HAMLET.

"For he being dead, with him is beauty slain,"

and other passages of a similar nature. See also Twelfth Night, i. 5.

"'Tis the wayTo call hers, exquisite, in question more."

"'Tis the way

To call hers, exquisite, in question more."

This is not very intelligible. We might read 'her exquisite,' or rather 'toquestion.' To "call in question," in Shakespeare always means, to express a doubt of. 'Question' is examine, a word just used.

"Earth hath swallowed all my hopes but she,She is the hopeful lady of my earth."

"Earth hath swallowed all my hopes but she,

She is the hopeful lady of my earth."

Here a rime is lost, in consequence of the 'earth' of the first line being in the printer's mind. There can be little question, I should think, that the original word was not 'earth,' butfee, feud, fief, landed property, as inknight's fee,in fee, etc., with which alone 'lady' accords. 'Theearth' has long been the reading the first line.

"Which on more view of many—mine being one,May stand in number, though in reckoning none" ...

"Which on more view of many—mine being one,

May stand in number, though in reckoning none" ...

This is the reading of both 4tos and folio, except 4to of 1597, which reads "Such amongst." I should feel inclined to read "Suchas onview." By 'more' must be meant more extensive. The aposiopesis, so suited to the hasty, impetuous character of the speaker, makes all clear.

"But in that crystal scales, let there be weighedYour lady's love against some other maid."

"But in that crystal scales, let there be weighed

Your lady's love against some other maid."

This is very oddly expressed; for it was the lady herself, not her love, that was to be weighed. Theobald proposedlady-love; but I doubt if that phrase was then in use. I read 'lady and love,' the & of the MS. having been made s by the printer, as it becametin 'meant' for 'meanand' in All's Well, iv. 3.

"Oh! then, I see, Queen Mab has been with you.Ben.Queen Mab! What's she?Mer.She is the fairies' midwife, etc."

"Oh! then, I see, Queen Mab has been with you.

Ben.Queen Mab! What's she?

Mer.She is the fairies' midwife, etc."

I think it best to read thus with 4to, 1597, addingMer.before 'She is.' Benvolio's question is evidently wanted.

"Of healths five fathom deep."

It seems almost incredible that such a glaring absurdity as this should have escaped a long succession of critics; and yet I am not aware that any have noticed it. What is ahealth? a wish, a moral idea, and how could that be 'five fathom deep'? or be an object of terror to a soldier? It may be said that it is the cup that is meant, but of this we have no instance; and even if we had, Master Silence, who was a man of peace, sings—

"Fill the cup and let it come;I'll pledge you a mile to the bottóm."

"Fill the cup and let it come;

I'll pledge you a mile to the bottóm."

So, as we may see, he was not, and why should a soldier be, afraid of it? Malone quotes from Westward Hoe, 1607, a passage in which we have drinkingfathom deep, and it is apparently drinking healths; but there is nothing about terror in it, and it seems, no unusual circumstance, to have arisen from the present line. In fine, something must have been named that was a real object of terror to a soldier; and I know no word so likely to have been used astrenches, which might easily have been mistaken for 'healths.' In that case the metric accent falling on 'five' would augment the terror.

"This is shethat."

"His son was but a ward two years ago.—Good youths, i' faith!—Oh! youth's a jolly thing."

"His son was but a ward two years ago.—

Good youths, i' faith!—Oh! youth's a jolly thing."

The last line is only found in 4to 1597. It is so natural and so pleasing, that I could not refrain from adopting it.

"It seems she hangs upon the cheek of Night,Like a rich jewel in an Ethiop's ear."

"It seems she hangs upon the cheek of Night,

Like a rich jewel in an Ethiop's ear."

This is the reading of both 4tos and folio; yet editors have adopted the far inferior reading of the 2nd folio 'Her beautyhangs!' We have the same idea in

"Presents thy shadow to my sightless view,Which, like a jewel hung in ghastly night,Makes black night beauteous, and her old face new."

"Presents thy shadow to my sightless view,

Which, like a jewel hung in ghastly night,

Makes black night beauteous, and her old face new."

Son. xxvii.

