Page 317 - Hamlet: The Cambridge Dover Wilson Shakespeare

210 NOTES 3-3-

can be amended retains his offence. The King kept the
crown from the right heir' (Dr Johnson). Cf. In trod.
p. liii.
58. gilded= furnished with bribes.
shove by — thrust aside.
61-2. the action.. .true nature = the deed is seen in
its true colours. A quibble on the legal terms 'action,'
'lie,' v. G. 'lie.'
68-9. 0 limidsoul.. .engaged Bond (i. 173) quotes
Euphues, 'Like the bird in the limebush which the more
she striueth to get out, ye faster she sticketh in.'
73. a' is a-praying (Q2) F i 'he is praying.' MSH.
p. 231. The familiar 'a" adds a significant touch of
contempt to Ham.'s words.
75. would be scanned = 'calls for scrutiny' (Her-
ford).
scanned; Qz 'scand.'
79. Why, this (Q2) F 1 'Oh this.'
bait and salary Q2 'base and silly,' F i 'hyre and
Sallery.' Again I emend Q2 (assuming the sp. 'bate')
rather than adopt a word of quite different graphical
formation from F1; v. MSH. pp. 325-6 for discussion.
'Bait' = refreshment on a journey (in the K.'s case, to
the next world); cf. Nashe (McKerrow's ed. ii. 222)
'gone to heauen without a bait,' i.e. without the last
sacrament. It anticipates 'grossly, full of bread' in the
next line, as 'salary' anticipates 'audit' in 1. 82.
80.* grossly, full of bread (F 1) Q 2 omits comma.
Cf. note 1. 5. 11.
81. broad blown v. G. 'blown' and cf. 1. 5. 76
'in the blossoms of my sin.'
83. in our circumstance... thought i.e. as all evidence
and speculation shows; cf. G. 'circumstance' and
2. 2. 157.
88-95.* Up, sword.. .it goes Johnson and others
have found these lines 'too horrible to be read or
to be uttered.' They would not have shocked an or-