(4) What we two nights have feen.

Hor. Well, fit we down,

And let us hear Bernardo speak of this.

Ber. Laft night of all,

When yon fame Star, that's weftward from the pole,
Had made his courfe t'illume that part of heav'n
Where now it burns, Marcellus and myself,

The bell then beating one,

Mar. Peace, break thee off;

Enter the Ghost.

Look, where it comes again.

Ber. In the fame figure; like the King that's dead. Mar. Thou art a scholar; fpeak to it, Horatio. "Ber. Looks it not like the King? Mark it, Horatio. 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 Majefty of buried Denmark

Did fometime march By Heav'n, 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 phantasy?

What think you of it?

Hor. Before my God, I might not this believe,

Without the fenfible and true avouch

Of mine own eyes.

(4) What we two nights bave feen.] This line is by Hanmer given to Marcellus, but without neceffity.

Mar.

Mar. Is it not like the King?

Hor. As thou art to thyself.

Such was the very atmour he had on,
When he th' ambitious Norway combated;
So frown'd he once, when, in an angry parle,
(5) He fmote the fleaded Polack on the ice.
Tis ftrange-

Mar. Thus twice before, (6) and just at this dead hour,

With martial stalk, he hath gone by our Watch.

Hor. In what particular thought to work, I know not,

But, in the grofs fcope 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 ftrict and moft obfervant Watch
So nightly toils the Subjects of the Land?
And why fuch daily caft of brazen Cannon,
And foreign matt for implements of war?
Why fuch imprefs of fhipwrights, whofe fore talk
Does not divide the Sunday from the week?
What might be toward, that this fweaty hafte
Doth make the night joint labourer with the day :
Who is't, that can inform me?

(5) He fmote the fleaded Polack on the ice.] Pole-ax in the common editions. He speaks of a Prince of Poland whom he few in battle. He uses the word Polack again, A& 2. Scene 4.

POPE.

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

Whether thy chance or choice thee bither brings,
Stay, paffenger, and wail the best of kings.
This little ftone a great king's heart doth bold,
Who rul'd the fickle French and Polacks pid:
So frail
are even the bigbeft earthly things.
Go, paffenger, and wail the bap of kings.

(6) and JUST at this dead hour,] The old quarto reads JUMPE But the following editions difcarded it for a more fafhionable word. WARBURTON.

The old reading is, jump at this fame Lour: Same is a kind of correlative to jump; juff is in the oldest folio. The correction was probably made by the authour.

Hor.

Her. That can I;

At least, the whifper goes fo. Our laft King,
Whofe image but even now appear'd to us,
Was, as you know, by Fortinbras of Norway,
Thereto prickt onby a moft emulate pride,
Dar'd to the fight: In which our valiant Hamlet
(For fo this fide of our known world efteem'd him)
Did flay this Fortinbras, (7) who by feal'd compact,
Well ratified by law and heraldry,

Did forfeit, with his life, all thofe his Lands,
Which he stood feiz'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 vanquisher; (8) as by that cov'nant,

(7)

aubo by 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 Low 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 exprefs this fenfe.

A feal'd compact,

Well ratified by law AND beraldry.

Now law, as diftinguished from heraldry, fignifying the civil law; and this fealed compact being a civil-law act, it is as much as to fay, An act of law weil ratified by law, which is abfurd. For the nature of ratification requires that which ratifies, and that which is ratified, fhould not be one and the fame, but different. For these reasons I conclude Shakespeare wrote,

wboy 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 beraldry. So the best and exacteft fpeaker of that age: In the third kind, [i. e. of the Jus gentium] the LAW OF HERALDRY in war is pofitive, &c. Hooker's Ecclefiaftical Polity.

(8)

As by THAT COVENANT,

WARBURTON.

And carriage of the articles defign'd,] The old quarto reads, As by the fame COMART; and this is right. Comart fignifies a bargain, and carriage of the articles, the covenants entered into to confirm that bargain. Hence we fee the common WARBURTON. reading makes a tautology.

And

(9) And carriage of the articles defign'd,
His fell to Hamlet. Now young Fortinbras,
(1) Of uninproved mettle hot and full,
Hath in the skirts of Norway, here and there,
Shark'd up a lift of landlefs refolutes,
For food and diet, to fome enterprize

(2) That hath a ftomach in't; which is no other,
As it doth well appear unto our State,
But to recover of us by ftrong hand,

(3) And terms compulfative, 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 in the Land.
Ber. I think, it be no other ; but even fo
Well may it fort, that this portentous figure
Comes armed through our watch fo like the King,
That was, and is, the queftion of these wars.

Hor. A mote it is to trouble the mind's eye.
In the most high and (4) palmy State of Rome,
A little ere the mightiest Julius fell,

The Graves flood tenantlefs; and the sheeted Dead
Did fqueak and gibber in the Roman streets;
Stars fhone with trains of fire, Dews of blood fell;
(5) Difaflers veil'd the Sun; and the moift Star,

(9) And carriage of the articles defigned,] Carriage, is import: defigned, is formed, drawn up between them.

(1) of unimproved mettle- -] Unimproved, for unrefined.

WARBURTON.

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

(2) That bath a flomach in't ;- -] Stomach, in the time of our authour, was used for conftancy, refolution. (3) And terms compulfative,

compulfatory.

The old quarto, better,

WARBURTON.

*Thefe, and all other lines printed in the Italick letter, throughout this play, are omitted in the folio edition of 1623. The omiffions leave the play fometimes better and sometimes worse, and feem made only for the fake of abbreviation. (4) Palmy State of Rome,] Palmy, for victorious; in the other editions, flourishing.

(5) Difafters veil'd the Sun;

POP E.

-] Difafters is here finely used

in its original fignification of evil conjunction of stars.

WARBURTON.

Upon

Upon whofe influence Neptune's Empire flands,
Was fick almoft to dooms-day with eclipfe.
And even the like (6) precurse of fierce events,
As harbingers preceding fill the fates,
(7) And prologue to the omen'd coming on,
Have beav'n and earth together demonflrated
Unto our climatures and country-men.

Enter Ghoft again.

But foft, behold! lo, where it comes again!
I'll cross it, though it blaft me. Stay, illufion!

[Spreading his Arms. (8) If thou haft any found, or ufe of voice, Speak to me.

If there be any good thing to be done,
That may to thee do ease, and grace to me,
Speak to me.

If thou art privy to thy Country's fate,
Which happily foreknowing may avoid,
Oh fpeak 1-

Or, if thou haft uphoarded in thy life
Extorted treasure in the womb of earth,

For which, they fay, you Spirits oft walk in death,

[Cock crows. Speak of it. Stay, and fpeak-Stop it, MarcellusMar. Shall I ftrike at it with my partizan ?

Hor. Do, if it will not ftand.

Ber. 'Tis here

(6) Precurfe of fierce events,] Fierce, for terrible.

WARBURTON.

(7) And prologue to the omen coming on,] But prologue and omen are merely fynonymous here. The Poet means, that these ftrange Phænomena are prologues and forerunners of the events prefag'd: And fuch fenfe the flight alteration, which I have ventured to make, by changing omen to omen'd, very aptly gives.

Omen, for fate.

Hanmer follows Theobald.

THEOBALD. WARBURTON.

(8) If thou hast any found,] The fpeech of Horatio to the fpectre is very elegant and noble, and congruous to the common traditions of the caufes of apparitions.

V o L. X.