Page 298 - Hamlet: The Cambridge Dover Wilson Shakespeare

3.x. NOTES 191

57. i» the mind The words go with 'suffer.'
58. slings v. G.
59. take arms.. .troubles Herford notes:
To take up arms and rush upon the waves of the sea was
a custom attributed by several classical writers to the Celts.
Sh. prob. read of it in Fleming's trans, of iElian's Histories
(1576), bk. xii, where it is said that 'they throw themselves
into the fomey floudes with their swordes drawn in their
handes, and shaking their javelines as though they were of
force and violence to withstand the rough waves.'
But prob. Sh. means no more than 'troubles as many
as the waves of the sea.' Dowden cites 'sea of glory'
(Hen. Fill, 3. 2. 360), 'sea of joys' (Per. 5. 1. 194)
and' sea of care' (Luc. 1100), and notes that' take arms'
continues the metaphor from battle in 'slings and arrows.'
60-4. To die, to sleep...sleep Brandes (SAak.
p. 354) quotes a close parallel from Montaigne's sum-
mary of the Apology of Socrates (Florio, bk. iii, ch. 12):
'If it [i.e. death] be a consummation of ones being, it is
also an amendement and entrance into a long and quiet
life. Wee finde nothing so sweete in life, as a quiet rest
and gentle sleepe, and without dreames.' For other
possible sources of the Soliloquy v. Dowden's note on
'action' 1. 88.
63. heir to; 'tis This semi-colon, which gives a
different sense and rhythm to the speech from those
traditionally accepted by edd., marks the only pause
longer than a comma in Q 2 down to 'life:' (1. 69). For
the ease of the modern reader I have printed in place of
commas a period after 'them' (1. 60) and an exclamation
after' sleep' (1.64), a dash after' pause' (1.6 8), and a query
for a period at the end of 1. 82, while I have removed a
comma from the end of 1. 86. Apart from these changes,
the Q2 pointing has been left intact. MSH. p. 210.
67. coil — fuss, v. G., with a quibble upon 'coil'
(— a winding of rope), v. Introd. p. xxxiv.
69. of so long life=so long-lived.