Ham. Sir, his definement suffers no perdition in you ;—though, 1 know, to divide him inventorially, would dizzy the arithmetic of memory; and yet but raw neither, in respect of his quick sail. But in the verity of extolment, I take him to be a soul of great article; and his infusion of such dearth' and rareness, as, to make true diction of him, his semblable is his inirror; and, who else would trace him, his umbrage, nothing more.2

Osr. Your lordship speaks most infallibly of him. Ham. The concernancy, sir? why do we wrap the gentleman in our more rawer breath?

Ham. What call you the carriages? Hor. I knew, you must be edified by the mai→ gent ere you had done.

Osr. The carriages, sir, are the hangers. Ham. The phrase would be more german1o to the matter, if we could carry a cannon by our sides; I would, it might be hangers till then. But, on: Six Barbary horses against six French swords, their assigns, and three liberal conceited carriages; that's the French bet against the Danish: Why is this impawned, as you call it?

Osr. The king, sir, hath laid, that in a dozen passes between yourself and him, he shall not exceed you three hits; he hath laid on twelve for nine; and it would come to immediate trial, if your lordship would vouchsafe the answer.

Ham. How, if I answer no?

Osr. I mean, my lord, the opposition of your per

Ham. Of him, sir.

Osr. I know, you are not ignorant—

Ham. I would, you did, sir; yet, in faith, if you did, it would not much approve me.4-Well, sir. Osr. You are not ignorant of what excellence Laertes is

Ham. I dare not confess that, lest I should compare with him in excellence; but, to know a man well, were to know himself."

Osr. I mean, sir, for his weapon; but in the imputation laid on him by them, in his meed he's unfellowed.

Ham. What's his weapon?

Osr. Rapier and dagger.

Ham. That's two of his weapons: but, well. Osr. The king, sir, hath wagered with him six Barbary horses: against the which he has impawned, as I take it, six French rapiers and poniards, with their assigns, as girdle, hangers, and so: Three of the carriages, in faith, are very dear to fancy, very responsive to the hilts, most delicate carriages, and of very liberal conceit.

gentleman would see." You shall find him containing and comprising every quality which a gentleman would desire to contemplate for imitation. Perhaps we should read, 'You shall find him the continent.'

1 Dearth, according to Tooke, is the third person singular of the verb to dere; it means some cause which dereth, i. e. maketh dear; or hurteth, or doth mischief' That dearth was, therefore, used for scarcity, as well as dearness, appears from the following passage in a MS. petition to the council, by the merchants of London, 6 Edw. VI.: speaking of the causes of the dearness of cloth, they say, 'This detriment cometh through the dearth of wool, the procurers whereof being a few in number for the augmentation of the same.'-Conway Papers.

This speech is a ridicule of the Euphuism, or court jargon of that time.

3 'Is it not possible to understand in another tongue? You will do't, sir, really. This interrogatory remark is very obscure. The sense may be, 'Is it not possible for this fantastic fellow to understand in plainer language? You will, however, imitate his jargon admirably, really, sir.' It seems very probable that another tongue, is an error of the press for mother tongue.'

Ham. Sir, I will walk here in the hall: if it please his majesty, it is the breathing time of day with me: let the foils be brought, the gentleman willing, and the king hold his purpose, I will win for him, if I can; if not, I will gain nothing but my shame, and the odd hits.

Osr. Shall I deliver you so?

Ham. To this effect, sir; after what flourish your nature will.

Osr. I commend my duty to your lordship.

[Exit. Ham. Yours, yours.-He does well to commend it himself; there are no tongues else for's turn. Hor. This lapwing12 runs away with the shell on

his head.

Ham. He did comply13 with his dug, before he sucked it. Thus has he, (and many more of the same bevy, 14 that, I know, the drossy age dotes on,) only got the tune of the time, and outward habit of encounter;15 a kind of yesty collection, which carries them through and through the most fanned and winnowed opinions; 16 and do but blow them to their trial, the bubbles are out.

9 The margent. The gloss or commentary in old books was usually on the margin of the leaf. 10 i. e. more a kin. Those that are german to him, though fifty times removed, shall come under the hangman.'-Winter's Tale.

