efs, if you open not the source of them to
your friends.]

[Footnote III.97: _You have the voice of the king himself for
your succession in Denmark?_] Though the crown was elective, yet
regard was paid to the recommendation of the preceding prince,
and preference given to royal blood, which, by degrees, produced
hereditary succession.]

[Footnote III.98: _"While the grass grows,"--the proverb is
something musty._] The proverb is, "_While the grass grows, the
steed starves._" Hamlet alludes to his own position, while
waiting for his succession to the throne of Denmark. A similar
adage is, "_A slip between the cup and the lip._"]

[Footnote III.99: _Recorder._] _i.e._ A kind of flute, or pipe.]

[Footnote III.100: _Why do you go about to recover the wind of
me_,] Equivalent to our more modern saying of _Get on the blind
side._]

[Footnote III.101: _Into a toil?_] _i.e._, net or snare.]

[Footnote III.102: _If my duty be too bold, my love is too
unmannerly._] If my sense of duty have led me too far, it is
affection and regard for you that makes the carriage of that duty
border on disrespect.]

[Footnote III.103: _Govern these ventages--and it will discourse
most eloquent music._] Justly order these vents, or air-holes,
and it will breathe or utter, &c.]

[Footnote III.104: _Though you can fret me, you cannot play upon
me._] A _fret_ is a stop or key of a musical instrument. Here is,
therefore, a play upon the words. Though you cannot fret, stop,
or vex, you cannot play or impose upon me.]

[Footnote III.105: _They fool me to the top of my bent._] To the
height; as far as they see me _incline_ to go: an allusion to the
utmost flexure of a bow.]

[Footnote III.106: _Bitter business_] _i.e._, shocking, horrid
business.]

[Footnote III.107: _Stands it safe with us_] Is it _consistent_
with our security.]

[Footnote III.108: _This fear_,] Bugbear.]

[Footnote III.109: _Behind the arras I'll convey myself_,] The
arras-hangings, in Shakespeare's time, were hung at such a
distance from the walls, that a person might easily stand behind
them unperceived.]

[Footnote III.110: _To hear the process_;] The course of the
conversation.]

[Footnote III.111: _The speech of vantage._] _i.e._, opportunity
or advantage of secret observations.]

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