two months ago, and not forgotten yet! then there's hope, a Great man's memory may outlive his life half a year But, by'r-lady, he must build churches then or elfe fhall he (2) fuffer not thinking on, with the hobby horfe; whofe epitaph is, For, ob, for ob, the hobby-horfe is forgot.

;

wear black, for me, I'll have none. The Oxford Editor defpifes an emendation fo eafy, and reads it thus. Nay, then let the Devil wear black, for I'll have a fuit of ERMINE. And you could expect no lefs, when such a critic had the dreffing of him. But the blunder was a pleasant one. The fenfelefs editors had wrote fables, the fur fo called, for fable, black. And the critick only changed this fur for that, by a like figure, the common people fay, You rejoice the cockles of my beart, for the mufles of my beart an unlucky mistake of one fhell-fish for another. WARBURTON. I know not why our editors fhould, with fach implacable anger, perfecute our predeceffors. Οἱ νεκρὸς μὴ δάκνυσιν, the dead it is true can make no refistance, they may be attacked with great fecurity; but fince they can neither feel nor mend, the fafety of maaling them feems greater than the pleafure; nor perhaps would it much mifbefeem us to remember, amidst our triumphs over the nonfenfical and the fenfilifs, that we likewife are men; that debemur morti, and, as Swift obferved to Burnet, fall foon be among the dead ourfelves..

I cannot find how the common reading is nonfenfe, nor why Hamlet, when he laid afide his drefs of mourning, in a country where it was bitter cold, and the air was nipping and eager, fhould not have a fuit of fables. I fuppofe it is well enough known, that the fur of fables is not black.

(2) Suffer not thinking on, wish the bobby-borfe;] Amongst the country may-games, there was an hobby-horfe, which, when the puritanical humour of thofe times oppofed and difcredited thefe games, was brought by the poets and balladmakers as an inftance of the ridiculous zeal of the fectaries: from thefe ballads Humlet quotes a line or two,

This may be true, but feems to be faid at hazard.

ARBURTON.

SCENE VI.

Hautboys play. The dumb fhew enters.

(3) Enter a Duke and Dutchels, with regal Coronets, very lovingly; the Dutchess embracing him, and he her. She kneels; he takes her up, and declines his head upon ber neck; he lays him down upon a bank of flowers; fe feeing him ofleep, leaves him. Anon comes in a fellow takes off his Crown, kiffes it, and pours poison in the Duke's ears, and Exit. The Dutchess returns, finds the Duke dead, and makes passionate action. The poi foner, with fome two or three mutes, comes in again,, feeming to lament with her. The dead body is carried away. The poifoner wooes the Dutchefs with gifts ;. fhe feems loth and unwilling a while, but in the end accepts bis Love. [Exeunt.

Opb. What means this, my Lord ?

Ham. (4) Marry, this is miching Malicho; it means mifchief.

Орь.

(3) Enter a King and Queen very lovingly.] Thus have the blundering and inadvertent editors all along given us this ftage direction, tho' we are exprefly told by Hamlet anon, that the story of this introduced interlude is, the murder of Ganzago Duke of Vienna. The fource of this mistake is easily to be accounted for, from the stage's drefing the characters. Regal coronets being at first order'd by the poet for the Duke and Dutchess, the fucceeding players, who did not strictly obferve the quality of the perfons or circumftances of the ftory, miftook 'em for a King and Queen ; and fo the error was deduced down from thence to the prefent times. THEOBALD.

I have left this as I found it, because the question is of no importance. But both my copies have, Enter a King and Queen very, lovingly, without any mention of regal coronets.

* Regal coronets, are improper for any perfonage below the dignity of a king; regal, as a fubftantive, is the name of a mufical inftrument, now out of ufe. But there is an officer of the houshold called, Tuner of the regals. The cornet is well known to be a mufical inftrument, and proper for proceffions.

Might we not then read? Enter a Duke and Dutchefs with royals, Cornets, &c.

(4) Marry, this is miching MALICHO; it means mischief] The

Opb. Belike, this fhow imports the argument of the Play?

Enter Prologue.

Ham. We fhall know by this fellow; the Players cannot keep counfel; they'll tell all.

Oph. Will he tell us, what this show meant ?

Ham. Ay, or any show that you'll fhew him. Be not afhamed to fhew, he'll not fhame to tell you what

you

it means.

Opb. You are naught, you are naught. I'll mark the Play.

Prof. For us, and for our tragedy,

Here flooping to your clemency,

We beg your bearing patiently.

Ham. Is this a prologue, or the poefy of a ring?
Opb. 'Tis brief, my Lord.

Ham. As woman's love.

Enter Duke, and Dutchess, Players.

Duke. Full thirty times hath Phoebus' Carr round.

