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baker's daughter. Lord, we know what we are, but know not what we may be. God be at your table! King. Conceit upon her father.

Oph. Pray, let us have no words of this; but when
they ask you, what it means, fay you this:
To-morrow is Saint Valentine's day,
All in the morning betime,

And I a maid at your window,
To be your Valentine :

Then up he rofe, and donn'd his cloaths",
And dupp'd the chamber door2;

Let in the maid, that out a maid
Never departed more.

King.

So Sir John Grey, in a letter in Ashmole's Appendix to his Account of the Garter, Numb. 46: "The king of his gracious lordshipe, God yeld him, hafe chofen me to be owne of his brethrene of the knyghts of the garter." THEOBALD.

See Vol. IV. p. 302, n. 9. MALONE.

8the owl was a baker's daughter.] This was a metamorphofis of the common people, arifing from the mealy appearance of the owl's feathers, and her guarding the bread from mice. WARBURTON.

To guard the bread from mice, is rather the office of a cat than an owl. In barns and ganaries, indeed, the fervices of the orul are fill acknowledged. This was, however, no metamorphofis of the common people, but a legendary ftery, which both Dr. Johnfon and myself have read, yet in what book at least I cannot recollect.-Our Saviour being refufed bread by the daughter of a baker, is defcribed as punishing her by turning her into an owl. STEEVENS.

9 Saint Valentine's day,] There is a rural tradition that about this time of year birds choose their mates. Bourne in his Antiquities of the Common People, obferves, that "it is a ceremony never omitted among the vulgar, to draw lots, which they term Valentines, on the eve before Valentine-day. The names of a felect number of one sex are by an equal number of the other put into fome veffel; and after that every one draws a name, which for the prefent is called their Valentine, and is alfo look'd upon as a good omen of their being man and wife afterwards." Mr. Brand adds, that he has "fearched the Legend of St. Valentine, but thinks there is no occurrence in his life, that could have given rife to this ceremony." MALONE.

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donn'd bis cloaths,] To don, is to do on, to put on, as doff is to do off, put off. STEEVENS.

JOHNSON.

2 And dupp'd the chamber-door ;] To dup, is to do up; to lift the latch. It were eafy to write, And op'd To dup, was a common contraction of to do up.

So, in Damon and
Pythias,

King. Pretty Ophelia !

Oph. Indeed, without an oath, I'll make an end on't.
By Gis, and by Saint Charity3,
Alack, and fie for fhame!

Young men will do't, if they come to't ;
By cock, they are to blame.
Quoth fhe, before you tumbled me,
You promis'd me to wed:
[He answers 5.]

So would I ha' done, by yonder fun,
An thou hadst not come to my bed.

King. How long hath the been thus ?

Oph. I hope, all will be well. We must be patient : but I cannot choose but weep, to think, they should lay

Pytbias, 1582: "the porters are drunk; will they not dup the gate to-day?"

Lord Surrey, in his tranflation of the fecond Æneid, renders Panduntur porta, "The gates caft up, we iffued out to play." The phrafe feems to have been adopted either from doing up the latch, or drawing up the portcullis.

It appears from Martin Mark-all's Apologie to the Bel-man of London, 1610, that in the cant of gypfies, &c. Dup the gigger, fignified to open the doore. STEEVENS.

3 By Gis, and by Saint Charity,] Saint Charity is a known faint among the Roman Catholics. Spenter mentions her, Eclog. V. 255: "Ah dear lord, and fweet Saint Charity !"

I find, by Giffe, ufed as an adjuration, both by Gafcoigne in his Poems, by Prefton in his Cambyfes, and in K. Edward III. 1599:

"By Gis, fair lords, ere many daies be paft," &c. STEEVENS. In the fcene between the baftard Faulconbridge and the friers and nunne in the first part of The troublefome Raigne of King John, (edit. 1779, p. 256, &c.) the nunne fwears by Gis, and the friers pray to Saint Witbold, (another obfolete faint mentioned in K. Lear, Act III.) and adjure him by Saint Charitie to hear them. BLACKSTONE.

