Laer. I will do't: And, for the purpofe, I'll anoint my fword. Under the moon, can fave the thing from death, That is but fcratch'd withal: I'll touch my point With this contagion; that, if I gall him flightly, may be death. It King. Let's further think of this; Weigh, what convenience, both of time and means, 'May fit us to our fhape: If this fhould fail, And that our drift look through our bad perform ance, 'Twere better not affay'd; therefore, this project When in your motion you are hot and dry, (As make your bouts more violent to that end)· And that he calls for drink, I'll have prepar'd him 2 A chalice "This practice hath most fhrewdly pass'd upon thee." STEEVENS. 9 It is a matter of furprise that no one of Shakspeare's numerous and able commentators has remarked with proper warmth and deteftation, the villainous-affaffin like treachery of Laertes in this horrid plot. There is the more occafion that he should be here pointed out an object of abhorrence, as he is a character we are, in fome preceding parts of the play, led to respect and admire. REMARKS. May fit us to our Jhape:] May enable us to affume proper characters, and to act our part JOHNSON. 2-blaft in proof.] This, I believe, is a metaphor taken from a mine, which, in the proof or execution, fometimes breaks out with an ineffectual blaft. JOHNSON. The word proof thews the metaphor to be taken from the trying or proving fire-arms or cannon, which often laft or bürft in the proof. STEEVENS. 3-I'll have prepar'd him] Thus the folio, The quartos read, 121 A ehalice for the nonce; whereon but fipping, Enter Queen. How now, fweet queen? Queen. One woe doth tread upon another's heel', So faft they follow:-Your fifter's drown'd, Laertes, Laer. Drown'd! O, where? Queen. There is a willow grows afcaunt the brook, That fhews his hoar leaves in the glaffy ftream; Therewith fantastic garlands did the make, Of crow-flowers, nettles, daifies, 7 and long purples,, That I'll have prefer'd him. STEEVENS. 3 If he by chance efcape your venom'd ftuck,] For fuck, read tuck, a common name for a rapier. BLACKSTONE. Stuck may yet be right. So, in The Return from Parnaffus, a comedy, 1606: "Ay, here's a fellow, Judicio, that carried the deadly fucke in his pen." Again in our author's Twelfth Night: "And he gives me the fuck with fuch a mortal motionThe quarto of 1637, however, has the reading propofed by fir William Blackstone. MALONE, But ftay, what noife?] 1 have recovered this from the quartos. STEEVENS. 5 One woe doth tread upon another's heel,] A fimilar thought oc curs in Pericles Prince of Tyre, 1609: "One forrow never comes, but brings an heir 6 — ascaunt the brook,] Thus the quartos. The folio reads, aflant. Afcaunce is interpreted in the Gloffary to Chaucer.-af kew, afide, fideways. STEEVENS. 7-and long purples,] By long purple is meant a plant, the modern botanical name of which is orchis morio mas, anciently tefticulus morionis. The groffer name by which it pafles, is futficiently known in many parts of England, and particularly in the county where Shakspeare lived. Thus far Mr. Warner. Mr. Collins adds, that in Suffex it is ftill called dead men's hands; and that in Lyte's Herbal, 1578, its various names, too grofs for rep tition, are preferved. Dead men's thumbs are mentioned in an ancient bl, 1. ballad, entitled The Deccafed Maiden Lover : 4 "Then That liberal' fhepherds give a groffer name, And, mermaid-like, a while they bore her up : Or like a creature native and indu'd Unto that element: but long it could not be, Laer. Alas then, is fhe drown'd? Queen. Drown'd, drown'd. Laer. Too much of water haft thou, poor Ophelia, And therefore I forbid my tears: But yet It is our trick; nature her custom holds, Let fhame fay what it will: when these are gone, "Then round the meddowes did he walke "As dead mans thumbe and hare-bell blew." 8-liberal,] licentious. See vol. I. 198. II. 347, 539. III. 174. EDITOR. 