Might tell a hundred.

Mar. Ber. Longer, longer.
Hor. Not when I faw it.

Ham. His beard was grizzl'd? no?
Hor. It was, as I have seen it in his life,
A fable filver'd".

Ham. I will watch to-night;
Perchance, 'twill walk again.
Hor. I warrant, it will.

Ham. If it affume my noble father's person,
I'll fpeak to it, though hell itself should gape,
And bid me hold my peace. I pray you all,
If you have hitherto conceal'd this fight,
Let it be tenable in your filence still;
And whatsoever elfe fhall hap to-night,
Give it an understanding, but no tongue;
I will requite your loves: So, fare you well:
Upon the platform, 'twixt eleven and twelve,
I'il vifit you.

All. Our duty to your honour.

Ham. Your loves, as mine to you: Farewel.

[Exeunt HOR. MAR. and BIR. My father's fpirit in arms! all is not well; I doubt fome foul play: would the night were come! Till then fit ftill, my foul: Foul deeds will rife, Though all the earth o'erwhelm them to men's eyes. [Exit.

A Room in Polonius' House.

Enter LAERTES, and OPHELIA.

Laer. My neceffaries are embark'd; farewel: And, fifter, as the winds give benefit,

• A fable filver'd.] So in our poet's 12th fonnet:

"And fable curls, all filver'd o'er with white." MALONE. 7 Let it be tenable-] So the quarto, 1604. Folio :-treble. MALONE. 3 My father's Spirit in arms!] From what went before, I once hinted to Mr. Garrick, that thefe words might be spoken in this man

ner

My father's fpirit! in arms! all is not well, WHALLEY.

And convoy is affiftant, do not fleep,
But let me hear from you.

Oph. Do you doubt that?

Laer. For Hamlet, and the trifling of his favour,
Hold it a fashion, and a toy in blood;

A violet in the youth of primy nature,
Forward, not permanent, fweet, not lafting,
The perfume and fuppliance of a minute?;
No more.

Oph. No more but fo?

Laer. Think it no more:

For nature, crefcent, does not grow alone
In thews', and bulk; but, as this temple waxes,
The inward fervice of the mind and foul

Grows wide withal. Perhaps, he loves you now;
And now no foil, nor cautel, doth befmirch 2
The virtue of his will: but, you must fear,
His greatnefs weigh'd, his will is not his own;
For he himself is fubject to his birth*;
He may not, as unvalued perfons do,
Carve for himself; for on his choice depends
The fafety and the health of the whole ftate 3;

And 9 The perfume and fuppliance of a minute ;] The words perfume and, which are found in the quarto, 1604, were omitted in the folio, JĀ MALONET

The perfume and suppliance of a minute; i. e. what is fupplied to us for a minute. The idea feems to be taken from the short duration of vegetable perfumes. STEEVENS.

In thews,] . e. in finews, mufcular strength. STEEVENS. T 2 And now no fail, nor cautel, &c.] Cautel is fabtlety, or deceit. Mimi fheu in his Dictionary, 1617, defines it, "A crafty way to deceive.b The word is again ufed by Shakspeare in A Lover's Complaint :

"In him a plenitude of fubtle matter,

"Applied to cautels, all strange forms receives." MALONEJO So, in the fecond part of Greene's Art of Coneycatching, 1592: and their fubtill cautels to amend the statute." To amend the fatute was the cant phrafe for evading the law. STEEVENS.

Virtue feems here to comprife both excellence and power, and may be explained the pure effect. JOHNSON.

*For be bimfelf, &c.] This line is not in the quarto. MALONI. 3 The fafety and the health of the whole fate;] Thus the quarto, 1604, except that it has this whole ftate, and the fecond the is inadvertently omitted. The folio reads:

P 2

The

And therefore muft his choice be circumfcrib'd
Unto the voice and yielding of that body,
Whereof he is the head: Then if he says, he loves
It fits your wisdom fo far to believe it,
As he in his particular act and place

May give his faying deed; which is no further,
Than the man voice of Denmark goes withal.
Then weigh what lois your honour may fuftain,
If with too credent ear you lift his fongs;

Or lofe your heart; or your chafte treasure open
To his unmaster'd 5 importunity.

Fear it, Ophelia, fear it, my dear fifter;
And keep you in the rear of your affection",
Out of the fhot and danger of defire.
The charieft maid is prodigal enough,
If the unmask her beauty to the moon:
Virtue itself scapes not calumnious ftrokes :
The canker galls the infants of the fpring,
Too oft before their buttons be difclos'd;
And in the morn and liquid dew of youth
Contagious blaftments are most imminent.
Be wary then beft fafety lies in fear;
Youth to itself rebels, though none else near.
Oph. I fhall the effect of this good leffon keep
As watchman to my heart: But, good my brother,
Do not, as fome ungracious paftors do,

The fanity and health of the whole state.

you,

This is another proof of arbitrary alterations being fometimes made in the folio. The editor, finding the metre defective, in confequence of the article being omitted before health, instead of fupplying it, for fafety fubftituted a word of three fyllables. MALONE.

