NOTES
Dramatis Personæ. A list of characters was first given in the Quarto of 1676, although it is commonly stated that Rowe's edition of 1709 contained the first list.
I. i. 3. Long . . . king! The pass-word or reply to the sentry's challenge.
I. i. 15. Friends . . . Dane. Probably the officers' pass-word.
I. i. 19. piece. A humorous expression equivalent to 'something like him,' or possibly Horatio means to imply that, because of his skepticism, he is with them in bodily form but not in intellectual sympathy. (Chambers.)
I. i. 37. his. Regularly used for 'its.' The latter form had not yet come into common use.
I. i. 42. scholar. Exorcisms of evil spirits were performed in Latin and hence by scholars.
I. i. 45. It . . . to. It was believed that a ghost could not speak until spoken to.
I. i. 63. sledded Polacks. Various suggestions have been made concerning the meaning of these words for the reason that the second Quarto and first Folio have 'sleaded (F1 sledded) pollax' which conceivably could mean a poleaxe weighted with a sledge or hammer at the back. When, however, later references in the play to Polacks are taken into consideration, the meaning given in the gloss seems the more probable.
I. i. 70. Good now. Interjectional expression denoting entreaty.
I. i. 87. law and heraldry. The forms of both the common law and the law of arms having been duly
