Note to Hamlet, 2.2.110: "beautified"


Return
to
Hamlet,
Act 2, Scene 2, line 110
John Whitton offered this interesting sidelight on Shakespeare's use of the word "beautified":
G[eorge] B[ernard] S[haw] agreed with you. In his one-act The Dark Lady of the Sonnets he depicts Shakespeare as appropriating colourful words and phrases from everyday conversation. When The Lady (who turns out to be Elizabeth R) says, 'Think of your grave, woman, not ever of being beautified,' Shakespeare's response is, ' "Beautified!" "Beautified!" a poem in a single word.'