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Almost to jelly with the act of fear,
Stand dumb and speak not to him. This to me
In dreadful fecrecy impart they did;

And I with them, the third night, kept the watch:
Where, as they had deliver'd, both in time,
Form of the thing, each word made true and good,
The apparition comes: I knew your father;

These hands are not more like.

Нам.

5

But where was this?

MAR. My lord, upon the platform where we watch'd.

HAM. Did you not speak to it?"

with the act of fear,] Fear was the caufe, the active cause that distilled them by that force of operation which we strictly call at in voluntary, and power in involuntary agents, but popularly call att in both. JOHNSON.

The folio reads bestil'd. STEEVENS.

6 Did you not speak to it?] Fielding, who was well acquainted with vulgar superstitions, in his Tom Jones, B. XI. ch. ii. obferves that Mrs. Fitzpatrick, "like a ghost, only wanted to be spoke to," but then very readily answered. It seems from this passage, as well as from others in books too mean to be formally quoted, that fpectres were supposed to maintain an obdurate filence, till interro gated by the people to whom they appeared.

The drift therefore of Hamlet's question is, whether his father's shade had been spoken to; and not whether Horatio, as a parti cular or privileged person, was the speaker to it. Horatio tells us he had feen the late king but once, and therefore cannot be imagined to have any particular interest with his apparition.

The vulgar notion that a ghost could only be spoken to with propriety and effect by a scholar, agrees very well with the character of Marcellus, a common officer; but it would have disgraced the Prince of Denmark to have supposed the spectre would more readily comply with Horatio's folicitation, merely because it was that of a man who had been studying at a univerfity.

We are at liberty to think the Ghost would have replied to Frane cifco, Bernardo, or Marcellus, had either of them ventured to queftion it. It was actually preparing to address Horatio, when the cock crew. The convenience of Shakspeare's play, however, required that the phantom should continue dumb, till Hamlet could HOR. My lord, I did;

But answer made it none: yet once, methought,

It lifted up its head, and did address

Itself to motion, like as it would speak:

But, even then, the morning cock crew loud;'
And at the found it shrunk in haste away,

And vanish'd from our fight.

HAM.

'Tis very strange.

HOR. As I do live, my honour'd lord, 'tis true; And we did think it writ down in our duty, To let you know of it.

be introduced to hear what was to remain concealed in his own breaft, or to be communicated by him to some intelligent friend, like Horatio, in whom he could implicitly confide.

By what particular perfon therefore an apparition which exhibits itself only for the purpose of being urged to fpeak, was addressed, could be of no confequence.

Be it remembered likewife, that the words are not as lately pronounced on the stage, -" Did not you speak to it?"-but-" Did you not speak to it?"- How aukward will the innovated sense appear, if attempted to be produced from the passage as it really stands in the true copies!

Did you not speak to it?

The emphafis, therefore, should most certainly rest on-speak.

STEEVENS.

the morning cock crew loud;) The moment of the evanefcence of fpirits was fuppofed to be limited to the crowing of the cock. This belief is mentioned fo early as by Prudentius, Cathem. Hymn. I. v. 40. But fome of his commentators prove it to be of much higher antiquity.

It is a most inimitable circumstance in Shakspeare, so to have managed this popular idea, as to make the Ghoft, which has been fo long obftinately filent, and of course must be dismissed by the morning, begin or rather prepare to freak, and to be interrupted, at the very critical time of the crowing of a cock.

Another poet, according to custom, would have fuffered his ghoft tamely to vanish, without contriving this start, which is like a start of guilt. To say nothing of the aggravation of the future fufpence, occafioned by this preparation to fpeak, and to impart fome myfterious fecret. Lefs would have been expected, had nothing been promised. T. WARTON.

HAM. Indeed, indeed, firs, but this troubles me.

Hold you the watch to-night?

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Then faw you not

ALL. My lord, from head to foot.

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His face.

Hor. O, yes, my lord; he wore his beaver up.*

HAM. What, look'd he frowningly?

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Very like: Stay'd it long?

HOR. While one with moderate haste might tell

a hundred.

MAR. BER. Longer, longer.

HOR. Not when I saw it.

8

wore his beaver up.] Though beaver properly fignified that part of the helmet which was let down, to enable the wearer to drink, Shakspeare always uses the word as denoting that part of the helmet which, when raised up, exposed the face of the wearer: and fuch was the popular fignification of the word in his time. In Bullokar's English Expofitor, 8vo. 1616, beaver is defined thus :-" In armour it fignifies that part of the helmet which may be lifted p, to take breath the more freely." MALONE,

HAM.

His beard was grizzl'd? no?

Hor. It was, as I have seen it in his life,

A fable filver'd.o

HAM.

I will watch to-night;

Perchance, 'twill walk again.
HOR.

I warrant, it will.

HAM. If it assume my noble father's person,
I'll speak to it, though hell itself should gape,
And bid me hold my peace. I pray you all,
If you have hitherto conceal'd this fight,
Let it be tenable in your filence still; *
And whatsoever else shall hap to-night,
Give it an understanding, but no tongue;
I will requite your loves: So, fare you well:
Upon the platform, 'twixt eleven and twelve,
I'll visit you.

ALL.

Our duty to your honour.

HAM. Your loves, as mine to you: Farewell.
[Exeunt HORATIO, MARCELLUS, and Bernardo.

My father's spirit in arms! all is not well;
I doubt some foul play: 'would, the night were

come!

Till then fit still, my foul: Foul deeds will rife, Though all the earth o'erwhelm them, to men's eyes. [Exit.

9 A fable filver'd.] So, in our poet's 12th fonnet:

"And fable curls, all filver'd o'er with white." MALONE. 2 Let it be tenable in your filence till; Thus the quartos, and rightly. The folio, 1623, reads-treble. STEEVENS,

3 My father's spirit in arms! From what went before, I once hinted to Mr. Garrick, that these words might be spoken in this

mannner :

My father's spirit! in arms! all is not well;

WHALLEY,

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LAER. My neceffaries are embark'd; farewell:

And, fifter, as the winds give benefit,
And convoy is assistant, do not fleep,

But let me hear from you.

OPH.

Do you doubt that?

LAER. For Hamlet, and the trifling of his favour, Hold it a fashion, and a toy in blood; A violet in the youth of primy nature, Forward, not permanent, sweet, not lafting, The perfume and fuppliance of a minute; No more.

OPH. No more but fo?

LAER.

Think it no more:

For nature, crescent, does not grow alone

* The perfume and fuppliance of a minute ;) Thus the quarto: the folio has it :

-Sweet, not lasting,

The suppliance of a minute.

It is plain that perfume is necessary to exemplify the idea of Sweet, mot lafting. With the word fuppliance I am not fatisfied, and yet dare hardly offer what I imagine to be right. I suspect that foffrance, or fome fuch word, formed from the Italian, was then used for the act of fumigating with sweet scents. JOHNSON.

The perfume and fuppliance of a minute; i. e. what is supplied to us for a minute; or, as Mr. M. Mason supposes, " an amusement to fill up a vacant moment, and render it agreeable." STEEVENS. The words-perfume and, which are found in the quarto, 1604, were omitted in the folio. MALONE.

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