161 ff. That monster, custom, who devours all sensibility (i. e., sensitiveness to moral distinctions), devil though he be with reference to bad habits, is yet an angel in this, that, etc. That is, custom makes habits automatic (a very modern way of saying "all sense doth eat"), but the same power of custom that fixes evil habits may fix good ones too.

169. And either. the devil. The verb has dropped out in the early texts. The master of the Fourth Quarto is perhaps as good a word as any of those that have been suggested.

171-72. When the Queen is penitent enough to pray for blessing, she will then be fit to grant to Hamlet the blessing which he cannot now ask.

183. Mouse: a pet name. Cf. Love's Labour's Lost, V, ii, 19: "What's your dark meaning, mouse?"; Twelfth Night, I, v, 69: "Good my mouse of virtue, answer me."

188 ff. Hamlet cannot repress his bitter irony. 190. Paddock . . gib: toad

tom-cat. The three

animals named were the familiars of witches, which gives a sinister turn to Hamlet's taunt.

194. The famous ape. The allusion is to a story that is lost. Conclusions experiments.

197. If words be made of breath. Cf. III, i, 98.

200. I must to England. How had Hamlet learned this? Cf. III, i, 177; III, iii, 4, for the other references to the plan. 206. To have the enginer Hoist with his own petar: to have the one who lays the mine blown up with his own bomb. 210. Two crafts. There is probably a play on the two meanings of the word-ship, and cunning.

206-10. Has Hamlet a definite plan laid, or is he merely counting on his own skill in a contest of wits?

211. This man: Polonius. Set me packing: set me lugging him away; probably with the added idea: send me off in a hurry (i. e., cause my flight).

212. Guts. This word was less offensive in Shakespeare's time than now.

213-16. Is there any indication that Hamlet thinks of Polonius as Ophelia's father?

ACT IV. SCENE I.

The first three scenes of Act IV immediately follow the last scene of Act III, and form with it a single group. There seems to be no good reason why the division between the two acts should come just where it does, and it has been frequently suggested that Act IV should really begin with what is now its fourth scene-an arrangement which has much to be said in its favor (see also introductory note to Scene IV). At all events, the first three scenes still have to do directly with the death of Polonius, and lead up to the full disclosure (at the end of Scene III) of the King's plan.

9. Hearing something stir. Why does Gertrude thus garble her account?

II. Brainish: a rare word, variously defined as brainsick; headstrong, passionate; imaginary, unfounded on fact.

16. Hamlet, of course, has played directly into the King's hands.

19-23. If Gertrude had known that Claudius had murdered her husband, is it likely that he would have found it necessary to dissemble as he does here?

25. Ore: a precious metal (used chiefly of gold). Mineral (line 26) is a mine.

27. He weeps for what is done. Is Gertrude telling the truth? What motive underlies her statement?

31. All our majesty: all the weight and authority of our office.

40. Some words have dropped out at the end of the line. Capell, following a suggestion of Theobald, read: "So, haply, slander," and this reading has been adopted by many modern editors. Lines 41-44 ("whose . air") are not in the Folios.

42. Blank: the white spot in the center of a target, the bull's-eye.

44. Woundless: invulnerable. Cf. "the viewless winds" (Measure for Measure, III, i, 124); “the sightless couriers of the air" (Macbeth, I, vii, 23).

29. There thou say'st. Cf. modern slang, "Now you're talking."

32. Even Christian: fellow Christian.

44. Confess thyself. The first gravedigger was going on with the rest of the proverb, "and be hanged."

59. Unyoke: that is: after such an effort, you may rest. 68. Yaughan: probably the name of an ale-house. Various words of which it may be a corruption have been suggested. 69 ff. The clown is singing a humorously garbled version of an actual song, attributed to Lord Vaux, and printed in Tottel's Miscellany. See the Variorum for the real text, which is worth looking up and comparing. The "O's" and "Ah's " merely represent the exertion of digging. 75-76.

is easy.

A property of easiness: a characteristic that now

85. Cain's jaw-bone, that: the jaw-bone of Cain, who. According to an old tradition Cain slew Abel with the jawbone of an ass, and the reference may be to that. Cain's own jaw-bone, however, may, of course, be meant.

86. Politician: plotter, schemer. The word has usually a bad sense in Shakespeare.

100. Loggats: a game in which little logs (loggats) of apple-wood are thrown at the jack, a wooden wheel placed on an ash-strewn floor.

