Of crow-flowers, nettles, daisies, and long purples,6 Or like a creature native and indu'd Unto that element: but long it could not be, 6 and long purples,] By long purples is meant a plant, the modern botanical name of which is orchis morio mas, anciently testiculus morionis. The grosser name by which it passes, is sufficiently known in many parts of England, and particularly in the county where Shakspeare lived. Thus far, Mr. Warner. Mr. Collins adds, that in Sussex it is still called dead men's hands ; and that in Lyte's Herbal, 1578, its various names, too gross for repetition, are preserved. Dead men's thumbs are mentioned in an ancient bl. 1. ballad, entitled The deceased Maiden Lover: "Then round the meddowes did she walke, Catching each flower by the stalke, "Such as within the meddowes grew; "As dead mans thumbe, and hare-bell blew." Steevens. One of the grosser names of this plant Gertrude had a particular reason to avoid :—the rampant widow. Malone. 7 liberal - Liberal is free spoken, licentious in language. So, in Othello: "Is he not a most profane and liberal counsellor?" Again, in A Woman's a Weathercock, by N. Field, 1612: 66 Next that, the fame "Of your neglect, and liberal-talking tongue, "Which breeds my honour an eternal wrong." Malone. & Which time, she chanted snatches of old tunes;] Fletcher, in his Scornful Lady, very invidiously ridicules this incident: "I will run mad first, and if that get not pity, 66 I'll drown myself to a most dismal ditty." Warburton. The quartos read-snatches of old lauds, i. e. hymns. Steevens. 9 As one incapable of her own distress,] As one having no understanding or knowledge of her danger. See p. 144, n. 1. Malone. That is, insensible. So, in King Richard III: 66 Incapable and shallow innocents." Ritson. 1 Or like a creature native and indu'd Unto that element:] I do not think the word indued is sense in this place; and believe we should read inured. Till that her garments, heavy with their drink, Laer. Alas then, she is drown'd? Queen. Drown'd, drown'd. Laer. Too much of water hast thou, poor Ophelia, And therefore I forbid my tears: But yet It is our trick; nature her custom hoids, Let shame say what it will: when these are gone, I have a speech of fire, that fain would blaze, [Exit. King. Let's follow, Gertrude: How much I had to do to calm his rage! Now fear I, this will give it start again; Therefore, let's follow. [Exeunt. Shakspeare seems to have forgot himself in this scene, as there is not a single circumstance in the relation of Ophelia's death, that induces us to think she had drowned herself intentionally. M. Mason. As we are indued with certain original dispositions and propensities at our birth, Shakspeare here uses indued with great licentiousness, for formed by nature; clothed, endowed, or furnished, with properties suited to the element of water. Our old writers used indued and endowed indiscriminately. "To indue," says Minsheu in his Dictionary," sepissime refertur ad dotes animo infusas, quibus nimirum ingenium alicujus imbutum et initiatum est, unde et G. instruire est. L. imbuere. Imbuere proprie est inchoare et initiari." In Cotgrave's French Dictionary, 1611, instruire is interpreted, "to fashion, to furnish with." Malone. 2 To muddy death.] In the first scene of the next Act we find Ophelia buried with such rites as betoken she foredid her own life. It should be remembered, that the account here given, is that of a friend; and that the Queen could not possibly know what passed in the mind of Ophelia, when she placed herself in so perilous a situation. After the facts had been weighed and considered, the priest in the next Act pronounces, that her death was doubtful. Malone. 3 The woman will be out. i. e. tears will flow. So, in King Henry V: "And all the woman came into my eyes." Malone. See Vol. IX, p. 343, n. 4. Steevens. * But that this folly drowns it.] Thus the quarto, 1604. The folio reads-But that this folly doubts it; i. e. doubts, or extinguishes it. See p. 51, n. 1. Malone. ACT V..... SCENE I. A Church Yard. Enter Two Clowns, with Spades, &c. 1 Clo. Is she to be buried in christian burial, that wilfully seeks her own salvation? 2 Clo. I tell thee, she is; therefore, make her grave straight: the crowner hath set on her, and finds it christian burial. 1 Clo. How can that be, unless she drowned herself in her own defence? 2 Clo. Why, 'tis found so. 1 Clo. It must be se offendendo; it cannot be else. For here lies the point: If I drown myself wittingly, it argues an act: and an act hath three branches; it is, to act, to do, and to perform:6 Argal, she drowned herself wittingly. 2 Clo. Nay, but hear you, goodman delver. 