HAM.

I will watch to-night;

Perchance, 'twill walk again.

HOR.

I warrant, it will. HAM. If it affume my noble father's person, I'll speak to it, though hell itself should gape, And bid me hold my peace. I pray you all,

If

I

you have hitherto conceal'd this fight,
Let it be tenable in your filence still ;1
And whatsoever elfe fhall hap to-night,
Give it an understanding, but no tongue;
I will requite your loves: So, fare you well:
Upon the platform, 'twixt eleven and twelve,
I'll vifit you.

ALL. Our duty to your honour.

HAM. Your loves, as mine to you: Farewell. [Exeunt HORATIO, MARCELLUS, and BER

NARDO.

My father's fpirit in arms! all is not well;
I doubt fome foul play: 'would, the night were

come!

Till then fit ftill, my foul: Foul deeds will rife, Though all the earth o'erwhelm them, to men's eyes.

I

[Exit.

Let it be tenable in your filence ftill;] Thus the quartos, and rightly. The folio, 1623, reads-treble. STEEVENS.

2

My father's fpirit in arms!] From what went before, I once hinted to Mr. Garrick, that these words might be spoken in this manner :

My father's fpirit! in arms! all is not well ;-.

WHALLEY.

SCENE III.

A Room in Polonius' Houfe.

Enter LAERTES and OPHELIA.

LAER. My neceffaries are embark'd; farewell: And, fifter, as the winds give benefit,

And convoy is affiftant, do not fleep,

But let me hear from you.

Орн.

Do you doubt that?

LAER. For Hamlet, and the trifling of his fa

vour,

Hold it a fashion, and a toy in blood;
A violet in the youth of primy nature,
Forward, not permanent, sweet, not lasting,
The perfume and fuppliance of a minute ;3
No more.

3 The perfume and fuppliance of a minute ;] Thus the quarto, the folio has it:

fweet, not lafting,

The fuppliance of a minute.

It is plain that perfume is neceffary to exemplify the idea of sweet, not lafting. With the word fuppliance I am not fatisfied, and yet dare hardly offer what I imagine to be right. I fufpect that Soffiance, or fome fuch word, formed from the Italian, was then ufed for the act of fumigating with fweet fcents. JOHNSON.

an

The perfume and fuppliance of a minute ;] i. e. what was fupplied to us for a minute; or, as Mr. M. Mason supposes, amufement to fill up a vacant moment, and render it agreeable." This word occurs in Chapman's version of the ninth Iliad, of Homer:

66

by my fuppliance given." STEEVENS.

The words-perfume and, which are found in the quarto, 1604, were omitted in the folio. MALONE.

Орн. LAER.

No more but fo?

Think it no more:

For nature, crefcent, does not grow alone
In thews, and bulk; but, as this temple waxes,
The inward fervice of the mind and foul

Grows wide withal. Perhaps, he loves you now;
And now no foil, nor cautel, doth befmirch
The virtue of his will:5 but, you must fear,
His greatness weigh'd, his will is not his own;
For he himself is fubject to his birth :
He may not, as unvalued perfons do,
Carve for himfelf; for on his choice depends

4 In thews,] i. e. in finews, mufcular ftrength. So, in King Henry IV. P. II: "Care I for the limb, the thewes, the ftature," &c. See Vol. XII. p. 141, n. 6. STEEVENS.

5 And now no foil, nor cautel, doth befmirch

The virtue of his will;] From cautela, which fignifies only a prudent forefight or caution; but, pafling through French. hands, it loft its innocence, and now fignifies fraud, deceit. And fo he uses the adjective in Julius Cæfar:

"Swear priests and cowards, and men cautelous.” WARBURTON.

66

So, in the fecond part of Greene's Art of Coney catching, 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. Minfheu in his Dictionary, 1617, defines it, "A crafty way to deceive." The word is again ufed by Shakspeare, in A Lover's Complaint:

"In him a plenitude of fubtle matter,

Applied to cautels, all ftrange 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.

The safety and the health of the whole fiate;"
And therefore muft his choice be circumfcrib'd
Unto the voice and yielding of that body,
Whereof he is the head: Then if he fays he loves

you,

It fits your wifdom fo far to believe it,

As he in his particular act and place

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

Fear it, Ophelia, fear it, my dear fifter ;
And keep you in the rear of your affection,1
Out of the shot and danger of defire.
The charieft maid is prodigal enough,
If the unmask her beauty to the moon:

The fafety and the health of the whole fiate ;] Thus the quarto, 1604, except that it has-this whole ftate, and the fecond the is inadvertently omitted. The folio reads:

The fanctity and health of the whole ftate.

This is another proof of arbitrary alterations being fometimes made in the folio. The editor, finding the metre defective, in confequence of the article being omitted before health, inftead of fupplying it, for fafety fubftituted a word of three fyllables. MALONE.

-8

May give his faying deed;] So, in Timon of Athens: "the deed of faying is quite out of ufe." Again, in Troilus and Creffida:

9

66

Speaking in deeds, and deedless in his tongue."

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

MALONE.

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

2 The charieft 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.

Virtue itself fcapes not calumnious strokes :
The canker galls the infants of the spring,
Too oft before their buttons be difclos'd;
And in the morn and liquid dew of youth
Contagious blaftments are most imminent.
Be wary then beft fafety lies in fear;
Youth to itself rebels, though none else near.

ОPH. I fhall the effect of this good leffon keep, As watchman to my heart: But, good my brother, Do not, as fome ungracious paftors do,

Show me the fteep 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,3

LAER.

O fear me not.

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

3 recks not his own read.] That is, heeds not his own leffons. POPE.

So, in the old Morality of Hycke Scorner:

Again, ibidem:

I reck not a feder."

"And of thy living, I reed amend thee." Ben Jonfon ufes the word reed in his Cataline:

"So that thou could'ft not move

Against a publick reed."

Again, in Sir Thomas North's tranflation of Plutarch: "Difpatch, I read you, for your enterprize is betrayed." Again, the old proverb, in The Two angry Women of Abington, 1599: "Take heed, is a good reed."

i. e. good counsel, good advice. STEEVENS.

So, Sternhold, Pfalmi: