Enter POLONIUS.

Pol. Well be with you, gentlemen!

Ham. Hark you, Guildenstern ;-and you too ; - at each ear a hearer: that great baby, you fee there, is not yet out of his fwadling-clouts.

Rof. Hapily, he's the fecond time come to them; for, they fay, an old man is twice a child.

Ham. I will prophefy, he comes to tell me of the players; mark it. You fay right, fir: o' monday morning; 'twas then, indeed.

Pol. My lord, I have news to tell you.

Ham. My lord, I have news to tell you. When Rofcius was an actor in Rome,

Pol. The actors are come hither, my lord.

Ham. Buz, buz 2!

Pol. Upon my honour,

Ham. Then came3 each actor on his ass,—

the title-page of an old play) the Boulogne Gate, i. e. one of the gates of Boulogne; defigned perhaps as a compliment to Henry VIII. who took that place in 1544.

The Boulogne mouth, now the Bull and Mouth, had probably the fame origin, i. e. the mouth of the barbour of Boulogne. STEEVENS. 2 Buz, buz!] Mere idle talk, the bux of the vulgar, JOHNSON. Buz, bux! are, I believe, only interjections employed to interrupt Polonius. B. Jonfon ufes them often for the fame purpose, as well as Middleton in Amad World my mafters, 1608. STEEVENS,

Buz used to be an interjection at Oxford, when any one began a ftory that was generally known before. BLACKSTONE.

Buzzer, in a fubfequent fcene in this play, is used for a busy talker : "And wants not buzzers, to infect his ear

"With peftilent fpeeches."

Again, in King Lear:

-on every dream,

Each buz, each fancy."

Again, in Truffel's Hiftory of England, 1635: “—who, instead of giving redrefs, fufpecting now the truth of the duke of Glocefter's buzz," &c.

It is, therefore, probable from the anfwer of Polonius, that buz was ufed, as Dr. Johnson fuppofes, for an idle rumour without any foundation.

In B. Jonfon's Staple of News, the collector of mercantile intelligence is called, Emiffary Buz. MALONE.

3 Then came, &c.] This feems to be a line of a ballad. JoHNSON.

Po

Pol. The best actors in the world, either for tragedy, comedy, history, paftoral, paftoral-comical, hiftoricalpaftoral, [tragical-historical, tragical-comical, hiftorical-paftoral,] fcene individable, or poem unlimited: Seneca cannot be too heavy, nor Plautus too lights. For the law of writ, and the liberty, these are the only

men.

Ham. O Jeptha, judge of Ifrael,-what a treasure hadft thou!

Pol. What a treasure had he, my lord?

Ham. Why,-One fair daughter, and no more,

The which he loved paffing well.

Pol. Still on my daughter.

Ham. Am I not i' the right, old Jeptha?

[Aj.de.

4 tragical, &c.] The words within the crotchets I have recovered from the folio, and fee no reason why they were hitherto omitted. There are many plays of the age, if not of Shakspeare, that answer to these defcriptions. STEEVENS.

5 Seneca cannot be too beavy, nor Plautus too light.] The tragedies of Seneca were tranflated into English by Thomas Newton, and others, and published in 1581. One comedy of Plautus, viz. the Menæchmi, was likewife tranflated and publifhed in 1595. STEEVENS.

I believe the frequency of plays performed at publick schools, fuggefted to Shakspeare the names of Seneca and Plaatus as dramatick authors. T. WARTON.

• For the law of writ, and the liberty,-] All the modern editions have, the law of wit, and the liberty; but both my old copies have, the law of writ, I believe rightly. Writ, for writing, compofition. Wit was not, in our authour's time, taken either for imagination, or acuteness, or both together, but for understanding, for the faculty by which we apprebend and judge. Thofe who wrote of the human mind, diftinguished its primary powers into wit and will. Afcham diftinguishes boys of tardy and of active faculties into quick wits and flow wits. JOHNSON.

The old copies are certainly right. Writ is ufed for writing by authours contemporary with Shakspeare. Thus, in The Apologie of Pierce Pennileffe, by Thomas Nafhe, 1593: "For the lowfie circumftance of his poverty before his death, and fending that miferable writte to his wife, it cannot be but thou lieft, learned Gabriel.” Again, in bishop Earle's Character of a mere dull Phyfician, 1638 "Then followes a writ to his drugger, in a strange tongue, which he understands, though he cannot confter."

Again, in K. Henry VI. P. II.

“Now, good my lord, let's see the devil's writ." MALONE,

Pol.

Pol. If you call me Jeptha, my lord, I have a daughter, that I love paffing well.

Ham. Nay, that follows not.

Pol. What follows then, my lord?

Ham. Why, As by lot, God wot", and then, you know, It came to pass, As moft like it was,-The first row of the pious chanfon will fhew you more; for look, my abridg

ment comes.

8

Enter four or five Players.

You are welcome, mafters; welcome, all:-I am glad to fee thee well:-welcome, good friends.-O, old friend! Why, thy face is valanced' fince I faw thee

7 Why, As by lot, God wot,&c.] The old fong from which these quotations are taken, I communicated to Dr. Percy, who has honoured it with a place in the fecond and third editions of his Reliques of ancient English Poetry. In the books belonging to the Stationers' Company, there is a late entry of this ballad among others. 66 Jeffa Judge of Ifrael," p. 93. vol. iii. Dec. 14, 1624. STEEVENS.

There is a Latin tragedy on the fubject of Jeptba, by John Chriftopherson in 1546, and another by Buchanan, in 1554. A third by Du Pleffis Mornay is mentioned by Prynne in his Hiftriomaftix. The fame fubject had probably been introduced on the English stage.

8

MALONE.

the pious chanfon] It is pons chanfons in the first folio edition. The old ballads fung on bridges, and from thence called pons chanfons. Hamlet is here repeating ends of old fongs. POPE.

The old quartos in 1604, 1605, and 1611, read pious chanfon, which gives the fenfe wanted, and I have accordingly inferted it in the text. The pious chanfons were a kind of Christmas carols, containing fome fcriptural history thrown into loofe rhimes, and fung about the streets by the common people when they went at that feafon to folicit alms. Hamlet is here repeating fome fcraps from a fong of this kind, and when Polonius enquires what follows them, he refers him to the firft row (i. e. divifion) of one of thefe, to obtain the information he wanted. STEEVENS.

9

my abridgment] He calls the players afterwards, the brief ebronicles of the time; but I think he now means only those who will fhorten my talk. JOHNSON.

An abridgement is ufed for a dramatick piece in the MidsummerNight's Dream, A& V. Sc. i.

"Say what abridgment have you for this evening ?" but it does not commodiously apply to this paffage. STEEVENS. 1➡thy face is valanced —] i. e. fringed with a beard. The valance is the fringes or drapery hanging round the tester of a bed. MALONE.

laft;

laft; Com'ft thou to beard me in Denmark?-What! my young lady and miftrefs! By-'r-lady, your ladyship is nearer to heaven, than when I faw you laft, by the altitude of a chopine. Pray God, your voice, like a piece of uncurrent gold, be not crack'd within the ring 3.-Mafters, you are all welcome. We'll e'en to't like French falconers +, fly at any thing we fee:

2

by the altitude of a chopine.] A chioppine is a high fhoe worn by the Italians, as in Tho. Heywood's Challenge of Beauty, A& 5.

Song.

"The Italian in her high chopeene,

"Scotch lafs, and lovely froe too;

"The Spanish Donna, French Madame,

"He doth not feare to go to." STEEVENS.

Again, in Marton's Dutch Courtezan, 1605: “Doft not weare high corked fhoes, chopines ?"

