That liberal fhepherds give a groffer name, And, mermaid-like, a while they bore her up: that in Suffex it is ftill called dead men's hands; and that in Lyte's Herbal, 1578, its various names, too grofs for repetition, are preferved. Dead men's thumbs are mentioned in an ancient bl. 1. ballad, entitled The deceafed Maiden Lover: "Then round the meddowes did she walke, "Catching each flower by the ftalke, "Such as within the meddowes grew; "As dead mans thumbe, and hare-bell blew." STEEVENS. One of the groffer names of this plant Gertrude had a particular reafon to avoid :—the rampant widow. MALONE. liberal-] Licentious. See Vol. III. p. 242, n. 9; Vol. IV. p. 500, n. 4; Vol. V. p. 363, n. 6, and p. 436, n. 3. REED. Liberal is free-fpoken, licentious in language. So, in Othello: "Is he not a moft profane and liberal counsellor?" Again, in A Woman's a Weathercock, by N. Field, 1612: Next that, the fame "Of your neglect, and liberal-talking tongue, "MALONE. 5 Which time, he chanted fnatches of old tunes;] Fletcher, in his Scornful Lady, very invidioufly ridicules this incident: "I will run mad first, and if that get not pity, "I'll drown myself to a most dismal ditty.” WARBURTON. The quartos read-fnatches of old lauds, i, e. hymns. STEEVENS. 6 As one incapable of her own distress,] As one having no underftanding or knowledge of her danger. See p. 233, n. 9. " That is, infenfible. So, in King Richard III: MALONE. Or like a creature native and indu'd Unto that element: but long it could not be, Till that her garments, heavy with their drink, Pull'd the poor wretch from her melodious lay To muddy death. LAER. 8 Alas then, fhe is drown'd? QUEEN. Drown'd, drown'd. LAER. Too much of water haft thou, poor Ophelia, And therefore I forbid my tears: But yet It is our trick; nature her custom holds, " Or like a creature native and indu'd Unto that element:] I do not think the word indued is fenfe in this place; and believe we should read inured. Shakspeare seems to have forgot himself in this fcene, as there is not a fingle circumftance 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 difpofitions and propenfities at our birth, Shakspeare here ufes indued with great licentioufnefs, for formed by nature; clothed, endowed, or furnished, with properties fuited to the element of water. Our old writers used indued and endowed indifcriminately. “To indue," fays Minfheu in his Dictionary," fepiffime refertur ad dotes animo infufas, quibus nimirum ingenium alicujus imbutum et initiatum eft, unde et G. inftruire eft. L. imbuere. Imbuere proprie eft inchoare et initiari." In Cotgrave's French Dictionary, 1611, inftruire is interpreted, "to fashion, to furnish with." MALONE. 8 To muddy death.] In the firft fcene of the next act we find Ophelia buried with fuch 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 poffibly know what paffed in the mind of Ophelia, when the placed herself in fo perilous a fituation. After the facts had been weighed and confidered, the priest in the next act pronounces, that her death was doubtful. MALONE. 9 The woman will be out.] i. e. tears will flow. So, in K. Henry V: "And all the woman came into my eyes." MALONE. See Vol. IX. p. 450, n. 7. STEEVENS. [Exit.. I have a fpeech of fire, that fain would blaze, KING. [Exeunt, Enter two Clowns, with Spades, &c. I CLO. Is the to be burffd in chriftian burial, that wilfully feeks her own falvation? 2. CLO. I tell thee, fhe is; therefore, make her grave ftraight: the crowner hath fet on her, and finds it chriftian burial. But that this folly drowns it.] Thus the quarto, 1604. The folio reads-But that this folly doubts it, i. e. douts, or extinguishes it. See p. 63, n. 6. MALONE. 3 -make her grave ftraight:] Make her grave from east to weft in a direct line parallel to the church; not from north to fouth, athwart the regular line. This, I think, is meant. JOHNSON. grave im I cannot think that this means any more than make her mediately. She is to be buried in chriftian burial, and confequently the grave is to be made as ufual. My interpretation may be juftified from the following paffages in King Henry V. and the play before us: 66 We cannot lodge and board a dozen or fourteen gentlewomen who live by the prick of their needles, but it will be thought we keep a bawdy-houfe ftraight." Le Λ 1. CLO. How can that be, unlefs fhe drown'd herself in her own defence? 