9 Which time, he chaunted fnatches of old tunes ;] Fletcher, in his Scornful Lady, very invidiously ridicules this incident: I will run mad first, and if that get not pity, "I'll drown my felf to a most difmal ditty.' WARBURTON. The quartos read—“snatches of old tauds,” i. c. hymns. STEEVENS. 'As one incapable of her own diftrefs,] As one having no underftanding or knowledge of her danger. See a former note on the words 2 The woman will be out.-Adieu, my lord! I have a fpeech of fire; that fain would blaze, But that this folly drowns it. King. Let's follow, Gertrude : How much I had to do to calm his rage! [Exit. [Exeunt. ACT V. SCENE I. A Church-yard. Enter two Clowns, with spades, &c. 1 Clown. Is the to be bury'd in chriftian burial, that wilfully feeks her own falvation? 2 Clown. I tell thee, fhe is; therefore, 3 make her 2 The woman will be out.] i. e. tears will flow. So, in another of our author's plays: "And all the woman came into my eyes." MALONE. ?-make her grave ftraight: Make her grave from east to west in a direct line parallel to the church; not from north to fouth, athwart the regular line. This, I think, is meant. JOHNSON. I cannot think that this means any more than make her grave immediately. She is to be buried in chriftian burial, and confequently the grave is to be made as ufual. My interpretation may be juftified from the following paffages in K. Henry V. and the play before us: "We cannot lodge and board a dozen or fourteen gentlewomen who live by the prick of their needles, but it will be thought we keep a bawdy-house straight." Again, in Hamlet, act iii. fc. 4: Pol. He will come fraight. Again, in the Lover's Progrefs, by Beaumont and Fletcher: "Lif. Do you fight fraight? "Clar. Yes prefently." Again, in the Merry Wives of Windsor : -we'll come and drefs you firaight," Again, in Othello: "Farewell, my Defdemona, I will come to thee flraight.” STEEVENS. grave straight the crowner hath fat on her, and finds it chriftian burial. 1 Clown. How can that be, unlefs fhe drown'd herself in her own defence? 2 Clown. Why, 'tis found fo. 1 Clown. It must be fe offendendo; it cannot be elfe. For, here lies the point: If I drown my felf wittingly, it argues an act: and an act hath three branches; it is, to act, to do, and to perform: Argal, the drown'd herself wittingly. 2 Clown. Nay, but here you, goodman delver. 1 Clown. Give me leave. Here lies the water; good: here ftands the man; good: If the man go to this water, and drown himfelf, it is, will he, nill he, he goes; mark you that: but if the water come to him, and drown him, he drowns not himfelf: Argal, he, that is not guilty of his own death, fhortens not his own life. 2 Clown. But is this law? 1 Clown. Ay, marry is't; 'crowner's-queft law. 4- an act hath three branches; it is to act, to do, and to perform.] Ridicule on fcholastic divifions without diftinction; and of diftinctions without difference. WARBURTON. 5-crowner's queft-law.] I ftrongly fufpect that this is a ridicule on the cafe of Dame Hales, reported by Plowden in his commentaties, as determined in 3 Eliz. It seems her husband fir James Hales had drowned himself in a river, and the question was, whether by this act a forfeiture of a leafe from the dean and chapter of Canterbury, which he was poffeffed of, did not accrue to the crown; an inquilition was found before the coroner, which found him felo de fe. The legal and logical fubtilties, arifing in the courfe of the argument of this cafe, gave a very fair opportunity for a fneer at crowner's questa. The expreffion, a little before, that an act hath three branches, &c. is fo pointed an allufion to the cafe I mention, that I cannot doubt but that Shakspeare was acquainted with, and meant to laugh at it. It may be added, that on this occafion a great deal of fubtilry was used, to afcertain whether fir James was the agent or the patient; or, in other words, whether he went to the water, or the water came to him. The caufe of fir James's madness was the circumstance of his having been the judge who condemned lady Jane Gray. Sir J. HAWKINS. 2 Clown. |