Speak to me: If there be any good thing to be done, If thou art privy to thy country's fate, Or, if thou haft uphoarded in thy life [Cock crows. Speak of it :-stay, and speak.-Stop it, Marcellus. MAR. Shall I ftrike at it with my partizan? HOR. Do, if it will not ftand.8 BER. HOR. any 'Tis here! 'Tis here! Or, if thou haft uphoarded &c.] So, in Decker's Knight's Conjuring, &c. " -If of them had bound the fpirit of gold by any charmes in caves, or in iron fetters under the ground, they fhould for their own foules quiet (which questionleffe elfe would whine up and down) if not for the good of their children, release it." STEEVENS. 8 Stop it, Marcellus. Hor. Do, if it will not stand.] I am unwilling to suppose that Shakspeare could appropriate thefe abfurd effufions to Horatio, who is a fcholar, and has fufficiently proved his good understanding by the propriety of his addreffes to the phantom. Such a man therefore must have known that "As eafy might he the intrenchant air as commit any act of violence on the royal fhadow. The words-Stop it, Marcellus,-and Do, if it will not fland-better fuit the next fpeaker, Bernardo, who, in the true fpirit of an unlettered officer, nihil non arroget armis. Perhaps the firft idea that occurs to a man of this defcription, is to ftrike at what offends him. Nicholas Pouffin, in his celebrated picture of the Crucifixion, has introduced a fimilar Occurrence. While lots are cafting for the facred vefture, the graves are giving up their dead. This prodigy is perceived by one of the foldiers, who inftantly grafps his fword, as if preparing to defend himself, or refent fuch an invafion from the other world. MAR. 'Tis gone! We do it wrong, being fo majestical, For it is, as the air, invulnerable, [Exit Ghoft. 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 fummons. I have heard, The cock, that is the trumpet to the morn," Doth with his lofty and fhrill-founding throat Awake the god of day; and, at his warning, Whether in fea or fire, in earth or air,1 The two next speeches—'Tis here!—'Tis here!—may be allotted to Marcellus and Bernardo; and the third-'Tis gone! &c. to Horatio, whofe fuperiority of character indeed feems to demand it.As the text now ftands, Marcellus propofes to ftrike the Ghoft with his partizan, and yet afterwards is made to defcant on the indecorum and impotence of fuch an attempt. The names of fpeakers have fo often been confounded by the first publishers of our author, that I fuggeft this change with lefs hefitation than I fhould exprefs concerning any conjecture that could operate to the difadvantage of his words or meaning.-Had the affignment of the old copies been fuch, would it have been thought liable to objection? STEEVENS. 8 it is, as the air, invulnerable,] So, in Macbeth: "As eafy may'ft thou the intrenchant air "With thy keen fword imprefs." Again, in King John: Against the invulnerable clouds of heaven." MALONE. 9 The cock, that is the trumpet to the morn,] So, the quarto, 1604. Folio-to the day. In England's Parnaffus, 8vo. 1600, I find the two following lines afcribed to Drayton, but know not in which of his poems they are found: "And now the cocke, the morning's trumpeter, Mr. Gray has imitated our poet: "The cock's fhrill clarion, or the echoing horn, MALONE. 2 Whether in fea &c.] According to the pneumatology of 4 The extravagant + and erring spirit hies that time, every element was inhabited by its peculiar order of fpirits, who had difpofitions different, according to their various places of abode. The meaning therefore is, that all Spirits extravagant, wandering out of their element, whether aerial fpirits vifiting earth, or earthly fpirits ranging the air, return to their ftation, to their proper limits in which they are confined. We might read: 66 And at his warning "Th' extravagant and erring spirit hies But this change, though it would fmooth the construction, is not neceffary, and, being unneceffary, fhould not be made against authority. JOHNSON. A Chorus in Andreini's drama, called Adamo, written in 1613, confifts of fpirits of fire, air, water, and hell, or fubterraneous, being the exiled angels. "Choro di Spiriti ignei, aerei, acquatici, ed infernali," &c. Thefe are the demons to which Shakspeare alludes. These spirits were fuppofed to controul the elements in which they refpectively refided; and when formally invoked or commanded by a magician, to produce tempefts, conflagrations, floods, and earthquakes. For thus fays The Spanish Mandevile of Miracles, &c. 1600: "Those which are in the middle region of the ayre, and those that are under them nearer the earth, are those, which fometimes out of the ordinary operation of nature doe moove the windes with greater fury than they are accuftomed; and do, out of feafon, congeele the cloudes, caufing it to thunder, lighten, hayle, and to deftroy the graffe, corne, &c. &c.