turous knight shall use his foil, and target: the lover shall not sigh gratis; the humorous man shall end his part in peace: [the clown shall make those laugh, whose lungs are tickled o'the sere37;] and the lady shall say her mind freely, or the blank verse shall halt for't. What players are they?

Ros. Even those you were wont to take such delight in, the tragedians of the city.

Ham. How chances it, they travel 38? their resi

37 The first quarto reads:The clown shall make them laugh that are tickled in the lungs.' The words as they now stand are in the folio. The meaning appears to be, the clown shall make even those laugh whose lungs are tickled with a dry cough, or huskiness; by his merriment shall convert even their coughing into laughter. The same expression occurs in Howard's Defensative against the Poyson of supposed Prophecies, 1620, folio: - Discovering the moods and humours of the vulgar sort to be so loose and tickle of the seare.'

38 In the first quarto copy this passage stands thus:

'Ham. How comes it that they travel? do they grow restie? 'Gil. No, my lord, their reputation holds as it was wont. Ham. How then?

'Gil. I faith, my lord, novelty carries it away, for the principal publike audience that came to them, are turned to private plays, and to the humour of children.'

By this we may understand what Hamlet means in saying their inhibition comes of the late innovation,' i. e. their prevention or hinderance comes from the late innovation of companies of juvenile performers, as the children of the revels, the children of St. Pauls, &c. They have not relaxed in their endeavours to please, but this (brood) aiery of little children are now the fashion, and have so abused the common stages as to deter many from frequenting them. Thus in Jack Drum's Entertainment, or Pasquil and Catherine, 1601 :-

'I sawe the children of Powles last night, And troth they pleased me prettie prettie well, The apes in time will do it handsomely.

Pla. I'faith,

I like the audience that frequenteth there
With much applause: a man shall not be chokt
With the stench of garlick, nor be pasted
To the barmy jacket of a beer-brewer.

Bra. 'Tis a good gentle audience, and I hope
The boys will come one day in great request.'

dence, both in reputation and profit, was better both

ways.

Ros. I think, their inhibition comes by the means of the late innovation.

Ham. Do they hold the same estimation they did when I was in the city? Are they so followed? Ros. No, indeed, they are not.

Ham. How comes it? Do they grow rusty? Ros. Nay, their endeavour keeps in the wonted pace: But there is, sir, an aiery 39 of children, little eyases 40, that cry out on the top of question 11, and are most tyrannically clapped for't: these are now the fashion; and so berattle the common stages (so they call them), that many, wearing rapiers, are afraid of goose quills, and dare scarce come thither.

Ham. What, are they children? who maintains them? how are they escoted 42? Will they pursue the quality 43, no longer than they can sing? will they not say afterwards, if they should grow themselves to common players (as it is most like, if their means are no better,) their writers do them wrong, to make them exclaim against their own succession? Ros. 'Faith, there has been much to do on both 39 i. e. a brood.

40 i. e. young nestlings; properly young unfledged hawks. 41 Question is speech, conversation. The meaning may therefore be, they cry out on the top of their voice.

42 i. e. paid.

43 i. e. profession. Mr. Gifford has remarked that this word seems more peculiarly appropriated to the profession of a player by our old writers.' But in Measure for Measure, Angelo, when the Bawd and Tapster are brought before him, inquires what quality they are of. In The Two Gentlemen of Verona, the Outlaws speak of men of our quality. And Sir Thomas Eliot, in his Platonic Dialogue, 1534:— According to the profession or qualitee, wherein men have opinion that wisdome doth rest, so ought to be the forme of livinge, countenance, and gesture.' He is speaking of philosophers.

No longer than they can sing,' i. e. no longer than they keep the voices of boys, and sing in the choir.

sides; and the nation holds it no sin, to tarre 44 them on to controversy: there was, for a while, no money bid for argument, unless the poet and the player went to cuffs in the question.

Ham. Is it possible?

Guil. O, there has been much throwing about of brains.

Ham. Do the boys carry it away?

Ros. Ay, that they do, my lord; Hercules and his load too 45.

Ham. It is not very strange: for my uncle is King of Denmark, and those, that would make mouths 46 at him while my father lived, give twenty, forty, fifty, a hundred ducats a-piece, for his picture in little. 'Sblood, there is something in this more than natural, if philosophy could find it out.

[Flourish of Trumpets within.

Guil. There are the players.

