Lives almost by his looks; and for myself,
(My virtue, or my plague, be it either which,)
She is fo conjunctive to my life and foul,
That, as the ftar moves not but in his fphere,
I could not but by her. The other motive,
Why to a publick count I might not go,

Is, the great love the general gender bear him:
Who, dipping all his faults in their affection,
Work like the fpring that turneth wood to ftone,
Convert his gyves to graces; fo that my arrows,
Too flightly timber'd for fo loud a wind,3
Would have reverted to my bow again,
And not where I had aim'd them.

-the general gender—] The common race of the people.

JOHNSON.

Work like the Spring &c.] This fimile is neither very feafonable in the deep intereft of this converfation, nor very accurately applied. If the Spring had changed bafe metals to gold, the thought had been more proper. JOHNSON.

The folio, inftead of work, reads-would.

The fame comparison occurs in Churchyard's Choife:

"So there is wood that water turns to ftones."

In Thomas Lupton's Third Book of Notable Thinges, 4to. bl. i. there is alfo mention of " a well, that what foever is throwne into the fame, is turned into a ftone." STEEVENS.

The allufion here is to the qualities ftill afcribed to the dropping well at Knaresborough in Yorkshire. Camden (edit. 1590, p. 564,) thus mentions it: "Sub quo fons eft in quem ex impendentibus rupibus aquæ guttatim diftillant, unde DROPPING WELL Vocant, in quem quicquid ligni immittitur, lapideo cortice brevi obduci & lapidefcere olfervatum eft." REED.

3 - for fo loud a wind,] Thus the folio. The quarto, 1604, reads for fo loued arm'd. If these words have any meaning, it should seem to be-The inftruments of offence I employ, would have proved too weak to injure one who is fo loved and arm'd by the affection of the people. Their love, like armour, would revert the arrow to the bow. STEEVENS.

Laued arm'd is as extraordinary a corruption as any that is found in thefe plays. MALONE.

Late. And fo have I a noble father lof;
A fifter driven into defperate terms;

Whofe worth, if praifes may go back again.
Stood challenger on mount of all the age
For her perfections:-But my revenge will come
KING. Break not your fleeps for that: you mut
not think,

That we are made of stuff fo flat and dull,
That we can let our beard be fhook with cane
And think it paftime.

more:

You fhortly fall ha

I lov'd your father, and we love ourself;
And that, I hope, will teach you to imagine-
How now? what news?6

MESS.

Enter a Meffenger.

Letters, my lord, from Hamiet:" This to your majefty; this to the queen.

KING. From Hamlet! Who brought them? MESS. Sailors, my lord, they fay: I faw them not; They were given me by Claudio, he receiv'd them Of him that brought them."

KING. Leave us.

Laertes you fhall hear them :[Exit Meflenger.

if praifes may go back again,] If I may praise what has

been, but is now to be found no more. JOHNSON.

That we can let our beard be book with danger,] It is wonderful that none of the advocates for the learning of Shakspeare have told us that this line is imitated from Perfius, Sat. ii:

"Idcirco ftolidam præbet tibi vellere barbam
Jupiter?" STEEVENS.

How now? &c.] Omitted in the quartos. THEOBALD. 7 Letters, &c.] Omitted in the quartos. STEEVENS.

Of him that brought them.] I have restored this hemiftich

from the quartos. STEEVENS.

[Reads.] High and mighty, you shall know, I am fet naked on your kingdom. To-morrow shall I beg leave to fee your kingly eyes: when I fhall, first asking your pardon thereunto, recount the occafion of my fudden and more frange return. Hamlet.

What should this mean? Are all the reft come back? Or is it fome abuse, and no fuch thing?

LAER. Know you the hand?

KING.

'Tis Hamlet's character. Naked,

And, in a poftcript here, he fays, alone:

Can you advise me?

LAER. I am loft in it, my lord. But let him

come;

It warms the very sickness in my heart,
That I fhall live and tell him to his teeth,
Thus diddeft thou.

KING.

If it be fo, Laertes,—
As how should it be fo?-how otherwife?-

Will you be rul'd by me?

LAER.

Ay, my lord;

So you will not o'er-rule me to a peace.

KING. To thine own peace. If he be now return'd,—

As checking at his voyage," and that he means

• As checking at his voyage,] The phrafe is from falconry; and may be juftified from the following paffage in Hinde's Eliefto Libidinofa, 1606: "For who knows not, quoth fhe, that this hawk, whi. comes now fo fair to the fift, may to-morrow check at the lure?"

Again, in G. Whetstone's Caftle of Delight, 1576:

"But as the hawke, to gad which knowes the way,
“Will hardly leave to checke at carren crowes," &c.

STEEVENS.

As checking at his voyage,] Thus the folio. The quarto, 1604, exhibits a corruption fimilar to that mentioned in n. 3, p. 283. It reads-As the king at his voyage. MALONE.

No more to undertake it, I will work him
To an exploit, now ripe in my device,

Under the which he shall not choose but fall:
And for his death no wind of blame shall breathe;
But even his mother fhall uncharge the practice,
And call it, accident.

LAER.2
The rather, if you could devife it so,
That I might be the organ.

My lord, I will be rul'd;

KING.

It falls right.

You have been talk'd of fince your travel much,
And that in Hamlet's hearing, for a quality
Wherein, they fay, you fhine: your fum of parts
Did not together pluck fuch envy from him,
As did that one; and that, in my regard,
Of the unworthieft ficge.3

LAER.

What part is that, my lord?

KING. A very ribband in the cap of youth, Yet needful too; for youth no lefs becomes The light and careless livery that it wears, Than fettled age his fables, and his weeds, Importing health and gravenefs.+-Two months fince,

2 Laer. &c.] The next fixteen lines are omitted in the folio.

STEEVENS. 3 Of the unworthieft fiege.] Of the lowest rank. Siege, for feat, place. JOHNSON.

"From men of royal fiege." STEEVENS.

4 Importing health and gravenefs.] Importing here may be, not inferring by logical confequence, but producing by phyfical effect. A young man regards fhow in his drefs, an old man, health.

JOHNSON. Importing health, I apprehend, means, denoting an attention t health. MALONE.

Here was a gentleman of Normandy,—

I have seen myself, and ferv'd against, the French,
And they can well on horfeback: but this gallant
Had witchcraft in't; he grew unto his feat;
And to fuch wond'rous doing brought his horse,
As he had been incorps'd and demi-natur'd
With the brave beaft: fo far he topp'd my thought,
That I, in forgery of shapes and tricks,"

Come short of what he did.

LAER. I know him well: he is the brooch, in

deed,

And gem of all the nation.

KING. He made confeffion of you; And gave you fuch a masterly report, For art and exercise in your defence, And for your rapier most especial,

That he cried out, 'twould be a fight indeed,

Importing may only fignify-implying, denoting. So, in King Henry VI. Part I:

"Comets, importing change of times and states." Mr. Malone's explanation, however, may be the true one.

STEEVENS.

As he had been incorps'd and demi-natur'd With the brave beaft:] This is from Sidney's Arcadia, B. II: "As if, Centaur-like, he had been one peece with the horse." STEEVENS.

6 in forgery of shapes and tricks,] I could not contrive so many proofs of dexterity as he could perform. JOHNSON.

1 Lamord.] Thus the quarto, 1604. Shakspeare, I fufpect, wrote Lamode. See the next fpeech but one. The folio hasLamound. MALONE.

8

3 in your defence,] That is, in the fcience of defence.

JOHNSON.