1 Clown digs, and sings. In youth, when I did love, did love, Methought, it was very sweet,

To contract, O, the time, for, ah, my behove

O, methought, there was nothing meet.5

Ham. Has this fellow no feeling of his business? he sings at grave-making.

Hor. Custom hath made it in him a property of easi

ness.

Ham. 'Tis e'en so: the hand of little employment hath the daintier sense.

1 Clo. But age, with his stealing steps,

Hath claw'd me in his clutch,

And hath shipped me into the land,
As if I had never been such.

[Throws up a scull. Ham. That scull had a tongue in it, and could sing once: How the knave jowls it to the ground, as if it were Cain's jaw-bone, that did the first murder! This might be the pate of a politician, which this ass now o'er-reaches; one that would circumvent God, might it not?

4 In youth, when I did love, &c.] The three stanzas, sung here by the Grave-Digger, are extracted, with a slight variation, from a little poem, called The Aged Lover renounceth Love, written by Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, who flourished in the reign of King Henry VIII, and who was beheaded 1547, on a strained accusation of treason. Theobald.

5 To contract, 0, the time, for, ah, my behove

O, methought, there was nothing meet.] This passage, as it stands, is absolute nonsense; but if we read "for aye," instead of "for ah" it will have some kind of sense, as it may mean, "that it was not meet, though he was in love, to contract him. self for ever." M. Mason.

Dr. Percy is of opinion that the different corruptions in these stanzas, might have been "designed by the poet himself, the better to paint the character of an illiterate clown."

Behove is interest, convenience. So, in the 4th Book of Phaer's version of the Æneid:

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wilt for thyne own behove." Steevens. nothing meet.] Thus the folio. The quarto, 1604, reads: O methought there a was nothing a meet.

Malone.

6 As if I had never been such.] Thus, in the original :

For age with stealing steps

"Hath claude me with his crowch;

"And lusty youthe away he leapes,

"As there had bene none such." Steevens.

Hor. It might, my lord.

Ham. Or of a courtier; which could say, Good-morrow, sweet lord! How dost thou, good lord? This might be my lord such-a-one, that praised my lord such-a-one's horse, when he meant to beg it;s might it not?

Hor. Ay, my lord.

Ham. Why, e'en so: and now my lady Worm's ;9 chapless, and knocked about the mazzard with a sexton's spade: Here's fine revolution, an we had the trick to see 't. Did these bones cost no more the breeding, but to play at loggats with them?1 mine ache to think on 't.

7 which this ass now o'er-reaches;] The folio reads-o'er offices. Steevens. ·

In the quarto, [1604] for over-offices is over-reaches, which agrees better with the sentence: it is a strong exaggeration to remark, that an ass can over-reach him who would once have tried to circumvent -. I believe, both these words were Shakspeare's. An author in revising his work, when his original ideas have faded from his mind, and new observations have produced new sentiments, easily introduces images which have been more newly impressed upon him, without observing their want of congruity to the general texture of his original design.

Johnson. 8 This might be my lord such-a-one, that praised my lord sucha-one's horse, when he meant to beg it;] So, in Timon of Athens, Act I:

9

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my lord, you gave

"Good words the other day of a bay courser

"I rode on; it is yours, because you lik'd it." Steevens.

and now my lady Worm's;] The scull that was my lord Such-a-one's, is now my lady Worm's. Johnson.

1- to play at loggats with them?] This is a game played in several parts of England even at this time. A stake is fixed into the ground; those who play, throw loggats at it, and he that is nearest the stake, wins: I have seen it played in different counties at their sheep-shearing feasts, where the winner was entitled to a black fleece, which he afterwards presented to the farmer's maid to spin for the purpose of making a petticoat, and on condition that she knelt down on the fleece to be kissed by all the rusticks present.

So, Ben Jonson, Tale of a Tub, Act IV, sc. vi:

"Now are they tossing of his legs and arms,
"Like loggats at a pear-tree.”

Again, in an old collection of Epigrams, Satires, &c.

"To play at loggats, nine holes, or ten pinnes."

Again, in Decker's If this be not a good Play, the Devil is in it, 1612:

1 Clo. A pick-axe, and a spade, a spade, For-and a shrouding sheet:

O, a pit of clay for to be made

[Sings.

For such a guest is meet.2 [Throws up a scull. Ham. There's another: Why may not that be the scull of a lawyer? Where be his quiddits3 now, his quillets, his cases, his tenures, and his tricks? why does he suffer this rude knave now to knock him about the sconces with a dirty shovel, and will not tell him of his

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two hundred crowns!

"I've lost as much at loggats."

It is one of the unlawful games enumerated in the statute of 33 of Henry VIII. Steevens.

Loggeting in the fields is mentioned for the first time among other "new and crafty games and plays," in the statute of 33 Henry VIII, c. 9. Not being mentioned in former acts against unlawful games, it was probably not practised long before the statute of Henry the Eighth was made. Malone.

A loggat-ground, like a skittle-ground, is strewed with ashes, but is more extensive. A bowl much larger than the jack of the game of bowls is thrown first. The pins, which I believe are called loggats, are much thinner, and lighter at one extremity than the other. The bowl being first thrown, the players take the pins up by the thinner and lighter end, and fling them towards the bowl, and in such a manner that the pins may once turn round in the air, and slide with the thinner extremity foremost towards the bowl. The pins are about one or two-and twenty inches long. Blount.