11 The conditions of the wager are thus given in the quarto of 1603:

'Marry, sir, that young Laertes in twelve venies At rapier and dagger, do not get three odds of you. 12This lapwing runs away with the shell on his head.' Horatio means to call Osric a raw, unfledged, foolish fellow. It was a common comparison for a forward fool. Thus in Meres's Wits Treasury, 1598 :-As the lapwing runneth away with the shell on her head, as soon as she is hatched,' &c. 'Forward lapwing,

He flies with the shell on his head.' Vittoria Corombona. 13 He did comply with his dug, before he sucked it.' See Act ii. Sc. 2.

14 The folio reads, mine more of the same bevy."Mine is evidently a misprint, and more likely for manie (i. e. many) than mine. The quarto of 1604 reads, 'many more of the same breed.'

15 Outward habit of encounter' is exterior politeness of address.

5 I dare not confess that, lest I should compare with him, &c. I dare not pretend to know him, lest I should pretend to an equality: no man can completely know another, but by knowing himself, which is the utmost extent of human wisdom.

6 Meed is merit. Vide King Henry VI. Part III. Act ii. Sc. 1.

7 Impawned. The folio reads imponed. Pignare, In Italian, signifies both to impawn and to lay a wager. The stakes are, indeed, a gage or pledge.

8 Hangers, that part of the belt by which the sword was suspended.

Distinction with a broad and powerful fan, Puffing at all, winnows the light away.' The meaning is, These men have got the cant of the day, a superficial readiness of slight and cursory conversation, a kind of frothy collection of fashionable prattle, which yet carries them through with the most light and inconsequential judgments; but if brought to the trial by the slightest breath of rational conversation, the

Ham. In happy time.

Lord. The queen desires you, to use some gentle entertainment to Laertes, before you fall to play. Ham. She well instructs me. [Exu Lord. Hor. You will lose this wager, my lord. Ham. I do not think so; since he went into France, I have been in continual practice; I shall win at the odds. But thou would'st not think, how ill all's here about my heart: but it is no matter. Hor. Nay, good my lord,

Ham. It is but foolery; but it is such a kind of gain-giving, as would, perhaps, trouble a woman. Hor. If your mind dislike any thing, obey it: I will forestal their repair hither, and say, you are

not fit.

Ham. Not a whit, we defy augury; there is a special providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be now, 'tis not to come; if it be not to come, it will be now; if it be not now, yet it will come: the readiness is all: Since no inan, of aught he leaves,— knows; what is't to leave betimes. Let be. Enter King, Queen, LAERTES, Lords, OSRIC, and Attendants, with Foils, &c.

King. Come, Hamlet, come, and take this hand

from me.

[The King puts the hand of LAERTES into that of HAMLET.

Ham. Give me your pardon, sir: I have done

you wrong;

But pardon it, as you are a gentleman.

Sir, in his audience,"

Let my disclaiming from a purpos'd evil
Free me so far in your most generous thoughts,
That I have shot my arrow o'er the house,
And hurt my brother.
Laer.

I am satisfied in nature,

Whose motive, in this case, should stir me most
To my revenge: but in my terms of honour,
I stand aloof; and will no reconcilement,
Till by some elder masters, of known honour,
I have a voice and precedent of peace,
To keep my name ungorg'd: But till that time,
I do receive your offer'd love like love,
And will not wrong it.
Ham.
I embrace it freely,
And will this brother's wager frankly play.-
Give us the foils; come on.
Laer.
Come, one for me.
Ham. I'll be your foil, Laertes; in mine ignorance
Your skill shall, like a star i' the darkest night,
Stick fiery off indeed.

Laer.

You mock me, sir. Ham. No, by this hand. King. Give them the foils, young Osric.-Cousin Hamlet, You know the wager? Ham. Very well, my lord; Your grace hath laid the odds' o' the weaker side. King. I do not fear it: I have seen you both :But since he's better'd, we have therefore odds. Laer. This is too heavy, let me see another. Ham. This likes me well: These foils have all a length? [They prepare to play. Osr. Ay, my good lord. King. Set me the stoups of wine upon that table:Hamlet give the first or second hit,

If

or quit in answer of the third exchange, Let all the battlements their ordnance fire:

The king shall drink to Hamlet's better breath; And in the cup an union shall he throw, Richer than that which four successive kings

heard,

How I am punish'd with a sore distraction.
What I have done,

That might your nature, honour, and exception,
Roughly awake, I here proclaim was madness.
Was't Hamlet wrong'd Laertes? Never, Hamlet:
If Hamlet from himself be ta'en away,
And, when he's not himself, does wrong Laertes,
Then Hamlet does it not, Hamlet denies it.
Who does it then? His madness: If't be so,
Hamlet is of the faction that is wrong'd;
His madness is poor Hamlet's enemy.
bubbles burst; or, in other words, display their emp-
tiness.'

