Hor. Heav'n will direct it.

Mar. Nay, let's follow

SCENE VIII.

[Exeunt.

A more remote Part of the Platform.

Re-enter Ghoft and Hamlet.

Ham. Where wilt thou lead me? Speak, I'll go no further.

Ghost. Mark me.

Ham. I will.

Ghoft. My hour is almost come,

When I to fulphurous and tormenting flames

Muft render up myself.

Ham. Alas, poor Ghoft!

Ghoft. Pity me not, but lend thy ferious hearing To what I fhall unfold.

Ham. Speak, I am bound to hear.

Ghoft. So art thou to revenge, when thou shalt hear. Ham. What?

Ghoft. I am thy father's Spirit;

Doom'd for a certain term to walk the night,
And, for the day, (6) confin'd to faft in fires;
'Till the foul crimes, done in my days of nature,
Are burnt and purg'd away. But that I am forbid
To tell the fecrets of my prifon-house,

I could a tale unfold, whofe lightest word
Would harrow up thy foul, freeze thy young blood,
Make thy two eyes, like ftars, ftart from their spheres,
Thy knotted and combined locks to part,

*Doom'd for a certain time to walk the night,

And for the day confin'd to faft in fires.] Chaucer has a fimilar paffage, with regard to the punishment of Hell. Parfon's Tale, p. 193. Mr. Urry's edition.

"And moreover, the mifefe (uneafinefs) of hell,

"Shall be in defaute of mete and drink."

(6) —confin'd ro faft in fires ;]

We fhould read,

TOO faft in fires.

Dr. GRAY.

i. e. very closely confined. The particle too is ufed frequently for the fuperlative moft, or very.

WARBURTON.

I am rather inclined to read, confin'd to lasting fires, to fires unremitted and unconfumed. The change is flight. G 2

And

And each particular hair to ftand on end
Like quills upon the fretful porcupine:
But this eternal blazon muft not be

To ears of flesh and blood. Lift, lift, oh lift!
If thou didst ever thy dear father love-

Ham. O heav'n!

Ghost. Revenge his foul and moft unnatural murder.

Ham. Murder?

Ghost. Murder moft foul, as in the best it is;

But this moft foul, ftrange, and unnatural.

Ham. Hafte me to know it, that I, with wings as fwift

(7) Aş meditation or the thoughts of love,

May fweep to my revenge.

Ghoft. I find thee apt;

(8) And duller shouldst thou be than the fat weed That roots itself in ease on Lethe's wharf,

Wouldst thou not ftir in this. Now, Hamlet, hear.
'Tis given out, that, fleeping in my orchard,

A ferpent ftung me. So the whole ear of Denmark
Is by a forged procefs of my death

Rankly abus'd; but know, thou noble Youth,
The ferpent, that did fting thy father's life,
Now wears his crown.

Ham. Oh, my prophetick foul! my uncle?
Ghoft. Ay, that incestuous, that adulterate beast,

With

(7) As meditation or the thoughts of love,] This fimilitude is extremely beautiful. The word, meditation, is confecrated by the myfies, to fignify that ftretch and flight of mind which aspires to the enjoyment of the fupreme good. So that Hamlet, confidering with what to compare the fwiftnefs of his revenge, chooses two of the most rapid things in nature, the ardency of divine and human paffion, in an enthufiaft and a lover. WARBURTON.

The comment on the word meditation is fo ingenious, that I hope it is juft.

(8) And duller shouldst thou be, than the fat weed

Abat roots itself in cafe on Lethe's wharf, &c.] Shakespeare, apparently through ignorance, makes Roman Catbolicks of thefe pagan Danes; and here gives a defcription of purgatory: But yet mixes' it with the pagan fable of Lethe's wharf. Whether he did it to infinuate, to the zealous Proteflants of his time, that the pagan and popish purgatory ftood both upon the fame footing of credibility; or whether it was by the fame kind of licentious inadvertence that Michael Angelo brought Cbaron's bark into his picture of the lat judgment, is not eafy to decide WARBURTON.

With witchcraft of his wit, with trait'rous gifts,
O wicked wit, and gifts, that have the power
So to feduce! won to his shameful luft”
The will of my moft feeming-virtuous Queen.
Oh Hamlet, what a falling off was there!
From me, whofe love was of that dignity,
That it went hand in hand ́ev’n with the vow
I made to her in marriage; and to decline
Upon a wretch, whofe natural gifts were poor
To thofe of mine!

But virtue, as it never will be mov'd,

Tho' lewdnefs court it in a fhape of heav'n;
So luft, though to a radiant angel link'd,
Will fate itself in a celestial bed,

And prey on garbage.

But, foft! methinks, I fcent the morning air-
Brief let me be; Sleeping within mine orchard,
My cuftom always of the afternoon,
Upon my fecret hour thy uncle ftole
With juice of curfed hebenon in a viol,
And in the porches of mine ears did pour
The leperous diftilment; whofe effect
Holds fuch an enmity with blood of man,
That fwift as quick filver it courfes through
The nat'ral gates and allies of the body;
And, with a fudden vigour, it doth poffet
And curd, like eager droppings into milk,
The thin and wholefome blood: fo did it mine,
And a most instant tetter bark'd about,

Moft lazar-like, with vile and loathfome cruft

* The word here used was more probably defigred by a Metathefis, either of the poet, or tranfcriber, for benebon, that is, benbane; of which the most common kind (byoscyamus niger) is certainly narco-v tic, and perhaps, if taken in a confiderable quantity, might prove poisonous. Galen calls it cold in the third degree; by which in this, as well as opium, he feems not to mean an actual coldness, but the power it has of benumbing the faculties. Diofcorides afcribes to it the property of producing madnefs (vooxinμos μanwins.) Thefe qualities have been confirmed by feveral cafes related in modern obfervations. In Wepfer we have a good account of the various effects of this root upon moft of the members of a Convent in Germany, who eat of it for fupper by mistake, mixt with fuc cory; heat in the throat, giddinefs, dimne fs of fight, and delirium. Cicut. Aquatic. c. 18. Dr. GRAY.

