It has been suggested by Mr. De Soyres in Notes and Queries (Aug. 10, 1872) that the reference here is to a Lake Esyl which figures in Scandinavian legends. He says, 'I have a distinct remembrance that in one of these mention was made of a Lake Esyl, and one of the impossible feats demanded of Thor by the giants was to drink this lake dry.' We consulted Mr. Magnússon on this point and he writes as follows: No such lake as Esyl is known to Norse mythology or folklore. Thor's only trial at drinking an impossible draught was at Útgarðaloki's, where he had to empty a horn the other end of which mouthed into the sea; in consequence he only achieved drinking the ocean down to the ebb mark.'

272. an, if, spelt always 'and' in the old editions.

276. golden couplets. The pigeon lays only two eggs at a time, and the newly hatched birds are covered with yellow down.

Ib. disclosed, hatched. Compare iii. 1. 165. Steevens quotes from 'The Book of Huntynge, Hawkyng, Fyshing, &c.,' an undated black-letter book: 'First they ben eges; and after they ben disclosed, haukes; and commonly goshaukes ben disclosed as sone as the coughes.' In Holme's Academy of Armoury, B. ii. c. 11. p. 238, he says: 'Disclose, is when the young just peeps through the shell. It is also taken for laying, hatching, or bringing forth young as she disclosed three birds.' Warburton, for when that,' read 'e'er that,' followed by Johnson ('ere that '), because they thought that the patient tranquillity of the dove would be specially marked by sitting upon her yet unhatched eggs. But, according to Steevens, the dove, for three days after the hatching, 'never quits her nest except for a few moments in quest of a little food for herself; as all her young require in that early state is to be kept warm, an office which she never entrusts to the male.'

284. the present push, the instant test. For 'present' see Winter's Tale, i. 2, 281:

'I would not be a stander-by to hear

My sovereign mistress clouded so, without

My present vengeance taken.'

For 'push' in the sense of crisis,' 'critical moment,' see the same play, v. 3. 129:

'There's time enough for that;

Lest they desire upon this push to trouble
Your joys with like relation.'

And Macbeth, v. 3. 20:

"This push

Will cheer me ever, or disseat me now,'

where it may either signify crisis,' or 'effort,' or 'assault.'

286. living, perhaps, is used by the speaker in a double sense, first, that of enduring,' as the Queen would understand it; secondly, Laertes would be cognisant of the deeper meaning, by which the life of Hamlet is menaced.

Scene II.

9. mutines, mutineers. Compare King John, ii. 1. 378: 'Do like the mutines of Jerusalem.'

For the verb 'to mutine' see this play, iii. 4. 83.

Ib. bilboes, stocks or fetters used on board ship, aud made of a bar of iron, with rings attached to it, in which the legs of the prisoners were placed. Steevens gives a figure of them as they are preserved in the Tower of London among the spoils of the Spanish Armada. The word is derived from Bilbao

or Bilboa in Spain, which was famous, as early as the time of Pliny, for the manufacture of iron and steel. For the same reason a sword-blade made there was called a 'bilbo.' See Merry Wives of Windsor, i. I. 165; iii. 5. 112.

Ib. Rashly, hastily. What follows, to the end of Hamlet's speech, is parenthetical. Compare Richard III, iii. 5. 43:

'What, think you we are Turks or infidels?

Or that we would, against the form of law,
Proceed thus rashly to the villain's death?'

7. Tyrwhitt proposed to read:

'And prais'd be rashness, for it lets us know,' &c.

putting the passage 'And prais'd... certain' in a parenthesis. The folios put only the words 'And praised be rashness for it' in a parenthesis.

Ib. let us know, that is, recognise and acknowledge.

9. deep. So the quartos. The folios have dear.'

Ib. pall, grow vapid and tasteless, like wine: hence become vain and worthless. Compare Antony and Cleopatra, ii. 7. 88:

'I'll never follow thy pall'd fortunes more.'

Ib. learn. So the quartos. The folios have 'teach,' a sense in which 'learn' was frequently used; as e. g. Richard II, iv. 1. 120:

'True noblesse would

Learn him forbearance from so foul a wrong.'

