Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark

90. Moiety. Strictly a half (as in A. W. iii. 2. 69, Hen. V. v. 2. 229, etc.), but often used by S. for any portion (Schmidt). Cf. M. of V. iv. I. 26, I Hen. IV. iii. 1. 96, etc.

91. Had return'd.

Would have returned. Gr. 361.

93. Covenant. The folio has "cou'nant," the quartos "comart." and Wr. think that S. may have coined the latter word (=joint bargain), and afterwards changed it to covenant.

94. Carriage, etc. "By the tenor of the article as drawn up" (M.). 96. Unimproved. Not regulated or guided by knowledge or experience" (Johnson); "untutored" (Wr.); "undisciplined" (M.); "not yet turned to account, unemployed" (Schmidt). Nares and D., on the other hand, explain it as="unreproved, unimpeached,” and St. as=“ungovernable." The 1st quarto has "inapproved." On mettle, see Macb. p. 181 or Rich. II. p. 157.

97. Skirts. Cf. A. Y. L. iii. 2. 354: "here in the skirts of the forest, like fringe upon a petticoat."

98. Shark'd up. Picked up without distinction (Steevens) or illegally (Schmidt). List = muster-roll, as in i. 2. 32 below. On resolutes, see Gr. 433.

99. For food and diet. "For no pay but their keep. Being landless they have nothing to lose, and the war would at the worst feed them" (M.). 100. Stomach. Courage; with possibly a play on the other sense, as in T. G. of V. i. 2. 68 and Hen. V. iii. 7. 166. For some of the meanings of the word in S. see Temp. p. 115.

102. But. In the sense of except, where we should use than (Gr. 127). See also 108 below.

tory."

103. Compulsative. The folio reading; the quartos have "compulsaS. uses neither word elsewhere, but he has "compulsive" in iii. 86 below and in Oth. iii. 3. 454.

107. Romage. Bustle, turmoil" (Schmidt). S. uses the word only here. For its origin see Wb. Wedgwood gives a less probable derivation.

108. Lines 108-125 are omitted in the folio. K. suggests that S. probably suppressed the passage after he had written 7. C.

Be. The word "expresses more doubt than is after a verb of thinking" (Gr. 299, where some striking examples are given).

109. Sort. Suit, accord. Schmidt wavers between this sense and "fall out, have an issue" (as in Much Ado, v. 4. 7, M. N. D. iii. 2. 352, etc.). 112. Mote. In three of the quartos it is spelt "moth," which probably had the same pronunciation. See A. Y. L. p. 179, note on Goats.

114. Mightiest. Used like the Latin superlative=very mighty (Gr. 8). On the passage, cf. J. C. ii. 2. 18 fol.

117. As stars, etc. There is some corruption here, and perhaps a line has dropped out. The attempts to mend the passage have not been satisfactory. As M. suggests, "if a line is supposed to be omitted, it would be better to borrow from 7. C. ii. 2, and read

[Fierce fiery warriors fought upon the clouds,]
As stars with trains of fire and dews of blood;
Disaster hid the sun,' etc.,

rather than indulge the genius, as some editors have done, by coining a line."

Disaster (like influence, aspect, retrograde, etc.) was an astrological term. It is used as a verb in A. and C. ii. 7. 18.

118. The moist star. and M. N. D. ii. 1. 162:

W. T. i. 2. 427:

The moon. Cf. W. T. i. 2. I: "the watery star;" “the watery moon.' On the next line Wr. quotes

"You may as well

Forbid the sea for to obey the moon;"

and M. misquotes Coleridge, Anc. Mariner:

"Still as a slave before his lord,

The ocean hath no blast;

His great bright eye most silently

Up to the moon is cast,

If he may know which way to go,
For she guides him smooth or grim-
See, brother, see, how graciously
She looketh down on him!"

120. Voss refers to Matt. xxiv. 29.

121. Precurse. Used by S. only here; and precursor only in Temp. i. Wr. says that "precurser occurs in Phanix and Turtle, 6, but the eds. generally have " precurrer."

2. 201.

