Page 362 - Hamlet: The Cambridge Dover Wilson Shakespeare

5.a. NOTES *55

270.* union v. G.
285.* fat, and scant of Breath Much discussed. The
argument that 'fat' refers to the corpulence (entirely
hypothetical) of Richard Burbadge, the actor who first
played Ham., really cuts the other way; for if Burbadge
in 1601 was getting over-stout for the part of a young
student, Sh. would hardly deliberately call attention to
the fact (cf. note 1. 2.129). I have little doubt that 'fat'
simply means 'sweaty,' an interpretation which suits the
double use of the handkerchief (11.2 86,292), and Ham.'s
reluctance to drink; cf. I Hen. IV, 2. 4. I 'come out of
that fat (= sweaty, or stuffy) room,' and 2 Hen. IF,
2. 4. 234-35 'how thou sweatest! come, let me wipe
thy face.' The trickling of sweat from the brows
into the eyes might seriously embarrass a swordsman.
J. C. Maxwell supplies me with an apt parallel from
a seventeenth-century romance, quoted in Sir Charles
Firth's Essays Historical and Literary, p. 158: "The
sweat of the Gyants browes ran into his eyes, and by
the reason that he was so extreame fatte he grew so
blinde that he could not see to endure combat with him
any longer."
293. My lord.. .not think't I do not know of any
l
comment upon these asides. I interpret: Laer. I intend
to finish it off now—King. I doubt whether you will be
able to get past his ward at all.' Ham. was doing very
well; he had won two bouts and was showing fine form}
what if Laer., in spite of holding the poisoned' sharp' in
his hand, found himself unable to wound Ham. with it
before he lost the match ? Another three wins for Ham.,
or two wins and a couple of draws, and it would be over.
297. make a wanton of me = trifle with me, v. G.
'wanton.'
299. Nothing neither way The third bout is a draw,
i.e. the opponents either score a simultaneous 'touch'—•
so slight as not to cause a scratch from Laer.'s ' sharp,' or
they catch each other's sword-points in the pas d'ane,
Q.H.-2O