may mean his

551. property appears here to be used in the sense of own person.' Compare 'proper life,' Hamlet, v. 2. 66. Or possibly 'kingly right.' The commentators by their silence seem to take it in the ordinary modern sense, which can hardly be.

552. defeat, destruction. It is used in the same sense, v. 2. 58. The verb occurs in Othello, iv. 2. 160:

'His unkindness may defeat my life.'

558. 'Swounds, God's wounds. For this profane oath the folio has 'why.' See notes on ii. 1. 76, and ii. 2. 355.

559. gall, metaphorically for 'courage.' So Troilus and Cressida, i. 3.

237:

'But when they would seem soldiers, they have galls.' 591. fatted, fattened.

ii. 1. 97:

The word occurs in Midsummer Night's Dream,

'And crows are fatted with the murrion flock.'

Ib. region. See note on line 472 of this scene.

563. kindless, unnatural. The opposite is meant by 'kindly,' i. e. natural. See Much Ado about Nothing, iv. I. 75.

668. a-cursing. For participles of this form see Abbott, § 24.

570. About, set to work. Steevens quotes from Heywood's Iron Age,

Part 2:

'My brain about again! for thou hast found

New projects now to work on.'

But the meaning which he gives, 'be my thoughts shifted in a contrary direction,' is, we think, not the true one.

570-574. Compare Massinger's Roman Actor, ii. I (vol. i. p. 231, ed. Gifford).

Ib. Heywood, in his Apology for Actors (Shakespeare Society's ed. PP. 57-59), gives two examples of murder being discovered in this way, one at Lynn, the other at Amsterdam.

573. presently, immediately; as in line 171 of this scene.

576. Compare Macbeth, iii. 4. 122-126, and Richard II, i. 1. 104, 105. 579. tent, probe. Compare Cymbeline, iii. 4. 118:

'Nor tent to bottom that.'

Ib. blench, flinch. See Troilus and Cressida, ii. 2. 68:

There can be no evasion

To blench from this

and to stand firm by honour.'

And see also the same play, i. I.

585. abuses, deceives, deludes.

28, and Measure for Measure, iv. 5. 5.
See Tempest, v. I. 112

'Some enchanted trifle to abuse me.'

586. relative, to the purpose. The word is not known to exist elsewhere in this sense.

ACT III.

Scene I.

1. drift occurs ii. I. 10, and drift of circumstance' means roundabout method. For circumstance' in this sense see i. 5. 127, and for the two words see Troilus and Cressida, iii. 3. 113, 114. 'Circumstance' is the reading of the folios; the quartos have 'conference,' which seems less appropriate. For drift' see Two Gentlemen of Verona, ii. 6. 43:

'Love, lend me wings to make my purpose swift,

As thou hast lent me wings to plot this drift!'

2. confusion, must mean confusion of mind.

3. grating, disturbing, irritating. Compare Antony and Cleopatra, i. I. 18. Elsewhere in Shakespeare the verb is used intransitively.

8. Here the nominative is omitted, as in iv. I. 10, and Winter's Tale, iv. 4. 168:

See Abbott, § 399.

12. disposition, mood, as in i. 4. 55.

13. of our demands. Of' may be either written by attraction from the previous' of,' or it may be used for 'on,' as in Marlowe's Jew of Malta, iv. 4: Of that condition I will drink it up.'

13, 14. Warburton inverted the position of 'niggard' and 'most free.' 'That this is the true reading,' says he, we need but turn back to the preceding scene, for Hamlet's conduct, to be satisfied.' Malone, retaining the old reading, explains: Slow to begin conversation, but free enough in his answers to our demands.' In truth, however, neither describes the scene accurately. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern were completely baffled, and Hamlet had the talk almost to himself. Perhaps they did not intend to give

a correct account of the interview.

14, 15. Did you assay him To any pastime? Briefly expressed for 'Did you try him by the test of any pastime?'

