Disasters in the sun; and the moist star,

118. in] veil'd Rowe+. dim'd Cap. Mal. Harness.

118

such a word exist) would be a negative mean between the two extremes. Similarly, if aster signify a spot of light, a name singularly appropriate to a comet, disaster must, by reversal, be a spot of darkness, and disasters in the sun' no other than what we should call spots upon his disk. Read, therefore, 'Asters with trains of fire,' &c. SINGER (ed. 2): As it has been conjectured that a line has been here lost, perhaps we might read: 'And as the earth, so portents fill'd the sky, Asters, with trains of fire,' &c. Disaster is used as a verb in Ant. & Cleop. II, vii, 18, and it has therefore been conjectured that we should read Disastering here. COLLIER thinks that these lines are probably irretrievably corrupt, but that there is no sufficient reason for supposing a line to have been lost, adding, 'We shrewdly suspect that the error lies merely in the word "Disasters," which was perhaps misprinted, because it was immediately below “As stars,” and thus misled the eye of the old compositor. We do not imagine that Sh. used so affected and unpopular a word as astres or asters.' W. W. WILLIAMS proposes: Astres with trains of fire and dews of blood, Did overcast the sun,' &c. STAUNTON awards some plausibility to Malone's emendation, and considers Astres or Asters as an acceptable conjecture, but conceives, with Collier, that the cardinal error lies in Disasters,' which conceals some verb importing the obscuration of the sun; for example, 'Asters with trains of fire and dews of blood Distempered the sun,' or Discoloured the sun.' DYCE pronounces the passage hopelessly mutilated, and in his 2d ed. terms Leo's alterations 'most wretched,' and also gives a MS. emendation by BOADEN, supplying the missing line thus: 'The heavens, too, spoke in silent prodigies; As, stars,' &c. WHITE says that a preceding line, or even more than one, has been lost. CLARKE: Bearing in mind that Sh. uses 'as' many times with markedly elliptical force, and in passages of very peculiar construction, we do not feel so sure that the present one has suffered from omission. It may be that the sentence is to be understood, 'As there were stars of fire, &c., so there were disasters in the sun,' &c. FABIUS OXONIENSIS (N. & Qu., 7 Jan. 1865): Read, As stars (i. e. while stars) . . . or, ' And stars . . . Disastrous dimm'd the sun.' DUANE (N. & Qu., 3d S. viii, 30 Sept. '65): 'I am convinced Sh. wrote, Did usher in the sun.' This makes sense of the whole passage; it is metrical, and it produces a line in analogy with the line did speak and gibber.' The words did usher might be readily mistaken for Disasters,' and the compositor's eye may have caught the word 'stars' in the line above. KEIGHTLEY (Expositor): Perhaps for disasters' we might read distempers: distemperatures of the sun,'1 Hen. IV: V, i. MASSEY (The Secret Drama of Shakespeare's Sonnets, ed. ii, 1872, Supplement, p. 46) inserts lines 121-125 between lines 116 and 117, and asserts that 'it must be admitted that we recover the perfect sense of the passage by this insertion.' There is no eclipse of either sun or moon mentioned in Jul. Cæs., and its mention here, Massey infers, must point to some actual, recent instance. The Astronomer Royal, being applied to, replied by showing that there was an eclipse of the moon on 20 February, 1598, and one of the sun, almost total, on 6 March following. Hence Massey infers that this year is the date of the composition of Hamlet, and that in this passage Sh. pointed, by the eclipse of the moon, to the death or deposition of Queen Elizabeth, who had an attack of special sickness at the time.' Moreover, disasters in the sun,' Massey thinks, might have been sun-spots' which Sh.

...

Upon whose influence Neptune's empire stands,
Was sick almost to doomsday with eclipse:
And even the like precurse of fierce events,

As harbingers preceding still the fates
And prologue to the omen coming on,

Have heaven and earth together demonstrated

121. fierce] fearce Q feare QQ3. fear'd Coll. conj.

120

123. omen coming] omen'd Coming Theob. Han. Johns.

'noted,' and so 'pluralized [sic] the phenomenon.' MOBERLY agrees with Malone in supplying the missing line from the corresponding passage in Jul. Cæs., if a line be really lost. CLARENDON: Sh. had probably in his mind the passage in North's Plutarch, Jul. Cas. p. 739 (ed. 1631): Certainly, destinie may easier be foreseene then auoided, considering the strange and wonderfull signes that were said to be seene before Cæsars death. For, touching the fires in the element, and spirits running vp and downe it. the night, and also the solitary birds to be seene at noon daies sitting in the great market place, are not all these signes perhaps worth the noting, in such a wonderful chance as happened?' Plutarch also relates that a comet appeared after Cæsar's death for seven nights in succession, and then was seen no more, that the sun was darkened and the earth brought forth raw and unripe fruit. 118. moist star] MALONE: That is, the moon. See Wint. Tale, I, ii, I. Voss refers to Matthew, xxiv, 29. MOLTKE cites parallel references from Mid. N. D. II, 1, 162; Wint. Tale, I, ii, 427; Rich. III: II, ii, 69; Lear, V, iii, 19; Rom. & Jul. I, iv, 62. TSCHISCHWITZ discusses the claims of various philosophers to the discovery of the dependence of the tides upon the moon.

