MAR. [Within.] Lord Hamlet,— HOR. [Within.] HAM. Heaven fecure him! MAR. [Within.] Illo, ho, ho, my lord! So be it! HAM. Hillo, ho, ho, boy! come, bird, come.* Enter HORATIO and MARCELLUS. MAR. How is't, my noble lord? HOR. What news, my lord? HAM. O, wonderful! HOR. Good my lord, tell it. No; You will reveal it. MAR, HOR. Not I, my lord, by heaven. HAM. How say you then; would heart of man once think it? Nor I, my lord. But you'll be secret, Ay, by heaven, my lord. HOR. MAR. HAM. There's ne'er a villain, dwelling in all -come, bird, come.) This is the call which falconers use to their hawk in the air, when they would have him come down to them. HANMER. This expreffion is used in Marston's Dutch Courtezan, and by many others among the old dramatick writers. It appears from all these passages, that it was the falconers' call, as Sir T. Hanmer has observed. Again, in Tyro's Roaring Megge, planted against the Walls of Melancholy, &c. 4to. 1598: Yet, ere I iournie, Ile go see the kyte: STEEVENS. HOR. There needs no ghost, my lord, come from the grave, Why, right; you are in the right; And fo, without more circumstance at all, I hold it fit, that we shake hands, and part: For every man hath business, and defire, Such as it is, and, for my own poor part, Look you, I will go pray. Hor. These are but wild and whirling words, my lord. HAM. I am forry they offend you, heartily; yes, 'Faith, heartily. HOR. There's no offence, my lord. HAM. Yes, by faint Patrick, but there is, Ho ratio, And much offence too. Touching this vision here,- Give me one poor request. HOR. We will. 9 What is't, my lord? HAM. Never make known what you have seen to-night. -by Saint Patrick,) How the poet comes to make Hamlet swear by St. Patrick, I know not. However, at this time all the whole northern world had their learning from Ireland; to which place it had retired, and there flourished under the auspices of this Saint. But it was, I suppose, only faid at random; for he makes Hamlet a student of Wittenberg. WARBURTON. Dean Swift's "Verses on the sudden drying-up of St. Patrick's Well, 1726," contain many learned allufions to the early cultiva. tion of literature in Ireland. NICHOLS, : HOR. MAR. My lord, we will not. HAM. Indeed, upon my fword, indeed. GHOST. [Beneath.] Swear. HAM. Ha, ha, boy! say'st thou so? art thou there, true-penny?2 Come on, you hear this fellow in the cellarage, Consent to swear. HOR. Propose the oath, my lord. HAM. Never to speak of this that you have seen, Swear by my fword.3 - true-penny?] This word, as well as fome of Hamlet's former exclamations, we find in the Malcontent, 1604: " Illo, ho, ho, ho; art there old True-penny?" STEEVENS. 3 Swear by my sword.] Here the poet has preserved the manners of the ancient Danes, with whom it was religion to swear upon their swords. See Bartholinus, De caufis contempt. mort. apud Dan. WARBURTON. I was once inclinable to this opinion, which is likewise well defended by Mr. Upton; but Mr. Garrick produced me a passage, I think, in Brantome, from which it appeared, that it was common to swear upon the sword, that is, upon the cross which the old swords always had upon the hilt. JOHNSON. Shakspeare, it is more than probable, knew nothing of the ancient Danes, or their manners. Every extract from Dr. Farmer's pamphlet must prove as instructive to the reader as the following: "In the Passus Primus of Pierce Plowman, • David in his daies dubbed knightes, • And did them fwere on her fword to ferve truth ever.' "And in Hieronymo, the common butt of our author, and the wits of the time, says Lorenzo to Pedringano: GHOST. [Beneath.] Swear. HAM. Hic & ubique? then we'll shift our ground: Come hither, gentlemen, And lay your hands again upon my sword: Never to speak of this that you have heard. GHOST. [Beneath.] Swear by his sword. HAM. Well faid, old mole! can'st work i'the earth fo fast? • Swear on this cross, that what thou say'st is true: • But if I prove thee perjur'd and unjust, • This very fword, whereon thou took'ft thine oath, To the authorities produced by Dr. Farmer, the following may be added from Holinshed, p. 664: "Warwick kissed the cross of K. Edward's sword, as it were a vow to his promife." Again, p. 1038, it is faid: "that Warwick drew out his sword, which other of the honourable and worshipful that were then present likewise did, whom he commanded, that each one should kiss other's sword, according to an ancient custom amongst men of war in time of great danger; and herewith they made a folemn vow," &c. Again, in Decker's comedy of Old Fortunatus, 1600: "He has sworn to me on the cross of his pure Toledo." Again, in his Satiromastix: "By the cross of this sword and dagger, captain, you shall take it." In the foliloquy of Roland addressed to his sword, the cross on it is not forgotten: - capulo eburneo candidissime, cruce aurea fplendidiffime," &c. Turpini Hift. de Geftis Caroli Mag. cap. 22. Again, in an ancient MS. of which fome account is given in a note on the first scene of the first act of The Merry Wives of Windfor, the oath taken by a master of defence when his degree was conferred on him, is preferved, and runs as follows: "First you fhall sweare (fo help you God and halidome, and by all the chriftendome which God gave you at the fount-ftone, and by the croffe of this fword which doth reprefent unto you the crosse which our Saviour fufered his most payneful deathe upon,) that you shall upholde, maynteyne, and kepe to your power all foch articles as shal be heare declared unto you, and receve in the prefence of me your maister, and these the rest of the maisters my bretheren heare with me at this tyme." STEEVENS. A worthy pioneer! - Once more remove, good friends. HOR. O day and night, but this is wondrous strange! HAM. And therefore as a stranger give it wel come.+ There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Here, as before, never, so help you mercy! Or fuch ambiguous giving out, to note That you know aught of me: -This do you swear, Spenfer obferves that the Irish in his time used commonly to swear by their sword. See his View of the State of Ireland, written in 1596. This custom, indeed, is of the highest antiquity; having prevailed, as we learn from Lucian, among the Scythians. MALONE. And therefore as a stranger give it welcome.] i. e. receive it to yourself; take it under your own roof; as much as to fay, Keep it fecret. Alluding to the laws of hofpitality. WARBURTON. Warburton refines too much on this passage. Hamlet means merely to request that they would feem not to know it to be unacquainted with it. M. MASON. 5 - an if they might;] Thus the quarto. The folio readsan if there might. MALONE. 6 Or fuch ambiguous giving out, to note That you know aught of me :) The construction is irregular and elliptical. Swear as before, says Hamlet, that you never shall by |