60, 61. An expansion of the proverb, Misfortunes never come single.' 'Single spies,' or scouts, are sent before the main army.

63. remove, removal. See i. 1. 57, and Measure for Measure, i. 1. 44: 'In our remove be thou at full ourself.'

63, 64. In using the words 'muddied,' 'thick,' 'unwholesome,' the poet has in his mind the bad blood' which Polonius' death had stirred up among the people.

65. Pope, in order to reduce the line to its normal length, substituted 'We've' for and we have.'

Ib. greenly, foolishly, without reflexion, as inexperienced persons might do. Compare green in judgement,' Antony and Cleopatra, i. 5. 73, 74:

'My salad days,

When I was green in judgement.'

And King John, iii. 4. 145:

How green you are and fresh in this old world!'

66. In hugger-mugger. The origin of this colloquial phrase, which is still in use, is doubtful. The meaning is however clear, combining the notion of secrecy with that of hurried haste. In the appendix to Cotgrave

we have In hugger mugger. En cachette, à calimini, sous terre.' See also Cotgrave, s. v. Ieu. The editor of the quarto of 1676 substituted 'Obscurely,' and Pope In private,' for the phrase, which seemed to them below the dignity of tragedy. Steevens quotes appositely North's translation of Plutarch [Brutus, p. 999, ed. 1631]: 'Antonius thinking good... that his bodie should be honourably buried, and not in hugger-mugger.'

69. as much containing, as important.

71. Feeds on his wonder.

the quartos and folios.

The reading in the text is made up of that of The former have Feeds on this wonder,' the

latter Keepes on his wonder.' For 'wonder' Hanmer read 'anger,' but no change is needed. The mysterious death of Polonius filled his son with doubt and amazement.

Ib. keeps himself in clouds, keeps his intentions secret.

72. buzzers, whisperers. The quarto of 1676 substitutes whispers.' Compare Richard II, ii. 1. 26:

Where doth the world thrust forth a vanity

That is not quickly buzz'd into his ears?'

74-76. Wherein, &c. In which pestilent speeches, the speakers, having no ground of truth, are forced to have recourse to fiction, and will not hesitate to accuse us by whispering in every ear.

75. person. So the quartos. The folios have 'persons.'

77. a murdering-piece, or murderer,' is a cannon loaded not with a single ball, but with case-shot, so as to scatter death more widely. Steevens quotes Beaumont and Fletcher's Double Marriage [iv. 2]:

He also quotes Smith's Sea Grammar, 1627: ‘A case shot is any kinde of small bullets, nailes, old iron, or the like, to put into the case, to shoot out of the ordnances or murderers.' Cotgrave gives 'murthering peece' as equivalent to the French meurtriere.

79. Switzers. In Shakespeare's time Switzers, or Swiss, were employed to guard the person of the King of France, as Scotchmen had formerly been. Probably the same usage extended to other continental courts. To this day the Pope's body-guard consists of Swiss. Being foreigners, and therefore unconnected with any local faction, they could be better trusted. Malone quotes from Nashe's Christ's Teares over Jerusalem, 1594: 'Law, logicke, and the Switzers, may be hired to fight for anybody.'

81. list, boundary. Compare All's Well that Ends Well, ii. 1. 53: 'You have restrained yourself within the list of too cold an adieu.' And Othello, iv. 1. 76:

'Confine yourself but in a patient list.'

83. in a riotous head. 'A head' is an armed force, as in I Henry IV, i. 3. 284:

And iii. 2. 167:

'To save our heads by raising of a head.'

'A mighty and a fearful head they are.' See also the same play, iv. 4. 25, 28: v. 1. 66.

85. as, as if. Compare Troilus and Cressida, iii. 3. 167:

'And with his arms outstretch'd as he would fly.' 86. forgot, forgotten, as in iii. 2. 118, and elsewhere.

87, 88. Hanmer most unnecessarily transposed these lines, making 'caps, hands and tongues' 'the ratifiers and props of every word.' For 'word' Tyrwhitt proposed, and Capell read, work.' But no change is required.

91. on the false trail they cry. Compare Merry Wives of Windsor, iv. 2. 208: If I cry out thus upon no trail, never trust me when I open again.' 92. counter. Hounds are said to 'run counter,' when they follow the scent in the wrong direction. See Comedy of Errors, iv. 2. 39: 'A hound that runs counter.' In Holme's Academy of Armory, Book II, c. ix, p. 187, 'counter' is defined, 'When a hound hunteth backwards, the same way that the chase is come.'

101. fear. See i. 3. 51. The Queen throws herself between the King and Laertes, and clings round the latter to prevent him from striking. 108. his fill, to his heart's content. So Timon of Athens, v. 4. 73:

'Pass by and curse thy fill.'

112. To this point I stand. Compare 2 Henry IV, ii. 1. 70: 'I beseech you, stand to me.'

113. both the worlds, this world and the next. Compare Macbeth, iii. 2. 16: 'But let the frame of things disjoint, both the worlds suffer,'

where the phrase means the celestial and terrestrial worlds.

115. throughly, thoroughly. Compare Matthew iii. 12. 116. My will, only my own will shall stay me. Ib. world. So the folios. The quartos read 'worlds,' perhaps rightly. The extravagant hyperbole all the worlds' which Laertes would thus use in reference to his former words both the worlds,' is not unsuitable to his excited state of mind. Hanmer read 'world's,' which might be the meaning of the reading of the quartos, in which no apostrophe is used to distinguish the genitive singular from the nominative plural.

120. writ in your revenge. Compare i. 2. 222.

121. swoopstake. The quartos and folios read soopstake,' We are guided to the true reading by the quarto of 1603 which has 'Swoop-stake. like.' Pope altered the word to sweepstake,' which means the same thing. The metaphor is from a game at cards, where the winner sweeps, or 'draws,' the whole stake. The meaning is somewhat confused by this admixture of metaphor. 'Are you determined to involve both friend and foe in your revenge?' 124. thus wide. With appropriate gesture. See Troilus and Cressida, iii. 3. 167.

125. pelican. The first folio has a curious misprint here- Politician.' The allusion is to the well-known fable of the pelican piercing her own breast to feed her young. In Richard II, ii. 1. 126, and King Lear, iii. 4. 77, the young pelicans are represented as piercing their mother's breast to drink her blood, an illustration of filial impiety, not parental love. But Rushton, Shakespeare's Euphuism, p. 9, quotes from Lyly's Euphues and his England: the Pelicane who stricketh blood out of hir owne bodye to do others good' (p. 341, ed Arber).

126. Repast, feed. This verb is not used elsewhere by our author. 129. sensibly. The folios read 'sensible.' Either word yields a satisfactory meaning. Indeed 'sensible' may be used adverbially. We should say 'feelingly. Compare Merchant of Venice, ii. 8. 48: With affection wondrous sensible.'

130. level to your judgement pierce. The folios read 'pierce,' the quartos 'peare,' whence Johnson ''pear' i. e. appear. 'Pierce' suits the metaphor better. Compare iv. I. 42.

131. The quartos give the words 'Let her come in' to Laertes. The folios give as a stage direction 'A noise within. Let her come in,' and this is represented in the text. Laertes did not know what, or who, was the

cause of the noise without.

132. Re-enter Ophelia. The quarto of 1603 gives the stage direction, 'Enter Ofelia as before,' i. e. dressed as it had described, line 21.

133. virtue, strength, power. So Love's Labour's Lost, v. 2. 348: 'The virtue of your eye.'

135. with weight. So the quartos. The folios have by weight.' 140-142. Nature. . . loves. Omitted in the quartos. The sense is ob

scurely expressed. Fine' seems to mean delicately tender,' and 'instance' 'proof' or 'example.' The thing it loves' is here Polonius, the 'precious instance' Ophelia's natural soundness of mind. Her sanity has followed her father to the grave.

144. The refrain 'Hey non nonny,' &c., is not in the quartos. In the next line the folios have 'raines' for 'rain'd.'

151. It is doubtful whether 'wheel' here means the refrain or burden of the song, or a spinning-wheel to which the song might be sung. No satisfactory example has been found of the word in the former sense.

Ib. Nothing is known of the story of the false steward to which Ophelia refers.

153. matter. See ii. 2. 95.

154. rosemary was supposed to strengthen the memory, hence it came to symbolize remembrance and fidelity. Compare Winter's Tale, iv. 3. 74-76: 'For you there's rosemary and rue; these keep

Seeming and savour all the winter long:

Grace and remembrance be to you both!'

