publish this report, seemingly so hurtful to his reputation, he would act in direct opposition to his former conduct, and inconsistently with the genuine sentiments and affections of his soul. He would seem frivolous, when the occasion required him to be sedate: and, celebrated for the wisdom and propriety of his conduct, he would assume appearances of impropriety. Full of honour and affection, he would seem inconsistent: of elegant and agreeable manners, and possessing a complacent temper, he would put on the semblance of rudeness. To Ophelia he would shew dislike and indifference; because a change of this nature would be, of all others, the most remarkable, and because his affection for her was passionate and sincere." He adds, "let Hamlet be represented as delivering himself in a light, airy, unconcerned and thoughtless manner, and the rudeness, so much complained of, will disappear." NOTES TO HAMLET. ACT I. (1) 'Tis now struck twelve-'tis bitter cold] Although, as confounding time past and present, this use of 'tis for 'thas is anomalous, yet, as familiar language, it is common and allowed. We also say, "It is gone twelve." The instance in the text recurs in the opening of Sc. 4. "It is struck twelve." And in M. ado &c. we have- "Don Pedro is approached." I. 1. Messenger. As to "bitter cold," see "bitter business," at the end of Act III. Hamlet's soliloquy. (2) The rivals of my watch] Associates, partners. "An idol up with praise! make him his mate! "His rivall in the empire!" Sejanus, Act I. 4to. 1605. Mr. Steevens instances Heywood's Rape of Lucrece, 1636: "Tullia. Aruns, associate him! “ Aruns. A rival with my brother. Our author uses rivality in the same sense, in Anth. and Cleop. III. 5. Eros; corrival in 1 H. IV. Hotsp. I. 3, and IV. 3, Archb.: and competitor throughout his works. Mr. Todd, whose useful labours increase the stock, as well as facilitate and open the avenues to our literature, shews the primary sense of this word from rivus, in Morin's Dict. Etym. Fr. and Gr. "Rivalis designe proprement ceux qui ont droit d'usage dans une même ruisseau; et comme cet usage est souvent pour eux un sujet de contestations, on a transporté cette signification de rivalis à ceux qui ont les mêmes prétentions à une chose." (3) liegemen to the Dane] Lige, Fr. bound, owing allegiance. Minshieu 66 says, Liege or liefe man, is he that oweth legeancie (from liga, Ital, a band or obligation) to his liege lord; B and that liege lord signifies he who acknowledges no superior." In the sense of "sovereign," it occurs in L. L. L. : Liege of all loiterers and malecontents." III. 1, Bir. And, equivocally rather, in Puttenham's Arte of Engl. Poesie, 4to. 1589, p. 182. "He lost, besides his children and his wife, "His realme, renowne, liege, libertie and life." (4) Give you good night] May it be given! May he, who has the power of giving, so dispense: or, I give you good night, in a sense similar to the Latin, dare salutem. “Qua, nisi tu dederis caritura est ipsa, salutem Ov. Phædra Hippolyto, 1. In the M. W. of W. Mrs. Quickly says to Falstaff, "Give your worship good morrow." In the Avare of Moliere, Harpagon is ridiculously described, as having so much dislike to the word give, as never to say, 'I give you good day,' but I lend you,' &c. Je vous prête,' &c. (5) along Tedious, slowly counted With us, to watch the minutes] passage. Mr. Steevens cites "I promise ere the minutes of the night." Ford's Fancies chaste and noble, Act V. The modern editors place the comma after along instead of us. It is in conformity with the quarto. (6) Thou art a scholar, speak to it, Horatio] It has always been a vulgar notion that spirits and supernatural beings can only be spoken to with propriety or effect by persons of learning. Toby, in the Night-walker, by Beaumont and Fletcher, says: It grows still longer, 66 "'Tis steeple-high now; and it sails away, nurse. In like manner the Butler, in Addison's Drummer, recommends the Steward to speak Latin to the Ghost. REED. It was so conceived, says Mr. Douce, because exorcisms were usually performed in Latin. Illustr. 