Page:Hamlet - The Arden Shakespeare - 1899.djvu/114

them to controversy; there was, for a while,
no money bid for argument,^{[b 1]} unless the poet 375
and the player went to cuffs in the
question.^{[b 2]}

Ham. Is 't possible?

Guil. Oh, there has been much throwing about of
brains. 380

Ham. Do the boys carry it away?^{[b 3]}

Ros. Ay, that they do, my lord; Hercules^{[b 4]} and his
load too.

Ham. It is not very strange; for my^{[a 1]} uncle is King
of Denmark, and those, that would make 385
mows^{[a 2][b 5]} at him while my father lived, give
twenty, forty, fifty,^{[a 3]} an^{[a 4]} hundred ducats a-piece,
for his picture in little.^{[b 6]} 'Sblood,^{[a 5]} there is something
in this more than natural, if philosophy
could find it out. 390
[Flourish of trumpets within.

Guil. There are the players.

Ham. Gentlemen, you are welcome to Elsinore.
Your hands, come;^{[a 6]} the appurtenance^{[b 7]} of wecome
is fashion and ceremony: let me comply^{[b 8]}

1. 384. my] Q, mine F.
2. 386. mows] F, mouths Q.
3. 387. fifty] Q, omitted F.
4. 387. an] F, a Q.
5. 388. 'Sblood] Q, omitted F.
6. 393. hands, come;] F; hands come then, Qq 2, 3; hands, come then Qq 4, 5; hands: come then, Q 6.

1. 375. argument] plot of a play, as in III. ii, 244.
2. 376, 377. question] Perhaps means dialogue; perhaps controversy, debate; the poet for the children attacks the common players.
3. 381. carry it away] win the day.
4. 382. Hercules] In allusion to the Globe Theatre, the sign of which was Hercules carrying the globe.
5. 386. mows] grimaces, Fr. moue.
6. 388. picture in little] miniature. The children—miniature actors—now carry away Hercules; so too have fashions changed with respect to kings.
7. 393. appurtenance] adjuncts.
8. 394. comply] observe the formalities of courtesy, as in V. ii. 192 ; garb, fashion.

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