text, which Dr. Johnson thinks best, though he admits that Shakspeare might have written both. Other very good reasons have been given for preferring the present reading; yet whoever will reflect on the typographical errors for which the quarto plays of Shakspeare are remarkable, may be disposed to think that the folio editors had good reason for their variation. Our author's bible might here, as in many other instances, have furnished his materials. "Moreover thus saith the Lorde: seyng the daughters of Sion are become so proude and come in with stretched oute neckes, and with vayne wanton eyes; seynge they come in trippynge so nicely with their fete; therefore, &c."-Isaiah, ch. iii. ver. 16. It has not been observed that lisp seems to refer to prattling, as jig and amble do to pace.

The violence of Herod in the old mysteries has been already exemplified by some extracts from the Chester and Coventry plays. One of the latter, of which some account has been given in the preceding pages, may truly be said on the present occasion to completely out-herod the others. It exhibits the fury of the monarch to so much advantage, that every zealous amateur of theatrical manners must be gratified with the following extracts.

His majesty's entrance is announced by a herald in the vilest French jargon that can be conceived. He commences by enjoining silence on the part of the spectators, and ends with sending them all to the devil. "La gran deaboly vos umport." He then makes a speech, which begins in bad Latin, and thus proceeds:

"[I am] the myghtyst conquerowre that ever walkid on grownd,

For I am evyn he that made bothe hevin and hell,

And of my myghte power holdith up the world rownd;

Magog and Madroke bothe thes did I confownde,

And in this bryght bronde* there bonis I brak on sunder,
That all the wyde worlde on those rappis † did wonder.
I am the cawse of this grett lyght and thunder;

Yt ys throgh my fure that the § soche noyse doth make;
My feyrefull contenance the cloudis so doth incumber,
That oftymes for drede therof the verre || yerth doth quake.
Loke when I with males ¶ this bryght brond doth shake,
All the whole world from the north to the sowthe,
I ma them dystroie with won worde of my mouthe.
To recownt unto you myn inewmerabull substance,
Thatt were to moche for any tong to tell;

For all the whole orent ** ys under myn obbeydeance,
And prince am I of purgatorre and chef capten of hell;
And thase tyranees trayturs be force ma I compell

Myne enemys to vanquese, and evyn to duste them dryve,
And with a twynke of myn iee not won to be left alyve.
Behald my contenance and my colur,

Bryghter than the sun in the meddis of the dey.
Where can you have a more grettur succur
Then to behold my person that ys so gaye?

My fawcun++ and my fassion with my gorgis ‡‡ araye?
He that had the grace allwey theron to thynke,
Lyve the myght allwey withowt othur meyte or drynke;
And thys my tryomfande fame most hylist doth abownde
Throgh owt this world in all reygeons abrod,
Reysemelyng the favour of that most myght Mahownd.
From Jubytor be desent §§ and cosyn to the grett God,
And namyd the most reydowndid |||| kyng Eyrodde,
Wycche that all pryncis hath undr subjeccion,
And all their whole powar undur my proteccion;
And therefore my hareode ¶¶, here called Calcas,
Warne thow eyvyry porte that noo schyppis aryve;
Nor also aloond *** stranger throgh my realme pas,
But the for there truage do pay markis fyve.
Now spede the forthe hastele,

For the that wyll the contrare,

Upon a galowse hangid schal be,

And be Mahownde of me they gett noo grace."

When he hears of the flight of the messengers, he ex

claims,

"I stampe, I stare, I loke all abowt,

Myght I them take I schuld them bren at a glede*,

I ren, I rawe †, and now I am wode‡,

A that these velen trayturs hath mard this my mode
The schal be hangid yf I ma cum them to."

The stage direction is, "Here Erode ragis in the pagond and in the strete also." He consults with his knights on putting the children to death; and on their dissuading him from it as likely to excite an insurrection, he says,

"A rysyng, owt, owt, owt."

