play the foole, or Vice.' Compare 2 Henry IV, iii. 2. 343: 'Now is this Vice's dagger become a squire.' The Vice was equipped with a wooden dagger, or dagger of lath.' See Twelfth Night, iv. 2. 134-136.

96. cutpurse. Purses were usually worn outside attached to the girdle. 97. He stole the crown from a shelf' like a petty thief, and had not even the courage to take it by violence.

99. In the quarto of 1603 the stage direction is 'Enter the ghost in his night gowne,' that is, in his dressing-gown.

104. lapsed in time and passion. Johnson explains: 'having suffered time to go by and passion to cool.' Or rather, the indulgence of mere passion has diverted him from the execution of his purpose.

105. important, urgent, requiring immediate attention. Compare Much Ado about Nothing, ii. 1. 74: 'If the prince be too important, tell him there is measure in everything.' And Troilus and Cressida, v. 1. 89: 'I have important business,

The tide whereof is now.'

109. amazement. See iii. 2. 294.

III. conceit, imagination. See Richard II, ii. 2. 33, and our note on the passage.

115. incorporal, incorporeal, which is substituted by the quarto of 1676. We have 'corporal' in Macbeth, i. 3. 81, and i. 7. 80. See our note on the former.

117. alarm. See our note on Macbeth, v. 2. 4.

118. bedded, for 'matted,' was doubtless suggested by an association of ideas from 'sleeping' in the previous line.

Ib. excrements, used of the hair and nails. See Merchant of Venice, iii. 2. 87, and our note. Bacon, Natural History, cent. I.. sect. 58, says, 'Living creatures put forth (after their period of growth) nothing that is young but hair and nails, which are excrements and no parts.'

118, 119. We have retained the reading of the earliest quartos and the folios, although the singular 'hair' is thus made to govern two plural verbs 'start,' 'stand.' 'Hair' in fact may be considered as a noun of multitude, and the intervention of the plural substantive 'excrements' would also suggest the plural verb. See note on i. 2. 38. For the sense compare Macbeth, v. 5. 11-13.

126. capable, that is, capable of feeling, susceptible. Compare All's Well that Ends Well, i. 1. 106:

'Heart too capable

Of every line and trick of his sweet favour.'

126. My stern effects, the accomplishment of my stern purposes.

132. in his habit as he lived. There is supposed to be a difficulty in these words, because in the earlier scenes the Ghost is in armour, to which the word 'habit' is regarded as inappropriate. In the earlier form of the play

as it appears in the quarto of 1603 the Ghost enters in his night, gowne,' and as the words in the habite as he lived' occur in the corresponding passage of that edition, it is probable that on this occasion the Ghost appeared in the ordinary dress of the king, although this is not indicated in the stage directions of the other quartos or of the folios.

Ib. as, as if, or as when. Compare Othello, iii. 3. 77:

'Tis as I should entreat you wear your gloves.'

134. Compare Lucrece, 460:

'Such shadows are the weak brain's forgeries.'

And Macbeth, ii. 1. 38, 39:

'Or art thou but

A dagger of the mind, a false creation,

Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?'

135. ecstasy. See ii. I. 102.

140. re-word, repeat word for word.

149. Forgive me this my virtue. Mr. Staunton, with great probability, considers this and the three following lines as an apostrophe addressed by Hamlet to his 'virtue,' and marks them 'Aside.'

160. pursy. Compare Timon of Athens, v. 4. 12, 'pursy insolence.' Cotgrave (French Dict.) gives 'Poulsif... Pursie, short-winded, breathing with difficultie.'

152. curb and woo, bow and beg. 'Curb' is from Fr. courber, to bow or bend. See the Vision of Piers Ploughman, 1. 617 (ed. T. Wright):

And again 1. 880.

154. worser.

Thanne I courbed on my knees,

And cried hire of grace.'

Tempest, iv. I. 27:

For other instances of this double comparative see

The strong'st suggestion

Our worser genius can.'

And King Lear, iv. 6. 222, &c.

6

....

158, 159. The reading of these lines as given in the text is substantially that of the quartos. The whole passage That monster .. put on' is omitted in the folios. Many conjectures have been made, but the words as they stand yield a very intelligible sense and require no alteration. That monster Custom, who destroys all natural feeling and prevents it from being exerted, and is the malignant attendant on habits, is yet angel in this respect, &c. The double meaning of the word 'habits' suggested the 'frock or livery' in l. 161.

166. And either... the devil, or throw him out. An imperfect line, which various conjectures have endeavoured to amend, by inserting 'curb,' 'quell,' 'mate,' 'lay,'' house,' 'aid,' ' usher,' or by reading with Pope, And master ev'n the devil.' It seems more probable that something is omitted which is

contrasted with 'throw out,' and this may have been 'lay' or 'lodge.' The latter was the technical word used in Harsnet's Declaration, c. 12.

170, 171. heaven hath pleased . . . their minister. Compare Richard II, i. 2. 6, 7, and our note.

179. bloat, bloated. The participle termination -ed is often dropped from words which end in a dental. See iii. 1. 155, and Abbott, § 342.

180. mouse, a term of endearment. Compare Twelfth Night, i. 5. 69: 'Good my mouse of virtue, answer me;' and Love's Labour's Lost, v. 2. 19: 'What's your dark meaning, mouse, of this light word?'

See also Beaumont and Fletcher, The Knight of the Burning Pestle, i. 1: 'I pr'ythee, mouse, be patient.' 'Muss,' corrupted from 'mouse,' occurs several times in Jonson's Every Man in his Humour, ii. 1.

