Mar. Peace, break thee off; look where it comes again!

Enter the Ghoft.

Ber. In the fame figure, like the king that's dead.

Mar. Thou art a scholar; speak to it, Horatio. Ber. Looks it not like the king? Mark it, Ho

ratio.

Hor. Moft like. It harrows me with fear and wonder.

Ber. It would be spoke to.

Mar. Speak to it, Horatio.

Hor. What art thou, that ufurp'ft this time of night,

Together with that fair and warlike form,

In which the majesty of buried Denmark

Did fometime march? By heaven, I charge thee,

fpeak.

Mar. It is offended.

Ber. See! it ftalks away.

Hor. Stay; fpeak. I charge thee, speak.

Mar. 'Tis gone, and will not answer.

[Exit Ghoft.

Ber. How now, Horatio? you tremble and look

pale.

Is not this fomething more than phantafy?

What think you of it?

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,

When he the ambitious Norway combated;
So frown'd he once, when, in an angry parle,

He

I

9 He fmote the fledded Polack on the ice.

'Tis strange.

2

Mar. Thus twice before, and just at this dead hour,

With martial stalk, he hath gone by our watch.
Hor. 3 In what particular thought to work, I know

not,

But, in the 4 grofs and scope of my opinion,
This bodes fome ftrange eruption to our state.

Mar. Good now, fit down, and tell me, he that knows,

Why this fame, strict and most observant watch
So nightly toils the fubjects of the land ?

9 He fmote the fledded Polack on the ice.] Pole-ax in the common editions. He fpeaks of a prince of Poland whom he flew in battle. He uses the word Polack again, Act 2. Scene 4.

РОРЕ. Polack was, in that age, the term for an inhabitant of Poland: Polaque, French. As in a tranflation of Pafferatius's epitaph on Henry III. of France, publifhed by Camden:

Whether thy chance or choice thee hither brings,
Stay, paffenger, and wail the beft of kings.
"This little ftone a great king's heart doth hold,
“Who rul'd the fickle French and Polacks bold:
"So frail are even the highest earthly things,

"Go, paffenger, and wail the hap of kings." JOHNSON. A fled, or fledge] Is a carriage without wheels, made ufe of in the cold countries. STEEVENS.

2

and JUST at this dead hour,] The old quarto reads JUMPE but the following editions difcarded it for a more fashionable word. WARBURTON.

The old reading is, jump at this fame hour; fame is a kind of correlative to jump; juft is in the oldeft folio.

The cor

rection was probably made by the author. JOHNSON.

Jump and just were fynonymous in the time of Shakespeare. Ben Jonfon ipeaks of verfes made on jump names, i. e. names that fuit exactly. Nafh fays" and jumpe, imitating a verse in As in præfenti." STEEVENS.

In what particular thought to work,] i. e. What particular train of thinking to follow. STEEVENS.

+ Grofs and fcope-] General thoughts, and tendency at large. JOHNSON.

And why fuch daily caft of brazen cannon,
And foreign mart for implements of war?
Why fuch imprefs of fhipwrights, whose fore 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 whiiper goes fo. Our last king,
Whofe 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 combat: in which, our valiant Hamlet
(For fo this fide of our known world efteem'd him)
Did flay this Fortinbras, 5 who by a feal'd compact,
Well,

5 who by a feal'd compact,

Well ratified by law AND heraldry,] The fubject spoken of is a duel between two monarchs, who fought for a wager, and entered into articles for the juft performance of the terms agreed upon. Two forts of law then were neceffary to regulate the decifion of the affair: the civil law, and the law of arms; as, had there been a wager without a duel, it had been the civil law only; or a duel without a wager, the law of arms only. Let us fee now how our author is made to express this fenfe.

-a feal'd compact,

Well ratified by law AND heraldry.

