Page images
PDF
EPUB

Neither a borrower, nor a lender be:
For loan oft loses both itself and friend;
And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.'
This above all,-To thine ownself be true;
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.
Farewell; my blessing season this in thee!'

ejus obtinet; ante Chrifti adventum dabatur in maximi honoris fignum; Jenatoribus et honoratis viris." B. Jonson has used the word in his Portafter.

The meaning then seems to be, They in France approve themselves of a most select and generous escutcheon by their dress. Generous is used with the fignification of generofus. So, in Othello: "The generous ifslanders," &c.

Chief, however, may have been used as a substantive, for note or eftimation, without any allufion to heraldry, though the word was perhaps originally heraldick. So, in Bacon's Colours of Good and Evil, 16mo. 1597: " In the warmer climates the people are generally more wife, but in the northern climates the wits of chief are greater.

If chief in this sense had not been familiarly understood, the editor of the folio must have confidered the line as unintelligible, and would have probably omitted the words of a in the beginning of it, or attempted fome other correction. That not having been done, I have adhered to the old copies.

Our poet from various passages in his works, appears to have been accurately acquainted with all the terms of heraldry.

MALONE.

Of chief, in the passage quoted from Bacon, is, I believe, a bald tranflation of the old French phrase de chef, whatever, in the present instance, might be its intended meaning. STEEVENS.

3

- of husbandry.] i. e. of thrift; economical prudence. See Vol. VII. p. 400, n. 4. MALONE.

* And it must follow, as the night the day,] So, in the 145th Sonnet of Shakspeare:

5

"That follow'd it as gentle day

"Doth follow night," &c. STEEVENS.

- my blessing season this in thee!] Seafon, for infuse.

WARBURTON.

It is more than to infuse, it is to infix it in such a manner as that

it never may wear out. JOHNSON.

LAER. Most humbly do I take my leave, my lord. POL. The time invites you; go, your servants

6 tend.

5

LAER. Farewell, Ophelia; and remember well

What I have faid to you.

OPH.

'Tis in my memory lock'd,

And you yourself shall keep the key of it."

LAER. Farewell.

[Exit LAERTES.

POL. What is't, Ophelia, he hath faid to you?

OPH. So please you, fomething touching the lord

Hamlet.

POL. Marry, well bethought:

'Tis told me, he hath very oft of late

Given private time to you; and you yourself

Have of your audience been most free and boun

teous:

If it be fo, (as so 'tis put on me,

And that in way of caution,) I must tell you,

You do not understand yourself so clearly,

So, in the mock tragedy represented before the king: who in want a hollow friend doth try,

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

Directly feasons him his enemy." STEEVENS.

5 The time invites you ;) So, in Macbeth :

" I go, and it is done, the bell invites me." STEEVENS. Thus the folio. The quarto, 1604, reads-The time invests you: which Mr. Theobald preferred, fuppofing that it meant, " the time befieges, presses upon you on every fide." But to invest, in Shakspeare's time, only fignified, to clothe, or give poffeffion.

6

MALONE.

- your fervants tend.] i. e. your fervants are waiting for you. JOHNSON. yourself shall keep the key of it.] The meaning is, that your counfels are as fure of remaining locked up in my memory, as if yourself carried the key of it. So, in Northward Hoe, by Decker and Webster, 1607: "You shall close it up like a treafure of your own, and yourself shall keep the key of it."

STEEVENS.

As it behoves my daughter, and your honour:
What is between you? give me up the truth.

OPH. He hath, my lord, of late made many

tenders

Of his affection to me.

POL. Affection? puh! you speak like a green

girl, Unfifted in such perilous circumstance.* Do you believe his tenders, as you call them?

OPH. I do not know, my lord, what I should think.

POL. Marry, I'll teach you: think yourself a baby; That you have ta'en these tenders for true pay, Which are not sterling. Tender yourself more

dearly;

Or (not to crack the wind of the poor phrafe,
Wronging it thus,) you'll tender me a fool.9

* Unfifted in fuch perilous circumstance.] Unfifted for untried. Untried fignifies either not tempted, or not refined; unfifted fignifies the latter only, though the sense requires the former.

WARBURTON.

It means, I believe, one who has not fufficiently confidered, or thoroughly fifted such matters. M. MASON.