"There Erode ragis ageyne and then seyth thus:

"Out velen wrychis har apon§ you I cry,
My wyll utturly loke that yt be wroght,
Or apon a gallowse bothe you schall dye

Be Mahownde most myghtyst that me dere hath boght."

At length the knights consent to slay the children, and Herod says,

"And then wyll I for fayne trypp lyke a doo."

The bodies of the children are brought to him in carts; but he is told that all his deeds are come to nothing, as the child whom he particularly sought after had escaped into Egypt. He once more falls into a violent passion, orders his palfrey to be saddled, and hurries away in pursuit of the infant. Here the piece ends. It was performed by the taylors and shearmen in the year 1534; but the composition is of much greater antiquity.

That is not passion's slave, and I will wear him
In my heart's core, ay in my heart of heart.

From this speech Anthony Scoloker, in his Daiphantus, or The passions of love, 1604, 4to, has stolen the following line: "Oh, I would weare her in my heart's-heart-gore."

burn on live coals.

+ rave.

‡ mad.

§ here upon, or perhaps haro!

HAM. It is a damned ghost that we have seen.

i. e. the ghost of a person sentenced for his wickedness to damnation, and which has in this instance deceived us. Thus Spenser,

"What voice of damned ghost from Limbo lake
Or guileful spright wandering in empty ayre,
Sends to my doubtful eares these speeches rare ?"
Fairy Queen, book i. canto 2, st. 32.

"He show'd him painted in a table plain
The damned ghosts———"

"Nor damned ghosts cald up with mightie spels."

Epithalamion, st. 19.

SCENE 2. Page 182.

HAM. Lady, shall I lie in your lap?

[Lying down at OPHELIA's feet.]

Mr. Steevens has noticed the practice of lying at the feet of a mistress during dramatic representations; yet we are not to conclude that it prevailed at the public theatres. The instances which have occurred seem to be confined to entertainments at the houses of the nobility and gentry. These were plays, masques, masquerades, balls, concerts, &c. Many old pictures and engravings furnish examples of the above custom, the young men being often seen sitting or lying on the ground in conversation with their mistresses, and sometimes in Hamlet's situation. One of these shall be described more particularly. It is an extremely neat little print, belonging to a set designed to contrast the sufferings of Christ with the vanities of the world. The scene is a ball-room. In the background are the musicians and torch-bearers. In front a lady and gentleman are performing a dance before some standing spectators. In various parts of the room pairs of young gallants and their mistresses are seated on the floor, apparently more attentive to their own concerns than to the dancing; and one youth is sitting on the spread petticoat of his com

panion. The costume is French, and of the time of Louis the Thirteenth.

SCENE 2. Page 198.

HAM. With two provencial roses on my razed shoes.

The old copies read provincial, which led Mr. Warton to ask, why provincial roses? and to conclude that roses of Provence were meant, on which conclusion the text has been most unnecessarily changed; because the old reading was certainly correct. There is no evidence to show that Provence was ever remarkable for its roses; but it is well known that Provins, in La Basse Brie, about forty miles from Paris, was formerly very celebrated for the growth of this flower, of which the best cataplasms are said to have been made. It was, according to tradition, imported into that country from Syria, by a count De Brie. See Guillemeau Histoire naturelle de la rose. It is probable that this kind of rose, which in our old herbals is called the Great Holland or Province rose, was imported into this country both from Holland and France, from which latter country the Dutch might have first procured it. There is an elegant cut of the Provins rose, with a good account of it, in the first edition of Pomet Hist. des drogues, 1694, folio, p. 174.

The word that was in the original of Hamlet's quotation would have been too coarse to be applied to royalty; and therefore he substitutes another, which there is good reason to suppose was peacock. Dr. Farmer has given proof that this term was proverbial for a fool. Reginald Scot, speaking of Pope Julius the Third, says that he blasphemed Christ, and cursed his mother for a peacock. Disc. of witchcraft, b. 2, ch. viii. The bird in question is at once proud and silly.

SCENE 2. Page 205.

Enter the players with recorders.

"i. e." says Mr. Steevens, "a kind of large flute." Yet the