It was therefore worn at funerals and at weddings. See Romeo and Juliet, iv. 5. 79. See Drayton, Eclogue ix. 19, 20:

'Him Rosemary his sweethart, whose intent

Is that he her should in remembrance haue.'

On the other hand Cotgrave says, s. v., that 'Donner du rosmarin' was equivalent to dismiss a lover.'

155. pansies, from the French pensées. Ophelia gives rosemary and pansies to her brother.

156. document, used apparently in its literal sense of precept, instruction. Cotgrave gives 'Document; m. A document, precept; instruction, admonition; experiment, example.' Compare Spenser, Fairy Queen, i. 10. 19, quoted in the Edinburgh Review for July 1869:

'And heavenly documents thereout did preach.'

158. Ophelia gives fennel and columbines to the King. Fennel is said to be emblematic of flattery. In Florio's Worlde of Wordes, 1598, 'Dare finocchio' (to give fennel) is translated to flatter, to dissemble.' Compare Greene's Quip for an Upstart Courtier, p. 7 (Collier's reprint): Uppon a banke, bordring by, grewe womens weedes, Fenell I meane for flatterers, fit generally for that sexe.'

Ib. columbine is mentioned by Chapman in All Fools, act. ii. sc. 1: 'What's that? a columbine?

No: that thankless flower fits not my garden.'

If it were an emblem of thanklessness it would be suitable enough to be given to the King.

159. She gives rue to the Queen. The meaning is clearly shown in Richard II, iii. 4. 104, &c.:

I'll set a bank of rue, sour herb of grace;

Rue, even for ruth, here shortly shall be seen,
In the remembrance of a weeping queen.'

Cotgrave gives Rue: Rue, Hearbe grace.' In Lyte's Herball, p. 294, ed. 1595, there is a description of 'Rue or Herbe Grace.' To rue is to repent, therefore rue was called 'herb of grace,' or 'herb-grace.' As Ophelia says, it may fitly bear its religious name on Sundays. There is a curious passage in Greene's Quip for an Upstart Courtier, p. 9 (Collier's reprint): 'But as these upstart changelings went strouting like Philopolimarchides, the bragart in Plautus, they lookte so proudly at the same that they stumbled on a bed of Rue that grewe at the bottome of the banke where the Time was planted, which fall upon the dew of so bitter an herbe taught them that such proude peacockes as over hastily out run their fortunes, at last to speedily fall to repentaunce; and yet some of them smild and said Rue was called herbe grace, which though they scorned in their youth, they might weare in their age, and it was never too late to say Miserere.'

160, 161. with a difference. This was a term in heraldry meaning the slight change made in a coat of arms to distinguish one member of a family from another. Ophelia no doubt means that the Queen and she had different causes of ruth.

161. It does not appear to whom she gives the daisy; probably either to the King or Queen. Henley has quoted Greene's Quip for an Upstart Courtier [p. 11, Collier's reprint]: 'Next them grewe the dessembling daisie.'

Ib. violets. Malone quotes from a collection of Sonnets,' published in 1584: Violet is for faithfulnesse.' Perhaps she says this to Horatio.

164. Bonny sweet Robin was a well-known ballad, of which Ophelia sings a line. It is mentioned by Beaumont and Fletcher, in The Two Noble Kinsmen, iI. I:

I can sing the Broom,

And Bonny Robin.'

The tune is given in Chappell's Popular Music of the Olden Time, p. 234. 165. Thought, care, anxiety, as in iii. 1. 85.

176. God ha' mercy. The folios have 'Gramercy.'

177. And of all Christian souls, I pray God. Many epitaphs closed with such a pious prayer as this. 'Of' is not strictly grammatical according to modern usage, but in Shakespeare's it was frequently used for on.' See Merchant of Venice, ii. 2. 100-104, and I Henry IV, ii. 4. 127.

6

181. That is, of your wisest friends, whom
you will.'

184. touch'd, implicated in the guilt of Polonius' murder.

190. His means of death, that is, the means of his death. Compare i. 4. 73, iii. 2. 304.

Ib. obscure with the accent on the first syllable, as in Merchant of Venice, ii. 7. 51:

To rib her cerecloth in the obscure grave.'