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He never gave commandment for their death.
But since, so jump upon this bloody question,
You from the Polack wars, and you from England,
Are here arriv'd, give order that these bodies
High on a stage be placed to the view;
And let me speak to the yet unknowing world
How these things came about: so shall you hear
Of carnal, bloody, and unnatural acts,
Of accidental judgments, casual slaughters;
Of deaths put on by cunning and forc'd cause,
And, in this upshot, purposes mistook
Fall'n on the inventors' heads; all this can I
Truly deliver.

Fort.

Let us haste to hear it,

And call the noblest to the audience.

For me, with sorrow I embrace my fortune;
I have some rights of memory in this kingdom,
Which now to claim my vantage doth invite me.

392

396

400

404

Hor. Of that I shall have also cause to speak, And from his mouth whose voice will draw on more: But let this same be presently perform'd,

Even while men's minds are wild, lest more mis

chance

On plots and errors happen.

Fort.

Let four captains

Bear Hamlet, like a soldier, to the stage;
For he was likely, had he been put on,

408

To have prov'd most royally: and, for his pas

sage,

The soldiers' music and the rites of war
Speak loudly for him.

392 stage: platform 397 forc'd: unreal

412

396 casual: unpremeditated 403 rights of memory: ancient claims

406 draw on more: be seconded by others 411 been put on: been put to the proof, tried

Take up the bodies: such a sight as this
Becomes the field, but here shows much amiss.
Go, bid the soldiers shoot.

417

Exeunt marching, after the which, a peal of ordnance are shot off.

Dramatis Personæ.

NOTES

A list of characters was first

given in the Quarto of 1676, although it is commonly stated that Rowe's edition of 1709 contained the first list.

I. i. 3. Long ... king! The pass-word or reply to the sentry's challenge.

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I. i. 15. Friends Dane. Probably the officers' pass-word.

I. i. 19. piece. A humorous expression equivalent to 'something like him,' or possibly Horatio means to imply that, because of his skepticism, he is with them in bodily form but not in intellectual sympathy. (Chambers.)

I. i. 37. his. Regularly used for 'its.' The latter form had not yet come into common use.

I. i. 42. scholar. Exorcisms of evil spirits were performed in Latin and hence by scholars.

I. i. 45. It . . . to. It was believed that a ghost could not speak until spoken to.

I. i. 63. sledded Polacks. Various suggestions have been made concerning the meaning of these words for the reason that the second Quarto and first Folio have 'sleaded (F1 sledded) pollax' which conceivably could mean a poleaxe weighted with a sledge or hammer at the back. When, however, later references in the play to Polacks are taken into consideration, the meaning given in the gloss seems the more probable. I. i. 70. Good now. Interjectional expression denoting entreaty.

I. i. 87. law and heraldry. The forms of both the common law and the law of arms having been duly

observed. The latter would give the compact binding force in honor. Nobles who signed binding agree

ments were wont to have their coats of arms added to their signatures.

I. i. 96. unimproved. Other conjectures are: 'not turned to account,' 'untutored,' 'undisciplined.'

I. i. 98. list. Literally, a special catalogue of the soldiers of a force; here used in the sense of an indiscriminately chosen crowd.

I. i. 99. For ... diet. For no pay but their keep. (Moberly.) Perhaps, however, the meaning is 'as food and diet to keep the enterprise going.'

I. i. 100. stomach. I.e., gives an opportunity for courage. With a quibble on the literal meaning.

I. i. 117. As . . . blood. The abruptness of the transition in the sense has led some commentators to believe either (1) that there is a line missing, or (2) that 11. 121-125 should be inserted between 11. 116 and 117. Attempts have also been made to emend the text by adding a conjectural line.

I. i. 118. Disasters. In North's Plutarch, Julius Cæsar, whence Shakespeare drew his account of the strange omens preceding Cæsar's assassination, the sun was said to be darkened.

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I. i. 120. sick .. doomsday. A reference to the Biblical account of the events to occur at the second coming of the Son of Man. Cf. Matthew 24. 29 and Revelation 6. 12.

I. i. 125. climatures. Possibly used for those who live under the same climate. (Clarendon.)

I. i. 127. cross. The usual interpretation has been to accept this as meaning crossing the spot where an apparition had appeared, and thus subjecting Horatio, according to traditional ghost-lore, to the spectre's malignant influence. This explanation is rejected by Onions, who gives the reading of the gloss.

I. i. 136. uphoarded. If while alive a person

had hidden gold and placed it under a charm, it was necessary, for his soul's quiet, to release it from the spell. (Illustrated by Steevens from Dekker's Knight's Conjuring.)

I. i. 140. partisan. A long-handled spear with a blade having one or more lateral cutting projections. I. i. 150, cock. It was a tradition that at cockcrow spirits returned to their confines.

I. i. 162. planets strike. The malignant aspects of planets, according to the pseudo-science of astrology, were supposed to be able to injure incautious travellers by night.

...

I. ii. 65. kin . . . kind. I.e., more than his actual kinship and less than a natural relation. 'Kind' is here used equivocally for 'natural' and also for 'affectionate.' A proverbial expression occurring elsewhere in Elizabethan literature.

I. ii. 67. i' the sun. Probably Hamlet means he is too much in the unwelcome sunshine of the King's favor. The reply is purposely enigmatical. There is a quibble on 'sun' and 'son.'

I. ii. 113. Wittenberg. A famous German university, founded in 1502.

I. ii. 140. Hyperion. The Titanic sun god, but here used for Apollo.

I. ii. 149. Niobe. A daughter of Tantalus, who boasted that she had more sons and daughters than Leto. Consequently Apollo and Artemis slew her children with arrows, and she herself was turned by Zeus into a stone upon Mount Sipylus in Lydia, where she shed tears all the summer long.

I. ii. 161. forget myself. I.e., or I have lost the knowledge even of myself.

I. ii. 180. bak'd meats. It was an old custom to have a feast as part of the funeral ceremonies.

I. ii. 198. vast. It here means emptiness, the time when no living thing was seen.

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