Page 318 - Hamlet: The Cambridge Dover Wilson Shakespeare

3.3. NOTES 2il

dinary Elizabethan; the quiet Kentish gentleman, Iden,
expresses very similar sentiments in 2 Hen. FI, 4. 10.
84-6, while they are scarcely more barbarous than
Ham.'s own words at 2.2. 582-83, or than what the K.
and Laer. say at 4. 7. 123-27. Ham., too, takes good
care that Ros. and Guild, shall be allowed no 'shriving-
time' (5. 2. 47).
88. hent A quibble; v. G.
(
89. drunk asleep, Fi) £>2 'drunlce, a sleepe,'
MSH. p. 206. i.e. dead drunk. Johnson read 'drunk-
asleep.'
96. This physic i.e. prayer; cf. 'purging' 1. 85.
97-8. My words etc. The K.'s prayer is closely
paralleled by Angelo's, Meas. 2. 4. 1-7.
98. never to heaven go Cf. 11: 74-8. After all,
J
there is no * relish of salvation' in the K. s prayer.
3-4-
2-4. Tell Mm... heat and hint A significant glimpse
of the council of war after the Play-scene and of the
Queen's part therein.
4. I'll silence me (£>2, Fi) Qi Tie shrowde my
selfe.' Hanmer and most mod. edd. read 'I'll sconce
me.' 'The "foolish prating knave" Pol. can be "most
still" only in death'; and the word 'silence' here 'may
have an ironical relation to the occasion of his death, his
h
loud "What, o!'" (Dowden). MSH. p. 292.
6. toar'nt F i 'warrant,' Q2 'waite.' Cf. note . 1 .
2
38 and MSH. pp. 107-108.
7. S.D. Polonius.. .arras and later SJD.'s atII. 23—
26 are derived from Rowe and Capell.
17. Nay then.. .speak This prob. leads Ham. to
suspect that the K. is eavesdropping again, a suspicion
easily conveyed on the stage by a significant glance
around.
30. As kill a king! 'The astonishment.. .is evi-
dently genuine' (Bradley, p. 166).