[Footnote II.1: Polonius,] Doctor Johnson describes Polonius as "a man bred in courts, exercised in business, stored with observation, confident in his knowledge, proud of his eloquence, and declining into dotage. A man positive and confident, because he knows his mind was once strong, and knows not that it is become weak." The idea of dotage encroaching upon wisdom will solve all the phenomena of the character of Polonius.
[Footnote II.2: His bulk,] Frame.
[Footnote II.3: Ecstacy of love;] i.e., madness of love. In this sense the word is now obsolete.
[Footnote II.4:
This must be known; which being kept close, might move
More grief to hide than hate to utter love.
i.e., this must be made known to the king, for (being kept secret) the hiding Hamlet's love might occasion more mischief to us from him and the queen, than the uttering or revealing of it will occasion hate and resentment from Hamlet.
It was the custom of Shakespeare's age, to conclude acts and scenes with a couplet, a custom which was continued for nearly a century afterwards.
[Footnote II.5: The understanding of himself,] i.e., the just estimate of himself.
[Footnote II.6: Vouchsafe your rest] Please to reside.
[Footnote II.7: Of us,] i.e., over us.
[Footnote II.8: In the full bent,] To the full stretch and range—a term derived from archery.
[Footnote II.9: The trail of policy] The trail is the course of an animal pursued by the scent.
[Footnote II.10: Expostulate] To expostulate is to discuss, to put the pros and cons, to answer demands upon the question.
Expose is an old term of similar import.
[Footnote II.11: Perpend.] i.e., reflect, consider attentively.
[Footnote II.12: Most beautified Ophelia,] Heywood, in his
History of Edward VI., says "Katharine Parre, Queen Dowager to King Henry VIII., was a woman beautified with many excellent virtues." The same expression is frequently used by other old authors.
[Footnote II.13: In her excellent white bosom,] The ladies, in Shakespeare's time, wore pockets in the front of their stays.
[Footnote II.14: These, &c.] In our poet's time, the word these was usually added at the end of the superscription of letters.
[Footnote II.15: I am ill at these numbers;] No talent for these rhymes.
[Footnote II.16: O most best,] An ancient mode of expression.
[Footnote II.17: Whilst this machine is to him,] Belongs to, obey his impulse; so long as he is "a sensible warm motion," the similar expression to "While my wits are my own."
[Footnote II.18: And more above,] i.e., moreover, besides.
[Footnote II.19: His solicitings,] i.e., his love-making, his tender expressions.
[Footnote II.20: If I had played the desk, or table book;] This line may either mean if I had conveyed intelligence between them, or, known of their love, if I had locked up his secret in my own breast, as closely as it were confined in a desk or table book.
[Footnote II.21: Or given my heart a winking, mute and dumb;] i.e., connived at it.
[Footnote II.22: With idle sight;] i.e., with indifference.
[Footnote II.23: Round to work,] i.e., roundly, without reserve.
[Footnote II.24: Which done, she took the fruits of my advice;] She took the fruits of advice when she obeyed advice, the advice was then made fruitful.—JOHNSON.
[Footnote II.25: I'll board him presently.] Accost, address him.
[Footnote II.26: You are a fishmonger.] This was an expression better understood in Shakespeare's time than at present, and no doubt was relished by the audience of the Globe Theatre as applicable to the Papists, who in Queen Elizabeth's time were esteemed enemies to the Government. Hence the proverbial phrase of He's an honest man and eats no fish; to signify he's a friend to the Government and a Protestant.
[Footnote II.27: For if the sun breed maggots in a dead dog, being a god, kissing carrion,——Have you a daughter?] i.e., Hamlet having just remarked that honesty is very rare in the world, adds, that since there is so little virtue, since corruption abounds everywhere, and maggots are bred by the sun, which is a god, even in a dead dog, Polonius ought to take care to prevent his daughter from walking in the sun, lest she should prove "a breeder of sinners;" for though conception (understanding) in general be a blessing, yet as Ophelia might chance to conceive (to be pregnant), it might be a calamity. Hamlet's abrupt question, "Have you a daughter?" is evidently intended to impress Polonius with the belief of the Prince's madness.—MALONE.
[Footnote II.28: The satirical rogue] Hamlet alludes to Juvenal, who in his 10th Satire, describes the evils of long life.
[Footnote II.29: How pregnant his replies] Big with meaning.]
[Footnote II.30: Beaten way of friendship,] Plain track, open and unceremonious course.
[Footnote II.31: Rights of our fellowship and constancy of our youth,] Habits of familiar intercourse and correspondent years.
[Footnote II.32: A better proposer] An advocate of more address in shaping his aims, who could make a stronger appeal.
[Footnote II.33: Even] Without inclination any way.
[Footnote II.34: Nay, then, I have an eye of you.] i.e., I have a glimpse of your meaning. Hamlet's penetration having shown him that his two friends are set over him as spies.
[Footnote II.35: So shall my anticipation prevent your discovery, and your secrecy to the king and queen moult no feather.] Be beforehand with your discovery, and the plume and gloss of your secret pledge be in no feather shed or tarnished.
[Footnote II.36: Express] According to pattern, justly and perfectly modelled.
[Footnote II.37: Paragon] Model of perfection.
