Pol. It is back'd like a weazel. Ham. Or, like a whale ? Pol. Very like a whale. Ham. Then will I come to my mother by and by.They fool me to the top of my bent. I will come by and by. Pol. I will fay fo. Ham. By and by is eafily faid.-Leave, me friends. [Exeunt Rof. Guil. Hor. &c. 'Tis now the very witching time of night; When church-yards yawn, and hell itself breathes out Contagion to this world: Now could I drink hot blood, And do fuch business as the bitter day Would the length of its back; but though I believe a black weafel is not eafy to be found, yet it is as likely that the cloud fhould resemble a reafel in fhape, as an ouzle (i.e. black-bird) in colour. Mr. Tollet obferves, that we might read-" it is beck'd like a weafel," i. e. weafel-fnouted. So, in Holinfhed's Defcription of England, p. 172: "if he be efeil-becked." Quarles ufes this term of reproach in his Virgin Widow: "Go you weazel-fnouted, addle-pated, &c." Mr. Tollet adds, that Milton in his Lycidas, calls a promontory beaked, i. e. prominent like the beak of a bird. STEEVENS. 4 They fool me to the top of my bent-] They compel me to play the fool, till I can endure to do it no longer. JOHNSON. 5 And do fuch bitter bufinefs as the day Would quake to look on. lefque. The old quarto reads, -] The expreffion is almost bur And do fuch bufinefs as the bitter day Would quake to look on. This is a little corrupt indeed, but much nearer Shakspeare's words, who wrote, better day, which gives the fentiment great force and dignity. At this very time (fays he) hell breathes out contagion to the world, whereby night becomes polluted and execrable; the horror therefore of this season fits me for a deed, which the pure and facred day would quake to look on. This is faid with great claffical propriety. According to ancient fuperftition, night was prophane and execrable; and day, pure and holy. WARBURTON. And do fuch bitter bufinefs-1 The expreffion bitter business is fill in ufe, and though at prefent a vulgar phrafe, might not Would quake to look on. Soft; now to my mother. O, heart, lofe not thy nature; let not ever I will fpeak daggers to her, but use none; SCENE III', A room in the palace. Enter King, Rofencrantz, and Guildenftern. King. I like him not; nor stands it fafe with us, Το have been fuch in the age of Shakspeare. The bitter day is the day rendered hateful or bister by the commiffion of fome act of mifchief. Watts, in his Logic, fays, "Bitter is an equivocal word; there is bitter wormwood, there are bitter words, there are bitter enemies, and a bitter cold morning." It is, in fhort, any thing unpleafing or hurtful. STEEVENS. I will speak daggers to ber.] A fimilar expreffion occurs in the Return from Parnaffus: " They are peftilent feljows, they fpeak nothing but bodkins." It has been already observed, that a bodkin anciently fignified a fhort dagger. STEEVENS. 7 be fent,] To fhend, is to reprove harshly, to treat with injurious language. See vol. i. p. 275. vol iv. p. 270. vol. vii. r. 492. vol. ix p. 67. STEEVENS. Shent feems to mean fomething more than reproof by the following paffage from The Mirror for Magiftrates: Thomas Mowbray, duke of Norfolk is the fpeaker, and he relates his having betrayed the duke of Gloucester and his confederates to the king "for which" fays he, "they were all tane and shent.” Hamlet furely means," however my mother may be hurt, "wounded, or punish'd, by my words, let me never confent to HENDERSON. them in execution." 46 put To give then feals-]i. e. put them in execution. WARBURTON. 