A sword unbated,18 and in a pass of practice
Requite him for your father.

Laer.

I will do't;

And, for that purpose, I'll anoint my sword."
I bought an unction of a mountebank,
So mortal, that but dip a knife in it,
Where it draws blood no cataplasm so rare,
Collected from all simples that have virtue
Under the moon, can save the thing from death,
That is but scratch'd withal: I'll touch my point
With this contagion, that if I gall him slightly,
It may be death.2

King.

20

Let's further think of this; Weigh, what convenience, both of time and means, May fit us to our shape. If this should fail, And that our drift look through our bad performance, "Twere better not assay'd: therefore this project Should have a back, or second, that might hold,

18 That is, unblunted. To bate, or rather to rebate, was to make dull. Thus in Love's Labour's Lost: "That honour which shall bate his scythe's keen edge." — Pass of practice is an insidious thrust.

19 Warburton having pronounced Laertes "a good character," Coleridge thereupon makes the following note: "Mercy on Warburton's notion of goodness! Please to refer to the seventh scene of this Act; I will do't; and, for this purpose, I'll anoint my sword,' uttered by Laertes after the King's description of Hamlet: He, being remiss, most generous, and free from all contriving, will not peruse the foils.' Yet I acknowledge that Shakespeare evidently wishes, as much as possible, to spare the character of Laertes, -to break the extreme turpitude of his consent to become an agent and accomplice of the King's treachery ;- and to this a he re-introduces Ophelia at the close of this scene, to af ford a probable stimulus of passion in her brother."

II.

20 Ritson has exclaimed against the villanous treachery of Laer tes in this horrid plot: he observes "there is more occasion that he should be pointed out for an object of abhorrence, as he is a character we are led to respect and admire in some preceding scenes." In the quarto of 1603 this contrivance originates with the king.

If this should blast in proof."

see:

Soft! let me

We'll make a solemn wager on your cunnings,2
I ha't:

When in your motion you are hot and dry,

22

(As make your bouts more violent to that end,)
And that he calls for drink, I'll have prepar'd him
A chalice for the nonce; whereon but sipping,
If he by chance escape your venom'd stuck,23
Our purpose may hold there. But stay! what noise?

How, sweet queen

Enter the Queen.

124

Queen. One woe doth tread upon another's heel, So fast they follow. - Your sister's drown'd, Laertes. Laer. Drown'd! O, where ?

Queen. There is a willow grows aslant a brook," That shows his hoar leaves in the glassy stream: There with fantastic garlands did she come, Of crow-flowers, nettles, daisies, and long purples,

21 That is, as fire-arms sometimes burst in proving their strength.

22 Cunning is skill.

23 A stuck is a thrust. Stoccata, Ital. Sometimes called a staccado in English.

24 These words occur only in the folio.. -"That Laertes," says Coleridge, "might be excused in some degree for not cooling, the Act concludes with the affecting death of Ophelia; who in the beginning lay like a little projection of land into a lake or stream, covered with spray-flowers, quietly reflected in the quiet waters; but at length is undermined or loosened, and becomes a faery isle, and after a brief vagrancy sinks almost without an eddy."

H.

25 Thus the folio; the quartos, all but the first, read "ascaunt the brook." Also, in the next line but one, the quartos have make instead of come. This exquisite passage is deservedly celebrated. Nothing could better illustrate the Poet's power to make the description of a thing better than the thing itself, by giving us his eyes to see it with.

H.

26

That liberal shepherds give a grosser name,
But our cold maids do dead men's fingers call them:
There, on the pendent boughs her coronet weeds
Clambering to hang, an envious sliver broke;
When down her weedy trophies, and herself,
Fell in the weeping brook. Her clothes spread
wide,

And, mermaid-like, awhile they bore her up;
Which time, she chanted snatches of old lauds ;
As one incapable of her own distress,

Or like a creature native and indued

Unto that element: but long it could not be,
Till that her garments, heavy with their drink,
Pull'd the poor wretch from her melodious lay
To muddy death.

Laer.

Alas! then, she is drown'd?

Queen. Drown'd, drown'd.

27

Laer. Too much of water hast thou, poor Ophelia, And therefore I forbid my tears: but yet

It is our trick; nature her custom holds,

Let shame say what it will: when these are gone,
The woman will be out.—Adieu, my lord!

