The extravagant and erring spirit hies

that time, every element was inhabited by its peculiar order of fpirits, who had difpofitions different, according to their various places of abode. The meaning therefore is, that all Spirits extravagant, wandering out of their element, whether aërial spirits visiting earth, or earthly fpirits ranging the air, return to their ftation, to their proper limits in which they are confined. Wę might read:

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And at his warning

"Th' extravagant and erring fpirit hies
"To his confine, whether in fea or air,
"Or earth, or fire. And of," &c.

But this change, though it would smooth the conftruction, is not neceffary, and, being unnecessary, fhould not be made against authority. JOHNSON.

A Chorus in Andreini's drama, called Adamo, written in 1613, confifts of fpirits of fire, air, water, and hell, or fubterraneous, being the exiled angels. "Choro di Spiriti ignei, aerei, acquatici, ed infernali," &c. Thefe are the demons to which Shakspeare alludes. Thefe fpirits were supposed to controul the elements in which they respectively refided; and when formally invoked or commanded by a magician, to produce tempefts, conflagrations, floods, and earthquakes. For thus fays The Spanish Mandevile of Miracles, &c. 1600: "Thofe which are in the middle region of the ayre, and thofe that are under them nearer the earth, are thofe, which fometimes out of the ordinary operation of nature doe moove the windes with greater fury than they are accuftomed; and do, out of feafon, congeele the cloudes, caufing it to thunder, lighten, hayle, and to deftroy the graffe, corne, &c. &c.-Witches and negromancers worke many fuch like things by the help of thofe fpirits," &c. Ibid. Of this fchoole therefore was Shakspeare's Profpero in The Tempeft. T. WARTON.

Bourne of Newcastle, in his Antiquities of the common People, informs us," It is a received tradition among the vulgar, that at the time of cock-crowing, the midnight fpirits forfake these lower regions, and, go to their proper places. Hence it is, (says he) that in country places, where the way of life requires more early labour, they always go chearfully to work at that time; whereas if they are called abroad fooner, they imagine every thing they fee, a wandering ghoft." And he quotes on this occafion, as all his predeceffors had done, the well-known lines from the first hymn of Prudentius. I know not whofe tranflation he gives us, but there is an old one by Heywood. The pious chanfons, the hymns and carrols, which Shak fpeare mentions prefently, were ufually copied from the elder Chriftian poets. FARMER.

To his confine: and of the truth herein
This present object made probation.

MAR. It faded on the crowing of the cock." Some fay, that ever 'gainst that seafon comes. Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated, This bird of dawning fingeth all night long: And then, they fay, no spirit dares stir abroad; The nights are wholesome; then no planets ftrike, No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm,A So hallow'd and fo gracious is the time.

• The extravagant-] i. e. got out of his bounds.

So, in Nobody and Somebody, 1598: a 'Atravagant.'

WARBURTON.

they took me up for

Shakspeare imputes the fame effect to Aurora's harbinger in the laft fcene of the third act of the Midsummer Night's Dream. See Vol. V. p. 112. STEEVENS.

5 It faded on the crowing of the cock.] This is a very ancient fuperftition. Philoftratus giving an account of the apparition of Achilles' fhade to Apollonius Tyaneus, fays that it vanished with a little glimmer as foon as the cock crowed. Vit. Apol. iv. 16. STEEVENS. Vado, Lat. So,

Faded has here its original fenfe; it vanished.

in Spenfer's Faery Queen, Book I. c. v. ft. 15:

"He ftands amazed how he thence fhould fade." That our author ufes the word in this fenfe, appears from the following lines:

-The morning cock crew loud;

"And at the found it fhrunk in haste away,

"And vanish'd from our fight." MALONE.

can walk.

dares ftir abroad;] Thus the quarto. The folio reads— STEEVENS.

Spirit was formerly ufed as a monofyllable: Sprite. The quarto, 1604, has-dare ftir abroad. Perhaps Shakspeare wrote-no fpirits dare ftir abroad. The neceffary correction was made in a late quarto of no authority, printed in 1637. MALONE.

7 No fairy takes,] No fairy frikes with lamenefs or difeafes. This fenfe of take is frequent in this author. JOHNSON.

So, in The Merry Wives of Windsor :

"And there he blasts the tree, and takes the cattle."