I do not think that the sense requires us to understand untempted. "Unfifted in" &c. means, I think, one who has not nicely canvaffed and examined the peril of her situation. MALONE,

[ocr errors]

Tender yourself more dearly;

Or (not to crack the wind of the poor phrase,

Wronging it thus,) you'll tender me a fool.] The parenthefis is closed at the wrong place; and we must have likewise a flight correction in the last verse. [Wringing it &c.] Polonius is racking and playing on the word tender, till he thinks proper to correct himfelf for the licence; and then he would fay-not farther to crack the wind of the phrase, by twisting it and contorting it, as I have done.

WARBURTON.

I believe the word wronging has reference, not to the phrafe, but to Ophelia; if you go on wronging it thus, that is, if you con

OPH. My lord, he hath impórtun'd me with love, In honourable fashion.

2

POL. Ay, fashion you may call it; go to, go to. OPH. And hath given countenance to his speech,

my lord, With almost all the holy vows of heaven.

3

POL. Ay, springes to catch woodcocks. I do

know,

When the blood burns, how prodigal the foul

tinue to go on thus wrong. This is a mode of speaking perhaps not very grammatical, but very common; nor have the best writers refused it.

[merged small][ocr errors][merged small]

"With one who knows you too."

1

The folio has it-Roaming it thus. That is, letting yourself loofe

to fuch improper liberty, But wronging seems to be more proper.

JOHNSON.

" See you do not coy it," is in Massinger's New Way to pay old Debts. STEEVENS.

I have followed the punctuation of the first quarto, 1604, where the parenthesis is extended to the word thus, to which word the context in my apprehenfion clearly shews it should be carried. "Or (not to crack the wind of the poor phrafe, playing upon it, and abusing it thus,") &c. So, in The Rape of Lucrece:

"To wrong the wronger, till he render right."

The quarto, by the mistake of the compofitor, reads-Wrong it thus. The correction was made by Mr. Pope.

Tender yourself more dearly ;) To tender is to regard with

affection. So, in King Richard II:

"

And fo betide me,

"As well I tender you and all of yours."

Again, in The Maydes Metamorphosis, by Lyly, 1601:

[ocr errors]

if you account us for the fame

"That tender thee, and love Apollo's name." MALONE.

fashion you may call it ;) She uses fashion for manner, and

he for a tranfient practice. JOHNSON.

3

- Springes to catch woodcocks.] A proverbial saying, "Every

woman has a Springe to catch a woodcock." STEEVENS.

Lends the tongue vows: these blazes, daughter,
Giving more light than heat, extinct in both,
Even in their promise, as it is a making,-
You must not take for fire. From this time,
Be fomewhat scanter of your maiden prefence;
Set your entreatments at a higher rate,
Than a command to parley. For lord Hamlet,
Believe so much in him, That he is young;
And with a larger tether may he walk,
Than may be given you: 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 fanctified and pious bonds,

6

these blazes, daughter,] Some epithet to blazes was probably omitted, by the carelessness of the transcriber or compofitor, in the first quarto, in consequence of which the metre is defective. MALONE.

5 Set your entreatments-) Entreatments here mean company, conversation, from the French entrétien. JOHNSON.

Entreatments, I rather think, means the objects of entreaty; the favours for which lovers sue. In the next scene we have a word of a fimilar formation:

6

"As if it some impartment did defire," &c. MALONE. larger tether-] A string to tie horses. POPE. Tether is that string by which an animal, set to graze in grounds uninclofed, is confined within the proper limits. JOHNSON.

So, in Greene's Card of Fancy, 1601 :-" To tye the ape and the bear in one tedder." Tether is a string by which any animal is fastened, whether for the fake of feeding or the air.

STEEVENS.

* Do not believe his vows, for they are brokers) A broker in old English meant a bawd or pimp. See the Glofsary to Gawin Douglass's tranflation of Virgil. So, in King John:

"This bawd, this broker," &c.

See also Vol. XI. p. 450, n. 9. In our author's Lover's Complaint we again meet wtih the fame expression, applied in the fame

manner:

" Know, vows are ever brokers to defiling." MALONE. * Breathing like fanctified and pious bonds,] On which the editor,

[ocr errors]
« PreviousContinue »