May fweep to my revenge. Ghoft. I find thee apt; And duller fhould't thou be than the fat weed Would't thou not ftir in this. Now, Hamlet, hear: A ferpent ftung me; fo the whole ear of Denmark Rankly abus'd: but know, thou noble youth, Ham. O, my prophetick foul! my uncle? Ghoft. Ay, that inceftuous, that adulterate beaft, With witchcraft of his wit*, with traiterous gifts, And duller should fit thou be than the fat weed That roots itself in cafe on Lethe wharf, &c.] Shakspeare, apparently through ignorance, makes Roman Catholicks of thefe Pagan Danes; and here gives a defcription of purgatory; but yet mixes it with the Pagan fable of Lethe's wharf. Whether he did it to infinuate to the zealous Proteftants of his time, that the Pagan and Popish purgatory ftood both upon the fame footing of credibility, or whether it was by the fame kind of licentious inadvertence that Michael Angelo brought Charon's bark into his picture of the Laft Judg ment, is not easy to decide. WARBURTON. That roots itself in cafe, &c.] Thus the quarto, 1604. The folio reads "That rots itfelf," &c. I have preferred the reading of the original copy, becaufe to root itself is a natural and easy phrafe, but" to rot itself," not English. Indeed in general the readings of the original copies, when not corrupt, ought in my opinion not to be departed from, without very ftrong reafon. That roots itself in ease, means, whole fluggish root is idly extended. The modern editors read-Letbe's wharf; but the reading of the old copy is right. So, in Sir Afton Cockain's poems, 1658, p. 177; -fearing these great actions might die, "Neglected caft all into Lethe lake." MALONE. Otway has the fame thought: like a coarfe and ufelefs dunghill weed, "Fix'd to one spot, and rot juft as I grow," The fuperiority of the reading of the folio is to me apparent: to be in a crefcent ftate (i. e. to root itself) affords an idea of activity; to rot better fuits with the dullness and inaction to which the Ghost refers. Nevertheless, the accufative cafe (itself) may seem to demand the verb roots. STEEVENS. - bis wit,—] The old copies have wits. The fubfequent line fhews that it was a mifprint. MALONE. O wicked 10 wicked wit, and gifts, that have the power But virtue, as it never will be mov'd, Though lewdness court it in a shape of heaven; And prey on garbage. But, foft! methinks, I fcent the morning air; Upon my fecure hour thy uncle ftole, 3 —mine orchard,] Orchard for garden. So, in Romeo and Juliet : "The orchard walls are high, and hard to climb." STEEV. 4 With juice of curfed hebenon in a vial,] The word here used was more probably defigned by a metathefis, either of the poet or tranfcriber, for benebon, that is, benbane; of which the most common kind (byofcyamus niger) is certainly narcotic, and perhaps, if taken in a confiderable quantity, might prove poifonous. Galen calls it cold in the third degree; by which in this, as well as opium, he seems not to mean an actual coldnefs, but the power it has of benumbing the faculties. Diofcorides afcribes to it the property of producing madnels (úvaμes μaning). These qualities have been confirmed by feveral cafes related in modern obfervations. In Wepfer we have a good account of the various effects of this root upon most of the mem-/ bers of a convent in Germany, who eat of it for fupper by mistake, mixed with fuccory;-heat in the throat, giddiness, dimnefs of fight and delirium. Cicut. Aquatic. c. 18. GREY. So, in Drayton's Barons' Wars, p. 51. "The pois'ning benbane, and the mandrake drad." In Marlowe's Jew of Malta, 1633, the word is written in a dif ferent manner : "the blood of Hydra, Lerna's bane, "The juice of Hebon, and Cocytus' breath." STEEVENS. The leperous diftilments; whofe effect Moft lazar-like, with vile and loathfome cruft, Thus was I, fleeping, by a brother's hand, Of life, of crown, of queen, at once dispatch'd": No The leperous diftilment;] So, in Painter's Palace of Pleasure, Vol. II. p. 142: "—which being once poffeffed, never leaveth the patient till it hath enfeebled his ftate, like the qualitie of poifon diftilling through the veins even to the heart." MALONE. 6 at once dispatch'd:] Dispatch'd, for bereft. WARBURTON. 