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superstition of augury and omens, which has no ground in reason a piety; my comfort is, that I cannot fall but by the direction of Provi. dence." Caldecott explains the re-pointed folio reading as follows: "Since no man has (that is, has any secure hold, or can properly be denominated the possessor, of) any portion of that which he leaves, or must leave, behind him, of what moment is it that this leave-taking, or parting with a possession so frail, should be made thus early?" Clarke and F. prefer the quarto reading, as we do, on the ground that "it is more characteristic of Hamlet to think little of leaving life, because he cannot solve its many mysteries, than because he cannot carry with him life's goods." 214. Give me your pardon, etc. Johnson says: "I wish Hamlet had made some other defence; it is unsuitable to the character of a brave or a good man to shelter himself in falsehood." Seymour believes that the passage from This presence to enemy in 227 below is an interpolation, as "the falsehood contained in it is too ignoble."

216. This presence. The abstract for the concrete (Wr.). Cf. L. L. L. v. 2. 102, K. John, ii. 1. 196, Rich. II. i. I. 34, etc. 219. Exception. Disapprobation, objection. Cf. Hen. V. ii. 4. 34: "modest in exception," etc.

228. Sir, in this audience. Omitted in the quartos. 232. Brother. The folio has "Mother."

In nature. "A piece of satire on fantastical honour. Though nature is satisfied, yet he will ask advice of older men of the sword whether artificial honour ought to be contented with Hamlet's submission " (Steevens).

238. Ungor'd. Unwounded, unhurt. The folio has "ungorgd." Wr. quotes T. and C. iii. 3. 228: "" 'My fame is shrewdly gor'd."

245. Stick fiery off. Be brilliantly set off, "stand in brilliant relief" (Wr.).

249. Your grace, etc. "I understand that your grace has taken care that points shall be given me; but for all that I fear that I shall be the weaker. No, replies the king, I have seen you both, and the points given will counterbalance his Paris improvement" (M.). According to Jennens, the odds are those that were laid in the wager, namely, the greater value of the king's stake as compared with that of Laertes (Ritson computes the values as twenty to one), and not to the number of hits, which is what the king refers to in his reply.

251. Since he is better'd. "Since he has perfected himself in his art" (Schmidt). The quartos have "better." 253. Likes. Pleases, suits.

See on ii. 2. 80 above. A= =one (Gr. 81). 257. Quit, etc. Pay him off in meeting him at the third encounter (Wr.). Cf. 68 above.

258. Ordnance. The folio has "Ordinance." See Hen. V. p. 161.

260. Union. A fine pearl. Malone quotes Florio, Ital. Dict.: "Vnione,

a faire, great, orient pearle." Steevens cites Holland's Pliny: "out dainties and delicates here at Rome, haue deuised this name for them, and call them Vnions; as a man would say, Singular, and by themselues alone."

263. Kettle. That is, kettle-drum. Cf. i. 4. 11 above.

270. This pearl, etc. "Under pretence of throwing a pearl into the cup, the king may be supposed to drop some poisonous drug into the wine. Hamlet seems to suspect this, when he afterwards discovers the effects of the poison, and tauntingly asks him, 'Is thy union here?"" (Steevens).

275. He's fat, etc. Coll. has shown that Richard Burbadge was the original Hamlet, and that these words were inserted because he was corpulent. This is evident from an elegy upon the actor, which says: "No more young Hamlet, though but scant of breath, Shall cryRevenge!' for his dear father's death."

276. Napkin. Handkerchief; the only meaning of the word in S. See A. Y. L. p. 190; or cf. L. C. 15, Oth. iii. 3. 290, 306, etc. 277. Carouses. Drinks a health. Cf. Oth. ii. 3. 55:

"Now my sick fool Roderigo,

Whom love hath turn'd almost the wrong side out,

To Desdemona hath to-night carous'd
Potations pottle-deep," etc.

284. And yet, etc. "This symptom of relenting is not only a redeeming touch in the character of Laertes (and Shakespeare, in his large tolerance and true knowledge of human nature, is fond of giving these redeeming touches even to his worst characters), but it forms a judiciously interposed link between the young man's previous determination to take the Prince's life treacherously and his subsequent revealment of the treachery. From the deliberate malice of becoming the agent in such a plot, to the remorseful candour which confesses it, would have been too violent and too abrupt a moral change, had not the dramatist, with his usual skill, introduced this connecting point of half compunction" (Clarke).

287. Afeard. Used by S. interchangeably with afraid. See M. N. D. p. 156 or Macb. p. 163.

Make a wanton of me. "Trifle with me as if you were playing with a child" (Ritson). Cf. Rich. II. iii. 3. 164. Schmidt makes it = treat me like an effeminate boy. Cf. K. John, v. 1. 70 and Rich. II. v. 3. 10. H. remarks here: "This is a quiet but very significant stroke of delineation. Laertes is not playing his best, and it is the conscience of what is at the point of his foil that keeps him from doing so; and the effects are per ceptible to Hamlet, though he dreams not of the reason."

290. Much has been written on the change of rapiers in the stage-direction, for an abstract of which, and also for the practice of celebrated actors, see F.

294. As a woodcock. F. quotes a writer in Notes and Queries (Aug. 8, 1874) who says: "This bird is trained to decoy other birds, and sometimes, while strutting incautiously too near the springe, it becomes itself entangled." Cf. i. 3. 115 above.

296. How does the queen? That is, what is the matter with the queen? Swoons. The quartos and 1st and 2d folios have “sounds," the later folios "swounds "(=swoons), a pet word with Mrs. Browning.

