In thews, and bulk; but, as this temple waxes, The inward fervice of the mind and foul

6

Grows wide withal. Perhaps, he loves you now;
And now no foil, nor cautel, doth befmirch
The virtue of his will: but, you must fear,
His greatnefs weigh'd, his will is not his own;
For he himfelf is fubject to his birth:7
He may not, as unvalued perfons do,

Carve for himself; for on his choice depends
The fafety and the health of the whole state;"

5 In thews,] i. e. in finews, mufcular ftrength. So, in King Henry IV. Part II: " Care I for the limb, the thewes, the ftature," &c. See Vol. IX. p. 137, n. 7. STEEVENS.

And now no foil, nor cautel, doth befmirch

The virtue of his will:] From cautela, which fignifies only a prudent forefight or caution; but, paffing through French hands, it loft its innocence, and now fignifies fraud, deceit. And fo he ufes the adjective in Julius Cæfar:

"Swear priests and cowards, and men cautelous."

WARBURTON.

So, in the fecond part of Greene's Art of Coneycatching, 1592: and their fubtill cautels to amend the ftatute." To amend the ftatute, was the cant phrafe for evading the law. STEEVENS. Cautel is fubtlety or deceit. Minfheu in his Dictionary, 1617, defines it, "A crafty way to deceive." The word is again used by Shakspeare in A Lover's Complaint:

In him a plenitude of fubtle matter,
Applied to cautels, all ftrange forms receives."

MALONE. Virtue feems here to comprise both excellence and power, and may be explained the pure effect. JOHNSON.

The virtue of his will means, his virtuous intentions. Cautel means craft. So, Coriolanus fays:

be caught by cautelous baits and practice."

M. MASON.

7 For he himself &c.] This line is not in the quarto.

MALONE. The fafety and the health of the whole ftate;] Thus the quarto, 1604, except that it has-this whole ftate, and the fecond the is inadvertently omitted. The folio reads:

The fanctity and health of the whole ftate.

This is another proof of arbitrary alterations being fometimes

And therefore muft his choice be circumfcrib'd
Unto the voice and yielding of that body,
Whereof he is the head: Then if he fays, he loves
you,

It fits your wisdom so far to believe it,
As he in his particular act and place

May give his faying deed; which is no further,
Than the main voice of Denmark goes withal.
Then weigh what lofs your honour may fuftain,
If with too credent ear you lift his fongs;
Or lofe your heart; or your chafte treasure open
To his unmaster'd' importunity.

Fear it, Ophelia, fear it, my dear fifter;
And keep you in the rear of your affection,'
Out of the fhot and danger of defire.
The charieft maid is prodigal enough,
If the unmask her beauty to the moon:
Virtue itself fcapes not calumnious ftrokes :
The canker galls the infants of the spring,
Too oft before their buttons be difclos'd;
And in the morn and liquid dew of youth
Contagious blastments are most imminent.

made in the folio. The editor, finding the metre defective, in confequence of the article being omitted before health, instead of fupplying it, for fafety fubftituted a word of three fyllables.

MALONE.

-the

9 May give his faying deed ;] So, in Timon of Athens: “ deed of faying is quite out of ufe." Again, in Troilus and Cressida: Speaking in deeds, and deedlefs in his tongue."

2

66

- unmafter'd—] i. e. licentious. JOHNSON.

MALONE.

3 - keep you in the rear &c.] That is, do not advance fo far as your affection would lead you. JOHNSON.

• The charieft maid-] Chary is cautious. So, in Greene's Never too Late, 1616: "Love requires not chastity, but that her foldiers be chary." Again, " She liveth chaftly enough, that liveth charly." STEEVENS.

Be wary then beft fafety lies in fear;
Youth to itself rebels, though none else near.

OPH. I fhall the effect of this good leffon keep As watchman to my heart: But, good my brother, Do not, as fome ungracious pastors do,

Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven;
Whilft, like a puff'd and reckless libertine,
Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads,
And recks not his own read.*

LAER.

O, fear me not. I ftay too long;-But here my father comes.

Enter POLONIUS.

A double bleffing is a double grace;
Occafion fmiles upon a second leave.

POL. Yet here, Laertes! aboard, aboard, for shame;

The wind fits in the fhoulder of your fail,s

4 -recks not his own read.] That is, heeds not his own leffons. POPE.

So, in the old Morality of Hycke Scorner:

Again, ibidem:

I reck not a feder."

