Chapter 18

III.i.70 (235,2) the whips and scorns of time] [W: of th' time] I doubt whether the corruption of this passage is not more than the editor has suspected. _Whips_ and _scorns_ have no great connexion with one another, or with _time: whips_ and _scorns_ are evils of very different magnitude, and though at all _times scorn_ may be endured, yet the _times_ that put men ordinarily in danger of _whips_, are rery rare. Falstaff has said, that the _courtiers would_ whip _him with their quick wits_; but I know not that _whip_ can be used for a _scoff_ or _insult_, unless its meaning be fixed by the whole expression.

I am afraid lest I should venture too far in correcting this passage. If _whips_ be retained, we may read,

_For who would bear the whips and scorns of_ tyrant.

But I think that _quip_, a _sneer_, a _sarcasm_, a _contemptuous_ jest, is the proper word, as suiting very exactly with _scorn_. What then must be done with _time_? it suits no better with the new reading than with the old, and _tyrant_ is an image too bulky and serious. I read, but not confidently,

_For who would bear the_ quips _and scorns of_ title.

It say be remarked, that Hamlet, in his enumeration of miseries, forgets, whether properly or not, that he is a prince, and mentions many evils to which inferior stations only are exposed.

III.i.77 (236,4) To groan and sweat] All the old copies have, _to_ grunt _and sweat_. It is undoubtedly the true reading, but can scarcely be borne by modern ears.

III.i.89 (237,5) Nymph, in thy orisons] This is a touch of nature. Hamlet, at the sight of Ophelia, does not immediately recollect, that he is to personate madness, but makes her an address grave and solemn, such as the foregoing meditation excited in his thoughts.

III.i.107 (237,6) That if you be honest and fair, you should admit no discourse to your beauty] This is the reading of all the modern editions, and is copied from the quarto. The folio reads, your honesty _should admit no discourse to your beauty_. The true reading seems to be this, _If you be honest and fair, you should admit_ your honesty _to no discourse with your beauty_. This is the sense evidently required by the process of the conversation.

III.i.127 (238,7) I have thoughts to put them in] _To put a thing into thought_, is _to think on it_.

III.i.148 (239,8) I have heard of your paintings too, well enough] This is according to the quarto; the folio, for _painting_, has _prattlings_, and for _face_, has _pace_, which agrees with what follows, _you jig, you amble_. Probably the author wrote both. I think the common reading best.

III.i.152 (239,9) make your wantonness your ignorance] You mistake by _wanton_ affectation, and pretend to mistake by _ignorance_.

III.i.161 (239,2) the mould of form] The model by whom all endeavoured to form themselves.

III.ii.12 (241,3) the groundlings] The meaner people then seem to have sat below, as they now sit in the upper gallery, who, not well understanding poetical language, were sometimes gratified by a mimical and mute representation of the drama, previous to the dialogue.

III.ii.14 (242,4) inexplicable dumb shews] I believe the meaning is, _shews, without words to explain them_.

III.ii.26 (242,6) the very age and body of the time, his form and pressure] The _age_ of the _time_ can hardly pass. May we not read, the _face_ and _body_, or did the author write, the _page_? The _page_ suits well with _form_ and _pressure_, but ill with _body_.

III.ii.28 (242,7) pressure] Resemblance, as in a _print_.

III.ii.34 (242,8) (not to speak it profanely)] _Profanely_ seems to relate, not to the praise which he has mentioned, but to the censure which he is about to utter. Any gross or indelicate language was called _profane_.

III.ii.66 (243,9) the pregnant hinges of the knee] I believe the sense of _pregnant_ in this place is, _quick, ready, prompt_.

III.ii.68 (244,1) my dear soul] Perhaps, my _clear_ soul.

III.ii.74 (244,2) Whose blood and judgment] According to the doctrine of the four humours, _desire_ and _confidence_ were seated in the blood, and _judgment_ in the phlegm, and the due mixture of the humours made a perfect character.

