What is repelled in the three occurrences of the word is always the advances of an unwanted lover. Venus and Adonis tells us that "Foul words and frowns must not repel a lover"(Venus 573). Ophelia tells her father that she "did repel" Hamlet's letters (Ham.2.1.106), and Polonius attributes Hamlet's madness to the fact that he was "repell'd" (Ham.2.2.146).
17 September, 1999