Shews itself pure]
Shakespeare seems to think ore to be or, that is, gold. Base metals have ore no less than precious.
IV.ii.19 (281,5) he keeps them, like an ape, in the corner of his jaw] The quarto has apple, which is generally followed. The folio has ape, which HANMER has received, and illustrated with the following note.
"It is the way of monkeys in eating, to throw that part of their food, which they take up first, into a pouch they are provided with on the side of their jaw, and then they keep it, till they have done with the rest."
IV.ii.28 (281,6) The body is with the king] This answer I do not comprehend. Perhaps it should be, The body is not with the king, for the king is not with the body.
IV.ii.32 (282,7) Of nothing] Should it not be read, Or nothing? When the courtiers remark, that Hamlet has contemptuously called the king a thing, Hamlet defends himself by observing, that the king must be a thing, or nothing.
IV.ii.46 (283,9) the wind at help] I suppose it should be read, The bark is ready, and the wind at helm.
IV.ii.68 (284,3) And thou must cure me: till I know 'tis done,/ Howe'er my haps, my joys will ne'er begin] This being the termination of a scene, should, according to our author's custom, be rhymed. Perhaps he wrote,
Howe'er my hopes, my joys are not begun.
If haps be retained, the meaning will be, 'till I know 'tis done, I shall be miserable, whatever befall me (see 1785, VIII, 257, 3)