HAM. Indeed, indeed, firs, but this troubles me. Hold you the watch to-night?

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 hafte might tell a hundred.

MAR. BER. Longer, longer.
HOR. Not when I faw it.

wore his beaver up.] Though beaver properly fignified that part of the helmet which was let down, to enable the wearer to drink, Shakspeare always ufes the word as denoting that part of the helmet which, when raifed up, expofed the face of the wearer: and fuch was the popular fignification of the word in his time. In Bullokar's Englih Expofitor, 8vo. 1616, beaver is defined thus:"In armour it fignifies that part of the helmet which may be lifted up, to take breath the more freely." MALONE.

も

HAM.

His beard was grizzl'd? no?

HOR. It was, as I have seen it in his life,

HAM. If it affume my noble father's perfon,

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 fight,

Let it be tenable in your filence still;*
And whatsoever elfe fhall 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,
I'll visit you.

ALL.

Our duty to your honour.

HAM. Your loves, as mine to you: Farewell.
[Exeunt HORATIO, MARCELLUS, and BERNARDO.
My father's fpirit in arms!' all is not well;
I doubt fome foul play: 'would, the night were

come!

Till then fit ftill, my foul: Foul deeds will rife,
Though all the earth o'erwhelm them, to men's eyes.

9 A fable filver'd.] So, in our poet's 12th fonnet:

[Exit.

And fable curls, all filver'd o'er with white." MALONE.

2 Let it be tenable in your filence ftill;] Thus the quartos, and rightly. The folio, 1623, reads-treble. STEEVENS.

3 My father's fpirit in arms!] From what went before, I once hinted to Mr. Garrick, that these words might be spoken in this

mannner:

My father's fpirit! in arms! all is not well ;

WHALLEY.

SCENE III.

A Room in Polonius' House.

Enter LAERTES and OPHELIA.

LAER. My neceffaries are embark'd; farewell: And, fifter, as the winds give benefit,

And convoy is affiftant, do not sleep,

But let me hear from you.

OPH.

Do you doubt that?

LAER. For Hamlet, and the trifling of his favour, Hold it a fashion, and a toy in blood;

A violet in the youth of primy nature,
Forward, not permanent, fweet, not lasting,
The pérfume and fuppliance of a minute; *
No more.

OPH.
LAER.

No more but fo?

Think it no more:

For nature, crefcent, does not grow alone

4 The perfume and fuppliance of a minute ;] Thus the quarto: the folio has it:

-fweet, not lafting,

The fuppliance of a minute.

It is plain that perfume is neceflary to exemplify the idea of weet, not lafting. With the word fuppliance I am not fatisfied, and yet dare hardly offer what I imagine to be right. I fufpect that foffiance, or fome fuch word, formed from the Italian, was then used for the act of fumigating with fweet fcents. JOHNSON.

The perfume and fuppliance of a minute; i. e. what is fupplied to us for a minute; or, as Mr. M. Mafon fuppofes," an amusement to fill up a vacant moment, and render it agreeable." STEEVENS. The words-perfume and, which are found in the quarto, 1604, were omitted in the folio. MALONE.

In thews, and bulk; but, as this temple waxes,
The inward fervice of the mind and foul

Grows wide withal. Perhaps, he loves you now;
And now no foil, nor cautel, doth befmirch
The virtue of his will: but, you must fear,
His greatnefs weigh'd, his will is not his own;
For he himself is fubject to his birth:"
He may not, as unvalued perfons do,

Carve for himself; for on his choice depends
The fafety and the health of the whole ftate; *

5 In thews,] i. c. in finews, mufcular ftrength. So, in King Henry IV. Part II: " Care I for the limb, the thewes, the ftature," &c. See Vol. IX. p. 137, n. 7. STERVENS.

6 And now no foil, nor cautel, doth befmirch

The virtue of his will:] From cautela, which fignifies only a prudent forefight or caution; but, paffing through French hands, it loft its innocence, and now fignifies fraud, deceit. And fo he ufes the adjective in Julius Cæfar:

66

"Swear priefts and cowards, and men cautelous."

WARBURTON.

So, in the fecond part of Greene's Art of Coneycatching, 1592: and their fubtill cautels to amend the ftatute." To amend the ftatute, was the cant phrase for evading the law. STEEVENS. Cautel is fubtlety or deceit. Minfheu 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 fubtle matter,

"Applied to cautels, all ftrange forms receives."

MALONE.

Virtue feems here to comprise both excellence and power, and may be explained the pure effect. JOHNSON.

The virtue of his will means, his virtuous intentions. Cautel means craft. So, Coriolanus fays:

be caught by cautelous baits and practice."

M. MASON.

For he himself &c.] This line is not in the quarto.

MALONE. 8 The fafety and the health of the whole ftate;] Thus the quarto, 1604, except that it has-this whole ftate, and the fecond the is inadvertently omitted. The folio reads:

The fanctity and health of the whole ftate.

This is another proof of arbitrary alterations being fometimes

And therefore muft his choice be circumfcrib'd Unto the voice and yielding of that body, Whereof he is the head: Then if he says, he loves

you,

It fits your wisdom fo far to believe it,
As he in his particular act and place

May give his faying deed; which is no further,
Than the main voice of Denmark goes withal.
Then weigh what lofs your honour may fuftain,
If with too credent ear you lift his fongs;
Or lose your heart; or your chafte treasure open
To his unmaster'd importunity.

Fear it, Ophelia, fear it, my dear fifter;
And keep you in the rear of your affection,'
Out of the shot and danger of defire.
The charieft maid is prodigal enough,
If the unmask her beauty to the moon:
Virtue itself scapes not calumnious strokes:
The canker galls the infants of the fpring,
Too oft before their buttons be difclos'd;
And in the morn and liquid dew of youth
Contagious blastments are most imminent.

made in the folio. The editor, finding the metre defective, in confequence of the article being omitted before health, instead of fupplying it, for fafety fubftituted a word of three fyllables.

MALONE.

9 May give his faying deed;] So, in Timon of Athens: "the deed of faying is quite out of ufe." Again, in Troilus and Creffida: Speaking in deeds, and deedlefs in his tongue.'

2

3

66

unmafter'd-] i. e. licentious. JOHNSON.

MALONE.

keep you in the rear &c.] That is, do not advance fo far as your affection would lead you. JOHNSON.

The charieft maid-] Chary is cautious. So, in Greene's Never too Late, 1616: "Love requires not chastity, but that her foldiers be chary." Again, " She liveth chaftly enough, that liveth charily." STEEVENS.