Our indifcretion fometime ferves us well, teach us, word is derived from Bilboa, a place in Spain where inftruments of fteel were fabricated in the utmoft perfection. To understand Shakspeare's allufion completely, it should be known, that as these fetters connect the legs of the offenders very clofe together, their attempts to reft must be as fruitless as thofe of Hamlet, in whofe mind there was a kind of fighting that would not let him fleep. Every motion of one must disturb his partner in confinement. The bilboes are ftill shown in the Tower of London, among the other fpoils of the Spanish Armada. The following is the figure of them: STEEVENS. 7 Rafbly, And prais'd be rofonefs for it,-Let us know, When &c.] Hamlet, delivering an account of his escape, begins with faying-That he rafhly and then is carried into a reflection upon the weakness of human wisdom. I rafhly—praised be rashness for it—Let us not think these events cafual, but let us know, that is, take notice and remember, that we fometimes fucceed by indifcretion, when we fail by deep plots, and infer the perpetual fuperintendance and agency of the Divinity. The obfervation is juft, and will be allowed by every human being who shall reflect on the course of his own life. JOHNSON. This paffage, I think, fhould be thus diftributed: Rafbly (And prais'd be rafbness, for it lets us know, Our indifcretion fometimes ferves us well, When our deep plots do fail; and that should teach us, There's a divinity that shapes our ends, Rough-herv them how we will; Hor. That is most certain.) Ham. Up from my cabin, &c. So that robly may be joined in conftruction with-in the dark grop'd I to find out them. TYRWHITT. 8 When our deep plots do pall:] Thus the firft quarto, 1604. There's a divinity that fhapes our ends, HOR. HAM. Up from my cabin, That is moft certain. My fea-gown scarf'd about me, in the dark The editor of the next quarto, for pall, fubftituted fall. The folio reads, When our dear plots do paule. Mr. Pope and the fubfequent editors read,― When our deep plots do fail:. but pall and fail are by no means likely to have been confounded. I have therefore adhered to the old copies. In Antony and Cleopatra our poet has ufed the participle: "I'll never follow thy pall'd fortunes more." MALONE. 9 There's a divinity that shapes our ends, Rough-hew them how we will.] Dr. Farmer informs me, that thefe words are merely technical. A wool-man, butcher, and dealer in skewers, lately obferved to him that his nephew, (an idle lad) could only affift him in making them; " he could roughhew them, but I was obliged to shape their ends." Whoever recollects the profeffion of Shakspeare's father, will admit that his fon might be no ftranger to fuch a term. I have frequently feen packages of wool pinn'd up with Skewers. STEEVENS. 2 Larded with many feveral forts of reafons,] I am afraid here is a very poor conceit, founded on an equivoque between reasons and raifins, which in Shakspeare's time were undoubtedly pronounced alike. Sorts of raisins, fugars, &c. is the common phrafeology of hops. We have the fame quibble in another play. MALONE. -- I fufpect no quibble or conceit in thefe words of Hamlet. In one of Ophelia's fongs a fimilar phrafe has already occurred: “Larded all with fweet flowers." To lard any thing with raifins, however, was a practice unknown to ancient cookery. STEEVENS. With, ho! fuch bugs and goblins in my life,'- My head should be ftruck off. HOR. Is't poffible? HAM. Here's the commiffion; read it at more leifure. But wilt thou hear now how I did proceed? HOR. Ay, 'befeech you. HAM. Being thus benetted round with villanies, Or I could make a prologue to my brains, They had begun the play;-I fat me down; 3 With, bo! fuch bugs and goblins in my life,] With fuch causes of terror, rising from my character and defigns. JOHNSON. A bug was no lefs a terrifick being than a goblin. So, in Spenfer's Faery Queen, Book II. c. iii: "As ghaftly bug their haire an end does reare,” We call it at prefent a bugbear. STEEVENS. See Vol. X. p. 376, n. 7. MALONE. 