Enter FORTINBRAS, and the English Ambassadors, with Drum,
Colours, and Attendants.

Fort. Where is this sight?
Hor.

What is it ye would see ?

350

If aught of woe or wonder, cease your search.

Fort. This quarry cries on havoc.-O proud Death!
What feast is toward in thine eternal cell,

That thou so many princes, at a shot,
So bloodily hast struck?

348. Enter...] Theob.+, Jen. Cam. Cla. Enter Fortinbras and English Ambassador,... Ff, Rowe, Pope. Enter Fortenbrasse, with the Embassadors. Qq (Fortinbraffe QQ). Enter...Embassadors, and others. Cap. et cet.

349. this] the FF, Rowe.

ye] F,F,, Knt, Coll. Del. Dyce, El. Sta. White, Glo. Hal. Huds. Mob. you QqF,F, et cet.

350. aught] Han. ought QqFf, Rowe, Pope, Theob. Cap.

search.] fearch? Q'76.

351. This] His Ff.

cries on havoc] cries out, havock Han. cries-on havock. Warb. proud] prou'd QQ3. 352. toward] tow'rd Pope+, Jen.

thine eternal thine infernal Q'76, Jen. El. thy infernal Theob. Warb. Johns.

353. shot] Shoote F, Shoot FFF Rowe, Knt.

354. struck] Rowe. Atrook Q2Q3F3F4 Cap. ftrooke QQ,F.F.•

his information we know not; perhaps he had at one time witnessed the performance in its entirety, and had remedied defects from the recitation of the actors.

351. quarry] The game killed. See Macb. IV, iii, 206.

351. cries on] JOHNSON: To exclaim against. I suppose when unfair sportsmen destroyed more quarry or game than was reasonable the censure was to cry Havock. CALDECOTT: See Oth. V, i, 48. WHITE: 'This heap of dead proclaims an indiscriminate slaughter.' CLARENDON: This pile of corpses urges to merciless slaughter, where no quarter is given.' In the Statutes of Warre, &c., by King Henry VIII (1513), quoted in Todd's ed. of Johnson's Dict., it is enacted, That noo man be so hardy to crye havoke, upon payne of hym that is so founde begynner, to dye therefore; and the remenaunt to be emprysoned, and theyr bodyes punyshed at the kynges will.' See also the Ordinances of War of Richard II and Henry V, published in the Black Book of the Admiralty (ed. Twiss), i, 455, 462. The etymology of the word is purely conjectural. Some derive it from the Welsh hafog, destruction; others from the A. S. hafoc, a hawk; others from the French hai, voux ! a cry to hounds.

352. feast] CALDECOTT: This allusion has, no doubt, some connection with the usage of all the northern nations, their Ambarvalia or Arval suppers referred to by Ham. I, ii, 180. Compare Death feasts.'-King John, II, i, 354.

་

352. toward] See I, i, 77.

352. eternal] WALKER (Crit. i, 62) gives two other instances besides this and 1, v, 21 (which see), where 'eternal' seems to be used for infernal: Jul. Cæs. I, ii, 160; Oth. IV, ii, 154 This seems to be still in use among the common people. I need scarcely notice the Yankee 'tarnal!'

And our affairs from England come too late;

The ears are senseless that should give us hearing,
To tell him his commandment is fulfill'd,

That Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead.
Where should we have our thanks?
Hor.

355

Not from his mouth,

Had it the ability of life to thank you;

He never gave commandment for their death.
But since, so jump upon this bloody question,
You from the Polack wars, and you from England,
Are here arrived, give order that these bodies
High on a stage be placed to the view;
And let me speak to the yet unknowing world
How these things came about; so shall you hear
Of carnal, bloody, and unnatural acts,
Of accidental judgements, casual slaughters,
Of deaths put on by cunning, and forced cause,

354. First Amb.] 1. E. Cap. Embaf. Qq. Amb. Ff.

357, 361. commandment] commandement Qq (commandment, line 357, Qa Q). commandment Ff, Rowe, Pope, Theob. White.

360. life] breath Q'76.

362. jump] apt Q'76. full Pope, Theob. i, Han.

