By Heauen I charge thee speake.
_Mar._ It is offended.[6]
_Barn._ See, it stalkes away.
_Hor._ Stay: speake; speake: I Charge thee, speake. _Exit the Ghost._
[Sidenote: _Exit Ghost._]
_Mar._ 'Tis gone, and will not answer.
_Barn._ How now _Horatio_? You tremble and look pale: Is not this
something more then Fantasie? What thinke you on't?
_Hor._ Before my God, 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 prick'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
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