Lives almoft by his looks; and for myself, Is the great love the general gender bear him; Laer. And fo have I a noble father loft, Whofe worth, if praifes may go back again, That we are made of stuff fo flat and dull, That we can let our beard be fhook with danger, Enter a Meffenger. Mef. Letters, my Lord, from Hamlet.. Thefe to your Majefty: this to the Queen. King. From Hamlet? who brought them? Mej. Sailors, my Lord, they fay; I faw them not; They were given me by Claudio, he received them King. Laertes, you fhall hear them: leave us [Exit Meffenger; all High and mighty, you fhall know, I am fet "naked on your kingdom. To-morrow thall I beg leave to fee your kingly eyes. When I fhalt (firit alking your pardon thereunto), recount the "occafion of my sudden return. 66 "Hamlet." What fhould this mean? are all the reft come back? and no fuch thing? Or is it fome abuse Laer. Know you the hand? King. 'Tis Hamlet's character. Naked; and in a poftfcript here, he fays Laer. I'm loft in it, my Lord; but let him come; That I fhall live, and tell him to his teeth, King. If it be fo, Laertes, As how should it be fo?-----how otherwife?---- Laer. Ay, fo you'll not o'er-rule me to a peace, Under the which he fhall not chufe but fall: And for his death no wind of blame fhall breathe; Laer. I will be ruled, The rather if you could devise it fo, (63) (63) The rather if you could devife it so, That I might be the inftrument. King. It falls right :] The latter verfe is flightly maimed in the measure, and, I apprehend, without reason. This paffage is in neither of the impreffions fet out by the That I might be the organ. You have been talked of fince your travel much, Laer. What part is that, my Lord? King. A very feather in the cap of youth, Yet needful too; for youth no less becomes The light and careless livery that it wears, Than fettled age his fables, and his weeds. Importing health and gravenefs.----Two months Here was a gentleman of Normandy; [fince; I've seen myself, and served against the French, And they can well on horfeback; but this gallant Had witchcraft in't, he grew unto his feat; And to fuch wondrous doing brought his horse, As he had been incorpfed and demy-natured With the brave beaft; fo far he topped my thought, That I in forgery of fhapes and tricks. Come fhort of what he did.. Laer. A Norman was't? King. A Norman. Laer. Upon my life, Lamond. King. The very fame. players; and the two elder Quartos read, as I have reformed the text; That I might be the organ. And it is a word which our Author chufes to ufe in other places. So before, in this play: For murder, though it have no tongue, will speak With moft miraculous organ. So, in Meafare for Measure; And given his deputation all the organs Of our own power. Laer. I know him well; he is the brooch, inde.d, And gem of all the nation. King. He made confeffion of you, And gave you fuch a maiterly report, For art and exercife in your defence, And for your rapier molt especial,. That he cried out, 'twould be a fight indeed, If one could match you.. (64) The fcrimers of He fwore had neither motion, guard, nor eye, That he could nothing do, but with and beg Laer. What out of this, my Lord? King. Laertes, was your father dear to you? Laer. Why afk you this? King. Not that I think you did not love your But that I know, love is begun by time; [father, And that I fee in paffages of proof, Time qualifies the fpark and fire of it; (64) The ferimers of their nation, He fwore, had ne ther motion, guard, nor eye, If you oppofed them.] This likewife is a paffage omitted in the Folios; the reducing the play to a reafonable length was the motive of fo many caftrations. Some of the modern Quartos have in the room of frimers substituted fencers; which is but a glofs of the more obfolete word. Scrimer is properly a gladiator, fencer; from which we have derived our word, fkirmish. The fcience of defence was by the Dutch called scherm; by the Itallans, fcherima and serima; and by the French efrime; as the Anglo-Saxons of old used to call a fencer or fwordfman frimbre; which (the b being left out, and a metathesis made in the letters of the last fyllable) is the very term'ufed by our Author. There lives within the very flame of love And hath abatements and delays as many As there are tongues, are hands, are accidents; (65) For goodrels, growing to a pleurify, Dies in his own too much; Mr Warburton fagacionfly obferved to me, that this is nonfenfe, and untrue in fact; and therefore thinks, that Shakespeare must have wrote; For goodness, growing to a plethory, &c. For the pleurity is an inflammation of the membrane which covers the whole thorax, and is generally occafioned by a ftagnation of the blood; but aplethora is, when the veffels are fuller of humours than is agreeable to a natural fate, or health; and too great a fulness and floridnefs of the blood are frequently the caufes of fudden death. But I have not difturbed the text, because 'tis poflible our Author himself might be out in his phyfics; and I have the more reafon to fafpect it, becaufe Beaumont and Fletcher have twice committed the felf-fame blunder: You are too infolent; And thofe too many excellencies, that feed That which should nourish virtue. Cuftom of the Country. So, again; -Thou grand decider Of duty and old titles, that healeft with blood Two Noble Kinfmen. If I may guefs at the accident which caufed their nistake, it feems this; they did not confider that pleurity was derived from pleura; but the declination of plus pluris, croffed their thoughts, and fo they naturally fuppofed the diftemper to arife from fome fuperfluity. |