A chalice for the nonce; whereon but sipping, How now, sweet queen?3 Queen. One woe doth tread upon another's heel,4 So fast they follow:-Your sister 's drown'd, Laertes. Laer. Drown'd! O, where! Queen. There is a willow grows ascaunt the brook,” That shows his hoar leaves in the glassy stream; Therewith fantastick garlands did she make Why then preferr'd you not your sums and bills?” 1 If he by chance escape your venom'd stuck,] For stuck, read tuck, a common name for a rapier. Blackstone. 66 Your venom'd stuck is, your venom'd thrust. Stuck was a term of the fencing-school. So, in Twelfth Night: - and he gives me the stuck with such a mortal motion," Again, in The Return from Parnassus, 1606: " Here is a fellow, Judicio, that carried the deadly stocke in his pen."-See Florio's Italian Dict. 1598: "Stoccata, a foyne, a thrust, a stoccado given in fence." 2 quartos. Malone. But stay, what noise?] I have recovered this from the 3 How now, sweet queen?] These words are not in the quarto. The word now, which appears to have been omitted by the carelessness of the transcriber or compositor, was supplied by the editor of the second folio. Malone. 4 One woe doth tread upon another's heel,] A similar thought occurs in Pericles, Prince of Tyre, 1609: "One sorrow never comes, but brings an heir, Steevens. Again, in Drayton's Mortimeriados, 4to. 1596: 66 miseries, which seldom come alone, "Thick on the neck one of another fell." Again, in Shakspeare's 131st Sonnet: "A thousand groans, but thinking on thy fall, Again, in Locrine, 1595: Malone. "One mischief follows on another's neck." And this also is the first line of a queen's speech on a lady's drowning herself. Ritson. 5 ascaunt the brook,] Thus the quartos. The folio reads aslant. Ascaunce is interpreted in a note of Mr. Tyrwhitt's on Chaucer-askew, aside, sideways. Steevens. Of crow-flowers, nettles, daisies, and long purples, But our cold maids do dead men's fingers call them : Or like a creature native and indu'd Unto that element: but long it could not be, 6 and long purples,] By long purples is meant a plant, the modern botanical name of which is orchis morio mas, anciently testiculus morionis. The grosser name by which it passes, is sufficiently known in many parts of England, and particularly in the county where Shakspeare lived. Thus far, Mr. Warner. Mr. Collins adds, that in Sussex it is still called dead men's hands; and that in Lyte's Herbal, 1578, its various names, too gross for repetition, are preserved. Dead men's thumbs are mentioned in an ancient bl. 1. ballad, entitled The deceased Maiden Lover: "Then round the meddowes did she walke, 66 Catching each flower by the stalke, "Such as within the meddowes grew; "As dead mans thumbe, and hare-bell blew." Steevens. One of the grosser names of this plant Gertrude had a particular reason to avoid :—the rampant widow. Malone. 7 liberal - Liberal is free spoken, licentious in language. So, in Othello: "Is he not a most profane and liberal counsellor?" Again, in A Woman's a Weathercock, by N. Field, 1612: 66 Next that, the fame "Of your neglect, and liberal-talking tongue, "Which breeds my honour an eternal wrong." Malone. 8 Which time, she chanted snatches of old tunes;] Fletcher, in his Scornful Lady, very invidiously ridicules this incident: "I will run mad first, and if that get not pity, "I'll drown myself to a most dismal ditty." Warburton. The quartos read-snatches of old lauds, i. e. hymns. Steevens. 9 As one incapable of her own distress,] As one having no understanding or knowledge of her danger. See p. 144, n. 1. Malone. That is, insensible. So, in King Richard III: Incapable and shallow innocents." Ritson. 1 Or like a creature native and indu'd Unto that element :] I do not think the word indued is sense in this place; and believe we should read inured. Till that her garments, heavy with their drink, Laer. Alas then, she is drown'd? Queen. Drown'd, drown'd. Laer. Too much of water hast thou, poor Ophelia, And therefore I forbid my tears: But yet It is our trick; nature her custom holds, Let shame say what it will: when these are gone, I have a speech of fire, that fain would blaze, [Exit. King. Let's follow, Gertrude: How much I had to do to calm his rage! Now fear I, this will give it start again ; Therefore, let's follow. [Exeunt. Shakspeare seems to have forgot himself in this scene, as there is not a single circumstance in the relation of Ophelia's death, that induces us to think she had drowned herself intentionally. M. Mason. As we are indued with certain original dispositions and propensities at our birth, Shakspeare here uses indued with great ficentiousness, for formed by nature; clothed, endowed, or furnished, with properties suited to the element of water. Our old writers used indued and endowed indiscriminately. "To indue," says Minsheu in his Dictionary, "sepissime refertur ad dotes animo infusas, quibus nimirum ingenium alicujus imbutum et initiatum est, unde et G. instruire est. L. imbuere. Imbuere proprie est inchoare et-initiari.” In Cotgrave's French Dictionary, 1611, instruire is interpreted, "to fashion, to furnish with." Malone. 