To his confine: and of the truth herein
This present object made probation.

MAR. It faded on the crowing of the cock." Some fay, that ever 'gainst that feafon comes Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated, This bird of dawning fingeth all night long: And then, they fay, no fpirit dares ftir abroad;" The nights are wholefome; then no planets ftrike, No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm, So hallow'd and fo gracious is the time.

4 The extravagant-] i. e. got out of his bounds.

66

So, in Nebody and Somebody, 1598: "— a'fravagant."

WARBURTON.

-they took me up for

Shakspeare imputes the fame effect to Aurora's harbinger in the laft fcene of the third act of the Midfummer Night's Dream. See Vol. V. p. 112. STEEVENS.

5 It faded on the crowing of the cock.] This is a very ancient fuperftition. Philoftratus giving an account of the apparition of Achilles' fhade to Apollonius Tyaneus, fays that it vanished with a little glimmer as foon as the cock crowed. Vit. Apol. iv. 16. STEEVENS. Vade, Lat. So,

Faded has here its original fenfe; it vanished.

in Spenfer's Faery Queen, Book I. c. v. ft. 15:

"He ftands amazed how he thence fhould fade." That our author ufes the word in this fenfe, appears from the following lines:

66

The morning cock crew loud;

"And at the found it fhrunk in hafte away, "And vanish'd from our fight." MALONE. 6 dares ftir abroad;] Thus the quarto. can walk.

STEEVENS.

The folio reads

Spirit was formerly used as a monofyllable: Sprite. The quarto, 1604, has-dare ftir abroad. Perhaps Shakspeare wrote-no/pirits dare stir abroad. The neceffary correction was made in a late quarto of no authority, printed in 1637. MALONE.

7 No fairy takes,] No fairy frikes with lamenefs or difeafes. This fenfe of take is frequent in this author. JOHNSON.

So, in The Merry Wives of Windfor:

"And there he blaits the tree, and takes the cattle."

STREVENS.

HOR. So have I heard, and do in part believe it. But, look, the morn, in ruffet mantle clad, Walks o'er the dew of yon high eastern hill:* Break we our watch up; and, by my advice, Let us impart what we have seen to-night Unto young Hamlet; for, upon my life, This fpirit, dumb to us, will speak to him: Do you confent we fhall acquaint him with it, As needful in our loves, fitting our duty?

MAR. Let's do't, I pray; and I this morning

know

Where we shall find him most convenient.

[Exeunt.

8 high eastern bill:] The old quarto has it better eastward.

WARBURTON.

The fuperiority of the latter of thefe readings is not, to me at leaft, very apparent. I find the former used in Lingua, &c. 1607: and overclimbs

"Yonder gilt eaftern hills."

Again, in Browne's Britannia's Paftorals, Book IV. Sat. iv. p. 75, edit. 1616:

"And ere the funne had clymb'd the easterne hils." Eaftern and caftrward, alike fignify toward the east.

STEEVENS,

SCENE II.

The fame. A Room of State in the fame.

Enter the King, Queen, HAMLET, POLONIUS, LAERTES, VOLTIMAND, CORNELIUS, Lords, and Attendants.

KING. Though yet of Hamlet our dear brother's death

The memory be green; and that it us befitted
To bear our hearts in grief, and our whole kingdom
To be contracted in one brow of woe;

Yet fo far hath difcretion fought with nature,
That we with wifeft forrow think on him,
Together with remembrance of ourselves.
Therefore our fometime fifter, now our queen,
The imperial jointress of this warlike state,
Have we, as 'twere, with a defeated joy,—
With one aufpicious, and one dropping eye;*

9 — and that it us befitted-] Perhaps our author elliptically wrote,

and us befitted. i. e. and that it befitted us.

STEEVENS.

With one aufpicious, and one dropping eye;] Thus the folio. The quarto, with fomewhat lefs of quaintnefs:

With an aufpicious, and a dropping eye.

