New-lighted on a heaven-kiffing hill;
A combination, and a form, indeed,
Where every god did feem to fet his feal,
To give the world affurance of a man:

This was your hufband. --Look you now, what follows:

Here is your husband; like a mildew'd car ", Blafting his wholefome brother. Have you eyes? Could you on this fair mountain leave to feed,

2

And batten on this moor? Ha! have you eyes?

You

where any one is placed, but the act of flanding. So, in Antony and Cleopatra, act iii. fc. 3 :

Her motion and her fation are as one.

On turning to Theobald's first edition, I find that he had made the fame remark, and fupported it by the fame inftance. The Gbfervation is neceflary, tor otherwife the compliment defigned to the attitude of the king, would be bestowed on the place where Mercury is reprefented as landing. STEEVENS.

A flation lie the herald Mercury,,

New-lighted on a heaven-kiffing hill ;] I think it not improbable that Shakspeare caught this image from Phaer's tranflation of Virgil (Fourth Eneid), a book that without doubt he had read:

"And now approaching neere, the top he feeth and mighty

lims

"Of Atlas, mountain tough, that heaven on boyft'rous Shoulders beares ;—

"There firft on ground with wings of might doth Mercury arrive,

"Then down from thence right over feas himfelfe doth headlong drive."

In the margin are thefe words: "The defcription of Mercury's journey from heaven, along the mountain Atlas in Afrike, bigbeft on earth." MALONE.

9 - like a mildew'd ear,

Blafting his wholefome brother.] This alludes to Pharaoh's Dream in the 41ft chapter of Genefis.

STEEVENS. reads:-boljome breath.

HENDERSON.

So, in Claudius Tiberius

Again,

You cannot call it love: for, at your age,
The hey-day in the blood 3 is tame, it's humble,
And waits upon the judgment; And what judgment
Would ftep from this to this? Senfe, fure, you

have,

4

Elfe, could you not have motion: But, fure, that

fenfe

Is apoplex'd: for madnefs would not err;
Nor fenfe to ecftacy was ne'er fo thrall'd,
But it referv'd fome quantity of choice,
To ferve in fuch a difference.

What devil was't,

Again, in Marlow's Jew of Ma'ta, 1633 :

"make her round and plump,

"And batten more than you are aware.

Bat is an ancient word for increase. Hence the adjective batful, fo often ufed by Drayton in his Polyolbion.

STEEVENS.

3 The hey-day in the blood. This expreffion occurs in Ford's 'Tis Pity he's a Whore, 1633:

The bey-day of your luxury te fed
"Up to a furfeit?" STEEVENS.
Senfe, fure, you have,-] In former editions,

Senfe, fure, you have,

Elfe, could you not have motion :-] But from what philofophy our editors learnt this, I cannot tell, Since motion depends to little upon fenfe, that the greatest part of motion in the universe, is amongst bodies devoid of fenfe. We fhould read,

Elfe, could you not have notion,

i. e. intellect, reafon, &c. This alludes to the famous peripatetic principle of Nil fit in intellectu, quod non fuerit in fenfu, And how fond our author was of applying, and alluding to, the principles of this philofophy, we have given feveral instances. The principle in particular has been fince taken for the foundation of one of the nobleft works that these latter ages have produced. WARBURTON.

The whole paffage is wanting in the folio; and which foever of the readings be the true one, the poet was not indebted to this boafted philofophy for his choice. STEEVENS.

Motion is frequently ufed, by Shakspeare and others, for impulfe of nature, libidinous inclination.. Taking it in this fenfe, the paffage is fufficiently intelligible without any alteration. So, in Othello: " we have reafon to cool our raging motions, our car

nal itings, our unbitted lufts.”

That

That thus hath cozen'd you at hoodman-blind "?
Eyes without feeling, feeling without fight,
Ears without hands or eyes, fmelling fans all,
Or but a fickly part of one true fenfe
Could not fo mope 7.

8

O fhame! where is thy blufh? Rebellious hell,

Again, in Cymbeline:

"for there's no motion

"That tends to vice in man, but 1 affirm

"It is the woman's part."

If

Again, in Brathwaite's Survey of Hiftories, 1614: "Thefe com tinent relations will reduce thy ftragling motions to a more fettled and retired harbour." MALONE.

sat boodman-blind?] This is, I fuppofe, the fame as blindman's-buff. So, in the Wife Woman of Hegden, 1638: "Why fhould I play at hood-man-blind?”

Again, in Tavo lamentable Tragedies in One, the One a Murder of
Mafter Beech, &c. 1601:

"Pick out men's eyes, and tell them that's the sport
"Of bood man-blind." STEEVENS.