1 All that passes between Hamlet and this Lord is omitted in the folio.

2 i. e. misgiving, a giving against, or an internal feeling and prognostic of evil.

3 Since no man, of aught he leaves,-knows;What is it to leave betimes! This is the reading of the folio; the quarto reads, Since no man has aught of what he leaves. What is't to leave betimes.' Has is evidently here a blunder for knows. Johnson thus interprets the passage: Since no man knows aught of the state which he leaves, since he cannot judge what other years may produce, why should we be afraid of leaving life betimes? Warburton's explanation is very ingenious, but perhaps strains the poet's meaning farther than he intended. It is true that by death we lose all the goods of life; yet seeing this loss is no otherwise an evil than as we are sensible of it; and since death removes all sense of it, what matters it how soon we lose them.' This argument against the fear of death has been dilated and placed in a very striking light by the late Mr. Green.-See Diary of a Lover of Literature, Ipswich, 1810, 4to. p. 230.-Shakspeare himself has elsewhere said, 'the sense of death is most in apprehension.'

4 i. e. the king and queen.

5 This line is not in the quarto.

6 i. e. unwounded. This is a piece of satire on fantastical honour. Though nature is satisfied, yet he will

And let the kettle to the trumpet speak,
The trumpet to the cannoneer without,

The cannons to the heavens, the heaven to earth,
Now the king drinks to Hamlet.-Come, begin ;-
And you, the judges, bear a wary eye.
Ham. Come on, sir.

Laer.

Ham.

Laer.

Ham.

Come, my lord.

[They play.

One.

No.

Osr. A hit, a very palpable hit. Laer.

Judgment. Well,-again.

ask advice of older men of the sword, whether artificial honour ought to be contented with Hamlet's apology. 7 The king had wagered six Barbury horses to a few rapiers, poniards, &c.; that is, about twenty to one.These are the odds here meant. The odds the King means in the next speech were twelve to nine in favour of Hamlet, by Laeries giving him three.

8 Stoup is a common word in Scotland at this day, and denotes a pewter vessel resembling our wine mea sures; but of no determinate quantity; for there are gallon-stoups, pint-stoups, mulchkin-stoups, &c. The vessel in which water is fetched or kept is also called a water-sloup. A stoup of wine is therefore equivalent to a pitcher of wine.

9 An union is a precious pearl, remarkable for its size. And hereupon it is that our dainties and delicates here at Rome, &c. call them unions, as a man would say singular, and by themselves alone. To swallow a pearl in a draught seems to have been common to royal and mercantile prodigality. Thus in the second part of If You Know Not Me You Know Nobody :'

'Here sixteen thousand pound at one clap goes,
Instead of sugar. Gresham drinks this pearl
Unto the queen his mistress.'

According to Rondeletus, pearls were supposed to have an exhilarating quality. Uniones que a conchis, &c. valde cordiale sunt. Under pretence of throwing a pearl into the cup, the King may be supposed to drop some poisonous drug into the wine. Hamlet subsequently asks him tauntingly, 'Is the union here ?

Of accidental judgments, casual slaughters;
Of deaths put on by cunning, and forc'd cause;
And, in this upshot, purposes mistook
Fall'n on the inventors' heads: all this can I
Truly deliver.

Fort.

Let us haste to hear it. And call the noblest to the audience. For me, with sorrow, I embrace my fortune; I have some rights of memory2 in this kingdom, Which now to claim my vantage doth invite me. Hor. Of that I shall have also cause to speak, And from his mouth whose voice will draw on more; But let this same be presently perform'd,

Even while men's minds are wild; lest more mischance,

On plots and errors, happen.
Fort.

Let four captains
Bear Hamlet, like a soldier, to the stage;
For he was likely, had he been put on,
To have prov'd most royally: and, for his passage,
The soldier's music, and the rites of war,
Speak loudly for him.-

Take up the bodies:-Such a sight as this Becomes the field, but here shows much amiss. Go, bid the soldiers shoot. [A dead March. [Exeunt, bearing off the dead Bodies; after which, a Peal of Ordnance is shot off.