"So shews a snowy dove, trooping with crows,As yonder lady o'er her fellows shows."

"So shews a snowy dove, trooping with crows,

As yonder lady o'er her fellows shows."

The 4to 1597 reads in the first lineshines; and the first 'shews' has every appearance of having been, as usual, suggested by the second.

"This holy shrine, the gentle fine is this."

So Warburton, forsinof 4tos and folio.

"Young Abraham Cupid, he that shot so trim."

Mr. Dyce reads auburn, and he gives undoubted instances ofAbrahamorAbrambeing used for this word. Still I incline to the general reading, first given by Upton, ofAdam, with an allusion to Adam Bell, the great archer; and I think there may be another to Adam, the first man; for Shakespeare may have known that in classic mythology Love was the first of beings. There would be humour, then, in 'young Adam' denoting the union of youth and age.

"Her vestal-livery is but pale and green."

The reading of 4to 1597; the others and the folio have 'sick and green.'

"As glorious to this night being o'er my head."

Theobald most tastelessly read thesight.

"When he bestrides the lazy-pacing clouds."

The reading of 4to 1597; the others and the folio read 'puffing,' caused, as has been observed, bypassingspelt with longss in the MS.

"To cease thy strife, and leave me to my grief."

The undated 4to readssuitfor 'strife,' which has been generally, and rightly, adopted. In the poem of Romeus and Juliet, the latter uses the very expressioncease your suiton the same occasion.

"Romeo!—My dear!—At what o'clock to-morrow?"

For 'My dear,' the reading of the undated 4to, that of 1597 hasMadam; the others and the folioMy niece; the 2nd folioMy sweet, the usual reading.

"She will indite him to some supper."

The 4to 1597 hasinvite; but Benvolio was probably anticipating the nurse's language.

"Bid her devise some means to come to shriftThis afternoon." * * * *

"Bid her devise some means to come to shrift

This afternoon." * * * *

There is something lost here; perhapsto the Franciscan convent.

"R is for the ... no; I know it begins" etc.

Editors in general read, after Tyrwhitt, 'R is for thedog.' Mr. Collier has 'R is for thee? no.'

"My words would bandy her to my sweet love,And his to me. * * * *But old folks many faine as they were dead,Unwieldy, slow, heavy, and pale as lead."

"My words would bandy her to my sweet love,

And his to me. * * * *

But old folks many faine as they were dead,

Unwieldy, slow, heavy, and pale as lead."

In the second line we might addwould bandy her again. 'Many faine' in the next is nonsense; for 'many,'marryhas been proposed, and I adopt it, readingfare(to go, to move along, a Spenserian term) for 'fame.' In Cor. ii. 2 we have againainforar. For 'pale' we should probably readdull.

"And nature, as it grows again toward earth,Is fashion'd for the journey,dull and heavy."

"And nature, as it grows again toward earth,

Is fashion'd for the journey,dull and heavy."

Timon, ii. 1.

We have elsewhere (Mer. of Ven. ii. 7) "dulllead." Moreover lead is not pale, and the Nurse would seem to have been rather a jolly, rubicund sort of woman; iffarebe the right reading, it would almost requiredull. On the other hand, we have in Chaucer (Tr. and Cr. ii), "With asshenpale as lede," and (Dream) "Thatpalehe wax as anylede."

"They'll be in scarlet straight at any news."

I had been anticipated by Hanmer in reading 'straightway' and 'my'. Sidney Walker, too, I find, read 'atmy nextnews.' In the errata of a work printed in 1754 I have met "formyr.any." I, however, read in preference,

"They will be straight in scarlet at my news."

"Or reason calmly of your grievances."

'Or' forand, as Capell also saw.

"Will you pluck your sword out of his pilcher by the ears?"

Singer readspitcher. I think the right word ispilche, a leathern coat. In v. 1 the sheath of a dagger is termed itshouse.

"This day's black fate on more days doth depend."

We should perhaps transpose, and read "On this day's," etc.

"O prince! O [cousin] husband! O, the blood is spilled."

So Mr. Dyce also reads.

"Spread thy close curtain, love-performing Night!That runaway's eyes may wink, and RomeoLeap to these arms, untalk'd of and unseen."

