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Mach. Good repofe, the while!

Ban. Thanks, fir; The like to you! [Exit BAN QUO. Mach. Go, bid thy miftrefs, when my drink is ready, She ftrike upon the bell. Get thee to bed.

Is this a dagger, which I fee before me,

[Exit Serv.

The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch'

thee:

I have thee not; and yet I fee thee ftill.
Art thou not, fatal vifion, fenfible

To feeling, as to fight? or art thou but
A dagger of the mind; a falfe creation,
Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?
I fee thee yet, in form as palpable

As this which now I draw.

Thou marshall'ft me the way that I was going;
And fuch an inftrument I was to use.

Mine eyes are made the fools o'the other senses,
Or elfe worth all the reft: I fee thee ftill;
And on thy blade, and dudgeon, gouts of blood,

— when my drink is ready,] See p. 326, n. 8. MALONE. clutch-] This word, though reprobated by Ben Jonson, who faeers at Decker for ufing it, was used by other writers befide Decker and our author. So, in Antonio's Revenge, by Marston, 1602: 66- all the world is clutch'd

"In the dull leaden hand of fnoring fleep." MALONE.

7 And on thy blade, and dudgeon, gouts of blood,] Though dudgeon does fometimes fignify a dagger, it more properly means the baft or bandle of a dagger, and is ufed for that particular fort of handle which has fome ornament carved on the top of it. Junius explains the dudgeon, i. e. haft, by the Latin expreffion, manubrium apiatum, which means a bandle of wood, with a grain rough as if the feeds of parfy were frown over it.

So, in Lyllie's comedy of Mother Bombie, 1594: "then have at the bag with the dudgeon bafte, that is, at the dudgeon dagger that hangs by his tantony pouch." STEEVENS.

Gafcoigne confirms this: "The most knottie piece of box may be brought to a fayre dosgen bafte." Gouts for drops is frequent in old English. FARMER.

gouts of blood,] Or drops, French. POPE.

Gouts is the technical term for the spots on fome part of the plumage of a hawk: or perhaps Shakspeare ufed the word in allufion to a phrafe in heraldry. When a field is charged or sprinkled with red drops, it is faid to be gutty of gules, or gutty de fang. STEEVENS.

Which was not fo before.-There's no fuch thing:
It is the bloody bufinefs, which informs
Thus to mine eyes.-Now o'er the one half world
Nature feems dead, and wicked dreams abuse
The curtain'd fleep; now witchcraft celebrates
Pale Hecate's offerings; and wither'd murder,

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Alarum'd

Nature feems dead,] That is, over our hemisphere all action and motion feem to have ceafed. This image, which is perhaps the most ftriking that poetry can produce, has been adopted by Dryden in his Conqueft of Mexico:

"All things are hufh'd as Nature's felf lay dead,
"The mountains feem to nod their drowfy head;
"The little birds in dreams their fongs repeat,

"And fleeping flow'rs beneath the night-dews fweat.
"Even luft and envy fleep!"

These lines, though fo well known, I have tranfcribed, that the con traft between them and this paffage of Shakspeare may be more accurately obferved.

Night is described by two great poets, but one defcribes a night of quiet, the other of perturbation. In the night of Dryden, all the difurbers of the world are laid afleep; in that of Shakspeare, nothing but forcery, luft, and murder, is awake. He that reads Dryden, finds himself lull'd with ferenity, and difpofed to folitude and contemplation. He that perufes Shakspeare, looks round alarmed, and starts to find himself alone. One is the night of a lover; the other, of a murderer. JOHNSON.

Now o'er the one balf world &c.] So, in the fecond part of Marston's Antonio and Mellida, 1602:

"'Tis yet dead night; yet all the earth is clutch'd

"In the dull leaden hand of fnoring fleep:

"No breath disturbs the quiet of the air,

"No fpirit moves upon the breast of earth,

"Save howling dogs, night-crows, and fcreeching owls,

"Save meagre ghofts, Piero, and black thoughts.

"I am great in blood,

"Unequal'd in revenge :-you horrid scouts
"That fentinel fwart night, give loud applaufe
"From your large palms." MALONE.

9 The curtain'd fleep; now witchcraft celebrates] The word now has been added by the editors for the fake of metre. Probably Shakfpeare wrote-The curtain'd fleeper. The folio fpells the word fleepe, and an addition of the letter only, affords the propofed emendation. STEEVENS.

VOL. IV.

Y

So

Alarum'd by his fentinel, the wolf,

Whofe howl's his watch, thus with his ftealthy pace, With Tarquin's ravishing fides, towards his defign Moves like a ghoft'.-Thou sure and firm-set earth 2,

So afterwards:

"a hideous trumpet calls to parley

"The fleepers of the house."

Hear

Now was added by Sir William D'Avenant in his alteration of this play, published in 1674. MALONE.

thus with bis fealthy pace,

With Tarquin's ravishing fides, towards bis defign

Moves like a gboft.] Thus the old copy. Mr. Pope changed Ades to frides. A ravishing fride being, in Dr. Johnfon's opinior," an action of violence, impetuofity and tumult," he would read-With Tarquin ravishing, fides, &c. MALONE.

I cannot agree with Dr. Johnson that a fride is always an ection of violence, impetuofity, or tumult. Spenfer ufes the word in his Faery Queen, b. iv. c. 8. and with no idea of violence annexed to it:

"With eafy steps fo foft as foot could ftride."

