So by his father loft: And this, I take it, [BER. I think,' it be no other, but even fo: Well may it fort, that this portentous figure Comes armed through our watch; fo like the king. That was, and is, the question of these wars." aromage-] Tumultuous hurry. JOHNSON. Commonly written-rummage. STEEVENS. 3 [I think, &c.] Thefe, and all other lines confined within crotchets throughout this play, are omitted in the folio edition of 1623. The omiffions leave the play fometimes better and fometimes worse, and feem made only for the fake of abbreviation. It JOHNSON. may be worth while to obferve, that the title-pages of the first quartos in 1604 and 1605, declare this play to be enlarged to almost as much againe as it was, according to the true and perfect copy. Perhaps therefore many of its abfurdities as well as beauties arofe from the quantity added after it was firft written. Our poet might have been more attentive to the amplification than the coherence of his fable. The degree of credit due to the title-page that ftyles the MS. from which the quartos, 1604 and 1605 were printed, the true and perfect copy, may alfo be difputable. I cannot help fuppofing this publication to contain all Shakspeare rejected, as well as all he fupplied. By restorations like the former, contending bookfellers or theatres might have gained fome temporary advantage over each other, which at this distance of time is not to be understood. The patience of our ancestors exceeded our own, could it have outlafted the tragedy of Hamlet as it is now printed; for it must have occupied almoft five hours in reprefentation. If, however, it was too much dilated on the ancient ftage, it is as injudicioufly contracted on the modern one. STEEVENS. 4 Well may it fort,] The caufe and effect are proportionate and fuitable. JOHNSON. 5 the queftion of these wars.] The theme or subject. So, in Antony and Cleopatra: 66 You were the word of war." MALONE. HOR. A mote it is," to trouble the mind's eye. In the most high and palmy state of Rome," A little ere the mightieft Julius fell, The graves ftood tenantlefs, and the fheeted dead Did squeak and gibber in the Roman streets. As, ftars with trans of fire and dews of blood, 8 6 A mote it is,] The first quarto reads a moth. STEEVENS. A moth was only the old fpelling of mote, as I fufpected in revifing a paffage in King John, Vol. VIII. p. 122, n. 6, where we certainly should read mote. MALONE. 7-palmy state of Rome,] Palmy, for victorious. POPE. 8 As, ftars with trains of fire and dews of blood, Difafters in the fun;] Mr. Rowe altered thefe lines, becaufe they have infufficient connection with the preceding ones, thus: Stars fhone with trains of fire, dews of blood fell, Difafters veil'd the fun, This paffage is not in the folio. By the quartos therefore our imperfect text is fupplied; for an intermediate verfe being evidently loft, it were idle to attempt a union that never was intended. I have therefore fignified the fuppofed deficiency by a vacant space. When Shakspeare had told us that the grave flood tenantless, &c. which are wonders confined to the earth, he naturally proceeded to fay (in the line now loft) that yet other prodigies appeared in the fky; and thefe phænomena he exemplified by adding,-As [i. e. as for inftance] Stars with trains of fire, &c. STEEVENS. Difafters dimm'd the fun ;] The quarto, 1604, reads: Difafters in the fun ; For the emendation I am refponfible. It is ftrongly fupported not only by Plutarch's account in the life of Cæfar, [" also the brightnefs of the funne was darkened, the which, all that yeare through, rofe very pale, and shined not out,"] but by various paffages in our author's works. So, in The Tempeft: I have be-dimm'd "The noon-tide sun.” Again, in King Richard 11: "As doth the bluthing difcontented fun, "When he perceives the envious clouds are bent Upon whose influence Neptune's empire ftands, Was fick almoft to doomsday with eclipfe. Again, in our author's 18th Sonnet: "Sometimes too hot the eye of heaven fhines, "And often is his gold complexion dişım'd.” I fufpect that the words As ftars are a corruption, and have no doubt that either a line preceding or following the first of those quoted at the head of this note, has been loft; or that the beginning of one line has been joined to the end of another, the intervening words being omitted. That fuch conjectures are not merely chimerical, I have already proved. See Vol. VIII. p. 543, &c. n. 7; and Vol. X. p. 535, n. 7. The following lines in Julius Cæfar, in which the prodigies that are faid to have preceded his death, are recounted, may throw fome light