Ham. He will stay till ye come. (Which we do tender, as we dearly grieve Ham. For England? Ham. Good. King. So is it, if thou knew'st our purposes. for England! farewel, dear mother. King. Thy loving father, Hamlet. Ham. My mother: father and mother is man and wife; man and wife is one flesh, and fo, my mother. Come, for England. [Exit. King. Follow him at foot; tempt him with fpeed aboard; Delay it not: I'll have him hence to-night. That elfe leans on th' affair; pray you, make hafle. [Exeunt Rof. and Guild. And, England! if my love thou hold'stataught, (57) (57) And England, if my love thou hoidest at anght, Pays homage to us;] This is the only passage in the play from which one might expect to trace the date of the action of it; but I am afraid our Author, according to his usual licence, plays fast and loofe with time. England is here supposed to have been conquered by the Dane, and to be a homager to that state. The chronology of the Danish affairs is wholly uncertain, till we come to the reign of Ivarus VOL. XII. L 1 1 1 Since yet thy cicatrice looks raw and red SCENE, A Camp on the Frontiers of Denmark. For. Go, Captain, from me greet the Danish King; Tell him, that, by his licence, Fortinbras about the year 870. And 'tis plain from Saxo Grammaticus, that the time in which Amlethus lived, was fome generations earlier than the period of Chriftianity. And the letters which the Danish King's messengers carried over to England, were wooden tablets. Literas ligno infculpias (nam ia celebre quondam genus chartarum erat) fecum geftantes, quibus Brita norum regi transmissi sibi juvenis occifio mandabatur. Such a fort of mandate implies, that the English King was either linked in the dearest amity to the Dane, or in fubjection to him. But what then shall we do with our own home-chronicles? They are express, that the Danes never fet footing on our coaft till the eighth century. 'They infested us for fome time in a piratical way, then made a descent and conquered part of the country; and about the year 800, King Egbert is faid to have fubmitted to a tribute, called Dane-gelt; a tax of 12 d. on every hide of land through the whole nation. But our authors differ about this Dane-gelt, whether it was a tax paid to obtain good terms of the Danes, or levied by our Kings towards the charge of defences, to repel the invafions of the Danes. We shall express our duty in his eye, Capt. I will do't, my Lord. For. Go foftly on. [Exit Fortinbras, with the Army. Enter HAMLET, ROSINCRANTZ, GUILDENSTERN, &C. Ham. Good Sir, whose powers are these? Capt. The nephew of old Norway, Fortinbras. Or for fome frontier? Capt. Truly to speak it, and with no addition, Ham. Why, then the Polack never will defend it. Ham. Two thousand fouls, and twenty thousand Capt. God b'w'ye, Sir. Rof. Will't please you go, my Lord? Ham. I'll be with you strait, go a little before. Manet HAMLET. [Exeunt. How all occafions do inform against me, 1 ! 1 If his chief good and market of his time Be but to fleep and feed? a beast, no more. That capability and godlike reafon 'To ruft in us unufed. Now whether it be Of thinking too precifely on th' event, [wisdom, When honour's at the stake. How stand I then,. (58) Sure he that made us with fuch large difcourse, Looking before and after.] This is an expreffion purely Homeric; Οῖς δ ̓ ὁ γέρων μεπεησιν, ἃ μα ΠΡΟΣΣΩ & ̓ΟΠΙ ́ΣΣΩ Λεύσσει. And again; Iliad. y. ver. 1098 ----ὁ γὰν διος όρα ΠΡΟΣΣΩ & ΟΠΙ'ΣΣΩ. Iliad. r. ver, 250. The short scholiaft on the last passage gives us a comment that very aptly explains our Author's phrafe. Συνετῦ γὰρ ' ἀνδρὸς ἐσι, τα μελλονία τοῖς γεγενημενοις ἀρμόζ εσθαι, ὰ ὕτως ὁρᾶν τα ἑπόμενα. "For it is the part of an understanding man to connect the reflection of events to come with fuch as have paffed, and fo to foresee what shall follow." This is, as our Author phrases it, isoking before and after. That have a father killed, a mother stained, SCENE changes to a Palace. Enter Queen, HORATIO, and a Gentleman. Queen. I will not speak with her. Gent. She is importunate, Indeed, distract; her mood will needs be pitied. her heart; Spuras enviously at straws; speaks things in doubt -them, Indeed, would make one think there might be Tho' nothing fure, yet much unhappily. (thought; Hor. 'Twere good the were spoken with, for the may strow Dangerous conjectures in ill-breeding minds. Queen. To my fick foul, as fin's true nature is, Each toy feems prologue to fome great amiss; 1 |