Mar. You fhall not go, my Lord. Mr. Be rul'd, you shall not go, And makes each petty artery in this body [Breaking from them. By heav'n, I'll make a ghoft of him that lets me-I'll follow thee I fay, away -go on [Exeunt Ghoft and Hamlet. Hor. He waxes defp'rate with imagination. Mar. Let's follow! 'tis not fit thus to obey him. Her, Have after.-To what iffue will this come? Mar. Something is rotten in the state of Denmark. Hor. Heav'n will direct it. Mar. Nay, let's follow him. [Exeunt. SCENE changes to a more remote Part of the Platform. Re-enter Ghoft and Hamlet. Ham. W HERE wilt thou lead me? speak, I'll go further. Grof. Mark me. Ham. I will. G'oft. My hour is almost come, When I to fulphurous and tormenting flames Muft render up myself. Ham. Alas, poor Ghost! Gof. Pity me not, but lend thy ferious hearing To what I fhall unfold.. Hom. Speak, I am bound to hear. Gheft. So art thou to revenge, when thou shalt hear. Ham. What? Ghost. I am thy father's Spirit ; Doom'd for a certain term to walk the night, And, And, for the day, confin'd to faft in fires; (18) I could a tale unfold, whofe lightest word To ears of flesh and blood; lift, lift, oh lift! Ham. Oh heav'n! Ghoft. Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder. Ham. Murder? Ghost. Murder moft foul, as in the beft it is; But this most foul, strange, and unnatural. Ham. Hafte me to know it, that I, with wings as swift As meditation or the thoughts of love, May fweep to my revenge. Ghoft. I find thee apt'; And duller shouldst thou be, than the fat weed That roots itself in ease on Lethe's wharf, Wouldst thou not ftir in this. Now, Hamlet, hear; So the whole ear of Denmark (18) And, for the day, confin'd to fast in fires;] I once fufpected this expreffion- to faft in fires: because tho' fafting is often a part of penance injoin'd us by the church-difcipline here on earth, yet, I conceiv'd, could be no great punishment for a fpirit, a being which requires no fuftenance, to faft. Mr. Warburton has fince perfectly convinced me that the text is not to be disturb'd, but that the expreffion is purely metaphorical. For it is the opinion of the religion here reprefented, (i. e. the Roman catholic) that fafting purifies the foul here, as the fire does in the purgatory here alluded to: and that the foul must be purged either by fafting here, or by burning hereafter.. This opinion Shakespeare again hints at, where he makes Hamlet fay; He took my father grosfly, full of bread. And we are to obferve, that it is a common faying of the Romish priests to their people, If you won't falt bere, vou must fast in fire. 5 Iss Is by a forged procefs of my death Rankly abus'd: but know, thou noble youth, Ham. Oh, my prophetick foul! my uncle? Ghaft. Ay, that incestuous, that adulterate beast, But virtue, as it never will be mov'd, Though lewdness court it in a shape of heav'n; And prey on garbage But, foft! methinks, I fcent the morning air- Upon my fecure hour thy uncle ftole Thus was I, fleeping, by a brother's hand, Of life, of crown, of Queen, at once dispatcht; 7 Unhousel'd, Unhoufel'd, unappointed, unaneal'd: (19) (19) Unbouzzled, unanointed, unaneal'd;] The ghoft, having re counted the procefs of his murder, proceeds to exaggerate the inhomanity and unnaturalness of the fact, from the circumftances in which he was furpriz'd. But thefe, I find, have been ftumbling blocks to our editors; and therefore I muft amend and explain these three compound adjectives in their order. Inftead of unbouzzel'd, we must refore, unboufel'd, i. e. without the facrament taken; from the old Saxon word for the facrament, housel. So our etymologifts, and Chaucer write it; and Spencer, accordingly, calls the facramental fire, boufling fire. In the next place, unanointed is a fophiftication of the text: the old copies concur in reading, disappointed. I correct, Unhoufeld, unappointed, i.e. no confeffion of fins made, no reconciliation to heaven, no appointment of penance by the church. To this purpose Othello speaks to his wife, when he is upon the point of killing her; If you bethink yourself of any crime, Unreconcil'd as yet to Heav'n and Grace, Sollicit for it ftrait. So in Measure for Meafure, when fabella brings word to Claudia that he is to be inftantly executed, fue urges him to this neceffary duty; Therefore your best appointment make with speed, To-morrow you set out. Unaneal'd, I agree to be the Poet's genuine word; but I must take the liberty to difpute Mr. Pope's explication of it, viz. No knell rung.. I don't pretend to know what gloffaries Mr. Pope may have confulted and trufts to; but whofoever they are, I am fure, their comment is very fingular in the word alledg'd. The adjective form'd from knelly, must have been unknell'd or unknoll’d. So, in Macbeth ; Had I as many fons, as I have hairs, I would not wish them to a fairer death; And fo his knell is knoll'd. There is no rule in orthography for finking the k in the deflexion of any verb or compound form'd from knell, and melting it into a vowel.. What fenfe does unaneal'd then bear? SKINNER, in his Lexicon of old and obfolete English terms, tells us, that aneal'd is unetus; from the Teutonick prepofition an, and ole, i. e. oil: fo that unaneal'd muft confequently fignify, unanointed, not having the extream unction. So that the Poet's reading and explication being afcertain'd, he very finely makes his gheft complain of thefe four dreadful hardfhips that he had been dispatch'd out of life without receiving the bofle, or facrament; without being reconcil'd to heaven and abfolu'd; without the benefit of extream un&tion; or without fo much as a confeffion made of his fins. The having no knell rung, I think is not a point of equal consequence to any of thefe; efpecially, if we confider, that the Remifp church admits the efficacy of praying for the dead. F 6 With With all my imperfections on my head. Adieu, adieu, adieu; remember me. [Exit. Ham. Oh, all you host of heav'n! oh earth! what else? And fhall I couple hell? oh, hold my heart- Oh villain, villain, fimiling damned villain! ---- -meet it is, I fet it down, That one may fmile, and fmile, and be a villain; It is; Adieu, adieu, remember me: I've fworn it (20) Yea, from the table of my memory I'll wipe away all trivial fond records.] fchylus, I remember, twice ufes this very metaphor; confidering the mind of memory, as a tablet, or writing-book, on which we are to engrave things worthy of semembrance. *Ην ἐγγράφο Σὺ μνήμασιν Δέλτοις φρενών. Prometh. Enter |