so debased or mastered by a phrenzy so extravagant, as not to have reserved, &c.

And in Two Lamentable Tragedies in One, &c. 1601 :

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

(93) If thou can'st mutine] i. e. "rebel."

Mutineers are,

V. 1. Haml., called mutines: and for the verb, Malone cites Knolles's History of the Turks, 1603: "The Janisaries—became wonderfully discontented, and began to mutine in diverse places of the citie."

(94) And reason panders will]

"When reason is the bawd to lust's abuse."

Ven, and Adon. MALONE.

" in the

(95) In the rank sweat of an enseamed bed] i. e. filthy stew of grossly fed indulgence." The reading of the quarto, 1611, is incestuous, though in another we have inseemed. Neither is the word in the text, or seam, to be found in any such sense as that of the text in our early lexicographers, or Minshieu; though Todd, in commenting upon

"And bounteous Trent, that in himself enseems

Both thirty sorts of fish and thirty sundry streams,"

F. Q. IV. XI. 35, thinks it probably derived from ensemencer, old Fr. to furnish with seed. Johnson has here interpreted the word greasy but neither is it to be found in his dictionary in this, or the word seam in any, sense. Mrs. Page, however, speaking of the knight, uses greasily in this sense. W. II. 1. and see "greasily," L. L. L. IV. 1. Maria. Steevens instances the third of Four Plays in One :

"His leachery enseam'd upon him." B. and Fl.

M. W. of

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

In Randle Holme's Academy of Armory &c., B. II. ch. ii. p. 238, we are told that " Enseame is the purging of a hawk from her glut and grease." From the next page in the same work, we learn that the glut is a slimy substance in the belly of the hawk."

He adds, in some places it means hogs' lard, in others, the grease or oil with which clothiers besmear their wool to make it draw out in spinning. Mr. Henley says, in the West of England the inside fat of a goose, when dissolved by heat, is called its seam ; and Ritson, that in the north swine seam is "hog's lard." See Tr. and Cr.

"That bastes his arrogance with his own seam." II. 3.

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(96) A vice of kings] This character, which Douce says (Illustrat. II. 251) "belonged to the old moralities," is said, by Mr. Warton, as introduced here, to mean a fantastic and factitious image of majesty, a mere puppet of royalty:" as in the Wise Vieillard "Idolles and Statues, artificially moved by vises and gynnes" 4to. 1631. sig. H. And see II. H. IV. ÍII. 2. Falst. and Tw. N. IV. 2. Clown, and Wint. T. I. 2. Cam.

"An instrument to vice you to't."

Although there has been much controversy, and a great deal of confusion, introduced, upon this subject, it is perfectly clear that the Virtues and Vices were constantly personified in our Mysteries and Moralities; and equally so, that when this species of scenic representation gave place to a better order of things, a Vice was retained upon the stage: not indeed as one of the Characters of the piece, not as one of the Persona Dramatis, but between the scenes in interludes to make merriment and engage attention, while the actors (the stage being yet ill regulated) were preparing the succeeding parts of the representation. That this was so in comedies and tragedies, and therefore in theatrical representations generally, is shewn in Puttenham's Arte of Poesie, p. 21. (See I. H. IV. III. 2. Falst.) To this Interlude the Farce has succeeded; but scenes such as those, in which the Vice so comically figured, however out of place and character in tragedy, as well as unnecessary to the actor's convenience, after the stage became better managed, were yet so familiar and acceptable to the audience, that to this cause, to the powerful operation of this principle, we must ascribe the introduction of the Gravediggers in this play.

(97) A king

Of shreds and patches] This is said, pursuing the idea of the vice of kings. The vice was dressed as a fool, in a coat of party-coloured patches. JOHNSON.

(98) laps'd in time and passion] i. e. that, having suffered time to slip, and passion to cool, let's go, &c. JOHNSON.

"For which, if I be lapsed in this place,

(99) Conceit in weakest bodies strongest works] The wanderings of imagination; fond and idle fancies and conceptions; as in IV. 5.

"Conceit upon her father." King.

And Lear, IV. 6.

"And yet I know not how conceit may rob
The treasury of life." Edgar.

And Pericl. III. 1.

"Who, if it had conceit, would die." Lychor. Com. of Err. IV. 2. Adr. and Ro. and Jul. II. 5. Jul.

(100) Your bedded hair, like life in excrements,

Start up, and stand on end] Bedded is smoothed, laid down, as in bed. With respect to excrement, such is every thing that is an excrescence, or is extruded; as the hair, nails, feathers, fæces.

"Nor force thee bite thy finger's excrement."

Commend. Verses to Robt. Nevile's Poor Scholar, 1662. And Whalley instances, in Iz. Walton's Complete Angler, c. 1. "the several kinds of fowl by which his curious palate is pleased by day, and which, with their very excrements, afford him a soft lodging at night."

"Hairiness is a signe (λçe TερITTWμаTоs Aristot.) of the abundance of excrements." Ferrand's Epwroμavia, 12mo. 1640, p. 143. But as hair, being the subject, cannot well be likened to itself, Seymour says, "the idea is coarser than Pope interprets it, who merely says, 'the hairs are excrementitious.' It is that of vermin, generated in filth and putrefaction."

"Start up, and stand on end," the reading of the folios, we must refer to the same principle as that of " scope of these articles allow." I. 1. King. The quartos read starts and stands.

(101) Preaching to stones would make them capable] "Their passions then so swelling in them, they would have made auditors of stones, rather than." Arcadia, lib. v. STEEVENS.

