lands before the bier of a maiden, and to hang them over her grave, is still the practice in rural parishes. Crants therefore was the original word, which the author, discovering to be provincial, and perhaps not understood, changed to a term more intelligible, but less proper. Muiden rites give no certain or definitive image. He might have put maiden wreaths or maiden garlands, but he perhaps bestowed no thought upon it; and neither genius nor practice will always supply a hasty writer with the most proper diction." Mr. Tollet adds, in Minshieu's Dictionary, see Beades, where rovsen krants means sertum rosarium; and such is the name of a character in this play. And Mr. Steevens observes, the names Rosenkrantz and Gyldenstiern occur frequently in Rostgard's Delicia Poetarum Danorum. (28) To sing sage requiem, and such rest to her As to peace-parted souls] Whatever foundation there may have been for the course here taken, either in the rigid notions of the age, or the severity of ecclesiastical rules, to us she has ever appeared throughout, and as her story is told by the queen, to have been a most unhappy and pitiable maniac; and hence the prodigious interest she at all times excites. Sage, it is conceived, is grave and solemn requiem. The modern editors, with the quartos, read "a requiem." (29) -from her fair and unpolluted flesh May violets spring] "Non nunc a manibus istis, "Non nunc e tumulo, fortunataque favilla, (30) churlish priest] Churlish is figuratively " ill-humoured, and ill-bred ;" and of course uncourtly, as in its primitive sense " rustic and rude." And we shall here present the reader with an extract from the Promptuar. parvulor, 1514. "Churlysshe prest. Ego nis vel econis."" Ego (onis et egona) ne. i. seculum: vel ut dicit papias. Egones in plurali sunt sacerdotes rustici, producen. penult." Ortus Vocabulorum, 4to. 1514. Churlysshe. rusticalis. churle or carle. rusticus." Prompt. parv. We would not have it here inferred that our author meant to convey any other idea than that which the words present to us now; or that he meant more than to use such low phrase or general invective, as "country parson, or hedge priest;" but the coincidence, the combination is at least singular, and may be thought not unworthy the notice of the curious. (31) Wou'll drink up Esile? Esill, 4tos.] The Yssel. Of the vast river, Rhine, the most northern branch, (that which is the nearest to Denmark, and which runs by Zutphen and Deventer into the Zus der Zee) is called Yssell, and gives name to one of the most northern of the united provinces. This name, the Issell, or Izel, was familiar, as Mr. Steevens has shown, to Stowe and Drayton; and the idea of drinking up seas is elsewhere to be met with in our author: "the task he undertakes "Is numb'ring sands, and drinking oceans dry." R. II. Green. II. 2. Neither is it impossible that it should be the Vistula, or Weissel, as Mr. Steevens intimates; but, as he has given the name of Weissel only, without the least information beyond it, it may be necessary to add, that in the Geography of Europe, from king Alfred's Anglo-Saxon version of Orosius, annexed to Ingram's Inaugural Lecture upon the Saxon language, 4to. 1808, we have "Weonodland [the country from Pomerania to the Frisch Haff] was, &c. all which land is subject to Denmark. Weonodland was, &c. as far as Weisselmouth. The Weissel is a very large river; and near it lie Witland and Weonodland, and out of Weonodland flows the river Weissel, which empties itself into Estmere [Frisch Haff]." But, though it was once subject to Denmark, and is, besides, by far the greatest river that empties itself into the Baltic, even if its name, as offered both to the eye and ear, were closer to the word in the text than it is, it is very little likely that Shakespeare was read in the early Danish history or geography, or that he would give himself any concern about them. He took his geography from more ready and accessible sources, and from points nearer home. There is no doubt but that Esil was formerly a term in common use for vinegar. Our early dictionaries (ever meagre and scanty compilations, and no evidence of the non-existence of words even of the most common use†) will confirm this. "Esyll. Acetum." Promptuar. parvulor. 4to. 1514. Wynk. de W. "Acetum. Aysell." Ortus Vocabulor. 4to. 1514. Yet, though this was the use of the word as low as Shakespeare's day, it is not to be conceived, that even in his rant a madman could propose to drink up all vinegar or all water. It was indeed his purpose to rant, to propose something wild and extravagant, something not practicable, but still not any thing so absurd as well as impossible, that even the most perverted understanding must revolt at it. He therefore proposes to do that, as an individual (and extravagant enough that), which • Weixel, Weichsel or Weissel, called by the Poles Wisla (and in king Alfred's orthography Wisle), is called by the Latins Vistula. The mouth of the Vistula is now called Weissel-munde: and king Alfred calls Poland Wisleland." Foster and Ingram's Notes. Of the existence of a large portion of the words of the 16th century in common use, of words in use by scholars and persons of condition, as well as those used in common parlance and low life, our most copious modern dictionaries afford not the slightest hint or intimation. This, so far as respects literary men, will be evident to every one who will give himself the trouble of looking into the early translations of the Latin Poets: of Seneca by Newton, Heywood, &c., Ovid, by Arthur Golding, Horace, by Drant, or Virgil, by Phaer, &c. Xerxes' myriads are said to have accomplished; i. e. he proposes, he would set about drinking up a river (and the mention of a large river very possibly suggested to his mind the next image, that of a monstrous inhabitant of rivers, although there were no crocodiles in that region of the world), and about eating a crocodile. (32) This speech in the 4tos. is given to the Queen, to whose character it is better suited. But if Shakespeare designed it for the King, he may be justified, perhaps, by some such reasoning as this. He had told us before, that the King was under extreme apprehension, that the unhappy fate of Ophelia would make the heat of Laertes, which he had then with great difficulty appeased, flame out anew. His speech was therefore the dictate of this apprehension, and did not convey his sentiment. He