17. o'er-raught, overtook. The first folio reads 'ore-wrought,' altered in the third to 'o're-took.' Compare Comedy of Errors, i. 2. 96:

The villain is o'er-raught of all my money,'

also in Antony and Cleopatra, iv. 9. 30. 20. order. Used in the singular as here, where we should use the plural: in Measure for Measure, ii. 2. 8, 'Hadst thou not order?'

22. beseech'd. Many verbs were employed by Shakespeare with both the strong and the weak forms of preterite and participle, where modern usage limits them to one. See above, line 17.

26. give him a further edge, whet him on, stimulate him. 29. closely, secretly. So King John, iv. 1. 133:

'Silence; no more: go closely in with me.' 31. affront, confront, meet. See Winter's Tale, v. 1. 75: 'Unless another,

32. espials, spies.

As like Hermione as is her picture,
Affront his eye.'

So I Henry VI, i. 4. 8:

The prince's espials have informed me.'

And I Henry VI, iv. 3. 6:

By your espials were discovered.'

40. wildness, madness. Compare Cymbeline, iii. 4. 9:

'Ere wildness

Vanquish my staider senses.'

43. Gracious, addressed to the king. Of'gracious' thus used without a substantive we can find no other example.

47. too much proved, proved by too frequent examples.

52. to, compared to, as in i. 2. 140.

53. painted, fictitious, disguised. Compare King John, iii. 1. 105: Is cold in amity and painted peace.'

56. It has been said that this soliloquy was suggested to Shakespeare by a book of Jerome Cardan De Consolatione, which was translated into English by Thomas Bedingfeld in 1576, but the resemblances quoted are not very striking.

59. take arms against a sea. Here is a mixed metaphor, or rather two metaphors blended into one. The author's thought would be fully expressed by 'take arms against a host of troubles which break in upon us like a sea.' Compare Richard II, iii. 190:

And in Henry VIII, ii. 4. 199 sqq. we have conscience first represented as a wild sea buffeting the ship, and then as a sea-sick passenger. See also Hamlet, iii. 1. 86, 87, and 155. We have 'sea of glory,' Henry VIII, iii. 2. 360, and sea of joys,' Pericles, v. I. 194. Theobald first proposed for 'a sea,' ‘a siege,' and then 'th' assay.'

65. the rub, a term of bowls, meaning a collision hindering the bowl in its course. See note on Richard II, iii. 4. 4.

67. coil, entanglement, turmoil. The figure here is from a 'coil' of rope. Compare Much Ado about Nothing, iii. 3. 100.

68. respect, consideration. See Merry Wives of Windsor, ii. 1. 45: ‘O woman, if it were not for one trifling respect, I could come to such honour !' 69. of so long life, so long lived.

་

70. of time. Warburton proposed of th' time.' But Hunter (Illustra

tions of Shakespeare, ii. p. 240) has shown that 'time' was once used for 'the time' or 'the times,' and quotes from Taylor the Water Poet:

'Mock'd in rhyme

And made the only scornful theme of time.'

Compare also Southwell, Saint Peter's Complaint, stanza v. l. 4:
The scorne of time, the infamy of fame.'

72. despised. The first two quartos have 'despiz'd.' The folios dispriz'd.' 74. takes, puts up with, does not resent, as in ii. 2. 558.

75. quietus. A law term for the official settlement of an account, the full phrase being 'quietus est,' mentioned by Cotgrave as equivalent to discharge,' 'acquittance,' and the French descharge. It is suggested by 'the law's delay.' Compare Webster, Duchess of Malfy, i. 1:

'And 'cause you shall not come to me in debt,

Being now my steward, here upon your lips

I sign your "quietus est."'

And see Sonnet cxxvi. 12:

'Her audit, though delay'd, answer'd must be,

And her quietus is to render thee.'

76. bodkin, an old word for dagger. See Chaucer, Canterbury Tales, 3958:

'With panade or with knyf or boydekyn.'

And 16193, speaking of Cæsar's murder:

And in the capitoil anoon him hent

This false Brutus, and his other foon,

And stiked him with boydekyns anoon.'