III.ii.89 (244,3) Vulcan's stithy] _Stithy_ is a smith's _anvil_.

III.ii.103 (245,4) nor mine now] A man's words, says the proverb, are his own no longer than he keep them unspoken.

III.ii.112 (245,5) they stay upon your patience] May it not be read more intelligibly, _They stay upon your_ pleasure. In _Macbeth_ it is, "Noble Macbeth, we stay upon your _leisure_."

III.ii.123 (245,6) Do you think I meant country matters?] I think we must read, _Do you think I meant country_ manners? Do you imagine that I meant to sit in your lap, with such rough gallantry as clowns use to their lasses?

III.ii.137 (246,7) Nay, then, let the devil wear black, for I'll have a suit of sables] I know not why our editors should, with such implacable anger, persecute our predecessors. The dead, it is true, can make no resistance, they may be attacked with great security; but since they can neither feel nor mend, the safety of mauling them seems greater than the pleasure; nor perhaps would it much misbeseem us to remember, amidst our triumphs over the _nonsensical_ and the _senseless_, that we likewise are men; that _debemur morti_, and, as Swift observed to Burnet, shall soon be among the dead ourselves.

I cannot find how the common reading is nonsense, nor why Hamlet, when he laid aside his dress of mourning, in a country where it was _bitter cold_, and the air was _nipping and eager_, should not have a _suit of sables_. I suppose it is well enough known, that the fur of sables is not black.

III.ii.147 (249,1) Marry, this is miching maliche; it means mischief] [W: malhechor] I think Hanmer's exposition most likely to be right. Dr. Warburton, to justify his interpretation, must write, _miching_ for _malechor_, and even then it will be harsh.

III.ii.167 (250,3) sheen] Splendor, lustre.

III.ii.177 (250,4) For women fear too much, even as they love] Here seems to be a line lost, which should have rhymed to _love_.

III.ii.192 (251,6) The instances, that second marriage move] The _motives_.

III.ii.202 (252,7)

Most necessary 'tis, that we forget To pay ourselves what to ourselves is debt]

The performance of a resolution, in which only the _resolver_ is interested, is a debt only to himself, which he may therefore remit at pleasure.

III.ii.206 (252,8)

The violence of either grief or joy, Their own enactures with themselves destroy]

What grief or joy _enact_ or determine in their violence, is revealed in their abatement. _Enactures_ is the word in the quarto; all the modern editions have _enactors_.

III.ii.229 (252,9) An anchor's cheer in prison be my scope] May my whole liberty and enjoyment be to live on hermit's fare in a prison. _Anchor_ is for _anchoret_.

III.ii.250 (253,1) Baptista] _Baptista_ is, I think, in Italian, the name always of a man.

III.ii.262 (254,4) So you must take your husbands] Read, _So you_ must take _your husbands_ [in place of "mistake"]; that is, _for better, for worse_.

III.ii.288 (255,5) with two provencial roses on my rayed shoes] When shoe-strings were worn, they were covered, where they met in the middle, by a ribband, gathered into the form of a rose. So in an old song,

Gil-de-Roy _was a bonny boy_, _Had_ roses _tull his_ shoen.

_Rayed_ shoes, are shoes _braided_ in lines.

III.ii.304 (256,1) For if the king like not the comedy/Why, then, belike] Hamlet was going on to draw the consequence when the courtiers entered.

III.ii.314 (256,2) With drink, Sir?] Hamlet takes particular care that his uncle's love of drink shall not be forgotten.

III.ii.346 (257,3) further trade] Further business; further dealing.

III.ii.348 (257,4) by these pickers] By these hands.

III.ii.373 (258,6) ventages] The holes of a flute.

III.ii.401 (259,9) they fool me to the top of my bent] They compel me to play the fool, till I can endure to do it no longer.

