Illustrations of Shakspeare, and of Ancient Manners: / with Dissertations on the Clowns and Fools of Shakspeare; on a Collection of Popular Tales Entitled Gesta Romanorum; and on the English Morris dance.

by Francis Douce

Scene 5. Page 72.

Ghost. And for the day, confin'd to fast in fires.
'Till the foul crimes, &c.

A member of the church of Rome might be disposed to regard this expression as simply referring to a mental privation of all intercourse with the Deity. Such an idea would remove the inconsistency of ascribing corporeal sensations to the ghost, and might derive support from these lines in an ancient Christian hymn. See Expositio hymnorum, sec. usum Sarum.

"Sic corpus extra conteri,
Dona per abstinentiam,
Jejunet ut mens sobria
A labe prorsus criminum."

The whole of the ghost's speech is remarkable for its terrific grandeur.

Scene 5. Page 75.

Ghost. And duller should'st thou be than the fat weed
That rots itself in ease on Lethe's wharf.

The plant here alluded to might have been henbane, of which Gerarde says that it causes drowsiness, and stupefies and dulls the senses.

Scene 5. Page 76.