Enter POLONIUS. A double blessing is a double grace; POL. Yet here, Laertes! aboard, aboard, for shame; The wind sits in the shoulder of your sail, you; [Laying his Hand on LAERTES' Head. And these few precepts in thy memory 4 -the shoulder of your sail,] This is a common sea phrase. STEEVENS. And these few precepts in thy memory Look thou charácter.] i. e. write, strongly infix. The same phrase is again used by our author in his 122d Sonnet : 66 thy tables are within my brain "Full character'd with lasting memory." Again, in The Two Gentlemen of Verona: I do conjure thee, "Who art the table wherein all my thoughts "Are visibly character'd and engrav'd." MALONE. "Grapple them to thy soul with hooks of steel;] The old copies read with hoops of steel. I have no doubt that this was a corruption in the original quarto of 1604, arising, like many others, from similitude of sounds. The emendation, which was made by Mr. Pope, and adopted by three subsequent editors, is strongly supported by the word grapple. See Minsheu's Dict. 1617: "To hook or grapple, viz. to grapple and to board a ship." A grapple is an instrument with several hooks to lay hold of a ship, in order to board it. This correction is also justified by our poet's 137th Sonnet: But do not dull thy palm with entertainment Bear it that the opposer may beware of thee. Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy, But not express'd in fancy; rich, not gaudy: "Why of eyes' falshood hast thou forged hooks, It may be also observed, that hooks are sometimes made of steel, but hoops never. MALONE. We have, however, in King Henry IV. P. II: "A hoop of gold to bind thy brothers in." The former part of the phrase occurs also in Macbeth : "Grapples you to the heart and love of us." " But do not dull thy palm with entertainment STEEVENS. Of each new-hatch'd, unfledg'd comrade.] The literal sense is, Do not make thy palm callous by shaking every man by the hand. The figurative meaning may be, Do not by promiscuous conversation make thy mind insensible to the difference of characters. JOHNSON. 8 each man's censure,] Censure is opinion. So, in King Henry VI. P. II: "The king is old enough to give his censure." STEEVENS. "A man's attire, For the apparel oft proclaims the man;] and excessive laughter, and gait, shew what he is.” ver. 30. TODD. Eccus XIX. Are most select and generous, chief in that.] I think the whole design of the precept shows that we should read: Are most select, and generous chief, in that. Chief may be an adjective used adverbially, a practice common to our author: chiefly generous. Yet it must be owned that the punctuation recommended is very stiff and harsh. Neither a borrower, nor a lender be: I would, however, more willingly read: And they in France, of the best rank and station, Let the reader, who can discover the slightest approach towards sense, harmony, or metre, in the original line,Are of a most select and generous chief, in that,— adhere to the old copies. STEEvens. The genuine meaning of the passage requires us 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, and chiefly in the point of apparel; the richness and elegance of their dress. RITSON. Are of a most select and generous chief, in that.] Thus the quarto, 1604, and the folio, except that in that copy the word chief is spelt cheff. The substantive chief, which signifies in heraldry the upper part of the shield, appears to have been in common use in Shakspeare's time, being found in Minsheu's Dictionary, 1617. He defines it thus: Est superior et scuti nobilior pars; tertiam partem ejus obtinet; ante Christi adventum dabatur in maximi honoris signum; senatoribus et honoratis viris." B. Jonson has used the word in his Poetaster. The meaning then 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. So, in Bacon's Colours of Good and Evil, 16mo. 1597: "In the warmer climates the people are generally more wise, but in the northern climates the wits of chief are greater." If chief in this sense had not been familiarly understood, the editor of the folio must have considered the line as unintelligible, and would have probably omitted the words of a in the beginning of it, or attempted some other correction. That not having been done, I have adhered to the old copies. Our poet from various passages in his works, appears to have been accurately acquainted with all the terms of heraldry. MALONE. And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry." LAER. Farewell, Ophelia; and remember well What I have said to you. OPH. 'Tis in my memory lock'd, And you yourself shall keep the key of it." Of chief, in the passage quoted from Bacon, is, I believe, a bald translation of the old French phrase-de chef, whatever, in the present instance, might be its intended meaning. STEEVENS. of husbandry.] i. e. of thrift; œconomical prudence. See Vol. X. p. 93, n. 5. MALONE. 3 And it must follow, as the night the day,] So, in the 145th Sonnet of Shakspeare: "That follow'd it as gentle day "Doth follow night," &c. STEEVens. •my blessing season this in thee!] Season, for infuse. WARBURTON. It is more than to infuse, it is to infix it in such a manner as that it never may wear out. JOHNSON. So, in the mock tragedy represented before the king: "who in want a hollow friend doth try, Directly seasons him his enemy." STEEVENS. The time invites you;] So, in Macbeth: "I go, and it is done, the bell invites me." STEEVENS. Thus the folio. The quarto, 1604, reads-The time invests you: which Mr. Theobald preferred, supposing that it meant, the time besieges, presses upon you on every side." But to invest, in Shakspeare's time, only signified, to clothe, or give possession. MALONE. 6 · your servants tend.] i. e. your servants are waiting for you. JOHNSON. 7. yourself shall keep the key of it.] The meaning is, LAER. Farewell. [Exit LAERTES. POL. What is't, Ophelia, he hath said to you? OPH. So please you, something touching the lord Hamlet. POL. Marry, well bethought: 'Tis told me, he hath very oft of late Given private time to you: and you yourself Have of your audience been most free and boun teous: If it be so, (as so 'tis put on me, And that in way of caution,) I must tell you, OPH. He hath, my lord, of late, made many tenders Of his affection to me. POL. Affection? puh! you speak like a green girl, Unsifted in such perilous circumstance." that your counsels are as sure of remaining locked up in my memory, as if yourself carried the key of it. So, in Northward Hoe, by Decker and Webster, 1607: "You shall close it up like a treasure of your own, and yourself shall keep the key of it." STEEVENS. 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. That sifted means tempted may be seen in the 31st verse of the 22d chapter of St. Luke's gospel. HARRIS. |