Capable is intelligent, apt to conceive. "The woman to whom you had given understanding to be capable of the propernesse of his speech." Lord's Discourse of the Banians, 4to. 1630, p. 9. See L. L. L. IV. 2. Holof.

(102) Convert my stern effects: then what I have to do

Will want true colour] Change the nature of my fell purposes, ends, or what I mean to effect: as in IV. 3.

And make those purposes lose their proper character: but the expression sowewhat resembles that of the Queen, just before, "Will leave their tinct."

(103) This is the very coinage of your brain :

This bodiless creation ecstasy

Is very cunning in] i. e. " trance. ecstasis. abstractio mentis et emotio, et quasi ex statione sua deturbatio, seufurore, seu admiratione, seu timore, aliove casu decidet." MINSHIEU. "Such shadows are the weak brain's forgeries."

Rape of Lucrece.

See Ophelia, III. 1. MALONE.

(104) skin and film the ulcerous place]

"That skins the vice o'the top." M. for M. II. 2. Isab. STEEVENS.

(105) curb] i. e. " bend and truckle." In this its obsolete sense, and written, courbe, the reading of the Folios, this word seems to be of the same source with couver, which we find derived from courrain, Welch, written curbe, as is the reading of the quartos, i. e. check, restrain, frenare, Lat. we find it derived from courber, Fr. Steevens cites :

"Then I courbid on my knees." Pierce Plowman.

(106) That monster, custom, who all sense doth eat

66

Of habits devil, is angel yet in this] i. e. " that monster, custom, who devours all sense, all just and correct feeling [being also] the evil genius of [our] propensities or habits, is, nevertheless, in this particular, a good angel." Boswell thinks it means a devil in his usual habits." And it has been suggested, that if a comma were placed after habits, the sense would be "A monster or devil, who makes mankind insen. sible to the quality of actions, which are habitual." Though this passage is much in our author's manner, the folios do not seem to us to have omitted any thing that could better have been spared.

(107) And maister the devil] Of the original copies so the quarto, 1611 that of 1604 reads either.

(108) To punish me with this, and this with me,

That I must be their scourge and minister] i. e. " punish me with this, with the reproach of this act, and punish this "rash, intruding fool and knave" with, or by me, that I must be [of heaven, i. e. of the gods] their scourge and minister, instrument and agent." The turn of the speech of Constance in K. John has much resemblance to the present.

"He is not only plagued for her sin;

"But God hath made her sin and her the plague
"On this removed issue, plagued for her,
"And with her plague, her sin; his injury

"Her injury," &c. II. 1.

(109) Let the bloat king] i. e. " surfeit-swoln." Blunt, the reading of the folios, may be interpreted " rude, coarse;" but as pointing at the king's intemperance, which Hamlet was at all times fond of bringing into notice, the adoption of the reading of the text from the quarto is probably no more than the correction of a misprint.

(110) his mouse] Mouse was once a term of endearment. So Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy, 1632, p. 527: "-plea

sant names may be invented, bird, mouse, lamb, pus, pigeon," &c. STEEVENS.

It is found in A New and Merry Interlude, called the Trial of Treasure, 1567:

My mouse, my nobs, my cony sweete;

"My hope and joye, my whole delight."

And it continually occurs in Edw. Alleyn, the player's, correspondence with his wife, 1593, Shaksp. 8vo. 1821. MALONE. So "My mouse of virtue." Tw. Night. I. 5. Clown to Olivia.

(111) Reechy kisses] i. e. "rankly steaming." Reech is another reading of reek, steam: words ending in k, having also another ending in ch, or ge. See Coriol. " reechy neck of a kitchen wench," II. 1. Brut. and reeky thanks" in a vault, Rom. and Jul. IV. 1. Jul.

(112) That I essentially am not in madness,

But mad in craft] The reader will be pleased to see Dr. Farmer's extract from the old quarto Historie of Hamblet, of which he had a fragment only in his possession :- "It was not without cause, and just occasion, that my gestures, countenances, and words, seeme to proceed from a madman, and that I desire to haue all men esteeme mee wholly depriued of sense and reasonable understanding, bycause I amn well assured, that he that hath made no conscience to kill his owne brother, (accustomed to murthers, and allured with desire of gouernement without controll in his treasons) will not spare to saue himselfe with the like crueltie, in the blood and flesh of the loyns of his brother, by him massacred; and therefore it is better for me to fayne madnesse, then to use my right sences as nature hath bestowed them upon me. The bright shining clearnes thereof I am forced to hide vnder this shadow of dissimulation, as the sun doth hir beams under some great cloud, when the wether in summer-time ouercasteth the face of a madman serueth to couer my gallant countenance, and the gestures of a fool are fit for me, to the end that, guiding myself wisely therein, I may preserue my life for the Danes and the memory of my late deceased father; for that the desire of reuenging his death is so ingraven in my heart, that if I die not shortly, I hope to take such and so great vengeance, that these countryes shall for euer speake thereof. Neuerthelesse I must stay the time, meanes and occasion, lest by making ouergreat hast, I be now the cause of mine own sodaine ruine and ouerthrow, and by that meanes end, before I beginne to effect, my hearts desire: he that hath to doe with a wicked, disloyall, cruell, and discourteous man, must vse craft, and politike inuentions, such as a fine witte can best imagine, not to discover his interprise; for seeing that by force I cannot effect my desire, reason alloweth me by dissimulation, subtiltie, and secret practises to proceed therein." STEEVENS.