The following scene in the first quarto, 1603, differs materially from the revised play, that it has been thought it would not be unacceptable to the reader :-Enter Horatio and the Queen.

Hor. Madam, your son is safe arrived in Denmarke, This letter I even now receiv'd of him, Whereas he writes how he escap'd the danger, And subtle treason that the king had plotted, Being crossed by the contention of the winds, He found the packet sent to the king of England, Wherein he saw himself betray'd to death, As at his next conversion with your grace He will relate the circumstance at full.

Queen. Then I perceive there's treason in his looks,
That seem'd to sugar o'er his villanies:
But I will sooth and please him for a time,
For murderous minds are always jealous;
But know not you, Horatio, where he is?

Hor. Yes, madam, and he hath appointed me
To meet him on the east side of the city
To-morrow morning.

Queen. O fail not, good Horatio, and withal com. mend me

A mother's care to him, bid him a while

guinary and unnatural acts, to which the perpetrator was instigated by concupiscence or carnal stings.' The allusion is to the murder of old Hamlet by his brother, previous to his incestuous union with Gertrude.

1. e. instigated, produced. Instead of 'forced cause,' the quartos read, for no cause.'

2 i. e. some rights which are remembered in this kingdom.

IF the dramas of Shakspeare were to be characterised; it from the rest, we must allow to the tragedy of Hameach by the particular excellence which distinguishes let the praise of variety. The incidents are so numes rous, 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 forms of life and particular modes of conversation. much mirth, the mournful distraction of Ophelia fills The pretended madness of Hamlet causes 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 madman most when he treats Ophelia with so much rudeness, which seems to be useless and wanton cruelty.

Hamlet is, through the whole piece, rather an instrument than an agent. After he has, by the strata-gem of the play, convicted the King, he makes no attempt to punish him; and his death is at last effected by an incident which Hamlet had no part in producing. The catastrophe is not very happily produced; the exchange of weapons is rather an expedient of neces sity, than a stroke of art. A scheme might easily be formed to kill Hamlet with the dagger, and Laertes with the bowl.

The poet is accused of having shown little regard to poetical justice, and may be charged with equal neglect of poetical probability. The apparition left the regions of the dead to little purpose; the revenge which he demands is not obtained, but by the death of him that was required to take it; and the gratification which would arise from the destruction of an usurper and a murderer, is abated by the untimely death of Ophelia, the young, the beautiful, the harmless, and the pious JOHNSON.

mark; with the strange Adventures of Iago, Prince of Saxonie, 4to, 1605. It may indeed be urged, that these names were adopted from the tragedy before us: but every reader who is conversant with the peculiar style and method in which the work of honest John Rey. nolds is composed, will acquit him of the slightest familiarity with the scenes of Shakspeare-Steerens.

The name of Othello may have been suggested by some tale which has escaped our researches, as it occurs in Reynold's God's Revenge against Adultery, standing in one of his arguments as follows:- She marries Othello, an old German soldier.' This history (the eighth) is professed to be an Italian one; and here also the name of Iago occurs. It is likewise found in

The time of this play may be ascertained from the following circumstances:-Selymus the Second formed his design against Cyprus in 1569, and took it in 1571. This was the only attempt the Turks ever made upón that island after it came into the hands of the Vene tians, (which was in 1473,) wherefore the time must fall in with some part of that interval We learn from the play, that there was a junction of the Turkish feet

at Rhodes, in order for the invasion of Cyprus; that it first came sailing towards Cyprus; then went to Rhodes, there met another squadron, and then resumed its way to Cyprus. These are real historical facts, which happened when Mustapha, Selymus's general, attacked Cyprus, in May, 1570; which is therefore the true period of this performance.-See Knolle's History of the Turks, p. 938, 846, 867.--Reed. The first edition of this play, of which we have any certain knowledge, was printed by N. O. for Thomas Walkly, to whom it was entered on the Stationers' Books, October 6, 1621. The most material variations of this copy from the first folio are pointed out in the notes. The minute differences are so numerous, that to have specified them would only have fatigued the reader. Walkly's Preface will follow these Preliminary Remarks.

