Thus the true reading is picked out from between them, Sir T. Hanmer reads unnecessarily, ་ JOHNSON. Feeds on his anger, P101, 1. 11 - 13. Wherein necessity, of matter beggar'd, Will nothing stick our person to arraign * Whence animosity, of matter beggar'd. He seems not to have understood the connection. Wherein, that is, in which pestilent speeches, necessity, or, the obligation of an accuser to support his charge, will nothing stick, &c. JOHNSON. Like to a murdering-piece, in many places Gives me superfluous death!] Such a piece as assasins use, with many barrels. It is necessary to apprehend this, to see the justness of the similitude. WARBURTON. It appears from a passage in Smith's Sea Grammar, 1627, that it was a piece of ordnance used in ships of war: “A case-shot is any kinde of small bullets, nailes, old iron, or the like, to put into the case, to shoot out of the ordnances or murderers; these will doe much mischiefe, "&c. STEEVENS. A murdering-piece was the specifick term in Shakspeare's time, for a piece of ordnance, or small cannon. The word is found in Cole's Latin Dictionary, 1679, and rendered, "tormentum murale." The small cannon, which are, or were used in the forecastle, half-deck or steerage of a ship of war, were within this century, called murderingpieces. MALONE. Perhaps what is now, from the manner of it, called a swivel. It is mentioned in Sir T. Roes Voiage to the E. Indies, at the end of Della Valle's Travels, 1665: “the East India Company had a very little pinnace...mann'd she was with ten men', and had only one small murder→ ing-piece within her." Probably it was never charged with a single ball, but always with shot, pieces of old iron," &c. RITSON. P. 101, 1. 19. Where are my Switzers ?] I have observed in many of our old plays, that the guards, attendant on Kings, are called Switzers, and that without any regard to the country where the scene lies. REED. The reason is, because the Swiss in the time of our poet, as at present, were hired to fight the battles of other nations. MALONE.S P. 101, 1. 22. The ocean overpeering of his list,] The lists are the barriers which the spectators of a tournament must not pass. JOHNSON. List, in this place, only signifies boundary, i. e. the shore. The selvage of cloth was in both places, I be→ lieve, in our author's thoughts. MALONE. P. 101, 1.25-29. · The rabble call him Lord; And as the world were now but to begin, Antiquity forgot, custom not known, The ratifiers and props of every word, They cry, Choose we; Laertes shall be King! By word is here meant a declaration, or proposal. It is determined to this sense, by the inference it hath to what had just preceded: "The rabble call him Lord," &c. This acclamation, which is the word here spoken of, was made without regard to antiquity, or re ceived custom, whose occurrence, however, is necessarily required to confer validity and stability in every proposal of this kind. HEATH. Sir T. Hanmer would transpose this line and the next. Dr. Warburton proposes to read, ward; and Dr. Johnson, weal, instead of word. I should be rather for reading work. TYRWHITT. In the first folio there is only a comma at the end of the above line; and will not the passage bear this construction? The rabble call him Lord, and as if the world were now but to begin, and as if the ancient custom of hereditary suceession were unknown, they, the ratifiers and props of every word he utters, cry, Let us make choice, that Laertes shall be King. TOLLET. This construction might certainly be admitted, and the ratifiers and props of every word might be understood to be applied to the rabble mentioned in a preceding line, without Sir T. Haniner's transposition of this and the following line; but there is no authority for what Mr. Tollet adds, "of every word he [Laertes] utiers," for the poet has not described Laertes as having uttered a word. If therefore the rabble are called the ratifiers and props of every word, we must understand, "of every word uttered by themselves:" which is so tame, that it would be unjust to our poet to suppose that to have been his meaning. Ratifiers, &c. refer not to the people, but to custom and antiquity, which the speaker says are the true ratifiers and props of every word. The last word, how ever, of the line may well be suspected to be corrupt; and Mr. Tyrwhitt has probably suggested the true reading. MALONE. P. 101, last but one 1. O, this is counter, you false Danish dogs.] Hounds run counter when they trace the trail backwards. JOHNSON. - P. 102, 1. 15. between the chaste unsmirched brow,] i. e. clean, not defiled. To besmirch, our author uses, Act I. sc. v. and again in K. Henry V. Act. V. sc. iii. This seems to be an allusion to a proverb often introduced in the old comedies. Thus, in The London Prodigal, 1605: “—as true as the skin between any man's brows." STEEVENS. P. 104, l. 3-5. Nature is fine in love: and, where 'tis fine, It sends some precious instance of itself After the thing it loves.] These lines are not in the quarto, and might have been omitted in the folio without great loss, for they are obscure and affected; but, I think, they require no emendation. Love (says Laertes) is the passion by which nature is most exalted and refined; and as substances, refined and subtilised, easily obey any impulse, or follow any attraction, some part of nature, so purified and refined, flies off after the attracting object, after the thing it loves: "As into air the purer spirits flow, "And separate from their kindred dregs below, "So flew her soul." JOHNSON. The meaning of the passage may be That her wits, like the spirit of fine essences, flew off or evaporated. Fine, however, sometimes signifies artful. STEEVENS. P. 104, 1. 7. Hey no nonny, nonny hey nonny:] These words, which were the burthen of a song, are found only in the folio. MALONE. P. 104, 1. 14-16. O, how the wheel becomes it! It is the false steward, that stole his master's daughter.] The story alluded to I do not know; but perhaps the lady stolen by the steward was reduced to spin. JOHNSON. The wheel may mean no more than the burthen of the song, which she had just repeated, and as · such was formerly used. I met with the following observation in an old quarto black-letter book, published before the time of Shakspeare: The song was accounted a good one, thogh it was not moche graced by the wheele, which in no wise accorded with the subject matter thereof.” I quote this from memory, and from a book, of which I cannot recollect the exact title or date; but the passage was in a preface to some songs or sonnets. I well remember, to have met with the word in the same sense in other old books. Rota, indeed, as I am informed, is the ancient musical term in Latin, for the burden of a song. Dr. Farmer, however, hast just favoured me with a quotation from Nicholas Breton's Toyes of an idle Head, 1577; which at once explains the word wheel in the sense for which I have contended: "That I may sing, full merrily,. "Not heigh ho wele, but care away!" i. e. not with a melancholy, but a cheerful burthen. I formerly supposed that the ballad, alluded to by Ophelia, was that entered on the books of the Stationers' Company; "October 1580. Four ballades of the Lord of Lorn and the False Steward, &c. but Mr. Ritson assures me there is no corresponding theft in it. STEVENS. I am iuclined to think that wheel is here used in its ordinary sense, and that these words allude |