"Spread thy close curtain, love-performing Night!

That runaway's eyes may wink, and Romeo

Leap to these arms, untalk'd of and unseen."

Of 'runaway,' which cannot possibly be right, the Cambridge edition enumerates no less than twenty-nine various corrections! Warburton understood by it the sun; Steevens, the night; Douce, Juliet; and a Mr. Halpen, Cupid. Jackson, followed by Collier, readunawares. Mr. Dyce conjecturedroving,soon day's, andrude day's, whichlast he has placed in the text, but which seems to me to be too young-ladyish for the ardent andnaïveJuliet; and moreover she had already called for the winking of day's eye,i.e.for sunset. Some sense might also be made ofrunagates, as persons wandering about by night, and still better ofrunabouts, a word used by Marston (What you Will, iii. 1), and which I have placed in the text, as making tolerable sense and bearing resemblance to 'runaways.' Mr. Singer readrumourers, against which little objection can be made. My own opinion—to which I was led by Singer's reading, and in which I find I had been anticipated by Heath and Mr. Grant White—is, that the poet's word may have beenRumour's. In the poem on which this play is founded, Juliet, when pondering, before her marriage, on what might be the consequence of admitting Romeo to a lover's privilege, says:—

"So, I defil'd,Reportshall take her trump of black defame,Whence she, with puffed cheek, shall blow a blast so shrillOf my dispraise, that with the noise Verona she shall fill."

"So, I defil'd,Reportshall take her trump of black defame,

Whence she, with puffed cheek, shall blow a blast so shrill

Of my dispraise, that with the noise Verona she shall fill."

Now Shakespeare may have wished to preserve this imagery, and have substitutedRumourforReportfor euphony's sake and other causes. Rumour in effect seems to have been the same as the classic Fame. In Sir Clyomen and Sir Clamydes, a piece with which he was probably well acquainted, we meet "Enter Rumour running," and this may have been in his mind when he was writing the Induction to 2 Hen. IV. In his other plays also he personifies bothrumourandreport, as in

"That pitiful Rumour may report my flight,To consolate thine ear. Come night, end day;For with the dark, poor thief, I'll steal away."

"That pitiful Rumour may report my flight,

To consolate thine ear. Come night, end day;

For with the dark, poor thief, I'll steal away."

All's Well, iii. 2.

He may also have had these lines of Phaer's Virgil in his mind:—

"At night she [Fame] walks, nor slumber sweet doth take nor never sleeps,By day on houses' tops she sits, and gates or towers she keeps,On watching-towers she climbs, and cities great she makes aghast,Both truth and falsehood forth she tells, and lies abroad doth cast."

"At night she [Fame] walks, nor slumber sweet doth take nor never sleeps,

By day on houses' tops she sits, and gates or towers she keeps,

On watching-towers she climbs, and cities great she makes aghast,

Both truth and falsehood forth she tells, and lies abroad doth cast."

We may, then, fancy Juliet to suppose that Rumour was on the watch to detect and expose her, and she wishes that the gloom may be so intense that her eyes must wink perforce, and so Romeo may leap to her arms unseen, and their union remain undivulged. There may also have been intended a play on the names Rumour and Romeo, like "My conceal'd lady to our cancell'd love" (iii. 3). As Shakespeare undoubtedly knew French, he may have had these lines of Marot in his mind:—

"Car noire Nuict, qui des amants prend cure,Les couvrira de sa grand robbe obscure;Et si rendra cependant endormisCeux qui d'Amour sont mortelz ennemis."

"Car noire Nuict, qui des amants prend cure,

Les couvrira de sa grand robbe obscure;

Et si rendra cependant endormis

Ceux qui d'Amour sont mortelz ennemis."

Eleg. xi.

"Till strange Love grow bold,Think true love acted simple modesty."

"Till strange Love grow bold,

Think true love acted simple modesty."

Rowe, who has been followed by all, reads 'grown,' and he probably was right. Still, when we consider the joyous perturbation of Juliet's mind, there may be an asyndeton, and she may be speakingallo staccato. I have therefore, in my Edition, left the text unaltered.