III.iii.7 (261,4) Out of his lunes] [The old quartos read,

_Out of his_ brows.

This was from the ignorance of the first editors; as is this unnecessary Alexandrine, which we owe to the players. The poet, I am persuaded, wrote,

--_us doth hourly grow_ _out of his_ lunes.

i.e. his _madness, frenzy_. THEOBALD.]

_Lunacies_ is the reading of the folio.

I take _brows_ to be, properly read, _frows_, which, I think, is a provincial word for _perverse humours_; which being, I suppose, not understood, was changed to _lunacies_. But of this I an not confident. [Steevens adopted Theobald's emendation]

III.iii.33 (262,7) of vantage] By some opportunity of secret observation.

III.iii.56 (263,9) May one be pardon'd, and retain the offence?] He that does not amend what can be amended, _retains_ his _offence_. The king kept the crown from the right heir.

III.iii.66 (263,1) Yet what can it, when one cannot repent?] What can repentance _do for a man that cannot be penitent_, for a man who has only part of penitence, distress of conscience, without the other part, resolution of amendment.

III.iii.77 (264,1) I, his sole son, do this same villain send] The folio reads foule son, a reading apparently corrupted from the quarto. The meaning is plain. _I, his_ only _son_, who am bound to punish his murderer.

III.iii.88 (264,2) Up, sword, and know thou a more horrid hent] [T: bent] This reading is followed by Sir T. HANMER and Dr. WARBURTON; but _hent_ is probably the right vord. To _hent_ is used by Shakespeare for, to _seize_, to _catch_, to _lay hold on_. _Hent_ is, therefore, _hold_, or _seizure_. _Lay hold_ on him, sword, at a more horrid time.

III.iii.94 (265,3) his soul may be as damn'd and black/As hell, whereto it goes] This speech, in which Hamlet, represented as a virtuous character, is not content vith taking blood for blood, but contrives damnation for the man that he would punish, is too horrible to be read or to be uttered.

III.iv.4 (266,4) I'll silence me e'en here:/Pray you, be round vith him] Sir T. HANMER, who is folloved by Dr. WARBURTON, reads,

--_I'll_ sconce _me here_.

_Retire_ to a place of _security_. They forget that the contrivance of Polonius to overhear the conference, was no more told to the queen than to Hamlet.--_I'll silence me even here_, is, _I'll use no more words_.

III.iv.48 (268,8)

Heaven's face doth glow; Yea, this solidity and compound mass, With tristful visage, as against the doom, It thought-sick at the act]

[W: O'er this ... visage, and, as 'gainst] The word _heated_ [from the "old quarto"], though it agrees well enough with _glow_, is, I think, not so striking as _tristful_, which was, I suppose, chosen at the revisal. I believe the whole passage now stands as the author gave it. Dr. WARBURTON's reading restores two improprieties, which Shakespeare, by his alteration, had removed. In the first, and in the new reading: _Heaven's_ face _glows with tristful_ visage; and, _Heaven's face is_ thought-sick. To the common reading there is no just objection.

III.iv.52 (268,9) what act,/That roars so loud, and thunders in the index?] The meaning is, _What is_ this act, of which the _discovery_, or _mention_, cannot be made, but with this violence of clamour?

III.iv.82 (270,5) Rebellious hell,/If thou canst mutiny in a matron's bones] I think the present reading right, but cannot admit that HANMER's emendation ["Rebellious heat"] produces nonsense. May not what is said of _heat_, be said of _hell_, that it will mutiny wherever it is quartered? Though the emendation be elegant, it is not necessary. (1773)

III.iv.88 (271,6) reason panders will] So the folio, I think rightly; but the reading of the quarto is defensible;

--_reason_ pardons _will_.

III.iv.90 (271,7) grained] Dyed in grain.

III.iv.92 (271,8) incestuous bed] The folio has _enseamed_, that is, _greasy_ bed.