STEEVENS.

HOR. So have I heard, and do in part believe it. But, look, the morn, in ruffet mantle clad, Walks o'er the dew of yon high eastern hill:" Break we our watch up; and, by my advice, Let us impart what we have seen to-night Unto young Hamlet; for, upon my life, This fpirit, dumb to us, will speak to him: Do you confent we shall acquaint him with it, As needful in our loves, fitting our duty?

MAR. Let's do't, I pray; and I this morning

know

Where we shall find him most convenient.

[Exeunt.

-high eastern hill:] The old quarto has it better eastward,

WARBURTON.

The fuperiority of the latter of these readings is not, to me at leaft, very apparent. I find the former used in Lingua, &c, 1607: - and overclimbs

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"Yonder gilt eastern hills.”

Again, in Browne's Britannia's Paftorals, Book IV. Sat. iv. p. 75, edit. 1616:

"And ere the funne had clymb'd the easterne hils." Eaftern and eastward, alike fignify toward the east.

STEEVENS,

SCENE II.

The fame. A Room of State in the fame.

Enter the King, Queen, HAMLET, POLONIUS, LaERTES, VOLTIMAND, CORNELIUS, Lords, and Attendants.

KING. Though yet of Hamlet our dear brother's death

The memory be green; and that it us befitted
To bear our hearts in grief, and our whole kingdom
To be contracted in one brow of woe;

Yet fo far hath difcretion fought with nature,
That we with wifest forrow think on him,
Together with remembrance of ourselves.
Therefore our fometime fifter, now our queen,
The imperial jointrefs of this warlike state,
Have we, as 'twere, with a defeated joy,-
With one aufpicious, and one dropping eye;*

9 — and that it us befitted-] Perhaps our author elliptically

2 With one aufpicious, and one dropping eye;] Thus the folio. The quarto, with fomewhat lefs of quaintnefs:

With an aufpicious, and a dropping eye.

The fame thought, however, occurs in The Winter's Tale: "She had one eye declined for the lofs of her husband; another elevated that the oracle was fulfilled,"

After all, perhaps, we have here only the ancient proverbial phrafe To cry with one eye and laugh with the other," buckram'd by our author for the fervice of tragedy. See Ray's Collection, edit. 1768, p. 188. STEEVENS.

Dropping in this line probably means depressed or caft downwards: an interpretation which is ftrongly fupported by the paffage already quoted from The Winter's Tale. It may, however, fignify weeping,

With mirth in funeral, and with dirge in marriage,
In equal fcale weighing delight and dole,-
Taken to wife: nor have we herein barr'd
Your better wifdoms, which have freely gone
With this affair along:-For all, our thanks.
Now follows, that you know, young Fortinbras,-
Holding a weak fuppofal of our worth;
Or thinking, by our late dear brother's death,
Our state to be disjoint and out of frame,
Colleagued with this dream of his advantage,'
He hath not fail'd to pefter us with meffage,
Importing the furrender of thofe lands.

Loft by his father, with all bands of law,
To our most valiant brother. So much for him.
Now for ourself, and for this time of meeting.
Thus much the bufinefs is: We have here writ
To Norway, uncle of young Fortinbras,-
Who, impotent and bed-rid, fcarcely hears
Of this his nephew's purpose, to fupprefs
His further gait herein; in that the levies,

Dropping of the eyes" was a technical expreffion in our author's time." If the fpring be wet with much fouth wind,--the next fummer will happen agues and blearness, dropping of the eyes, and pains of the bowels." Hopton's Concordance of years, 8vo. 1616.

Again, in Montaigne's Effaies, 1603: " -they never faw any man there with eyes dropping, or crooked and stooping through age." MALONE.

3 Colleagued with this dream of his advantage,] The meaning is,-He goes to war fo indifcreetly, and unprepared, that he has no allies to fupport him but a dream, with which he is colleagued or confederated. WARBURTON.

Mr. Theobald, in his Shakspeare Reftored, propofed to readcollogued, but in his edition very properly adhered to the ancient copies. MALONE.

This dream of his advantage (as Mr. M. Mafon obferves) means only" this imaginary advantage, which Fortinbras hoped to derive from the unfettled ftate of the kingdom." STEEVENS.

to fupprefs

His further gait herein,] Gate or gait is here ufed in the