HAM. Indeed, indeed, firs, but this troubles me. you XVIII. HOR. O, yes, my lord; he wore his beaver up. Very like: Stay'd it long? HOR. While one with moderate hafte might tell a hundred. MAR. BER. Longer, longer. HOR. Not when I faw it. قا wore his beaver up.] Though beaver properly fignified that part of the helmet which was let down, to enable the wearer to drink, Shak fpeare always ufes the word as denoting that part of the helmet which, when raifed up, expofed the face of the wearer: and fuch was the popular fignification of the word in his time. In Bullokar's English Expofitor, 8vo. 1616, beaver is defined thus:"In armour it fignifies that part of the helmet which may be lifted up, to take breath the more freely." MALONE. Soin Laud's Diary: "The Lord Broke shot in the left eye, & killed in the place at Lichfield - HAM. His beard was grizzl❜d? no? HOR. It was, as I have seen it in his life, A fable filver'd." Нам. I will watch to-night; Perchance, 'twill walk again. Hor. I warrant, it will. HAM. If it affume my noble father's perfon, ALL. Our duty to your honour. HAM. Your loves, as mine to you: Farewell. [Exeunt HORATIO, MARCELLUS, and BERNARDO. My father's spirit in arms!3 all is not well; I doubt fome foul play: 'would, the night were come! Till then fit ftill, my foul: Foul deeds will rise, Though all the earth o'erwhelm them, to men's eyes. [Exit. • A fable filver'd.] So, in our poet's 12th fonnet: "And fable curls, all filver'd o'er with white." MALONE. 2 Let it be tenable in your filence fill;] rightly. The folio, 1623, reads-treble. Thus the quartos, and 3 My father's Spirit in arms!] From what went before, I once hinted to Mr. Garrick, that these words might be spoken in this mannner : My father's Spirit! in arms! all is not well ; WHALL SCENE III. A Room in Polonius' Houfe. Enter LAERTES and OPHELIA. LAER. My neceffaries are embark'd; farewell: And, fifter, as the winds give benefit, And convoy is affiftant, do not fleep, But let me hear from you. OPH. Do you doubt that? LAER. For Hamlet, and the trifling of his favour, A violet in the youth of primy nature, OPH. No more but fo? Think it no more: For nature, crefcent, does not grow alone 4 The perfume and fuppliance of a minute;] Thus the quarto: the folio has it: -fweet, not lafting, The fuppliance of a minute. It is plain that perfume is necessary to exemplify the idea of fweet, not lafting. With the word fuppliance I am not fatisfied, and yet dare hardly offer what I imagine to be right. I fufpect that foffiance, or fome fuch word, formed from the Italian, was then used for the act of fumigating with sweet fcents. JOHNSON. The perfume and fuppliance of a minute; i. e. what is fupplied to us for a minute; Mr M Mafon funnotes " an amufement 7 In thews, and bulk; but, as this temple waxes, 8 5 In thews,] i. e. in finews, mufcular ftrength. So, in King Henry IV. Part II: "Care I for the limb, the thewes, the ftature," &c. See Vol. IX. p. 137, n. 7. STEEVENS. 6 And now no foil, nor cautel, doth befmirch The virtue of his will:] From cautela, which fignifies only a prudent forefight or caution; but, paffing through French hands, it loft its innocence, and now fignifies fraud, deceit. And fo he ufes the adjective in Julius Cæfar: "Swear priests and cowards, and men cautelous." WARBURTON. So, in the fecond part of Greene's Art of Coneycatching, 1592: and their fubtill cautels to amend the ftatute." To amend the ftatute, was the cant phrafe for evading the law. STEEVENS.. Cautel is fubtlety or deceit. Minfheu in his Dictionary, 1617, defines it, "A crafty way to deceive." The word is again used by Shakspeare in A Lover's Complaint: "In him a plenitude of fubtle matter, ་་ Applied to cautels, all ftrange forms receives." MALONE. Virtue feems here to comprife both excellence and power, and may be explained the pure effect. JOHNSON. The virtue of his will means, his virtuous intentions. Cautel means craft. So, Coriolanus fays: be caught by cautelous baits and practice." M. MASON. For he himself &c.] This line is not in the quarto. MALONE. 8 The fafety and the health of the whole ftate;] Thus the quarto, 1604, except that it has-this whole ftate, and the fecond the is inadvertently omitted. The folio reads: The fanctity and health of the whole ftate. This is another proof of arbitrary alterations being fometimes And therefore muft his choice be circumfcrib'd It fits your wisdom fo far to believe it, As he in his particular act and place May give his faying deed; which is no further, goes withal. Then weigh what lofs your honour may fuftain, If with too credent ear you lift his fongs; Or lofe your heart; or your chafte treasure open Fear it, Ophelia, fear it, my dear fifter; made in the folio. The editor, finding the metre defective, in confequence of the article being omitted before health, inftead of fupplying it, for fafety fubftituted a word of three fyllables. MALONE. 9 May give his faying deed;] So, in Timon of Athens: "the deed of faying is quite out of ufe." Again, in Troilus and Creffida: Speaking in deeds, and deedless in his tongue." 2 3 66 unmafter'd-] i. e. licentious. JOHNSON. MALONE. keep you in the rear &c.] That is, do not advance fo far as your affection would lead you. JOHNSON. The charieft maid-] Chary is cautious. So, in Greene's. Never too Late, 1616: "Love requires not chastity, but that her foldiers be chary." Again, "She liveth chaftly enough, that liveth charily." STEEVENS. |