III.iv.98 (271,9) vice of kings!] a low mimick of kings. The vice is the fool of a farce; from whom the modern _punch_ is descended.

III.iv.102 (272,2) A king of shreds and patches] This is said, pursuing the idea of the _vice of kings_. The _vice_ was dressed as a fool, in a coat of party-coloured patches.

III.iv.107 (272,3) lap's in time and passion] That, having suffered _time_ to _slip_, and _passion_ to _cool, lets go_, &c.

III.iv.151 (274,6) And do not spread the compost on the weeds/To make them ranker] Do not, by any new indulgence, heighten your former offences.

III.iv.155 (274,7) curb] That is, _bend_ and _truckle_. Fr. _courber_.

III.iv.161 (274,8) That monster custom, who all sense doth eat/ Of habits evil, is angel yet in this] [Thirlby: habits evil] I think THIRLBY's conjecture wrong, though the succeeding editors have followed it; _angel_ and _devil_ are evidently opposed. [Steevens accepted "evil"]

III.iv.203 (277,5) adders fang'd] That is, adders with their _fangs_, or _poisonous teeth_, undrawn. It has been the practice of mountebanks to boast the efficacy of their antidotes by playing with vipers, but they first disabled their fangs.

IV.i (278,l) _A royal apartment. Enter King, Queen, Rosencrantz, and Guildenstern_] This play is printed in the old editions without any separation of the acts. The division is modern and arbitrary; and is here not very happy, for the pause is made at a time when there is more continuity of action than in almost any other of the scenes.

IV.i.18 (278,2) out of haunt] I would rather read, _out of_ harm.

IV.i.25 (279,3)

his very madness, like some ore among a mineral of metals base, Shews itself pure]

Shakespeare seems to think _ore_ to be _or_, that is, gold. Base metals have _ore_ no less than precious.

IV.ii.19 (281,5) he keeps them, like an ape, in the corner of his jaw] The quarto has _apple_, which is generally followed. The folio has _ape_, which HANMER has received, and illustrated with the following note.

"It is the way of monkeys in eating, to throw that part of their food, which they take up first, into a pouch they are provided with on the side of their jaw, and then they keep it, till they have done with the rest."

IV.ii.28 (281,6) The body is with the king] This answer I do not comprehend. Perhaps it should be, _The body is_ not _with the king_, for _the king is not with the body_.

IV.ii.32 (282,7) Of nothing] Should it not be read, _Or_ nothing? When the courtiers remark, that Hamlet has contemptuously called the _king a thing_, Hamlet defends himself by observing, that the king must be a _thing_, or _nothing_.

IV.ii.46 (283,9) the wind at help] I suppose it should be read, _The bark is ready, and the wind at_ helm.

IV.ii.68 (284,3) And thou must cure me: till I know 'tis done,/ Howe'er my haps, my joys will ne'er begin] This being the termination of a scene, should, according to our author's custom, be rhymed. Perhaps he wrote,

_Howe'er my_ hopes, _my joys_ are not begun.

If _haps_ be retained, the meaning will be, _'till I know 'tis done, I shall be miserable_, whatever befall me (see 1785, VIII, 257, 3)

IV.iv.33 (286,4)

What is a man, If his chief good and market of his time Be but to sleep and feed?]

If his highest good, and _that for which he sells his time_, be to sleep and feed.

IV.iv.36 (286,5) large discourse] Such latitude of comprehension, such power of reviewing the past, and anticipating the future.

IV.iv.53 (286,6) Rightly to be great,/Is not to stir without great argument] This passage I have printed according to the copy. Mr. THEOBALD had regulated it thus:

--_'Tis not to be great, Never to stir without great argument; But greatly_, &c.

The sentiment of Shakespeare is partly just, and partly romantic.

--_Rightly to be great, Is not to stir without great argument_;

is exactly philosophical.

