'warrantise.' Whalley suggests that there may be a reference to the coroner's warrant, directed to the minister and churchwardens of a parish and permitting the body of a person, who comes to an untimely end, to receive Christian burial.' This is supported by the conversation of the clowns at the beginning of the scene, but is scarcely consistent with what follows in the next line where 'great command' evidently refers to the influence of the king which had been exercised so as to interfere with the usual proceedings. The rubric before the Burial Office forbids it to be used for persons who have laid violent hands upon themselves.

220. crants, garland. The word in German is kranz, in other Teutonic dialects krants, krans, and crance, the latter being Lowland Scotch, and having cransis for plural. No other instance has been found of this word in English, but Shakespeare would scarcely have used it if it had been unintelligible to his audience. The editors of the folios changed it to 'rites.' It appears from Brand's Popular Antiquities, ii, p. 302, &c., that it was the custom in various parts of England to have a garland of flowers and sweet herbs carried before a maiden's coffin, and afterwards to suspend it in the church. Dr. Johnson affirms that it was in his time still the custom in rural parishes. See Atkinson's Cleveland Glossary, s. v. Arval.

221. strewments. A full account of the custom of strewing flowers on the corpse and on the grave is given in Brand, ii. 307, &c. Compare with lines 231-234 Romeo and Juliet, iv. 5. 79:

Dry up your tears and stick your rosemary
On this fair corse.'

And line 89 of the same scene:

And v. 3. 281:

Our bridal flowers serve for a buried corpse.'

'He came with flowers to strew his lady's grave.' See also Winter's Tale, iv. 4. 128, 129, and Cymbeline, iv. 2. 218, &c.

Ib. bringing home. In these words reference is still made to the marriage rites, which in the case of maidens are sadly parodied in the funeral rites. See Romeo and Juliet, iv. 5. 85, 86. As the bride was brought home to her husband's house with bell and wedding festivity, so the dead maiden is brought to her last home with bell and burial.'

226. peace-parted, a singularly-formed compound, of which there is no other example, for 'peacefully parted,' 'departed in peace.' A similar irregularity is found in the compound 'death-practised,' King Lear, iv. 6. 284.

234. have strew'd, an irregular construction for 'to have strew'd.' The folios have 't' have strew'd.'

236. ingenious, intelligent, keen in apprehension. Compare King Lear, iv. 6. 287:

'How stiff is my vile sense, That I stand up, and have ingenious feeling

Of my huge sorrows! Better I were distract:

So should my thoughts be sever'd from my griefs,
And woes by wrong imaginations lose

The knowledge of themselves.'

239. quick. See v. I. 120.

241. skyish, belonging to, or commingling with the sky.

244. wandering stars, the planets, of which Cotgrave says (s. v. 'Planette') 'they bee also called, Wandering starres, because they neuer keepe one certaine place or station in the firmament.' In Albumazar, i. 1, they are called 'wanderers':

'Your patron Mercury in his mysterious character
Hold all the marks of the other wanderers.'

250. splenitive. Shakespeare uses

spleeny,' Henry VIII, iii. 2. 99, and ' spleenful,' Titus Andronicus, ii. 3. 191, in the same sense. The spleen was supposed to be the seat of anger. Compare 1 Henry IV, v. 2. 19: A hare-brain'd Hotspur, govern'd by a spleen.'

252. wisdom. The quartos read 'wisdome,' the folios wisenesse,' or ་ wiseness.'

256. wag, move. The word had not the grotesque signification which it now has, and might be used without incongruity in the most serious passages. Compare iii. 4. 39, and Merchant of Venice, iv. 1. 76, where the verb is transitive. It is intransitive, as here, in Titus Andronicus, v. 2. 87: For well I wot the empress never wags But in her company there is a Moor.' 259. quantity. Compare iii. 4. 75, and note. that the word has a depreciatory meaning.

Here the context implies

263. 'Swounds. This profane oath is changed in the folios to Come.' See ii. 2. 355.

