HAM. Has this fellow no feeling of his bufinefs? he fings at grave-making. HOR. Custom hath made it in him a property of casiness. HAM. 'Tis e'en fo: the hand of little employment hath the daintier fenfe. 1. CLO. But age, with his ftealing steps, Hath claw'd me in his clutch, [Throws up a fcull. HAM. That fcull had a tongue in it, and could fing once: How the knave jowls it to the ground, as if it were Cain's jaw-bone, that did the first murder! This might be the pate of a politician, which this afs now o'er-reaches; one that would circumvent God, might it not? title "A dyttie or fonet made by the lord Vaus, in the time of the noble quene Marye, reprefenting the image of death." The entire fong is published by Dr. Percy, in the first volume of bis Reliques of Ancient English Poetry. STEEVENS. • As if I had never been fuch.] Thus, in the original: offices. "For age with ftealing fteps "Hath claude me with his crowch; "And lufty youthe away he leapes, STEEVENS. – which this afs now o'er-reaches;] The folio reads-'erSTEEVENS. In the quarto, [1604] for over-offices is over-reaches, which agrees better with the fentence: it is a ftrong exaggeration to remark, that an afs can over-reach him who would once have tried to circument. I believe both these words were Shakspeare's. An author in revifing his work, when his original ideas have faded from his mind, and new obfervations have produced new fentiments, eafily introduces images which have been more newly impreffed upon him, without obferving their want of congruity to the general texture of his original defign. JOHNSON. HOR. It might, my lord. HAM. Or of a courtier; which could fay, Goodmorrow, fweet lord! How doft thou, good lord? This might be my lord fuch-a-one, that prais'd my lord fuch-a-one's horse, when he meant to beg it;' might it not? HOR. Ay, my lord. HAM. Why, e'en fo: and now my lady Worm's;" chaplefs, and knock'd about the mazzard with a fexton's fpade: Here's fine revolution, an we had the trick to fee't. Did thefe bones coft no more the breeding, but to play at loggats with them?" mine ache to think on't. 8 This might be my lord fuch-a-one, that prais'd my lord fuch-aone's horfe, when he meant to beg it;] So, in Timon of Athens, A&t 1: -my lord, you gave "Good words the other day of a bay courfer 9- - and now my lady Worm's ;] Such-a-one's, is now my lady Worm's. 2 to play at loggats with them?] This is a game played in feveral parts of England even at this time. A ftake is fixed into the ground; thofe who play, throw loggats at it, and he that is nearest the stake, wins: I have feen it played in different counties at their fheep-fheering feafts, where the winner was entitled to a black fleece, which he afterwards prefented to the farmer's maid to fpin for the purpose of making a petticoat, and on condition that she knelt down on the fleece to be kiffed by all the rufticks prefent. So, Ben Jonfon, Tale of a Tub, Act IV. fc. vi: "Now are they toffing of his legs and arms, Again, in an old collection of Epigrams, Satires, &c. Again, in Decker's If this be not a good Play, the Devil is in it, 1612: 1. CLO. A pick-axe, and a fpade, a fpade, [Sings. [Throws up a fcull. HAM. There's another: Why may not that be the fcull of a lawyer? Where be his quiddits now, his quillets,' his cafes, his tenures, and his tricks? It is one of the unlawful games enumerated in the ftatute of 33 of Henry VIII. STEEVENS. Loggeting in the fields is mentioned for the first time among other new and crafty games and plays," in the ftatute of 33 Henry VIII. c. 9. Not being mentioned in former acts against unlawful games, it was probably not practifed long before the statute of Henry the Eighth was made. MALONE. A loggat-ground, like a fkittle-ground, is ftrewed with afhes, but is more extenfive. A bowl much larger than the jack of the game of bowls is thrown firft. The pins, which I believe are called loggats, are much thinner, and lighter at one extremity than the other. The bowl being first thrown, the players take the pins up by the thinner and lighter end, and fling them towards the bowl, and in fuch a manner that the pins may once turn round in the air, and flide with the thinner extremity foremoft towards the bowl. The pins are about one or two-and-twenty inches long. BLOUNT. 