And let him, for a pair of reechy kiffes,* That I effentially am not in madness, But mad in craft. 'Twere good, you let him know: Again, in the Menæchmi, 1595: "Shall I tell thee, fweet nouje? I never look upon thee, but I am quite out of love with my wife." Again, in Churchyard's Spider and Gowt, 1575: She wan the love of all the house, "And pranckt it like a pretty mouse." STEEVENS. This term of endearment is very ancient, being found in A new and merry Enterlude, called the Trial of Treasure, 1567: 8 My moufe, my nobs, my cony fweete; My hope and joye, my whole delight." MALONE. reechy kiffes, Reechy is fmoky. The author meant to convey a coarfe idea, and was not very fcrupulous in his choice of an epithet. The fame, however, is applied with greater propriety to the neck of a cook-maid in Coriolanus. Again, in Hans Beer Pot's Invifible Comedy, 1618: bade him go "And wafh his face, he look'd fo reechily, "Like bacon hanging on the chimney's roof." STEEVENS. Reechy properly means fleaming with exfudation, and seems to have been felected, to convey, in this place, its groffeft import. HENLEY. Reechy includes, I believe, heat as well as fmoke. The verb to reech, which was once common, was certainly a corruption of-to reck. In a former paffage Hamlet has remonftrated with his mother, on her living "In the rank fweat of an enfeamed bed." MALONE. 9 That I effentially am not in madness, But mad in craft.] The reader will be pleafed to fee Dr. Farmer's extract from the old quarto Hiftorie of Hamblet, of which he had a fragment only in his poffeffion." It was not without caufe, and juft occafion, that my geftures, countenances, and words, feeme to proceed from a madman, and that I defire to haue all men efteeme mce wholly depriued of fenfe and reasonable underftanding, bycaufe I am well affured, that he that hath made no confcience to kill his owne brother, (accuftomed to murthers, and allured with defire of gouernement without controll in his treafons) will not fpare to faue himfelfe with the like crueltic, in the blood For who, that's but a queen, fair, fober, wife, and flesh of the loyns of his brother, by him maffacred: and therefore it is better for me to fayne madneffe, then to use my right fences as nature hath beftowed them upon me. The bright shining clearnes thereof I am forced to hide vnder this fhadow of diffimulation, as the fun doth hir beams under fome great cloud, when the wether in fummer-time ouercafteth: the face of a madman ferueth to couer my gallant countenance, and the gestures of a fool are fit for me, to the end that, guiding myself wifely therin, I may preferue my life for the Danes and the memory of my late deceafed father; for that the defire of reuenging his death is fo ingraven in my heart, that if I dye not shortly, I hope to take fuch and fo great vengeance, that these countryes shall for euer fpeake thereof. Neuertheleffe I muft ftay the time, meanes, and occafion, left by making ouer-great haft, I be now the cause of mine own fodaine ruine and ouerthrow, and by that meanes end, before I beginne to effect my hearts defire: hee that hath to doe with a wicked, difloyall, cruell, and difcourteous man, must vse craft, and politike inuentions, fuch as a fine witte can best imagine, not to discouer his interprife; for feeing that by force I cannot effect my defire, reafon alloweth me by diffimulation, fubtiltie, and fecret practifes to proceed therein." STEEVENS. 2-a gib,] So, in Drayton's Epiftle from Elinor Cobham to Duke Humphrey: "And call me beldam, gib, witch, night-mare, trot." Gib was a common name for a cat. So, in Chaucer's Romaunt of the Rofe, ver. 6204: gibbe our cat, "That waiteth mice and rats to killen." STEEVENS. See Vol. VIII. p. 376, n. 6. MALONE. 3 Unpeg the basket on the house's top, Let the birds fly ;] Sir John Suckling, in one of his letters, may poffibly allude to the fame ftory; "It is the ftory of the jackanapes and the partridges; thou stareft after a beauty till it be loft to thee, and then let'ft out another, and ftareft after that till it is gone too." WARNER. 4 To try conclufions, in the basket creep, QUEEN. Be thou affur'd, if words be made of breath, And breath of life, I have no life to breathe 5 HAM. I muft to England; you know that? I had forgot; 'tis fo concluded on. Alack, HAM. There's letters feal'd:" and my two fchoolfellows, Whom I will truft, as I will adders fang'd,'- 4 To try conclufions,] i. e. experiments. See Vol. V. p. 428, n. 2. STEEVENS. 3 I muft to England;] Shakspeare does not inform us how Hamlet came to know that he was to be fent to England. Rofencrantz and Guildenstern were made acquainted with the King's intentions for the first time in the very last scene; and they do not appear to have had any communication with the prince fince that time. Add to this, that in a fubfequent fcene, when the King, after the death of Polonius, informs Hamlet he was to go to England, he expreffes great furprize, as if he had not heard any thing of it before. This last, however, may, perhaps, be accounted for, as contributing to his defign of paffing for a madman. MALONE. 6 There's letters feal'd: &c.] The nine following verses are added out of the old edition. POPE. 7 adders fang'd,] That is, adders with their fangs or poisonous teeth, undrawn. It has been the practice of mountebanks to boast the efficacy of their antidotes by playing with vipers, but they first difabled their fangs. JOHNSON. 8 they must fweep my way, &c.] This phrafe occurs again Antony and Cleopatra: 66 fome friends, that will "Sweep your way for you." STEEVENS. Hoist with his own petar: and it shall go hard, I'll lug the guts into the neighbour room: 3- 4 [Exeunt feverally; HAMLET dragging in POLONIUS. 9 Heift &c.] Hoift, for boifed; as paft, for passed. STEEVENS. 2 When in one line two crafts directly meet.] Still alluding to a Countermine. MALONE. The fame expreffion has already occurred in King John, A& IV. fpeech ult: "Now powers from home, and difcontents at home, "Meet in one line." STEEVENS. 3 I'll lug the guts into the neighbour room:] A line fomewhat fimilar occurs in King Henry VI. Part III: "I'll throw thy body in another room, The word guts was not anciently fo offenfive to delicacy as it is at prefent; but was ufed by Lyly (who made the firft attempt to polish our language) in his ferious compofitions. So, in his Mydas, 1592: "Could not the treasure of Phrygia, nor the tributes of Greece, nor mountains in the Eaft, whofe guts are gold, satisfy thy mind?" In fhort, guts was used where we now use entrails. Stany hurft often has it in his tranflation of Virgil, 1582: Pectoribus inhians fpirantia confulit exta. "She weenes her fortune by guts hoate fmoakye to conster." STEEVENS. Come, fir, to draw toward an end with you:] Shakspeare has been unfortunate in his management of the ftory of this play, the moft ftriking circumftances of which arife fo early in its formation, as not to leave him room for a conclufion fuitable to the importance of its beginning. After this laft interview with the Ghoft, the character of Hamlet has loft all its confequence. VOL. XV. R STEEVENS. ACT IV.S SCENE I. The fame. Enter King, Queen, ROSENCRANTZ, and GUILDEN STERN. KING. There's matter in these fighs; these profound heaves; You must tranflate: 'tis fit we understand them: Where is your fon? QUEEN. Beftow this place on us a little while."[To ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN, who go out. Ah, my good lord,' what have I seen to-night? KING. What, Gertrude? How does Hamlet? QUEEN. Mad as the fea, and wind, when both contend & Which is the mightier: In his lawless fit, 5 Aa IV.] This play is printed in the old editions without any feparation of the acts. The divifion is modern and arbitrary; and is here not very happy, for the pause is made at a time when there is more continuity of action than in almost any other of the scenes. JOHNSON. 6 Beftow this place on us a little while.] This line is wanting in the folio. STEEVENS. 7 my good lord,] The quartos read-mine own lord. STEEVENS. 8 Mad as the fea, and wind, when both contend &c.] We have precifely the fame image in King Lear, expreffed with more brevity: he was met even now, |