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"The time is out of joint.-O cursed spight! That ever I was bor'n-to set it right.'

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It must often have been observed, throughout these works, that after a scene has apparently been closed with a studied rhyme; other words are superadded without necessity, as here; and this, if, indeed, the additions be supposed to have proceeded from the poet himself, would furnish ground for a conjecture that he disapproved of the very practice he was indulging in.

ACT II. SCENE I.

97. Inquire me first what Danskers are in Paris."

"Danskers" are Danes:

"It is the King of Denmarke doth your prince his daughter craue,

"And note it is no little thing with us allie to

haue;

By league or leigure Danske can fence or fronte you, friend or foe,

"Our neighbourhood doth fit to both your welfare or your woe.”

Again:

"Let Cutlake, with his crowne of Danske, uncrowne me if he can ;

"Of England, Danske, and Norway, then Canut was perfect lord."

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Come you more nearer

"Than your particular demands will touch it." This is obscure: in the quarto, as Mr. Malone

remarks, there is no stop after " nearer," and "then" seems, there, to be the comparative particle anciently so spelled: the sense may be, when you have informed yourself thus far, inquire, with more minute curiosity, than should seem to belong to you individually or personally; announce yourself as one acquainted with his father and friends perhaps for "touch it" we should read "vouch it."

99.

Open to incontinency."

Apt, addicted, prone to incontinency.

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A fair or justifiable device; as, in King Lear: They are sick, they are weary, &c. mere fetches!" Soil'd i the working.

"Mark you,

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"Your party in converse, him you would sound, Having ever seen in the prenominate crimes, "The youth you breathe of, guilty, be assur'd "He closes with you in this consequence."

The construction is embarrassed: the sense is this; the person whom you would sound, as to his having ever seen the youth you speak of guilty in the commission of the forementioned crimes, will, be assured, close with you, &c. "Him" should be he; and the superfluous repetition of the nominative pronoun might be avoided by reading:

"Will strait close with you in this consequence." The words, "mark you" might well be omitted, or find place in the preceding line:

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"As ǎ thing a little soil'd i' the working, mark

you.

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100. "Or then, or then; with such and such; and, as you say.”

"Or then" is uselessly repeated here, and burthens the line.

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You are possessed of my meaning.

102. "And with a look so piteous in purport."

If" piteous" be not here a trisyllable, purport must be accentuated on the last syllable, purpórt: piteous we find presently a dissyllable.

"He rais'd a sigh, so piteous and profound, "As it did seem," &c.

"As" for "as that."

104. "This must be known; which, being kept close, might move

"More grief to hide, than hate to utter

love."

The construction of this passage is very perplexed, and Dr. Johnson has in vain endeavoured to disentangle it :-the best explanation I can offer is this; this must be known, which would eventually, in the concealment, occasion of grief a greater measure than could of anger attend the disclosure, which would be an act of love.

SCENE II.

106. "To be commanded."

This useless hemistic should be removed: what

ever meaning it can convey, was already implied in the preceding words.

"Come."

See last note, 1st Act.

107. "Thou still hast been the father of good

news."

The reporter of news might be called the midwife or the deliverer; but how the father? Perhaps the compliment extends so far as to infer that Polonius, by the wisdom and efficacy of his counsels, was commonly the progenitor of good news. 108. "Borne in hand.”

Speciously misled by false professions of good will; as in Much Ado About Nothing: "What bear her in hand until they come to take hands." 113. "Doubt thou, the stars are fire; "Doubt, that the sun doth more: "Doubt truth to be a liar ;

"But never doubt, I love."

Here is a bare-faced instance of a common abuse of the verb "to doubt," which commonly and properly signifies, to be unsettled in opinion: -doubting is a modest and retiring action of the mind; but sometimes it is made, as here, impertinently officious, as in the third line of these rhymes:

"Doubt truth to be a liar."

1. e. Suspect or believe this.

"But never doubt I love."

i. e. Never suppose or believe that I do not love.

Most best."

I know not whether the degrees of comparison formerly exceeded three, or that the forms of the

second and third degrees have been altered. We commonly find, in the writings of Shakspeare's time, "more richer," most

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more worthier,"

worthiest," "most unkindest," &c. Are these an augmentation of the comparative and the superlative-richer-more richer-richest-most richest, &c. (which extends the degrees to five) or was the order of the three degrees anciently this: rich-more richer-most richest?

116. "Thence to a watch.".

He could not sleep.

117.

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I'll loose my daughter to him." I will take off the restraint that I had laid upon her.

119. "For if the sun breed maggots," &c.

I have often wondered how any one could hesitate about admitting Dr. Warburton's explanation of this passage, and am myself peculiarly convinced of its justness-having exactly understood it so before I saw Warburton's note, in which, it must yet be confessed, he refines too much.

"For if the sun breed maggots," &c.

I think Warburton has corrected this passage rightly; but I think, with Mr. Malone, that Shakspeare had not any of that profound meaning which Warburton has ascribed to him. Mr. Malone has, in my opinion, produced sufficient reasons why his own emendation should not be admitted. LORD CHEDWORTH.

122. "Between who ?"

"Who" should be corrected in the text to whom.

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