Page 414 - Hamlet: The Cambridge Dover Wilson Shakespeare

4.5. ADDITIONAL NOTES 3°7

123-24. There's such divinity.. .would Travers
quotes from Chettle's England's Mourning Garment,
1603, a description of Q. Eliz.'s bearing after an attempt
upon her life: 'Such majesty had her presence, and such
boldness her heart, that she despised all fear, and was,
as all princes are or should be, so full of divine fullness
that guilty mortality durst not behold her but with
dazzled eyes.'
154.. 0, heat etc. 'Obviously all this is to be taken as
uttered under the first shock of finding her mad... .No
"buzzer," it seems, had even told Laertes of Oph.'s con-
dition' (Travers). A good instance of Sh.'s dramatic
legerdemain: no questions arise in the theatre.
199. And of.. .souls A rev. in Notes and Qjeries,
Dec. 22,1934, suggests that Oph. here refers to 'the end
of the Catholic formula,' viz. 'Of your charity pray for
the repose... on whose soul and on all Christian souls
may the Lord have mercy.'

4.6.
Travers writes:
A scene to which justice has not always been done.
Even its ' sea-faring man,' however briefly sketched and on
merely typical lines, makes, for the moment, a breezy change.
As to the news, why not accept them in the spirit that Sh.
would expect from his audience: appreciation of their
exciting nature, of the intricate opportuneness of the affair
with the 'thieves of mercy,' of hero's valiancy and re-
sourcefulness, of his epistolary style too, as sharp as any
rapier?
4.7.
43-7. High and mighty etc. Travers insists on the
ironical solemnity of this letter; cf. also What happens in
Hamlet, p. 267.
56 diest (F. A. Marshall conj.) Q2 'didst', F
'diddest', Qi 'thus he diest'. See W. W. Greg in
T.L.S. June 28, 1957.