G 3

All

All my fmooth body.

Thus was I, fleeping, by a brother's hand,

Of life, of Crown, of Queen, at (9) once dispatcht; Cut off ev'n in the bloffoms of my fin,

(1) Unhoufel'd, (2) disappointed, (3) unaneal'd :

(9) -at once difpatcht;] Difpatikt, for bereft.

No

WARBURTON.

(1) Unboufel'd,] Without the facrament being taken.
(2) Unanointed, Without extreme unction.
(3) Unaneal'd,] No knell rung.

In other editions,

Unbouneled, unanointed, unareal'd r

The Ghoft, having recounted the process of his murder, proceeds to exaggerate the inhumanity and unnaturalaefs of the fact, from the circumstances in which he was furprifed, But thefe, I find, have been ftumbling blocks to our editors; and therefore I muft amend and explain these three compound adjectives in their order. Inftead of unbouzzel'd, we must restore, unbeufel'd, i, e. without the Sacrament taken; from the old Saxon word for the Sacrament, boufel. In the next place, unanointed is a fophiftication of the text r the old copies concur in reading, disappointed. I corre&,

Unboxfer'd, unappointed,

i. e. no confeffion of fins made, no reconciliation to heaven, no appointment of penance by the church. Unaneal'd I agree to be the poet's genuine word; but I must take the liberty to difpute Mr. Pope's explication of it, viz. No knell rung. The adjective formed from knell, must have been unkwell'd, or unknall'd. There is no rule in orthography for finking the k in the deflection of any verb or compound formed from kell, and melting it into a vowel. What fenfe does unaneal'd then bear? SKINNER, in his Lexicon of old and obfolete English terms, tells us, that anral'd is unetus from the Teutonick propofition an, and Ole, i, e. Oil & fo that unaneal'd must confequently fignify, unanointed, not having the extream unction. The poet's reading and explication being afcertained, he very finely makes his ghost complain of thefe four dreadful hardships; that he had been difpatch'd out of life without receiving the bofle, or facrament; without being reconcil'd to hear. ven and abfolv'd; without the benefit of extream uretion; or withut fo much as a confeffion made of his fins. The having no knell rung, I think, is not a point of equal confequence to any of thefe; efpecially, if we confider, that the Romish Church admits the ef ficacy of praying for the dead.

THEOBALD.

This is a very difficult line. I think Theobald's objection to the fenfe of unaneal'd, for notified by the bell, muft be owned to be very ftrong. I have not yet by my enquiry fatisfied myfelf. Hanmer's. explication of unaneal'd by unprepared, becaufe to anneal metals, is to prepare them in manufacture, is too general and vague; there is no refemblance between any funeral ceremony and the practice of annealing metals.

No reck'ning made, but fent to my account
With all my imperfections on my head.
Oh horrible! oh, horrible! moft horrible!
If thou haft nature in thee, bear it not;
Let not the royal bed of Denmark be
A couch for luxury and damned inceft.
But however thou purfu'ft this act,

Taint not thy mind, nor let thy foul contrive
Against thy mother aught; leave her to heav'n,
And to thofe thorns that in her bofom lodge,
To prick and fting her. Fare thee well at once!
The glow-worn fhews the Matin to be near,
And 'gins to pale his (4) uneffectual fire..
Adieu, adieu, adieu; remember me.

[Exit.

Ham. Oh, all ye host of heav'n! oh earth! what

elfe!

And fhall I couple hell

Oh, hold my heart,

And you, my finews, grow not inftant old;

But bear me ftiffly up. Remember thee

Ay, thou poor Ghoft, while memory holds a feat
In this diftracted Globe. Remember thee-
Yea, from the table of my memory

I'll wipe away all trivial fond records,

All faws of books, all forms, all preffures paft,.
That youth and obfervation copied there;
And thy commandment all alone fhall live
Within the book and volume of my brain,
Unmix'd with baser matter. Yes, by heav'n.
O moft pernicious woman!

Oh villain, villain, fmiling damned villain!
My tables, meet it is, I fet it down,

That one may fmile, and fmile, and be a villain;
At least, I'm fure, it may be fo in Denmark. [Writing.
So, uncle, there you are.. Now to my word;

Difappointed is the fame as unappointed, and may be properly explained unprepared; a man well furnished with things neceffary for. any enterprife, was faid to be well appointed.

Ob barrible! ob borrible ! most borrible!] It was very ingeniously hinted to me by a learned lady, that this line feems to belong to Hamlet, in whofe mouth it is a proper and natural exclamation, and who, according to the practice of the ftage, may be fuppofed to interrupt fo long a fpeech.

(4)-uneffectual fire, i, e. fhining without heat.

G 4:

WARB..
It