Page 401 - Hamlet: The Cambridge Dover Wilson Shakespeare

*94 CORRECTIONS AN D i. i.

to Queen Bess... .In 1593 he had married a Guilden-
stern and was accompanied to London by his wife's
brother, a Guildenstern. These two men were both
graduates of Wittenberg University and described as
dashing and accomplished men of the world.'

1.1 .
36. yon same star etc. Schiicking (Der Sinn des
Hamlet, p. 45) notes that Barnardo's words draw the
audience's attention to the spot at which the Ghost will
appear.
143-46. We do it wrong.. .mockery Cf. Temp.
3. 3. 61—6 and Lavater, p. 214:
Some others, when spirits appeare vnto them, will by and
by set on them, and driue them away with naked swords.. •
not considering with themselues, that spirites are nothing
hurte with weapons.
1.2.
9. imperial jointress = royal widow who retains the
jointure or life interest in the crown. An expression
which points to the legal quibble by which Claudius
'popped in between th'election' and Hamlet's 'hopes.'
66. you not 'thee'; contrast 1. 45 (Travers).
82. shapes A theat. term = 'make-up and costume
suited to a particular part' (N.E.D. 8, quoting Dekker
and Massinger). This adds a new touch of bitterness to
the speech; cf. 'actions that a man might play' (1. 84).
125. No jocund health etc. Cf. add. note 1. 4. 8-9
below.
129. too too sullied (end of note) Cf. 3. 3.46 'white
as snow,' Isaiah v. 18 'though your sins be as scarlet,
they shall be white as snow,' and Psalm li. 7. Dr A. F.
Titley suggests (privately) that there was nothing
'absurd'in the idea of flesh melting into 'dew, 'inasmuch
as ace. to the physiology of the time the human body was
mostly composed of the element water. Cf. Dr Faustus,
5. 2. 163-65, 187-90; Macb. 1. 3. 80.