and count myself a king of infinite space; were it not that I have bad dreams. GUIL. Which dreams, indeed, are ambition; for the very fubftance of the ambitious is merely the fhadow of a dream." HAM. A dream itfelf is but a fhadow. Ros. Truly, and I hold ambition of so airy and light a quality, that it is but a fhadow's fhadow. 8 HAM. Then are our beggars, bodies; and our monarchs, and outftretch'd heroes, the beggars' fhadows: Shall we to the court? for, by my fay, I cannot reason. Ros. GUIL. We'll wait upon you. HAM. No fuch matter: I will not fort you with the rest of my fervants; for, to speak to you like an honest man, I am most dreadfully attended.] But, in the beaten way of friendship, what make you at Elfinore? Ros. To vifit you, my lord; no other occafion. HAM. Beggar that I am, I am even poor in thanks; but I thank you: and fure, dear friends, my thanks are too dear, a halfpenny. Were you not fent for? 7- the Shadow of a dream.] Shakspeare has accidentally inverted an expreffion of Pindar, that the ftate of humanity is Exas vag, the dream of a fhadow. JOHNSON. So, Davies: "Man's life is but a dreame, nay, lefs than fo, So, in the tragedy of Darius, 1603, by Lord Sterline: STEEVENS. 8 Then are our beggars, bodies;] Shakspeare feems here to defign a ridicule of thofe declamations against wealth and greatness, that feem to make happinefs confift in poverty. JOHNSON. 9 — too dear, a halfpenny.] i. e. a half-penny too dear: they are worth nothing. The modern editors read-at a half-penny. MALONE. Is it your own inclining? Is it a free vifitation? Come, come; deal juftly with me: come, .come; nay, fpeak. GUIL. What fhould we fay, my lord? HAM. Any thing-but to the purpose. You were fent for; and there is a kind of confeffion in your looks, which your modefties have not craft enough to colour: I know, the good king and queen have fent for you. Ros. To what end, my lord? HAM. That you must teach me. But let me conjure you, by the rights of our fellowship, by the confonancy of our youth, by the obligation of our ever-preferved love, and by what more dear a better propofer could charge you withal, be even and direct with me, whether you were fent for, or no? Ros. What fay you? [To GUILDENSTERN. HAM. Nay, then I have an eye of you;' [Afide.]if you love me, hold not off. GUIL. My lord, we were fent for. Haм. I will tell you why; fo fhall my anticipation prevent your difcovery, and your fecrecy to the king and queen moult no feather. I have of late,' (but, wherefore, I know not,) lost all my mirth, forgone all custom of exercises: and, indeed, it goes fo heavily with my difpofition, that this goodly frame, the earth, feems to me a steril promontory; 2 Nay, then I have an eye of you;] An eye of you means, I have a glimpfe of your meaning. STEEVENS. 3 I bave of late, &c.] This is an admirable description of a rooted melancholy fprung from thicknefs of blood; and artfully imagined to hide the true caufe of his diforder from the penetration of these two friends, who were fet over him as spies. WARBURTON. this most excellent canopy, the air, look you, this brave o'erhanging firmament, this majestical roof fretted with golden fire,' why, it appears no other thing to me, than a foul and peftilent congregation of vapours. What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reafon! how infinite in faculties! in form, and moving, how exprefs and admirable! in action, how like an angel! in apprehenfion, how like a god! the beauty of the world! the paragon of animals! And yet, to me, what is this quinteffence of duft? man delights not me,-nor woman neither; though, by your fmiling, you feem to fay fo. Ros. My lord, there was no fuch stuff in my thoughts. HAM. Why did you laugh then, when I said, Man delights not me? Ros. To think, my lord, if you delight not in man, what lenten entertainment the players fhall receive from you: we coted them on the way;' and hither are they coming, to offer you service. 4this brave d'erhanging firmament,] Thus the quarto. The folio reads, this brave o'er-hanging, this, &c. STEEVENS. 