That liberal' shepherds give a grosser name,
But our cold maids do dead men's fingers call them:
There on the pendent boughs her coronet weeds
Clambering to hang, an envious sliver broke;
When down her weedy trophies, and herself,
Fell in the weeping brook. Her clothes spread
wide;

And, mermaid-like, a while they bore her up:
Which time, she chanted snatches of old tunes ;'

the modern botanical name of which is orchis morio mas, anciently testiculus morionis. The grosser name by which it passes, is sufficiently known in many parts of England, and particularly in the county where Shakspeare lived. Thus far Mr. Warner. Mr. Collins adds, that in Sussex it is still called dead men's hands; and that in Lyte's Herbal, 1578, its various names, too gross for repetition, are preserved.

Dead men's thumbs are mentioned in an ancient bl. 1. ballad, entitled The deceased Maiden Lover:

"Then round the meddowes did she walke,

"Catching each flower by the stalke,
"Such as within the meddowes grew;

"As dead mans thumbe, and hare-bell blew."

STEEVENS.

One of the grosser names of this plant Gertrude had a particular reason to avoid :—the rampant widow. MALone.

9

liberal-] Licentious. See Vol. IV. p. 255, n. 7; Vol. VI. p. 122, n. 6; Vol. VIII. p. 197, n. 5, and p. 275, n. 5.

REED.

Again, in

Liberal is free-spoken, licentious in language. So, in Othello: "Is he not a most profane and liberal counsellor ?" A Woman's a Weathercock, by N. Field, 1612:

Next that, the fame

"Of your neglect, and liberal-talking tongue,
"Which breeds my honour an eternal wrong.'

MALONE.

Which time, she chanted snatches of old tunes;] Fletcher, in his Scornful Lady, very invidiously ridicules this incident: "I will run mad first, and if that get not pity, "I'll drown myself to a most dismal ditty."

WARBURTON,

As one incapable of her own distress,2
Or like a creature native and indu'd
Unto that element: but long it could not be,
Till that her garments, heavy with their drink,
Pull'd the poor wretch from her melodious lay
To muddy death.*

LAER.

Alas then, she is drown'd?

QUEEN. Drown'd, drown'd.

The quartos read-snatches of old lauds, i. e. hymns.

STEEVENS.

2 As one incapable of her own distress,] As one having no understanding or knowledge of her danger. See p. 249, n. 1.

That is, insensible. So, in King Richard III: "Incapable and shallow innocents."

3 Or like a creature native and indu'd

RITSON.

MALONE.

Unto that element:] I do not think the word indued is sense in this place; and believe we should read inured.

Shakspeare seems to have forgot himself in this scene, as there is not a single circumstance in the relation of Ophelia's death, that induces us to think she had drowned herself intentionally. M. MASON.

As we are indued with certain original dispositions and propensities at our birth, Shakspeare here uses indued with great licentiousness, for formed by nature; clothed, endowed, or furnished, with properties suited to the element of water.

Our old writers used indued and endowed indiscriminately. "To indue," says Minsheu in his Dictionary," sepissime refertur ad dotes animo infusas, quibus nimirum ingenium alicujus imbutum et initiatum est, unde et G. instruire est L. imbuere. Imbuere proprie est inchoare et initiari.”

In Cotgrave's French Dictionary, 1611, instruire is interpreted, "to fashion, to furnish with." MALONE.

To muddy death.] In the first scene of the next Act we find Ophelia buried with such rites as betoken she foredid her own life. It should be remembered, that the account here given, is that of a friend; and that the Queen could not possibly know what passed in the mind of Ophelia, when she placed herself in so perilous a situation. After the facts had been weighed and considered, the priest in the next Act pronounces, that her death was doubtful. MALONE.

LAER. Too much of water hast thou, poor

Ophelia,

And therefore I forbid my tears: But yet
It is our trick; nature her custom holds,
Let shame say what it will: when these are gone,
The woman will be out.5-Adieu, my lord!
I have a speech of fire, that fain would blaze,
But that this folly drowns it."

KING.

[Exit.

Let's follow, Gertrude : How much I had to do to calm his rage! Now fear I, this will give it start again; Therefore, let's follow.

[Exeunt.

ACT V. SCENE I.

A Church Yard.

Enter Two Clowns, with Spades, &c.

1 CLO. Is she to be buried in christian burial, that wilfully seeks her own salvation?

2 CLO. I tell thee, she is; therefore make her grave straight: the crowner hath set on her, and finds it christian burial.

The woman will be out.] i. e. tears will flow. So, in K. Henry V:

"And all the woman came into my eyes." MALONE. See Vol. XII. p. 476, n. 1. STEEVENS.

" But that this folly drowns it.] Thus the quarto, 1604. The folio reads-But that this folly doubts it; i. e. douts or extinguishes it. See p. 68, n. 4. MALONE.

7

-make her grave straight:] Make her grave from east