_But greatly to find quarrel in a straw, When honour is at stake_,

is the idea of a modern hero. _But then_, says he _honour is an argument, or subject of debate_, sufficiently great, _and_ when honour is at stake, we must _find cause of quarrel in a straw_.

IV.iv.56 (287,7) Excitements of my reason and my blood] Provocations which excite both my reason and my passions to vengeance.

IV.v.37 (289,4) _Larded all with sweet flowers_] The expression is taken from cookery. (1773)

IV.v.53 (290,6) _And dupt the chamber-door_] To _dup_, is to _do up_; to lift the latch. It were easy to write,

_And_ op'd--

IV.v.58 (290,7) _By Gis_] I rather imagine it should be read,

_By_ Cis,--

That is, by St. Cecily.

IV.v.83 (291,8) but greenly] But _unskilfully_; with _greenness_; that is, without_ maturity_ of judgment.

IV.v.84 (291,9) In hugger-mugger to inter him] All the modern editions that I have consulted give it,

_In_ private _to inter him_;--

That the words now replaced are better, I do not undertake to prove; it is sufficient that they are Shakespeare's: if phraseology is to be changed as words grow uncouth by disuse, or gross by vulgarity, the history of every language will be lost; we shall no longer have the words of any author; and, as these alterations will be often unskilfully made, we shall in time have very little of his meaning.

IV.v.89 (292,1) Feeds on his wonder] The folio reads,

Keeps _on his wonder_,--

The quarto,

Feeds _on_ this _wonder_.--

Thus the true reading is picked out from between them. HANMER reads unnecessarily,

Feeds _on his_ anger.--

IV.v.92 (292,2) Wherein necessity, of matter beggar'd,/ Will nothing stick our persons to arraign] HANMER reads,

Whence animosity, _of matter beggar'd_.

He seems not to have understood the connection. _Wherein_, that is, _in which pestilent speeches, necessity_, or, _the obligation of an accuser to support his charge, will nothing stick_, &c.

IV.v.99 (293,4) The ocean, over-peering of his list] The lists are the barriers which the spectators of a tournament must not pass.

IV.v.105 (293,5) The ratifiers and props of every ward] [W: ward] With this emendation, which was in Theobald's edition, Hanmer was not satisfied. It is indeed harsh. HANMER transposes the lines, and reads,

_They cry_, "Chuse we Laertes for our king;" The ratifiers and props of every word, _Caps, hands, and tongues, applaud it to the clouds_.

I think the fault may be mended at less expence, by reading,

_Antiquity forgot, custom not known, The ratifiers and props of every_ weal.

That is, of every _government_.

IV.v.110 (294,6) Oh, this is counter, you false Danish dogs] Hounds run _counter_ when they trace the trail backwards.

IV.v.161 (296,9)

Nature is fine in loves and, where 'tis fine, It sends some precious instance of itself After the thing it loves]

These lines are not in the quarto, and might hare been omitted in the folio without great loss, for they are obscure and affected; but, I think, they require no emendation. _Love_ (says Laertes) is the passion by which _nature is most_ exalted and _refined_; and as substances _refined_ and subtilised, easily obey any impulse, or follow any attraction, some part of nature, so purified and _refined_, flies off after the attracting object, after the thing it loves.

_As into air the purer spirits f1ow, And separate from their kindred dregs below, So flew her soul_.--

IV.v.171 (297,1) O how the wheel becomes it!] [W: weal] I do not see why _weal_ is better than _wheel_. The story alluded to I do not know; but perhaps the lady stolen by the steward was reduced to _spin_.

IV.v.175 (297,2) There's rosemary, that'll far rememberance. Pray you, love, remember. And there's pansies, that's for thoughts] There is probably some mythology in the choice of these herbs, but I cannot explain it. _Pansies_ is for _thoughts_, because of its name, _Pensées_; but _rosemary_ indicates _remembrance_, except that it is an ever-green, and carried at funerals, I have not discovered.