181. reechy, dirty, as with smoke. Compare Coriolanus, ii. 1. 225: The kitchen malkin pins

Her richest lockram 'bout her reechy neck.'

In Much Ado about Nothing, iii. 3. 143, the quarto and folios read 'rechie painting,' and the word there should be printed 'reechy'' and not 'reeky,' although the two are identical in meaning. In the present passage the word may have been suggested by 'bloat,' two lines before, which has also the meaning 'to cure herrings by hanging them in the smoke.' 182. paddling. Compare Winter's Tale, i. 2. 115:

'But to be paddling palms and pinching fingers.'

183. to ravel out, to unravel, as a tangled skein or a piece of woven work. Compare Richard II, iv. 1. 228:

My weaved-up folly?'

'Must I ravel out

187. a paddock, a toad. See Macbeth, i. 1. 9.

Ib. gib, tom-cat. 'Gib' is a contraction of 'Gilbert.' In Sherwood's English-French Dictionary, appended to Cotgrave, we find, A gibbe (or old male cat). Macou.' Graymalkin was the female cat. Compare I Henry IV, i. 2. 83: I am as melancholy as a gib cat,' and Chaucer's Romaunt of the Rose, 6207:

'Gibbe our cat,

That awaiteth mice and rattes to killen.'

The toad, bat, and cat were supposed to be familiars of witches, and acquainted with their mistresses' secrets.

188. concernings. See Measure for Measure, i. 1. 57: We shall write to you

As time and our concernings shall importune.'

190-193. The reference must be to some fable in which an ape opened a basket containing live birds, then crept into it himself, and 'to try conclusions,' whether he could fly like them, jumped out and broke his neck. No one has yet found any such fable recorded elsewhere.

192. To try conclusions, to make experiments so as to see what the result

That mother tries a merciless conclusion

Who, having two sweet babes, when death takes one,

Will slay the other and be nurse to none.'

And Antony and Cleopatra, v. 2. 358:

'She hath pursued conclusions infinite

Of easy ways to die.'

And Merchant of Venice, ii. 2. 39. Launcelot Gobbo, when he says 'I will try confusions with him,' means 'I will try conclusions.'

197. It does not appear how Hamlet had found out that he was to be sent to England. In iv. 3. 45, he affects to hear of the king's purpose for the first time.

199-207. There's... meet. Not in the folios.

199. There's is frequently used as here with a plural noun following, like 'il y a' in French. Compare v. I. 28, and Twelfth Night, ii. 4. 96. 201. They. The nominative repeated for clearness, after an intervening parenthesis. See ii. 1. 84.

203. the sport. Compare King John, ii. 1. 396:

'Smacks it not something of the policy?'

Ib. enginer. Changed in the quarto of 1676 to the more modern form 'engineer.' Compare Troilus and Cressida, ii. 3. 8: Then there's Achilles, a rare enginer.' For a cognate form mutiner,' see note on iii. 4. 83. So we have 'pioner' for 'pioneer,' Othello, iii. 3. 346.

204. Hoist may be the participle either of the verb 'hoise' or 'hoist.' In the latter case it would be the common abbreviated form for the participles of verbs ending in a dental.

Ib. petar. So spelt in the quartos and by all editors to Johnson, who writes 'petard.' In Cotgrave we have 'Petart: A Petard, or Petarre; an Engine (made like a Bell, or Morter) wherewith strong gates are burst open.' 208. packing, contriving, plotting. Compare Titus Andronicus, iv. 2. 155: 'Go pack with him, and give the mother gold.'

And Taming of the Shrew, v. I. 121. There is of course a play upon the other sense which the word has in I Henry IV, ii. 4. 328.

209. neighbour, neighbouring. So 'neighbour states,' Timon of Athens, iv. 3. 94.

213. to draw. For the construction compare iii. 2. 312.

ACT IV.

Scene I.

10. Whips. He,' which should govern the verb, is omitted. Compare iii. 1. 8. The folios however read He whips his Rapier out.'

II. brainish, imaginary, having no ground in fact. It does not occur again in Shakespeare.

13. The king uses the style royal 'us,' 'we.'

18. kept short, kept, as it were, tethered, under control; opposed to 'loose,' iv. 3. 2.

Ib. out of haunt, away from the haunts of men. Compare As You Like It, ii. 1. 15:

'This our life exempt from public haunt.'

22. divulging, being divulged.

25. ore. In the English-French Dictionary appended to Cotgrave 'ore' is confined to gold. In this passage the context shows that it is used of precious metal.

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26. mineral is defined by Minsheu to be anything that growes in Mines, and containes mettals.' We should now say a vein or lode. Mineral' is also used in the sense of 'mine,' as in Hall's Satires, vi. 148:

'Shall it not be a wild fig in a wall

Or fired brimstone in a minerall?'

And Browne, Britannia's Pastorals, 1. 2. 631:

'Some of the bloud by chance did downward fall,

And by a veine got to a minerall.'

40. To fill up the gap in the text, the words 'So haply slander,' were first inserted by Capell, who adopted Theobald's conjecture with a slight modification, reading 'So' for 'For.' Some such insertion is obviously required to complete the sense. The folios omit further lines 41-44, Whose whisper .. .. air. Malone read 'So viperous slander,' and Mr. Staunton proposes 'Thus calumny.'

42. blank, mark, so called perhaps because it was painted white. Compare Winter's Tale, ii. 3. 5:

'Out of the blank

And level of my brain.'

And Othello, iii. 4. 128:

Within the blank of his displeasure,'

where we should say 'within the range.'

44. woundless air, the invulnerable air, as in i. I. 145. Similarly viewless winds,' in Measure for Measure, iii. 1. 124.