[Footnote 1: The king, not the queen, is aimed at. Hamlet does not forget the injunction of the Ghost to spare his mother. 54.
The king should be represented throughout as struggling not to betray himself.]
[Footnote 2: Not in Q.]
[Footnote 3: skulking mischief: the latter word is Spanish, To mich is to play truant.
How tenderly her tender hands betweene
In yvorie cage she did the micher bind.
The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia, page 84.
My Reader tells me the word is still in use among printers, with the pronunciation mike, and the meaning to skulk or idle.]
[Footnote 4: —their part being speech, that of the others only dumb show.]
[Footnote 5: naughty: persons who do not behave well are treated as if they were not—are made nought of—are set at nought; hence our word naughty.
'Be naught awhile' (As You Like It, i. 1)—'take yourself away;' 'be nobody;' 'put yourself in the corner.']