3 For fuch a gueft is meet.] Thus in the original: A pick-axe and a spade, And eke a browding Sheet; A boufe of clay for to be made, For fuch a guest meft meet. STEEVENS. -quiddits &c.] i. e. fubtilties. So, in Soliman and Perfeda: "I am wife, but quiddits will not answer death.” Again, in Drayton's Owle, 4to, 1604: STEEVENS. By fome ftrange quiddit, or fome wrefted claufe, "To find him guiltie of the breach of lawes.” MALONE. 5 -his quillets,] So, in Ram-Alley, or Merry-Tricks, 1611: "Nay, good Sir Throat, forbear your quillits now." STEEVENS. Quillets are nice and frivolous diftinctions. The word is rendered by Coles in his Latin Dictionary, 1679, res frivola. MALONE. VOL. XV. X why does he suffer this rude knave now to knock him about the fconce' with a dirty fhovel, and will not tell him of his action of battery? Humph! This fellow might be in's time a great buyer of land, with his ftatutes,' his recognizances, his fines, his double vouchers, his recoveries: Is this the fine of his fines, and the recovery of his recoveries, to have his fine pate full of fine dirt? will his vouchers vouch him no more of his purchases, and double ones too, than the length and breadth of a pair of indentures? The very conveyances of his lands will hardly lie in this box; and muft the inheritor himself have no more? ha? HOR. Not a jot more, my lord. 6 —the sconce] i. e. the head. So, in Lyly's Mother Bambie, 1594: "Laudo ingenium; I like thy Sconce." Again, in Ram-Alley, or Merry Tricks, 1611: 66 -I fay no more; "But 'tis within this fconce to go beyond them." See Vol. VII. p. 221, n. 3. MALONE. 7 STEEVENS. his ftatutes,] By a ftatute is here meant, not an act of parliament, but a fpecies of fecurity for money, affecting real property; whereby the lands of the debtor are conveyed to the creditor, till out of the rents and profits of them his debt may be fatisfied. MALONE. 8 his double vouchers, &c.] A recovery with double voucher is the one ufually fuffered, and is fo denominated from two perfons (the latter of whom is always the common cryer, or fome fuch inferior perfon) being fucceffively vouched, or called upon, to warrant the tenant's title. Both fines and recoveries are fictions of law, used to convert an estate tail into a fee fimple. Statutes are (not acts of parliament, but) ftatutes-merchant and ftaple, particular modes of recognizance or acknowledgement for fecuring debts, which thereby become a charge upon the party's land. Statutes and recognizances are conftantly mentioned together in the covenants of a purchase deed. RITSON. 9 Is this the fine of his fines, and the recovery of bis recoveries,] Omitted in the quartos. STEEVENS. HAM. Is not parchment made of sheep-skins? HAM. They are fheep, and calves, which feek out affurance in that. I will speak to this fellow :— Whofe grave's this, firrah? 1. CLO. Mine, fir. O, a pit of clay for to be made [Sings. HAM. I think it be thine, indeed; for thou lieft in't. 1. CLO. You lie out on't, fir, and therefore it is not yours: for my part, I do not lie in't, yet it is mine. HAM. Thou doft lie in't, to be in't, and fay it is thine: 'tis for the dead, not for the quick; therefore thou lieft. 1. CLO. 'Tis a quick lie, fir; 'twill away again, from me to you. HAM. What man doft thou dig it for? 1. CLO. For no man, fir. HAM. What woman then? 1. CLO. For none neither. HAM. Who is to be buried in't? 1. CLO. One, that was a woman, fir; but, rest her foul, fhe's dead. HAM. How abfolute the knave is! we must speak by the card,' or equivocation will undo us. By affurance in that.] A quibble is intended. Deeds, which are ufually written on parchment, are called the common affurances of the kingdom. MALONE. by the card,] The card is the paper on which the dif |