Page 326 - Hamlet: The Cambridge Dover Wilson Shakespeare

4.2. NOTES 219

16. his authorities A hint that they were taking too
much upon them.
17. like an apple (Q2) F1 'like an Ape,' Qx 'as an
Ape doth nuttes.' £>2 gives perfectly good sense. Sh. is
thinking, not of apes, but of the groundlings gnawing or
sucking little pippins in the theatre; cf. Hen. Fill,
5. 4. 63-4. MSH. p. 72.
22-3. a knavish speech.. .foolish ear Cf. a similar
hit at 3. 2. 337. Ham. means, of course, that his speech
is foolish and Ros. knavish.
26-7. The body is with the king, etc. One of Ham.'s
riddling quibbles, like 'A little more than kin, etc.,'
intended prob. to set the audience guessing. I interpret:
the body, i.e. Polonius, is in the next world with the
king, my father, but the other king, my uncle, has not
yet joined him there. The reference to Ps. cxliv. 4
(v. next note) and the drift of Ham.'s remarks in 4. 3.
bear this out.
27-9. a thing... Of nothing Cf. Ps. cxliv. 4 (Prayer
Book) 'Man is like a thing v£ nought, his time passeth
away like a shadow.' Ham. at once insults the K. and
hints that his days are numbered, v. Introd. pp. xl-xli.
29-30. Hide fox... after The cry in some game
like 'hide and seek'; cf. 'the hid-fox' {Ado, 2. 3. 41),
and 'All hid, all hid, an old infant play' (L.L.L. 4. 3.
76). The 'fox' is Pol., and Ham. runs off the stage as he
speaks.

4-3-
S.D. Q2 'Enter King, and two or three.' The 'two
or three' are, I take it, the K.'s 'wisest friends' (4.1. 38).
4. distracted multitude = mobile vulgus, v. G.
'distracted.'
6. scourge i.e. punishment.
9. Deliberate pause The delay in calling Ham. to
account for Pol.'s murder must seem the result of policy,
not panic.