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VARIOUS READINGS.

"Breathing like sanctified and pious bawds,
The better to beguile."

The original has bonds. Theobald suggested the alteration, which is given in Mr. Collier's folio.

ACT I., Sc. 3.

We believe the change is right. The expression is coarse from a father to his daughter; but he has just used "brokers" in the same

sense.

A certain convocation of palated worms are e'en at him. Your worm is your only emperor for diet." ACT IV., Sc. 3.

Mr. Collier's folio substitutes palated, instead of the original politic. "If the text," says Mr. Collier, "had always stood 'palated worms,' and it had been proposed to change it to 'politic worms,' few readers would for an instant have consented to relinquish an expression so peculiarly Shakspearian."

The argument of Mr. Collier is a two-edged sword. It makes us hesitate about disturbing an established text. But if palated be a Shaksperian expression, politic is a Shaksperian thought; and is manifestly connected with the idea of "convocation."

"Sweet lord, if your lordship were at leisure."

The quartos have lordship; and so has Mr. Collier's corrected folio. The folio of 1623 has friendship. Mr. Collier says, "We need not say that from all modern editions the corruption is excluded."

ACT V., Sc. 2.

The corruption, as it is called, appears in all our editions, and it appears in this. The folio was properly corrected to friendship. Osric, who speaks, is the representative of Euphuism—the affected phraseology of Shakspere's age;and this is one of the forms of the affectation which runs through all that Osric says.

GLOSSARY.

ABHORRED. Act V., Sc. 1.

"And now how abhorred my imagination is.” Abhorred is used in the sense of disgusted.

AFFRONT. Act III., Sc. 1.

"Affront Ophelia.”

Affront is used in the sense of confront, meet with. ANCHOR'S. Act III., Sc. 2.

"An anchor's cheer in prison be my scope!"

The use of anchor as an abbreviation of anchoret is very ancient.

APPROVE. Act I., Sc. 1.

"He may approve our eyes."

Approve is used in the sense of prove the truth, confirm what we have seen.

BETEEM. Act I., Sc. 2.

"That he might not beteem the winds of heaven."

Beteem is here used, not in its usual sense of to give or bestow, but in that of allow, suffer; it is probably from the AngloSaxon tæman, to witness.

BESTILL D. Act I., Sc. 2.

"Whilst they, bestill'd

Almost to jelly."

To still is to fall in drops; the drops congealed in falling "almost to jelly with the act of fear."

BILBOES. Act V., Sc. 2.

"In the bilboes."

Bilboes are a bar of iron with fetters attached. They are still used as a punishment or means of security in the naval service.

BODKIN. Act III Sc. 1.

"With a bare bodkin."

Bodkin was a small sword or dagger. Chaucer, in the 'Reve's
Tale,' has-

"But if he wol be slain of Simekin,

With pavade, or with knife, or bodekin."

Old writers also speak of Cæsar as having been slain with bodkins.

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BOORD. Act II., Sc. 2.

"I'll boord him presently."

Boord is to accost. See 'Twelfth Night,' where it is spelt board; the orthography varied.

BOSOM. Act II., Sc. 2.

"In her excellent white bosom, there."

A pocket was worn in front of the stays. See 'Two Gentlemen of Verona.'

CARD. Act V., Sc. 1.

"We must speak by the card."

To speak by the card is to speak exactly, on good authority. It is doubted whether the card is the compass, of which the drawing of the points is called the card, or a sea-chart, which in Shakspere's time was also called a card.

CAUTEL. Act I., Sc. 3.

"And now no soil, nor cautel, doth besmirch."

Cautel, from the French cautèle, is cunning, slyness. Chaucer used cautele in the sense of craft; and in 'Coriolanus' (Act IV., Sc. 1,) we have

"Or be caught

"With cautelous baits and practice."

Soil is a spot, and to besmirch is to blacken, to sully.
CAVIARIE. Act II., Sc. 2.

""T was caviarie to the general."

Caviarie, as it stands in the folio, though generally written caviare, is from the Italian caviaro, which Florio, in his dictionary, says "is a kind of black salt meat made of roes of fishes." It is a preparation of the roes of sturgeons, imported from Russia, and formerly much used among the richer classes.

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"The chariest maid is prodigal enough."

