the beaver. See the Note on "with his beaver on," 1 Sc. 1, p. 409. King Henry the Fourth, Act IV. "His beard was grizzled?" "was grizly." "I'll watch to-night," &c.: So the 4to the folio, So the folio arranges this passage, with the contraction in this line and 'you' in Perchance 'twill walk again. I warrant it will,” which is partly founded on the reading of the 4tos. Our duties to your honour : - The 4to. of of 1604 and the folio, "Our dutie," &c., in which, however, there is the mere omission of the final s so aften remarked upon in these Notes. This appears both by Hamlet's reply, "Your loves," and by the usage of Shakespeare's time, as shown in his own works; for instances of which the reader need only consult the Concordance. I think it of little or no importance that the 4to. of 1603 has, "Our duties," so variable is our old typography as to the final s in such words. SCENE III. "The [perfume and] suppliance": the words perfume and.' The folio omits "In thews and bulk": See the Note on "the limbs, the thews, the stature," &c., 2 King Henry the Fourth, Act III. Sc. 2, p. 549. no soil, nor cautel": Cautel,' a degraded 6 relative of caution,' means deceit, craft. The virtue of his will": So the 4tos. The folio, "of his fear," by anticipation of the word at the end of the line. "The sanity and health of the whole State": — The folio has, "The sanctity and health of the weole State," where sanctity' seems plainly a misprint for sanity,' a word which was rarely used in Shakespeare's time, and of which his works afford only one other instance. The 4to. of 1604 has, "The safety and health of this whole State," where the halting rhythm favors the supposition p. 41. p. 42. p. 43. P. 44. that there was also a misprint or a misreading of the same unusual word. in his peculiar sect and place The 4to. of 1604 has, "in his particular act and place;" the folio, "in his peculiar sect and force," one of which readings has been hitherto given. But what tolerable sense has either, in connection with the context? The folio manifestly corrects two errors, but makes one "force" for "place." Sect' is class, rank, or, in the slang of society, set. So in King Lear, Act V. Sc. 3, "packs and sects of great ones." "And recks not his own read' - i. e., is regardless of his own words, does not practise what he preaches. with hoops of steel" :- Although the first 4to. has, "a hoope," and subsequent old copies, "hoopes of steele," it is far from improbable that Malone was right in his conjecture that Shakespeare wrote, "hooks of steel." "Are most select and generous in that" : — The folio has, "And they in France of the best ranck and station "And they of France of the chiefe rancke and station Here I believe that we have not only the obvious misprint of 'generall' for 'generous,' and the interpolation of ' of a,' which all editors have supposed, but the accidental repetition in the second line of chief' in the first - a kind of misprint which often occurs in the old texts of these plays. The two errors last named were perpetuated, (as errors sometimes unaccountably are,) although 'chief' in the first line was changed to 'best.' Running it thus": The folio misprints, "Roaming it thus." The almost obvious correction was left to be suggested by Mr. Collier in his edition of 1843-4, and was afterwards found in his folio of 1632. The 4tos. have, "Wrong it thus," from which and the folio reading was formed the Wronging' of the Variorum text. 6 "With almost all the [holy] vows," &c.:- - The folio omits 'holy.' The "Lends the tongue vows," &c.: So the 4tos. folio has, "Gives the tongue," &c., the first word of the following line having caught the compositor's eye. Two syllables, probably forming an epithet applied to 'blazes,' have doubtless been lost from this line. 6 as it is a making":- The blundering purism of the present day would write here, as it is being made,' according to the monstrous construction which has taken the place of the feeble one of the Augustan age, e. g., 'as it is making.' But there is no purer or more logically correct English than the idiom a making, a doing, a building, and the like. Ben Jonson (more scholar than poet) says in his Grammar, "Before the participle present a and an have the force of a gerund. • But there is some great tempest a brewing against us.' Book II. Chap. 3. The idiom is as old as the English language, and is of frequent occurrence in our translation of the Bible. From this time, daughter": - So the folio, except a misprint of 'for' for 'from.' The 4tos. omit daughter.' "Not of that eye which their investments shew : i. e., not of that color. So in the old translations of the Bible, “And the eye of manna was as the eye of bdellium." Numbers xi. 7. Later translations for eye' substitute' color.' like sanctified and pious bawds The old copies have, "pious bonds." But