And prologue to the omen'd coming on, Have heaven and earth together demonstrated Unto our climatures and countrymen.]

Enter Ghoft again.

But foft; behold! lo, where it comes again!
I'll crofs it, though it blast me.-Stay, illufion!
[Spreading his arms.
'If thou haft any found, or use of voice,
Speak to me.

If there be any good thing to be done,
That may to thee do ease, and grace to me,
Speak to me.

If thou art privy to thy country's fate,
Which, happily, foreknowing may avoid,
Oh fpeak!-

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

For which, they fay, you fpirits oft walk in death,

[Cock crows. Speak of it. Stay, and speak-Stop it, Marcellus.Mar. Shall I ftrike at it with my partizan?

Hor. Do, if it will not ftand,

Ber. 'Tis here!

Hor. 'Tis here!.

Mar. 'Tis gone!

We do it wrong, being so majestical,
To offer it the fhew of violence;

[Exit Gheft.

And prologue to the omen coming on,] But prologue and omen are merely fynonimous here. The poet means, that these ftrange phænomena are prologues and forerunners of the events prefag'd and fuch fenfe 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.

If thou haft any found,-] The speech of Horatio to the spectre is very elegant and noble, and congruous to the common traditions of the causes of apparitions. JOHNSON.

For

For it is, as the air, invulnerable,
And our vain blows, malicious mockery.

Ber. It was about to speak, when the cock crew.
Hor. And then it ftarted like a guilty thing
Upon a fearful fummons. I have heard,
The cock, that is the trumpet to the morn,
Doth with his lofty and fhrill-founding throat
Awake the God of day; and, at his warning,
2 Whether in fea or fire, in earth or air,
3 The extravagant and erring fpirit hies
To his confine: and of the truth herein
This prefent object made probation.

Mar. It faded on the crowing of the cock. Some fay, that ever 'gainst that feafon comes Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated, The bird of dawning fingeth all night long: And then, they fay, no fpirit 4 can walk abroad; The nights are wholefome; then no planets strike, 5 No fairy takes, no witch hath power to charm, So hallow'd and fo gracious is the time.

Hor. So have I heard, and do in part believe it. But lock, the morn, in ruffet mantle clad,

2

Whether in fea, &c.] According to the pneumatology of that time, every element was inhabited by its peculiar order of fpirits, who had difpofitions different, according to their various places of abode. The meaning therefore is, that all spirits extravagant, wandering out of their element, whether aerial fpirits vifiting earth, or earthly fpirits ranging the air; return to their flation, to their proper limits in which they are confined. We might read,

-And at his warning

"Th' extravagant and erring spirit hies
"To his confine, whether in fea or air,
"Or earth, or fire. And of," &c.

But this change, tho' it would smooth the conftruction, is not neceffary, and being unneceffary, fhould not be made against authority. JOHNSON.

3 Th' extravagant-] i. e. got out of its bounds. WARB. Dares fir abroad. Quarto.

5 No fairy takes,-] No fairy frikes, with lameness or difcafes. This fenfe of take is frequent in this author. JOHNS.

Walks

Walks o'er the dew of yon 6 high eastern hill,
Break we our watch up; and, by my advice,.
Let us impart what we have feen to-night
Unto young Hamlet; for, upon my life,
This fpirit, dumb to us, will fpeak to him:
Do you confent we fhall acquaint him with it,
As needful in our loves, fitting our duty?

Mar. Let's do't, I pray. And I this morning know

Where we shall find him most conveniently. [Exeunt.

Enter the Queen, Hamlet, Polonius, Laertes, Voltimand, Cornelius, lords and attendants.

King. Though yet of Hamlet our dear brother's death

The memory be green; and that it us befitted
To bear our hearts in grief, and our whole kingdom
To be contracted in one brow of woe;

Yet fo far hath difcretion fought with nature,
That we with wifeft forrow think on him,
Together with remembrance of ourselves.
Therefore, our fometime fifter, now our queen,
The imperial jointrefs of this warlike ftate,
Have we, as 'twere, with a defeated joy,
With one aufpicious, and one dropping eye,
With mirth in funeral, and with dirge in marriage,
In equal fcale weighing delight and dole,
Taken to wife.Nor have we herein barr'd
Your better wisdoms, which have freely gone
With this affair along. For all, our thanks.

