Out of his lunacies.] The old quartos read,

Out of his brows.

This was from the ignorance of the first editors; as is this unnecessary Alexandrine, which we owe to the players. The poet, I am persuaded, wrote,

as doth hourly grow

Out of his lunes.

i. e. his madness, frenzy. THEOB.

Lunacies is the reading of the folio.

I take brows to be, properly read, frows, which, I think, is a provincial word for perverse humors; which being, I suppose, not understood, was changed to lunacies.

am not confident. JOHN.

But of this I

I would receive Theobald's emendation, because Shakspeare uses the word lunes in the same sense in The Merry Wives of Windsor, and The Winter's Tale. From the redundancy of the measure nothing can be inferred.

Perhaps, however, Shakspeare designed a metaphor from horned cattle, whose powers of being dangerous increase with the growth of their brows. STEEV.

"Out of his lunacies." "Brows" may be used for head. The meaning will be, the projects in which he is continually engaged and such, it may be remembered was the case with Hamlet. As for Mr. S.'s metaphor from horned cattle, it is if any thing in the semblance of a pun may for once be admitted-enough to drive a person horn mad. This proverbial saying, and which has been supposed to have originated with the cuckold's horns, is wholly derived from the horns of the moon. It means, really, actually mad; furious, by reason of the planet's influence, and to distinguish it from the term mad, when merely applicable to folly, or an extravagant humor. Horn mad, is evidently the vulgar expression for lunatic; for at the time that the moon is crescent or horned, as the astronomer calls it, the intellect, if any way unsound, will be affected in a more particular degree than when she is in her

wane.

B.

Ham. And so he goes to heaven :

And so am I reveng'd? That would be scann'd:

1

A villain kills my father; and, for that,
I, his sole son, do this same villain send
To heaven.

-That would be scann'd:] i. e. that should be considered, estimated. STEEV.

I rather think it means- "This is a matter that would be inquired into-and my conduct would perhaps be cen sured of all men." B.

I, his sole son, do this same villain send.] The folio reads foule son, a reading apparently corrupted from the quarto. The meaning is plain. I, his only son, who am bound to punish his murderer. JouN.

"I, his sole son,"-" foule son" is certainly the true reading. To foule, in old language, is to offend, do amiss. "I his greatly mistaken son, do, &c." This agrees with the context: with the whole of Hamlet's reasoning in regard to his meditated revenge. "Sole" is comparatively weak. B.

Ham. Then trip him, that his heels may kick at
heaven;

And that his soul may be as damn'd, and black,
As hell; whereto it goes.

-that his heels may kick at heaven ;] So, in Heywood's Silver Age, 1613:

"Whose heels tript up, kick'd'gainst the firmament.” STEEV. As hell, whereto it goes-] This speech, in which Hamlet, represented as a virtuous character, is not content with taking blood for blood, but contrives damnation for the man that he would punish, is too horrible to be read or to be uttered. JOHNSON. The same fiend-like disposition is shown by Lodowick, in Webster's Vittoria Corombona, 1612:

"to have poison'd

"The handle of his racket. O, that, that!—

"That while he had been bandying at tennis,

"He might have sworn himself to hell, and struck
His soul into the hazard!"

Again, in The Honest Lawyer, 1616:

"I then should strike his body with his soul,

"And sink them both together."

Again, in the third of Beaumont and Fletcher's Four Plays

in one,

"No, take him dead drunk now without repentance." STEEV. The same horrid thought has been adopted by Lewis Machin, in the Dumb Knight, 1633:

"Nay, but be patient, smooth your brow a little,
"And you shall take them as they clip each other,
"Even in the height of sin: then damn them both,
"And let them stink before they ask God pardon,

"That your revenge may stretch unto their souls." MAL. I think it not improbable that when Shakspeare put this horrid sentiment into the mouth of Hamlet, he might have recollected the following story: "One of these monsters meeting his enemie unarmed, threatned to kill him if he denied not God, his power, and essential properties, viz. his mercy, suffrance, &c. the which, when the other desiring life pronounced with great horror, kneeling upon his knees: The bravo cried out, nowe will I kill thy body and soule, and at that instant thrust him through with his rapier." Brief Discourse of the Spanish State, with a Dialogue annexed intitled Philobasilis, 4to. 1590. p. 24. ED.