5this most excellent canopy, the air,-this majestical roof fretted with golden fire,] So, in our author's 21ft Sonnet: "As thofe gold candles, fix'd in heaven's air.” Again, in The Merchant of Venice: 6 Look, how the floor of heaven "Is thick inlaid with patins of bright gold!" MALONE. lenten entertainment-] i. e. fparing, like the entertainments given in Lent. So, in The Duke's Mistress, by Shirley, 1631; to maintain you with bifket, 7 66 "Poor John, and half a livery, to read moral virtue we coted them on the way;] To cote is to overtake. I meet with this word in The Return from Parnaffus, a comedy, 1606: "marry we prefently coted and outftript them." HAM. He that plays the king, fhall be welcome; his majefty fhall have tribute of me: the adventurous knight fhall use his foil, and target: the lover fhall not figh gratis; the humorous man shall end his part in peace: the clown shall make those laugh, whofe lungs are tickled o'the fere; and the Again, in Golding's Ovid's Metamorphofis, 1587, Book II: "With that Hippomenes coted her." Again, in Warner's Albion's England, 1602, Book VI. chap. xxx: "Gods and goddesses for wantonness out-coted." Again, in Drant's tranflation of Horace's fatires, 1567: "For he that thinks to coat all men, and all to overgoe." Chapman has more than once used the word in his version of the 23d Iliad. See Vol. V. p. 276, n. 8. In the laws of courfing, fays Mr. Tollet, "a cote is when a greyhound goes endways by the fide of his fellow, and gives the hare a turn." This quotation feems to point out the etymology of the verb to be from the French coté, the fide. STEEVENS. 8 -fhall end his part in peace :] After these words the folio adds the clown hall make thofe laugh whofe lungs are tickled o'the fere. WARBURTON. 9 the clown hall make thofe laugh, whose lungs are tickled 'the fere;] i. e. thofe who are afthmatical, and to whom laughter is moft uneafy. This is the cafe (as I am told) with those whofe lungs are tickled by the fere or ferum: but about these words I am neither very confident, nor very folicitous. Will the following pallage in The Tempeft be of ufe to any future commentator? to minifter occafion to thefe gentlemen, who are of fuch fenfible and nimble lungs, that they always ufe to laugh at nothing." The word feare occurs as unintelligibly in an ancient Dialogue between the Comen Secretary anl Felowy, touchynge the unstablenes of Harlottes, bl. 1. no date: "And wyll byde whyfperynge in the eare, "Thynke ye her tayle is not light of the feare?" The fere is likewise a part about a hawk. STEEVENS. Thefe words are not in the quarto. I am by no means fatisfied with the explanation given, though I have nothing fatisfactory to propofe. I believe Hamlet only means, that the clown fhall make thofe laugh who have a difpofition to laugh; who are pleased with their entertainment. That no asthmatick difeafe was in contemplation, may be inferred from both the words ufed, tickled and lady fhall fay her mind freely, or the blank verse fhall halt for't.-What players are they? Ros. Even those you were wont to take fuch delight in, the tragedians of the city. HAM. How chances it, they travel?' their refidence, both in reputation and profit, was better both ways. Ròs. I think, their inhibition comes by the means of the late innovation.* lungs; each of which feems to have a relation to laughter, and the latter to have been confidered by Shakspeare, as (if I may fo exprefs myself,) its natural feat. So, in Coriolanus : 66 with a kind of fmile, "Which ne'er came from the lungs,—.” Again, in As you like it: When I did hear "The motley fool thus moral on the time, 66 My lungs began to crow like chanticleer." O'the fere, or of the fere, means, I think, by the fere; but the word Jere I am unable to explain, and fufpect it to be corrupt. Perhaps we should read-the clown shall make those laugh whofe lungs are tickled o'the scene, i. e. by the fcene. A fimilar corruption has happened in another place, where we find fcare for fcene. See Vol. III. p. 472, n. 4. MALONE. 2 the lady fall fay her mind &c.] The lady fhall have no obftruction, unless from the lameness of the verfe. JOHNSON. I think, the meaning is,-The lady fhall mar the measure of the verfe, rather than not exprefs herfelf freely or fully. HENDERSON. 3 How chances it, they travel? To travel, in Shakspeare's time was the technical word, for which we have fubftituted to ftroll. So, in the Office-book of Sir Henry Herbert, Master of the Revels to King Charles the First, a manufcript of which an account is given in Vol. II.: "1622. Feb. 17, for a certificate for the Palfgrave's fervants to travel into the country for fix weeks, 10s." Again, in Ben Jonson's Poetafter, 1601: "If he pen for thee once, thou shalt not need to travell, with thy pumps full of gravell, any more, after a blinde jade and a hamper, and stalk upon boords and barrel-heads to an old crackt trumpet." Thefe words are addreffed to a player. MALONE. 4 I think, their inhibition &c.] I fancy this is tranfpofed: Hamlet |