Fierce. Wild, terrible. It means "immoderate, excessive" (Schmidt) in T. of A. iv. 2. 30 and Hen. VIII. i. 1. 54; and Steevens would give it a similar sense ("conspicuous, glaring ") here.

122. Still. Constantly, always; as often. Gr. 69. On harbingers, see Macb. p. 168.

123. Omen. The event portended by the omen. S. uses the word nowhere else. Upton cites Virgil, Æn. 1. 346, where ominibus, literally the omens of the marriage rite, is put for the rite itself; and Farmer quotes Heywood, Life of Merlin':

"Merlin, well vers'd in many a hidden spell,
His countries omen did long since foretell.'

124. Demonstrated. Accented on first syllable, as in Hen. V. iv. 2. 54; but on the second in T. of A. i. 1. 91, Oth. i. I. 61, etc.

125. Climatures. Regions; used by S. only here. For climate in the same sense, see Rich. II. iv. 1. 130 and 7. C. i. 3. 32.

127. Cross it. According to Blakeway, whoever crossed the spot on which a spectre was seen became subject to its malignant influence. Among the reasons for supposing the young Earl of Derby (who died in 1594) to have been bewitched, Lodge states that a figure of a tall man appeared in his chamber "who twice crossed him swiftly," and when the earl came to the place where he saw the apparition "he fell sick." 129. For the short line here and below, see Gr. 512.

130, 131. Alluding, as Simrock suggests, to the idea that a ghost may often be "laid" when a living person does for him what he himself ought to have done when alive.

134. Happily. According to Nares and Schmidt haply, as often ; but it may be luckily, as some critics make it. H. points out that the

structure of this solemn appeal is almost identical with that of a very different strain in A. Y. L. ii. 4. 33-42.

136. Or if thou hast, etc. Steevens quotes Dekker, Knight's Conjuring: "If any of them had bound the spirit of gold by any charmes in caves, or in iron fetters under the ground, they should for their own soules quiet (which questionlesse else would whine up and down) if not for the good of their children, release it."

138. They say. Clarke notes the propriety of these words in the mouth of Horatio, "the scholar and the unbeliever in ghosts."

140. Partisan. A kind of halberd. Cf. R. and J. i. 1. 80, 101, A. and C. ii. 7. 14, etc.

143. Majestical. Used by S. oftener than majestic. Cf. Hen. V. iii. chor. 16, iv. I. 284, etc.

145. As the air, invulnerable. Malone compares Macb. v. 8. 9 and K. John, ii. 1. 252.

149. I have heard, etc. __ Cf. M. N. D. iii. 2. 381 fol., and Milton, Hymn on Nativ. 229-234, etc. Farmer quotes Prudentius, Ad Gallicinium:

"Ferunt, vagantes daemonas,

Laetos tenebris noctium,
Gallo canente exterritos
Sparsim timere et cedere."

150. The trumpet, etc. For trumpet trumpeter, cf. Hen. V. iv. 2. 61: "I will the banner from a trumpet take," etc. Malone quotes from England's Parnassus, 1600: "And now the cocke, the morning's trumpeter." Coleridge remarks that "how to elevate a thing almost mean by its familiarity, young poets may learn in this treatment of the cockcrow."

153. Whether in sea, etc. "According to the pneumatology of that time, every element was inhabited by its peculiar order of spirits" (Johnson). Cf. Milton, Il Pens. 93:

"And of those demons that are found
In fire, air, flood, or under ground,
Whose power hath a true consent
With planet or with element."

154. Extravagant. In its etymological sense of wandering beyond its confine, or limit. Cf. L. L. L. iv. 2. 68: “a foolish extravagant spirit;" and Oth. i. I. 137: “an extravagant and wheeling stranger." S. uses the word only in these passages, and extravagancy (=vagrancy) only in T. N. ii. 1. 12. So erring is used in its literal sense; as in A. Y. L. iii. 2. 138 and Oth. i. 3. 362. Cf. Gr. p. 13.

155. For the accent of confine, cf. Temp. iv. 1. 121, Sonn. 84. 3, etc.; for the other one, see Rich. II. i. 3. 137, Rich. III. iv. 4. 3, etc.