The fame thought, however, occurs in The Winter's Tale: " She had one eye declined for the lofs of her husband; another elevated that the oracle was fulfilled."

After all, perhaps, we have here only the ancient proverbial phrafe-" To cry with one eye and laugh with the other," buckram'd by our author for the fervice of tragedy. See Ray's Collection, edit. 1768, p. 188. STEEVENS.

Dropping in this line probably means depressed or caft downwards: an interpretation which is ftrongly fupported by the paffage already quoted from The Winter's Tale. It may, however, fignify weeping.

With mirth in funeral, and with dirge in marriage,
In equal fcale weighing delight and dole,—
Taken to wife: nor have we herein barr'd
Your better wifdoms, which have freely gone
With this affair along:-For all, our thanks.
Now follows, that you know, young Fortinbras,-
Holding a weak fuppofal of our worth;
Or thinking, by our late dear brother's death,
Our state to be disjoint and out of frame,
Colleagued with this dream of his advantage,'
He hath not fail'd to pefter us with meffage,
Importing the furrender of thofe lands
Loft by his father, with all bands of law,
To our most valiant brother.-So much for him.
Now for ourself, and for this time of meeting.
Thus much the bufinefs is: We have here writ
To Norway, uncle of young Fortinbras,-
Who, impotent and bed-rid, fcarcely hears
Of this his nephew's purpofe,-to fupprefs
His further gait herein; in that the levies,

"Dropping of the eyes" was a technical expreffion in our author's time." If the fpring be wet with much fouth wind,—the next fummer will happen agues and blearnefs, dropping of the eyes, and pains of the bowels." Hopton's Concordance of years, 8vo. 1616.

Again, in Montaigne's Essaies, 1603: "they never saw any man there with eyes dropping, or crooked and ftooping through age." MALONE.

3 Colleagued with this dream of his advantage,] The meaning is,-He goes to war fo indifcreetly, and unprepared, that he has no allies to fupport him but a dream, with which he is colleagued or confederated. WARBURTON.

Mr. Theobald, in his Shakspeare Reftored, propofed to readcollegued, but in his edition very properly adhered to the ancient copies. MALONE.

This dream of his advantage (as Mr. M. Mafon obferves) means only" this imaginary advantage, which Fortinbras hoped to derive from the unfettled ftate of the kingdom." STEEVENS.

-to fupprefs

His further gait herein,] Gate or gait is here ufed in the

The lifts, and full proportions, are all made
Out of his fubject:-and we here despatch
You, good Cornelius, and you, Voltimand,
For bearers of this greeting to old Norway;
Giving to you no further perfonal power

To bufinefs with the king, more than the scope' Of thefe dilated articles allow.

Farewell; and let your hafte commend your duty. COR. VOL. In that, and all things, will we show

our duty.

KING. We doubt it nothing; heartily farewell. [Exeunt VOLTIMAND and CORNELIUS. And now, Laertes, what's the news with you? You told us of fome fuit; What is't, Laertes? You cannot speak of reason to the Dane,

And lofe your voice: What would'st thou beg,
Laertes,

That fhall not be my offer, not thy asking?
The head is not more native to the heart,
The hand more inftrumental to the mouth,

northern fenfe, for proceeding, passage; from the A. S. verb gae. A gate for a path, paffage, or street, is ftill current in the north.

PERCY.

— more than the fcope-] More is comprized in the general defign of thefe articles, which you may explain in a more diffuse and dilated style. JOHNSON.

The

thefe dilated articles &c.] i. e. the articles when dilated. MUSGRAVE. poet fhould have written allows. Many writers fall into this error, when a plural noun immediately precedes the verb; as I have had occafion to obferve in a note on a controverted passage in Love's Labour's Loft. So, in Julius Cæfar:

"The pofture of your blows are yet unknown.” Again, in Cymbeline: "and the approbation of those are wonderfully to extend him," &c. MALONE.

Surely, all fuch defects in our author, were merely the errors of illiterate tranfcribers or printers. STEEVENS.