Neither a borrower, nor a lender be: ejus obtinet; ante Chrifti adventum dabatur in maximi honoris fignum; Jenatoribus et honoratis viris.” B. Jonson has used the word in his Patafter. The meaning then feems to be, They in France approve themselves of a moft felett and generous escutcheon by their drefs. Generous is used with the fignification of generofus. So, in Othello: "The generous iflanders," &c. Chief, however, may have been used as a substantive, for note or eftimation, without any allufion to heraldry, though the word was perhaps originally heraldick. So, in Bacon's Colours of Good and Evil, 16mo. 1597: "In the warmer climates the people are generally more wife, but in the northern climates the wits of chief are greater. If chief in this fenfe had not been familiarly understood, the editor of the folio muft have confidered the line as unintelligible, and would have probably omitted the words—of a in the beginning of it, or attempted fome other correction. That not having been done, I have adhered to the old copies. Our poet from various paffages in his works, appears to have been accurately acquainted with all the terms of heraldry. MALONE. Of chief, in the paffage quoted from Bacon, is, I believe, a bald tranflation of the old French phrase-de chef, whatever, in the prefent inftance, might be its intended meaning. STEEVENS. 3 of husbandry.] i. e. of thrift; economical prudence. See Vol. VII. p. 400, n. 4. MALONE. And it must follow, as the night the day,] So, in the 145th Sonnet of Shakspeare: "That follow'd it as gentle day "Doth follow night," &c. STEEVENS. 5 my blessing season this in thee!] Seafon, for infuse. WARBURTON. It is more than to infuse, it is to infix it in fuch a manner as that it never may wear out. JOHNSON. LAER. Most humbly do I take my leave, my lord. POL. The time invites you;' go, your fervants tend." LAER. Farewell, Ophelia; and remember well What I have faid to you. OPH. 'Tis in my memory lock'd, And you yourself fhall keep the key of it." LAER. Farewell. [Exit LAERTES. POL. What is't, Ophelia, he hath said to you? OPH. So please you, fomething touching the lord Hamlet. POL. Marry, well bethought: 'Tis told me, he hath very oft of late Given private time to you; and you yourself Have of your audience been moft free and boun teous: If it be fo, (as fo 'tis put on me, And that in way of caution,) I must tell you, 66 So, in the mock tragedy reprefented before the king: 5 The time invites you ;] So, in Macbeth : "I go, and it is done, the bell invites me." STEEVENS. Thus the folio. The quarto, 1604, reads-The time invefts you which Mr. Theobald preferred, fuppofing that it meant," the time befieges, preffes upon you on every fide." But to inveft, in Shakspeare's time, only fignified, to clothe, or give poffeffion. MALONE. 6 ➖➖➖ your fervants tend.] i. e. your fervants are waiting for you. JOHNSON. "yourself shall keep the key of it.] The meaning is, that your counfels are as fure of remaining locked up in my memory, as if yourself carried the key of it. So, in Northward Hoe, by Decker and Webster, 1607: "You fhall close it up like a treasure of your own, and yourself shall keep the key of it." STEEVENS. As it behoves my daughter, and your honour: Of his affection to me. POL. Affection? puh! you speak like a green girl, Unfifted in fuch perilous circumstance. Do you believe his tenders, as you call them? OPH. I do not know, my lord, what I should think. POL. Marry, I'll teach you: think yourself a baby; That you have ta'en these tenders for true pay, Which are not fterling. Tender yourself more dearly; Or (not to crack the wind of the poor phrase, Unfifted in fuch perilous circumftance.] Unfifted for untried. Untried fignifies either not tempted, or not refined; unfifted fignifies the latter only, though the fenfe requires the former. WARBURTON. It means, I believe, one who has not fufficiently confidered, or thoroughly fifted fuch matters. M. MASON. I do not think that the fenfe requires us to understand untempted. "Unfifted in" &c. means, I think, one who has not nicely canvassed and examined the peril of her fituation. MALONE. Tender yourself more dearly; Or (not to crack the wind of the poor phrafe, Wronging it thus,) you'll tender me a fool.] The parenthefis is clofed at the wrong place; and we must have likewise a flight correction in the laft verfe. [Wringing it &c.] Polonius is racking and playing on the word tender, till he thinks proper to correct himfelf for the licence; and then he would fay-not farther to crack the wind of the phrafe, by twisting it and contorting it, as I have done. WARBURTON. I believe the word wronging has reference, not to the phrafe, but to Ophelia; if you go on wronging it thus, that is, if you con OPH. My lord, he hath impórtun'd me with love, In honourable fashion. POL. Ay, fashion you may call it; go to, go to. OPH. And hath given countenance to his fpeech, my lord, With almost all the holy vows of heaven. Poz. Ay, fpringes to catch woodcocks.' I do know, When the blood burns, how prodigal the foul tinue to go on thus wrong. This is a mode of speaking perhaps not very grammatical, but very common; nor have the best writers refused it. "To finner it or faint it," is in Pope. And Rowe, 66 Thus to coy it, "With one who knows you too." The folio has it-Roaming it thus. That is, letting yourself loofe to fuch improper liberty, But wronging feems to be more proper. JOHNSON. "See you do not coy it," is in Maflinger's New Way to pay old Debts. STEEVENS. I have followed the punctuation of the first quarto, 1604, where the parenthesis is extended to the word thus, to which word the context in my apprehenfion clearly fhews it fhould be carried. "Or (not to crack the wind of the poor phrafe, playing upon it, and abufing it thus,") &c. So, in The Rape of Lucrece: "To wrong the wronger, till he render right." The quarto, by the mistake of the compofitor, reads-Wrong it thus. The correction was made by Mr. Pope. Tender yourself more dearly;] To tender is to regard with affection. So, in King Richard II: And fo betide me, "As well I tender you and all of yours." Again, in The Maydes Metamorphofis, by Lyly, 1601: if you account us for the fame "That tender thee, and love Apollo's name." MALONE. fafhion you may call it ;] She ufes fashion for manner, he for a tranfient practice. JOHNSON. 3 and Springes to catch woodcocks.] A proverbial faying, "Every woman has a springe to catch a woodcock." STEEVENS. Lends the tongue vows: these blazes, daughter,* thefe blazes, daughter,] Some epithet to blazes was probably omitted, by the careleffness of the tranfcriber or compofitor, in the first quarto, in confequence of which the metre is defective. MALONE. 5 Set your entreatments-] Entreatments here mean company, conversation, from the French entrétien. JOHNSON. Entreatments, I rather think, means the objects of entreaty; the favours for which lovers fue. In the next scene we have a word of a fimilar formation: "As if it fome impartment did defire," &c. - larger tether-] A ftring to tie horses. MALONE. POPE. Tether is that ftring by which an animal, set to graze in grounds uninclofed, is confined within the proper limits. JOHNSON. So, in Greene's Card of Fancy, 1601 :-" To tye the ape and the bear in one tedder." Tether is a ftring by which any animal is faftened, whether for the fake of feeding or the air. STEEVENS. * Do not believe his vows, for they are brokers-] A broker in old English meant a barwd or pimp. See the Gloffary to Gawin Douglafs's tranflation of Virgil. So, in King John: "This bawd, this broker," &c. See alfo Vol. XI. p. 450, n. 9. In our author's Lover's Com plaint we again meet wtih the fame expreffion, applied in the fame manner: “Know, vows are ever brokers to defiling." MALONE. Breathing like fanctified and pious bonds,] On which the editor, |