Id. 1. 44. Spurns enviously at straws;] Envy is much oftener put by our poet (and those of his time) for direct aversion, than for malignity conceived at the sight of another's excellence or happiness.

Id. l. 47. -to collection;] i. e. to deduce consequences from such premises; or, as Mr. M. Mason observes, "endeavour to collect some meaning from them."

Id. l. 47. -they aim at it.] To aim is to guess. Id. 1. 53. Though nothing sure, yet much unhappily.] i. e. though her meaning cannot be certainly collected, yet there is enough to put a mischievous interpretation to it.

ld. l. 59. -to some great amiss:] Shakspeare is not singular in his use of this word as a substantive. Each toy, is each trifle. Id. l. 65. How should I your true love, &c.] There is no part of this play, in its representation on the stage, more pathetic than this scene; which, I suppose, proceeds from the utter insensibility Ophelia has to her own misfortunes.

A great sensibility, or none at all, seems to produce the same effect. In the latter the audience supply what she wants, and with the former they sympathize. Sir J. REYNOLDS. Id. 1. 67. By his cockle hat and staff,

And his sandal shoon.] This is the description of a pilgrim. While this kind of devotion was in favour, love-intrigues were carried on under that mask. Hence the old ballads and novels made pilgrimages the subjects of their plots. The cockle-shell hat was one of the esential badges of this vocation: for the chief places of devotion being beyond sea, or on the coasts, pilgrims were accustomed to put cockleshells upon their hats, to denote the intention or performance of their devotion.

Id. c. 2, l. 3. Larded--;] The expression is taken from cookery.

Id. l. 7. Well, God'ield you!] i. e. Heaven reward you!

Id. l. 7. -the owl was a baker's daughter.]

This was a legendary story. -Our Saviour being refused bread by the daughter of a baker, is described as punishing her by turning her into an owl.

ld l. 18. - don'd his clothes.] To don is to do on, to put on; as doff is to do off, put off. Id. 1. 19 And dupp'd the chamber door;] To dup is to do up; to lift the latch.

Id. 1. 24. By Gis,] Probably the contraction of

some saint's name.

Id. l. 24. - by Saint Charity,] Saint Charity is a saint among the Roman Catholics.

Id. 1. 27. By cock,] This is a corruption of the sacred name.

Id. l. 51.——but greenly,] But unskilfully; with greenness; without maturity of judgment. Id. I. 52. In hugger-mugger to inter him:] All the modern editions that I have consulted, give it : In private to inter him ;

That the words now replaced are better, I do not undertake to prove; it is sufficient that they are Shakspeare's: if phraseology is to be changed as words grow uncouth by disuse, or gross by vulgarity, the history of every language will be lost; we shall no longer have the words of any author; and, as these alterations will be often unskilfully made, we shall in time have very little of his meaning. JOHNSON.

Id. 1. 63. Like to a murdering piece,] The small cannon, which are or were used in the forecastle, half-deck, or steerage of a ship of war, were within the last century called murderingpieces.

Id. 1. 68. my Switzers?] In many of our old plays, the guards attendant on kings are called Switzers, and that without any regard to the country where the scene lies, because the Swiss, in the time of our poet as at present, were hired to fight the battles of other nations. 1. 71. The ocean, overpeering of his list,] The lists are the barriers which the spectators of a tournament must not pass. In this place, it signifies boundary, i. e. the shore.

Id.

P. 602, c. 1, l. 3. O, this is counter,-] Hounds run counter when they trace the trail backwards. - unsmirched brow,] clean, not defiled. to your judgment 'pear,] For

Id. 1. 17.
Id. l. 57.

appear.

Id. 1. 70. Nature is fine in love: and, where 'tis fine,

It sends some precious instance of itself After the thing it loves.] Love (says Laertes) is the passion by which nature is most exalted and refined; and as substances, refined and subtilised, easily obey any impulse, or follow any attraction, some part of nature, so purified and refined, flies off after the attracting object, after the thing it loves.

Id. c. 2, 1. 2 O, how the wheel becomes it! &c.] The wheel means the burthen of the song, which she had just repeated, and as such was formerly used. But Mr. Malone thinks that wheel is here used in its ordinary sense, aud that these words allude to the occupation of the girl who is supposed to sing the song alluded to by Ophelia.

