The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark Part 2

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.]

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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_.]

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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.]