Hath turn'd itself on me; lo, here I lie, Osr.& Lords. Treason! treason! Drink off this potion:-is the union here? Where should we have our thanks? Not from his mouth, [King dies. Of accidental judgments, casual slaughters; He is justly serv'd; [Dies. I am more an antique Roman than a Dane, Ham. Let us haste to hear it, Fort. Hor. Of that I shall have also cause to speak, On plots and errors, happen. Let four captains As thou'rt a man,- And in this harsh world draw thy breath in pain, [March afar off, and shot within. To the ambassadors of England gives Ham. O, I die, Horatio; The potent poison quite o'er-crows3 my spirit; 4 And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest! others. Fort. Where is this sight? What feast is toward in thine eternal cell, 1 Amb. (1) Mixed. (2) A sergeant is a sheriff's officer. (S) O'ercomes. (4) Incidents. (5) Incited. (6) Heap of dead game. Take up the bodies:-Such a sight as this If the dramas of Shakspeare were to be characterised, each by the particular excellence which distinguishes it from the rest, we must allow to the tragedy of Hamlet the praise of variety. The incidents are so numerous, that the argument of the play would make a long tale. The scenes are interchangeably diversified with merriment and solemnity: with merriment that includes judicious and instructive observations; and solemnity not strained by poetical violence above the natural sentiments of man. New characters appear from time to time in continual succession, exhibiting various The pretended madness of Hamlet causes much forms of life, and peculiar modes of conversation. mirth, the mournful distraction of Ophelia fills the heart with tenderness, and every personage produces the effect intended, from the apparition that, in the first act, chills the blood with horror, to the fop in the last, that exposes affectation to just contempt. The conduct is, perhaps, not wholly secure against objections. The action is, indeed, for the most part, in continual progression; but there are some scenes which neither forward nor retard it. Of the feigned madness of Hamlet there appears no adequate cause, for he does nothing which he might not have done with the reputation of sanity. He plays the (7) A word of censure when more game was destroyed than was reasonable. (8) i. e. The king's. (9) By chance. madman most, when he treats Ophelia with so much easily be formed, to kill Hamlet with the dagger rudeness, which seems to be useless and wanton and Laertes with the bowl. cruelty. The poet is accused of having shown little reHamlet is, through the whole piece, rather an in-gard to poetical justice, and may be charged with strument than an agent. After he has, by the strat- equal neglect of poetical probability. The appariagem of the play, convicted the king, he makes no tion left the regions of the dead to little purpose: attempt to punish him; and his death is at last ef- the revenge which he demands is not obtained, but fected by an incident which Hamlet had no part in by the death of him that was required to take it; producing. and the gratification, which would arise from the The catastrophe is not very happily produced; destruction of a usurper and a murderer, is abated the exchange of weapons is rather an expedient of by the untimely death of Ophelia, the young, the necessity, than a stroke of art. A scheme might beautiful, the harmless, and the pious. JOHNSON. TUSH, never tell me, I take it much unkindly, Abhor me. Rod. Thou told'st me, thou didst hold him in thy hate. Jago. Despise me, if I do not. Three great ones of the city, In personal suit to make me his lieutenant, My mediators; for, certes,' says he, Forsooth, a great arithmetician, A fellow almost damn'd in a fair wife; (1) Saluted. Herald. Desdemona, daughter to Brabantio, and wife to Othello. Emilia, wife to Iago. Bianca, a courtezan, mistress to Cassio. Officers, Gentlemen, Messengers, Musicians, Sailors, Attendants, &c. Scene, for the first Act, in Venice; during the rest of the play, at a sea-port in Cyprus. And I, (God bless the mark!) his Moorship's an cient. Rod. By heaven I rather would have been his hangman. Iago. But there's no remedy, 'tis the curse of service; Preferment goes by letter, and affection, Not by the old gradation, where each second I Rod. I would not follow him then. lago. O, sir, content you; follow him to serve my turn upon him: We cannot all be masters, nor all masters Cannot be truly follow'd. You shall mark Many a duteous and knee-crooking knave, That, doting on his own obsequious bondage, Wears out his time, much like his master's ass, For nought but provender; and, when he's old, cashier'd'; Whip me such honest knaves: Others there are, their coats, Do themselves homage: these fellows have some soul; And such a one do I profess myself. It is as sure as you are Roderigo, (5) Theory. (2) Circumlocution. (3) Certainly. (4) For wife some read life, supposing it to al-sums with counters. lude to the denunciation in the Gospel, wo unto you (8) Related. when all men shall speak well of your (9) Outward show of civility. |