humbo! got out of his depth, Warburton, you mean. Extra-vagant
certainly may be construed out of bounds; we need no ghost with a
mouthful of Syntax to tell us that; but Shakspeare had too much taste to
adopt such an absurd Latinism. I have no doubt that the late king was a
man of expensive habits, and is here compared to a prisoner within the
rules of the king's bench, who must return to quod at a given moment or
compliment the marshal with the debt and costs. At the crowing of the
cock, the extravagant and erring spirit (that is, the spendthrift of a
defendant) whether he be drinking arrack punch at Vauxhall, champaigne
at the Mount, or brandy and water at the Eccentries, must kick off his
glass-slipper, and hobble back to St. George's Fields, like the lame
bottle-conjuror of Le Sage.

But look, the morn in russet mantle clad,
Walks o'er the dew of yon high eastern hill.

_Russet mantle!_ what sorry attire for a goddess! I wish the critics
would settle, once for all, the costume of Aurora; at present she has
clothes, fingers, feet, bosom, and hair, of as many colours as the
roquelaure of Joseph. Homer styles her----

[Greek: Rododaktylos Eos].--Rosy-finger'd morn.

This is more like an old washerwoman than a young goddess. Ovid calls
her rutilis Aurora capillis. And again--

Ut solet aer
Purpureus fieri, primum Aurora movetur.

I translate "purpureus fieri," a fiery purple. What says Virgil of that
particoloured damsel----

Tithoni croceum liquens Aurora cubile.

A golden bed, by the way, is but a poor atonement for a leaden old
spouse snoring in it.

Lucia thinks happiness consists in state,
She weds an ideot, but she eats off plate.

The moderns have been equally fanciful in describing Aurora. An old song
says----

The morning was up gray as a rat,
The clock struck something, faith I can't tell what.

And Rosina now says, "see the rosy morn appearing;" and now "the morn
returns in saffron dress'd."--Selim in Blue Beard, sings, "Gray-eyed
morn begins to peep," his is no compliment to the beauty of the goddess.
If she had changed colours with the magician, it would have been well; a
_gray beard_ is fit for an old man, and _blue eyes_ for a young woman.

And now, reader, "_make way for the speaker_."--The scene draws, and
discovers a room of state, containing, the King, Queen, Hamlet,
Polonius, Laertes, Voltimand, Cornelius, Lords, and Attendants. This is