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POL.

That hath made him mad. I am forry, that with better heed, and judgement, I had not quoted him: 3 I fear'd, he did but trifle, And meant to wreck thee; but, beshrew my jealoufy! It seems, it is as proper to our age To cast beyond ourselves in our opinions, As it is common for the younger fort

To lack difcretion. Come, go we to the king:

3 I had not quoted him:] To quote is, I believe, to reckon, to take an account of, to take the quotient or refult of a computation. JOHNSON.

I find a passage in The Isle of Gulls, a comedy, by John Day, 1606, which proves Dr. Johnson's sense of the word to be not far from the true one:

"'twill be a scene of mirth

"For me to quote his paffions, and his smiles."

To quote on this occasion undoubtedly means to obferve. Again, in Drayton's Mooncalf:

This honeft man the prophecy that noted,

"And things therein most curioufly had quoted,
"Found all these signs," &c.

Again, in The Woman Hater, by Beaumont and Fletcher, the intelligencer says," I'll quote him to a tittle," i. e. I will mark or observe him.

To quote as Mr. M. Mason observes, is invariably used by Shakspeare in this sense. STEEVENS.

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"Will quote my loathed trespass in my looks."

In this paffage, in the original edition of 1594, the word is written cote, as it is in the quarto copy of this play. It is merely the old or corrupt spelling of the word. See Vol. V. p. 276, n. 8, and p. 368, n. 8; Vol. VI. p. 367, n. 2; and Vol. VIII. p. 138, n. 5. In Minsheu's Dict. 1617, we find, "To quote, mark, or note, à quotus. Numeris enim fcribentes fententias fuas notant et diftinguunt." See also Cotgrave's Dict. 1611: "Quoter. To quote or marke in the margent; to note by the way."

4-it is as proper to our age

To caft beyond ourselves in our opinions,

As it is common for the younger fort

MALONE.

To lack difcretion.] This is not the remark of a weak man. The vice of age is too much fufpicion. Men long accustomed to

:

This must be known; which, being kept close,

might move

More grief to hide, than hate to utter love.s
Come.

[Exeunt.

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Enter King, Queen, ROSENCRANTZ, GUILDENSTERN, and Attendants.

KING. Welcome, dear Rofencrantz, and Guildenstern!

Moreover that we much did long to fee you,
The need, we have to use you, did provoke
Our hafty sending. Something have you heard
Of Hamlet's transformation; so I call it,

the wiles of life caft commonly beyond themselves, let their cunning go farther than reafon can attend it. This is always the fault of a little mind, made artful by long commerce with the world.

JOHNSON.

The quartos read-By heaven it is as proper &c. STEEVENS. In Decker's Wonderful Yeare, 4to. 1603, we find an expreffion fimilar to that in the text. "Now the thirstie citizen cafts beyond the moone." MALONE.

The fame phrafe has already occurred in Titus Andronicus. REED. 5 This must be known; which, being kept close, might move

More grief to hide, than hate to utter love.] i. e. this must be made known to the King, for (being kept fecret) the hiding Hamlet's love might occafion more mischief to us from him and the queen, than the uttering or revealing of it will occafion hate and refentment from Hamlet. The poet's ill and obfcure expreffion feems to have been caused by his affectation of concluding the scene with a couplet.

Sir T. Hanmer reads,

More grief to hide hate, than to utter love. JOHNSON.
VOL. XV.
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Since nor the exterior nor the inward man
Resembles that it was: What it should be,

More than his father's death, that thus hath put

him

So much from the understanding of himself,
I cannot dream of: I entreat you both,

That,-being of so young days brought up with

him:

And, fince, so neighbour'd to his youth and hu

mour,

That you vouchsafe your rest here in our court
Some little time: so by your companies
To draw him on to pleasures; and to gather,
So much as from occafion you may glean,
Whether aught, to us unknown, afflicts him thus,
That, open'd, lies within our remedy.

QUEEN. Good gentlemen, he hath much talk'd
of you;

And, sure I am, two men there are not living,
To whom he more adheres. If it will please you
To show us so much gentry, and good will,
As to expend your time with us a while,
For the fupply and profit of our hope,
Your visitation shall receive fuch thanks

As fits a king's remembrance.

Ros.

Both your majesties

Might, by the fovereign power you have of us,

6 and humour,] Thus the folio. The quartos read

haviour. STEEVENS.

Whether aught, &c.] This line is omitted in the folio.

STEEVENS.

8 To show us so much gentry,] Gentry, for complaisance.

WARBURTON.

9 For the fupply &c.] That the hope which your arrival has

raised may be completed by the defired effect. JOHNSON.

2

-you have of us,] I believe we should read-o'er us,

instead of of us. M. MASON.

I

Put your dread pleasures more into command

Than to entreaty.

GUIL.

But we both obey;

And here give up ourselves, in the full bent,'
To lay our service freely at your feet,

To be commanded.

KING. Thanks, Rosencrantz, and gentle Guil

denstern.

QUEEN. Thanks, Guildenstern, and gentle Ro

fencrantz:

And I beseech you instantly to visit

My too much changed fon.-Go, some of you,
And bring these gentlemen where Hamlet is.

GUIL. Heavens make our prefence, and our prac

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KING. Thou still haft been the father of good

news.

POL. Have I, my lord? Affure you, my good

liege,

3-in the full bent,] Bent, for endeavour, application.

WARBURTON.

The full bent, is the utmost extremity of exertion. The allufion is

to a bow bent as far as it will go. So afterwards in this play :

"

They fool me to top of my bent." MALONE.

:

!

:

I hold my duty, as I hold my foul,
Both to my God, and to my gracious king:
And I do think, (or else this brain of mine
Hunts not the trail of policy so sure
As it hath us'd to do,) that I have found
The very cause of Hamlet's lunacy.

KING. O, speak of that; that do I long to hear.
POL. Give first admittance to the embassadors;
My news shall be the fruits to that great feaft.
KING. Thyself do grace to them, and bring them
in.
[Exit POLONIUS.
He tells me, my dear Gertrude, he hath found
The head and fource of all your son's distemper.
QUEEN. I doubt, it is no other but the main;
His father's death, and our o'erhafty marriage.

Re-enter POLONIUS, with VOLTIMAND and CORNE

LIUS.

KING. Well, we shall fift him.-Welcome, my
good friends!

Say, Voltimand, what from our brother Norway?
VOLT. Most fair return of greetings, and defires.
Upon our first, he fent out to fupprefs
His nephew's levies; which to him appear'd
To be a preparation 'gainst the Polack;
But, better look'd into, he truly found
It was against your highness: Whereat griev'd,-
That so his fickness, age, and impotence,

4

the trail of policy - The trail is the course of an animal

pursued by the fcent. JOHNSON.

5

-the fruit-] The defert after the meat. JOHNSON.

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