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 majefty of buried Denmark speak. MAR. It is offended. BER. See! it ftalks away. [Exit Ghoft. HOR. Stay; fpeak; fpeak I charge thee, fpeak. MAR. 'Tis gone, and will not answer. BER. How now, Horatio? you tremble, and look pale: Is not this fomething more than fantasy? 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,+ The word is of Saxon origin. So, in the old bl. 1. romance of Syr Eglamoure of Artoys: "He fwore by him that harcwed hell." Milton has adopted this phrafe in his Comus: "Amaz'd I ftood, harrow'd with grief and fear!" STEEVENS. an angry parle,] This is one of the affected words introduced by Lyly. So, in Two Wife Men and all the Rest Fools, 1619: you told me at our laft parle." STERVENS. 66 that He fmote the fledded Polack on the ice." 'Tis ftrange. MAR. Thus, twice before, and jump at this dead hour, 5 fledded-] A fled, or fledge, is a carriage without wheels,1 made ufe of in the cold countries. So, in Tamburlaine, or the Scythian Shepherd, 1590: upon an ivory fled "Thou shalt be drawn among the frozen poles." STEEVENS. 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 II. fc. iv. POPE. Polack was, in that age, the term for an inhabitant of Poland: Polaque, French. As in F. Davifon's tranflation of Pafferatius's epitaph on Henry III. of France, publifhed by Camden: "Whether thy chance or choice thee hither brings, Whom, with a mighty warlike host attended, "With trait'rous knife a cowled monster ended. "So frail are even the higheft earthly things! "Go, paffenger, and wail the hap of kings." JOHNSON. Again, in The White Devil, or Vittoria Corombona, &c. 1612: I fcorn him 66 All the old copies have Polax. Mr. Pope and the fubfequent editors read-Polack; but the corrupted word fhews, I think, that Shakspeare wrote-Polacks. MALONE. With Polack for Polander, the tranfcriber, or printer, might have no acquaintance; he therefore substituted pole-ax as the only word of like found that was familiar to his ear. Unluckily, however, it happened that the fingular of the latter has the fame found as the plural of the former. Hence it has been fuppofed that Shakspeare meant to write Polacks. We cannot well fuppofe that in a parley the King belaboured many, as it is not likely that provocation was given by more than one, or that on fuch an occafion he would have condefcended to strike a meaner perfon than a prince. STEEVENS. 7 —jump at this dead hour,] So, the 4to. 1604. The folio— juft. STEEVENS. The correction was probably made by the author. JOHNSON. With martial stalk hath he gone by our watch. HOR. In what particular thought to work, I know not; But, in the gross and scope of mine opinion, MAR. Good now, fit down, and tell me, he that knows, Why this fame ftrict and most observant watch HOR. In the folio we fometimes find a familiar word fubftituted for one more ancient. MALONE. Jump and just were fynonymous in the time of Shakspeare. Ben Jonfon fpeaks of verfes made on jump names, i. e. names that fuit exactly. Nafh fays-" and jumpe imitating a verfe in As in præfenti." So, in Chapman's May Day, 1611: "Your appointment was jumpe at three, with me." Again, in M. Kyffin's tranflation of the Andria of Terence, 1588: "Comes he this day fo jump in the very time of this marriage?" STEEVENS. In what particular thought to work,] i. c. What particular train of thinking to follow. STEEVENS. 9grofs and Scope-] General thoughts, and tendency at large. JOHNSON. 2 -daily caft-] The quartos read-coff. STEEVENS. 3 Why fuch impress of shipwrights,] Judge Barrington, Obfervations on the more ancient Statutes, p. 300, having obferved that Shakspeare gives English manners to every country where his Whose image even but now appear'd to us, Was, as you know, by Fortinbras of Norway, Thereto prick'd on by a moft 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; who, by a feal'd compáct, Well ratified by law, and heraldry,* Did forfeit, with his life, all those his lands, Had he been vanquisher; as, by the fame co-mart, fcene lies, infers from this paffage, that in the time even of Queen Elizabeth, fhipwrights as well as feamen were forced to ferve. WHALLEY. Imprefs fignifies only the act of retaining fhipwrights by giving them what was called preft money (from pret, Fr.) for holding themfelves in readiness to be employed. See Mr. Douce's note on King Lear, Vol. XIV. p. 233, n. 4. STEEVENS. by law, and heraldry,] Mr. Upton fays, that Shakspeare fometimes expreffes one thing by two fubftantives, and that lay and heraldry means, by the herald law. So, in Antony and Cleopatra, Act IV: "Where rather I expect victorious life, "Than death and honour." i. e. honourable death. STEEVENS. Puttenham, in his Art of Poefie, speaks of the Figure of Twynnes, borfes and barbes, for barbed horfes, venim & dartes, for venimous dartes," &c. FARMER. -law, and heraldry,] That is, according to the forms of law beraldry. When the right of property was to be determined by combat, the rules of heraldry were to be attended to, as well as thofe of law. M. MASON. i. e. to be well ratified by the rules of law, and the forms prefcribed jure feciali; fuch as proclamation, &c. MALONE. And carriage of the article defign'd,] Comart fignifies a bargain, His fell to Hamlet: Now, fir, young Fortinbras, Of unimproved mettle hot and full, 6 Hath in the skirts of Norway, here and there, And terms compulfatory," thofe forefaid lands and carrying of the article, the covenant entered into to confirm that bargain. Hence we fee the common reading [covenant] makes a tautology. WARBURTON. Thus the quarto, 1604. The folio reads-as by the fame covenant: for which the late editions have given us-as by that covenant. Co-mart is, I fuppofe, a joint bargain, a word perhaps of our poet's coinage. A mart fignifying a great fair or market, he would not have fcrupled to have written to mart, in the sense of to make a bargain. In the preceding fpeech we find mart used for bargain or purchase. MALONE. He has not fcrupled fo to write in Cymbeline : "As in a Romish ftew," &c. See Vol. XIII. p. 58. STEEVENs. And carriage of the article defign'd,] Carriage, is import: defign'd, is formed, drawn up between them. JOHNSON. Cawdrey in his Alphabetical Table, 1604, defines the verb design thus: "To marke out or appoint for any purpose." See alfo Minfheu's Dict. 1617. " To defigne or fhew by a token." Defigned is yet used in this fenfe in Scotland. The old copies have defeigne. The correction was made by the editor of the fecond folio. MALONE. 6 Of unimproved &c.] Full of unimproved mettle, is full of fpirit not regulated or guided by knowledge or experience. JOHNSON. 7 Shark'd up a lift &c.] I believe, to bark up means to pick up without diftinction, as the shark-fifh collects his prey. The quartos read lawless, inftead of landless. STEEVENS. 8 That hath a stomach in't:] Stomach, in the time of our author, was used for conftancy, refolution. JOHNSON. 9 And terms compulfatory,] Thus the quarto, 1604. The foliocompulfative. STEEVENS. |