Id. l_13. you may wear your rue with a difference. This seems to refer to the rules of heraldry, where the younger brothers of a family bear the same arms with a difference, or mark of distinction. There may, however, be somewhat more implied here than is expressed. You, madam (says Ophelia to the queen), may call your RUE by its Sunday name, HERB OF GRACE, and so wear it with a difference to distinguish it from mine. which can never be any thing but merely RUE, i. e. sorrow. STEEVENS.

Id. l. 18. Thought and affliction,] Thought here, as in many other places, signifies melancholy. Id. 1. 29. God 'a mercy on his soul!

And of all christian souls!] This is the common conclusion to many of the ancient monumental inscriptions.

Id. 146. No trophy, sword, nor hatchment, o'er his bones.] It was the custom, in the times of our author, to hang a sword over the grave of a knight, and it is uniformly kept up to this day. Not only the sword, but the helmet, gauntlet, spurs, and tabard (i e. a coat whereon the armorial ensigns were anciently depicted, from whence the term coat of armour), are hung over the grave of every knight.

SCENE VI.

P. 603. c. 1, l. 5. --for the bore of the matter.] The bore is the caliber of a gun, or the capacity of the barrel. The matter (says Hamlet) would carry heavier words.

SCENE VII.

Id. l. 37. the general gender—] The common race of the people.

Id. 1 39. Work like the spring, &c.] The allusion here is to the quality still ascribed to the dropping-well at Knaresborough in Yorkshire. Id. l. 46. if praises may go back again,] If I

may praise what has been, but is now to be found no more.

P 603, c. 2, l. 12. As checking at his voyage,] i. e. objecting to. The phrase is from falconry. Id. 1. 28. Of the unworthiest siege.] Of the lowest rank. Siege, for seat. place.

Id. 1 34. Importing health and graveness.] i. e. implying denoting.

Id. l. 53. —— in your defence.] That is, in the science of defence. Id. l. 71.

-love is begun by time;] This is obscure. The meaning may be, love is not innate in us, and co-essential to our nature, but begins at a certain time from some external cause, and being always subject to the operations of time, suffers change and diminution. JOHNSON.

Id. l. 72. passages of proof.] In transactions of daily experience.

P. 604, c. 1, 1.3. And then this should is like a spendthrift sigh,

Id.

That hurts by easing.] A spendthrift sigh is a sigh that makes an unecessary waste of the vital flame. It is a notion very prevalent. that sighs impair the strength, and wear out the animal powers. JOHNSON.

22. A sword unbated.] i. e. not blunted as foils are.

Id. 1. 22 ——a pass of practice,] Practice is often by Shakspeare, and other writers, taken for

an insidious stratagem, or privy treason, a sense not incongruous to this passage, where yet it may mean a thrust for exercise; or perhaps, a favourite pass, one he has well practised in.

Id. 1. 33. It may be death.] It is a matter of sur

prise, that no one of Shakspeare's numerous and able commentators has remarked, with proper warmth and detestation, the villainous assassin-like treachery of Laertes in this horrid plot. There is the more occasion that he should be here pointed outas an object of abhorrence, as he is a character we are, in some preceding parts of the play, led to respect and admire. RITSON.

Id. 1. 36. May fit us to our shape:] May enable us to assume proper characters, and to act our part.

Id. l. 40. blast in proof. A metaphor taken

from the trying or proving fire-arms or cannon, which often blast or burst in the proof. Id. l. 45. I'll have preferred him-] i. e. pre

sented to him.

Love, written by Henry Howard, earl of Surrey, but it has been since attributed to lord Vaux; and Mr. T. Warton says, that there is in the British Museum a copy of Vaux's poem, beginning, I lothe that I did love, with the title, "A dyttie or sonet made by the lord Vaus, in the time of the noble quene Mary representing the image of death."

The entire song is published by Dr. Percy. in the first volume of his Reliques of Ancient English Poetry.

P. 605. c. 1. 7. 29 to play at loggats with them?] This is a game played in several parts of England even at this time. A stake is fixed into the ground: those who play, throw loggats or pins of wood at it, and he that is nearest the stake wins.