363. Polack] Pollack QQ, Pollock

QQ. Polake FF.

364. arrived, give] arrived. FFF, arrived: Give F

360

365

370

Give

365. the view] publick view Q'76. 366. to the yet] Cap. to th' yet QQFf, Rowe+. to yet Q2Q3.

368. carnal cruell QQ, Rowe+, Cap. Jen.

370. deaths] death's FF.

forced cause] for no caufe Qq,Jen.

359. his mouth] Of course this refers to the King, as WARBURTON long ago pointed out. But, strange to say, THEOBALD referred it to Ham., a noteworthy slip in one of the best editors Sh. ever had, and it is quite as remarkable that the slip escaped the notice of the subsequent Variorum editors, who omitted no chance of making merry over 'poor Tib and his Toxophilus.'

362. jump] See I, i, 65.

368. carnal] MALONE: Of sanguinary and unnatural acts, to which the perpetrator was instigated by concupiscence, or, to use Shakespeare's own words, by 'carnal stings.' Hor. alludes to the murder of old Hamlet by his brother, previous to his incestuous union with Gertrude. A Remarker asks, 'Was the relationship between the usurper and the deceased king a secret confined to Hor. ? No, but the murder of Hamlet by Claudius was a secret which the young Prince had imparted to Hor., and to him alone; and to this it is he principally, though covertly, alludes.

369, 370. Of accidental ... cause] DELIUS: The first line refers to Pol., the second to Ros. and Guil., whose deaths were 'forced' on Ham.

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 memory 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.

371

375

380

379. And...mouth;] Separate line, Ff. on more] no more Qq, Rowe,

Pope.

Ff.

380. same] scene Coll. ii (MS).
381. lest...mischance] Separate line,

while] whiles Ff, Rowe.

382. plots and] plots, and Ff, Rowe, Cap. Steev. Var. Cald. Knt.

383. to the] off the FF, Rowe, Pope.

370. put on] MALONE: Instigated. See Cor. II, i, 272.

[See I, iii, 94.]

371. upshot] CLARENDON: This conclusion of the tragedy. In archery the 'upshot' was the final shot, which decided the match. It is used in the same meta. phorical sense in Twelfth Night, IV, ii, 76.

376. rights of memory] MALONE: Some rights which are remembered.

379. voice will draw on] THEOBALD: Hor. is to deliver the message given him by Ham., lines 343, 344, and justly infers that Hamlet's 'voice' will be seconded by others.

380. same] COLLIER (ed. ii): The alteration by the (MS) is so much superior to the QqFf in reference to the words 'perform'd' and 'stage,' which occur just afterwards, that we make the change, not only without reluctance, but with thankfulness for the improvement upon the usual tame and unfigurative line. 'Same' for scene was the easiest possible misprint from carelessly written manuscript. 382. On] CALDECOTT: In consequence of. [See ABBOTT, § 180.]

382. four captains] HUNTER (ii, 266): As may be seen in the monument in Westminster Abbey of Sir Francis Vere, a soldier, who died 1608. This was no doubt at that time the accustomed mode of burial of a soldier of rank.

For he was likely, had he been put on,

To have proved most royally; and, for his passage,
The soldiers' music and the rites of war

385

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 bodies;
after which a peal of ordnance is shot off.

390

Exeunt....] Exeunt solemnly,... Cap. Exeunt. Qq. Exeunt Marching: after the which, a Peale of Ordenance are shot off. Ff (after which, FF. Ord. nance, FF,F).

384. put on] CALDECOTT: Put to the proof, tried.

390. MOBERLY: Ham. has gained the haven for which he longed so often; yet without bringing guilt on himself by his death; no fear that his sleep should have bad dreams in it now. Those whom he loved, his mother, Laer., Oph., have all died guiltless or forgiven. Late, and under the strong compulsion of approaching death, he has done, and well done, the inevitable task from which his gentle nature shrank. Why, then, any farther thought, in the awful presence of death, of crimes, conspiracies, vengeance? Think that he has been slain in battle, like his Sea-King forefathers; and let the booming cannon be his mourners.

INDEX TO SOME OF THE MORE IMPORTANT
NOTES IN THE FIRST VOLUME