rack, and are not perceived below) pass without noise. See Tempest, iv. I. 156, and Antony and Cleopatra, iv. 14. 10.

471. hush. For another instance of an interjection becoming an adjective, compare Tempest, i. 2. 379:

.

'Courtsied when you have and kiss'd

The wild waves whist.'

Cotgrave gives Houische' as the French equivalent.

472. region. Originally a division of the sky marked out by the Roman augurs. In later times the atmosphere was divided into three regions, upper, middle, and lower. By Shakespeare the word is used to denote the air generally. Compare Sonnet xxxiii. 12, The region cloud'; and Romeo and Juliet, ii. 2. 21, ‘The airy region'; and Milton, Paradise Lost, vii. 425: 'Part loosely wing the region.'

437. a-work. We have the word again in 2 Henry IV, iv. 3. 124: 'So that skill in the weapon is nothing without sack, for that sets it a-work.' 475. Mars's. The quartos have 'Marses,' the folios 'Mars his.'

Ib. proof, resisting power. See Richard II, i. 3. 73, and our note.
Ib. eterne, used again in Macbeth, iii. 2. 38.

480. fellies. Iantes: The fellowes of a wheele; the peeces (of wood) whereof the ring, or the rime consists.' (Cotgrave.)

486. But who, O, who. This is the reading of the folios and the quarto of 1603. The other quartos have 'who, a woe,' except the sixth, which corrects it to 'who, ah woe,' the reading followed by many editors.

487. mobled. The first folio has here 'inobled,' a misprint corrected in the second folio. Mobled' is probably a corruption of the word 'muffled.' Farmer quotes Shirley's Gentlemen of Venice: The moon does mobble up herself.' And Holt White quotes Ogliby's Fables: 'Mobbled nine days in my considering cap.' The form 'mabled' is used by Sandys, Travels, bk. i. p. 69 (ed. 1637). Speaking of Turkish ladies, their heads and faces so mabled in fine linen that nothing is to be seen of them but their eyes.' Halliwell, in his Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words, gives 'mob' as meaning 'to dress awkwardly.' The word was a rare word in Shakespeare's time, as is shown by Hamlet's interruption; and Polonius's approval perhaps indicates that it was archaic. 490. bisson. The word, spelt beesen,' is Provincial Words still current in Lincolnshire.

given by Brogden, in his It occurs in Coriolanus, ii.

1. 70: Your bisson conspectuities,' where it means 'blind.' Here it is rather blinding.'

492. o'erteemed, exhausted by child-bearing.

499. instant, instantaneous. See i. 5. 71.

501. milch, milk-giving, thence moist.' Steevens quotes from Drayton's Polyolbion [xiii. 171], Exhaling the milch dewe.'

507. abstract, always used by Shakespeare as a substantive. The quarto

of 1603 has Chronicles and briefe abstracts.' Compare King John, ii.

I. IOI:

This little abstract doth contain that large
Which died in Geoffrey.'

501. you were better have, it were better that you had. Compare King John, iv. 3. 94: 'Thou wert better gall the devil.' And Othello, v. 2. 161: 'Peace: you were best.' Originally doubtless the pronouns were datives, but from their position before the verb they slipped into nominatives, as 'Thou'.

512. bodykins. Used without the preceding word in Merry Wives of Windsor, ii. 3. 46. The reference is originally to the sacramental wafer. 513. after his desert, according to his desert. So 'deal not with us after our offences,' in the Liturgy.

534. her working. 'Soul' when personified is feminine in Shakespeare. Ib. wann'd. We have had an instance of a verb formed from an adjective in 'pale,' i. 5. 90, where it is transitive.

535. aspect. Always accented on the last syllable. See Richard II, i. 3. 209. 536. function. The whole action of the body. Compare Macbeth, i. 3. 140, and our note on the passage.

537. conceit, conception, idea (of the character he was personating). See Merchant of Venice, i. 1. 92, and our note.

541. сие.

Hamlet uses this technical stage word designedly. Compare Othello, i. 2. 83:

'Were it my cue to fight, I should have known it

Without a prompter.'

544. the free, the innocent, those whose conscience is free from guilt. Compare iii. 2. 216: We that have free souls.'

545. amaze, confound. Compare King John, iv. 2. 137:

'I was amazed

Under the tide.'

548. peak, pine away, mope. Used once more by Shakespeare, in Macbeth, i. 3. 23, ' dwindle, peak and pine.'

549. John-a-Dreams, John the Dreamer, a name formed like Jack-a-hent, Jack-a-Lantern, John-a-droynes, which Steevens guesses to be a corruption of John-a-Dreams. It occurs in Armin's Nest of Ninnies (Shakespeare Society), p. 49: His name is John, indeede, saies the cinnick: but neither John a nods, nor John a dreames.'

549. unpregnant of my cause, having no living thoughts within relating to my cause. See Measure for Measure, iv. 4. 23:

This deed unshapes me quite, makes me unpregnant
And dull to all proceedings.'

In the same play, i. 1. 12, 'pregnant in' is used for 'filled with knowledge of.'

551. property appears here to be used in the sense of own person.' Compare 'proper life,' Hamlet, v. 2. 66. Or possibly it may mean his '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. The word occurs in Midsummer Night's Dream, ii. 1. 97:

'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. 1. 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. 1 (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. 1. 28, and Measure for Measure, iv. 5. 5. 585. abuses, deceives, deludes. 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. 1o, 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.

iv.

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

'They call him Doricles; and boasts himself

To have a worthy feeding.'

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,'

where the word is used metaphorically.

also in Antony and Cleopatra, iv. 9. 30.

Raught' for 'reached' occurs

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,

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

32. espials, spies. So 1 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 ex pressed by 'take arms against a host of troubles which break in upon us like a sea.' Compare Richard II, iii. 190:

This ague-fit of fear is overblown.'

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 if it were not for one trifling respect, I could come to such honour !' 69. of so long life, so long lived.

woman,

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