Pol. That did I, my lord: and was accounted a good actor. Ham. And what did you enact? Pol. I did enact Julius Cæfar3: I was kill'd i' the Capitol; Brutus kill'd me. Ham. It was a brute part of him, to kill so capital a calf there. Be the players ready? Rof. Ay, my lord; they stay upon your patience'. [lying down at Ophelia's feet 2. Oph. tion of the laft mentioned play, and another Latin comedy, called Bellum Grammaticale. MALONE. It should feem from the following paffage in Vice Chancellor Hatchet's letter to Lord Burghley, on June 21, 1580, that the common players were likewife permitted to perform in the univerfities. "Whereas it hath pleased your honour to recommend my lord of Oxenford his players, that they might fhew their cunning in feveral plays already practised by 'em before the Queen's Majesty ;—(de1 nied on account of the peftilence and commencement :)" of late we denied the like to the right honourable the Lord of Leicester his fervants." FARMER. I did enaЯ Julius Cæfar:-] A Latin play on the fubject of Cæfar's death was performed at Chrift-Church in Oxford, in 1582; and several years before a Latin play on the fame fubject, written by Jaques Grevin, was acted in the college of Beauvais, at Paris. I fufpect that there was likewife an English play on the story of Cæfar before the time of Shakspeare. See Vol. VII. p. 307, n. 1. and the Essay on the order of Shakspeare's plays, Vol. I. MALONE. 9- It was a brute part of bim,-] Sir John Harrington, in his Metamorphosis of Ajax, 1596, has the fame quibble: "O braveminded Brutus! but this I must truly fay, they were two brutish parts both of him and you; one to kill his fons for treafon, the other to kill his father in treafon." STEEVENS. 1 they stay upon your patience.] May it not be read more intolligibly, They stay upon your pleasure. In Macbeth it is: "Noble Macbeth, we stay upon your leifure." JOHNSON. "Ufhers her to her coach, lies at ber feet X Again, Oph. No, my lord. Ham. I mean, my head upon your lap 3? Oph. Ay, my lord. Ham. Do you think, I meant country matters 4? Ham. That's a fair thought to lie between maids' legs. Ham. Nothing. Oph. You are merry, my lord. Ham. Who, I? Oph. Ay, my lord. Ham. O! your only jig-maker 5. What fhould a man do, but be merry? for, look you, how cheerfully Again, in Gafcoigne's Greene Knight's farewell to Fancie: To lie along in ladies lappes," &c. This fashion, which Shakspeare probably defigned to ridicule by appropriating it to Hamlet during his diffembled madnefs, is likewife expofed by Decker, in his Guls Hornbook, 1609. See an extract from it among the prefaces. STEEVENS. I do not conceive that this fashion was intended to be ridiculed by Shakspeare. Decker, in his Guls Hornebooke, inveighs in general against the custom of fitting on the ftage, but makes no mention of lying in ladies' laps, nor did any woman, I believe, fit on the publick ftage, in our poet's time. MALONE. 3 I mean, &c.] This fpeech, and Ophelia's reply to it, are omitted in the quartos. STEEVENS. 5 4 Do you think, I meant country matters?] Dr. Johnson, from a cafual inadvertence, propofed to read-country manners. The old reading is certainly right. What Shakspeare meant to allude to, must be too obvious to every reader, to require any explanation. MALONE. your only jig-maker.] A jig, as has been already obferved, fignified not only a dance, but also a ludicrous profe or metrical compofition, which in our authour's time was fometimes reprefented or fung after a play. So, in the prologue to Fletcher's Fair Maid of the Inn: 66 when for approbation "A jig fhall be clapp'd at, and every rhime "Prais'd and applauded by a clamorous chime." See alfo p. 277, n. 7. and The Hiftorical Account of the old English theatres, Vol. I. P. II. MALONE. Many of thefe jiggs are entered in the books of the Stationers' Company: Philips his Jigg of the flyppers, 1595; Kempe's Jigg of the Kitchen-Stuff-woman, 1595." STEEVENS. my my mother looks, and my father died within these two hours. Oph. Nay, 'tis twice two months, my lord. Ham. So long? Nay, then let the devil wear black, for I'll have a fuit of fables. O heavens! die two months ago, and not forgotten yet; Then there's hope, a great man's memory may out-live his life half a year: But, by'r-lady, he must build churches then: or elfe fhall he fuffer not thinking on, with the hobby-horfe whofe epitaph, is, For, O, for, O, the hobby-horse is forgot. Trumpets Nay, then let the devil wear black, for I'll have a fuit of fables.] Nay then, fays Hamlet, if my father be fo long dead as you fay, let the devil wear black; as for me, fo far from wearing a mourning dress, I'll wear the most coftly and magnificent fuit that can be procured; a fait trimmed with fables. Our poet furnished Hamlet with a fuit of fables on the present ocfion, not, as I conceive, becaufe fuch a dress was fuited to "a country where it was bitter cold, and the air was nipping and eager," (as Dr. Johnfon fuppofed,) nor because "a fuit of fables was the richest drefs that could be worn in Denmark," (as Mr. Steevens has fuggested,) of which probably he had no knowledge, but