[Footnote 1: In bidding his mother good night, he would naturally, after
the custom of the time, have sought her blessing: it would be a farce
now: when she seeks the blessing of God, he will beg hers; now, a plain
_good night_ must serve.]
[Footnote 2: Note the curious inverted use of _pleased_. It is here a
transitive, not an impersonal verb. The construction of the sentence is,
'pleased it so, _in order to_ punish us, that I must' &c.]
[Footnote 3: The noun to which _their_ is the pronoun is _heaven_--as if
he had written _the gods_.]
[Footnote 4: 'take him to a place fit for him to lie in.']
[Footnote 5: 'hold my face to it, and justify it.']
[Footnote 6: --omitting or refusing to embrace her.]
[Footnote 7: --looking at Polonius.]
[Footnote 8: Does this mean for himself to do, or for Polonius to
endure?]
[Footnote 9: reeky, smoky, fumy.]
[Footnote 10: Hamlet considers his madness the same that he so
deliberately assumed. But his idea of himself goes for nothing where the
experts conclude him mad! His absolute clarity where he has no occasion
to act madness, goes for as little, for 'all madmen have their sane
moments'!]
[Footnote 11: _a toad_; in Scotland, _a frog_.]
[Footnote 12: an old cat.]
[Footnote 13: _Experiments_, Steevens says: is it not rather _results_?]
[Footnote 14: I fancy the story, which so far as I know has not been
traced, goes on to say that the basket was emptied from the house-top to
send the pigeons flying, and so the ape got his neck broken. The phrase
'breake your owne necke _downe_' seems strange: it could hardly have
been written _neck-bone_!]
[Footnote 15: This passage would fall in better with the preceding with
which it is vitally one--for it would more evenly continue its form--if
the preceding _devil_ were, as I propose above, changed to _evil_. But,
precious as is every word in them, both passages are well omitted.]
[Footnote 16: Plainly there is a word left out, if not lost here. There
is no authority for the supplied _master_. I am inclined to propose a
pause and a gesture, with perhaps an _inarticulation_.]
[Footnote 17: --interrogatively perhaps, Hamlet noting her about to
speak; but I would prefer it thus: 'One word more:--good lady--' Here
he pauses so long that she speaks. Or we _might_ read it thus:
_Qu._ One word more.
_Ham._ Good lady?
_Qu._ What shall I do?]
[Page 180]
And breath of life: I haue no life to breath
What thou hast saide to me.[1]
[Sidenote: 128, 158] _Ham._ I must to England, you know that?[2]
_Qu._ Alacke I had forgot: Tis so concluded on. [Sidenote: _Ger._]
_Ham._ [A] This man shall set me packing:[3]
Ile lugge the Guts into the Neighbor roome,[4]
Mother goodnight. Indeede this Counsellor [Sidenote: night indeed, this]
Is now most still, most secret, and most graue,
[Sidenote: 84] Who was in life, a foolish prating Knaue.
[Sidenote: a most foolish]
Come sir, to draw toward an end with you.[5]
Good night Mother.
_Exit Hamlet tugging in Polonius._[6] [Sidenote: _Exit._]
[7]
_Enter King._ [Sidenote: Enter King, and Queene, with
Rosencraus and Guyldensterne.]
_King._ There's matters in these sighes.
These profound heaues
You must translate; Tis fit we vnderstand them.
Where is your Sonne?[8]
_Qu._ [B] Ah my good Lord, what haue I seene to night?
[Sidenote: _Ger._ | Ah mine owne Lord,]
_King._ What _Gertrude_? How do's _Hamlet_?
_Qu._ Mad as the Seas, and winde, when both contend
[Sidenote: _Ger._ | sea and]
Which is the Mightier, in his lawlesse fit[9]
[Footnote A: _Here in the Quarto_:--
[10]Ther's letters seald, and my two Schoolefellowes,
Whom I will trust as I will Adders fang'd,
They beare the mandat, they must sweep my way
And marshall me to knauery[11]: let it worke,
For tis the sport to haue the enginer
Hoist[12] with his owne petar,[13] an't shall goe hard
But I will delue one yard belowe their mines,
And blowe them at the Moone: ô tis most sweete
When in one line two crafts directly meete,]
[Footnote B: _Here in the Quarto_:--