[Footnote I.1: _Me:_] _i.e., me_ who am already on the watch, and have a right to demand the watch-word.]
[Footnote I.2: _Unfold_] Announce, make known.]
[Footnote I.3: _Long live the King._] The watch-word.]
[Footnote I.4: _The rivals of my watch_,] _Rivals_, for partners or associates.]
[Footnote I.5: _And liegemen to the Dane._] _i.e._, owing allegiance to Denmark.]
[Footnote I.6: _A piece of him._] Probably a cant expression.]
[Footnote I.7: _To watch the minutes of this night_; This seems to have been an expression common in Shakespeare's time.]
[Footnote I.8: _Approve our eyes_,] To _approve_, in Shakespeare's age, signified to make good or establish.]
[Footnote I.9: _What we have seen._] We must here supply "with," or "by relating" before "what we have seen."]
[Footnote I.10: _It harrows me with fear and wonder._] _i.e._, it confounds and overwhelms me.]
[Footnote I.11: _Usurp'st this time of night_,] _i.e._, abuses, uses against right, and the order of things.]
[Footnote I.12: _I might not this believe, &c._] I _could_ not: it had not been permitted me, &c., without the full and perfect evidence, &c.]
[Footnote I.13: _Jump at this dead hour_,] _Jump_ and _just_ were synonymous in Shakespeare's time.]
[Footnote I.14: _In what particular thought to work_,] In what particular course to set my thoughts at work: in what particular train to direct the mind and exercise it in conjecture.]
[Footnote I.15: _Gross and scope_] Upon the whole, and in a general view.]
[Footnote I.16: _Bodes some strange eruption to our state_,] _i.e._, some political distemper, which will break out in dangerous consequences.]
[Footnote I.17: _Palmy state_] Outspread, flourishing. Palm branches were the emblem of victory.]
[Footnote I.18: _Sound, or use of voice_,] Articulation.]
[Footnote I.19:
_Uphoarded in thy life Extorted treasure in the womb of earth_,]
So in Decker's Knight's Conjuring, &c. "If any of them had bound the spirit of gold by any charmes _in cares_, or in iron fetters, _under the ground_, they should, _for their own soule's quiet (which, questionless, else would whine up and down_,) not for the good of their children, release it."]
[Footnote I.20:
_And then it started like a guilty thing Upon a fearful summons._]
Apparitions were supposed to fly from the crowing of the cock, because it indicated the approach of day.]
[Footnote I.21: _Lofty_] High and loud.]
[Footnote I.22: _The extravagant and erring spirit_] _Extravagant_ is, got out of his bounds. _Erring_ is here used in the sense of wandering.]
[Footnote I.23: Laertes is unknown in the original story, being an introduction of Shakespeare's.]
[Footnote I.24: _Green_;] Fresh.]
[Footnote I.25: _Wisest sorrow_] Sober grief, passion discreetly reined.]
[Footnote I.26: _With a defeated joy_,] _i.e._, with joy baffled; with joy interrupted by grief.]
[Footnote I.27: _Barr'd_] Excluded--acted without the concurrence of.]
[Footnote I.28: _Your leave and favour_] The favour of your leave granted, the kind permission. Two substantives with a copulative being here, as is the frequent practice of our author, used for an adjective and substantive: an adjective sense is given to a substantive.]
[Footnote I.29: _Upon his will I sealed my hard consent:_] At or upon his earnest and importunate suit, I gave my full and final, though hardly obtained and reluctant, consent.]
[Footnote I.30:
_Take thy fair hour! time be thine; And thy best graces spend it at thy will!_]
Catch the auspicious moment! be time thine own! and may the exercise of thy fairest virtue fill up those hours, that are wholly at your command!]
