Were nothing but to waste night, day, and time. Mad call I it: for, to define true madness, which shows the very words got by heart which he was repeating. Otherwise closes in the consequence, which conveys no particular idea of the subject he was upon, could never have made him recollect where he broke off. This is an extraordinary instance of the poet's art, and attention to the preservation of character. WARBURTON. This account of the character of Polonius, though it sufficiently reconciles the seeming inconsistency of so much wisdom with so much folly, does not perhaps correspond exactly to the ideas of our author. The commentator makes the character of Polonius, a character only of manners, discriminated by properties superficial, accidental, and acquired. The poet intended a nobler delineation of a mixed character of manners and of nature. Polonius is a man bred in courts, exercised in business, stored with observation, confident in his knowledge, proud of his eloquence, and declining into dotage. His mode of oratory is truly represented as designed to ridicule the practice of those times, of prefaces that made no introduction, and of method that embarrassed rather than explained. This part of his character is accidental, the rest is natural. Such a man is positive and confident, because he knows that his mind was once strong, and knows not that it is become weak. Such a man excels in general principles, but fails in the particular application. He is knowing in retrospect, and ignorant in foresight. While he depends upon his memory, and can draw from his repositories of knowledge, he utters weighty sentences, and gives useful counsel; but as the mind in its enfeebled state cannot be kept long busy and intent, the old man is subject to sudden dereliction of his faculties, he loses the order of his ideas, and entangles himself in his own thoughts, till he recovers the leading principle, and falls again into his former train. This idea of dotage encroaching upon wisdom, will solve all the phænomena of the character of Polonius. JOHNSON. Nothing can be more just, judicious, and masterly, than Johnson's delineation of the character of Polonius; and I cannot read it without heartily regretting that he did not exert his great abilities and discriminating powers, in delineating the strange, inconsistent, and indecisive character of Hamlet, to which I confess myself unequal. M. MASON. What is't, but to be nothing else but mad: But let that go. QUEEN. More matter, with less art. POL. Madam, I swear, I use no art at all. Mad let us grant him then: and now remains, I have a daughter; have, while she is mine; 1-To the celestial, and my soul's idol, the most beautified Ophelia,] Mr. Theobald for beautified substituted beatified. MALONE. Dr. Warburton has followed Mr. Theobald; but I am in doubt whether beautified, though as Polonius calls it, a vile phrase, be not the proper word. Beautified seems to be a vile phrase, for the ambiguity of its meaning. JOHNSON. Heywood, in his History of Edward VI. says, "Katherine Parre, queen dowager to king Henry VIII, was a woman beautified with many excellent virtues." FARMERr. So, in The Hog hath lost his Pearl, 1614: "A maid of rich endowments, beautified "With all the virtues nature could bestow." Again, Nash dedicates his Christ's Tears over Jerusalem, 1594: "to the most beautified lady, the lady Elizabeth Carey." Again, in Greene's Mamillia, 1593: "although thy person is so bravely beautified with the dowries of nature." Ill and vile as the phrase may be, our author has used it again in The Two Gentlemen of Verona: That's an ill phrase, a vile phrase; beautified is a vile phrase; but you shall hear. Thus : In her excellent white bosom, these,' &c.— POL. Good madam, stay awhile; I will be faithful. Doubt thou, the stars are fire; Doubt, that the sun doth move : Doubt truth to be a liar; But never doubt, I love. [Reads. O dear Ophelia, I am ill at these numbers; I have not art to reckon my groans: but that I love thee best, O most best, believe it. Adieu. Thine evermore, most dear lady, whilst this machine is to him, Hamlet.* "seeing you are beautified "With goodly shape," &c. STEEVENS. By beautified Hamlet means beautiful. But Polonius, taking the word in the mcre strictly grammatical sense of being made beautiful, calls it a vile phrase, as implying that his daughter's beauty was the effect of art. M. MASON. * In her excellent white bosom, these,] So, in The Two Gentlemen of Verona: "Thy letters "Which, being writ to me, shall be deliver'd See Vol. IV. p. 248, n. 1. STEEvens. I have followed the quarto. The folio reads: These in her excellent white bosom, these, &c. In our poet's time the word These was usually added at the end of the superscription of letters, but I have never met with it both at the beginning and end. MALONE. O most best,] So, in Acolastus, a comedy, 1540: that same most best redresser or reformer, is God." STEEVENS. —whilst this machine is to him, Hamlet.] These words VOL. XVIII. I This, in obedience, hath my daughter shown me : As they fell out by time, by means, and place, KING. Receiv'd his love? POL. But how hath she What do you think of me? KING. As of a man faithful and honourable. POL. I would fain prove so. But what might When I had seen this hot love on the wing, will not be ill explained by the conclusion of one of the Letters of the Paston Family, Vol. II. p. 43: " for your pleasure, whyle my wytts be my owne." The phrase employed by Hamlet seems to have a French construction. Pendant que cette machine est a lui. To be one's own man is a vulgar expression, but means much the same as Virgil's Dum memor ipse mei, dum spiritus hos regit artus. more above,] is, moreover, besides. JOHNSON. If I had play'd the desk, or table-book; What might you think?] i. e. If either I had conveyed intelligence between them, and been the confident of their amours [play'd the desk or table-book,] or had connived at it, only observed them in secret, without acquainting my daughter with my discovery [giving my heart a mute and dumb working;] or And my young mistress thus did I bespeak; lastly, been negligent in observing the intrigue, and overlooked it [looked upon this love with idle sight;] what would you have thought of me? WARBURTON. I doubt whether the first line is rightly explained. It may mean, if I had locked up this secret in my own breast, as closely as it were confined in a desk or table-book. MALONE. Or given my heart a working, mute and dumb ;] The folio reads a winking. STEEVENS. The same pleonasm [mute and dumb] is found in our author's Rape of Lucrece: 7 "And in my hearing be you mute and dumb." MALONE. round- i. e. roundly without reserve. So Polobe round with him." nius says in the third Act: " 8 STEEVENS, Lord Hamlet is a prince out of thy sphere;] The quarto, 1604, and the first folio, for sphere, have star. The correction was made by the editor of the second folio. MALOne. 9 precepts gave her,] Thus the folio. The two elder quartos read-prescripts. I have chosen the most familiar of the two readings. Polonius has already said to his son"And these few precepts in thy memory "Look thou charácter." STEEVENS. The original copy in my opinion is right. Polonius had ordered his daughter to lock herself up from Hamlet's resort, &c. See p. 61: "I would not, in plain terms, from this time forth, 'Which done, she took the fruits of my advice;] She took the fruits of advice when she obeyed advice, the advice was then made fruitful. JOHNSON. |