his very madness, like some ore
among a mineral of metals base,
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)