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HAM. O Jeptha, judge of Ifrael,-what a treasure hadft thou!

POL. What a treasure had he, my lord?

HAM. Why-One fair daughter, and no more,
The which he loved paffing well.

POL. Still on my daughter.

HAM. Am I not i'the right, old Jeptha?

[Afide.

POL. If you call me Jeptha, my lord, I have a daughter, that I love paffing well.

HAM. Nay, that follows not.

POL. What follows then, my lord?

HAM. Why, As by lot, God wot, and then, you

That urit is here ufed for writing, may be proved by the fol lowing paffage in Titus Andronicus:

"Then all too late I bring this fatal writ." STEEVENS. The old copies are certainly right. Writ is ufed for writing by authors contemporary with Shakspeare. Thus, in The Apologie of Pierce Pennileffe, by Thomas Nafhe, 1593: "For the lowfie circumftance of his poverty before his death, and fending that miferable writte to his wife, it cannot be but thou lieft, learned Gabriel." Again in Bishop Earle's Character of a mere dull Phyfician, 1638: Then followes a writ to his drugger, in a strange tongue, which he understands, though he cannot confter." Again, in King Henry VI. Part II:

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"Now, good my lord, let's fee the devil's writ."

MALONE.

8 Why, As by lot, God wot,-&c.] The old fong from which thefe quotations are taken, I communicated to Dr. Percy, who has honoured it with a place in the second and third editions of his Reliques of ancient English Poetry. In the books belonging to the Stationers' Company, there are two entries of this Ballad among others. "A ballet intituled the Songe of Jepthah's doughter" &c. 1567, Vol. I. fol. 162. Again, "Jeffa Judge of Ifrael," p. 93, Vol. III. Dec. 14, 1624,

This ftory was alfo one of the favourite fubjects of ancient Lapestry. STEEVENS.

There is a Latin tragedy on the fubject of Jeptha, by John

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know, It came to pass, As most like it was,-The first row of the pious chanfon will fhow you more; for look, my abridgment comes.

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Chriftopherfon in 1546, and another by Buchanan, in 1554. A third by Du Pleffis Mornay is mentioned by Prynne in his Hiftriomaftix. The fame fubject had probably been introduced on the English ftage. MALONE.

9the pious chanfon-] It is pons chanfors in the first folio edition. The old ballads fung on bridges, and from thence called Pons chanfons. Hamlet is here repeating ends of old fongs.

POPE.

It is pons chanfons in the quarto too. I know not whence the rubrick has been brought, yet it has not the appearance of an arbitrary addition. The titles of old ballads were never printed red; but perhaps rubrick may stand for marginal explanation.

JOHNSON.

There are five large volumes of ballads in Mr. Pepys's collection in Magdalen College library, Cambridge, fome as ancient as Henry VII's reign, and not one red letter upon any one of the titles. GREY.

The words, of the rubrick were first inferted by Mr. Rowe, in his edition in 1709. The old quartos in 1604, 1605, and 1611, read pious chanfon, which gives the fenfe wanted, and I have accordingly inferted it in the text.

The pious chanfons were a kind of Christmas carols, containing fome fcriptural hiftory thrown into loose rhymes, and fung about the streets by the common people when they went at that feafon to folicit alms. Hamlet is here repeating fome fcraps from a fong of this kind, and when Polonius enquires what follows them, he refers him to the first row (i. e. divifion) of one of these, to obtain the information he wanted. STEEVENS.

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my abridgment] He calls the players afterwards, the brief chronicles of the times; but I think he now means only those who will shorten my talk. JOHNSON.

An abridgment is ufed for a dramatick piece in the Midfummer Night's Dream, A&t V. fc. i:

"Say what abridgment have you for this evening?" but it does not commodiously apply to this paffage. See Vol. V. P. 142, n. 4. STEEVENS.

Enter four or five Players.

You are welcome, mafters; welcome, all:-I am glad to see thee well:-welcome, good friends.— O, old friend! Why, thy face is valanced3 since I faw thee laft; Com'st thou to beard me in Denmark?—What! my young lady and mistress! By-'rlady, your ladyship is nearer to heaven, than when I faw you laft, by the altitude of a chopine.' Pray

3thy face is valanced-] i. e. fringed with a beard. The valance is the fringes or drapery hanging round the tester of a bed. MALONE.

Dryden in one of his prologues or epilogues has the following line:

"Criticks in plume, and white valancy wig." STEEVENS, The folios read valiant, which feems right. The comedian was probably "bearded like the pard." RITSON.

to beard me-] To beard, anciently fignified to fet at defiance. So, in King Henry IV. P. I:

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"No man fo potent breathes upon the ground,

"But I will beard him."

STEEVENS.

by the altitude of a chopine.] A chioppine is a high fhoe, or rather, a clog, worn by the Italians, as in Tho. Heywood's Challenge of Beauty, A&t V. Song:

The Italian in her high chopeene,

"Scotch lafs, and lovely froe too;
"The Spanish Donna, French Madame,
"He doth not feare to go to."