2 To muddy death.] In the first scene of the next Act we find Ophelia buried with such rites as betoken she foredid her own life. It should be remembered, that the account here given, is that of a friend; and that the Queen could not possibly know what passed in the mind of Ophelia, when she placed herself in so perilous a situation. After the facts had been weighed and considered, the priest in the next Act pronounces, that her death was doubtful. Malone.. 3 The woman will be out.] i. e. tears will flow. So, in King Henry V: "And all the woman came into my eyes." Malone. See Vol. IX, p. 343, n. 4. Steevens. 4 But that this folly drowns it. Thus the quarto, 1604. The folio reads-But that this folly doubts it; i. e. doubts, or extinguishes it. See p. 51, n. 1. Malone. ACT V..... SCENE I. A Church Yard. Enter Two Clowns, with Spades, &c. 1 Clo. Is she to be buried in christian burial, that wilfully seeks her own salvation? 2 Clo. I tell thee, she is; therefore, make her grave straight:5 the crowner hath set on her, and finds it christian burial. 1 Clo. How can that be, unless she drowned herself in her own defence? 2 Clo. Why, 'tis found so. 1 Clo. It must be se offendendo; it cannot be else. For here lies the point: If I drown myself wittingly, it argues an act: and an act hath three branches; it is, to act, to do, and to perform: Argal, she drowned herself wittingly. 2 Clo. Nay, but hear you, goodman delver. 1 Clo. Give me leave. Here lies the water; good: here stands the man; good: If the man go to this water, and 5 make her grave straight:] Make her grave from east to west in a direct line parallel to the church; not from north to south, athwart the regular line. This, I think, is meant. Johnson. I cannot think that this means any more than make her grave immediately. She is to be buried in christian burial, and consequently the grave is to be made as usual. My interpretation may be justified from the following passage in King Henry V, and the play before us: We cannot lodge and board a dozen or fourteen gentle women who live by the prick of their needles, but it will be thought we keep a bawdy-house straight.” Again, in Hamlet, Act III, sc. iv: "Pol. He will come straight." Again, in The Lover's Progress, by Beaumont and Fletcher: "Lis. Do you fight straight? "Clar. Yes presently." Again, in The Merry Wives of Windsor: we'll come and dress you straight." Again, in Othello: Farewel, my Desdemona, I will come to thee straight. Again, in Troilus and Cressida: "Let us make ready straight." Malone. Steevens. 6 an act hath three branches; it is, to act, to do, and to perform:] Ridicule on scholastick divisions without distinction ; and of distinctions without difference. Warburton. drown himself, it is, will he, nill he, he goes; mark you that: but if the water come to him, and drown him, he drowns not himself: Argal, he, that is not guilty of his own death, shortens not his own life. 2 Clo. But is this law? 1 Clo. Ay, marry is 't; crowner's-quest law. 2 Clo. Will you ha' the truth on 't? If this had not been a gentlewoman, she should have been buried out of christian burial. 1 Clo. Why, there thou say'st: And the more pity; that great folks should have countenance in this world to drown or hang themselves, more than their even christian. Come, my spade. There is no ancient gentlemen but gardeners, ditchers, and grave-makers; they hold up Adam's profession. 2 Clo. Was he a gentleman? 1 Clo. He was the first that ever bore arms. 2 Clo.8 Why, he had none. 1 Clo. What, art a heathen? How dost thou understand the scripture? The scripture says, Adam digged; Could he dig without arms? I'll put another question to thee: if thou answerest me not to the purpose, confess thyself-9 7 their even christian.] So, all the old books, and rightly. An old English expression for fellow-christian. Thirlby. So, in Chaucer's Jack Upland: "If freres cannot or mow not excuse 'hem of these questions asked of 'hem, it seemeth that they be horrible giltie against God, and ther even christian," &c. Again, in Gower, de Confessione Amantis, Lib. V, fol. 102: "Of beautie sighe he never hir even.' Again, Chaucer's Persones Tale: " of his neighbour, that is to sayn, of his even cristen," &c. This phrase also occurs frequently in the Paston Letters. See Vol. III, p. 421, &c. &c. "That is to say, in relieving and sustenance of your even christen," &c.-Again: to dispose and help your even christen." Steevens. 66 66 So, King Henry Eighth, in his answer to Parliament in 1546: you might say that I, beyng put in so speciall a trust as I am in this case, were no trustie frende to you, nor charitable man to mine even christian, ." Hall's Chronicle, fol. 261. Malone. 82 Clo.] This speech, and the next as far as-without arms, not in the quartos. Steevens. 9 is confess thyself-] and be hanged, the Clown, I suppose, would have said, if he had not been interrupted. This was a common proverbial sentence. See Othello, Act IV, sc. i.-He might, however, have intended to say, confess thyself an ass. Malone. |