Page:Hamlet - The Arden Shakespeare - 1899.djvu/104

Pol. Not I, my lord. 175

Ham. Then I would you were so honest^{[b 1]} a man.

Pol. Honest, my lord?^{[a 1]}

Ham. Ay, sir; to be honest, as this world goes, is
to be one man^{[a 2]} picked out of ten^{[a 3]} thousand.

Pol. That's very true, my lord. 180

Ham. For if the sun breed maggots in a dead dog,
being a good kissing carrion,^{[a 4]}—Have you a
daughter?^{[b 2]}

Pol. I have, my lord.

Ham. Let her not walk i' the sun: conception^{[b 3]} is a 185
blessing; but not^{[a 5]} as your daughter may conceive:—
friend, look to 't.

Pol. [Aside.]^{[a 6]} How say you by^{[b 4]} that? Still harping

1. 177. lord?] F, lord. Q, lord! Dyce.
2. 179. man] omitted in Ff 3, 4.
3. 179. ten] Q, two F.
4. 182. good kissing carrion] Q, F; god kissing carrion Warburton and many editors; god-kissing carrion Malone.
5. 186. not] F, omitted in Q.
6. 188. [Aside]] Capell; placed by Steevens before Still.

partie des erreurs populaires, 1600, p. 169) considers the popular opinion "que l'usage du poisson engendre beaucoup de semence." See Apuleius' curious defence against the charge that he had made a magical use of fish in his courtship of a widow.

1. 176. honest] Ben Jonson's "Town gull." Master Mathew (Every Man in his Humour, I. iii.) is a citizen's son: His father's an honest man, a worshipful fishmonger, and so forth."
2. 181, 183. For . . . daughter] Retaining the good of Q, F, good kissing (which might be hyphened) must be explained, with Caldecott, Corson, Furness, good for kissing. But much might be said on behalf of Warburton's emendation, which Johnson accepted with an outbreak of admiration—god kissing compare "common-kissing Titan," Cymbeline, III. iv. 166, and see 1 Henry IV. II, iv. 113. In King Edward III. (1596) we have: "The freshest summer's day doth soonest taint The loathed carrion that it seems to kiss." In support of god-kissing Malone cites Lear, II. i. 9: "ear-kissing arguments." Hamlet ironically justifies the severance by Polonius of Ophelia from himself: all the world is evil, even the sun has the basest propensities; if a dead dog is corrupted by the sun, how much more your daughter by me. Staunton supposes that Hamlet reads, or pretends to read, these words. See a parallel from St. Augustine quoted by Ingleby, Shakespeare Hermeneutics, p. 159.
3. 185. conception] Steevens supposed that there is a quibble, as in Lear, I. i. 12, between "conception," understanding, and "conceive," to be pregnant.
4. 188. by] concerning, as in Merchant of Venice, I. ii. 58.