So, in Ben Jonfon's Cynthia's Revels:

"I do wish myself one of my miftrefs's cioppini." Another demands, why would he be one of his mistress's cioppini? a third anfwers," because he would make her higher."

Again, in Decker's Match me in London, 1631: "I'm only taking inftructions to make her a lower chopeene; fhe finds fault that he's lifted too high."

Again, in Chapman's Cafar and Pompey, 1613:

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and thou fhalt

"Have chopines at commandement to an height
"Of life thou canst wish."

God, your voice, like a piece of uncurrent gold, be not crack'd within the ring.'-Mafters, you are

See the figure of a Venetian courtezan among the Habiti Antichi &c. di Cefare Vecellio, p. 114, edit. 1598; and (as Mr. Ritfon obferves) among the Diverfarum Nationum Habitus, Padua, 1592. STEEVENS.

Tom Coryat in his Crudities, 1611, p. 262, calls them chapineys, and gives the following account of them: "There is one thing ufed of the Venetian women, and fome others dwelling in the cities and townes fubject to the figniory of Venice, that is not to be obferved (I thinke) amongft any other women in Christendome : which is fo common in Venice, that no woman whatsoever goeth without it, either in her house or abroad, a thing made of wood and covered with leather of fundry colors, fome with white, fome redde, fome yellow. It is called a chapiney, which they wear under their Shoes. Many of them are curioufly painted; fome alfo of them I have feen fairely gilt: fo uncomely a thing (in my opinion) that it is pitty this foolish cuftom is not cleane banished and exterminated out of the citie. There are many of these chapineys of a great height even half a yard high, which maketh many of their women that are very short, feeme much taller than the tallest women we have in England. Alfo I have heard it obferved among them, that by how much the nobler a woman is, by fo much the higher are her chapineys. All their gentlewomen and most of their wives and widowes that are of any wealth, are affifted and supported eyther by men or women, when they walke abroad, to the end they may not fall. They are borne up most commonly by the left arme, otherwise they might quickly take a fall." REED.

Again, in Marfton's Dutch Courtezan, 1605: "Doft not weare 'high corked fhoes, chopines?"

The word ought rather to be written chapine, from chapin, Span. which is defined by Mintheu in his Spanish Dictionary," a high cork foe." There is no fynonymous word in the Italian language, though the Venetian ladies, as we are told by Laffels, "wear high heel'd fhoes, like ftilts," &c. MALONE.

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be not crack'd within the ring.] That is, crack'd too much for ufe. This is faid to a young player who acted the parts of women. JOHNSON.

I find the fame phrafe in The Captain, by Beaumont and Fletcher:

"Come to be married to my lady's woman,
"After fhe's crack'd in the ring."

Again, in Ben Jonfon's Magnetick Lady:

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Light gold, and crack'd within the ring.”

all welcome. We'll e'en to't like French falconers, fly at any thing we fee: We'll have a speech ftraight; Come, give us a tafte of your quality; come, a paffionate speech.

I PLAY. What speech, my lord?

HAM. I heard thee 'fpeak me a speech once,but it was never acted; or, if it was, not above once for the play, I remember, pleased not the million; 'twas caviare to the general: but it was

Again, in Ram-Alley, or Merry Tricks, 1611: "not a penny the worfe

"For a little ufe, whole within the ring,"

Again, in Decker's Honeft Whore, 1635: "You will not let my oaths be crack'd in the ring, will you?" STEEVENS.

The following paffage in Lyly's Woman in the Moon, 1597, as well as that in Fletcher's Captain, might lead us to fuppofe that this phrafe fometimes conveyed a wanton allufion: "Well, if the were twenty grains lighter, refufe her, provided always she be not clipt within the ring," T. C.

—like French falconers,] The amusement of falconry was much cultivated in France. In All's well that ends well, Shakspeare has introduced an aftringer or falconer at the French court. Mr. Tollet, who has mentioned the fame circumftance, likewise adds that it is faid in Sir Thomas Browne's Tracts, p. 116, that "the French feem to have been the first and nobleft falconers in the western part of Europe;" and, that the French king fent over his falconers to fhow that sport to king James the First." See Weldon's Court of King James. STEEVENS.

-like French falconers,] Thus the folio. Quarto:-like friendly falconers. MALONE.

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7 — caviare to the general:] Giles Fletcher in his Ruffe Commonwealth, 1591, p. 11, fays in Ruffia they have divers kinds of fifh very good and delicate: as the Bellouga & Bellougina of four or five elnes long, the Ofitrina & Sturgeon, but not fo thick nor long. These four kind of fish breed in the Wolgha and are catched in great plenty, and ferved thence into the whole realme for a good food. Of the roes of these four kinds they make very great ftore of Icary or Caveary." See alfo Mr. Ritfon's Remarks &c. on Shakspeare, (edit. 1778,) p. 199. REED.

Ben Jonfon has ridiculed the introduction of thefe foreign deli

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