1 Clo. Give me leave. Here lies the water; good: here stands the man; good: If the man go to this water, and 5 make her grave straight:] Make her grave from east to west in a direct line parallel to the church; not from north to south, athwart the regular line. This, I think, is meant. Johnson. I cannot think that this means any more than make her grave immediately. She is to be buried in christian burial, and consequently the grave is to be made as usual. My interpretation may be justified from the following passage in King Henry V, and the play before us: We cannot lodge and board a dozen or fourteen gentle women who live by the prick of their needles, but it will be thought we keep a bawdy-house straight." Again, in Hamlet, Act III, sc. iv: 66 "Pol. He will come straight." Again, in The Lover's Progress, by Beaumont and Fletcher: "Lis. Do you fight straight? "Clar. Yes presently." Again, in The Merry Wives of Windsor: 66 we'll come and dress you straight." Again, in Othello: 66 Farewel, my Desdemona, I will come to thee straight. Again, in Troilus and Cressida: "Let us make ready straight." Malone. Steevens. 6 an act hath three branches; it is, to act, to do, and to perform:] Ridicule on scholastick divisions without distinction; and of distinctions without difference. Warburton. drown himself, it is, will he, nill he, he goes; mark you that: but if the water come to him, and drown him, he drowns not himself: Argal, he, that is not guilty of his own death, shortens not his own life. 2 Clo. But is this law? 1 Clo. Ay, marry is 't; crowner's-quest law. 2 Clo. Will you haʼ the truth on 't? If this had not been a gentlewoman, she should have been buried out of christian burial. 1 Clo. Why, there thou say'st: And the more pity; that great folks should have countenance in this world to drown or hang themselves, more than their even christian. Come, my spade. There is no ancient gentlemen but gardeners, ditchers, and grave-makers; they hold up Adam's profession. 2 Clo. Was he a gentleman? 1 Clo. He was the first that ever bore arms. 2 Clo. Why, he had none. 1 Clo. What, art a heathen? How dost thou understand the scripture? The scripture says, Adam digged; Could he dig without arms? I'll put another question to thee: if thou answerest me not to the purpose, confess thyself 7 their even christian.] So, all the old books, and rightly. An old English expression for fellow-christian. Thirlby. So, in Chaucer's Jack Upland: "If freres cannot or mow not excuse 'hem of these questions asked of 'hem, it seemeth that they be horrible giltie against God, and ther even christian;" &c. Again, in Gower, de Confessione Amantis, Lib. V, fol. 102: "Of beautie sighe he never hir even." Again, Chaucer's Persones Tale: " of his neighbour, that is to sayn, of his even cristen," &c. This phrase also occurs frequently in the Paston Letters. See Vol. III, p. 421, &c. &c. That is to say, in relieving and sustenance of your even christen," &c.-Again: 66 to dispose and help your even christen.” Steevens. So, King Henry Eighth, in his answer to Parliament in 1546: you might say that I, beyng put in so speciall a trust as I am in this case, were no trustie frende to you, nor charitable man to mine even christian, —." Hall's Chronicle, fol. 261. Malone. 82 Clo.] This speech, and the next as far as-without arms, is not in the quartos. Steevens. 9 · confess thyself —] and be hanged, the Clown, I suppose, would have said, if he had not been interrupted. This was a common proverbial sentence. See Othello, Act IV, sc. i.-He might, however, have intended to say, confess thyself an ass. Malone. 2 Clo. Go to. 1 Clo. What is he, that builds stronger than either the mason, the shipwright, or the carpenter? 2 Clo. The gallows-maker; for that frame outlives a thousand tenants. 1 Clo. I like thy wit well, in good faith; the gallows does well: But how does it well? it does well to those that do ill now thou dost ill, to say, the gallows is built stronger than the church; argal, the gallows may do well to thee. To 't again; come. 2 Clo. Who builds1 stronger than a mason, a shipwright, or a carpenter? 1 Clo. Ay, tell me that, and unyoke. 2 Clo. Marry, now I can tell. 1 Clo. To 't. 2 Clo. Mass, I cannot tell. Enter HAMLET and HORATIO, at a distance. 1 Clo. Cudgel thy brains no more about it;3 for your dull ass will not mend his pace with beating: and, when you are asked this question next, say, a grave-maker; the houses that he makes, last till doomsday. Go, get thee to Yaughan, and fetch me a stoup of liquor. [Exit 2 Clo. 1 Who builds &c.] The inquisitive reader may meet with an assemblage of such queries (which perhaps composed the chief festivity of our ancestors by an evening fire) in a volume of very scarce tracts, preserved in the University Library, at Cambridge, D. 5. 2. The innocence of these Demaundes Joyous may deserve a praise which is not always due to their delicacy. Steevens. 2 Ay, tell me that, and unyoke.] If it be not sufficient to say, with Dr. Warburton, that this phrase might be taken from husbandry, without much depth of reading, we may produce it from a dittie of the workmen of Dover, preserved in the additions to Holinshed, p. 1546: "My bow is broke, I would unyoke, "My foot is sore, I can worke no more." Farmer. Again, in Drayton's Polyolbion, at the end of Song I: "Here I'll unyoke a while, and turn my steeds to meat." Again, in P. Holland's translation of Pliny's Natural History, p. 593: " in the evening, and when thou dost unyoke." Steevens. 3 Cudgel thy brains no more about it:] So, in The Maydes Metamorphosis, by Lyly, 1600: "In vain I fear, I beat my brains about 66 Proving by search to find my mistresse out." Malone. |