Let Hercules himself do what he may, [Exit Hor. Strengthen your patience in our last night's speech; [To Laertes. We'll put the matter to the prefent push.- SCENE A hall in the palace. Enter Hamlet and Horatio. • Ham. So much for this, fir: now shall the other ; you fee You 5hortly] The fecond and third quartos read, thereby. Perhaps rightly. STEEVENS. Ham So much for this fir, &c.] The Hyftorie of Hamblet, bl. let. furnished our author with the fcheme of fending the prince to England, and with most of the circumftances defcribed in this fcene: (After the death of Polonius) "Fengon (the king in the prefent play) could not content himfelfe, but ftill his mind gave him that the foole (Hamlet) would play him fome trick of legerdemaine. And in that conceit, feeking to bee rid of him, deternined to find the meanes todoe it by the aid of a stranger, making the king of England minifter of his maffacrous refolution; to whom he purpofed to fend him, and by letters defire him to put him to death. Now, to bear him company, were affigned two of Fengon's faithful minifiers, bearing letters ingraved in wood, that contained Hamlet's death, in such fort as he had advertised the king of England. But the fubtil Danish prince (being at fea), whilft his companions flept, having read the letters, and knowing his uncle's great treafon, with the wicked and villainous mindes of the two courtiers that led him to the flaughter, raced out the let 1679 You do remember all the circumftance? Hor. Remember it, my lord! Ham. Sir, in my heart there was a kind of fighting, ters that concerned his death, and inftead thereof graved others, with commiffion to the king of England to bang his two companions; and not content to turn the death they had devited against him, upon their own necks, wrote further, that king Fengon willed him to give his daughter to Hamlet in marriage." Hyft. of Ham. fig. G 2. From this narrative it appears that the faithful minifters of Fengon were not unacquainted with the import of the letters they bore. Shakspeare, who has followed the story pretty clofely, probably meant to defcribe their reprefentatives, Rofenerantz and Guildenftern, as equally guilty; as confederating with the king to deprive Hamlet of his life. So that his procuring their execution, though certainly not abfolutely neceffary to his own fafety, does not appear to have been a wanton and unprovoked cruelty, as Mr. Steevens has fuppofed in his very ingenious obfervations on the general character and conduct of the prince throughout this piece. In the conclufion of his drama the poet has entirely deviated from the fabulous history, which in other places he has frequently followed. After Hamlet's arrival in England (for no fea fight is mentioned)," the king (fays 7he Hy ory of Hamblet) admiring the young prince gave him his daughter in marriage, according to the counterfeit letters by him devife; and the next day caufed the two fervants of Fengon to be executed, to fatisfy as he thought the king's defire." Hyft. of Ham. Ibid. Hamlet, however, returned to Denmark, without marrying the king of England's daughter, who, it fhould feem, had only been betrothed to him. When he arrived in his native country, he made the courtiers drunk, and having bornt them to death, by fetting fire to the banqueting-room wherein they fat, he went into Fengon's chamber, and killed him, giving him (ays the relater) fuch a violent blowe upon the chine of the necke, that he cut his head clean from the fhoulders." Ibid. fig. F 3. He is afterwards faid to have been crowned king of Denmark. I thall only add that this tremendous froke might have been alledged by the advocates for Dr. Warburton's alteration of nave into nape, in a contefted paffage in the first act of Macbeth, if the original reading had not been established beyond a doubt by Mr. Sicevens, in his note, p. 358. MALONE. 