I believe gyred to be nothing more than a false print. Downgyved means hanging down like the loose cincture which confines the fetters round the ancles. Gyre always signifies a circle formed by a top, or any other body when put into

motion.

It is so used by Drayton in the Black Prince's letter to Alice countess of Salisbury.

"In little circlets first it doth arise,

"Then somewhat larger seemeth in mine eyes;
"And in this gyring compass as it goes,

"So more and more my love in greatness grows." Again, in the Second Part of Heywood's Iron Age, 1632: "this bright and faming brand

"Which I so often gyre about mine ears."

Again, in Lingua, &c. 1607 :

"First I beheld him hovering in the air,

"And then down stooping with a hundred gires, &c." Again, in Barten Holyday's Poem, called the Woes of Esay: "His chariot wheels wrapt in the whirlwind's gyre, "His horses hoof'd with flint, and shod with fire."

STEEVENS.

-down-gyved' cannot be right, because gyves are fetters, shackles: the word has no other meaning. Theobald's reading is to be preferred, both as to gyred and loose.

Giar in Chaucer is a twist, a fold. B.

Pol. That hath made him mad.

I am sorry, that with better heed, and judgment, I had not quoted him.

I had not quoted him. The old quarto reads coted. It appears Shakspeare wrote noted. Quoted is nonsense. WAR

BURTON.

To quote is, I believe, to reckon, to take an account of, to take the quotient or result of a computation. JOHNSON.

Since I proposed a former explanation, I met with a passage in the Isle of Gulls, a comedy, by John Day, 1633, which proves Dr. Johnson's sense of the word to be not far from the

true one:

-"'twill be a scene of mirth

"For me to quote his passions, and his smiles."

To quote on this occasion undoubtedly means to observe. Again in Drayton's Mooncalf:

"This honest man the prophecy that noted,

"And things therein most curiously had quoted;
"Found all these signs, &c."

Again, in The Woman Hater, by Beaumont and Fletcher, the intelligencer says,-" I'll quote him to a tittle.” i. e. I will observe him. STEEVENS.

'I had not quoted him.'

Coted is right, it means

marked, observed, (Cote, French.) B.

Queen. If it will please you

To show us so much gentry, and good will,
As to expend your time with us a while.

To shew us so much gentry-] Gentry, for complaisance.
WARBURTON.

To shew us so much gentry. We should print Genterie as in Chaucer, to distinguish it from the body or class. of people called Gentry. B.

Guil. But we both obey;

And here give up ourselves, in the full bent,
To lay our service freely at your feet,

To be commanded.

—in the full bent,] Bent, for endeavour, application. WAR

BURTON.

The full bent is the utmost extremity of exertion. The allusion is to a bow bent as far as it will go. So afterwards in this play:

"They fool me to top of my bent." MALONE. Full bent' is fully, perfectly inclined thereto. See Spenser, Milton, &c. B.

B..

Pol. To the celestial, and my soul's idol, the most beautified Ophelia

That's an ill phrase, a vile phrase; beautify'd

Is a vile phrase.

To the celestial, and my soul's idol, the most beautified Ophelia-] Heywood, in his History of Edward VI, says

"Katherine Parre, queen dowager to king Henry VIII, was a woman beautified with many excellent virtues." FARMER.

'Most beautified Ophelia.' It is not Shakspeare who calls the phrase, (or rather term) vile-but Polonius. B.

Pol. No, I went round to work,

And my young mistress thus I did bespeak ; Lord Hamlet is a prince:--out of thy sphere; This must not be: and then I precepts gave her, That she should lock herself from his resort, Admit no messengers, receive no tokens.

Lord Hamlet is a prince out of thy sphere,] All princes were alike out of her sphere. I give it thus:

Lord Hamlet is a prince:-out of thy sphere. Two of the quartos, and the first folio, read star. STEEV. 'Out of thy sphere.' Out of thy star is most like the language of Shakspeare. The meaning is "beyond what you can look or aspire to." He has fortune's star,' in a former scene.

B.

-precepts gave her.] Thus the folio. The two elder quartos read, prescripts. STEEV.

