And makes us rather bear thofe ills we have, Is ficklied o'er with the pale caft of thought; OPH. Good my lord, the region from whence he came, being, as he has himself informed us, "forbid to tell the fecrets of his prifon-house." Marlowe, before our poet, had compared death to a journey to an undiscovered country: weep not for Mortimer, "That scorns the world, and, as a traveller, King Edward II. 1598 (written before 1593). MALONE. Perhaps this is another inftance of Shakspeare's acquaintance with his Bible: "Afore I goe thither, from whence I shall not turne againe, even to the lande of darkeneffe and fhadowe of death; yea into that darke cloudie lande and deadlye fhadowe whereas is no order, but terrible feare as in the darkneffe." Job, ch. x. "The way that I must goe is at hande, but whence I shall not turne againe. Ibid. ch. 16. I quote Cranmer's Bible. Douce. " —great pith-] Thus the folio. The quartos read,—of great pitch. STEEVENS. Pitch seems to be the better reading. The allufion is to the pitching or throwing the bar;-a manly exercife, ufual in country villages. RITSON. 2 3 turn awry,] Thus the quartos. The folio-turn away. STEEVENS Nymph, in thy orifons &c.] This is a touch of nature. Hamlet, at the fight of Ophelia, does not immediately recollect, that he is to perfonate madness, but makes her an addrefs grave and folemn, fuch as the foregoing meditation excited in his thoughts. JOHNSON. How does your honour for this many a day? HAM. I humbly thank you; well. OPH. My lord, I have remembrances of yours, That I have longed long to re-deliver; I pray you, now receive them. HAM. I never gave you aught. No, not I; OPH. My honour'd lord, you know right well, you did; And, with them, words of fo fweet breath com pos'd As made the things more rich: their perfume loft, Take these again; for to the noble mind, Rich gifts wax poor, when givers prove unkind. HAM. Ha, ha! are you honeft? OPH. What means your lordship? HAM. That if you be honest, and fair, you should admit no difcourfe to your beauty.* 4 That if you be honeft, and fair, you should admit no difcourfe to your beauty.] This is the reading of all the modern editions, and is copied from the quarto. The folio reads, your honefty fhould admit no difcourfe to your beauty. The true reading feems to be this,-If you be boneft and fair, you should admit your honefty to no difcourfe with your beauty. This is the fenfe evidently required by the process of the converfation. JOHNSON. That if you be honest and fair, you should admit no difcourfe to your beauty.] The reply of Ophelia proves beyond doubt, that this reading is wrong. The reading of the folio appears to be the right one, and requires no amendment." Your honefty fhould admit no difcourfe to your beauty," means," Your honefty should not admit your beauty to any difcourfe with her;" which is the very sense that Johnfon contends for, and expreffed with fufficient clearness. M. MASON. OPH. Could beauty, my lord, have better commerce than with honesty? HAM. Ay, truly; for the power of beauty will fooner transform honefty from what it is to a bawd, than the force of honefty can tranflate beauty into his likeness: this was fome time a paradox, but now the time gives it proof. I did love you once. OPH. Indeed, my lord, you made me believe so. HAM. You fhould not have believed me: for virtue cannot fo inoculate our old stock, but we fhall relish of it: I loved you not. OPH. I was the more deceived. HAM. Get thee to a nunnery; Why would'ft thou be a breeder of finners? I am myself indifferent honeft; but yet I could accuse me of fuch things, that it were better, my mother had not borne me: I am very proud, revengeful, ambitious; with more offences at my beck, than I have thoughts to put them in, imagination to give them fhape, into his likeness:] The modern editors read-its likeness; but the text is right. Shakspeare and his contemporaries frequently ufe the perfonal for the neutral pronoun. So Spenfer, Faery Queen, Book III. ch. ix: Then forth it breaks; and with his furious blaft, "Confounds both land and feas, and fkies doth overcaft." See p. 65, n. 6. MALONE. 6-inoculate-] This is the reading of the first folio. The first quarto reads euocutat; the fecond euacuat; and the third, evacuate. STEEVENS. * — I could accuse me of fuch things, that it were better, my mother had not borne me :] So, in our poet's 88th Sonnet: - I can fet down a story "Of faults conceal'd, wherein I am attainted." MALONE. with more offences at my beck, than I have thoughts to put them in,] To put a thing into thought, is to think on it. JOHNSON. —at my beck,] That is, always ready to come about me. STEEVENS. or time to act them in: What fhould fuch fellows as I do crawling between earth and heaven? We are arrant knaves, all; believe none of us: Go thy ways to a nunnery. Where's your father? OPH. At home, my lord. HAM. Let the doors be shut upon him; that he may play the fool no where but in's own house. Farewell. OPH. O, help him, you sweet heavens! HAM. If thou doft marry, I'll give thee this plague for thy dowry; Be thou as chafte as ice, as pure as fnow, thou shalt not escape calumny. Get thee to a nunnery; farewell: Or, if thou wilt needs marry, marry a fool; for wife men know well enough, what monsters you make of them. To a nunnery, go; and quickly too. Farewell. ОPH. Heavenly powers, reftore him! HAM. I have heard of your paintings too, well enough; God hath given you one face, and you * I have heard of your paintings too, well enough; &c.] This is according to the quarto; the folio, for painting, has prattlings, and for face, has pace, which agrees with what follows, you jig, you amble. Probably the author wrote both. I think the common reading beft. JOHNSON. I would continue to read, paintings, because these deftructive aids of beauty feem, in the time of Shakspeare, to have been general objects of fatire. So, in Drayton's Mooncalf: 66 No fooner got the teens, "But her own natural beauty fhe difdains; With oyls and broths moft venomous and bafe "And thofe fweet veins by nature rightly plac'd 46 Blanching her bofom, fhe makes others new." STEEVENS. make yourselves another: you jig, you amble, and you lifp, and nick-name God's creatures, and make your wantonnefs your ignorance:* Go to; I'll no more of't; it hath made me mad. I fay, we will have no more marriages: thofe that are married already, all but one, fhall live; the reft fhall keep as they are. To a nunnery, go. [Exit HAMLET. OPн. O, what a noble mind is here o'erthrown! The courtier's, foldier's, fcholar's, eye, tongue, fword:+ The expectancy and rofe of the fair state, The glafs of fashion, and the mould of form, The obferv'd of all obfervers! quite, quite down! God hath given you one face, and you make yourselves anotber:] In Guzman de Alfarache, 1623, p. 13, we have an invective against painting in which is a fimilar pailage: "O filthineffe, above all filthineffe! O affront, above all other affronts! that God having given thee one face, thou shouldft abuse his image and make thyjelfe another." REED. 2 —— make your wantonnefs your ignorance:] You mistake by wanton affectation, and pretend to mistake by ignorance. JOHNSON. 3 —all but one, fhall live;] By the one who fhall not live, he means his ftep-father. MALONE. • The courtier's, foldier's, fcholar's, eye, tongue, fword:] The poet certainly meant to have placed his words thus: The courtier's, fcholar's, foldier's, eye, tongue, fword; otherwife the excellence of tongue is appropriated to the foldier, and the scholar wears the word. WARNER. This regulation is needlefs. So, in Tarquin and Lucrece : "Princes are the glass, the school, the book, "Where fubjects eyes do learn, do read, do look." And in Quintilian: "Multum agit fexus, ætas, conditio; ut in feminis, fenibus, pupillis, liberos, parentes, conjuges, alligantibus." FARMER. • The glass of fashion,] "Speculum confuetudinis." Cicero. 6 STEEVENS. —the mould of form,] The model by whom all endeavoured to form themselves. JOHNSON. |