The kettle-drum and trumpet thus bray out Ham. Ay, marry, is't: But to my mind,—though I am native here, More honour'd in the breach, than the observance. Makes us traduc'd, and tax'd of other nations: From our atchievements, though perform'd at height, So, oft it chances in particular men, That, for some vicious mole of nature in them, By the o'er-growth of fome complexion, Oft It appears from the following paffage in Alphonfus Emperor of Germany, by Chapman, that the up-spring was a German dance: "We Germans have no changes in our dances; "An almain and an up-fpring, that is all." Spring was anciently the name of a tune. STEEVENS. 8 This beavy-beaded revel, east and weft, &c.] This beavy-beaded revel makes us traduced eaft and weft, and taxed of other nations. JOHNSON. By eaft and weft, as Mr. Edwards has obferved, is meant, throughout the world; from one end of it to the other.This and the following twenty one lines have been restored from the quarto. MALONE. 9 The pith and marrow of our attribute.] The best and most valuable part of the praise that would be otherwife attributed to us. JOHNS. That, for fome vicious mole of nature in them, As in their birth, (wherein they are not guilty, Since nature cannot choose his origin,] We have the fame fenti ment in The Rape of Lucrece : "For marks defcried in men's nativity "Are nature's fault, not their own infamy." Mr. Theobald, without neceffity, altered mole to mould. The reading of the old copies is fully fupported by a paffage in King John: "Patch'd with foul moles and eye-offending marks." MALONE. 2-complexion,] i, e. humour; as fanguine, melancholy, phlegmatic, &c. WARBURTON. The quarto 1604 for the has their; as a few lines lower it has bis virtues, instead of their virtues. The correction was made by Mr Theobald. MALONE. 1 Oft breaking down the pales and forts of reafon; Being nature's livery, or fortune's star +,— Shall in the general cenfure take corruption 3 that too much o'er-leavens Enter The form of plaufive manners :] That intermingles too much with their manners; infects and corrupts them. See Vol. VIII. p. 392, n. 2. Plaufive in our poet's age fignified gracious, pleafing, popular. So, in another play: "—his plaufive words "He scatter'd not in ears, but grafted them, "To grow there, and to bear." Plaufible, in which fenfe Plaufive is here ufed, is defined by Cawdrey in his Alphabetical Table, &c. 1604, " Pleafing, or received joyfully and willingly." MALONE. 4- or fortune's far,] Some accidental blemish, the confequence of the overgrowth of fome complexion or humour allotted to us by fortune at our birth, or fome vicious habit accidentally acquired afterwards. Theobald, plaufibly enough, would read-fortune's fear. The emendation may be fupported by a paffage in Anthony and Cleopatra: "The fears upon your honour therefore he "Does pity as conftrained blemishes, "Not as deferv'd." MALONE. 5 As infinite as man may undergo,] As large as can be accumulated upon man. JOHNSON. The dram of bafe Doth all the noble fubftance of worth dout, To bis own scandal.] The quarto, where alone this paffage is found, exhibits it thus: the dram of eale Doth all the noble substance of a doubt, To his own fcandal. To dout, as I have already obferved in a note on King Henry V. Vol. V. p. 552, n. 8, fignified in Shakspeare's time, and yet fignifies in Devonshire and other weftern counties, to do out, to efface, to extinguish. Thus they fay, "dout the candle, dout the fire," &c. It Enter Ghoft. Hor. Look, my lord, it comes! Ham. Angels and ministers of grace defend us ' !→→ Be is exactly formed in the fame manner as to don, (or do on,) which oc curs fo often in the writings of our poet and his contemporaries. I have no doubt that the corruption of the text arofe in the following manner. Dout, which I have now printed in the text, having been written by the mistake of the tranfcriber, doubt, and the word worth having been inadvertently omitted, the line, in the copy that went to the prefs, food, Doth all the noble fubftance of doubt, The editor or printer of the quarto copy, finding the line too short, and thinking doubt must want an article, inferted it, without attending to the context; and instead of correcting the erroneous, and fupplying the true word, printed-- Doth all the noble fubftance of a doubt, &c. The very fame error has happened in K, Henry V. "That their hot blood may fpin in English eyes, "And doubt them with fuperfluous courage:" where doubt is again printed instead of dout. That worth (which was fupplied first by Mr. Theobald,) was the word omitted originally in the hurry of tranfcription, may be fairly collected from a paflage in Cymbeline, which fully juftifies the correction made: "Is the with Pofthumus? "From whose so many weights of bafenefs cannot "A dram of worth be drawn." This paffage alfo adds fupport to the correction of the word eale in the first of thefe lines, which was likewife made by Mr. Theobald.