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Shakespeare's tragedy of Hamlet, prince of Denmark, with intr. remarks
Shakespeare's tragedy of Hamlet prince of Denmark with intr remarks Author:William Shakespeare Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: NOTES. ACT I.—Scene I. Elsinore. ... the castle. Elsinore or Helsingor, a seaport town on the island of Zealand, in Denmark, picturesquely situated on the ... more »narrowest part of the Sound, twenty-four miles north of Copenhagen. Near to it, on a tongue of land, stands the strongly fortified citadel or castle of Kronborg, built 1577- 1585, which commands the entrance to the Baltic. 'This castle of Elsenor is a quadrant, and one of the goodliest fortifications in that part of the world, both for strength and most curious architecture, and was built by Frederick, this king [Christian IV's] father. There is in the same, many princely lodgings, and especially one great chamber; it is hanged with tapestry of fresh coloured silke without gold, wherein all the Danish kings are exprest in antique habits according to their several times, with their arms and inscriptions, conteining all their conquests and victories; the roofe is of inlett woodes, and hung full of great branches of brasse for lights'—Stow's Annals, edition 16o5, P- 1436. 1. Me—emphatic, as spoken by one having a right to demand the watchword of the night. 2. Long live the king—this is the watchword of the night. 3. Upon your hour—as the appointed hour is about to strike. While Francisco is speaking, the clock strikes twelve. 5. Bitter cold .... sick at heart. Cold is one of the most powerful agents in depressing the animal system, and shows its effect in producing a disinclination to make any effort or exertion, a sickness of the heart. It is, however, probable that the poet intended to indicate that Francisco was under some preternatural condition of chilliness as a first vague hint of the influential presence of the apparition. See Love's Labour's Lost, II, i, 185, and Macbeth, V, iii, 19. IO. Rivals. Origin...« less