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I have some rights of memory in this kingdom,
Which now to claim my vantage doth invite me.

Hor. Of that I shall have also cause to speak,
And from his mouth whose voice will draw on more:
But let this same be presently perform'd,

1

Even while men's minds are wild; lest more mis

chance,

On plots, and errors, happen.

Let four captains

Fort.
Bear Hamlet, like a soldier, to the stage;

For he was likely, had he been put on,

To have prov'd most royally: and, for his passage,
The soldiers' musick, and the rites of war,

Speak loudly for him.

Take up the bodies:-Such a sight as this

Becomes the field, but here shows much amiss.

Go, bid the soldiers shoot.

[4 dead march.

[Exeunt, bearing off the dead bodies; after which, a peal of ordnance is shot off.

ANNOTATIONS

UPON

HAMLET.

1 THE rivals of my watch,] Rivals for partners.

WARBURTON.

2 A piece of him.] A piece of him is still a cant expression among the vulgar.

3 -the sledded Polack-] The sledded Polack, is, the Polander who makes use of a sledge, or ice-car.

- hath a stomach in't:-] Stomach, in the time of our author, was used for constancy, resolution.

5

romage-] Tumultuous hurry.

JOHNSON.

6 - palmy state of Rome,] Palmy, for victorious; in the other editions, flourishing.

POPE.

7 Whether in sea or fire, in earth or air, &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
"To his confine, whether in sea or air,

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Ór 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.

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 re"quires 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.

No fairy takes,] No fairy strikes with lameness or diseases. This sense of take is frequent in this author. 9-these dilated articles-] i, e. the articles when

dilated.

JOHNSON.

MUSGRAVE.

10 —too much i'the sun.] He perhaps alludes to the proverb, Out of heaven's blessing into the warm sun. JOHNSON.

"Do I impart toward you.] Impart, for profess.

WARBURTON.

I believe impart is, impart myself, communicate whatever I can bestow.

JOHNSON.

12 No jocund health, &c.] The king's intemperance is very strongly impressed; every thing that happens to him gives him occasion to drink. JOHNSON.

13 the funeral buk'd meats-] It was anciently the general custom to give a cold entertainment to mourners at a funeral. In distant counties this practice is continued among the yeomanry. See The Tragique Historie of the Faire Valeria of London, 1598. "His corpes was with funeral pompe conveyed to the church, and there sollemnly enterred, nothing omitted which necessitie or custom could claime; a sermon, a banquet, and like observations." Again, in the old romance of Syr Degore, bl. 1. no date:

A great feaste would be holde

"Upon his quenes mornynge day,

"That was buryed in an abbay." COLLINS. 14 In my mind's eye, Horatio.] This expression occurs again in our author's Rape of Lucrece:

-himself behind

"Was left unseen, save to the eye of mind."

STEEVENS.

15 The perfume and suppliance of a minute;] Thus

the quarto: the folio has it,

-sweet, not lasting,

The suppliance of a minute.

It is plain that perfume is necessary to exemplify the idea of sweet, not lasting. With the word suppliance I am not satisfied, and yet dare hardly offer what I imagine to be right. I suspect that soffiance, or some such word, formed from the Italian, was then used for the act of fumigating with sweet scents. JOHNSON.

The perfume, and suppliance of a minute; i. e. what is supplied to us for a minute. The idea seems to be taken from the short duration of vegetable perfumes.

16

17

STEEVENS.

thews,] Thews are sinews, muscles. cautel,] From cautela, which signifies only a prudent foresight or caution; but, passing through French hands, it lost its innocence, and now signifies fraud, deceit.

WARBURTON.

18 The chariest maid-] Chary is cautious.

19 And recks not his own read.] That is, heeds not his own lessons.

20

POPE.

each man's censure,] Censure is opinion. 21 -fushion-] She uses fashion for manner, and he for a transient practice.

proper

limits.

JOHNSON.

22 -a larger tether-] Tether is that string by which an animal, set to graze in grounds uninclosed, is confined within the 23 The king doth wake to-night, and takes his rouse, Keeps wassel, and the swaggering up-spring reels;] A rouse is a large dose of liquor, a debauch. So, in Othello:

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