The words Stop it, Marcellus,

and Do, if it will not stand better suit the next speaker, Bernardo, who, in the true spirit of an unlettered officer, nihil non arroget armis. Perhaps the first idea that occurs to a man of this description, is to strike at what offends him. Nicholas Poussin, in his celebrated picture of the Crucifixion, has introduced a similiar occurrence. While lots are casting for the sacred vesture, the graves are giving up their dead. This prodigy is perceived by one of the soldiers, who instantly grasps his sword, as if preparing to defend himself, or resent such an invasion from the other world.

The two next speeches 'Tis here!-'Tis here! may be allotted to Marcellus and Bernardo; and the third 'Tis gone! &c. to Horatio, whose superiority of character indeed seems to demand it. -As the text now stands, Marcellus proposes to strike the Ghost with his partizan, and yet afterwards is made to descant on the indecorum and impotence of such an attempt.

The names of speakers have so often been confounded by the first publishers of our author, that 1 suggest this change with less hesitation than I should express concerning any conjecture that could operate to the disadvantage of his words or meaning. Had the assignment of the old copies been such, would it have been thought liable to objection? STEEVENS.

P. 9. 1.5-9.

-

and, at his warning, Whether in sea or fire, in earth or air, The extravagant and erring spirit hies

To his confine and of &c.] According to the pneumatology of that time, every element was inhabited by its peculiar order of spirits, who had dispositions different, according to their various

or

places of abode. The meaning therefore is, that ill spirits extravagant, wandering out of their element, whether aërial spirits visiting earth, earthly spirits ranging the air, return to their station, to their proper limits in which they are confined. We might read:

And at his warning

"Th' extravagant and erring spirit hies
"To his con fine, whether in sea or air,
"Or earth, or fire. And of," &c.

But this change, though it would smooth the construction, is not necessary, and, being unnecesshould not be made against authority.

sary,

JOHNSON. A Chorus in Andreini's drama, called Adamo, written in 1613, consists of spirits of fire, air, water, and hell, or subterraneous, being the exiled angels. "Choro di Spiriti ignei, aerei, acquatici, ed infernali," &c. These are the demons to which Shakspeare alludes. These spirits were supposed to control the elements in which they respectively resided; and when formally invoked or com→ manded by a magician, to produce tempests, conflagrations, floods, and earthquakes. T. WARTON.

Bourne of Newcastle, in his Antiquities of the common People, inform us, "It is a received tradition among the vulgar, that at the time of cockcrowing, the midnight spirits forsake these lower regions, and. go to their proper places. Hence it is, (says he) that in country places, where the way of life requires more early labour, they always go chearfully to work at that time; whereas if they are called abroad sooner, they imagine every thing they see, a wandering ghost." And he quotes on this occasion, as all his predecessors had done, the well-known lines from the first hymn

of Prudentius. I know not whose translation he gives us, but there is an old one by Haywood. The pious chansons, the hyms and carrols, which Shakspeare mentions presently, were usually copied from the elder Christian poets. FARMER. Extravagant i. e. got out of his bounds.

WARBURTON. P. 9, l. 10. It faded on the crowing of the cock;] This is a very ancient superstition. Philostratus giving an account of the apparition of Achilles' shade to Apollonius Tyaneus, says that it vanished with a little glim

mer

as soon as the cock crowed. Vit. Apol. iv. 16. STEEVENS.

Faded has here its original sense; it vanished. Vado, Lat. MALONE.

P. 9, l. 16. No fairy takes,] No fairy strikes with lameness or diseases. This sense of take is frequent in this author. JOHNSON,

P. 10. 1. 17. With one auspicious, and one dropping eye;] Perhaps, we have here only the ancient proverbial phrase- "To cry with one eye and laugh with the other," buckram'd by our author for the service of tragedy. See Ray's Collection, edit. 1768, p. 188. STEEVENS.

Dropping in this line probably means depressed or cast downwards. It may, however, signify weeping. "Dropping of the eyes" was a technical expression in our author's time. MALONE. P. 10, 1. 29. Colleagued with this dream of his advantage,] The meaning is,He goes to war so indiscreetly, and unprepared, that he has no allies to support him but a dream, with which he is colleagued or coufederated. WARBURTON.

This dream of his advantage (as Mr. M. Mason observes) means only "this imaginary advantage, which Fortinbras hoped to derive from the state of the kingdom." STEEVENS.

to suppress

P. 11, 1. 5. 6. His further gait herein;] Gate or gait is here used in the northern sense for proceeding, passage; from the A. S. verb gae. A gate for a path, passage, or street, is still current in the north. PERCY.

P. 11, l. 12. 13. more than the scope

-

Of these dilated articles allow,] More is comprized in the general design of these articles, which you may explain in a more diffuse and dilated style. JOHNSON.

these dilated articles] i. e. the articles when dilated. MuSGRAVE.

allow. The poet should have written allows. Many writers fall into this error, when a plural noun immediately precedes the verb. MALONE. P. 11, 1. 25-27. The head is not more native io the heart,

The hand more instrumental to the mouth,
Than is the throne of Denmark to thy

father.] The

sense

seems to be this: The head is not formed to be more useful to the heart, the hand is not more at the service of the mouth, than my power is at your father's service. That is, he may command me to the utmost, he may do what he pleases with my kingly authority. STEEVENS.

By native to the heart Dr. Johnson understands, "natural and congenial to it, born with it, and co-operating with it."

Formerly the heart was supposed the seat of

wisdom; and hence the poet speaks of the close connexion between the heart and head. MALONE. P. 12, 1. 8-10. Take thy fair hour, Laertes: time be thine,

And thy best graces: spend it at thy will.] The sense is,You have my leave to go, Laertes make the fairest use you please of your time, and spend it at your will with the fairest graces you are master of." THEOBALD.

I rather think this line is in want of emendation. I read :

time is thine,

And my best graces: spend it at thy will.

JOHNSON. P. 12, l. 11-13. But now, my cousin Hamlet,

and my son,—

Ham. A little more than kin, and less

than kind.]

Kind is the Teutonick word for child. Hamlet therefore answers with propriety, to the titles of cousin and son, which the King had given him, that he was somewhat more than cousin, and less than son. JOHNSON.

In this line, with which Shakspeare introduces Hamlet, Dr. Johnson has perhaps pointed out a nicer distinction than it can justly boast of. To establish the sense contended for, it should have been proved that kind was ever used by an English writer for child. A little more than kin, is a little more than a common relation. The King was certainly something less than kind, by having betrayed the mother of Hamlet into an indecent and incestuous marriage, and obtained the crown by means which he suspects to be unjustifiable. In the fifth act, the Prince accuses his uncle of having popp'd in between the election and his hopes,