L'And do such business as the bitter day
Would quake to look on']

could have been permitted to stand [in the Variorum Shakespeare], we cannot think. The word is 'better." 'The better day' is opposed to the 'witching time of night.' It is the iepòr uap of Homer, Il. e. 66." Gentleman's Magazine for Feb. 1845, p. 125.

I may add, too, that John Kemble-whose performance of the Prince of Denmark is among the most vivid recollections of my youth-invariably delivered the passage thus;

P. 165. (94)

"And do such business as the better day

66

Would quake to look on."

See Hamlet, revised by J. P. Kemble, 1814, p. 51.

Though inclination be as sharp as will:"

Theobald proposed, and Hanmer printed, "as sharp as 't will."-Warburton reads " as sharp as th' ill."-"The distinction [between inclination and will] is philosophically correct. I may will to do a thing because my understanding points it out to me as right, although I am not inclined to it. See Locke on the Human Understanding, B. ii. ch. xxi. sec. 30." BOSWELL.

-e'ene

So Hanmer (and Mr. Collier's Ms. Corrector).-The quartos, 1604, &c. have "Ile silence me euen heere ;" and so the folio, except that it has " heere."-The corresponding words in the quarto 1603 are, "I'le shrorde myselfe behinde the Arras."-That Hanmer's alteration, which has long been adopted on the stage, should not be even noticed in the Variorum Shakespeare, is sufficiently strange. (Compare “I will ensconce me behind the arras." The Merry Wives of Windsor, act iii. sc. 3.)

P. 167. (96) “Ham. [within] Mother, mother, mother!”

So the folio.-Not in the quartos, 1604, &c.-There is, however, a trace of it in the quarto 1603,

"Ham. Mother, mother, O are you here?

How is't with you mother?”—

1865. I certainly am not disposed to find fault with those editors who have omitted this speech.

P. 167. (97)

Queen. Come, come, you answer with an idle tongue.
Ham. Go, go, you question with a wicked tongue."

So the quartos, 1604, &c. (these two speeches are not in the earliest quarto).
-The folio has "Ham. Go, go, you question with an idle tongue;" which is
adopted by Caldecott (and by Dr. Delius), under the idea that here Hamlet
should echo as closely as possible the words of his mother.
It was formerly
adopted by Mr. Knight also; but he now adheres to the reading of the

quartos; and wisely,-for the "an idle” of the folio was evidently caught by the transcriber or compositor from the preceding line. Such faulty repetitions are extremely frequent in the folio throughout this play: e.g. in act i. sc. 5 (p. 126), it has

"Hor. There's no offence my Lord.

Ham. Yes, by Saint Patricke, but there is my Lord," &c. (instead of " but there is, Horatio," &c.);

and in act v. sc. 2 (p. 207),

"Ham, Come on sir.

Laer. Come on sir" (instead of "Come, my lord”).

See also notes 48, 52, 76, 78, 82, 138.

P. 167. (98)

66

Queen. Why, how now, Hamlet!
Ham.

Queen. Have you forgot me?"

What's the matter now?

"Perhaps all this belongs to the Queen." Walker's Crit. Exam, &c. vol. ii. p. 187.-I do not think so.

P. 168. (99)

"A combination and a form indeed," See note 70 on Much Ado about Nothing, vol. ii. p. 155.

P. 170. (100)

"What would your gracious figure?"

So the quartos, 1604, &c.-The folio has "What would you gracious figure?" (the compositor having here omitted by mistake the letter r,—just as he has done afterwards in this play, p. 200, "Strengthen you patience in our last nights speech"); and accordingly Caldecott, Mr. Knight, and Mr. Collier do not scruple to print "What would you, gracious figure ?”

P. 170. (101)

"Your bedded hair, like life in excrements,
Starts up, and stands on end."

Here Mr. Grant White states that "Start" and "stand" is the reading of all the old copies, a mistake: quarto 1611, for instance, has "Starts" and "stands."-As to "on end"-in passages where the old eds. happen to have "an end"—see note 36, and the earlier note there referred to.

P. 171. (102)

"That monster, custom, who all sense doth eat,
Of habits devil, is angel yet in this,"

This passage (from "That monster" to "put on" inclusive) is only in the quartos, 1604, &c.—It has been variously pointed and explained: the above punctuation (which Mr. Knight is mistaken in supposing that he was the first to adopt) appears to me preferable, on the whole.-Theobald, at Thirlby's suggestion, printed

Of habits evil, is angel," &c.

and the Rev. J. Mitford (Gent. Magazine for Feb. 1845, p. 132) proposes

P. 171. (103)

"And either master the devil, or throw him out," &c.

This passage (from "the next more easy" to "wondrous potency" inclusive) is only in the quartos, 1604, &c.; the two earliest of these have

"And either the deuell, or throwe him out," &c.

The later quartos substitute "maister" (and "master") for "either," but leave the metre imperfect (though Mr. Collier seems to think otherwise). -The line has been amended to

and to

"And master even the devil, or throw him out," &c.

"And either curb the devil, or throw him out," &c.; which last emendation (Malone's) is certainly objectionable on account of the word "curb" occurring at the close of Hamlet's preceding speech.—“ I suspect," says Walker, "that the reading '[either] master the [th'] devil' is the right one." Crit. Exam. &c. vol. i. p. 308. (Walker, in his Shakespeare's Versification, &c. p. 75, cites the line with the same reading, as right, but by mistake attributes that lection to the quarto of 1604.)