Now lay, as diftinguished from heraldry, fignifying the civil law; and this feal'd compact being a civil law act, it is as much as to fay, An act of law well ratified by law, which is abfurd. For the nature of ratification requires that which ratihes, and that which is ratified, fhould not be one and the fame, but different. For thefe reafons I conclude Shakespeare wrote.

who by feal'd compact

Well ratified by law or heraldry.

i. e. the execution of the civil compact was ratified by the law of arms; which, in our author's time, was called the law of keraldry. So the best and exacteft fpeaker of that age: In the third kind, [i. c. of the Jus gentium] the LAW OF HERALDRY in war is pofitive, &c. Hooker's Ecclefiaftical Polity. WARB.

Mr.

Well ratified by law and heraldry,

Did forfeit, with his life, all thofe his lands,
Which he ftood feis'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; as, by that covenant,
7 And carriage of the articles defign'd,

His fell to Hamlet. Now, Sir, young Fortinbras, 8 Of unimproved mettle hot and full,

Hath in the fkirts of Norway, here and there,
9 Shark'd up a lift of landlefs refolutes,
For food and diet, to fome enterprize
'That hath a ftomach in't; which is no other
(As it doth well appear unto our ftate)

But to recover of us, by ftrong hand,

Mr. Upton fays, that Shakespeare fometimes expreffes one thing by two fubftantives, and that law and heraldry means, by the herald law. So Ant. and Cleop. A& 4.

"Where rather I expect victorious life,

"Than death and honour, i, e. honourable death."

-as, by THAT COV'NANT,

STEEVENS.

And carriage of the articles defign'd,] The old quarto reads,

-as by the fume COMART;

and this is right. Comart fignifies a bargain, and carriage of the articles the covenants entered into to confirm that bargain. Hence we see the common reading makes a tautology. WARD. I can find no fuch word as comart in any dictionary.

STEEVENS.

? And carriage of the articles defign'd,] Carriage, is import: defign'd, is formed, drawn up between them. JOHNSON. Of unimproved mettle] Unimproved, for unrefined. WARBURTON.

Full of unimproved mettle, is full of fpirit not regulated or guided by knowledge or experience. JOHNSON.

9 Shark'd up a lift, &c.] I believe to bark up means to pick up without diftinction, as the shark-fish collects his prey. STEEVENS.

That bath a ftomach in't;-] Stomach, in the time of our author, was used for conftancy, refolution. JOHNSON.

2 And terms compulfatory, thofe forefaid lands
So by his father loft: and this, I take it,
Is the main motive of our preparations;
The fource of this our watch, and the chief head
Of this poft-hafte and romage 3 in the land.

Ber. [ I think, it be no other, but even fo: Well may it fort 4, that this portentous figure Comes armed through our watch; fo like the king That was, and is the question of these wars.

Hor. A mote it is, to trouble the mind's eye.
In the most high and 5 palmy state of Rome,
A little ere the mightieft Julius fell,

The graves ftood tenantlefs, and the fheeted dead
Did fqueak and gibber in the Roman streets;
Stars fhone with trains of fire; dews of blood fell;
6 Difafters veil'd the fun; and the moift ftar,
Upon whofe influence Neptune's empire ftands,
Was fick almost to dooms-day with eclipfe.
And even the like precurfe of fierce events,
As harbingers preceding still the fates,

2 And terms compulfative,-] The old quarto, better, compulfatory. WARBURTON.

3-romage] Tumultuous hurry. JOHNSON.

Thefe, and all other lines confin'd within crotchets throughout this play, are omitted in the folio edition of 1623. The omiffions leave the play fometimes better and fometimes worse, and feem made only for the fake of abbreviation.

JOHNSON. 4 Well may it fort,] The cause and the effect are proportionate and fuitable. JOHNSON.

5

-palmy fate of Rome,] Palmy, for victorious; in the other editions, flourishing. POPE.

Difafers veil'd the fun ;-] Difafters is here finely used in its original fignification of evil conjunction of ftars. WARB. The quarto reads,

Difatters in the fun ;

STEEVENS.

7 And even ] Not only fuch prodigies have been seen in Rome, but the elements have fhewn our countrymen like forerunners and foretokens of violent events. JOHNSON.

8

-precurje of fierce events,] Fierce, for terrible. WARB.

And