[49] Hamlet's violence at Ophelia's grave, though probably intentionally exaggerated, is another example of this want of self-control. The Queen's description of him (v. i. 307),
This is mere madness;
And thus awhile the fit will work on him;
Anon, as patient as the female dove,
When that her golden couplets are disclosed,
His silence will sit drooping.
may be true to life, though it is evidently prompted by anxiety to excuse his violence on the ground of his insanity. On this passage see further [Note G].
[50] Throughout, I italicise to show the connection of ideas.
[51] Cf. Measure for Measure, iv. iv. 23, 'This deed ... makes me unpregnant and dull to all proceedings.'
[52] iii. ii. 196 ff., iv. vii. 111 ff.: e.g.,
Purpose is but the slave to memory,
Of violent birth but poor validity.
[53] So, before, he had said to him:
And duller should'st thou be than the fat weed
That roots itself in ease on Lethe wharf,
Would'st thou not stir in this.
On Hamlet's soliloquy after the Ghost's disappearance see [Note D].