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'Twere better not affay'd; therefore, this project
Should have a back, or fecond, that might hold,
If this should blaft in proof. Soft;-let me fee:-
We'll make a folemn wager on your cunnings,-
I ha't:

When in your motion you are hot and dry,

(As make your bouts more violent to that end,) And that he calls for drink, I'll have preferr'd him 5

A chalice for the nonce; whereon but fipping,
If he by chance efcape your venom'd ftuck,"
Our purpose may hold there. But ftay, what noife?"

-blaft in proof.] This, I believe, is a metaphor taken from a mine, which, in the proof or execution, fometimes breaks out with an ineffectual blaft. JOHNSON.

The word proof fhows the metaphor to be taken from the trying or proving fire-arms or cannon, which often blast or burst in the prof. STEEVENS.

s—I'll have preferr'd him—] i. e. prefented to him. Thus the quarto, 1604. The word indeed is mispelt, prefard. The folio reads-I'll have prepar'd him. MALONE.

To prefer (as Mr. Malone obferves) certainly means-to prefent, or offer. So, in Timon of Athens :

"Why then preferr'd you not your fums and bills ?"

STEEVENS.

6 If be by chance efcape your venom'd ftuck,] For fuck, read tuck, a common name for a rapier. BLACKSTONE.

Stuck was a

Your venom'd fuck is, your venom'd thrust. term of the fencing-fchool. So, in Twelfth Night: "and he gives me the fuck with such a mortal motion,-," Again, in The Return from Parnassus, 1606: "Here is a fellow, Judicio, that carried the deadly focke in his pen."-See Florio's Italian Dict. 1598: Stoccata, a foyne, a thruft, a foccado given in fence." MALONE.

See Vol. IV. p. 129, n. 6. STEEVENS.

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But ftay, what noife?] I have recovered this from the quartos. STEEVENS,

Enter Queen.

How now, fweet queen?3.

QUEEN. One woe doth tread upon another's heel,' So faft they follow:-Your fifter's drown'd, Laertes. LAER. Drown'd! O, where?

QUEEN. There is a willow grows afcaunt the brook,2

That shows his hoar leaves in the glaffy stream;
Therewith fantastick garlands did the make
Of crow-flowers, nettles, daifies, and long purples,'

8 How now, fweet queen?] Thefe words are not in the quarto. The word now, which appears to have been omitted by the careleffness of the tranfcriber or compofitor, was fupplied by the editor

of the fecond folio. MALONE.

9 One woe doth tread upon another's heel,] A fimilar thought occurs in Pericles, Prince of Tyre, 1609:

"One forrow never comes, but brings an heir,
"That may fucceed as his inheritor."

STEEVENS.

Again, in Drayton's Mortimeriados, 4to. 1596: miferies, which feldom come alone,

66

"Thick on the neck one of another fell."

Again, in Shakspeare's 131ft Sonnet:

"A thousand groans, but thinking on thy fall,
"One on another's neck,-." MALONE.

Again, in Locrine, 1595:

"One mifchief follows on another's neck."

And this alfo is the first line of a queen's speech on a lady's drowning herself. RITSON.

2

afcaunt the brook,] Thus the quartos. The folio readsaflant. Afcaunce is interpreted in a note of Mr. Tyrwhitt's on Chaucer-afkew, afide, fiderways. STEEVENS.

3 and long purples,] By long purples is meant a plant, the modern botanical name of which is orchis morio mas, anciently tefticulus morionis. The groffer name by which it paffes, is fufficiently known in many parts of England, and particularly in the county where Shakspeare lived. Thus far Mr. Warner. Mr. Collins adds,

That liberal shepherds give a groffer name,
But our cold maids do dead men's fingers call them:
There on the pendant boughs her coronet weeds
Clambering to hang, an envious fliver broke;
When down her weedy trophies, and herself,
Fell in the weeping brook. Her clothes spread

wide;

And, mermaid-like, a while they bore her up: Which time, she chanted fnatches of old tunes; " As one incapable of her own distress,"

that in Suffex it is still called dead men's bands; and that in Lyte's Herbal, 1578, its various names, too grofs for repetition, are preferved.