Id. 1 37.
Id. 1. 38

frivolous

Id. l. 40.
Id. l. 43.

quiddits, &c.] i. e. subtilties. -his quillets,] Quillets are nice and distinctions.

the sconce-] i. e. the head.

his double vouchers, &c.] A recovery with double voucher is the one usually suffered, and is so denominated from two persons (the latter of whom is always the common crver, or some such inferior person), being successively voucher, or called upon, to warrant the tenant's title. Both fines and recoveries are fictions of law, used to convert an estate tail into a fee simple. Statutes are (not acts of parliament, but) statutes-merchant and staple, particular modes of recognizance or acknowledgment for securing debts, which thereby become a charge upon the party's land. Statutes and recognizances are constantly mentioned together in the covenants of a purchase deed.

Id. l. 55. assurance in that.] A quibble is intended. Deeds, which are usually written on parchment, are called the common assurances of the kingdom.

Id.

l. 77. by the card,] i. e. we must speak with the same precision and accuracy as is observed in marking the true distances of coasts, the heights, courses, &c. in a seachart, which in our poet's time was called a card.

Id. l. 79. the age is grown so picked.] So smart, so sharp, says Sir T. Hanmer, very properly; but there was, I think, about that time, a picked shoe, that is, a shoe with a long pointed toe, in fashion, to which the allusion seems likewise to be made. Every man now is smart; and every man now is a man of fashion. JOHNSON.

Id. c. 2, 1.7. that young Hamlet was born:] By this scene it appears that Hamlet was then thirty years old, and knew Yorick well, who had been dead twenty-two years. And yet in the beginning of the play he is spoken of as a very young man, one that designed to go back to school, i. e. to the university of Wittenberg. The poet in the fifth Act had forgot what he wrote in the first. BLACKSTONE. Id. l. 55. to this favour-] i. e. to this countenance or complexion. Id. l. 80. -winter's flaw!] Winter's blast. P. 606, c 1. l. 6. - maimed rites!] Imperfect obsequies.

derstood by some of the commentators to mean a river so called, or to mean only vinegar. P. 606, c. 1, l. 13. When that her golden couplets are disclos'd,] To disclose was anciently used for to hatch.

SCENE II.

Id. l. 37. mutines in the bilboes.] Mutines, the French word for seditious or disobedient fellows in the army or fleet.

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 Shakspeare'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.

Id. l. 37. -Rashly,

And prais'd be rashness for it.-Let us know,

Our indiscretion sometimes serves us well, When, &c.] Hamlet, delivering an account of his escape, begins with saving-That he rashly--and then is carried into a reflection upon the weakness of human wisdom. I rashly

-praised be rashness for it-Let us not think these events casual, but let us know, that is, take notice and remember, that we sometimes succeed by indiscretion when we fail by deep plots, and infer the perpetual superintendance and agency of the Divinity. The observation is just, and will be allowed by every human being, who shall reflect on the course of his own life. JOHNSON.

Id. 1.55. With, ho! such bugs and goblins in my life] With such causes of terror, rising from my character and designs.

Id. l. 56. no leisure bated,] Without any abatement or intermission of time.

Id. l. 65. Or I could make―] Or in old English signified before.

1d l. 68. as our statists do,] A statist is a statesman. Most of the great men of Shakspeare's times, whose autographs have been preserved, wrote very bad hands; their secretaries very neat ones.

Id. 1 71. yeoman's service :] The meaning is,

this yeomanly qualification was a most useful servant, or yeoman, to me; i. e. did me eminent service. The ancient yeomen were famous for their military valour. Id. l. 77 As peace should still her wheaten garland wear.

And stand a comma 'tween their amities ;] The expression of our author is, like many of his phrases, sufficiently constrained and affected, but it is not incapable of explanation. The comma is the note of connection and continuity of sentences; the period is the note of abruption and disjunction. Shakspeare had it perhaps in his mind to write,-That unless England complied with the mandate, war should put a period to their amity; he altered his mode of diction, and thought that, in an opposite sense, he might put, that peace should stand a comma between their amities. This is not an easy style; but is it not the style of Shakspeare? JOHNSON.

P. 607, c. 1, l. 5. Not shriving-time allow'd.] i. e.

trifler.

Id. l. 55.

Id.

daw.