Chary is from the Anglo-Saxon cearig, wary, circumspect; chariest is most cautious.

CHOPINE. Act II., Sc. 2.

"By the altitude of a chopine."

A ciopine, from the Italian cioppini, was a high clog worn outside the shoe, and some of which were, as asserted by Coryat, in his Crudities,' "half-a-yard high.”

COMMINGS. Act IV., Sc. 7.

"We'll make a solemn wager on your commings."

The commings were the venews, meetings in assault, the hits.

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COMMON. Act IV., Sc. 5.

"I must common with your grief."

To common is to make common, to interchange thoughts: it is the present commune.

COMPLY. Act V., Sc. 2.

"He did comply with his dug, before he sucked it."

Comply is compliant, complaisant with. The same idea occurs in Fulwel's Arte of Flatterie,' 1579. "The very sucking

babes hath a kind of adulation towards their nurses for the dug."

COTED. Act II., Sc. 2.

"We coted them on the way."

Coted, from the French côté, is to pass by the side of, to overtake.

CRY. Act III., Sc. 2.

"A fellowship in a cry of players."

A cry of players was a company; as a "noise of musicians" was a band. Hamlet had managed the play so well as to deserve a fellowship, a share in the profits.

CURB. Act III., Sc. 4.

"Yea, curb and woo."

Curb, from the French courber, is to bow, to bend.

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"Inquire me first what Danskers are in Paris."

Warner, in his 'Albion's England,' gives Danske as the ancient name of Denmark.

DEAREST. Act I., Sc. 2.

"Would I had met my dearest foe in heaven."

Dearest, from the Anglo-Saxon adjective deriendlic, is noxious,
harmful. The old verb to dear, from derian, is to do mis-
chief, to hurt; hence we obtain dearth, that which hurteth,
dereth, maketh dear. What was spared was therefore called
dear, in the sense of precious, costly, which is the secon-
dary meaning. In 'Richard II.' (Act I., Sc. 3), we find-
"The dateless limit of thy dear exile."

DEMANDED OF. Act IV., Sc. 2.

"Demanded of a sponge."

Demanded of is an old idiom for by; demanded being used in the sense of questioned.

DOUT. Act I., Sc. 4.

"Doth all the noble substance often dout."

Dout is do out, that is, put out or extinguish. In this sense it

is yet used as a provincialism, as "dout the candle." In Act IV., Sc. 7, the passage occurs

"But that this folly douts it,"

where the word is used in the same sense.

DUPP'D. Act IV., Sc. 5.

"And dupp'd the chamber door."

To dup is to do up, to open; as in the previous line, donn'd is did on, from do on, or don.

ESCOTED. Act II., Sc. 2.

"How are they escoted?"

Escoted, from the French escotter, which means to pay the scot, is the scot or shot, the money paid. Hence "scot and lot."

ESIL. Act V., Sc. 1.

"Woul't drink up Esil?"

As esil was formerly in common use for vinegar, some have
supposed that it is here meant will you drink vinegar-
something disagreeable? but it is more probable that the
river Yssel or Izel is meant, which is the most northern
branch of the Rhine, and the one nearest Denmark.
and Drayton both mention the name.

EVEN. Act V., Sc. 1.

"More than their even Christian."

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Even is equal, their fellow Christian. It is so used in Chaucer's 'Persone's Tale,' "that is to sayn of his even Cristen." Mr. Hunter has given other examples from Strype and Wilson. EXCREMENTS. Act III., Sc. 4.

"Like life in excrements." Excrement is used for anything which passes from the body; hair, nails, and feathers were called excrements. Speaking of fowls, Izaak Walton says, "their very excrements afford him [man] a soft lodging at night."

FARDELS. Act III., Sc. 1.

"Who would these fardels bear?"

Fardels, from the Italian fardello, is a burthen. In the 'Romaunt of the Rose,' Chaucer has—

"Then goeth he fardils for to bear."

FOR. Act V., Sc. 1.

"For charitable prayers."

For is used in the sense of instead of.

FOREDOES.

Act II., Sc. 1.

"Whose violent property foredoes itself."

Foredoes is to ruin, to destroy. Chaucer has (Manciple's
Tale'), "a thousand folk hath rakel ire fully fordon."

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