Page 325 - Hamlet: The Cambridge Dover Wilson Shakespeare

ai8 NOTES 4.1.

4. Bestow.. .while F i omits, v. head-note. Qz
gives no exit.
7. Mad as the sea Obedient to Ham.'s implied
command at 3. 4. 186-88, the Queen insists upon his
madness for the rest of the play; cf. 5. 1. 278-82.
12-23. O heavy deed etc. The K. gently points out
her unwisdom in 'screening' Ham. after the Play-scene;
cf. note 3. 4. 2-4.
25-6. some ore.. .metals base = a vein of gold in a
mine of base metal, v. G ' ore.'
27. d weep The falsehood testifies to her fidelity.
Cf. Bradley, p. 104 n.
40. [so haply slander] (Capell,Theobald) Q2, F i
omit the half-line, so that we have no clue to what Sh.
wrote. MSH. p. 30.
41-4. Whose whisper... air F1 omits. MSH. p. 30.
44. the woundless air Cf. 1. 1. 145 'the air in-
vulnerable' and Temp. 3. 3. 63-4.

4. 2.
7. Tell us where 'tis etc. The tone is insolent, to 'the
son of a king.'
11-12. keep your counsel...own i.e. follow your
advice and not keep my own secret. A quibbling retort
to RQS.'S rudeness, v. G. 'counsel.'
12. replication A legal term = an answer to a charge
(v. N.E.D. 2).
15-20. that soaks up...dry again The notion of
sycophants and extortioners as a monarch's sponges,
which derives from Suetonius (Fespasian, c. 16), is a
commonplace of the time; v. Marston, Scourge of
Villainy (1599), vii. 58-60; Webster, Duch. o/Malfi,
3. 2. 249-51, etc. (v. Furness). Vespasian deliberately
bestowed high office upon rapacious persons 'so that the
common talk was he used them as sponges, letting them
soak when they were dry and squeezing them out again
when they were wet'