121. precurse] CLARENDON: Only found here in Sh., though he uses 'precurrer' (Phan. & Tur. 6), and precursor' (Temp. I, ii, 201). It includes everything that preceded and foreshadowed the fierce events that followed.

121. fierce] WARBURTON explains this as terrible; STEEVENS, as conspicuous, glaring, and cites in proof Timon, IV, ii, 30; Hen. VIII: I, i, 54; CALDECOTT, bloody and terrible, as elsewhere it means extreme, excessive, citing King John, V, vii, 13, and Jonson's Sejanus, V, x (p. 140, ed. Gifford), 'O most tame slavery, and fierce flattery.'

122. harbingers] See Mach. I, iv, 45.

122. still] Constantly, always. See II, ii, 42; Rom. & Jul. II, ii, 172, 174; V, iii, 106; Mach. V, vii, 16; and ABBOTT, ? 69.

123. omen] THEOBALD: Prologue' and 'omen' are synonymous, whereas Sh. means that these phenomena are forerunners of the events presaged by them, and such sense the addition of a single letter gives. UPTON says that the 'omen' is the event itself, which happened in consequence of the omens, and cites Virgil, Æn. i, 349. HEATH expressed the same idea in the phraseology of a grammarian: Omen,' by metonymy of the antecedent for the consequent, is here put for the event predicted by the omen. FARMER appositely cited a distich from Heywood's Life of Merlin Merlin, well vers'd in many a hidden spell, His countries omen did long since foretell.'

124. demonstrated] DELIUS: This word is accented on the first syllable also in Hen. V: IV, ii, 54.

Unto our climatures and countrymen.

125

Re-enter Ghost.

But soft, behold! lo, where it comes again!

I'll cross it, though it blast me.-Stay, illusion!

If thou hast any sound, or use of voice,

Speak to me;

If there be any good thing to be done,

130

That may to thee do ease and grace to me,
Speak to me;

125. climatures] CLARENDON: Possibly used for those who live under the same climate. Otherwise it would be better to read climature' with Dyce. The French climature appears to be a modern word in that language, for it is not found in Cotgrave, and Littré gives no early example of its use.

127. WHITE: The stage direction of the Qq may be a misprint for 'He spreads,' &c., indicating Horatio's action in his attempt to stay the Ghost. "His' might, of course, refer to the Ghost through it;' but there seems to be no occasion for the Ghost to make such a gesture.

127. Cross] BLAKEWAY: Whoever crossed the spot on which a spectre was seen became subject to its malignant influence. Among the reasons for supposing the Earl of Derby (who died 1594) to have been bewitched is the following: 'On Friday there appeared a tall man who twice crossed him swiftly; and when the Earl came to the place where he saw this man, he first fell sick.'—Lodge's Illustrations of British History, vol. iii, p. 48.

129, 132, 135. See I, i, 1, and Abrott, ? 512.

131. ease] TSCHISCHWITZ quotes SIMROCK (Mythologie, p. 488, ed. 2): A ghost can be not infrequently laid, especially when a living person accomplishes that for him which he, when alive, should have himself accomplished.'

134. happily] NARES and CLARENDON consider this as equivalent to haply; TSCHISCHWITZ and HUDSON, as equivalent to luckily. The latter says: Which happy or fortunate foreknowledge may avoid :' a participle and adverb used in the sense of a substantive and adjective. The structure of this solemn appeal is almost identical with that of a very different strain in As You Like It, II, iv, 33-42.

Or if thou hast uphoarded in thy life
Extorted treasure in the womb of earth,

For which, they say, you spirits oft walk in death,

[The cock crows.

Speak of it; stay, and speak!-Stop it, Marcellus.
Mar. Shall I strike at it with my partisan?

Hor. Do, if it will not stand.

Ber.

Hor.

Mar. 'Tis gone!

136

140

'Tis here!

'Tis here!

[Exit Ghost.

We do it wrong, being so majestical,

138. you] your Qq.

[The cock crows.] Qq. Om. Ff. After line 137, Rowe+, Jen. After of it; line 139, Cap. After 132, Glo. Mob.

After speak! line 139, Cam. Cla.
140. at] Om. Qq, Pope i, Jen.

Tsch.

142. [Exit Ghost.] Om. Qq.

136. uphoarded] STEEVENS: If any of them had bound the spirit of gold by any charmes in caves, or in iron fetters under the ground, they should, for their own soules quiet (which questionlesse else would whine up and down), if not for the good of their children, release it.'-Decker, Knight's Conjuring.