[Footnote II.38: Lenten entertainment] i.e., sparing, like the entertainments given in Lent.
[Footnote II.39: We coted them on the way;] To cote, is to pass by, to pass the side of another. It appears to be a word of French origin, and was a common sporting term in Shakespeare's time.
[Footnote II.40: The humorous man shall end his part in peace;] The fretful or capricious man shall vent the whole of his spleen undisturbed.
[Footnote II.41: The lady shall say her mind freely, or the blank verse shall halt for't.] i.e., the lady shall mar the measure of the verse, rather than not express herself freely and fully.
[Footnote II.42: Travel?] Become strollers.
[Footnote II.43: It is not very strange; for my uncle is king of Denmark;] This is a reflection on the mutability of fortune, and the variableness of man's mind.
[Footnote II.44: Make mouths at him] i.e., deride him by antic gestures and mockery.
[Footnote II.45: In little.] In miniature.
[Footnote II.46: I know a hawk from a hern-shaw.] A hernshaw is a heron or hern. To know a hawk from a hernshaw is an ancient proverb, sometimes corrupted into handsaw. Spencer quotes the proverb, as meaning, wise enough to know the hawk from its game.
[Footnote II.47: Buz, buz!] Sir William Blackstone states that buz used to be an interjection at Oxford when any one began a story that was generally known before.
[Footnote II.48: Then came each actor on his ass.] This seems to be a line of a ballad.
[Footnote II.49: Seneca cannot be too heavy, nor Plautus too light.] An English translation of the tragedies of Seneca was published in 1581, and one comedy of Plautus, viz., the Menaechme, in 1595.
[Footnote II.50: For the law of writ and the liberty, these are the only men.] The probable meaning of this passage is,—For the observance of the rules of the Drama, while they take such liberties, as are allowable, they are the only men—writ is an old word for writing.
[Footnote II.51: As by lot, God wot,] There was an old ballad entitled the song of Jephthah, from which these lines are probably quotations. The story of Jephthah was also one of the favourite subjects of ancient tapestry.
[Footnote II.52: The first row of the pious Chanson] This expression does not appear to be very well understood. Steevens tells us that the pious chansons were a kind of Christmas carols, containing some scriptural history thrown into loose rhymes, and sung about the streets. The first row appears to mean the first division of one of these.
[Footnote II.53: My abridgment comes.] Hamlet alludes to the players, whose approach will shorten his talk.
[Footnote II.54: Thy face is valanced] i.e., fringed with a beard. The valance is the fringes or drapery hanging round the tester of a bed.
[Footnote II.55: Com'st thou to beard me] To beard anciently meant to set at defiance. Hamlet having just told the player that his face is valanced, is playing upon the word beard.
[Footnote II.56: By the altitude of a chopine.] A chioppine is a high shoe, or rather clog, worn by the Italians. Venice was more famous for them than any other place. They are described as having been made of wood covered with coloured leather, and sometimes even half a yard high, their altitude being proportioned to the rank of the lady, so that they could not walk without being supported.
[Footnote II.57: Like French falconers,] The French seem to have been the first and noblest falconers in the western part of Europe. The French king sent over his falconers to show that sport to King James the First.—See Weldon's Court of King James.
[Footnote II.58: Quality;] Qualifications, faculty.
[Footnote II.59: Caviare to the general;] Caviare is the spawn of fish pickled, salted, and dried. It is imported from Russia, and was considered in the time of Shakespeare a new and fashionable luxury, not obtained or relished by the vulgar, and therefore used by him to signify anything above their comprehension—general is here used for the people.
[Footnote II.60: As much modesty as cunning.] As much propriety and decorum as skill.
[Footnote II.61: Falls with the whiff and wind of his fell sword] Our author employs the same image in almost the same phrase:
"The Grecians fall
Even in the fan and wind of your fair sword." Tr. & Cress. V. 3. Tr.
[Footnote II.62: The rack] The clouds or congregated vapour.
[Footnote II.63: The mobled queen?] Mobled is veiled, muffled, disguised.
[Footnote II.64: All his visage wann'd;] i.e., turned pale or wan.
[Footnote II.65: His whole functions suiting with forms to his conceit?] i.e., his powers and faculties—the whole energies of his soul and body giving material forms to his passion, such as tone of voice, expression of face, requisite action, in accordance with the ideas that floated in his conceit or imagination.
[Footnote II.66: The cue] The point—the direction.
[Footnote II.67: Like John a-dreams,] Or dreaming John, a name apparently coined to suit a dreaming, stupid person; he seems to have been a well-known character.
[Footnote II.68: Unpregnant of my cause,] i.e., not quickened with a new desire of vengeance; not teeming with revenge.
[Footnote II.69: Defeat was made.] Overthrow.
[Footnote II.70: Lack gall to make oppression bitter;] i.e., lack gall to make me feel the bitterness of oppression.
[Footnote II.71: Kindless] Unnatural.
[Footnote II.72: About, my brains!] Wits to work.
[Footnote II.73: I'll tent him to the quick:] i.e., probe him—search his wounds.
[Footnote II.74: Blench,] Shrink, start aside.
[Footnote II.75: More relative than this:] Directly applicable.