Each oppofite, that blanks the face of joy, Ham. If fhe fhould break it now, [To Oph P. King. 'Tis deeply fworn. Sweet, leave me here a while; My fpirits grow dull, and fain I would beguile P. Queen. Sleep rock thy brain; [Sleeps And never come mifchance betwixt us twain! [Exit. Ham. Madam, how like you this play? Queen. The lady doth proteft too much, methinks. Ham. O, but fhe'll keep her word. King. Have offence in't? you heard the argument? Is there no Ham. No, no, they do but jeft, poifon in jeft; no offence i' the world. Kin. What do you call the play? Ham. The moufe-trap. Marry, how? Tropically. This play is the image of a murder done in Vienna: Gonzago is the duke's name; his wife, Baptifta : you fhall fee anon; 'tis a knavifh piece of work: But what of that? your majefty, and we that have free fouls, it toucheth us not: Let the gall'd jade wince, our withers are unwrung. Enter Lucianus. This is one Lucianus, nephew to the duke. is 6 The mouse-trap.] He calls it the mouse-trap, because it the thing In which he'll catch the confcience of the king. STEEVENS. 7 Baptifla is, I think, in Italian, the name always of a man. 8 Let the gall'd jade wince, &c.] This is a proverbial fayıng. So, in Damon and Pythias, 1582 : "I know the goli'd horfe will foonest qvince.” STEEVENS. Oph. Oph. You are as good as a chorus, my lord. 9 Ham. I could interpret between you and your love, if I could fee the puppets dallying. Oph. You are keen, my lord, you are keen. Ham. It would coft you a groaning, to take off my edge. Oph. Still better and worse. 2 Ham. So you mistake your husbands. Begin murderer.--Leave thy damnable faces, and begin. Come-The croaking raven doth bellow for revenge. Luc. Thoughts black, hands apt, drugs fit, and time agreeing; Ham. I could interpret, &c.] This refers to the interpreter, who formerly fat on the stage at all motions or puppet-fhews, and interpreted to the audience." So, in the Two Gentlemen of Verona: "Oh excellent motion! oh exceeding puppet! Again, in Greene's Groatsworth of Wit, 1621: It was I that peni'd the moral of man's wit, the dialogue of Dives, and for feven years' fpace was abfolute interpreter of the puppets." STEEVENS. • Sill better, and worse.] i. e. better in regard to the wit of your double entendre, but worse in refpect of the groffness of your meaning. STEEVENS. 2 So you mistake your bufbands.] Read, So you must take your bufbands; that is, for better, for worse. JOHNSON. Theobald propofed the fame reading in his Shakspeare Reftored, however he loft it afterwards. STEEVENS. "So you miflake your husbands.” I believe this to be right: the word is fometimes used in this lu- "I fear he will perfuade me to mistake him.” STEEVENS. I believe the meaning is-you do amifs for yourfelves to take hubands for the worfe. You fhould take them only for the better. ToLLET. VOL. X. Dd Con 1 Confederate feafon, elfe no creature seeing; On wholesome life ufurp immediately. [Pours the poifon into his ears. Ham. He poifons him i' the garden for his eftate. His name's Gonzago: the story is extant, and written in very choice Italian: You fhall fee anon, how the murderer gets the love of Gonzago's wife. Oph. The king rifes. Ham. What! frighted with falfe fire 3! Pol. Give o'er the play. King. Give me fome light : :-away ! All. Lights, lights, lights +! [Exeunt All but Hamlet, and Horatio. Ham. Why, let the ftrucken deer go weep, For fome muft watch, while fome muft fleep; Would not this, fir, and a forest of feathers, (if the 3 What! frighted with falfe fire!] This fpeech is omitted in the quartos. STEEVENS. 4 Lights, lights, lights!] The quartos give this fpeech to Polonius. STEEVENS. 5 -turn Turk with me] This expreffion has occured already in Much Ado about Nothing, and I have met with it in feveral old comedies. So, in Greene's Tu Quoque, 1614: "This it is to turn Turk, from an abfolute and moft compleat gentleman, to a most abfurd, ridiculous, and fond lover." It means, I believe, no more than to change condition fantaflically. Again, in Decker's Honeft Whore, 1635 & ris damnation, "If you turn Turk again." Perhaps the phrafe had its rife from fome popular story like that of Ward and Danfiker, the two famous pirates; an account of whofe overthrow was published by A. Barker 1609; and, in 1612, a play was written on the same subject called A Chriftian turn'd Turk. STEEVENS. Pro 6 Provencial roses on my raz'd fhoes, get me a