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SC. I.]
PRINCE OF DENMARK
7
Hor. As thou art to thyself:
Such was the very armour he had on[b 1] 60
When he[a 1] the ambitious Norway combated;
So frown'd he once, when, in an angry parle,[b 2]
He smote the sledded[a 2] Polacks[a 3][b 3] on the ice.
'Tis strange.
Mar. Thus twice before, and jump[a 4][b 4] at this dead hour, 65
With martial stalk hath he gone by[a 5] our watch.
Hor. In what particular thought to work I know not;
But, in the gross and scope of my[a 6] opinion,
This bodes some strange eruption to our state.
Mar. Good now,[b 5] sit down, and tell me, he that knows, 70
Why this same strict and most observant watch
So nightly toils the subject[b 6] of the land,
And why[a 7] such daily cast of brazen cannon,
And foreign mart for implements of war;
- ↑ 61. he] omitted in F.
- ↑ 63. sledded] F, shaded Q.
- ↑ 63. Polacks] Mal., pollax Q 1, Qq 2, 3, 4; Pollax Ff 1, 2, Qq 5, 6; Polax F 3; Pole-axe F 4; Polack Pope and other editors (meaning the King of Poland).
- ↑ 65. jump] Q 1, Q; just F.
- ↑ 66. hath he gone by] he passed through Q 1.
- ↑ 68. my] F, mine Q.
- ↑ 73. why] F, with Q.
- ↑ 60. Furness asks, "Was this the very armour that he wore thirty years before, on the day Hamlet was born (see V. i. 155-176)? How old was Horatio?" But the armour would be remembered and be pointed out, when worn later.
- ↑ 62. parle] parley. King John, II. 205: "this gentle parle."
- ↑ 63. sledded Polacks] Poles in sleds or sledges. See Polack in II. ii. 75, and IV. iv. 23. The Earl of Rochester, 1761, explained sleaded as loaded with lead, and Polacks as pole-axe. Boswell suggested that a person who carried the pole-axe was meant. "Sled" for sledge is found in Cotgrave's French Dictionary. Schmidt, reading "pollax," explains "sledded" as having a sled or sledge, i.e., a heavy hammer.
- ↑ 65. jump] just, exactly. See v. ii. 386.
- ↑ 70. Good now,] Please you, as in Winter's Tale, V. i. 19; Q 1 places a comma after "good," connecting "now" with "sit down."
- ↑ 73. subject] subjects, as in I. ii. 33.
