Time qualifies the fpark and fire of it;
I here lives within the very flame of love
A kind of wick, or fnuff, that will abate it,
And nothing is at a like goodness still;
For goodness, growing to a pleurify, (5)
Dies in his own too much; what we would do,
We should do when we would; for this would changes,
And hath abatements and delays as many

As there are tongues, are hands, are accidents;
And then this fult is like a fpend thrift figh
That hurts by eafing; but to th' quick o'th' ulcer-
Hamlet comes back; what would undertake
To fhew yourself your father's fon indeed

More than in words?

you

Laer. To cut his throat i'th' church.

King. No place, indeed, fhould murder fanctuarife } Revenge fhould have no bounds; but, good Laerte:,

(65) For goodness, growing to a pleurify,

Dies in bis oron too much.] Mr. Warburton fagaciously observ'd to me, that this is nonfenfe, and untrue in fact; and therefore "thinks, that Shakespeare must have wrote;

For goodness, growing to a plethory, &c.

For the pleurity is an inflammation of the membrane which covers the whole thorax; and is generally occafion'd by a ftagnation of the blood; but a plethora, is, when the veffels are fuller of humours than is agreeable to a natural ftate, or health: and too great a fullness and floridnefs of the blood are frequently the caufes of fudden death. But I have not difturb'd the text, becaufe, 'tis poffible, our Author himfelf might be out in his phyfics: and I have the more reason to fufpect it, becaufe Beaumont and Fletcher havé twice committed the felf fame blunder.

You are too infolent;

And thofe too many excellencies, that feed
Your pride, turn to a pleurify, and kill
That which should nourish virtue.

So, again;

-Thou grand decider

Cuftom of the Country.

Of dufty and old titles, that heal'ft with blood
The earth when it is fick, and cur'ft the world
O'th' pleurify of people.

Two Noble Kinfmen.

If I may guels at the accident which caus'd their mistake, it seems this. They did not confider, that pleurify was deriv'd from pleura j but the declination of plus, pluris, crofs'd their thoughts, and so they naturally fuppos'd the diffemper to arife from fome fuperfluity.

Will

Will you do this? keep clofe within your chamber;
Hamlet, return'd, shall know you are come home:
We'll put on those fhall praise your excellence,
And fet a double varnish on the fame

The Frenchman gave you; bring you in fine together,
And wager on your heads. He being remifs,
Moft generous, and free from all contriving,
Will not peruse the foils; fo that with ease,
Or with a little fhuffling, you may chufe
A fword unbated, and in a pafs of practice
Requite him for your father.

Laer. I will do't;

And for the purpose I'll anoint my fword:
I bought an unction of a Mountebank,
So mortal, that but dip a knife in it,
Where it draws blood, no Cataplasm so rare,
Collected from all Simples that have virtue
Under the moon, can fave the thing from death,
That is but fcratch'd withal; I'll touch my point
With this contagion, that if I gall him flightly,
It may be death.

King. Let's farther think of this;

Weigh, what convenience both of time and means
May fit us to our fhape. If this fhould fail,

And that our drift look through our bad performance,
"Twere better not affay'd; therefore this project
Should have a back, or second, that might hold,
If this should blast in proof.-Soft-let me fee-
We'll make a folemn wager on your cunnings;
1 ha't――when in your motion you are hot,
(As ma. you bouts more violent to that end,)
And that he calls for drink, I'll have prepar'd him
A chalice for the nonce; whereon but fipping,
If he by chance escape your venom'd tuck,
Our purpose may hold there.

Enter Queen.

How now, fweet Queen?

Queen. One woe doth tread upon another's heel, So faft they follow: your fifter's drown'd, Laertes.

K 2

Laer.

Laer. Drown'd! oh where ?