2. CLO. Why, 'tis found fo. 1. CLO. It must be fe 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:+ Argal, the drown'd herself wittingly. 2. CLO. Nay, but hear you, goodman delver. 1. CLO. Give me leave. Here lies the water; good: here ftands the man; good: If the man go to this water, and 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 himfelf: Argal, he, that is not guilty of his own death, fhortens not his own life. 2. CLO. But is this law? 1. CLO. Ay, marry is't; crowner's-queft law.' Again, in Hamlet, Act III. fc, iv: Pol. He will come fraight." Again, in The Lover's Progress, by Beaumont and Fletcher: "Lif. Do you fight straight? "Clar. Yes, prefently.' Again, in The Merry Wives of Windfor: we'll come and dress you ftraight." Again, in Othello: "Farewell, my Defdemona, I will come to thee ftraight." Again, in Troilus and Creffida: "Let us make ready ftraight." MALONE. STEEVENS. an act hath three branches; it is, to act, to do, and to per form:] Ridicule on fcholaftick divifions without distinction; and of diftinctions without difference. WARBURTON. crowner's queft-lar.] I ftrongly fufpect that this is a ridicule on the cafe of Dame Hales, reported by Plowden in his commentaries, as determined in 3 Eliz. It seems, her hufband fir James Hales had drowned himself in a river; and the question was, whether by this act a forfeiture of a 2. CLO. Will you ha' the truth on't? If this had not been a gentlewoman, fhe fhould have been bury'd out of christian burial. 1. CLO. Why, there thou fay'ft: And the more pity; that great folks fhould have countenance in this world to drown or hang themselves, more than their even christian. Come; my fpade. There leafe from the dean and chapter of Canterbury, which he was poffelfed of, did not accrue to the crown: an inquifition was found before the coroner, which found him felo de fe. The legal and logical fubtilties, arifing in the courfe of the argument of this cafe, gave a very fair opportunity for a fneer at crowner's queft-law. The expreffion, a little before, that an act hath three branches, &c. is fo pointed an allufion to the cafe I mention, that I cannot doubt but that Shakspeare was acquainted with, and meant to laugh at it. It may be added, that on this occafion a great deal of fubtilty was used, to afcertain whether fir James was the agent or the patient; or, in other words, whether he went to the water, or the water came to him. The caufe of fir James's madness was the circumftance of his having been the judge who condemned lady Jane Gray. SIR J. HAWKINS. If Shakspeare meant to allude to the cafe of Dame Hales," (which indeed feems not improbable,) he muft have heard of that cafe in converfation; for it was determined before he was born, and Plowden's Commentaries, in which it is reported, were not tranflated into English till a few years ago. Our author's study was probably not much encumbered with old French Reports. MALONE. 6 their even chriftian.] So, all the old books, and rightly. An old English expreffion for fellow-chriftian. THIRLBY. So, in Chaucer's Jack Upland: "If freres cannot or mow not excufe 'hem of thefe queftions afked of 'hem, it feemeth that they be horrible giltie against God, and ther even chriftian;" &c. Again, in Gower, De Confeffione Amantis, Lib. V. fol. 102: "Of beautie fighe he never hir even." Again, Chaucer's Perfones Tale: « of his neighbour, that is to fayn, of his even criften," &c. This phrafe alfo occurs frequently in the Pafton Letters. See Vol. III. p. 421, &c. &c. "That is to fay, in relieving and fuftenance of your even chriften," &c.-Again, " to difpofe and help your even chriften." STEEVENS. So, King Henry Eighth, in his anfwer to parliament in 1546: |