a murder,
&c.]
[Footnote III.84: _Let the galled jade wince_,] A proverbial
saying.]
[Footnote III.85: _Our withers are unwrung._] Withers is the
joining of the shoulder bones at the bottom of the neck and mane
of a horse. _Unwrung_ is _not pinched_.]
[Footnote III.86: _You are as good as a chorus_,] The persons who
are supposed to behold what passes in the acts of a tragedy, and
sing their sentiments between the acts.
The use to which Shakespeare converted the chorus, may be seen in
King Henry V.]
[Footnote III.87: _I could interpret between you and your love,
if I could see the puppets dallying._] This refers to the
interpreter, who formerly sat on the stage at all _puppet shows_,
and explained to the audience. _The puppets dallying_ are here
made to signify to the agitations of Ophelia's bosom.]
[Footnote III.88:
_The croaking raven_
_Doth bellow for revenge._]
_i.e._, begin without more delay; for the raven, foreknowing the
deed, is already croaking, and, as it were, calling out for the
revenge which will ensue.]
[Footnote III.89: _Midnight weeds_] The force of the epithet
_midnight_, will be best displayed by a corresponding passage in
Macbeth:
"Root of hemlock, _digg'd i' the dark_."]
[Footnote III.90: _Usurp_] Encroach upon.]
[Footnote III.91: _Let the strucken deer go weep_,] Shakespeare,
in _As you like it_, in allusion to the wounded stag, speaks of
the _big round tears_ which _cours'd one another down his
innocent nose in piteous chase_. In the 13th song of Drayton's
Polyolbion, is a similar passage--"_The harte weepeth at his
dying; his tears are held to be precious in medicine._"]
[Footnote III.92: _Marvellous distempered._] _i.e._,
discomposed.]
[Footnote III.93: _Admiration._] _i.e._, wonder.]
[Footnote III.94: _Trade with us?_] _i.e._ Occasion of
intercourse.]
[Footnote III.95: _By these pickers and stealers._] _i.e._, by
these hands. The phrase is taken from the Church catechism,
where, in our duty to our neighbour, we are taught to keep our
hands from _picking and stealing_.]
[Footnote III.96: _You do freely bar the door of your own
liberty, if you deny your griefs to your friend._] By your own
act you close the way against your own ease, and the free
discharge of your gri
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