Scene 2. Page 41.
Ham. He was a man, take him for all in all,
I shall not look upon his like again.
In further support of the proposed elegant emendation, "Eye shall not look, &c.," this passage in 1 Corinth. ch ii. v. 9, may be adduced, "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, the things which he hath prepared for them that love him." An objection of some weight may however be made to this change; which is, that in recitation some ambiguity might arise, or at least the force of it would not be perceived; whereas the other reading could not be mistaken.
Scene 3. Page 51.
Pol. But do not dull thy palm with entertainment
Of each new-hatch'd, unfledg'd comrade.
In Taverner's Proverbes or Adagies, gathered out of the Chiliades of Erasmus, 1569, 12mo, is the following adage: "Ne cuivis porrigas dexteram. Holde not forth thy hande to every man. He meaneth wee should not unadvisedlie admitte every body into our frendship and familiaritie." In the margin of the copy from which this extract is made, some person has written the above lines from Hamlet, on which the whole serves as an excellent comment, supporting Dr. Johnson's explanation of them in a remarkable manner.
Scene 4. Page 59.
Ham. The king doth wake to-night, and takes his rouse.
This word is used in the various significations of a riotous noise, a drunken debauch, and a large portion of liquor. We had it probably from our Saxon or Danish progenitors; and though the original word is lost it remains in the German rausch. Hence our carouse; roister is of the same family, and perhaps the word row, which was very much used a few years since. The Greeks too had their καρωσις, nimia ebrietas.
Scene 4. Page 60.