Page:Hamlet - The Arden Shakespeare - 1899.djvu/121

With eyes like carbuncles, the hellish Pyrrhus
Old grandsire Priam seeks. 495
So, proceed you.^{[a 1]}

Pol. 'Fore God, my lord, well spoken, with good
accent and good discretion.

First Play. Anon he finds him
Striking too short at Greeks; his antique sword, 500
Rebellious to his arm, lies where it falls,
Repugnant to command; unequal match'd,^{[a 2]}
Pyrrhus at Priam drives; in rage strikes wide;
But with the whiff and wind of his fell sword
The unnerved father falls.^{[b 1]} Then senseless Ilium,^{[a 3]} 505
Seeming to feel this^{[a 4]} blow, with flaming top
Stoops to his base, and with a hideous crash
Takes prisoner Pyrrhus' ear; for, lo! his sword,
Which was declining on the milky head
Of reverend Priam, seem'd i' the air to stick; 510
So, as a painted tyrant,^{[b 2]} Pyrrhus stood,
And like^{[a 5]} a neutral^{[b 3]} to his will and matter,
Did nothing.
But, as we often see, against some storm,
A silence in the heavens, the rack^{[b 4]} stand still, 515
The bold winds speechless and the orb below

1. 496. So, proceed you] Q, omitted F.
2. 502. match'd] Q, match F.
3. 505. Then senseless Ilium] F, omitted Q.
4. 506. this] Q, his F.
5. 512. And like] F, Like Q.

1. 504, 505. But . . . falls] Compare Dido, Queen of Carthage:
   "Which he disdaining whiskt his sword about,
   And with the wind thereof the king fell down."
2. 511. painted tyrant] Compare Macbeth, V. viii. 25-27.
3. 512. a neutral] one indifferent to his purpose and its object.
4. 515. rack] Dyce (Gloss.) "a mass of vapoury clouds." "The winds in the upper region, which move the clouds above (which we call the rack)" (Bacon, Sylva Sylvarum, ii. § 115).