9 SCENE III. Enter King, Rofencrantz and Guildenflern. King. To let his madnefs range. Therefore, prepare you; Guil. We will ourfelves provide: Rof. The fingle and peculiar life is bound, King. I like him not, nor ftands it safe with us To let his madness range. Therefore prepare you ; I your commiffion well forthwith dispatch, 2 That And be to England fhall along with you.] In The Hyftory of Hamblet, bl. let. the king does not adopt this fcheme of sending Hamlet to England till after the death of Polonius ; and though he is defcribed as doubtful whether Polonius was flain by Hamlet, his apprehenfion left he might bimfelf meet the fame fate as the old courtier, is affigned as the motive for his wishing the prince out of the kingdom. This at firft inclined me to think that this fhort fcen, either from the negligence of the copyist or the printer, might have been mifplaced; but it is certainly printed as the author intended, for in the next fcene Hamlet fays to his mother, "I muit to England; you know that? the king could have heard of the death of Polonius. Out of bis lunacics.] The old quartos read, Cut of his brows. ." before MALONE. This was from the ignorance of the first editors; as is this unneceflary Alexandrine, which we owe to the players. The poet, I am perfuaded, wrote, as doth hourly grow Out of his lunes. i. e. his madness, frenzy. THFOBALD. Luracies is the reading of the folio. I take rows to be, properly read, frots, which, I think, is a provincial word for preverfe bumours; which being, I fuppofe, not understood, was changed to lunacies. But of this I am not confident. JOHNSON. I would receive Theobald's emendation, becaufe Shakspeare ules That fpirit, upon whofs weal depend and reft The lives of many. The ceafe of majesty Dies not alone; but, like a gulf, doth draw What's near it, with it: It is a maffy wheel, Fix'd on the fummit of the highest mount, To whofe huge fpokes ten thousand leffer things Are mortis'd and adjoin'd; which, when it falls, Each fmall annexment, petty confequence, Attends the boisterous ruin. Never alone Did the king figh, but with a general groan. King. Arm you, I pray you, to this fpeedy voyage; For we will fetters put upon this fear, Which now goes too free-footed. Both. We will hafte us. [Exeunt Rof. and Guil. Enter Polonius. Pol. My lord, he's going to his mother's closet; Behind the arras I'll convey myfelf, ufes the word lunes in the fame fenfe in The Merry Wives of Windfor, and The Winter's Tale. From the redundancy of the meafure nothing can be inferred. Since this part of my note was written, I have met with an inftance in fupport of Dr. Johnfoh's conjecture; "were you but as favourable as you are frowisk” Tully's Love, by Greene, 1616. Perhaps, however, Shakspeare defigned a metaphor from horned cattle, whofe powers of being dangerous, increate with the growth of their brows. STEEVENS. The prefent reading is fully established by a paffage in The Hißory of Hamblet, bl. let. which the author had, probably, here in his thoughts: "Fengon could not content himielte, but fill his mind gave him that the foole [Hamlet] would play him And in that conceit feeking to be "fome tricke of legerdemaine. "rid of him, determined to find the means to doe it, by the "aid of a stranger, making the king of England minifter of his maffacrous refolution, to whom he purpofed to fend him." MALONE. 2 That Spirit, upon whofe weal-] So the quarto. The folio gives, That fpirit, upon whole fpirit- STEEVENS. Το To hear the procefs; I'll warrant, fhe'll tax him home : And, as you faid, and wifely was it faid, 'Tis meet, that fome more audience than a mother, Since nature makes them partial, fhould o'er-hear The fpeech, of vantage. 4 Fare you well, my liege: I'll call upon you ere you go to bed, And tell you what I know. King. Thanks, dear my lord. [Exit. O, my offence is rank, it fmells to heaven; "In pecato adjutrices, auxilii in paterna injuria Ter Heaut. Act. v. Sc. 2. STEEVENS. 4ofvantage.]. By fome opportunity of fecret obfervation. JOHNSON. 5 Though inclination be as sharp as will ;] Dr. Warburton would read, Though inclination be as sharp as th' ill. The old reading is -as tharp as vill. STEEVENS. I have followed the easier emendation of Theobald received by Hanmer i. e. as 'twill. JOHNSON. Will is command, direction. Thus, Eccluf. xliii. 16. “—and at his will the fouth wind bloweth." The king fays, his mind is in too great confufion to pray, even though his inclination were as ftrong as the command which requires that duty. STEEVENS. To will is ufed by Marlowe in the fenfe of to command, in Dido Queen of Carthage, a tragedy, 1594: And cvill my guards with Mauritanian darts, "To wait upon him as their fovereign lord." MALONE. But |