Since frost itself as actively doth burn, And reason panders will9. Queen. O Hamlet! speak no more! Thou turn'st mine eyes into my very soul'; And there I see such black and grained spots, Ham. Nay, but to live Stew'd in corruption; honeying, and making love Queen. O, speak to me no more! A murderer, and a villain; These words, like daggers enter in mine ears: Ham. A slave, that is not twentieth part the tithe Ham. A king of shreds and patches.- 9 And reason PANDERS will.] So the folio; excepting that it misprints "And" As: the quartos, 1604, &c. have pardons for "panders." 'Thou turn'st mine eyes into my very soul ;] The quartos, 1604, &c. "Thou turnʼst my very eyes into my soul;" and in the next line they have “grieced spots," for "grained spots" of the folio. 2 an ENSEAMED bed ;] The word "enseamed was not uncommon, from "seam," grease. See Vol. vi. p. 58. The quarto without date has "incestuous bed," and it was followed by the quartos, 1611 and 1637. 3 a vice of kings:] The vice was the fool, clown, or jester of the older drama, and was frequently dressed in party-coloured clothes: hence Hamlet just afterwards calls the usurper a king of shreds and patches." Enter Ghost.] "Enter the Ghost in his night-gown," is the stage-direction in the quarto, 1603, affording proof that at that date, and in this scene, the spirit was not appareled as when it had before appeared on the platform. This is important, because it completely explains Hamlet's exclamation in this scene, "My father, in his habit as he lived." See the Introduction. In the other quartos and in the folios it is only "Enter Ghost." VOL. VII. U You heavenly guards!-What would you, gracious figure? Queen. Alas! he's mad. Ham. Do you not come your tardy son to chide, Th' important acting of your dread command? Ghost. Do not forget. This visitation Ham. How is it with you, lady? Queen. Alas! how is't with you, That you do bend your eye on vacancy, And with th' incorporal air do hold discourse? His form and cause conjoin'd, preaching to stones, My stern effects: then, what I have to do Will want true colour; tears, perchance, for blood. Do you see nothing there? 5 And with th' incorporal air—] The folio misprints it, “And with their corporal air." Our reading is that of the quarto, 1604, and of all editions until the folio, 1623. Southern detected and corrected the error in his folio, 1685. G like life in excrements,] In the "Winter's Tale," Vol. iii. p. 518, a beard is called an "excrement." Compare also "Macbeth," A. v. sc. 5, where the hero speaks of his "fell of hair"-" as life were in 't." Queen. Nothing at all; yet all, that is, I see. Queen. No, nothing but ourselves. Ham. Why, look you there! look, how it steals away! My father, in his habit as he liv'd! Look, where he goes, even now, out at the portal! [Exit Ghost. Queen. This is the very coinage of your brain: This bodily creation ecstasy Is very cunning in. Ham. Ecstasy'! My pulse, as yours, doth temperately keep time, Confess yourself to heaven; Virtue itself of vice must pardon beg, Yea, curb' and woo, for leave to do him good. Queen. O Hamlet! thou hast cleft my heart in twain. And live the purer with the other half. 7 Ecstasy!] This word is not in any of the quartos. 8 Lay not THAT flattering unction-] The folio imperfectly reads "a flattering unction." The whole scene is unusually ill printed there. • To make them ranker.] So the quartos; and in the preceding line, "on the weeds," instead of "or the weeds" of the folio. 1 Yea, curb] i. e. bend and truckle, from the Fr. courber. Assume a virtue, if you have it not. That monster, custom, who all sense doth eat That to the use of actions fair and good To the next abstinence: the next more easy3; [Pointing to POLONIUS. Thus bad begins, and worse remains behind.- Queen. What shall I do? Ham. Not this, by no means, that I bid you do: 2 That monster, custom, who all sense doth eat Of habits, devil,] This passage, down to "That aptly is put on," is not in the folio. Our punctuation is that recommended to us by the Rev. Dr. Morehead, of Easington, and it seems to remove part of the difficulty felt by the commentators, and makes the sense, "that monster, custom, who is a devil, devouring all sense of habits, is still an angel in this respect," &c. 3 the next more easy :] These lines, down to "With wondrous potency," are also wanting in the folio. And MASTER the devil,] "Master" is the reading of the undated quarto, of the quarto, 1611, and of that of 1637, so that we need not resort to any conjectural emendation such as Malone introduced. 5 One word more, good lady.] These words are from the quartos. Let the BLOAT king-] The folio, "Let the blunt king." Modern editors have availed themselves of nearly all these improvements from the quartos, without acknowledgment, and as if the folio contained them. And let him, for a pair of reechy kisses', Or paddling in your neck with his damn'd fingers, That I essentially am not in madness, But mad in craft. "Twere good, you let him know; Unpeg the basket on the house's top, Let the birds fly, and, like the famous ape, And break your own neck down. Queen. Be thou assur'd, if words be made of breath, And breath of life, I have no life to breathe What thou hast said to me. Ham. I must to England; you know that. I had forgot: 'tis so concluded on. Alack! Ham. There's letters seal'd, and my two school fellows, Whom I will trust, as I will adders fang'd, They bear the mandate; they must sweep my way, Hoist with his own petar, and it shall go hard, O! 'tis most sweet, 7 - a pair of reechy kisses,] "Reechy" is properly smoky. See Vol. ii. p. 235, and Vol. vi. 178: in the latter instance it seems to mean dirty from perspiration, and here it is rather used for heated or sweltering. It is an adjective formed from reek, smoke or vapour. 8 a PADDOCK, from a bat, a GIB,] A "paddock" is a toad: see this Vol. p. 99. A "gib" is a cat, and we generally meet with them in combination, as in "Henry IV." part i. Vol. iv. p. 232, "I am as melancholy as a gib-cat." 9 When in one line two crafts directly meet.] This and the eight preceding lines are only in the quartos. |