The word ought rather to be written chapine, from chapin, Span. which is defined by Minfheu in his Spanish Dictionary, "a bigh cork foe." There is no fynonymous word in the Italian language, though the Venetian ladies, as we are told by Laffels, "wear high-heel'd shoes, like ftilts, which being very inconvenient for walking, they commonly reft their hands or arms upon the shoulders of two grave matrons." MALONE.

3-be not crack'd within the ring.] That is, crack'd too much for ufe. This is faid to a young player who acted the parts of women. JOHNSON.

I find the fame phrafe in The Captain, by B. and Fletcher: "Come to be married to my lady's woman,

After fhe's crack'd in the ring."

Again, in Ben Jonfon's Magnetic Lady:

"Light gold, and crack'd within the ring." STEEVENS. The following paffage in Lily's Woman in the Moon, 1597, as well as that in Fletcher's Captain, might lead us to fuppofe that this phrafe fometimes conveyed a wanton allufion: "Well, if she were twenty grains lighter, refufe her, provided always the be not clipt within the ring." T. C.

4-like French falconers,] Thus the folio. Quarto:-like friendly falconers. MALONE.

The amusement of falconry was much cultivated in France. In All's well that ends well, Shakspeare has introduceed an aftringer or falconer at the French court. Mr. Tollet, who has mentioned the fame circumftance, likewife adds, that it is faid in Sir Tbo, Browne's Tras, p. 116, that "the French feem to have been the first and nobleft falconers in the western part of Europe: and that the French king fent over his falconers to fhew that sport to King James the firft." See Weldon's Court of King James. STELVENS.

VOL. IX,

T

We'll

We'll have a speech straight; Come, give us a taffe of your quality; come, a paffionate speech.

1. Play. What speech, my good lord?

Ham. I heard thee fpeak me a speech once,-but it was never acted; or, if it was, not above once: for the play, I remember, pleased not the million; 'twas caviare to the general: but it was (as I received it, and others, whofe judgments, in fuch matters, cried in the top of mine,) an excellent play; well digefted in the fcenes, fet down with as much modefty as cunning. I remember, one faid, there were no fallets in the lines,

5-caviare to the general:] Caviare or Caveare is a kind of pickle, greatly esteemed in Mufcovy, made of the roe of the fturgeon and Belluga, taken out, falted, and dried by the fire, or in the fun. The fish is caught in great quantities at the mouth of the Volga.

Florio in his Italian Dictionary, 1598, defines, Caviaro, “ a kinde of salt meat, used in Italie, like black fope; it is made of the roes of fishes."

Lord Clarendon uses the general for the people, in the fame manner as it is ufed here. «And fo by undervaluing many particulars, (which they truly esteemed,) as rather to be confented to than that the general fhould fuffer," B. V. p. 530. MALONE.

B. Jonfon has ridiculed the introduction of these foreign delicacies in his Cinthia's Revels, 1602:-" He doth learn to eat anchovies, Macaroni, Bovoli, Fagioli, and Caviare," &c.

Again, in Marston's What you will, 1607:

66 - a man can scarce eat good meat,

"Anchovies, caviare, but he's fatired." STEEVENS.

6 - cried in the top of mine,] i. e. that were higher than mine.

JOHNSON Whofe judgment, in fuch matters, was in much higher vogue than mine. HEATH.

Perhaps it means only-whofe judgment was more clamorously delivered than mine. We ftill fay of a bawling actor, that he speaks on the top of bis voice. STEEVENS.

7- fet down with as much modesty—] Modefty for fimplicity.

8

WARBURTON.

there were no fallets, &c.] Such is the reading of the old copies. I know not why the later editors continued to adopt the alteration of Mr. Pope, and read, no falt, &c.

Mr. Pope's alteration may indeed be in fome degree supported by the following paffage in Decker's Satiromaflix, 1602:— “— prepared troop of gallants, who fhall diftafte every unfalted line in their fly-blown comedies." Though the other phrafe was used as late as in the year 1665, in a Banquet of Jefts, &c. " — for junkets, joci; and for curious fallets, fales." STEEVENS.

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