III-121. The legal terms which Hamlet uses scarcely need exact definition here. It is worth noting that, according to good authorities, they are used with a clear sense of their

meaning.

115. The fine of his fines. The first fine is "end"; the second is a technical legal term. No two of the four fine's

have the same meaning.

"Indentures were agreements

119. A pair of indentures. made out in duplicate, of which each party kept one. Both were written on the same sheet of paper, or parchment, which was cut in two in a crooked or indented line (whence the name), in order that the fitting of the two parts might prove the genuineness of both in case of dispute" (Clarendon Press). 126. In that: i. e., in such parchments. 131-33. Thine

you.

Observe the use of pronouns throughout this dialogue between Hamlet and the clown.

45. Fiery quickness. Cf. "hot haste." 46. The wind at help. Cf. I, iii, 2-3. 47. Tend: wait. Cf. I, iii, 83.

56. At foot: at his heels.

61. Thereof may give thee sense: may make thee cognizant of it.

63. Free awe. Opposed to awe that is the result of compulsion.

64. Set: value, esteem. Cf. I, iv, 65.

66. Congruing: agreeing. This is the reading of the Quartos. The Folios have conjuring. Cf. Hamlet's description of the letter in V, ii, 38.

ACT IV. SCENE IV.

Scene IV is transitional between the death of Polonius and the working out of its results in the plot against Hamlet's life, in the madness and death of Ophelia, and in the return of Laertes to avenge his father's murder. From this point on it is Hamlet's life rather than the King's that is under direct and constant menace. But just as the sight of the player enacting Hecuba stirred Hamlet to fresh resolution when aggressive action was still possible, so now, after command of the situation has slipped through his hands, the sight of the army of Fortinbras kindles a new resolve to act.

Sufficient time must have elapsed between Scenes III and IV for Claudius's permission to Fortinbras to pass through Danish territory (see line 2, and cf. II, ii, 76-82) to reach him. And the request for this license was presented to Claudius only the day before the death of Polonius (see introductory note to Act II, Scene I). Some days, at least, must accordingly have intervened. This is (strictly speaking) inconsistent with the fact that Hamlet leaves for England the very night of Polonius's murder (IV, i, 29-30; IV, iii, 46-48, 55-57), and there is nothing to indicate that the port was distant from Elsinore (cf. I, iii, 1, 55-57). But it must be remembered that Shakespeare is writing a drama (with the attendant necessity of producing certain illusions as to time in the mind of his audience), not

Ah, lean upon it lightly! for who knows

From what once lovely Lip it springs unseen!

And cf. Tennyson's In Memoriam, xviii.

276. Pelion. Pelion and Ossa were two famous mountains in Thessaly. According to Greek mythology, when the Titans tried to dethrone the gods, they piled Ossa (see line 306) on Pelion, in order to scale the sky. Olympus (line 277) was another mountain, between Thessaly and Macedonia, which was regarded as the home of the gods.

279. The wandering stars: the planets (look up the etymology of planet).

287. Contrast the implications of the King's and the Queen's outcries.

290. Wag: move. The word had not in Shakespeare's day its present rather undignified associations.

292-94. There is no reason to doubt the immediate sincerity of Hamlet's words. He had, we may believe, loved Ophelia, but the bitterness and suspicion awakened by his mother's sin, and his own intense preoccupation with the revelation of the Ghost seem to have dulled, if not quite deadened it. The powerful revulsion of feeling caused by the sudden disclosure of Ophelia's tragic death brings back, with overwhelming force, the realization of his love-and of his

loss.

298-99. Woo't: wilt thou-a colloquial form.

299. Eisel. The Folios have Esile; the First Quarto, vessels; the Second, Esill, and only the "dram of eale" passage (I, iv, 36) has occasioned more discussion. The mass of interpretations may be reduced to two: (1) that the word is a misprint for the name of some river; or, (2) that it stands for the word in the present text, meaning vinegar. The latter is on the whole the more probable explanation; cf. Sonnet CXI, 9-10: "I will drink Potions of eisel 'gainst my strong infection," and note that eisel is used a number of times (see Oxford Dictionary) as one of the constituents of the bitter drink offered to Christ on the cross. To "drink up" did not necessarily mean to exhaust by drinking, but to quaff. For a summary of the numerous and interesting suggestions that have been made, see the Variorum note. It must be remembered that Hamlet is naming (and adding to) the extravagant feats demanded by convention of