Page 301 - Hamlet: The Cambridge Dover Wilson Shakespeare

194 NOTE S 3. i.

of 11. 117-19 and of 'Conception is a blessing' etc.
2. 2.184 £
125. proud, revengeful, ambitious No three adjectives
less appropriate to Ham. could be found; but they will
please Uncle Claudius and lead on to 3.2. 243 (note).
125-27. more offences.. .actthemin This sounds very
terrible, but considered carefully it amounts to nothing.
130—31. Where's your father? The question gives
her one last chance; she answers with a lie, as it would
seem to him, though she is of course only humouring
one whom she takes to be mad.
137-52. Ifthou dost marry.. .nunnery, go In these
last two speeches Oph. has become that Frailty whose
name is 'woman.' Ham. returns to emphasise his mad-
ness, and perhaps in hope of catching the eavesdroppers
emerging. The madness is not all put on; he is indulging
in one of his fits of passion, v. Introd. pp. lxii-lxv.
142. monsters i.e. horned cuckolds. Cf. Wint.x. 2.
123-28, and Oth. 4. 1. 63 'a horned man's a monster.'
145-48. / have heard.. .lisp v. Tilley (R.E.S. v.
pp. 312 ff.) for contemporary denunciations of face-
painting, etc. Stubbes, Anatomy of Abuses, treats the
matter at great length (v. ed. Sh. Soc. pp. 63-89); he
insists that such paintings 'adulterate the Lord his
woorkmanship' (p. 64), and writes 'it is a world to
consider their coynesse in gestures, their minsednes in
woords and speaches, their gingerlynes in trippinge on
toes like yong goats, their demure nicitie and babishnes'
(p. 78)—phrases very like Ham.'s.
148. you nickname (Q2) Most edd. follow Fi'and
nickname,' MSH. p. 264. Ham. seems to allude to
indecent names given to fruit and vegetables; Dowden
cites Rom. 2. I. 35-6 'that kind of fruit As maids call
medlars when they laugh alone.'
150-51. no mo marriage (Q2) F i 'no more Mar-
riages.' The abstract subs, is more in keeping with the
context, v. G. 'mo.'