2 For such a guest is meet.] Thus in the original :

3

quiddits &c.] i. e. subtilties. So, in Soliman and Perseda: "I am wise, but quiddits will not answer death." Steevens. Again, in Drayton's Owle, 4to. 1604:

"By some strange quiddit, or some wrested clause,
"To find him guiltie of the breach of lawes." Malone.

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his quillets,] So, in Ram-Alley, or Merry Tricks, 1611: Nay, good Sir Throat, forbear your quillits now."

Steevens.

Quillets are nice and frivolous distinctions. The word is rendered by Cole, in his Latin Dictionary, 1679, res frivola. Malone. the sconce - i. e. the head. So, in Lyly's Mother Bon

bie, 1594:

"Laudo ingenium; I like thy sconee.”

action of battery? Humph! This fellow might be in 's time a great buyer of land, with his statutes, his recognizances, his fines, his double vouchers, his recoveries: Is this the fine of his fines, and the recovery of his recoveries, to have his fine pate full of fine dirt? will his vouchers vouch him no more of his purchases, and double ones too, than the length and breadth of a pair of indentures? The very conveyances of his lands will hardly lie in this box; and must the inheritor himself have no more? ha?

Hor. Not a jot more, my lord.

Ham. Is not parchment made of sheep-skins?

Hor. Ay, my lord, and of calves-skins too.

Ham. They are sheep, and calves, which seek out assurance in that. I will speak to this fellow:-Whose grave 's this, sirrah?

1 Clo. Mine, sir.

O, a pit of clay for to be made

For such a guest is meet.

[Sings.

Ham. I think it be thine, indeed; for thou liest in 't.

Again, in Ram-Alley, or Merry Tricks, 1611:

I say no more;

"But 'tis within this sconce to go beyond them." Steevens. See Comedy of Errors, Act I, sc. iv, Vol. VI. Malone.

6 his statutes,] By a statute is here meant, not an act of parliament, but a species of security for money, affecting real property; whereby the lands of the debtor are conveyed to the creditor, till out of the rents and profits of them his debt may be satisfied. Malone.

7 his double vouchers, &c.] A recovery with double voucher is the one usually suffered, and is so denominated from two persons (the latter of whom is always the common cryer, or some such inferior person,) being successively voucher, or called upon, to warrant the tenant's title. Both fines and recoveries are fictions of law, used to convert an estate tail into a fee simple. Statutes are (not acts of parliament, but) statutes-merehant and staple, particular modes of recognizance or acknowledgment for securing debts, which thereby become a charge upon the party's land. Statutes and recognizances are constantly mentioned together in the covenants of a purchase deed. Ritson.

8 Is this the fine of his fines, and the recovery of his recoveries,} Omitted in the quartos. Steevens.

9

assurance in that.] A quibble is intended. Deeds, which are usually written on parchment, are called the common assu rances of the kingdom. Malone.

1 Clo. You lie out on 't, sir, and therefore it is not yours: for my part, I do not lie in 't, yet it is mine.

Ham. Thou dost lie in 't, to be in 't, and say it is thine : 'tis for the dead, not for the quick; therefore thou liest. 1 Clo. 'Tis a quick lie, sir; 'twill away again, from me

to you.

Ham. What man dost thou dig it for?

1 Clo. For no man, sir.

Ham. What woman then?

1 Clo. For none neither.

Ham. Who is to be buried in 't?

1 Clo. One that was a woman, sir; but, rest her soul, she 's dead.

Ham. How absolute the knave is! we must speak by the card, or equivocation will undo us. By the lord, Horatio, these three years I have taken note of it; the age is grown so picked, that the toe of the peasant comes so

1 by the card,] The card is the paper on which the different points of the compass were described. To do any thing by the card, is, to do it with nice observation. Johnson.

The card is a sea-chart, still so termed by mariners: and the word is afterwards used by Osric in the same sense. Hamlet's meaning will therefore be, we must speak directly forward in a straight line, plainly to the point. Ritson.

So, in Macbeth:

"And the very ports they blow, &c.

"In the shipman's card." Steevens.

by the card,] i. e. we must speak with the same precision and accuracy as is observed in marking the true distances of coasts, the heights, courses, &c. in a sea-chart, which in our poet's time was called a card. So, in The Commonwealth and Government of Venice, 4to. 1599, p. 177: "Sebastian Munster in his carde of Venice -" Again, in Bacon's Essays, p. 326, edit. 1740: "Let him carry with him also some card, or book, describing the country where he travelleth." In 1589 was published in 4to. A briefe Discourse of Mappes and Cardes, and of their Uses.-The 'shipman's card” in Macbeth, is the paper on which the differ. ent points of the compass are described. Malone.

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In every ancient sea-chart that I have seen, the compass, &c. was likewise introduced. Steevens.

Sir

2 the age is grown so picked,] So smart, so sharp, says T. Hanmer, very properly; but there was, I think, about that time, a picked shoe, that is, a shoe with a long pointed toe, in fashion, to which the allusion seems likewise to be made. Every man now is smart; and every man now is a man of fashion. Johnson.

This fashion of wearing shoes with long pointed toes was carried to such excess in England, that it was restrained at last by