By Gis-There is not the leaft mention of any faint whofe name correfponds with this, either in the Roman Calendar, the fervice in Ufum Sarum, or in the Benedictionary of Bishop Athelwold. I believe the word to be only a corrupted abbreviation of Jefus, the letters J. H. S. being anciently all that was fet down to denote that facred name, on altars, the covers of books, &c. RIDLEY.

4 By cock,-] This is likewife a corruption of the facred name. Many inftances of it are given in a note at the beginning of the fifth Act of the Second Part of K. Henry IV. STEEVENS.

5 He answers.] These words I have added from the quartos.

STEEVENS.

him i' the cold ground: My brother fhall know of it, and fo I thank you for your good counfel. Come, my coach! Good night, ladies; good night, fweet ladies: good night, good night.

you.

[Exit.

King. Follow her clofe; give her good watch, I pray [Exit Horatio. O! this is the poifon of deep grief; it fprings All from her father's death: And now behold, O Gertrude, Gertrude,

When forrows come, they come not fingle fpies,
But in battalions! First, her father flain;

Next, your fon gone; and he most violent author

Of his own juft remove: The people muddy'd,
Thick and unwholefome in their thoughts, and whispers,
For good Polonius' death; and we have done but greenly',
In hugger-mugger to enter him: Poor Ophelia
Divided from herfelf, and her fair judgment;
Without the which we are pictures, or mere beafts.
Laft, and as much containing as all these,

Her

6 Come, my coach! Good night, ladies;] In Marlowe's Tambur laine, 1590, Zabina in her frenzy ufes the fame expreffion: "Hell, make ready my coach, my chair, my jewels. I come, I come." MALONE. but greenly,] But unfkilfully; with greennefs; that is, without maturity of judgment. JOHNSON.

7

8 In hugger-mugger to enter bim :-] All the modern editions that I have confulted, give it,

In private to enter bim z—

That the words now replaced are better, I do not undertake to prove; it is fufficient that they are Shakspeare's: if phrafeology is to be changed as words grow uncouth by difufe, or grofs by vulgarity, the history of every language will be loft; we fhall no longer have the words of any author; and, as thefe alterations will be often unskilfully made, we shall in time have very little of his meaning. JOHNSON.

On this juft obfervation I ground the restoration of a grofs and unpleafing word in a preceding paffage, for which Mr. Pope fubftituted groan. See p. 290, n. 3. The alteration in the prefent inftance was made by the fame editor. MALONE.

Shakspeare probably took the expreffion from the following paffage in Sir T. North's tranflation of Plutarch." Antonius thinking that his body should be honourably buried, and not in bugger-mugger." It is ufed in Hartington's Arifto:

"So that it might be done in bugger-mugger."

It appears from Greene's Groundwork of Coneycatching, 1592, that to bugger, was to lurk about. STEEVENS.

The

Her brother is in fecret come from France:
Feeds on his wonder, keeps himself in clouds,
And wants not buzzers to infect his ear
With peftilent fpeeches of his father's death;
Wherein neceffity, of matter beggar'd',
Will nothing stick our perfon to arraign
In ear and ear. O my dear Gertrude, this,
Like to a murdering-piece, in many places
Gives me fuperfluous death!

[A noife within. Queen. Alack! what noife is this 3?

Enter a Gentleman.

King. Attend. Where are my Switzers? Let them guard the door:

What is the matter?

The meaning of the expreffion is afcertained by Florio's Italian Dictionary, 1598: "Dinafcofo, Secretly, hiddenly, in bugger-mugger." MALONE

9 Feeds on bis wonder,-] The folio reads-Keeps on bis wonder,-. The quarto,-Feeds on this wonder. Thus the true reading is picked out from between them. Hanmer reads unneceffarily,-Feeds on bis anger. JOHNSON.