II. Rough-hew. Florio gives: Abbozzare: to rough-hew or cast any first draught.' The metaphor is of course from carpenters' work. Dr. Farmer informed Steevens that a wool-man, butcher and dealer in skewers, lately observed to him that his nephew (an idle lad) could only assist him in making them; "he could rough-hew them, but I was obliged to shape their ends."' 13. sea-gown. Cotgrave says: Esclavine. . . a sea-gowne; or a course, high-collered, and short-sleeued gowne, reaching downe to the mid-leg, and vsed most by sea-men, and Saylors.'

Ib. scarf'd, thrown on like a scarf, i. e. without putting the arms through the sleeves. Compare Much Ado about Nothing, ii. 1. 197: About your neck, like an usurer's chain? or under your arm, like a lieutenant's scarf?'

14. find out them. 'Find out' is here used as if it were a compound verb. Compare Romeo and Juliet, iv. 2. 41, and Julius Cæsar, i. 3. 134: 'Cassius. Cinna, where haste you so?

Cinna. To find out you.'

The objective personal pronoun is frequently placed after, and not before, the preposition which belongs to the verb. See Abbott, § 240. Modern usage only admits this order where the pronoun is emphatic.

16, 17. making so bold... to unseal.

3. 10:

And Macbeth, ii. 3. 55:

Compare Merchant of Venice, iii.

'So fond

To come abroad.'

'I'll make so bold to call.'

The omission of as' is frequently found in similar passages.

17. unseal. The quartos here have unfold,' which is doubtless a misprint, the compositor's eye having caught the concluding letters of the pre

vious line.

19. O royal knavery. So the folios, spelling 'oh.' The quartos have 'A royal knavery,' meaning perhaps, ‘Ah, royal knavery.'

20. Larded. Compare iv. 5. 36.

Ib. reasons. So the quartos. The folios have 'reason.'

21. Importing. See i. 2. 23, and iv. 7. 8o. Here the word is used in a somewhat different sense, 'gravely affecting,' 'concerning.' Compare Love's Labour's Lost, iv. I. 57:

This letter is mistook; it importeth none here.'

22. bugs, bugbears, objects of terror. Compare Winter's Tale, iii. 2. 93: 'The bug which you would fright me with I seek.'

In Coverdale's translation of the Psalms (Ps. xc, or according to the present numbering xci. 5) we find: 'So yt thou shalt not nede to be afrayed for eny bugges by night ner for arrowe that flyeth by daye.' In Cotgrave 'Goblin' and 'Bug' are given as translations of the French Gobelin.

Ib. in my life, in my continuing to live.

23. on the supervise, on the supervision, on the first reading. For substantives taking the form of the simple verb, see i. I. 57. The verb 'supervise' occurs in Love's Labour's Lost, iv. 2. 124: 'Let me supervise the canzonet.'

Ib. no leisure bated. The leisure is to be taken out of the interval of time between the receiving of the command and its execution. The execution must follow immediately without any exception of leisure.

24. stay, wait for. Compare Troilus and Cressida, i. I. 25: 'Nay, you must stay the cooling too.'

27. hear me how. So Antony and Cleopatra, v. I. 51: 'We'll hear him what he says.' And King Lear, i. I. 272: 'I know you what you are.'

29. villanies. So the quartos, with various spelling. The folios 'villaines,' or 'villains.'

30. Or. So the quartos. The folios read 'Ere.' We have 'or' in this sense frequently in Chaucer and the earlier writers, as e. g. in the Knight's Tale, 1685 Cleer was the day, as I have told or this.' We find the pleonastic combination of both in The Tempest, i. 2. II. In Hamlet, i. 2. 183, we have, according to the second and following quartos 'Or ever I had,' where that of 1603 reads 'Ere ever I had,' and the folios 'Ere I had ever.'

·

31. They, i. e. the brains, not the villains,' as Delius and Elze suppose, reading line 29 as the folios: My brains began instinctively to act before I could frame a scheme.'

33. statists, statesmen.