4 no leifure bated,] Bated, for allowed. To abate, fignifies to deduct; this deduction, when applied to the perfon in whofe favour it is made, is called an allowance. Hence he takes the liberty of ufing bated for allowed. WARBURTON. Na leifure bated-means, without any abatement or intermission of time. MALONE. s Or I could make-] Or in old English fignified before. See Vol. VIII. p. 142, n. 3. MALONE. Being thus benetted round with villanies, Or I could make a prologue to my brains, They had begun the play;] Hamlet is telling how luckily every thing fell out; he groped out their commiffion in the dark without waking them; he found himself doomed to immediate deftruction. Something was to be done for his prefervation. An expedient occurred, not produced by the comparifon of one method with another, or by a regular deduction of confequences, but before he could make a prologue to his brains, they had begun the play. Before he could fummon his faculties, and propofe to himself what fhould be done, a complete scheme of action prefented itself to him. His mind operated before he had excited it. This appears to me to be the meaning, JOHNSON. Devis'd a new commiffion; wrote it fair: A baseness to write fair," and labour'd much HOR. Ay, good my lord. HAM. An earneft conjuration from the king,As England was his faithful tributary; As love between them like the palm might flourish; 8 As peace should still her wheaten garland wear, 5 as our statifts do,] A ftatift is a fatefman. So, in Shirley's Humorous Courtier, 1640: -that he is wife, a statist." Again, in Ben Jonfon's Magnetick Lady: "Will fcrew you out a fecret from a ftatift." STEEVENS. Moft of the great men of Shakspeare's times, whofe autographs have been preserved, wrote very bad hands; their fecretaries very neat ones. BLACKSTONE. 6 I once did hold it, as our ftatifts do, A bafeness to write fair,]"I have in my time, (fays Montaigne,) feene fome, who by writing did earneftly get both their titles and living, to difavow their apprentiffage, marre their pen, and affect the ignorance of fo vulgar a qualitie." Florio's tranflation, 1603, p. 125. RITSON. 7 -yeoman's fervice:] The meaning, I believe, is, This yeomanly qualification was a most useful fervant, or yeoman, to me; i. e. did me eminent fervice. The ancient yeomen were famous for their military valour. "Thefe were the good archers in times paft, (fays Sir Thomas Smith,) and the stable troop of footmen that affraide all France." STEEVENS. 8 — like the palm might flourish;] This comparison is fcriptural. The righteous fhall flourish like a palm-tree." Pfalm, xcii. 11. 9 As peace should fill her wheaten garland wear, STEEVENS. And ftand a comma 'tween their amities;] The expreffion of our author is, like many of his phrafes, fufficiently constrained and affected, but it is not incapable of explanation. The comma is the And many fuch like as's of great charge,'- note of connection and continuity of fentences; the period is the note of abruption and disjunction. Shakspeare had it perhaps in his mind to write,―That unless England complied with the mandate, war fhould put a period to their amity; he altered his mode of diction, and thought that, in an oppofite fenfe, he might put, that peace fhould fand a comma between their amities. This is not an eafy ftile; but is it not the ftile of Shakspeare? JOHNSON. 2-as's of great charge,] Affes heavily loaded. A quibble is intended between as the conditional particle, and as the beast of burthen. That charg'd anciently fignified loaded, may be proved from the following paffage in The Widow's Tears, by Chapman, 1612: "Thou must be the afs charg'd with crowns to make way." JOHNSON. Shakspeare has fo many quibbles of his own to answer for, that there are thofe who think it hard he should be charged with others which perhaps he never thought of. STEEVENS. Though the first and obvious meaning of these words certainly is, "many fimilar adjurations, or monitory injunctions, of great weight and importance," yet Dr. Johnson's notion of a quibble being alfo in the poet's thoughts, is fupported by two other paffages of Shakfpeare, in which affes are introduced as ufually employed in the carriage of gold, a charge of no fmall weight: "He fhall but bear them, as the afs bears gold, Again, in Measure for Measure: Julius Cafar. -like an ass, whofe back with ingots bows, "Thou bear'ft thy heavy riches but a journey, "And death unloads thee." In further fupport of his obfervation, it fhould be remembered, that the letters in the particle as in the midland counties ufually pronounced hard, as in the pronoun us. Dr. Johnson himself always pronounced the particle as hard, and so I have no doubt did Shakspeare. It is fo pronounced in Warwickshire at this day. The firft folio accordingly has-affis, MALONE. Not thriving-time allow'd.] i. e. without time for confefsion of |