both at the first, and now, was, and is, to hold as 'twere the mirrour up to nature; to fhew virtue her own feature, fcorn her own image, and the very age and body of the time2, his form and preffure 3. Now this, over-done, or come tardy off, though it make the unkilful laugh, cannot but make the judicious grieve; the cenfure of which one, muft, in your allowance, o'er-weigh a whole theatre of others. O, there be players, that I have feen play, and heard others 2 praise, age and body of the time,-] To exhibit the form and pressure of the age of the time, is, to reprefent the manners of the time fuitable to the period that is treated of, according as it may be ancient, or modern. STEEVENS. Dr. Johnson says, "the age of the time can hardly pass.” Mr. Steevens has endeavoured to explain it. But perhaps Shakspeare did not mean to connect these words. It is the end of playing, fays Hamlet, to fhew the age in which we live, and the body of the time, its form and preffure to delineate exactly the manners of the age, and the particular humour of the day. MALONE. 3- preure-] Refemblance, as in a print. JOHNSON. 4-the cenfure of which one, &c.] Ben Jonfon feems to have imitated this paffage in his Poetafter, 1601; 5 $6- I will try "If tragedy have a more kind aspect; "Where if I prove the pleasure but of one, in your allowance,] In your approbation. P. 570, n. 3. MALONE. See Vol. VIII. O, there be players, &c.] I would read thus: "There be players, that I have feen play, and heard others praise, and that highly (not to fpeak profanely) that neither having the accent nor the gait of chriftian, pagan, nor Muffulman, have fo ftrutted and bellowed, that I thought fome of nature's journeymen had made the men, and not made them well," &c. FARMER. I have no doubt that our authour wrote-" that I thought fome of nature's journeymen had made them, and not made them well," &c. Them and men are frequently confounded in the old copies. See the Comedy of Errors, A&t. II. fc. ii. folio, 1623:-" because it is a bleffing that he bestows on beafts, and what he hath fcanted them [r. men] in hair, he hath given them in wit."-In the prefent inftance the compofitor probably caught the word man from the last syllable of journeymen. Shakspeare could not mean to affert as a general truth, that nature's journeymen had made men, i. e. all mankind; for, t praise, and that highly,-not to speak it profanely 7, that, neither having the accent of chriftians, nor the gait of christian, pagan, nor man, have so strutted, and bellow'd, that I have thought fome of nature's journeymen had made men, and not made them well, they imitated humanity fo abominably. 1. Play. I hope, we have reform'd that indifferently with us. Ham. O, reform it altogether. And let thofe, that play your clowns, fpeak no more than is fet down for them for there be of them, that will themselves laugh, for, if that were the cafe, thefe ftrutting players would have been on a footing with the reft of the fpecies. Nature herfelf, the poet means to say, made all mankind except thefe ftrutting players, and they were made by Nature's journeymen. A paffage in King Lear, in which we meet with the fame fentiment, in my opinion, fully fupports the emendation now proposed: "Kent. Nature difclaims in THEE, a tailor made THEE. "Corn. Thou art a ftrange fellow: A tailor make a man! "Kent. Ay, a tailor, fir; a ftone-cutter or a painter [Nature's journeymen] could not have made bim fo ill, though he had been but two hours at the trade." MALONE. 7 not to speak it profanely-] Profanely feems to relate, not to the praise which he has mentioned, but to the cenfure which he is about to utter. Any grofs or indelicate language was called profane. JOHNSON, So, in Othello" he is a moft profane and liberal counsellor." MALONES 8-Speak no more than is fet down for them :] So, in The Antipodes, by Brome, 1638: "you, fir, are incorrigible, and "Take licence to yourself to add unto "Your parts, your own free fancy," &c. "That is a way, my lord, has been allow'd "Yes, in the days of Tariton, and of Kempe, "Before the ftage was purg'd from barbarifm," &c. Stowe informs us, (p. 697, edit. 1615,) that among the twelve players who were fworn the queen's fervants in 1583, "were two rare men, viz. Thomas Wilfon, for a quicke delicate refined extemporall witt; and Richard Tarleton, for a wondrous plentifull, pleasant extemporall witt," &c. Again, in Tarleton's Newes from Purgatory: -I abfented my 1 felf from all plaies, as wanting that merrye Rofcius of plaiers that famofed all comedies fo with his pleafant and extemporall invenion." STEEVENS. The laugh, to fet on fome quantity of barren fpectators to laugh too; though, in the mean time, fome neceffary queftion of the play be then to be confidered: that's villainous; and fhews a moft pitiful ambition in the fool that ufes it. Go, make you ready. [Exeunt Players. Enter POLONIUS, ROSENCRANTZ, and GUILDEN STERN. How now, my lord? will the king hear this piece of work? Pol. And the queen too, and that presently. Ham. Bid the players make hafte.