Page images
PDF
EPUB

In thews, and bulk; but, as this temple waxes,
The inward service of the mind and foul

Grows wide withal. Perhaps, he loves you now;
And now no foil, nor cautel, doth besmirch
The virtue of his will: but, you must fear,
His greatness weigh'd, his will is not his own;
For he himself is subject to his birth: 7
He may not, as unvalued perfons do,
Carve for himself; for on his choice depends
The safety and the health of the whole state;

5 In thews,] i. e. in finews, muscular strength. So, in King Henry IV. Part II: "Care I for the limb, the thewes, the stature," &c. See Vol. IX. p. 137, n. 7. STEEVENS.

* 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:

[ocr errors]

" Swear priests and cowards, and men cautelous."

WARBURTON.

So, in the second 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. Minsheu 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,

[ocr errors]

Applied to cautels, all strange forms receives."

MALONE.

Virtue feems here to comprise 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 safety and the health of the whole state;] Thus the quarto, 1604, except that it has this whole state, and the second the is inadvertently omitted. The folio reads:

The fanctity and health of the whole state.

This is another proof of arbitrary alterations being fometimes

And therefore must his choice be circumfcrib'd Unto the voice and yielding of that body, Whereof he is the head: Then if he says, he loves

you,

It fits your wisdom so far to believe it,
As he in his particular act and place

May give his saying deed; which is no further,
Than the main voice of Denmark goes withal.
Then weigh what loss your honour may fustain,
If with too credent ear you lift his fongs;
Or lofe your heart; or your chaste treasure open
To his unmaster'd importunity.

Fear it, Ophelia, fear it, my dear sister;
And keep you in the rear of your affection,
Out of the shot and danger of defire.
The chariest maid + is prodigal enough,
If the unmask her beauty to the moon:
Virtue itself scapes not calumnious strokes:
The canker galls the infants of the spring,
Too oft before their buttons be disclos'd;
And in the morn and liquid dew of youth
Contagious blastments are most imminent.

3

made in the folio. The editor, finding the metre defective, in consequence of the article being omitted before health, instead of supplying it, for safety substituted a word of three syllables.

MALONE.

9 May give his faying deed ;) So, in Timon of Athens: "-the deed of saying is quite out of use." Again, in Troilus and Cressida: Speaking in deeds, and deedless in his tongue.”

2

3

[ocr errors]

unmaster'd-] i. e. licentious. JOHNSON.

MALONE.

keep you in the rear &c.] That is, do not advance so far as your affection would lead you. JOHNSON.

The chariest 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.

[blocks in formation]

1

Be wary then: best safety lies in fear;
Youth to itself rebels, though none elfe near.

OPH. I shall the effect of this good lesson keep
As watchman to my heart: But, good my brother,
Do not, as some ungracious paftors do,
Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven;
Whilft, like a puff'd and reckless libertine,
Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads,
And recks not his own read.

LAER.

O, fear me not.

I stay too long;-But here my father comes.

Enter POLONIUS.

A double blessing is a double grace;
Occasion smiles upon a second leave.

POL. Yet here, Laertes! aboard, aboard, for

shame;

The wind fits in the shoulder of your fail,s

[blocks in formation]

recks not his own read.] That is, heeds not his own

lessons. POPE.

So, in the old Morality of Hycke Scorner:

Again, ibidem:

1

-I reck not a feder."

" And of thy living, I reed amend thee."

Ben Jonfon uses the word reed in his Cataline :
"So that thou could'st not move

" Against a publick reed."

Dif

Again, in Sir Tho. North's tranflation of Plutarch: "
patch, I read you, for your enterprize is betray'd." Again, the

old proverb, in the Two angry Women of Abington, 1599:

"Take heed, is a good reed."

i. e. good counfel, good advice. STEEVENS.

So, Sternhold, Pfalmi:

- that hath not lent

"To wicked rede his ear." BLACKSTONE.

- the shoulder of your fail,) This is a common fea phrase.

STEEVENS.

And you are staid for: There,-my blessing with you; [Laying his hand on LAERTES' head.

And these few precepts in thy memory
Look thou character. Give thy thoughts no tongue,
Nor any unproportion'd thought his act.
Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar.
The friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,
Grapple them to thy foul with hooks of steel; 7
But do not dull thy palm with entertainment
Of each new-hatch'd, unfledg'd comrade. Beware

And these few precepts in thy memory

8

Look thou character.] i. e. write; strongly infix. The same

phrafe is again used by our author in his 122d Sonnet:

[ocr errors]

-thy tables are within my brain

" Full character'd with lasting memory."

Again, in The Two Gentlemen of Verona:

[ocr errors]

I do conjure thee,

"Who art the table wherein all my thoughts
"Are visibly character'd and engrav'd."

MALONE.

1 Grapple them to thy foul with hooks of steel ;) The old copies read-with boops of steel. I have no doubt that this was a corruption in the original quarto of 1604, arifing, like many others, from fimilitude of founds. The emendation, which was made by Mr. Pope, and adopted by three subsequent editors, is strongly fupported by the word grapple. See Minsheu's Dictionary, 1617: "To book or grapple, viz. to grapple and to board a ship."

A grapple is an instrument with several books to lay hold of a ship, in order to board it.

This correction is also justified by our poet's 137th Sonnet:

[ocr errors]

Why of eyes' falfhood hast thou forged hooks, "Whereto the judgement of my heart is ty'd?”

It may be also observed, that books are fometimes made of steel,

but boops never. MALONE.

We have, however, in King Henry IV. P. II:

"A boop of gold to bind thy brothers in."

The former part of the phrafe occurs also in Macbeth :

[ocr errors]

Grapples you to the heart and love of us." STEEVENS.

• But do not dull thy palm with entertainment

Of each nerw-hatch'd, unfledg'd comrade.) The literal sense is,

1

Of entrance to a quarrel; but, being in,
Bear it that the oppofer may beware of thee.
Give every man thine ear, but few thy voice:
Take each man's cenfure, but referve thy judge-

ment.

Coftly 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.*

Do not make thy palm callous by shaking every man by the band. The figurative meaning may be, Do not by promiscuous conversation make thy mind infenfible to the difference of characters. JOHNSON.

9

each man's censure,] Censure is opinion. So, in King Henry VI. P. II :

"The king is old enough to give his cenfure." STEEVENS. * Are most felect and generous, chief in that.] I think the whole defign of the precept shows we should read :

Are most select, and generous chief, in that.

Chief may be an adjective used adverbially, a practice common to our author: chiefly generous. Yet it must be owned that the punctuation recommended is very stiff and harsh.

I would, however, more willingly read:

And they in France, of the best rank and station,
Select and generous, are most choice in that.

Let the reader, who can discover the flightest approach towards sense, harmony, or metre, in the original line,

Are of a most felect and generous chief, in that, adhere to the old copies. STEEVENS.

The genuine meaning of the passage requires us to point the line thus:

" Are most select and generous, chief in that." i. e. the nobility of France are select and generous above all other nations, and chiefly in the point of apparel, the richness and elegance of their dress. RITSON.

Are of a most felect and generous chief, in that.] Thus the quarto, 1604, and the folio, except that in that copy the word chief is spelt theff. The substantive chief, which fignifies in heraldry the upper part of the shield, appears to have been in common use in Shakspeare's time, being found in Minsheu's Dictionary, 1617. He defines it thus: "Eft fuperior et fcuti nobilior pars; tertiam partem

« PreviousContinue »