156. Probation. Proof; as in Macb. iii. 1. 80, Cymb. v. 5. 362, etc. The word is here a quadrisyllable. Gr. 479.

Gr. 463.

158. 'Gainst. Used metaphorically of time (Gr. 142), as in M. N. D. iii. 2.99: "against he do appear," etc. Cf. iii. 4. 50 below. 161. Spirit. Monosyllabic (=sprite), as often. Can walk. The folio reading; the 1st quarto has later quartos "dare sturre."

dare walke," the

162. Strike. Exert a malign influence. Cf. T. A. ii. 4. 14: "If I do wake, some planet strike me down." See also Cor. ii. 2. 117 and W. T. i. 2. 201. As Wr. remarks, we still have "moonstruck."

163. Takes. Bewitches, blasts. F. quotes Florio: "Assiderare: to blast or strike with a planet, to be taken." Cf. M. W. iv. 4. 32: "blasts the tree and takes the cattle;" Lear, ii. 4. 166: “taking airs;" Id. iii. 4. 61 : "Bless thee from whirlwinds, star-blasting, and taking!" and A. and C. iv. 2. 37: "Now the witch take me, if I meant it thus !"

164. Gracious. Blessed, benign; "partaking of the nature of the epithet with which it is associated" (Caldecott).

165. And do in part believe it. "A happy expression of the half-sceptical, half-complying spirit of Shakespeare's time, when witchcraft was believed, antipodes doubted" (M.).

166, 167. As Hunter suggests, Milton must have had this beautiful personification in mind when he wrote P. L. v. I :

"Now morn, her rosy steps in th' eastern clime
Advancing, sow'd the earth with orient pearls."

173. Loves. For the plural, see Macb. p. 209 or Rich. II. p. 206 (note on Sights).

175. Conveniently. The folio reading; the quartos have "convenient" (Gr. 1).

SCENE II.-I. "In the King's speech, observe the set and pedantically antithetic form of the sentences when touching that which galled the heels of conscience, the strain of undignified rhetoric, and yet in what follows concerning the public weal, a certain appropriate majesty. Indeed, was he not a royal brother?" (Coleridge).

2. That. See Gr. 284.

4. Brow of woe. Mourning brow" (L.L. L. v. 2. 754). Wr. compares iv. 6. 19: "thieves of mercy;" M. of V. ii. 8. 42: "mind of love ;" Lear, i. 4. 306: "brow of youth," etc.

6. With wisest sorrow. "With the due proportion of sorrow" (M.). 8. Sometime. The folio has "sometimes." S. uses both forms adjectively. Cf. Rich. II. i. 2. 54: "thy sometimes brother's wife;" Id. v. I. 37: "good sometime queen," etc. See on i. I. 49 above.

9. Of. The quartos have "to."

10. Defeated. Marred, disfigured. Cf. Oth. i. 3. 346: "defeat thy favour with an usurped beard." So defeature=disfigurement in V. and A. 736, C. of E. ii. 1. 98 and v. 1. 299.

II. One... one. So in the folio; the quartos have "an... a." Steevens quotes W. T. v. 2. 80: "She had one eye declined for the loss of her husband, another elevated that the oracle was fulfilled."

Malone explains dropping as "depressed or cast downwards," and W. substitutes "drooping.

14. To wife. Cf. Temp. ii. 1. 75: "Such a paragon to their queen," etc. Gr. 189.

Barr'd. Excluded, acted without the concurrence of. Cf. Hen. V. i. 2. 12, 92, Lear, v. 3. 85, etc.

15. Wisdoms. See on loves, i. I. 173 above.

17. That you know. What you already know. See Gr. 244. Theo. points it thus: "Now follows that you know, young Fortinbras," etc. (so Walker, with colon instead of comma).

18. Supposal. Opinion; used by S. only here.

20. Disjoint. For the form cf. iii. 1. 155: most deject." See also iii. 4. 180, 205, and iv. 5. 2. Gr. 342.

21. Colleagued, etc. With no ally but this imaginary advantage. The quartos have "this dream.”

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