[Footnote III.14: _Contumely_,] Contemptuousness, rudeness.]
[Footnote III.15: _His quietus make_] Quietus means the official discharge of an account: from the Latin. Particularly in the Exchequer accounts, where it is still current. Chiefly used by authors in metaphorical senses.]
[Footnote III.16: _A bare bodkin?_] Bodkin was an ancient term for a small dagger. In the margin of Stowe's Chronicle it is said that Cæsar was slain with _bodkins_.]
[Footnote III.17: _Who would fardels bear_,] Fardel is a burden. Fardellus, low Latin.]
[Footnote III.18: _From whose bourn_] _i.e._, boundary.]
[Footnote III.19: _No traveller returns_,] The traveller whom Hamlet had seen, though he appeared in the same habit which he had worn in his life-time, was nothing but a shadow, "invulnerable as the air," and, consequently, _incorporeal_. The Ghost has given us no account of the region from whence he came, being, as he himself informed us, "forbid to tell the secrets of his prison-house."--MALONE.]
[Footnote III.20: _Thus conscience does make cowards of us all_;] A state of doubt and uncertainty, a conscious feeling or apprehension, a misgiving "How our audit stands."]
[Footnote III.21: _Of great pith and moment_,] _i.e._, of great vigour and importance.]
_With this regard, their currents turn away_, _And lose the name of action._]
From this sole consideration have their drifts diverted, and lose the character and name of enterprise.]
[Footnote III.23: _Soft you now!_] A gentler pace! have done with lofty march!]
[Footnote III.24: _Nymph, in thy orisons_] _i.e._, in thy prayers. Orison is from _oraison_--French.]
[Footnote III.25: _If you be honest and fair, your honesty should admit no discourse to your beauty._] _i.e._, if you really possess these qualities, chastity and beauty, and mean to support the character of both, your honesty should be so chary of your beauty, as not to suffer a thing so fragile to entertain discourse, or to be parleyed with.
The lady interprets the words otherwise, giving them the turn best suited to her purpose.]
[Footnote III.26: _His likeness:_] Shakespeare and his contemporaries frequently use the personal for the neutral pronoun.]
[Footnote III.27: _Inoculate our old stock, but we shall relish of it:_] So change the original constitution and properties, as that no smack of them shall remain. "Inoculate our stock" are terms in gardening.]