Page 357 - Hamlet: The Cambridge Dover Wilson Shakespeare

250 N O T E S 5.8.
prick with a pinne, let us presently ruminate and say with our
selves, what if it were death itself? and thereupon let us take
heart of grace, and call our wits together to confront her....
It is uncertain where death looks for us; let us expect her
everie where.... I am ever prepared about that which I may
be... .A man should ever, as much as in him lieth, be ready
booted to take his journey, and above all things, looke he
have then nothing to doe but with himselfe.... For why
should we feare to lose a thing, which being lost, cannot be
moaned?.. .what matter is it when it cometh, since it is
unavoidable ?
220-22. Since no man.. Jet be £)2 'since no man
of ought he leaues, knowes what ist to leaue betimes, let
be'; Fi 'since no man ha's ought of what he leaues.
What is'tto leaue betimes?' MSH. pp. 214-15. Most
edd. follow F1 but add 'Let be' from Q2 as a separate
sentence. No one has ever yet tried to make sense of Q 2
as it stands. o paraphrase: since no one can tell from
T
anything on earth ('of aught he leaves') what is the
right moment to die (v. G. 'betimes'), why trouble
about it?
222. S.D.* Q2'A table prepard, Trumpets, Drums
and officers with Cushions, King, Queene, and all the
state, Foiles, daggers, and Laertes.' Fi 'Enter King,
Queene, Laertes and Lords, with other Attendants with
Foyles, and Gauntlets, a Table and Flagons of Wine
on it.' Eliz. actors were expert swordsmen and a stage-
duel or fence was for many spectators the chief feature
of the play in which it occurred. It is important, there-
fore, to try and understand here Sh.'s intentions in
particular, together with Eliz. practice in general. The
difference between 'Foiles, daggers' (Q2) and 'Foyles
(
and Gauntlets' Fi) points to a change of fashion in
fence between 1601 and 1623, when F i was printed.
It is clear from 11. 148, 152, above that Sh. intended the
daggers, which at the end of the 16th and the beg. of
the 17th c. were held in the left hand and used to ward
off the opponent's thrust with his rapier, the while one