Page:Hamlet - The Arden Shakespeare - 1899.djvu/123

First Play. Run barefoot up and down, threatening the flames^{[a 1]}
With bisson^{[b 1]} rheum; a clout upon^{[a 2]} that head
Where late the diadem stood; and for a robe, 540
About her lank and all o'er-teemed loins,
A blanket, in the alarm of fear caught up;
Who this had seen, with tongue in venom steep'd,
'Gainst Fortune's state^{[b 2]} would treason have pronounced:
But if the gods themselves did see her then, 545
When she saw Pyrrhus make malicious sport
In mincing with his sword her husband's limbs,
The instant burst of clamour that she made,—
Unless things mortal move them not at all,—
Would have made milch^{[b 3]} the burning eyes of heaven 550
And passion in^{[a 3]} the gods.^{[b 4]}

Pol. Look, whether he has not turned his colour
and has tears in 's eyes. Prithee,^{[a 4]} no more.

Ham. 'Tis well; I'll have thee speak out the rest
of this^{[a 5]} soon.—Good my lord, will you see the 555
players well bestowed?^{[a 6]} Do you hear,^{[a 7]} let
them be well used, for they are the abstracts^{[a 8]}
and brief chronicles of the time; after your

1. 538. flames] Q, flame F.
2. 539. upon] Q, about F.
3. 551. passion in] passioned Hanmer, passionate Collier MS.
4. 553. Prithee] Q, Pray you F.
5. 555. of this] Q, omitted F.
6. 556. bestowed?] Theobald, bestowed; Q, bestow'd. F.
7. 556. you hear] Q, ye heare F.
8. 557. abstracts] F, abstract Q.

1. 539. bisson] blinding. More commonly "blind" or "purblind," as in Coriolanus, II, i. 70.
2. 544. state] perhaps, as often, power, majesty; but possibly seat or chair of dignity, as in Macbeth, III. iv. 5.
3. 550. milch] moist, as in Drayton, Polyolbion, xiii. 171, "exhaling the milch dew."
4. 551] Marston, in The Insatiate Countess, I. i., refers to "a player's passion" weeping for "old Priam"—evidently pointing to this scene.