7 Cut off even in the bloffoms of my fin, &c.] The very words of this part of the fpeech are taken (as I have been informed by a gentleman of undoubted veracity) from an old Legend of Saints, where a man, who was accidentally drowned, is introduced as making the fame complaint. STEEVENS. 8 Unboufeld,-] Houfel is the old word for the holy eucharift. To bowfel, fays Bullokar in hisExpofitor, 8vo, 1616, is " to minifter facraments to a fick man in danger of death." Unbousel'd therefore is, without having received the facrament in the hour of death. So, in Hoffman's Tragedy, 1631: "None fung thy requiem, no friend clos'd thine eyes, "Thou wert not boufel'd." Again, in Holinihed's Chronicle: "Alfo children were christened, and men boufeled and anoyled, thorough all the land, except fuch as were in the bill of excommunication by name exprefled." MALONE. 9 -difappointed, is the fame as unappointed; and may be properly explained unprepared. A man well furnished with things neceflary for an enterprise, was faid to be well appointed. JoHNSON. So, in Holinfhed's Chronicle: "He had not past a fifteen lances, as they termed them in thofe days, that is, to wit, men of arms, furnished and appointed." Mr. Upton is of opinion, that the particular preparation of which the Ghoft laments the want, was confeffion and abfolution. Appoint ment, No reckoning made, but fent to my account Taint not thy mind, nor let thy foul contrive Adieu, ment, he adds, is again used in Meafure for Measure, in the fame lenfe as here: "Therefore your best appointment make with fpeed." Ifabella is the fpeaker, and her brother, who was condemned to die, is the perfon addrefied. MALONE. I unanel'd;] Without extreme unction. So, in Sir Thomas More's Works, P. 345: "The extreme unction or anelynge, and confirmation, he fayd, be no facraments of the church." See alfo the quotation from Holinfhed in n. 8, where the word is fpelt anoyled. MALONE. The Anglo-faxon noun-fubftantives, boufel, (the eucharift,) and ele, oil, are plainly the roots of the compound adjectives, boufeled and aneled. For the meaning of the affix an to the laft, i quote Spelman's Gloffary in loco. "Quin et dictionibus (an) adjungitur, fiquidem vel majoris notationis gratia, vel ad fingulare aliquid vel unicum demonftrandum." Hence aneled fhould feem to fignify oiled, or anointed, by way of eminence, i. e. having received extreme unction. BRAND. 20, berrible! O, borrible! moft borrible!] It was ingeniously hinted to me by a very learned lady, that this line feems to belong to Hamlet, in whofe mouth it is a proper and natural exclamation; and who, according to the practice of the ftage, may be fuppofed to interrupt fo long a fpeech. JOHNSON. 3 A couch for luxury-] i. e. for lewdnefs. So, in K. Lear: "To't luxury pell-mell, for," &c. STEEVENS. See Vol. VIII. p. 278, n. 2. MALONE. 4-uneffectual fire. i. e. fhining without heat. WARBURTON. To pale is a verb ufed by Lady Elizabeth Carew, in he Tragedy of Mariam, 1613: Death Adieu, adieu, adieu! remember me ". [Exit. Ay, thou poor ghoft, while memory holds a feat O villain, villain, fmiling, damned villain! Death can pale as well "A cheek of rofes as a cheek lefs bright." That Again, in Urry's Chaucer, p. 368: "The iterre paletb her white cheres by the flambes of the fonne," &c. Uneffectual fire, I believe, rather means, fire that is no longer feen when the light of morning approaches. So, in Pericles Prince of Tyre, 1609: like a glow worm, — "The which hath fire in darknefs, none in light." STEEVENS, 5 Adieu, adieu, adieu! &c.] The folio reads: Adieu, adieu, Hamlet: remember me. Remember thee! STEEVENS. Ay, thou poor gboft, while memory holds a feat In this distracted globe.] So in our poet's 122d fonnet: Beyond all dates, even to eternity; Or at the least, fo long as brain and beart "Have faculty by nature to fubfift." MALONE. this diftracted globe.] i. e. in this head confused with thought. STEEVENS. 7 Yea, from the table of my memory-] This expreffion is used by Sir Philip Sydney in his Defence of Poefic. MALONE. 8 My tables, meet it is, I fet it down,] Hamlet avails himself of the fame caution obferved by the doctor in the fifth act of Macbeth & "I will |