Page 319 - Hamlet: The Cambridge Dover Wilson Shakespeare

212 NOTE S 3.4.

it was my word (Q 2) F 1 ''twas my word.'
37. damnid custom Cf. 11. 161-70 below.
38. sense = feeling, sensibility. Cf. 11. 7 r-81 below.
40. Such an act etc. The 'act' is not named, but
what follows suggests that Ham. has both adultery and
incest in mind; cf. note 1.5. 42-57.
43. forehead Cf. 4. 5. 118-20. It was a common
idea that the character was written on the brow (cf. Ado,
3. 5.12 'honest as the skin between his brows,' Meas.
4. 2. 152-53), which is perhaps why malefactors and
harlots were branded on the forehead; hence 'blister'
(1. 44). For 'rose' v. G.
46-7. from the body.. .soul i.e. by desecrating the
most solemn type of agreement, that of marriage, it
reduces all human contractual relations to empty form.
The same thought is expressed in 'and sweet religion...
words.'
49-51.* Andthls.. .theact £>2'Orethis. • .theact,'
F i 'Yea this.. .masse With tristful visage.. .the act.'
Most edd. follow FI which may give us Sh.'s own emen-
dation; I attempt to restore his original text. Cf. note
I. 3.74and MSH. p. 327. The 'compound mass' Itake
to be the moon to which Ham. points (cf. note 1.4-68
and 3. 2. 378). He is referring to some contemporary
lunar eclipse; v. note T.I. 122-25, and cf. 'as against the
doom is thought-sick' with 'sick almost to doomsday
with eclipse' (1. I. 125).
53.* upon this... and on this LI. 5 8-9 indicate full-
length portraits, and in Der bestrafte Brudermord they
are referred to as in a 'gallery.' Cf. SLEng. ii. 11.
56. Hyperion's curls Cf. 1. 2. 140.
Jove himself Cf. 3. 2. 283.
59. New-lighted'.. .hill Malone suggests derivation
from Aen. iv. 246 ff., the description of Mercury
alighting upon Atlas, whence Par. Lost, v. 285-87 is
certainly drawn.
64-5. a mildewed ear... brother Blasting and mildew