-'Tis a chough;] A king of jack

1. 74. Nay, good my lord; for my ease, in good faith.] This seems to have been the affected phrase of the time.

Id. 1_77.--full of most excellent differences,] Full of distinguishing excellencies. Id. l. 79. the card or calendar of gentry,] The general preceptor of elegance; the card by which a gentleman is to direct his course; the calendar by which he is to choose his time, that what he does may be both excellent and seasonable. JOHNSON.

Id. l. 79. -for you shall find in him the continent of what part a gentleman would see.] You shall find him containing and comprising every quality which a gentleman would desire to contemplate for imitation.

Id.

Id.

c. 2, 1. 3. Sir, his definement, &c.] This is designed as a specimen, and ridicule of the eonrt jargon amongst the précieux of that time. The sense in English is, “Sir, he suffers nothing in your account of him, though to enumerate his good qualities particularly would be endless; yet when we had done our best, it would still come short of him. However, in strictness of truth, he is a great genius, and of a character so rarely to be met with, that to find any thing like him we must look into his mirror, and his imitators will appear no more than his shadows."

c. 2,l. 25. · if you did, it would not much prove me;] If you knew I was not ignorant, your esteem would not much advance my reputation. To approve, is to recommend to approbation.

were

Id. 1. 32. in his meed-] In his excellence. Ild. l. 38. impawned,] Wagered and staked. Id. l. 40. hangers,] Under this term comprehended four graduated straps, &c. that hung down in a belt on each side of its receptacle for the sword.

Id. l. 45 you must be edified by the margent,] Dr. Warburton very properly observes, that in the old books the gloss or comment was usually printed on the margent of the leaf. Id. 1. 48. more german- More a-kin. Id. 1. 77. He did comply-] For compliment. Id. l. 80. outward habit of encounter ;] i. e.

exterior politeness of address; in allusion to Osric's last speech.

P. 608, c. 1, Z. 1. a kind of yesty collection, which carries them through and through the most fond and winnowed opinions;] The meaning is," these men have got the cant of the day, a superficial readiness of slight and cursory conversation, a kind of frothy collection of fashionable prattle, which yet carries them through the most select and approving judgments. This airy facility of talk sometimes imposes upon wise men."

THE story of Othello is taken from Cynthio's Novels. POPE.

I have not hitherto met with any translation of this novel (the seventh in the third decade) of so early a date as the age of Shakspeare; but undoubtedly many of those little pamphlets have perished between his time and ours.

It is highly probable that our author met with the name of Othello in some tale that has escaped our researches; as I likewise find it in Reynolds's God's Revenge against adultery, standing in one of his Arguments as follows: "She marries Othello, an old German soldier." This History (the eighth) is professed to be an Italian one. Here also occurs the name of Iago.

It is likewise found, as Dr. Farmer observes, in the History of the famous Euordanus, Prince of Denmark, with the strange Adventures of IAGO, Prince of Saxonie; bl. 1. 4to. London, 1605."

It may indeed be urged that these names were adopted from the tragedy before us : but I trust that every reader who is conversant with the peculiar style and method in which the work of honest John Reynolds is composed, will acquit him of the slightest familiarity with the scenes of Shakspeare.

This play was first entered at Stationers' Hall, Oct. 6, 1621, by Thomas Walkely. STEEVENS.

I have seen a French translation of Cynthio, by Gabriel Chappuys, Par. 1584. This is not a faithful one; and I suspect, through this medium the work came into English. FARMER.

This tragedy I have ascribed to the year 1604. MALONE.

The time of this play may be ascertained from the following circumstances: Selymus the Second formed his design against Cyprus in 1569, and took it in 1571. This was the only attempt the Turks ever made upon that island after it came into the hands of the Venetians (which was in the year 1473), wherefore the time must fall in with some part of that interval. We learn from the play that there was a junction of the Turkish fleet at Rhodes, in order for the invasion of Cyprus, that it first came sailing towards Cyprus, then went to Rhodes, there met another squadron, and then resumed its way to Cyprus. These are real historical facts which happened when Mustapha, Selymus's general, attacked Cyprus in May, 1570, which therefore is the true period of this performance See Knolles's History of the Turks, p. 838, 846, 867. REED.