Page 306 - Hamlet: The Cambridge Dover Wilson Shakespeare

3.2. N O T E S 199

93. have nothing zvith=can make nothing of. Cf.
2. 1. 65 'you have me, have you not?'
94. are not tnine=ha.vQ nothing to do with me.
96. i'th'university For playing at the universities v.
F. S. Boas, Univ. Drama in the Tudor Age.
99. What did you enact? Ham. is repeating some
garrulity of Pol. (cf. 'yousay' 1.96),and knows very well
the answer to his question; but it suits his book to refer
to the death of Caesar at this point: the K. may think him
a 'capon,' but there are precedents for the assassination
of tyrants.
101. Capitol The error (repeated in Jul. Caes.) as
to the place of Caesar's death is as old as Chaucer;
v. Monies Tale, 1.713.
104-105. stay upon your patience=zwa.it your per-
mission (to begin).
107-108. here's.. .attractive Ham. sits by Oph.
because she sits opposite the K. whom he must watch,
and being there under the eye of Pol. he passes the time
by playing the distraught lover. His first words seem to
lend strong support to Pol.'s theory and precipitate (as
I think) a whispered colloquy with the K.
no. ikall I lie in your lap? Ham.'s obscenity
would, he knew, be interpreted as the natural outbreak
of a madman crazed for love (cf. Oph.'s song 4. 5.57 ff.);
at the same time he enjoys insulting Woman in her
person. Cf. note 1. 251 and Introd. pp. Ivi-lix.
114. country matters Cf. 2. 2. 195 (note) and
Dowden I suspect.. .some indelicate suggestion in
'
"country." In Westward Hoe, 5.1.1 find: "Though we
lie all night out of the city, they [our husbands] shall not
find country wenches of us."'
116. a fair thought A quibble =• (a) a pretty trifle
(v. G. 'thought'), and (i) a modest idea.
119. Nothing Cf. Rom. 3. 3. 90; Cymb. 2. 5. 17.
124—25. look,,,two hours This'idle* reference to
'his father's death* and the 'o'er-hasty marriage'