HOR. This lapwing runs away with the fhell on his head."

HAM. He did comply with his dug, before he fuck'd it." Thus has he (and many more of the

5 This lapwing runs away with the hell on his head.] I fee no particular propriety in the image of the lapwing. Ofrick did not run till he had done his bufinefs. We may read,-This laping ran away-That is, this fellow was full of unimportant bustle fram his birth. JOHNSON.

The fame image occurs in Ben Jonfon's Staple of News:

"To mount their boxes reverently, and drive

"Like lapings with a shell upon their heads,

"Thorough the ftreets."

And I have fince met with it in feveral other plays. The meaning, I believe, is-This is a forward fellow. So, in The White Devil, or Vittoria Corombona, 1612:

66

Forward lapwing,

"He flies with the fhell on's head."

Again, in Greene's Never too late, 1616: "Are you no fooner hatched, with the lapwing, but you will run away with the hell on your head?"

Again, in Revenge for Honour, by Chapman:

"Boldnefs enforces youth to hard atchievements

"Before their time; makes them run forth like lapwings
"From their warm neft, part of the shell yet flicking
"Unto their downy heads." STEEVENS.

I believe, Hamlet means to fay that Ofrick is, bustling and impetuous, and yet " but raw in refpect of his quick fail." So, in The Character of an Oxford Incendiary, 1643: "This laping incendiary ran away half-hatch'd from Oxford, to raise a combuftion in Scotland."

In Meres's Wit's Treasury, 1598, we have the fame image expreffed exactly in our poet's words: "As the lapwing runneth away with the hell on her head, as foon as fhe is hatched," &c.

MALON E.

He did comply with his dug, &c.] Thus the folio. The quarto, 1604, reads-A [i. e. he] did, fir, with his dug, &c. For comply Dr. Warburton and the fubfequent editors; read-compliment. The verb to compliment was not used, as I think, in the time of Shakspeare. MALONE.

I doubt whether any alteration be neceffary. Shakspeare seems to have used comply in the fenfe in which we use the verb compliment.

fame breed, that, I know, the droffy age dotes on,) only got the tune of the time, and outward habit of encounter; a kind of yefty collection, which carries them through and through the moft fond and winnow'd opinions; and do but blow them to their trial, the bubbles are out.

See before, Act II. fc. ii: “ garb." TYRWHITT.

9

let me comply with you in this

1—and many more of the fame breed,] The first folio hasand mine more of the fame beavy. The fecond folio-and nine more &c. Perhaps the laft is the true reading. STEEVENS.

There may be a propriety in bevy, as he has juft called him a lapwing. TOLLET.

"Many more of the fame breed," is the reading of the quarto, 1604. MALONE.

8 -outward habit of encounter;] Thus the folio. The quartos read-out of an habit of encounter. STEEVENS.

Outward habit of encounter, is exterior politenefs of addrefs; in allufion to Ofrick's laft fpeech. HENLEY.

We should, I think, read—an outward habit, &c. MALONE. 9 a kind of yesty collection, which carries them through and through the most fond and winnowed opinions;] This paffage in the quarto ftands thus: They have got out of the habit of encounter, a kind of mifty collection, which carries them through and through the most profane and trennowned opinions." If this printer preferved any traces of the original, our author wrote, "the moft fane and renowned opinions," which is better than fann'd and winnow’d.

The meaning is, "thefe men have got the cant of the day, a fuperficial readinefs of flight and curfory converfation, a kind of frothy collection of fashionable prattle, which yet carries them through the most felect and approving judgements. This airy facility of talk fometimes impotes upon wife men."

Who has not feen this obfervation verified? JOHNSON.

The quarto, 1604, reads, " dotes on; only got the tune of the time, and out of an habit," &c. and—not misty, but bify; the folio rightly, yefly: the fame quarto has not trennowned, but trennowed (a corruption of winnowed,) for which (according to the ufual procefs,) the next quarto gave trennowned. Fond and winnowed is the reading of the folio. MALONE.

Fond is evidently oppofed to winnowed. Fond, in the language

Enter a Lord.

LORD. My lord,' his majefty commended him to you by young Ofrick, who brings back to him, that you attend him in the hall: He fends to know, if your pleasure hold to play with Laertes, or that you will take longer time.

HAM. I am conftant to my purposes, they follow

of Shakspeare's age, fignified foolish. So, in The Merchant of Venice: Thou naughty jailer, why art thou fo foud," &c. Winnowed is fifted, examined. The fenfe is then, that their converfation was yet fuccefsful enough to make them paffable not only with the weak, but with thofe of founder judgement. The fame oppofition in terms is vifible in the reading which the quartos offer. Profane or vulgar is opposed to trenowned, or thrice renowned.

STEEVENS.

