mortal coil

noun

a) The chaos and confusion of life.

[A &x5D; does not—as a true insect does—change from worm to grub, and from grub to his mature form, but simply “shuffles off his mortal coil,”—skin, hairs, and leggings all complete, now and then, . He then leaves his shuffled-off “mortal coil” hanging upon a fragment of dirty cobweb, as before described.

b) The physical body of man (containing the spirit inside).

Shakespeare represents the human body under various figures: a coil: a case: a frame: a machine: a vesture: a heft: a motion or puppet: &c. It has been contended that in Hamlet’s speech, the ‘mortal coil’ is the coil, i.e. trouble of turmoil, incident to man’s mortal state: but the analogies are too strong in favor of the ‘mortal coil’ being what Fletcher calls the ‘case of flesh’ (Bonduca, iv. 1).