When the blood burns, how prodigal the foul MA Lends the tongue vows. These blazes, oh my daughter,d Giving more light than heat, extinct in both, Do 8 may 7 Breathing like fanctified and pious Bonds, The better to beguile. This is for all: 2I would not, in plain terms, from this time forth, 197 larger tether] A fring to tye horses. POPE. 158 Breathing like fanctified and pious Bonds] On which the editor Mr. Theobald remarks, Tho' all the editions hve fwallowed this reading implicitly, it is certainly corrupt; and I have been furprised how men of genius and learning could let it pass without fome fufpicion. What ideas can we frame to ourselves of a breathing bond, or of its being fanctified and pious, &c. But he was too hafty in framing ideas before he understood thofe alrea ~dy framed by the poet, and ex Have you fo flander any moment's leifure, 1, 01 jud As to give words or talk with the Lord Hamlet. br A Look to't, I charge you. Come your way.od GM Oph. I fhall obey, my Lord. SCE NE VII [Exeunt Changes to the Platform before the Palaces Enter Hamlet, Horatio, and Marcellus. Ham.HE Air bites fhrewdly; it is very cold. Hor. It is a nipping and an eager air. T Ham. What hour now? Hor. I think, it lacks of twelve. Mar. No, it is ftruck. Hor. I heard it not. It then draws near the feason, Wherein the Spirit held his wont to walk. [Noife of warlike mufick within. What does this mean, my Lord ? money. Ham. The King doth wake to night, and takes his rouse, I Keeps waffel, and the fwagg'ring up-fpring reels; Hor. Is it a custom? Ham. Ay, marry, is't: ment's leifare being of the like ed than before, but in terms that fuitian ftuff with the reft. WARBURTON. Here is another fine paffage, of which I take the beauty to be only imaginary. Polonius fays, in plain terms, that is, not in language lefs elevated or embellish. cannot be mifunderficod: I would not have you fo difgrace your most idle moments, as not to find better employment for them than Lord Hamlet's converfation. 1-the fwagg'ring up Spring→] The bluftering upstart. But, But, to my mind, though I am native here, More honour'd in the breach, than the observance. Makes us traduc'd, and tax'd of other nations; From our atchievements, though perform'd at height, That for fome vicious mole of nature in them, By the o'ergrowth of fome complexion, Oft breaking down the pales and forts of reafon; Doth Doth all the noble fubftance of Worth out, To his own fcandal. Enter Ghoft. Hor. Look, my Lord, it comes! Ham. Angels and ministers of grace defend us ! Be thou a Spirit of health, or Goblin damn'd, Bring with thee airs from heav'n, or blasts from hell, Be thy intents wicked or charitable, 8 Thou com'ft in fuch a questionable fhape, That I will speak to thee. I'll call thee Hamlet, remember a paffage throughout all our poet's works, more intricate and deprav'd in the text, of Jefs meaning to outward appearance, or more likely to baffle the attempts of criticifm in its aid. It is certain, there is neither fenfe nor grammar as it now ftands: yet with a flight alteration, I'll endeavour to cure thofe defects, and give a fentiment too, that fhall make the poet's thought clofe nobly. The dram of Bafe (as I have corrected the text) means the least alloy or bafenefs or vice. It is very frequent with our poet to use the adjective of quality instead of the fubftantive fignifying the thing. Befides, Befides, I have obferved, that elsewhere, fpeaking of worth, he delights to confider it as a quality that adds weight to a person, and connects the word with that idea. THEOBALD. Have Have burft their cearments ?] Hamlet here fpeaks with wonder, that he who was dead should rife again and walk. But this, according to the vulgar fuperftition here followed, was no won der. Their only wonder was, that one who had the rites of Sepulture performed to him, fhould walk; the want of which was fuppofed to be the reason of walking ghofts. Hamlet's wonder then fhould have been placed here: And fo Shakespear placed it, as we fhall fee presently. For hearfed is used figuratively to fig Have burst their cearments? Why the fepulchre, nify repofited, therefore the place where fhould be defigned but death being no place, but a privalion only, bearfed in death is nonsense. We should read, tell, Why thy canoniz'd bones hearfed in EARTH Have burft their cearments. It appears, for the two reasons given above, that earth is the true reading. It will further appear for these two other reafons. First, From the words, canoniz'd bones; by which is not meant (as one would imagine) a compliment, for, made holy or fainted; but for bones to which the rites of fepulture have been performed; or which were buried according to the canon. For we are told he was murder'd with all his fins fresh upon him, and therefore in no way to be fainted. But if this licentious ufe of the word canonized be allowed, then earth must be the true reading, for inhuming bodies was one of the effential parts of fepulchral rites. Secondly, From the words, have burft their cearments, which imply the preceding mention of inbuming, but no mention is made of it in the common reading. This enabled the Oxford Editor to improve upon the emendation; fo, he reads, Why thy bones bears'd in cano M That For tho' the I fuppofe for the fake of harmony, not of fenfe. rites of fepulture performed canonizes the body buried; yet it does not canonize the earth in which it is laid, unless every funeral service be a new confecra*tion. WARBURTON, It were too long to examine this note period by period, tho' almost every period feems to me to contain fomething reprehenfible. The critick, in his zeal for change, writes with fo little confideration, as to fay, that Hamlet cannot call his father canonized, because we are told he was murdered with all his fins fresh upon him. He was not then told it, and had fo little the power of knowing it, that he was to be told it by an apparition. The long fucceffion of reafons upon reafons prove nothing, but what every reader discovers, that the King had been buried, which is implied by fo many adjuncts of burial, that the direct mention of earth is not neceffary, Hamlet, amazed at an apparition, which, though in all ages credited, has in all ages been confidered as the moit wonderful and moft dreadful operation of fupernatural agency, enquires of the spectre, in the most emphatick terms, why he breaks the order of nature, by returning from the dead; this he afks in a very confused circumlocution, |