P. 171. (104)

"heaven hath pleas'd it so,

That I must be their scourge and minister."

See note 10 on King Richard II. vol. iv. p. 184.

P. 173. (105)

"There's matter in these sighs, these profound heaves:
You must translate:"

Walker (Crit. Exam. &c. vol. iii. p. 268) would point

66

You must translate."

i. e. "which you must translate."

heaves,

so, haply slander

Whose whisper o'er the world's diameter,"

This passage (from "Whose whisper" to "woundless air" inclusive) is only in the quartos, 1604, &c., and imperfect at the commencement. To complete the sense, Theobald inserted "for haply, slander," which was afterwards slightly altered by Capell as above.

P. 175. (107) "he keeps them, like an ape, in the corner of his jaw; first mouthed, to be last swallowed :"

So the folio; "which Sir Thomas Hanmer has illustrated with the following note: It is the way of monkeys in eating, to throw that part of their food, which they take up first, into a pouch they are provided with on the [each] side of their jaw, and there they keep it, till they have done with the rest.'" JOHNSON.-The quartos, 1604, &c. have "he keepes them like an apple in the corner of his ian," &c. (The corresponding passage in the quarto of 1603 is

"For hee doth keep you as an Ape doth puttes,

In the corner of his law, first mouthes you,
Then swallowes you.")

P. 177. (108)

"till I know 'tis done,

Howe'er my haps, my joys were ne'er begun.”

So the folio.-The quartos, 1604, &c. have ". my ioyes will nere begin ;" but a rhyme was evidently intended here.—Johnson suggested that “ 'haps" ought to be "hopes ;" and Mr. Collier's Ms. Corrector agrees with him.— 1865. "Begun,' certainly; rhyme is demanded here. [As to the rest, éπéxw." Walker's Crit. Exam. &c. vol. iii. p. 268.

P. 178. (109)

"Truly to speak, sir, and with no addition,

To pay five ducats, five, I would not farm it ;"

In the first line “sir" is a modern addition.—Mr. John Jones obligingly sends me a printed note on this passage, in which he proposes to read "five ducats fine," understanding "fine" either as a market denomination (see Macleod's Dictionary of Political Economy, p. 69), or in the sense of "rent."

P. 180. (111) "Twere good she were spoken with," &c.

At the commencement of the scene, the quartos, 1604, &c. have "Enter Horatio, Gertrard, and a Gentleman;" and up to this point they make the dialogue pass between the Queen and the "Gentleman." They then have

"Hora. "Twere good she were spoken with, for shee may strew Dangerous coniectures in ill-breeding mindes,

Let her come in.

Enter Ophelia.

Quee. To my sicke soule, as sinnes true nature is," &c.

The folio omits the "Gentleman;" and, as far as "Though nothing sure, yet much unhappily" inclusive, distributes the speeches as in the present edition. It then has

Qu. 'Twere good she were spoken with
For she may strew dangerous coniectures

In ill breeding minds. Let her come in.

To my sicke soule (as sinnes true Nature is)," &c.—

There certainly is room for suspecting that the omission of the "Gentleman" is to be attributed to the players. But be that as it may, there can be no doubt that if a modern editor adheres to the folio in omitting the "Gentleman," he ought to restore to Horatio (what comes very awkwardly from the Queen),

"Twere good she were spoken with, for she may strew
Dangerous conjectures in ill-breeding minds;"

and that, whether he chooses to retain or omit the "Gentleman," he ought to make the Queen's speech commence with "Let her come in."

P. 180. (112)

"Larded with sweet flowers; Which bewept to the grave did go

With true-love showers."

The old eds. have ". did not go," &c.; a reading which had been rejected for many a long year, when Caldecott with great pomp restored the "not" to the text. "Contra fidem omnium codicum," he says, "and following a leader whom they concur in reprobating, the modern editors read 'to the grave [did] go;'" Caldecott, though far advanced in life when he edited Hamlet, being, it would seem, still ignorant that a whole series of "codices" will very often agree in the grossest error. "His shroud, or corpse, ‘did not go bewept with true-love showers,' for his was no love-case; his death had the tragical character of fierce outrage," &c. &c. That any one should fail at once to perceive that the original reading "did not go" is utterly irreconcilable with the preceding "Larded with sweet flowers"! And that any one should have the folly to suppose that the ballad now sung by Ophelia must apply in minute particulars to her father! Enough for her that it is a ditty about death and burial; no matter that its hero is a youthful lover, -he was cut off by a sudden fate, and so far resembled Polonius.-Here Mr. Knight also retains "not."-So does Mr. Collier in the first ed. of his Shakespeare, remarking, however, that it "may possibly be an error:" but in his second edition he omits it.

Altered by Walker (Shakespeare's Versification, &c. p. 81) to the contracted form "this'," which the folio has in Measure for Measure, act v. sc. 1.

Here the spelling of the old eds. is "muddied:" but see note 192 on All'8 well that ends well, vol. iii. p. 317.

P. 182. (115) "Will nothing stick our person to arraign"

So the quartos, 1604, &c.-The folio has ". — our persons to Arraigne;" and so several modern editors. But the king is certainly speaking of himself