Heaven fecure him! MAR. [Within.] Lord Hamlet, HOR. [Within.] Нам. So be it! MAR. [Within.] Illo, ho, ho, my lord! Nor I, my lord. HAM. How fay you then; would heart of man once think it? But you'll be fecret,— HOR. MAR. Ay, by heaven, my lord. HAM. There's ne'er a villain, dwelling in all Denmark, But he's an arrant knave. -come, bird, come. ne.] This is the call which falconers use to their hawk in the air, when they would have him come down to them. HANMER. This expreffion is ufed in Marfton's Dutch Courtezan, and by many others among the old dramatick writers. It appears from all thefe paffages, that it was the falconers' call, as Sir T. Hanmer has obferved. Again, in Tyro's Roaring Megge, planted againft the Walls of Me lancholy, &c. 4to. 1598: "Yet, ere Líournie, Ile go fee the kyte: “Come, come bird, come: pox on you, can you mute?” STEEVENS. HOR. There needs no ghost, my lord, come from the grave, To tell us this. HAM. Why, right; you are in the right; And fo, without more circumstance at all, I hold it fit, that we shake hands, and part: You, as your business, and defire, fhall point you;- Such as it is, and, for my own poor part, HOR. These are but wild and whirling words, my lord. HAM. I am forry they offend you, heartily; yes, 'Faith, heartily. HOR. There's no offence, my lord. HAM. Yes, by faint Patrick,' but there is, Ho ratio, And much offence too. Touching this vifion here,- HOR. We will. What is't, my lord? HAM. Never make known what you have seen to-night. 9 by faint Patrick,] How the poet comes to make Hamlet fwear by St. Patrick, I know not. However, at this time all the whole northern world had their learning from Ireland; to which place it had retired, and there flourished under the auspices of this Saint. But it was, I fuppofe, only faid at random; for he makes Hamlet a student of Wittenberg. WARBURTON. Dean Swift's " Verfes on the fudden drying-up of St. Patrick's Well, 1726," contain many learned allufions to the early cultivation of literature in Ireland. NICHOLS. HOR. MAR. My lord, we will not. MAR. We have fworn, my lord, already. HAM. Indeed, upon my fword, indeed. GHOST. [Beneath.] Swear. HAM. Ha, ha, boy! fay'ft thou fo? art thou there, true-penny? 2 Come on,-you hear this fellow in the cellarage,Confent to fwear. HOR. Propose the oath, my lord. HAM. Never to speak of this that you have seen, Swear by my fword.3 -true-penny?] This word, as well as fome of Hamlet's former exclamations, we find in the Malcontent, 1604: “Illo, ho, ho, ho; art there old True-penny?” STEEVENS. 3 Swear by my fword.] Here the poet has preferved the manners of the ancient Danes, with whom it was religion to fwear upon their fwords. See Bartholinus, De caufis contempt. mort. apud Dan. WARBURTON. I was once inclinable to this opinion, which is likewise well defended by Mr. Upton; but Mr. Garrick produced me a passage, I think, in Brantome, from which it appeared, that it was common to fwear upon the fword, that is, upon the crofs which the old fwords always had upon the hilt. JOHNSON. Shakspeare, it is more than probable, knew nothing of the ancient Danes, or their manners. Every extract from Dr. Farmer's pamphlet must prove as inftructive to the reader as the following: "In the Paffus Primus of Pierce Plowman, • David in his daies dubbed knightes, • And did them were on her fword to ferve truth ever.' "And in Hieronymo, the common butt of our author, and the wits of the time, fays Lorenzo to Pedringano: GHOST. [Beneath.] Swear. HAM. Hic & ubique? then we'll shift our ground: Come hither, gentlemen, And lay your hands again upon my sword: Never to speak of this that you have heard. GHOST. [Beneath.] Swear by his fword. HAM. Well faid, old mole! can't work i'the earth so fast? • Swear on this cross, that what thou fay'ft is true: This very word, whereon thou took'st thine oath, To the authorities produced by Dr. Farmer, the following may be added from Holinfbed, p. 664: "Warwick kiffed the cross of K. Edward's fword, as it were a vow to his promife." Again, p. 1038, it is faid: " that Warwick drew out his sword, which other of the honourable and worshipful that were then prefent likewife did, whom he commanded, that each one should kifs other's fword, according to an ancient cuftom amongst men of war in time of great danger; and herewith they made a folemn vow," &c. Again, in Decker's comedy of Old Fortunatus, 1600: "He has fworn to me on the cross of his pure Toledo." Again, in his Satiromaftix: "By the cross of this fword and dagger, captain, you shall take it." In the foliloquy of Roland addreffed to his fword, the cross on it is not forgotten: capulo eburneo candidiffime, cruce aurea fplendidiffime," &c. Turpini Hift. de Gefis Caroli Mag. cap. 22. Again, in an ancient MS. of which fome account is given in a note on the firft fcene of the first act of The Merry Wives of Windfor, the oath taken by a master of defence when his degree was conferred on him, is preferved, and runs as follows: "Firft you fhall fweare (fo help you God and halidome, and by all the chriftendome which God gave you at the fount-ftone, and by the craffe of this favord which doth reprefent unto you the crosse which our Saviour Jufered his most payneful deathe upon,) that you fhall upholde, maynteyne, and kepe to your power all foch articles as fhal be heare declared unto you, and receve in the prefence of me your maifter, and thefe the reft of the maifters my bretheren heare with me at this tyme." STEEVENS. A worthy pioneer!-Once more remove, good friends. HOR. O day and night, but this is wondrous. strange! HAM. And therefore as a ftranger give it welcome.4 There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philofophy. But come; Here, as before, never, fo help you mercy! That you, at fuch times feeing me, never fhall, Or fuch ambiguous giving out, to note That you know aught of me:-This do you fwear," Spenfer obferves that the Irish in his time used commonly to swear by their fword. See his View of the State of Ireland, written in 1596. This cuftom, indeed, is of the higheft antiquity; having prevailed, as we learn from Lucian, among the Scythians. MALONE. And therefore as a stranger give it welcome.] i. e. receive it to yourfelf; take it under your own roof; as much as to fay, Keep it fecret. Alluding to the laws of hofpitality. WARBURTON. Warburton refines too much on this paffage. Hamlet means merely to request that they would feem not to know it to be unacquainted with it. M. MASON. —an if they might;] Thus the quarto. The folio readsan if there might. MALONE. Or fuch ambiguous giving out, to note That you know aught of me:] The conftruction is irregular and elliptical. Swear as before, fays Hamlet, that you never shall by |