on the paffage before us: There is one within, "Befides the things that we have heard and feen, "And graves have yawn'd and yielded up their dead : "Fierce fiery warriors fight upon the clouds, "In ranks, and fquadrons, and right form of war, "The noife of battle hurtled in the air, "Horfes do neigh, and dying men did groan; "And ghofts did fhriek and fqueal about the ftreets." The loft words perhaps contained a defcription of fiery warriors fighting on the clouds, or of brands burning bright beneath the stars. The 15th book of Ovid's Metamorphofes, tranflated by Golding, in which an account is given of the prodigies that preceded Cæfar's death, furnished Shakspeare with fome of the images in both these paffages: battels fighting in the clouds with crashing armour flew, "And dreadful trumpets founded in the ayre, and hornes eke blew, "As warning men beforehand of the mischiefe that did brew; "And Phoebus alfo looking dim did caft a drowfie light, Uppon the earth, which feemde likewise to be in fory plighte: "From underneath beneath the ftarres brandes oft feemde burning bright, 2 And even the like precurfe of fierce events,3As harbingers preceding ftill the fates, "It often rain'd drops of blood. The morning ftar look'd blew, "And was befpotted here and there with specks of ruftie hew. "The moone had also spots of blood. "Salt teares from ivorie-images in fundry places fell;"The dogges did howle, and every where appeared ghaftly fprights, "And with an earthquake shaken was the towne."Plutarch only fays, that "the funne was darkened," that " diverse men were feen going up and down in fire;" there were "fires in the element; fprites were feene running up and downe in the night, and folitarie birds fitting in the great market-place." The difagreeable recurrence of the word ftars in the fecond line induces me to believe that As ftars in that which precedes, is a corruption. Perhaps Shakspeare wrote: Aftres with trains of fire, and dews of blood Difaftrous dimm'd the fun. The word aftre is ufed in an old collection of poems entitled Diana, addreffed to the Earl of Oxenforde, a book of which I know not the date, but believe it was printed about 1580. In Othello we have antres, a word exactly of a fimilar formation. MALONE. The word-aftre (which is no where elfe to be found) was affectedly taken from the French by John Southern, author of the poems cited by Mr. Malone. This wretched plagiarist stands indebted both for his verbiage and his imagery to Ronfard. See the European Magazine, for June, 1788, p. 389. STEEVENS. 9 -and the moift ftar, &c.] i. e. the moon. So, in Marlowe's Hero and Leander, 1598: "Not that night-wand'ring, pale, and vatry far," &c. MALONE. And even-1 Not only fuch prodigies have been seen in Rome, but the elements have shown our countrymen like forerunners and foretokens of violent events. JOHNSON. 3 -precurfe of fierce events,] Fierce, for terrible. WARBURTON. I rather believe that fierce fignifies confpicuous, glaring. It is ufed in a fomewhat fimilar fenfe in Timon of Athens: 66 "O the fierce wretchedness that glory brings!" Again, in King Henry VIII, we have "fierce vanities.' STEEVENS. And prologue to the omen coming on,- Re-enter Ghost. But, foft; behold! lo, where it comes again! I'll cross it, though it blast me.-Stay, illufion! If thou haft any found," or use of voice, 4 And prologue to the omen coming on,] But prologue and omen are merely fynonymous here. The poet means, that these strange phenomena are prologues and forerunners of the events prefag'd: and such sense the flight alteration, which I have ventured to make, by changing omen to omen'd, very aptly gives. THEOBALD. Omen, for fate. WARBURTON. Hanmer follows Theobald. A diftich from the life of Merlin, by Heywood, however, will fhow that there is no occafion for correction: "Merlin well vers'd in many a hidden fpell, Again, in The Vowbreaker : "And much I fear the weakness of her braine Omen, I believe, is danger. STEEVENS. And even the like precurfe of fierce events, As harbingers preceding ftill the fates, FARMER. And prologue to the omen coming on,] So, in one of our author's Augur of the fever's end," &c. The omen coming on is, the approaching dreadful and portentous event. So, in King Richard ÏÏI : "Thy name is ominous to children." i. e. (not boding ill fortune, but) deftructive to children. Again, ibidem: "O Pomfret, Pomfret, O, thou bloody prifon, "Fatal and ominous to noble peers." MALONE. 6 If thou haft any found,] The fpeech of Horatio to the spectre is very elegant and noble, and congruous to the common traditions of the caufes of apparitions. JOHNSON. |