That he might not beteem the winds of heaven' Visit her face too roughly. Heaven and earth! ? That he might not beteem the winds of heaven-] In former editions: That he permitted not the winds of heaven-. This is a sophisticated reading, copied from the players in some of the modern editions, for want of understanding the poet, whose text is corrupt in the old impressions: all of which that I have had the fortune to see, concur in reading: so loving to my mother, That he might not beteene the winds of heaven Beteene is a corruption without doubt, but not so inveterate a one, but that, by the change of a single letter, and the separation of two words mistakenly jumbled together, I am verily persuaded, I have retrieved the poet's reading That he might not let e'en the winds of heaven &c. THEOBALD. The obsolete and corrupted verb-beteene, (in the first folio) which should be written (as in all the quartos) beteeme, was changed, as above, by Mr. Theobald; and with the aptitude of his conjecture succeeding criticks appear to have been satisfied. Beteeme, however, occurs in the tenth Book of Arthur Golding's version of Ovid's Metamorphosis, 4to. 1587; and, from the corresponding Latin, must necessarily signify, to vouchsafe, deign, permit, or suffer: 66 - Yet could he not beteeme "The shape of anie other bird than egle for to seeme." 66 nulla tamen alite verti Sign. R. 1. b. "Dignatur, nisi quæ possit sua fulmina ferre." V. 157. Jupiter (though anxious for the possession of Ganymede) would not deign to assume a meaner form, or suffer change into an humbler shape, than that of the august and vigorous fowl who bears the thunder in his pounces. The existence and signification of the verb beteem being thus established, it follows, that the attention of Hamlet's father to his queen was exactly such as is described in the Enterlude of the Life and Repentaunce of Marie Magdalaine, &c. by Lewis Wager, 4to. 1567: "But evermore they were unto me very tender, 66 They would not suffer the wynde on me to blowe." I have therefore replaced the ancient reading, without the slightest hesitation, in the text. Must I remember? why, she would hang on him, As if increase of appetite had grown By what it fed on: And yet, within a month,— Let me not think on't;-Frailty, thy name is wo man! A little month; or ere those shoes were old, My father's brother; but no more like my father, Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears This note was inserted by me in The Gentleman's Magazine, some years before Mr. Malone's edition of our author (in which the same justification of the old reading—beteeme, occurs,) had made its appearance. STEEVENS. This passage ought to be a perpetual memento to all future editors and commentators to proceed with the utmost caution in emendation, and never to discard a word from the text, merely because it is not the language of the present day. Mr. Hughes or Mr. Rowe, supposing the text to be unintelligible, for beteem boldly substituted permitted. Mr. Theobald, in order to favour his own emendation, stated untruly that all the old copies which he had seen, read beteene. His emendation appearing uncommonly happy, was adopted by all the subsequent editors. We find a sentiment similar to that before us, in Marston's Insatiate Countess, 1613: "Jealous that air should ravish her chaste looks." MALONE. Like Niobe, all tears;] Shakspeare might have caught this idea from an ancient ballad intitled The falling out of Lovers is the renewing of Love: "Now I, like weeping Niobe, 66 May wash my handes in teares," &c. Of this ballad Amantium iræ &c. is the burden. STEEVENS. Had left the flushing in her galled eyes, But break, my heart; for I must hold my tongue! HAM. Sir, my good friend; I'll change that name with you. And what make you3 from Wittenberg, Horatio?— Marcellus? MAR. My good lord,—— HAM. I am very glad to see you; good even, sir.4 But what, in faith, make you from Wittenberg? I'll change that name-] I'll be your servant, you shall be my friend. JOHNSON. 3 ·what make you—] A familiar phrase for what are you doing. JOHNSON. See Vol. VIII. p. 4, n. 7. STEEVENS. good even, sir.] So the copies. Sir Thomas Hanmer and Dr. Warburton put it-good morning. The alteration is of no importance, but all licence is dangerous. There is no need of any change. Between the first and eighth scene of this Act it is apparent, that a natural day must pass, and how much of it is already over, there is nothing that can determine. The King has held a council. It may now as well be evening as morning. JOHNSON. HOR. A truant disposition, good my lord. HAM. I would not hear your enemy say so; We'll teach you to drink deep, ere you depart. HOR. My lord, I came to see your father's funeral. HAM. I pray thee, do not mock me, fellowstudent; I think, it was to see my mother's wedding. HOR. Indeed, my lord, it follow'd hard upon. HAM. Thrift, thrift, Horatio! the funeral bak'd meats 5 Did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables. The change made by Sir T. Hanmer might be justified by what Marcellus said of Hamlet at the conclusion of sc. i: 66 and I this morning know "Where we shall find him most convenient." STEEVENS. the funeral bak'd meats-] It was anciently the general custom to give a cold entertainment to mourners at a funeral. In distant counties this practice is continued among the yeomanry. See The Tragique Historie of the Faire Valeria of London, 1598: "His corpes was with funerall pompe conveyed to the church, and there sollemnly enterred, nothing omitted which necessitie or custom could claime; a sermon, a banquet, and like observations." Again, in the old romance of Syr Degore, bl. 1. no date: "A great feaste would he holde "That was buryed in an abbay." COLLINS. See also, Hayward's Life and Raigne of King Henrie the Fourth, 4to. 1599, p. 135: "Then hee [King Richard II.] was conveyed to Langley Abby in Buckinghamshire, and there obscurely interred, without the charge of a dinner for celebrating the funeral." MALONE. 'Would I had met my dearest foe in heaven" Dearest is most immediate, consequential, important. So, in Romeo and Juliet: 66 a ring that I must use "In dear employment." Again, in Beaumont and Fletcher's Maid in the Mill: "You meet your dearest enemy in love, "With all his hate about him." STEEVENS. See Timon of Athens, Act V. sc. ii. Vol. XIX. MALOne, ever. Or ever-] Thus the quarto, 1604. The folio reads―ere This is not the only instance in which a familiar phraseology has been substituted for one more ancient, in that valuable copy. MALOne. • In my mind's eye,] This expression occurs again in our author's Rape of Lucrece: 66 himself behind "Was left unseen, save to the eye of mind." Again, in Chaucer's Man of Lawes Tale: "But it were with thilke eyen of his minde, "With which men mowen see whan they ben blinde.” Ben Jonson has borrowed it in his Masque called Love's Triumph through Callipolis: "As only by the mind's eye may be seen.' Again, in the Microcosmos of John Davies of Hereford, 4to. 1605: "And through their closed eies their mind's eye peeps." Telemachus lamenting the absence of Ulysses, is represented in like manner: σε Οσσόμενος πατές' ἐσθλὸν ἐνὶ φρεσὶν.” Odyss. L. I. 115. This expression occurs again in our author's 113th Sonnet: "Since I left you, mine eye is in my mind.” MALONE. |