— Bafe is ufed fubftantively for bafeness: a practice not uncommon in Shakspeare. So, in Measure for Measure: "Say what thou canft, my false outweighs your true." Shakspeare, however, might have written-The dram of ill. This is nearer the corrupted word cale, but the passage in Cymbeline is in favour of the other emendation. The meaning of the paffage thus corrected is, The fmalleft particle of vice fo blemishes the whole mafs of virtue, as to erafe from the minds of mankind the recollection of the numerous good qualities poffeffed by him who is thus blemished by a single stain, and taints his general character. To bis ovin fcandal, means, fo as to reduce the whole mass of worth to its own vicious and unfightly appearance; to tranflate bis virtue to the likeness of vice. His for its, is fo common in Shakspeare, that every play furnishes us with examples. So, in a fubfequent fcene in this play" than the force of honesty can translate beauty into bis likeness." Be thou a spirit of health, or goblin damn'ds, Bring with thee airs from heaven, or blafts from hell, Thou com'ft in fuch a questionable shape, Again, in another play: "When every feather fticks in his own wing,." Again, in A Midsummer Night's Dream: "Whofe liquor hath this virtuous property, "To take from thence all error with bis might." Again, in K. Richard II. "That it may fhew me what a face I have, So, in Grim, the Collier of Croydon: "Contented life, that gives the heart bis eafe,-." That We meet with a fentiment fomewhat fimilar to that before us, in K. Henry IV. P. I. oftentimes it doth present harsh rage, "Defect of manners, want of government, "Beguiling them of commendation." MALONE. 7 Angels and minifters of grace defend us!] Hamlet's speech to the apparition of his father feems to me to confift of three parts. When first he fees the fpectre, he fortifies himself with an invocation:"" Angels and minifters of grace defend us! As the spectre approaches, he deliberates with himfelf, and determines, that whatever it be he will venture to address it. Be thou a fpirit of health, or goblin damn'd, Bring with thee airs from beaven, or blafts from bell, Be thy intents wicked or charitable, Thou com'ft in fuch a questionable shape, That I will fpeak to thee. I'll call thee," &c. This he fays while his father is advancing; he then, as he had determined, speaks to bim, and calls bim-Hamlet, King, Father, Royal Dane: ob! answer me. JOHNSON. Be thou a fpirit of health, or goblin damn'd, &c.] So, in Acolaftus bis After-wit, 1600: "Art thou a god, a man, or else a ghost? "Com'st thou from heaven, where blifs and folace dwell? "Or from the darkfome dungeon-hold of hell?" The first known edition of this play is in 1604. STEEVENS. 9-questionable shape,] By questionable is meant provoking question. HANMER. That I will speak to thee; I'll call thee, Hamlet, So, in Macbeth: Live you, or are you aught That man may queftion? JOHNSON. Wherein Questionable, I believe means only propitious to conversation, easy and willing to be converfed with. So, in As you like it : "An unquestionable fpirit, which you have not." Unquestionable in this last inftance certainly fignifies unwilling to be talked to. STEEVENS. Questionable perhaps only means capable of being conversed with. To queftion, certainly in our authour's time fignified to converfe. So, in his Rape of Lucrece, 1594: For after fupper long he queftioned "With modeft Lucrece-." Again, in Antony and Cleopatra: "Out of our question wipe him." See alfo Vol. VIII. p. 667, n. 1.. MALONE. tell, Why thy canoniz'd bones, bearfed in death, Have burft their cerements!] Hamlet, amazed at an apparition, which, though in all ages credited, has in all ages been confidered as the most wonderful and moft dreadful operation of fupernatural agency, enquires of the fpectre, in the most emphatick terms, why he breaks the order of nature, by returning from the dead; this he afks in a very confufed circumlocution, confounding in his fright the foul and body. Why, fays he, have thy bones, which with due ceremonies have been intombed in death, in the common ftate of departed mortals, burst the folds in which they were embalmed? Why has the tomb, in which we faw thee quietly laid, opened his mouth, that mouth which, by its weight and ftability, feemed closed for ever? The whole fentence is this: Why doft thou appear, whom we know to be dead? JOHNSON, By bearfed in death, the poet feems to mean, repofited and confined in the place of the dead. In his Rape of Lucrece he has again ufed this uncommon participle in nearly the fame fense: "Thy fea within a puddle's womb is bearfed, "And not the puddle in thy fea difperfed." MALONE. By the expreffion bearfed in death is meant, fhut up and secured with all those precautions which are usually practifed in preparing dead bodies for fepulture, fuch as the winding-fheet, fhrowd, coffin, &c. perhaps embalming into the bargain. So that death is here ufed, by a metonymy of the antecedent for the confequents, for the rites of death, |