What thinke you on"t?
_Hor._ Before my G.o.d, I might not this beleeue Without the sensible and true auouch Of mine owne eyes.
_Mar._ Is it not like the King?
_Hor._ As thou art to thy selfe, Such was the very Armour he had on, When th" Ambitious Norwey combatted: [Sidenote: when he the ambitious]
So frown"d he once, when in an angry parle He smot the sledded Pollax on the Ice.[8] [Sidenote: sleaded[7]]
"Tis strange.
[Sidenote: 274] _Mar._ Thus twice before, and iust at this dead houre, [Sidenote: and jump at this]
[Footnote 1: _1st Q_. "horrors mee".]
[Footnote 2: A ghost could not speak, it was believed, until it was spoken to.]
[Footnote 3: It was intruding upon the realm of the embodied.]
[Footnote 4: None of them took it as certainly the late king: it was only clear to them that it was like him. Hence they say, "usurp"st the forme."]
[Footnote 5: _formerly_.]
[Footnote 6: --at the word _usurp"st_.]
[Footnote 7: Also _1st Q_.]
[Footnote 8: The usual interpretation is "the sledged Poles"; but not to mention that in a parley such action would have been treacherous, there is another far more picturesque, and more befitting the _angry parle_, at the same time more characteristic and forcible: the king in his anger smote his loaded pole-axe on the ice. There is some uncertainty about the word _sledded_ or _sleaded_ (which latter suggests _lead_), but we have the word _sledge_ and _sledge-hammer_, the smith"s heaviest, and the phrase, "a sledging blow." The quarrel on the occasion referred to rather seems with the Norwegians (See Schmidt"s _Shakespeare-Lexicon: Sledded_.) than with the Poles; and there would be no doubt as to the latter interpretation being the right one, were it not that _the Polacke_, for the Pole, or nation of the Poles, does occur in the play.
That is, however, no reason why the Dane should not have carried a pole-axe, or caught one from the hand of an attendant. In both our authorities, and in the _1st Q_. also, the word is _pollax_--as in Chaucer"s _Knights Tale_: "No maner schot, ne pollax, ne schort knyf,"--in the _Folio_ alone with a capital; whereas not once in the play is the similar word that stands for the Poles used in the plural.
In the _2nd Quarto_ there is _Pollacke_ three times, _Pollack_ once, _Pole_ once; in the _1st Quarto_, _Polacke_ twice; in the _Folio_, _Poleak_ twice, _Polake_ once. The Poet seems to have avoided the plural form.]
[Page 8]
With Martiall stalke,[1] hath he gone by our Watch.
_Hor_. In what particular thought to work, I know not: But in the grosse and scope of my Opinion, [Sidenote: mine]
This boades some strange erruption to our State.
_Mar_. Good now sit downe, and tell me he that knowes [Sidenote: 16] Why this same strict and most obseruant Watch,[2]
So nightly toyles the subiect of the Land, And why such dayly Cast of Brazon Cannon [Sidenote: And with such dayly cost]
And Forraigne Mart for Implements of warre: Why such impresse of Ship-wrights, whose sore Taske Do"s not diuide the Sunday from the weeke, What might be toward, that this sweaty hast[3]
Doth make the Night ioynt-Labourer with the day: Who is"t that can informe me?
_Hor._ That can I, At least the whisper goes so: Our last King, Whose Image euen but now appear"d to vs, Was (as you know) by _Fortinbras_ of Norway, (Thereto p.r.i.c.k"d on by a most emulate Pride)[4]
Dar"d to the Combate. In which, our Valiant _Hamlet_, (For so this side of our knowne world esteem"d him)[5]
[Sidenote: 6] Did slay this _Fortinbras_: who by a Seal"d Compact, Well ratified by Law, and Heraldrie, [Sidenote: heraldy]
Did forfeite (with his life) all those his Lands [Sidenote: these]
Which he stood seiz"d on,[6] to the Conqueror: [Sidenote: seaz"d of,]
Against the which, a Moity[7] competent Was gaged by our King: which had return"d [Sidenote: had returne]
To the Inheritance of _Fortinbras_,
[Footnote 1: _1st Q_. "Marshall stalke".]
[Footnote 2: Here is set up a frame of external relations, to inclose with fitting contrast, harmony, and suggestion, the coming show of things. 273]
[Footnote 3: _1st Q_. "sweaty march".]
[Footnote 4: Pride that leads to emulate: the ambition to excel--not oneself, but another.]
[Footnote 5: The whole western hemisphere.]
[Footnote 6: _stood possessed of_.]
[Footnote 7: Used by Shakspere for _a part_.]
[Page 10]
Had he bin Vanquisher, as by the same Cou"nant [Sidenote: the same comart]
And carriage of the Article designe,[1] [Sidenote: desseigne,]
His fell to _Hamlet_. Now sir, young _Fortinbras_, Of vnimproued[2] Mettle, hot and full, Hath in the skirts of Norway, heere and there, Shark"d[3] vp a List of Landlesse Resolutes, [Sidenote: of lawlesse]
For Foode and Diet, to some Enterprize That hath a stomacke in"t[4]: which is no other (And it doth well appeare vnto our State) [Sidenote: As it]
But to recouer of vs by strong hand And termes Compulsatiue, those foresaid Lands [Sidenote: compulsatory,]
So by his Father lost: and this (I take it) Is the maine Motiue of our Preparations, The Sourse of this our Watch, and the cheefe head Of this post-hast, and Romage[5] in the Land.
[A]_Enter Ghost againe_.
But soft, behold: Loe, where it comes againe:
[Footnote A: _Here in the Quarto_:--
_Bar._ I thinke it be no other, but enso; Well may it sort[6] that this portentous figure Comes armed through our watch so like the King That was and is the question of these warres.
_Hora._ A moth it is to trouble the mindes eye: In the most high and palmy state of Rome, A little ere the mightiest _Iulius_ fell The graues stood tennatlesse, and the sheeted dead Did squeake and gibber in the Roman streets[7]
As starres with traines of fier, and dewes of blood Disasters in the sunne; and the moist starre, Vpon whose influence _Neptunes_ Empier stands Was sicke almost to doomesday with eclipse.
And euen the like precurse of feare euents As harbindgers preceading still the fates And prologue to the _Omen_ comming on Haue heauen and earth together demonstrated Vnto our Climatures and countrymen.[8]
_Enter Ghost_.]
[Footnote 1: French designe.]
[Footnote 2: _not proved_ or _tried. Improvement_, as we use the word, is the result of proof or trial: _upon-proof-ment_.]
[Footnote 3: Is _shark"d_ related to the German _scharren_? _Zusammen scharren--to sc.r.a.pe together._ The Anglo-Saxon _searwian_ is _to prepare, entrap, take_.]
[Footnote 4: Some enterprise of acquisition; one for the sake of getting something.]
[Footnote 5: In Scotch, _remish_--the noise of confused and varied movements; a _row_; a _rampage_.--a.s.sociated with French _remuage_?]
[Footnote 6: _suit_: so used in Scotland still, I think.]
[Footnote 7: _Julius Caesar_, act i. sc. 3, and act ii. sc. 2.]