-[Exit POLONIUS. Will you two help to haften them? Both. Ay, my lord. Ham. What, ho; Horatio! [Exeunt Ros. and GUIL. Enter HORATIO, Hor. Here, fweet lord, at your service. Ham. Horatio, thou art e'en as just a man As e'er my converfation cop'd withal. Hor. O, my dear lord,— Ham. Nay, do not think I flatter: For what advancement may I hope from thee, To feed, and cloath thee? Why fhould the poor be flat. ter'd? No, let the candy'd tongue lick abfurd pomp ; And crook the pregnant hinges of the knee, The clown very often addreffed the audience, in the middle of the play, and entered into a contest of raillery and farcafm with fuch of the audience as chofe to engage with him. It is to this abfurd practice that Shakspeare alludes. See the Hiftorical Account of our old English Theatres. Vol. I. Part II. MALONE. the pregnant binges of the knee,] I believe the fenfe of pregmant in this place is, quick, ready, prompt. JOHNSON. 1 - my dear foul- Dear foul is an expreflion equivalent to the pida yuvala, pidov Tog, of Homer. STEEVENS, She She hath feal'd thee for herself2: for thou hast been As Vulcan's ftithy 5. Give him heedful note: And, after, we will both our judgments join Hor. Well, my lord: If he fteal aught, the whilft this play is playing, Ham. They are coming to the play; I must be idle: Get you a place. > She hath fear'd thee for herself:] Thus the quarto. The folio reads: And could of men diftinguish, her election Hatb feal'd thee for herself. MALONE. 3 Whofe blood and judgment-] According to the doctrine of the four humours, defire and confidence were feated in the blood, and judgment in the phlegm, and the due mixture of the humours made a perfect character. JOHNSON. 4-co-mingled,] Thus the folio. The quarto reads-comedled; which had formerly the fame meaning. MALONE. 5-Vulcan's ftithy.] Stitby is a fmith's anvil. JOHNSON. So, in Troilus and Creffida: "Now by the forge that fitbied Mars's helm." So, in Greene's Card of Fancy, 1608:-" determined to ftrike on the fith while the iron was hot," STEEVENS, 1 Danish march. A flourish. Enter King, Queen, POLONIUS, OPHELIA, ROSENCRANTZ, GUILDENSTERN, and Others. King. How fares our coufin Hamlet? Ham. Excellent, i' faith; of the camelion's difh: I eat the air, promife-cramm'd: You cannot feed capons fo. King. I have nothing with this anfwer, Hamlet; these words are not mine. Ham. No, nor mine now. My lord, you play'd once in the univerfity, you fay? [to Polonius. Pol. 6 - nor mine now.] A man's words, fays the proverb, are his own no longer than he keeps them unfpoken. JOHNSON. 7 -you play'd once in the univerfity,] The practice of acting Latin plays in the univerfities of Oxford and Cambridge, is very ancient, and continued to near the middle of the laft century. They were performed occafionally for the entertainment of princes and other great perfonages; and regularly at Christmas, at which time a Lord of mifrule was appointed at Oxford, to regulate the exhibitions, and a fimilar officer with the title of Imperator, at Cambridge. The moft celebrated actors at Cambridge were the students of St. John's and King's colleges: at Oxford, thofe of Christ-Church. In the hall of that college a Latin comedy called Marcus Geminus, and the Latin tragedy of Progne, were performed before Queen Elizabeth in the year 1566; and in 1564, the Latin tragedy of Dido was played before her majefty, when the vifited the univerfity of Cambridge. The exhibition was in the body or nave of the chapel of King's college, which was lighted by the royal guards, each of whom bore a stafftorch in his hand. See Peck's Defider. Cur. p. 36. n. x. The actors in this piece were all of that college. The authour of the tragedy, who in the Latin account of this royal vifit, in the Museum, [MSS. Baker, 7037, p. 203,] is faid to have been Regalis Collegii olim focius, was, I believe, John Rightwife, who was elected a fellow of King's college, in 1507, and according to Anthony Wood, "made the tragedy of Dido out of Virgil, and acted the fame with the scholars of his fchool, [St. Paul's, of which he was appointed master in 1522,] before Cardinal Wolfey with great applaufe." In 1583, the fame play was performed at Oxford, in Chrift-Church hall, before Albertus de Alafco, a Polish prince Palatine, as was William Gager's Latin comedy, entitled Rivales. On Elizabeth's fecond vifit to Oxford, in 1592, a few years before the writing of the prefent play, the was entertained on the 24th and 26th of September, with the reprefenta |