"A gentler judgement vanish'd from his lips."

I have never met with any sense of 'vanish' but its ordinary one, which certainly will not suit here. We should therefore, I think, readissued, or some word of similar meaning. It is curious that Massinger seems to have taken 'vanish'd' on Shakespeare's authority. "Upon those lips from which those sweet wordsvanish'd" (Reneg. v. 5). We have, however, in Lucrece:—

"To make more vent for passage of her breath,Which thronging through her lips, sovanishethAs smoke from Ætna, that in air consumes."

"To make more vent for passage of her breath,

Which thronging through her lips, sovanisheth

As smoke from Ætna, that in air consumes."

But the breath is material.

"Taking thy part he rush'd aside the law."

Would notpush'dbe better? as in

"But that the scambling and unquiet timeDidpushit out of further question."

"But that the scambling and unquiet time

Didpushit out of further question."

Hen. V. i. 1.

"But Romeo may not: he is banished.This may flies do, while I from this must fly;And sayest thou yet that exile is not death?"

"But Romeo may not: he is banished.

This may flies do, while I from this must fly;

And sayest thou yet that exile is not death?"

The folio, which gives the best text here, erroneously puts the first of these lines after the third. The 4tos of 1599 and 1609 add most unnecessarily:—

"Flies may do this, but I from this must fly;They are free men, but I am banished,"

"Flies may do this, but I from this must fly;

They are free men, but I am banished,"

which seems to have been an earlier form of the two preceding lines. See on L. L. L. iv. 3.

"Art thou gone so? my lord, my love, my friend."

So the first 4to, which, with Mr. Dyce, I follow. The other editions read:—

"Art thou gone so? love, lord, ay husband, friend."

"Which youdoweep for.—Feeling so the loss."

"Villain and he be many miles asunder!God pardonhim! I do with all my heart."

"Villain and he be many miles asunder!

God pardonhim! I do with all my heart."

I have placed a (!) at the end of the first line; for Juliet is evidently speaking here in the ambiguous manner of her subsequent speeches. She means an indicative, but wishes her mother to understand her in the optative mood. The editors of the last century, not understanding this, have without any authority changed 'be' toare. In the next linehimwas added in the 2nd folio. I should be inclined to make anAsideof 'I do with all my heart,' as she pretends to plan his death. In the Globe Shakespeare the first line is made anAside.

"My poor heart is so for a kinsman vex'd."

Both 4tos and folio—followed by all the editors—read 'Is my poor heart,' connecting it with the preceding 'dead.' It is manifest they did not understand the ambiguous language of Juliet.

"To wreak the love I bore my cousinTybalt."

The necessary addition was made in the 2nd folio.

"When the sun sets the earth doth drizzle dew."

The undated 4to readsair, and to talk of the earth drizzling dew appears no doubt to be absurd; but expressions as incongruous occur in these plays, and we have in Lucrece "But as theearthdothweep, thesun being set."

"But fettle your fine joints 'gainst Thursday next."

I cannot conceive why the editors all readsettle; for 'fettle,'i.e.prepare, make ready, is the reading of the 4tos and folio.

"But sells his team, andfettlethto the war."

Hall, Sat. iv. 6.

"They to their long hard journeyfettlingthem."

Silvester, Maiden's Blush.

"God's bread! it makes me mad; day, night, hour, tide [time],Work, play, alone, in company, still my careHath been to have her match'd, and having now providedA gentleman of noble parentage."

"God's bread! it makes me mad; day, night, hour, tide [time],

Work, play, alone, in company, still my care

Hath been to have her match'd, and having now provided

A gentleman of noble parentage."

So I arrange this passage, in accordance with the old editions, except the first 4to, the reading of which is different, and is not verse at all. I omit 'time' as injurious to the symmetry of the language; for the words in the first two lines run, as will be seen, pairwise. It may have been a marginal note explanatory of 'tide.' As to the last line but one being of six feet, three such have already occurred in this scene.

"Oh! he's a lovely gentleman,in sooth."

"Or else beshrew them both.—Amen!—What to?"

"And I am nothing slow to slack his haste."

