i.e., for the time it would take you to count to one hundred at moderate speed.

Not a stereotype we hold today about the husbands or wives of celebrities–but then, maybe this comment is made out of envy.

A generation or two later, Stephen Sondheim would comment acidly on these kinds of lunches in the song “The Ladies Who Lunch,” from his musical Company (1970).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=virv-1o2KjE

Mrs. Slade is a classic nosy neighbor, keeping an eye on the doings of her old friend across the street and commenting on it at “woman’s lunches” (see below). Perhaps gossiping about it, too–although the Ansleys lead a “tame” life.

This reference won’t make much sense to contemporary readers, for whom handwritten letters are themselves old-fashioned, but letters of the early twentieth century and prior (“Roman Fever” was published in 1934) do often display idiosyncratic patterns of underlining and capitalization.

Makes you wonder: what in our own correspondence will seem equally random to future historians? Our use of emojis?

What brings you here from Wittenberg?

Hamlet and Horatio are both students at the University of Wittenberg in Germany (founded 1502; now The Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg).

Hill is referring to the rampant and callous cases of police brutality in America.

This chorus is a parody of the one from “My Favorite Things” in The Sound of Music:

When the dog bites
When the bee stings
When I’m feeling sad
I simply remember my favorite things
And then I don’t feel so bad

Here, Horatio is asking for the same sort of information that the Ghost eventually gives to Hamlet. He thinks the Ghost may have a task for him or need to unburden itself.

The speech of Horatio to the spectre is very elegant and noble, and congruous to the common traditions of the causes of apparitions.

–Samuel Johnson, commentary on Hamlet

Guessing that the message is for Hamlet, Horatio (at the close of this scene) resolves presently to seek him out.

A potentially confusing question for those raised on the ROY G. BIV mnemonic for remembering the order of colors in the spectrum (Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet).

(Via)

However, to the unaided eye, the colors of the rainbow may be far more blurred, seeming like only two or three colors rather than the seven traditionally demarcated.