[Footnote I.31: _A little more than kin, and less than kind._] Dr. Johnson says that _kind_ is the Teutonic word for _child_. Hamlet, therefore, answers to the titles of _cousin_ and _son_, which the king had given him, that he was somewhat more than _cousin_, and less than _son_. Steevens remarks, that it seems to have been another proverbial phrase: "The nearer we are in blood, the further we must be from love; the greater the _kindred_ is, the less the _kindness_ must be." _Kin_ is still used in the Midland Counties for _cousin_, and _kind_ signifies _nature_. Hamlet may, therefore, mean that the relationship between them had become _unnatural_.]
[Footnote I.32: _I am too much i'the sun._] Meaning, probably, his being sent for from his studies to be exposed at his uncle's marriage as his _chiefest courtier_, and being thereby placed too much in the radiance of the king's presence; or, perhaps, an allusion to the proverb, "_Out of Heaven's blessing, into the warm sun:_" but it is not unlikely that a quibble is meant between _son_ and _sun_.]
[Footnote I.33: _Nighted colour_] Black--night-like.]
[Footnote I.34: _Vailed lids_] Cast down.]
[Footnote I.35: _Which passeth show_;] _i.e._, "external manners of lament."]
[Footnote I.36: _Trappings_] _Trappings_ are "furnishings."]
[Footnote I.37: _That father lost, lost his_;] "That lost father (of your father, _i.e._, your grandfather), or father so lost, lost his.]"
[Footnote I.38: _Do obsequious sorrow:_] Follow with becoming and ceremonious observance the memory of the deceased.]
[Footnote I.39: _But to perséver_] This word was anciently accented on the second syllable.]
[Footnote I.40: _Obstinate condolement_,] Ceaseless and unremitted expression of grief.]
[Footnote I.41: _Incorrect to Heaven._] Contumacious towards Heaven.]
[Footnote I.42: _Unprevailing_] Fruitless, unprofitable.]
[Footnote I.43: _Sits smiling to my heart:_] _To_ is _at_: gladdens my heart.]
[Footnote I.44: _In grace whereof_,] _i.e._, respectful regard or honour of which.]
[Footnote I.45: _No jocund health, that Denmark drinks to-day_,] Dr. Johnson remarks, that the king's intemperance is very strongly impressed; everything that happens to him gives him occasion to drink. The Danes were supposed to be hard drinkers.]
[Footnote I.46: _Resolve itself_] _To resolve_ is an old word signifying _to dissolve_.]
[Footnote I.47: _His canon_] _i.e._, his rule or law].
[Footnote I.48: _The uses of this world!_] _i.e._, the habitudes and usages of life.]
[Footnote I.49: _Merely._] Wholly--entirely.]
[Footnote I.50: _Hyperion to a satyr:_] An allusion to the exquisite beauty of Apollo, compared with the deformity of a satyr; that satyr, perhaps, being Pan, the brother of Apollo. Our great poet is here guilty of a false quantity, by calling Hypĕrīon, Hypērĭon, a mistake not unusual among our English poets.]
[Footnote I.51: _Might not beteem_] _i.e._, might not allow, permit.]
[Footnote I.52: _I'll change that name with you._] _i.e._, do not call yourself my _servant_, you are my _friend_; so I shall call you, and so I would have you call me.]
[Footnote I.53: _In faith._] Faithfully, in pure and simple verity.]
[Footnote I.54: _But what make you_] What is your object? What are you doing?]
[Footnote I.55: _What, in faith, make you from Wittenberg?_] In Shakespeare's time there was a university at Wittenberg; but as it was not founded till 1502, it consequently did not exist in the time to which this play refers.]
[Footnote I.56: _My dearest foe_] _i.e._, my direst or most important foe. This epithet was commonly used to denote the strongest and liveliest interest in any thing or person, for or against.]
[Footnote I.57: _Goodly king._] _i.e._, a good king.]
[Footnote I.58:
_Season your admiration for a while with an attent ear_;]
_i.e._, suppress your astonishment for a short time, that you may be the better able to give your attention to what we will relate.]