Now follows, that you know, young Fortinbras, Holding a weak fuppofal of our worth;

• —high eastern bill.] The old quarto has it better cafirward.

WARBURTON.

Or

Or thinking, by our late dear brother's death,
Our ftate to be disjoint and out of frame;
7 Co-leagued with this dream of his advantage,
He hath not fail'd to pefter us with meffage,
Importing the furrender of thofe lands

Loft by his father, with all bands of law,

To our most valiant brother. So much for him.
Now for ourself, and for this time of meeting:
Thus much the bufinefs is. We have here writ
To Norway, uncle of young Fortinbras
(Who, impotent and bed-rid, fcarcely hears
Of this his nephew's purpofe) to fupprefs
His further gait herein; in that the levies,
The lifts, and full proportions, are all made
Out of his fubjects: and we here dispatch
You, good Cornelius, and you, Voltimand,
For bearers of this greeting to old Norway;
Giving to you no further perfonal power
To bufinefs with the king, more than the fcope
Of thefe dilated articles allows.

Farewell; and let your hafte commend your duty. Vol. In that, and all things, will we fhew our duty.

King. We doubt it nothing. Heartily farewell. [Exeunt Voltimand and Cornelius. And now, Laertes, what's the news with you? You told us of fome fuit. What is't, Laertes? You cannot speak of reafon to the Dane,

And lofe your voice. What would't thou beg, Laertes,

That shall not be my offer, not thy asking?

7 Co-leagued with this dream of his advantage,] The meaning is, He goes to war fo indifcreetly, and unprepared, that he has no allies to fupport him but a dream, with which he is colleagued or confederated. WARBURTON.

-more than the fcope] More than is comprised in the general defign of thefe articles, which you may explain in a more diffuse and dilated file. JOHNSON.

The

The head is not more native to the heart, The hand more inftrumental to the mouth, Than to the throne of Denmark is thy father. What wouldst thou have, Laertes?

Laer. My dread lord,

Your leave and favour to return to France;
From whence, though willingly I came to Denmark,
To fhew my duty in your coronation;

Yet now I must confefs, that duty done,

My thoughts and wifhes bend again toward France: And bow them to your gracious leave and pardon. King. Have you your father's leave? What fays

Polonius?

9 The HEAD is not more native to the heart,

The band more inftrumental to the mouth,

Than is the throne of Denmark to thy father.] This is flagrant inftance of the first editor's ftupidity, in preferring found to fenfe. But head, heart, and hand, he thought muft needs go together, where an honest man was the fubject of the encomium; tho' what he could mean by the head's being NATIVE to the beart, I cannot conceive. The mouth indeed of an honest man might, perhaps, in fome fenfe, be faid to be native, that is, allied to the heart. But the fpeaker is here talking not of a moral, but a phyfical alliance. And the force of what is faid is fupported only by that diftinction. I fuppofe, then, that Shakespeare wrote,

The BLOOD is not more native to the heart,

Than to the throne of Denmark is thy father.

This makes the fentiment just and pertinent. As the blood is formed and fuftained by the labour of the heart, the mouth fupplied by the office of the hand, fo is the throne of Denmark by your father, &c. The expreffion too of the blood's being native to the heart, is extremely fine. For the heart is the laboratory where that vital liquor is digefted, diftributed, and (when weakened and debilitated) again reflored to the vigour neceffary for the difcharge of its functions. WARBURTON.

Part of this emendation I have received, but cannot difcern why the head is not as much native to the heart, as the blood, that is, natural and congenial to it, born with it, and co-operating with it. The relation is likewife by this reading better preferved, the counseller being to the king as the head to the heart. JOHNSON.

Pel.