I Amb.
The sight is dismai;
And our affairs from England come too late :
The ears are senseless that should give us
hearing,

To tell him his commandment is fulfill'd,
That Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are

dead:

Where should we have our thanks?

Hor.

Not from his mouth,

Had it the ability of life to thank you; He never gave commandment for their death. 350 But since, so jump upon this bloody question, [England, You from the Polack wars. and you from Are here arrived, give order, that these bodies High on a stage be placed to the view; And let me speak to the yet unknowing world

How these things came about: so shall you

hear

Of carnal, bloody, and unnatural acts;

Of accidental judgments, casual slaughters;
Of deaths put on by cunning and forced

cause;

And, in this upshot, purposes mistook
Fallen on the inventors' heads: all this can I
Truly deliver.

Fort.

Let us haste to hear it,

And call the noblest to the audience.

For me, with sorrow I embrace my fortune;

I have some rights of memory in this king.

dom,

[me.

Which now to claim my vantage doth invite

360

370

Hor. Of that I shall have also cause to

speak, [on more; And from his mouth whose voice will draw But let this same be presently perform'd, E'en while men's minds are wild, lest more mischance

On plots and errors happen.

Fort.
Let four captains
Bear Hamlet, like a soldier, to the stage;
For he was likely, had he been put on,

To have proved most royally: and, for his

passage,

The soldiers' music, and the rites of war
Speak loudly for him.—

Take up the bodies :—such a sight as this
Becomes the field, but here shows much

amiss.

Go, bid the soldiers shoot. [A dead March. [Exeunt, marching; after which a peal of ordnance is shot off.

NOTES.

ABBREVIATIONS.-O. E. Old English; H. Ger. High German (the German usually taught in our schools is N. H. & New High German); L. Ger. - Low German (= English); N. Fr. = Norman-French; Gr. Greek; Lat. Latin; Dim. -diminutive; Cogs cognates; Cf (= confer), compare; Cl. P. S. = Clarendon Press Series; and Co. S. Collins's Series. Notes without name appended are Prof. Meiklejohn's. In the naming of plays short titles have been used. Thus the Taming of the Shrew is mentioned as The Shrew; All's Well that Ends Well as All's Well; Troilus and Cressida as Troilus. For Shakespeare, we have always printed S.

ACT FIRST.

SCENE 1.

Elsinore, or Helsingör, is on the east coast of Zealand, about twenty-four miles from Copenhagen. On a point near it stands the castle of Kronborg, built in 1577, which commands the entrance to the Baltic. The first scene is in this castle.

3. Long live the king! This was the password for the night-watch.

6. Upon your hour. As Francisco speaks, the castle clock strikes twelve. Coleridge says, 'Note the natural and easy tone of the dialogue, which contains no labored description of the night or of the scenery. We seem to be accidentally overhearing a conversation.'

8. Much great. For the use of much with the plural, cf. Luke, xii. 19: Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years.' -Bitter for bitterly. Dr. Abbott (sect. 1) says, In Early English many adverbs were formed from adjectives by adding e (dative) to the positive degree; as bright, adj.; brighte, adv. In time the e was dropped,

167

but the adverbial use was kept. Hence, from a false analogy, many adjectives (such as excellent), which could never form adverbs in e, were used as adverbs. We still say colloquially, Come quick; the moon shines bright.'

1o. Not a mouse stirring. Coleridge says, "The attention to minute sounds-naturally associated with the recollection of minute objects, and the more familiar and trifling, the more impressive from the unusualness of their producing any impression at all-gives a philosophic pertinency to this last image; but it has likewise its dramatic use and purpose.'

13. Rivals, partners. The quarto of 1603 has the reading partners. Rivals were those who lived on the same stream (rivus), to which they had a common right for purposes of irrigation, etc.; hence frequent disputes between those who lived up or down stream.

16. Give you

God give you.

19. A piece of him. Cf. the ordinary phrase: Something

like him.

21. What. The O. E. interjection, generally used to call a person; sometimes also used as an exclamation of impatience.- This thing... again. Coleridge points out that even the word again has its credibilizing effect,' and how Horatio rises from the phrase this thing to this dreaded sight, and then to this apparition.

23. Fantasy, imagination. From Gr. phantasia, the power of making things appear (from phaino, I make to appear; cogs. are phenomenon and phantasy, which last has been contracted into fancy).

29. Approve, confirm, corroborate the witness of. Cf. Merchant, III. ii. 79, where Bassanio talks of approving an error with a text.'

31. Assail and fortified are terms such as a soldier would

-Illume. The

37. Made his course. S. has also the phrases: To hold a course; to run a course; to take a course. only instance of the word in S.

39. The hell the clock. (In H. Ger. Glocke still means bell.)- Beating

=

striking.

40. Break thee for thou. Dr. Abbott (sect. 212) says, "Look thee," "hark thee," are to be explained by euphonic reasons (and not as reflexive). Thee, thus used, follows imperatives which, being in themselves emphatic, require an unemphatic pronoun. The Elizabethans reduced thou to thee.

42. Scholar, able to read Latin-the language employed in exorcising a spirit. 44. Most like. Coleridge says, Note the judgment displayed in having the two persons present, who, as having seen the Ghost before, are naturally eager in confirming their former opinions; whilst the sceptic is silent, and after having been twice addressed by his friends, answers with two hasty syllables, Most like, and a confession of horror. Words are wasted on those who feel, and to those who do not feel, the exquisite judgment of S. in this

scene.'

45. Spoke to. In allusion to the belief that a ghost will not speak until it has first been spoken to.

46. Usurp'st... together with. A daring zeugma. The Ghost usurps (= invades) the quiet night and also the fair form of the buried king.

49. Sometimes

sometine, that is, at one time. 55. On't of it. Might not, in the old sense of could The same sense is still found in the noun might, from may, the old form of which was magan.

not.

56. Avouch, the only instance of this verb used as a noun by S.

60. Norway the king of Norway.

61. Parle, parley. The usual meaning in S. is that of a conference with enemies regarding peace or a truce.

62. Sledded Polacks, Poles on sledges. Webster (quoted by Mr. Rolf) has the phrase, 'Like a shav'd Polack.' The word does not occur anywhere else in S. (except in V. ii. 352); nor does sledded.

64. Jump = exactly. This use of the adverb corresponds with S.'s use of the verb, and is most easily explained by it.

67. In the gross, in the general, as opposed to the par ticular, view of affairs.Scope, general view.