Will you be rul❜d by me? Laer. Ay; fo you'll not o'er-rule me to a peace. King. To thine own peace. If he be now return'd, As liking not his voyage, and that he means No more to undertake it, I will work him 6 To an exploit now ripe in my device, Under the which he fhall not chufe but fall: And for his death no wind of Blame fhall breathe; But ev❜n his mother shall uncharge the practice, And call it accident. Laer. I will be ruľd, The rather, if you could devife it fo King. It falls right.! You have been talkt of fince your travel much, Laer. What part is that, my Lord? Importing health and graveness.-Two months fince, Here was a gentleman of Normandy. I've seen myself, and ferv'd against the French, And they can well on horfe-back but this Gallant Come short of what he did. Laer. A Norman, was't? King. A Norman. Laer. Upon my life, Lamond. Laer. I know him well. He is the brooch, indeed, And gem of all the nation. King. He made confeffion of you, And gave you fuch a mafterly report, That he cry'd out, 'twould be a Sight indeed, He fwore, had neither motion, guard, nor eye, That he could do nothing, but wish and beg Laer. What out of this, my Lord? King. Laertes, was your father dear to you, Or are you like the painting of a forrow, A face without a heart? Laer. Why afk you this? King. Not that I think, you did not love did not love your fa ther, But that I know, love is begun by time, Dies in his own too much. What we would do, As there are tongues, are hands, are accidents 3-in paffages of prof, 1 In tranfactions of daily experience. 4 For goodness, growing to a pleurify, I would believe, for the honour of Shakespear, that he wrote plethory. But I obferve the dramatic writers of that time frequently call a fulness of blood a pleurify, as if it came, not from wvp, but from plus, pluris, WARBURTON. 5 And then this fhould is like a Spend-thrift's SIGH That hurts by casing ; This nonfenfe fhould be read thus, And then this fhould is like a Spendthrift's SIGN That hurts by eafing ;i. e. tho' a fpendthrift's entering into bonds or mortgages gives him a prefent relief from his ftraits, yet it ends in much greater diftreffes. The application is, If you neglect a fair opportunity This conjecture is fo ingenious, that it can hardly be oppofed, but with the fame reluctance as the bow is drawn against a hero, whofe virtues the archer holds in veneration. Here may be applied what Voltaire writes to the Empress : Le genereux François Te combatt' admire. Yet this emendation, however fpecious, is mistaken. The ori ginal reading is, not a spendthrift's figh, but a spendthrift figh; a figh that makes an unneceffary wafte of the vital flame. It is a notion very prevalent, that fighs impair the ftrength, and wear out the animal powers. Laer. Laer. To cut his throat i' th' church. King. No place, indeed, should murder fan&tuarises The Frenchman gave you; bring you in fine to- And wager on your heads. "He being remiss, Laer. I will do't; 8 And for the purpose I'll anoint my fword. King. Let's farther think of this; Weigh, what convenience both of time and means 9 May fit us to our shape. If this should fail, infidious firatagem, or privy trea- He being remifs,] He being not vigilant or cautious. 7 Afword unbated,-]. e. not blunted as foils are. one edition has it embaited or envenomed. РОРЕ. 8 ——a pass of practice] Prac tice is often by Shakespeare, and other old writers, taken for an 9 May fit us to our shape.] May enable us to affume proper charac ters, and to act our part. T 2 And And that our drift look through our bad performance, 'Twere better not affay'd; therefore this project When in your motion you are hot and dry, As make your bouts more violent to that end, him A Chalice for the nonce; wheron but fipping, SCENE X. Enter Queen. How now, fweet Queen ? Queen. One woe doth tread upon another's heel, So faft they follow. Your fifter's drown'd, Laertes. Laer. Drown'd! oh where? Queen. There is a willow grows aflant a Brook, That fhews his hoar leaves in the glaffy ftream: There with fantaftick garlands did the come, Of crow-flowers, nettles, daifies, and long purples, (That liberal fhepherds give a groffer name; But our cold maids do dead men's fingers call them ;) There on the pendant boughs, her coronet weeds 1-blast in proof] This, I believe, is a metaphor taken from a mine, which, in the proof or execution, fometimes breaks out with an ineffectual blast. Fell |