Of him that brought them. King. Leave us. Laertes, you shall hear them :[Exit Messenger. [Reads.] High and mighty, you shall know, I am set naked on your kingdom. To-morrow shall I beg leave to see your kingly eyes: when I shall, first asking your pardon thereunto, recount the occasion of my sudden and more strange return. Hamlet. What should this mean! Are all the rest come back? Or is it some abuse, and no such thing? Laer. Know you the hand? King. "Tis Hamlet's character. Naked, And, in a postscript here, he says, alone: Can you advise me? Laer. I am lost in it, my lord. But let him come; It warms the very sickness in my heart, That I shall live and tell him to his teeth, Thus diddest thou. King. As how should it be so? how otherwise?- So Laer. If it be so, Laertes, Ay, my lord; you will not o'er-rule me to a peace. King. To thine own peace. If he be now return'd, As checking at his voyage,' and that he means Under the which he shall not choose but fall; Laer. My lord, I will be rul'd; The rather, if you could devise it so, That I might be the organ. 'As checking at his voyage,] The phrase is from falconry. King. It falls right. You have been talk'd of since your travel much, Of the unworthiest siege." Laer. What part is that, my lord? King. A very ribband in the cap of youth, Yet needful too; for youth no less becomes The light and careless livery that it wears, Than settled age his sables, and his weeds, Importing health and graveness.'-Two months since, Here was a gentleman of Normandy,→ I have seen myself, and serv'd against, the French, With the brave beast: so far he topp'd my thought, Come short of what he did. Laer. King. A Norman. A Norman, was't? Laer. Upon my life, Lamord. King. The very same. Laer. I know him well: he is the brooch, indeed, And gem of all the nation, King. He made confession of you; And gave you such a masterly report, That he cried out, 'twould be a sight indeed, * Of the unworthiest siege.] Of the lowest rank. Siege, for seat, place. 3 Importing health and graveness. i. e. implying, denoting. in your defence,] That is, in the science of defence, 5 If one could match you: the scrimers of their nation, Laer. What out of this, my lord? King. Laertes, was your father dear to you? Or are you like the painting of a sorrow, A face without a heart? Laer. Why ask you this? King. Not that I think, you father; did not love your But that I know, love is begun by time;" Dies in his own too-much: That we would do, As there are tongues, are hands, are accidents; 8 That hurts by easing. But, to the quick o'the ulcer : Hamlet comes back: what would you undertake, 6 5 -the scrimers-] The fencers. From escrimeur, Fr. a fencer. love is begun by time;] This is obscure. The meaning may be, love is not innate in us, and co-essential to our nature, but begins at a certain time from some external cause, and being always subject to the operations of time, suffers change and diminution. JOHNSON. 7 -passages of proof,] In transactions of daily experience. And then this should is like a spendthrift sigh, That hurts by easing.] A spendthrift sigh is a sigh that makes an unnecessary waste of the vital flame. It is a notion very prevalent, that sighs impair the strength, and wear out the animal powers, JOHNSON. To show yourself in deed your father's son Laer. To cut his throat i'the church. King. No place, indeed, should murder sanctuarize; Revenge should have no bounds. But, good Laertes, Will you do this, keep close within your chamber: Hamlet, return'd, shall know you are come home: We'll put on those shall praise your excellence, And set a double varnish on the fame The Frenchman gave you; bring you, in fine, together, And wager o'er your heads: he, being remiss, Most generous, and free from all contriving, Laer. • A sword unbated,] i. e. not blunted as foils are. I - a pass of practice,] Practice is often by Shakspeare, and other writers, taken for an insiduous stratagem, or privy treason, a sense not incongruous to this passage, where yet it may mean a thrust for exercise; or perhaps, a favourite pass, one he was well practised in. 2 It may be death.] It is a matter of surprise, that no one of Shakspeare's numerous and able commentators has remarked, with proper warmth and detestation, the villainous assassin-like treachery of Laertes in this horrid plot. There is the more occasion that he should be here pointed out an object of abhorrence, as he is a character we are, in some preceding parts of the play, led to respect and admire. RITSON. King. Let's further think of this, Weigh, what convenience, both of time and means, May fit us to our shape: if this should fail, And that our drift look through our bad performance, "Twere better not assay'd; therefore this project Should have a back, or second, that might hold, If this should blast in proof. Soft ;-let me see :We'll make a solemn wager on your cunnings, I ha't: When in your motion you are hot and dry, (As make your bouts more violent to that end,) Our purpose may hold there. But stay, what noise? Enter Queen. How now, sweet queen? Queen. One woe doth tread upon another's heel, So fast they follow:-Your sister's drown'd, Laertes. Laer. Drown'd! O, where? Queen. There is a willow grows ascaunt the brook, That shows his hoar leaves in the glassy stream; Therewith fantastick garlands did she make Of crow-flowers, nettles, daisies, and long purples, That liberal' shepherds give a grosser name, But our cold maids do dead men's fingers call them ; There on the pendent boughs her coronet weeds 3 May fit us to our shape:] May enable us to assume proper characters, and to act our part. 4 blast in proof] A metaphor taken from the trying or proving fire-arms or cannon, which often blast or burst in the proof. 5--- I'll have preferr'd him-] i. e. presented to him. 6 If he by chance escape your venom'd stuck,] i. e. your venom'd thrust. Stuck was a term of the fencing-school. liberal-] Liberal is free-spoken, licentious in language. |