Who calls me villain? breaks my pate acrofs?
Plucks off my beard, and blows it in my face?
Tweaks me by the nofe? gives me the lie i
throat,

As deep as to the lungs? Who does me this?
Ha!

Why, I should take it: for it cannot be,
But I am pigeon-liver'd, and lack gall
To make oppreffion bitter; or, ere this,
I fhould have fatted all the region kites
With this flave's offal: Bloody, bawdy villair
Remorfelefs, treacherous, lecherous, kindlefs

lain!

Why, what an afs am I? This is moft brave
That I, the fon of a dear father murder'd,
Prompted to my revenge by heaven and hell,,
Muft, like a whore, unpack my heart with w
And fall a curfing, like a very drab,

Again, in The Wits, by Sir W. D'Avenant, 1637: the fkill I have, can pronounce him free of the defeat upon and jewels."

Again, in The Ifle of Gulls, 1606: "My late fhipw made a defeat both of my friends and treafure." STEEVE

In the paffage quoted from Othello, to defeat is u fed for alter: defaire, Fr. See Minfheu in v. Minfheu confiders ftantives defeat and defeature as fynonymous. The fo defines an overthrow; the latter, execution or flaughter of i King Henry V. we have a fimilar phrafeology:

Making defeat upon the powers of France." And the word is again ufed in the fame fenfe in the L this play:

3

66

Their defeat

"Doth by their own infinuation grow." MALO
-kindlefs] Unnatural. JOHNSon.

4 Why, what an ass am I? This is most brave;] The folio

reads,

"O vengeance!

"Who? what an afs am I? Sure this is moft brave."

STEEVENS.

uted by Fletcher, The Night-walker:

"Blench at no danger, though it be a gallows."

Again, in Gower, De Confeffione Amantis, Lib. VI. fol. 128:
"Without blenchinge of mine eie." STEEVENS.

See Vol. VII. p. 38, n. 7. MALONE.

L 4

chancer in his Knightes

Tale, v. 1080. searms to use the vertto Stentin a

similar sense :

"and therwithal he blent and cried, a!"

Out of my weakness, and my melancholy,
(As he is very potent with such spirits,)
Abuses me to damn me: I'll have grounds
More relative than this: The play's the thing,
Wherein I'll catch the confcience of the king.

[Exit.

ACT III.

SCENE I.

A Room in the Caftle.

Enter King, Queen, POLONIUS, OPHELIA, ROSENCRANTZ, and GUILDENSTERN.

KING. And can you by no drift of conference3 Get from him, why he puts on this confufion; Grating fo harshly all his days of quiet With turbulent and dangerous lunacy?

Ros. He does confefs, he feels himself distracted; But from what cause he will by no means speak.

GUIL. Nor do we find him forward to be founded; But, with a crafty madness, keeps aloof,

When we would bring him on to fome confeffion Of his true ftate.

QUEEN.

Did he receive you well?

Ros. Moft like a gentleman.

2 More relative than this:] Relative, for convictive.

WARBURTON.

Convictive is only the confequential fenfe. Relative is nearly related, clafely connected. JOHNSON.

3 conference], The folio reads-circumftance.

A

STEEVENS.

GUIL. But with much forcing of his difpofition. Ros. Niggard of queftion; but, of our demands, Moft free in his reply.+

Did you affay him

Ros. Madam, it fo fell out, that certain players We o'er-raught on the way: of thefe we told him; And there did feem in him a kind of joy

To hear of it: They are about the court;
And, as I think, they have already order

4 Niggard of quetion; but, of our demands,

Moft free in his reply.] This is given as the defcription of the converfation of a man whom the fpeaker found not forward to be founded; and who kept aloof when they would bring him to confeffion but fuch a description can never pass but at cross-purposes. Shakspeare certainly wrote it just the other way:

Moft free of queftion; but, of our demands, Niggard in his reply.

That this is the true reading, we need but turn back to the preceding scene, for Hamlet's conduct, to be satisfied.

WARBURTON. Warburton forgets that by question, Shakspeare does not ufually mean interrogatory, but difcourfe; yet in which ever sense the word be taken, this account given by Rofencrantz agrees but ill with the fcene between him and Hamlet, as actually reprefented.

M. MASON.

Slow to begin converfation, but free enough in his anfwers to our demands. Guildenftern has juft faid that Hamlet kept aloof when they wished to bring him to confefs the cause of his diftraction: Rofencrantz therefore here muft mean, that up to that point, till they touch'd on that, he was free enough in his anfwers. MALONE.

5

o'er-raught on the way:] Over-raught is over-reached, that is, over-took. JOHNSON.

So, in Spenfer's Faery Queen, Book VI. c. iii:

"Having by chance a clofe advantage view'd,
"He over-raught him," &c.

Again, in the 5th Book of Gawin Douglas's translation of The

Aneid:

"War not the famyn mysfortoun me over-raucht."

STEEVENS.

This night to play before him.

POL.

'Tis moft true:

And he befeech'd me to entreat your majefties,
To hear and fee the matter.

KING. With all my heart; and it doth much

content me

To hear him fo inclin❜d.

Good gentlemen, give him a further edge,
And drive his purpose on to these delights.
Ros. We fhall, my lord.

[Exeunt ROSENCRANTZ and GUILDENSTERN.
Sweet Gertrude, leave us too.

KING.

For we have closely fent for Hamlet hither;
That he, as 'twere by accident, may here'
Affront Ophelia: 7

Her father, and myfelf (lawful efpials,*)
Will fo bestow ourselves, that, feeing, unfeen,
We may of their encounter frankly judge;
And gather by him, as he is behav'd,

If't be the affliction of his love, or no,
That thus he fuffers for.

STEEVENS.

6 may here-] The folio, (I fuppofe by an error of the prefs,) reads-may there7 Affront Ophelia :] To affront, is only to meet directly.

Affrontare, Ital. So, in The Devil's Charter, 1607:

66

JOHNSON.

Affronting that port where proud Charles fhould enter.” Again, in fir W. D'Avenant's Cruel Brother, 1630:

8

"In fufferance affronts the winter's rage.' STEEVENS,
efpials,] i. e. fpies. So, in King Henry VI. Part I:
as he march'd along,

66

By your efpials were discovered

"Two mightier troops."

See alfo Vol. IX. p. 535, n. 2.

The words

lawful efpials," are found only in the folio.

STEEVENS.