IV.v.214 (300,7) No trophy, sword, nor batchment] It was the custom, in the times of our author, to hang a sword over the grave of a knight.

IV.v.218 (300,8) And where the offence is, let the great axe fall] [W: tax] _Fall_ corresponds better to _axe_.

IV.vi.26 (301,9) _for the bore of the matter_] The _bore_ is the calibier of a gun, or the capacity of the barrel. _The matter_ (says Hamlet) _would carry the heavier words_.

IV.vii.18 (302,1) the general gender] The _common race_ of the people.

IV.vii.19 (302,2)

dipping all his faults in their affection, Would, like the spring that turneth wood to stone, Convert his gyves to graces]

This simile is neither very seasonable in the deep interest of this conversation, nor very accurately applied. If the _spring_ had changed base metals to gold, the thought had been more proper.

IV.vii.27 (302,3) if praises may go back again] If I may praise what has been, but is now to be found no more.

IV.vii.77 (304,5) Of the unworthiest siege] Of the lowest rank. _Siege_, for _seat, place_.

IV.vii.82 (304,6) Importing health and graveness] [W: wealth] _Importing_ here may be, not _inferring_ by logical consequence, but _producing_ by physical effect. A young man regards show in his dress, an old man, _health_.

IV.vii.90 (305,7) I, in forgery of shapes and tricks/Come short of what he did] I could not contrive so many proofs of dexterity as he could perform.

IV.vii.98 (305,8) in your defence] That is, _in the science of_ defence.

IV.vii.101 (305,9) The scrimers] The _fencers_.

IV.vii.112 (305,1) love is begun by time] This is obscure. The meaning may be, _love_ is not innate in us, and co-essential to our nature, but begins at a certain time from some external cause, and being always subject to the operations of time, suffers change and diminution. (1773)

IV.vii.113 (300,2) in passages of proof] In transactions of daily experience.

IV.vii.123 (306,4) And then this _should_ is like a spendthrift sigh/ That hurts by easing] [W: sign] This conjecture is so ingenious, that it can hardly be opposed, but with the same reluctance as the bow is drawn against a hero, whose virtues the archer holds in veneration. Here may be applied what Voltaire writes to the empress:

_Le genereux Francois-- Te combat & t'admire._

Yet this emendation, however specious, is mistaken. The original reading is, not a _spendthrift's_ sigh, but a _spendthrift_ sigh; a _sigh_ that makes an unnecessary waste of the vital flame. It is a notion very prevalent, that _sighs_ impair the strength, and wear out the animal powers.

IV.vii.135 (307,5) He being remiss] He being not vigilant or cautious.

IV.vii.139 (307,7) a pass of practice] Practice is often by Shakespeare, and other writers, taken for an _insidious stratagem_, or _privy_ treason, a sense not incongruous to this passage, where yet I rather believe, that nothing more is meant than a _thrust for exercise_.

IV.vii.151 (308,8) May fit us to our shape] May _enable_ us to _assume proper characters_, and to act our part.

IV.vii.155 (308,9) blast in proof] This, I believe, is a metaphor taken from a mine, which, in the proof or execution, sometimes breaks out with an ineffectual _blast_.

V.i.3 (310,1) make her grave straight] Make her grave from east to west in a direct line parallel to the church; not from north to south, athwart the regular line. This, I think, is meant.

V.i.87 (313,1) which this ass now o'er-reaches] In the quarto, for _over-offices_ is, _over-reaches_, which agrees better with the sentence: it is a strong exaggeration to remark that an _ass_ can _over-reach_ him who would once have tried to _circumvent_.--I believe both the words were Shakespeare's. An author in revising his work, when his original ideas have faded from his mind, and new observations have produced new sentiments, easily introduces images which have been more newly impressed upon him, without observing their want of congruity to the general texture of his original design.

V.i.96 (314,2) and now my lady Worm's] The scull that was _my lord Such a one's_, is now my _lady Worm's_.