I have a speech of fire, that fain would blaze,
But that this folly drowns it.

[Exit.

King. Let's follow, Gertrude : How much I had to do to calm his rage! Now fear I, this will give it start again; Therefore, let's follow.

[Exeunt.

26 The ancient botanical name of the long purples was testiculis morionis, or orchis priapiscus. The grosser name to which the queen alludes is sufficiently known in many parts of England. It had kindred appellations in other languages. In Sussex it is said to be called dead men's hands. Liberal here means free-spoken, licentious.

27 That is, old hymns or songs of praise. The folio has tunes instead of lauds; which, besides that it loses a fine touch of pathos, does not agree so well with chanting.— Incapable is evidently ased in the sense of unconscious.

H.

ACT V.

SCENE I. A Church-Yard.

Enter two Clowns, with Spades, &c

1 Clo. Is she to be buried in Christian burial, thaꞌ wilfully seeks her own salvation?

2 Clo. I tell thee she is; therefore make her grave, straight: the crowner hath set on her, and finds it Christian burial.

1 Clo. How can that be, unless she drowned herself in her own defence?

2 Clo. Why, 'tis found so.

1 Clo. It must be se offendendo; it cannot be else. For here lies the point: If I drown myself wittingly, it argues an act; and an act hath three branches; it is, to act, to do, and to perform: argal, she drown'd herself wittingly.'

1 Straight for straightway; a common usage.

H.

2 Shakespeare's frequent and correct use of legal terms and phrases has led to the belief that he must have served something of an apprenticeship in the law. Among the legal authorities studied in his time, were Plowden's Commentaries, a black-letter book, written in the old law French. One of the cases reported by Plowden, is that of Dame Hales, regarding the forfeiture of a lease, in consequence of the suicide of Sir James Hales; and Sir John Hawkins has pointed out, that this rich burlesque of "crown er's-quest law" was probably intended as a ridicule on certain passages in that case. He produces the following speech of one of the counsel: "Walsh said that the act consists of three parts. The first is the imagination, which is a reflection or meditation of the mind, whether or no it is convenient for him to destroy himself, and what way it can be done. The second is the resolution, which is a determination of the mind to destroy himself, and to do it in this or that particular way. The third is the perfection, which is the execution of what the mind has resolved to do. And this per fection consists of two parts, the beginning and the end.

The be

2 Clo. Nay, but hear you, goodman delver.

1 Clo. Give me leave. Here lies the water; good: here stands the man; good: If the man go to this water, and drown himself, it is, will he, nill he, he goes; mark you that: but if the water come to him, and drown him, he drowns not himself: argal, he that is not guilty of his own death shortens not his own life.3

2 Clo. But is this law?

1 Clo. Ay, marry, is't; crowner's-quest law.

2 Clo. Will you ha' the truth on't? If this had not been a gentlewoman, she should have been buried out of Christian burial.

4

1 Clo. Why, there thou say'st: and the more pity, that great folks shall have countenance in this world to drown or hang themselves, more than their even-Christian. Come, my spade. There is no ancient gentlemen but gardeners, ditchers, and grave-makers; they hold up Adam's profession. 2 Clo. Was he a gentleman?

ginning is the doing of the act which causes the death; and the end is the death, which is only a sequel to the act."

H.

3 We must here produce another passage from Plowden, as given by Hawkins. It is the reasoning of one of the judges, and is nearly as good as that in the text: "Sir James Hales was dead, and how came he to his death? It may be answered, by drowning; and who drowned him? Sir James Hales. And when did he drown him? in his life-time. So that Sir James Hales, being alive, caused Sir James Hales to die; and the act of the living man was the death of the dead man. And then for this offence it is reasonable to punish the living man who committed the offence, and not the dead man. But how can he be said to be punished alive, when the punishment comes after his death? Sir, this can be done no other way but by divesting out of him, from the time of the act done in his life which was the cause of his death, the title and property of those things which he had in his life-time."

H.

Even-Christian for fellow-Christian, was the old mode of expression; and is to be found in Chaucer and the Chroniclers. Wie liffe has even-servant for fellow-servant.