Page 41 - Hamlet: The Cambridge Dover Wilson Shakespeare

xxxlv H A M L E T

grew weary in well-doing, and if they drew blank in the
Dictionary under a substantive they might neglect to look
for clues under the verb. Even Dowden, whose notes
are richer than those of any previous editor, after rightly
glossing 'mortal coil' at 3. 1. 67 as 'trouble or turmoil
of mortal life,' continues

'In this sense "coil" occurs several times in Shakespeare,
as in Tempest, 1. 2. 207. He nowhere uses it in the sense of
concentric rings, nor does The New English Dictionary
give an example earlier than 1627. The notion that
"mortal coil" means the body, encircling the soul, may be
set aside.'
3
Had he been inspired to turn from coil sW to 'coil z> '
he would have found, quoted from Cotgravc's French
Dictionary of 1611, 'to coil a cable, to wind or lay it up
round or in a ring' under the very first heading, while
3
J
above the heading stands a note: 'Goes with "coil ^ "
[to which the example from 1627 belongs], neither
being as yet traced beyond 1611, though as nautical,
1
words they were no doubt in spoken use much earlier .'
We need not hesitate, therefore, to credit Shakespeare
with the quibble upon 'coil, a winding of rope,' or
Hamlet with the notion of the body as a troublesome
2
entanglement which the soul 'shuffles off* at death .

1
That Dowden consulted the N.E.D. fitfully and care-
lessly is shown by his note upon 'comma' (5.2.42) in which
he quotes from it under 'comma' 1 and yet misses the true
explanation staring him in the face which it offers under
'comma' zc.
2
'shuffle off' means 'shirk' or 'evade' (cf. Tin. Nt.
3. 3.16); its modern sense of disencumbering oneself hastily
of some garment or wrap is derived from Hamlet. The
original meaning of 'shuffle' is to 'shuffle with the feet' as
one walks, and the image in Shakespeare's mind was, I think,
that of the soul standing erect and freeing itself from the
lifeless body which has fallen to the ground like a divested
garment.