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The genuine meaning of the passage requires is to point the line thus:

"Are most select and generous, chief in that." i. e. the nobility of France are select and generous above all other nations, aud chiefly in the point of apparel; the richness and elegance of their dress. RITSON,

The substantive chief, which siguifies in heraldry the upper part of the shield, appears to have been in common use in Shakspeare's time, and the meaning seems to be, They in France approve themselves of a most select and generous escutcheon by their dress. Generous is used with the signification of generosus. So, in Othello: The generous islanders," &c.

Chief, however, may have been used as a substantive, for note or estimation, without any allusion to heraldry, though the word was perhaps originally heraldick.

Our poet from various passages in his works, appears to have been accurately acquainted with all the terms of heraldry. MALONE.

P. 21, 1. 27. the edge of husbandry.] i. e. of thrift; oeconomical prudence. MALONE.

P. 21, 1. 31.

my blessing season this in thee!] Season, for

infuse. WARBURTON.

It is more than to infuse, it is to iufix it in such a manner as that it never may wear out.

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JOHNSON.

P. 21, last but one 1. your servants tend.] i. e. your servants are waiting for you. JOHNSON P. 22, 1. 2. 3. 'Tis in my memory lock'd,

And you yourself shall keep the key of it.] The meaning is, that your counsels are as sure of

remaining locked up in my memory, as if yourself carried the key of it. STEEVENS.

P. 22, 1. 23. 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.

It means, I believe, one who has not sufficiently considered, or thoroughly sifted such matters. M. MASON.

I do not think that the sense requires us to understand untempted. "Unsifted in," &c. means, I think, one who has not nicely canvassed and examined the peril of her situation. MALONE.

P. 22, 1. 30-33.

Tender yourself more dearly;

Or (not to crack the wind of the poor phrase, Wronging it thus,) you'll tender me a fool.] The parenthesis is closed at the wrong place; and we must have likewise a slight correction in the last verse. [Wringing it, &c.] Polonius is racking and playing on the word tender, till he thinks proper to correct himself for the licence; and then he would say not farther to crack the wind of the phrase, by twisting it and contorting it, as I have done. WARBURTON.

I believe, the word wronging has reference, not to the phrase, but to Ophelia; if you go on wronging it thus, that is, if you continue to go on thus wrong. This is a mode of speaking perhaps not very grammatical, but very common; nor have the best writers refused it:

"To sinner it or saint it,"

is in Pope. And Rowe,

" Thus to coy it,

"With one who knows you too."

The folio has it-Roaming it thus. That is, letting yourself loose to such improper liberty. But wrouging seems to be more proper. Johnson. P. 22, last 1. & P. 23, first 1. Oph. My Lord, he hath importun'd me with love,

In honourable fashion.

Pol. Ay, fashion you may call it;] She uses fashion for manner, and he for a transient practice. Johnson.

P. 23, 1. 5.

springes to catch woodcocks.] A proverbial saying, "Every woman has a springs to catch a woodcock. STEEVENS.

P. 23, 1. 8., Lends the tongue vows: these blazes, daughter,] Some epithet to blazes was probably omitted, by the carelessness of the transcriber or compositor, in the first quarto, in consequence of which the metre is defective. MALONE.

P. 23, 1. 13. Set your entreatments at a higher rate,] Entreatments here mean company, conversation, from the

French entretien. JOHNSON.

Entreatments, I rather think, means the objects of entreaty; the favours for which lovers sue. MALONE.

P. 23, 1. 16.

ses. POPE.

tether] A string to tie hor

Tether is that string by which an animal, set to graze in grounds uninclosed, is confined within the proper limits. JOHNSON.

Tether is a string by which any animal is fastened, whether for the sake of feeding or the air.

STEEVENS.

P. 23, 1. 18. A broker in old English meant a bawd or pimp. MALONE.

P. 23, I. 18-22. Do not believe his vows: for they are brokers Not of that die which their investments show,

But mere implorators of unholy suits, Breathing like sanctified and pious bonds, The better to beguile.] On which the editor, Mr. Theobald, remarks, Though all the editors have swallowed this reading implicitly, it is certainly corrupt; and I have been surprized 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. Notwithstanding Warburton's elaborate explanation of this passage, I have not the least doubt but Theobald is right, and that we ought to read bawds instead of bonds. Indeed the present reading is little better than nonsense.

Polonius had called Hamlet's vows, brokers, but two lines before, a synonymous word to bawds, and the very title that Shakspeare gives to Pandarus, in his Troilus and Cressida. The words implorators of unholy suits, are an exact descrip

tion

tion of a bawd; and all such of them as are crafty in their trade, put on the appearance of sanctity, and are not of that die which their investments shew.' M. MASON.

The old reading is indoubtedly the true one. Do not, says Polonius, believe his vows, for they are merely uttered for the purpose of persuading you to yield to a criminal passion, though they appear only the genuine effusion of a pure and lawful affection, and assume the semblance of those sacred engagements entered into at the altar of wedlock. The bonds here in our poet's thoughts were bonds of love.

Dr. Warburton certainly misunderstood this passage, and when he triumphantly asks "why may not this pass without suspicion ?" if he means his own comment, the answer is, because it is not perfectly accurate. MALONE.

P. 23, 1. 23-25. I would not, in plain terms, from this time forth, Have you so slander any moment's leisure, As to give words or talk with the lord Hamlet.] Polonius

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 employment for them than lord Hamlet's conversation. JOHNSON. an eager air.] That is, a sharp MALONE.

P. 23, last 1. air, aigre, Fr. P. 24, 1. 11.

and takes his rouse,] A rouse

is a large dose of liquor, a debauch. STEEVENS.

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