Page 348 - Hamlet: The Cambridge Dover Wilson Shakespeare

5.i. N O T E S 241

PartiedesErreurs Populaires (Rouen, i6oo),'levinaigre
est la mort de la colere et la vie de la melancholie.' Cf.
also Son. 111. 10 'Potions (= doses) of Eysell gainst my
strong infection' and Bright, Melancholy, p. 30.
276. the burning zone v. G. 'burning zone;'
277. Make Ossa like a wart Ham.heaps'Ossa'upon
Laer.'s 'Pelion.'
278. This is mere madness etc. Gertrude pointedly
stresses the madness, but the symptoms she describes are
genuine enough. Cf. Introd. pp. kiii-lxiv.
285-86. Let Hercules.. .day Dowden paraphrases:
b
'Laertes must have his whine andhis ark... if Hercules
cannot silence dogs, much less I, who am little like that
hero (1. 2. 153).' I prefer: 'Bluster away, my young
Hercules: but poor Hamlet's turn will come' (Verity),
since Laertes with his thrasonical brag of o'er-topping
Pelion and Olympus is surely the Hercules of the situa-
tion. Hercules is reputed to have disliked dogs and flies,
which were not allowed within his temple at Rome.
N.E.D. ('day' 15) quotes Queen Elizabeth, as reported
by Strype, saying in 1550 'Notwithstanding, as a dog
hath a day, so I may perchance have time to declare it
in deeds,' which seems to come close to Ham.'s meaning;
cf. also Jonson, Tale of a Tub, 2. 1/4 'a man has his
hour and a dog his day.'
289. the present push i.e. the instant test (with a
quibble on 'push' = rapier-thrust), v, G. 'push.'
291. a living monument = an enduring memorial
(with a quibble on 'monument' = prodigioua event,
cf. Bhrezv, 3. 2. 93). The K. hints at Ham.'s death.

5.2.
S.D. For 'the hall' v. 1. 174.
1. So much.. .the other They enter in the midst
of a conversation, the beginning of which we do not
hear. Cf. 2. 2. 392-93 'You say right.. .then indeed.'