But answer made it none: yet once, methought, It lifted up its head, and did address Itself to motion, like as it would speak: But, even then, the morning cock crew loud;" Нам. 'Tis very strange. HOR. As I do live, my honour'd lord, 'tis true; And we did think it writ down in our duty, To let you know of it. HAM. Indeed, indeed, sirs, but this troubles me. Hold you the watch to-night? Then saw you not ALL. My lord, from head to foot. HAM. His face. 7 the morning cock crew loud;] The moment of the evanescence of spirits was supposed to be limited to the crowing of the cock. This belief is mentioned so early as by Prudentius, Cathem. Hymn. I. v. 40. But some of his commentators prove it to be of much higher antiquity. It is a most inimitable circumstance in Shakspeare, so to have managed this popular idea, as to make the Ghost, which has been so long obstinately silent, and of course must be dismissed by the morning, begin or rather prepare to speak, and to be interrupted, at the very critical time of the crowing of a cock. Another poet, according to custom, would have suffered his Ghost tamely to vanish, without contriving this start, which is like å start of guilt. To say nothing of the aggravation of the future suspence, occasioned by this preparation to speak, and to impart some mysterious secret. Less would have been expected, had nothing been promised. T. WARTON. HOR. O, yes, my lord; he wore his beaver up. HAM. What, look'd he frowningly? Very like: Stay'd it long? HOR. While one with moderate haste might tell a hundred. MAR. BER. Longer, longer. HOR. Not when I saw it. Нам. His beard was grizzl❜d? no? HOR. It was, as I have seen it in his life, A sable silver'd." 8 wore his beaver up.] Though beaver properly signified that part of the helmet which was let down, to enable the wearer to drink, Shakspeare always uses the word as denoting that part of the helmet which, when raised up, exposed the face of the wearer and such was the popular signification of the word in his time. In Bullokar's English Expositor, 8vo. 1616, beaver is defined thus:-" In armour it signifies that part of the helmet which may be lifted up, to take breath the more freely." MALONE. So, in Laud's Diary: "The Lord Broke shot in the left eye, and killed in the place at Lichfield-his bever up, and armed to the knee, so that a musket at that distance could have done him little harm." FARMER. A sable silver'd.] So, in our poet's 12th Sonnet: VOL. XVIII. E MALONE. HAM. I will watch to-night; Perchance, 'twill walk again. HOR. I warrant, it will. HAM. If it assume 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 you have hitherto conceal'd this sight, Let it be tenable in your silence still;1 And whatsoever else shall 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, ril visit you. ALL. Our duty to your honour. HAM. Your loves, as mine to you: Farewell. [Exeunt HORATIO, MARCELLUS, and BER NARDO. My father's spirit in arms!2 all is not well; come! Till then sit still, my soul: Foul deeds will rise, Though all the earth o'erwhelm them, to men's eyes. [Exit. Let it be tenable in your silence still;] Thus the quartos, and rightly. The folio, 1623, reads-treble. STEEVENS. ર My father's spirit in arms!] From what went before, I once hinted to Mr. Garrick, that these words might be spoken in this manner: My father's spirit! in arms! all is not well;—. WHALLEY. SCENE III. A Room in Polonius' House. Enter LAERTES and OPHELIA. LAER. My necessaries are embark'd; farewell: And, sister, as the winds give benefit, And convoy is assistant, do not sleep, But let me hear from you. OPH. Do you doubt that? LAER. For Hamlet, and the trifling of his fa vour, Hold it a fashion, and a toy in blood; 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 was supplied to us for a minute; or, as Mr. M. Mason supposes, an amusement to fill up a vacant moment, and render it agreeable.' This word occurs in Chapman's version of the ninth Iliad, of Homer: by my suppliance given." STEEVENS. The words perfume and, which are found in the quarto, 1604, were omitted in the folio. MALONE. ОРН. No more but so? Think it no more: alone For nature, crescent, does not grow In thews, and bulk; but, as this temple waxes, In thews,] i. e. in sinews, muscular strength. So, in King Henry IV. P. II: "Care I for the limb, the thewes, the stature,' &c. See Vol. XII. p. 141, n. 6. STEEVENS. 5 And now no soil, nor cautel, doth besmirch The virtue of his will;] From cautela, which signifies only a prudent foresight or caution; but, passing through French hands, it lost its innocence, and now signifies fraud, deceit. And so he uses the adjective in Julius Cæsar: "Swear priests and cowards, and men cautelous." WARBURTON. So, in the second part of Greene's Art of Coneycatching, 1592: and their subtill cautels to amend the statute." To amend the statute, was the cant phrase for evading the law. STEEVENS. Cautel is subtlety or deceit. Minsheu in his Dictionary, 1617, defines it, "A crafty way to deceive." The word is again used by Shakspeare, in A Lover's Complaint: "In him a plenitude of subtle matter, "Applied to cautels, all strange forms receives." MALONE. and Virtue seems here to comprise both excellence and power, may be explained the pure effect. JOHNSON. The virtue of his will means, his virtuous intentions. Cautel means craft. So, Coriolanus says: be caught by cautelous baits and practice." M. MASON. 6 For he himself &c.] This line is not in the quarto. MALONE, |