Page:Hamlet - The Arden Shakespeare - 1899.djvu/126

Confound the ignorant, and amaze^{[b 1]} indeed
The very faculties^{[a 1]} of eyes and ears.
Yet I,
A dull and muddy-mettled rascal, peak,^{[b 2]}
Like John-a-dreams,^{[b 3]} unpregnant^{[b 4]} of my cause, 605
And can say nothing; no, not for a king.
Upon whose property^{[b 5]} and most dear life
A damn'd defeat^{[b 6]} was made. Am I a coward?
Who calls me villain? breaks my pate across?
Plucks off my beard, and blows it in my face? 610
Tweaks me by the nose? gives me the lie i' the throat,
As deep as to the lungs? Who does me this?
Ha!^{[a 2]}
'Swounds,^{[a 3]} I should take it; for it cannot be
But I am pigeon-liver'd,^{[b 7]} and lack gall 615
To make oppression bitter; or ere this
I should have fatted all the region kites^{[b 8]}
With this slave's offal; bloody,^{[a 4]} bawdy villain!

1. 602. faculties] Q, faculty F.
2. 613. Ha!] separate line Steevens; begins line 614 Q, F; Ha? F.
3. 614. 'Swounds Q, Why F.
4. 618. offal; bloody,] offall, bloody, Q, Offall, bloudy: a F.

1. 601. amaze] confound, as in King John, IV. ii. 137.
2. 604. peak] to dwindle, pine; hence to play a mean part, as in Merry Wives, III. v. 71.
3. 605. John-a-dreams] found also in Armin, Nest of Ninnies, 1608. "John-a-droynes" is found in Nash, Have with you to Saffron Walden, 1596.
4. 605. unpregnant] unimpregnated, unquickened by my cause. See Measure for Measure, IV. iv. 23.
5. 607. property] proprietorship (of crown and wife).
6. 608. defeat] undoing, act of destruction, as in V. ii. 58. Chapman, Revenge for Honour:
   "That he might meantime make a sure defeat
   On our good aged father's life."
7. 615. pigeon-liver'd] The pigeon was supposed to secrete no gall. So Dekker, The Honest Whore (Pearson's Dekker, ii. p. 20), "Sure hee's a pigeon, for he has no gall." Gall, the physical cause of rancour, bitterness.
8. 617. region kites] kites of the air; see line 518.