Passage in Act 1, Scene 1

[vertciel]

Hello everyone,

I understand the plot of Act 1, Scene 1, but I am having trouble with Marcellus's following passage; I do not understand what he is saying.

Could anyone please explain? I have highlighted in bold the verses which are troubling.

Thank you!

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Line 70

Marcellus:
Good now, sit down, and tell me, he that knows,
Why this same strict and most observant watch
So nightly toils the subject of the land (1),
And why such daily cast of brazen cannon,
And foreign mart for implements of war;
Why such impress of shipwrights, whose sore task
Does not divide the Sunday from the week;
What might be toward, that this sweaty haste
Doth make the night joint-labourer with the day (2):
Who is't that can inform me?

(1) - The annotation says "makes the subjects toil", but I still don't understand.

(2) - Is Marcellus asking what is causing all this trouble, which is worrying him day and night?

[Gladys]

In response to Horatio's "This bodes some strange eruption to our state.", my loose paraphrase of Marcellus would be:


1.........What's up? Why are those, subject to the king, working day and night? Why do our factories cast so many bronze cannons? Why are we buying weapons from overseas?

2.........What's afoot that we sweat blood by working day and night? Is that Norwegian Fortinbras about to attack us?