Fann'd and winnow'd feems right to me. Both words winnowed, fand* and dreft, occur together in Markham's English Hasbandman, p. 117. So do fan'd and winnow'd, fanned and winnowed in his Hufbandry, p. 18, 76, and 77. So, Shakspeare mentions together the fan and wind in Troilus and Creffida, Act V. sc. iii. TOLLET.

On confidering this paffage, it always appeared to me that we ought to read, the moft found and winnowed opinions:" and I have been confirmed in that conjecture by a paffage I lately met with in Howel's Letters, where fpeaking of a man merely contemplative, he fays, "Befides he may want judgement in the choice of his authors, and knows not how to turn his hand either in weighing or winnowing the foundeft opinions." Book III. Letter viii. M. MASON.

2

do but blow them &c.] Thefe men of fhow, without folidity, are like bubbles raised from foap and water, which dance, and glitter, and please the eye, but if you extend them, by blowing hard, feparate into a mift; fo if you oblige thefe fpecious talkers to extend their compafs of converfation, they at once discover the tenuity of their intellects. JOHNSON.

3 My lord, &c.] All that paffes between Hamlet and this Lord is omitted in the folio. STEEVENS.

*So written without the apostrophe, and easily might in MS. be mistaken for find.

the king's pleasure: if his fitnefs fpeaks, mine is ready; now, or whenfoever, provided I be fo able

as now.

LORD. The king, and queen, and all are coming down.

HAM. In happy time.

LORD. The queen defires you, to use fome gentle entertainment to Laertes, before you fall to play. HAM. She well inftructs me. [Exit Lord. HOR. You will lofe this wager, my lord.

HAM. I do not think fo; fince he went into France, I have been in continual practice; I shall win at the odds.' But thou would'ft not think, how ill all's here about my heart: but it is no

matter.

HOR. Nay, good my lord,

HAM. It is but foolery; but it is fuch a kind of gain-giving, as would, perhaps, trouble a woman. HOR. If your mind diflike any thing, obey it:"

-gentle entertainment—] Mild and temperate conversation.

JOHNSON. I fall win at the odds.] I fhall fucceed with the advantage that I am allowed. MALONE.

6_ -a kind of gain-giving,] Gain-giving is the fame as mifgiving. STEEVENS.

The

If your mind diflike any thing, obey it :] With thefe prefages of future evils arifing in the mind, the poet has fore-run many events which are to happen at the conclufions of his plays; and fometimes fo particularly, that even the circumftances of calamity are minutely hinted at, as in the inftance of Juliet, who tells her lover from the window, that he appears like one dead in the bottom of a tomb. fuppofition that the genius of the mind gave an alarm before approaching diffolution, is a very ancient one, and perhaps can never be totally driven out: yet it must be allowed the merit of adding beauty to poetry, however injurious it may sometimes prove to the weak and the fuperftitious. STEEVENS.

I will forestal their repair hither, and fay, you are not fit.

HAM. Not a whit, we defy augury; there is a fpecial providence in the fall of a fparrow. If it be now, 'tis not to come; if it be not to come, it will be now; if it be not now, yet it will come: the readiness is all: Since no man, of aught he leaves, knows, what is't to leave betimes? Let be.

8 Since no man, of aught he leaves, knows, what is't to leave betimes?] The old quarto reads,-Since no man, of aught he leaves, knows, what is't to leave betimes? Let be. This is the true reading. Here the premifes conclude right, and the argument drawn out at length is to this effect: "It is true, that, by death, we lose all the goods of life; yet feeing this lofs is no otherwise an evil than as we are fenfible of it, and fince death removes all fense of it, what matters it how foon we lose them? Therefore come what will, I am prepared." WARBURTON.

The reading of the quarto was right, but in fome other copy the harshness of the tranfpofition was foftened, and the paffage ftood thus:-Since no man knows aught of what he leaves. For knows was printed in the later copies has, by a flight blunder in fuch typographers.

I do not think Dr. Warburton's interpretation of the paffage the beft that it will admit. The meaning may be this,-Since man knows aught of the state of life which he leaves, fince he cannot judge what other years may produce, why fhould he be afraid of leaving life betimes? Why fhould he dread an early death, of which he cannot tell whether it is an exclufion of happiness, or an interception of calamity. I defpife the fuperftition of augury and omens, which has no ground in reafon or piety; my comfort is, that I cannot fall but by the direction of Providence.

Sir T. Hanmer has,-Since no man owes aught, a conjecture not very reprehenfible. Since no man can call any poffeffion certain, what is it to leave? JOHNSON.

Dr. Warburton has truly ftated the reading of the first quarto, 1604. The folio reads,—Since no man has ought of what he leaves, what is't to leave betimes?

In the late editions neither copy has been followed. MALONE.