He should the bearers put to sudden death,

Not shriving-time allowed.

In the last clause there is another outrage on every just and proper feeling, though it is not necessary to suppose with Steevens that Hamlet means without allowing them time for repentance. It was a term in common use for any short period. All he meant was, that they should be put to instant death.

V. 2. HAMlet.

The phrase would be more GERMAN to the matter, if we could carry a cannon by our sides.

In the quarto of 1603 it is cousin-german. Chaucer, in the Prologue to the Canterbury Tales, writes

Eke Plato sayth, whoso can hym rede,

The wordes mote ben cosyn to the dede.

Here is the word or phrase in its pristine state. Shakespeare adds " german," and at length "german" entirely supplants "cousin," and becomes part of our current language.

It is thus in all the earlier editions, but in the folios the word is mother. The change might be made by Shakespeare after he retired to Stratford, the passage as it originally stood coming too near to an incident which had recently occurred in the family of Greville in that neighbourhood, where one of them had by misadventure killed his brother with an

arrow.

The apposite quotation from Sylvester loses its effect through an oversight in the transcriber. It ought to be

And Death, dread serjeant of th' eternal judge

Comes very late to his sole-seated lodge.

It occurs in the Third Day of the First Week. Sylvester is the earlier writer, but Shakespeare's substitution of "fell" for "dread" shews a master hand.

As

Bear Hamlet, like a soldier, to the stage.

may be seen in the monument in Westminster Abbey of Sir Francis Vere, a soldier, who died in 1608. This was no doubt at that time the accustomed mode of burial of a soldier of rank.

It is a remarkable peculiarity of Hamlet, that whoever approaches these plays with the intention of commenting upon them, whatever may be the leading character of his annotations, finds more passages on which to remark in this than in any other.

KING LEAR.

DR. HARSNET must have been the terror of all those who, either in sincere belief of the efficacy of the means they used, or with a view to strengthen a religious party by the exhibition of powers apparently more than human, practised the arts of exorcism. We have shewn, when speaking of Twelfth Night, how he attacked the Puritans. He had no sooner completed his exposure of some attempts by them of the kind in question than he turned to the Papists, and with equal force of reason and power of ridicule exposed similar pretensions of theirs: thus vindicating for himself his right to the position which, in his last will, he claims for himself, as one who "renounced all modern Popish superstitions as well as all novelties of Geneva."

It is remarkable that in both instances the Poet whose works we are considering fights by his side.

Dr. Harsnet's book has the following title :-A Declaration of egregious Popish Impostures, to withdraw the hearts of his Majesty's subjects from their allegiance, and from the truth of Christian Religion, under the pretence of casting out devils : practised by Edmunds, alias Weston, and divers Roman Priests, his wicked associates. Whereunto are annexed the copies of the confessions and examinations of the parties themselves, which were pretended to be possessed and dispossessed, taken upon oath before his Majesty's Commissioners for Causes Ecclesiastical.

The affair had occurred several years before, namely, in 1585 or 1586; but Harsnet's book was not printed till 1603. There is a second edition in 1605.

In this case six persons were supposed to be possessed,

V. 2. HAMLET.

as this fell serjeant Death

Is strict in his arrest.

The apposite quotation from Sylvester loses its efi through an oversight in the transcriber. It ought to be

And Death, dread serjeant of th' eternal judge

Comes very late to his sole-seated lodge.

It occurs in the Third Day of the First Week. Sylv is the earlier writer, but Shakespeare's substitution of " for "dread" shews a master hand.

V. 2. FORTINERAS.

let four captains

Bear Hamlet, like a soldier, to the stage.

As may be seen in the monument in Westminster of Sir Francis Vere, a soldier, who died in 1608. Ti no doubt at that time the accustomed mode of buri soldier of rank.

It is a remarkable peculiarity of Hamlet, that whoe proaches these plays with the intention of commenti them, whatever may be the leading character of his tions, finds more passages on which to remark in th in any other.