SCENE V.

Elfinore. A Room in the Cagle.

Enter Queen and HORATIO.

QUEEN. -I will not speak with her.

HOR. She is importunate; indeed, distract; Her mood will needs be pitied.

QUEEN.

What would fhe have?

HOR. She speaks much of her father; fays, she

hears,

There's tricks i'the world; and hems, and beats her heart;

Spurns enviously at ftraws; fpeaks things in doubt,
That carry but half fenfe: her fpeech is nothing,
Yet the unfhaped ufe of it doth move

The hearers to collection; they aim at it,"
And botch the words up fit to their own thoughts;

5 Spurns enviously at ftraws;] Envy is much oftener put by our poet (and thofe of his time) for direct averfion, than for malignity conceived at the fight of another's excellence or happiness.

So, in King Henry VIII:

"You turn the good we offer into envy."

Again, in God's Revenge against Murder, 1621, Hift. VI.— "She loves the memory of Sypontus, and envies and detests that of her two husbands." STEEVENS.

See Vol. IX. p. 616, n. 3; and Vol. XI. p. 61, n. 9. MALONE. 6 -to collection;] i. e. to deduce confequences from such premifes; or, as Mr. M. Mafon obferves, "endeavour to collect fome meaning from them." So, in Cymbeline, fcene the laft: whofe containing

66

"Is fo from fenfe to hardness, that I can

"Make no collection of it."

See the note on this passage, Vol. XIII. p. 234. STEEVENS. 7—they aim at it,] The quartos read-they yawn at it. To aim is to guefs. So, in Romeo and Juliet:

"I aim'd so near, when I fuppos'd you lov'd." STEEVENS,

Which, as her winks, and nods, and geftures yield

them,

Indeed would make one think, there might be

thought,

Though nothing fure, yet much unhappily. QUEEN. 'Twere good, fhe were fpoken with;" for fhe may ftrew

Dangerous conjectures in ill-breeding minds:
Let her come in.
[Exit HORATIO.
To my fick foul, as fin's true nature is,
Each toy feems prologue to fome great amifs:*

8 Though nothing fure, yet much unhappily.] i. e. though her meaning cannot be certainly collected, yet there is enough to put a mischievous interpretation to it. WARBURTON.

That unhappy once fignified mischievous, may be known from P. Holland's tranflation of Pliny's Natural Hiftory, Book XIX. ch. vii.: "the fhrewd and unhappie foules which lie upon the lands, and eat up the feed new fowne." We ftill use unlucky in the fame fenfe. STEEVENS.

See Vol. IV. p. 440, n. 9; and Vol. VI. p. 344, n. 5; and Vol. XI. p. 55, n. 6. MALONE.

9 'Twere good, she were spoken with ;] Thefe lines are given to the Queen in the folio, and to Horatio in the quarto. JOHNSON. I think the two first lines of Horatio's fpeech ['Twere good, &c.] belong to him; the reft to the Queen. BLACKTONE.

In the quarto, the Queen, Horatio, and a Gentleman, enter at the beginning of this fcene. The two fpeeches, " She is impor tunate," &c. and "She fpeaks much of her father," &c. are there given to the Gentleman, and the line now before us, as well as the two following, to Horatio: the remainder of this fpeech to the Queen. I think it probable that the regulation proposed by Sir W. Blackstone was that intended by Shakspeare. MALONE.

to fome great amifs:] Shakspeare is not fingular in his ufe of this word as a fubftantive. So, in The Arraignment of Paris, 1584: "Gracious forbearers of this world's amifs."

Again, in Lyly's Woman in the Moon, 1597:

"Pale be my looks, to witness my amifs."

Again, in Greene's Difputation between a He Coneycatcher, &c. 1592: "revive in them the memory of my great amifs.'

Each toy is, each trifle. MALONE.

STEEVENS

OPH. Say you? nay, pray you, mark.
He is dead and gone, lady,

He is dead and gone;

At his head a grass-green turf,
At his heels a ftone.

[Sings..

O, ho!

QUEEN. Alas, look here, my lord.
ОPH. Larded all with fweet flowers;1
Which bewept to the grave did go,s
With true-love showers.

KING. How do you, pretty lady?

OPH. Well, God'ield you! They fay, the owl was a baker's daughter." Lord, we know what we

4 Larded all with fweet flowers;] The expreffion is taken from cookery. JOHNSON.

go.

5 did go,] The old editions read—did not Corrected by Mr. Pope. STEEVENS.

Well, God'ield you!] i. e. Heaven reward you! So, in Antony and Cleopatra:

"Tend me to-night two hours, I ask no more,
"And the Gods yield you for't!"

So Sir John Grey, in a letter in Ahmole'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. VII. p. 383, &c. n. 6. STEEVENS.

7—the owl was a baker's daughter.] This was a metamor phofis 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

are, but know not what we may be. God be at your table!

KING. Conceit upon her father.

ОPH. Pray, let us have no words of this; but when they ask you, what it means, fay you this: Good morrow, 'tis Saint Valentine's day, All in the morning betime, And I a maid at your window, To be your Valentine:

an owl. In barns and granaries, indeed, the fervices of the ow! are ftill acknowledged. This was, however, no metamorphofs of the common people, but a legendary ftory, 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.

This is a common ftory among the vulgar in Gloucestershire, and is thus related: "Our Saviour went into a baker's shop where they were baking, and asked for fome bread to eat. The mistress of the fhop immediately put a piece of dough into the oven to bake for him; but was reprimanded by her daughter, who infifting that the piece of dough was too large, reduced it to a very small fize. The dough, however, immediately afterwards began to fwell, and prefently became of a moft enormous fize. Whereupon, the baker's daughter cried out “ Heugh, heugh, heugh," which owl-like noife probably induced our Saviour for her wickedness to transform her into that bird." This ftory is often related to childen, in order to deter them from fuch illiberal behaviour to poor people.

DOUCE.

8 Good morrow, 'tis Saint Valentine's day.] Old copies: .

To-morrow is &c.

The correction is Dr. Farmer's.

STEEVENS.

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 fex 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 also look'd upon as a good omen of their being man and