You are here

All Site ContentHamletAct 2Scene 1
Back to the Play
Word Nerd: "down-gyvèd"
Context and Language Videos
Act 2,
Scene 1
Lines 77-84

An explanation of Hamlet's stockings in Act 2, Scene 1 of myShakespeare's Hamlet. 

MyShakespeare | Hamlet 2.1 Word Nerd: Down gyved

Ophelia

My lord, as I was sewing in my chamber,
Lord Hamlet, with his doublet all unbraced,
No hat upon his head, his stockings fouled,
Ungartered, and down-gyvèd to his ankle,     
Pale as his shirt, his knees knocking each other,
And with a look so piteous in purport
As if he had been loosèd out of hell
To speak of horrors, he comes before me.     
Video Transcript: 
RALPH: Hamlet's stockings are dirty, but they're also ungartered.
SARAH: This means that either he wore no garters, which are what holds up the stockings, or the stockings were not attached to the garters. 
RALPH: Which means the stockings had fallen down and bunched up around his ankles.
SARAH: The word gyve refers to leg shackles, like a prisoner might wear. So here, down-gyved means that Hamlet's stockings have become like gyves, piled around his ankles like leg shackles.