"Whilst, like a willing patient, I will drink Potions of _eysel_ 'gainst my strong infection." Son. cxi. and further that, by association of ideas, 'crocodile' presupposes the mention of a river. The Yssel, a river of the Low Countries, runs by Deventer and Zutphen, near which last place Sir Philip Sidney received his death-wound, and so the name Yssel may have been familiar to the English mind. I therefore have placed it in the text. * * * * * "_In_ an hour of quiet thereby shall we see." * * * * * SC. 2. "_I_ folded up the writ in form of the other." * * * * * "For by the image of my cause I see The portraiture of his. I'll count his favours." It is best to read, with Rowe, 'I'll _court_ his favour.' * * * * * "You will do it, sir, really." I incline to read _readily_. * * * * * "And yet but yaw neither." So 4to 1604. The others have _raw_. * * * * * "The most _fond_ and winnowed opinions." I quite agree with those who read _fann'd_. * * * * * "_As_ that I have shot an arrow o'er the house." * * * * * "Stick fiery off indeed." In my Edition I most rashly read _Strike_ for 'Stick.' In the language of the time _stick off_ meant set off, show off, display:-- "Nor virtue shines more in a lovely face, Than true desert is _stuck off_ with disgrace." Chapman, Dedic. of Batrach., etc. "His lute still touch'd to _stick_ more _off_ his tongue." Id. Hymn to Hermes, 766. Yet Chapman, in whom alone I have found it, may have adopted it from one of the 4tos of this play. See on Rom. and Jul. iii. 3. * * * * * "I do not fear it; I have seen you both.-- But since he's better'd, we have therefore odds." If he (_i.e._ Laertes) was bettered, in the ordinary sense of the word, how could the odds lie against him? _You're_ would give better sense than 'he's'; but it does not satisfy me. A line has evidently been lost, and the latter part may be addressed to the Queen. The lost line may have been something like this: "'Tis true he did neglect his exercises." Hamlet had said (ii. 2) he had "foregone all custom of exercises." In my Edition I have made an _Aside_ here to the Queen, who may have made a sign of dissent; but a speech of the Queen's to the same effect may have been what is lost. * * * * * "Come.--Another hit.--What say you? [A touch a touch] I do confess." With the 4tos I omit the bracketed words, as needless to the sense and injurious to the measure. * * * * *