life, which flow in upon us, and encompass us round like a sea.]

[Footnote III.10: _This mortal coil_,] Coil is here used in each
of its senses, that of turmoil or bustle, and that which entwines
or wraps round.]

[Footnote III.11: _Must give us pause:_] _i.e._, occasion for
reflection.]

[Footnote III.12: _There's the respect That makes calamity of so
long life_;] The _consideration_ that makes the evils of life so
long submitted to, lived under.]

[Footnote III.13: _The whips and scorns of time_,] Those
sufferings of body and mind, those stripes and mortifications to
which, in its _course_, the life of man is subjected.]

[Footnote III.14: _Contumely_,] Contemptuousness, rudeness.]

[Footnote III.15: _His quietus make_] Quietus means the official
discharge of an account: from the Latin. Particularly in the
Exchequer accounts, where it is still current. Chiefly used by
authors in metaphorical senses.]

[Footnote III.16: _A bare bodkin?_] Bodkin was an ancient term
for a small dagger. In the margin of Stowe's Chronicle it is said
that Caesar was slain with _bodkins_.]

[Footnote III.17: _Who would fardels bear_,] Fardel is a burden.
Fardellus, low Latin.]

[Footnote III.18: _From whose bourn_] _i.e._, boundary.]

[Footnote III.19: _No traveller returns_,] The traveller whom
Hamlet had seen, though he appeared in the same habit which he
had worn in his life-time, was nothing but a shadow,
"invulnerable as the air," and, consequently, _incorporeal_. The
Ghost has given us no account of the region from whence he came,
being, as he himself informed us, "forbid to tell the secrets of
his prison-house."--MALONE.]

[Footnote III.20: _Thus conscience does make cowards of us all_;]
A state of doubt and uncertainty, a conscious feeling or
apprehension, a misgiving "How our audit stands."]

[Footnote III.21: _Of great pith and moment_,] _i.e._, of great
vigour and importance.]

[Footnote III.22:

_With this regard, their currents turn away_,
_And lose the name of action._]

From this sole consideration have their drifts diverted, and lose
the character and name of enterprise.]

[Footnote III.23: _Soft you now!_] A gentler pace! have done with
lofty march!]

[Footnote III.24: _Nymph, in thy orisons_] _i.e._, in thy
prayers. Orison