[Footnote I.59: _In the dead waste and middle of the night_,] _i.e._, in the dark and desolate vast, or vacant space and middle of the night. It was supposed that spirits had permission to range the earth by night alone.]
[Footnote I.60: _With the act of fear_,] _i.e._, by the influence or power of fear.]
[Footnote I.61: _Address_] _i.e._, make ready.]
[Footnote I.62: _Writ down_] Prescribed by our own duty.]
[Footnote I.63: _He wore his beaver up._] That part of the helmet which may be lifted up, to take breath the more freely.]
[Footnote I.64: _Tenable_] _i.e._, strictly maintained.]
[Footnote I.65: _Benefit_,] Favourable means.]
[Footnote I.66: _Trifling of his favour_,] Gay and thoughtless intimation.]
[Footnote I.67: _Pérfume and suppliance of a minute._] _i.e._, an amusement to fill up a vacant moment, and render it agreeable.]
[Footnote I.68: _Keep within the rear of your affection_,] Front not the peril; withdraw or check every warm emotion: advance not so far as your affection would lead you.]
[Footnote I.69: _The chariest maid_] Chary is cautious.]
[Footnote I.70: _Puff'd and reckless libertine._] Bloated and swollen, the effect of excess; and heedless and indifferent to consequences.]
[Footnote I.71: _Recks not his own read._] _i.e._, heeds not his own lessons or counsel.]
[Footnote I.72: _Shoulder of your sail_,] A common sea phrase.]
[Footnote I.73: _Look thou charácter._] _i.e._, a word often used by Shakespeare to signify to _write, strongly infix_; the accent is on the second syllable.]
[Footnote I.74: _Unproportion'd thought_] Irregular, disorderly thought.]
[Footnote I.75: _Each man's censure_,] Sentiment, opinion.]
[Footnote I.76: _Chief in that._] _i.e._, chiefly in that.]
[Footnote I.77: _Husbandry_] _i.e._, thrift, economical prudence.]
[Footnote I.78: _Season this in thee!_] _i.e._, infix it in such a manner as that it may never wear out.]
[Footnote I.79: _Yourself shall keep the key of it._] Thence it shall not be dismissed, till you think it needless to retain it.]
[Footnote I.80: _Given private time to you_;] Spent his time in private visits to you.]
[Footnote I.81: _As so 'tis put on me_,] Suggested to, impressed on me.]
[Footnote I.82: _Is between_] _i.e._, what has passed--what intercourse had.]
[Footnote I.83: _Green girl, Unsifted_] _i.e._, inexperienced girl. Unsifted means one who has not nicely _canvassed_ and examined the peril of her situation.]
[Footnote I.84: _Woodcocks._] Witless things.]
[Footnote I.85: _Slander any leisure moment_,] _i.e._, I would not have you so disgrace your most idle moments, as not to find better employment for them than lord Hamlet's conversation.]
[Footnote I.86: _An eager air._] _Eager_ here means _sharp_, from _aigre_, French.]
[Footnote I.87: _Doth wake to-night_,] _i.e._, holds a late revel.]
[Footnote I.88: _Takes his rouse_,] _Rouse_ means drinking bout, carousal.]
[Footnote I.89: _Questionable shape_,] To _question_, in our author's time, signified to _converse_. Questionable, therefore, means _capable of being conversed with._]
[Footnote I.90: _Hearsed in death_,] Deposited with the accustomed funeral rites.]
[Footnote I.91: _Cerements_;] Those precautions usually adopted in preparing dead bodies for sepulture.]
[Footnote I.92: _Fools of nature_] _i.e._, making sport for nature.]
[Footnote I.93: _Disposition_] Frame of mind and body.]
[Footnote I.94: _Removèd ground:_] _Removed_ for _remote_.]
[Footnote I.95: _At a pin's fee_;] _i.e._, the value of a pin.]
[Footnote I.96: _What if it tempt you toward the flood, &c._] Malignant spirits were supposed to entice their victims into places of gloom and peril, and exciting in them the deepest terror.]
