Make Oa like a wart! Nay, an' thou'lt mouth,
I'll rant as well as thou.

Queen. This is meer madness;

And thus a while the Fit will work on him:
Anon, as patient as the female dove,

(4) Ere that her golden couplets are disclos'd,
His filence will fit drooping.

Ham. Hear you, Sir

What is the reafon that you ufe me thus ?
I lov'd you ever; but it is no matter
Let Hercules himself do what he may,
The cat will mew, the dog will have his day.
King. I pray you, good Horatio, wait upon him.

[Exit.

[Exit Horatio. Strengthen your patience in our laft night's fpeech.

[To Laertes.

We'll put the matter to the prefent push.
Good Gertrude, fet fome watch over your fon.
This Grave shall have a living Monument.
An hour of quiet fhortly fall we fee;
'Till then, in patience our proceeding be.

SCENE III.

Changes to a Hall in the Palace.

Enter Hamlet and Horatio.

[Exeunt.

Ham. So much for this, Sir. Now fhall you fee the other.

You do remember all the circumftance?

Hor. Remember it, my Lord?

Ham. Sir, in my heart there was a kind of fighting, That would not let me fleep; methought, I lay

(4) WHEN that her golden couplets

-] We fhould read,

ERE that for it is the patience of birds, during the time of incubation, that is here fpoken of. The Pigeon generally fits upon two eggs; and her young, when first disclosed, are covered with a yellow down. WARBURTON.

Perhaps it should be,

Ere yet

Yet and yt. are easily confounded.

Worfe

J

Worfe than the (5) mutines in the Bilboes. (6) Rafhly, And prais'd be rashness for it

Let us know,

Our indifcretion fometimes ferves us well,

When our deep plots do fail; and that should teach us,
There's a Divinity that fhapes our ends,
Rough-hew them how we will.

Hor. That is most certain.
Ham. Up from my cabin,

My fea-gown fcarft about me, in the dark
Grop'd I to find out them; had my defire,
Finger'd their packet, and in fine withdrew
To mine own room again; making fo bold,
My fears forgetting manners, to unfeal
Their grand commiffion, where I found, Horatio,
A royal knavery; an exact Command,
Larded with many feveral forts of reasons,
Importing Denmark's health, and England's too,
(7) With, ho! fuch buggs and goblins in

my

life;

(5) mutines in the Bilboes.] Mutines, the French word for feditious or difobedient fellows in the army or fleet. Bilboes, the Ship's prifon.

(6)

Rafonefs

(And prais'd be rafiness for it) lets us know ;

Our indifcretion fometimes ferves us svell,

When, &c.] The fenfe in this reading is, Our rafkness lets us know that our indiferetion serves us well, when, &c. But this could never be Shakespeare's fenfe. We fhould read and point thus,

Rafonefs

(And pra s'd be rafhness for it) lets us know;

OR indifcretion fometimes ferves us well,

When, &c.] i. e. Rathnefs acquaints us with what we cannot penetrate to by plots.

WARBURTON.

Both my copies read,

Rafhly,

And prais'd be rafonefs for it, let us know.

Hamlet, delivering an account of his escape, begins with faying, That he rafbly and then is carried into a reflection upon the weaknefs of human wisdom. I rafhly praised be rafhness for it Let us not think thefe events cafual, but let us knotv, that is, take notice and remember, that we fometimes fucceed by indifcretion, when we fail by deep plots, and infer the perpetual fuperintendence and agency of the Divinity, The obfervation is juft; and will be allowed by every human being who fhall reflect on the courfe of his own life.

(7) With bo! fuch buggs and goblins in my life;] With fuch caufes of terrour, arifing from my character and defigns.

That

That on the fupervize, (8) no leifure bated,
No, not to stay the grinding of the ax,
My head should be ftruck off.

Hor. Is't poffible?

Ham. Here's the Commiffion, read it at more leisure But wilt thou hear now how I did proceed?

Hor. I befeech you.

Ham. (9) Being thus benetted round with villains,
Ere I could make a prologue to my Brains,
They had begun the Play: I fate me down,
Devis'd a new Commiffion, wrote it fair :-
I once did hold it, as our Statists do,

A bafenefs to write fair, and labour'd much
How to forget that learning; but, Sir, now
It did me yeoman's fervice. Wilt thou know

Th' effect of what I wrote ?

(8)

no leifure bated,] Bated, for allowed. To abate fignifies to deduct; this deduction, when applied to the perfon in whofe favour it is made, is called an allowance. Hence he takes WARBURTON. the liberty of ufing bated for allowed.

(9) Being thus benetted round with Villains, Ere I could MAKE a prologue to my BRAINS, They bad begun the Play:

- The fecond line is nonfenfe.

