Blackstone's note.

I suppose impart is rightly explained by Dr. Johnson, but with the use of this verb as a neuter I am unacquainted.

P. 280.-203.-35.

Ham. O, that this too too solid flesh would melt,
Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew!

Or that the Everlasting had not fix'd

His canon 'gainst self-slaughter!

I am not sure that the old reading is not the true one. To fix a law seems to me rather an uncouth expression in English. Will Mr. Steevens allow that Shakespeare adverted to the passage in Virgil? Either reading makes good

sense.

P. 284.-208.-42.

Hor. Two nights together had these gentlemen,
Marcellus and Bernardo, on their watch,

In the dead waist and middle of the night,
Been thus encounter'd.

I think waste is the right word. It appears to me much preferable to waist. We have the vast of night in the Tempest. Mr. Steevens's note on that expression is as follows: "The vast of night "means the night, which is naturally empty and "deserted, without action: or when all things being in sleep and silence, make the world ap66 pear one great uninhabited waste. So in Hamlet:

66

In the dead waste and middle of the night.

"It has a meaning like that of nox vasta.”

Ham.

P. 285.-208.-43.

But where was this?

Mar. My lord, upon the platform where we watch'd.
Ham. Did you not speak to it?

Mr. Steevens's censure of the emphasis lately used on the stage is extremely just: the desire of novelty and the affectation of superior acute

ness, frequently betrays the actor here alluded to into egregious errors. What Bishop Hurd says of writers may (mutatis mutandis) be applied to this actor's performances. "When a writer, who "as we have seen, is driven by so many power"ful motives to the imitation of preceding mo"dels, revolts against them all, and determines "at any rate, to be original, nothing can be "expected but an awkward straining in every "thing. Improper method, forced conceits, and "affected expression, are the certain issue of "such obstinacy. The business is to be unlike, "and this he may very possibly be, but at the 66 expense of graceful ease and true beauty. For "he puts himself at best into a forced, unnatural "state; and it is well if he be not forced beside "his purpose, to leave common sense, as well as "his model, behind him. Like one who would "break loose from an impediment, which holds "him fast; the very endeavour to get clear of

it, throws him into uneasy attitudes, and vio"lent contortions; and if he gain his liberty at "last, it is by an effort which carries him much "further than the point he would wish to stop Discourse on poetical Imitation, §.

at.

Hurd's Horace, Vol. III. p. 107. 4to ed. 1766. This gentleman's first wish seems to have been to avoid the imputation of being the servile imitator of Mr. Garrick; but from all I have been able to learn of that great actor, (whom I had not the felicity of seeing more than once,) I am persuaded that

I prefer the reading of the folio treble. Theobald has taken that reading.

P. 288.-211.-47.

Lear. For Hamlet, and the trifling of his favour,
Hold it a fashion, and a toy in blood;

A violet in the youth of primy nature,
Forward, not permanent, sweet, not lasting,
The perfume and suppliance of a minute,

No more.

I think suppliance is certainly the right word.

Pol.

P. 292.-213-51.

Give thy thoughts no tongue,

Nor any unproportion'd thought his act.

This may remind us of the celebrated advice which Sir Henry Wotton, in his letter to Milton, says was given to Alberto Scipione, an old Roman courtier. "I pensieri stretti, ed il viso sciolto," that is (as Sir Henry Wotton translates it) "your thoughts close, and your countenance loose, "will go all over the world."

P. 292.-214.-52.

Pol. Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy,
But not express'd in fancy; rich, not gaudy:
For the apparel oft proclaims the man;

And they in France, of the best rank and station,
Are most select and generous, chief in that.

I think we should read and point this line as Mr. Ritson recommends, adopting his explanation.

Pol.

P. 295.-216.-55.

Tender yourself more dearly;
Or (not to crack the wind of the poor phrase,
Wronging it thus) you'll tender me a fool.

I believe Mr. Malone may be right; but I am not quite free from a wish to read wringing, with Warburton.

In few Ophelia,

Do not believe his vows; for they are brokers
Not of that die which their investments show,
But mere implorators of unholy suits,

Breathing like sanctified and pious bonds,
The better to beguile.

I rather incline to receive Theobald's correc

tion.

P. 306.-227.—72.

Ghost. I am thy father's spirit,

Doom'd for a certain term to walk the night;
And, for the day, confin'd to fast in fires,

Till the foul crimes, done in my days of nature,
Are burnt and purg'd away.

Mr. M. Mason is right.

Ghost.

P. 311.-232.-78.

Sleeping within mine orchard,

My custom always of the afternoon,
Upon my secure hour thy uncle stole,
With juice of cursed hebenon in a vial,
And in the porches of mine ears did pour
The leperous distilment.

I think Mr. Steevens is clearly right.

Ghost.

P. 314.-233.-80.

Fare thee well at once!

The glow-worm shows the matin to be near,
And 'gins to pale his uneffectual fire:

Adieu, adieu, adieu! remember me.

I think Warburton's is the true explanation of uneffectual.

P. 315.-234.-81.

Ham. O all you host of heaven! O earth! What
else

And shall I couple hell?-O fie!-Hold, hold, my heart.

I think with Mr. Steevens that Ofie! should be ejected from the text.

Pol.

P. 332.-241.-92.

Marry, sir, here's my drift,

And, I believe, it is a fetch of warrant.

"I think it a very justifiable mode of enquiring "into my son's conduct."

Pol.

Davies.

P. 335.-253.-107.

no, I went round to work,

And my young mistress thus did I bespeak;
Lord Hamlet is a prince out of thy sphere;
This must not be: and then I precepts gave her,
That she should lock herself from his resort.

I prefer the reading of the folio precepts.

King.

P. 336.-254.-109.

How may we try it further?

Pol. You know, sometimes he walks four hours together
Here in the lobby.

Queen. So he does indeed.

I incline to read for hours together with Mr. Tyrwhitt.

P. 338.-256.—111.

Ham. For if the sun breed maggots in a dead dog, being
a god, kissing carrion,-Have you a daughter?

I think Warburton has corrected this passage rightly, but I think with Mr. Malone that Shakespeare had not any of that profound meaning, which Warburton has ascribed to him. Mr. Malone has, in my opinion, produced sufficient reason why his own emendation should not be admitted.

P. 343.—261.-118.

Ham. Beggar that I am, I am even poor in thanks; but
I thank you; and sure, dear friends, my thanks are too
dear, a halfpenny.

It seems to me that we ought to read with the modern editors, too dear at a halfpenny.