194. That, used without any preceding 'so.' Compare Julius Cæsar, i. I. 50; Macbeth, i. 2. 58, and i. 7. 8.

Scene VI.

11, 12. let to know, caused to know, informed. Compare the phrase ' do to wit.'

14. means to the king, means of access to the king.

16. appointment, equipment. Compare Richard II, iii. 3. 53: 'That from this castle's tatter'd battlements

Our fair appointments may be well perused.' 20. thieves of mercy, merciful thieves. See note on i. 2. 4.

23. as thou wouldest fly death. We must either take 'as' as though, or supply withal' after 'death.'

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24. will, i. e. which will. See iv. 7. 130. The relative is so frequently omitted, as here, that it is needless to give instances. Abbott, § 244.

25. the bore of the matter. A metaphor from a gun-barrel, which in proportion to the size of its bore requires a heavier charge.

29. make. So the fourth and following quartos. The word is omitted in the earlier quartos. The folios read 'give.'

Scene VII.

3. Sith. See iv. 4. 45.

4. which, used frequently of persons, as in the Lord's Prayer.

7. crimeful. The quartos have 'criminall,' but probably the folios are right in giving the rarer word, which is not used elsewhere by Shakespeare. 8. safety. The quartos read 'safety, greatness,' which makes the line an Alexandrine. But this is no grave objection, as the next line is an Alexandrine also.

10. unsinew'd, wanting nerve, weak. Not used again by Shakespeare. 'Sinewed' occurs in King John, v. 7. 88:

'Ourselves well sinewed to our defence.'

II. But. So the quartos. The folios read 'And.'

13. be it either which, whichever of the two it be. Abbott, § 273, suggests that there is perhaps a confusion between 'be it either' and 'be it whichever of the two.'

14. conjunctive. See Othello, i. 3. 374: Let us be conjunctive in our revenge.'

17. count, account, trial.

18. gender, race, here used of men. It is applied to herbs, Othello, i. 3. 326. The general gender' is the common race, 'general' having much the same sense as in ii. 2. 423.

20. Instead of 'Would,' the reading of the folios, the quartos have 'Worke,' thus making 'Convert' indicative instead of infinitive. But 'would convert' seems required by the context.

Ib. Reed thinks that the spring to which Shakespeare refers is the dropping-well at Knaresborough, which encrusts with a calcareous deposit the objects placed beneath it. The simile,' says Johnson, 'is neither very seasonable in the deep interest of the conversation nor very accurately applied. If the spring had changed metals to gold the thought had been more proper.' Lyly (Euphues, p. 63. ed. Arber) has 'Would I had sipped of that ryuer in Caria, which turneth those that drinke of it to stones.'

21. gyves, fetters round the ankles. See Romeo and Juliet, ii. 2. 180: 'Like a poor prisoner in his twisted gyves.'

The king means: Had Hamlet been arrested and put in prison on the charge of killing Polonius, the people would have loved him all the more. Compare Antony and Cleopatra, ii. 2. 213: ‘And made their bends adornings.'

22. loud a wind. Here the quartos have 'loued arm'd,' a curious misprint. Steevens quotes Ascham's Toxophilus, ed. 1589, p. 57: 'Weake bowes and lighte shaftes cannot stand in a rough winde.'

24. and not where. To complete the sense some such word as 'gone' must be supplied.

27. if praises may go back again, if I may praise what she was, not what she is.

30. sleeps. See i. 1. 173.

32. shook, preterite form used as participle. So Richard II, iv. 1. 163: Before I have shook off the regal thoughts Wherewith I reign'd.'

Ib. Danger is very near when it shakes the beard. See ii. 2. 559. 'With' is found in constructions where we should now use 'by.' Winter's Tale, v. 2. 68: 'He was torn to pieces with a bear.'

Compare

41. Of. We should say 'from.' Compare v. 2. 315: Heaven make thee free of it,' i. e. from it. And Bacon, Essay xxvii. p. 109 (ed. W. A. Wright): A man might have thought, that this had proceeded of an abundant goodnesse of nature.' The words 'Of him that brought them' are omitted in the folios.

44, 45. your kingly eyes. See iv. 4. 6.

49. abuse, cheat, delusion.

See Measure for Measure, v. I. 205: This is a strange abuse.' We have had the verb in a like sense, ii. 2. 585. 50. character, hand-writing, as in Twelfth Night, v. I. 354:

This is not my writing,

Though, I confess, much like the character.'

We have had the verb 'character,' i. 3. 59.

53. lost, perplexed.

57. As how should it be so? We should have expected how should it

not be so?' Keightley conjectured, 'how should it but be so ?' But perhaps the first clause refers to Hamlet's return, the second to Laertes' feelings.

61. checking at. So the folios. The earlier quartos have a curious blunder, the king at,' conjecturally altered in a later quarto to 'liking not.' The metaphor is taken from falconry, and is technically applied to a falcon that forsakes her proper game to fly after some other bird. Compare Twelfth Night, ii. 5. 124: 'With what wing the staniel checks at it;' and iii. 1. 71, of the same play:

And like the haggard checks at every feather

That comes before his eye.'

The use of the word is not quite the same here, because the voyage was Hamlet's 'proper game,' which he abandons.

66. uncharge, make no accusation against. The word is probably coined by Shakespeare for the nonce.

Ib. practice, plot, stratagem, treachery. See Coriolanus, iv. I. 33: 'Cautelous baits and practice.' And Hamlet, iv. 7. 137, v. 2. 301. 67-80. My lord... graveness. Omitted in the folios.

69. organ, instrument. In Measure for Measure, i. 1. 21: All the organs

Of our own power.'

