--_fortune's_ star:
But I think _scar_ is proper.
I.iv.34 (178,8) As infinite as man may undergo] As large as can be
accumulated upon man.
I.iv.39-57 (179,2) Angels and ministers of grace defend us!] Hamlet's
speech to the apparition of his father seems to me to consist of three
parts. When first he sees the spectre, he fortifies himself with an
invocation.
_Angel and ministers of grace defend us!_
As the spectre approaches, he deliberates with himself, and determines,
that whatever it be he will venture to address it.
_Be thou a spirit of health, or goblin damn'd,
Bring with thee airs from heaven, or blasts from hell,
Be thy intents wicked or charitable,
Thou com'st in such a questionable shape,
That I will speak to thee. I'll call thee_, &c.
This he says while his father is advancing; he then, as he had
determined, _speaks to him_, and _calls him--Hamlet, King, Father, Royal
Dane: oh! answer me_. (1773)
I.iv.43 (180,4) questionable shape] [By _questionable_ is meant
provoking question. HANMER.] So in _Macbeth_,
_Live you, or are you aught
That man may_ question?
I.iv.46 (180,5) tell,/Why thy canoniz'd bones, hearsed in death,/ Have
burst their cearments?] [W: in earth] It were too long to examine this
note period by period, though almost every period seems to me to contain
something reprehensible. The critic, in his zeal for change, writes with
so little consideration, as to say, that Hamlet cannot call his father
_canonized_, because _we are told he was murdered with all his sins
fresh upon him_. He was not then told it, and had so little the power of
knowing it, that he was to be told it by an apparition. The long
succession of reasons upon reasons prove nothing, but what every reader
discovers, that the king had been buried, which is implied by so many
adjuncts of burial, that the direct mention of _earth_ is not necessary.
Hamlet, amazed at an apparition, which, though in all ages credited, has
in all ages been considered as the most wonderful and most dreadful
operation of supernatural agency, enquires of the spectre, in the most
emphatic terms, why he breaks the order of nature, by returning from the
dead; this he asks in a very confused circumlocution, confounding in his
fright the soul and body. Why, says he, have _thy bones_, which with due
ceremonies have been intombed _in death_, in the common state of
departed mortals, _burst_ the folds in which they were embalmed? Why has
the tomb, in which we saw thee quietly laid, opened his mouth, that
mouth which, by its weight and stability, seemed closed for ever? The
whole sentence is this: _Why dost thou appear, whom we know to be dead?_
Had the change of the word removed any obscurity, or added any beauty,
it might have been worth a struggle; but either reading leaves the sense
the same.
If there be any asperity in this controversial note, it must be imputed
to the contagion of peevishneas, or some resentment of the incivility
shewn to the Oxford editor, who is represented as supposing the ground
_canonized_ by a funeral, when he only meant to say, that the _body_ has
deposited in _holy ground_, in ground consecrated according to the
_canon_.
I.iv.65 (183,9) I do not set my life at a pin's fee] The value of a pin.
(1773)
I.iv.73 (183,1) deprive your sovereignty] I believe _deprive_ in this
place signifies simply to _take away_.
I.iv.77 (184,4) confin'd to fast in fires] I am rather inclined to read,
_confin'd to_ lasting _fires_, to fires _unremitted_ and _unconsumed_.
The change is slight.
I.v.30 (186,7) As meditation or the thoughts of love] The comment
[Warburton's] on the word _meditation_ is so ingenious, that I hope it
is just.
I.v.77 (188,6) Unhonsel'd, disappointed, unaneal'd] This is a very
difficult line. I think Theobald's objection to the sense of
_unaneal'd_, for _notified by the bell_, must be owned to be very
strong. I have not yet by my enquiry satisfied myself. Hanmer's
explication of _unaneal'd_ by _unprepar'd_, because to _anneal_ metals,
is to _prepare_ them in manufacture, is too general and vague; there is
no resemblance between any funeral ceremony and the practice of
_annealing_ metals.
_Disappointed_ is the same as _unappointed_, and may be properly
explained _unprepared_; a man well furnished with things necessary for
any enterprize, was said to be well _appointed_.
I.v.80 (190,7) Oh, horrible! oh, horrible! most horrible!] It was
ingeniously hinted to me by a very learned lady, that this line seems to
belong to Hamlet, in whose mouth it is a proper and natural exclamation;
and who, according to the practice of the stage, may be supposed to
interrupt so long a speech. (1773)
I.v.154 (193,5) Swear by my sword] [Here the poet has preserved the
manners of the ancient Danes, with whom it was _religion_ to swear upon
their swords. WARBURTON.] I was once inclinable to this opinion, which
is likewise well defended by Mr. Upton; but Mr. Garrick produced me a
passage, I think, in _Brantoms_, from which it appeared, that it was
common to swear upon the sword, that is, upon the cross which the old
swords always had upon the hilt.
II.i.25 (197,8) drinking, fencing, swearing] I suppose, by _fencing_ is
meant a too diligent frequentation of the fencing-school, a resort of
violent and lawless young men.
II.i.46 (197,4) _Good Sir_, or so, or _friend_, or _gentleman_] [W:
sire] I know not that _sire_ was ever a general word of compliment, as
distinct from _sir_; nor do I conceive why any alteration should be
made. It is a common mode of colloquial language to use, _or so_, as a
slight intimation of more of the same, or a like kind, that might be
mentioned. We might read, but we need not,
_Good sir_, forsooth, _or friend, or gentleman_.
_Forsooth_, a term of which I do not well know the original meaning, was
used to men as well as to women.
II.i.71 (198,5) Observe his inclination in yourself] HANMER reads,
_e'en_ yourself, and is followed by Dr. Warburton; but perhaps _in_
yourself means, _in your own person_, not by spies.
II.i.112 (200,7) I had not quoted him] To _quote_ is, I believe, to
_reckon_, to take an account of, to take the _quotient_ or result of a
computation.