A 'bare bodkin' is an unsheathed dagger, but the other sense of 'bare' may have been in Shakespeare's mind.

Ib. fardels, bundles. Used in Winter's Tale, iv. 4. 739, 781. Cotgrave (French Dict.) says, 'Fardeau: a fardle, burthen, trusse, packe, bundle.'

77. grunt, groan. Cotgrave (French Dict.) gives 'Gronder.. ... to grunt, groane, grumble (with threatning) against a commandement.' Compare Julius Cæsar, iv. I. 22: To groan and sweat under the business.'

79. bourn, boundary, limit. See Winter's Tale, i. 2. 134: 'No bourn 'twixt his and mine.'

83. conscience does make cowards of us all. Compare Richard III, i. 4 137 sqq.

84. native hue, natural colour. Compare Love's Labour's Lost, iv. 3. 263: For native blood is counted painting now.'

·

85. thought, care, anxiety. See iv. 5. 155. Hawis, an alderman of London, was put in trouble, and dyed with thought, and anguish, before his businesse came to an end.' Bacon, Henry VII, p. 230.

86. pitch. The quartos read pitch,' the folios pith.' The former word occurs in Twelfth Night, i. I. 12:

'Of what validity and pitch soe'er.'

Ritson supposes 'pitch' to allude to pitching or throwing the bar, Staunton to the summit of the falcon's flight. So we have, in Richard II, i. 1. 109, 'How high a pitch his resolution soars!'

'Pitch seems more appropriately joined to 'moment' than 'pith.' We have had 'pith and marrow' already, i. 4. 22. Whether we read 'pitch' or 'pith,' there is an equally sudden change of metaphor in current.' See line 59. 88. Soft you now, hush, be quiet. Compare Much Ado about Nothing, v. I. 207: 'But soft you, let me be.'

89. orisons, prayers. Derived from the French oraisons. It occurs in Romeo and Juliet, iv. 3. 3. For I have need of many orisons.'

93. remembrances, mementos. Compare ii. 2. 26.

99. their perfume, the perfume of the words.

103. honest, virtuous; as in Winter's Tale, ii. 1. 68 and 76.

107. honesty, virtue. So As You Like It, iii. 3. 30: 'For honesty coupled to beauty is to have honey a sauce to sugar.' Johnson proposed to read here, You should admit your honesty to no discourse with your beauty,' which is the sense in which Ophelia understands the words. Hamlet says that honesty or virtue, personified as the guardian of beauty, should allow none, not even himself, to discourse with the latter. The folios read 'your honesty,' the quartos you'; but that of 1603 seems to give weight to the reading of the folios.

109. commerce, conversation.

See Twelfth Night, iii. 4. 191: 'He is

now in some commerce with my lady.'

113. sometime. See i. 2. 8.

122. indifferent, fairly, ordinarily. We have the word in v. 2. 95, and in Troilus and Cressida, i. 2. 242.

Indifferently' occurs, iii. 2. 33.

129. Go thy ways. See i. 3. 135.

144. jig. We have 'jigging fools' in Julius Cæsar, iv. 3. 137.

Ib. amble, walk effeminately, as in 1 Henry IV, iii. 2. 60:

The skipping king he ambled up and down.'

6

Ib. nick-name. A nick-name is originally an eke name,' an additional name, 'agnomen.' The meaning is You give wrong names to God's creatures out of mere wantonness or affectation, and pretend that you do so from ignorance.'

147. all but one. This exception would be quite unintelligible to Ophelia, but the audience, who are in Hamlet's secret, see its purport.

151. The right order would be 'scholar's, soldier's,' corresponding to 'tongue, sword,' and this is found in the quarto of 1603. The other quartos and folios read as in the text, probably by oversight.

152. the rose of the fair state, chief flower and ornament of the state, fair because it was so decorated. For a similar proleptic use of the adjective, see Macbeth, iii. 4. 76: