"Lend thine ear to all: yet be not hasty in determining on any matter. Take counsel, yet reserve to thyself an opinion in all things :-in doing which you will follow the example of the most considerable among the French, and who, from being of a refined and generous disposition, do so conduct themselves: particulars, indeed, in which they chiefly have a pride." B.

Pol. This above all,-to thine ownself be true; And it must follow, as the night the day,

Thou canst not then be false to any man.

And it must follow, as the night the day.] The sense here requires, that the similitude should give an image not of two effects of different natures, that follow one another alternately, but of a cause and effect, where the effect follows the cause by a physical necessity. For the assertion is, Be true to thyself, and then thou must necessarily be true to others. Truth to himself then was the cause, truth to others the effect. To il lustrate this necessity, the speaker employs a similitude: but no similitude can illustrate it, but what presents an image of a cause and effect: and such a cause as that, where the effect follows by a physical, not a moral necessity, for if only, by a moral necessity, the thing illustrating would not be more certain than the thing illustrated; which would be a great absurdity. This being premised, let us see what the text says,

And it must follow, as the night the day.

In this we are so far from being presented with an effect following a cause by a physical necessity, that there is no cause at all: but only two different effects, proceeding from two different causes, and succeeding one another alternately. Shakspeare, therefore, without question wrote,

And it must follow, as the light the day.

As much as to say, Truth to thyself, and truth to others, are inseparable, the latter depending necessarily on the former as light depends upon the day; where it is to be observed, that day is used figuratively for the sun. The ignorance of which, I suppose, contributed to mislead the editors. WARBURTON. And it must follow, as the night the day.

This note is very acute, but the common succession of night to day was, I believe, all that our author meant to make Polonius think of, on the present occasion.

So, in the 145th Sonnet of Shakspeare · "That follow'd it as gentle day

"Doth follow night, &c.

STEEVENS.

"And it must follow, as the night the day." Dr. Warburton's note, as we are informed by Mr. Steevens, is

very acute," but this acuteness no other than himself, I believe, will be able to discover. That there can be no effect without a cause the slenderest philosopher must be able to show. The reasoning of the learned prelate, as far as it relates to cause and effect, is certainly just; but as it attaches to our author's expression-" And it must follow" &c. is erroneous; for night and day are there to be considered as two different effects, and nature [natura naturans] is to be held as the cause. And be it remembered that in such a mode of speech as And it must follow,' that a cause, though not set down, is always to be understood. But to explain this farther. The poet does not tell us that night follows day, as an effect must follow a cause. The construction is, and it must follow, as the night, the day,' i. e. it will as certainly be the consequence: as certain as that night and day are consequent on the operations of nature. It should here be observed, that he illustrates his position respecting a moral power, and its eventuality by a physical comparison: by instancing objects which are familiar to the perception of all men, and which are known of necessity to follow,' i. e. come as a consequence, and which, it is also known, will continue to come, so long as the system of the universe shall remain. Yet let it not be forgotten that neither night nor day is at any time to be taken as a cause. Both, I repeat, are effects, resulting from one great operative will.--The good Bishop has unfortunately fallen into a double error: first, as I have said, in censuring the expression in the text, and again in the reading which he has proposed; for it will indubitably be acknowledged by every one that SHAK.

I.

B

light no more proceeds. from day than night does. The fact is, that light and day are absolutely one and the same, as we learn from THE BOOK, but which the commentator for once appears to have forgotten. "And God said let there be light and there was light."-" And God called the light day."

:

The quotation made by Mr. S. from the sonnet will no way illustrate the present passage. The Poet there makes mention of two effects succeeding each other reciprocally; and certainly according to the order of nature. But as no "great first cause is pointed out by the cited verse, it will, I maintain, elucidate nothing here. Besides, as I have before remarked on the lines of the play, it is not of night following day that Polonius is supposed to speak. B.

