For he was likely, had he been put on,

To have proved most royally: and, for his passage,

385

The soldiers' music and the rites of war

Take up the bodies: such a sight as this

Becomes the field, but here shows much amiss.

390

[A dead march. Exeunt, bearing off the bodies:
after which a peal of ordnance is shot off.

NOTES.

NOTE I.

ACT 1. SCENE I. In this play the Acts and Scenes are marked in the Folios only as far as the second Scene of the second Act, and not at all in the Quartos.

NOTE II.

1. 1. 91. This and other emendations of the MS. corrector, not recorded by Mr Collier, are given on the authority of Mr Hamilton (An Enquiry into the Genuineness of the MS. Corrections in Mr J. Payne Collier's annotated Shakespeare, pp. 34-85).

NOTE III.

1. 3. 74. The following are the readings of the different editions and the emendations which have been proposed for this line:

'Are of a most select and generall chiefe in that:' (Q).
'Or of a most select and generous, chiefe in that:' Q2Q3.
'Ar of a most select and generous, cheefe in that:' Q4
'Are of a most select and generous, chiefe in that:' Q5Q6
'Are of a most select and generous cheff in that.' Ff.

'Are most select and generous, chief in that.'

Rowe, Pope, Theobald, Hanmer, Warburton, Johnson,
Capell, Steevens (1793), Rann, Caldecott, Singer,
Harness, Delius, &c.

'Are most select, and generous, chief in that.' Steevens (1773).

'Are most select, and generous chief, in that.'

Steevens (1778 and 1785).

'Are of a most select and generous chief, in that.' Malone.
'Select and generous, are most choice in that.' Steevens conj.
'Are of a most select and generous choice in that.'

Collier MS., adopted by Elze, Collier, ed. 2, and Keightley.
'Are of a most select and generous sheaf in that.' Staunton.
'Are most select and generous in that.' Grant White.

'Are of a most select and generous class in that.' Bullock conj. 'Are of a most select and generous choice.' Lloyd conj.

NOTE IV.

1. 3. 109. The second and third Quartos include the words 'not... thus' in a parenthesis. In the fourth, fifth, and sixth, the parenthesis ends at 'phrase;' an arrangement, which was adopted by Pope and corrected by Theobald at Warburton's suggestion. The Folios have no parenthesis.

NOTE V.

1. 3. 117. Malone conjectured that some epithet to 'blazes' has been omitted; and Coleridge 'did not doubt that a spondee had dropt out of the line.' He proposed either 'Go to, these blazes, daughter,' or 'these blazes, daughter, mark you.' Notes and Lectures, 1. p. 220 (ed. 1849).

NOTE VI.

1. 4. 36, 37. We have left this corrupt passage unaltered because none of the conjectures proposed appear to be satisfactory.

Rann, reading in his text:

'The dram of base

Doth all the noble substance of worth out
To his own scandal...'

gives some conjectures, without naming the authors, in a note thus: 'Doth all, &c. oft corrupt: oft work out: eat out: By it's own scandal.'

The first of these alterations, 'oft corrupt,' anticipates one which Mitford published as his own, and the third, 'eat out,' is borrowed from the author of the Revisal' (Heath).

Mr Grant White suggests that "the corruption lurks in a part of the passage hitherto unsuspected, and that 'Doth' is either a misprint

of 'Hath,' or has the sense of 'accomplishes."" Mr Keightley

reads,

'The dram of evil

Doth all the noble substance, out o' doubt,

To his own scandal...'

marking the sentence as incomplete.

NOTE VII.

1. 4. 61. Steevens says 'The first Folio reads-remote.' We have not been able to find this reading in any copy of that edition which we have consulted. Sir Frederic Madden has kindly collated for us the four copies in the British Museum, all of which have 'remoued.' This is also the reading of Capell's copy, of Malone's, and of two others to which we have had access, and it is the reading in Mr Booth's reprint.

NOTE VIII.

1. 5. 80. 'A very learned lady,' probably Mrs Montagu, suggested to Johnson that this line 'O, horrible! O, horrible! most horrible!' should be given to Hamlet, and it is said that Garrick adopted this suggestion when he played Hamlet. Rann appears to be the first editor who put it in his text. Mr Verplanck and Mr Hudson have followed his example.

In the Quarto of 1603, (Q.), the Ghost says 'O horrible, most horrible!' and Hamlet interrupts with 'O God!'

Capell first transferred the stage direction 'Enter Horatio and Marcellus' to follow line 117, and added the direction 'within' to all the previous speeches. In this he has been followed by Steevens (1778) and all subsequent editors. As however the first Quarto, which was taken down probably during the representation of the play, puts the words Enter Horatio, and Marcellus opposite 'My Lord, my Lord,' it is probable that they really entered at that place but were supposed, it being night-time, not to be seen by Hamlet till they were close to him.

Capell followed the Quartos in assigning 'So be it' to Hamlet.

NOTE X.

I. 5. 157-160. The second Quarto followed substantially by the rest reads thus:

'Come hether Gentlemen,

And lay your hands againe vpon my sword,

Sweare by my sword

Neuer to speak of this that you haue heard.'

The first Folio has:

'Come hither Gentlemen,

And lay your hands again upon my sword,

Neuer to speake of this that you have heard:
Sweare by my Sword.'

The following Folios put a full stop after 'sword' in the second line. Capell, taking the order of words from the Quartos, arranged as three lines, thus:

'Come hither, gentlemen, and lay your hands
Again upon my sword; Swear by my sword,

Never to speak of this that you have heard.'

The first Quarto supports the order of the words as found in the Folio. Perhaps we might follow it and arrange the words of the Folio in three lines ending 'hands'...' speak'... 'sword.'

NOTE XI.

II. I. 79. Theobald, who is followed by Hanmer, Warburton, and Johnson, reads 'loose' for 'foul'd,' on the authority as he says of 'the elder Quartos.' It is not the reading of any of the first six, but of those of 1676, 1683, 1695 and 1703. Had Capell been aware of this, he would scarcely have designated Theobald's mistake as 'a downright