That he is open to incontinency,

[quaintly,

That's not my meaning; but breathe his faults fo

That they may feem the taints of liberty;

The flash and outbreak of a fiery mind,
A favagenefs in unreclaimed blood

Of general affault.

Rey. But, my good Lord-----

Pol. Wherefore fhould you do this?
Rey. Ay, my Lord, I would know that.
Pol. Marry, Sir, here's my drift;

And I believe it is a fetch of wit.

You, laying thefe flight fullies on my fon, (24)

Mr Pope, I obferve, feems to admit the emendation; but I retract is as an idle, unweighed conjecture. The reafoning on which it is built is fallacious; and our Author's licentious manner of expreffing himself elsewhere, convinces me that any change is altogether unneceflary.

So, in King Richard II.

Tendering the precious fafety of my prince,
And free from other mifbegotten hate,

Come I appellant to this princely prefence.

Now, ftrictly speaking, here, tendering his prince's fafety is bis first misbegotten hate; which nobody will ever believe was the Poet's intention.

And fo, in Macbeth;

All these are portable,

With her graces weighed.

Malcolm had been enumerating the fecret enormities he was guilty of; no graces are mentiened or fuppofed; to that in grammatical ftri&tnefs, these enormities ftand in the place of frft greces, though the Poet means no more than this, that Malcolm's vices would be fupportable, if his graces on the other hand were to be weighed against them.

(24) Your laying these flight fallies on my fon,

4s 'twere a thing a little foiled i' th' working,] 'Tis true, fallies and flights of youth are very frequent phrafes; but what agreement in the metaphors is there betwist fallies and fe? All the old copies which I have feen, read as I have reformed the text.

So Beaumont and Fletcher, in their Two Noble Kinsmen ;

As 'twere a thing a little foiled i' th' working, Mark you, your party in converfe, he you would

found,

Having ever seen, in the prenominate crimes,
The youth you breathe of guilty, be affured
He clofes with you in this confequence;
Good Sir, or fo, or friend, or gentleman,
(According to the phrafe or the addition
Of man and country.)

Rey. Very good, my Lord.

Pol. And then, Sir, does he this; He does-----what was I about to say? I was about to fay fomething---where Rey. At clofes in the confequence.

did I leave?

Pol. At, clofes in the confequence---Ay, marry. He clofes thus ;---I know the gentleman,

I saw him yesterday, or t' other day,

Or then, with fuch and fuch; and, as you fay,
There was he gaming, there o'ertook in's rowse,
There falling out at tennis; or, perchance,
I faw him enter fuch a house of fale,

Videlicet, a brothel, or so forth.---See you now;
Your bait of falfehood takes this carp of truth;
And thus do we of wisdom and of reach,
With windlaces, and with effays of bias,
By indirections find directions out:
So by my former lecture and advice

Shall you my fon; you have me, have you not?
Rey. My Lord, I have.

Pol. God b' w' you; fare you well.

Rey. Good my Lord----

Pol. Obferve his inclination in yourself.

Rey. I fhall, my Lord.

Let us leave the city

Thebes, and the temptings in't, before we further
Sally our glofs of youth.

Pol. And let him ply his music.
Rey. Well, my Lord.

Enter OPHELIA.

[Exit.

Pol. Farewel. How now, Ophelia, what's the
matter?

Oph. Alas, my Lord, I have been so affrighted!
Pol. With what, in the name of Heaven?

Oph. My Lord, as I was fewing in my closet, Lord Hamlet with his doublet all unbraced,. No hat upon his head, his ftockings loofe, (25) Ungartered, and down-gyred to his ancle;

(25)

-his flockings fouled,

Ungartered, and down gyved to his ancle;] have restored the reading of the elder Quartos,his ftockings lose.-The change, I fufpect, was firft from the players, who faw a contradiction in his ftockings being loofe, and yet shackled down at ancle. But they, in their ignorance, blundered away our Author's word, because they did not underftand it;

Ungartered, and down-gyred.

