In filial obligation, for fome term To do obfequious forrow: But to perféver elegance, WHICH IS MUCH EASIER TO BE CONCEIVED THAN EXPLAINED IN TERMS. I believe fo: for when explained in terms it comes to this:-That father after he had loft himself, loft his father. But the reading is ex fide codicis, and that is enough. WARBURTON. I do not admire the repetition of the word, but it has fo much of our author's manner, that I find no temptation to recede from the old copies. JOHNSON. The meaning of the paffage is no more than this,-Your father loft a father, i. e. your grandfather, which loft grandfather, also loft his father. The metre, however, in my opinion, fhows that Mr. Pope's correction should be adopted. The fenfe, though elliptically expreffed, will still be the fame. STEEVENS. 9 obfequious forrow:] funeral ceremonies. JOHNSON. So, in Titus Andronicus : Obfequious is here from obfequies, or "To fhed obfequious tears upon his trunk.” See Vol. X. p. 471, n. 2. STEEVENS. 2 In obftinate condolement,] Condolement, for forrow. WARBURTON. 3 —a will moft incorrect-] Incorrect, for untutor'd. WARBURTON. Incorrect does not mean untutored, as Warburton explains it; but ill-regulated, not fufficiently fubdued. M. MASON. Not fufficiently regulated by a sense of duty and submission to the difpenfations of providence. MALONE. To reafon moft abfurd; whofe common theme 4 To reafon moft abfurd;] Reafon is here ufed in its common fenfe, for the faculty by which we form conclufions from arguments. JOHNSON. 5 And, with no lefs nobility of love,] Nobility, for magnitude. WARBURTON. Nobility is rather generofity. JOHNSON. By nobility of love, Mr. Heath understands, eminence and diftinction of love. MALONE. So, afterwards, the Ghoft, defcribing his affection for the Queen: "To me, whofe love was that of dignity" &c. STEEVENS. Do I impart toward you.] I believe impart is, impart myself, communicate whatever I can bestow. JOHNSON. The crown of Denmark was elective. So, in Sir Clyomon Knight of the Golden Shield, &c. 1599: "And me poffefs for fpoufed wife, who in election am "To have the crown of Denmark here, as heir unto the fame." The king means, that as Hamlet ftands the fairest chance to be next elected, he will ftrive with as much love to enfure the crown to him, as a father would fhow in the continuance of heirdom to a fon. STEEVENS. I agree with Mr. Steevens, that the crown of Denmark (as in moft of the Gothick kingdoms) was elective, and not hereditary; though it might be cuftomary, in elections, to pay fome attention. to the royal blood, which by degrees produced hereditary fucceffion. Why then do the rest of the commentators so often treat Claudius as an ufurper, who had deprived young Hamlet of his right by heirship to his father's crown? Hamlet calls him drunkard, murderer, and villain; one who had carried the election by low and mean practices; had Popp'd in between the election and my hopes. In going back to school in Wittenberg,' QUEEN. Let not thy mother lose her prayers, I pray thee, stay with us, go not to Wittenberg. HAM. I fhall in all my beft obey you, madam. KING. Why, 'tis a loving and a fair reply; Be as ourself in Denmark.-Madam, come; This gentle and unforc'd accord of Hamlet had "From a fhelf the precious diadem stole, "And put it in his pocket:" but never hints at his being an ufurper. His difcontent arose from his uncle's being preferred before him, not from any legal right which he pretended to fet up to the crown. Some regard was probably had to the recommendation of the preceding prince, in electing the fucceffor. And therefore young Hamlet had "the voice of the king himself for his fucceffion in Denmark;" and he at his own death prophecies that "the election would light on Fortinbras, who had his dying voice," conceiving that by the death of his uncle, he himself had been king for an inftant, and had therefore a right to recommend. When, in the fourth act, the rabble wished to choofe Laertes king, I understand that antiquity was forgot, and cuftom violated, by electing a new king in the life-time of the old one, and perhaps alfo by the calling in a ftranger to the royal blood. BLACKSTONE.. to School in Wittenberg,] In Shak fpeare's time there was an university at Wittenberg, to which he has made Hamlet propofe to return. The univerfity of Wittenberg was not founded till 1502, confequently did not exist in the time to which this play is referred. MALONE. Our author may have derived his knowledge of this famous univerfity from The Life of lacke Wilton, 1594, or The Hiftory of Doctor Fauftus, of whom the fecond report (printed in the fame year) is faid to be "written by an English gentleman, ftudent in Wittenberg, an University of Germany in Saxony." RITSON. 