-Witches and negromancers worke many fuch like things by the help of thofe fpirits," &c. Ibid. Of this fchoole therefore was Shakspeare's Profpero in The Tempeft. T. WARTON. Bourne of Newcastle, in his Antiquities of the common People, informs us, "It is a received tradition among the vulgar, that at the time of cock-crowing, the midnight fpirits forfake these lower regions, and, go to their proper places.-Hence it is, (fays he) that in country places, where the way of life requires more early labour, they always go chearfully to work at that time; whereas if they are called abroad fooner, they imagine every thing they fee, a wandering ghoft." And he quotes on this occafion, as all his predeceffors had done, the well-known lines from the first hymn of Prudentius. I know not whofe tranflation he gives us, but there is an old one by Heywood. The pious chanfons, the hymns and carrols, which Shak fpeare mentions prefently, were ufually copied from the elder Chriftian poets. FARMER. To his confine: and of the truth herein MAR. It faded on the crowing of the cock." Some fay, that ever 'gainst that season comes Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated, This bird of dawning fingeth all night long: And then, they fay, no fpirit dares ftir abroad;" The nights are wholesome; then no planets strike, No fairy takes," nor witch hath power to charm, So hallow'd and fo gracious is the time. 4 The extravagant—] i, e. got out of his bounds. WARBURTON. So, in Nobody and Somebody, 1598: "they took me up for a 'ftravagant." Shakspeare imputes the fame effect to Aurora's harbinger in the laft fcene of the third act of the Midfummer Night's Dream. See Vol. V. p. 112. STEEVENS. s It faded on the crowing of the cock.] This is a very ancient fuperftition. Philoftratus giving an account of the apparition of Achilles' fhade to Apollonius Tyaneus, fays that it vanished with a little glimmer as foon as the cock crowed. Vit. Apol. iv. 16. STEEVENS. Vado, Lat. So, Faded has here its original fenfe; it vanished. in Spenfer's Faery Queen, Book I. c. v. ft. 15: "He ftands amazed how he thence fhould fade." That our author uses the word in this fenfe, appears from the following lines: 66 The morning cock crew loud; "And at the found it shrunk in haste away, "And vanish'd from our fight." MALONE. can walk. dares ftir abroad;] Thus the quarto. The folio reads— STEEVENS. Spirit was formerly used as a monofyllable: Sprite. The quarto, 1604, has-dare ftir abroad. Perhaps Shakspeare wrote-no fpirits dare ftir abroad. The neceffary correction was made in a late quarto of no authority, printed in 1637. MALONE. No fairy takes,] No fairy frikes with lamenefs or diseases. This fenfe of take is frequent in this author. JOHNSON. So, in The Merry Wives of Windfor: "And there he blasts the tree, and takes the cattle." STEEVENS. HOR. So have I heard, and do in part believe it. But, look, the morn, in ruffet mantle clad, Walks o'er the dew of yon high eastern hill: Break we our watch up; and, by my advice, Let us impart what we have seen to-night Unto young Hamlet; for, upon my life, This fpirit, dumb to us, will speak to him: Do you confent we fhall acquaint him with it, As needful in our loves, fitting our duty? MAR. Let's do't, I pray; and I this morning know Where we shall find him most convenient. [Exeunt. -high eastern hill:] The old quarto has it better eastward. WARBURTON. The fuperiority of the latter of thefe readings is not, to me at leaft, very apparent. I find the former used in Lingua, &c. 1607: - and overclimbs 66 "Yonder gilt eastern hills." Again, in Browne's Britannia's Paftorals, Book IV. Sat. iv. p. 75, edit. 1616: "And ere the funne had clymb'd the eafterne hils,” Eaftern and eastward, alike fignify toward the eaft. STEEVENS. |