danish kings to be buried in that manner. Vide Olaus Wormius, cap. 7. "Struem regi nec veftibus, nec odoribus cumulant, fua "cuique arma, quorundam igni et equus adjicitur." 66 fed poftquam magnanimus ille Danorum rex collem "fibi magnitudinis confpicua extruxiffet (cui poft obitum regio diademate exornatum, armis indutum, inferendum effet "cadaver," &c. STEEVENS. 66 7 us fools of nature] The expreffion is fine, as intimating we were only kept (as formerly, fools in a great family) to make fport for nature, who lay hid only to mock and laugh at us, for our vain fearches into her myfteries. WARBURTON. -to fbake our difpofition] Difpofition, for frame. 8 WARBURTON. Ham. |