Hor. A piece of him. Ber.Welcome, Horatio; welcome, good Marcellus. Mar. What, has this thing appear'd again tonight? Ber. I have feen nothing. Mar. Horatio fays, 'tis but our phantafy; With us to watch the minutes of this night : 7 He may approve our eyes, and fpeak to it. fpot with Bernardo, and that there is no other centinel by them reliered. Poffibly Marcellus was an officer, whole bufinefs it was to vifit each watch, and perhaps continue with it fome time. Horatio, as it appears, watches out of curiolity. But in actii. fc. 1. to Hamlet's queftion, Hold you the watch to night? Horatio, Marcellus, and Bernardo, all anfwer, We do, my honour'd lord. The folio indeed, reads both, which one may with greater propriety refer to Marcellus and Bernardo. If we did not find the latter gentleman in fuch good company, we might have taken him to have been like Francisco whom he relieves, an honeft but common foldier. The strange indifcriminate ufe of Italian and Roman names in this and other plays, makes it obvious that the author was very little converfant in even the rudiments of either language. REMARKS. 4 Hor. A piece of him.] But why a piece? He fays this as he gives his hand. Which direction ihould be marked. WARBURTON. A piece of him, is, I believe, no more than a cant expreffion. STEEVENS. 5 What, &c.] The quarto gives this fpeech to Horatio. 6-the minutes of this night;] This feems to have been an expreffion common in Shakspeare's time. I find it in one of Ford's plays, The Fancies, act v : "I promise ere the minutes of the night." STEEVENS. approve our eyes] Add a new tellimony to that of our eyes. JOHNSON. 7 So, in Heywood's Iron Age, 1632: "I can by grounded arguments approve See vol. vii. p. 456. STEEVENT. Ber. Ber. Sit down a while; And let us once again affail your cars, And let us hear Bernardo fpeak of this. When yon fame ftar, that's weftward from the pole, Mar. Peace, break thee off; look, where it comes again! Enter Ghoft. Ber. In the fame figure, like the king that's dead. Mar. Thou art a scholar, fpeak to it, Horatio 9. Ber. Looks it not like the king? mark it, Ho ratio. Hor. Moft like :-it harrows' me with fear, and wonder. Ber. It would be spoke to. Mar. Speak to it, Horatio. What we two nights have feen.] This line is by Hanmer given to Marcellus, but without neceffity. JOHNSON. 9 Thou art a fcholar, fpeak to it Horatio.] It has always been a vulgar notion that fpirits and fupernatural beings can only be fpoken to with propriety or effect by perfons of learning. Thus Toby in The Night-walker, by Beaumont and Fletcher, fays: 46 It grows still longer, "I is fteeple-high now; and it fails away Nurfe, "And that will daunt the devil." In like manner the honeft Butler in Mr. Addison's Drummer, recommends the steward to fpeak Latin to the ghost in that play. EDITOR. It harrows me, &c.] To harrow is to conquer, to fubdue. The word is of Saxon origin. So, in the old bl. 1. romance of Syr Eglamoure of Artoys: "He wore by him that barowed hell." STEEVENS. Hor. What art thou, that ufurp'ft this time of night, Together with that fair and warlike form In which the majefty of bury'd' Denmark Did fometime march? by heaven I charge thee, fpeak. Mar. It is offended. Ber. See it ftalks away. Hor. Stay; fpeak; I charge thee, speak. Mar. 'Tis gone, and will not answer. [Exit Ghoft. Ber. How now, Horatio? you tremble, and look pale: Is not this fomething more than phantasy ? Hor. Before my God, I might not this believe, Without the fenfible and true avouch Of mine own eyes. Mar. Is it not like the king? Hor. As thou art to thyself: Such was the very armour he had on, When he the ambitious Norway combated ; 66 Mar. -an angry parle,] This is one of the affected words introduced by Lilly. So, in Two Wife Men and all the Reft Fools, 1619: that you told me at our last parle." STEEVENS. 3 He fmote the fedded Polack on the ice.] Pole-ax in the common editions. He speaks of a prince of Poland whom he flew in battle. He uses the word Polack again, act ii. fc. 4. POPE. Polack was, in that age, the term for an inhabitant of Poland: Polaque, French. As in F. Davifon's tranflation of Pafferatius's epitaph on Henry III. of France, published by Camden : "Whether thy chance or choice thee hither brings, "Whom 1 Mar. Thus, twice before, and just at this dead hour, With martial stalk he hath gone by our watch. Hor. In what particular thought to work, I know not; But, in the grofs and fcope of mine opinion, Why this fame ftrict and most obfervant watch "Whom, with a mighty warlike hoft attended, Go, paffenger, and wail the hap of kings." JOHNSON. Again, in Vittoria Corombona, &c. 1612: 66 I fcorn him "Like a fhav'd Pollack—" STEEVENS. 4 A fled, or fledge] Is a carriage without wheels, made ufe of in the cold countries. So, in Tamburlaine, or the Scythian Shepherd, $590. 5 upon an ivory fled "Thou shalt be drawn among the frozen poles." STEEVENS. and just at this dead hour,] The old quarto reads jumpe: but the following editions difcarded it for a more fashionable word. WARBURTON. The old reading is, jump at this fame hour; fame is a kind of correlative to jump; just is in the oldest folio. The correction was probably made my the author. JOHNSON. Jump and juft were fynonymous in the time of Shakspeare. Ben Jonfon ipeaks of verfes made on jump names, i. e. names that fuit exactly. Nafh fays- and jumpe, imitating a verfe in As in præfenti." So, in Chapman's May Day, 1611: "Your appointment was jumpe at three, with me." Again, in M. Kyfin's tranflation of the Andria of Terence, 1588: "Comes he this day fo jump in the very time of this marriage?" STEEVENS. • In what particular thought to cvort,] i. e. What particular train of thinking to follow. STEEVENS. 7 ~ Grefs and feope] General thoughts, and tendency at iarge. JOHNSON. daily caft-] The quartos read of. STEEVENS, And foreign mart for implements of war? Hor. That can I ; At least, the whifper goes fo. Our last king, 9 Why fuch imprefs of ship-wwrights?] Judge Barrington, Obfervations on the more ancient Satutes, p. 300. having obferved that Shakspeare gives English manners to every country where his fcene lies, inters from this paffage, that in time of queen Elizabeth, fhip-wrights as well as feamen were forced to ferve. 1- who by a fealed compa?, WHALLEY. Well ratified by law and heraldry,] The subject spoken of is a duel between two monarchs, who fought for a wager, and entered into articles for the juft performance of the terms agreed upon. Two forts of law then were neceffary to regulate the decifion of the affair the civil law, and the law of arms; as, had there been a wager without a duel, it had been the civil law only; or a duel without a wager, the law of arms only. Let us fee now how our author is made to exprefs this fenfe, a feal'd compact, Well ratified by law and heraldry. Now law, as diftinguished from beralary fignifying the civil law ; and this feal'd compact being a civil law act, it is as much as to fay, An act of law well ratified by law, which is abfurd. For the nature of ratification requires that which ratifies, and that which is ratified, fhould not be one and the fame, but different. For thefe reafons I conclude Shakspeare wrote: --who by feal'd compact Well ratifie by law of heraldry. i. e. the execution of the civil compact was ratified by the law of arms; which, in our author's time, was called the law of heraldry. So the best and exacteft fpeaker of that age: "In the third kind, [i.e. of |