Page 327 - Hamlet: The Cambridge Dover Wilson Shakespeare

220 NOTES 4-3-

II. S.D. Qz 'Enter Rosencraus and all the rest.'
15. Ho... the lord (Q2) F i 'Hoa, Guildensterne?
Bring in my Lord/
S.D. £>2 'They enter/
19-34. Not where he eats.. .yourself An elaboration
of 'The body is with the king, but the king is not (yet)
with the body' at 4. 2. 26-7.
20. convocation of politic worms Prob. a glance at
the Diet of Worms (Singer); cf. 'emperor for diet.'
'Politic worms' is a pregnant phrase, 'politic' suggesting
craftiness and 'worm' an insidious prying into another's
secrets. Brandes {Will. Shak. p. 354) quotes Florio's
Montaigne, ii. 12 'The heart and life of a mighty and
triumphant Emperor, is but the break-fast of a Seely little
Worm.'
23-4. variable service = different courses, v. G.
25-=7. Alas.. .thatworm F1 omits. MSH. p. 23.
30. progress = state journey, v. G.
35-6. nose him.. .lobby Perhaps derived from the
Belleforest story in which the body of the spy, killed in
the Queen's closet, is cut up into pieces by Hamblet and
'then cast.. .into an open vaulte or privie, that so it mighte
serve for foode to the hogges' (Gollancz, Sources of
Hamlet, pp. 207, 229). The 'politic worms' play the
part of the 'hogges.'
45. Hamlet. For JSngland. (Q2) F1 adds a query,
and mod. edd. print an exclamation mark. But Ham.
is not surprised at 'this sudden sending him away'; he
accepts it as a matter of course (cf. 'Good'), which is
far more effective, and takes the K. aback.
47. / see a cherub etc. Cf. 3. 4. 202-209. The
Cherubim were the watchmen or sentinels of Heaven,
and therefore endowed with the keenest vision; cf. M.F.
5.1.63 'the young-eyed cherubins'; Macb. 1.7. 22-4;
Trail. 3. 2. 74-5; Par. Lost, iv. 778-80, xi. 128;
/ / Penseroso, 54 'The Cherub Contemplation'
(Verity).