Page 404 - Hamlet: The Cambridge Dover Wilson Shakespeare

i.5. ADDITIONAL NOTES 297

Ham. 'would have wished to die fasting, with body, as
well as mind, prepared for Judgment.' Perhaps this
'disappointed' condition of body is sufficient to account
for the purgatorial fast in fires.
42-91. Ay, that.. .remember me Ham.'s silence
during this long speech is noteworthy. ' Until the Ghost
began to speak of Gertrude's sins, he was full of energy,
constantly interrupting and quick to respond to his
father's every utterance. Now, however, he is too over-
come to speak a single word' (Adams, p. 215).
62. hebona Cf. TheTroublesome Reign ofKing John,
1, iii, 3 :
Morpheus, leaue here thy silent Ebon caue.

70. The thin and wholesome blood 'Melancholy
blood is thicke and grosse,' Bright, p. 270.
n o . Word Cf. Nashe ( Works, ed. R. B. McKerrow,
iii. p. 30,1. 20): 'resoluing to take vp for the Word or
Motto of my patience, Perdere posse sat est,' and Mars-
ton, Antonio's Revenge, 1.3. (ed. H. H. Harvey, i. jj):
'He carrie for my deuice my grandfathers great stone
hors, flinging vp his head, and ierking out his left legge.
The word: Wighy Purt.'
147. Upon my sword Cf. Span. Trag. 11. i. 87-93:
Lorenzo Sweare on this crosse that what thou saiest is true
And that thou wilt conceale what thou hast tolde—
whereupon Pedringano takes an oath upon his sword.
151. cellarage This reference to the space under the
stage is at once topical and metaphorical, since the
cellarage was commonly called 'hell,' a name derived
from the miracle plays. Cf. Travers, note 1. 5. 6 and
Chambers, Eliz. Stage, ii. 528, n. 3, quoting Dekker,
News from Hell (1606, Works, ii. 92, 139):

Marry the question is, in which of the Play-houses he
[the Devil] would haue performed his prize.. . Hell being
vnder euerie one of their Stages, the Players (if they had owed
him a spight) might with a false Trappe doore haue slipt