there’s the rub. Though Shakespeare didn’t invent the ex- pression (it was old when he used it) he did make the words fa- mous in Hamlet’s soliloquy: To be or not to be: that is the question . . . To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there’s the rub. The rub in the phrase means “the difficulty” and may originally have referred to any hinderance in the sport of bowls that prevent- ed the bowled ball from moving smoothly along the course. An- other theory, however, claims the rub derives from a spoon rub- bing inside a mixing bowl and preventing smooth mixing. |