Page 342 - Hamlet: The Cambridge Dover Wilson Shakespeare

5.i. NOTES 235

The original, which seems to us absurd enough in itself,
must have been very familiar to Sh.'s audience for them
to enjoy its perversion to the full.
63. To contract o'the time Q2 'To contract 6 the
time.' MSH. pp. 304-5. An echo of 'And tract of
'
time.' Some have taken the o' as a grunt of the digger
at work; Clar. is prob. right in explaining the a' in this
'
line and the next as 'the drawling notes in which he sings'
(cf. Wint. 4. 3. 121, 123, 'stile-a,' 'mile-a').
67-8. a property of easiness Most interpret'a pecu-
liarity that comes easy.' But N.E.D. glosses 'easiness'
as indifference, which would give 'a characteristic of
indifference,' and Ham.'s reply shows that this is the
sense intended. Bright, p. 78, speaking of the 'custom
of life in saylers, butchers and ploughmen,' declares that
their instruments of action through continuall practise of
such artes, maketh them in common sense, imagination, and
affection, to deliuer thinges vnto the minde after an impure
sort, alwayes sauouring of their ordinary trade of life.

77-8. Caitts jaw-bone.. .this ass Skeat (N. 5ff Q.
Aug. 21, 1880) showed that ace. to legend (mentioned
in Cursor Mundi, 1071-74) Cain 'did the first murder'
with the jaw-bone of an ass. Ham. implies that it is now
the ass's turn to 'o'er-reach' Cain, v. next note.
79. circumvent God Cain was the first 'politician';
he denied that he was his brother's keeper, and when
God asked him where Abel was he quibbled.
87. chop/ess (Q2) F 1'Chaplesse.'
90. with them (Q2) F 1 'with 'em.'
96-7. quiddities.. .quillities Q2 'quiddities...
quillites,' F 1 'Quiddits.. .Quillets.' MSH. p. 268.
101-103. his statutes.. .recoveries v. G. for these
terms, which suggest the sleights employed by the lawyer
to get his neighbours' land into his own possession. Cf.
Potter, Hist, of the Common Law, 1934, pp. 449-56.
103-105. is this the fine.. .dirt? A series of quibbles.
Q.H.-19