nce._] _Patience_ is
here used for _leisure_.]

[Footnote III.70: _Lying down at Ophelia's feet._] To lie at the
feet of a mistress during any dramatic representation, seems to
have been a common act of gallantry.]

[Footnote III.71: _Jig-maker_,] Writer of ludicrous interludes.
_A jig_ was not in Shakespeare's time only a dance, but a
ludicrous dialogue in metre; many historical ballads were also
called _jigs_.]

[Footnote III.72: _For I'll have a suit of sables._] Wherever his
scene might be, the customs of his country were ever in
Shakespeare's thoughts. A suit trimmed with sables was in our
author's own time the richest dress worn by men in England. By
the Statute of Apparel, 24 Henry VIII., c. 13, (_article
furres_), it is ordained, that none under the degree of an _Earl_
may use _sables_.]

[Footnote III.73: _He must build churches, then._] Such
benefactors to society were sure to be recorded by means of the
feast day on which the patron saints and founders of churches
were commemorated in every parish. This custom has long since
ceased.]

[Footnote III.74: _Miching mallecho_;] To _mich_ is a provincial
word, signifying _to lie hid_, or _to skulk_, or _act by
stealth_. It was probably once generally used. Mallecho is
supposed to be corrupted from the Spanish _Malechor_, which means
a poisoner.]

[Footnote III.75: _The posy of a ring?_] Such poetry as you may
find engraven on a ring.]

[Footnote III.76: _Phoebus' cart_] A chariot was anciently called
a cart.]

[Footnote III.77: _Tellus' orbed ground_,] _i.e._, the globe of
the earth. Tellus is the personification of the earth, being
described as the first being that sprung from Chaos.]

[Footnote III.78: _My operant powers their functions leave to
do:_] _i.e._, my active energies cease to perform their offices.]

[Footnote III.79: _What we do determine, oft we break._] Unsettle
our most fixed resolves.]

[Footnote III.80: _The argument?_] The subject matter.]

[Footnote III.81: _The mouse-trap._]

He calls it the mouse-trap, because it is the thing,
In which he'll catch the conscience of the king.]

[Footnote III.82: _Tropically._] _i.e._, figuratively.]

[Footnote III.83: _The image of a murder_,] _i.e._, the lively
portraiture, the correct and faithful representation of