Malone first placed the date of the composition of this play in 1611, upon the ground of the allusion, supposed by Warburton, to the creation of the order of baronets. [See Act iii. Sc. 4, note.] On the same ground Mr. Chalmers attributed it to 1614; and Dr. Drake assigned the middle period of 1612. But this allusion being controverted, Malone subsequently affixed to it the date of 1604, because, as he asserts, we know it was acted in that year. He has not stated the evidence for this decisive fact; and Mr. Bos. well was unable to discover it among his papers; but gives full credit to it, on the ground that Mr. Malone never expressed himself at random.' The allusion to Pliny, translated by Philemon Holland, in 1601, in the simile of the Pontic Sea; and the supposed imitation of a passage in Cornwallis's Essays, of the same date, referred to in the note cited above, seem to have influ enced Mr. Malone in settling the date of this play. What is more certain is, that it was played before King James at court, in 1613; which circumstance is gathered from the MSS. of Vertue the Engraver. If (says Schlegel) Romeo and Juliet shines with the colours of the dawn of morning, but a dawn whose purple clouds already announce the thunder of a sultry day, Othello is, on the other hand, a strongly shaded picture; we might call it a tragical Rembrandt.' Should these parallels between pictorial representa. tion and dramatic poetry be admitted, for I have my doubts of their propriety,-this is a far more judicious ascription than that of Steevens, who, in a concluding

note to this play, would compare it to a picture from the school of Raphael. Poetry is certainly the pabulum of art; and this drama, as every other of our im mortal bard, offers a series of pictures to the imagina tion of such varied hues, that artists of every school might from hence be furnished with subjects. What Schlegel means to say appears to be, that it abounds in strongly contrasted scenes, but that gloom predominates. Much has been written on the subject of this drama; and there has been some difference of opinion in regard to the rank in which it deserves to be placed. For my own part I should not hesitate to place it on the first. Perhaps this preference may arise from the circumstance of the domestic nature of its action, which lays a stronger hold upon our sympathy; for overpowering as is the pathos of Lear, or the interest excited by Macbeth, it comes less near to the business of life.

In strong contrast of character, in delineation of the workings of passion in the human breast, in manifestations of profound knowledge of the inmost recesses of the heart, this drama exceeds all that has ever issued from mortal pen. It is indeed true that 'no eloquence is capable of painting the overwhelming catastrophe in Othello,-the pressure of feelings which measure out in a moment the abysses of eternity.'

WALKLY'S PREFACE TO OTHELLO,

ED. 1622, 4to.

THE STATIONER TO THE READER. To set forth a booke without an Epistle, were like to the old English proverbe, 'A blew coat without a badge;' and the author being dead, I thought good to take that piece of worke upon me: To commend it, I will not, for that which is good, I hope every man will commend without intreaty: and I am the bolder, because the Author's name is sufficient to vent his worke. Thus leaving every one to the liberty of judgment, I have ventured to print this play, and leave it the generall censure. Yours, THOMAS WALKLY.

ACT I.

rest of the Play, at a Seaport in Cyprus.

RIGO and IAGO. Roderigo.

TUSH, never tell me, I take it much unkindly,
That thou, Iago,-who hast had my purse,
As if the strings were thine,-should'st know of this.
Iago. 'Sblood, but you will not hear me :-
If ever I did dream of such a matter,
Abhor me.

Rod. Thou told'st me, thou didst hold him in thy hate.

1 To cap is to salute by taking off the cap: it is still an academic phrase. The folio reads, Off-capp'd." 2 Circumstance signifies circumlocution, And therefore without circumstance, to the point, Instruct me what I am?

The Picture, by Massinger.

3 lago means to represent Cassio as a man merely conversant with civil matters, and who knew no more of a sqadron than the number of men it contained. He afterwards calls him 'this counter-castor.

Oft capp'd' to him ;-and, by the faith of man,
I know my price, I am worth no worse a place:
But he, as loving his own pride and purposes,
Evades them, with a bombast circumstance,2
Horribly stuff'd with epithets of war;
And, in conclusion, nonsuits
My mediators; for, certes, says he,
I have already chose my officer.
And what was he?

Forsooth, a great arithmetician,3
One Michael Cassio, a Florentine,
A fellow almost damn'd in a fair wife;

4 The folio reads, dambd. This passage has given rise to much discussion. Mr. Tyrwhitt thought that we should read, almost damn'd in a fair life; alluding to the judgment denounced in the Gospel against those of whom all men speak well. I should be contented to adopt his emendation, but with a different interpretation A fellow almost damn'd (1. e. lost from luxurious habits) in the serene or equable tenor of