Question: Explain: "Methought I lay worse than the mutines in the
bilboes." V. ii.
Answer: Those confined by fetters and all chained together, so that
the slightest movement of one would arouse all the others
from sleep. Bilboes is derived from the name of the place
Bilboa, in Spain, where the iron fetters were made.
Mertins, Emma. Shakespeare Examinations. Ed. William Taylor Thom, M. A. Boston: Ginn and Co., 1888. Shakespeare Online. 10 Aug. 2010. (date when you accessed the information) < http://www.shakespeare-online.com/plays/hamlet/examq/twentytwo.html >.
