may wear your rue with a difference."-There's a daify:-I would give you fome violets; but they wither'd all, when my father died :-They fay, he made a good end,

7

For bonny Sweet Robin is all my joy,2—
[Sings.

-you may wear your rue with a difference.] This feems to refer to the rules of heraldry, where the younger brothers of a family bear the fame arms with a difference, or mark of distinction. So, in Holinfhed's Reign of King Richard II. p. 443: "- because he was the youngest of the Spenfers, he bare a border gules for a difference.'

There may, however, be fomewhat more implied here than is expreffed. You, madam, (fays Ophelia to the Queen,) may call your RUE by its Sunday name, HERB OF GRACE, and fo wear it with a difference to diftinguish it from mine, which can never be but merely RUE, i. e. forrow. STEEVENS.

any thing

There's a daify:] Greene, in his Quip for an Upstart Courtier, has explained the fignificance of this flower: "Next them grew the DISSEMBLING DAISIE, to warne fuch light-of-love wenches not to trust every faire promife that fuch amorous bachelors make them." HENLEY.

9 I would give you fome violets; but they wither'd all, when my father died:] The violet is thus characterized in the old collection of Sonnets above quoted, printed in 1584:

"Violet is for faithfulnelle,

"Which in me fhall abide;

Hoping likewife that from your heart
"You will not let it flide." MALONE.

2 For bonny Sweet Robin is all my joy,] This is part of an old fong, mentioned likewife by Beaumont and Fletcher, in The Two Noble Kinfmen, A& IV. fc. i:

I can fing the broom,

"And Bonny Robin.”

In the books of the Stationers' Company, 26 April, 1594, is entered "A ballad, intituled, A doleful adewe to the last Erle of Darbie, to the tune of Bonny fweet Robin." STEEVENS.

The Courtly new ballad of the princely wooing of the faire maid of London, by King Edward," is alfo " to the tune of Bonny fweet Robin." RITSON.

LAER. Thought and affliction,' paffion, hell it

felf,

She turns to favour, and to prettiness.

OPH. And will be not come again?
And will be not come again?
No, no, he is dead,

Go to thy death-bed,

He never will come again.

His beard was as white as fnow,
All flaxen was his poll :
He is gone, he is gone,
And we caft away moan;
God 'a mercy on his foul!

[Sings.

And of all chriftian fouls! I pray God. God be

wi' you!

[Exit OPHELIA. LAER. Do you fee this, O God?

3 Thought and affliction,] Thought here, as in many other places, fignifies melancholy. See Vol. XII. p. 570, n. 7. MALONE.

4 His beard was as white as fnow, &c.] This, and feveral circumftances in the character of Ophelia, feem to have been ridiculed in Eastward Hoe, a comedy, written by Ben Jonfon, Chapman, and Marston, printed in 1605, A&III:

"His head as white as milk,

"All flaxen was his hair;

of But now he's dead,

"And laid in his bed,

"And never will come again,
"God be at your labour !" STEEVENS.

God'a mercy on his foul!

And of all chriftian fouls!] This is the common conclufion to many of the ancient monumental infcriptions. See Weever's Funeral Monuments, p. 657, 658. Berthelette, the publisher of Gower's Confeffio Amantis, 1554, fpeaking first of the funeral of Chaucer, and then of Gower, fays: " - he lieth buried in the monafterie of Seynt Peter's at Weftminfter, &c. On whofe foules and all chriften, Jefu have mercie." STEEVENS.

KING. Laertes, I must commune with your grief," Or you deny me right. Go but apart,

Make choice of whom your wifeft friends you will,
And they fhall hear and judge 'twixt you and me:
If by direct or by collateral hand

They find us touch'd, we will our kingdom give,
Our crown, our life, and all that we call ours,
To you in fatisfaction; but, if not,

Be you content to lend your patience to us,
And we fhall jointly labour with your foul
To give it due content.

LAER.

Let this be fo;

His means of death, his obfcure funeral,—
No trophy, fword, nor hatchment, o'er his bones,"
No noble rite, nor formal oftentation,—

Cry to be heard, as 'twere from heaven to earth,
That I must call't in queftion.

KING. So you fhall; And, where the offence is, let the great axe fall. I pray you, go with me.

[Exeunt,

6 commune with your grief,] The folio reads-common. To common is to commune. This word, pronounced as anciently fpelt, is fill in frequent provincial use. So, in The last Voyage of Captaine Frobisher, by Dionyfe Settle, 12mo. bl. 1. 1577: "Our Generall repay red with the hip boat to common or fign with them." Again, in Holinfhed's account of Jack Cade's infurrection:to whome were fent from the king the archbishop &c. to common with him of his griefs and requests.* STEEVENS.

7 No trophy, fword, nor hatchment, o'er his bones,] It was the cuf tom, in the times of our author, to hang a fword over the grave of a knight. JOHNSON.

This practice is uniformly kept up to this day. Not only the fword, but the helmet, gauntlet, fpurs, and tabard (i. e. a coat whereon the armorial enfigns were anciently depicted, from whence the term coat of armour) are hung over the grave of every knight. SIR J. HAWKINS.

SCENE IV.

Another Room in the fame.

Enter HORATIO, and a Servant,

HOR. What are they, that would speak with me?

SERV.

They fay, they have letters for you.

HOR.

Sailors, fir;

Let them come in.

[Exit Servant. I do not know from what part of the world I should be greeted, if not from lord Hamlet.

Enter Sailors.

1. SAIL. God bless you, fir.
HOR. Let him blefs thee too.

I. SAIL. He fhall fir, an't please him. There's a letter for you, fir; it comes from the ambassador that was bound for England; if your name be Horatio, as I am let to know it is.

HOR. [Reads.] Horatio, when thou shalt have overlook'd this, give these fellows fome means to the king; they have letters for him. Ere we were two days old at fea, a pirate of very warlike appointment gave us chace: Finding ourselves too flow of fail, we put on a compell'd valour; and in the grapple I boarded them on the inftant, they got clear of our Ship; fo I alone became their prifoner. They have dealt with me, like thieves of mercy; but they knew what they did; I am to do a good turn for them. Let the king have the letters I have fent; and repair thou to me with as much hafte as thou would't fly death, I

bave words to fpeak in thine ear, will make thee dumb; yet are they much too light for the bore of the matter.3 Thefe good fellows will bring thee where I am. Rofencrantz and Guildenftern hold their courfe for England: - of them I have much to tell thee. Farewell.

He that thou knowest thine, Hamlet.

for these your letters;

Come, I will give you way for these

And do't the fpeedier, that you may direct me To him from whom you brought them. [Exeunt.

KING. Now muft your confcience my acquittance feal,

And you must put me in your heart for friend; Sith you have heard, and with a knowing ear, That he, which hath your noble father flain, Purfu'd my life.

LAER.

It well appears:-But tell me, Why you proceeded not against these feats, So crimeful and fo capital in nature,

As by your fafety, greatnefs, wisdom, all things else, You mainly were stirr'd up.

O, for two fpecial reasons;

The queen, his

KING. Which may to you, perhaps, feem much unfinew'd, But yet to me they are ftrong.

mother,

-for the bore of the matter.] The bore is the caliber of a gun, or the capacity of the barrel. The matter (fays Hamlet) would carry heavier words. JOHNSON.