What is the matter? GENT. Save yourself, my lord; The ocean, overpeering of his lift, Eats not the flats with more impetuous hafte, The reafon is, because the Swifs in the time of our poet, as at prefent, were hired to fight the battles of other nations. So, in Nafhe's Chrift's Teares over Jerufalem, 4to. 1594: "Law, logicke, and the Switzers, may be hired to fight for any body." MALONE. The ocean, over-peering of his lift,] The lifts are the barriers which the spectators of a tournament must not pafs. JOHNSON. See note on Othello, A& IV. fc. i. STEEVENS. Lift, in this place, only fignifies boundary, i. e. the fhore. So, in King Henry IV. Part II: "The very lift, the very utmoft bound The felvage of cloth was in both places, I believe, in our author's thoughts. MALONE. 8 The ratifiers and props of every word,] By word is here meant a declaration, or propofal. It is determined to this fenfe, by the inference it hath to what had juft preceded: "The rabble call him lord," &c. This acclamation, which is the word here fpoken of, was made without regard to antiquity, or received cuftom, whofe concurrence, however, is neceffarily required to confer validity and stability in every propofal of this kind. HEATH. Sir T. Hanmer would tranfpofe this line and the next. Dr. War burton propofes to read, ward; and Dr. Johnfon, weal, instead of word. I fhould be rather for reading, work. TYRWHITT. In the first folio there is only a comma at the end of the above line; and will not the paffage bear this conftruction?—The rabble call him lord, and as if the world were now but to begin, and as if the ancient cuftom of hereditary fucceffion were unknown, they, the ratifiers and props of every word he utters, cry,-Let us make choice, that Laertes fhall be king. TOLLET. This conftruction might certainly be admitted, and the ratifiers and props of every word might be understood to be applied to the rabble They cry, Choose we; Laertes fhall be king! Caps, hands, and tongues, applaud it to the clouds, Laertes fhall be king, Laertes king! QUEEN. How cheerfully on the false trail they cry! O, this is counter, you falfe Danish dogs." [Noife within Enter LAERTES, arm'd; Danes following. LAER. Where is this king?-Sirs, stand you DAN. No, let's come in. all I pray you, give me leave. DAN. We will, we will. [They retire without the door. LAER. I thank you :-keep the door.-O thou vile king, Give me my father. QUEEN. Calmly, good Laertes. LAER. That drop of blood, that's calm, proclaims me bastard; Cries, cuckold, to my father; brands the harlot mentioned in a preceding line, without Sir T. Hanmer's tranfpofition of this and the following line; but there is no authority for what Mr. Tollet adds, "of every word he [Laertes] utters," for the poet has not defcribed Laertes as having uttered a word. If therefore the rabble are called the ratifiers and props of every word, we muft understand, "of every word uttered by themselves:" which is fo tame, that it would be unjust to our poet to fuppofe that to have been his meaning. Ratifiers, &c. refer not to the people, but to cuftom and antiquity, which the speaker fays are the true ratifiers and props of every word. The laft word however of the line may well be fufpected to be corrupt; and Mr. Tyrwhitt has probably fuggefted the true reading. MALONE. 90, this is counter, you falfe Danish dogs.] Hounds run counter when they trace the trail backwards. JOHNSON. Even here, between the chafte unfmirched brow,* Of my true mother. KING. That treason can but peep to what it would, Why thou art thus incens'd;—Let him go, Gertrude ; KING. Let him demand his fill. LAER. How came he dead? I'll not be juggled with: To hell, allegiance! vows, to the blackeft devil! 2 KING. Who shall stay you? LAER. My will, not all the world's: -unfmirched brow,] i. e. clean, not defiled. To befmirch, our author ufes, Act I. fc. v. and again in K. Henry V. A&t IV. fc.iii. This feems to be an allufion to a proverb often introduced in the old comedies. Thus, in The London Prodigal, 1605: “—as true as the fkin between any man's bros.” The fame phrafe is alfo found in Much Ado about Nothing, A& III. fc. v. STEEVENS. 3 That both the worlds I give to negligence,] So, in Macbeth: "But let the frame of things disjoint, both the worlds fuffer." STEEVENS. And, for my means, I'll husband them fo well, If KING. Good Laertes, you defire to know the certainty Of your dear father's death, is't writ in your re venge, That, fweepstake, you will draw both friend and foe, Winner and lofer? LAER. None but his enemies. KING. Will you know them then? LAER. To his good friends thus wide I'll ope my arms; And, like the kind life-rend'ring pelican,* KING. -life-rend'ring pelican,] So, in the ancient Interlude of Nature, bl. 1. no date: "Who taught the cok hys watche-howres to obferve, It is almost needless to add that this account of the bird is entirely fabulous. STEEVENS. s—moft fenfibly-] Thus the quarto, 1604. The folio, following the error of a later quarto, reads-most fenfible. 6 MALONE. to your judgement 'pear,] So, the quarto. The folio, and all the later editions, read: to your judgement pierce, lefs intelligibly. JOHNSON. This elifion of the verb to appear, is common to Beaumont and Fletcher. So, in The Maid in the Mill: "They 'pear fo handfomely, I will go forward." As day does to your eye. DANES. [Within.] Let her come in. LAER. HOW now! what noife is that? Enter OPHELIA, fantastically drefs'd with ftraws and flowers. O heat, dry up my brains! tears, seven times falt, Again, "And where they 'pear fo excellent in little, 7 Nature is fine in love: and, where 'tis fine, It fends fome precious inftance of itfelf After the thing it loves.] Thefe lines are not in the quarto, and might have been omitted in the folio without great loss, for they are obfcure and affected; but, I think, they require no emendation. Love (fays Laertes) is the paffion by which nature is most exalted and refined; and as fubftances, refined and fubtilised, eafily obey any impulfe, or follow any attraction, fome part of nature, fo purified and refined, flies off after the attracting object, after the thing it loves: "As into air the purer fpirits flow, "And feparate from their kindred dregs below, The meaning of the paffage may be-That her wits, like the fpirit of fine effences, flew off or evaporated. Fine, however, fometimes fignifies artful. So, in All's well that ends well: "Thou art too fine in thy evidence." STEEVENS. |