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To grunt and sweat 3 under a weary life;
But that the dread of something after death,➡
The undiscover'd country, from whose bourn

"Theobald was continually making alterations." "For bodkin," fays the noble lord, "he would read dodkin, which he has found out to be an old word for dagger; whereas the beauty of the thought depends on the infignificance of the inftrument." Graves's Recollections of fome particulars in the life of William Shenstone, Efq;—His lordship's meaning, as Fluellen fays, was goot, fave the phrafe is a little variations." Theobald never did propofe to read dodkin, though he gave the ancient fignification of the word bodkin, which, as we have feen was dagger.

By a bare bodkin, does not perhaps mean, "by fo little an inftrument as a dagger," but " by an unfheatbed dagger."

In the account which Mr. Steevens has given of the original meaning of the term quietus, after the words, " who perfonally attended the king on any foreign expedition," should have been added,—and were therefore exempted from the claim of scutage, or a tax on every knight's fee. MALONE.

3 To grunt and fweat-] All the old copies have, to grunt and fweat. It is undoubtedly the true reading, but can scarcely be borne by modern ears. JOHNSON.

This word occurs in the Death of Zoroas, a fragment in blank verfe, printed at the end of Lord Surry's Poems:

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none the charge could give:

"Here grunts, here grones, echwhere ftrong youth is spent." And Stany burft in his tranflation of Virgil, 1582, for fupremum congemuit gives us: "for fighing it grunts.'

The change made by the editors [to groan] is however supported by the following lines in Julius Cæfar, A& IV. "sc. i.

"To groan and fweat under the business." STEEVENS.

I apprehend that it is the duty of an editor to exhibit what his authour wrote, and not to substitute what may appear to the present age preferable: and Dr. Johnson was of the fame opinion. See his note on the word bugger-mugger, A&t IV. fc. v. I have therefore, though with fome reluctance, adhered to the old copies, however unpleafing this word may be to the ear. On the ftage, without doubt, an actor is at liberty to fubftitute a lefs offenfive word. To the ears of our ancestors it probably conveyed no unpleafing found; for we find it used by Chaucer and others:

"But never gront he at no ftroke but on,
"Or elles at two, but if his ftorie lie."

The Monkes Tale, v. 14627, Tyrwhitt's edit.
Again, in Wily Beguil'd, written before 1596:
"She's never well, but grunting in a corner," MALONE.

No

No traveller returns 4,-puzzles the will;
And makes us rather bear thofe ills we have,
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus confcience does make cowards of us all ;
And thus the native hue of refolution

4 The undiscover'd country, from whose bourn

No traveller returns,-] This has been cavilled at by Lord Orrery and others, but without reafon. The idea of a traveller in Shak fpeare's time, was of a person who gave an account of his adventures. Every voyage was a Difcovery. John Taylor has "A Discovery by fea from London to Salisbury." FARMER.

Again, Marston's Infatiate Countess, 1603:

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-wrestled with death,

"From whofe ftern cave none tracks a backward path."

Qui nunc it per iter tenebricofum

Illuc unde negant redire quenquam. Catullus. STEEVENS. This paffage has been objected to by others on a ground which, at the first view of it, feems more plauble. Hamlet himself, it is obe jected, has had ocular demonftration that travellers do fometimes return from this ftrange country.

I formerly thought this an inconfiftency. But this objection alfo is founded on a mistake. Our poet without doubt in the paffage before us intended to fay, that from the unknown regions of the dead no traveller returns, with all his corporal powers; fuch as he who goes on a voyage of difcovery brings back, when he returns to the port from which he failed. The traveller whom Hamlet had feen, though he appeared in the fame habit which he had worn in his life time, was nothing but a fhadow; "invulnerable as the air," and confequently incorporeal.

If, fays the objector, the traveller has once reached this coaft, it is not an undiscovered country. But by undifcovered Shakspeare meant not, undiscovered by departed fpirits, but, undiscovered, or unknown to "fuch fellows as us, who crawl between earth and heaven;" fuperis incognita tellus. In this fenfe every country, of which the traveller does not return alive to give an account, may be said to be undifcovered. The ghoft has given no account of the region from whence he came, being, as he has himself informed us, forbid to tell the fecrets of his prifon-house."

Marlowe, before our poet, had compared death to a journey to an undiscovered country:

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weep not for Mortimer,

"That fcorns the world, and, as a traveller,
"Goes to difcover countries yet unknown."

King Edward II. 1598 (written before 1593).

MALONE.

Is fickly'd o'er with the pale caft of thought;
And enterprizes of great pith 5 and moment,
With this regard, their currents turn awry
And lose the name of action.-Soft you, now!
The fair Ophelia :-Nymph, in thy orifons'
Be all my fins remember'd.

Oph. Good my lord,

How does your honour for this many a day?
Ham. I humbly thank you; well.

Oph. My lord, I have remembrances of yours,
That I have longed long to re-deliver;

I pray you, now receive them.

Ham. No, not I;

I never gave you aught.

Oph. My honour'd lord, you know right well, you did;
And, with them, words of fo fweet breath compos'd
As made the things more rich: their perfume loft,
Take these again; for to the noble mind

Rich gifts wax poor, when givers prove unkind,
There, my lord.

