Perfons Represented. CLAUDIUS, king of Denmark. Hamlet, fon to the former, and nephew to the prefent king. Fortinbras, prince of Norway. Horatio, friend to Hamlet. Laertes, fon to Polonius. Gertrude, queen of Denmark, and mother to Hamlet. Ophelia, daughter to Polonius. Lords, ladies, players, grave diggers, failors, meffengers, and other attendants. SCENE, Elineur. ACT I. SCENE I. ELSIN OUR. A platform before the palace. Francifco on his poft. Enter to him Bernardo. Ber. Who's there? Fran. Nay, anfwer me; ftand, and unfold yourfelf. Ber. Long live the king! Fran. Bernardo ? Ber. He. Fran. Hamlet. The original flory on which this play is built, may be found in Saxo Grammaticus the Danish hiftorian. From thence Belleforest adopted it in his collection of novels, in feven volumes, which he began in 1564, and continued to publish through fuceeding years. From this work, The Hyftorie of Hamblett, quarto, bl. 1. was tranflated. I have hitherto met with no earlier edition of the play than one in the year 1604, though it must have been performed before that time, as I have feen a copy of Speght's edition of Chaucer, which formerly belonged to Dr. Gabriel Harvey, (the antagonist of Nafh) who, in his own hand-writing, has fet down the play, as a performance with which he was well acquainted, in the year 1598. His words are thefe: "The younger "fort take much delight in Shakespeare's Venus and Adonis; but "his Lucrece, and his tragedy of Hamlet Prince of Denmarke, "have it in them to please the wifer fort, 1598." In the books of the Stationers' Company this play was entered by James Roberts, July 6, 1602, under the title of "A booke called The Revenge of Hamlett, Prince of Denmarke, as it was lately acted by the Lord Chamberlain his fervantes." In me:] i. e. me who am already on the watch, and have a right to demand the watch-ward. STEVENS. $ VOL. X. Fran. You come moft carefully upon your hour. Ber. "Tis now ftruck twelve; get thee to bed, Francifco. Fran. For this relief, much thanks: 'tis bitter cold, And I am fick at heart. Ber. Have you had quiet guard ? If you do meet Horatio and Marcellus, 3 The rivals of my watch, bid them make hafte. Enter In Eafward Hoe by Geo. Chapman, Ben Jonson, and John Marlon, 1505, is a fling at the hero of this tragedy. A footman named Hamlet enters, and a tankard-bearer afks him-"'Sfoote, Hamlet, are you mad i " The following particulats relative to the date of this piece, are borrowed from Dr. Farmer's Ejay on the Learning of Shakspeare, p. 85, 86, fecond edition. Greene, in the Epiftle prefixed to his Arcadia, hath a lash at fome "vaine glorious tragedians," and very plainly at Shakspeare in particular."I leave all thefe to the mercy of their mothertongue, that feed on nought but the crums that fall from the tranflator's trencher.-That could scarcely latinize their neck verse if they fhould have neede, yet English Seneca read by candlelight yeelds many good fentences-hee will afford you whole Hamlets, I fhould fay, handfuls of tragicall-fpeeches."I cannot determine exactly when this Epifile was first published; but, I fancy, it will carry the original Hamlet fomewhat further back than we have hitherto done: and it may be obferved, that the oldest copy now extant, is faid to be "enlarged to almost as much againe as it was." Gabriel Harvey printed at the end of the year 1592, "Foure Letters and certaine Sonnetts, efpecially touching Robert Greene:" in one of which his Arcadia is mentioned. Now Nah's Epifle muft have been previous to thefe, as Gabriel is quoted in it with applaufe; and the Foure Letters were the beginning of a quarrel. Nab replied, in "Strange News of the intercepting certaine Letters, and a Convoy of Verfes, as they were going privilie to vic tual the Low Countries, 1593." Harvey rejoined the fame year in "Pierce's Supererogation, or a new Praife of the old Affe.” And Nab again, in "Have with you to Saffron Walden, or Gabriell Harvey's Hunt is up; containing a full answer to the eldest forne of the halter-maker, 1596.”—-Nash died before 1606, as appears from an old comedy called "The Return from Parnaffus" STEEVENS. Tie rivals of my watch,] Rivals, for partners. WARBURTON. By Enter Horatio, and Marcellus. Fran. I think, I hear them.-Stand, ho! Who is there? Hor. Friends to this ground. Mar. And liegemen to the Dane. Who hath reliev'd you? Fran. Bernardo hath my place. Give you good night. Mar. Holla! Bernardo! Ber. Say,. [Exit Francifco. What, is Horatio there? Hor. By rivals of the watch are meant thofe who were to watch on the next adjoining ground. Rivals, in the original fenfe of the word, were proprietors of neighbouring lands, parted only by a brook, which belonged equally to both. HANMER. So, in Heywood's Rape of Lucrece, 1636 : "Tullia. Aruns, affociate him. "Aruns. A rival with my brother, &c." Again, in the The Tragedy of Hoffman, 1637: And make thee rival in thofe governments." Again, in Antony and Cleopatra, a&t iii. fc. 5-having made use of him in the wars against Pompey, prefently deny'd him rivalry." STEEVENS. I should propofe to point and alter this paffage thus-- The rival of my watch Horatio is reprefented throughout the play as a gentleman of no profeffion. Marcellus was an officer, and confequently did that through duty, for which Horatio had no motive but curiofity. Befides, there is but one perfon on each watch. Bernardo comes to relieve Francifco, and Marcellus to fupply the place of fome other on the adjoining ftation. The reafon why Bernardo as well as the reft expect Horatio, was becaufe he knew him to be informed of what had happened the night before. WARNER. By rivals the speaker certainly means partners (according to Dr. Warburton's explanation), or thofe whom he expected to watch with him. Marcellus had watched with him before; whether as a centinel, a volunteer, or from mere curiofity, we do not learn: but, which ever it was, it feems evident that his ftation was on the fame S 2 spot |