[Footnote 1: —each alone, like scouts.]
[Footnote 2: stirred up like pools—with similar result.]
[Footnote 3: because of.]
[Footnote 4: The king wished to avoid giving the people any pretext or cause for interfering: he dreaded whatever might lead to enquiry—to the queen of course pretending it was to avoid exposing Hamlet to the popular indignation. Hugger mugger—secretly: Steevens and Malone.]
[Footnote 5: The phrase has the same visual root as beside herself—both signifying 'not at one with herself.']
[Footnote 6: If the Quarto reading is right, 'this wonder' means the hurried and suspicious funeral of his father. But the Folio reading is quite Shaksperean: 'He keeps on (as a garment) the wonder of the people at him'; keeps his behaviour such that the people go on wondering about him: the phrase is explained by the next clause. Compare:
By being seldom seen, I could not stir
But, like a comet, I was wondered at.
K. Henry IV. P. I. act iii. sc. 1.]
[Footnote 7: 'wherein Necessity, beggared of material, will not scruple to whisper invented accusations against us.']
[Footnote 8: —the name given to a certain small cannon—perhaps charged with various missiles, hence the better figuring the number and variety of 'sorrows' he has just recounted.]