305. Unbated. See on iv. 7. 137 above; and for practice, iv. 7. 66, 137. 309. Envenom'd too. That is, envenomed as well as unbated.

314. Is thy union here? See on 270 above.

316. Temper'd. Mixed, compounded (Schmidt). Cf. R. and J. iii. 5. 98 and Cymb. v. 5. 250.

319. Laertes, who was not wounded till after Hamlet, dies first of the poison; but possibly, as F. suggests, Hamlet gave Laertes a mortal thrust in return for the "scratch," which was all that Laertes was aiming at, so that Laertes dies of the wound, Hamlet of the poison.

323. Mutes. "That are either auditors of this catastrophe, or at most only mute performers, that fill the stage without any part in the action" (Johnson).

324. As. See Gr. 110, and cf. iv. 3. 58 above.

Sergeant. Ritson, Schmidt, and others explain this as = "bailiff, or sheriff's officer;" but Mr. J. F. Marsh, in Notes and Queries (March 16, 1878), says that a sheriff's officer was not called a sergeant, and that the allusion is probably to the sergeants-at-arms, the executive officers of the two Houses of Parliament and the High Court of Chancery. Malone quotes Silvester's Du Bartas: "And Death, drad Seriant of th' eternall Iudge." Cf. C. of E. iv. 2. 56, 61, iv. 3. 30, 40, and Hen. VIII. i. 1. 198.

329. Antique. For the accent, cf. ii. 2. 455 above, and see Macb. p. 234. Wr. quotes here A. and C. iv. 15. 87.

332. O God! The quartos have "O god Horatio," or "O God Horatio The folio has "Oh good Horatio," which is followed by many modern eds.

333. Live behind. St. quotes Much Ado, iii. I. IIC: "No glory lives behind the back of such." For live the quartos have "I leave;" and W. reads "leave."

335. Felicity. The joys of heaven (Delius).

341. O'er-crows.

"As a victorious cock crows over his defeated antagonist" (Jennens). Steevens quotes Chapman, Odyssey:

"and told his foe

It was not fair nor equal t' overcrow

The poorest guest;"

and Malone adds from the epistle prefixed to Nash's Pierce Pennilesse, 1593: "and overcrowe me with comparative terms."

345. Occurrents. Occurrences, incidents. Steevens quotes Drayton, Barons' Wars, i. 12: "As our occurrents happen in degree;" and Wr. adds from Holland's Pliny, xxv. 2: “This occurrent fell out in Lacetania." 346. Which have solicited. "Which have induced me to act as I have done" (M.). Cf. Rich. II. i. 2. 2.

The rest is silence. "To Hamlet silence would come as the most welcome and most gracious of friends, as relief to the action-wearied soul, freedom from conflicting motives, leisure for searching out all problems, release from the toil of finding words for thought; as the one sole language of immortality, the only true utterance of the infinite" (M.). 347. Cracks. Breaks. Cf. M. W. ii. 2. 301: "My heart is ready to crack;" K. John, v. 7. 52: "The tackle of my heart is crack'd;" Cor. v. 3.9: "with a crack'd heart," etc.

352. This quarry cries on havoc. "This heap of dead proclaims an indiscriminate slaughter" (W.). Quarry the game killed; as in Mach.

=

iv. 3. 206, etc. Johnson makes cries on exclaims against; but it is rather, as Schmidt gives it, cries out. Cf. Oth. v. 1. 48: "whose noise is this that cries on murther ?" For havoc, see F. C. p. 160.

353. Toward. See on i. 1. 77 above, and cf. A. and C. ii. 6. 75: "Four feasts are toward." For eternal, see on i. 5. 21 above.

360. His mouth. That is, the king's (Warb.). Theo. strangely re

ferred it to Hamlet.

363. Jump. See on i. 1. 65 above.

369. Carnal. Sensual (Schmidt); as in Oth. i. 3. 335. The allusion is to the murder of the elder Hamlet by Claudius previous to his incestuous union with Gertrude (Malone).

370. This line refers to Polonius, and the next to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, whose deaths were forced on Hamlet (Delius).

371. Put on. See on iv, 7. 130 above.

"In archery

372. Upshot. Conclusion, final issue. Cf. T. N. iv. 2. 76. the upshot was the final shot, which decided the match" (Wr.). For mistook, see Gr. 343.

374. Deliver. Report, relate. See on i. 2. 193 above.

377. Rights of memory. Rights which are remembered (Malone). 380. Will draw on more. Will be seconded by others (Theo.). 383. On. In consequence of (Gr. 180).

385. Put on. Put to the proof, tried (Caldecott).

386. Passage. Departure, death; as in iii. 3. 86 above.

391. "Hamlet has gained the haven for which he longed so often; yet without bringing guilt on himself by his death: no fear that his sleep should have bad dreams in it now. Those whom he loved, his mother, Laertes, Ophelia, have all died guiltless or forgiven. Late, and under the strong compulsion of approaching death, he has done, and well done, the inevitable task from which his gentle nature shrank. Why then any further thought, in the awful presence of death, of crimes, conspiracies, vengeance? Think that he has been slain in battle, like his Sea-King forefathers; and let the booming cannon be his mourners (M.).

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ADDENDUM.

THE "TIME-ANALYSIS" OF THE PLAY.-This is summed up by Mr. P. A. Daniel (Trans. of New Shaks. Soc. 1877–79, p. 214) as follows: "The time of the Play is seven days represented on the stage-or eight if the reader prefers to assign a separate day to the last scene-with two intervals.

Day 1. Act I. sc. i. to iii.

66 2. Act I. sc. iv. and v.

An interval of rather more than two months.

66 3. Act II. sc. i. and ii.

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