Collier's folio, mistaking the sense, reads 'something.' 'To' is, so as to, that I should. Editors have not understood it.

"Be borne to burial in thy kindred's grave."

This line, which is superfluous, is in all the old editions. See on iii. 3.

"Romeo, I come! this do I drink to thee."

This is the reading of the 4to 1597; the other editions read,

"Romeo, Romeo, Romeo, here's drink. I drink to thee."

"Nurse.Go, go, you cotquean, go."

Singer was most certainly right in giving this speech toLady Cap.; for the Nurse was hardly present.

"Dead art thou,dead—alack! my child is dead."

In this I find I had been as usual preceded by Theobald.

"Peace, ho, for shame! confusion's cure lives not."

All the old editions readcare. Theobald made the correction.

"For though some nature bids us all lament."

For 'some' the 2nd folio readsfond.

"Faith, we may put our pipes up and be gone."

The originals read 'put up.'

"If I may trust the flattering eye of sleep."

The 4to 1527 reads thus; the others and the folio 'truthof sleep,' in which I can see no sense, while the former seems to be justified by

"Full many a glorious morning have I seenFlatterthe mountain-tops with sovereigneye."

"Full many a glorious morning have I seen

Flatterthe mountain-tops with sovereigneye."

Son. xxxiii.

In both placesflatterseems to mean cheer, enliven. 'Eye' is, as in "eye of green" (Temp. ii. 1), look, glance; "Yon grey is not the Morning's eye" (iii. 5).

"Need and oppression starveth in thy eyes."

Pope readstareth, after Otway; rightly, I think.

"Under yond' yew-trees lay thee all along."

The 4to 1597 reads 'Underthisyew-tree'; the others 'Under yond'youngtrees. Further on they all read 'As I did sleep under thisyoungtree here.' There can be little doubt thatyewwas the poet's word; it is not so easy to decide betweentreeandtrees; but I prefer the former.

"And in despite I'll cram thee with more food."

Perhaps the poet's word wasrequite.

"Why art thou yet so fair? I will believe,Shall I believe that unsubstantial Death is amorous?"

"Why art thou yet so fair? I will believe,

Shall I believe that unsubstantial Death is amorous?"

We have here plainly two various readings got in by mistake. (See above, iii. 3.) I agree with those who reject the first.

"This is thy sheath; there rest and let me die."

The reading 'rest,' forrustof the editions, is deduced from 4to 1597.

"What fear is this which startles inourears."

So I read with Johnson foryour.

"Look and thou shalt see."

'Lookhere' would have more melody.

"Seal up the mouth of outrage for a while."

The reading of Collier's folio,outcry, seems preferable. It occurs a little before in this scene.

"Withwhat we two nights have seen."

"Of unimproved mettle hot and full."

I prefer 'inapproved,' of the 4to 1603.

"Did squeak and gibber in the Roman streetsAs stars with trains of fire and dews of blood,Disasters in the sun."

"Did squeak and gibber in the Roman streets

As stars with trains of fire and dews of blood,

Disasters in the sun."

One line at least, as Malone also saw, has been lost after the first. Perhaps for 'disasters' we might readdistempers: "distemperature of the sun" (1 Hen. IV. v. 1).

"And what make you from Wittenberg, Horatio?"

I suspect that here and in a following line, and in ii. 2, we should read 'makes,' with an ellipsis ofbe. The answers seem to indicate it.

"Take thy fair hour, Laertes. Time be thine,And thy best graces; spend it at thy will."

"Take thy fair hour, Laertes. Time be thine,

And thy best graces; spend it at thy will."

I think we should read 'mybest' for the sake of sense.

"Minedo I impart toward you. For your intent."

"He was a man, take him for all in all....I shall not look upon his like again."

"He was a man, take him for all in all....

I shall not look upon his like again."

There is an evident aposiopesis here.

"Forward not permanent, sweetbutnot lasting."

The metre requires the addition of a syllable. In the next line the folio omits 'perfume and'—a clear proof of the omissions made by printers.

"The friends thou hast and their adoption tried."

The more appropriate term would seem to beadaption.

"Are of a most select and generous chief in that."

This is not sense; so some read

"Are most select and generous, chief in that."

