Page 307 - Hamlet: The Cambridge Dover Wilson Shakespeare

200 NOTES 3.3.

(cf. 2. 2. 57) causes the Queen to hide her confusion by
turning away and joining in the conversation with the
K. and Pol.
127-28. let the devil.. .sables A quibble on the
two meanings of 'sable,' v. G.: (a) a suit trimmed with
expensive furs, brown in colour, worn by elderly
gentlemen to keep them warm; cf. 4. 7. 79 'settled age
his sables,' (J>) black mourning garment; cf. 1. 2. 242;
2. 2. 456. Dowden alone has noticed the connexion
between 'sables' and 'So long?' and paraphrases 'What
an age it is since my father died! I am quite an old
gentleman I' Black was, of course, the native colour of
the Devil.
127. the devil £)2 'the deule.' Cf. note I. 4. 36.
132. suffer not thinking on=be forgotten.
the hobby-horse v. G. Symbolical of the old May-
games, which the godly at this period were trying to
suppress all over England. To be remembered nowa-
days, says Ham., one must be a pious benefactor, for the
pious are becoming the only power in the land and are
sweeping away the harmless old pleasures. 'For O . . .
forgot' was a line from a popular ballad, as frequently
quoted and jested upon as the refrain of a music-hall
song to-day, partly no doubt because of the equivocal
meaning of 'hobby-horse' (cf. Oth. 4. 1. 100 and
L.L.L. G.).
133.* S.D. For the S.D. of the Dumb-show which
differs in Q2 and F l v. MSH. pp. 184, 359-60. I
follow Q2, supplying words from F r, where they seem
to have been omitted by the Q 2 compositor, and altering
the punctuation slightly.
Hamlet seems troubled etc. The apparent indifference
of the K. to the Dumb-show, which reproduces all the
particulars of his crime, although he rushes from the
room when the poisoning is repeated in the spoken play,
has long been a crux. My solution follows a hint from
Halliwell, who wrote: 'If the King had seen the dumb-