'As hell whereto it goes.' This outcry of Dr. Johnson and his followers in regard to the damnatory (condemnatory) speech of Hamlet, is somewhat singular. The plain meaning of it is, may he be punished according to his sins, and this, it should be remembered, is in conformity with the Christian doctrine of rewards and punishments. "And they that have done good shall go into life everlasting, and they that have done evil into everlasting fire.” Now what is to be understood of damnation? Is it to be held as something more than being condemned to eternal torments-than being sent into everlasting fire? Surely not. The whole of the matter is this-The Prince could not speak of Claudius as being the worst of all possible villains, that is to say, an hypocritical villain;-his present humility proceeding not from a contrite, but an attrite heart. In a word, he is so very criminal, that it would be a wickedness nearly equal to his own to wish

him to find salvation: to hope that he might receive forgiveness at the hand of his maker. We find in another page of the play," the devil take thy soul,"-and in Othello,

"May his pernicious soul

Rot half a grain a day!"

With many the like imprecations. Why then are these passed over as blameless, while the one in question is so loudly exclaimed against? Such fulminations had been better hurled at the anathemas, the holy maledictions, of the Church of Rome. B.

Ham. Calls virtue, hypocrite; takes off the

rose

From the fair forehead of an innocent love,

And sets a blister there;

-takes off the rose] Alluding to the custom of wearing roses on the side of the face. See a note on a passage in King John, act i. WARB.

It is not a little extraordinary that the commentators should be for considering literally, expressions that are purely metaphorical. Rose is beauty, and blister is deformity. The meaning plainly is, renders love, which is naturally beautiful, ugly and deformed. B.

Queen. Ay me, what act,

That roars so loud, and thunders in the index? That roars so loud, &c.] The meaning is, What is this act, of which the discovery, or mention, cannot be made, but with this violence of clamor? JOHN.

-and thunders in the index?] Mr. Edwards observes, that the indexes of many old books were at that time inserted at the beginning, instead of the end, as is now the custom. This observation I have often seen confirmed. STEEV.

'And thunders in the index.' This is not spoken of the index of a book, but in allusion to an index of the powers

in Algebra: to the exponent, or that which sets forth, which shows the order or seat of each power. B.

Ham. That monster, custom, who all sense

doth eat,

Of habit's devil, is angel yet in this

That monster custom who all sense doth eat,

Of habit's devil, is angel yet in this :] This passage is left out in the two elder folios: it is certainly corrupt, and the players did the discreet part to stifle what they did not understand. Habit's devil certainly arose from some conceited tamperer with the text, who thought it was necessary in contrast to angel. The emendation of the text I owe to the sagacity of Dr. Thirlby:

That monster custom, who all sense doth eat

Of habits evil, is angel, &c. THEOB.

I think Thirlby's conjecture wrong, though the succeeding editors have followed it; angel and devil are evidently opposed.

JOHN.

'That monster custom, who all sense doth eat,

Of habit's devil, is angel yet in this."

The sense requires that we should read,

Ham. I must be cruel, only to be kind : Thus bad begins, and worse remains behind.'I must be cruel only to be kind,

Thus bad begins, and worse remains behind!' It does not appear to me that cruelty and kindness are here meant to be set in opposition; though this, I believe, is generally understood of the passage. It were, however, too derogatory from the character of Hamlet, and after what we had just before observed of his state of mind, to suppose that he should at once be given to quibbling; that his wit or understanding should be represented as,

"See-saw, between that and this,

And he himself one vile antithesis."