4 May give bis faying.deed;] So, in Timon of Athens :-" the deed of faying is quite out of ufe." Again, in Troilus and Creffida: "Speaking in deeds, and deedlefs in his tongue.' "MALONE. unmafter'd] i. e. licentious. JOHNSON.

keep you in the rear, &c.] That is, do not advance fo far as your affection would lead you. JOHNSON.

7 The charieft maid-] Chary is cautious. So, in Greene's Never too late, 1616: "Love requires not chastity, but that her foldiers be chary," Again: "She liveth chaftly enough, that liveth cbarily."

Shew me the steep and thorny way to heaven';
Whilft, like a puff'd and reckless libertine,
Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads,
And recks not his own read3.

Laer. O, fear me not.

I ftay too long;-But here my father comes.
Enter POLONIUS.

A double bleffing is a double grace;
Occafion fmiles upon a fecond leave.

Pol. Yet here, Laertes! aboard, aboard, for fhame; The wind fits in the fhoulder of your fail",

And you are staid for: There,-my bleffing with you;
[laying his hand on Laertes' head.
And these few precepts in thy memory

Look thou character'. Give thy thoughts no tongue,
Nor any unproportion'd thought his act.

Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar.
The friends thou haft, and their adoption try'd,
Grapple them to thy foul with hooks of steel2;

But

$ -recks not bis own read.] That is, heeds not his own lessons.

So, in Hycke Scorner;

66 1 I reck not a feder." STEEVENS.

Read is counfel. MALONE.

POPE.

So the Old Proverb in the Two Angry Women of Abington, 1599: "Take heed, is a good reed." STEEVENS.

So Sternhold, Pfalm i.

"To wicked rede his ear." BLACKSTONE.

9 the shoulder of your fail,] This is a common fea phrase. STEEV. And thefe few precepts in thy memory

Look thou character.] i. e. write; ftrongly infix. The fame phrafe is again ufed by our authour in his 122d Sonnet:

"thy tables are within my

brain

"Full character'd with lafting memory."

Again, in the Two Gentlemen of Verona :

I do conjure thee,

"Who art the table wherein all my thoughts

"Are vifibly character'd and engrav'd." MALONE.

2 Grapple them to thy foul with hooks of feel;] The old copies read with boops of steel. I have no doubt that this was a corruption in the original quarto of 1604, arifing, like many others, from fimilitude

But do not dull thy palm with entertainment
Of each new-hatch'd unfledg'd comrade 3. Beware
Of entrance to a quarrel; but, being in,

Bear it that the oppofer may beware of thee.
Give every man thine ear, but few thy voice:
'Take each man's cenfure, but referve thy judgment.
Coftly thy habit as thy purfe can buy,

But not exprefs'd in fancy; rich, not gaudy:
For the apparel oft proclaims the man;
And they in France, of the best rank and station,
Are of a moft felect and generous chief, in that 5.

Neither

of founds. The emendation, which was made by Mr. Pope, and adopted by three fubfequent editors, is ftrongly fupported by the word grapple. See Mintheu's Dictionary, 1617 : “To book or grapple, viz. to grapple and to board a fhip."

A grapple is an inftrument with feveral books to lay hold of a ship, in order to board it.

This correction is alfo juftified by our poet's 137th fonnet:

"Why of eyes' falfhood haft thou forged books,

"Whereto the judgment of my heart is ty'd "

It may be alfo obferved, that books are fometimes made of steel, but Loops never. MALONE.

3 But do not dull thy palm with entertainment

Of each new-batch'd, unfledg'd comrade.] The literal fenfe is, Do not make tby palm callous by shaking every man by the band. The figurative meaning may be, Do not by promifcuous conversation make thy mind infenfible to the difference of characters. JOHNSON.

4 - each man's cenfure,] Cenfure is opinion. STEEVENS. See Vol. IV. p. 149, n. 8. MALONE.

5 Are of a most felect and generous chief, in that.] Thus the quarto, 1604, and the folio, except that in that copy the word chief is fpelt cheff. The fubftantive chief, which fignifies in heraldry the upper part of the fhield, appears to have been in common ufe in Shakspeare's time, being found in Minfheu's Dictionary, 1617. He defines it thus: "Eft fuperior et fcuti nobilior pars; tertiam partem ejus obtinet z ante Chrifti adventum dabatur in maximi bonoris fignum fenatoribus et bonoratis viris." B. Jonfon has ufed the word in his Poetafter.

The meaning then feems to be, They in France approve themselves of a moft felett and generous efcutcheon by their drefs. Generous is used with the fignification of generofus. So, in Othello: "The generous inlanders," &c.

If chief in this fenfe had not been familiarly understood, the editor of the folio must have confidered the line as unintelligible, and would have probably omitted the words of a in the beginning of it, or at

tempted