Page 295 - Hamlet: The Cambridge Dover Wilson Shakespeare

i8S NOTES 2. a.

566. cleave the general ear Cf. 3. 2.10 'split the ears
of the groundlings.'
567. Make mad.. .free An exact description of what
Ham. effects in the play-scene. It leads on to 11. 592-98.
free <=> innocent.
569. yet I 579. Ha Johnson and most mod. edd.
print these as separate lines; I follow Q2 and Fi .
MSH. p. 222.
573. property Cf. 1. 5. 75 'of crown, of queen.'
580. pigeon-livered v.G. Cf. BartholomewAnglicus,
quoted in Robert Steele, Mediaeval Lore, p. 79, 'by the
gall we are wroth.'
580-83. lack gall...offal Cf. Chapman, Bussy,
2.1.3-5:
Less than either
Will make the gall of Envy overflow;
She feeds on outcast entrails like a kite.
The conjunction of'gall,' 'kite' and 'offal' or 'outcast
entrails' seems to make borrowing certain on one side
or the other. Bussy was being acted c. 1600—1604.
v. Chambers, EHz. Stage, iii. 253.
582. ha'fatted Qz 'a fatted'
584.. Undless = incestuous, v. G.
587. a dear father (Q4) £>2 'a deere,' F i 'the
Deere' MSH. pp. 301-2. The coincidence of Q2 and
F1 suggests that Sh. himself may have omitted the word
'father.'
588. Prompted. ..by heaven and hell Cf. 11.602-607
below, and Introd. pp. 1-liii.
591. A stallion.. .foh! Q2 prints this with 1. 590.
stallion Qz 'stallyon,' Fi 'Scullion'—which edd.
follow. Qi 'scalion' MSH. p. 71. With 'whore' and
'drab' in the context, 'stallion' (=courtesan or male
whore) is- undoubtedly the word Sh. intended, v. G.
592. ^0«/=Bestir! set. about it! brains (Q2) F 1
•Braine.'
593-96. guilty creatures sitting at a play etc.