report of the terrified centinels,-by the solemnity of the hour at which the phantom walks,-by its martial stride and discriminating armour, visible only per incertam lunam, by the glimpses of the moon,-by its long taciturnity,-by its preparation to speak, when interrupted by the morning cock,-by its mysterious reserve throughout its first scene with Hamlet,-by his resolute departure with it, and the subsequent anxiety of his attendants, by its conducting him to a solitary angle of the platform, by its voice from beneath the earth,-and by its unexpected burst on us in the closet. Hamlet's late interview with the spectre, must in particular be regarded as a stroke of dramatic artifice. The phantom might have told his story in the presence of the Officers and Horatio, and yet have rendered itself as inaudible to them, as afterwards to the Queen. But suspense was our poet's object; and never was it more effectually created, than in the present instance. Six times has the royal semblance appeared, but till now has been withheld from speaking. ACT II, (1) Marry, well said: very well said] By this frivolity of manner and very phrase, Shallow characterises himself in II. H. IV. "It is well said, Sir, and it is well said indeed too." III. 2. (2) Danskers] In Warner's Albion's England Danske is the ancient name of England. STEEvens. "Let us but look into the Giant's age, "Danske Corioneus, English Albion." of Sir J. Oldcastle, 4to. 1601. Signat, C. 2. Life and death (3) Your party in converse-man and country] This "filed phrase" or curiosity of language, as well as his method and tiresome deduction, is as much a part of the folly of this antiquated and prosing courtier, as the higher colouring of the same absurdity is of the court waterfly, Osric. Breathe of, is slightly touch, glance at. 66 (4) With windlaces, and with assays of bias] By engines and artifices, by trials and tricks of circumvention. Assaying, from essayer, Fr. A proving before. Prætentans." Baret's Alvearic. (5) in yourself] The temptations you feel, suspect in him. "For by the image of my cause, I see "The portraiture of his." V. 2. "I weigh'd my friend's affection with my own." Timon. C. But it seems to be no more than "of or by yourself” and as if the word in had been altogether omitted. He was at first to discover Laertes' inclinations by enquiry from others; and now to find them out by personal observation. (6) Ungarter'd, and down-gyved to his ancle] Down-gyved means, hanging down like the loose cincture which confines the fetters round the ancles. STEEVENS. (7) quoted him] Noted. "Yea, the illiterate "Will quote my loathed trespass in my looks." Rape of Lucr. “To quote, mark, or note, à quotus. Numeris enim scribentes sententias suas notant et distinguunt." Minshieu. "Quoter. To quote or marke in the margent; to note by the way." Cotgrave, 1611. MALONE. It is the modern use of the word in the weekly reports or return of the price of grain. (8) it is as proper to our age To cast beyond ourselves in our opinions, To lack discretion] It is as much a property, as much belongs to, &c. In Decker's Wonderful Yeare, 4to. 1603, we find an expression similar to that in the text: "Now the thirstie citizen casts beyond the moone." MALONE. "Of far casting." Epigr. 191. "He casteth beyond the moone: great diversitie John Heywood's Epigr. upon Proverbs, 4to. 1598. Dr. Johnson observes, this is always the failing of a little mind, made artful by long commer e with the world: and he adds, "this remark is not that of a weak man." (9) This must be known; which, being kept close, might move More grief to hide, than hate to utter love] The hiding Hamlet's love might occasion more mischief to us from him and the Queen, than the uttering or revealing of it will occasion hate and resentment from Hamlet. The poet's ill and obscure expression seems to have been caused by his affectation of concluding the scene with a couplet. JOHNSON. By this artificial, antithetical, and riddling style, our author, in other parts of his dramas, frequently embarrassed his sense: but to conclude acts and scenes with a couplet, was the very opposite of affectation. The custom of the age fully warranted it; and not to have done it occasionally would have been an affectation of singularity. Ben Jonson did so in his tragedies; and it was the almost invariable course for a century afterwards. (10) Hunts not the trail of policy] The track or course of any thing that has passed, or been drawn along: and is generally applied, as here, to such things as by their scent enable those that follow to know the line of pursuit. "Cry out upon no trail." M. W. of W. IV. 2. Ford. (11) no other but the main] The chief point. "Mayne or strength. Vigor. Robur." Promptuar. parvulor. "These flaws, "Are to the main as inconsiderable "And harmless, if not wholesome, as a sneeze "To man's less universe." Par. Reg. IV. 454. See Othello, II. 1. 2 Gent. (12) falsely born in hand] Holden in hand, having attention. engaged. It is generally used in an ill sense, as with a view to delude, deceive, or impose upon. See M. ado &c. IV. 1. Beatr. (13) It likes as well] Pleases. "Lika, placere. me licath, mihi placet. congruit, Gr. yixoua. cupio." Ihre's Glossogr. Suiogoth. Upsal. Fo. 1769, "To see my conquerour me lykes, yt lykes me hym to know." (Meum victorem videre libet.) Jasp. Heywood's Seneca's Herc. furens. 4to. 1581, Fo. 18. "A rose, that liked or pleased with the sight of it. Eblandita aspectu rosa. Plin." Baret's Alvearie, 1617. See Lear, II. 2. Kent. (14) Thus it remains, and the remainder thus] "In Polonius the poet makes a noble delineation of a mixed character of manners and of nature, and not a character only of manners, discriminated by properties superficial, accidental, and acquired. Polonius is a man bred in courts, exercised in business, stored with observation, confident in his knowledge, proud of his eloquence, and declining into dotage. His mode of oratory is designed to ridicule the practice of those times, of prefaces that made no introduction, and of method that embarrassed rather than explained. This part of his character is accidental, the rest is natural. Such a man is positive and confident, because he knows that his mind was once strong, and knows not that it is become weak. Such a man excels in general principles, but fails in the particular application. He is knowing in retrospect, and ignorant in foresight. While he depends upon his memory, and can draw from his repositories of knowledge, he utters weighty sentences, and gives useful counsel; but as the mind in its enfeebled state cannot be kept long busy and intent, the old man is subject to sudden dereliction of his faculties, he loses the order of his ideas, and entangles himself in his own thoughts, till he recovers the leading principle, and falls again into his former train. This idea of dotage encroaching upon wisdom, will solve all the phænomena of the character of Polonius." JOHNSON. Because Pope, speaking of Shakespeare, had said what is generally true, that "to the life and variety of his characters we must add the wonderful preservation of them," Warburton must make it out, Reed's edit. XVIII. 