And as an additional proof that a fride is not always a tumultuous effert, the following inftance from Harrington's Tranflation of Ariofte, [1591,] may be brought:

"He takes a long and leifurable firide,

"And longest on the hinder foot he staid;
"So foft he treads, altho' his fteps were wide,
"As though to tread on eggs he was afraid.

"And as he goes, he gropes on either fide

"To find the bed," &c. Orlando Furiofo, B. 28, stanza 63. Whoever has been reduced to the neceffity of finding his way about a house in the dark, must know that it is natural to take large ftrides, in order to feel before us whether we have a safe footing or not. The ravifher and murderer would naturally take fuch frides, not only on the fame account, but that their steps might be fewer in number, and the found of their feet be repeated as feldom as poffible. STEEVENS. Mr. Steevens's obfervation is confirmed by many inftances that occur in our ancient poets. So, in a paffage by J. Sylvefter, cited in England's Parnaffus, 1600:

"Anon he stalketh with an eafy fride,

"By fome clear river's lillie-paved fide."

Again, in our author's King Richard II:

"Nay rather every tedious ftride I make-."

Thus alfo the Roman poets:

veftigia furtim

"Sufpenfo digitis fert taciturna gradu.” Ovid. Fafti.

" Eunt

Hear not my steps, which way they walk, for fear
Thy very ftones prate of my where-about*,

"Eunt taciti per mæfta filentia magnis

"Paffibus." Statius, lib. x.

And

It is obfervable, that Shakspeare, when he has occafion, in his Rape of Lucrece, to describe the action here alluded to, ufes a fimilar expreffion; and perhaps would have used the word ftride, if he had not been fettered by the rhime:

"Into the chamber wickedly he stalks.”

Plaufible, however, as this emendation may appear, the old reading, fides, is, I believe, the true one; I have therefore adhered to it on the fame principle on which I have uniformly proceeded throughout the prefent edition, that of leaving the original text undisturbed, whenever it could be justified either by comparing our author with himself or with contemporary writers. The following paffage in Marlowe's translation of Ovid's ELEGIES, 8vo. no date, but printed about 1598, adds fupport to the reading of the old copy:

I faw when forth a tired lover went,

"His fide paft fervice, and his courage spent."
Vidi, cum foribus laffus prodiret amator,
Invalidum referens emeritumque latus.

Again, in Martial :

Tu tenebris guades; me ludere, tefte lucerna,

Et juvat admiffa rumpere luce latus.

It may likewife be observed that Falstaff in the fifth act of the Merry Wives of Windsor fays to Mrs. Ford and Mrs. Page, "Divide me like a bribe-buck, each a haunch: I will keep my fides to myself," &c. Falstaff certainly did not think them, like those of Ovid's lover, paft fervice; having met one of the ladies by affignation.

I believe, however, a line has been loft after the words "stealthy. pace." Our author did not, Pimagine, mean to make the murderer a ravisher likewife. In the parallel paffage in The Rape of Lucrete, they are diftinct persons :

"While LUST and MURDER wake, to flain and kill." Perhaps the line which I fuppofe to have been loft, was of this import :" and wither'd MURDER,

Alarum'd by his fentinel, the wolf,

Whofe howl's his watch, thus with his ftealthy pace

Enters the portal; while night-waking LUST,

With Tarquin's ravishing fides, towards his defign

Moves like a ghost.

There is reason to believe that many of the difficulties in Shakspeare's plays arife from lines and half lines having been omitted, by the compofitor's eye paffing hastily over them. Of this kind of negligence there

Y 2

And take the prefent horrour from the time,

Which now fuits with it.-Whiles I threat, he lives; Words to the heat of deeds too cold breath gives.

I go, and it is done; the bell invites me.

[A bell rings.

Hear

is a remarkable inftance in the prefent play, as printed in the folio, 1632, where the following paffage is thus exhibited:

that we but teach

"Bloody inftructions, which, being taught, return

"To plague the ingredience of our poifon'd chalice

"To our own lips."

If this miftake had happened in the first copy, and had been continued in the fubfequent impreffions, what diligence or fagacity could have reftored the paffage to sense?

In the folio, 1623, it is right, except that the word ingredients is there alfo mif- fpelt:

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which, being taught, return

"To plague the inventor. This even-banded jufiice
Commends the ingredience of our poifon'd chalice
"To our own lips."

So, the following paflage in Much ado about nothing,

"And I will break with her and with her father,

"And thou shalt bave her. Was't not to this end," &c. is printed thus in the folio, by the compofitor's eye glancing from one line to the other:

"And I will break with her. Was't not to this end," &c. Again, we find in the play before us, edit. 1632:

for their dear caufes

"Excite the mortified man.

66

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"Would to the bleeding and the grim alarm
"Excite the mortified man."

Again, in the Winter's Tale, 1632:

in himself too mighty,

"Untill a time may ferve."

inftead of

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in himself too mighty,

"And in bis parties, bis alliance. Let bim be,
"Untill a time may ferve."

See alfo Vol. V. p. 36, n. 5; p. 228, n. 8; and Vol. II. p. 4, n.4

MALONE.

With Tarquin's ravishing &c.] The juftnefs of this fimilitude is not very obvious. But à ftanza, in his poem of Tarquin and Lucrece, will explain it :

& Now

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