BER. Looks it not like the king? mark it, Ho ratio. HOR. Most like:-it harrows me3 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 speak. MAR. It is offended. BER. See! it stalks away. HOR. Stay; speak: speak I charge thee, speak. [Exit Ghost. MAR. 'Tis gone, and will not answer. BER. How now, Horatio? you tremble, and look pale: Is not this something more than fantasy? HOR. Before my God, I might not this believe, Without the sensible and true avouch Of mine own eyes. In like manner the honest Butler in Mr. Addison's Drummer, recommends the Steward to speak Latin to the Ghost in that play. REED. 3 it harrows me &c.] To harrow is to conquer, to subdue. The word is of Saxon origin. So, in the old black letter romance of Syr Eglamoure of Artoys: "He swore by him that harrowed hell." Milton has adopted this phrase in his Comus: "Amaz'd I stood, harrow'd with grief and fear." STEEVENS. MAR. Is it not like the king? HOR. As thou art to thyself: Such was the very armour he had on, an angry parle,] This is one of the affected words introduced by Lyly. So, in The Two wise Men, and all the rest Fools, 1619: 66 - that you told me at our last parle." STEEVENS. 3 —— sledded—] A sled, or sledge, is a carriage without wheels, made use of in the cold countries. So, in Tamburlaine, or the Scythian Shepherd, 1590: 66 upon an ivory sled "Thou shalt be drawn among the frozen poles." STEEVENS, " He smote the sledded Polack on the ice.] Pole-ax in the common editions. He speaks of a Prince of Poland whom he slew in battle. He uses the word Polack again, Act II. sc. iv. РОРЕ. Polack was, in that age, the term for an inhabitant of Poland: Polaque, French. As in F. Davison's translation of Passeratius's epitaph on Henry III. of France, published by Camden: "Whether thy chance or choice thee hither brings, "Stay, passenger, and wail the hap of kings. "This little stone a great king's heart doth hold, "Who rul'd the fickle French and Polacks bold: "Whom, with a mighty warlike host attended, "With trait'rous knife a cowled monster ended. "So frail are even the highest earthly things! "Go, passenger, and wail the hap of kings." JOHNSON. Again, in The White Devil, or Vittoria Corombona, &c. 1612: I scorn him All the old copies have Polax. Mr. Pope and the subsequent editors read-Polack; but the corrupted word shows, I think, that Shakspeare wrote-Polacks. MALONE. With Polack for Polander, the transcriber, or printer, might MAR. Thus, twice before, and jump at this dead hour,7 8 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, MAR. Good now, sit down, and tell me, he that knows, Why this same strict and most observant watch have no acquaintance; he therefore substituted pole-ax as the only word of like sound that was familiar to his ear. Unluckily, however, it happened that the singular of the latter has the same sound as the plural of the former. Hence it has been supposed that Shakspeare meant to write Polacks. We cannot well suppose that in a parley the King belaboured many, as it is not likely that provocation was given by more than one, or that on such an occasion he would have condescended to strike a meaner person than a prince. STEEVENS. 7 —jump at this dead hour,] So, the 4to. 1604. The folio -just. STEEVENS. The correction was probably made by the author. JOHNSON. In the folio we sometimes find a familiar word substituted for one more ancient. MALOne. Jump and just were synonymous in the time of Shakspeare. Ben Jonson speaks of verses made on jump names, i. e. names that suit exactly. Nash says" and jumpe imitating a verse in As in præsenti." So, in Chapman's May Day, 1611: "Your appointment was jumpe at three, with me." Again, in M. Kyffin's translation of the Andria of Terence, 1588: "Comes he this day so jump in the very time of this marriage?" STEEVENS. In what particular thought to work,] i. e. What particular train of thinking to follow. STEEVENS. 9gross and scope-] General thoughts, and tendency at large. JOHNSON. 2 And why such daily cast' of brazen cannon, HOR. That can I; At least, the whisper goes so. Our last king, Whose image even but now appear'd to us, Was, as you know, by Fortinbras of Norway, Thereto prick'd on by a most emulate pride, Dar'd to the combat; in which our valiant Hamlet (For so this side of our known world esteem'd him,) Did slay this Fortinbras; who, by a seal'd compáct, Well ratified by law, and heraldry,3 1 2 -daily cast-] The quartos read-cost. STEEVens. Why such impress of shipwrights,] Judge Barrington, Observations on the more ancient Statutes, p. 300, having observed that Shakspeare gives English manners to every country where his scene lies, infers from this passage, that in the time even of Queen Elizabeth, shipwrights as well as seamen were forced to serve. WHALLEY. Impress signifies only the act of retaining shipwrights by giving them what was called prest money (from pret, Fr.) for holding themselves in readiness to be employed. Thus, Chapman, in his version of the second Book of Homer's Odyssey: "I, from the people straight, will press for you See Mr. Douce's note on King Lear, Act IV. sc. vi. '—by law, and heraldry,] Mr. Upton says, that Shakspeare sometimes expresses one thing by two substantives, and that law and heraldry means, by the herald law. So, in Antony and Cleopatra, Act IV: "Where rather I expect victorious life, "Than death and honour." i. e. honourable death. STEEVENS. Did forfeit, with his life, all those his lands, Had he been vanquisher; as, by the same co-mart, And carriage of the article design'd,* Puttenham, in his Art of Poesie, speaks of The Figure of Twynnes: "horses and barbes, for barbed horses, venim and dartes, for venimous dartes," &c. FARMER. law, and heraldry] That is, according to the forms of 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. i.e. to be well ratified by the rules of law, and the forms prescribed jure feciali; such as proclamation, &c. MALONE. -as, by the same co-mart, And carriage of the article design'd,] Co-mart signifies a bargain, and carrying of the article, the covenant entered into to confirm that bargain. Hence we see the common reading [covenant] makes a tautology. WARBURTON. Thus the quarto, 1604. The folio reads-as by the same covenant for which the late editions have given us as by that covenant. Co-mart is, I suppose, a joint bargain, a word perhaps of our poet's coinage. A mart signifying a great fair or market, he would not have scrupled to have written-to mart, in the sense of to make a bargain. In the preceding speech we find mart used for bargain or purchase. MALONE. He has not scrupled so to write in Cymbeline, Act I. sc. vii: to mart, 66 "As in a Romish stew," &c. STEEVENS. And carriage of the article design'd,] Carriage is import: design'd, is formed, drawn up between them. JOHNSON. Cawdrey in his Alphabetical Table, 1604, defines the verb design thus: "To marke out or appoint for any purpose." See also Minsheu's Dict. 1617: "To designe or shew by a token." Designed is yet used in this sense in Scotland. The old copies have deseigne. The correction was made by the editor of the second folio. MALONE. |