6 That would not let me fleep; methought, I lay Worfe than the mutines in the bilboes. Rafhly, And prais'd be rafhnefs for it-Let us know, Our 5-mutines in the bilboes.] Mutines, the French word for feditious or difobedient fellows in the army or fleet. Bilboes the hip's prifon. JOHNSON. The The bilboes is a bar of iron with fetters annexed to it, by which mutinous or disorderly failors were anciently linked together, word is derived from Bilboa, a place in Spain where inftruments of steel were fabricated in the utmost perfection. To understand Shak fpeare's allufion completely, it should be known, that as thefe fetters connect the legs of the offenders very clofe together, their at tempts to rest must be as fruitless as thofe of Hamlet, in whofe mind there was a kind of fighting that would not let him fleep. Every motion of one must disturb his partner in confinement, The bilboes are ftill fhewn in the Tower of London, among the other fpoils of the Spanish Armada. The following is the figure of them. STEEVENS. Rafbly, And prais'd be rafbnefs for it-Let us know, When, &c.] The fenfe in this reading is, Our rashness lets us know that our indifcretion ferves us well, when, &c. But this could never be Shakspeare's fenfe. We should read and point thus: Rafonefs (And prais'd be rashness for it, lets us know; Or indifcretion fometimes ferves us well, When, &c.] i. e. Rafhnets acquaints us with what we can, not penetrate to by plots. WARBURTON. Both my copies read, Rafhly, And prais'd be rafbuefs for it, let us know. VOL. X. K k Hamlet, Our indifcretion fometime ferves us well, When our deep plots do fail: and that should teach us, There's a divinity that fhapes our ends, My fea-gown fcarf'd about me, in the dark Hamler, delivering an account of his efcape, begins with fay ing. That he rafhly--and then is carried into reflection upon the weakness of human wisdom. I rathly---praised be rathnefs for it-Let us not think thefe ev nts cafual, but let us know, that is, take notice and remember, that we fometimes fuceeed by indiferetion, when we fail by deep plot, and infer the perpetual fuperintendance and agency of the Divinity. The obTervation is juft, and will be allowed by every human being who fhall reflect on the courfe of his own life. JOHNSON. This paffage, think, fhould be thus diftributed,Rafhly (And prais'd be rashness, for it lets us know, Our indifcretion fometimes ferves us well, When our deep plots do fail; and that should teach us, Rough hew them how we will ; Hor. That is most certain.-) Ham. Up from my cabin, &c.] So that rafhly may be joined in conftruction with in the dark grop'd I to find out them. TYRWHITT. 6 When our deep plots do fail: The folio reads When our dear plots do paule. MALONE. There's a divinity that shapes our ends, Dr. Farmer informs me, that these words are merely technical, A wool-man, butcher, and dealer in Skewers, lately observed to him that his nephew (an idle lad) could only at him in making them; he could rough-bew them, but I was obliged to Shape their ends." Whoever, recollects the profeffion of Shakspeare's father, will admit that his fon might be no stranger to fuch a term. I have feen packages of wool pinn'd up with Skewers. STEEVENS Their grand commiffion; where I found, Horatio, Hor. Is't poffible? Ham. Here's the commiffion; read it at more But wilt thou hear now how I did proceed? I Ham. Being thus benetted round with villanies, Ere 8 With, bo! fuch bugs and goblins in my life;] With Such caufes of terror, rifing from my character and defigns. JOHNSON. A bug was no lefs a terrific being than a goblin. So, in Spen. fer's Faery Queen, B. ii. c. 3: "As ghaftly bug their haire on end does reare." We call it at prefent a bugbear. STEEVENS. 9- no leifure bated,] Bated, for allowed. To abate, fignifies to deduct; this deduction, when applied to the perfon in whofe favour it is made, is called an allowance. Hence he takes the li berty of using bated for allowed. WARBURTON. Being thus benetted round with villains, They had begun the play :-] The fecond line is nonfenfe. The whole fhould be read thus: Being thus benetted round with villains, Ere I could mark the prologue to my bane, They bad begun the play. i. e. they begun to ad, to my destruction, before I knew there was a play towards. Ere I could mark the prologue. For it appears by what he fays of his foreboding, that it was that only, and not any apparent mark of villainy, which fet him upon fingering their packet. Ere could make the prologue, is abfurd: both, as he had no thoughts of playing them a trick till they had played him one; and because his counterplot could not be called a prologue to their plot. WARBURTON. In my opinion no alteration is neceffary. Hamlet is telling Kk a how |