Pol. Affection? puh! you speak like a green girl,
Unsifted in such perilous circumstance.
Do you believe his tenders, as you call them?

Unsifted in such perilous circumstance.] Unsifted, for untried. Untried signifies either not tempted, or not refined; unsifted, signifies the latter only, though the sense requires the former. WARBURTON.

"Unsifted in such perilous circumstance."

Unsifted

is here not only without force, but almost without meaning. I would read Unsighted,' not in the sense in which it is used by Suckling and others, of invisible, but in that of not seeing into, ignorant of. This is at once easy and expressive. B.

Pol. From this time,

Be somewhat scanter of your maiden presence;
Set your entreatments at a higher rate,

Than a command to parley.

Set your entreatments] Entreatments here mean company, conversation, from the French entretien. JOHNSON.

The meaning rather is, Do not show an inclination to listen to him on every slight entreaty. Polonius had said immediately before-" Be somewhat scanter of your maiden presence." B.

Pol. In few, Ophelia,

Do not believe his vows for they are brokers;
Not of that dye which their investments show,
Mere implorators of unholy suits,

Breathing like sanctified and pious bonds,
The better to beguile. This is for all,—

I would not, in plain terms, from this time forth,
Have you so slander any monent's leisure,
As to give words or talk with the lord Hamlet.

Breathing like sanctified and pious bonds.] On which the editor Mr. Theobald remarks, Though all the editors have swallowed this reading implicitly, it is certainly corrupt; and I have been surprised how men of genius and learning could let it pass without some suspicion. What idea can we frame to ourselves of a breathing bond, or of its being sanctified and pious, &c. But he was too hasty in framing ideas before he understood those already framed by the poet, and expressed in very plain words. Do not believe (says Polonius to his daughter) Hamlet's amorous vows made to you; which pretend religion in them (the better to beguile) like those sanctified and pious vows [or bonds] made to heaven. And why should not this pass without suspicion? WARBURTON.

Theobald for bonds substitutes bawds. JOHNSON.

The old reading is certainly right. We have in our author's 142d Sonnet:

66

false bonds of love." MALONE.

"I would not, in plain terms, from this time forth,
"Have you so slander any moment's leisure."

The humour of this is fine. The speaker's character is all affectation. At last he says he will speak plain, and yet cannot for his life; his plain speech of slandering a moment's leisure being of the like, fustian stuff with the rest. WAR

BURTON.

Here is another fine passage, of which I take the beauty to be only imaginary. Palonius says, in plain terms, that is, not in language less elevated or embellished than before, but in terms that cannot be misunderstood: I would not have you so disgrace your most idle moments, as not to find better employ ment for them than lord Hamlet's conversation. JOHNSON.

"Breathing like sanctified and pious bonds." Bonds.' This reading is harsh, and certainly wrong; but Theobald's Bawds' are detestable. The right word is undoubtedly bans i. e. curses: and when the reasoning which goes immediately before is attended to, it will be found so." Not such as their investments show"-" Mere implorators of unholy suits"-alluding to the pious curses of Romish Priests; for had the poet spoken of sanctified and pious vows he would not have likened them to unholy suits: nor would he have talked of their not being such as their investment' (i. e. their character) seems to proclaim. The whole is meant to insinuate, that curses and denunciations (in which curses-prayers or vows were artfully included) were highly criminal. In a word, that Hamlet's vows were merely intended to beguide and might be considered, in fact, as pious curses, which with a fair and specious seeming were infamous, because they prayed for that vengeance on the guilty, which the Almighty might inflict at pleasure. He therefore calls them unholy suits.

“I would not, in plain terms, from this time forth, "Have you so slander any moment's leisure."

The sneer of Johnson, as touching the penetration and taste of Warburton, is insufferable. I will maintain, however, that he who does not accord with the Prelate in his remark, is totally wanting in both. B.

Ham. The king doth wake to-night, and takes

his rouse.