And his commission, to employ those soldiers, [Gives a Paper. That it might please you to give quiet pass KING. Mean time, we thank you for your well-took labour: POL. [Exeunt VOLTIMAND and CORNELIUS. This business is well ended. 9 My liege, and madam, to expostulate 9 The word is commonly used in Scotland, for wages, as we say, lawyer's fee, physician's fee. STEEVENS. Fee is defined by Minsheu, in his Dict. 1617, a reward. MALONE. I have restored the reading of the folio. Mr. Ritson explains it, I think, rightly, thus: the King gave his nephew a feud or fee (in land) of that yearly value. REED. 8 at night we'll feast-] The King's intemperance is never suffered to be forgotten. JOHNSON. 9 My liege, and madam, to EXPOSTULATE -] To expostulale, for to enquire or discuss. The strokes of humour in this speech are admirable. Polonius's character is that of a weak, pedant, minister of state. His declamation is a fine satire on the impertinent oratory then in vogue, which placed reason in the formality of method, and wit in the gingle and play of words. With what art is he made to pride himself in his wit: "That he is mad, 'tis true: 'tis true, 'tis pity: "But farewell it 66 And how exquisitely does the poet ridicule the reasoning in fashion, where he makes Polonius remark on Hamlet's madness: Though this be madness, yet there's method in't : " As if method, which the wits of that age thought the most essential quality of a good discourse, would make amends for the mad What majesty should be, what duty is, Why day is day, night, night, and time is time, ness. It was madness indeed, yet Polonius could comfort himself with this reflection, that at least it was method. It is certain Shakspeare excels in nothing more than in the preservation of his characters: To this life and variety of character (says our great poet [Pope] in his admirable preface to Shakspeare,) we must add the wonderful preservation. We have said what is the character of Polonius; and it is allowed on all hands to be drawn with wonderful life and spirit, yet the unity of it has been thought by some to be grossly violated in the excellent precepts and instructions which Shakspeare makes his statesman give his son and servant in the middle of the first, and beginning of the second act. But I will venture to say, these criticks have not entered into the poet's art and address in this particular. He had a mind to ornament his scenes with those fine lessons of social life; but his Polonius was too weak to be author of them, though he was pedant enough to have met with them in his reading, and fop enough to get them by heart, and retail them for his own. And this the poet has finely shown us was the case, where, in the middle of Polonius's instructions to his servant, he makes him, though without having received any interruption, forget his lesson, and say— "And then, sir, does he this; "He does-What was I about to say? "I was about to say something-where did I leave? " The Servant replies: At, closes in the consequence. This sets Polonius right, and he goes on "At closes in the consequence. 66 Ay, marry, "He closes thus: I know the gentleman," &c. 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, Were nothing but to waste night, day, and time. And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes, More matter, with less art. POL. Madam, I swear, I use no art at all. 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. This admirable note may be illustrated by a passage which Johnson has highly praised in Love's Labour's Lost, Act V. Sc. II. : "Prin. None are so surely caught, when they are catch'd, "As wit turn'd fool: folly, in wisdom hatch'd, "Hath wisdom's warrant, and the help of school; "And wit's own grace, to grace a learned fool. "Ros. The blood of youth burns not with such excess, "As gravity's revolt to wantonness. "Mar. Folly in fools bears not so strong a note, "As foolery in the wise, when wit doth dote." MALONE. 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. That he is mad, 'tis true: 'tis true, 'tis pity; Mad let us grant him then: and now remains, I have a daughter; have, while she is mine; Hath given me this: Now gather, and surmise. -To the celestial, and my soul's idol, the most beautified Ophelia', That's an ill phrase, a vile phrase; beautified is a vile phrase; but you shall hear. Thus: I 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." FARMER. 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 : 66 seeing you are beautified "With goodly shape," &c. STEEVENS. By beautified Hamlet means beautiful. But Polonius, taking the word in the more 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 2, &c.— 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, Iam ill at these numbers; I have not art to reckon my groans: but that I love thee best, O most best 3, believe it. Adieu. Thine evermore, most dear lady, whilst this machine is to him, Hamlet*. This, in obedience, hath my daughter shown* me: And more above 5, hath his solicitings, * First folio, shewed. 2 In her excellent white bosom these,] To, in The Two Gentlemen of Verona : "Thy letters "Which, being writ to me, shall be deliver'd "Even in the milk-white bosom of thy love." ol. IV. p. 78. STEEVENS. 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. 66 3 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 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. STEEVENS. S more above,] Is, moreover, besides. JOHNSON. |