Dead men's thumbs are mentioned in an ancient bl. 1. ballad, entitled The deceased Maiden Lover:

"Then round the meddowes did she walke,

"Catching each flower by the stalke,
"Such as within the meddowes grew ;

"As dead mans thumbe, and hare-bell blew." STEEVENS. One of the groffer names of this plant Gertrude had a particular reafon to avoid :—the rampant widow, MALONE.

liberal-] Licentious. See Vol. III, p. 242, n. 9; Vol. IV. p. 500, n. 4; Vol. V. p. 363, n. 6, and p. 436, n. 3. REED.

Liberal is free-fpoken, licentious in language. So, in Othello: "Is he not a moft profane and liberal counsellor ?" Again, in A Woman's a Weathercock, by N. Field, 1612;

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Next that, the fame

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MALONE.

"Of your neglect, and liberal-talking tongue, "Which breeds my honour an eternal wrong,' s Which time, fhe chanted fnatches of old tunes;] Fletcher, in his Scornful Lady, very invidiously ridicules this incident: "I will run mad first, and if that get not pity, "I'll drown myself to a most difmal ditty.'

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WARBURTON.

The quartos read-fnatches of old lauds, i, e. hymns.

STEEVENS.

6 As one incapable of her own distress,] As one having no understanding or knowledge of her danger. See p. 233, n. 9.

66

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That is, infenfible. So, in King Richard III:
Incapable and thallow innocents.' RITSON.

MALONE.

Or like a creature native and indu'd

Unto that element: but long it could not be,
Till that her garments, heavy with their drink,
Pull'd the poor wretch from her melodious lay
To muddy death.

LAER.

8

Alas then, he is drown'd?

QUEEN. Drown'd, drown'd.

LAER. Too much of water haft thou, poor

Ophelia,

And therefore I forbid my tears: But yet

It is our trick; nature her custom holds,
Let fhame fay what it will: when these are gone,
The woman will be out."-Adieu, my lord!

7 Or like a creature native and indu'd

Unto that element:] I do not think the word indued is sense in this place; and believe we should read inured.

Shakspeare seems to have forgot himself in this fcene, as there is not a fingle circumftance in the relation of Ophelia's death, that induces us to think she had drowned herself intentionally.

M. MASON.

As we are indued with certain original difpofitions and propenfities at our birth, Shakspeare here uses indued with great licentioufnefs, for formed by nature; clothed, endowed, or furnished, with properties fuited to the element of water.

Our old writers used indued and endowed indifcriminately. "To indue," fays Minfheu in his Dictionary, " fepiffime refertur ad dotes animo infufas, quibus nimirum ingenium alicujus imbutum et initiatum eft, unde et G. inftruire eft. L. imbuere. Imbuere proprie

eft inchoare et initiari."

In Cotgrave's French Dictionary, 1611, inftruire is interpreted, "to fashion, to furnish with." MALONE.

8 To muddy death.] In the firft fcene of the next act we find Ophelia buried with fuch rites as betoken the foredid her own life. It should be remembered, that the account here given, is that of a friend; and that the queen could not poffibly know what paffed in the mind of Ophelia, when the placed herself in fo perilous a fituation. After the facts had been weighed and confidered, the priest in the next act pronounces, that her death was doubtful. MALONE. 9 The woman will be out.] i. e. tears will flow. So, in K. Henry V: "And all the woman came into my eyes." MALONE. See Vol. IX. p. 450, n. 7. STEEVENS.

[Exit.

I have a speech of fire, that fain would blaze,
But that this folly drowns it."

KING.
Let's follow, Gertrude:
How much I had to do to calm his rage!
Now fear I, this will give it ftart again;
Therefore, let's follow.

[Exeunt.

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Enter two Clowns, with Spades, &c.

I CLO. Is the to be bury'd in chriftian burial, that wilfully feeks her own falvation?

2. CLO. I tell thee, fhe is; therefore, make her grave straight: the crowner hath fet on her, and finds it chriftian burial.

2 But that this fally drowns it.] Thus the quarto, 1604. The folio reads-But that this folly doubts it, i. e. douts, or extinguishes it. See p. 63, n. 6. MALONE.

3 make her grave ftraight :] Make her grave from east to weft in a direct line parallel to the church; not from north to fouth, athwart the regular line. This, I think, is meant.

JOHNSON.

I cannot think that this means any more than make her grave immediately. She is to be buried in chriftian burial, and confequently the grave is to be made as ufual. My interpretation may be justi fied from the following paffages in King Henry V. and the play before us: "We cannot lodge and board a dozen or fourteen gentlewomen who live by the prick of their needles, but it will be thought we keep a bawdy-houfe ftraight."

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