MR. SEYMOUR'S NOTES UPON SHAKSPEARE.

"

HAMLET, ACT I. SCENE I.

423. Indeed, indeed, Sirs," &c.

The repetition of "indeed" incumbers the verse, and is not in the quarto, which runs thus:

"To let you know of it."

Ham. — Indeed, Sirs, but

"This troubles me :-hold you the watch to-night?"

And again :

"My Lord, from head to foot."

The words "my Lord" are not in the quarto, and only load the

Ham.

"Then saw you not his face."

447. "His beard was grizzled-no—

I cannot understand this otherwise than as the eruption of a mind somewhat distracted: it is something between a remark and a ques tion. I would point it thus:

“ His beard—was-grizzled :-no

465. "My father's spirit in arms," &c.

The prodigy was his father's spirit " in arms," was a circumstance, but a circumstance so important, as fully to justify Mr. Whalley's reading.

"My father's spirit! in arms!"

521. "Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads.”

The relative here does not agree with its antecedent " Pastors." We might read :

Thyself the primrose path of dalliance tread'st,

"And reck'st not thine own read."

503. "His unmaster'd importunity."

"Unmastered," says Dr. Johnson, is "licentious." And so it often is; but here, I believe, it only means, not kept in subjection by the austere virtue of Ophelia.

600." But mere implorators of unholy suits."

Breathing like sanctified and pious bonds," &c.

66

The sense of this passage appears to have been mistaken by Dr. Warburton, "Implorators breathing like bonds," i. e. Breathing as bonds breathe,” is an expression not easily to be understood; but the meaning and the construction I take to be this: "His vows are implorators, breathing like bonds, (i. e. similar bonds, or sanctified vows) to those which are breath'd by implorators of unholy suits." A thought resembling this occurs in Othello:

"When devils wou'd their blackest sins put on,
They do suggest at first with heavenly shews."

666. "What may this mean,

"That thou, dead corse,

"Revisitst thus the glimpses of the moon,

"Making night hideous, and we fools of nature," &c.

It is not easy to reconcile this passage, as it stands, to any thing like just construction :-at first it will appear to involve only one of those careless errors, whereby the accusative case is often put into the place of the nominative, and vice versâ, and that here, if we should read “us,” instead of “we,” all would be right: but this will not do; for it should then appear that "our dispositions were shaken by ourselves." "We fools of nature" is, perhaps, merely a parenthetic apostrophe, (O fools of nature that we are); and then it remains to reconcile the conjunction at once to the participial and the infinitive moods, "making night hideous, and (making it) to shake our souls," &c.

822. My tables," &c.

I once doubted the propriety of Hamlet's resorting to his tables; for what is to be noted? all that is proposed is trite and superfluous; that" a man may smile, and be a villain," is what every one who ever knew or heard of villany must already be apprised of:-but let us not too hastily condemn the poet; or, proceeding on confined and frigid rules, restrain the liberal scope of his genius. The prince, by the sublime conference with his father's ghost, is elevated almost to phrenzy; habituated, as a scholar and philosopher, to note every thing strange and important, he, on this extraordinary occasion, mechanically snatches forth his pocket-book; but, having opened and prepared it, he has nothing to insert, and so concludes carelessly and sarcastically, while his serious thoughts are otherwise employed. "Meet it is, I set it down," &c.

This is Shakespeare.

ACT II.

<< Enquire me out what Danskers are in Paris."

“Danskers” are Danes; as we find in Albion's England. "It is the King of Denmarke doth your prince his daughter craue, "And note it is no little thing with us allie to haue;

"By league or leigure Danske can fence or fronte you, friend or foe,

"Our neighbourhood doth fit to both your welfare or your woe. Again

"Let Cutlake, with his crowne of Danske, uncrowne me if he

can;

"Of England, Danske, and Norway then Canut was perfect

lord."

12. "Come you more nearer,

"Then your particular demands will touch it."

