153. Craves-] Thus the quartos. The folio --claims. STEEVENS. 160. Good sir, &c.] The remaining part of this scene is omitted in the folio. STEEVENS. 186. -chief good, and market-] If his highest good, and that for which he sells his time, be to sleep and feed. JOHNSON. 188. large discourse,] Such latitude of comprehension, such power of reviewing the past, and anticipating the future. JOHNSON. Is not to stir without, &c.] This passage I have printed according to the copy. The sentiment of Shakspere is partly just, and partly romantick. Rightly to be great, Is not to stir without great argument; is exactly philosophical. But greatly to find quarrel in a straw, When honour's at the stake, is the idea of a modern hero. But then, says he, honour is an argument, or subject of debate, sufficiently great, and when honour is at stake, we must find cause of quarrel in a straw. JOHNSON. 210. Excitements of my reason, and my blood,] Provocations which excite both my reason and my passions to vengeance. JOHNSON. 216. continent] Continent, in our author, means that which comprehends or encloses. So, in King · Lear: "Rive your concealing continents." STEEVENS. 1 225. Spurns enviously at straws ;-] Envy is much oftener put by our poet (and those of his time) for direct aversion, than for malignity conceived at the sight of another's excellence or happiness. STEEVENS. 228. -to collection ;—] i. e. to deduce consequences from such premises. So, in Cymbeline, scene the last: -whose containing "Is so from sense to hardness, that I can See the note on this passage. STEEVENS. -they aim at it,] The quartos read-they yawn at it. To aim is to guess. STEEVENS. 232. Though nothing sure, yet much unhappily.] ¿. e. though her meaning cannot be certainly collected, yet there is enough to put a mischievous interpretation to WARBURTON. it. That unhappy once signified mischievous, may be known from P. Holland's translation of Pliny's Nat. Hist. Book XIX. ch. 7. "the shrewd and unhappie foules which lie upon the lands, and eat up the seed new sowne." We still use unlucky in the same sense. STEEVENS. 233. 'Twere good, she were spoken with ;-] These lines are given to the queen in the folio, and to Horatio in the quarto. I think the two first lines of Horatio's speech belong to him, the rest to the queen. BLACKSTONE. 237. to some great amiss :] Shakspere is not singular in his use of this word as a substantive. So, in the Arraignment of Paris, 1584: "Gracious forbearers of this world's amiss." Again, in Lilly's Woman in the Moon, 1597: &c. 1592: great amiss." "Pale be my looks to witness my amiss." Again, in Greene's Disputation between a He Coneycatcher "-revive in them the memory of my STEEVENS. 242. How should I your true love, &c.] There is no part of this play, in its representation on the stage, is more pathetick than this scene, which I suppose pro ceeds from the utter insensibility of Ophelia to her own misfortunes. A great sensibility, or none at all, seems to produce the same effect. In the latter, the audience supply what she wants, and with the former they sympathize. Sir J. REYNOLDS. 244. By his cockle hat, and staff, And by his sandal shoon.] This is the description of a pilgrim. While this kind of devotion was in favour, love-intrigues were carried on under that mask. Hence the old ballads and novels made pilgrimages the subjects of their plots. The cockle-shell hat was one of the essential badges of this vocation: for the chief places of devotion being beyond sea, or on the coasts, the pilgrims were accustomed to put cockle-shells upon their hats, to denote the intention or performance of their devotion. WARBURTON, So, in Green's Never too Late, 1616, a pilgrim is described; "A hat of straw like to a swain, "Shelter for the sun and rain, "With a scallop-shell before," &c. Again, in The Old Wives Tale, by George Peele, 1595: "I will give thee a Palmer's staff of yvorie, and a scallop-shell of beaten gold." STEEVENS. 257. Larded all with sweet flowers:] The expres sion is taken from cookery. go. 258. JOHNSON. did go.] The old editions read-did not STEEVENS. 261. -the owl was a Baker's daughter.] This was a legendary story, which both Dr. Johnson and myself have read, yet in what book at least I cannot recollect. Our Saviour being refused bread by the daughter of a Baker, is described as punishing her by turning her into an owl. STEEVENS. 267. To-morrow is, &c.] Without doubt, "Good-morrow, 'tis Saint Valentine's day. FARMER. is to do on, to STEEVENS. 271. don'd his clothes,] To don, put on, as doff is to do off, put off. 272. And dupt the chamber-door ;] To dup, is to do up; to lift the latch. And op'd It were easy to write, JOHNSON. To dup was a common contraction of to do up. in Damon and Pythias, 1582: "the porters are drunk, will they not dup the gate to-day ?" So Lord 1 Lord Surrey, in his translation of the second Æneid, renders Panduntur portæ, &c. "The gates cast up, we issued out to play." The phrase seems to have been adopted either from doing up the latch, or drawing up the portcullis. Again, in the Cooke's Play, in the Chester collection of mysteries, MS. Harl. 1013, p. 140. "Open up hell-gates anon." It appears from Martin Mark-all's Apologie to the Belman of London, 1610, that in the cant of gypsies, &c. Dup the gigger, signified to open the door. STEEVENS. 277. By Gis,-] I rather imagine it should be read, By Cis, That is, by St. Cecily. JOHNSON. by Saint Charity,] Saint Charity is a known saint among the Roman Catholicks. tions her, Eclog. 5, 255. Spenser men "Ah dear lord, and sweet Saint Charity!" I find, by Gisse, used as an adjuration, both by Gascoigne in his Poems, by Preston in his Cambyses, and in the comedy of See me, and see me not, 1618: "By Gisse I swear, were I so fairly wed," &c. Again, in King Edward I. 1599: "By Gis, fair lords, ere many daies be past," &c. Again, in Heywood's 23d Epigram, Fourth Hundred: "Nay, by Gis, he looketh on you, maister, quoth he." Again, in The Downfall of Robert, Earl of Huntington, 1601: Niij "Therefore, |