Imagens da página
PDF
ePub

Thence to a lightness; and, by this declension,

Into the madness wherein now he raves, And all we mourn for.] The ridicule of this character is here admirably sustained. He would not only be thought to have discovered this intrigue by his own sagacity, but to have remarked all the stages of Hamlet's disorder, from his sadness to his raving, as regularly as his physician could have done; when all the while the madness was only feigned. The humour of this is exquisite from a man who tells us, with a confidence peculiar to small politicians, that he could find

Where truth was hid, though it were hid

indeed

"Within the centre." Warburton.

P. 44, 1. 24. 25.

sometimes he walks four hours together,] Per

haps it would be better were we to read indefinitely,

- for hours together. TYRWHITT.

I formerly was inclined to adopt Mr. Tyrwhitt's proposed emendation; but have now no doubt that the text is right. The expression, four hours together, two hours together, &c. appears to have been common. MALONE.

P. 45, 1. 5. I'll board him] i. e. accost, address him.

REED.

[ocr errors]

P. 45, 1. 18. 19. Ham. For if the sun breed maggots in a dead dog, being a god, kissing carrion-1 Old copies a good kissing carrion. The editors seeing Hamlet counterfeit madness,` thought they might safely put any nonsense into his mouth. But this strange passage, when set right, will be seen to contain as great and sublime a reflection as any the poet puts into his

here's

hero's mouth throughout the whole play. We will first give the true reading, which is this: For if the sun breed maggots in a dead dog, being a god, kissing carrion,

As to the sense we may observe, that the illative particle [for] shows the speaker to be reasoning from something he had said before: what that was we learn in these words, to be honest, as this world goes, is to be one picked out of ten thousand. Having said this, the chain of ideas led him to reflect upon the argument which libertines bring against Providence from the circumstance of abounding evil. In the next speech therefore he endeavours to answer that objection, and vindicate Providence, even on a supposition of the fact, that almost all men were wicked. His argument in the two lines in question is to this purpose, But why need we wonder at this abounding of evil? For if the sun breed maggots in a dead dog, which though a god, yet shedding its heat and influence upon carrion-Here he stops short, lest talking too consequentially the hearer should suspect his madness to be feigned; and so turns him off from the subject, by enquiring of his daughter. But the inference which he intended to make, was a very noble one, and to this purpose. If this, (says he) be the case, that the effect follows the thing operated upon [carrion] and not the thing operating [a god,] why need we wonder, that the supreme cause of all shings diffusing its blessings on mankind, who is, as it were, a dead carrion, dead in original sin, man, instead of a proper return of duty, should breed only corruption and vices? This is the argument at length; and is as noble a one in behalf of Providence as could come from the schools of divinity. But this wonderful man VOL, VXII, 14

had an art not only of acquainting the audience with what his actors say, but with what they think. The sentiment too is altogether in character, for Hamlet is perpetually moralizing, and his crrcumstances make this reflection very natural. The same thought, something diversified, as on a different occasion, he uses again in Measure for Measure, which will serve to confirm these observations:

"The tempter or the tempted, who sins most?
"Not she; nor doth she tempt; but it is I
"That lying by the violet in the sun,

"Do as the carrion does, not as the flower,
"Corrupt by virtuous season.'

[ocr errors]

And the same kind of expression is in Cymbeline : "Common-kissing Titan." WARBURTON., This is a noble emendation, which almost sets the critick on a level with the author. JOHNSON.

Dr. Warburton, in my apprehension, did not understand the passage. I have therefore omitted his faboured comment on it, in which he endeavours to prove that Shakspeare intended it as a vindication of the ways of Providence in permitting evil to abound in the world. He does not indeed pretend that this profound meaning can be drawn from what Hamlet says; but that this is what he was thinking of; for "this wonderful man (Shakspeare) had an art not only of acquainting the audience with what his actors say, but with what they think!"

Hamlet's observation is, I think, simply this. He has just remarked that honesty is very rare in the world. To this Polonius assents. The Prince then adds, that since there is so little virtue in the world, since corruption abounds every where, and maggots are bred by the sun, even in a dead dog,

a

Polonius ought to take care to prevent his daughter from walking in the sun, lest she should prove breeder of sinners;" for though conception in general be a blessing, yet as Ophelia (whom Hamlet supposes to be as frail as the rest of the world,) might chance to conceive, it might be a calamity. The maggots breeding in a dead dog, seem to have been mentioned merely to introduce the word conception; on which word, as Mr. Steevens has observed, Shakspeare has played in King Lear: and probably a similar quibble was intended here. The word, however, may have been used in its ordinary sense, for pregnancy, without any double meaning.

[ocr errors]

The slight connection between this and the preeeding passage, and Hamlet's abrupt question, Have you a daughter? were manifestedly intended more strongly to impress Polonius with the belief of the Prince's madness.

Perhaps this passage ought rather to be regulated thus: being a god-kissing carrion;" i. e. a carrion that kisses the sun. The participle being naturally refers to the last antecedent, dog. Had Shakspeare intended that it should be referred to sun, he would probably have written-"he being a god," &c. We have many similar compound epithets in these plays.

"

However, the instance quoted from Cymbeline by Dr. Warburton, common-kissing Titan," seems in favour of the regulation that has been hitherto - made; for here we find the poet considered the sun as kissing the carrion, not the carrion as kissing the sun.

In justice to Dr. Johnson, I should add, that the high elogium which he has pronounced on Dr.

Warburton's emendation, was founded on the comment which accompanied it; of which, however, I think, his judgement must have condemned the reasoning, though his goodness and piety approved its moral tendency. MALONE.

As a doubt, at least, may be entertained on this subject, I have not ventured to expunge a note written by a great critick, and applauded by a greater. STEEVENS.

P. 45, 1, 22-24. conception is a blessing; but as your daughter may conceive, friend, look to't.] Thus the quarto. The folio reads thus: -conception is a blessing; but not as your daughter may conceive. Friend look to't." The meaning seems to be, conception (i. e. understanding) is a blessing; but as your daughter may conceive (i. e. be pregnant,) friend look to't, i.e. have a care of that. STEEVENS.

[ocr errors]

P. 46, 1.3-8. the satirical rogue says here, that old men have grey beards; that their faces are wrinkled; their eyes purging thick amber, and plum-tree gum; and that they have a plentiful lack of wit, together with most weak hams] By the satirical rogue he means Juvenal in his 10th Satire. Nothing could be finer imagined for Hamlet, in his circumstances, than the bringing him in reading a description of the evils of long life. WARBURTON.

Had Shakspeare read Juvenal in the original, he had met with

and

"De temone Britanno, Excidet Arviragus"

<< Uxorem, Posthume, ducis?"

We should not then have had continually in Cym beline, Arvirāgus, and Posthūmus. Should it be said that the quantity in the former word might

« AnteriorContinuar »