the context does not leave a question as to the propriety of Theobald's emendation, bawds having probably been spelled bauds. any moment's leisure": - It is hardly worth while to mention that the old copies have, "any moment leisure." SCENE IV. it is very cold": - Thus the 4tos. The folio, "is it very cold?" which reading is not entirely unworthy of consideration, because Shakespeare's purpose in these two speeches might well have been to suggest that state of the atmosphere between midnight and sunrise when the air bites shrewdly, although it is not very cold. Horatio's reply to Hamlet is not that it is cold, but that the air has this quality. However, the speech of Francisco in the first Scene of the play under similar circumstances, "It is bitter cold," &c., leaves no doubt as to the correctness of the 4to. reading. and the swaggering up-spring reels :- i. e., reels through the swaggering up-spring. The up-spring was a rude and boisterous German dance, as Steevens showed by the following quotation from Chapman's Alphonsus:· "We Germans have no changes in our dances, An almain and an up-spring, that is all." [This heavy-headed revel":-The text from this line to the end of the speech is found only in the 4tos. They clepe us drunkards - i. e., they call us drunkards. By their o'ergrowth of some complexion”: — • Complexion,' used now almost exclusively to mean the color of the skin, had formerly a sense more strictly correct, and expressed the result of the union of certain physical qualities. "According to the prevalency of humors a diversity of temper or complexion [temperamenti seu complexionis] is caused in us. Gate of the Latine Tongue Unlocked, 1656. the dram of eale Doth all the noble substance of a doubt' : Thus the 4to. of 1604; the undated 4to. and that of 1611, "the dram of eafe." I leave this grossly-corrupted passage unchanged, because none of the attempts to restore it seem to me to be even worth recording, and I am unable to better them. But it has occurred to me that perhaps the corruption lurks in a part of the passage hitherto unsuspected, and that Doth' is either a misprint of Hath,' or has the sense of accomplishes.' "Be thy intents," &c.: The folio misprints, "Thy events." quietly in-urn'd" : — So the folio; the 4tos., quietly interr'd.” [And draw you into madness" :— The last five lines of this speech are not found in the folio. It waves me still":- Here and in the speech of Marcellus above, "Look with what a courteous action," &c., the folio has, wafts' for 'waves,' but in Hamlet's previous speech, the latter word. Plainly the same word is to be used in each instance; and the 4tos. are uniform in giving that one which is most euphonious and descriptive. – i. C., I'll make a ghost of him that lets me that stays or hinders me. SCENE V. confin'd to fast in fires The marginal reading of Mr. Collier's folio of 1632, “confined to lasting fires," is very specious to the reader who does not consider that the fires of which the Ghost speaks were the K 2 fires of purgatory, in which, too, he was confined for the day only, and so were not lasting fires in any sense. Fast' may be used here in its radical sense of religious observance, and without any allusion to abstinence from food; or there may be a reference to the notion entertained of old, that, in the words of Chaucer's Person, "the misere of helle shall be in defaute of mete and drink.” Canterbury Tales, Vol. IV. p. 16, Pickering's Ed. List, Hamlet, list”: — Thus the folio: the 4tos., List, list, O list!" - a kind of repetition noticeably frequent in the corruptions of this play. "Haste me to know 't, that I," &c.: "Haste, haste me," &c., and omits 'I.' The folio has, "That roots itself in ease":-Thus the 4tos.; the folio, "That rots itself," &c. The misprint in either case is of the easiest. That the text of the 4tos. gives what the author wrote, seems clear from this passage in Antony and Cleopatra, Act I. Sc. 4: "This common body, Like a vagabond flag upon the stream, Goes to, and back, lackeying the varying tide, If in the one case the flag rots itself with motion, it seems with traitorous gifts": - The folio misprints, "hath Traitorous guifts." with juice of cursed hebenon":- - It is uncertain whether by hebenon' Shakespeare meant ebony or henbane. Dr. Grey cited a passage from Pliny in which that naturalist says that the oil of henbane dropped into the ears disturbs the brain. But the sap of ebony was accounted poisonous, and the name of the wood was spelled sometimes hebon, sometimes ebeno. Steevens cited the following passage from Marlowe's Jew of Malta : the blood of Hydra, Lerna's bane, The juice of hebon, and Cocytus breath." like eager droppings": Eager' had the sense of sharp,' as we apply it to that which is very sour. "Acidum et acre acetum. Sowr and eager vinegar." So the 4tos. The folio, |