Hamlet comes back; What would you undertake, Laer. To cut his throat i' the church. King. No place, indeed, fhould murder fanctuarize; The Frenchman gave you; bring you, in fine, together, Requite late quarto, (which however is of no authority,) printed in 1611. That a figh, if it confumes the blood, burts us by eafing, or is prejudicial to us on the whole, though it affords a temporary relief, is fufficiently clear: but the former part of the line, and then this fhould, may require a little explanation. I fuppofe the king means to fay, that if we do not promptly execute what we are convinced we should or ought to do, we shall afterwards in vain repent our not having feized the fortunate moment for action: and this opportunity which we have let go by us, and the reflection that we should have done that, which, from fupervening accidents, it is no longer in our power to do, is as prejudicial and painful to us as a blood-confuming figh, that at once hurts and cafes us. I apprehend the poet meant to compare fuch a conduct, and the confequent reflection, only to the pernicious quality which he supposed to be annexed to fighing, and not to the temporary ease which it affords. His fimiles, as I have frequently had occafion to obferve, feldom run on four feet. MALONE. 3-be being remifs,] He being not vigilant or cautious. JOHNSON. 4 Afword unbated,-] Not blunted, as foils are by a button fixed to the end. So in Love's Labour's Loft: "That honour, which shall bate his fcythe's keen edge." MALONE. In Sir Thomas North's Tranflation of Plutarch, it is faid of one of the Metelli, that "he fhewed the people the cruel fight of fencers at unrebated fwords." STEEVENS. 5- a pass of practice,] Practice is often by Shakspeare, and other writers, taken for an infidious ftratagem, or privy treafon, a sense not incongruous Requite him for your father. Laer. I will do't: And, for the purpose, I'll anoint my fword. King. Let's further think of this; Weigh, what convenience, both of time and means, And that our drift look through our bad performance, When in your motion you are hot and dry, (As make your bouts more violent to that end,) And that he calls for drink, I'll have preferr'd him A chalice for the nonce; whereon but fipping, incongruous to this paffage, where yet I rather believe, that nothing more is meant than a tbrust for exercife. JOHNSON. So, in Look about you, 1600: "I pray God there be no practice in this change." Again, more appofitely in our author's Twelfth Night, A& V. Sc. ult. "This practife hath most shrewdly pass'd upon thee.” STEEV. 6 May fit us to our shape :-] May enable us to affume proper characers, and to act our part. JOHNSON. 7-blaft in proof.] This, I believe, is a metaphor taken from a mine, which, in the proof or execution, fometimes breaks out with an ineffectual blaft. JOHNSON. The word proof fhews the metaphor to be taken from the trying or proving fire-arms or cannon, which often blaft or burft in the proof. STEEVENS. 8 — I'll have preferr'd bim-] i. e. prefented to him. Thus the quarto, 1604. The word indeed is mispelt, prefard. The folio reads -I'll have prepar'd him. MALONE. If he by chance escape your venom'd stuck, Our purpose may hold there. But ftay, what noise? Enter Queen. How now, fweet queen * ? Queen. One woe doth tread upon another's heel, So faft they follow:-Your fifter's drown'd, Laertes. Laer. Drown'd! O, where? Queen. There is a willow grows afcaunt the brook 3, That fhews his hoar leaves in the glaffy ftream; Therewith fantastick garlands did the make Of crow-flowers, nettles, daifies, and long purples 4, That 9-your venom'd ftuck,] Your venom'd thrust. Stuck was a term of the fencing-fchool. So, in Twelfth Night: "and he gives me the fuck with such a mortal motion,-," Again, in The Return from Parnaffus, 1606: "Here is a fellow, Judicio, that carried the deadly focke in his pen."-See Florio's Italian Dictionary, 1598: "Stoccata, a foyne, a thruft, a foccado given in fence." MALONE. - But ftay, what noise ?] I have recovered this from the quartos. STEEVENS. 1 How now faveet queen ?] These words are not in the quarto. The word now, which appears to have been omitted by the carelefinefs of the tranfcriber or compofitor, was fupplied by the editor of the fecond folio. MALONE. 2 One woe doth tread upon another's beel,] A fimilar thought occurs. in Pericles Prince of Tyre, 1609: "One forrow never comes, but brings an heir, "That may fucceed as his inheritor." STEEVENS. Again, in Drayton's Mortimeriados, 4to, 1596: miferies, which feldom come alone, "Thick on the neck one of another fell." Again, in Shakspeare's 131ft fonnet: 3 "A thoufand groans, but thinking on thy fall, "One on another's neck,-." MALONE. afcaunt the brook,] Thus the quartos. The folio reads, ajlant. Afcaunce is interpreted in the Gloffary to Chaucer-afkew, afide, fideways. STEEVENS. 