264. Woo't. The quartos and folios (except the imperfect quarto of 1603, which has 'Wilt') agree in reading 'Woo't,' a colloquialism, by which Hamlet marks his contempt for Laertes. In Antony and Cleopatra, iv. 2. 7, and iv. 15. 59, it indicates affectionate familiarity.

265. drink up, drink off. For instances of 'up' used as intensive, see As You Like It, ii. 1. 62:

To fright the animals and to kill them up.'

And King John, iv. 3. 133:

'Enough to stifle such a villain up.'

Ib. eisel, vinegar, from A. S. aisil. Compare Sonnet cxi. 10:

'I will drink

Potions of eisel against my strong infection.'

Hamlet challenges Laertes to perform any feat which is painful, repulsive, or as in the next clause, impossible. In a MS. Herbal in the Library of Trinity College, Cambridge (O. 1. 13), occurs 'Acetosum ance vynegre or aysel.'

It has been suggested by Mr. De Soyres in Notes and Queries (Aug. 10, 1872) that the reference here is to a Lake Esyl which figures in Scandinavian legends. He says, 'I have a distinct remembrance that in one of these mention was made of a Lake Esyl, and one of the impossible feats demanded of Thor by the giants was to drink this lake dry.' We consulted Mr. Magnússon on this point and he writes as follows: No such lake as Esyl is known to Norse mythology or folklore. Thor's only trial at drinking an impossible draught was at Útgarðaloki's, where he had to empty a horn the other end of which mouthed into the sea; in consequence he only achieved drinking the ocean down to the ebb mark.'

272. an, if, spelt always 'and' in the old editions.

276. golden couplets. The pigeon lays only two eggs at a time, and the newly hatched birds are covered with yellow down.

Ib. disclosed, hatched. Compare iii. 1. 165. Steevens quotes from 'The Book of Huntynge, Hawkyng, Fyshing, &c.,' an undated black-letter book: 'First they ben eges; and after they ben disclosed, haukes; and commonly goshaukes ben disclosed as sone as the coughes.' In Holme's Academy of Armoury, B. ii. c. II. p. 238, he says: 'Disclose, is when the young just peeps through the shell. It is also taken for laying, hatching, or bringing forth young as she disclosed three birds.' Warburton, for when that,' read 'e'er that,' followed by Johnson ('ere that '), because they thought that the patient tranquillity of the dove would be specially marked by sitting upon her yet unhatched eggs. But, according to Steevens, the dove, for three days after the hatching, 'never quits her nest except for a few moments in quest of a little food for herself; as all her young require in that early state is to be kept warm, an office which she never entrusts to the male.'

284. the present push, the instant test. For 'present' see Winter's Tale, i. 2, 281:

'I would not be a stander-by to hear

My sovereign mistress clouded so, without

My present vengeance taken.'

For 'push' in the sense of 'crisis,' 'critical moment,' see the same play, v. 3. 129:

'There's time enough for that;

Lest they desire upon this push to trouble
Your joys with like relation.'

And Macbeth, v. 3. 20:

This push

Will cheer me ever, or disseat me now,'

where it may either signify crisis,' or 'effort,' or 'assault.'

286. living, perhaps, is used by the speaker in a double sense, first, that of enduring,' as the Queen would understand it; secondly, Laertes would be cognisant of the deeper meaning, by which the life of Hamlet is menaced.

Scene II.

9. mutines, mutineers. Compare King John, ii. 1. 378: 'Do like the mutines of Jerusalem.'

For the verb to mutine' see this play, iii. 4. 83.

Ib. bilboes, stocks or fetters used on board ship, aud made of a bar of iron, with rings attached to it, in which the legs of the prisoners were placed. Steevens gives a figure of them as they are preserved in the Tower of London among the spoils of the Spanish Armada. The word is derived from Bilbao

or Bilboa in Spain, which was famous, as early as the time of Pliny, for the manufacture of iron and steel. For the same reason a sword-blade made there was called a 'bilbo.' See Merry Wives of Windsor, i. 1. 165; iii. 5. 112.

Ib. Rashly, hastily. What follows, to the end of Hamlet's speech, is parenthetical. Compare Richard III, iii. 5. 43:

'What, think you we are Turks or infidels?