6 Eyes without, &c.] This and the three following lines are omitted in the folio. STEEVENS.

7 Could not fo mope,] i. e. could not exhibit fuch marks of ftupidity. The fame word is ufed in the Tempeft, sc. ult.

8

And were brought moping hither,"

Rebellious bell,

STEEVENS.

If thou canft mutiny in a matron's bones, &c.] Alluding to what he had told her before, that her enormous conduct fhewed a kind of poffeffion.

-What devil was't,

That thus bath, &c.—

And again afterwards:

For ufe can almost change the ftamp of nature,
And mafter even the devil, or throw him out

With wondrous potency

But the Oxford Editor, not apprehending the meaning, alters it to -rebellious heat,

If thou canft, &c.

And fo makes nonfenfe of it. For must not rebellious luft mutiny wherever it is quartered? That it fhould get there might feein ftrange, but that it should do its kind when it was there feems to be natural enough. WARBURTON.

I think the prefent reading right, but cannot admit that Hanmer's emendation produces nonfenfe. May not what is faid of

If thou canft mutiny in a matron's bones,
To flaming youth let virtue be as wax,
And melt in her own fire: proclaim no fhame,
When the compulfive ardour gives the charge;
Since froft itself as actively doth burn,

I

And reafon panders will.

Queen. O Hamlet, fpeak no more:

Thou turn'ft mine eyes into my very foul;
And there I fee fuch black and grained fpots,
As will not leave their tinct3.

Ham. Nay, but to live

In the rank fweat of an 4 incestuous bed;
Stew'd in corruption; honying, and making love
Over the nafty ftye;

Queen. O, fpeak to me no more;

Thele words like daggers enter in mine ears;
No more, fweet Hamlet.

Ham. A murderer, and a villain :

A flave, that is not twentieth part the tythe

heat, be faid of bell, that it will mutiny wherever it is quar tered? Though the emendation be elegant, it is not neceffary. JOHNSON 9-mutiny] The old copies read mutine. Shakspeare calls mutineers, mutines, in a fubfequent fcene,

1 -

STEEVENS.

reafon pauders will. So the folio, I think rightly; but the reading of the quarto is defensible;

2

-

reafon pardons will. JOHNSON. -grained-] Dyed in grain. JOHNSON.

3 As will not leave their tine!.] The

quartos read

"As will leave there their tinct." STEEVENS.

4 - incestuous bed ;] lhe folio has enfeamed, that is, greaft bed. JOHNSON.

Beaumont and Fletcher ufe the word infeamed in the fame fenfe, in the third of their Four Plays in One:

"His leachery infeam'd upon him."

In the Book of Haulyng, &c. bl. 1. no date, we are told that "Enfayme of a hauke is the grece."

In moft places it means the greafe or oil with which clothiers befmeaf their wool to make it draw out in fpinning.

Incestuous is the reading of the quarto, 1611. STEEVENS,

Of

Of your precedent lord :-a vice of kings:
A cutpurfe of the empire and the rule;
That from a fhelf the precious diadem ftole,
And put it in his pocket!

Queen. No more.

Enter Ghoft.

Ham. A king of fhreds and patches Save me, and hover o'er me with your wings, You heavenly guards!-What would your gracious figure?

Queen. Alas, he's mad.

Ham. Do you not come your tardy fon to chide,
That, laps'd in time and paffion, lets go by
The important acting of your dread command?
O, fay!

Ghoft. Do not forget: This vifitation
Is but to whet thy almoft blunted purpose.
But, look! amazement on thy mother fits:
O, ftep between her and her fighting foul;
9 Conceit in weakeft bodies ftrongest works;
Speak to her, Hamlet.

4

vice of kings!] A low mimick of kings. The vice is the fool of a farce; from whom the modern punch is descended. .. JOHNSON.

• That from a shelf, &c.] This is faid not unmeaningly, but to fhew, that the ufurper came not to the crown by any glorious villainy that carried danger with it, but by the low cowardly theft of a common pilferer. WARBURTON.

A king of breds and patches: This is faid, pursuing the idea of the vice of kings. The vice was dressed as a fool, in a coat of party-coloured patches. JOHNSON.

your] The folio reads you. HENDERSON.

8 laps'd in time and paffion,-] That, having fuffered time to ip, and paffion to cool, lets go, &c. JOHNSON.

9 Conceit in weakest bodies firongeft.works;] Conceit for ima gination:

So, in the Rape of Lucrece:

"And the conceited painter was fo nice." MALONE.

Ham