dissembled: but his interference was more likely to have weight with Laertes than that of the Queen; and, after what had been concerted between him and Laertes, his affected tenderness for Hamlet would be perfectly understood. (33) When that her golden couplets are disclos'd] Appear, are developed. See III. 1. King. "To disclose was anciently used for to hatch. So, in The Booke of Huntynge, Hawkyng, Fyshing, &c. bl. 1. no date : "First they bene eges; and after they ben disclosed, haukes and commonly goshaukes ben disclosed as sone as the choughes." To exclude is the technical term at present. During three days after the pigeon has hatched her couplets, (for she lays no more than two eggs,) she never quits her nest, except for a few moments in quest of a little food for herself; as all her young require in that early state, is to be kept warm, an office which she never entrusts to the male." STEEVENS. The young nestlings of the pigeon, when first disclosed, are callow, only covered with a yellow down: and for that reason stand in need of being cherished by the warmth of the hen, to protect them from the chillness of the ambient air, for a considerable time after they are hatched. HEATH. The word disclose has already occurred in a sense nearly allied to hatch, in this play : "And I do doubt the hatch and the disclose do not be so bitter with me, "I evermore did love you, Hermia." M. N. Dr. STEEVENS. (35) This grave shall have a living monument] There is an ambiguity in this phrase. In its more obvious sense it is a durable monument, such as should outlive time; but from the tenor of the preceding and subsequent lines, it may be doubted whether our author did not here, in a covert way, glance at the impending fate and sacrifice of Hamlet; and in a licentious, and even punning phraseology, not at all alien to his manner, mean, by the words" living monument," to shadow, or darkly and in masqued phrase, to convey to Laertes the sense of "a memorial raised by the extinction of life, or the wreck of some person in existence?" (36) Sir, in my heart there was a kind of fighting, That would not let me sleep] Misgiving and distrust of ill practices against him, produced this struggle or agitation in his bosom, not so much on any personal consideration, as on that of his revenge being unsatisfied; and, should he by any impending chance be cut off, that his promise also, and his oath, would be unfulfilled. Mr. Malone refers to Tr. and Cr. "Within my soul there doth commence a fight, (37) `mutines in the bilboes] To mutine was formerly used for to mutiny. III. 4. Haml. So mutine, for mutiner, or mutineer: "un homme mutin," Fr. a mutinous or seditious person. In The Misfortunes of Arthur, a tragedy, 1587, the adjective is used: "Suppresseth mutin force, and practicke fraud." MALONE. The bilboes is a bar of iron with fetters annexed to it, by which mutinous or disorderly sailors were anciently linked together. The word is derived from Bilboa, a place in Spain where instruments of steel were fabricated in the utmost perfection. To understand Shakespeare's allusion completely, it should be known, that as these fetters connect the legs of the offenders very close together, their attempts to rest must be as fruitless as those of Hamlet, in whose mind there was a kind of fighting that would not let him sleep. Every motion of one must disturb his partner in confinement. The bilboes are still shown in the Tower of London, among the other spoils of the Spanish Armada. STEEVENS. (38) When our dear plots do pall] Lose their spirit, poignancy, and virtue; become abortive. Mr. Seymour says, "Miscarry surfeit-slain with policy." Mr. Malone cites Ant. and Cl. : "I'll never follow thy pall'd fortunes more.” (39) There's a divinity that shapes our ends, II. 7. Menas. Rough-hew them how we will] That points or fashions our purposes, brings them according to his good pleasure to a close, how ill soever or unskilfully conceived or entered upon. Dr. Farmer informs me that these words are merely technical. A wool-man, butcher, and dealer in skewers, lately observed to him, that his nephew, (an idle lad) could only assist him in making them; " he could rough-hew them, but I was obliged to shape their ends." STEEVENS. Doubtless these terms are so far technical, as that they are drawn from arts or handycraft trades, occupied with the knife, the axe, plane, or some such tool; and as the use of the tools is general, the phrases belonging to them also pass into general use. (40) no leisure bated] No interval allowed. In substance as he presently says, " without debatement further." Warburton says, " to abate, signifies to deduct; this deduction, when applied to the person in whose favour it is made, is called an allowance. Hence he takes the liberty of using bated for allowed." (41) I once did hold it, as our statists do, A baseness to write fair] Statist is statesman. 66 Shirley's Humour. Courtier, 1640. "Will screw you out a secret from a statist." Jonson's Magnetic Lady. STEEVENS. Most of the great men of Shakespeare's times, whose autographs have been preserved, wrote very bad hands; their secretaries very neat ones. BLACKSTONE. "I have in my time, (says Montaigne) seene some, who by writing did earnestly get both their titles and living, to disavow their apprentissage, marre their pen, and affect the ignorance of so vulgar a qualitie." Florio's translation, 1603, p. 125. RITSON. (42) the bearers put to sudden death, Not shriving-time allow'd] Mr. Steevens has here thought proper to say that "Shakespeare's negligence of poetic justice is notorious; nor can we expect that he who was content to sacrifice the pious Ophelia, should have been more scrupulous about the worthless lives of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Therefore, I still assert that, in the tragedy before us, their deaths appear both wanton and unprovoked." Upon this Mr. Pye has most justly observed, "Steevens's note on Malone's observation respecting this fact in a preceding passage is insolent and impudent; and he is, as usual, positive in the wrong there is not one word uttered by Rosencrantz and Guildenstern throughout the play that does not proclaim them to the most superficial observer as creatures of the king, purposely employed to betray Hamlet, their friend and fellow student: the brutal behaviour of Hamlet to Ophelia may be perhaps accounted for from Shakespeare thinking of the novel and |