110. that it is so in this instance; and, if you will take his word for it, you may believe it to be so here. But the idle suggestions that he makes, though rejected by Dr. Johnson, seem to have led the Doctor to take up the point; and he has certainly played the advocate with talent, and some plausibility: and, if not more convincing than his predecessor, at least entitles himself to some attention and respect. Nothing can be more easily conceivable or intelligible than the idea of dotage encroaching upon wisdom: but the question is, the application of this maxim to the person and character of Polonius. To be extinguished, talent or faculty must first have existence: to be impaired, it must have had something like integrity. Now we have nothing in this drama that directly goes to establish the fact of his having had at any time a clear and commanding intellect. Almost every thing has, on the contrary, an opposite bearing; for the very circumstance or quality relied upon in this view, appears to us to be one of those that most strongly indicates imbecillity of mind: viz. having the memory stored with sage rules and maxims, fit for every turn and occasion, without the faculty of making application or effective use of them upon any. Warburton, though it is ill adapted to his purpose in this place, pronounces him "weak, a pedant, and a fop;" and, presently afterwards, "a ridiculous character, and acting as a small politician:" and Hamlet, repeatedly branding him with folly, is in III. 4, made to characterize him as one : "Who was in life (i. e. while living) a foolish prating knave." The poet has not here made false (i.e. tedious and encumbered) modes of reasoning, and false wit, ("formality of method and the gingle and play of words," the idols of a pedantic age) ridiculous, without uniformly subjecting the character itself, which he makes the vehicle of this purpose, to the same imputation and censure: nor can any facts be pointed out sufficient to remove the strong impressions left of the natural imbecillity of his mind and without these, the argument of Dr. Johnson proceeds upon an assumption altogether unfounded, and contradicted as well by his predecessor and associate as by his author. Had he considered Polonius as really intelligent, he would not, in the close of the foregoing scene, have pointed out a "remark of his as not being that of a weak man." Throughout this detail, as in his general conduct, unmixt folly or dotage is visible at every turn; but the lesson of life given to Laertes is a perfect whole, delivered with all the closeness and gravity of a phi losophic discourse; Plenius et melius Chrysippo et Crantore: and had it been dictated by a mind any way enfeebled, at some point or other we should, as here, have seen "wisdom," according to Dr. Johnson," encroached upon by dotage." But what he offers is a mere advocating, is what may be said, rather than what either ought to be said, or in fact exists; it is prize-fighting, and nothing like a search after truth. For, when elaborate discussion has been employed to give a sense not obvious but different from the generally received meaning, if that interpretation does not leave its impression long upon any plain mind, the presumption is that it cannot be sound. See note 71. This species of criticism, of which the forgotten commentaries of Warburton afford more apt and tiresome examples, reminds us of the ingenuous confession, recorded by the late Mr. Cumberland, his grandson, of the great hero of this school, Bentley, respecting the use he made of the great writers of antiquity. His favourite daughter Joanna, the Phoebe of Byrom's charming pastoral, and wife of Cumberland, bishop of Kilmore, lamenting to him that he had employed so much of his time on criticism, he acknowledged the justice of the remark, and remained for a time thoughtful and seemingly embarrassed by it: at last, recollecting himself, he said, "Child, I am sensible I have not always turned my talents to the use for which they were given to me; but the wit and genius of those old heathens beguiled me: and, as I despaired of raising myself up to their standard upon fair ground, I thought the only chance I had of looking over their heads, was to get upon their shoulders." Memoirs, 4to. 1806. p. 14. (15) To the most beautified] Accomplished. "By art bewtified and adorned, and brought far from the primitive rudenesse." Puttenham's Arte English Poesie, 4to. 1589, p. 48. "Seeing you are beautified with goodly shape." Two G. of V. 1 Outlaw, IV. 1. Dr. Farmer instances Heywood's Edw. VI. "Catharine Parre, queen dowager, was a woman beautified with many excellent virtues." We shall add, "To the worthily honoured and vertuous beautified Lady, the Ladie Anne Glemnham, wife to the most noble, magnanimous and worthy Knight, Sir Henry, &c." Dedication by Henry Olney to Diella, Čertaine Sonnets adjoyned to the amorous Poeme of Diego and Gineura by R. L. Gent. Printed for Henry Olney, 18mo. 1596. "To the most honoured and vertuously beautified Lady, the Lady Elizabeth Carey." Dedication to Christ's Teares over Jerusalem, by Tho. Nash, 4to. 1631. Mr. Steevens cites edit. 1594. (16) In her excellent white bosom, these] The ladies at that time, and more than a century afterwards, Mr. Steevens says, wore pockets in the front of their stays: and Proteus, in the Two G. of V. says, "Deliver'd "Even in the milk-white bosom of thy love." III. 1. |