i. e. turned down. So the oldeft copies; and fo his stockings were properly loofe, as they were ungartered and rowled down to the ancle. rupos among the Greeks fignised a circle; and yupów, to roul round; and the word y:pò; alfo meant crooked. Therefore the Gyraan rocks, amidst which Ajax of Locri was loft, were called fo, becaufe they lay, as it were, in a ring. Hefychius, by the by, wants a flight cor rection upon this word. † Γυρῆσι πέτρησιν, έτω καλῶνται. † Γυρκὶ πέτραι ἐν τῷ ἱκαρίω πελάγει, πρὸς μυκόλη τη νήσω. In the first place we must take away the note of diftin&tion; and reduce the two articles into one, thus: t Dupñst wiтpyri ὕτω καλῶνται Γυραὶ πέτραι, &c. Then, inftead of μυκων», we must read μvxwvw, or μunivw; for it is written both ways. But to return to my theme. The Latins borrowed gyrus from the Greeks to fignify a circle; as we may find in their best poets and profe writers; and the Spaniards and Italians have from thence adopted both the verb and fubftantive into their tongues; fo that Shakespeare could not be at a lofs for the ufe of the term.

Pale as his fhirt; his knees knocking each other,
And with a look fo piteous in purport,

As if he had been loofed out of hell,

To fpeak of horrors; thus he comes before me.
Pol. Mad for thy love?

Oph. My Lord, I do not know:
But truly I do fear it.

Pol. What faid he?

Oph. He took me by the wrift, and held me hard;
Then goes he to the length of all his arm:
And with his other hand, thus o'er his brow,
He falls to fuch perufal of my face,

As he would draw it. Long time staid he so;
At laft, a little fhaking of mine arm,

And thrice his head thus waving up and down,
He raised a figh, fo piteous and profound,
That it did feem to fhatter all his bulk,
And end his being. Then he lets me go,
And with his head over his fhoulder turned,
He feemed to find his way without his eyes;
For out of doors he went without their help,
And to the last bended their light on me.

Pol. Come, go with me, I will go feek the King. This is the very ecftacy of love;

Whofe violent property foredoes itself,
And leads the will to defperate undertakings,
As oft as any paffion under Heaven,

That does afflict our natures. I am forry.

What, have you given him any hard words of late? Oph. No, my good Lord; but as you did com

I did repel his letters, and denied

His accefs to me.

Pol. That hath made him mad.

[mand,

I'm forry that with better speed and judgment (26)

(26) I'm forry, that with better heed and judgment,

I had not quoted him.] I have restored with the generality VOL. XII.

E

I had not quoted him. I feared he trifled,

And meant to wreck thee; but befhrew my jealousy; It seems it is as proper to our age

To caft beyond ourselves in our opinions,

As it is common for the younger

fort

To lack difcretion. Come, go we to the King. This must be known; which being kept clofe, might move

More grief to hide, than hate to utter, love..

SCENE changes to the Palace.

[Exeunt.

Enter King, Queen, ROSINCRANTZ, GUILDENSTERN, Lords, and other Attendants.

King. Welcome, dear Rofincrantz and Guildenftern!

of the older copies speel; and every knowing reader of our Author muft have obferved, that he oftner ufes Speed in the fignification of fuccefs than of celerity. To be content with a few inftances;

Launc. There,-and St Nicholas be thy Speed!

Two Gent. of Verona.

Rof. Now Hercules be thy Speed, young man! As You Like it.

(Let me fee; what then?

St Dennis by my speed!

King Henry V.

Bapt. Well mayeft thou wooe, and happy be thy speed!

Taming the Shrew.

Winter's Tale,

The prince your fon, with mere conceit and fear Of the Queen's Speed, is gone. Or if we were to take Speed, in its native sense of quickness, celerity, Polonius might very properly use it; meaning that he is forry he had not fooner, and with better judgment, fifted into Hamlet's indifpofition.

So Neftor fays, in Troilus;

And in the publication, make no strain,

But that Achilles

-will with great Speed of judgment, Ay, with celerity, find Hector's purpose Painting on him.