Be wary then beft fafety lies in fear; OPH. I fhall the effect of this good leffon keep As watchman to my heart: But, good my brother, Do not, as fome ungracious paftors do, Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven; LAER. O, fear me not. I ftay too long;-But here my father comes. Enter POLONIUS. A double blessing is a double grace; POL. Yet here, Laertes! aboard, aboard, for fhame; The wind fits in the fhoulder of your fail,' recks not his own read.] That is, heeds not his own Against a publick reed." Again, in Sir Tho. North's tranflation of Plutarch: " - Dif patch, I read you, for your enterprize is betray'd." Again, the old proverb, in the Two angry Women of Abington, 1599: "Take heed, is a good reed." i. e. good counsel, good advice. STEEVENS. So, Sternhold, Pfalmi: that hath not lent "To wicked rede his ear." BLACKSTONE. the fhoulder of your fail,] This is a common fea phrase. STEEVENS. And you are staid for: There,-my bleffing with you; [Laying his hand on LAERTES' head. And these few precepts in thy memory Look thou charácter. Give thy thoughts no tongue, 6 And these few precepts in thy memory Look thou character.] i. e. write; ftrongly infix. The fame phrafe is again ufed by our author in his 122d Sonnet: thy tables are within my brain "Full character'd with lafting memory." Again, in The Two Gentlemen of Verona: I do conjure thee, "Who art the table wherein all my thoughts The old copies Grapple them to thy foul with hooks of fleel;] read with hoops of steel. I have no doubt that this was a corrup tion in the original quarto of 1604, arifing, like many others, from fimilitude of founds. The emendation, which was made by Mr. Pope, and adopted by three fubfequent editors, is ftrongly fupported by the word grapple. See Minfheu's Dictionary, 1617: "To book or grapple, viz. to grapple and to board a fhip." A grapple is an inftrument with several hooks to lay hold of a ship, in order to board it. This correction is alfo juftified by our poet's 137th Sonnet: It may be also obferved, that hooks are sometimes made of steel, but boops never. MALONE. We have, however, in King Henry IV. P. II: "A hoop of gold to bind thy brothers in." The former part of the phrafe occurs alfo in Macbeth: Grapples you to the heart and love of us." STEEVENS, 8 But do not dull thy palm with entertainment Of each new-hatch'd, unfledg'd comrade.] The literal fenfe is, Of entrance to a quarrel; but, being in, ment. Coftly thy habit as thy purse can buy, But not exprefs'd in fancy; rich, not gaudy: And they in France, of the best rank and station, Do not make thy palm cailous by shaking every man by the band. The figurative meaning may be, Do not by promiscuous conversation make thy mind infenfible to the difference of characters. JOHNSON. 9 -each man's cenfure,] Cenfure is opinion. So, in King Henry VI. P. II: "The king is old enough to give his cenfure." STEEVENS. Are moft felect and generous, chief in that.] I think the whole defign of the precept shows we should read: Are moft felect, and generous chief, in that. Chief may be an adjective used adverbially, a practice common to our author: chiefly generous. Yet it must be owned that the punctuation recommended is very stiff and harsh. I would, however, more willingly read: And they in France, of the beft rank and flation, Select and generous, are moft choice in that. Let the reader, who can discover the flightest approach towards fenfe, harmony, or metre, in the original line, Are of a moft fele& and generous chief, in that, adhere to the old copies. STEEVENS. The genuine meaning of the paffage requires us to point the line thus: "Are moft felect and generous, chief in that." i. e. the nobility of France are felect and generous above all other nations, and chiefly in the point of apparel; the richness and ele gance of their drefs. RITSON. Are of a moft felet and generous chief, in that.] Thus the quarto, 1604, and the folio, except that in that copy the word chief is fpelt cheff. The fubftantive chief, which fignifies in heraldry the upper part of the fhield, appears to have been in common ufe in Shak fpeare's time, being found in Minfheu's Dictionary, 1617. He defines it thus: " Eft fuperior et fcuti nobilior pars¿ tertiam partem Neither a borrower, nor a lender be: ejus obtinet; ante Chrifti adventum dabatur in maximi honoris fignum ; Jenatoribus et honoratis viris." B. Jonfon has used the word in his Poetafter. The meaning then feems to be, They in France approve themselves of a most felect and generous efcutcheon by their drefs. Generous is ufed with the fignification of generofus. So, in Othello: "The generous iflanders," &c. Chief, however, may have been used as a substantive, for note or eftimation, without any allufion to heraldry, though the word was perhaps originally heraldick. So, in Bacon's Colours of Good and Evil, 16mo. 1597: "In the warmer climates the people are generally more wife, but in the northern climates the wits of chief are greater. If chief in this fenfe had not been familiarly understood, the editor of the folio must have confidered the line as unintelligible, and would have probably omitted the words of a in the beginning of it, or attempted fome other correction. That not having been done, I have adhered to the old copies. Our poet from various paffages in his works, appears to havė been accurately acquainted with all the terms of heraldry. MALONE. Of chief, in the paffage quoted from Bacon, is, I believe, a bald tranflation of the old French phrafe-de chef, whatever, in the prefent inftance, might be its intended meaning. STEEVENS. 3 of husbandry.] i. e. of thrift; œconomical prudence. See Vol. VII. p. 400, n. 4. MALONE. 4 And it must follow, as the night the day,] So, in the 145th Sonnet of Shakspeare: 5 "That follow'd it as gentle day "Doth follow night," &c. STEEVENS. -my bleffing feason this in thee!] Seafon, for infufe. WARBURTON. It is more than to infuse, it is to infix it in such a manner as that it never may wear out. JOHNSON. LAER. Moft humbly do I take my leave, my lord. POL. The time invites you;' go, your fervants tend." LAER. Farewell, Ophelia; and remember well What I have faid to you. OPH. 'Tis in my memory lock'd, And you yourself fhall keep the key of it." LAER. Farewell. [Exit LAERTES. POL. What is't, Ophelia, he hath faid to you? OPH. So please you, fomething touching the lord Hamlet. POL. Marry, well bethought: 'Tis told me, he hath very oft of late Given private time to you; and you yourself Have of your audience been moft free and boun teous: If it be fo, (as fo 'tis put on me, And that in way of caution,) I must tell you, 66 So, in the mock tragedy reprefented before the king: who in want a hollow friend doth try, Directly feafons him his enemy." STEEVENS. 5 The time invites you;] So, in Macbeth: "I go, and it is done, the bell invites me." STEEVENS. Thus the folio. The quarto, 1604, reads-The time invests you: which Mr. Theobald preferred, fuppofing that it meant," the time befieges, preffes upon you on every fide." But to invest, in Shakspeare's time, only fignified, to clothe, or give poffeffion. MALONE. 6 your fervants tend.] i. e. your fervants are waiting for you. JOHNSON. 7 - yourself fhall keep the key of it.] The meaning is, that your counfels are as fure of remaining locked up in my memory, as if yourself carried the key of it. So, in Northward Hoe, by Decker and Webster, 1607: "You fhall clofe it up like a treafure of your own, and yourself shall keep the key of it." STEEVENS. |