A piece of him. Hor. Ber. Welcome, Horatio; welcome, good Marcellus. Hor. What, has this thing appear'd again to-night? Ber. I have seen nothing. Mar. Horatio says, 'tis but our fantasy; And will not let belief take hold of him, Hor. Tush! tush! 'twill not appear. Ber. Sit down awhile; And let us once again assail your ears, What we two nights have seen. Hor. Well, sit we down, And let us hear Bernardo speak of this. Ber. Last night of all, When yon same star, that's westward from the pole, The bell then beating one, Mar. Peace, break thee off; look, where it comes again! Enter Ghost. Ber. In the same figure, like the king that's dead. capprove our eyes,] i. e. Add a new testimony to that of our eyes. To 'approve, in Shakspeare's time, signified to make good, or establish. --JOHNSON and MALONE. à Thou art a scholar, speak to it, Horatio.] Exorcisms were usually performed in Latin.-DOUCE. Hor. Most like:-it harrows me with fear, and wonder. Ber. It would be spoke to. Mar. Speak to it, Horatio. Hor. What art thou, that usurp'st this time of night, Together with that fair and warlike form In which the majesty of buried Denmark Did sometimes march? by heaven I charge thee, speak. Mar. It is offended. Ber. See! it stalks away. Hor. Stay; speak: speak I charge thee, speak. Mar. 'Tis gone, and will not answer. [Exit Ghost. Ber. How now, Horatio? you tremble, and look pale : Is not this something more than fantasy? What think you of it? Hor. Before my God, I might not this believe, Without the sensible 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, He smote the sledded Polack on the ice.g 'Tis strange. Mar. Thus, twice before, and jump at this dead hour, 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, This bodes some strange eruption to our state. Mar. Good now, sit down, and tell me, he that knows, Why this same strict and most observant watch e-it harrows me, &c.] To harrow is to conquer, to subdue. The word is of Saxon origin.-STEEVENS. sledded] i. e. Borne on a sledge, or sled. & He smote the sledded Polack on the ice.] He speaks of a prince of Poland whom he slew in battle. Polack was, in that age, the term for an inhabitant of Poland. Polaque, Fr. --POPE and JOHNSON. h-jump at this dead hour,] i. e. Just at this dead hour: jump and just were synonymous. In what particular thought to work,] i. e. What particular train of thinking to follow. STEEVENS. *-gross and scope-] General thoughts, and tendency at large.-JOHNSON. So nightly toils the subject of the land? Who is't, that can inform me? Hor. That can I; Our last king, At least, the whisper goes so. Had he been vanquisher; as, by the same co-mart, That hath a stomach in't: which is no other 1- law, and heraldry,] When the right of property was to be determined by combat, the rules of heraldry were to be attended to as well as those of law. M. MASON. m n place. 0 gaged-] i. e. Laid as a wager.-NARES. - co-mart,] i. e. Joint bargain. The word does not occur in any other carriage-] i. e. Import, tendency. P design'd,] i. e. Drawn up. - unimproved-] i. e. Uncensured, unimpeached. See GIFFORD'S Ben Jonson, vol. i. 88. * Shark'd up a list, &c.] i. e. Collected in a banditti-like manner, a set of rogues and vagabonds; to shark is nearly equivalent to the modern word to swindle. NARES. s That hath a stomach in't:] i. e. That hath a spirit, or excitement in it: an uncommon use of the word. (As it doth well appear unto our state,) Of this post-haste and romage' in the land. [Ber. I think, it be no other, but even so: Hor. A mote it is, to trouble the mind's eye. -romage]-or rummage, i. e. Tumultuous movement.-JOHNSON. [I think, &c.] These, and all other lines, confined within crotchets, throughout this play, and some others which we have not noticed, are omitted in the folio edition of 1623. The omissions leave the play sometimes better and sometimes worse, and seem made only for the sake of abbreviation.-JOHNSON. * Well may it sort,] The cause and effect are proportionate and suitable.JOHNSON. - the question-] i. e. The theme or subject. 2 palmy-] i. e. Victorious. * As, stars with trains of fire shed dews of blood, Disasters dimm'd the sun; &c.] The original reading of these lines is, As, stars with trains of fire and dews of blood, Disasters in the sun; &c.] These corrupted lines the commentators have attempted to put right: the reading I have adopted is the one which departs least from the letter of the text; disasters are the blasts or strokes of unfavourable planets. b the moist star, &c.] i. e. The moon. omen coming on,] i. e. Portentous event at hand. Omen was anciently used in the sense of fate. FARMER. : Re-enter Ghost. But, soft; behold! lo, where it comes again! I'll cross it, though it blast me. Stay, illusion! Speak to me: If there be any good thing to be done, Speak to me: If thou art privy to thy country's fate, O, speak! Or, if thou hast uphoarded in thy life For which, they say, you spirits oft walk in death, [Cock crows. Speak of it:-stay, and speak.-Stop it, Marcellus. Hor. Do, if it will not stand. Ber. Hor. Mar. 'Tis gone! 'Tis here! 'Tis here! [Exit Ghost. We do it wrong, being so majestical, To offer it the show of violence; For it is, as the air, invulnerable, And our vain blows malicious mockery. Ber. It was about to speak, when the cock crew. Upon a fearful summons. I have heard, d Exit Ghost.] The moment of the evanescence of spirits was supposed to be limited to the crowing of the cock. This belief is mentioned as early as Prudentius, Cathem. Hymn. i. v. 40. But some of his commentators prove it to be of much higher antiquity.-T. WARTON. e Whether in sea, &c.] According to the pneumatology of that time, every element was inhabited by its peculiar order of spirits, who had dispositions different, according to their various places of abode. The meaning therefore is, that all spirits extravagant, wandering out of their element, whether aërial spirits visiting earth, or earthly spirits ranging the air, return to their station, to their proper limits in which they are confined.--JOHNSON. |