NORTH.
You all remember what Horatio sayeth to the soldiers in Hamlet, on the coming and going of the Ghost.
'In the most high and palmy state of Rome,
A little ere the mightiest Julius fell,
The graves stood tenantless, and the sheeted dead
Did squeak and gibber in the Roman streets;
Stars shone with trains of fire, dews of blood fell;
Disasters veiled the sun, and the moist star
Upon whose influence Neptune's empire stands,
Was sick almost to Doomsday with eclipse.'
What does Horatio mean by high and palmy state? That Rome was in a flourishing condition?
BULLER.
That, I believe, sir, is the common impression. Hitherto it has been mine.
NORTH.
Let it be erased henceforth and for ever.
BULLER.
It is erased—I erase it.