Page 343 - Hamlet: The Cambridge Dover Wilson Shakespeare

236 NOTES 3.x.

To paraphrase: is this the end of his fines, and the upshot
of his recoveries, to have his egregious head full of
unadulterated dirt? v. G. 'fine,' 'recovery.'
107-108. a pair of indentures.. .this box The box
is the skull, the top of which Ham. turns towards the
audience as he speaks, displaying its parchment-like
surface and its serrated sutures, strikingly similar to the
indented lines which divide 'a pair of indentures'
(v. G.) into its parts. For 'inheritor' v. G.
109. ha? = eh.i v. G.
114. assurance A further quibble, v. G.
117. O, a pit (Fi) Q2 'or a pit.' MSH. p. 325.
134. equivocation A reference to the Jesuit doctrine
of 'equivocation,' much discussed 1600—1601, owing
to the famous 'Archpriest Controversy.' v. Harrison,
Last Eliz. Journ. pp. n , 218-19. For 'by the card'
i
v. G. 'card.'
135. this three years (Q2) Dowden suggests an
allusion here 'to the great Poor Law.. .of 1601,'which
established 'the principle of taxation for the relief of the
poor... .The purses, if not the kibes, of needy courtiers
were galled by the assessments of the overseers.' This
seems likely. The act was actually passed late in 1597
(v. E. P. Cheyney, Hist, of Eng. 1588-1603, ii. 262,
270) and only re-enacted in i6or with slight changes,
which makes the 'Three years' precise if the passage
was written in 1600 or 1601.
have took note (Q2) Fi 'haue taken note.*
143-57. that very day that young Hamlet.. .thirty
years This, together with the insistence upon 'thirty'
years of married life for the Player King and Queen.
(v. note 3.2.15 3-5 8) and the precise reference to 'three
and twenty years' since Yorick's death (1.167), fixes the
age of Ham. in so pointed a fashion that as most agree
Sh. clearly attached importance to it; and yet this age
does not at all tally with the impression of youth and
inexperience which Ham. gives us at the opening of the