Steevens readchoicefor 'chief'; and I have adopted his reading. The more appropriate term, however, would have beentaste.

"Or—not to crack the wind of the poor phraseTowrong it thus—you'll tender me a fool."

"Or—not to crack the wind of the poor phrase

Towrong it thus—you'll tender me a fool."

This—with the omission ofTo, which had probably been effaced in the MS.—is the reading of the 4tos, and is most probably correct. (Introd. p.79.) The editors of the folio, not seeing any sense in 'Wrong,' read 'Roaming,' which makes no sense at all; neither indeed does 'To wrong' make a very good one. We might read—supposing the allusion to be to a horse—To run, as in "You run this humour out of breath" (Com. of Err. i. 1). In King John (ii. 1) we have 'roam' forrun.

"Breathing like sanctified and pious bonds."

Theobald, who is usually followed, readbawdsfor 'bonds'; but surelybawdscould not with any propriety be called 'sanctified and pious.' The truth is, the poet's word was 'bonds,' but the editors have not understood it, Singer, for example, calling itnonsense. The whole passage is merely a poetic periphrasis of seduction under promise of marriage; and had the word beenSounding, not 'Breathing,' there would probably have been no mistake.

"Have you so slander any moment leisure."

Collier's folio readssquander, which may be right; but we have "She slanders so her judgement" (Cymb. iii. 5), and "To slander music any more than once" (Much Ado, ii. 3). In 'any moment leisure' the structure is perfectly correct.

"The King doth wake to-night, and takes his rouse,Keeps wassail, and the swaggering upspring reels."

"The King doth wake to-night, and takes his rouse,

Keeps wassail, and the swaggering upspring reels."

Here 'wake' is likewatch(see Macb. ii. 2), sits up late. In the next line I would for 'swaggering' readstaggering. 'Upspring' is probably used collectively for the risers from the table, a mode of expression not yet obsolete. "The space was filled by thein-rushbefore he had time to make his way out."—Mrs. Gaskell, Sylvia's Lovers, ch. xii.

"The dram of ealeDoth all the noble substance, of a doubtTo his own scandal....—Look, my lord! it comes."

"The dram of eale

Doth all the noble substance, of a doubt

To his own scandal....—Look, my lord! it comes."

This passage is not in the folio. As in 4to 1604, where it occurs, we have in ii. 1 'a deale' for 'a devil,' I here readevilfor 'eale'; in both casesvimay have been written likea; and for 'of a doubt,' which is to be found nowhere else,out o' doubt, or perhaps 'outof a doubt:' some readoften dout. The sentence, we may see, is not complete, and it should also be recollected that the language of the whole of the speech is involved, as if the speaker was thinking of something else, and merely talking against time.

"Making night hideous and we fools of nature."

Grammar would requireusfor 'we.'

"Hearwhat?—I am thy father's spirit."

The repetition ofHearfrom preceding line seems necessary. Omissions of this kind are not unfrequent.

"And for the day confin'd to fast in fires."

Heath proposedlastingfor 'fast in,' but, I think, with a loss of vigour, if a gain of correctness. 'Confin'd' may here signify limited, restrained. See on M. for M. iv. 3.

"That roots itself in ease on Lethe wharf."

The folio readsrots, which Mr. Dyce adopts.

"Of life, of crown, of queen, at once despatch'd."

So the originals read, except 4to 1603, which hasdepriv'd, perhaps a better reading. 'Despatch'd,' which seems to be more forceable, is to be taken in the sense ofdépêché, Fr., hurried away, and 'of' in its original sense of from.

"Cut off even in the blossoms of my sin."

Better to read 'blossom' and 'sins.'

"O horrible! O horrible! most horrible."

Beyond question, as Johnson saw, this exclamation belongs to Hamlet.Ham.andGhosthad been effaced.

"But come;swearhere, as before, never, so help you Mercy."

The sense demandsswear.

"That they do know my son, come you more nearer;Than your particular demand will touch it."

"That they do know my son, come you more nearer;

Than your particular demand will touch it."

By punctuating thus, and recollecting that 'Than' isthen, we remove all difficulty.

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