And so the hungry sheep looks up and is not fed. Again, he finds-- “He smote the sledded Polacks on the ice,” turns to the note, and reads:-- “_Polacks._ The quartos have ‘pollax,’ the two earliest folios read ‘Pollax,’ the third ‘Polax,’ the fourth ‘Poleaxe.’ Pope read ‘Polack’ and Malone ‘Polacks.’ The word occurs four times in _Hamlet_. For ‘the sledded Polacks’ Molke reads ‘his leaded pole-axe.’ But this would be an anticlimax, and the poet, having mentioned ‘Norway’ in the first clause, would certainly have told us with whom the ‘parle’ was held.” The poet Young noted how “Commentators each dark passage shun, And hold their farthing candles to the sun.” The Clarendon Press editors are certainly adepts in these accomplishments. Take one out of a myriad illustrations. The line in Act i. sc. 2, “The dead vast and middle of the night,” is the signal for a note extending to twelve closely printed lines. “’Tis bitter cold, and I am sick at heart,” says Francisco. If any note were needed here, it might have been devoted to pointing out to tiros the fine subjective touch. The note is this:-- “_Bitter cold._ Here bitter is used adverbially to qualify the adjective ‘cold.’ So we have ‘daring hardy’ in _Richard II._ i. 3. 43. When the combination is likely to be misunderstood, modern editors generally put a hyphen between the two words. _Sick at heart._ So _Macbeth_ v. 3. 19, ‘I am sick at heart.’ We have also in _Love’s Labour’s Lost_ ii. 1. 185, ‘sick at the heart,’ and _Romeo and Juliet_ iii. 3. 72, ‘heart-sick groans.’” Now let us see how the poor student fares when real difficulties occur. Every reader of Shakespeare is familiar with the corrupt passage, Act iv. sc. 1:-- “The dram of eale Doth all the noble substance of worth out To his own scandal-- a passage which, as all Shakespearian scholars know, has been satisfactorily emended and explained. We turn to the notes for guidance, and find ourselves treated as poor Mrs. Quickly was treated by Falstaff, “fubbed off”--thus:-- “We leave this hopelessly corrupt passage as it stands in the two earliest quartos. The others read ‘ease’ for ‘eale,’ and modern writers have conjectured for the same word base, ill, bale, ale, evil, ail, vile, lead. For ‘of a doubt’ it has been proposed to substitute ‘of worth out,’ ‘soul with doubt,’ ‘oft adopt,’ ‘oft work out,’ ‘of good out,’ ‘of worth dout,’ ‘often dout,’ ‘often doubt,’ ‘oft adoubt,’ ‘oft delase,’ ‘over-cloud,’ ‘of a pound,’ and others.”