Ham. Gentlemen, you are welcome to Elsinore. Your hands. Come then: the appurtenance of welcome is fashion and ceremony: let me comply "

47

44 i. e. set them on, a phrase borrowed from the setting on a dog. Thus in King John :

'Like a dog that is compelled to fight,

Snatch at his master that doth tarre him on.'

45 i. e. carry all the world before them: there is perhaps an allusion to the Globe theatre, the sign of which is said to have been Hercules carrying the globe.

46 First copy,' mops and moes.' Folio, mowes.' 47 Let me comply with you in this garb.' Hanmer, with his usual temerity, changed comply to compliment, and Steevens has contented himself with saying that he means 'to compliment with,' here and in a passage in the fifth act, He did comply with his dug before he sucked it,' where that sense would be even more absurd. He evidently never looked at the context. Hamlet has received his old school fellows with somewhat of the coldness of suspicion hitherto, but he now remembers that this is not courteous: He therefore rouses himself to give them a proper reception, Gentlemen, you are welcome to Elsinore.Your hands. Come then, the appurtenance of welcome is fashion

with you in this garb; lest my extent to the players, which, I tell you, must show fairly outward, should more appear like entertainment than yours. You are welcome: but my uncle-father, and aunt-mother, are deceived.

Guil. In what, my dear lord?

Ham. I am but mad north-north west; when the wind is southerly, I know a hawk from a handsaw 48

Enter POLONIUS.

Pol. Well be with you, gentlemen!

Ham. Hark you, Guildenstern; and you too; -at each ear a hearer: that great baby, you see there, is not yet out of his swaddling-clouts.

Ros. Happily, he's the second time come to them; for, they say, an old man is twice a child.

Ham. I will prophesy, he comes to tell me of the players; mark it. You say right, sir: o'Monday morning; 'twas then, indeed.

Pol. My lord, I have news to tell you.

and ceremony: let me EMBRACE you in this fashion: lest I should seem to give you a less courteous reception than I give the players, to whom I must behave with at least exterior politeness.' That to comply with was to embrace will appear from the following passages in Herrick :

Again:

witty Ovid, by

Whom fair Corinna sits, and doth comply,

With iv'ry wrists, his laureat head, and steeps
His eye in dew of kisses, while he sleeps.'

a rug of carded wool

Which, sponge-like, drinking in the dull
Light of the moon, seem'd to comply,
Cloud-like, the dainty deity.'

Dr. Nott's Selections from Herrick, pp. 127 and 153. 48 The original form of this proverb was undoubtedly To know a hawk from a hernshaw,' that is, to know a hawk from the heron which it pursues. The corruption is said to be as old as the time of Shakspeare.

Ham. My lord, I have news to tell you; When Roscius was an actor in Rome,

Pol. The actors are come hither, my lord.

Ham. Buz, buz 49!

Pol. Upon my honour,

Ham. Then came each actor on his ass,

Pol. The best actors in the world, either for tragedy, comedy, history, pastoral, pastoral-comical, historical-pastoral [tragical-historical, tragicalcomical-historical-pastoral]50, scene individable, or poem unlimited:-Seneca cannot be too heavy, nor Plautus too light for the law of writ 51 and the liberty-these are the only men.

Ham. O Jephthah, judge of Israel,—what a treasure hadst thou!

Pol. What a treasure had he, my lord?

Ham. Why-One fair daughter, and no more, The which he loved passing well 52.

Pol. Still on my daughter.

Ham. Am I not i'the right, old Jephthah?

[Aside.

Pol. If you call me Jephthah, my lord, I have a daughter, that I love passing well.

49 Surely the commentators need not have expended their ingenuity on this common interjection.

50 The words within crotchets are not in the quartos.

51 Writ for writing, a common abbreviation, which is not yet obsolete: we still say holy writ, for the sacred writings. I should not have noticed this, but that there have been editors who thought that we should read,' the law of wit.' The quarto of 1603 reads, for the law hath writ.' The modern editions have pointed this passage in the following manner :—' Scene individable, or poem unlimited; Seneca cannot be too heavy nor Plautus too light. For the law of writ, and the liberty, these are the only men.' I have adhered to the pointing of the quarto, because it appears to me that the law and the liberty of writing relates to Seneca and Plautus, and not to the players.

52 An imperfect copy of this ballad, of 'Jephtha, Judge of Israel,' was given to Dr. Percy by Steevens. See Réliques, ed. 1794, vol. i. p. 189. There is a more correct copy in Mr. Evans's Old Ballads, vol. i. p. 7, ed. 1810.