[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 Menœchme, 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.]