[Footnote 10: "Some" _not in Q.--Hence_ may be either _backwards_ or _forwards_; now it is used only _forwards_.]
[Footnote 11: travels.]
[Footnote 12: "all your excellencies together."]
[Footnote 13: seat, place, grade, position, merit.]
[Footnote 14: "A very riband"--a mere trifling accomplishment: the _u_ of the text can but be a misprint for _n_.]
[Footnote 15: _youth_ obj., _livery_ nom. to _becomes_.]
[Footnote 16: "than his furs and his robes become settled age."]
[Footnote 17: Warburton thinks the word ought to be _wealth_, but I doubt it; _health_, in its sense of wholeness, general soundness, in affairs as well as person, I should prefer.]
[Page 218]
And they ran[1] well on Horsebacke; but this Gallant [Sidenote: they can well[1]]
Had witchcraft in"t[2]; he grew into his Seat, [Sidenote: vnto his]
And to such wondrous doing brought his Horse, As had he beene encorps"t and demy-Natur"d With the braue Beast,[3] so farre he past my thought, [Sidenote: he topt me thought,[4]]
That I in forgery[5] of shapes and trickes, Come short of what he did.[6]
_Laer_. A Norman was"t?
_Kin_. A Norman.
_Laer_. Vpon my life _Lamound_. [Sidenote: _Lamord_.]
_Kin_. The very same.
_Laer_. I know him well, he is the Brooch indeed, And Iemme of all our Nation, [Sidenote: all the Nation.]
_Kin_. Hee mad confession of you, And gaue you such a Masterly report, For Art and exercise in your defence; And for your Rapier most especially, [Sidenote: especiall,]
That he cryed out, t"would be a sight indeed,[7]
If one could match you [A] Sir. This report of his [Sidenote: ; sir this]
[Sidenote: 120, 264] Did _Hamlet_ so envenom with his Enuy,[8]
That he could nothing doe but wish and begge, Your sodaine comming ore to play with him;[9] [Sidenote: with you]
Now out of this.[10]
_Laer_. Why out of this, my Lord? [Sidenote: What out]
_Kin. Laertes_ was your Father deare to you?
Or are you like the painting[11] of a sorrow, A face without a heart?
_Laer_. Why aske you this?
_Kin_. Not that I thinke you did not loue your Father, But that I know Loue is begun by Time[12]:
[Footnote A: _Here in the Quarto:--_
; the Scrimures[13] of their nation He swore had neither motion, guard nor eye, If you opposd them;]
[Footnote 1: I think the _can_ of the _Quarto_ is the true word.]
[Footnote 2: --in his horsemanship.]
[Footnote 3: There is no mistake in the order "had he beene"; the transposition is equivalent to _if_: "as if he had been unbodied with, and shared half the nature of the brave beast."
These two lines, from _As_ to _thought_, must be taken parenthetically; or else there must be supposed a dash after _Beast_, and a fresh start made.
"But he (as if Centaur-like he had been one piece with the horse) was no more moved than one with the going of his own legs:"
"it seemed, as he borrowed the horse"s body, so he lent the horse his mind:"--Sir Philip Sidney. _Arcadia_, B. ii. p. 115.]
[Footnote 4: "--surpa.s.sed, I thought."]
[Footnote 5: "in invention of."]
[Footnote 6: Emphasis on _did_, as ant.i.thetic to _forgery_: "my inventing came short of his doing."]
[Footnote 7: "it would be a sight indeed to see you matched with an equal." The king would strengthen Laertes" confidence in his proficiency.]
[Footnote 8: "made him so spiteful by stirring up his habitual envy."]
[Footnote 9: All invention.]
[Footnote 10: Here should be a dash: the king pauses. He is approaching dangerous ground--is about to propose a thing abominable, and therefore to the influence of flattered vanity and roused emulation, would add the fiercest heat of stimulated love and hatred--to which end he proceeds to cast doubt on the quality of Laertes" love for his father.]
[Footnote 11: the picture.]
[Footnote 12: "through habit."]
[Footnote 13: French _escrimeurs_: fencers.]
[Page 220]
And that I see in pa.s.sages of proofe,[1]
Time qualifies the sparke and fire of it:[2]
[A]
_Hamlet_ comes backe: what would you vndertake, To show your selfe your Fathers sonne indeed, [Sidenote: selfe indeede your fathers sonne]
More then in words?
_Laer_. To cut his throat i"th"Church.[3]
_Kin_. No place indeed should murder Sancturize; Reuenge should haue no bounds: but good _Laertes_ Will you doe this, keepe close within your Chamber, _Hamlet_ return"d, shall know you are come home: Wee"l put on those shall praise your excellence, And set a double varnish on the fame The Frenchman gaue you, bring you in fine together, And wager on your heads, he being remisse,[4] [Sidenote: ore your]
[Sidenote: 218] Most generous, and free from all contriuing, Will not peruse[5] the Foiles? So that with ease, Or with a little shuffling, you may choose A Sword vnbaited,[6] and in a pa.s.se of practice,[7] [Sidenote: pace of]
Requit him for your Father.