Queen. There is a willow grows aflant a brook, That fhews his hoar leaves in the glaffy stream: There with fantastick garlands did the come, Of crow-flowers, nettles, daifies, and long purples, (That liberal shepherds give a groffer name; But our cold maids do dead men's fingers call them ;) There on the pendant boughs, her coronet weeds Clambering to hang, an envious fliver broke; When down her weedy trophies and herself Fell in the weeping brook; her cloaths spread wide, And mermaid-like, a while they bore her up; Which time fhe chaunted fnatches of old tunes, As one incapable of her own distress;

Or like a creature native, and indued

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. 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 cuftom holds,

Let Shame fay what it will; when these are gone,
The woman will be out: adieu, my Lord!

I have a speech of fire, that fain would blaze,
But that this folly drowns it.

King. Follow, Gertrude:

How much had I to do to calm his rage!
Now fear 1, this will give it start again;

Therefore, let's follow.

[Exit.

[Exeunt.

ACT

V.

SCENE, A CHURCH.

Enter two Clowns, with Spades and mattocks.

I CLOWN.

'S the to be buried in chriftian burial, that wilfully feeks her own falvation ?

2 Clown. I tell thee, fhe is, therefore make her grave ftraight; the crowner hath fate on her, and finds it chriftian burial.

1 Clown. How can that be, unlefs fhe drowned herfelf in her own defence?

2 Clown. Why, 'tis found fo.

1 Clown. It must be fe offendendo, it cannot be elfe. 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, fhe drown'd herfelf wittingly.

2 Clown. Nay, but hear you, goodman Delver.

1 Clown. Give me leave; here lies the water, good: here stands 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 himself. Argal, he, that is not guilty of his own death, fhortens not his own life.

2 Clown. But is this law?

1 Clown. Ay, marry is't, crowner's queft-law.

2 Clown. Will you ha' the truth on't? if this had not been a gentlewoman, fhe fhould have been buried out of chriftian burial.

1 Clown. Why, there thou fay'ft. And the more pity, that great folk fhould have countenance in this world to drown or hang themselves, more than other christians.

K 3

chriftians (66). Come, my fpade; there is no ancient. gentlemen but gardeners, ditchers, and grave-makers; they hold up A am's profeffion.

2 Clown. Was he a gentleman ?

1 Clown. He was the first, that ever bore arms. 2 Cloun. Why, he had none.

1 Claun. What, art a heathen? ho v doft thou underfand the Scripture? the Scripture fays, dam digg'd; could he dig without arms? I'll put another question to thee; if thou anfwereft me not to the purpofe, confefs thy felf

2 Clown. Go to.

Cown. What is he that builds ftronger than either the mafon, the fhip-wright, or the carpenter?

2 Cor. The gallows-maker; for that frame outlives

a thousand tenants.

1 Clown. I like thy wit well, in good faith; the gallows does well; but how does it well? it does well to thofe that do ill: now thou doft ill, to fay the gallows is built ftronger than the church; arga', the gallows may do well to thee. To't again, come.

2 Chen, Who builds ftronger than a mafon, a fhipwright, or a carpenter ?

Clow. Ay, tell me that, and unyoke.

2 Cown. Marry, now I can tell.

1 Clorun. To't.

2 Clown. Mafs, I cannot tell.

(66) more than other chriftians.] All the old tooks read, as Door Thirlby accurately obferves to me, their even chriften, i. e..their fellow chriftians. This was the language of thofe days, when we tain'd a good portion of the idiom receiv'd from our Saxon ancestors. Emre chrn.] Frater in Chrifto. Saxonicum; quod malè intelligentes, even briflian proferunt: atque ità editur in cratione Henrici VIII, ad parlamentum An. regn. 37. Sed re&è in L. L. Edouardi confeff, ca. 36. fratrem fuum, quod Asg'i dicun Enne Cpirten. SPELMAN in hs Glolary. The Doctor thinks this learned antiquary mistaken, making even, a corruption of Enne; for that even or Epen, and Cne are S xen words of the fame import and fignification. I'll fubjoin, in confirmation of the Doctor's opinion, what SOMNER fays upon this head. Epen, Æquus, æqualis, par, juftus, ever, (qual, aik, &c Enne, Equus, juftus, qualis, even, juft, iqual. Enne-rcolepe, condifcipulus, a fchoolfellow.

in

Enter