fellowhip in a cry of players, fir? 7 6 Provincial rofes] Why provincial rofes? Undoubtedly we fhould read Provencial, or (with the French ) Provençal. He means rofes of Provence, a beautiful fpecies of rofe, and formerly much cultivated. WARTON. —with two provincial rofes on my rayed fhoes,] When shoeftrings were worn, they were covered, where they met in the middle, by a ribband, gathered in the form of a rofe. So, in an old fong: Gil-de-Roy was a bonny boy, "Had roses tull his hoon." Rayed fhoes, are fhoes braided in lines. JOHNSON. Thefe rofes are often mentioned by our ancient dramatic writers. So, in the Devil's Law-cae, 1623: "With over blown refes to hide your gouty ancles." Again, in the Roaring Girl, 1611: "many handfome legs in filk stockings have villanous fplay feet, for all their great rofes." The reading of the quartos is raz'd fhoes; that of the folio rac'd fhoes. Probably the poet wrote raised fhoes, i. e. fhoes with high heels; fuch as by adding to the ftature, are fuppofed to increase the dignity of the player. In Stubbs's Anatomie of Abuses, 1595, there is a chapter on the corked fhoes in England, "which (he fays) beare them up two inches or more from the ground, &c. fome of red, blacke, &c. razed, carved, cut, and stitch ed, &c." Again, in Warner's Albion's England, 1602, b. 9. ch. 47: "Then wore they fhoes of cafe, now of an inch-broad, corked high." Stowe's Chronicle, anno 1353, mentions women's hoods reyed or ftriped. Raic is the French word for a stripe. Johnfon's Col lection of Ecclefiaftical Laws informs us, under the years 1222 and 1353, that in difobedience of the canon, the clergy's fhoes were checquered with red and green, exceeding long, and vari oufly pinked. The reading of the quartos may likewife be fupported. Bulwer, in his Artificial Changeling, fpeaks of gallants who pink and raze their fatten damafk, and Duretto fkins. To raze and to race, alike fignify to freak. See Minfhew's Dicta The word is used in the fame fignification in Markham's Country Farm, p. 585. baking all (i. e. wafer cakes) together between two irons, having within them many raced and checkered draughts after the manner of fmall fquares." It fhould be remem bered that rayed is the conjecture of Mr. Pope. STEEVENS. Hor. Half a share. Ham: A whole one, I. For thou dost know, 90 Damon dear, This realm difimantled was Of Jove himself; and now reigns here Hor. -a cry of players,] There is furely here no allusion to hounds (as Dr. Warburton fuppoles) whatever the origin of the term might have been. Cry means a troop or company in general, and is fo ufed in Coriolanus: 66 -You have made good work, "You and your cry. Again, in A firange Horfe-race, by Thomas Decker, 1613 The laft race they ran (for you must know they had many) was from a cry of ferjeants." MALONE. Hor. Half a fhare. Ham. A whole one, I.] It should be, I think, A whole one For, &c. The actors in our author's time had not annual falaries as at prefent. The whole receipts of the theatres were divided into shares, and each actor had one or more fhares, or part of a fhare, according to his merit. See The Account of the Ancient Theatres. MA LONE. 9 -O Damon dear,] Hamlet calls Horatio by this name, in allufion to the celebrated friendship between Damon and Pythias. A play on this fubject was written by Rich. Edwards, and pubthed in 1582. STEEVENS. I very, very — peacock, This alludes to a fable of the birds choofing a king, inftead of the eagle, a peacock. POPE. The old copies have it paioch, paicocke, and pojocke. I substitute paddock, as nearest to the traces of the corrupted reading. I have as Mr. Pope fays, been willing to fubstitute any thing in the place of his peacect. He thinks a fable alluded to, of the birds choofing a king; inftead of the cagle, a peacock. I fuppofe, he must mean the fable of Barlandus, in which it is faid, the birds, being weary of their state of anarchy, moved for the fetting up of a king; and the peacock was elected on account of his gay feathers. But, with fubmiffion, in this paffage of our Shakipeare, there is not the leaft mention made of the eagle in antithefis to the peacock; and it muit be by a very uncommon figure, that Jove himself stands in the place of his bird. I think, Hamlet is fetting his father's and uncle's characters in contraft to each other: and means to fay, that by his father's death the state was ftripp'd of a godlike monarch, and |