"Prescripts" is right-signifying inhibition, restraint. That it is the true reading the context will fully show. Polonius says that he had already observed to his daughter, "Lord Hamlet is a prince; out of thy sphere

"This must not be!"

Now this we may consider as a precept, or hint, to Ophelia how she should behave. He then goes on.

"And then I prescripts (or orders) gave her,

"That she should lock herself from his resort, &c." B.

Ham. For if the sun breeds maggots in a dead dog,

Being a god, kissing carrion,-Have you a daugh

For if the sun breed maggot in a dead dog,
Being a good, kissing carrion-

Have you a daughter?] The editors seeing Hamlet counterfeit madness, thought they might safely put any nonsense into his mouth. But this strange passage, when set right, will be scen to contain as great and sublime a reflection as any the poet puts into his hero's mouth throughout the whole play. We will first give the true reading, which is this:

For if the sun breed maggots in a dead dog,

Being a god, kissing carrion――

As to the sense we may observe, that the illative particle [for] shews the speaker to be reasoning from something he had said before what that was we learn in these words, to be honest, as this world goes, is to be one picked out of ten thousand. Having said this, the chain of ideas led him to reflect upon the argument which libertines bring against Providence from the circumstance of abounding evil. In the next speech therefore he endeavours to answer that objection, and vindicate Providence, even on a supposition of the fact, that almost all meu were wicked. His argument in the two lines in question is to this purpose, But why need we wonder at this abounding of evil? For if the sun breed maggots in a dead dog, which though a god, yet shedding its heat and influence upon carrion-Here he stops short, lest talking too consequentially the hearer should suspect his madness to be feigned; and so turns him off from the subject, by enquiring of his daughter. But the inference which he intended to make, was a very noble one, and to this purpose. If this (says he) be the case, that the effect follows the thing operated upon [carrion] and not the thing operating [a god,] why need we wonder, that the supreme cause of all things diffusing its blessings on mankind, who is, as it were, a dead carrion, dead in original sin, man instead of a proper return of duty, should breed only corruption and vices? This is the argument at length, and is as noble a one in behalf of Providence as could come from the schools of divinity. But this wonderful man had an art not only of acquainting the audience with what his actors say, but with what they think. The sentiment too is altogether in character, for Hamlet is perpetually moralizing, and his circumstances make this reflection very natural. WARB.

This is a noble emendation, which almost sets the critic on a level with the author. JouN.

66

Being a god, kissing carrion,] Our author, I imagine, wrote— being a god-kissing carrion,"-i. e. a carrion that kisses the So in this play:

sun.

"New lighted on a heaven-kissing hill." Again, in the Rape of Lucrece:.

"Threat'ning cloud-kissing Ilion with annoy."

I do not believe that Shakspeare had any of the profound meaning in this passage, that Dr. Warburton has ascribed to him. MAL.

For if the sun, &c.' Mr. Malone's god-kissing Carrion' entirely destroys the meaning. The conception of the Poet is here wonderfully grand: there is divinity in it-while the exposition of the Commentator (W.) in which the anagogical sense, as it may be called, is considered, is truly philosophical and just :-an exposition, indeed, which sets him high above his competitors in the critic art. B.

Pol. How pregnant sometimes his replies are! a happiness that often madness hits on, which reason and sanity could not so prosperously be delivered of.

How pregnant, &c.] Pregnant is ready, dexterous, apt.

STEEV.

"Pregnant" is something more than dexterous, or apt. It here means, full of consequence. B.

Ros. We coted them on the way; and hither are they coming to offer you service.

We coted them on the way,-] To cote is to overtake. I meet with this word in The Return from Parnassus, a comedy, 1602.

"-marry we presently coted and outstript them." STEEV. "We coted them on the way.' To Cote can never mean to overtake,' we coted them on the way,'-" we observed, we saw them on the road." B.

part

in

Ham. The humorous man shall end his peace the clown shall make those laugh whose lungs are tickled o' the sere.

-shall end his part in peace:] After these words the folio adds, the clown shall make those laugh whose lungs are tickled o' th' sere.

WARB.