8 -bend you to remain-] i. e. fubdue your inclination to go from hence, and remain, &c. STEEVENS. Sits fmiling to my heart: in grace whereof, 2 [Exeunt King, Queen, Lords, &c. POLONIUS, and LAERTES. HAM. O, that this too too folid flesh would melt, Thaw, and refolve itself into a dew!3 Or that the Everlasting had not fix'd His canon 'gainst felf-flaughter!+ O God! O God! * Sits Smiling to my heart:] Thus, the dying Lothario: Sits Smiling to my heart:] Surely it should be Sits fmiling on my heart. RITSON. STEEVENS. To my heart, I believe, fignifies-near to, clofe, next to, my heart. STEEVENS. 9 No jocund health,] The king's intemperance is very strongly impreffed; every thing that happens to him gives him occafion to drink. JOHNSON. 2 the king's roufe-] i. e. the king's draught of jollity. See Othello, Act II. fc. iii. STEEVENS. So, in Marlowe's Tragical Hiftorie of Doctor Fauftus: 3 "He tooke his roufe with stoopes of Rhennish wine.” RITSON. -- ·refolve itself into a dew!] Refolve means the fame as diffolve. Ben Jonfon ufes the word in his Volpone, and in the fame fense: "Forth the refolved corners of his eyes." Again, in The Country Girl, 1647: my fwoln grief, refolved in thefe tears." STEEVENS. 4 Or that the Everlasting had not fix'd His canon 'gainft felf-flaughter!] The generality of the editions read-cannon, as if the poet's thought were,-Or that the Almighty had not planted his artillery, or arms of vengeance, against felf-murder. But the word which I reftored (and which was efpoufed by the accurate Mr. Hughes, who gave an edition of this play) is the true reading, i. e. that he had not reftrained fuicide by bis exprefs law and peremptory prohibition. THEOBALD. There are yet those who suppose the old reading to be the true How weary, ftale, flat, and unprofitable That grows to feed; things rank, and grofs in na ture, Poffefs it merely. That it fhould come to this! But two months dead!-nay, not so much, not two: So excellent a king; that was, to this, Hyperion to a fatyr: fo loving to my mother, one, as they fay the word fixed feems to decide very strongly in its favour. I would advise fuch to recollect Virgil's expreffion: "fixit leges pretio, atque refixit." STEEVENS. If the true reading wanted any support, it might be found in Cymbeline: 'gainft felf flaughter "There is a prohibition fo divine, In Shakspeare's time canon (norma) was commonly fpelt cannon. MALONE. - merely.] is entirely, abfolutely. See Vol. III. p. 9, n. 5; and Vol. XII. p. 131, n. 6. STEEVENS. 6 So excellent a king; that was, to this, Hyperion to a fatyr:] This fimilitude at firft fight feems to be a little far-fetched; but it has an exquifite beauty. By the Satyr is meant Pan, as by Hyperion, Apollo. Pan and Apollo were brothers, and the allufion is to the contention between those gods for the preference in mufick. WARBURTON, All our English poets are guilty of the fame falfe quantity, and call Hyperion Hyperion; at leaft the only inftance I have met with to the contrary, is in the old play of Fuimus Troes, 1633: Blow gentle Africus, Play on our poops, when Hyperion's fon "Shall couch in weft." Shakspeare, I believe, has no allufion in the prefent instance, except to the beauty of Apollo, and its immediate oppofite, the deformity of a Satyr. STEEVENS. Hyperion or Apollo is reprefented in all the ancient ftatues, &c. as exquifitely beautiful, the fatyrs hideously ugly.-Shakspeare may furely be pardoned for not attending to the quantity of Latin mames, here and in Cymbeline; when we find Henry Parrot, the |