Enter a Lord.

LORD. My lord,' his majesty 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 fond," &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 oppofed to trenowned, or thrice renowned.

STEEVENS.

Fann'd and winnow'd feems right to me. Both words winnorwed, fand* and dreft, occur together in Markham's English Hufbandman, p. 117. So do fan'd and winnow'd, fanned and winnowed in his Husbandry, 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 Horwel'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 apoftrophe, and eafily might in MS. be mistaken for fund.

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 fhall 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 such a kind of gain-giving, as would, perhaps, trouble a woman. HOR, If your mind dislike any thing, obey it:"

gentle entertainment-] Mild and temperate converfation.

JOHNSON. 5 I shall win at the odds.] I fhall fucceed with the advantage that I am allowed. MALONE.

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

7 If your mind diflike any thing, obey it :] With these presages 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 circumstances 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. The 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 fometimes 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 special 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 premises 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 since death removes all sense 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 food 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 best that it will admit. The meaning may be this,—Since 20 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 possession 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.

Enter King, Queen, LAERTES, Lords, OSRICK, and Attendants with foils, &c.

KING. Come, Hamlet, come, and take this hand from me.

[The King puts the hand of LAERTES into that of HAMLET.

HAM. Give me your pardon, fir:" I have done you wrong;

But pardon it, as you are a gentleman.

This prefence knows, and you must needs have heard,

How I am punish'd with a fore distraction.
What I have done,

That might your nature, honour, and exception,
Roughly awake, I here proclaim was madness.
Was't Hamlet wrong'd Laertes? Never, Hamlet:
If Hamlet from himself be ta'en away,

And, when he's not himself, does wrong Laertes,
Then Hamlet does it not, Hamlet denies it.
Who does it then? His madness: If't be fo,
Hamlet is of the faction that is wrong'd;
His madness is poor Hamlet's enemy.
Sir, in this audience,

Let my disclaiming from a purpos'd evil
Free me fo far in your most generous thoughts,
That I have shot my arrow o'er the house,
And hurt my brother.

9 Give me your pardon, fir:] I wish Hamlet had made fome other defence; it is unfuitable to the character of a good or a brave man, to fhelter himself in falfehood. JOHNSON,

2 Sir, &c.] This paffage I have reftored from the folio.

STEEVENS.

LAER. Whose motive, in this cafe, fhould ftir me most To my revenge: but in my terms of honour, I ftand aloof; and will no reconcilement, Till by fome elder masters, of known honour,* I have a voice and precedent of peace,

I am fatisfied in nature,3

To keep my name ungor'd: But till that time,
I do receive your offer'd love like love,
And will not wrong it.

Нам.

I embrace it freely;

And will this brother's wager frankly play.—
Give us the foils; come on.

LAER.

Come, one for me.

HAM. I'll be your foil, Laertes; in mine igno

rance

3 I am fatified in nature, &c.] This was a piece of fatire on fantastical honour. Though nature is fatisfied, yet he will afk advice of older men of the fword, whether artificial honour ought to be contented with Hamlet's fubmiffion.

There is a paffage fomewhat fimilar in The Maid's Tragedy: "Evad. Will you forgive me then?

"Mel. Stay, I must ask mine honour first."

STEEVENS.

4 Till by fome elder masters, of known honour,] This is faid in allufion to an English cuftom. I learn from an ancient MS. of which the reader will find a more particular account in a note to The Merry Wives of Windfor, Vol. III. p. 327, n. 3, that in Queen Elizabeth's time there were "four ancient mafters of defence," in the city of London. They appear to have been the referces in many affairs of honour, and exacted tribute from all inferior practitioners of the art of fencing, &c, STEEVENS.

Our poet frequently alludes to English cuftoms, and may have done fo here, but I do not believe that gentlemen ever fubmitted points of honour to perfons who exhibited themfelves for money as prize-fighters on the publick ftage; though they might appeal in certain cafes to Raleigh, Effex, or Southampton, who from their high rank, their courfe of life, and established reputation, might with ftrict propriety be styled, "elder masters, of known honour."

MALONE.