138. they say] CLARKE: There is great propriety in the use of these words in the mouth of Horatio, the scholar and the unbeliever in ghosts.

138. spirits] For the monosyllabic pronunciation of this word, see WALKER (Crit. i. 193, 205), quoted in Macb. IV, i, 127. Also ABBOTT, 463; and I, i, 161. 139. Cock crows] DYCE (Few Notes, &c., p. 134): The cock used to crow when Garrick acted Hamlet, and, perhaps, also when that part was played by some of his successors; but now-a-days managers have done wisely in striking the cock from the list of the Dramatis Personæ. MITFORD (Cursory Notes, &c., p. 43): It is said in the life of one of the actors, I think of George Cooke, that on one occasion not fewer than six cocks were collected in order to summon the spirit to his diurnal residence, lest one cock, like one single clock, might not keep time exactly, when the matter was of importance.

139, 141. STEEVENS is unwilling to believe that the speeches Stop it, Marcellus,' and Do, if it will not stand,' are correctly given to Horatio, who, as a scholar, must have known the folly of attempting to commit any act of violence on a shadow; he therefore proposes to give them to Bernardo, whose first impulse, as an unlettered officer, would be to strike at what offends him. The next two speeches, ""Tis here!" "Tis here!" should be allotted to Mar. and Ber., and the third, "'Tis gone!" to Hor. As the text now stands, Mar. proposes to strike the Ghost with his partisan, and yet, afterwards, is made to descant on the indecorum and impotence of such an attempt.

140. partisan] See Rom. & Jul. I, i, 66.

141, 142. Do... gone!] WALKER (Crit. iii, 261): To avoid the broken line: "Tis gone!' which here seems to me irregular, arrange Do' as belonging to line 140, reading If 't will not . . . gone!' as one line.

To offer it the show of violence;

For it is, as the air, invulnerable,

145

And our vain blows malicious mockery.

Ber. It was about to speak, when the cock crew.

Hor. And then it started like a guilty thing

Upon a fearful summons. I have heard,
The cock, that is the trumpet to the morn,
Doth with his lofty and shrill-sounding throat
Awake the god of day, and at his warning,
Whether in sea or fire, in earth or air,
The extravagant and erring spirit hies

145. For it is,] It is ever Q'76.
150. morn] morne Qq. day Ff,

Rowe.

150

154. extravagant] extra-vagate Grey.

145. invulnerable] MALONE: See Macb. V, viii, 9, and King John, II, i, 252. 150. cock] FARMER: Bourne of Newcastle, in his Antiquities of the Common People, informs us: It is a received tradition among the vulgar, that at the time of cock-crowing the midnight spirits forsake these lower regions and go to their proper places. Hence it is that in country places, where the way of life requires more early labour, they always go chearfully to work at that time.' And he quotes some lines from the first hymn of Prudentius, Ad Gallicinium : • Ferunt, vagantes dæmonas, Lætos tenebris noctium, Gallo canente exterritos Sparsim timere, et cedere. Hoc esse signum præscii Norunt repromissæ spei, Qua nos soporis liberi Speramus adventum Dei.' DOUCE quotes from another hymn, said to have been composed by Saint Ambrose, and formerly used in the Salisbury service: It contains the following lines, which so much resemble the speech of Hor. that one might almost suppose Sh. to have seen them: "Preco diei jam sonat, Noctis profundæ pervigil; Nocturna lux viantibus, A nocte noctem segregans. Hoc excitatus Lucifer Solvit polum caligine; Hoc omnis errorum chorus Viam nocendi deserit. Gallo canente spes redit," &c. STEEVENS: Philostratus, giving an account of the apparition of Achilles's shade to Apollonius Tyanæus, says that it vanished with a little glimmer as soon as the cock crowed.— Vit. Apol. iv, 16. COLERIDGE: No Addison could be more careful to be poetical in diction than Sh. in providing grounds and sources of its propriety. But how to elevate a thing almost mean by its familiarity, young poets may learn in this treatment of the cock-crow.

153. sea] JOHNSON: According to the pneumatology of that time, every element was inhabited by its peculiar order of spirits. The meaning therefore is, that all spirits extravagant, wandering out of their element, whether aerial spirits visiting earth, or earthly spirits ranging the air, return to their station, to their proper limits, in which they are confined. We might read :—‘at his warning Th' extravagant and erring spirit hies To his confine, whether in sea, or air, Or earth, or fire. And of,' &c. But change is unnecessary.

154. extravagant] STEEVENS: Thus, they took me up for a 'stravagant.'Nobody and Somebody, 1598. The same effect is given to Aurora's harbinger' in Mid. N. D. III, ii, 381. CLARENDON cites Oth. I, i, 137.

154. erring] STEEVENS: That is, wandering. Thus, Telemachus calls Ulysses