See Cymbeline, ii. 4. 16: 'Statist though I am none.'

And Milton, Paradise Regained, iv. 354:

'Statists indeed,

And lovers of their country.'

Ib. Ritson quotes from Florio's translation of Montaigne, ed. 1603, p. 125 [i. c. 39]: I have in my time seene some who by writing did earnestly get both their titles and living, to disavow their apprentissage, marre their pen, and affect the ignorance of so vulgar a qualitie.' Blackstone says: 'Most of the great men of Shakespeare's times, whose autographs have been preserved, wrote very bad hands: their secretaries very neat ones.'

36. yeoman's service, good and faithful service, such as formerly the yeomen, or small freeholders, rendered in war. They composed the mass of the infantry. Their formidable character is mentioned by Bacon in his Essay 'Of the true greatnesse of Kingdomes and Estates,' p. 122, ed. W. A. Wright. Compare Henry V, iii. 1. 25, &c.

42. comma is here used as opposed to 'period,' or full stop, and in this view a mark of connection, not division.

43. charge, load, burden, weight. A quibble is intended between "as," the conditional particle, and "ass," the beast of burden. That "charged" anciently signified "loaded" may be proved by the following passage in The Widow's Tears, by Chapman, 1612: "Thou must be the ass charged with crowns to make way."' (Johnson.) Compare Twelfth Night, ii. 3. 184, 185:

'Sir And. And your horse now would make him an ass.

Mar. Ass, I doubt not.'

And Romeo and Juliet, v. 2. 18:

'The letter was not nice, but full of charge.'

44. knowing of. So the quartos. The folios have 'know of.' We have 'knowing' as a substantive in Macbeth, ii. 4. 4:

This sore night

Hath trifled former knowings.'

45. debatement. See Measure for Measure, v. I. 99: 'After much

debatement.'

47. Not shriving-time, no time for making confession and receiving absolution. Compare Richard III, iii. 4. 97:

'Make a short shrift: he longs to see your head.'

48. ordinant, ordaining, arranging. For was ordinant' compare sequent,' 1. 54.

50. model, the exact counterpart. Compare Richard II, iii. 2. 153: 'And that small model of the barren earth,

Which serves as paste and cover to our bones.'

51. writ, writing. Compare ii. 2. 388, and 2 Henry VI, i. 4. 60: 'Now, pray, my lord, let's see the devil's writ.'

' was

Ib. in the form. So the quartos. The folios admit the article as in Julius Cæsar, iii. 1. 216, ‘In number of our friends'; and Abbott, § 89. 54. sequent, following. Compare All's Well that Ends Well, v. 3. 197: 'Conferr'd by testament to the sequent issue.'

57. Why...employment, omitted in the quartos.
58. near my conscience. So in Henry VIII, ii. 2. 18:

'It seems the marriage with his brother's wife
Has crept too near his conscience.'

Ib. defeat, misprinted 'debate' in the folios. See ii. 2. 598.
59. insinuation, artful intrusion into the business, crooked policy.

62. opposites, opponents. So in Twelfth Night, iii. 4. 253: 'Your opposite hath in him what youth, strength, skill and wrath can furnish man withal.'

63. thinks't thee. The quartos have 'thinke thee,' or 'think thee'; the folios thinkst thee,' or 'think'st thee.' Sidney Walker suggested the reading of the text, 'thinks 't thee,' i. e. 'thinks it thee.' Perhaps the true reading is thinks thee,' the final s of the quarto being mistaken for e. The word 'think' in this passage is not the same in origin as 'think' used personally, but comes from A. S. thincan, to seem, appear, which is used impersonally with all personal pronouns. The other word is thencan, to think, and the distinction is maintained in the German dünken and denken. Richard III, iii. 1. 63,

Where it seems best unto your royal self,'

In

for 'seems,' which is the reading of the earliest quartos, the later editions have thinkst,' or 'think'st.'

Ib. stand me now upon, is it not incumbent upon me? Compare Richard II, ii. 3. 138:

'It stands your grace upon to do him right.'

In the present passage the construction is interrupted by the parenthesis.