Wherein neceffity, &c.] Wherein, that is, in which peftilent Speeches, neceffity, or, the obligation of an accuser to fupport bis charge, will notbing flick, &c. JOHNSON.

2 Like to a murdering-piece, &c.] Dr. Warburton thought that by a murdering-piece was meant "fuch a piece as affaffins ufe, with many barrels"; and Mr. Steevens conceived, that this explanation was justified by the following paffage in The Double Marriage of B. and Fletcher: "And, like a murdering piece, aims not at one, "But all that stand within the dangerous level."

But Dr. Warburton was certainly mistaken. A murdering-piece was the fpecifick term in Shakspeare's time, for a piece of ordnance, or fmall cannon. The word is found in Coles's Latin Dictionary, 1679, and rendered, " tormentum murale."

The fmall cannon, which are, or were, ufed in the forecastle, halfdeck, or steerage of a fhip of war, were within this century called murdering-pieces. MALONE.

3 Alack! &c.] This speech of the Queen is omitted in the quartos. STEEVENS.

Where are my Switzers?] I have obferved in many of our old plays, that the guards attendant on kings are called Switzers, and that without any regard to the country where the scene is laid. REED.

The reafon is, becaufe the Swifs in the time of our poet, as at prefent, were hired to fight the battles of other nations. So, in Nashe's Chrift's Teares over Jerufalem, 4to, 1594: "Law, logicke, and the Switzers, may be hired to fight for any body." MALONE.

Gen.

Gen. Save yourself, my lord;

The ocean, over-peering of his lift 4,

Eats not the flats with more impetuous hafte,
Than young Laertes, in a riotous head,

O'er-bears your officers! The rabble call him, lord;
And, as the world were now but to begin,
Antiquity forgot, cuftom not known,
The ratifiers and props of every word,
They cry, Choofe we; Laertes fhall be king!
Caps, hands, and tongues, applaud it to the clouds,
Laertes fhall be king, Laertes king!

Queen. How cheerfully on the falfe trail they cry!
O, this is counter, you falfe Danish dogs.

4 The ocean over-peering of bis lift,] Lift, in this place, fignifies boundary, i. e. the shore. So, in K. Henry IV. P. I.:

The very lift, the very utmost bound

"Of all our fortunes."

The felvage of cloth was in both places, I believe, in our authour's thoughts. MALONE.

5 The ratifiers and props of every word,] Sir T. Hanmer would tranfpofe this line and the next. Dr. Warburton propofes to read, ward, and Dr. Johnson, weal, instead of word. I should be rather for reading, work. TYR WHITT.

In the first folio there is only a comma at the end of the above line; and will not the paffage bear this conftruction?-The rabble call him lord; and, as if the world were now but to begin, and as if the ancient custom of hereditary fucceffion were unknown, they, the ratifiers and props of every word be utters, cry, Let us make choice, that Laertes hall be king. TOLLET.

This conftruction might certainly be admitted, and the ratifiers and props of every word might be understood to be applied to the rabble mentioned in a preceding line, without Hanmer's tranfpofition of this and the following line; but there is no authority for what Mr. Tollet adds, "of every word be [i. e. Laertes] utters," for the poet has not defcribed Laertes as having uttered a word. If therefore the rabble are called the ratifiers and props of every word, we must understand, "of every word uttered by themselves" which is fo tame, that it would be unjust to our poet to fuppofe that to have been his meaning. Ratifiers, &c. refer not to the people, but to custom and antiquity, which the fpeaker fays are the true ratifiers and props of every word. The laft word however of the line may well be fufpected to be corrupt; and Mr. Tyrwhitt has probably fuggefted the true reading. MALONE.

60, this is counter, you falfe Danish dogs.] Hounds run counter when they trace the trail backwards. JOHNSON.

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