Work like the spring 2 that turneth wood to stone, LAER. And so have I a noble father lost; 2 WORK like the spring, &c.] This simile is neither very seasonable in the deep interest of this conversation, nor very accurately applied. If the spring had changed base metals to gold, the thought had been more proper. JOHNSON. The folio, instead of-work, reads-would. The same comparison occurs in Churchyard's Choise: "So there is wood that water turns to stones." In Thomas Lupton's Third Book of Notable Things, 4to. bl. l. there is also mention of "a well, that whatsoever is throwne into the same, is turned into a stone." This, however, we learn from Ovid, is no modern supposition : Flumen habent Cicones, quod potum saxea reddit Viscera, quod tactis inducit marmora rebus. See also, Hackluyt, vol. i. p. 565. STEEVENS. The allusion here is to the qualities still ascribed to the dropping well at Knaresborough in Yorkshire. Camden (edit. 1590, p. 564,) thus mentions it: "Sub quo fons est in quem ex impendentibus rupibus aquæ guttatim distillant, unde Dropping Well vocant, in quem quicquid ligni immittitur, lapideo cortice brevi obduci et lapidescere observatum est." REED. 3 for so LOUD A WIND,] Thus the folio. The quarto 1604 reads-for so loued arm'd. If these words have any meaning, it should seem to be [as Mr. Jennens has remarked]—The instruments of offence I employ, would have proved too weak to injure one who is so loved and arm'd by the affection of the people. Their love, like armour, would revert the arrow to the bow. The reading in the text, however, is supported in Ascham's Toxophilus, edit. 1589, p. 57: "Weake bowes and lighte shaftes cannot stand in a rough winde." STEEVENS. Loued arm'd is as extraordinary a corruption as any that is found in these plays. MALONE. 4 - if praises may go back again,] If I may praise what has been, but is now to be found no more. JOHNSON. KING. Break not your sleeps for that: you must not think, That we are made of stuff so flat and dull, That we can let our beard be shook with danger 5, And that, I hope, will teach you to imagine,- MESS. Enter a Messenger. Letters, my lord, from Hamlet": This to your majesty; this to the queen. KING. From Hamlet! who brought them? MESS. Sailors, my lord, they say: I saw them not; They were given me by Claudio, he receiv'd them Of him that brought them ®. KING. Leave us. Laertes, you shall hear them :[Exit Messenger. [Reads.] High and mighty, you shall know, I am set naked on your kingdom. To-morrow shall I beg leave to see your kingly eyes: when I shall, first asking your pardon thereunto, recount the occasions of my sudden and more strange return. HAMLET. What should this mean! Are all the rest come back? Or is it some abuse, and no such thing? LAER. Know you the hand? KING. "Tis Hamlet's character. Naked, That we can let our beard be shook with danger,] It is wonderful that none of the advocates for the learning of Shakspeare have told us that this line is imitated from Persius, Sat. ii. : Idcirco stolidam præbet tibi vellere barbam Jupiter? STEEVENS. 6 How now? &c.] Omitted in the quartos. THEOBALD. 7 Letters, &c.] Omitted in the quartos. STEEVENS. 8 Of him that brought them.] I have restored this hemistich from the quartos. STEEVENS. And, in a postscript here, he says, alone: LAER. I am lost in it, my lord. But let him come; It warms the very sickness in my heart, KING. If it be so, Laertes, As how should it be so ? how otherwise? Will you be rul'd by me? So LAER. Ay, my lord; you will not o'er-rule me to a peace *. As checking at his voyage, and that he means To an exploit, now ripe in my device, Under the which he shall not choose but fall: And for his death no wind of blame shall breathe; But even his mother shall uncharge the practice, And call it, accident. LAER.1 My lord, I will be rul'd; * First folio, omitting Ay my lord, reads, If so you'll not o'er-rule me to a peace. 9 AS CHECKING at his voyage,] The phrase is from falconry; and may be justified from the following passage in Hinde's Eliosto Libidinoso, 1606: " For who knows not, quoth she, that this hawk, which comes now so fair to the fist, may to-morrow check at the lure?" - Again, in G. Whetstone's Castle of Delight, 1576: "But as the hawke, to gad which knowes the way, "Will hardly leave to checke at carren crowes," &c. STEEVENS. "As checking at his voyage." Thus the folio. The quarto 1604 exhibits a corruption similar to that mentioned in n. 3, p. 448. It reads:-"As the king at his voyage." MALONE. Laer. &c.] The next sixteen lines are omitted in the folio. STEEVENS. The rather, if you could devise it so, That I might be the organ. KING. It falls right. You have been talk'd of since your travel much, LAER. What part is that, my lord? KING. A very ribband in the cap of youth, Yet needful too; for youth no less becomes The light and careless livery that it wears, Than settled age his sables, and his weeds, Importing health and graveness.-Two months since. Here was a gentleman of Normandy, I have seen myself, and serv'd against, the French, *First folio, some two months hence. † First folio, ran. First folio, into. 2 Of the unworthiest SIEGE.] Of the lowest rank. Siege, for seat, place. JOHNSON. So, in Othello: 66 I fetch my birth "From men of royal siege." STEEVENS. 3 IMPORTING HEALTH and graveness.] Importing here may be, not inferring by logical consequence, but producing by physical effect. A young man regards show in his dress; an old man, health. JOHNSON. Importing health, I apprehend, means, denoting an attention to health. MALone. Importing may only signify-implying, denoting. So, in King Henry VI. P. I.: 66 Comets, importing change of times and states." Mr. Malone's explanation, however, may be the true one. STEEVENS. With the brave beast: so far he topp'd my thought, That I, inrgery of shapes and tricks 3, Come short of what he did. LAER. I know him well: he is the brooch, in deed, And gem of all the nation. KING. He made confession of you; 8 If one could match you: the scrimers of their nation, He swore, had neither motion, guard, nor eye, That he could nothing do, but wish and beg *First folio, past. + First folio, especially. As he had been incorps'd and demi-natur'd With the brave beast] This is from Sidney's Arcadia, b. ii. "As if, Centaur-like, he had been one peece with the horse." STEEVENS. 5-in forgery of shapes and tricks,] I could not contrive so many proofs of dexterity as he could perform. JOHNSON. Lamord.] Thus the quarto 1604. Shakspeare, I suspect, wrote Lamode. See the next speech but one : he is the brooch, indeed, "And gem of all the nation." The folio has-Lamound. MALONE. 7 - in your defence,] That is, in the science of defence. 8 the SCRIMERS] The fencers. JOHNSON. From escrimeur, Fr. a fencer. MALONE. JOHNSON. This unfavourable description of the French swordsmen is not in the folio. STEEVENS. |