That, if again this apparition come, He may approve3 our eyes, and speak to it. Sit down awhile; And let us once again assail your ears, Hor. Well, sit we down, And let us hear Bernardo speak of this. Ber. Last night of all, When yon same star, that's westward from the pole, Had made his course to illume that part of heaven Where now it burns, Marcellus, and myself, The bell then beating one, Mar. Peace, break thee off; look, where it comes again! Enter Ghost. Ber. In the same figure like the king that's dead. Mar. Thou art a scholar, speak to it, Horatio*. Ber. Looks it not like the king? mark it, Horatio. Hor. Most like:—it harrows5 me with fear, and wonder. Ber. It would be spoke to. Mar. Speak to it, Horatio. Hor. What art thou, that usurp'st this time of night, Together with that fair and warlike form 3 To approve or confirm. Ratum habere aliquid.'-Baret. 4 It was a vulgar notion that a supernatural being could only be spoken to with effect by persons of learning; exorcisms being usually practiced by the clergy in Latin. Toby, in The Night Walker of Beaumont and Fletcher, says: 'Let's call the butler up, for he speaks Latin, And that will daunt the devil. 5 The first quarto reads, it horrors me.' To harrow is to distress, to vex, to disturb. To harry and to harass have the same origin, from the Gothic haer, an armed force. Milton has the word in Comus ; Amaz'd I stood, harrow'd with grief and fear.' In which the majesty of buried Denmark Did sometimes march? by heaven I charge thee, speak. Mar. It is offended. Ber. See! it stalks away. Hor. Stay; speak: speak I charge thee, speak. [Exit Ghost. Mar. 'Tis gone, and will not answer. Ber. How now, Horatio? you tremble, and look pale: Is not this something more than fantasy? What think you of it? Hor. Before my God, I might not this believe, Without the sensible and true avouch Of mine own eyes. Mar. Is it not like the king? Hor. As thou art to thyself: Such was the very armour he had on, "Tis strange. 8 Mar. Thus, twice before, and jump at this dead hour, With martial stalk hath he gone by our watch. 6 Parle, the same as parley, a conference between enemies. 7 i. e. the sledged Polander; Polaque, Fr. The old copy reads Pollax. Malone therefore thinks that Shakspeare wrote Polacks, not considering that it was in a parley, and that a general slaughter was hardly likely to ensue. Mr. Boswell suggests that it is just possible the old reading may be right, pole-ax being put for the person who carried the pole-axe, a mark of rank among the Muscovites, as he has shown from Milton's Brief History of Muscovy. 8 Jump. So the quarto of 1603, and that of 1604. The folio reads just: Jump and just were synonymous in the time of Shakspeare. So in Chapman's May Day, 1611: 'Your appointment was jumpe at three with me.' Thou bendest neither one way nor tother, but art even jumpe stark naught.-Baret, B. 486. Hor. In what particular thought to work, I know not9; But, in the gross and scope of mine opinion, Why this same strict and most observant watch Hor. At least, the whisper goes so. That can I; Our last king, Whose image even but now appear'd to us, Did forfeit with his life, all those his lands, Was gaged by our king: which had return'd 9 That is, what particular train of thought to follow, I know not,' &c. The first quarto reads: In what particular to work I know not.' 10 To impress signifies only to retain shipwrights by giving them prest money for holding themselves in readiness to be employed. Thus in Chapman's second book of Homer's Odyssey:— 'I from the people straight will press for you, Free voluntaries.' See King Lear, Act iv. Sc. 2; and Blount's Glossography, in v. prest. VOL. X. To the inheritance of Fortinbras, 11 Had he been vanquisher; as, by the same co-mart 11, And carriage of the article design'd 12, His fell to Hamlet: Now, sir, young Fortinbras, Hath in the skirts of Norway, here and there, For food and diet, to some enterprise That hath a stomach 15 in't: which is no other The source of this our watch; and the chief head 11 Co-mart is the reading of the quarto of 1604; the folio reads, covenant. Co-mart, it is presumed, means a joint bargain. No other instance of the word is known. 12 i. e. and import of that article marked out, assigned or appointed for that purpose.' Designed is here used in the sense of of designatus, Lat. 13 The first quarto reads, 'Of inapproved.' 'Of unimproved mettle hot and full;' i. e. of unimpeached or unquestioned courage. To improve anciently signified to impeach, to impugn. Thus Florio: Improbare, to improove, to impugn.' The French have still improuver, with the same meaning; from improbare, Lat. Numerous instances of improve in this sense may be found in the writings of Shakspeare's time. And yet Johnson explains it, 'full of spirit, not regulated or guided by knowledge or experience,' and has been hitherto uncontradicted. 'Scroccare is properly 14 i. e. snapped up or taken up hastily. to do any thing at another man's cost, to shark or shift for any thing. Scroccolone, a cunning shifter or sharker for any thing in time of need, namely for victuals; a tall trencher-man, shifting up and down for belly cheer.' The same word also signifies to snap. This word has not yet lost its force in vulgar conversation. 15 Stomach is used for determined purpose. 16 Romage, now spelt rummage, and in common use as a verb, though not as a substantive, for making a thorough ransack or search, a busy and tumultuous movement, 17 [Ber. I think, it be no other, but even so: Well may it sort 18, that this portentous figure Comes armed through our watch; so like the king That was, and is, the question 19 of these wars. Hor. A mote it is, to trouble the mind's eye. In the most high and palmy 20 state of Rome, A little ere the mightiest Julius fell, The graves stood tenantless, and the sheeted dead Did squeak and gibber in the Roman streets. As, stars with trains of fire and dews of blood, 23 Re-enter Ghost. But, soft; behold! lo, where it comes again! 17 All the lines within crotchets in this play are omitted in the folio of 1623. The title-pages of the quartos of 1604 and 1605 declare this play to be enlarged to almost as much againe as it was, according to the true and perfect copie.' 18 i. e. fall in with the idea of, suit, accord. 19 i. e. theme, or subject. 20 i. e. victorious; the Palm being the emblem of victory. Chapman, in his Middle Temple Masque, has high-palm'd hearts.' 21 A line or more is here supposed to be lost. 22 i. e. the moon. 'Not that night-wand'ring pale and watry star.' Marlowe's Hero and Leander. 23 Omen is here put by a figure of speech for predicted event. 24 The person who crossed the spot on which a spectre was seen, became subject to its malignant influence. Among the reasons for supposing the death of Ferdinand, Earl of Derby, |