The whole fhould be read thus,
Being thus benetted round with Villains,

Ere I could MARK THE prologue to my BANE,
They bad begun the Play.

i. e. they begun to act to my destruction, before I knew there was a Play towards. Ere I could mark the Prologue. For it appears by what he fays of his foreboding, that it was that only, and not any apparent mark of villany, which fet him upon fingering their packet. Ere I could make the Prologue, is abfurd: Both as he had no thoughts of playing them a trick till they had played him one; and because his counterplot could not be called a prologue to their Plot. WARBURTON.

In my opinion no alteration is neceffary. Hamlet is telling how luckily every thing fell out; he groped out their commiffion in the dark without waking them; he found himself doomed to immediate destruction. Something was to be done for his prefervation. An expedient occurred, not produced by the comparison of one method with another, or by a regular deduction of confequences, but before he could make a prologue to bis Brains, they bad begun the play. Before he could fummon his faculties, and propofe to himself what should be done, a complete fcheme of action prefented itself to him. His mind operated before he had excited it. This appears to me to be the meaning.

Hor.

Hor. Ay, good my Lord.

Ham. An earneft conjuration from the King, As England was his faithful tributary,

As love between them, like the palm, might flourish,
(1) As Peace should still her wheaten garland wear,
And ftand a Comma 'tween their amities;

And many fuch like (2) As's of great charge;
That on the view and knowing these contents,
Without debatement further, more or less,
He should the bearers put to fudden death,
Not fhriving time allow'd.

(1) As Peace bould ftill ber wheaten garland wear,

And ftand a ČoмMA 'tween their amities;] Peace is here properly and finely perfonalized as the Goddess of good league and friendship; and very claffically drefs'd out. Ovid fays,

Pax Cererem nutrit, Pacis alumna Ceres.

And Tibullus,

At nobis, Pax alma! veni, fpicamque teneto.

But the placing her as a Comma, or stop, between the amities of two kingdoms, makes her rather stand like a cypher. The poet without doubt wrote,

And ftand a CoMMERE 'tween our amities.

The term is taken from a trafficker in love, who brings people together, a procurefs. And this Idea is well appropriated to the fatirical turn which the fpeaker gives to this wicked adjuration of the King, who would lay the foundation of the peace of the two kingdoms in the blood of the heir of one of them. Periers in his Novels, ufes the word Commere to fignify a the-friend. A tout fes gens, chacun une Commere. And Ben Johnson, in his Devil's an Áss, englishes the word by a middling Gossip.

Or what do you fay to a middling Goffip
To bring you together?

Hanmer reads,

And ftand a cement

WARBURTON.

I am again inclined to vindicate the old reading. That the word Commere is French, will not be denied; but when or where was it English?

The expreffion of our authour is, like many of his phrases, fufficiently constrained and affected, but it is not incapable of explanation. The Comma is the note of Connection and continuity of fentences; the Period is the note of abruption and disjunctiona Shakespeare had it perhaps in his mind to write, That unless England complied with the mandate, war fhould put a period to their amity; he altered his mode of diction, and thought that, in an opposite sense, he might put, That Peace fhould fand a Comma between their amities. This is not an eafy style; but is it not the ftyle of Shakespeare?

(2) As's of great charge ;] Affes heavily loaded.
VOL. X.
M

Hor.

Hor. How was this feal'd?

Ham. Why, even in that was heaven ordinant; I had my father's fignet in my purse,

Which was the model of that Danish feal:

I folded the writ up in form of th' other,

Subfcrib'd it, gave th' impreffion, plac'd it fafely,
(3) The changeling never known; now, the next day
Was our fea-fight, and what to this was fequent
Thou know'ft already.

Hor. So Guildenfiern and Rosincrantz go to't.

"Ham. Why, man, they did make love to this employment."

They are not near my confcience; their defeat
(4) Doth by their own infinuation grow.
Tis dangerous when the bafer nature comes
Between the pafs, and fell incenfed points,
Of mighty oppofites.

Hor. Why, what a King is this!

Ham. Does it not, think'ft thou, ftand me now upon? He that hath kill'd my King, and whor'd my mother, Popt in between th' election and my hopes, Thrown out his angle for my proper life,

And with fuch cozenage; is't not perfect conscience, "(5) To quit him with this arm? and is't not to be damn'd,

"To let this canker of our nature come

"In further evil?

"Hor. It must be shortly known to him from England,

"What is the iffue of the business there.

"Ham. It will be short.

"The Interim's mine; and a man's life's no more

"Than to fay, one.

"But I am very forry, good Horatio,

"That to Laertes I forgot myself;

"For by the image of my caufe I fee

(3) The changeling never known;] A changeling is a child which the fairies are fuppofed to leave in the room of that which they fteal.

(4) Doth by their own infinuation grow.] Infinuation, for corruptly obtruding themfelves into his fervice. WARBURTON. (5) To quit bim To requite him; to pay him his due. "The