69. It falls right. My scheme coincides with your wish.

75. siege, seat, thence 'rank,' because people sat at table, and elsewhere, in order of precedence. Compare Measure for Measure, iv. 2. 101:

"Upon the very siege of justice.'

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And Othello, i. 2. 22: Men of royal siege.'

79. sables. See iii. 2. 113.

80. importing, implying, denoting. See i. 2. 23.

Ib. health, care for, or attention to, health, such as characterises elder men. 83. can. The folios read, by misprint or a mistaken correction, 'ran.' We find 'can' without a verb following in King Lear, iv. 4. 8:

'What can man's wisdom

And in Bacon, Essay xi. p. 40:

In evil the best condition is not to will, the second not to can.' And with an accusative, Phoenix and Turtle, 14:

'Let the priest in surplice white,

That defunctive music can.'

See also Tempest, iv. I. 27:

'The strong'st suggestion

Our worser genius can.'

84. unto. So the quartos. The folios read into.'

86. As had he. All the early copies have the words in this order. The sixth quarto first changed the order to as he had,' which is generally adopted in modern texts.

86. incorpsed, incorporate, of one body with.

87. topp'd, surpassed, exceeded, as in Macbeth, iv. 3. 57, 'to top Macbeth '; and King Lear, i. 2. 21 (Capell's reading):

'Edmund the base

Shall top the legitimate.'

88. forgery, imagination. See Midsummer Night's Dream, ii. 1. 81: These are the forgeries of jealousy.'

And Lucrece, 460:

Such shadows are the weak brain's forgeries.'

91. Lamond. Written in the folios Lamound,' in the quartos Lamord.' The name appears to be altogether fictitious.

92. brooch. See our note on Richard II, v. 5. 66. The brooch. being worn in the hat, was of course very conspicuous.

94. confession is here used because Lamond would reluctantly admit the superiority of Laertes to his countrymen.

95. masterly report, a report which describes Laertes as a master of fence. 97. especial. So the quartos. The folios have ' especially.'

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99. scrimers, fencers, from the French escrimeurs.

Ib. their nation. We should have expected 'his' not 'their,' but in the oratio recta Lamond might have said 'our nation' with propriety.

105. The king pauses before coming to the terrible gist of his story. 111. passages of proof, circumstances which prove that time abates love. Compare ii. 1. 38.

112-122. There lives 115. still, constantly.

....

ulcer: omitted in the folios.

116. plurisy, plethora. So used probably from an erroneous idea that the word was derived from plus pluris. Shakespeare does not employ it elsewhere, but it is not uncommon in writers contemporary with him. For instance, in Massinger's The Picture, iv. 2, p. 202, ed. Gifford :

'A plurisy of ill blood you must let out

By labour.'

Compare The Two Noble Kinsmen, v. I:

'That heal'st with blood

The earth when it is sick, and cur'st the world
O' the plurisy of people.'

121. spendthrift sigh. This, which in all probability is the genuine reading, is an emendation found for the first time in the sixth quarto, the earlier ones reading with variable spelling 'spendthrifts sigh.' The meaning is that the mere recognition of a duty without the will to perform it, while it satisfies for a moment, enfeebles the moral nature. We have the same notion of sighs wasting the vital powers in 2 Henry VI, iii. 2. 63: 'blooddrinking sighs.' See also Midsummer Night's Dream, iii. 2. 97:

'Pale of cheer

'With sighs of love that costs the fresh blood dear.'

126. sanctuarize. The verb is probably invented by Shakespeare. No place should protect murder (such as that which Hamlet has perpetrated) from punishment. Compare Richard III, iii. 1. 42 :

The holy privilege

Of blessed sanctuary.'

And Coriolanus, i. 10. 19.

130. those shall. The relative omitted as in i. 2. 17, iv. 6. 23, and frequently elsewhere.

133. remiss, a word seldom if ever used now except with reference to some particular act of negligence. Here it means careless,' indifferent.' So in I Henry VI, iv. 3. 59:

Thus we die, while remiss traitors sleep.'

135. peruse, examine. See 'perusal,' ii. 1. 90.

137. unbated, unblunted, with no button on the point. See v. 2. 301. The two forms of the verb 'bate' and 'abate' are used in the same sense. See Love's Labour 's Lost, i. 1. 6:

'That honour which shall bate his scythe's keen edge.'

And Richard III, v. 5. 35:

'Abate the edge of traitors, gracious Lord.'

So also rebate,' Measure for Measure, i. 4. 60:

'Doth rebate and blunt his natural edge.'

Ib. a pass of practice, a treacherous thrust. For 'practice' see line 62 of this scene.

143, where the word is used metaointment' or the act of anointing.

140. unction, ointment. In iii. 4. phorically, the word may either mean Ib. mountebank, quack-doctor. See Othello, i. 3. 61, 'medicines bought of mountebanks'; and in Bacon's Advancement of Learning, ii. 10. § 2: 'Nay, we see the weakness and credulity of men is such, as they will often prefer a mountebank or witch before a learned physician.' In Ben Jonson's Fox, Volpone, disguised as a mountebank, has a multitude of medicines to sell. In Italian he is called ciarlatano, whence the French charlatan, for which among others Cotgrave gives as equivalents, 'A Mountebanke, a cousening drug-seller, a pratling quack-saluer.'

141. mortal, deadly. See Richard II, iii. 2. 21:

'A lurking adder

Whose double tongue may with a mortal touch

Throw death upon thy sovereign's enemies.'

142. cataplasm. For the French cataplasme Cotgrave gives A cataplasme, or poultis; a (soft or moist) plaister.'

143. simples, herbs, so called as being the simple ingredients of compound mixture. Compare As You Like It, iv. I. 16: A melancholy of mine own compounded of many simples.' And in Romeo and Juliet, v. 1. 40, the apothecary is described as ' culling of simples.'