[Footnote I.97: _Beetles o'er his base into the sea_,] _i.e._, projects darkly over the sea.]
[Footnote I.98: _Némean lion's nerve._] Shakespeare, and nearly all the poets of his time, disregarded the quantity of Latin names. The poet has here placed the accent on the first syllable, instead of the second.]
[Footnote I.99: _That lets me:_] To let, in the sense in which it is here used, means to hinder--to obstruct--to oppose. The word is derived from the Saxon.]
[Footnote I.100: _To fast in fires_,] Chaucer has a similar passage with regard to eternal punishment--_"And moreover the misery of Hell shall be in default of meat and drink."_]
[Footnote I.101: _Harrow up thy soul_;] Agitate and convulse.]
[Footnote I.102: _Hair to stand on end_,] A common image of that day.
"_Standing_ as frighted with _erected haire_."]
[Footnote I.103: _The fretful porcupine:_] This animal being considered irascible and timid.]
[Footnote I.104: _Eternal blazon_] _i.e._, publication or divulgation of things eternal.]
[Footnote I.105: _Rots itself in ease on Lethe wharf_,] _i.e._, in indolence and sluggishness, by its torpid habits contributes to that morbid state of its juices which may figuratively be denominated rottenness.]
[Footnote I.106: _Orchard_,] Garden.]
[Footnote I.107: _Forged process_] _i.e._, false report of proceedings.]
[Footnote I.108: _Decline upon a wretch._] Stoop with degradation to.]
[Footnote I.109: _Secure_] Unguarded.]
[Footnote I.110: _Hebenon_] Hebenon is described by Nares in his Glossary, as the juice of ebony, supposed to be a deadly poison.]
[Footnote I.111: _Despatch'd:_] Despoiled--bereft.]
[Footnote I.112: _Unhousel'd, disappointed, unanel'd_;] To _housel_ is to minister the sacrament to one lying on his death bed. _Disappointed_ is the same as unappointed, which here means unprepared. _Unanel'd_ is without extreme unction.]
[Footnote I.113: _Luxury_] Lasciviousness.]
[Footnote I.114: _Pale his uneffectual fire:_] _i.e._, not seen by the light of day; or it may mean, shining without heat.]
[Footnote I.115: _In this distracted globe._] _i.e._, his head distracted with thought.]
[Footnote I.116: _Pressures past_,] Impressions heretofore made.]
[Footnote I.117: _Come, bird, come._] This is the call which falconers used to their hawk in the air when they would have him come down to them.]
[Footnote I.118:
_There's ne'er a villain dwelling in all Denmark-- But he's an arrant knave._]
Hamlet probably begins these words in the ardour of confidence and sincerity; but suddenly alarmed at the magnitude of the disclosure he was going to make, and considering that, not his friend Horatio only, but another person was present, he breaks off suddenly:--"There's ne'er a villain in all Denmark that can match (perhaps he would have said) my uncle in villainy; but recollecting the danger of such a declaration, he pauses for a moment, and then abruptly concludes:--"but he's an arrant knave."]
[Footnote I.119: _Whirling words_,] Random words thrown out with no specific aim.]
[Footnote I.120: _By Saint Patrick_,] At this time all the whole northern world had their learning from Ireland; to which place it had retired, and there flourished under the auspices of this Saint.]
[Footnote I.121: _O'er-master it_] Get the better of it.]
[Footnote I.122: _Give it welcome._] Receive it courteously, as you would a stranger when introduced.]
[Footnote I.123: _Antick disposition_] _i.e._, strange, foreign to my nature, a disposition which Hamlet assumes as a protection against the danger which he apprehends from his uncle, and as a cloak for the concealment of his own meditated designs.]
[Footnote I.124: _Arms encumber'd thus_,] _i.e._, folded.]
[Footnote I.125: _Friending to you--shall not lack_] Disposition to serve you shall not be wanting.]