All 3 Uses of
contagion
in
Hamlet, Prince of Denmark
- The chariest maid is prodigal enough If she unmask her beauty to the moon: Virtue itself scopes not calumnious strokes: The canker galls the infants of the spring Too oft before their buttons be disclos'd: And in the morn and liquid dew of youth Contagious blastments are most imminent.†
Scene 1.3 *
- ] 'tis now the very witching time of night, When churchyards yawn, and hell itself breathes out Contagion to this world: now could I drink hot blood, And do such bitter business as the day Would quake to look on.†
Scene 3.2
- I bought an unction of a mountebank, So mortal that, but dip a knife in it, Where it draws blood no cataplasm so rare, Collected from all simples that have virtue Under the moon, can save the thing from death This is but scratch'd withal: I'll touch my point With this contagion, that, if I gall him slightly, It may be death.†
Scene 4.7
Definition:
-
(contagion) the spread of disease or any idea or attitude -- especially one that is harmful; or an instance of the thing that is spread -- such as a virus