8vo. 1807. II. 220. After this speech, in the quarto of 1611 (enlarged to almost as much again as the original copy) followed that of Horatio: "Most like: it horrowes me with feare and wonder." And this appears to us to be the true and better reading. It is natural, that the surprise and terror of the speaker should bear some proportion to the degree of his former confidence and incredulity and the art and address of our poet is shewn by making Horatio's answer (a reply not to the last speech and request made, but an observation upon an observation of a preceding speaker) expressive of that alarm in which he was absorbed. But, for the purpose, it is presumed, of making this answer more obviously intelligible, our Player Editors, or the taste of the age twelve years afterwards, interposed this speech of Barnardo's: "Looks it not like the king? mark it, Horatio.” (7) It harrows me with fear and wonder] Confounds and overwhelms, as by the most alarming apprehension of acts of inroad and violence. This line is almost copied by Milton in Comus : "Amaz'd I stood, harrow'd with grief and fear. v. 565. And it is observable, that Warton neither offers any interpretation, nor points out the etymon: and the lexicographers are either silent or not at all agreed upon the subject. Johnson interprets it here" disturb, put into commotion;" and thinks it should be written harry, from harer, Fr. Minshieu suggests aro, to plough, as the derivation of harrow; and derives harrie, which he interprets" to turmoile or vexe," from har, Sax. intorsio, tormentum; while Johnson derives the verb in the sense of beat or break up, and the noun harrow, from charroue, Fr. and harcke, Germ. a rake. It should seem that they are considered as one and the same word by Mr. Tyrwhitt, who interprets it elsewhere, as Mr. Steevens does here," to conquer or subdue." He says, "by him that harwed helle," is harried. Sax. harrassed, subdued. Ch. Mill. T. v. 3512; and adds, “Our ancestors were very fond of a story of Christ's exploits in his Descensus ad inferos, which they called the harrowing of helle. They took it, with several others of the same stamp, from the gospel of Nicodemus." Fabr. Cod. Apoc. N. T. There is a poem upon this subject in MS. Bodl. 1687. "How Jesu Crist herowed helle; "Of harde gestes ich wille telle." Tyrwhitt's Chaucer, Vol. II, 430. 4to. ed. It is somewhat singular, that we find the word harow in the same tale "Let be, Nicholas, "Or I wol crie out harow and alas v. 3286, referred, by Mr. Tyrwhitt, to a different origin: he "rather believes haro to be derived from two Islandic words, once probably common to all the Scandinavian nations, har, altus, and op, clamor; and adds, that haroep or harop, was used by some of the inhabitants of the Low Countries in the sense of harou by the Normans." Ibid. Vol. II. Warton says, "this was an exclamation of alarm and terror, and an outcry upon the name of Rou or Rollo, for help." Todd's Spencer, III. 413. But as the three words harrow, harrie, and harow, are, under various spellings, confounded by glossographers, they may all not unreasonably be referred to the same source. 66 The words appear, thus variously represented, in our different old writers: "Harro, harrow, Io, eheu; a Fr. haro, an outcry for help, much the same as the English hue and cry: vide Menage." Gloss. to Gaw. Douglas's Virg. Fo. 1710. Hery, hary, hubbilschow. These are words expressive of hurry and confusion. Hiry, hary, seem to be a corruption of the Fr. haro, or the cry à l'aide, like huetium in our old laws, and hue in English. Hubbilschow is used with us for uproar. Ancient Scottish Poems from MS. of G. Bannatyne, 1770. p. 173, "With bludy ene rolling ful thrawynlie "Oft and richt schrewitly wold sche clepe and crye, G. Dougl. Virg. p. 220. "torvumque repente "Clamat, Io, matres, audite, ubi quæque." En. VII. 399. 66 manu crines laniata-turba furit." "Wherfore I crye out harowe whiche so falsly have belyed me." 1550. Signat. L. 1, b. Æn. XII. 605. on them [the evyl shrewes] Reynard, the Foxe, 12mo.、 "Advocates and attorneys in open audience at the barre looke as tho they would eat one another, crying Harrol for justice on their client's side." R. C's Hen. Steph. Apology for Herodotus, fo. 1608, p. 342. An instance in which the word occurs in Ascham's Toxophilus has given occasion to a strange perversion of the text: one of the infinite number of instances in which the ignorance and presumption of Editors has gone a great way towards blotting from the page of history, together with all traces of the character of their author's style, the evidence of our ancient usages. "One of the players shall have a payre of false dyse and cast them out upon the boarde, the honest man shall take them and cast them as he did the other, the thirde shall espye them to be false dyse and shall cry out, haroe with all the othes under God, that he hath falsely wonne their money, and then there is nothing but hould thy throte from my dagger." 4to. 1571, fo. 14, b. Such is the original: but in a book published under the name of" James Bennet, Master of the Boarding School at Hoddesdon, Herts," by Davies and Dodsley, 4to. without date, intitled the English Works and Life of Roger Ascham (in which the dedication and life at least are the work of Dr. Johnson), instead of "crye out, haroe," the editor has given "crye out harde," • Hubbub, or, as they pronounce it, hoobboob, is at this day an exclamation of a similar import in South Wales. |