The cock, that is the trumpet to the morn," 6 The cock, that is the trumpet to the morn,] So, the quarto, 1604. Folio-to the day. In England's Parnassus, 8vo. 1600, I find the two following lines ascribed to Drayton, but know not in which of his poems they are found: "And now the cocke, the morning's trumpeter, Mr. Gray has imitated our poet: "The cock's shrill clarion, or the echoing horn, MALONE. Our Cambridge poet was more immediately indebted to Philips's Cider, B. I. 753: "When Chanticleer, with clarion shrill, recalls Thus also, Spenser, in his Fairy Queen, B. I. c. ii. s. 1: "And cheerful Chanticleer with his note shrill.” STEEVENS. ? Whether in sea &c.] According to the pneumatology of that time, every element was inhabited by its peculiar order of spirits, who had dispositions different, according to their various places of abode. The meaning therefore is, that all spirits extravagant, wandering out of their element, whether aerial spirits visiting earth, or earthly spirits ranging the air, return to their station, to their proper limits in which they are confined. We might read: And at his warning "Th' extravagant and erring spirit hies "Or earth, or fire. And of,” &c. But this change, though it would smooth the construction, is not necessary, and, being unnecessary, should not be made against authority. JOHNSON. A Chorus in Andreini's drama, called Adamo, written in 1613, consists of spirits of fire, air, water, and hell, or subterraneous, being the exiled angels. "Choro di Spiriti ignei, aerei, acquatici, ed infernali," &c. These are the demons to which Shakspeare alludes. These spirits were supposed to controul the elements in which they respectively resided; and when formally invoked or commanded by a magician, to produce tempests, con The extravagant and erring spirit? hies > flagrations, floods, and earthquakes. For thus says The Spanish Mandeville of Miracles, &c. 1600: "Those which are in the middle region of the ayre, and those that are under them nearer the earth, are those, which sometimes out of the ordinary operation of nature doe moove the windes with greater fury than they are accustomed; and do, out of season, congeele the cloudes, causing it to thunder, lighten, hayle, and to destroy the grasse, corne, &c. &c. -Witches and negromancers worke many such like things by the help of those spirits," &c. Ibid. Of this school therefore was Shakspeare's Prospero in The Tempest. T. Warton. Bourne of Newcastle, in his Antiquities of the common People, informs us, "It is a received tradition among the vulgar, that at the time of cock-crowing, the midnight spirits forsake these lower regions, and go to their proper places. Hence it is, (says he) that in country places, where the way of life requires more early labour, they always go chearfully to work at that time; whereas if they are called abroad sooner, they imagine every thing they see a wandering ghost." And he quotes on this occasion, as all his predecessors had done, the well-known lines from the first hymn of Prudentius. I know not whose translation he gives us, but there is an old one by Heywood. The pious chansons, the hymns and carrols, which Shakspeare mentions presently, were usually copied from the elder Christian poets. FARMER. • The extravagant-] i. e. got out of his bounds. So, in Nobody and Somebody,, 1598: " for a 'stravagant." WARBURTON. they took me up Shakspeare imputes the same effect to Aurora's harbinger in the last scene of the third Act of the Midsummer-Night's Dream. See Vol. IV. p. 432, n. 9. STEEVENS. 9 erring spirit,] Erring is here used in the sense of wandering. Thus, in Chapman's version of the fourth Book of Homer's Odyssey, Telemachus calls Ulysses "My erring father: And in the ninth Book, Ulysses describing himself and his companions to the Cyclop, says- -Erring Grecians we, "From Troy were turning homewards. Erring, in short, is erraticus. STEEVENS. To his confine: and of the truth herein 1 MAR. It faded on the crowing of the cock.1 Some say, that ever 'gainst that season comes Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated, This bird of dawning singeth all night long: And then, they say, no spirit dares stir abroad; 2 The nights are wholesome; then no planets strike, No fairy takes,3 nor witch hath power to charm, So hallow'd and so gracious is the time. HOR. So have I heard, and do in part believe it. But, look, the morn, in russet mantle clad, 1 It faded on the crowing of the cock.] This is a very ancient superstition. Philostratus giving an account of the apparition of Achilles' shade to Apollonius Tyaneus, says that it vanished with a little glimmer as soon as the cock crowed. Vit. Apol. iv, 16. STEEVENS. Faded has here its original sense; it vanished. So, in Spenser's Fairy Queen, Book I. c. v. st. 15: Vado, Lat. "He stands amazed how he thence should fade." That our author uses the word in this sense, appears from the following lines: 2 66 The morning cock crew loud; "And at the sound it shrunk in haste away, "And vanish'd from our sight." MALONE. dares stir abroad ;] Thus the quarto. The folio reads -can walk. STEEVENS. Spirit was formerly used as a monosyllable: sprite. The quarto, 1604, has-dare stir abroad. Perhaps Shakspeare wrote-no spirits dare stir abroad. The necessary correction was made in a late quarto of no authority, printed in 1637. 3 MALONE. No fairy takes,] No fairy strikes with lameness or diseases. This sense of take is frequent in this author. Johnson. So, in The Merry Wives of Windsor : "And there he blasts the tree, and takes the cattle." STEEVENS. Walks o'er the dew of yon high eastern hill: MAR. Let's do't, I pray; and I this morning know Where we shall find him most convenient. 4 [Exeunt. ·high eastern hill:] The old quarto has it better eastward. WARBURTON. The superiority of the latter of these readings is not, to mẹ at least, very apparent. I find the former used in Lingua, &c. 1607: and overclimbs "Yonder gilt eastern hills." Again, in Browne's Britannia's Pastorals, Book IV. Sat. iv. p. 75, edit. 1616: "And ere the sunne had clymb'd the eastern hils." Again, in Chapman's version of the thirteenth Book of Homer's Odyssey: "An Ulysses still eye directed to the eastern hill.” Eastern and eastward, alike signify toward the east. STEEVENS. SCENE II. The same. A Room of State in the same. Enter the King, Queen, HAMLET, POLONIUS, LAERTES, VOLTIMAND, CORNELIUS, Lords, and Attendants. KING. Though yet of Hamlet our dear brother's death The memory be green; and that it us befitted 5 Yet so far hath discretion fought with nature, 5 —and that it us befitted-] Perhaps our author ellipti cally wrote and us befitted i. e. and that it befitted us. STEEVENS. With one auspicious, and one dropping eye;] Thus the folio. The quarto, with somewhat less of quaintness: With an auspicious and a dropping eye. The same thought, however, occurs in The Winter's Tale: "She had one eye declined for the loss of her husband; another elevated that the oracle was fulfilled." After all, perhaps, we have here only the ancient proverbial phrase " To cry with one eye and laugh with the other," buckram'd by our author for the service of tragedy. See Ray's Collection, edit. 1768, p. 188. STEEVENS. Dropping in this line probably means depressed or cast downwards: an interpretation which is strongly supported by the |