Ham. Ha, ha! are you honeft?

Oph. My lord?

Ham. Are you fair?

Oph. What means your lordship?

Ham. That, if you be honeft, and fair, you should admit no difcourfe to your beauty 3.

8

5-great pith-] Thus the folio. The quartos read, of great pitch. STEEVENS.

6 -turn awry,] Thus the quartos. The folio-turn away. STEEVENS

7 Nymph, in thy orifons, &c.] This is a touch of nature. Hamlet, at the fight of Ophelia, does not immediately recollect, that he is to perfonate madnefs, but makes her an addrefs grave and folemn, fuch as the foregoing meditation excited in his thoughts. JOHNSON.

8 That, if you be boneft, and fair, you should admit no difcourfe to your beauty.] This is the reading of all the modern editions, and is copied from the quarto. The folio reads,-your honesty should admit no difcourfe to your beauty. The true reading feems to be this: If you be boneft and fair, you should admit your honesty to no difcourfe with your beauty. This is the fenfe evidently required by the process of the converfation. JOHNSON.

Oph.

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Oph. Could beauty, my lord, have better commerce than with honesty?

Ham. Ay, truly; for the power of beauty will fooner transform honefty from what it is to a bawd, than the force of honesty can tranflate beauty into his likeness: this was fome time a paradox, but now the time gives it proof. I did love you once.

Oph. Indeed, my lord, you made me believe fo.

Ham. You fhould not have believed me: for virtue cannot fo inoculate' our old stock, but we shall relish of it: I loved you not.

Oph. I was the more deceived.

Ham. Get thee to a nunnery; Why would't thou be a breeder of finners? I am myself indifferent honeft; but yet I could accuse me of fuch things, that it were better, my mother had not borne me: I am very proud, revengeful, ambitious; with more offences at my beck, than I have thoughts to put them in 3, imagination to give them shape, or time to act them in: What should fuch fellows as I do crawling between earth and heaven? We are arrant knaves, all; believe none of us: Go thy ways to a nunnery. Where's your father?

Oph. At home, my lord.

Ham. Let the doors be fhut upon him; that he may. play the fool no where but in's own house. Farewel.

- into his likeness:] The modern editors read its likeness; but the text is right. Shakspeare and his contemporaries frequently use the perfonal for the neutral pronoun. So Spenfer, Faery Queen, B. III. c. ix. "Then forth it breaks; and with bis furious blaft,

"Confounds both land and feas, and skies doth overcast." See p. 221, n. 6. MALONE.

▲ inoculate—] This is the reading of the first folio. The first quarto reads exocutat; the fecond, euacuat; and the third evacuate. STEEVENS.

I could accuse me of such things, that it were better, my mother bad not borne me:] So, in our poet's 88th Sonnet:

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I can fet down a story

"Of faults conceal'd, wherein I am attainted." MALONE. 3-with more offences at my beck, than I have thoughts to put them in,] To put a thing into thought, is to think on it. JOHNSON. — at my beck,-] That is, always ready to come about me.

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Oph. O, help him, you sweet heavens!

Ham. If thou doft marry, I'll give thee this plague for thy dowry; Be thou as chafte as ice, as pure as fnow, thou shalt not escape calumny. Get thee to a nunnery; farewel: Or, if thou wilt needs marry, marry a fool; for wife men know well enough, what monsters you make of them. To a nunnery, go; and quickly too. Farewel.

Oph. Heavenly powers, restore him!

Ham. I have heard of your paintings too, well enough; God hath given you one face, and you make yourselves another: you jig, you amble, and you lifp, and nick-name God's creatures, and make your wantonnefs your ignorance: Go to; I'll no more of't; it hath made me mad. Ifay, we will have no more marriages: those that are married already, all but one, fhall live; the reft fhall keep as they are.

nery, go.

To a nun[Exit Hamlet. Oph. O, what a noble mind is here o'erthrown! The courtier's, foldier's, fcholar's, eye, tongue, fword";

s I bave beard of your paintings too, well enough, &c.] This is according to the quarto; the folio, for paintings, has prattlings, and for face, has pace, which agrees with what follows, you jigg, you amble. Probably the authour wrote both. I think the common reading best. JOHNSON.

I would continue to read, paintings, because these destructive aids of beauty feem, in the time of Shakspeare, to have been general objects of fatire. STEEVENS.

6

make your wantonnefs your ignorance:] You mistake by wanton affection, and pretend to mistake by ignorance. JOHNSON.

all but one fhall live;] By the one who fhall not live, he means, his ftep-father. MALONE.

7 The courtier's, foldier's, fcbolar's, eye, tongue, fword;] The poet certainly meant to have placed his words thus:

The courtier's, fcholar's, foldier's, eye, tongue, Sword; otherwife the excellence of tongue is appropriated to the foldier, and the fcbolar wears the fword. WARNER.

This regulation is needlefs. So, in Tarquin and Lucrece :

- princes are the glass, the school, the book,
"Where fubjects eyes do learn, do read, do look."

And in Quintilian: "Multum agit fexus, ætas, conditio; ut in fœminis, fenibus, pupillis, liberos, parentes, conjuges, alligantibus."

FARMER.

The

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