because a fuit trimmed with fables was in Shakspeare's time the richest drefs worn by men in England. We have had again and again occafion to obferve, that, wherever his scene might happen to be, the customs of his own country were still in his thoughts. By the statute of apparel, 24 Henry VIII. c. 13, (article furres,) it is ordained, that none under the degree of an earl may ufe fables. Bishop says in his Blossoms, 1577, speaking of the extravagance of thofe times, that a thousand ducates were fometimes given for "a face of fables." That a fuit of fables was the magnificent drefs of our authour's time, appears from a paffage in B. Jonfon's Discoveries: "Would you not laugh to meet a great counsellor of ftate, in a flat cap, with his trunkhofe, and a hobby-horfe cloak, and yond haberdasher in a velvet gown trimm'd with fables 9" MALONE. 7-fuffer not thinking on, with the bobby-borse;-] Amongst the country may-games there was an hobby-horfe, which, when the puritanical humour of thofe times oppofed and difcredited thefe games, was brought by the poets and ballad-makers as an inftance of the ridi culous zeal of the fectaries: from thefe ballads Hamlet quotes a line of two. WARBURTON. 80, the bobby-borfe is forgot.] In Love's Labour's Loft, this line is alfo introduced." Trumpets found! The dumb fhew follows. Enter a king and a queen, very lovingly; the queen embracing him, and he her. She kneels, and makes fhew of proteftation unto him. He takes her up, and declines his head upon her neck: lays him down upon a bank of flowers; fhe, feeing him afleep, leaves him. Anon, comes in a fellow, takes off his crown, kiffes it, and pours poifon in the king's ears, and exit. The queen returns ; finds the king dead, and makes paffionate action. The poifoner, with fome two or three mutes, comes in again, Jeeming to lament with her. The dead body is carried away. The poifoner wooes the queen with gifts; fhe Seems loath and unwilling a while, but in the end, ac[Exeunt. cepts his love. Oph. What means this, my lord? Ham. Marry, this is miching mallecho; it means mischief. Oph. In TEXNOGAMIA, or the Marriage of the Arts, 1618, is the following ftage-direction. "Enter a bobby-borse, dancing the morrice," &c. Again, in B. and Fletcher's Woman Pleased: Soto. "Shall the bobby-borfe be forgot then, "The hopeful bobby-borse, shall he lie founder'd ?” The scene in which this paffage is, will very amply confirm all that Dr. Warburton has faid concerning the bobby-bore. Again, in Ben Jonson's Entertainment for the Queen and Prince at Altberpe: But fee, the bobby-borfe is forgot, "Fool, it must be your lot, "To fupply his want with faces, "And fome other buffoon graces." See figure 5 in the plate at the end of the First Part of K. Henry IV. with Mr. Tollet's obfervations on it. STEEVENS. 9-miching mallecbo;] A fecret and wicked contrivance; a concealed wickednefs. To mich is a provincial word, and was probably once general, fignifying to lie hid, or play the truant. In Norfolk micbers fignify pilferers. The fignification of miching in the present paffage may be afcertained by a paffage in Decker's Wonderful Yeare, 4to, 1603: "Thofe that could fhift for a time,-went moft bitterly wiching and muffled, up and downe, with rue and wormwood ftuft into their cars and noftrills." Oph. Belike, this fhew imports the argument of the lay. Enter Prologue. Ham. We fhall know by this fellow: the players cannot keep counsel; they'll tell all. Oph. Will he tell us what this fhew meant? Ham. Ay, or any fhew that you'll fhew him : Be not you ashamed to fhew, he'll not fhame to tell you what it means. Oph. You are naught, you are naught; I'll mark the play. Here Atooping to your clemency, We beg your bearing patiently. Ham. Is this a prologue, or the pofy of a ring? Ham. As woman's love. Enter a King, and a Queen. P. King. Full thirty times hath Phoebus cart gone round Neptune's falt wash, and Tellus' orbed ground; See alfo Florio's Italian Dictionary, 1598, in v. Acciapinare. “ To miche, to fhrug or fneak in fome corner, and with powting and lips to fhew fome anger." In a fubfequent paffage we find that the murderer before he poisons the king makes damnable faces. Where our poet met with the word mallecho, which in Minfheu's Spanish Dictionary, 1617, is defined malefa&tum, I am unable to afcertain. In the folio, the word is fpelt malicbo. The quarto reads -munching Mallico. Mallico is printed in a distinct character, as a proper name. MALONE. 1 Be not you afham'd to fhew, &c.] The converfation of Hamlet with Ophelia, which cannot fail to difguft every modern reader, is probably fuch as was peculiar to the young and fashionable of the age of Shakspeare, which was, by no means, an age of delicacy. The poet is, however, blameable; for extravagance of thought, not indecency of expreffion, is the characteristic of madness, at least of such madness as fhould be reprefented on the scene. STEEVENS. 2 -cart-] A chariot was anciently fo called. Thus Chaucer in the Knight's Tale, late edit. ver. 2024: "The carter overridden with his cart." STEEVENS. 3-fheen,] Splendour, luftre. JoHNSON. X 3 Since |