4- and long purples,] By long purple is meant a plant, the modern botanical name of which is orchis morio mas, anciently tefticulus morionis. The groffer name by which it paffes, is fufficiently known in many parts of England, and particularly in the county where Shakfpeare lived. Thus far Mr. Warner. Mr. Collins adds, that in Suffex it is ftill called dead men's hands; and that in Lyte's Herbal, 1578, its various names, too grofs for repetition, are preferved. STEEVENS. One of the groffer names of this plant Gertrude had a particular reafon to avoid the rampant widow. Liberal is free-fpoken, licen That liberal fhepherds give a groffer name, Or like a creature native and indu'd Unto that element: but long it could not be, Laer. tious 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: Next that, the fame 66 "Of your neglect, and liberal-talking tongue, "Which breeds my honour an eternal wrong." MALONE. 5 Which time, fhe chaunted fnatches of old tunes;] Fletcher, in his Scornful Lady, very injudiciously ridicules this incident: WARBURTON. "I will run mad first, and if that get not pity, "I'll drown myself to a moft difmal ditty," The quartos read- fnatches of old lauds," i. e. bymns. STEEVENS. 6 As one incapable of her own diftrefs,] As one having no underfanding or knowledge of her danger. See p. 339, n. 8. MALONE. like a creature native and indu'd 7 Unto that element.] As we are indued with certain original dif pofitions and propenfities at our birth, Shakspeare here ufes indued with great licentioufnefs, for formed by nature; clothed, endowed, or furnished, with properties fuited to the element of water. Our old writers ufed indued and endowed indifcriminately. "To indue," fays Mintheu in his Dictionary, "fepiffime refertur ad dotes animo infufas, quibus nimirum ingenium alicujus imbutum et initiatum eft, unde et G. inftruire cft. L. imbuere. Imbuere proprie eft inchoare et initiari." In Cotgrave's French Dictionary, 1611, inftruire is interpreted, "to fashion, to furnish with." MALONE. 8 To muddy deatb.] In the firft fcene of the next act we find Ophelia buried with fuch rites as betoken fhe foredid her own life. Shakfpeare, Mr. Mafon has obferved, "feems to have forgotten himfelf in the fpeech before us, for there is not a fingle circumftance in this relation of her death, that induces us to think the had drowned herself intentionally." But it should be remembered, that the account here given, is that of a friend; and that the queen could not poffibly know what Laer. Alas then, fhe is drown'd? Queen. Drown'd, drown'd. Laer. Too much of water haft thou, poor Ophelia, And therefore I forbid my tears: But yet It is our trick; nature her custom holds, Let fhame fay what it will: when these are gone, I have a fpeech of fire; that fain would blaze, King. Let's follow, Gertrude : How much I had to do to calm his rage! À CT V. [Exit. [Exeunt. SCENE 1. A Church-yard. Enter two Clowns, with Spades, &c. 1. Clown. Is the to be bury'd in christian burial, that wilfully feeks her own falvation? 2. Clown. I tell thee, fhe is; therefore, make her grave ftraight: the crowner hath fet on her, and finds it chriftian burial. 1. Clown. what paffed in the mind of Ophelia, when he placed herself in fo perilous a fituation. After the facts had been weighed and confidered, the prieft in the next act pronounces, that ber death was doubtful. MALONE 9 The woman will be out.] i. e. tears will flow. So, in K. Henry V. "And all the woman came into my eyes." MALONE. that fain would blaze, But that this folly drowns it.] Thus the quarto, 1604. The folio reads-But that this folly doubts it, i. e, douts, or extinguishes it. See p. 221, n. 6. MALONE. 2 - make ber grave ftraight:] Make her grave from east to west in a direct line parallel to the church; not from north to fouth, athwart the regular line. This, I think, is meant. JOHNSON. I cannot think that this means any more than make ber grave im mediately. She is to be buried in christian burial, and confequently the grave is to be made as ufual. My interpretation may be juftified from the following paffages in K. Henry V. and the play before us: "We cannot lodge and board a dozen or fourteen gentlewomen, who live by the prick of their needles, but it will be thought we keep a bawdy-houfe ftraight." |