Page 363 - Hamlet: The Cambridge Dover Wilson Shakespeare

NOTES 5.2.

that is the hooks on the hilts of their daggers (cf. note
1. 300 S.D.), and so 'lock.' The doubt, expressed by
the K. in 1.293, now troubles Laer.; he has ' passed with
his best violence' without result. Something must be
done.
300. Have at you now! At the end of the bout, one
of the judges, as was the custom, extends a rapier or staff
between the fencers, to show that they must break off.
Ham. does so; but Laer.—so I understand Sh.'s inten-
tion—seizes the opportunity for a treacherous attack,
shouting 'Have at you now!' as he lunges. Thus, I am
told by fencers who remember Irving's performance at
the Lyceum in 1878, the scene was played under the
direction of Alfred Hutton, the well-known and learned
fencer. The line, however, is omitted in his acting
version.
S.D. Q2omits(v.MSH.p. 185). F i * In scuffling
they change Rapiers'; Qi 'They catch one anothers
Rapiers, and both are wounded, Leartes falles downe,
the Queene falles downe and dies.' The Q1 S.D., as
often, tells us more than the other texts, though here not
enough. Di Grassi (TrueArte, sig. Bb. 1 verso) describes
how in rapier-and-dagger play one may jerk the sword
out of an opponent's hand by using one's own sword as
a lever and striking his sword sharply with the dagger in
the left hand. This, I at first thought, was how Ham.
forced the poisoned weapon from Laer.'s grasp to the
ground; and Burbadge's execution of such a trick would
prob. win applause. Laer., I supposed, then replied
by seizing Ham.'s sword with his empty right hand and
wresting it from him, while parrying his dagger-thrust
with the dagger in his left. Whereupon Ham. in his turn
pounced upon the sword on the floor; and so the
exchange was effected. Cf. Silver (Introd. pp. xvi—xx).
Mr Evan John, however, in T.L.S. Jan. 25, 1934,
offers a better, because more dramatic, alternative, viz.
that Ham. enraged at the wound throws down his own