Neptune's falt wash, and Tellus' orbed ground;

gone

Oxford Editor, imagining that the speaker had here englished his own cant phrafe of miching malibo, tells us (by his gloffary) that it fignifies mifchief lying bid, and that Malicho is the Spanish Mal beca; whereas it fignifies, Lying in avait for the poifoner. Which, the fpeaker tells us, was the very purpose of this reprefentation. It should therefore be read MALHECHOR Spanib, the poifoner. So Mich fignified, originally, to keep hid and out of fight; and, as fuch men generally did it for the pufpofes of lying in wait, it then fignified to rob. And in this fenfe Shakespeare ufes the noun, a micher, when speaking of Prince Henry amongst a gang of robbers. Shall the ble fled Sun of Heaven prove a micber? Shall the Son of England prove a thief? And in this fenfe it is used by Chaucer, in his tranflation of Le Roman de la rofe, where he turns the word lierre, (which is latron, voleur,) by micber. WARBURTON.

I think Hanmer's expofition moft likely to be right. Dr. Warburton, to justify his interpretation, muft write, miching for ma lecbor, and even then it will be harth.

And thirty dozen moons with borrowed (5) fheen
About the world have time twelve thirties been,
Since love our hearts, and Hymen did our hands,
Unite commutual, în moft facred bands.

Dutch. So many journies may the Sun and Moon
Make us again count o'er, ere love be done.
But woe is me, you are fo fick of late,
So far from cheer and from your former ftate,
That I diftruft you; yet though I distrust,
Difcomfort you, my Lord, it nothing must :
For women fear too much, (6) ev'n as they love.
And women's fear and love hold quantity;
"Tis either none, or in extremity.
Now, what my love is, proof hath made you know
(7) And as my love is fiz'd, my fear is fo.
Where love is great, the fmaileft doubts are fear ;
Where little fears grow great, great love grows there.
Duke. 'Faith, I muft leave thee, Love, and fhortly

too:

My operant powers their functions leave to do,
And thou fhalt live in this fair world behind,
Honour'd, belov'd; and, haply, one as kind
For husband fhalt thou-

Dutch. Oh, confound the reft !

Such love must needs be treason in my breaft
In fecond hufband let me be accurft!
None wed the second, but who kill the first.
Ham. Wormwood, wormwood !-

5) Sheen] Splendour, luftre.

Ev'n as they love.] Here feems to be a line loft, which fhould be rhymed to love.

(7) And as my love is fix'd, my fear is fo.] Mr. Ppe fays, I read fiz'd; and indeed, I do fo: Becaufe, I obferve, the quarto of 1605 reads, cix'd; that of 1611 ciz'f; the folio in 1632, fix; and that in 1623, fiz'd: And because, befides, the whole tenour of the context demands this reading: For the lady evidently is talking here of the quantity and proportion of her love and fear; not of their continuance, duration, or ftability. Cleopatra expref fes herself much in the fame manner, with regard to her grief for the lofs of Antony.

Our Size of Sorrow, Proportion'd to our Caufe, must be as great As that which makes it.

THEOBALD.
Dutch

Dutch. (8) The inftances, that fecond marriage

move,

Are base refpects of thrift, but none of love.

A fecond time I kill my husband dead,

When fecond husband kiffes me in bed.

;

Duke. I do believe, you think what now you fpeak;
But what we do determine oft we break
Purpose it but the flave to memory,
Of violent birth, but poor validity:

Which now, like fruits unripe, fticks on the tree
But fall unfhaken, when they mellow be.
Moft neceffary 'tis, that we forget

To pay ourselves (9) what to ourselves is debt:
What to ourselves in paffion we propose,
The paffion ending doth the purpose lofe;
(1) The violence of either grief or joy,
Their own enactures with themfelves destroy.
Where joy moft revels, grief doth most lament;:
Grief joys, joy grieves, on flender accident.
This world is not for aye; nor 'tis not strange,
That ev'n our loves fhould with our fortune's change.
For 'tis a queftion left us yet to prove,

Whether love leads fortune, or elfe fortune love.
The great man down, you mark, his fav'rite flies;.
poor advanc'd, makes friends of enemies.

The

And hitherto doth love on fortune tend,

For who, not needs, fhall never lack a friend
And who in want a hollow friend doth try,
Directly feafons him his enemy.

But orderly to end where I begun,
Our wills and fates do fo contrary run,

That our devices ftill are overthrown;

;

Our thoughts are ours, their ends none of our own.

(8) The inftances-] The motives.

(9)

-What to surfelves is debt:] The performance of a refolution in which only the refolver is interested, is a debt only to himfelf, which he may therefore remit at pleafure.

(1) The violence of either grief or joy,.

Their own enactures with themselves deftroy.] What grief or joy ena or determine in their violence, is revoked in their abate ment. Enatures is the word in the quarto; all the modern editions have enattors.