Ham. He poifons him i' the garden for his eftate. His name's Gonzago: the ftory is extant, and written in very choice Italian: You fhall fee anon, how the murderer gets the love of Gonzago's wife. Oph. The king rises. Ham. What! frighted with falfe fire 3! Pol. Give o'er the play. King. Give me fome light :-away! Pol. Lights, lights, lights +! [Exeunt all but HAMLET, and HORATIO. Ham. Why, let the ftrucken deer go weep, For fome must watch, while fome must sleep; Would not this, fir, and a foreft of feathers", (if the reft of my fortunes turn Turk with me,) with two proven Again, in the Elder Brother of Fletcher: "I fear he will perfuade me to miftake him." STEEVENS. I believe the meaning is-you do amifs for yourfelves to take huf. bands for the worfe. You should take them only for the better. TOLLET. 3 What! frighted with falfe fire!] This fpeech is omitted in the quartos. STEEVENS. 4 Pol. Lights, &c.] Thus the quarto. In the folio All is prefixed to this fpeech. MALONE. 5 Would not this, fir, and a foreft of feathers, &c.] It appears from Decker's Guls Hornebooke, that feathers were much worn on the stage in Shakspeare's time. MALONE. 6 -turn Turk with me,] This expreffion has occurred already in Much Ado about Nothing, and I have met with it in feveral old comedies. So, in Greene's Tu Quoque, 1599: "This it is to turn Turk, from an abfolute and most compleat gentleman, to a most abfurd, ridiculous, and fond lover." It means, I believe, no more than to change condition fantastically. Again, in Decker's Honeft Whore, 1635: 'tis damnation, "If you turn Turk again." Perhaps the phrafe had its rife from fome popular story like that of Ward and Danfiker, the two famous pirates; an account of whofe overthrow was published by A. Barker 1609; and, in 1612, a play was written on the fame fubject called A Chriftian turn'd Turk. STEEVENS. cial roses on my razed shoes, get me a fellowship in a cry of players, fir? Hor. Half a fhare. Ham. A whole one, I'. For thou dost know, O Damon dear", Of Jove himself; and now reigns here Hor. You might have rhymed. Ham. 7- with two Provencial rofes,-] The old copies have provincial, which as Mr. Warton has obferved, was undoubtedly a mifpelling for Provencial, or Provençal, i. e. roses of Provence, "a beautiful species of rofe formerly much cultivated." Here, roles of ribbands must be understood. MALONE. When fhoe-ftrings were worn, they were covered where they met in the middle by a ribband, gathered in the form of a rofe. So, in an old fong: "Gilderoy was a bonny boy, "Had rofes tull his fhoon." 8 JOHNSON. -on my razed boes,] The quartos has raz'd; the folio-rac'd. It is the fame word differently fpelt. Razed foes are fhoes freaked. See Mintheu's DICT. in v. To rafe. "To thefe their nether-stockes, (fays Stubbes in his Anatomie of Abuses, 1583,) they [the people of England] have corked booes, pinfnets, and pantoffles, which beare them up a finger or two from the ground; whereof fome be of white leather, fome of blacke, and fome of red; fome of black velvet, some of white, fome of red, fome of greene,-raced, carved, cut, and ftiched all over with filke, and laied on with gold, filver, and fuch like." MALONE. 9 —a cry of players-] A troop or company of players. So, in Coriolanus: 66 You have made good work, "You, and your cry." Again, in Aftrange Horje-race, by Thomas Decker, 1613: "The laft race they ran, (for you must know they had many,) was from a cry of ferjeants." MALONE. Hor. Half a share. Haml. A whole one, I.] It should be, I think, The actors in our authour's time had not annual falaries as at prefent: The whole receipts of each theatre were divided into fhares, of which the proprietors of the theatre, or bouse-keepers, as they were called, had fome; and each actor had one or more thares, or part of a fhare, according to his merit. See The Account of the Ancient Theatres, Vol. I. Part II. MALONE. 2 - 0 Damon dear,] Hamlet calls Horatio by this name, in allu fion to the celebrated friendship between Damon and Pythias. A play ол 317 Ham. O good Horatio, I'll take the ghoft's word for a thousand pound. Didft perceive? Hor. Very well, my lord. Ham. Upon the talk of the poifoning, Hor. I did very well note him. on this fubject was written by Rich. Edwards, and published in 1582. STEEVENS. The friendship of Damon and Pythias is alfo enlarged upon in a book that was probably very popular in Shakspeare's youth, Sir Thomas Elliot's Governour, 1553. MALONE. 