This is obscure in the quarto there is no stop after " nearer," and "Then" seems to be the comparative particle, anciently so spell'd. The sense may be, when you have informed yourself thus far, enquire with more minute curosity than should seem to belong to you, individually or personally; announce yourself as one acquainted with his father and friends-perhaps for " touch it" we should read "vouch it."

126." This must be known which, being kept close, might move "More grief to hide, than hate to utter love."

The construction of this passage is very perplext, and Dr. Johnson has in vain endeavoured to disentangle it :-the best explanation I can offer is this.

"This must be known, which would, eventually, in the concealment, occasion, of grief, a greater measure than could, of anger, attend the disclosure, which would be an act of love."

253. "Most best."

I know not whether the degrees of comparison formerly exceeded three, or that the form of the second and third degrees has been altered; we commonly find in the writings of Shakespeare's time"more richer, more worthier, most worthiest, most unkindest," &c. Are these an augmentation of the comparative and the superlativerich, richer, more richer, richest, most richest, (which extends to five degrees) or was the order of the three degrees anciently this:—rich, more richer, most richest?

[To be continued.]

ORIGINAL POETRY.

SONNET XIV.

By the young Lady, Author of the preceding Series.

ON SEEING A YOUNG FEMALE LUNATIC.

THOU who wert wont, in more auspicious hours,
These smiling plains enraptur'd to survey,
And, on each object mindful, to pourtray
Some latent charm, some lov'd attractive pow'rs,

Now find'st but blank unmeasurable waste

Meet the faint lustre of thy vacant sight:

And those same scenes which once gave such delight
Are but the witness of inverted Taste!

III.

For Reason's fled !... and, with her, all that knew
In just criterion to regard THIS WHOLE
In flight through Nature of the enraptur'd soul,
Or bright expanse of Fancy's ample view:
And to thy wretched lot nought now remains ..
But sullen Grief, Despair, or blank Oblivion reigns.
Mar. 1801.

DI PETRARCA SONETTO XXVIII.

Solo e pensoso i piu deserti campi

Vo misurando a passi tardi e lenti
E gli occhi porto per fuggire intenti
Dove vestigio uman l'arena stampi
Altro schermo non trovo che me scampi
Dal manifesto accorger delle genti ;
Perche ne gli atti d'allegrezza spenti
Di fuor si legge come io d'entro avampi :

* From the elegant and curious edition of 1558, at Lyons, in the Italic character, compared with Bulmer's Prime Scelte di Petrarca, beautifully printed in 1800.

11.

Si ch' io me credo homai, che Monte e Pragge
E Fiume e selve sappian de che tempre

Sia la mia vita che e celata altrui

Ma pur si aspre vie, ne si selvagge,

Cercar non so, ch' AMOR ne venga sempre
Ragionando con meco;-ed io con lui.

TRANSLATION.

THOUGHTFUL alone, the desert paths I trace,
Measuring my way with silent pace and slow:
And watchful still my eye, where'er I go,
The sand-markt vestige shuns of human Race.
No haunt but this I find secure from Chace

Of some, officious all my cares to know;
Eager to pierce through the thin masque and show
Of cheerfulness, to inward Sorrow's face.

II.

And now I think e'en Mountain, Vale and Wood
Is conscious of the temper of my mind;

And knows how ill my harrast thoughts agree!

At least, there is no wilderness so rude

My wandering steps and anxious heart can find
Where I not muse with Love, and LOVE with me.

C. L.

To MISS ***** ****** *****.

With a Sketch of THE SOLAR SYSTEM, according to the latest

Discoveries.

On the supposition of a New-discover'd Planet..

To thee whom as MINERVA✶ I revere,

To whom my cares and happier thoughts all tend,
This sketch of every planetary Sphere

Known to obey our central SUN I send.

In these the eccentric orbs have ear

To Harmony divine! the wild career

Of Comets thus revolves: prompt to descend

To that great source which rules their mighty year.

It was hop'd the New Planet, if ascertain'd to be such, would be nam'd Minerva: in conformity to the other mythologic designations, and in honor of Science, and of the Arts of Peace.