Or that we would, against the form of law,
Proceed thus rashly to the villain's death?'

7. Tyrwhitt proposed to read:

'And prais'd be rashness, for it lets us know,' &c.

6

putting the passage And prais'd... certain' in a parenthesis. The folios put only the words 'And praised be rashness for it' in a parenthesis.

Ib. let us know, that is, recognise and acknowledge.

9. deep. So the quartos. The folios have 'dear.'

Ib. pall, grow vapid and tasteless, like wine: hence become vain and worthless. Compare Antony and Cleopatra, ii. 7. 88:

'I'll never follow thy pall'd fortunes more.'

Ib. learn. So the quartos. The folios have 'teach,' a sense in which 'learn' was frequently used; as e. g. Richard II, iv. 1. 120:

'True noblesse would

Learn him forbearance from so foul a wrong.'

II. Rough-hew. Florio gives: 'Abbozzare: to rough-hew or cast any first draught.' The metaphor is of course from carpenters' work. Dr. Farmer informed Steevens that a wool-man, butcher and dealer in skewers, lately observed to him that his nephew (an idle lad) could only assist him in making them; "he could rough-hew them, but I was obliged to shape their ends.” ' 13. sea-gown. Cotgrave says: 'Esclavine. . . a sea-gowne; or a course, high-collered, and short-sleeued gowne, reaching downe to the mid-leg, and vsed most by sea-men, and Saylors.'

Ib. scarf'd, thrown on like a scarf, i. e. without putting the arms through the sleeves. Compare Much Ado about Nothing, ii. 1. 197: About your neck, like an usurer's chain? or under your arm, like a lieutenant's scarf?'

14. find out them. 'Find out' is here used as if it were a compound verb. Compare Romeo and Juliet, iv. 2. 41, and Julius Cæsar, i. 3. 134:

The objective personal pronoun is frequently placed after, and not before, the preposition which belongs to the verb. See Abbott, § 240. Modern usage only admits this order where the pronoun is emphatic.

16, 17. making so bold... to unseal. Compare Merchant of Venice, iii. 3. 10:

'So fond

To come abroad.'

And Macbeth, ii. 3. 55:

I'll make so bold to call.'

The omission of as' is frequently found in similar passages.

17. unseal. The quartos here have 'unfold,' which is doubtless a misprint, the compositor's eye having caught the concluding letters of the previous line.

19. O royal knavery. So the folios, spelling 'oh.' The quartos have 'A royal knavery,' meaning perhaps, Ah, royal knavery.'

20. Larded. Compare iv. 5. 36.

Ib. reasons. So the quartos. The folios have 'reason.'

21. Importing. See i. 2. 23, and iv. 7. So. Here the word is used in a somewhat different sense, 'gravely affecting,' 'concerning.' Compare Love's Labour's Lost, iv. I. 57:

This letter is mistook; it importeth none here.'

22. bugs, bugbears, objects of terror. Compare Winter's Tale, iii. 2. 93: "The bug which you would fright me with I seek.' In Coverdale's translation of the Psalms (Ps. xc, or according to the present numbering xci. 5) we find: 'So yt thou shalt not nede to be afrayed for eny bugges by night ner for arrowe that flyeth by daye.' In Cotgrave Goblin' and Bug' are given as translations of the French Gobelin. Ib. in my life, in my continuing to live.

23. on the supervise, on the supervision, on the first reading. For substantives taking the form of the simple verb, see i. I. 57. The verb 'supervise' occurs in Love's Labour's Lost, iv. 2. 124: 'Let me supervise the canzonet.'

Ib. no leisure bated. The leisure is to be taken out of the interval of time between the receiving of the command and its execution. The execution must follow immediately without any exception of leisure.

24. stay, wait for. Compare Troilus and Cressida, i. I. 25: Nay, you must stay the cooling too.'

27. hear me how. So Antony and Cleopatra, v. I. 51: 'We'll hear him what he says.' And King Lear, i. I. 272: 'I know you what you are.'