3 Avery, very-peacock.] This alludes to a fable of the birds choofing a king; instead of the eagle, a peacock. POPE. The old copies have it paiock, paicocke, and pajocke. I fubftitute paddock, as nearest to the traces of the corrupted reading. I have, as Mr. Pope fays, been willing to fubftitute any thing in the place of his peacock. He thinks a fable alluded to, of the birds choosing a king; inftead of the eagle, a peacock. I fuppofe, he must mean the fable of Barlandus, in which it is faid, the birds, being weary of their state of anarchy, moved for the fetting up of a king; and the peacock was elected on account of his gay feathers. But, with fubmiflion, in this paffage of our Shakspeare, there is not the leaft mention made of the eagle in antithefis to the peacock; and it must be by a very uncommon figure, that Jove himself ftands in the place of his bird. I think, Hamlet is fetting his father's and uncle's characters in contrast to each other and means to fay, that by his father's death the state was ftripp'd of a godlike monarch, and that now in his ftead reign'd the most defpicable poifonous animal that could be; a mere paddock, or toad. PAD, bufo, rubeta major; a toad. This word, I take to be of Hamlet's own fubftituting. The verfes, repeated, feem to be from fome old ballad; in which, rhyme being neceflary, I doubt not but the laft verfe ran thus: A very, very-afs. THEOBALD. A peacock feems proverbial for a fool. Thus Gascoigne in his Weeds: "A thefe, a cowarde, and a peacocke foole." FARMER. In the last scene of this act, Hamlet, fpeaking of the king, uses the Expreffion which Theobald would introduce: "Would from a paddock, from a bat, a gib, "Such dear concernments hide ?" The reading, peacock, which I believe to be the true one, was first introduced by Mr. Pope. Mr. Theobald is unfaithful in his account of the old copies. No copy of authority reads-paicocke. The quarto, 1604, has paiock; the folio, 1623, paiocke. Shakspeare, I fuppofe, means, that the king ftruts about with a falle pomp, to which he has no right. See Florio's Italian Dictionary, 1598: "Pavonnegiare. To jet up and down, fondly gazing upon himself, as a peacock doth," MALONE. Ham. Ham. Ah, ha!-Come, fome mufick; come, the re corders. For if the king like not the comedy, Why then, belike +,-he likes it not, perdy 5. Enter ROSENCRANTZ, and GUILDENSTERN. Come, fome mufick. Guil. Good my lord, vouchfafe me a word with you. Ham. Sir, a whole history. Guil. The king, fir, Ham. Ay, fir, what of him? Guil. Is, in his retirement, marvellous diftemper'd. Ham. With drink, fir"? Guil. No, my lord, with choler. Ham. Your wifdom fhould fhew itself more richer, to fignify this to the doctor; for, for me to put him to his purgation, would, perhaps, plunge him into more choler. Guil. Good my lord, put your difcourfe into fome frame, and ftart not fo wildly from my affair. Ham. I am tame, fir:-pronounce. Guil. The queen, your mother, in moft great affliction of spirit, hath sent me to you. Ham. You are welcome. Guil. Nay, good my lord, this courtesy is not of the right breed. If it fhall please you to make me a wholfome answer, I will do your mother's commandment: if not, your pardon, and my return, fhall be the end of my bufinefs. Ham. Sir, I cannot. Guil. What, my lord? Ham. Make you a wholfome anfwer; my wit's dif eafed But, fir, fuch anfwer as I can make, you fhall 4 Why then, belike,-] Hamlet was going on to draw the confequence, when the courtiers entered. JOHNSON. S be likes it not, perdy.] Perdy is a corruption of par Dieu, and is not uncommon in the old plays. So, in The Play of the Four P's, 1569% "In that, you Palmer, as deputie, "May cleerly discharge him pardie." STEEVENS, • With drink, fir?] Hamlet takes particular care that his uncle's love of drink shall not be forgotten. JOHNSON. command; 319 command; or, rather, as you fay, my mother: therefore no more, but to the matter: My mother, you fay, Rof. Then thus fhe fays; Your behaviour hath ftruck her into amazement and admiration. Ham. O wonderful son, that can so astonish a mother! -But is there no fequel at the heels of this mother's admiration? impart. Rof. She defires to speak with you in her closet, ere you go to bed. Ham. We fhall obey, where the ten times our mother. Have you any further trade 7 with us? Rof. My lord, you once did love me. Ham. And do ftill, by thefe pickers and ftealers 3. Rof. Good my lord, what is your cause of diftemper? you do, furely, bar the door upon your own liberty, if you deny your griefs to your friend. Ham. Sir, I lack advancement. Rof. How can that be, when you have the voice of the king himself for your fucceffion in Denmark 9 ? Ham. Ay, fir, but, While the grafs grows, the proverb is fomething mufty'. Enter the Players, with Recorders2. O, the recorders :-let me fee one.-To withdraw with 7-further trade-] Further business; further dealing. JOHNSON. 8 by thefe pickers, &c.] By thefe hands. JOHNSON. Alluding to the Church Catechifm :—“ to keep my hands from picking and stealing," &c. MALONE. 9 when you have the voice of the king bimself for your fucceffion in Denmark.] See p. 201, n. 9. MALONE. Ay, fir, but, While the grafs grows, the proverb is something mufty.] The remainder of this old proverb is preferved in Whetstone's Promes and Caffandra, 1578: "Whylft grafs doth growe, oft ferves the feely ficede." Again, in The Paradife of Daintie Devises, 1578: "To whom of old this proverbe well it ferves, "While grafs doth growe, the filly borse be fierves." Hamlet means to intimate, that whilst he is waiting for the fucceffion to the throne of Denmark, he may himfeif be taken off by death. 2 MALONE. Recorders.] i. e. a kind of large flute. To record anciently fignified to fing or modulate. STEEVENS. you: |