"And of thy living, I reed amend thee." Ben Jonfon ufes the word reed in his Cataline: "So that thou could't not move

Against a publick reed."

Again, in Sir Tho. North's tranflation of Plutarch: "

Dif

patch, I read you, for your enterprize is betray'd." Again, the old proverb, in the Two angry Women of Abington, 1599:

"Take heed, is a good reed."

i. e. good counfel, good advice. STEEVENS.

So, Sternhold, Pfalmi:

66

that hath not lent

"To wicked rede his ear." BLACKSTONE.

-the fhoulder of your fail,] This is a common fea phrase.

STEEVENS.

And you are ftaid for: There,-my bleffing with you; [Laying his hand on LAERTES' bead.

And these few precepts in thy memory

Look thou charácter. Give thy thoughts no tongue,
Nor any unproportion'd thought his act.
Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar.
The friends thou haft, and their adoption tried,
Grapple them to thy foul with hooks of steel;7
But do not dull thy palm with entertainment
Of each new-hatch'd, unfledg'd comrade. Beware

And these few precepts in thy memory

Look thou character.] i. e. write; ftrongly infix. The fame phrafe is again used by our author in his 122d Sonnet: -thy tables are within my brain

66

"Full character'd with lafting memory.”

Again, in The Two Gentlemen of Verona:

66

I do conjure thee,

"Who art the table wherein all my thoughts

"Are vifibly character'd and engrav'd." MALONE.

Grapple them to thy foul with hooks of fleel;] The old copies read with hoops of fteel. I have no doubt that this was a corruption in the original quarto of 1604, arifing, like many others, from fimilitude of founds. The emendation, which was made by Mr. Pope, and adopted by three fubfequent editors, is strongly fupported by the word grapple. See Mintheu's Dictionary, 1617: "To book or grapple, viz. to grapple and to board a ship."

A grapple is an inftrument with feveral hooks to lay hold of a ship, in order to board it.

This correction is alfo juftified by our poet's 137th Sonnet: "Why of eyes' falfhood haft thou forged hooks,

"Whereto the judgement of my heart is ty'd?"

It may be alfo obferved, that books are fometimes made of fteel, but boops never. MALONE.

We have, however, in King Henry IV. P. II:

"A boop of gold to bind thy brothers in."

The former part of the phrafe occurs alfo in Macbeth:

Grapples you to the heart and love of us." STEEVENS.

But do not dull thy palm with entertainment

Of each new-hatch'd, unfledg'd comrade.] The literal fenfe is,

Of entrance to a quarrel; but, being in,
Bear it that the oppofer may beware of thee.
Give every man thine ear, but few thy voice:
Take each man's cenfure, but referve thy judge-

ment.

Coftly thy habit as thy purse can buy,

But not exprefs'd in fancy; rich, not gaudy:
For the apparel oft proclaims the man;

And they in France, of the best rank and station,
Are most select and generous, chief in that.'

Do not make thy palm callous by shaking every man by the hand. The figurative meaning may be, Do not by promiscuous conversation make thy mind infenfible to the difference of characters. JOHNSON.

9 ——each man's cenfure,] Cenfure is opinion. So, in King Henry VI. P. II:

"The king is old enough to give his cenfure." STEEVENS. Are most felect and generous, chief in that.] I think the whole defign of the precept fhows we fhould read:

Are moft felect, and generous chief, in that.

Chief may be an adjective used adverbially, a practice common to our author: chiefly generous. Yet it must be owned that the punctuation recommended is very stiff and harsh.

I would, however, more willingly read:

And they in France, of the beft rank and ftation,

Select and generous, are moft choice in that.

Let the reader, who can difcover the flightest approach towards fenfe, harmony, or metre, in the original line,

Are of a moft felect and generous chief, in that, adhere to the old copies. STEEVENS.

The genuine meaning of the paffage requires us to point the line thus:

"Are most select and generous, chief in that.”

i. e. the nobility of France are felect and generous above all other nations, and chiefly in the point of apparel; the richness and elegance of their drefs. RITSON.

Are of a moft felect and generous chief, in that.] Thus the quarto, 1604, and the folio, except that in that copy the word chief is fpelt cheff. The fubftantive chief, which fignifies in heraldry the upper part of the fhield, appears to have been in common ufe in Shakfpeare's time, being found in Minfheu's Dictionary, 1617. defines it thus: " Eft fuperior et fcuti nobilior pars; tertiam partem

He